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

[Samb]

Well, that was embarrassing. With what was quite possibly my worst drive in UKGPL, I finished a dismal 9th, 2 laps down. Truth was I never really got to grips with the Brabham around here, and have found it to be particularly tricky when fat on fuel throughout my races with it. Still, my qualifying time was decent enough but it all came to nought when I spun again and again. At one point I lost the rear and missed Al by the slightest of margins, ploughing straight into the barrier. With all 4 wheels, amazingly, still attached to the car, I soldiered on, lapping a good 3-4 seconds off the pace with a slightly damaged engine. Finally made it to the flag, just ahead of John.

Well, at least I made it to the flag which has occurred far too rarely for my liking this season. Congrats to H, Pelle and Tom. Terrific pace up front.

[BadBlood]

Hehe Sam. I lost it so many times I was clearly on 'Spin only' setting. Should have chosen 'Synthetics' lol!

[vosblod]

I hope I did the right thing in carrying on - I seem to recall that the advice in a DQ situation is to continue and let those clever mods sort out the final positions.

Can you bung in an incident report about that. We can have a look and reinstate you if needed.

Actually don't worry Mike I've had a look and put you back in, seems the server didn't like you being stuck behind that barrier.

Anyway results uploaded and replays will be found in the usual places, any Incident Reports by close of play Friday please. A review of the Privateers shows everyone complied with the single reset rule.
I haven't done the maths but, subject to moderation, it looks like neither Tommie or Bernie are in the clear so it will go down to the final race in both divisions.

[BadBlood]

Interesting. I didn't disco - but I did spin lol. Not sure why it shows disco as I limped past the chequered flag but it makes no difference. 6 points one way or the other. Need 20 at Monza for the century. Maybe 

More importantly, Ronnie needs a win but Bernie can take it if he comes second, whatever Ronnie does. If Ronnie wins and Bernie is third or worse, its Ronnie's. I will be reasonably competetive at Monza and I have nothing to lose so as a very difficult to pass back marker, I will await stuffed envelopes from either of them 

Good luck to both of them, they have been a class apart.

[Artiglietti]

@ Pelle

If its the UKGPL replays you are talking about, I go through 'rules' top of this thread, and then pick replays from the options on the left of next screen. The link 'replays' has never worked for me either, wonder if thats the same for everybody..

[maddog]

This was a track, waiting for action.  It became the stage for some of the closest racing all Season, with some tremendous racing spirit being shown by all amongst us.

I arrived with 2 cars - the Honda was easy to drive, but the tyres would overheat at the slightest mistake.  The Cooper was more work, but more forgiving, and the right choice, given the frantic nature of the race.

We were tightly packed heading into the 1st turn, with Bernie bouncing off my rear wheel, and subsequently loosing a motor.  I recovered close behind Michael, while Ronnie and Fabio made their escape.

It soon became a 2 man race, with Ronnie always able to match my pace.  The gap was never less than 5 seconds, and never more than 10.  It was an amazing game of cat and mouse, but the leader eked it out, in the end.

A brilliant choice of track, with probably a Seasons worth of work for our Moderator, but a real achievement for all Privateers who finished.  So, the title goes down to the wire, with 2 worthy champions, and a chasing field of worthy racers.

[Hristo Itchov]

I couldn't quite repeat my times from pre-race practice runs, but still managed to take Paul after Pelle messing up his fuel loads (for which I'm thankful!) on his attempts. My start was good, but Bob in his Lotus rocketed past us all to take the lead going into T1 and although it was quite narrow, we managed to make it through without any contacts.

Bob was quite unstable on cold tires and race fuel, so I managed to close up on him right away, but he had the advantage on the straights and kept pulling away. This was until he had a wobble into the last corner and I took the inside line on the exit, lining up side by side with him. He kept going right for a bit and I thought he's going to hit me, but fortunately that didn't happen.

He pulled away under acceleration towards T1, but I braked later and dived to the inside for a pass, or at least to put some pressure. Bob moved to the middle of the track and that frightened me a bit because I thought he would completely close the door, but there was just enough room to make it through as I went over the curb at the apex and took the lead.

From there on I didn't have much problem pulling away and the gap back to 2nd began to increase steadily by about 2 seconds each lap. By the time Pelle moved up to 2nd and stabilized the gap between us, I had half a minute lead and just had to bring it home.

There were no major issues with backmarkers and I could afford to ease off when necessary to wait for the best opportunity to go through, but some decided to slow down much earlier before I really catch them up and let me by - thanks, I waved in appreciation!

I made two major mistakes during the race - one was an off at T1 which saw me running on the grass on the outside for 2-3 seconds before I could return to the track, and the other was on the exit of the last corner when I hit the armco, but luckily not too hard and without any noticeably consequences.

By my calculations and if we take a decent amount of points at Monza, I'll drop 3 points as my 2nd worst result and Tom's going to drop 15, so the actual gap between is ATM is 3 points. This means that whoever finishes in front of the other at Monza is going to be crowned Champ, so it should be an exciting race! I'm almost tempted to take a faster car since I have 66 tokens (!), but that wouldn't be right, would it? 

-=Hristo=-

[Ronniepeterson]

I have to say I really enjoyed the challenge of this track. I knew I had good speed and qualifying resulted in pole position. Howvere, my pre race fears of blowing the engine led to a rather safe start and a faster starting Fabio got to the first corner ahead of me. Having looked at the replay thanks go to Bernie for not rear ending me due to my slower get off the line. On lap two Fabio clipped a curve and left a gap down the inside to the following right hairpin. I needed no second invitation and took the inside. what followed was for me a racing incident with me recovering first to take the lead. Sorry Fabio. I'm not planning on reporting this myself, however, if Fabio and/or the mods wish to take a look please do. If only to let Bernie know if he is even closer to that title I'm trying to steal from him. Big thank you to Martin who kept me honest throughout the race and finished ahead of a fast recovering Bernie who put in another excellent drive himself. I had anticipated that lapping backmarkers would be tricky at this circuit this proved not to be the case with great behaviour from the other drivers. The downside of this was Martin was not being held up and when I had a slight misunderstanding with Fabio on lap 30 I think, I half expected Martin to come flying past. I got away with it and was relieved to see the chequered flag a few laps later. I know a lot of people will be glad to see the back of this one but I look forward to coming back. I think a 65 race here could be brilliant.  Thanks for the championship maths Paul but no envelopes are in the post I'm afraid. I expect everyone will want to finish the season on a high anyway. Whatever the outcome Monza will be a fitting end to a great season.

[Pelle_B]

@ Pelle

If its the UKGPL replays you are talking about, I go through 'rules' top of this thread, and then pick replays from the options on the left of next screen. The link 'replays' has never worked for me either, wonder if thats the same for everybody..

Thx, yes 'REPLAYS' link open for a 'OpenDNS' site ? I use Win7 x64 Explorer 9, later I sought more in this forum & found a second page with Replays, but only from UKGTL - GTR2, Race07 & more, no GPL  

Now I had seen the replay & got my memory freshened up & could see what went wrong. I was somewhat surprised by a Lotus got a gun start, trying to defend my position & comes too close to Histro...brake/turn at the same time should go wrong on cold tyres, but I did say 'hey' to everyone in the race who ran past me...unfortunately, my second place was the last place already in the T1  

Edit: YEAH, realize now I took second place - Thx - whatever I was doing too much show after the race 41 point...YES
More Edit: Championship standing between Tom & Hristo...& if if & if it goes the same way from Jarama at Monza I am in a terrible situation, I will have influence on who will be Champ   ...fortunately, anything can happen in the race.
Edit again: Detects in Histro's post that there are several things that come into play with points...imagine if the rule was still working in F1, drop your lowest results away  
Monza is more fun in the Ferrari, Eagle & Lotus...Hrisro you are facing a very difficult choice  

[Hristo Itchov]

Just run your own race and don't worry about our scrap with Tom. 

[Pelle_B]

Yes, you're right Hristo...we must run our own race on the track, not in Forum  

Edit: Spelling errors

[bernie]

I was looking forward to giving Ronnie some pressure in this race , escpecially after finding a good race set up also changing the asphalt from dark to light made a big improvement to the track for me.

Race day was quite a different story , qually was poor , always seemed to get caught in traffic on what should have been "flyers" , couldnt get anywhere near my practise times or find any form , my brain didnt seem to be fully in control of my arms and feet (pretty essential items for racing ) probably due to me being worn out from a hectic day out with the Grandkids .

Made one of my better starts only to find Ronnie (actually thought it was Fabio ) almost stationary in front , went up the inside , thought i might squeeze past then thought better of it , dropped back to the outside and was following Fabio through the corner ( right car this time ) but then Martin decided he wanted the same gap I was aiming for , kept to my  line , we touched , (just a kiss really wuv ) but GPL decided it was a good idea to deploy Exoset mode and my Brabby exploded in flames . (think there may have been some warp assistance with Martin , his car dances around like crazy whenever I follow him ) .

After the compusory SR & PI  were performed I duly set off in persuit but couldnt settle into my race form or any kind of rythm , to many errors of judgement 3 or 4 spins 1 argument with the armco at  the downhill hairpin plus a contratempts with my own Team mate Mike when I was shadowing Hannah and deciding which way to get past him in one piece , Mike decided it was his turn to pass and made a move up my inside , I didnt see him and turned in , we collided , somehow launching Mike over the barrier (sorry for that buddy) a least we were both able to continue .
Didn't see anything of the Mike and Ronnie show they were well down the road , pity I couldnt join the fun as I think this is a great track for racing and a good performance leveler.
Altogether a pretty poor show and not sure what the mods will think about my escapades .

Congrats to all those who struggled through to the end and thanks a bunch to the back markers for behaving appropriatly .

Cya all soon at Monza  

  

[il_lupo_mannaro]

Well, last Sunday it wasn't my night...
Ronnie took a fantastic lap and it secured his pole position whil I had some trouble with slowest drivers and I wasn't even able to be close to my fresh PB.
Anyway, my lap time was fast enough to start from second place.

I had a really good start, at least compared with Ronnie's one, so I was immediately on the lead!
Unfortunately I start pushing to early at the beginning of lap two and I went wide on T3.
During the race I didn't realise that, on T4, I left an open door to Ronnie and that he tried to pass me on the inside: I simply closed the turn and we crashed together... I immediately watched the replay after the race and I guess it was a simple race accident: anyway it's up to mods to check it, Ronnie, I'm only a driver...

I was really angry after it and because of this my race was plenty of errors (I guess I hit one ord two drivers when lapping them...) and my cars was damaged but I was able to finish in 4th place.

OK, let's see you all at Monza, my home track, for the Grand Finale of such a fantastic Privateers season!

Cheers

fL

[vosblod]

Moderation now published

[Tom van Ostade]

Moderation now published

Not to take away anything from Pelle's excellent driving and second place finish, but seeing the scoring and everything after the penalties are applied, I'm shown as 3rd, 54.4 seconds behind Hristo. But Pelle is shown 2nd, 54.6 seconds behind Hristo. Does this mean I've been awarded second place or is there an error in the timing?

Tommie.