RaceDepartment Historic Club Series Season 9 Round 4 – No, I said “Lisboan”, you filthy swine.
Welcome back to Round 4 of the RDHCS Season 9. Round 3 at Donington GP was always going to tricky, Doni has corners that begged to be attacked, while having some slippery sections and some deceptive cambers. The Escort was a joy to drive around here, always having to be right on that knife edge for decent lap times.
There was more contact in this race than in previous ones this season, but I kind of expected that. Enough familiarity to allow some creative lines, with slippery surface and high speeds…well it was always going to be a bit dicey. I do like the way everyone handled it though, people waiting safely, righting people they upended, David making the maximum sacrifice – it was exactly as I could have hoped for. Well done, the Gents of the RDHCS.
Moving 1,050 miles South South-East, we leave Donington and decamp to the Atlantic Ocean coastline, halfway up the Portuguese coast, in the Cascais municipality, to the town of Estoril and the Autódromo Fernanda Pires da Silva.
Circuit Notes
The town of Estoril is located 20 km due west of Lisbon, and the Autodromo 9km due north of Estoril itself. An historic town, the region has long been occupied based on it’s good climate and favourable environment. Its gently rolling hills allow that made it so favourable as a strategic location also give the track some altitude characteristics, which is something I always look for in a track.
Over its lifetime, Estoril has hosted the Portuguese Grand Prix between 1984-1996, and has had some memorable events: Ayrton Senna’s maiden F1 victory, Nikki Lauda cliching his third and final Drivers Champioship by half a point from Alain Prost, Jacques Villeneuve overtaking Michael Schumacher round the outside of the final turn to win in 1996.
Estoril was dropped from the F1 Calendar in 1997, but has continued to host high level racing events, including the FIA GT Championship, the DTM, the World Series by Renault, the A1GP, the Superleague Formula and the Motorcycle Grand Prix.
As a response to the death of Senna in 1994, a chicane was added and the final turn reprofiled, but we will be driving the 1988 layout of Estoril in the RDHCS.
We start a lap of Estoril88 on the long home straight, almost a kilometre of it, and the place where all drivers will need to define their top speed and gearing. After the finish line, the straight drops away and into the downhill braking zone for T1R – Curva1. Relatively shallow and fast, it’s a real test thrown straight at you to open your lap, especially with the downhill entry lowering the camber. As with so many of these corners at Estoril, there is a sandtrap lurking on the outside, ready to snare overeager drivers.
Getting on the power for the short straight out of Curva1, we continue slightly downhill and then enter the gentle braking zone for the quick T2R – Curva2. It is taken with just a dab, a lift and then a 4 wheel drift across the apex. Again, there is sand waiting for drivers who take too much, and the kerbs on the outside are not particularly grippy, even if they are not the bumpiest kerbs we will encounter.
The short straight out of Curva2 continues slightly downhill, so you will be travelling at a fair old rate of knots before you have to stand hard on the brakes for the approaching T3R – the imaginatively named Curva3.
Curva3 is a great turn, you enter it as the track levels out, and as soon as you start to turn in, it climbs up and back over your shoulder. The lighter cars will be able to hug this corner nice and tight and get on the accelerator early, the heavier cars will have a different line, holding off of hard acceleration as the weight shifts and taking a later apex. Exiting Curva3 hard on the accelerator, you only have time for (maybe) one change up before it’s hard on the brakes again for the first lefthander of the track, T4L – Curva VIP.
Curva VIP has high barriers and ground on it’s inside, so the turn is essentially blind until you reach the apex and are driving out of the turn. The inner kerbs here are bumpy, and will upset your car just when you don’t want it to, because Curva VIP leads onto the second longest “straight” of the track. Getting a good exit here is absolutely essential, just like Coppice was at Donington in the previous round. Halfway down the straight after VIP, we encounter T5R, an unnamed kink that everyone can just throw their nose at without any braking, lifting or any slowing down at all. Powering down the straight, not quite reaching the speed of the home straight but still a fair old pace, it’s a sudden and hard brake for T6L – Parabolica Interior.
The Parabolica Interior starts off very tight and then temptingly opens up, allowing you to get on the gas early. The sneaky part of that is that you will drift right under acceleration, just when the track drops away for T7R - Orelha, and you need to be braking from the wide left of the track to take this turn at pace. You exit Orelha, accelerating slightly up hill and approach T8R – Tanque, one of the corners that differs between the current version and the one we will be driving.
Tanque is a medium corner, needing adequate care and attention while not sloughing off too much speed, and you can get on the gas early again as you fire down the approach to T9aR & T9bL – The Esses.
