UKGPL Season 20 (2010-2011) Graduates Cup (67) - Kyalami - Jan 23

[vosblod]

An embarressed apology for messing up the start. Couldn't see the flag man so only moved when I saw the car in front go. I saw a car passing me on the left (fair enough) so tried to go a fraction right and the car 90'd.
Short race for me - think that counts as a DNS. Sorry if I caused anyone problems - early doors in the race and don't think anyone else went out.

For some reason I get great starts in 65's but always have trouble in the 67's - some offline practice methinks.

That sort of leads me on to another subject. I must admit I've found the move up to Works a struggle. When you take a currently reduced available practice time (read zero) combined with racing with the big boys I've really struggled. Yes I know 'it's the only way to improve' etc but, at the end of the day, running as the runt (mostly) doing 50 minutes solo has deflated my enthusiasm for this series.
I sort of felt obliged to move up having won the Privateers but I've gone from really enjoying my races, and being competitive, to an exercise in boredom control.
Obviously I'm Grads mod so I'm not leaving, I enjoy the admin/modding side (I know; I must be odd), but I'm thinking of dropping back to Privateers. srou would automatically carry my meagre points over but I won't be a champ contender with only three events left but I might get some racing fun.
Anyway I will dwell on it...

We'll, let me be the first to talk about my race, seeing as I have a lot of time on my hands.      5 seconds in, 20 feet down the track, and I'm punted over the fence into no-man's land!   And that concludes my race description!
 :'(

Just seen your post Rick. Oh dear I'm guessing that was me. I'm really sorry, don't know what else to say. Someone else will be giving me the big stick for that as I don't mod my own incidents.

[BadBlood]

Don't you dare move down - its hard enough getting points with the drivers there are let alone another rocket propelled merchant.

That is my worst ever race - didn't have the right mind set and considered skipping it but decided to give it a go - I've been improving so it couldn't be too bad could it?

Yes - it could. I was embarrassingly bad in qually. Slowed it down and got a 1:30 - my best is 1:28 so that wasn't too bad for me. Nigel shot past me at the line - my gearing was obviously rubbish but I followed Hannah into Crowthorne and he was a bit wobbly so I thought follow him round and try and draft up the long straight - didn't get close enough and that went by the board but I was staying close - I might have a race here! Immediately span out of T2 and without thinking did a Shift-R - bugger - ok no prob I'm not too far back - drive within yourself - aggghhh I've got to SnG that;s me buggered. Ah well get some practice in. Turn onto the straight and head for the pits - whoops forgot about the wall couldn't slow down, took a wheel off. End of.

Total crap. Depressed. Got to do the same on Tuesday and I hate this place. Never mind - Mexico on Friday - hate that even more. Please God don't let there be a Monaco race anytime soon

Went off for some practice and that was even worse - sigh. Still Vos is gonna join us - great

[Samb]

I think that was me passing you on the left Tim. Sorry for causing you to spin out  . As for my race, well it was great fun while it lasted, but sadly my sodding internet disconnected me from the race. It turned out the adapters I'd been using weren't fully connected into the plug and lost power  . Guess I'll have to be more careful at the next one!

[b_1_rd]

Well, that was all a bit pants; well actually it wasn't as I am trying to use my slowest ranked car in a hope that it might improve my driving eventually; however, it puts me way off the pace and acting like more of a mobile chicane than normal.  I was going to say that I'll see the season out in Works and then register for Privs next season, but after seeing Tims post above, if there's a chance of moving now then I will.

I don't want it to affect the current Privs championship though, by potentially robbing points from people fighting for places, so I'll leave that up to Tim to decide as Chief whether it is a reasonable option.

If it helps I will continue to use my slowest ranked car for the remainder of the season, which is likely to be the BRM or Honda mostly.

Tim - PM sent

Grats to podium and all finishers.  Hard lines Rick, it looked spectacular from my car!

Cheers all.

[BadBlood]

...if there's a chance of moving now then I will.

Great 

[kinghiro]

happy happy . third place in the end maybe becuse I took time to see that the fuel used was much less than suggested in gpl.1 st lap was slow and intense careful not to shunt and still defend towards JW (I think) who seemed to be looking for passingpossibility. stayed with Tommie a big part of the race but he gradually went faster as my pace was the same so I switch to worry for Al who was approching from behind.2 secs at the smallest but then Tommie had a spin where his car was positioned very unfortunate for a quick rejoin(unlike his more lucky 360 some laps earlier that gave me possibility to pass him and get some secs down to him but he passed me again allready after 3 laps or so). I guess he was racing Al and I managed to keep a 4 sec lead till the end. Bob had an accident as well and then I was third.. 8 secs behind FMG who I think also must have had a spin.

[Pelle_B]

Big grats Hristo  ...amazing that after so many years in GPL, you are still too fast 

Wild fun to be back in GPL, although it did not go as planned 
I got the starting place at number twelve, came up to a seventh place, but on lap 18 engine exploded (Shift-R is allowed on Works server???)...& ending where I started, in twelfth place 
Fuel for 47 laps was not used anyway...maybe I should have taken the Eagle 

Too bad to hear more maybe move server, I think we had a really nice field with most of the cars presented...slept on it, take the gloves on & see you next race 

[Rick Nauman]

Just seen your post Rick. Oh dear I'm guessing that was me. I'm really sorry, don't know what else to say. Someone else will be giving me the big stick for that as I don't mod my own incidents.

Apology accepted.  I really must figure out why I keep getting dealt the car skin with the bulls eye on it!

