GTL Events Schedule

[Stuart Thomson]

All, just a quick note to explain how I'm going to be arranging the schedule over the coming months.

OK - We now have 3 events per week for GTL, Tuesday (Club), Thursday (Club) Saturday (Car of the Month - CotM)


Also - we basically have about 5 type of events in GTL that "work":-

1. Single car / Single track / Enduro
2. Single car / Multi track / Sprint
3. Multi car / Single track / Sprint
4. Multi car / Multi track / Sprint
5. Specific themed "Specials"

In addition, GTL has the 3 different classes (TC65 / GTC65 / GTC76), and lots of disparity within those classes with regard to relative performance.

Now, I know some of you prefer the enduros, some prefer the sprints, some prefer multi car events...

With regard to all of the above, I thought I should just let you know how I will be deciding upon events & formats, especially with the league on the horizon.

CotM will stay on Saturdays, and will stay as an enduro event.
The League will take place on alternate Thursdays, and that is effectively an enduro event as well.

What I'm thinking about is:- making Tuesdays a dedicated Sprint night so we have the Saturday enduros being balanced by Tuesday sprints, allowing Thursday to be a "wild card" event, sometimes League, sometimes sprint, sometimes enduro.

We won't have an entire week of sprints, nor will we have an entire week of enduros. The thing about GTL is it's variety, so why limit ourselves?

In addition, I will be trying to balance the vehicles and classes so we don't have overkill on any one model / class.

The League will be GTC65, the CotM will be a months worth with a single car, so the sprint events may be biased "against" the classes and/or models involved.

I want to try and get everyone into some unfamiliar driving seats, as there are still some unearthed gems buried in those classes.

As for the Sprints, I will be making the Practice & Quali lengths shorter and the race lengths longer. These are fun events, and if you lose out on a Quali lap, but get a longer race out of it without extending the event to an unmanageable length, then I think that's a loss that is worth taking.

I'm looking for a 3-race Sprint night to be 2.5 hours maximum, meaning 50 mins per event, of which 25 mins should be race. Of the 2 sessions there, I'm thinking 20 Prac and a 5 min Quali. As we don't have Superpole in GTL, making the Quali session very short (5-10 mins) we should see some funky grid lineups, which will be more interesting, and, yes, Fun!

Please give me any feedback you wish on the above, as I don't just whack these evnts up there for me, I try and work out what will be good, what will be fun, for us all.

Thanks

Stu.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Cheers Marty :good:

It's an open question to all GTL-ers, by the way

 

[Warren Dawes]

Stu, I'd favour making it two races on the same track, based on the fact that we are doing it mainly in case somebody has a disaster in the first race. Also makes server set up and race preparation easier all round.

Re the times, I hope you are still going to post the "official" GMT time schedules, otherwise there will be lots of confusion from people getting the conversions wrong or getting confused by daylight saving time. Remember, GMT is the only reference time that never changes for DST. It's the world wide reference.

 

[Marty Pierce]

Quote from Warren: Re the times, I hope you are still going to post the "official" GMT time schedules, otherwise there will be lots of confusion from people getting the conversions wrong or getting confused by daylight saving time. Remember, GMT is the only reference time that never changes for DST. It's the world wide reference.[/quote]

Yes I agree Warren using GMT time because it never changes. You only have to keep up with your own time changes. I dont understand why thats so confusing for allot of people. For the next 6 months Im Gmt-5 then it will go back to Gmt-6 for me.:loser:

 

[Glenn Morris]

2 races on the same track would be the go Stuart.
I don't suppose there is any scope in GTL to have reverse grid 2nd races or anything like that, just to mix it up a bit more.... You know, so we can all make it as difficult as possible for Ben to get past us. Lol

 

[Warren Dawes]

If we all vote to restart the race, or skip qualy, you end up with a random grid, so maybe we could just skip qualy for race 2.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

When it's a two-racer, I'll go to a very short quali to mix it up a bit on the grid. :good:

I'll stick the GMT times back on, too.

 

[Richard Kay]

In the championships I have run we always have to "fix" the grid as qualy generally takes place on a previous Sunday. We do it by all going out in a qualy session and doing a slow lap line astern in the correct order. As we cross the line on a timed lap each driver calls out his time and the next driver crosses a couple of seconds later. It requires everyone to be on TS though and generally takes 5-8 minutes to sort out. You could sort a reversed grid out like that if needed.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

As there has been a preference expressed, the times will be shown in GMT, UK & Europe timezones

 

[Stuart Thomson]

OK, Gents - Like I said, we're still evolving these events / timings etc.

What I'll do ongoing is: - for any sprint event where the average laptime is approx 1.30 or above, we'll have a 10 min Prac + 10 min quali.

For all laptimes < 1.30 we'll stick to 15 min prac + 5 min quali.

 

[Matt Crouch]

I take it 5 mins is the minimum you can adjust the times by?

 

[Stuart Thomson]

No, I believe you can do it by 1 minute increments, but again, its means greater admin on me & the server gods if we tweak it beyond 5 or 10 mins sessions.

Sprint races will be between 20+25 mins, meaning I don't want more than a 20 minute Prac+Quali time.

 

[Warren Dawes]

What I'll do ongoing is: - for any sprint event where the average laptime is approx 1.30 or above, we'll have a 10 min Prac + 10 min quali.

For all laptimes < 1.30 we'll stick to 15 min prac + 5 min quali.

:good: :good: