RaceDepartment Historic Club Series Season 10 Round 3 – Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
Welcome back to Round 3 of RDHCS S10. Anglesey was a very testing venue - no question about it, but what a great racing track it proved to be, even with the disparate performance envelopes we have in S10. There was however some pretty unpleasant and accusatory words after the event, upon which I’ve had my say already – both publicly and privately – so I don’t expect any further occurrences. If there are, there will be points and no-quali penalties.
Let me just reiterate for everyone. Either you go through the proper Incident Reporting process, or you keep your grievances to yourself. No Report = No Review, but equally No Report = No Right To Criticise Others. This is a Gentleman’s league – so behave like it.
We move out of Europe for Round3, going 10,650 miles to Australia, specifically New South Wales and Sydney’s 4.9km R1 Circuit.
Circuit Notes
There will be no historical section to the briefing as this is a fictitious track. All I will mention is that I set it in Australia to go to another continent, and I chose Sydney because I found a nice old programme from Oran Park (set in NSW) to use as the flyer base. The rest of the briefing will just focus on the lap and features of R1. The naming convention used on the track tends to be single names for sections containing multiple corners (like Lesmos at Monza). Where that happens I’ll use the Monza nomenclature, keep a separate count of the turns and add the suffix of “1” and “2” after the name. Hopefully this will keep you correctly oriented throughout the briefing.
R1 will delight claustrophobics and annoy agoraphobics in equal measure as it’s a fairly simple layout allied to wide open spaces throughout much of the lap. This will allow for a lot of different lines through corners and hopefully let all types of vehicle operate at, or at least near to, their optimum.
A lap of R1 starts on the long and wide S/F straight, which narrows by a cars width on the left hand side just after the S/F line as the track drops away into a downhill section, reaching maximum speed, before getting on the brakes for the first turn – T1R, Patience 1.
Patience 1 is a medium paced bend, one that is tricky not so much because of itself, but because of what follows. Patience 1 is actually a greater than 90°turn, so it goes on a lot longer than the drivers would like, knowing that the very fast and easily attacked T2L – Patience 2 – follows. Because you need to treat T1R with respect because of what it does, while always knowing that you want to stamp on the accelerator through T2L, the Ess of Patience is very aptly named. Once you do get through Patience 2 you will be on full throttle, increasing speed and drifting to the right hand side of the track.
Cut back over to the left and get hard on the brakes on the slight incline for T3R – Two Sisters 1. This is a tight turn, requiring some real dropping of speed to keep it clean. It has wide but slippery runoffs on the outside, but and once you are stable through Two Sisters 1, you will see that it’s more of a double apex compound turn than either 1 long turn or 2 separate discrete turns - it actually reminds me a lot of Moss Turn at Mosport. Once through Two Sisters 1 you will see that the track is steeply banked and positively cambered down to T4R – Two Sisters 2. Some cars will be able to get on the throttle way before the apex and take a nice early line through Two Sisters 2, some will need to be a bit more circumspect.
Once out of Two Sisters, you will be hard on the throttle, and you will see a short straight ahead of you, with a rise at the end. As you go up rise, you will need to breathe on the brakes, drop a gear (or two) and get your nose in nice and early for T5L – Sands 1. And hinted at by the name, this section is protected by large (and very sticky) sand traps on both entry and exit. Sands 1 continues to climb as it turns left, and then crests and dive right for T6R – Sands 2. If you get Sands 1 right, Sands 2 becomes a joy to just nail the throttle through, but if Sands 1 didn’t go so well, you will be slow and defensive, your main focus just avoiding bogging down in that nasty sand hazard.
Accelerate hard out of Sands 2, onto the shortish straight, still gently climbing before getting hard on the brakes over the equally gentle (but still steep enough for the approach of the next turn to be blind) crest and switching to a downhill entry for T7aR – Skiddy 1. This is a true chicane, no time between apexes (apices?) at all. Navigate Skiddy 1 with a view to getting T7bL – Skiddy 2 – absolutely right. Get hard on the throttle as soon as you are pointed in the right enough direction that your car’s handling will allow.
Blast along the short straight after Skiddy, gently ease over to the left hand side, breathe the throttle, touch the brakes, drop a cog and throw the nose into T8R – Blind Bend. Blind Bend exit uphill, with run off on the left hand side – but like Two Sisters, the lack of grip out there means it’s not a place to overcook your entry. Stay hard on the throttle, get to the left, and then get hard, hard on the brakes for T9R – Needle’s Eye.
There are very wide but also very bumpy kerbs guarding both inside entry, apex and outer exit lines, so you really do have to thread the needle to keep your momentum up through this section. Get on the throttle out of Needle’s Eye, and most cars will be on full throttle as they go past the Pit entry on their right, and into the diving T10R.
