UKGPL Season 21 (2011) Grads (67) - Zandvoort (1948-72) - Sep 11

[maddog]

And so the fabled few, arrived at their last stand, amidst the dunes at Sandfort, determined to fight the forces of reality, once more.  One last gasp for our ruling Moderators - let valour commence - let forces clash - let victims lie - 'til the sands of time sweep clean the slate.  And only the fables remain, writted here for the generations to come, to awe and inspire them, to deeds done, undone, and yet to be, done up.

Sorry 'bout that . . . Pulitzer's not 'til next year!  So, to race strategy :  my choice was either for a fast, or a docile steed for the race.  Decided my mild-mannered driving style suited the placid Cooper.  This meant being a, 'sitting Duck' down the main straight, but I hoped for better things, around the twiddly bits.

I'd recently been at Le Mans, for the 24hr's, which was sadly shortened, due to so many cars leaving the track, all at once.  Sitting inside a GT40, I'd had to move my pitboard, unsuccessfully, and my pitman was now sitting in the wrong place.  So I jumped out to give him a talking to, and returned to find my earlier laptimes hiding, and only the right half of the pitboard showing!  Soldiered on regardless to mid-grid, though close to being last, and aghast!  Amazing how closely matched we Privateers are these days!  

My plan, for the opening melee, was to keep the track always in sight, and prosper through others misfortune . . . in the nicest sort of way, of coarse!  This worked well, and put the faster Ronnie, and Dave Rainier behind me, during the frantic action of the early laps.  I'd grabbed Michael's tail for a few, until there came a very sideways moment, which let Ronnie's Ferrari through.  It also let the Tifosi go wild, though the British Wellies, remained hopeful.

As things settled in, my pitboard foretold each lap, of an anonymous enemy, er, umm . . . friendly combatant, closing in from behind, ( David ) and another clearing off up ahead.   Along also, with rather too many laps remaining, to allow for sustaining, of a podium spot!  Thence 3 times, the evil doer . . . um, enterprising opponent, closed the gap between us, and 3 times the forces of fate, interveined to forestall him.

Luck was on my side this day, and to the valiant, went the spoils!  After a hard run and entertaining race, I certainly felt I'd earned some spoilage!  Thanks be, for an epic and well run, Season long battle.  We fabled few, of the Internuts, are now writted into history - hallowed be thy fame.  

[s2173]

Pretty fun race, tho mostly ruined again... after practicing with honda and ferrari and crashing 50 times per lap with them, i decided in the last minute to go with eagle...Which was behaving marveliously, its actually a great car for twisty and bumpy tracks with its solid suspension... First 6 laps were a nice real racing and I was quite exited about it... Seems could keep up with front runners, being pretty fast at first half of the track. Ros overtook me, then messed that long lefthander, I had to slow down and got Allan in my rear... I dont know why its so attractive for people to do that...  Then i did a nice little dance and luckuly landed on my four tires. This wasn't wery good for my car, and it wasnt behaving so well after that. I found out why when i looked the mehcanical report later...

Skymole 2173 -m - spotters reporting:
medium problems with left rear tire.
minor problems with right rear tire.
severe problems with left rear suspension.
medium problems with right rear suspension.
the car has an engine problem.

It wasnt that bad actually, after the myriad alien setups i have tried... It still felt better than most of them. Had some fight with Hunt, but finnaly span, not being used with my new "setup" yet... then I keeped going, 2 seconds per lap slower and lots of spins, but managed to finish...
 
Ross, i see on my replay you were really warping badly, especially at lap 6, luckuly, on lap seven, when you overtake, theres no wrap...we were pretty close on tarsan.

[Allan Davis]

I have tried to download the GradPrivs Zandy race but I can't open the zip file.  I used to be able to click on it to open the zip file and then drag and drop to gpl replay file but it appears to be still zipped when I do that.   Or, I get an 'ADD' box and when I complete the box the file still appears to be zipped.
  Can anyone tell me what to do?

