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.

 

[Maurice Hurkmans]

-Pic 4 Close? My Alpine eating Maurices BEAUTIFUL Merc.

AHA!!! That's the blue paint on my rear bumper which is annoying my mechanics.....they can't get it off :rotfl:

hmmmm....maybe you will see a blue painted Merc in Germany :skywalker:

 

[Simon Bacon]

Slowly the Fezza is starting to become a nice car to drive (for me), thanks in no small part to Bram's assistance with my setup this afternoon.:thumb:
Finally managed to crack 2.20.xxx in qualifying, which was quite an achievement considering I'd been steady around the 2.22's for a couple of days.
Managed to avoid most of the start line stuff though I think I tagged Matt coming up my outside after I narrowly avoiding slamming broadside into a spinning Merc. Sorry.

Settled down to a great 6 laps with the Hurk's Merc, Matt, Stuart, Knut, Bert (if I leave anyone out - apologies.) It was fun racing with you all. The inevitable mistake came, in front of Stuart. Hope that didn't put you off.

At about Lap 11 I finally decided I didn't like less grip Fezza so pitted for tyres, it was then a case of chasing but in vain, Bert came out of the pits on the last lap, thought I might have him but by that time I was quite knackered and sloppy. So 16th again, not a great result but as I said at the start, finally the 275 is starting to feel nice - look forward to Hockenheim.

Simon.

PS put some shots in the pics section.
pps Just had a look at my Hotlap - 2.18.731:woot2:

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

AHA!!! That's the blue paint on my rear bumper which is annoying my mechanics.....they can't get it off :rotfl:

hmmmm....maybe you will see a blue painted Merc in Germany :skywalker:

It was lots of fun chasing you And well done keeping that pace with the Merc. Again such a beautiful car. Hope we continue the battle in Germany

This left Knut quite close behind and closing in, and the final few laps were rather tense. The last lap was even more so as we had to get past a smoking Hans and rather oddly a Thomson parked in the middle of a chicane* . I stayed in-front (just) and took 8th

I put a bullseye on your trunk and gunned it:laugh2: Did some mistakes though and went on the grass in the chikane. Otherwise it could have been a close finish ...

 

[Steven Palmer]

Blimey. That took a lot out of me. I'll post a full report tomorrow, I really need a break from looking at this screen. Never fought so hard to get a point:victory: ......Phew....:laugh2:

 

[Matt Crouch]

Managed to avoid most of the start line stuff though I think I tagged Matt coming up my outside after I narrowly avoiding slamming broadside into a spinning Merc. Sorry.

Don't worry the merc was an innocent bystander in the chain reaction which involved me at an earlier point anyway, and it didn't affect my race at-all, although maybe it would have been fairer if it did...

 

[Amir Margalit]

good race ended up 7th. . had a very close and fair fight with sam matt and bert. not such a fair fight with one of the ferrari guys.
don't know exactly what happend there so can someone upload the replay?

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

Replay file:http://rapidshare.com/files/235748905/Imola_090521_2204.Vcr.html

 

[Stuart Thomson]

I think following my heart and not my head in car choice is biting me on the posterior at the moment , but I can't deny that the RDHGP is massive fun :good:

A decent (for me) midfield qualifying place, unfortunately ruined by S/F line scattering and resultant chaos. I turned the air blue in my house, the dog hid under the kitchen table and the mice were throwing themselves onto the traps, but it was accidental.

So, within 400 yards, I'm dead last through no fault of my own.

Possibly that allowed me to just drive and not worry too much about where I ended up.

Had some cracking dices with Knut, Stevie P, Nickolay & Simon. Nice driving fellas :good:

Steve & I were doing the "gentlemen's excuse me" where one would get in front, only to have an off, allow the other one through, and vice versa until race end

Still, that was better fun for me than Mondello, and I'm looking forward to pitching up at the Hock in 2 weeks time.

 

[Peter Duivelaar]

The key for winning the race was really driving consistent lap times.
The first 5 laps I was very close behind Bram, and then he decided to push a little harder, result: 3 seconds slower after 2 laps.
I thought if he would continue driving those laps he would create a very big gap, so I increased my pace, by really pushing to the limit.
Bram's laptimes became a bit slower, and the gap remained the same: 3 seconds. But in lap 15, Bram made a mistake which gave me the lead.
I made one mistake by going a bit to wide in T1, but I slowed down so I would not get a stop and go. Bram couldn't attack me any more in the final laps, and this gave me my first victory in RDHGP, I thought it would be impossible with the shelby after the race at mondello.

 

[Simon Bacon]

I think following my heart and not my head in car choice is biting me on the posterior at the moment , but I can't deny that the RDHGP is massive fun :good:

I'm singing the chorus to that song as well. For me the Ferrari is so different to drive than any other car I've used in GTL. At Mondello it was big, heavy and cumbersome, felt like it had to man-handled 'round the corners. Up until yesterday afternoon when Bram pointed me in the direction of a basic setup. Wouldn't say it was a 'hallelujah' moment by any means, but that (and completely changing my driving style) meant that last night I actually looked forward to Hockenheim.

