RDHGP S3 - Merged Race Threads

[Stuart Thomson]

Welcome to the Race Department Historic Grand Prix (RDHGP)

The RDHGP League staff welcome you to the 2009 RDHGP season.

We are using a selected field of 5 cars conforming to the FIA GTC65 specifications & regulations. The season will run over 8 races, 7 races over a distance of 100km, plus the season finale over a distance of 200km. The 100km races will be run on alternating Thursdays commencing 7th May, with the season finale running on Saturday 8th August.

While by it’s very nature, the League environment is more competitive than the Club environment, please remember what makes the GTL Club so unique – our consideration for all other competitors at all times. Let’s try and carry this tradition of clean, fun and considerate racing over into a League environment.

Circuit Notes

Ireland’s Mondello Park was opened in 1968, the original 1.3km track being extended to 1.9km for the following season for what we know as the “National” circuit layout. The track was extended in 1998 to 3.5km – the “International” circuit.

The RDHGP, due it’s prestige, unique format and exotic blend of vehicle, will be using the 2.8km “Intermediate” layout, which has not been used for car racing since 2000. We thank Mondello Park for re-opening this rarely used layout for us.

The Race Director has some notes for drivers. Please see the track map above for location of Race Direction note:-

1. The Start / Finish straight is fairly narrow, and the pitlane exit can be quite tricky. It would be unreasonable and unfeasible to expect drivers at the race start to avoid the pitlane exit. Therefore, the Race Director has the following finding:
   The Pit Exit is usable only at the race start (defined by the Go signal until the completion of Corner 1, Lap 1 by the last runner) as normal racetrack and thereafter, for avoidance purposes only. Drivers using it as their habitual line will face penalty.
   
   
2. The Esses have a tyre wall that can, if impacted, throw the affected car across the track, potentially into the path of following cars. Other areas of the track tend to send you away from the track rather than back across it, which is why this one is being mentioned.
   
   
3. The Pitlane Entrance is immediately beyond a fast, accelerating turn. If you are intending to pit and you have a car close behind you who you think is not going to pit, you will need to be careful when and how you brake for the Pitlane. Similarly, if you are following a car closely through this turn, you will need to be aware of the possibility of them pitting.
   

Incidents, Investigations and Penalties

As this is round 1 there are no outstanding Incidents, Investigations nor Penalties.
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, 24 hour 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.)

The RDHGP will not be running the virtual license format adopted by the RDTCC. Incidents will be treated on a case-by-case basis, and punishments dispensed on the merits (or not) of the complaint. The League Staff reserve the right to remove any driver from the league if a pattern of infringement becomes apparent. League Staff decisions on penalties are final and not subject to appeal.

Liveries

You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHGP event. We are using the default liveries only in RDHGP.

Competitors Summary

Attached to this briefing, you will find the summary for all competitors that have registered for this league. This reflects the driver registered in GPCOS, not the sign up thread. This will show their name, nationality, vehicle choice, number and livery. This is for reference only and will not change to reflect performance or attendance. As drivers register in GPCOS, the chart will be updated.

GPCOS will be the tool for defining attendance and record keeping.

 

[Ben Tusting]

I thought I can take the pole in Hockenheim, but Ben made a fantastic last lap, like Ayrton Senna. Hmm... old memories, he was my favourit. Grats Ben.

About the race: I have to say, I had no real chance to catch and overtake Ben, so I didn't want to risk my 2nd position, relaxed and pleasant driving.

Grats All!

Thx Stu & RD!

A bit late (hopefully taking this in the right way). That's the nicest thing anybody has said to me.:thanks:

 

[Steven Palmer]

As an Alpine driver I think I'm going to be admiring the lakes on my own. Those straights are hella long

 

[Maurice Hurkmans]

Maurice and Nickolay, we finally have a straight long enough to wind the Merc up. Unfortunately, we have to manage it around some slow twisty bits till we get there :turtle: , but nice to get the rubber band wound up a bit. :beauty:

Yep, indeed Warren. Interlagos suits the Merc quite well. I think we can be competitive with some of the healeys and alpines here Ferrari's will be very strong here and maybe the Shelby can do a miracle overhere.

 

[Bert Van Waes]

It's going to be tough for me to hang on second part of the race... It's 29 degrees out here today and my race room lays on the south side of the house under the roof... Lol

Sweat will be definately all over the place for me this evening. haha

I also saw it's maybe the smallest pack on the track so far, common gents! Allocate yrselfs..