[Allan Davis]

 Today at 03:26:29 PMPosted by: Allan Davis
I have tried to download the GradPrivs Zandy race but I can't open the zip file.  I used to be able to click on it to open the zip file and then drag and drop to gpl replay file but it appears to be still zipped when I do that.   Or, I get an 'ADD' box and when I complete the box the file still appears to be zipped.
Can anyone help?
 

[Ross Neilson]

Allan, the replay is zipped up in .7z format, you need 7-zip to extract it. Download it from here-

http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

[Ross Neilson]

Ross, i see on my replay you were really warping badly, especially at lap 6, luckuly, on lap seven, when you overtake, theres no wrap...we were pretty close on tarsan.

Sorry about that Sky, must have had a problem at my end. It's the first I've had anyone remark on it so hopefully just a one off. Thanks for giving me room at Tarzan, I enjoyed the battle.

[s2173]

Right click on the zipfile at select "extract here" Then put the replay in gpl folder.

Also i see its 7zip... maybe you dont have the program to open it?
http://www.7-zip.org/

[Hristo Itchov]

I use WinRAR, it opens all formats.

[Allan Davis]

Thanks for your help guys.  There are many 7z files  on the site that you recomended and I'm not sure which one to download.

[Ross Neilson]

Thanks for your help guys.  There are many 7z files  on the site that you recomended and I'm not sure which one to download.

Which version of Windows are you running? And if you are on XP or Vista, is it 32 or 64 bit?

[BadBlood]

As Hristo says you could use WinRAR - it is the most flexible of all the Zip programs. You would still need to choose 32 bit or 64 and if you are not sure get the 32 bit version.

[Allan Davis]

Thanks guys.   Used WinRAR and it works now.   Watched my mistakes.   Slapped wrist I think.

[blito]

For me that was an unenjoyable race. I didn't really get the cooper up to speed in qual and was a long down the grid but made up for it with an amazing start.. but then on lap two I undid my great work by overshooting the hairpin. Chasing down a few guys proved I had some serious lap-time potential, but in a cooper I was bottled up round the twisties and blown away on the straight... passing was impossible... I tried once.. it wasn't going to work so backed out and had to yeild another place so just pulled over and gave up.... don't think I'll bother much with GPL next season

[Baab]

As per many of the others I would like to thank those involved in organizing and moderating (and generally making things happen).  I know there have been a few tense moments and unnecessary behavior this seasons, thanks for keeping the faith.  

Although my performance has left a lot to be desired I have enjoyed the racing this season (PSC & Grads)...also think my racecraft has moved on a touch.  I couldn't always find much time to practice, which probably won't improve much....

As for the race, I didn't better my pb but was pleased with a sub 1:25 lap for qually and rather amused to be 0.01 ahead of my mate Arf!!!!  Alas, a toilet break put paid to my start and I frantically fuelled my qual setup for the race...to the soundtrack of several thousand horsepower making a break for it!!!  I eventually started from the pits 800yds down and was expecting to pass the usual L1 aftermath, but fair play it must have been a clean start.

I passed a couple of cars and some others bit the dust in one way or another...Clive obliged me by moving off the circuit, probably due overheating tyres.  I then closed slowly on Fulvio and Arf until I lost concentration and checked out the scenery...a few times (it's rather nice!).  I finished in front of Clive, but GPL assumes I was a lap down due my pit lane start...do I get P4 or P5?

Bob.

[Ronniepeterson]

  My apologies to Ronnie for ruining his race.       

No problem on my part Allan, these things sometimes happen when racing. On that note apologies to Bernie and Mike. Final race of the season could have gone better but it was not to be. I chased hard, too hard at times but Ross was not to be caught. Congrats to Ross on a fine win and Martin on a perservering third - could be second if the mods have their way with me?

Really enjoyed this season, winning yeah, but the turnout, quality and behaviour of the drivers, choice of tracks all made this the standout 67 series. Big thanks to the organisers and mods and I look forward to seeing you again.