RDHGP S3 - Merged Race Threads

[Stuart Thomson]

Welcome to the Race Department Historic Grand Prix (RDHGP)

The RDHGP League staff welcome you to the 2009 RDHGP season.

We are using a selected field of 5 cars conforming to the FIA GTC65 specifications & regulations. The season will run over 8 races, 7 races over a distance of 100km, plus the season finale over a distance of 200km. The 100km races will be run on alternating Thursdays commencing 7th May, with the season finale running on Saturday 8th August.

While by it’s very nature, the League environment is more competitive than the Club environment, please remember what makes the GTL Club so unique – our consideration for all other competitors at all times. Let’s try and carry this tradition of clean, fun and considerate racing over into a League environment.

Circuit Notes

Ireland’s Mondello Park was opened in 1968, the original 1.3km track being extended to 1.9km for the following season for what we know as the “National” circuit layout. The track was extended in 1998 to 3.5km – the “International” circuit.

The RDHGP, due it’s prestige, unique format and exotic blend of vehicle, will be using the 2.8km “Intermediate” layout, which has not been used for car racing since 2000. We thank Mondello Park for re-opening this rarely used layout for us.

The Race Director has some notes for drivers. Please see the track map above for location of Race Direction note:-

1. The Start / Finish straight is fairly narrow, and the pitlane exit can be quite tricky. It would be unreasonable and unfeasible to expect drivers at the race start to avoid the pitlane exit. Therefore, the Race Director has the following finding:
   The Pit Exit is usable only at the race start (defined by the Go signal until the completion of Corner 1, Lap 1 by the last runner) as normal racetrack and thereafter, for avoidance purposes only. Drivers using it as their habitual line will face penalty.
   
   
2. The Esses have a tyre wall that can, if impacted, throw the affected car across the track, potentially into the path of following cars. Other areas of the track tend to send you away from the track rather than back across it, which is why this one is being mentioned.
   
   
3. The Pitlane Entrance is immediately beyond a fast, accelerating turn. If you are intending to pit and you have a car close behind you who you think is not going to pit, you will need to be careful when and how you brake for the Pitlane. Similarly, if you are following a car closely through this turn, you will need to be aware of the possibility of them pitting.
   

Incidents, Investigations and Penalties

As this is round 1 there are no outstanding Incidents, Investigations nor Penalties.
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, 24 hour 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.)

The RDHGP will not be running the virtual license format adopted by the RDTCC. Incidents will be treated on a case-by-case basis, and punishments dispensed on the merits (or not) of the complaint. The League Staff reserve the right to remove any driver from the league if a pattern of infringement becomes apparent. League Staff decisions on penalties are final and not subject to appeal.

Liveries

You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHGP event. We are using the default liveries only in RDHGP.

Competitors Summary

Attached to this briefing, you will find the summary for all competitors that have registered for this league. This reflects the driver registered in GPCOS, not the sign up thread. This will show their name, nationality, vehicle choice, number and livery. This is for reference only and will not change to reflect performance or attendance. As drivers register in GPCOS, the chart will be updated.

GPCOS will be the tool for defining attendance and record keeping.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Yup - I had a stinker too. I think we should form a support group, rent some space in a church basement, and talk each other down.

I'm having some black t-shirts made Sam - want one?

 

[Sam J Simpson]

How many rounds is it, best book me that amount Stu and maybe a few extra for when the tears n snot gets a bit much for a humble T, sticking an iron on rubber transfer on front would cure that though, can I suggest an inverted Healey for the logo.

Sam

 

[Stuart Thomson]

lol-some :good:

By the way - seen your Elite yet?

 

[Bert Van Waes]

Greets

 

[Steven Palmer]

The replay file is HERE if anyone wants it

 

[Bert Van Waes]

I love you!:rotfl:

A full report will follow as soon as possible!

