UKPnG Season 5 Sprints - Spa (1967) - Feb 10

[Mark J]

phew, after initial timing chaos with praccy/qually, the race turned out all right...ish  

Had only done 2 timed laps prior to tonight so didnt expect much pacewise. Qualied 6th, but was moved down to 8th for some reason   Got a good start, clean run up eau rouge and diced with a couple of peeps round until sector 3 where there was an incident ahead in top 5. Managed to avoid any carnage by hitting my anchors hard and jogged on for several laps in top 6-8. But then got a wheel wide on grass and lost momentum and places, dropping to about 9th or 10th.  
Closed right up again on great battle ahead between Pribeiro and Ade and was only 1.9 secs away from PRs car when i again got a wheel wide and lost about 8 seconds...grrr.
Finally with 1 lap to go i ran wide a 3rd blinking time and lost a place to Tony  

Ho hum, think i finshed 9th, not bad for no practise.   Good challenging track though surprisingly hard to 'race' on for fear of high speed spills and contact. Can see why it was such a widowmaker in the 60's  

Congrats to great pace up front and fine win to Muttram  

[phspok]

Results and Replay posted
Qual did not go quite as planned. Appologies to anyone who was upset by it.
I believed the session start times were correct, but more than one complained qual2 was 10 mins early
So opened qual to anyone who wanted to. Grid was much the same as if people had come in good time and we'd just
done the top 6 as planned, so was no biggie.
Race was messed by pile up on lap 1, as many did, I also slowed even before the brow half expecting some rail riders
but was not able to slow enough to completely avoid, and took some front damage car felt ok
but was one or two mph down on the straights. had fun catching and passing some, then slowly reeled in Phil
but I made more mistakes than he did, and he took the place.
EDIT: Seems I hit Legzy, despite trying to slow as best as I could. Sorry Chris.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Really enjoyed that combo but if only it could have been longer. By lap 8 I was ready for another 8. This is a seriously good track for an Enduro (Christmas Special  )

Got a slight nudge from Bill into Eau Rouge which set me off on a roller coaster from one side of the track to the other, thankfully no-one else collided with me but the carnage at those first turns first needs to be avoided. You don't win races on the first turn, so I've been told 

Pretty uneventful from there on in. Just keeping it on the track and going as fast as poss, avoided the various waifs and strays along the way. Tried to catch MJ but he was too good until a misshap on the penultimate lap let me blast by him.

Yeah, good one. 

[Alex vV]

I would be one of them sadly. Was tailing Alex nicely in about 6th, saw an issue ahead & eased off, started braking a bit to be able to pick my way through & got hoofed up the rear end, someone still going full tilt, ignoring the cars slowing down ahead
So found myself in 2nd last & did the rest of the race with broken suspension & a wheel tilted round... all on my own till the last lap & half when I found Alex again.

An evening to forget from start to finish.

Hope it wasn't me..  

Had great fun with these ultra fast cars on an ultra fast circuit.
Managed to get around the first lap melee somehow and found myself on 6th place... waaaay out of my league.
Soon other fasties came thundering past me but had some pleasent drafting fights with Mister Cosworth.
Then Coz did some flip-flops and just managed to clip the grass, spinning round and getting stuck against a hill. Bugger, bugger bugger..

Managed to drive back to 10th spot but made another mistake which enabled the crippled Porsche of Legzy to catch up.
Legzy passed me but did the same flip-flop routine with just a couple of corners to go....

Thoroughly enjoyed this one with the slippery grass looming when going full speed through the corner... one can only imagine how this would be in real life.

Stuff of Legends.

[goldtop]

Rushed out as soon as given the all clear for quali and so just managed to squeeze a lap in before the session ended and we went to race.

Was just a little behind the leaders so had a good view of the lap 1 incident allowing me time to slow down slightly and pick my path through. The driving view in the 906 is pretty difficult in traffic and I think that partly contributed to the incidents that followed with perhaps some drivers being unsighted  

Had a nice little dice with Phil changing places for 2 or 3 laps until I just let a back wheel stray onto the grass while setting up for a corner. This sent me up the grass bank and flying over the armco where I landed heavily and rolled a few times. A career ending crash if ever there was one, but miraculously I escaped with absolutely no damage to rejoin the track and finish in 5th   Gotta love the realism  

Congrats to pody and finishers.

[Phil Gilliland]

So, PnG is more realistic than GTL, is it?  

[pribeiro]

 

[goldtop]

PnG....the greatest flight sim 

[Mike Miller]

Sorry I missed the event guys. I was really looking forward to this one, but work and in this case, life often gets in the way.
It sounds like there was some drafting action. It also sounds like there was potentially impatience in the first few corners that caught out inicent victims.
What happened with the quali procedure. Did the practice times not translate properly to the same order in quali? I tested offline, but not online.
Which quali method do you guys prefer? Everybody gets 1 lap in quali session or only top 6 from practice get shot at super pole?

Phil, you auditioning for Dukes of Hazzard?

[Mike Miller]

Oh... interesting to see the ratio of Porsche 906 drivers to the late offering of the L88 and the Ferrari 275.

[Clive Loynes]

As far as I am concerned the evening was a complete waste of time and it's probably best if I say absolutely nothing about qualifying procedures or first lap incidents.

[phspok]

Practice times translated perfectly, but several people turned up thinking they had time for a couple of laps
before the qual. Partly perhaps not reading the post, and possibly me getting the times wrong.
There was so much outcry that I opted to just let people go qual if they wanted
If anyone has an axe to grind it is me, as I was so busy trying to sort things out, I missed my own qual lap
and started several places back from where I would have been.

I sat near the final turn I thought far enough off line to be in no one's way, apparently not  

[Phil Gilliland]

Phil, you auditioning for Dukes of Hazzard?

LOL, that's actually Clive, taking "flying lap" to extremes!

What happened with the quali procedure. Did the practice times not translate properly to the same order in quali? I tested offline, but not online.

I'm not sure, because I was one of the 6 qualifying (I never completed my flying lap because I hit a stationary car on the racing line. Was that you Matt?) so I wasn't reading the chat messages, but I think there was general discontent and some surprise that not all were being allowed to qualify. Matt opened the track for all and a couple managed to squeeze in a time.

Which quali method do you guys prefer? Everybody gets 1 lap in quali session or only top 6 from practice get shot at super pole?

Personally, I like them both, but judging from those chat messages that I did manage to read, the 'top 6' idea is not a popular one.

[Wiltshire Tony]

It was all explained perfectly well in the race announcement. Problem being some folk just don't give them a second glance. One guy tonight actually had to ask how many laps the race was right before the race start.

That's not good preparation 

[FullMetalGasket]

It was all explained perfectly well in the race announcement. Problem being some folk did actually give them a second glance only to find the timings stated were wrong

Sorted that for you Tony 

Quite a few of us turned up 'on time' by the race announcement only to be advanced out of qually while still on our outlaps - hence the discontent and Mike allowing all and sundry out if they wanted.
A fair response to a simple mistake/misunderstanding IMO so I'm not complaining - also I have no prob with either of the qualifying styles as long as the times are correct so I can get a lap in! 

As for the race Clive's incident (not 100% who the other car was) actually looked fairly innocent rather than a passing attempt from my ringside seat (I may still be wrong as I havn't viewed the replay of it properly) - doesn't detract from the fact that it caused absolute chaos though and lead to quite a lonely race for me - I think I needed a fellow GPL'er to get a fair chance at competition here