UKGPL Season 20 (2010-2011) Graduates Cup (67) - Edmonton - Feb 6

[bernie]

I found Le Mans bugatti track is close enough

[FullMetalGasket]

Gah! I'd outfoxed Clive into defending too hard through the T1-3 and he made a mistake, Then Chased down Al's Lotus and was putting on what pressure I could (Damn that thing is fast on the straights!  ) when the engine exploded approaching the final corner 
Shame as it's been a good race till then..
Well done to the winners.. (H, Tom, and Al at the mo)

[b_1_rd]

messed it up again 

I was going ok (relative to my normal) but had to try play catch up after having to run myself off track on L1 to avoid hitting an impatient car driving across track trying to recover from his own spin.  Ended up over half a mile behind the pack.

Just as I was getting somewhere went a screwed it up by missing a gear change while trying to plan the best place to allow the leaders through.

 

[Pelle_B]

Edmonton Report:
Again, luck was not with me in the race 
We got many at the same time down to T1, was not sure how close I was on a BRM?(hope I not hit) & had to take a ride on the grass. My internet becomes unstable, I don't think it can pull a Honda...engine say 'BANG' again, too bad & disappointing. Would follow the rest of the race, but it was also a short pleasure...my connection dies completely  :'(
Grats to you all.
One thing is certain, no Honda for me next race 

[jhalli]

another bad race for me with my own mistake of course.Practise time ok and i was 3rd on grid , Hristo get a bad start and Tommie didnt do any better so i was able to take T1 in first place, but too much speed on to T2 and i slide to the grass bank and didnt get my car back to road.

iwas hoping good battle with Hristo and Tommie as i know the track from earlier league races.



Juha

[BadBlood]

Not bad for me. Pre race praccy was AWFUL. Looked at H's guide - printed it off - didn't have time to take a look.

Qually was interrupted by the kids bedtime so I only had ten minutes - car wouldn't turn, softened everything up, oversteer. Set a time of 1:46 for dead last by eight seconds! Stiffened the suspension up but no time to test it. Decided to drive for a finish. Was surprised to find that I could keep up with the field, set a couple of 1:43s so a PB by three seconds with cold tyres and full tanks! Got a bit excited and span so race was over but I could hope for some attrition. Drove within myself and started lapping at 1:41 - six seconds better than I'd ever managed. Set some fastest sectors whilst being lapped which was odd. Field pulled away and I just kept going (slowly). Concentrated really hard and had one heart in mouth moment when I span into the pit wall nose first - no significant damage though. Kept going until lap 25 when I got stuck in the fence at T2 after avoiding a spinner. Took my SnG and slowed it right down to allow Ronnie to pass me again - 1 less lap to negotiate. +4L but no problem.

Thankful that the Honda is built like a tank - had a few trips up the embankment and over the tyres but no probs.

Great learning experience and second race in a row where I've got sixth by driving within myself. First time I've changed the setup and actually made it work as well. Progress all round.

[Michael Turner]

Another 2/3 for the Soggies at a track that caught many out (myself included) with its deceptive simplicity. The field was bunched up going into T1/2 and disaster was only narrowly avoided as MH went for a route 1 approach to the chicane  . I started 4th and finished 3rd somehow having survived several offs and collisions and a SnG. In the closing stages I found myself in a battle for the final podium with NS who had a bit of a wobble on L30 under pressure and I was able to take the position.

[Nigel Smith]

      Nice one Paul, glad to see you finishing, and enjoying it by the sound of it.
      I seem to be the victim of some poor tactical decisions this season- this time it was fuel. I should know how thirsty the beast is by now but 35lap fuel wasn't enough.
      The race itself was good though. Used a VIR setup that felt good and apart from having to hit the brakes HARD a couple of times in that 1st lap thing went smoothly. Realaxed a bit about half way through when my pit board showed 3rd- whey hey. But Mr Turner was gaining fast towards 3/4 distance and I started taking the Waza up to the redline to keep a gap. Bulletproof, yes despite its reputation, thirsty, yes as its rep. Three laps to go the dreaded stutter appeared and I tried to eke it out, with no luck.
Sitting there trackside I suddenly remembered we had a Shift-R in hand so I banzaied it to the pits and S&G'ed to keep in the running- I didn't want another DNF Rewarded with 4th, good result after all.
       Well done the podium guys- I nearly made it- and looking forward to the next one.

[Nigel Smith]

      What I meant to say was I got back to the pits to be out of the way lol.

[BadBlood]

Ok - so we are still on a different planet - I only filled mine to 30 laps and still had eleven gallons left at the end! You have to be economical these days with the price of petrol lol.

I knew I wasn't driving as hard as I could because my tyres never went off blue in Prib. It was three races before I realised that there WAS a colour coding in Prib

Definitely a learning curve because I was being cautious but whenever I pushed it a bit I span - the dividing line between maximising the speed and overcooking is so thin.

Glad to see a Waza up there but I was shocked at how fast the other cars could out accelerate me. Still haven't got to grips with gearing yet <sigh>. That'll halp at Jarama. Can't do better than a 1:48 there but at least I don't crash (much). Planning for Season 21 already but I probably won't move up to Works 

[Nigel Smith]

        I dont use Prib. Paul. Last time I tried I went bos-eyed. Its enough for me to look at the track without any other distractions. Really though it cocked up GEM and I haven't had enough computer time to sort it out.
         I like to rev the t*** off my engines so that probably accounts for the consumption- although I do always put a couple of laps extra in the tank. Will have to hope Ronnie crossed the line at the right moment

[fpolicardi]

Repco engine lost power when I downshift to 4th at T1 about 6th lap while I was following Bart in his Cooper, then I continued with a sputtering and smoking engine till he died. Tom had the same experience in his BRM, but the engine lasted till the end   Congrats for perseverance  
Ciao

[bernie]

Deceptive track this . looks easy but requires precise driving to do well , bit Kyalami 'ish in that respect .

I had a good solid race set up which I promptly ruined for the race by fitting longer gears (I think its called engine management nuerosis) .

Got away in p3 which soon became p5 after a tardy start and a banzai Cooper attack into T1 by mad Martin. Back to p3 after Fabio spun his brabby at the end of the lap and collected Mike,  allowing me to pass while they sorted out to see who could get away first .

After that it was a lonely race , couldn't do anything about Ronnie and Martin who were gone into the distance and things got worse about a third into the race when my car began behaving very strangely , more like a shopping trolly on most corners but would be Ok the next lap, on one lap my car got launched into a wild spin through the chicane , the handling seemed to change for every corner , really weird , thought the tyres had gone or I had some suspension damage.

I was relieved to see the checker waving after what had become a survival race .

After closing down iGOR I found Ad-aWARE had fired up and been doing a system scan in the background , so I suppose that would explain the silly car stuff .

Grats to Ronnie and Mike , commiserations to Martin who seemed to be on fire in the Coop , well done all who made it across the line in one piece .

    

[Hristo Itchov]

This didn't end so well. After a tough competition from Juha and Tom in Qualifying, and then dealing with pressure from Tom in the race after Juha fell off, I was finally having a breather in the last 1/3rd of the race with a decent gap back to 2nd, but went too fast in on the entry of T2, went up the banking (thinking it's not a big problem to recover from) and suddenly got my front left wheel stuck behind the fence there. Was still classified 3rd due to Evil's generous gesture of taking an imaginery chequer a lap earlier, but with Tom winning the race it doesn't look good for the Championship anymore. Curse my desire for going for the fastest lap on the last lap...

Grats, Tom, you've almost got it in the bag now!

[vosblod]

Tim please can you confirm that I have 0 token left instead 5 as I read in champ table cause I failed to start the five first races?
Thx

Hi Fulvio, I think you've found a 'blip' in the system in that it's not halving the tokens if you miss the first 5 races. I was sort of aware of this but completely forgot to mention it to Giz when the season started (sorry), will try and remember for S21 depending what we run. We can't manually change the tokens so was keeping my fingers crossed it wouldn't crop up.
So the answer - I'll ask Giz if he can manually deduct 5 from you so please treat your tokens as zero for now. I must admit I don't follow peoples tokens as lm2 handles it but a quick scan of the table shows you are the only one in that position.

Firstly I've had some feedback from Giz. It's not actually a 'blip' more the way we are running this division. It is actually run as one although the scoring is separated out between Works and Privateers and the import system is therefore combining the number of races and hence when it kicks in to reduce tokens. We did this originally in case we did not have enough support to run two divisions. Giz has kindly offered to split it into two divisions - you won't notice a difference except the tokens situation will be corrected.


Back to business results uploaded, any Incident Reports by close of play Friday please. You may have noticed we used a different server for Works (UKGPL_Gpg) which is a tried and tested one kindly being provided via Fulvio for the rest of the season. All results/replays for Works will now automatically be posted here: http://grandprix.xs4all.nl/ (just click on current for UKGPL) with Privateers continuing to be posted in the usual place.
A provisional review of the Privateers throws up one driver taking an extra Shift/R, all others took one or none and pitted correctly. It will be lreviewed fully during moderation but is looking like a DQ situation.


Turning to my race - well the less said the better. Missed Qually found a bit of carnage up the road and did some damage to my car avoiding it. Made it round a lap then span off and impaled myself. End of story.

Update: Giz has now revamped the divisions; you will now see GrP and GrW separately