GPL Ten-Tenths Friendly League Season 2 - Join Us!

[Aysedasi]

I've arrived a bit late for the discussion - but, after the race, I needed to spend some quality time with Mrs. Ayse to make up for it......

Needless to say, I was very pleased indeed with the race last night. Pole, fastest lap and the win was far more than I'd expected. I benefited of course from the first lap contact between Oz and p, which I had to avoid (after a dreadful start when I missed the flag!).

I had a very good middle section to my race, during which I whittled down Damon's advantage from 3 seconds to 1 and chasing him for so long was great fun. He was quicker than my in the first part of the lap, while I think I had an advantage later on, particualrly through T4/T5, but I'm honest enough to admit that by the time his engine let go, my purple patch was probably over and I would have struggled to get much closer.

I was very pleased with my consistency. I don't recall making any mistakes at all, maybe a wheel on a curb once, that's about it. I was also comfortable that the gap between me and Oz wasn't reducing.

Having been gobsmacked when I saw Damon's engine detonate in front of me, I was quicte shocked when I pulled onto the straight with 2 more laps to go to find I have no power. By that time I was driving fairly conservatively, as I didn't need to be quick, and suddenly, having had to shift-R (when thankfully the engine came back on song), I was paying very close attention to my mirrors

All in all though, it was a fun race for me.

I'm not particularly looking forward to Monaco, particularly not in the Cooper. Althoiugh I'm at around 1m27.6, I would have preferred to drive something else there, having pounded around the principality for countless laps last season. I don't think I've got that much more in pace to offer (although I think I'm generally faster than I was at that stage of last season), but there's no way I'll get into the 26's with the Coop.

[Aysedasi]

I meant to say that I was interested to hear of p's spiking problems, bearing in mind that we're both MOMO users. I had spiking too. In practice, it was very slight, and only in the final turn. It got worse in the race, where I was getting spiking in T1 and T4 as well, but fortunately never enough to get anywhere near forcing me off. I was annoyed, because I've had no spiking for weeks, and I even took my wheel apart on Monday morning to make sure all was clean etc.

[Aysedasi]

I thought I'd better let you all know that I am about to write to Tony to seek an amendment to the league rules.

I am now proposing that instead of 10 races from 14 to count, it would be far better that it should be 1 race from 14 and that we should also apply one additional point for each of pole position and fastest lap.

The fact that this would place me in a position of some advantage is, of course, entirely irrelevant.......

[JMeissner]

I'll try and make it to the next race. If that is ok of course...

Though I have no setups for the Cooper at Monaco. Well, in fact I almost only have setups for the Lotus and some Ferrari setups as well...

I hate Monaco though...

[JMeissner]

Did I hear problems with a MOMO wheel? I have a Logitech MOMO Racing force... What should I be afraid of?

[Aysedasi]

With that wheel, the gear change paddles - so I'm told. They sometimes give up. Spikes are normally curable with cleaning. The MOMO Force which pirenzo and I have is the original MOMO from Logitech, a sort of limited edition with ball bearings. Now very difficult to get hold of (in the UK, anyway), and largely replaced by the MOMO Racing Force which you have.

[JMeissner]

I use the gearstick anyway...

[Aysedasi]

Well, I'm a Logi fan anyway, so the Racing Force ought to be pretty good.

[ozywoodwards]

OK guys, here's my race report. I don't know where to put it as the website seems to be about last season and not this, and unfortunatly it appears that 3 months with no work to do as hit my writing ability, but anyway here it is for what its worth.

[ozywoodwards]

TTFL 2: Kyalami Race Report


Lining up on the grid for the first race of what promises to be a thoroughly entertaining season were: Aysedasi, Owen, Pirenzo, Damon and Rob. They provided a great mix of experience of the dark art of online racing, with Aysedasi, Pirenzo, Rob and Damon all veterans of last seasons TTFL and Owen an upstart newcomer. In fact when you consider that Ayse, P and Damon all use wheels and pedals and Owen a joystick and that some had pounded out countless training laps around Kyalami in the Brabham, while others had taken a more laissez-faire approach to the race the ensuing closeness of the 4 main protagonists was all the more startling.

