RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix Season 6 is Go - Welcome to 1972
Welcome to Season 6 of the RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix (RDHGP), covering the Autumn / Winter session of 2010/2011. After last season’s (successful) breaking of the “mod car” vehicle availability, this coming season also navigates into previously uncharted waters. This season we are running a class not included in GT Legends by default - the GTC-72 class. Comprising of the cars that were not really on a par with the fastest in GTC-76, and some high quality mod cars deliberately made to compete in this class, we may have come across the closest set of vehicles (in performance terms) that we’ve ever been able to assemble for an RDHGP season. Additionally, we race on the African continent for the first time in RDHGP, and also visit Japan and Sweden for their first RDHGP events. Our final “first” is actually a repeat oddly enough, as we return for the first time to a track we have used in RDHGP previously - since I’ve been running at least.
I hope that the testing event we held recently is a genuine indicator of the closeness we will experience throughout the season. The individual cars showed their (relative) strengths and weaknesses over the 2 test events, but the overall pace was pretty well matched across all the cars. I’m hopeful of it being a classic season, with multiple drivers challenging for the title and battles right the way through the field.
The season opener takes us to North America, specifically to Bowmanville, Ontario in Canada and the legendary Mosport Park.
Circuit Notes
Located about 10 miles North of Lake Ontario, Mosport (pronounced “Moe-sport”) was Canada’s second purpose built road racing circuit, after Westwood Park in British Columbia. Designed and built in the late 1950’s, it’s first major race was held in 1961, the Player’s 200 sports car event, won by Stirling Moss in a Lotus 19. At Moss’s suggestion, the proposed hairpin was expanded into two discrete corners, to challenge the drivers more and to increase the excitement for the spectators. The two corners are collectively named “Moss” in his honour. Mosport held the Canadian F1 Grand prix for 10 years, from 1967-1977, the Can-Am series every year of it’s history from 1966 except 1968, as well as events in the American Le Mans Series, The World Sportscar Championship, Formula 5000 and the Nascar Canadian Tyre Series.
Unlike so many legendary and historically significant motor racing venues, Mosport’s track layout has remained almost completely unchanged from its original form. With 10 turns in a just over 4km length, Mosport is one of the higher speed circuits we are running during our season, but don’t think that it’s simple or toothless, as it uses some impressive gradients to add degrees of difficulty to it’s generally high speed corners.
Mosport starts on a fairly short straight, short enough that some of the lower placed qualifiers may actually be lined up around the final corner. T1R is an absolute monster of a corner to start the League season on, diving away down and right, the inside being both obscured and guarded by the pit wall. The first lap will mean this is extra crowded through here, so caution will be required to not ruin several peoples races straight out of the gate. Accelerating out of T1 downhill, you reach a good speed before coming to T2L – Clayton. Clayton is highly crested and blind on approach because of the gradient, turning down, away and left just as the car crests and is at its lightest and most skittish.
Once settled out of T2L, it’s full acceleration towards T3R - Quebec. This is the most classic corner on the front half of the circuit, high speed, but not too heavily graded. A flatout burst of acceleration out of Quebec before the straight drops away steeply into the relatively shallow radiused T4L, but the radius is not the real issue here as, at exit, the track suddenly switches to a steep uphill section and into the heavy braking zone for T5R – Moss 1. A lot of cars will be slithering through Moss 1 on the limits of adhesion, trying to make the corner and get the car settled before the even tighter T6R – Moss 2. A very tight 90 degree right, trying to straighten the corner by running across the inside is fraught with dangers, as the inside kerb is very steep and will throw cars off it, unsettling them and spinning them, generally leaving them stranded in the middle of the circuit.
Out of T6R, it’s flat out acceleration through the slight uphill curve of T7L, and onto the long, double crested Andretti Straightaway. The higher powered cars will be able to stretch their legs here, with the more manoueverable cars hopefully getting close enough for a tow, before getting settled for T8R & T9L – The Esses. A couple of decreasing radius turns that need the car to be stable whilst changing directions at still fairly high speed before T10R – Whites.
The pitlane starts just before Whites, meaning that the pitlane can give the impression of a shallower turn than it actually is, especially when the pit wall suddenly starts on the apex. In addition, there is no positive camber on Whites, so cars coming in too hot will slide off the outside of the corner and into the waiting traps, and walls. Too much acceleration will conversely throw the rear of the car around, and shove the nose into the pit wall on the inside.
Get this corner right and it’s a dash for the S/F line and another lap of Mosport Park.
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.
T1R – Especially on Lap 1. Be aware of people as you turn in here, it has the possibility to cause huge problems if drivers don’t respect each other. I am really tempted to put a “no-pass” rule in place for this corner on Lap1, but I will give the benefit of the doubt to you all. Do not make me regret my decision. Be aware, however, that any incidents caused by reckless or over aggressive driving in Turn 1 during the first lap will be dealt with severely, probably with a “no quali” penalty for Round 2.
T2L – Clayton. As mentioned in the Circuit Notes, this is heavily graded, and it is very easy to slide off the outside here. On the outside of the corner is a tyre barrier, but it is all too easy to go into the end of this barrier and completely kill your engine.
T5R & T6R – Moss. This complex is approached under heavy braking after the high speed T4L, so you will need to be aware of the differences in braking distances and relative manoueverability of the cars around you as you go into T5R. Conversely, be aware of cars trying to take too much inside kerb through T6R, as the kerbs are very steep and can unsettle the accelerating car into a spin, right on the racing line.
T10R – Whites. Drivers missing this to the outside must be aware of traffic as they try to rejoin. Selfishness and overeagerness here could well ruin more than one person’s race, so exercise prudence through this section.
All points on the track – General Items
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the race.
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
As it’s Round 1 of a new season, everyone comes into it with a completely clean slate.
Giorgio Migazzi has missed the vehicle choice deadline for Round 1 and so will not be permitted to take part in Round 1. It will become No-show infraction if he misses the race without allocating his status correctly.
As a change from last season, 2 consecutive no-shows will mean removal from the League.
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 RDHGP event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHGP.
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P20 (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 :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
Welcome to Season 6 of the RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix (RDHGP), covering the Autumn / Winter session of 2010/2011. After last season’s (successful) breaking of the “mod car” vehicle availability, this coming season also navigates into previously uncharted waters. This season we are running a class not included in GT Legends by default - the GTC-72 class. Comprising of the cars that were not really on a par with the fastest in GTC-76, and some high quality mod cars deliberately made to compete in this class, we may have come across the closest set of vehicles (in performance terms) that we’ve ever been able to assemble for an RDHGP season. Additionally, we race on the African continent for the first time in RDHGP, and also visit Japan and Sweden for their first RDHGP events. Our final “first” is actually a repeat oddly enough, as we return for the first time to a track we have used in RDHGP previously - since I’ve been running at least.
I hope that the testing event we held recently is a genuine indicator of the closeness we will experience throughout the season. The individual cars showed their (relative) strengths and weaknesses over the 2 test events, but the overall pace was pretty well matched across all the cars. I’m hopeful of it being a classic season, with multiple drivers challenging for the title and battles right the way through the field.
The season opener takes us to North America, specifically to Bowmanville, Ontario in Canada and the legendary Mosport Park.
Circuit Notes
Located about 10 miles North of Lake Ontario, Mosport (pronounced “Moe-sport”) was Canada’s second purpose built road racing circuit, after Westwood Park in British Columbia. Designed and built in the late 1950’s, it’s first major race was held in 1961, the Player’s 200 sports car event, won by Stirling Moss in a Lotus 19. At Moss’s suggestion, the proposed hairpin was expanded into two discrete corners, to challenge the drivers more and to increase the excitement for the spectators. The two corners are collectively named “Moss” in his honour. Mosport held the Canadian F1 Grand prix for 10 years, from 1967-1977, the Can-Am series every year of it’s history from 1966 except 1968, as well as events in the American Le Mans Series, The World Sportscar Championship, Formula 5000 and the Nascar Canadian Tyre Series.
Unlike so many legendary and historically significant motor racing venues, Mosport’s track layout has remained almost completely unchanged from its original form. With 10 turns in a just over 4km length, Mosport is one of the higher speed circuits we are running during our season, but don’t think that it’s simple or toothless, as it uses some impressive gradients to add degrees of difficulty to it’s generally high speed corners.
Mosport starts on a fairly short straight, short enough that some of the lower placed qualifiers may actually be lined up around the final corner. T1R is an absolute monster of a corner to start the League season on, diving away down and right, the inside being both obscured and guarded by the pit wall. The first lap will mean this is extra crowded through here, so caution will be required to not ruin several peoples races straight out of the gate. Accelerating out of T1 downhill, you reach a good speed before coming to T2L – Clayton. Clayton is highly crested and blind on approach because of the gradient, turning down, away and left just as the car crests and is at its lightest and most skittish.
Once settled out of T2L, it’s full acceleration towards T3R - Quebec. This is the most classic corner on the front half of the circuit, high speed, but not too heavily graded. A flatout burst of acceleration out of Quebec before the straight drops away steeply into the relatively shallow radiused T4L, but the radius is not the real issue here as, at exit, the track suddenly switches to a steep uphill section and into the heavy braking zone for T5R – Moss 1. A lot of cars will be slithering through Moss 1 on the limits of adhesion, trying to make the corner and get the car settled before the even tighter T6R – Moss 2. A very tight 90 degree right, trying to straighten the corner by running across the inside is fraught with dangers, as the inside kerb is very steep and will throw cars off it, unsettling them and spinning them, generally leaving them stranded in the middle of the circuit.
Out of T6R, it’s flat out acceleration through the slight uphill curve of T7L, and onto the long, double crested Andretti Straightaway. The higher powered cars will be able to stretch their legs here, with the more manoueverable cars hopefully getting close enough for a tow, before getting settled for T8R & T9L – The Esses. A couple of decreasing radius turns that need the car to be stable whilst changing directions at still fairly high speed before T10R – Whites.
The pitlane starts just before Whites, meaning that the pitlane can give the impression of a shallower turn than it actually is, especially when the pit wall suddenly starts on the apex. In addition, there is no positive camber on Whites, so cars coming in too hot will slide off the outside of the corner and into the waiting traps, and walls. Too much acceleration will conversely throw the rear of the car around, and shove the nose into the pit wall on the inside.
Get this corner right and it’s a dash for the S/F line and another lap of Mosport Park.
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.
T1R – Especially on Lap 1. Be aware of people as you turn in here, it has the possibility to cause huge problems if drivers don’t respect each other. I am really tempted to put a “no-pass” rule in place for this corner on Lap1, but I will give the benefit of the doubt to you all. Do not make me regret my decision. Be aware, however, that any incidents caused by reckless or over aggressive driving in Turn 1 during the first lap will be dealt with severely, probably with a “no quali” penalty for Round 2.
T2L – Clayton. As mentioned in the Circuit Notes, this is heavily graded, and it is very easy to slide off the outside here. On the outside of the corner is a tyre barrier, but it is all too easy to go into the end of this barrier and completely kill your engine.
T5R & T6R – Moss. This complex is approached under heavy braking after the high speed T4L, so you will need to be aware of the differences in braking distances and relative manoueverability of the cars around you as you go into T5R. Conversely, be aware of cars trying to take too much inside kerb through T6R, as the kerbs are very steep and can unsettle the accelerating car into a spin, right on the racing line.
T10R – Whites. Drivers missing this to the outside must be aware of traffic as they try to rejoin. Selfishness and overeagerness here could well ruin more than one person’s race, so exercise prudence through this section.
All points on the track – General Items
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the race.
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
As it’s Round 1 of a new season, everyone comes into it with a completely clean slate.
Giorgio Migazzi has missed the vehicle choice deadline for Round 1 and so will not be permitted to take part in Round 1. It will become No-show infraction if he misses the race without allocating his status correctly.
As a change from last season, 2 consecutive no-shows will mean removal from the League.
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 RDHGP event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHGP.
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P20 (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 :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
