RDHGP S7 - Round 7 - 100km - A1- Ring - Thu 21st July 2011

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Stuart Thomson

The Stoat Without Fear ™
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RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix Season 7 – Round 7

See? This is nuts. Welcome to the penultimate race, Round 7, of RDHGP S7. Where’s the season gone?

Again, I got no reported incidents, about which I’m going to persist in the opinion that it signifies good clean racing, and a satisfactory event.

Round 7 takes us back across the Atlantic, over 6,200 miles North East, and the A1 ring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria.

proga1ring.jpg
Circuit Notes
The town of Spielberg is situated roughly centrally in Austria in the Styria region. The first Formula 1 race held there was run at the Zeltweg Airfield, the idea for this coming from the success that the UK had been having with Silverstone, also an airfield. The surface turned out to be too abrasive, however, and only a single World Championship event was held there in 1964. The airfield track was abandoned in 1969 following the construction of the purpose built Österreichring.

The Österreichring hosted the Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from 1970 to 1987. In 1977, the first corner was changed from a sweeping right hander into a chicane – the Hella-Licht S – before it was shortened by over 1 km and completely altered into the A1 ring in 1997. Unlike our Interlagos version, this shorter track is the layout that we will be driving. This version hosted the Austrian Grand Prix from 1997-2003, as well as rounds of the DTM and MotoGP championships, until the Stands and Pits were bulldozed in 2004. Since then, the venue has metamorphosed again into the Red Bull Ring, although its owner has ruled out any future F1 or MotoGP, concentrating on the DTM & the F2 Championships.
As the A1 Ring only has 9 corners, this will be a bit easier and quicker for me to write than the previous round.

A lap of the A-1 Ring starts on the fairly long slightly downhill sloping home straight, the S/F line about halfway down it, so there will be some fairly high speeds being reached on the first lap, and top speed on subsequent laps. As the first corner is fairly sharp, Lap 1 caution and prudence will be required.

The braking zone for T1R rises sharply to unsettle the cars as the slam on the anchors, the inner kerbs are relatively benign on the inner half, but going in too too aggressively will give you a Cut, and taking liberties with the outer kerb if you stay wide will also give you a Cut. All in all, T1R can be attacked, but it is surrounded by hazards. Risk/reward scenario is very much the in evidence here. Through experience, this corner is only a hazard on Lap 1, until the pack can sort itself out. DO NOT be greedy, selfish or overly aggressive here on Lap1, or you’ll find yourself out of the double point finale without recourse for appeal. I kid you not.

Accelerating hard out of T1R, the track rises gently, and falls gently, and then rises again slightly sharper for the hard braking zone into T2R – Remus. While having a similar feel to T1R, Remus is tighter, has bumpier kerbs, is slippier on exit AND has the added protection of strict but fair cut warnings. All in all, it’s a fairly tricky prospect to get right, but it is important for decent times.

Again hard on the power, you exit onto a downhill straight, over a crest, onto a much steeper downhill slope, under the banner into the downhill braking zone for T3R – Gösser.

The downhill braking into Gösser telescopes the stopping distances, the heavier cars being affected more than the lighter ones, so care will be needed into here depending on what you are in, and what is around you. Gösser starts relatively tight, and then opens out, but the –ve camber means that care is required under acceleration. The track eventually opens into T4R, almost a continuation of Gösser, but crested to make it easily discernable, and the track drops down into a rarity so far – a left hander.

T5L is the amusingly named (to me, even if no-one else) Power Horse. This is a medium speed corner, best taken as a slow in-quick out profile, as you want to get your nose in early. It is all too easy to wash out on the outside of Power Horse and you don’t want to do that, as you are approaching T6L – Niki Lauda. If you can get Power Horse right, you can treat Niki Lauda almost as a second apex, even though there is quite a distance between them, with Lauda just needing a lift induced nose tuck to get across the apex.

Hard acceleration out of Lauda, and if you get it right you’ll be feeling pretty good about yourself, but hold that in for a moment, as probably the trickiest corner on the circuit is looming – T7R.

