Season 8 Race 5 Melbourne - Drivers meeting

[Valter Ostman]

We just have to do all our overtaking before we reach that dangerous sector. There is room for four parallel cars at least through first and second corners.(if we don't drift them too much). And then we have the sport center stretch, very wide (a square) and easy to use for overtaking purposes. And to the left there is always the grass area. At least in tennis, grass is fast.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Do we need any spesific safety-talk before this race? Melbourne is maybe the 2nd most dangerous track this season, and that fast left hander is (almost) just as dangerous as t1 at Montreal. Or do we all know by now what needs to be done to get safely through the race?

 

[Valter Ostman]

I have always DNF:ed on this track (it feels like). I hope we can use all of our racing knowledge to get us through the whole race this time.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I suggest of defining the first lap T5 as Yellow flag zone. That means no overtaking but then we need to be sure that EVERY driver respects that rule. It all goes to hell if someone decides to use that opportunity..

 

[David Turnbull]

i dont agree with that suggestion, the only way we'll ever improve is by tackling situations like this head on, not making rules up to suit specific corners, ive confidence we'll all manage, there might be the odd crash during the race but as long as we all pay attention to the track map at that sector then we shouldnt have problems.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

That is true... I know i will treat the whole first lap as yellow since i won't overtake unless abosutely necessary... Put me in WTCC and i'll take every opportunity i get but these beasts are so different.

 

[David Turnbull]

to be honest kennett i dont see anyone being stupid enough to even attempt a pass at that sector, id say the last passing oppertunity before turn 5 is turn 3, and after turn 5 would be turn 8, if anyone trys a pass at turn 5 then they need to have words with themselves.

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

guys I'm ready rescue-truck is parked in T5 with cold drinks and some nice girls so if happen something anyone can stay there in company drinking something for relax the anger.
I remember well what happened time ago in T5 pieces of cars everywhere and pass through this Babylon is like do a RALLY
but but but no one lift your feet the risk is our business/pleasure

 

[Jonas Lex]

Some unfortunate news
I play football (soccer) in a team usually 4 times a week and Ive injured my right achilles tendon today (yes I had to google that ).Ive just made some gas pedal testing and at the moment it seems that the pedal movement is not influenced by it

However I will have to see how it looks like after driving a longer time and it might be that I have to cancel the race tommorow on very short notice just that you know.

 

[Bob Luneski]

Get well soon Jonas.

A question about race time: The race times are listed as "uk-time" as opposed to GMT. The US just changed over to Daylight savings time which makes Pacific time GMT-7 instead of GMT-8 So did "uk time" change as well so the effective time of the race stays the same or not so it's still aligned with GMT??? I'm so confused!!!! What time is the %*&$^*#^(*))(( race?? (BTW I have an undergrad in Math and a grad degree in statistics but am perpetually time challenged LOL). Please use small words and feel free to make fun of the silly American

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/ It shows also when UK time changes. Im in favor of using GMT in all league races, i have one good example of why. We had a SimBin sponsored league starting and the times were presented in local, finnish times (half of grid was finnish..) and there was a list timezone difference. When the first race were to begin, there were a lot of people missing and the reason was a simple error in the calendar.. That resulted almost half of the grid quitting the league just because of very small error that we the local organizers didn't know about. That one incident also caused the downfall of Simracingsuomi.com.. Thinking about now still brings my anger out, man was i furious to our "nico" (race diractor) for declining to delay the start for 1 hour so everyone gets a chance to join the server.. Most of the international drivers then thought "SCAM" when the race director, who was a favourite of winning the league did that (yes, we rescheduled and he still win the league...it was fair at the end)...

This is not the case in PrestoGP as i trust Nico and there are no prices... But i've missed March races on the past when the start times were not in GMT and daytime switched on, every country has it's own switch times...

UK time changes in 25.3.. I do suggest of using GMT only, UK drivers will know what their relation to GMT is naturally and the rest of us don't have to guess. I don't know how many UK drivers are in the league but it's only fair to use one standard time...

 

[Valter Ostman]

A worldclock site http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=187

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

We did use GMT before, but then we had a problem a la what you descrive above. I think the clue is that one can easily make a mistake regardless of how you name the time. The best remedy for this is every single drivers approach to the timing problem.