Dropping down through T10R, you will be at a fairly high speed, so you need to get on the brakes hard and early, and keep the nose in tight to the left as T11L – The Pot 1 – is at the bottom of a dip and therefore negatively cambered. Too much speed through here will be throwing you towards the right hand pit wall, so caution on entry will pay dividends on exit. As soon as the track starts to climb out of Pot 1, you should be hard on the throttle, climbing through Pot2, taking as gentle a line as you can so as to allow your car to gain speed, onto the S/F straight, and across the S/F line for another lap of R1.
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. The worst offenders from previous seasons have not signed up, so I hope that this will be a non-issue this season.
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.
Two Sisters - Any use of the wide runoffs on the outside of Two Sisters 1, or cutting the inside kerb of Two Sisters 2 is illegal beyond the normal "2 wheels on track" limitations. Any and all advantages gained from illegal usage (making or preventing an overtake) must be ceded.
Skiddy - 2 wheels on the track at all times through here. I know it's blind and bumpy, but no excuses for cheating. Report anyone deliberately cutting the kerbs to gain an advantage.
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.
All points on the track – General Items
Drivers may put on their lights (and keep them on) during a timed qualification lap, so other drivers know to get out of the way when safe to do so.
No lights are to be used or flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the Race Session.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
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.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
There were no Incident Reports, and everyone fulfilled their Attendance Satus correctly.
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 RDHCS event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHCS.
Reporting Attendance
I will be sending a PM with the round password to all Signed-Up drivers. I will also be running an “Attendance” post. If you are definitely driving, you need to “like” the post. If you are NOT driving (or if you are unsure of attendance) you must post a reply to say so. If there is no response, or if a response is posted after 2 hours before Event start time (ie 1800 London time) on race day, it will be treated as a "will attend" status, and any absence will be deemed a No-Show. 2 No-Shows will mean removal from the league.
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P25 (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 :
P01 – 30 pts
P02 - 27
P03 - 25
P04 - 23
P05 - 21
P06 - 20
P07 - 19
P08 - 18
P09 - 17
P10 - 16
P11 - 15
P12 - 14
P13 - 13
P14 - 12
P15 - 11
P16 - 10
P17 - 9
P18 - 8
P19 - 7
P20 - 6
P21 - 5
P22 - 4
P23 - 3
P24 - 2
P25 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
Welcome back to Round 3 of RDHCS S10. Anglesey was a very testing venue - no question about it, but what a great racing track it proved to be, even with the disparate performance envelopes we have in S10. There was however some pretty unpleasant and accusatory words after the event, upon which I’ve had my say already – both publicly and privately – so I don’t expect any further occurrences. If there are, there will be points and no-quali penalties.
Let me just reiterate for everyone. Either you go through the proper Incident Reporting process, or you keep your grievances to yourself. No Report = No Review, but equally No Report = No Right To Criticise Others. This is a Gentleman’s league – so behave like it.
We move out of Europe for Round3, going 10,650 miles to Australia, specifically New South Wales and Sydney’s 4.9km R1 Circuit.
Circuit Notes
There will be no historical section to the briefing as this is a fictitious track. All I will mention is that I set it in Australia to go to another continent, and I chose Sydney because I found a nice old programme from Oran Park (set in NSW) to use as the flyer base. The rest of the briefing will just focus on the lap and features of R1. The naming convention used on the track tends to be single names for sections containing multiple corners (like Lesmos at Monza). Where that happens I’ll use the Monza nomenclature, keep a separate count of the turns and add the suffix of “1” and “2” after the name. Hopefully this will keep you correctly oriented throughout the briefing.
R1 will delight claustrophobics and annoy agoraphobics in equal measure as it’s a fairly simple layout allied to wide open spaces throughout much of the lap. This will allow for a lot of different lines through corners and hopefully let all types of vehicle operate at, or at least near to, their optimum.
A lap of R1 starts on the long and wide S/F straight, which narrows by a cars width on the left hand side just after the S/F line as the track drops away into a downhill section, reaching maximum speed, before getting on the brakes for the first turn – T1R, Patience 1.
Patience 1 is a medium paced bend, one that is tricky not so much because of itself, but because of what follows. Patience 1 is actually a greater than 90°turn, so it goes on a lot longer than the drivers would like, knowing that the very fast and easily attacked T2L – Patience 2 – follows. Because you need to treat T1R with respect because of what it does, while always knowing that you want to stamp on the accelerator through T2L, the Ess of Patience is very aptly named. Once you do get through Patience 2 you will be on full throttle, increasing speed and drifting to the right hand side of the track.