Later

 

[Kris Leeten]

I posted some screenshots in the GTL-Screenshot thread.
Linkie

 

[Jay Adgie]

What a cracking first race of the season in GTL. Havent played gt for
quite a while and and forgot how much fun the old cars were to drive...:laugh2:
Started in about 14th i think and after the first few laps of close
racing and cars going off onto the scenic rout i ended up in about 8th.
After it settled down i ended up about 5 seconds behind Bram for about
half the race with 9th about 10 sec behind me. Then as i came around the
last corner i saw what looked like a beached whale in the middle of the track
were Bram had spun his Shelby... That took me up to 7th with about 10
sec from Bram who managed to stay in 8th, but a few laps later me screen
froze...:shock: i was just about to hit the restart button when it came back,
and found Bram around 6 sec in front....:dance2:The rest of the race i spent slowly
closing in, with only a few laps left i could see he was getting into
all sorts of shapes trying to tame the power of the shelby with worn
tyres which was quite entertaining...:dance2: Then on the last lap he spun which got me
back to 7th... unlucky Bram its definitely easier to follow i
would of crack up after about 5 laps... What i did find hard was the low
sun in the sky it would be nice if you could have a 24h weather cycle in
a 50min race.. All in all a great first race and im sure it will be
just as much fun at imola....

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

beached whale in the middle of the track
were Bram had spun his Shelby...

:turtle::glasses-nerdy::Banane12:

 

[Bert Van Waes]

Race report:

I used to play GTl alot, but those days were over for some time. When i bought Race 07 and all its extras i stumbled on RD, and back on GTL too. Days later i find myself next to the legends of RD in the paddock.
I had a nervous feeling around this race, some time has past since i touched GTL in a race. The only laps from the last year were the practice offline with the ferrari on Mondello for this event, go figure.
Off to a historic moment for myself, hehe.

With a homemade setup i join the official practice and soon notice my work of several hours can be thrown away because off a fellow racedriver's setup being a second faster.

Things are looking good having a 9th position end of practice...

Time's running out and i start prepping the car for qualify, some more camber, the least amount off fuel i could get, gloves, helmet, ok...
Qualify starts and i go out as one of the first, just in case you know. Warming up and we're with a bunch spreading out to give ourselves some room. I set the 8th one to begin with. By then everyone was going around, and i did so too, i came in, refuelled and went out again, three times. With the final result off having starting number 12. Not bad were my thoughts... Although when i looked at my hands they were already wet, sweaty, hmmm. This is gonna be something!:skywalker:

Time's up.

Time to start!

I come out off the pits and vlam, starting lights come up already... Oh! I wasn't used to this anymore, so short and fast. 2 seconds left to regain concentration. Green! Off we go. I had a great start due to the lack off concentration, lol, indeed. I almost had a false one but did not and passed Amir before T1. Some rubbing here and there and on exit T1 I'm in 11 position behind David Cuthill. Some turns later i come a bit to close and i hit him in the back in Tarzan. And Bram went on for 11...Me 12th...
At the end of lap 1 I switched positions again, but this time I lost my spot to J. Adgy...

Stress is building up now cause alot happened in one lap. Fieuw, keep it cool...
I stayed there for almost a full lap, until I was a turn before the Tarzan. The group battling it out in front off me took eachother out on the apex in the first righthander at Tarzan and i could take 2 places, although it wasn't without some danger, for us and the ones who had the incident, Sam and Steven.

(Sam and Steven hitting and spinning, others like Bram in the group avoiding them)

(couple miniseconds later Amir and me fly dangerously close past the spinners)


Yes! Back on 11th, nobody really close in front of me. only Amir to worry though. I could calm down a bit now and start focussing on the ideal line and on the car. A couple of laps later the gap still stayed like this. 3, 4 seconds behind Bram and others, Amir not far away, actually he's gaining on me... And on the Dunlop turn he's right there, wham he's got me, on the inside...

We fly up the straight and i try to slipstream a bit. As we sett ourselves up to brake into the honda turn his front locks up and Amir was off... And i found myself back in 11... Fieuww, close one, thrilling moment too.:wink2:

Moments later i pass Kris Leeten who was searching for his gearstick somewhere on the grass near Lola turn. The rumour goes that he was so mad at spinning off there he kicked the hell out of his gearstick, snapped it off and then threw it away. Moments later he thought it still could be worth the try though,:good:
Now on 10th i was doing well, need to focus now. Keep it steady for several laps and I'll gain some more places in no time, i thought.

Boy was I wrong. A couple laps after i saw Kris fixing his gears 2 Healeys come out of nowhere. A turn after the realisation that they were very fast, they were already next to me outbraking me both at a side. Waaa, keep focused, don't lock up Bert, DON'T LOCK UP!!! clang bang criep. Fieeuww, we made it through...

That was a scare, and for some reason one off the Healeys went missing after the turn. So I'm back 11th.

