RDHGP S6 - Round 4 - Laguna Seca - 100km - 13th Jan 2011

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Stuart Thomson

The Stoat Without Fear ™
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The most distinguished group of highway scofflaws and degenerates ever gathered together in one place:RDHGP Round 4

Happy New Year drivers, and welcome back to Round 4 of RDHGP S6. This is the rescheduled fixture from earlier in the season started by the technical gremlins at Mosport.

Rouen is always a class act whenever we visit there, and this trip was no different. If I’m honest, I was expecting quite a few incident reports, but in the end, people followed the procedure, cooled off and re-reviewed, and we ended up with no Incident reports arising from Round 3 and so we can approach the extended second half of the season from a nice, clean starting point.

As always, we tend to change track type from previous event to present (in fact it’s no coincidence, we plan to keep you on your toes from race to race), and this time we go from the fast, lush and verdant boulevards of Northern France to a more technical, arid and hostile, but no less exalted, location.

Travelling over 5,500 miles almost due West, we end up on Highway 68 between Monterey and Salinas, California and the historic (which is, after all, why we are all here) Laguna Seca Raceway.
lagu.jpg



Circuit Notes

Located about 10 miles East of Monterey, and 90 miles south of San Francisco (go Giants), Laguna Seca was constructed in 1957, the original layout being in place from the first event in 1958 until 1988 when the infield section of turns 2 to 5 was added, extending the track from 3km to 3.6km – this was a failed attempt to lure Formula 1 to Laguna Seca. The circuit was changed again – albeit less dramatically – in 1995 adding another 50m and sharpening the final turn into much tighter radius, and allowing the pit entry to be more safely located before this turn. Like almost all of our League tracks, there is a large vertical component to Laguna Seca, namely a 91m/300 foot altitude change from the lowest point to the highest on the circuit.

Laguna Seca should really need no introduction to anyone with any interest in motor racing, either real or simulation. It has held / continues to hold many of America’s most prestigious motor racing events: Champ Car / American Le Mans / Superbikes / MotoGP / Rolex Sports Cars / A1GP.

It also plays host to an event that must be close to the hearts of any GT Legends driver – the Monterey Historics, whose attendance often eclipses the professional events listed above. It is one of the top 3 World Historics gatherings alongside Goodwood & Lime Rock.

A branch of the Skip Barber Racing School is also now in place at Laguna Seca.

Even though it hasn’t been mentioned until now, we are all aware of the 800lb gorilla in the room, the thing that everyone knows about, and is wary of, when Laguna Seca gets mentioned – and that is Turns 7R, 8L & 8aR – The Corkscrew. It will probably come as no surprise to any of you to hear that this section will get some extensive coverage lower down this briefing.

This is actually the shortest track we will visit this season, but because of the layout, the laptimes are similar to some of the longer tracks, meaning this could be one of the longer races in time duration. It’s also the first anti-clockwise circuit we’ve driven this season.

Almost immediately after we leave the (downhill facing) grid, timing bridge and pitlane exit, we approach T1L, a high speed, downhill-crested, dogleg left, which is simple enough to negotiate on it’s own, but acts as a nasty “unsettler”, upping the tariff of difficulty for the rapidly approaching next corner, making the actual braking zone and turn in point blind until you clear T1L.

The approach for T2L, the Andretti Hairpin (depending on your navigation of T1L, of course) requires some serious retardation from your brakes, and good grip as there is no positive camber to help you round its double apex. Patience is required here - too early on the loud button and you will face a struggle to keep the rear in check.

A short blast and then hard on the anchors for T3R, another camber-free turn, tighter than it looks, with a bumpy kerb on the inside edge to unsettle people staying tight, and a waiting sandpit on the outside to ensnare drivers going in too hot.

Hard on the accelerator out of T3R, we come to T4R, a shallower corner, again with no real camber to help you get round, but this is a great corner to get right, as it opens out onto a good length straight, diving under another bridge and down to the lowest point of the track T5L.

T5L is similar the T4R – not overly tight, but it needs a measure of aggression, to keep the speed up, as it feeds onto a long - and all uphill – straight. Any momentum lost will be difficult to claw back going up that hill.

The scenery changes with the left hand side of the track suddenly rearing up to form a cliff on the inside. We dive under another bridge, over a crest that hides the braking markers, and (again) try to take as much speed through T6L as possible as it opens on to the uphill Rahal Straight. The inside of T6L is mostly blind because of that cliff, and the outside has a nasty, away sloping sandpit for those who don’t respect it.