Greets and see you out there

 

[Simon Bacon]

A balmy 32 Celsius atm in Croydon, will definitely be sticking the fan right next to me head. Wonder what will overheat first me or the pc:shut-mouth:

 

[Matt Crouch]

woop another pointless dnf. Someone hates me on thursdays... it starts at 8 o' clock every time. only 3 races missed due to connection problems so far... Hope I didn't cause any problems for anyone behind in the first 2 laps

 

[Simon Bacon]

Complete lag-fest going on, all afternoon it's been good. Hit the ejector seat - couldn't see where I was going

 

[Ben Tusting]

Thanx for the event everyone :good:

Very impressed with Bert :good:
A nice qualy lap steven :good: a shame about the race

Bram who was the no lights for?

 

[Maurice Hurkmans]

Epic race again

Had a awesome battle with Warren and Steven which carried on until the finishline!

Grats to podium and cya in the States!

Full report later on when im cooled off again, 28 degrees here still inside at 11pm

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Team Shelby takes maximum result

With only 10 practice laps this afternoon on a new track that i never drove before i was quite anxious for what was about to happen in this race.

On the forum somebody said that this track would suit the Shelby's very good so i figured that i didn't need much practice and just rely on the big fat engine in the GT350 car. Lol, how wrong was that prediction.

It scared the out of me this afternoon when i took her on the track for the first time, no grip, no setup, no cornering speed, no nothing!!

Practice

Too hot here in my room to be bothered with 40 minutes of practice. Tried some light setup changes and Dweevelaar had the golden tip to lower the gearing one click, which resulted in a better speed in sector two with all those nasty little corners.

Qualification

Went incredibly good and managed to put the car on P8 i think with teammate Peter two spots behind me, good sign. But a really large gap to the smaller cars in the top positions. Bad Shelby track.

Race

Had a great start and managed to get a good position just behind the fastest cars with Peter close near me with the other Shelby. Decided to take 90 liters of fuel because i was not sure if the predicted fuel was right.
Without knowing it that might have been the golden move of the day. The car drove simply awesome with more weight on board and managed to strike a little gap to Peter and his close followers.
In front of me there was a little scrimmage and i managed to overtake Sam and decided to give him an incredible hard time, knowing his car was overall faster then my bad tub.
Pushed the car around Interlagos the best i could and i think i was close to a perfect race, but the pace was too low to follow the leaders. Consolidated my P5 until Jari Vinnari all of a sudden decided to use his North Korean nuclear missile in his little Alpine and was closing the gap really fast. Decided to let him by easily in the last corner so he still had chance to catch the leaders maybe.

Great race and I'll see you all again in two weeks during the next round of the Historic Grand Prix!

Thank you Stu-Art of the great flyer, track and organization again!

 

[Warren Dawes]

Best race so far in the League for me. Two Mercs beating up Steven's Alpine for most of the race, except when he occasionally beat himself up. :clown:

Maurice and I had our usual battle, with Steven getting mixed up in it all the time. :smile-big: Huge laughs. Geez Steven, why didn't you just pass us and let us get on with our own Merc fight.

Full report later after I watch the replay.

 

[Amir Margalit]

very good race tonight. fair and hard race with peter in his shelby, jari and stuart. at some point sam and i had a little touch and i spun. it was purely a racing incident and i am sorry that sam left the race afterwards.
realy good race that was. looking fwd to jari's movie( i hope he will make 0ne) and thx stuart for another great event.
can someone upload the raplay?
btw talking about the heat. it was almost 40 degrees celsios in my country today so i must take a shower now :male-fighter2:

 

[Jari Vinnari]

Fun race again.

Thank you very much Stuart and rest of the RD staff for making this league possible.

peace
Jari

 

[Steven Palmer]

Very hot and sweaty after that. Huge fun with Warren and Maurice. Will post a full report over the weekend. My best quali so far followed by my worst few openning laps ever . Always loved this track ever since the GP series

Hugely entertaining evening :good:

Well done Ben on the pole :messed:

 

[Steven Palmer]

Best race so far in the League for me. Two Mercs beating up Steven's Alpine for most of the race, except when he occasionally beat himself up. :clown:

Maurice and I had our usual battle, with Steven getting mixed up in it all the time. :smile-big: Huge laughs. Geez Steven, why didn't you just pass us and let us get on with our own Merc fight.

Those Mercs were as wide as barn doors

 

[Warren Dawes]

Ok, report time, the replay was almost as much fun as the race.