Laps go by and the focus and concentration levels are pretty high. It's looking good, with almost no damage. I made one steering fault in like 3 laps and Amir reappears on my mirrors. This guy doesn't give up does he.:wink2:
And from my mirrors it went straightly to my front window. He took 50 to 100 mtrs and it stays like that for some time, next lap i gain a bit and the gap is now 1 second, and it stays there for another lap while i had a great view of seeing him battling it out with Stuart Thompson.
And yes, i was hoping for something to happen and they seem to hit eachother. I barely could make the stop in time though.

Another sudden death situation survived. This is getting intense!!:victory:

Back on 10th now, hehe this seems to be my spot. But some laps later the focus is crumbling away and the lack of it made me run wide at Lola, braked too late.
Steven Palmer was just closing in so it cost me a place, ouch.

I should try to avoid this, i was thinking... But laps later i run wide again on the same spot in Lola, now Sam J. flys by me.

Laps went by and the healey was already long gone. I'm on 11th position, because now people suddenly started pitting and i could gain one. But still, it was lonely for a moment out there.
Wake up Bert! These are the moments it could all fail cause yr level off focus lowers. This needs to be turned around into a practice kind of feeling. Time to attack the time!!! This worked but after some laps sweat started building up around my back and under the arms. Pssshh, this was getting hard.
I noticed 2 healeys coming closer too so i was getting stressy again. At one point Yoeri came super close and he goes for the inside to pass me. He locked her up and spun, crashing into the other one.

And so it went on for another 17 laps. Those laps were smooth, but sometimes horrificly close to the edge off a major spin/ crash into the wall... But it fortunately didn't happen. The last laps were a challenge though and I saw some places off the track i've never seen before, heh...

At the end I even got doubled again by Ben. The second time 2 laps before his finish. Man you've got some rubber and grip left there. Flying you were!

Got lapped 2 times, had a hard time with the car, sweatted my ass of and hurt my shoulders. The inside of my hands on flame. The hart is pumping, I'm on 13th, last meters ahead off me. This is it... Wham!!!!

First race of the league! I survived it, even took some points, and had a great, maybe even wonderful race in terms of real racing aspects who were there on the track as they are stated in the rules! Tx everybody for that, especially you RD.
This, for me, is a start off something nice. :thanks:

Greets

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Wow Bert, now thats a race report! I have to admit that the spirit that is already in the league is exactly what i have missed so much the last year.
Finally a lot of guys taking the time for a great race report, and those shots are a joy to watch.

Thanks a lot, and i mean it!! :thumb:

 

[Amir Margalit]

Wow Bert, now thats a race report! I have to admit that the spirit that is already in the league is exactly what i have missed so much the last year.
Finally a lot of guys taking the time for a great race report, and those shots are a joy to watch.

Thanks a lot, and i mean it!! :thumb:

lus1: the best race report i read in rd. thx for that repor.' hope to race with you next time bert.racing with you it was the bright part in a dark race for me.

 

[Peter Duivelaar]

And also very nice screenshots Bert!

 

[Kris Leeten]

Indeed Bert, this will be definitely selected as race-report of the year!
Keep on practicing and see you on Imola (Ferrari's 'homeground' so...)

 

[Steven Palmer]

Quality report Bert :good:

As Kris says off to Imola next, and I have a feeling you'll be cruising by my little Alpine with your beast of a Ferrari. The Tiffosi demand it :rotfl:

 

[Peter Duivelaar]

Quality report Bert :good:

As Kris says off to Imola next, and I have a feeling you'll be cruising by my little Alpine with your beast of a Ferrari. The Tiffosi demand it :rotfl:

You forgot the power of the Shelby?

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

You forgot the power of the Shelby?

I am sure the FIA will prevent us to get a good position Patrick :fwd2:, you know how they like Ferrari!

 

[Bert Van Waes]

Tx guys, all in all it took me 2 hours to make it. Watching the replay, scribbling short notes while i was watching. Making the shots on that moment too, Fix them up a bit in PS and combine it all together here.

The report is only that good because the race was. So thank you guys for such a report.:wink2:

I'm already eagerly awaiting Imola, but first things first, as i need to go jump into my RD driving suit for the RDMCC.

laterz:skywalker:

 

[Steven Palmer]

You forgot the power of the Shelby?

No Patrick I didn't. It just scares me to think about it :rotfl:

 

[Jari Vinnari]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqZ5_CFk5H8[/ame]

peace
Jari