All In Sprints @ Zolder - Thursday 28th May, 2009

[Stuart Thomson]

Servername: RACEDEPARTMENT.COM
Class: TC65 (+Elite) / GTC65 / GTC76 (4 x sprint race - 1.TC65(+Elite) -> 2.GTC65 (see note 4) -> 3.GTC76 ->4.Open All Classes)
Track: Zolder
Conditions: 17.00 In-Game Race time (all races will be at this in-game time)
Practice: 19.00 GMT / 20.00 UK / 21.00 Europe (10 mins)
Qualification: 19.10 GMT / 20.10 UK / 21.10 Europe (10 mins)
Race: 19.20 GMT / 20.20 UK / 21.20 Europe (8 laps)

Note1: Click here to read the password and golden rules!
Note2: Sprint Pack testing - please download and install the Sprint Pack whether you have a skin included or not. Only the skin "owner" may use the skin for their vehicle.
Default skins only otherwise.
Note3: Only GTC65 is restricted - RDHGP models are banned (no Healey / Alpine / Merc / Ferrari / GT350). GTC65 Elite runs in the TC65 Class
Note4: In Race 4, you can choose a vehicle from any class, but must not use a vehicle you've already used in races 1 to 3.

 

[Matt Crouch]

"Oh yeah, now we got ourselves a ball game" :good:

ah that must be where I've been going wrong... where is this ball you speak of?

 

[Hans Sneep]

Sorry to say bud I can't race tomorrow
Have to work ,my colleague is ill ,at home round 22.00 maybe join in if I am not to tired.:disapointed:

Hans

 

[Stuart Thomson]

OK Hans

Server is up and sprint pack loaded, by the way. :good:

 

[Stuart Thomson]

I'll be going Mini / Elan / 914 / Elite tonight :good:

 

[Sam J Simpson]

Alfa/TVR/Capri/Elite for me tonight I think :drool::laugh2:

Sam

 

[Gary Lennon]

Right whats all this goin on in ere then ay??...

Would i need a skinpack or summat Thommo son ??,or is this a privvy pre-signed up in advance gig that i cant even join now anyways in which case forget this post and you aint see me....right? :spy:

 

[Paulo Ribeiro]

Question: As i am not sure if i can attend to this event untill 20.00
or even later, can i join from 2nd or 3rd race?
Thanks.


Anyway, my car choices will be: Alfa - Mercedes 300 SL - BMW CSL - De Tomaso Pantera (private team) slower one. This, supposing i can attend. If so, i will request it
here later on. Is that alright?

 

[Stuart Thomson]

To both of you - you are both more than welcome to participate @ whatever time you get here.

You both just need to download and install the RD Sprint Pack in the top post (very small download) to prevent skin mismatches for those of us testing out our new skins, but after that, the world's your tasty crustacean / mollusc of choice. :good:

 

[Paulo Ribeiro]

Thanks Stuart.

Ah ok, Instead of Mercedes will be the Alpine Renault then.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Paulo - the Merc is not available in GTC65 class. None of the RDHGP league cars are, so no Merc, Renault, GT350, Healey or Ferrari.

You will have to choose something else from GTC65 if you get to attend that race, but there's no real pressure to choose it right now.

The Alpine is also a league car

 

[Stuart Thomson]

All - please be aware you do NOT have to declare your intended cars now. You can if you want, but it's not mandatory.

A couple of us have, but that's so people can see what's been used, and if they desire, choose something that hasn't already been rolled out of it's garage.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

I'm about to get on a train so will be out of contact for about an hour.

People are more than welcome to attend tonight even if they haven't signed up.

The only thing that is mandatory for tonight is that you have the skinpack installed so you don't run into issues in race 1 & 4 where they will be in use.

 

[Steven Palmer]

Good news, I'll be able to make the start of the event

 

[Amir Margalit]

sorry for quiting during the 1st race. my video cars is being reparied and i used an old card. during qyali i was like 4 seconds slower and during the race the frames were too low and the screen froze for a couple of seconds so i had to quit. i wil not be able to take part in the races until i get my good videocard back.
hope you all had a good race.

 

[Gary Lennon]

The old GTL car power differences got my goat a bit first race in Elite ...grrrr those bloody Mini's!!!.
Huge big lovely race long fight with Sam in the TVR was the real proper stuff,cheers m8 that was some fine sim fun.
Was enjoying my 911 race until the internal domestic grief became too much,i planned on doing that as my finale' of the night but ended up bombing out with just not being given peace to sim .

Many Thanks Thommo sir for another fun little foray back in GTL world :good:,ofcourse thank you RD

 

[Steven Palmer]

Race1 - Mini - Absolute blast swapping places with stuart and gary, till I came round the bend a little to hot and saw thommo's rear approaching fast and went into the sand trap. big fun and what I love about the sprints, think I ended up 5th.

