GT fun series Monza Race 18th Feb

[Phil Thornton]

A good race for me, qualified with a PB but well down the field in the rather underpowered GT40 Mk1.  Had to come to a dead stop at the start to avoid the early carnage but managed to get going without damaging the car or needing a shift R.  Enjoyed chasing down Alistair (Happyal - A Baldwin) for a few laps.  There was no way I could get past that Mirage without Al making a mistake.  Thankfully he did and I got past at the Parabolica.  Managed to stay ahead for a few laps but then he passed me again on the run down to the Curva Grande.  We started to catch Ronnie but Al overdid it a bit (can't remember where) and I got past again.  Got lapped by Goran and Nicky, who looked like they were having a real ding dong battle, and then I saw Ronnie's engine blow on the approach to Ascari.  After that it was a matter of staying cool and trying to maintain the gap back to Al and Martin.

Grats to Evil and Francesco.  All the Green Team drivers scored points tonight 

[b_1_rd]

I got a reasonable start for a change and got away without losing loads of places!  Amazingly struck lucky for a change with the (inevitable  ) lap 1 contact and managed to steer around 2 cars tumbling along track. 

Spent most of the race in 4th until the *&@:{}$)£$ CAT jumped up on the windowsill beside me as he wanted to go out, I was distracted enough to run wide at lesmo 2 and ran along the barrier trying to slow enough to pull the car back on track but as I reached the end of the barrier it caught the front and took a whack, as I got going again it was clear the engine had lost a heap of power.

I should have reset there and then but thought I'd see if it would go to the end without losing too much, but I'd under estimated the time loss and went from 4th to 9th.  I tried a reset just before pit lane so I could dash in for a S/G with I think 2 to go, in a hope to maybe make one place back but lost the car just after Ronnie let me through on the final lap, sorry if I held you up mate.

Anyway, it was hopeless by then and just toured back to the line.

It will be interesting to see if the rolling start will make any difference at all; hope I can make it!

WD Podium and all finishers.

[happyal]

Had a fun race, got a PB in qually by a full second.

At the start I got away well, but it didn't last long as a car was accross the track. I couldn't avoid hitting it, but I was quick lucky as I landed on my wheels and didn't need a restart. I got back to the race, I found myself in about 8th, but some very quick guys where behind. After they blasted past me I was involved in a nice battle with Phil for about half the race.

First time you got past Phil, I didn't make a mistake, you just got a really good run down the straight and made a great move into the Parabolica. I followed you for a few laps and found I could get close to you down the straight but I was surprised I could get past you. I couldn't shake you, so I settled into a great battle but I made a silly mistake at Parabolica, I had a good entry but tried to carry too much speed on the exit. I put a rear wheel on the sand and spun.

After that I had a little battle with Martin, he was miles faster than me so caught me quickly. We had a bit of a coming together and he got past and was gone. I didn't expect to see him again but he made a mistake and I got past when he was recovering. So I finished the race in 11th, and I think that means that all the Orange team drivers also all scored.

[Phil Thornton]

I think your frustration is totally justified, Tim. I wouldn't ever race the Porsche around tracks like Monza. What's the point really? To see how much suffering you can endure? Unless it's a spec race as you say (and it would be rather fun IMO), it's a torture! And no, I don't think you can be competitive in it at such track, regardless of how good of a driver you are. Physics are set in stone in GPL as opposed to reality where nothing is certain. 

Well in reality the Chap retired and a Porsche 910 came in 3rd overall and 1st in class.  See here.  But do we want to recreate reality or do we just want to have some fun in the "spirit" of the 67 era?  I certainly couldn't do a 5 hour race although some people might want to give it a go.

In fact, for the same reasons for which I'm against mixing up 2Ls and 3Ls in 66 mod racing, I'm against using the full mixture of cars in this mod, at least for such sprint races. It may be a different matter in a 2 hours race or longer, assuming reliability also comes into play. So far I haven't had a single engine blow up in my 2F though - less gear changes, no need to rev to the max because of abundance of torque, relatively low oil temp... perfect recipe for lasting the race distance without a problem.

Agreed.

Clive has come up with this team format to test out some ideas.  Now we've got some experience under race conditions what do we think?  As you say the performance difference is more marked than in any of the F1 cars.  So I doubt chassis allocation would be appropriate, anybody with a Porsche would just give up.  Maybe a "Historics" style handicapping would work?  It would probably stop anybody winning consecutive races if the division leader was given a Porsche.  Tokens is another possibility but what is each car actually worth?  Pitstops doesn't seem practical either, with a 6 second difference in qually time, the Chaparrals would have to do a pit stop every 6 or 7 laps.  Not just the once as it used to be back in the 67 Division 1 days.

Ideally what we have to do is come up with a formula, handicapping system, tokens or what ever you want to call it that allows us to enjoy driving ANY of the 67 Sports Cars whilst remaining competitive.  I'm not sure it is possible.  Maybe the way forward is to have a series of spec races which as you suggest might be fun.  Certainly more enjoyable than pottering round in a slow car being absolutely pulverised by a much faster driver in a much faster car.

[Phil Thornton]

First time you got past Phil, I didn't make a mistake, you just got a really good run down the straight and made a great move into the Parabolica.

Just had a quick look at the replay.  Yes it was pretty good, I'm quite proud of that one.  I only wish I could do it more often!  We had a good battle for 20 laps without knocking each other off.  It just goes to show it can be done even with the reduced peripheral vision.  The secret is to use the mirrors, if you can't see the other driver in your mirrors you must assume they are along side and leave them room.

Great racing Al 

[BadBlood]

Bloody Windows! Had to reboot because GPL had crashed and I couldn't get task manager to function. Windows decided to install updates grrrrr

16545 of them GRRRRRR.

By the time I got back the race had started

In qually I had put a banker lap in which put me 12th and then had problems with the PC by which time Ronnie had passed me GGGGGRRRRRRRR!!!!!! Had awful frame rates as well which didn't help. On the whole. Frustrating - not as bad as driving a Porsche round tho'

Can't make next Friday. Pity, I like Monza and had looked forward to this all week.

[Hristo Itchov]

Phil, reality doesn't matter because the reliability of the Chap in the mod is full-proof so far. Apart from an engine that blew up on the start (which can happen to ANY car, it's more a gearbox/clutch issue), all Chaps survived the race without any failures as far as I know. Also, the real races were much longer, weren't they?

As for the format, Porsches are simply a class of their own and if we're to, say, use the Historics system for both standings-based handicap and fast/slow (3l/2l) cars races, we would have to run spec Porsche races and remove the Porsche as a car choice altogether in the rest of the races.

[G Jonsson]

First I would like to thank Hristo and Alastair for making the orange team by far the best!!! And a special thanks to Fulvio for the Silverstone win. The misfortune at Reims, the only race we did not win, was due to my H-shifter that made things hard for the engine running out of gear from time to time. I had planed what to do about Pedro so.......................

This race begun behind a exploding Chapp with a friendly tap from Nicky who I later was to have a really great battle with, specially great because I finally got in front and with some help from backmarkers managed to put some distace between us.

I was lucky not to need a shift-r after the start experience but I was dead last, I think, when I got going. So I really should have won the Highest climber award going from like 15 to 3. But anyway I got going and cars came and went, except Nicky of cause who stayed for a long time. When there was like 10 laps to go I was in 5Th and gaining on Steve in front of me, and it would have been close I think if he had not had his misfortune. But all of a sudden I was in 4Th with some 25 sec gap to Pedro in 3rd so I settled for that and was pretty OK with it when I saw a white car with a big wing blowing smoke all over the place. My first though was that it was H and I said oh no out loud but then I found out it was Pedro giving me a podium position, a nice gesture after the Reims race, thanks Pedro. But I really would have been OK with 4Th also.

About the formula I really do not know what would work best. The team idea is quite nice, allthough we in the orange team more or less destroyed the excitement by being so far ahead of everybody else due to well planing, good cars and great drivers.

But if we should think of a individually championship I think I would prefere to make each driver pic one chassis for the championship. Pic different types of tracks and see what happens. Then during the first championship we gather information that later on may be used to create a handicap system. I do not think that this fun series have given us that much information because of the tracks we have used.

And I do not think we should restrict ourself to "big" tracks just because the cars are big. When we at the AusGPL did a Thundercar season we used tracks like Opatija and Thornham, tight and twisty tracks with the big TC cars and it went fine. Finally I think that 1 hour races is about right, but maybe the standard 50 min is even better, but surley not any longer thanks.

