GTL Events Schedule

[Stuart Thomson]

All, just a quick note to explain how I'm going to be arranging the schedule over the coming months.

OK - We now have 3 events per week for GTL, Tuesday (Club), Thursday (Club) Saturday (Car of the Month - CotM)


Also - we basically have about 5 type of events in GTL that "work":-

1. Single car / Single track / Enduro
2. Single car / Multi track / Sprint
3. Multi car / Single track / Sprint
4. Multi car / Multi track / Sprint
5. Specific themed "Specials"

In addition, GTL has the 3 different classes (TC65 / GTC65 / GTC76), and lots of disparity within those classes with regard to relative performance.

Now, I know some of you prefer the enduros, some prefer the sprints, some prefer multi car events...

With regard to all of the above, I thought I should just let you know how I will be deciding upon events & formats, especially with the league on the horizon.

CotM will stay on Saturdays, and will stay as an enduro event.
The League will take place on alternate Thursdays, and that is effectively an enduro event as well.

What I'm thinking about is:- making Tuesdays a dedicated Sprint night so we have the Saturday enduros being balanced by Tuesday sprints, allowing Thursday to be a "wild card" event, sometimes League, sometimes sprint, sometimes enduro.

We won't have an entire week of sprints, nor will we have an entire week of enduros. The thing about GTL is it's variety, so why limit ourselves?

In addition, I will be trying to balance the vehicles and classes so we don't have overkill on any one model / class.

The League will be GTC65, the CotM will be a months worth with a single car, so the sprint events may be biased "against" the classes and/or models involved.

I want to try and get everyone into some unfamiliar driving seats, as there are still some unearthed gems buried in those classes.

As for the Sprints, I will be making the Practice & Quali lengths shorter and the race lengths longer. These are fun events, and if you lose out on a Quali lap, but get a longer race out of it without extending the event to an unmanageable length, then I think that's a loss that is worth taking.

I'm looking for a 3-race Sprint night to be 2.5 hours maximum, meaning 50 mins per event, of which 25 mins should be race. Of the 2 sessions there, I'm thinking 20 Prac and a 5 min Quali. As we don't have Superpole in GTL, making the Quali session very short (5-10 mins) we should see some funky grid lineups, which will be more interesting, and, yes, Fun!

Please give me any feedback you wish on the above, as I don't just whack these evnts up there for me, I try and work out what will be good, what will be fun, for us all.

Thanks

Stu.

 

[Ben Tusting]

One thing, I Personally wouldn't really want to do 2 enduros in a week(League Night on Thursday and then Coftm on Saturday) So couldn't we then run 2 sprint COFTM races on the Saturday instead of the Enduro?
But only run sprint races when there is a league race in that week.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Yup, but there will be people who feel the opposite way to you, Tusto, and they'd rather not do 2 spints per week.

I'm trying to balance it out so no one group is marginalised, so some weeks it'll be 2 sprints 1 enduro, others it will be 2 enduros 1 sprint.

I can't really think of anything fairer than that.

 

[Ben Tusting]

Good point.

I shall not say no more

 

[Stuart Thomson]

No mate - I understand your viewpoint, honestly. The balance I mention is as fair as I can make it, and that won't change too much.

But - I'm more interested in your take on the session time changes I mention above, especially as you are now a self-confessed Johnny Sprint. What do you think about the 5 minute quali "as-super-as-I-can-get-it-pole"?

 

[Steven Palmer]

I'm just a blow in for these events but for me Saturday nights are only on if the guvnor (read Mrs P) is at work. Thursdays are usually a "on the night" decision for me because of outside comitments to work

I like both formats TBH, although cutting down the practice and quali in the sprints is a good idea.

 

[Ben Tusting]

The Timing seems fine but
A bit of a silly question but as there is no warmup when will the Pee brake happen as by the time you have gone to the toilet and come back you won't be able to do a time.(not enough time left)
So possibly make practice down to 15 mins(15 mins to long, maybe even shorter practice 10 mins) and Qualy however long it takes to do 2 timed runs.

 

[Warren Dawes]

I actually dont mind Ben's suggestion. The occasional two shorter races (not necessarily sprints ) in the car of the month might be ok. That way, if someone (or more) have a problem (crash out, destroy the car, black flagged, disconnect etc) they get another chance in the second race.
Some enduros are good but maybe the odd 2 race format wont hurt.
See what others think, but I'd be happy with some sprint formats in the COTM weekends, especially with enduro's that week in the League.

The short sharp qualy sessions is a top idea, who cares where we start. It may just mix up the starting grids (especially if we ban Ben from qualy, or sneak it in while he is having a sandwich or his peeeeee break :mad-tongue: ).

Some great ideas there Stu.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

The occasional two shorter races (not necessarily sprints ) in the car of the month might be ok. That way, if someone (or more) have a problem (crash out, destroy the car, black flagged, disconnect etc) they get another chance in the second race.
Some enduros are good but maybe the odd 2 race format wont hurt.

OK - two races, but not sprints - that's interesting.

The only issue I can see is the way GTL has to schedule the races in the server, as whatever session lengths you specify for Race 1 follows on to Race 2. I don't have server admin rights, so we'd have to work around the limitation above.

We could do it with, say, 50 min Practice before Race 1, 10 min qualy, a 30-40 min race, then skip Practice, go straight to 10 min Qualy 2, followed by 30-40 min Race 2.

Hmmm... Thoughts / reactions?

 

[Stuart Thomson]

A bit of a silly question but as there is no warmup when will the Pee brake happen as by the time you have gone to the toilet and come back you won't be able to do a time.(not enough time left)

I'd say, as soon as the Practice session finishes, when it's doing the between session thing, go then.

Unless you have a bladder the size of Newfoundland you shouldn't miss too much. :dont-know:

 

[Ben Tusting]

Err 50 minute practice a bit long, i'd say 10- 15 mins
Qualy 10 mins or 2 flying laps
Race length's seems long as well why not just 2 12 lap races? and the 2nd race you have to do a pitstop?
If Andrew continues to sign up then he could do the passing of session's or we could just vote to race

 

[Stuart Thomson]

The 50 minute thing is the long Practice for the start of the 2 x med length enduro events, bearing in mind the server limitations, mate. We'd just vote straight through the 2nd Prac and straight to the 2nd (short) Quali.

10 min Prac and 2 x 12 laps, that a genuine sprint race event, which I want to avoid on Saturday CotMs, otherwise GTL becomes too sprint biased. So on Saturdays, that isn't going to happen.

 

[Ben Tusting]

You got me thinking sprints for some reason
Ok so what about one 20 min race and then a 40 min race after?
but pitstop still required in the 2nd race

 

[Stuart Thomson]

I accept no responsibility for you thinking I would be advocating a 50 minute practice session for a sprint race...

Can't do that in GTL - whatever settings the first race has, the second one has to have too.

So if race 1 is 20 mins or 12 laps or whatever, Race 2 is defaulted to be the same.

 

[Warren Dawes]

It should be easy with Stuart's proviso of equal race lengths. His proposal would work fine, just allow a brief period of second race practice to allow for anyone who was disconnected to get back in (or Ben to have his Pee), then we vote it forward to Qualy.

 

[Marty Pierce]

I'm not sure if my opinion should matter as I will seldom get to do any week day races. But I enjoy the shorter races with 2 or 3 races in a session. I can do ok in enduro events but My head always hurts afterward. Also the racing is closer in shorter events when the fields are smaller. You don't find yourself lap after lap by yourself.

 

[Glenn Morris]

I kinda agree with Marty in a way, but I'm not really able to make weekday races.
It would be good to see the odd sprint race thrown in on a Saturday COTM race, just to vary it up a bit more... Make a compulsory pit stop where at least 2 tyres have to be changed... etc etc.

Usually my sprint races are done on public servers, which tend to be a little "hit" (literally) and miss sometimes.

Not saying I dont enjoy the enduros, I do. They're good fun, but to change it up a bit..... Kinda like an Aussie pace bowler, changes it up a bit, knocks all the Pommy batters out :silly:
lol

 

[Stuart Thomson]

OK - now the follow up - let's assume I do arrange a couple of shorter races on a CotM Saturday (it would only be occasionally, and it would mean a proper enduro being moved to Thursday / Tuesday for balance).

Would you want the same track or 2 different ones in a 2 race CotM event?

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Also, I'm going to try and simplify the Event things, especially the event/session times.

I'll put the UK time & the Europe time. That will be the actual, current time in those centres, irrespective of the Daylight Savings etc.

So 20.00 UK, means 8 pm in the UK irrespective of whether we're on GMT or BST or whatever.

 

[Marty Pierce]

OK - now the follow up - let's assume I do arrange a couple of shorter races on a CotM Saturday (it would only be occasionally, and it would mean a proper enduro being moved to Thursday / Tuesday for balance).

Would you want the same track or 2 different ones in a 2 race CotM event?

I like it either way Stuart