4 GRAN PREMIO DE SUGO

[Adam Shaw]

Congrats to Marcin on a great win !

My quali lap got me in the top ten although not a pb was still happy to be 9th.

The damp/wet track suited me well and I soon found a nice rhythm allowing me to stay consistent.
I was closing On Gregory Degreef towards my first pitstop and pitting a lap after I managed to pass Gregory in the pits.
I was now in 4th and feeling confident to hold position at least to next pitstop when on lap 28 my engine blew while dropping from 5th to 4th gear in the braking zone for T1, no different to previous laps or full weeks 150 plus laps practice, it just blew and I was out.
I was very disappointed but need to take the positives from the fact that until then, my race was going great and if only the engine had held out it would have been one of my best finishes in STC.

Great to see Kev Clark finish 2nd and bring home a great haul of points.

Thanks to RD, PSRTV and all at STC for your efforts.

 

[David Garcia]

Rule have been adapted a bit to the real thing:

When race control types Green Flag, no car will overtake before crossing the start/finish line but you can start racing with race pace, and Green Flag can be shown in last corner or 10 meters before the start finish line dependingon the track itself and the Race Direction decision. Just be ready to accelerate then.

 

[Ludovic Cogotti]

Btw Xose is it possible to get the server replay?

I can upload mine if you want, not the server replay but didn't see some lag (tell me if you want).

 

[Ivo Simons]

Yes please.

 

[Ludovic Cogotti]

ok, just time to upload !

Edit : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ETNMDCQP

I wish it is the good one !

 

[Mikael Larsson]

PS Mikael ... why have you got a lampshade on your head in your avatar?

Hehe....yeah, it's an ugly one, not to mention the hat It's a new years eve hat and too much to drink possibly...Maybe it's time to change

 

[David Garcia]

LOL just watched the replay...! It was a fun one!

 

[Ivo Simons]

Thanks Ludovic.

 

[Grégory Cogotti]

Race report:

I start 11th, at the green flag, nothing happens, until a sudden everyone is accelerating. I accelerate but I must down a gear because I have no power. But before crossing the line I see other cars are suddenly closer, I am forced to brake. The 12th who has not read the rules about the interdiction to overtake before finish line does not expect the slowdown, believing that he would move from 12th to 1st on one braking.
i've been hurt, after when i go out my rear touch very little the wall but this touch and the first at start is enought to break my rear wing, i stop and go out with blue flag, i'm on rythm but i can do nothing for the rest of race. i finish 15th.

So you speculate that i wanted to overtake before the start finishline. Well lets see what an incident report has as outcome.
Beleve me i am not the guy of making incident reports normally. But i feel like you are in a different world. And i need to open your eyes. So be it.

I just watched the replay and the problem is clear for me. It's the little contact between Mickael Larsson and Gregory Degreef (i don't blame you for that, it happen) that surprised both Gaetan Legastelois and Peter Carlsson. Because of the rule (not pass before the start / finish line), Gaetan have to stay at the side of Peter in order to don't pass him before the starting line. Yuri, as you can see at the replay, you coming to fast at the back of Peter and you turn into the rear of Gaetan to avoid Peter. Everyone know that the start and the first lap is very tricky, and you have to be very cautious (especially at Sugo and Trois rivières).
I don't understand why you reject the fault on Gaetan (and i don't say that because he his my team mate). You would have preferred that he accelerate in order to pass Peter Carlsson and break the rule?

 

[Michael Hart-Jones]

I just watched the replay and the problem is clear for me. It's the little contact between Mickael Larsson and Gregory Degreef (i don't blame you for that, it happen) that surprised both Gaetan Legastelois and Peter Carlsson. Because of the rule (not pass before the start / finish line), Gaetan have to stay at the side of Peter in order to don't pass him before the starting line. Yuri, as you can see at the replay, you coming to fast at the back of Peter and you turn into the rear of Gaetan to avoid Peter. Everyone know that the start and the first lap is very tricky, and you have to be very cautious (especially at Sugo and Trois rivières).
I don't understand why you reject the fault on Gaetan (and i don't say that because he his my team mate). You would have preferred that he accelerate in order to pass Peter Carlsson and break the rule?

TBH looking at the replay Michael Braeutigam suddenly slowed causing the chain reaction, the only difference is that the gap between Michael and Gregory was enough that they didn't make contact.

 

[Mikael Larsson]

About the start, here's my point of view.
In the replay you can see that Gregory hits the pedal (307s), it's impossible for me to see what's happening in front of him and that close the the start line one can presume that everyone in front has started to speed up. Just a fraction of time later, Gregory seems to drop the pedal and I can't react in time, and hits him just a little. But as I presumed everyone in front pulled away I guess everyone behind me did the same and a chain reaction occur. So either it's Gregory's fault or mine, but I prefer a race incident. It seems more common nowadays that the front starts to speed up right after the last turn and not that close to the starting line which was a bit surprising. I was behind Gregory and wondered what was happening when there was such a slow first straight. I prefer the other way, speeding up in last corner, since that tend to build up a small gap between drivers before the start and into the first corner. The race is still 90 minutes and it really doesn't matter that much if you gain one spot in the first corner.
You could also blame Marcin for this but the best way is to learn something instead, isn't it?

 

[Mikael Larsson]

A second view of all front drivers speed before the start. Marcin has a steady pace of 92-93. Then Robin speeds up, expecting the race to start I guess, but has to back off. And all the drivers behind goes faster and faster...
Faster and faster also mean a longer reaction time....when everyone expects that the race has started?

 

[Tom Ilsbroux]

Drivers should speed up in the last corner. If you do it on the straight you get a mess as Mikael describes perfect. On Bahrain where there is also a long straight its gone wrong every time, only there the track is very wide so you can take evasive action.

Once someone speeds up earlier then the guy in front of him and he has to back off before the S/F line there is a chain reaction with the last guy having no time to react. So solution is give green in the last corner and not on a straight.

 

[David Garcia]

It always depends on the track, as in Sugo, the pit entrance (where the safety car has to be when the green light is shown) is far away since the last corner, and it is not an hairpin at Sugo.

For my karting experience where we always do 2 files rolling starts, the race doesn´t is on until you see the green lights, and it use to be when reaching the starting grid, and I guess it is like this in GT1 as an example, but as I said, always depending on the track. This is why I always put speciall emphasis in next sentence:

Even with the safety car on track, it will be the leader of the group responsability to have a constant pace, so if the Safety Car accelerates going back to pit, the leader of the group have to keep a 90 kmts/h speed.

Because sometimes (not at Sugo) I have tried to accelerate in my way back to pit in order of open a little gap and bring the green flag a bit ealier, and the pole seater have accelerated aswell following me, wich only grants mess.

So it is clear enough I guess if I say race is not on green, untill race dierction says it is green.

 

[Gregory Degreef]

i think to avoid all incident at green flag, the best will be that the leader start the race when the "green flag" message go on, not when he want...
we accelerate and again go slower after the green flag... i think there is the prob

 

[Yuri Braham]

I just watched the replay and the problem is clear for me. It's the little contact between Mickael Larsson and Gregory Degreef (i don't blame you for that, it happen) that surprised both Gaetan Legastelois and Peter Carlsson. Because of the rule (not pass before the start / finish line), Gaetan have to stay at the side of Peter in order to don't pass him before the starting line. Yuri, as you can see at the replay, you coming to fast at the back of Peter and you turn into the rear of Gaetan to avoid Peter. Everyone know that the start and the first lap is very tricky, and you have to be very cautious (especially at Sugo and Trois rivières).
I don't understand why you reject the fault on Gaetan (and i don't say that because he his my team mate). You would have preferred that he accelerate in order to pass Peter Carlsson and break the rule?

Gregory,

It wasn't only that accident. Through the warm up lap you are not allowed to accelerate and braketesting. This caused confusion. And when you watch the replay you see he accelerates out of the last corner even when there is no green flag! This caused a cap, and i accelerate because i am confused. You see that i on one point leave the throttle as the i see cars in front of me. But then there is on top of the chat Green flag. I accelerate and notice then that everyone stopped before start finish. Not even the first corner. There is nowhere to go for me. Yeah its easy to say that i am accelerating to fast. As i am all the lap behind a car thats not easy to follow with not a constant pace. Yeah i am not happy that i hitted him. But from my point of view, and the drivers behind me it was just the reaction of the guys in front of us what caused it all.
If there was just a constant pace. We all would be near each other. That means that we could easily see whats happend in front of us.
But i understand your point from the replay. But as i explain there is more behind it. In the replay you can't see brake lights, or the chat message. And thats to bad.

All with all the most important point, i had a fun race. BTW i ddn't pass before the start finish line....

 

[Yuri Braham]

But Gregory,

As other has stated. The chain reaction started from the front. So no blaim on that piece.
You know all i wanted in the start is clearify the matter that the car in front of me wasn't maintaining a steady pace during Warm up lap.
So i let this case rest. As it isn't only between my driving and your teammate. But its a whole lot more that happend..... where was the red flag .

 

[Mikael Larsson]

Why don't we run it again???

 

[Lee Downham]

I am free for a couple of hours now to run it again

TBH ... I honestly think the very late green flag caused a hellova lot of confusion and should have been given much sooner, with drivers not really sure what was going on or when to hit the go pedal ... and when they did, they had to hit the stop pedal almost immediately.
The fact that the start is up a steep hill and over a crest does not help either, as no-one could see what what was happening much past the car in front.
As someone else said, and looking at it retrospectively having the race start out of the final corner (but still under race direction's green flag signal) would probably have spaced the grid out a lot more and helped avoid the whole bunching up and ripple effect that happened here.

This is something race direction can learn from for other races to avoid it happening again ... time for us all to let it go, stop trying to find blame and move on I say ... and this comes from one of the worst affected drivers out of this incident

 

[Yuri Braham]

Why don't we run it again???

This time with me in front of you when we cross the finish line