The tale of two Mercs and an Alpine. oke:

Qualified P14, again just in front of fellow Merc Maurice. Here we go again. :soldier:

The start was very busy, and after my usual sluggish start, I was turned around in the opening turns. No problem Bob, thanks for waiting. :kissed: :handshake: Now everyone had disappeared and I thought I was in for a lonely drive. How wrong I was.

Lap 2, I passed Simon and Matt having a picnic in the grass, and next lap I caught up to Kris and Hans battling, but Steven not far ahead (what was he doing back here??). More importantly for me, where was Maurice ? Hmnnn, about 10 secs ahead. A lap or so later, we came across Steven sideways across the track at turn 1 and 2, Hans couldn't avoid him and whacked him off track and spun himself, right in front of me. I hit Hans but managed to keep on the track and didn't lose too much time.
OK, back to racing, I was not far behind Kris, but Maurice had opened the gap again. I settled into some good laps (for a Merc ) and slowly but surely reduced the gap to Kris, and a bit quicker to Maurice. :cowboy: Kris spun off, leaving me a sniff of Maus's Merc in front and by now I could even see him, heh,heh. I was pushing as hard as I could now, and finally caught Maurice, and even started plotting how I might get past, but it wasn't going to be easy. Then, I looked in my mirrors and saw an Alpine on my tail, yikes, it was Steven again. This is when the fun really started. :beat-up:

Steven was waaay quicker through the twisty stuff and weaving frantically to find some road to make a pass, but the Mercs had the legs up the hill. I figured it was best to let Steven pass both Mercs, and then resume my battle with Maurice. So I gave him room in the last turn, Steven took it and passed. Unfortunately, he held me up going up the long hill and that gave Maurice a gap again. I then took a back row seat and watched Steven trying hopelessly to get past Maus's big fat Merc. Steven tried every trick in the book, but Maus wasn't having any of it. It was soooo funny, Maurice could open a superb defensive driving school (just ask Steven ).
So I watched and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. This went on for lap after hilarious lap, but still poor Steven couldn't get past the Merc. Eventually, Steven lost it on turn one again, letting me through. He was once again stuck behind both Mercs, and I can just imagine what he was thinking by now :censored: :caked: .
Ok, now time for me to attack Maurice again, but he didn't show me any more mercy than Steven. :heh: You guessed it, Steven was quickly all over me again like an annoying fly, buzzing left and right looking for an opening. All I was thinking now was "buzz off Steven, you had your go at Maus, now it's my turn" :croc: Things were getting frantic with a couple of laps to go, and finally Steven got a run on me and slipped passed Maurice in a great move up the hill. You could actually hear Steven sighing in relief, just as Maurice pulled off a miraculous late braking dive at the top of the hill and got in front again. That surely raised some sweat for Steven. Last lap now, sure to be plenty of action in the run to the line, and down the next straight Steven gave Maurice some of his own defensive medicine and they went into the sweeper side by side. Guess who was waiting for that opening :wink: , and I grabbed my chance and passed Maurice, but Steven escaped. I held Maurice off to the line, but he threw one last desperate lunge in the last turn which didn't come off. Really bad luck Maus, but a fantastic race. :high5:

I had no idea (nor cared) what the final placing was, I was having too much fun, but according to the replay, I finished P11. Just an amazing fun race, huge thanks to Maurice and Steven.:clap2::clap2::clap2:

Grats to Ben, Peter, and Bert.

 

[Warren Dawes]

can someone upload the raplay?

Here is mine:

http://rapidshare.com/files/251272504/Interlagos_GP_090703_0603.Vcr.html

 

[Kris Leeten]

At the moment (after 6h 'sleep') all I can say: Damn those mosquitos, they were eating me alive! Those pesky beast stole all my concentration and even forced me to pit in Worst RDHGP event for me so far Big problem was that every tiny mistake in my Alpine got enlarged by the end of the following straight...

Hopefully I have some more focus (and less mosquitos) in the next event.

Gratz to Ban, Peter & Bert(!) and all the rest who participated

Thanks to Stuart & RD.

 

[Warren Dawes]

I thought Steven may like a screenshot to use as a motivational aid for the next race, entitled:

"Don't botch up the first few laps ever again" :frusty: .

Pick any one for a screensaver / wallpaper. :yo: :fish: :hug:

 

[Peter Duivelaar]

Not so much to tell about this race.
Had a terrible start because I accidently put the car in 2nd gear, so I was 15th when I entered first turn.
Had some nice battles throughout the race and finished 8th.
Grats to Ben for the win and also well done to Bram in the other shelby.