Race2 - Elan - Never driven this car and happy to say I never will again :rotfl:

Race3 - Escort - Quite liked the Dagenham Express, but after a lol moment with stuart I lost all concentration and binned it in the wall and had the wheel at a 45 degree angle so quit out, fun while it lasted.

Race4 - 911 RSR - My second outing in the Teutonic Terror and my second win with it (**cough** LeMans) :dance2: OK, OK, I was up against Mini's, Arbarths and Elite's, but I just had a blast in this car, and hey you chose the Mini, Arbarth, Elite* (*delete as appropriate) right! :rotfl::rotfl:

Thanks Guys for a great evening of sprinting.

The sprint skin pack looked great.

 

[Warren Dawes]

I finally made it back home, and got to enjoy my first racing in my favourite GTL. Good fun as usual and plenty of chances to try some varied cars.

Race 1: Mini : I thought I'd ease myself back into the swing of things with my trusty Mini, and also give my new Aussie flavoured sprint skin (courtesy of Stu-Art) it's first outing. See piccy below. Made the usual slow and scrappy start and took a couple of laps to get the rubber band wound up, but by then Sam had bolted in his Alfa. Eventually finished a clear P2.

Race 2: Elan: What a difference after the Mini. Had a memorable race with Paulo's E Type Jag, but I think I was probably holding him up and proving difficult to pass. About mid race, while we were battling nose to tail, we were actually catching Sam and Gary (TVR's) but unfortunately we had a coming together in the final chicane, which put paid to our chance of joining the leaders. Paulo generously gave me back my spot but that just meant I held him up some more, and finally finished P3. Good fun though Paulo.

Race 3: Capri: Another fun battle with Sam, also in a Capri. Paulo bolted out front in the Beemer, but Sam and I had a funny close battle, regularly swapping places for P2 and P3, but unfortunately none of the passes were due to brilliant driving. We just kept taking turns with boo boo's.
Finally finished P3.

Race 4: Elite: Very humourous race. Steven picked the Porsche 911, but was up against a pack of Elites, Mini's, and a Abarth. This meant he was on a hiding to nothing, because if even one car beat him, the ribbing would have been merciless. He even spun it early and dropped to last, but then got his act together to clean us up. I had a great scrap with Stuart (also in an Elite) at the tail, even if we had to keep stopping and waiting for each other to catch up after regular off's. All good fun though.

Thanks to all who raced, great to be back having a ball with you GTL freaks again.

 

[Paulo Ribeiro]

Race 1: I missed.

Race 2: Jaguar E-Type. Managed a good 2nd place to start and had a good scrapp with the TVRs for the first couple of laps, however i spun on the first
corner and lost the fun with the front runners. Down to 5th place, recovered
one spot on another E-Type and untill the end the battle with Warren was
just great. I really apologise Warren for the tap on last chicane, but for a few laps i belived i could overtook you on the breaks there. The E-Type was a bit
better on braking zones and top speed (unfortunately not a big straight to
capitalize that) but the Elan was great on middle corners and exiting, puting
down the power a bit earlier than i could on the Jaguar or else i would go
for a power slide and losing a few thousands. Top quality driving warren,
very consistent, kept me on my 4th place. :wink2:

Race 3: BMW CSL. Pole and first place untill the end. The front left tire was insanely hot. I finished race with a double wear on that tire end
concerning the other three. :shock:

Race 4: Fiat Abarth. Starting 3rd, made a good start and on second corner
i was leading due to Steven's 911 spin. :laugh2: Steven made his work perfectly and a few minutes later he got the lead untill the end.
Finished 2nd in front of the Minis and Elites.

Thanks all for the fun and a special one to Stuart and RD.

Cheers

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Another great night's GTL-ing, but I made a few too many careless mistakes, all of which cost me, if not a good finish, but some close racing.

Race1 - Mini
There were a few of us in the newly clothed Minis - me, Steve, Warren. Warren eked out a couple of seconds as Steve & I battled away. Gary joined in with the Elite, and the three of us had a fantastic little joust - or at least Steve & I thought so - as Gary says in his post above, he wasn't so enamoured, but only because the Mini pulled away on the straights. The Elite was quicker through the corners, as it didn't have the Minis understeer to tame, so it was a classic corner speed vs straight line speed battle.

Either way, at that time my youngest son (12) decided to come into my little room where the PC & stereo is, and tap me on the shoulder to ask if he can take the pup for a walk.

I,of course, have got my headphones on and don't hear him come in, so I jump out of my skin, and have a little off, and tell him to "come back in a minute" - ie when the race is finished. He comes back exactly 60 sec later and does the same thing, this time as I'm negotiating the final chicane, sticking me straight into the wall. Apologies to the people on Teamspeak who got an earful of the turmoil chez thommo.

