RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix Season 8 Round 2 – Phantasie Deutsche
Welcome back to Round 2 of the RDHGP S8. I personally thought that Round 1 was a huge success, and as I mentioned in chat, I honestly can’t remember a closer grid in any previous RDHGP season. What makes that even more astonishing/gratifying is that the cars are so different, and get their times in such different ways, but still – there was nothing in it across the grid.
Not a great race for me personally, being involved in 2 accidents – one I caused and one where I was the disadvantaged party. I felt worse about the one I caused if I’m honest, as I suspect most of us would. Despite that, I was involved in some really good, close and exciting racing, and from reading the feedback, so were a lot of you.
The track for Round 2 is quite a change in profile from Round 1, is a well designed fantasy track, and takes us 5,050 miles East from Vancouver to Dresden in Saxony, Germany, and the Vayline International Raceway.
CircuitNotes
Dresden is located on the River Elbe in Eastern German, about 30km (19miles) North West of the Czech border. One of the greenest cities in all of Europe, it’s central and outlying areas are comprised of 63% being green areas and forests. Vayline is located just outside the Dresdner Heide, the 50km[SUP]2[/SUP] forest to the North of the city.
Like the previous round, looking at the plan of the Vayline layout, it seems simple enough, but once you get your wheels on the ground, you really get to appreciate the subtleties of the track designers art. With fantasy tracks, it is very easy for designers – not constrained by the reality of a real world track – to get carried away and throw the kitchen sink at it. Vayline doesn’t fall into that trap, and consequently it’s a challenging yet not overwhelming or unrealistic experience.
A general indication for this track – Some sections are lined by green kerb surface right next tothe white lines and none of the normal Red/White kerbstones. In these sections,the white lines are the Edge of Surface (EOS) markers, the green surface is treated as kerb. Four wheels on the Green kerb surface will be deemed as an illegal line.
Vayline has a slight righthand curve – T1R – immediately after the Grid and S/F line, under the gantry, and while this poses no problem to navigate, it can just cause problems lining up for T2R, especially if you are racing side-by-side through here.
T2R – is a relatively high speed turn, with sudden junction and no kerb on the inside radius and a fairly benign amount of run off on the outside of the turn if you want (or need) to take a shallow line in, but then that runs out very quickly as the grass bites into the left edge of the racing surface. You need to avoid this bite as the track turns left into T3L.
The visual cues as you go into T3L – the green kerb surface and the way the track seems to kink right before actually turning left – can become off-putting for braking and turn-in. The red tyre piles are probably the best visual cue to use here. Turn in at the first pile on the right, towards the inner pile on the left, and using the end of green kerb surface out on the right to aim at for your exit.
There’s a short, curving straight after T3L, between some extended red & white tyre barriers, and across a change of surface with some white lines from an alternate layout. Again don’t let these visual cues get you off line for T4L, as the inner radius again bites out some of the straight preceding it.
T4L is a slow corner, protected by some sawtooth kerbs on the inside for the too-aggressive line, and a waiting sand trap on the outside for the over optimistic entry speed. It’s a gently climbing turn, which crests, and then drops back towards the T5 Esses.
T5aR is still downhill, under hard acceleration, and needs to be taken close to the right hand edge of the track, as T5bL whips back the other way immediately, straight across the kerbs (see the Race Directors Notes later), and into the uphill T5cR turn, where you need to be very careful to not clip a rear wheel on the tyre pile on the exit.
Hard on the gas out the Esses, there’s a decent length curving straight before you need to get on the brakes for the tricky T6L. It’s tricky because the approach is slightly curved, there is a lack of external reference points, and that the corner itself has a tightening radius into one of the slowest corners on the circuit. It’s a hard turn in, making sure that you don’t drift off the outside into the sand, and that huge bridge wall support that waits for the unwary.
A squirt of acceleration and then slow again for the equally tight T7R, a climbing turn,that again has a little nip in radius near the end. Too much acceleration (or not enough patience) will make your vehicle drift left, onto the recovery kerb, where you will find your nose pointing at a large (and potentially suspension knackering) tyre pile.
Avoiding that pile, and it’s in the braking zone for my favourite corner on the track, T8L. This corner suddenly drops away, making it difficult to get the nose into the apex as it effectively makes it negative camber, and getting the cars sliding out towards the waiting outer wall that will punish any errant lines with heavy damage.
Through T8L, and it’s a blast of acceleration, under the marshall’s gantry to the foot of the hill, and T9L. This is very much a “feel” corner, it can be taken with a“lift-and-drift” approach from wide, or from a tighter line with a firmer dab of brake to get the nose in more and accelerating uphill through the apex. This opens out onto the Grid, across the S/F line and another lap of Vayline International Raceway.
The Race Director has some notes for drivers. Please see the track map above for location of Race Direction note:-
All Corners Without Exception – The kerbs are not deemed as track, therefore 2 wheels must be within the white lines, on the tarmac, At All Times. Again, there are NO exceptions to this rule at any point on the circuit. Any exception to this rule is deemed illegal, any advantage gained by this method must be ceded immediately. Report people deliberately and excessively cutting. The worst offenders from previous seasons have not signed up, so I hope that this will be a non-issue this season.
Racing Room must be given to all drivers – and this works both ways. Divebombing into and across a corner denies people the chance to make the corner correctly just as much as someone obliviously (or deliberately) cutting the nose off of another driver who has achieved partial overlap fairly.
T3L – Especially on Lap 1. There will be a lot of cars in very close proximity, so be aware of your surroundings. You can’t just throw your car at the racing line if you find yourself in trouble, and hope someone who is already there is expecting it.
T4L – This turn is approached under heavy braking after the short straight, so you will need to be aware of the differences in braking distances and relative manoueverability of the cars around you as you go into T4L. Going in too hot will drop you into the waiting sand trap. Care must be taken when rejoining the track out of here.
T5bL – The Esses. This is obviously a confusing corner, as it appears to have a big racing surface, with a kerb through the middle of it. We will NOT be recognising that kerb, we will be using the red stakes as our Edge of Surface and following the line the AI use marked in yellow. See below:
All points on the track – General Items
Drivers may put on their lights (and keep them on) during a timed qualification lap, so other drivers know to get out of the way when safe to do so.
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the Race Session.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
The Track must be re-entered safely so as not to ruin other peoples races.
Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
After Round 1 there was only one No-Show infraction, for the driver forgetting the day change from Thursday to Tuesday.
Ondrej Kapal gets a no-show infraction.
The Infraction will be removed after he shows up for this race (which I suspect he will) after reading his “Doh!” post.
As last season, 2 consecutive no-shows will mean removal from the League.
Please remember, the League staff will only review incidents if they are reported to them.
No report = no review.
Please try and remember the incident reporting guidelines: review, cool off, review again. Only after following the above process, and if you are convinced you still need to report it, should you let the League staff know. Please give as much information as possible during the report (time of incident, drivers involved etc.) Accident reports made within 24 hours of race completion will be ignored.
Any accusations or complaints aired in the Chat during or after a race will mean a penalty levied on the person complaining or making the accusations, even if a subsequent official complaint gets found in their favour. I simply will NOT tolerate any post race finger pointing.
Liveries
You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHGP event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHGP.
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P20 (75% distance completion required) so people can fight for some points no matter where they are on the track, and hopefully have a season long battle with people around them in the League.
The Distribution is as follows for 100km events :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
Welcome back to Round 2 of the RDHGP S8. I personally thought that Round 1 was a huge success, and as I mentioned in chat, I honestly can’t remember a closer grid in any previous RDHGP season. What makes that even more astonishing/gratifying is that the cars are so different, and get their times in such different ways, but still – there was nothing in it across the grid.
Not a great race for me personally, being involved in 2 accidents – one I caused and one where I was the disadvantaged party. I felt worse about the one I caused if I’m honest, as I suspect most of us would. Despite that, I was involved in some really good, close and exciting racing, and from reading the feedback, so were a lot of you.
The track for Round 2 is quite a change in profile from Round 1, is a well designed fantasy track, and takes us 5,050 miles East from Vancouver to Dresden in Saxony, Germany, and the Vayline International Raceway.
CircuitNotes
Dresden is located on the River Elbe in Eastern German, about 30km (19miles) North West of the Czech border. One of the greenest cities in all of Europe, it’s central and outlying areas are comprised of 63% being green areas and forests. Vayline is located just outside the Dresdner Heide, the 50km[SUP]2[/SUP] forest to the North of the city.
Like the previous round, looking at the plan of the Vayline layout, it seems simple enough, but once you get your wheels on the ground, you really get to appreciate the subtleties of the track designers art. With fantasy tracks, it is very easy for designers – not constrained by the reality of a real world track – to get carried away and throw the kitchen sink at it. Vayline doesn’t fall into that trap, and consequently it’s a challenging yet not overwhelming or unrealistic experience.
A general indication for this track – Some sections are lined by green kerb surface right next tothe white lines and none of the normal Red/White kerbstones. In these sections,the white lines are the Edge of Surface (EOS) markers, the green surface is treated as kerb. Four wheels on the Green kerb surface will be deemed as an illegal line.
Vayline has a slight righthand curve – T1R – immediately after the Grid and S/F line, under the gantry, and while this poses no problem to navigate, it can just cause problems lining up for T2R, especially if you are racing side-by-side through here.
T2R – is a relatively high speed turn, with sudden junction and no kerb on the inside radius and a fairly benign amount of run off on the outside of the turn if you want (or need) to take a shallow line in, but then that runs out very quickly as the grass bites into the left edge of the racing surface. You need to avoid this bite as the track turns left into T3L.
The visual cues as you go into T3L – the green kerb surface and the way the track seems to kink right before actually turning left – can become off-putting for braking and turn-in. The red tyre piles are probably the best visual cue to use here. Turn in at the first pile on the right, towards the inner pile on the left, and using the end of green kerb surface out on the right to aim at for your exit.
There’s a short, curving straight after T3L, between some extended red & white tyre barriers, and across a change of surface with some white lines from an alternate layout. Again don’t let these visual cues get you off line for T4L, as the inner radius again bites out some of the straight preceding it.
T4L is a slow corner, protected by some sawtooth kerbs on the inside for the too-aggressive line, and a waiting sand trap on the outside for the over optimistic entry speed. It’s a gently climbing turn, which crests, and then drops back towards the T5 Esses.
T5aR is still downhill, under hard acceleration, and needs to be taken close to the right hand edge of the track, as T5bL whips back the other way immediately, straight across the kerbs (see the Race Directors Notes later), and into the uphill T5cR turn, where you need to be very careful to not clip a rear wheel on the tyre pile on the exit.
Hard on the gas out the Esses, there’s a decent length curving straight before you need to get on the brakes for the tricky T6L. It’s tricky because the approach is slightly curved, there is a lack of external reference points, and that the corner itself has a tightening radius into one of the slowest corners on the circuit. It’s a hard turn in, making sure that you don’t drift off the outside into the sand, and that huge bridge wall support that waits for the unwary.
A squirt of acceleration and then slow again for the equally tight T7R, a climbing turn,that again has a little nip in radius near the end. Too much acceleration (or not enough patience) will make your vehicle drift left, onto the recovery kerb, where you will find your nose pointing at a large (and potentially suspension knackering) tyre pile.
Avoiding that pile, and it’s in the braking zone for my favourite corner on the track, T8L. This corner suddenly drops away, making it difficult to get the nose into the apex as it effectively makes it negative camber, and getting the cars sliding out towards the waiting outer wall that will punish any errant lines with heavy damage.
Through T8L, and it’s a blast of acceleration, under the marshall’s gantry to the foot of the hill, and T9L. This is very much a “feel” corner, it can be taken with a“lift-and-drift” approach from wide, or from a tighter line with a firmer dab of brake to get the nose in more and accelerating uphill through the apex. This opens out onto the Grid, across the S/F line and another lap of Vayline International Raceway.
The Race Director has some notes for drivers. Please see the track map above for location of Race Direction note:-
All Corners Without Exception – The kerbs are not deemed as track, therefore 2 wheels must be within the white lines, on the tarmac, At All Times. Again, there are NO exceptions to this rule at any point on the circuit. Any exception to this rule is deemed illegal, any advantage gained by this method must be ceded immediately. Report people deliberately and excessively cutting. The worst offenders from previous seasons have not signed up, so I hope that this will be a non-issue this season.
Racing Room must be given to all drivers – and this works both ways. Divebombing into and across a corner denies people the chance to make the corner correctly just as much as someone obliviously (or deliberately) cutting the nose off of another driver who has achieved partial overlap fairly.
T3L – Especially on Lap 1. There will be a lot of cars in very close proximity, so be aware of your surroundings. You can’t just throw your car at the racing line if you find yourself in trouble, and hope someone who is already there is expecting it.
T4L – This turn is approached under heavy braking after the short straight, so you will need to be aware of the differences in braking distances and relative manoueverability of the cars around you as you go into T4L. Going in too hot will drop you into the waiting sand trap. Care must be taken when rejoining the track out of here.
T5bL – The Esses. This is obviously a confusing corner, as it appears to have a big racing surface, with a kerb through the middle of it. We will NOT be recognising that kerb, we will be using the red stakes as our Edge of Surface and following the line the AI use marked in yellow. See below:
All points on the track – General Items
Drivers may put on their lights (and keep them on) during a timed qualification lap, so other drivers know to get out of the way when safe to do so.
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the Race Session.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
The Track must be re-entered safely so as not to ruin other peoples races.
Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
After Round 1 there was only one No-Show infraction, for the driver forgetting the day change from Thursday to Tuesday.
Ondrej Kapal gets a no-show infraction.
The Infraction will be removed after he shows up for this race (which I suspect he will) after reading his “Doh!” post.
As last season, 2 consecutive no-shows will mean removal from the League.
Please remember, the League staff will only review incidents if they are reported to them.
No report = no review.
Please try and remember the incident reporting guidelines: review, cool off, review again. Only after following the above process, and if you are convinced you still need to report it, should you let the League staff know. Please give as much information as possible during the report (time of incident, drivers involved etc.) Accident reports made within 24 hours of race completion will be ignored.
Any accusations or complaints aired in the Chat during or after a race will mean a penalty levied on the person complaining or making the accusations, even if a subsequent official complaint gets found in their favour. I simply will NOT tolerate any post race finger pointing.
Liveries
You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHGP event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHGP.
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P20 (75% distance completion required) so people can fight for some points no matter where they are on the track, and hopefully have a season long battle with people around them in the League.
The Distribution is as follows for 100km events :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