Esses1 would be very quick if there was just straight on the other side, but Esses2 prevents any over exuberance through Esses1 by being a medium slow 90 that you have to get right. Use Esses1 to get Esses2 absolutely right, and that’s the fastest way through here.
Coming out of Esses2, you immediately approach the final turn, T10R – Parabolica. This is an absolute monster of a corner – fast and extremely hard on tyres. There will be a battle of patience through here, but as soon as you see the grandstands appear in your peripheral vision, floor it and try to maximise your exit onto that long, long S/F straight, across the line and another lap of Estoril88.
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.
T1R – Especially on Lap 1. Be aware of people as you turn in here, it has the possibility to cause huge problems if drivers don’t respect each other. Be aware that any incidents caused by reckless or over aggressive driving in Turn 1 during the first lap will be dealt with severely, probably with a “no quali” penalty for Round 5. The difference between this and previous tracks this season is the speed here will be much higher. Excursions off track will be further, so safe re-entries are a must.
T3R – Curva3. This tight turn has a lot of gradient going on with it, and lines will be different. Be aware of what is around you, and give each other racing room.
T4R – Curva VIP. This hairpin is trickier than at first view, the inner kerbs are bumpy, the radius tightens slightly, and it is all too easy to be overeager on exit and spin the rear around. It is all too easy to end up stranded, facing the wrong way, with the field approaching and/or streaming past you. If this happens, TAKE YOUR MEDICINE. Don’t try a flashy spin turn in the middle of a pack, wait until its clear and THEN get yourself sorted.
T10R – Parabolica. Like VIP, this is likely to be the site of some rear wheel spins, but it will also be where you see most degradation in tyres (the front left takes an awful kicking around here) and sudden loss of grip. The speeds are very high here, so any instability could have catastrophic results for you and others around you.
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
There were no reported incidents from Round 3
There was 1 no no-show in Round 3
Konstantin Paul receives a no-show infraction.
As a change from last season, and as a result that I am personally reminding you of each race with the new posts and the PM for passwords, 2 no-shows will mean removal from the League, whether they are consecutive or not.
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 RDHCS event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHCS.
Reporting Attendance
As GPCOS seems to be down, I will be sending a PM with the round password to all Signed-Up drivers. I will also be running an “Attendance” post. If you are definitely driving, you need to “like” the post. If you are NOT driving (or if you are unsure of attendance) you must post a reply to say so. If there is no response, or if a response is posted after 2 hours before race start time on race day, it will be treated as a No-Show. Again 2 No-Shows will mean removal from the league.
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 4 of the RDHCS Season 9. Round 3 at Donington GP was always going to tricky, Doni has corners that begged to be attacked, while having some slippery sections and some deceptive cambers. The Escort was a joy to drive around here, always having to be right on that knife edge for decent lap times.
There was more contact in this race than in previous ones this season, but I kind of expected that. Enough familiarity to allow some creative lines, with slippery surface and high speeds…well it was always going to be a bit dicey. I do like the way everyone handled it though, people waiting safely, righting people they upended, David making the maximum sacrifice – it was exactly as I could have hoped for. Well done, the Gents of the RDHCS.
Moving 1,050 miles South South-East, we leave Donington and decamp to the Atlantic Ocean coastline, halfway up the Portuguese coast, in the Cascais municipality, to the town of Estoril and the Autódromo Fernanda Pires da Silva.
Circuit Notes
The town of Estoril is located 20 km due west of Lisbon, and the Autodromo 9km due north of Estoril itself. An historic town, the region has long been occupied based on it’s good climate and favourable environment. Its gently rolling hills allow that made it so favourable as a strategic location also give the track some altitude characteristics, which is something I always look for in a track.
Over its lifetime, Estoril has hosted the Portuguese Grand Prix between 1984-1996, and has had some memorable events: Ayrton Senna’s maiden F1 victory, Nikki Lauda cliching his third and final Drivers Champioship by half a point from Alain Prost, Jacques Villeneuve overtaking Michael Schumacher round the outside of the final turn to win in 1996.
Estoril was dropped from the F1 Calendar in 1997, but has continued to host high level racing events, including the FIA GT Championship, the DTM, the World Series by Renault, the A1GP, the Superleague Formula and the Motorcycle Grand Prix.
As a response to the death of Senna in 1994, a chicane was added and the final turn reprofiled, but we will be driving the 1988 layout of Estoril in the RDHCS.
We start a lap of Estoril88 on the long home straight, almost a kilometre of it, and the place where all drivers will need to define their top speed and gearing. After the finish line, the straight drops away and into the downhill braking zone for T1R – Curva1. Relatively shallow and fast, it’s a real test thrown straight at you to open your lap, especially with the downhill entry lowering the camber. As with so many of these corners at Estoril, there is a sandtrap lurking on the outside, ready to snare overeager drivers.