 

[Steven Palmer]

Imola - a circuit steeped in history and a favourite of many sim/realife racers I imagine. The nature of the circuit was always going to be a shoe in win for the mighty Shelby, if the the beasts could be kept on the black stuff.

And so it was with mild trepidation that I took out my little Alpine A110 for the start of practice, knowing that I was probably going to be near the bottom of the time sheet come the end of the hour. The first few laps went quite well, with a full tank of fuel my little french mistress was handling OK, I was in the top 1/4 of the leaderboard and the time just melted away as I completed lap after lap, trying to get into some sort of consistency zone. It was working too. The tryes were getting a little warmer and the lap times were improving. The pre race apprehension about being last was fading away. Come the end of practice I was feeling quite confident.

As the pit lane opened for qualifiying, I put in 3 laps of fuel and decided to get an early banker lap in. Three laps later and the little Alpine was in P2, with a PB for me of 2.16.536. OK big deal, only 4 or 5 of us had gone out, but 10 mins in and I had only dropped 2 grid slots to P4. Things were looking good. A few more laps couldn't improve my time, either traffic or erroneous driving on my behalf ensured I was not to better my PB. By the end of Qualifiying I was in a respectable P7. Very happy with that.

Now just calm the nerves for the start, quickly double check the race setup is loaded, quick slurp of tea and head to the grid.

The countdown reaches zero, the revs rise, the 3,2,1, GO and we're off. Well some of us. It appears that Peter's Ferrari has stalled on the line, first Sam then I dart to the right of the stricken prancing horse, then, by some black tiffosi magic the beast materializes behind me coming into T1. As well as this I noticed a car flying through the air in my rear view mirror....concentrate....

Lap 1 went without incident, the car felt a little sluggish compared to the opposition around me but come the end of the lap I was in P6, but I had Peter's Ferrari gainning quickly and at Tamburello I got a bit of oversteer which lost me a lot of momentum and both Peter and Jay slipped through. Still annoyed at losing those two places so easily, I threw away any chance of a decent points finish when I missed my braking point at the top of Piratella and promtly piroetted into the sand and watched helplessly as the pack streamed by as I was trying to claw my way out of the sand. P8 to P16 in 5 seconds.

A dark mood spread over me which lead to several near off's and the fears I had of being last were being realized. Time to put the head down and put some consistant laps in. And it started to pay off. Directly ahead was Nickolay, closely following Stuart, Knut and Simon all having there own little battle which was enabling me to catch them. Catching is one thing passing is another. Having got to the back off Nickolay's Mercedes I just couldn't get by the damn thing, the little Alpine just didn't have the legs over the Stuttgart cruiser, I was just going to have to wait for a mistake. It didn't come from Nickolay, after 5 or so laps nose to tail, I decided to take a lunge up the inside into the downhill braking zone at Rivazza, but wasn't quite able to make it stick. Nickolay saw it and took a wider line which put him into the gravel, so I waited for him to recover and we carried on. I was still out of the points in P16 and thought that the night was going to be fruitless.

At this late stage of the race it was all about finishing now, just for my pride if nothing else. For me it was an entertaining last 7/8 laps. As Stuart said in his report, we ended up playing, "give the point away". Each of us would take it in turns to spin, loose the place/point, catch up, watch the other spin, retake the place/point, spin - repeat for each lap till the end of the race. Bizarre. I'm not sure about Stuart, but for me it was down to tiredness. That race sure did take a lot out of me and I was glad to see the chequered flag. P14 and 2 very grateful points....Phew

Congratulations go to the podium, Patrick, Bram and Peter. Well done guys.

As the show now moves on to Hockenhiem, Germany, it's going to be important to practice being consistant. The track doesn't overly favour the faster cars, there's the twisty grandstand section, but, there is enough of a straight for the Shelby's and Ferrari's to stretch their legs.

It's going to be a good 'un whatever the outcome. I can hardly wait:drool:

See you all next round chaps for what is a cracking league. (Bratwurst and Beer anyone :laugh2

 

[Sam J Simpson]

What can I say that hasn't already been, qualified a bit better here than at Mondello, still wasn't fastest Healey though, shouldn't have uploaded my setup so Amir could use it :rotfl: got a decent start off the grid but Peter was lagging pretty badly and it was real hard estimating where he would appear next, infront, behind or inside:wink2: so I backed off a bit to account for it through the first few corners, it seemed I wasn't the only one to have hassles with it as I saw carnage ensue in the mirror, had to drive hard to keep the baying Ferrari hounds off my back in the early laps but the tyres gave up just enough for them both to catch up towards the end, only Peter got past after a great side by side few corners but I saw Dave spin behind and I had enough of a gap to take 4rth and be first Healey home a long way behind the V8 crew, had a very enjoyable evening for which I thank the Admin and my fellow racers, heres hoping it continues.

Sam

 

[Bob Luneski]

Well they serve up Humble Pie in HUGE servings in GTL :rotfl: After 3 days with the game I had supreme confidence in my ability to live up to my old nickname "Backmarker Bob the UberSnail". I fully met and even exceeded those expectations. :rotfl::rotfl:

Actually, it wouldn't have been so bad, if I hadn't hit the tires on the chicane on the first lap. Or if I had been able to communicate to my pit crew that they were supposed to fix the suspension damage instead of topping off the tank and changing the tires. Or if I hadn't hit that wall in the second lap but I did manage to get my car fixed this time. The idiots still toped the tank off and gave me my 2nd set of new tires in 2 laps (never can be too careful about excessive tire wear).

And then there was the 5 stop and gos for cutting. I tried to explain to the race marshal the fact that careening out of control toward walls is not attempting to gain a time advantage. They were unsympathetic. :frown:

Anyway, I did finish the race and it was dandy fun. Hope to actually participate in the racing next time :rotfl:

 

[Kris Leeten]

I just checked the replays and have to confirm I had quite a lonely race, except the few laps when Bert was around
Q 12th pos but very lucky at the start where I won 4 places in 4 seconds
For safety reasons I kept some distance to Peter (lagging) and that costed me 1 pos.
Then I couldn't resist to the attacks from some Healeys and Ferrari's. I kept driving in 10th pos with Maurice at 78 seconds behind me when I encountered Bert. A few laps later he spun and suddenly Knut was on my tail.
Knut passed as I made my only 180 on top of the hill. Quickly recovered, but no chance of keeping up with Knut. In the final lap I crashed into that green flashing object in the chicane... luckily it didn't affect my end position.
Overal I think I did a good job in the underpowered Alpine on this high speed track.

See you in Hockenheim!

 

[Jari Vinnari]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGjyuyonLpw[/ame]

peace
Jari

 

[Amir Margalit]

great video jarri. thank you for the time and effort you put making it. it just reflects how good this race was.

btw this movie also made clear to me how i lost 5th place to peter cog and david cuthil. thx you two for spinning me and waiting. not:nono:

 

[Hans Sneep]

My Healey and me,
we are not great friends yet bud I do my best,let her run one or two times a week some practice rounds to show her the track where we keep our next
RDHGP race,so she can posses some knowledge about the track.

Sometimes she is a bit capricious and doing things on her own,I think she can be a bit jealous,when I get another car from the garage to run a race with.

When race day come I treat her nicely,give the best fuel I can get , put in the best oil to be found and give her new spark plugs and brake's.

In quali she was not happy with the setup so i change it to Sam his setup and it seems she likes it better bud time was running out so we ended on last place.

Race start, we had a great start bud in front of us a Mercedes came not from his place, so we steering a way to avoid the Merc and hit the wall ,
steering wheel out of order,bud we try to continue the race,a bit difficult when your wheel is not in the middle on the straight ,so after some laps we let it repair in the pits, ad the and of the race we try to go out of the way fore some fast guys,and slip of hit the wall again ,flat tyre and a S/G for cutting,limpet back to the pits to take S/G,and must do a lap to repair, after leaving the pits race was finished so we ended on place 17 not that great.

I have promised her a good service so she will be OK for the next round,and to take her more often out the garage to do some practice together.

Hans

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

btw this movie also made clear to me how i lost 5th place to peter cog and david cuthil. thx you two for spinning me and waiting. not:nono:

Amir, this is not the way to report a league incident by simply dropping it in a post. This is a league and when you think someone didnt do justice to you you can either send a report to the race director by mail (see format) or click the report link in the MyRD forum. Dropping it here doesnt have any effect because we only look at incidents that get reported.

Back to topic: great video Jari :thumb:. I have placed both rounds in the right colums of the forum so many more can view it! Ace stuff as usual, especially love the new name GFX, really cool...

 

[Warren Dawes]

Yet again, another brilliant movie, thanks Jari. :clap:
Since I am sitting here in Longreach and not able to drive, I really enjoy seeing what has happened so far. It makes me still feel part of the group, but I'm itching to join you all.

I'll be getting the third Merc Cruiser out of the garage for Hockenheim though, so that Maurice and Nickolay at least have some moral support. arty2:

The Merc may not be fast, but it lifts the class of the field. :wink2:

 

[Maurice Hurkmans]

I'll be getting the third Merc Cruiser out of the garage for Hockenheim though, so that Maurice and Nickolay at least have some moral support. arty2:

The Merc may not be fast, but it lifts the class of the field. :wink2:

arty2: jeeeeeh, looking forward to that! and you couldn't have chosen a better race to join in: our homerace at Hockenheim national :victory:

Looking at the trackprofile, Hockenheim should suit our merc a bit better then the first 2 tracks.

So put the Bier und Bratwurst in the trunk and lets go to Germany :laugh2: