UKGPL Season 21 (2011) GT - Efexx - May 15

[vosblod]

Not expecting to race here as we already had a full compliment. Unfortunately Steve had to drop out at short notice. Track I don't know, car I don't know and no practice.
But just turning up would plonk in a few grey points over others who might be missing and, as I was pencilled in to start the server anyway, just join, stay at the back and keep out of the way.
I did that, didn't get far, but still put something down for the Growling Greys.

Really need to get back into some practicing again as my current lack of form is highlighting my lack of wheel time.

[Geoff65]

Waste of time......after the false start on _3......Screen freeze just after mid race. Not the best track for these big bangers, they weren't really designed to be run on postage stamps. Next........

[Hristo Itchov]

Well that's typical. My internet conked out on the first lap  . If only it happened a few minutes earlier. At the end of the pace lap, people were disappearing and suddenly GPL shouts 'Error on network device' or something new. Was hoping that the server had an issue but alas it was just me. Shame that as I was really looking forward to the race at Efexx.

Onto the next one......

Shame, Sam, you posted a great time in Qualifying. Get that new connection soon!

[FullMetalGasket]

About as good as I could have hoped for in the boat really - probably a better finish than I'd have managed at St Jovite in it though so not exactly a waste of time.
Shame Nige Got DQ'd for some reason and Dave was AWOL, team Orange will drop a bit tonight I fear

[Cookie]

Yes Samb was warping as crazy until he dissappeared. I didn't know if he was still there cause came back after seconds...

My report after viewing the replay...

Cheers

Axel

[jhalli]

"good" race for me ,as Ford Mk1 wasnt the best choice for this track, did some practise before the race and was quite happy with the car handling. In the race i did 2 mistakes one after i see Cookies car close ahead of me, and one when 5 laps to go, same time Fulvio passed me and i was dropped from 4th place to5th.

not a best day for Grey team as Geoff and Vosblod disconnected   

[fpolicardi]

Yes Samb was warping as crazy until he dissappeared. I didn't know if he was still there cause came back after seconds...

My report after viewing the replay...

Cheers

Axel

I saw replay and I have to apologize for hitting you Cookie while you were sideway. I saw you start for the outside but then you recollected when I had already gone for the inside.
My race was ruined when I steered to the pitwall following close Clive on the s/f straight, rebounded with a nice tounneau over the haybales.
Did the s&g of 10 sec. and restarted just ahead of FMG that was my shadow for almost all the rest of the race. In the end passed Juha playing in the haybales at his time.
I think Juha and me would be promoted 3rd and 4th
Sorry for the server problems, next time will be a backup ready just in case.
Ciao

[EvilClive]

A great result for the Red Team and an inspired choice of cars 

Hristo had already decided that he wanted to use the Mirage, but Paul was unable to join in so that left me with a choice of cars. I had done some practice runs and knew I could get the 2F into the 1:03's on race fuel and had tried the Porsche and found it to be approx 1.5secs slower, but easier to handle.

A quick team talk before the race decided things and I took the Porker so that I would have the option of the 2F at a faster circuit later in the series.
The short qually meant that I never quite got a good lap with a tow, but still managed a respectable 5th or 6th on the grid.
The lack of a tow in qually proved a problem in the first few laps tucked in behind a line of muscle cars, because my red needle was banging against the stop as we passed the end of the pits. It soon became apparent that I could keep up with the leaders by exploiting the road holding of the Porsche even though I would lose ground at the end of each straight.
One by one the leaders threw themselves off the road or made small mistakes and I climbed to 3rd place, Axel went off but the top speed of that "F almost blasted me off the track as he recovered and went by!!!. I tried to hold on to his slipstream, but feared that the excess revs would kill my engine, so  backed off and allowed Axel to pull away.
Fulvio was a threat until he clipped the end of the pit wall and vanished from my mirrors. Hristo had pulled away at the front with Cookie in pursuit, I was in a safe 3rd with Juha a good way behind and not closing at about half distance.

"If Axel makes a mistake I will be back on his tail and if he needs a pit stop I will have 2nd place" I thought . But as the laps counted down Cookie refused to make a big enough mistake for me to catch him and with 3 laps to go I had settled for 3rd place.
Then I saw a 2F on the grass just before the S/F line and a quick check with prib confirmed that it was Axel!! I was 2nd!! with 2 laps to go!!  woohoo.

[BadBlood]

Top result boys - see - you are much better when I am not there. LOL.

Well done both.

[BadBlood]

Shame Nige Got DQ'd for some reason and Dave was AWOL, team Orange will drop a bit tonight I fear

I'll check out that DQ, Tim. Nigel is still shown as scoring 17 so not too bad for a DQ. Suspect that might be an error... watch this space.

[Cookie]

Is there a replay anywhere?

Please
Axel

[BadBlood]

Nigel's DQ is a strange one. He has been DQ'ed because he has gone the wrong way!!!! BIG NO NO.

BUT he was outside the wall at the time 

I don't think we have a rule to cover flying off the track and going rogue...

I will have to chat with the Evil one...

@Cookie - replay is uploaded in the usual place (UKGPL home page, top left)

[vosblod]

Nigel's DQ is a strange one. He has been DQ'ed because he has gone the wrong way!!!! BIG NO NO.
BUT he was outside the wall at the time 
I don't think we have a rule to cover flying off the track and going rogue...

We have some reference to it here; https://www.ukgpl.com/index.php/rules/sporting
The policy is to reinstate undeserved DQ's due to network problems or the server losing them. If it is a 'proper' DQ then you should see black flags and pit in and wait till you can go, you are then back in the running.
If you don't pit GPL will DQ you and, unless there is a very good reason to reinstate someone, that should stand.

Obviously I've not looked at this particular issue but that is the UKGPL stance. Going the wrong way does tend to pick up a black flag although we have checkpoints switched off so GPL is normally pretty liberal.

[Hristo Itchov]

Going backwards always picks up a black flag, regardless of checkpoints. You can avoid it by stopping frequently for 1-2 seconds as you go backwards, each 50 meters or so.

This was a very tough race and I didn't expect to be leading from the start, but a good lap in Qualifying and apparently not so good (or clean) lap by Axel meant that I started at the front. Sam was impressive in his Mirage, but sadly suffered a disco again, so I was left to fend off very fast going Fulvio early on. I was a bit cautious and letting the oil temp go up over the first couple of laps, but that allowed Fulvio to keep within a striking distance and so I had to keep checking my mirror all the time. Lucky for me he went off at the 90 degree left hander (T3?) and that gave me some breathing space which I used to push more and open up a gap.

Eventually Axel made his way up to 2nd and the gap cemented at about 5 seconds, and it took some 6-7 laps until I could extend that to 6 seconds, but then it dropped to 5 again, lol. Axel was obviously very quick and I knew I cannot allow any mistakes.

Backmarkers were quite decent and despite the bad mirrors, they were aware enough to ease off as soon as I went side by side with them, but with these wide cars it was still a bit of a close call sometimes, especially going under braking into T2. Axel must've had some problems because the gap extended twice - first to 13 seconds (I think) and then to over 20 seconds. That was really important because of what happened next.

Approaching two cars towards the s/f line, I was aware that one of them was a backmarker for both myself and the other car (or so it appeared by looking at their speed difference), so I had quite a scare when the double-backmarker lost it and spun into the pit wall, putting up a lot of dust in the air. That distracted me enough to miss my turn-in point for T1 and go wide straight into the haybales. The car flipped into the air, spun around a couple of times and landed hard onto its wheels, but at least it didn't land onto its roof! I continued as quick as I can, but lost some 13 seconds as a result of that off as Cookie was shown 8 seconds behind on the next lap.

He kept pressing hard and the gap dropped to 7, but then extended to 11 as he probably had another problem. My second off came as I closed up on a backmarker towards T2 (or maybe it's T3? well, I mean the slow right) and he sort of zig-zagged around which unsettled by direction under braking and I went a bit too quick into the corner on the inside and off into the grass. As I recovered and closed up again on the same backmarker, he was barely controlling the car, losing the direction even on the straights - a prime example of severe over-driving.

Apart from those two problems I had a very consistent race. The car handled the same throughout the whole race and the lap times were very close regardless of fuel load. The left rear tire was a bit hot in the middle, but not enough to unsettle the car too much. I managed to achieve a very good rhythm and despite not being the fastest car on the track, it was enough to win the race.

Grats to Evil for taking 2nd!

P.S. A question - if someone misses the race, can they still take one of the chassis 4 times (10 races - 3+3+4)?

[Cookie]

OMG
Sorry green team I made a big mistake!

In Quali  didnt get a clean lap, so I started 4th.
Race was ok for me til the little touch with Fulvio,

6m24.330s
Axel Cookie - spotters reporting:
minor problems with right front suspension

didn't handicap me much but I had to be careful at braking.

Could get to 2nd place and kept it until 2 laps to go, when I overdid the hairpin2.
Crashed and had to wait until all the followers had passed to make a s+r.
Luckily was short way to box.
I made a  big error when I shortly stopped in my pit, didn't remember I have to wait 10 sec....

So I expect beeing penalized for this by some seconds 

All in all great race, but I am not yet a cool and experienced GPL racedriver...

Axel