Cut back over to the left and get hard on the brakes on the slight incline for T3R – Two Sisters 1. This is a tight turn, requiring some real dropping of speed to keep it clean. It has wide but slippery runoffs on the outside, but and once you are stable through Two Sisters 1, you will see that it’s more of a double apex compound turn than either 1 long turn or 2 separate discrete turns - it actually reminds me a lot of Moss Turn at Mosport. Once through Two Sisters 1 you will see that the track is steeply banked and positively cambered down to T4R – Two Sisters 2. Some cars will be able to get on the throttle way before the apex and take a nice early line through Two Sisters 2, some will need to be a bit more circumspect.
Once out of Two Sisters, you will be hard on the throttle, and you will see a short straight ahead of you, with a rise at the end. As you go up rise, you will need to breathe on the brakes, drop a gear (or two) and get your nose in nice and early for T5L – Sands 1. And hinted at by the name, this section is protected by large (and very sticky) sand traps on both entry and exit. Sands 1 continues to climb as it turns left, and then crests and dive right for T6R – Sands 2. If you get Sands 1 right, Sands 2 becomes a joy to just nail the throttle through, but if Sands 1 didn’t go so well, you will be slow and defensive, your main focus just avoiding bogging down in that nasty sand hazard.
Accelerate hard out of Sands 2, onto the shortish straight, still gently climbing before getting hard on the brakes over the equally gentle (but still steep enough for the approach of the next turn to be blind) crest and switching to a downhill entry for T7aR – Skiddy 1. This is a true chicane, no time between apexes (apices?) at all. Navigate Skiddy 1 with a view to getting T7bL – Skiddy 2 – absolutely right. Get hard on the throttle as soon as you are pointed in the right enough direction that your car’s handling will allow.
Blast along the short straight after Skiddy, gently ease over to the left hand side, breathe the throttle, touch the brakes, drop a cog and throw the nose into T8R – Blind Bend. Blind Bend exit uphill, with run off on the left hand side – but like Two Sisters, the lack of grip out there means it’s not a place to overcook your entry. Stay hard on the throttle, get to the left, and then get hard, hard on the brakes for T9R – Needle’s Eye.
There are very wide but also very bumpy kerbs guarding both inside entry, apex and outer exit lines, so you really do have to thread the needle to keep your momentum up through this section. Get on the throttle out of Needle’s Eye, and most cars will be on full throttle as they go past the Pit entry on their right, and into the diving T10R.
Dropping down through T10R, you will be at a fairly high speed, so you need to get on the brakes hard and early, and keep the nose in tight to the left as T11L – The Pot 1 – is at the bottom of a dip and therefore negatively cambered. Too much speed through here will be throwing you towards the right hand pit wall, so caution on entry will pay dividends on exit. As soon as the track starts to climb out of Pot 1, you should be hard on the throttle, climbing through Pot2, taking as gentle a line as you can so as to allow your car to gain speed, onto the S/F straight, and across the S/F line for another lap of R1.
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. The worst offenders from previous seasons have not signed up, so I hope that this will be a non-issue this season.
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.
Two Sisters - Any use of the wide runoffs on the outside of Two Sisters 1, or cutting the inside kerb of Two Sisters 2 is illegal beyond the normal "2 wheels on track" limitations. Any and all advantages gained from illegal usage (making or preventing an overtake) must be ceded.
Skiddy - 2 wheels on the track at all times through here. I know it's blind and bumpy, but no excuses for cheating. Report anyone deliberately cutting the kerbs to gain an advantage.
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.
All points on the track – General Items
Drivers may put on their lights (and keep them on) during a timed qualification lap, so other drivers know to get out of the way when safe to do so.
No lights are to be used or flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the Race Session.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
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.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
There were no Incident Reports, and everyone fulfilled their Attendance Satus correctly.
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 RDHCS event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHCS.
Reporting Attendance
I will be sending a PM with the round password to all Signed-Up drivers. I will also be running an “Attendance” post. If you are definitely driving, you need to “like” the post. If you are NOT driving (or if you are unsure of attendance) you must post a reply to say so. If there is no response, or if a response is posted after 2 hours before Event start time (ie 1800 London time) on race day, it will be treated as a "will attend" status, and any absence will be deemed a No-Show. 2 No-Shows will mean removal from the league.
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P25 (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 :
P01 – 30 pts
P02 - 27
P03 - 25
P04 - 23
P05 - 21
P06 - 20
P07 - 19
P08 - 18
P09 - 17
P10 - 16
P11 - 15
P12 - 14
P13 - 13
P14 - 12
P15 - 11
P16 - 10
P17 - 9
P18 - 8
P19 - 7
P20 - 6
P21 - 5
P22 - 4
P23 - 3
P24 - 2
P25 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