Then of cause we can glance at what GPLRACE are doing here: http://forum.gplracer.eu/board.php?id=71&  They go for longer, 90 min, but they also restrict drivers to one chassis for the whole season. Not what they normally do.

This is their tracks for this season: http://gplracer.eu/race-calendar-gt.html

And of cause if the GT series will be on Sundays, have fun while I work 

Göran

[Cookie]

Well...

A great smile on my face
A little sad of bad luck

But the positives are greater!
Had a good quali with Juha snapping 2. place at last seconds. 
Managed a moderate start with the clutch and had 13 laps a wonderful fight with EvilClive. Then I had to do my first lappings...
After a misunderstanding with Martin my left frontwheel was missing, what I didnt realised  at once. S+r and stop and go!
Came back at 8. and begun to fighht through the field, until I came together with 2 italian guys which were fighting for every inch. Made lots of fun, caught the first but then at exit of Parabolica got a kick from inside...
Luckily nothing broke when doing a salto, so I could start my recovering again.
With my luck and the bad luck of Steve and Pedro I came in 5th.

I am fully satisfied cause this was my 4th online race and my hands and knees were shaking...
My car was much faster than I was, because of being too careful, still have a lot to learn.

I love this ChapD  cause its so forgiving when making mistakes
and have a special relation with Chaps cause I won my first Championship with a ChapF in Slotracing in 1967

Happy to see you next week same time, same place

Greetings

Axel

[Ronniepeterson]

Frustrating - not as bad as driving a Porsche round tho'

Thanks for that pearl Paul.

Like at Reims it was really hard to keep going at Monza last night. When the engine blew it would have been so easy to give up. But I soldiered on because I for one wanted to know just how well/badly this car fares on all types of tracks for future reference. Well on high speed tracks, as Vosblod found out, its incredibly SLOW. But take away engine reliability as well (the Chap is more reliable!!!), then even in the hands of the leagues best drivers I think this car will struggle to compete at the sharp end. Sure I was pushing hard but not over the limit and I still lost the engine.

Having said that I will be back at Monza for the rolling start race in the Porsche to complete my course in masochism. For future GT races I think I will be trading up!

[vosblod]

Interesting to hear you feel the same Ronnie, although I think you have a higher pain threshold then me
I've only competed in one race but, from looking at the results, I have to agree the Porsche does seem to stand out so I can't see many takers if they had it all season.
Perhaps it should be placed in a class of it's own and kept for spec races.

[b_1_rd]

I think I should be able to make next weeks race Tim, so if you like I don't mind taking the Porka next race, unless Clive specifically would like to keep drivers in the same car, although being that the engine went with both you and Ronnie anyway its probably proven itself already!

[Cookie]

(the Chap is more reliable!!!)

I cant confirm!

Its much less reliable than a Lola eg
The most engine blows  I saw and had were Chaps!

You have to be very carefull with that big block and do like Hristo said; never overrev, just use the torque!
But even doing that, I had 2 failures at Clermont with it.
First by a lame start, ending a Porsche in my back, half lap later engine blew,
Second 10 laps later never reving over 6500.

Somewhere at SRMZ there was said, that the Chaps will have the lowest reliabilty implemented!

Greetz
Axel

[happyal]

Just had a quick look at the replay.  Yes it was pretty good, I'm quite proud of that one.  I only wish I could do it more often!  We had a good battle for 20 laps without knocking each other off.  It just goes to show it can be done even with the reduced peripheral vision.  The secret is to use the mirrors, if you can't see the other driver in your mirrors you must assume they are along side and leave them room.

Great racing Al 

Got to say your pass was impressive, I gave you some applause in my head. Sometimes it's just good to see a good pass, even if you are on the wrong end of it I did expect you to disapear after that I was surprised I could keep with you. The Virtual mirrors helped me alot, as I can now see what's behind me.

I've got a idea for next seasons series. How about you can choose any car you like, but you must use every car. So if you used the Ferrari at Monza, you must use the porsche somewhere else I noticed that he porsche did have some good results this year with a few 3rd places etc.

[Hristo Itchov]

I like the idea, Al, it would mean nobody is going to run the Porsche at a fast track and leave it to use for slower tracks. We'll going to have some races that would be almost 100% spec though, but personally I don't mind that. There's no handicapping whatsoever with this system though.