As for the rest of your post...  I can sympathize with all your reservations about the move up to Works, but hey, your not alone in that.  My last season in privateers was very exciting and competitive with me and Al and Bartosz fighting it out for wins.  Since then it's been mid to back of the pack with only a few fights here and there.  (If I can finish at all!    )  Why don't you stick it out at least to the end of the season though.  You might feel different by then.

[EvilClive]

I seem to have lost my way in 67's. This season has been way below, even my usual pathetic standard.

I cannot seem to string a series of race pace laps together, without ripping a wheel off or charging off into the undergrowth  .

Maybe I need to go back to the ninja basic training camp and start again.

[Michael Turner]

The best race of the season so far in several respects from my point of view. A mid field qualifying position as usual but at one point I found myself, through a process of attrition, in second though Bernie soon put an end to that. Very enjoyable racing throughout against Bernie, Billy and Fabio with a couple of minor offs and an unavoidable bump with Bernie following a spot of confusion between Bernie and Ronnie. Fortunately I'd sacrificed a goat prior to the start so the gods were with me and I emerged undamaged.

I was also pleased with the performance of my new rig (i7/5870/Win7 64bit). I'd had big problems trying to run GPL with Win7 32 previously to such an extent that I'd reinstalled XP on a separate HDD and ran GPL from that so I was expecting even bigger problems with the 64 bit version. Surprisingly though everything ran very smoothly - no graphical, connection or framerate problems at all. The only problem arises when I try to launch GEM and get 'Unknown message for FatalError' appearing but GPL and IGOR load fine on their own.

I was concerned to read that some newly promoted Works drivers want to move back to the Privateers because they are no longer able to dominate the field. In doing so, they would of course put those drivers in the Privateers who are currently enjoying a degree of success in the position that they themselves so resent but that seems not to have been a consideration. I hope that the Administrators will continue to allocate drivers to divisions according to ability rather than personal preference.

[Al Heller]

I have some sympathy with Vos & Steve looking to Privateers - the bar has certainly been raised even higher in Works this season thanks partly to our rapid new joiners which makes it tough to get a decent result... though equally I do find it all the more satisfying if you can bring home a good finish in such a competitive league. Been a bit strapped for practice time this season so I was pleased with 4th place & to stay with my teammate Tom's (MUCH lighter on fuel it turns out ) Lotus. Spent the whole race under pressure from behind - first Jethro, then Pelle (that's some GPLrank you have there btw ) then a nice fight with Juha & finally a nailbiting pursuit by Tommie who was closing fast after recovering from a spin. The final laps were pretty much qually laps for me so I was relieved to hang on... especially considering my woeful performances in other mods recently. Congrats to H, FMG & Tom.

[Ross Neilson]

I was concerned to read that some newly promoted Works drivers want to move back to the Privateers because they are no longer able to dominate the field.

Hi Michael,

I don't think that is quite how Tim and Steve see it - they don't want to dominate necessarily, just enjoy some racing with a chance of the podium. However the divisions are arranged there are always going to be some drivers towards the middle and back of the pack. There is a similar issue with the 65s where a few of the drivers in Ams want to go back to Novs where they were more competitive, but I don't want them stealing points off me either Ideally we would have a middle division but the numbers aren't there to make it work.

To a certain extent it is all about defining success for yourself, relative to the quality of the division you are in, as Al H just stated. Trouble is we all play this for fun and toiling away at the back isn't most people's idea of fun!

[b_1_rd]

I was concerned to read that some newly promoted Works drivers want to move back to the Privateers because they are no longer able to dominate the field. In doing so, they would of course put those drivers in the Privateers who are currently enjoying a degree of success in the position that they themselves so resent but that seems not to have been a consideration. I hope that the Administrators will continue to allocate drivers to divisions according to ability rather than personal preference.

That's a little harsh Michael and I'm sorry you feel that way; it is not because I want to dominate the field, it is because I don't want to shuffle along at the back of every single race and have decided that I would like to try and improve my racing by using my slowest ranked car rather than bashing along in a fast car at a slow pace.  In this case that was the BRM and I was running 1:24's and 23's.  Without the results posted yet I can't tell how that compares with the Privateers race this time around but around 4 seconds per lap slower and 2 laps down really is no fun whatsoever for me and probably very irritating for the fast boys.

I did actually say

I don't want it to affect the current Privs championship though, by potentially robbing points from people fighting for places, so I'll leave that up to Tim to decide as Chief whether it is a reasonable option.

So I would appreciate if you did recognise that I have taken it in to consideration.

I sadly seem to fall into an area where I am potentially too quick for Privs, but way off the pace in Works.  Looking back over the races this season, Nurby seems to be the only track where I was quicker than all Privs, the other races I was slower than at least one but often 3 or 4 of the lead runners so I doubt very much I would dominate anything, especially in my slowest car.

Its not done and dusted, I would like to stay in works, but I need to find a way to get better and the stuff I have tried before isn't working for me.  I expect I'll probably continue in Works for the remainder of this season as I do think its a little unfair to jump half way through, it was my choice to start with, but I may consider Privs next season, unless I get better racing in works for the remaining races.

[EvilClive]

Maybe I should go back to privateers? 

[Turkey Machine]

Qualified with more fuel on board than I thought, but quickly decimated a second off my time by putting the boot in where needed. 1:20.8 I think the best I could hope for. Hristo's time was rather impressive, had I painted one of Chapman's cars white I may have had a sniff of it.

The race was going OK, up until about lap 16 or 17 when those ever immortal parents decided to curtail my fun and switch the internet router off. Much swearing ensued, but at least I'd started that lap.