RDHGP S8 - Round 8 - 200km - Imola - Sat 4th Feb 2012

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Stuart Thomson

The Stoat Without Fear ™
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RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix Season 8 Round 8
Welcome back to Round 8 of the RDHGP S8, and the final event of the season. I feel quite pleased with how Gellerasen went, feedback was mostly positive about the track and how it drove. We get quite a contrast going from the shortest track of the season to the longest, and a huge change in character as well.

As is customary, this is a double length, weekend run event. In case anyone doesn’t know, we run this on a weekend to allow timezones ahead of GMT to not be as adversely affected during the working/school week. The 200km distance means that all bar one of the League vehicles must stop for fuel to make the end of the race, and then there is the factor of new tyres being available. Some may opt to not stop and nurse the car through to the end, some will opt for fuel only to shorten the stop and have to nurse the tyres that need to go twice as far as a normal League race, and the rest will take both fuel & tyres and be able to push as hard as a normal 100km race. It’s always a fine balancing act between the strategies and it throws up some unusual battles as people encounter people on different strategies throughout the course of the race.

Round 8 takes us 1040 miles due South from Karlskoga in Sweden to Northern Italy, and the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola.

s8r8.jpg


Circuit Notes
Situated 40km East of Bologna, the circuit was originally named for Enzo Ferrari’s late son Dino who died in the 1950’s, but then he himself was added after his death in 1988. Imola held the San Marino Grand Prix for many years, and ran the 1980 iteration of the Italian Grand Prix while Monza was undergoing refurbishment. It is one of few major international circuits to run in an anti-clockwise direction.

The 500lb gorilla in the corner that no-one wants to mention is the meeting in 1994 where Rubens Barrichello was injured in Friday Practice, Roland Ratzenberger was killed in Saturday Qualifying, and Ayrton Senna was killed during the race on Sunday.

In 2007 the circuit was dropped from the F1 Calendar, but it has now been reconstructed and is beginning to host major events again having been given the “1” rating from the FIA. No F1 has yet been announced, but the Le Mans Series 6 Hours of Imola is a step in the right direction.

A lap of Imola starts on the long S/F straight, through the gentle curve just past the line, allowing the cars to get up a good head of steam, even on the opening lap, so we should see some separation by the time we stand on the brakes for the first complex – Tamburello.

T1aL is protected on the inside by tyre pillars, and on the outside by a slippery sand trap. This is one of the corner complexes where it pays to take your medicine in this first section. Once through the first part, you can get gently on the accelerator and then feather for T1bR, again avoiding the potentially race-ending tyre barrier on the inner apex guarding the cut. Once out of here, and pointing in roughly the right direction, get aggressively on the throttle and sweep through T1cL under full gas, and out onto the straight beyond.

After the decent length straight you approach the next corner, which is a bit more of a classical -but widely spaced- left-right chicane – Villeneuve. Hard on the brakes for T2aL, enter it from as wide as possible, carrying some speed through the first part, and then a dab of brakes for T2bR, and then try not to drift too far left on the exit, as the kerb is slippery, and the grass beyond it won’t slow you in time to prevent you hitting the fence beyond.

Accelerate hard out of Villeneuve, under the footbridge, and then stand on the brakes hard for T3L – Tosa. A slow tight turn, braking distances and lines will be very varied, so caution needed through here. It exits uphill, and is quite slippery, so care is required when to stand on the accelerator, especially when your tyres are worn.

Hard on the gas once you are settled, uphill and keeping right over the blind crest, and then brake for T4L – Piratella. A double apexed, medium speed corner in which the outer edge on the first apex is guarded by sandy grass and a close wall, and the inside kerbs on the second apex are bumpy. Get this corner right, and you can head onto the downhill straight that follows with a big old smile on your face.

Hammering downhill you see the next corner ahead - T5R - and as it’s a downhill entry you’ll need to brake earlier and longer than normal, drop a gear, throw the nose across the apex, and then stand hard again on the brakes and get settled for T6R – Acque Minerale.

Acque Minerale is tight, the turn apex is at the bottom of the dip, and it exits steeply uphill. Get the nose in as tight as possible, do your turning, and then get on the gas on the way out, trying not to slither across the bumpy kerbs and run off areas – which incidentally are NOT considered racing surface.

Full acceleration up the hill, and over the gentle crest as the track flattens out, going under the trees until you hit the hard braking point for Variante Alta. A close, classic chicane, get your braking done well enough to flick the nose right into the T7aR first section, avoid the car unsettling kerbs, flick it back left again almost immediately through T7bL, and then squeeze on the power through the exit, avoiding running wide over some more nasty kerbs and onto the downhill straight that follows.

Keep hard on the gas down hill, take the right-hander curve that goes under the bridge, and then get hard, hard on the brakes for the tricky Rivazza.

Rivazza is another double apex turn, with the topography making them very different. The high speed downhill approach to T8aL extends the braking zone, the off camber profile makes it difficult to get the nose in, and the bumpy kerb and waiting , slippery grass on the exit need to be factored in as well. Get through there safely, and the entire character of the section changes. You can be aggressive through T8bL, taking a late apex and stamping on the gas onto the uphill straight that it opens onto.

Hard acceleration uphill, round the slight right-hand curve that then flattens before you get hard on the brakes again. Carrying straight on, you have the pit entry, which is actually quite a fast approach. Before that though, and guarded by tyre bales and aggressive cut warnings, you have the final turn – Variante Bassa.

Brake early for T9aL, and get off the brakes early as well, to make sure that you make the turn nice and tight around the inner tyres. Flick the nose right for T9bR, avoiding the inner tyres, squeezing on the gas, trying not to drift too wide across the kerb and into the Cut Warning, and hit the S/F line at almost full chat and another lap of Imola.

Just a reminder that this 200km finale is this coming Saturday 4th Feb
 
He-he, with help of some fortuitous circumstances, I still finished championship on the second place with 3 DNFs out of 8 races. :cool:
But it's a bit sad joy.

My race at Imola.
At the beginning of championship I knew, that I need to get some spare points before Imola because I did not expect to win here. On my practice tests, Lotus went faster than TVR. But maybe, to the end of the season I made some progress in relationship with my TVR. Hmm, who knows.

In Imola there are two group of racers: 1st - who cuts and goes slowly and 2nd - who cuts and goes fast.:) Everyone violate the rule of white lines. This is inevitable and is caused by the nature of the track, as well as the misperception of the track from cockpit view. Real racers don't bother this problem in Imola at all and, I think, that is right. Imola should be the exception.

I chose for the event "the middle option". Some areas "on the edge" but not to the maximum. My offline practice best result with FULL (race - 64 litres) tank was 2:20.9. I don't know for quali temp for sure, but it might be around 2:19s I think.
So, quali was not bad (still it's a pole position! :D ) but not the best. And in race I went with a certain reserve which was consistent with the need of protecting of TVR's fragile engine.
I gained not bad advantage on first laps and I have not had problems during the race except around 24th-30th laps when the game started to seiously lag at Acqua Minerale and Start/Finish zones. It's rather frightened me and I was ready to say goodbye to the race as hapenned at Gellerasen.:mad:
At the end of the race I caught up with Nils and Jay who are seriously fought for the position and decided to not disturb them. :D This was intersting battle, guys.
Finished first.

Season.
5 poles, 2 wins, 3 health-dumb-disco DNFs and overall 2nd place. Eh...No comments. I will try next season.

I sincerely congratulate Ross on his victory in the championship! It's absolutely deserved win. Well done, mate! After the third round at North Point I thaught that I would always come second in this season!:D
Well done to Nils for podium place and Jay for "-1" point off the podium! Well done to Neil and Stu for their consistency in each race! Well done to all guys who raced this season!

I honestly thank Stuart for this championship. We really can't want better organizer than we had previously and have now. Thank you for your work, mate!
I hope to see everyone next season, including myself.:)
 
This indeed was a great nights' racing.
I was rather nervous in advance, as I had never driven a race this long before, nor had I ever made a race pitstop in GTL. On top of that I was struggling pace-wise, to the point of being accused of sandbagging. :D . I wish! In fact I was so worried about my own pace, I never took the time to watch others during official practice or during qualy. If only I had!! :mad:

Unfortunately in qualy I could only manage 12th. Yet I was determined to finish this race regardless of position, as I figured on a track this size my chances on close-racing action would be slim anyways.. but BOY I was wrong there!!

On to the race then, had a good start making up 3 places in lap 1, and following a bunch of quicker guys. Soon I found one of the reasons my laptimes were slow.. Variante Alta!:eek:
Apparently my approach to that chicane had been way too conservative, as I quickly learned. A way more aggressive approach was possible without cutting, but only if I could get my braking spot-on. Took me a few laps to figure it out, but then I found I could gain at least 1 sec. there!! muhahaha now we're in business!!

Had some great fights with Nils, then with Bob and Predrag and with Nils again so we were past halfway before I knew it. By then I had slightly lost contact with the guys ahead but it was almost time for my pitstop anyways. Although tirewear was minimal up to then, I didn't dare going the whole distance with them, so I went for full service, meanwhile being lapped by Dmytro who was really flying!

After my stop there was noone close to me, so I just tried doing steady laps, even lapping a few people, flying off-track once or twice, so then trying to lap these people again :p .. and these last 15 laps flew by as well..