This was exemplified in the qualifying session where Aysedasi took pole by just 8 one-thousandths of a second from Pirenzo and one and a half tenths from Owen, with a strong time of 1:20.552. Rob brought up the rear of the field with a 1:34, not too shabby a lap at all considering Rob’s recent hiatus from GPL. Aysedasi may feel that he was a might fortunate to keep pole after setting that time early on in the session and with all four of the main contenders capable of 1:20.3’s or even lower. You can only beat what you are facing though and Ayse took a deserved pole position into the 24 lap race around Kyalami’s sweeping bends.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, as the TTFL looks like having all the ingredients for a superb season’s racing, with a close crop of committed quick drivers (I was going to add young to that description, but Ayse may not fit that bill!!!), but also, importantly, controversy never far away form the race track. There may not be any retrospective penalties for excessive tyre tread in our humble little league, but there has still been plenty of incident even at this early stage in the season. Indeed, in the pre-season praccy race on Sunday Owen caused a storm by disco’ing just because he had got fed up with the race after a controversial incident with Damon a lap or so earlier, and he quite rightly felt the wrath of Ayse and Damon for ruining their race. But of equal controversy was the preceding incident between Damon and Owen where they collided going into T4, with the outcome being described as a racing incident, an important precedent for the season to come many may feel. Even before the start of the race proper there were slight changes to the rules as Aysedasi took off penalties for skipping the track, as connection problems had forced Pirenzo’s computer to think that he was skipping corners even when he wasn’t.

This drama didn’t let up in the race with incident right from the get-go. From the start Aysedasi made his customary poor getaway falling to fourth by the first corner, and Pirenzo didn’t do much better from second on the grid with sluggish changes into 2nd and 3rd gears allowing Owen to draw alongside going into T1. Through all of this came Damon to take a relatively comfortable lead through T1. P and Owen emerged from T1 still side-by-side and had a mini drag race down the short chute to T2, where the inevitable contact occurred sending both of them off into the barriers, and forcing Aysedasi into sharp avoiding action, which gave Damon an initial lead of around 3 seconds at the end of lap 1 from Ayse. Initially it was felt that it was a racing incident, with Owen viewing the replay after the race and concluding that there had been a slight warp on P’s car sending it into his. However, P himself has now admitted that he was not aware of Owen ever have being alongside him and simply turned into Owen.

The paddock seems to be unanimous, however, in that it probably would not have changed the end result even without this incident, as Damon and Aysedasi proceeded to knock out lap after lap in the low 21’s and high 20’s with Aysedasi hitting a purple patch where he completed 6 laps in a row in the 20’s, allowing him to close the gap to Damon to just 1 second. This was tense, exciting stuff and the pace and consistency was of the highest order. Unfortunately, during this same period of the race Owen and P could not be said to be achieving that level. Pirenzo, through no fault of his own, span on two or three occasions because of wheel ‘spikes’ on his MOMO wheel. (Note form author: keep to simple joysticks and you will get no such problems!!!). Owen had no such excuses and it was just pure inconsistency which meant that in the first 15 laps he went from 10 seconds down after lap 1 (because of his spin at T2) to 20 seconds down after lap 15. The newbie was learning the hard way that TTFL victories are not given to you on a plate.

So ended the first portion of the race, with no overtaking but plenty of high speed lapping and that first lap crash. The ‘second half’ of the race started in spectacular fashion with an engine blow out on the fastest part of the track (the kink on the main straight) befalling Damon on lap 16. Heartbreakingly for Damon he had just began to keep Ayse at bay more comfortably and looked like going on to win the race. This put him just 5 seconds ahead of Owen, but with a car on heavy fuel and cold tyres and 8 laps to go. Owen did indeed lap consistently faster than Damon in this last part of the race, but was only able to chip away at that gap, as some fantastic driving on a newly shift-r’d car by Damon kept the gap comfortable till the end. Attentive readers may now be thinking that Ayse inherited a large lead and strolled to the finish, and this was indeed the case until 3 laps from the end when his engine died coming out of the last corner, forcing him to shift-r. The cause of this is currently unknown to the author, but his best guess is that Ayse simply ran out of fuel. Nervously looking in his mirrors, no doubt, Ayse accelerated away onto his final 2 laps, now with a mere 4 seconds lead over the faster Damon, who was by now on warm tyres and in a rhythm again. Ayse kept his cool though and deservedly won the race by 4.5 seconds from Damon in a time of 32m50.657s. Owen finished 3 seconds further back and P, after his race long troubles, finished 26 seconds behind the leader. And what of Rob? Unfortunately he was disco’d after only 2 laps so sadly played no major role in the proceedings.

Reaction? Well in the lively post-race debates which seem to be a staple part of the TTFL racing diet the general vibe was that the right man won with a wonderful display of controlled fast driving, and that Damon also deserved second after a similar performance. Owen was unhappy with his performance, saying he never felt comfortable and never got into a rhythm, however P had the most to feel peeved about after all his wheel troubles and also being prime instigator of the accident at T2. The most encouraging thing to emerge from this race was the pace of all 4 of the leaders though, who all appear to be of the same ability and consequently here’s looking forward to a close, exciting seasons racing in the one and only TTFL, starting with Monaco in the Coopers in a fortnights time.

[Aysedasi]

Good report, thanks Owen.

Footnote. I certainly did not run out of fuel. I was carrying 28 laps worth from the start for a 24 lap race. I can't believe I used 28 laps of fuel in 22 laps......

[Damon]

Cheers Ozy . *begins to read*.

[ozywoodwards]

whats your view on what happened then ayse?

I have to say that i've never seen a car stutter out of a corner like that. It actually looked like a real-life break down, rather than onw of the pre-scripted events that happen in the game.

[pirenzo]

Originally posted by Aysedasi
I thought I'd better let you all know that I am about to write to Tony to seek an amendment to the league rules.

I am now proposing that instead of 10 races from 14 to count, it would be far better that it should be 1 race from 14 and that we should also apply one additional point for each of pole position and fastest lap.

The fact that this would place me in a position of some advantage is, of course, entirely irrelevant.......

That makes no sense!?

are you sure you mean only 1 race will count in the final standings?!?

[pirenzo]

Owen, you can get simple breakdowns.

happened to me on a certain PB lap the other day in the lotus at Monaco.. It just lost revs and went dead. Must have been gearbox or something. No warning at all.

[ozywoodwards]

really? i've never had that in god knows how many hours driving.

although come to think of it most of my driving is done in training with no damage on.

[Damon]

Originally posted by pirenzo
That makes no sense!?

are you sure you mean only 1 race will count in the final standings?!?

I think he's being sarcy p.

[pirenzo]

no damage?
*Silence falls around the room*

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by pirenzo
That makes no sense!?

are you sure you mean only 1 race will count in the final standings?!?

That's exactly what I mean.....

Sounds the fairest way to me.....

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by ozywoodwards
whats your view on what happened then ayse?

I have to say that i've never seen a car stutter out of a corner like that. It actually looked like a real-life break down, rather than onw of the pre-scripted events that happen in the game.

Absolutely, its never happened like that to me before, but I guess it must have been engine-related, because it just died, no revs, no nothing.

[rdjones]

and as another foot note to that report I never have and never will play a major role in the TTFL, I just make the numbers and roll round at the back picking up points when ever one else drops out.........

[pirenzo]

I'm not sure if anyone posted any, but here goes anyways

First of all, D leads away. And there i am fumbling for 4th...

[pirenzo]

And now the lap one clash.

[pirenzo]

Me spearing off into the extremely hard dry grass, in the second of my wheel related offs

[pirenzo]

Damon's engine self distucts, leaving Ayse to take the lead...