Official: TTFRL GPL Season 4

[Dani Filth]

i had a few spikes early on .. but then it was ok
engine died at start .. as usual for me .
i had to stay behind a few slower cars . as there was no place to pass ..
touched a car after the downhill after masta
then got a resonable pace . did a 3m21 ..
before la source . to start the last lap . engine died . so the last lap . i was racing cold tyres . with Ayse just a second behind ..
it was ok . my first GPL race in a while .

[Aysedasi]

I thought you drove very well actually - certainly a lot better than me. I had hope to give you a hard time through those last few corners on lap 9 but, well, I was crap, really.........

[Spudgun]

Right, the race server replay can be found here: TTFRL Season 4 Round 1 - Spa

The below results are provisional.

Track: Spa Tue May 17 21:19:56 2005

RACE RESULTS (After 9 laps)

Pos No Driver Team Nat Laps Race Time Diff
1 20 Gil Abobeleira Eagle POR 9 30m06.476s
2 15 William Campbell Lotus GBR 9 30m07.256s 00.780s
3 16 Owen Woodwards Eagle GBR 9 31m01.618s 55.142s
4 4 Spudgun Eagle GBR 9 31m15.541s 1m09.065s
5 17 Dani Filth Eagle GBR 9 31m54.282s 1m47.806s
6 12 Aysedasi Eagle GBR 9 32m10.353s 2m03.877s
7 13 Adam Myers Eagle USA 7 31m09.870s 2 lap(s)
8 8 TheFLC Eagle GBR 5 19m42.094s 4 lap(s)
9 10 Peter Stenning Eagle GBR 0 0m00.000s 9 lap(s)
10 11 Dani Filth Lotus GBR 0 DidNotStart 9 lap(s)

[Dani Filth]

lol how come i'm in 5th . and 10th ??
i don't mind . i get more points

[pirenzo]

Well, I suppose I can't complain with second but the circumstances in which it transpired were bitterly dissappointing.

Rounding La Source on lap 8, the screen started stuttering. Uh Oh I thought. Then complete freeze. When everything momentarily sorted itself out I was on the grass on the inside of the track. Then it stuttered again and up comes Norton with a virus scan. Now I've got appalling frame rate stutters, and a window in the middle of the screen. I don't know what happened, but I ended up facing backwards in the pit lane.I shift-R'd to avoid getting a reverse DQ like Gil had, but that was probably a mistake. Gil just sailed up behind me, got me going towards masta, and that was it - game over. I drove my socks off hoping to repeat the pass I made on Owen, but the car was too heavy and the tires too cold...

I'm confident that I would have had the pace to see off Gil even if he'd started from pole. I think my last two laps would have been in the 15s, easily. Yesterday I was doing 3:17s and 3:16s from the off in a race against the AI, if I'd needed to push I could have held that pace all race. That's why I'm so annoyed in a way.

Oh well. The dice with Owen in the first couple of laps was good fun, Owen certainly made a great start and took me unawares really into Eau Rouge.

Next stop, goodwood, in the BRM. I'll be lucky to come away with decent points there given we're likely to have a fuller grid.

Good race all in all though. I'm sorry we've had to have arguments and incidents in the first lap of the season, but there you go.

[Aysedasi]

And, to sday openly, I'm sorry for my comments in chat while still in the race server after the race. I shouldn't have made those comments at that time. (But I stand by the sentiment in those comments 100%).


BTW p, your problem was almost a mirror of mine at Silverstone in season 1. I had some kind of MSN window pop up on me while easily in the lead with about 3 laps to go..... Its pretty unfuriating.

[ozywoodwards]

i had one of my worst ever TTFRL races. for some reason i was both slow and spinning a lot! ha ha. not what you want. having said that, if id only kept it on the tarmac i would have had a chance of winning, as P and gil had other problems. but as we all know if is f1 spelt backwards....

i have no complaints. i was slow, and 3rd was all i deserved.

[pirenzo]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

BTW p, your problem was almost a mirror of mine at Silverstone in season 1. I had some kind of MSN window pop up on me while easily in the lead with about 3 laps to go..... Its pretty unfuriating.

Yeah, I remember. After that I always made absolutely certain MSN was off in the process list of the task manager. Its a pretty persistent program so you have to go to those lengths to banish it...

[petestenning]

My tale of woe was my wheel came loose so i went off track to reset it by which time i had been retired

[Aysedasi]

A bit like what happened to me in your splendid win last year - GPL retired me when I couldn't shift-R!

[pirenzo]

Originally Posted by petestenning

My tale of woe was my wheel came loose so i went off track to reset it by which time i had been retired

What a bummer

[Spudgun]

Well, I was disappointed with 4th, but given the quality of the opposition ahead of me and a couple of silly mistakes I guess I should be grateful!

I had three 'offs', two of which were a loss of concentration and the other just an over correction.

The first was when I got distracted and missed my braking point at Blanchimont. The second was when I went up one too many gears on the way to Les Combes and unsettled the back of the car with the extra down-shift I needed to make . The third was when the back of the car started to go in Stavelot and I went to correct when the rear gripped again and I speared the opposite way into the hay bales.

The one plus side is I didn't crash at Masta once!