Blasting up Rahal, another bridge approaches, standing atop a blind crest, and we are approaching the defining moment of every Laguna Seca lap – the Corkscrew. Immediately over that blind crest, probably already on the anchors, we encounter a little kink right, T7R, which is another testing “unsettler”, and means that you can’t just set up for the latter Corkscrew sections from halfway down Rahal, you have to give T7R a real measure of respect.

After negotiating T7R, you will be hard on the brakes, and you’ll suddenly see the track totally disappear on the left hand side, and a wall rapidly approaching you straight ahead. This is T8L the huge, precipitously downhill first part of the corkscrew. Tuck the nose in hard, before throwing your car off the cliff, and immediately turning right for T8aR, accelerating as hard as you dare through the Corkscrew exit.

A downhill blast follows into the tightening T9L – Rainey. Some drivers will try and drift round here, but there is, as always on this arid landscape, a big sandpit waiting on the outside for those who are over eager.

Again flatout and downhill for the heavily positive camber of T10R, where you are able to carry more speed than the corner initially promises, and out onto the last straight, blasting slightly uphill past the pit entry, and then hard, hard on the brakes for the last corner – T11L. Very tight and with kerbs, walls and sand waiting for the driver who does not treat it respectfully enough, shooting out onto the S/F straight after a good T11L is a fitting end to a lap at Laguna Seca.

500px-Laguna_Seca.svg.png


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.

Pitlane - you must use the pitlane correctly, exiting the pitlane on the straight before T3R, not cutting across onto the main circuit before T2L.

T2L – Andretti - This corner, especially on the first lap, will be tricky due to the heavy braking zone, cold tyres, vehicle proximity and T1L making the approach blind. Reckless accidents here will be punished heavily if reported. As always, be aware in Lap 1, of people as you turn in here, it will be slower than on susbsequent laps and very, very crowded.

T3R – As mentioned above, this is a slowish, simple-ish corner, but if you go off into the sand, make sure you rejoin safely. If that means coming out of it in last place - so be it. Take your medicine, and don’t ruin someone else’s race.

T6L – Like T3R above, the issue is not the corner itself, but subsequent rejoins after mistakes. Do not rejoin blindly.

T7R, T8L & T8aR – The Corkscrew. This is a dangerous section, and probably not worth describing any more than we all already know it, but at the same time, do not cut the inside of T8aR, and be aware that people may have differing lines to yours depending on vehicle.

All points on the track – General Items
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the race.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
You may put your lights on if you are on a timed Qualifying lap to inform people in front of you. If they themselves are on a timed lap, they are not under any obligation to move for you.
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.
The pitlane exit must be used for it's entire length, cutting across onto the main circuit to drive T2 is not allowed.

Incidents, Investigations and Penalties

There are no incident reports arising from Round 3.
There are no drivers serving infractions

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
 
Not a good night to remember for me. Started off decent but it ended quickly due an incident which dropped me from 16 to about last positioin, worked back to 2oth and had another bump which put me in last or near last again. I then struggled for the rest of the race with many unforced offs and fighting a constant feeling of frustration. Almost called it a night but decided to at least finish ....near at the bottom of the heap. Well done to Senad..very impressive, cheers to all.
 
I don't like Laguna - at all.

At 20 minutes before quali I was sure it's over but it all turned over. My connection was bad again :( and I decided to move computer 80 cm closer to router (from one side of desk to other) which is 5 m away made my ping cut from 3000 ms to 200 ms or even 100 ms which I've never have seen on my GTL. My face started to smile.
Later on I got quite a good run I my Baby-Pork and I reallys tarted to enjoy it even on Laguna.
Q: 11th got spoiled by David spinning in Corkscrew, maybe I could gain some 0.5 sec.
R: After this crash after T2, when I was again lucky to find a way middle through the spinning pack I was really upset seeing Amir flying in his Escort :( I was 6th, it made me so nervous that in same lap I droped to 7th and 2 laps later I made a spin which dropped me to 10th. Then I had nice battle with Dymitrij and Ivo with small interruption by Gary the Flash ;) I pushed Dymytrij but could not get past and also Ivo mixed between us. Then I made a spin trying to accelerate hard to get them and then one again and again and Bob passed me. Luckily for me he ran wide at T1 and I got back to 10th where I finished the race.
For me - awesome race, one of most exciting in my career. THX STU Carlos and RD - it was great!!
 
I can describe this race with couple pics:

Qualified as 5th, ran into Gary in first lap, lost there 10 or 15 positions, and my concetration went to hell after that, then:

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images


Then after several errors and spins I realised that race is practically over for me:

just_chilling_mousepad-p144152540085338329trak_400.jpg


Finished 19th.