Getting on the power for the short straight out of Curva1, we continue slightly downhill and then enter the gentle braking zone for the quick T2R – Curva2. It is taken with just a dab, a lift and then a 4 wheel drift across the apex. Again, there is sand waiting for drivers who take too much, and the kerbs on the outside are not particularly grippy, even if they are not the bumpiest kerbs we will encounter.
The short straight out of Curva2 continues slightly downhill, so you will be travelling at a fair old rate of knots before you have to stand hard on the brakes for the approaching T3R – the imaginatively named Curva3.
Curva3 is a great turn, you enter it as the track levels out, and as soon as you start to turn in, it climbs up and back over your shoulder. The lighter cars will be able to hug this corner nice and tight and get on the accelerator early, the heavier cars will have a different line, holding off of hard acceleration as the weight shifts and taking a later apex. Exiting Curva3 hard on the accelerator, you only have time for (maybe) one change up before it’s hard on the brakes again for the first lefthander of the track, T4L – Curva VIP.
Curva VIP has high barriers and ground on it’s inside, so the turn is essentially blind until you reach the apex and are driving out of the turn. The inner kerbs here are bumpy, and will upset your car just when you don’t want it to, because Curva VIP leads onto the second longest “straight” of the track. Getting a good exit here is absolutely essential, just like Coppice was at Donington in the previous round. Halfway down the straight after VIP, we encounter T5R, an unnamed kink that everyone can just throw their nose at without any braking, lifting or any slowing down at all. Powering down the straight, not quite reaching the speed of the home straight but still a fair old pace, it’s a sudden and hard brake for T6L – Parabolica Interior.
The Parabolica Interior starts off very tight and then temptingly opens up, allowing you to get on the gas early. The sneaky part of that is that you will drift right under acceleration, just when the track drops away for T7R - Orelha, and you need to be braking from the wide left of the track to take this turn at pace. You exit Orelha, accelerating slightly up hill and approach T8R – Tanque, one of the corners that differs between the current version and the one we will be driving.
Tanque is a medium corner, needing adequate care and attention while not sloughing off too much speed, and you can get on the gas early again as you fire down the approach to T9aR & T9bL – The Esses.
Esses1 would be very quick if there was just straight on the other side, but Esses2 prevents any over exuberance through Esses1 by being a medium slow 90 that you have to get right. Use Esses1 to get Esses2 absolutely right, and that’s the fastest way through here.
Coming out of Esses2, you immediately approach the final turn, T10R – Parabolica. This is an absolute monster of a corner – fast and extremely hard on tyres. There will be a battle of patience through here, but as soon as you see the grandstands appear in your peripheral vision, floor it and try to maximise your exit onto that long, long S/F straight, across the line and another lap of Estoril88.
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.
T1R – Especially on Lap 1. Be aware of people as you turn in here, it has the possibility to cause huge problems if drivers don’t respect each other. Be aware that any incidents caused by reckless or over aggressive driving in Turn 1 during the first lap will be dealt with severely, probably with a “no quali” penalty for Round 5. The difference between this and previous tracks this season is the speed here will be much higher. Excursions off track will be further, so safe re-entries are a must.
T3R – Curva3. This tight turn has a lot of gradient going on with it, and lines will be different. Be aware of what is around you, and give each other racing room.
T4R – Curva VIP. This hairpin is trickier than at first view, the inner kerbs are bumpy, the radius tightens slightly, and it is all too easy to be overeager on exit and spin the rear around. It is all too easy to end up stranded, facing the wrong way, with the field approaching and/or streaming past you. If this happens, TAKE YOUR MEDICINE. Don’t try a flashy spin turn in the middle of a pack, wait until its clear and THEN get yourself sorted.
T10R – Parabolica. Like VIP, this is likely to be the site of some rear wheel spins, but it will also be where you see most degradation in tyres (the front left takes an awful kicking around here) and sudden loss of grip. The speeds are very high here, so any instability could have catastrophic results for you and others around you.
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
There were no reported incidents from Round 3
There was 1 no no-show in Round 3
Konstantin Paul receives a no-show infraction.
As a change from last season, and as a result that I am personally reminding you of each race with the new posts and the PM for passwords, 2 no-shows will mean removal from the League, whether they are consecutive or not.
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 RDHCS event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHCS.
Reporting Attendance
As GPCOS seems to be down, I will be sending a PM with the round password to all Signed-Up drivers. I will also be running an “Attendance” post. If you are definitely driving, you need to “like” the post. If you are NOT driving (or if you are unsure of attendance) you must post a reply to say so. If there is no response, or if a response is posted after 2 hours before race start time on race day, it will be treated as a No-Show. Again 2 No-Shows will mean removal from the league.
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
