RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix Season 7 – Round 8
Welcome to Round 8 of RDHGP S7, the 200km double length, double point scoring, Saturday run finale.
I’ll undertake my annual attempt to prove that psychics are a load of codswallop (not physics, though – I tend to agree with those) by writing this briefing for Round 8 before Round 7 has been run. Normally, my prescience is uncanny. Uncannily wrong, unfortunately. I like doing it this way round so my final briefing doesn’t have the benefit of knowing exactly what the standings are before the final race. Things could happen in the penultimate round that mean that I simply cannot go on the current standings for how I write this one.
I’ll be making the assumption that the people who were carrying infractions all did the decent thing and updated their allocations and attended as required. If they didn’t, then they will be missing out on the biggest points scorer of the season.
I’ll also make the assumption that there were no Incident Reports filed, and that we all got on well and made the A1 Ring the race that it had the potential to be. As promised in the briefing though, people who are guilty of irresponsible driving may also be missing out on this race.
Round 8 takes us back across the Atlantic, over 4,100 miles West, and the semi-fictional Mountain Layout at Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, Connecticut in the North East USA.
Circuit Notes
Lime Rock is situated in North West Connecticut, near the state lines to the West with New York, and to the North with Massachusetts. It is built on an old gravel pit and farmland owned by local farmer Frank Vaill. The history goes that his son, Jim, got an aerial photo of the property and drew the layout on in white paint, saying that ‘You could tell just by looking at the photo where the track would have to go…It was dictated by the terrain.’ One of the oldest motor racing venues in America, it opened in 1957 with Jim’s original 1.53mi/2.46km, 7 turn layout, but the RDHGP will be driving the proposed - but never built – 2.93mi/4.72km Mountain Circuit.
The circuit holds multiple types of racing event each year, the Rolex Sports Car Series, ALMS, Ferrari Challenge and Historic Festival. All of those are in addition to owner Skip Barber’s own Racing School that forms the Circuit’s ‘day job.’ Since 1958, however, racing is prohibited on a Sunday due to a local bye law being instigated and passed. This race is being run on a Saturday, so we are fine.
As the Mountain proposal was never built, some of the corner names on the fictional section have had some liberty taken with them, but as this is such a superb driving track, I think the people who made it can be allowed some latitude.
A lap at the Mountain circuit starts on the long Main Straight, a good but not exorbitant length home straight, with the S/F line just under half way along it. The Mountain layout goes straight on past the entry for the current circuits first turn (the Big Bend), up the hill for the exhilarating T1R – Vaill’s.
A shallow climbing turn, Vaill’s is a high speed, shallow bend best treated with respect at the best of times, but especially intimidating on cold tyres and brakes. It is all to easy to drift off to the outside of the track, and the waiting sand trap and wall beyond. Many drivers races have been lanced by over enthusiasm here. Vaill’s finishes as the track flattens out, and you will normally be on hard on the power, treating the gentle curve ahead like a straight, kissing the left hand apex before staying left for the hard braking approach to T2R – Beagle’s Nest.
Beagle’s is a medium slow corner in the finest tradition, some drivers sacrificing entry speed for a tighter line, some going wide before entry, but leaving themselves open to a tighter line attack. Beagle’s is more important not to get wrong, than it is to get right, as the sand and rapidly closing fence on the outer exit will cause more trouble than taking a little easy on the way in but getting it clean. A downhill blast of acceleration follows, under the footbridge, treating the gentle esses of Schofield as a straight before the technically demanding and dangerous T3R – Klee.
Klee invites you to attack it, but it has some tricks up it’s sleeve to stop it from being a formality. It is essentially a shallow, downhill hairpin, blind due to the trees on the inner apex, negative camber adding yet more degrees of difficulty to the approach. The shallowness means that you want to attack it and get on the power early, the blind apex and exit meaning that you aren’t sure when to get on the power for the exit, and the negative camber means that you need care in applying the throttle even when you are sure.
Exiting out of Klee under hard acceleration, the downhill Smith’s Straight lays out in front of you, levelling out about halfway down before you use the marker boards and overhanging tree as guides for you to slam on the anchors for the tightest turn on the circuit, T4L – Hine Hairpin.
Hine is protected from wide entries, or too high speeds on the outside by some bumpy kerbs and more wheel wrenching sand traps. Go in too tight, and the inner kerbs will upset your car, and need time wasting corrective measures. Accelerating out of Hine, we rejoin the current circuit, still heavy on the loud pedal, before the hard braking zone for the Esses complex. First up comes T5L – The Left Hander, a medium speed corner, all about balancing the car on the throttle, and avoiding the ‘post of champions’ that protects the inner apex, then there’s a stab of brakes and/or a lift for T6R – The Right Hander. Another medium speed corner, and another that requires a good exit, so the inner bumpy kerb, and outer slippery kerb provide protection to cavalier approaches of either type.
A full power blast down The No Name Straight comes before a gentle press of brake and an assertive turn in to T7R – The Uphill. The Uphill is a fast corner, and is made even more perilous by the outside fence suddenly coming up right to the track edge like a Road circuit. Exiting T7R it’s back on the gas uphill along The Back Straight, but care is needed here even though it’s a straight because you go over the sharp crest, where the track flattens suddenly. Settling the car over the crest, you set the car up with a dab of brake, a breathe of throttle, and/or a dropping of a cog for T8R – The West Bend.
The inside kerbs are relatively benign, and allow you to turn in early to West Bend, but still the outside fence is very close to the racing surface. Going off the outside here can cause you to back right off to save the car, and that is made even more difficult by the track falling away downhill under the bridge just after exit. Hard acceleration out of West Bend, and then turn in gently but assertively, carrying as much speed and accelerator as you dare for the final turn of the circuit, T9R – The Diving Turn.
An extremely high speed turn, go in too tight and early and the inner kerbs will get you – they’re very high, and will throw the car out of balance completely, often spinning you. Go in too late and you want make the exit, some very slippery, dusty ground waiting over the relatively shallow (for the speed of the turn) kerbs. Go in too cautiously, and you will get swamped down the long Main Straight that The Diving Turn opens on to. Hard on the loud button, hoping you get a good run and don’t get slipstreamed, and across the S/F line for another lap of this magnificent circuit.
The Race Directors Notes
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.
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.
Regain the track safely - If you leave the track, you must rejoin the track safely. If that means losing another couple of places – so be it.
Pitting and Pitlane etiquette -
1. Pit limiters to be used At All Times.
2. As this is a double length race, you may want or need to stop for petrol, tyres or both. Remember that you will need the pit limiter on as you enter, and that GTL turns the limiter off during the pitstop. You will need to re-engage the pit limiter as you pull away from your pitbox, and leave it on until you pass the green light, otherwise you will get a Stop’n’Go for speeding.
3. T9R – The Diving Turn is very fast. Drivers pitting should go through T9R at Racing Speed, but then keep to the right on exit. You do have enough time to slow your vehicle down safely and securely before the pit entry and speed limit kicks in.
T1R – Vaill’s – This corner is always crowded on lap 1, and with the cold tyres and brakes becomes even more hazardous. Take care through here until the pack sorts itself out. Also take care re-entering the track after any offs, as visibility isn’t the best here.
T3R – Klee – It is possible here, if you make a huge hash of Klee, to go over the fence on a crash. If you do, follow the track fence and you will come to a break in it near the No-Name Straight allowing you to regain the circuit. Going over the fence does not necessarily mean “Race Over.”
T5R – The Uphill – The high speed entry, sudden uphill gradient change and close fence proximity can cause some minor impacts here, so be aware if you are following someone closely.
Enduro Reminder - this is not a 40 minute 100km race, this is a 200km Enduro, treat it like one and play the long game. Think how things might be an hour from now rather than through the next few corners.
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.
Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
As I’m doing this blind, before the A1 Ring Round 7, I’ll defer any mention of penalties to further down the thread should they become a factor.
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 200km events (double finishing points) :
P1 - 50 pts
P2 - 44
P3 - 40
P4 - 36
P5 - 32
P6 - 30
P7 - 28
P8 - 26
P9 - 24
P10 - 22
P11 - 20
P12 - 18
P13 - 16
P14 - 14
P15 - 12
P16 - 10
P17 - 8
P18 - 6
P19 - 4
P20 - 2
The bonus performance points stay the same.
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
Welcome to Round 8 of RDHGP S7, the 200km double length, double point scoring, Saturday run finale.
I’ll undertake my annual attempt to prove that psychics are a load of codswallop (not physics, though – I tend to agree with those) by writing this briefing for Round 8 before Round 7 has been run. Normally, my prescience is uncanny. Uncannily wrong, unfortunately. I like doing it this way round so my final briefing doesn’t have the benefit of knowing exactly what the standings are before the final race. Things could happen in the penultimate round that mean that I simply cannot go on the current standings for how I write this one.
I’ll be making the assumption that the people who were carrying infractions all did the decent thing and updated their allocations and attended as required. If they didn’t, then they will be missing out on the biggest points scorer of the season.
I’ll also make the assumption that there were no Incident Reports filed, and that we all got on well and made the A1 Ring the race that it had the potential to be. As promised in the briefing though, people who are guilty of irresponsible driving may also be missing out on this race.
Round 8 takes us back across the Atlantic, over 4,100 miles West, and the semi-fictional Mountain Layout at Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, Connecticut in the North East USA.
Circuit Notes
Lime Rock is situated in North West Connecticut, near the state lines to the West with New York, and to the North with Massachusetts. It is built on an old gravel pit and farmland owned by local farmer Frank Vaill. The history goes that his son, Jim, got an aerial photo of the property and drew the layout on in white paint, saying that ‘You could tell just by looking at the photo where the track would have to go…It was dictated by the terrain.’ One of the oldest motor racing venues in America, it opened in 1957 with Jim’s original 1.53mi/2.46km, 7 turn layout, but the RDHGP will be driving the proposed - but never built – 2.93mi/4.72km Mountain Circuit.
The circuit holds multiple types of racing event each year, the Rolex Sports Car Series, ALMS, Ferrari Challenge and Historic Festival. All of those are in addition to owner Skip Barber’s own Racing School that forms the Circuit’s ‘day job.’ Since 1958, however, racing is prohibited on a Sunday due to a local bye law being instigated and passed. This race is being run on a Saturday, so we are fine.
As the Mountain proposal was never built, some of the corner names on the fictional section have had some liberty taken with them, but as this is such a superb driving track, I think the people who made it can be allowed some latitude.
A lap at the Mountain circuit starts on the long Main Straight, a good but not exorbitant length home straight, with the S/F line just under half way along it. The Mountain layout goes straight on past the entry for the current circuits first turn (the Big Bend), up the hill for the exhilarating T1R – Vaill’s.
A shallow climbing turn, Vaill’s is a high speed, shallow bend best treated with respect at the best of times, but especially intimidating on cold tyres and brakes. It is all to easy to drift off to the outside of the track, and the waiting sand trap and wall beyond. Many drivers races have been lanced by over enthusiasm here. Vaill’s finishes as the track flattens out, and you will normally be on hard on the power, treating the gentle curve ahead like a straight, kissing the left hand apex before staying left for the hard braking approach to T2R – Beagle’s Nest.
Beagle’s is a medium slow corner in the finest tradition, some drivers sacrificing entry speed for a tighter line, some going wide before entry, but leaving themselves open to a tighter line attack. Beagle’s is more important not to get wrong, than it is to get right, as the sand and rapidly closing fence on the outer exit will cause more trouble than taking a little easy on the way in but getting it clean. A downhill blast of acceleration follows, under the footbridge, treating the gentle esses of Schofield as a straight before the technically demanding and dangerous T3R – Klee.
Klee invites you to attack it, but it has some tricks up it’s sleeve to stop it from being a formality. It is essentially a shallow, downhill hairpin, blind due to the trees on the inner apex, negative camber adding yet more degrees of difficulty to the approach. The shallowness means that you want to attack it and get on the power early, the blind apex and exit meaning that you aren’t sure when to get on the power for the exit, and the negative camber means that you need care in applying the throttle even when you are sure.
Exiting out of Klee under hard acceleration, the downhill Smith’s Straight lays out in front of you, levelling out about halfway down before you use the marker boards and overhanging tree as guides for you to slam on the anchors for the tightest turn on the circuit, T4L – Hine Hairpin.
Hine is protected from wide entries, or too high speeds on the outside by some bumpy kerbs and more wheel wrenching sand traps. Go in too tight, and the inner kerbs will upset your car, and need time wasting corrective measures. Accelerating out of Hine, we rejoin the current circuit, still heavy on the loud pedal, before the hard braking zone for the Esses complex. First up comes T5L – The Left Hander, a medium speed corner, all about balancing the car on the throttle, and avoiding the ‘post of champions’ that protects the inner apex, then there’s a stab of brakes and/or a lift for T6R – The Right Hander. Another medium speed corner, and another that requires a good exit, so the inner bumpy kerb, and outer slippery kerb provide protection to cavalier approaches of either type.
A full power blast down The No Name Straight comes before a gentle press of brake and an assertive turn in to T7R – The Uphill. The Uphill is a fast corner, and is made even more perilous by the outside fence suddenly coming up right to the track edge like a Road circuit. Exiting T7R it’s back on the gas uphill along The Back Straight, but care is needed here even though it’s a straight because you go over the sharp crest, where the track flattens suddenly. Settling the car over the crest, you set the car up with a dab of brake, a breathe of throttle, and/or a dropping of a cog for T8R – The West Bend.
The inside kerbs are relatively benign, and allow you to turn in early to West Bend, but still the outside fence is very close to the racing surface. Going off the outside here can cause you to back right off to save the car, and that is made even more difficult by the track falling away downhill under the bridge just after exit. Hard acceleration out of West Bend, and then turn in gently but assertively, carrying as much speed and accelerator as you dare for the final turn of the circuit, T9R – The Diving Turn.
An extremely high speed turn, go in too tight and early and the inner kerbs will get you – they’re very high, and will throw the car out of balance completely, often spinning you. Go in too late and you want make the exit, some very slippery, dusty ground waiting over the relatively shallow (for the speed of the turn) kerbs. Go in too cautiously, and you will get swamped down the long Main Straight that The Diving Turn opens on to. Hard on the loud button, hoping you get a good run and don’t get slipstreamed, and across the S/F line for another lap of this magnificent circuit.
The Race Directors Notes
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.
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.
Regain the track safely - If you leave the track, you must rejoin the track safely. If that means losing another couple of places – so be it.
Pitting and Pitlane etiquette -
1. Pit limiters to be used At All Times.
2. As this is a double length race, you may want or need to stop for petrol, tyres or both. Remember that you will need the pit limiter on as you enter, and that GTL turns the limiter off during the pitstop. You will need to re-engage the pit limiter as you pull away from your pitbox, and leave it on until you pass the green light, otherwise you will get a Stop’n’Go for speeding.
3. T9R – The Diving Turn is very fast. Drivers pitting should go through T9R at Racing Speed, but then keep to the right on exit. You do have enough time to slow your vehicle down safely and securely before the pit entry and speed limit kicks in.
T1R – Vaill’s – This corner is always crowded on lap 1, and with the cold tyres and brakes becomes even more hazardous. Take care through here until the pack sorts itself out. Also take care re-entering the track after any offs, as visibility isn’t the best here.
T3R – Klee – It is possible here, if you make a huge hash of Klee, to go over the fence on a crash. If you do, follow the track fence and you will come to a break in it near the No-Name Straight allowing you to regain the circuit. Going over the fence does not necessarily mean “Race Over.”
T5R – The Uphill – The high speed entry, sudden uphill gradient change and close fence proximity can cause some minor impacts here, so be aware if you are following someone closely.
Enduro Reminder - this is not a 40 minute 100km race, this is a 200km Enduro, treat it like one and play the long game. Think how things might be an hour from now rather than through the next few corners.
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.
Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
As I’m doing this blind, before the A1 Ring Round 7, I’ll defer any mention of penalties to further down the thread should they become a factor.
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 200km events (double finishing points) :
P1 - 50 pts
P2 - 44
P3 - 40
P4 - 36
P5 - 32
P6 - 30
P7 - 28
P8 - 26
P9 - 24
P10 - 22
P11 - 20
P12 - 18
P13 - 16
P14 - 14
P15 - 12
P16 - 10
P17 - 8
P18 - 6
P19 - 4
P20 - 2
The bonus performance points stay the same.
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