Wohoo!! I made it to the end!! And in 7th , which is a great result as well!!

So that marked the end of my first ever online league season.. and an awesome season it was!!
I've learned so many things, raced with such great gentlemen drivers, have had countless great battles on-track, and some great TS conversations before and afterwards, learned a number of exciting tracks, and loved every minute of it.
Results are awesome as well (to me at least); I didn't miss a single race which helped me secure 8th place in the overall standings! That is SO much better than I ever could have imagined beforehand!:)
So, my only possible regret would be that I didn't find out about online racing this great years ago, as I can only imagine how much fun I missed out on in the 7 seasons before...:oops:

Congratulations to Dmytro, for an excellent drive to victory and overall 2nd, to Ross for seizing the championship, and to Nils for completing the overall podium.
Thanks to all who participated in this awesome season, and of course to Stuart for bringing us this great league; I can only hope it was as much fun for you as it was for me..

Hope to see all of you again next season (or earlier!)
 
Thanks Thommo for an awsome league, and thanks all participants for an great fun season.

Had never expected an overall podium finnish, have never driven cars with this weak torque before, and it was an great experience.

So everything can happens.....
Neil went on vacuation, and left overall 2nd position wide open, but I felt before the race that I had nothing to do with the top positions, Imola have always been a weak performance track for me, and I sure not go faster when I try not to cut there, still the cuttings was there, hopefully not to many........damn hard track that is;)
Had some great scraps down the road to finnish line, What happened with you Jay? Had you fall asleep? you where much faster then I, so I was very confused when catching up, and even had the opportunity to pass you.

Grats Ross, Dmytro and Hutcho for the podiums

Grats to Ross and Dmytro for 1st and 2nd in the league

C ya next season, if not before:)
 
I had pretty good start :p

Last race was all alone for me, so no comments there. But a funny moment was there - Tim can tell about that :D When he came behind me, I started to struggle with my nerves. In the first turn, I braked late. Now, I had to decide, whether to cut or not. I decided to NOT and hit with my front bumper the tyres. Luckily, no big damage, but it affected my top speed. And Tim passed by. But I started to catch up with him - until he nosed his Lancia :D And I passed by. We weren't able to pass each other on racing track, but after crashes :D

Thanks Thommo for this season. After 2 seasons, where my participation was very, very sporadic, I was able to make 6 out of 8 races, which is satisfying. I could have done even one more if it wasn't my stupidity. I won the Lancia club competition, with some luck I will be in top 10 in the final standings, which is a hell combination :D I was really pleased with the car, even though when tyres were gone, I had big disadvantage to the RWD cars, because steering and power is just a lot to ask for gone tyres.

Once again thanks, looking forward to season 9! :)
 
Last race of the season and qualified in 6th. Got a fair start and by the end of lap one was in 4th, with Stu and Predrag infront and Bob and Ross behind with Dmytro already clearing off ::) . Next lap Bob and Ross got passed, i new they were faster so tucked in behind and followed for a few laps. As we started to catch Stu and Predrag it turned into a cracking race with the four of us but then Stu went wide and off into the gravel and put me up to 5th. Stayed like that for a few more laps but then going into the first chicane Predrag spun in the middle of the track along with Bob, i tryed to go through the gap but caught the side of Bob and the back of Predrag, sry ::( . That put me suspension out of line and ended up with the car pulling to the left for the rest of the race :rolleyes: . Ross got passed again and put me back in a lonely 3rd with Stu behind and Nils in 5th. I knew there was only a few points between me and Nils for 3rd in the championship so just had to keep him behind for the rest of the race :). My tyres were going off pretty quick so was glad to get to me pit stop. After pitting came out in 6th and on me own, but a few laps later i see Nils coming out of the pits as i was going over the start finish line and just managed to get by before the chicane :eek: all i had to do was keep him behind, but as the race went on me tyres were sliding more and more and i couldn't keep up the pace because of what i thought was the steering, but after seeing my fastest lap was on the last lap, as you can see from the vid, it was obviously the pressure was coming from Nils who was slowly catching and with a lap to go finally got passed :eek:. I tryed to get back passed on the last lap but he managed to stay infront with about .2 going across the line :p, and 1 point for overall 3rd :rolleyes:. Great racing Nils you deserved it after all the pressure you put me under on the last few laps, n1 mate great fun.:). All in all another great season plus i had a couple of podiums :). Well done to Dmytro for the win and of cause Ross for the overall title, well done mate :). And obviously a big thanks to Stu for running another cracking season, cant wait for S9 and hope to see you all there...

This was me hot lap :rolleyes:.......

 
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