It’s not tricky because it’s particularly tight or unsighted – it’s not. It’s tricky because it sits in a dip, with a very nasty bump right at the turn in point, that will unsettle your car just as you are on full acceleration, an uphill exit that then immediately crests as you are wrestling you car back into shape, and a very strict (but again not unfair) cut warning on the outside of the kerb that you will be drifting towards. Negotiate this and you are facing a short uphill blast that then crests, and dives away down and right into T8R – Jochen Rindt.

A hard stab of brakes on a wide line, and then a swoop in, attacking the inside kerb on Rindt is a must, as there is another cut warning, and more importantly some nasty to get out of sand, on the outside if you stray over the kerbs, either by circumstance or design.

A squirt of right foot downhill along the short stretch out of Rindt, past the pit entry, and throw the nose at the downhill, -ve camber, blind and protected on the inside by the pit wall T9R – A1.

If you have to compromise your line through A1, take your medicine on entry, not on exit, because it leads into that long straight, and mph lost here are gone. Even the tiniest lift, wobble or correction will have people swarming all over your rear end. From there it’s flat out to the S/F line and another lap of the A1 Ring.

A1.jpg
The Race Directors Notes
Please see the track map above (A1 ring in black overlaid onto the 79 Oesterreichring in grey) 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.

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.

Regain the track safely
- If you leave the track, you must rejoin the track safely. If that means losing another couple of places – so be it.

T2R – Remus
– As mentioned above, Remus is awkward, the inner kerbs look tempting, but they are much more pronounced that T1R, and will upset vehicles. The other issue it presents is people spinning out under over eager acceleration. Be aware of both of these scenarios.

T3R – G
össer – I mentioned above that it’s heavily downhill on the brakes into here, and that it would telescope braking distances depending on your vehicle. People flying in in heavy cars and taking people out like skittles will not be looked upon favourably.

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.
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 reported racing incidents arising from Round6.
2 drivers incurred a “No-Show” infraction:
  • Norman Bruce
  • Ondrej Kapal
Both will carry this No-Show infraction for one race. If they allocate correctly for that race, the Infractions will be lifted.
1 driver has resigned from the League:
  • Keith Peppiatt
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.

New Driver

Chris Butcher is joining the last 2 rounds of Season 7, and he will have his own livery. I will be posting that in the uploads section. It is a mandatory download, so people don’t have skin checking problems. It will be available for download over the weekend (16/17 July).

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
 
On several occasions I felt that I'm maybe a bit more aggressive in battles. So if I was I apologise, adrenaline was sky high all the time. Really guys, if I was, feel free to tell me, because I can't judge sometimes from a cockpit.

Nothing from my point of view, but I was in front of you for about 3 seconds anyway, LOL.

One thing I remember though, you and Norman in the last corner. You were practically stationary on the corner exit, Ondrej and I had to avoid. I saw it earlier than him, so not much trouble for me, but Ondrej had to rely on his cat-like reflexes. Nice save there :D

Stop and let him through in a safer place :tongue:

Thanks goes to Stu for choosing this track that made my Ford feel like a proper car. :)

Hehe, true, maybe the first race that felt like I was racing from start to finish :)
 
I can only see in my mirrors how Jags and maybe some Vette pass me by, and other Fords and Fiats with them. How?!

We run out of nitrous after L2 :).

Also no, I haven't felt wrong by you at any point of the race.


As for my review: had a really, really straining race. I wasn't really able to put ANY practice in, so I was just refreshing my distant memories of A1 Ring (I remember enjoying it in TRD days or so, so not really simracing, track-memorizing days for me back then :)), getting to know the track in the official praccy. Wanted really badly to catch up with Senad, trying to curb my frustration. Managed to close the gap to almost nonexistent by the end of quali, but that meant hard work in the race to keep it up.

Started rather nicely, first moments after the start are always the high-time of 131 driving. I was praying that the race would end after lap 6 or so, as I knew that the effort of keeping my very nice position is way beyond my reach (as there were a couple of way faster rides behind me). Enjoyed some dicing with Dave Cuthill, was surprised that I was able to stay on him for so long. I had to work with my elbows just a wee bit at one point, when I've decided to try and pass him in my best relative sector of the track (the sweeping lefthanders). I got a bit squeezed despite having an overlap, lifted, then stepped hard on it and we brushed very delicately again. I saw Dave run a bit wide after that, but he didn't seem to have lost much, so I truly hope you don't mind too much, mate. Tried not to be much of an annoyance apart from that (if you excuse my few occasional touches on the brakings earlier ;)).