Using UK-time makes it almost 100% certain that I do not make a mistake in the first place, and that is important for me. The race ALWAYS start 8pm UK-time, and if GMT at times change relative to UK time, then the race time in GMT will be variable -> possible for me to make mistake.

So how can every single driver be sure that they know when the race starts when they live far away from the uk?
You can google: what is the time in London now and then count on your fingers to find out when the race starts local time.

Also, when there is closing up to daylight saving (or the end of it) somebody usually mentions this in the forum and we help each other out.

So to sum up, the timing of the race is a challenge whatever we do. There are two things that can go wrong, I can make a mistake and the driver can make a mistake. Using UK time will ensure that the race will always start at the same time, and it is also easier for me to use this time.

As for the Race Director winning the championship I think I can say with confidence that it will never happen at Presto GP

 

[Jonas Lex]

I still dont quite get it, GMT is not seasonal so it never changes, when my local time changes, then of course I know that GMT is not the same anymore so I look it up.

But if we use British time it may be that the UK time changes beause of a new season and I dont notice it and miss the race.

Thats the reason why international events all over the world use GMT
Or maybe Im still missing something :oops:

 

[Tim McIver]

It's just the way we do it. We do things differently to other leagues. The night before every race I google 'time in London'. I then see how many hours til London 8pm. Thing I always get confused about is whether 8pm is Qual or Race or Practice. Can we add the session times to the calender thread. I know I should know, but I'm always paranoid and like to check. Whenever calculating times, don't use maths, don't use logic, don't think you understand, you will always get it wrong. Like Nico says, use your fingers.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

I still dont quite get it, GMT is not seasonal so it never changes

no, but the race time is seasonal, so if we used GMT the time of race would change with the seasons. I am not arguing that it is easier for a guy in the US to use UK time than GMT time, I am saying that it is easier for me I have to do numerous things for each race, so I need to keep it simple to minimise the chance of messing it up.

For you Jonas it should not be a problem, the race will ALWAYS start at 9pm local time. In secret, it is not UK-time that controls when the race starts, it is Norwegian time, and Norwegian time is always the same as German (and in perfect sync with UK) time.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Thing I always get confused about is whether 8pm is Qual or Race or Practice. Can we add the session times to the calender thread.

The calendar already sais:
Race-times (uk-time):
Practice: 7pm-8pm
Practice start: 8pm-8.07pm
Qualify: 8.08pm-8.13pm
Warm-up: 8.14pm-8.19pm
Race: 8.20pm-9.30pm

EDIT (not directed at Tim spesifically): Also, there is nothing stopping anyone from posting alternative times for the race start (eg. in GMT, Sidney-time, US-west coast time etc). Crunch the numbers and post the post and I'll add the info to the calendar post.

 

[Tim McIver]

That was rather stupid of me, I really thought it said that, and it does. I did my last little bit of practice a couple of hours ago only to hit a wall at 280 kmph after having total brake failure. I've just take my pedals apart done some soldering on the load cell and managed to get it working again. Why do these things always happen on the wrong night? Better now than in a few hours though I suppose.

Posting Sydney times would be a dangerous game, the race is on in 5 hours which makes a 7am start, but I think next race daylight savings here and there will take us back to the 5am madness.

 

[Bob Luneski]

Sorry to start all the controversy. This is the first league I've run in not scheduled via GMT. My question was really whether UK time had changed. I have no issue with using UK time rather than GMT. However since it does change it would be useful to know when it changes in advance(like in the race schedule). While people in the UK timezone, never have the local time of the race change during a season, people who's daylight savings change is not aligned with the UK change have their local start time change twice during a season. Advance knowledge of the change would be useful for planning. Thx a zillion for all the hard work put into making this league happen.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

No problems Bob. As I do not have the time to make sure that all information is easily availeble at all times I rely on people asking if anything is unclear, so i do not mind clearing up issues You know, we used to have a count down clock to the race at prestogp.com, but it stopped working a year ago or so

I know that we set our clocks to summer time this weekend.

I'll update the calendar post with info on DLS.