Incidentally, I had an extremely near miss in practice. It may be just a sim, but it made me wince! *Very near miss*

[petestenning]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

A bit like what happened to me in your splendid win last year - GPL retired me when I couldn't shift-R!

That was really bad luck for you as when i passed you to unlap myself i saw you still in the bales , as i had to unlap myself twice to even be on the same lap

Better luck at Goodwood which i dont like anyway but i will be there.

[pirenzo]

Originally Posted by Spudgun

Well, I was disappointed with 4th, but given the quality of the opposition ahead of me and a couple of silly mistakes I guess I should be grateful!

I had three 'offs', two of which were a loss of concentration and the other just an over correction.

The first was when I got distracted and missed my braking point at Blanchimont. The second was when I went up one too many gears on the way to Les Combes and unsettled the back of the car with the extra down-shift I needed to make . The third was when the back of the car started to go in Stavelot and I went to correct when the rear gripped again and I speared the opposite way into the hay bales.

The one plus side is I didn't crash at Masta once!

Incidentally, I had an extremely near miss in practice. It may be just a sim, but it made me wince! *Very near miss*

Hehe. I nearly binned it during the race on my own coming through that fast left before La Source. I just took too much grass and bounced off the bank a little, so I ended up doing a wall of death about half an inch from the barrier, which I think I stayed off completely

[Cougar]

Ah sounds like i missed a good race

Im looking forward to the next race see you all there!!

[Gil Abobeleira]

Very strange race this one, which started with a DQ during the quali (I may have lost there the 1pt given to the pole, but ok.....)... Next time I crash at Masta, I'll do a shift-r or I'll quit to the pits eheheh...

Then, at the start, someone blew up in front, so I easily overtook some guys before Eau Rouge. Then I started harasing Ayse after burnenville and benefited from his tow after Malmedy (I was easily faster than anyone else there), which then resulted in that crash at Masta (I still stand with my words). Shift-r and race lost.... (or not).
After that I just tryed to be the fastest I could, I had a moment with Spud, when he spun right in front of me at la source; then I overtook Owen quite easily after eau rouge and then, to my disbelief, I saw Pirenzo going very slowly after the pits. I caught him and, again, used the tow to overtake Pirenzo in the Masta straight. From last I had gone to first eheheh, not even schummi can do that

However, I still think that if I had be given pole and me and Pirenzo didn't have problems, it would be a very hard and fought race, as he was a little bit faster than me at the start, but I think I was a little bit faster at the end ...

Well, let's see next time at Goodwood and I hope I don't have any freeze or CTD there like the race in the past championship.

[pirenzo]

Yeah, we both had a ctd there last year Shame because it was gonna be a good race.
I've tried the BRM anyway, its bloody awesome at Goodwood . It doesn't hang about either which is good

[Aysedasi]

I'm looking forward to Goodwood. I've done reasonably well there in the past. I think I tend to go to Spa now with a pessimistic attitude. Once you get into a rhythm at Goodwood, it flows very nicely. But I'm out for fun now. I had my luck last season and expect nothing in particular from this one. But as a warning to the hotshoes, I'm not about to jump out of your way. From here on in, anyone who wants to pass me will have to work hard for it.......

[pirenzo]

When I was trying the BRM last night I elected to comprimise my setup to make it slide better At one point I had it so tail happy I couldn't drive round the slow corners at all but it made things very interesting in the fast stuff. I took a short 20 second clip of the screen as I watch the replay from onboard through Madgewick and Fordwater with my camera, and if I had somewhere to upload it I would because its quite fun . Lots of opposite lock and throttle stomping

[carsreunited]

Sorry I missed this. Life got in the way unfortunately.

All this talk of spinning.....

Here's one of me at Brands on Saturday screwing things up!

Brands Spin

[pirenzo]

Hehe, nice one I really need to go to Brands again some time soon, I just love watching there, especially the historics. Were you on the Inday circuit or GP circuit?
EDIT: looking at the last race ticket I have in my drawer its actually the HSCC Historic Superprix from the 18th July last year!

[carsreunited]

... the indy curcuit. I thought it would be a bore being so short. I like Mallory but I would rate Brands Indy above Mallory in the fun stakes which suprised me. After that spin, my engine spun a big end bearing (again!) and that was the end of my race.

[Gil Abobeleira]

So, what kind of times are you achieving at Goodwood? Up to now I've managed a 1.16.333 with the "little car", but I have a feeling that I have to go into de 15's to have any real chances in this race...

BTW, and this is a tip for the rookies: I'm finding the "slower=faster" approach at Goodwood no go. It seems we have really to push real hard to have a relatively fast lap...

[pirenzo]

Yeah. I was having a wail of a time with the BRM that night. Not driven it again since, been revising for my exam tomorrow, but I managed a 16.76. 16.5,16.4 is probably the best I'll manage though. I only did 5 or 6 laps but still I stumbled on a good set up with my first attempt pretty much.

EDIT: Gil, I remember you getting into the 15s last season with the Brab. I know I did, you can have my setup from that race if you like, but I remember I found it really understeery in Lavant on cold tyres so maybe not.

[Gil Abobeleira]

Yeah, I thought the same Pirenzo, but as I had that stupid freeze, GPLRA didn't save my times

BTW, those times I really good. i think we'll have to count you for this race with the "monster" (let's see what ozzy can do with the Lotus and what Ayse manages with the brabh).