Race 2 - Lotus Elan
After sitting there on the grid listening to the vicious blatting of Croucher's Cobra, I ruined a decent start by stamping too heavily on the anchors to avoid someone, and spinning in T1. Had a nice enough drive back through the field though, about halfway in I started encountering residual clouds of tyre smoke, and I thought "aye-aye, Crouchers up ahead". Lo and behold, coming down the hill to the second chicane, a big cloud of smoke and a Cobra with ruined tyres doing some impromptu doughnuts. I managed to close right up to Kris on the last lap in his E-Type, I tried one gentle look up his inside, but decided to pull out rather than take us both off, so followed him home.

Race3 - Porsche 914
Knew I wasn't going to win anything in the VW, but winning isn't my raison d'etre for these events, so used it as a refamiliarisation exercise, and thoroughly enjoyed my tour de Zolder. A couple of minor offs when testing the limits, but once I worked out where it can and can't be pushed, I had some very pleasing and consistent laps, gaining a few spots over spinners and excursionists.

Race 4 - Lotus Elite
As people have already noted, in a race full of Minis, Elites & Abarths, Steve took his 911. Naturally he was last after T1 , but on the ensuing straights down to the first and second chicane, he was back in P1. Warren and I had a cracking little battle in the Elites, very enjoyable times and some very funny "one thing you can't do is shift down too early in these.....whoops! I shifted down too early" incidents, leaving us both laughing at & with each other right the way to the finish - exactly how it should be :good:

One quick note of commendation for Bob Luneski, who is still getting to grips with the GTL basics, but who - after Race 1 - managed to pick some of the evillest handling cars in the game (TVR / 911). Thumbs up for bravery Bob. :good:

 

[Kris Leeten]

Had a great blast at Zolder, home ground! Great to see (almost) 10 drivers driving around here for 3 hours :skywalker:
Race 1: Lotus Elite - Betty Boop #79
Thanks to Stuart I had some nice Betty-skinned cars to choose from. As the Elite was set up for the first run I started the pre-event practice with it. As I was checking for setups I noticed some fast lap times in the Mini's (Warren you speed-devil) I didn't had the chance to drive the Elite on Zolder and actually it was quite a while since I last drove one at all (Goodwood revival I believe).
I had to get used to the fact that you have to brake very late in order to keep the speed for having a decent exit. It took me all practice (to get used to it, and still... ) During the race I had some spins and it was impossible for me to keep up with the Mini's.
Thanks Bob, for showing the prettiest skin out there

Race 2: Jaguar E-Type
Never drove this boat on an online event and never on Zolder neither... You can park a Mini on that nose!
In the race I tried to drive as safe as possible. I drove 4 seconds slower/lap then Paulo in his E-type but every time I was thinking of going a teeny-weeny faster through a corner the thing would just bite me. In front Paulo made a few mistakes and I was able to get real close, but then he just pulled away (or rather, I had to brake or encounter major understeer)
Ended up 6-ish

Race 3: Porsche 911 RSR
Ok, now it was time for some power! Luckily I had some practice with this 911 (some - as in way too little to feel confident)
At the start all looked very promising with Gary Lennon also in a Porsche 911. In my rearview mirror I noticed he was trying to escape from the pack before the first chicane, but when I entered the second chicane I could only read Gary left the game. Pitty as I was hoping I could offer some resistance
Despite the practice I had 2 major spins during race which brought back the 914's. Then I had some real consistent laps afterwards in this fairly driveable beast. In my hands no match for Pantera's unfortunately

Race 4: Austin Mini Cooper S - Betty Boop #79
After the qualify I noticed how close all the Elite lap times are: As I dorve around a 2.03 in the first race, I noticed now 3 other Elites with that same time... Looks promissing for the next Sprint races.
In qualify the Mini couldn't keep up with Paulo's Abarth and was a little bit faster then the Elite's (Matt in the other Mini).
The final race of the evening started great (byby 911 ) and Paulo immediately pulled off from the pack. So was I until after some time the terror of the Mini-understeer struck me in the 2nd/3rd corner. This actually made the race more amusing as now I had all these Elite's in front of me
I think all went quite well (Except that move on Stuart, I overtook him before the final chicane and as I noticed I was well ahead I drove in front of him to get a better line. I hit the brakes fairly late and nearly missed the 'apex-ish spot' but as I got out of the chicane I saw hugh clouds of dust & tyre smoke in my rear-view mirror. No more Stuart in the mirror when crossing the finish
I really hope it wasn't me, I heard something on TS like "I was trying to avoid Kris's Mini-understeer and try the inside which completely failed"

Hope you guys enjoyed as I sure did. Thanks Stuart (& RD)
I was happy the last race was so refreshing* with the Sprintcars (not the 911 no :wink2: ) as I was becoming rather tired.
* Refreshing as in : more competition between the cars. Unfortunately there's just too much difference in the same class (especially on 1 track).
Perhaps have more strict selections for single track events. I know this takes a lot off effort to find out - especially as it isn't even easy for anyone to drive all cars at their max, on every track! Perhaps it's something we, the measly Earthmen can help with?

Once again thanks all for the great event.
(Apologies for the blurry race report. As my system failed to save replays once again (checked my PLR dozen time) I can't offer any brilliant action pics