Race with lot of spins and crashes for others, so it was a complete:

Circus.jpg
 
Down to 10th... Closed again the gap to Roman, Dmytro. Could get Roman when i ran abit wide. Was now again behind Dmytro. Had some good runs to T1 but that little kink before the corners always keep me from pulling next to him. After some laps we came accross Neil in T1 who rejoined just in front of us. But didnt moved out of the way even when Dmytro was on the bumper after T4 he suddenly released the throttle so Dmytro hit and spun him. Lucky i could avoid that and took P8. After that i took it easy and took to car to 8th. Cant see any 914 anymore. Haha
hey if you are going to slag me in the open forum then at least get your friggin facts straight:
1) I never left the track i just spun so there was no rejoin in it.
2) I only lifted slighly on the straight and before i lifted i flashed my lights letting the car behind know i was ready to let him pass.
3) No attempt was made to pass me and if there was i would of let the car behind through.
 
I'll post my report later...

I just noticed I have qualified 13th in all three races I have entered (I wasn't there for Anderstorp). I'm not very superstitious, but it's making me a bit nervous.
I think I'm gonna put one of these:clover: in my pocket for the remainder of the season.:tongue:

BTW, I just wanna say that I LOVE Laguna, maybe I'm crazy or something lol. Or maybe it's because it's the track I used to use in GT3 and GT4 to set up my cars. I used to figure..."If it's stable through the dreaded corkscrew, it's stable through anything".

Also, hell of a briefing Thommo, sorry I didn't post that earlier mate. I, and I imagine, many others, will be very sad campers the day you can't do this anymore. I don't know if anyone else will be able to bring what you do to RDHGP. YouDaMan :good:
 
Thanks Carlo, I'm glad you liked the briefing, as that means that you couldn't perceive me typing through gritted teeth. :wink:

I've never liked Laguna Seca, but a briefing just saying "close your eyes and it'll all be over soon" doesn't really sell the event to drivers :D

As I said in chat, if I never see the place again, I won't shed a single tear.
 
I can agree with that sentiment Stuart, not liked the track since I first played it back on Forza 1, never go well here, and so it proved last night.

Reinstalled GTL on Tuesday to get some laps in, only to find that I couldn't find my disc with the serial, whch I needed after my OS reintall. So ordered a new copy, and was certain that the disc wouldn't arrive, so saved my practice until the day if it did arrive. Of course, it did arrive, but I was busy all day and couldnt get any laps in until around 7pm. Added to that feeling really ver very tired and ill, its a real sob story.

Anyway to cut things short, I tried my hardest to get up to speed, but I was around a second off where I wanted to be all the time, couldn;t seem to improve. Qualified way back.

Got a decent start, trying to squeeze down into T1, seemed surrounded by a hundred 914s. Tom's Corvette was lagging horrifically and that was quite distracting. Into T2 and i knew Carlos' 914 was on the inside, but I wasn't qute given the room the Panty needed and I pinged off the side of him into the gravel, not much harm done, and I may have been lucky, as while making my way back on, cars seemed to be stranded everywhere. Got some decent laps in, took advantage of others mistakes and was up to 9th and gaining on the guys ahead, when aorund lap 6/7 I span going up towards the corkscrew, back to around 16th IIRC.

Then I span again, and again. So I decided to call it a night, I really didn't want a disaster at any point and ruin someone's race with the way I was feeling. Hopefully I will be able to get some proper practice in for Birubi.
 
Pff take it easy. I just say what happened in my eyes.
With respect, Ivo, Neil is telling you what happened on his side after you said what you saw, but the way you originally said it makes it sound premeditated or incompetent on Neil's part, which is not something I've ever encountered with Neil.

This is why we have the "no finger pointing" rule in place. Your post comes close to that, and that rule is in place because this is how it escalates.

If things were round the other way, I suspect you'd feel similar to Neil, and want to set the record straight too.

I'd like this to be dropped now, please.
 
I hope this is just a figure of speech, and that there aren't any plans of passing the torch :eek:
Yes, hopefully not.

I do like Laguna, but that version lacks of key sections e.g. T3, T4 and T5. So one can say new track to me, plus the beemer. Amount of laps I did yesterday at practice payed out for me and reached 1.42. In Q and R even 1.41, the more laps the more familiar but still missing the real turns here. Btw I don't like such as Monza which is simply full throttle n brake, no skill, no brain.

Did a good start again but had to face right away there was no way to defend my position. Only Andreas's fair and gentle attitude resulted in a couple laps lead. Once he passed me he was gone. @Gary, you'ld pay even more to not sit in the beemer. Don't get me wrong here, it's not just me banging the CSL into front results. Each race so far I benefited big time from others bad luck, had no contacts, no trouble, no mistake.
Congratulations to everyone haven't touched anyone
 
More luck then brain

This week i got flu like symptoms with cough and running nose and so on. Yesterday it was already better but was fearing sneezings. If you have bad luck you are blind in a schicane or your steering wheel gets "wet".
Surprisingly from training i got polepositon with my fastest lap of the whole event. The race start then went quite :poop:, i got much wheelspin and from switching to second the car went cross the track in front of Gary. That wasn´t my intention and if something happen there i couldn´t say something. Against that Ralf started like a rocket and went in front. In T2 then behind me it started smoking with resulting Gary and Greg was gone. Sure it was now much more comfortable :redface: and i started to watching Ralf :tv: for sure for about ten laps. Althought i could faster it was hard to find a way to pass. And if you want to wait for a mistake by Ralf you can wait long :wink:. Additional to this the Porsche (at least my one) wasn´t so easy to hold on track and had some moments to avoid spins. Ralf drove excellent i must say and he had all the time the overview, also one time as i missed a bit my brakepoint first turn he opened a bit the door and nothing happen :good:. Finally i could pass Ralf but my concentration wasn´t best and i already counted laps till home. And clear while this i spun in corcscorner. So again following Ralf. But ofcourse with this i awaked again :redface: and it reached finally for the win in front of Ralf and the drived like hell Gary. I guess i had much luck on the passanger seat this race.
So thanks to all for the nice race evening, to Ralf for the battle and to Gary for not hitting ESC :). Till next one.
 
Well, Laguna certainly was not an easy race, but to me it was a success, given my "achievements" in the last two stages.:D
First time driving here and I'm sure of course the next time a little more able to achieve.

Q: Took ninth place (although on a race protocol it 10th :confused:). Not everything turned out so far, especially the 5TL. I'm definitely doing something wrong in it.:mad: It has impact later on the race.

R: I have a good start, but immediately ran into the back of Krzysztof (I think that he would not like it if I decided to give him extra acceleration :redface:) and therefore had to slow down a bit. As a result, to the T2R corner I came on the 10th pos. Then there was the beginning of billiards, I had to overtake Greg on gravel, Amir pushed Greg, Greg has pushed me :eek::D and I finally got on track. I came on 8th chased by Carlos.
I can not think of anything, but in the 5TL, I lost all the ground during the race. Because of him I lost a few places :confused:. Well next time I will polish it! :D
I skipped forward Carlos, then Gary has overtaken me (fast train in the desert :)) and later - Greg.
The rest of the race I fought with Ivo and Roman. Great battle in which Ivo won (Ivo without entering all the confusion, probably Neil played for you :D:D:D). But in fact, Ivo was clearly faster than I did. And Roman was not lucky in the last corner.

Neil, do not take to heart. For me, it looked as Ivo wrote, but I understand what you want us to skip ahead. But it cost me a couple of gray hairs and I almost lost the car. But lucky. I'm sorry that I threw you so hard. But I just did not have time to react. I was not expecting this move after the turn.

Well, it was the last really tense moment, and then I went to the 9 th position on finish.

Thanks to Ivo and Roman for what you not gave me to relax until the end of the race :cool: and to all other guys for this great event. I hope I'm not interfered especially to anyone when fighting with me.

Thanks to Stu for organization and brilliant introducion of the track!
 
What could go wrong did go wrong, not much luck in this League after 4 races only 1 point.

The Beemer can give you a surprise when at least expected , take a corner a little different an you be in trouble ,hit the wall after T6 never happen before there.

Lost splitter making corners not easy,resulting in a slip on top of T8 going strait in the wall nose looking up no way to go back on track,driving the car backwards on the inside through the corkscrew to turn 9,this take a hole lap when I rejoin the whole field was passing by.:redface:

Steering out of centre resulting in more slips an struggle through ,in lap 19 after laped again
call it a Day (not my style ,but it was not fun any more )

I have not much hope it will go any better,but I certainly will try.

Grats to Andreas Gary an Ralff, Thanks Stuart an RD
 
At the exit of the last corner, of the last lap, I spun out :woot:
Dubravko passed me, and I reversed across the finish line...

Hmmmm i just think u turn for 180 in purpose and how lovly from you to to get better picture of me how i drive true finish line.. :)))))....

One word for me...disaster..after practice time 1:41.1xx quali was disaster, in that moment my wife and daugther come home and daughter show me evrything what she get in store...so 16th place is actually very good :).. Race even worse..wife go out and i stay alone with daughter and she sit with me in..2 time she change me gear :)..thanks God always up so i didnt burst my engine...so i concetrate how i can..bad luck and after first corner i was out and need to start over from back..and i was not 100 % in race..i hope next track i will have better luck..sorry for evryone on TS if they hear my daughter :)..usual is not like that...sorry again ...
 
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