Later on we got together with Predrag quite a few times. Initially I hoped I was fast enough to pass & forget, but it turned out Predrag had loads more pace than me. Every time I could gain a position he was coming back hard and without mercy, just blasting away. On one lap I was pushing like a lunatic, setting a PB, FL, letter to Santa and all and he still passed me like I've run wide or something.

On the last lap, when some Cobras tried to lap us in a worst place imaginable on that track for a muscle vs. agility passing I was very close to losing this battle; we got into penultimate turn side by side, my rear stepped out quite a bit, I've tried all I can to keep it from touching the Escort and Predrag exited the last turn right on my tail. He was at my passenger's door when I crossed the finish line, that was really a cool ending to the race :).

I was giving it 110% all the time, managed not to do any big mistakes and it was extremely exhausting in the best possible, rewarding way. I'm looking forward to R8, hopefully I'll be able to arrange the things so I can get some good practice in :).

Thanks to all for the on-track action and to the great hard-working staff for making it happen :)
 
Little report to my race cause it happen not so much. It was quiet important, after i got the pole, to keep my position first lap. That works and also the further laps i could open a gap to Ivo to about 7-8 sec. Unfortunatly he disconected from the race which is really shame for him.

Now Chris and Ross was behind me. Think the biggest gap was about 12 sec. And 10 sec is about the edge which i need for the last laps. I think i also profite a bit form their fights for position but i was also more satisfied that my tyres have not so big effect like last rounds. Anyhow to the end my pace slowed down like i expected like it happen also all the races before. But this time i could hold it till finish with about 6-7 sec to Ross.

I´m really happy to have one win in the league. I would be sure a bit disappointed if after 3 poles and leaded 6 of 7 races i´m without a success. So now i´m fine with my season and looking forward to the final race. Hope we get a nice last round with anybody there and the fastest will win.

Think the A1 ring was the best possible track for the Corvette with many turns in low 2nd gear but i hope i can also be competetive in Limerock compare to the Shelby´s.

Cu there :).
 
On several occasions I felt that I'm maybe a bit more aggressive in battles. So if I was I apologise, adrenaline was sky high all the time. Really guys, if I was, feel free to tell me, because I can't judge sometimes from a cockpit.

I saw Dave run a bit wide after that, but he didn't seem to have lost much, so I truly hope you don't mind too much, mate. Tried not to be much of an annoyance apart from that (if you excuse my few occasional touches on the brakings earlier ;)).

Absolutely no complaints at all. Close, tight action but always leaving enough room for each other. Wouldn't want it any other way :)
 
Wow, very close up top in the overall standings, 9 points separating the top 4. 8 people can theoretically win it in the last round.

1 point separating the two Fiats, also will be decided in the final round :D


My fastest lap in this race: 1m52.505
Lukasz's fastest lap: 1m52.537 :D
 
A bit late.. :) Qualified in 10th not to bad. Got quite a good start and ended up behind Gary in one of the other jags. After the first lap and with Gary still in front thought i would settle in behind him to see how things would pan out, but on the 2nd or 3rd lap missed me braking point going into the right hander at the end of the back straight and right into the back of Gary....:( sry man, after a lot of swearing and banging me head on the keyboard i got going again with Gary still in front but also letting Stu and Bob through in the other jags. Only good thing to come out of that was a race long battle with me Gary, Bob and Stu a little bit further up the road. It was nose and tail between us three and it took most of the race before we started to catch Stu then it ended up a four way dice, nice :). But with a couple of laps left it looked like Stu was having grip issues and going into the same right hander were i hit Gary Stu lost it, Bob and Gary just manged to squeeze by but i had nowhere to go but straight into the side of Stu and on the grass, unlucky Stu :(. Managed to finish in 10th where i qualified which wasn't to bad in the end as it was a cracking race.....:). Cheers for the Replay file Bob nearly forgot what happened :wink:.

This was me hot lap....

 
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