RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix Season 8 is Go – Everything Old Is New Again
Welcome to Season 8 of the RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix (RDHGP), covering the Autumn / Winter session of 2011/2012. I’ll admit last season’s cars tricked us during testing a little bit and ended up as almost 3 classes, so it’s lucky that we can put that behind us immediately and go straight to one of the best and closest racing vehicle groups I think I’ve managed to put together. As I’ve been saying for some time now, the TC-65 class never lets us down in terms of racing, and these cars are a superb spread of vehicle types. The TC-65 class is, in my opinion, the best racing class we have available to us, and I emphasise the word racing. The cars are not so powerful that you are merely clinging on, hoping not to spin off into oblivion – which is how a lot of the races end up as the power increases, but well mannered enough so that everyone can almost forget about everything bar racing the person in front of, or indeed behind, you.
I sincerely believe 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.
This years tracks are a slightly different mix, the vehicles allowing me to have the full choice of track types without worrying that the overall pace of the vehicles will make the races too frustrating.
The season opener takes us to North America, specifically to Coquitlam, British Columbia in Canada and the Westwood Motorsport Park.
Circuit Notes
Located about 10 miles east of Vancouver, Westwood was Canada’s first purpose built permanent road racing circuit, opened in 1959, 2 years before after Mosport opened in Ontario. Designed and built in the late 1950’s, and holding it’s first major race in 1959, Westwood was the brainchild of the Sports Car Club of British Columbia.
Westwood is a deceptively simple layout, created along topological features through the heavy trees, adding those extra degrees of difficulty that makes it such a fun, challenging and rewarding drive, and a superb way to start off our season. While the lap is obviously dominated by that long straight, Westwood has enough in it’s locker to mean that brute force will not be enough to succeed.
Westwood starts on a fairly short, humped straight, short enough that, depending on attendance, some of the lower placed qualifiers may actually be lined up on the exit of the final corner, the Esses. It’s not a hairpin or anything drastic like that, but care will need to be taken under the hard acceleration of the Start.
T1R – Carousel - is an absolute monster of a corner to start the League season on, starting with a non-direct, downhill approach, diving away again down and right, positively and steeply (15°) banked, so it will accept some fairly high speeds for its radius, bottoming out just as the corner opens out. The main dangers in this corner are a) over cooking your entry, assuming that the banking will save you, and b) not allowing for the understeer building up as the banking unwinds into the short following straight. 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 T1R, you have a quick stab of acceleration before standing on the brakes for T2L – Clubhouse.
Clubhouse is a tight and slightly negatively cambered corner, the bumpy kerbs protecting the overly aggressive line, and a slight pinch of radius on the exit meaning that it needs the utmost respect from drivers.
You get on the gas out of Clubhouse, but immediately need to regulate that for the double apexed T3R – Valley Corner Curve. It’s a technical turn, the first part fairly fast, taken with a breathe of throttle, but as it progresses downhill, the second apex just tightens slightly, the downhill nature meaning that the nose never wants to turn in as much as you think it should. You can negotiate T3R easily and steadily, but that may compromise your lap, as it is followed by that long straight.
The long back straight climbs uphill, flattening suddenly and turning slightly left – the Deer’s Leap – just as the car is at it’s least settled, and then the straight drops downhill again, the cars hitting their top speed. The track then rises again through the braking zone into T4R – The Marshall’s Hairpin. Despite the closeness of the cars, they are still very different beasts. The Jaguar will not have the same braking distance as the Abarth, so all drivers need to be aware of what is around them as the braking zone approaches.
T4R – Marshall’s Hairpin – is a fairly standard 180°, the main danger is overshooting once tyres get worn and brakes get hot, as there is a not very welcoming sandpit beyond the turn. Once settled out of Marshall’s, it’s full acceleration towards T5 – The Esses. The first part of the Esses T5aR is approached uphill under full acceleration, but the turn is a blind crest, the car wanting to take off and drift left - into the Pit Entry slip - followed by a downhill, off camber T5bR. Careful line and throttle control are needed here to not suddenly snap out of control as the car goes light and traction decreases.
Exiting The Esses, we are back into the S/F straight and across the line for another lap of Westwood.
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.
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. Be aware 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.
T3R – Valley Corner. As mentioned in the Circuit Notes, the exit is sneakily pinched, and the kerbs will throw cars under full acceleration out of control. Be aware of people suddenly snapping across the track after dropping a wheel on the outside kerbs.
T4R – Marshall’s Hairpin. This turn is approached under heavy braking after the high speed straight, 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 T4R. Going in too hot will drop you into the waiting sand trap. Care must be taken when rejoining the track out of here.
T5bR – The Esses. Drivers missing this to the outside will be thrown down the Pit Lane. If you get thrown through here, you must use your pit limiter to avoid getting a S&G penalty.
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 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
As it’s Round 1 of a new season, everyone comes into it with a completely clean slate.
As 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 8 of the RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix (RDHGP), covering the Autumn / Winter session of 2011/2012. I’ll admit last season’s cars tricked us during testing a little bit and ended up as almost 3 classes, so it’s lucky that we can put that behind us immediately and go straight to one of the best and closest racing vehicle groups I think I’ve managed to put together. As I’ve been saying for some time now, the TC-65 class never lets us down in terms of racing, and these cars are a superb spread of vehicle types. The TC-65 class is, in my opinion, the best racing class we have available to us, and I emphasise the word racing. The cars are not so powerful that you are merely clinging on, hoping not to spin off into oblivion – which is how a lot of the races end up as the power increases, but well mannered enough so that everyone can almost forget about everything bar racing the person in front of, or indeed behind, you.
I sincerely believe 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.
This years tracks are a slightly different mix, the vehicles allowing me to have the full choice of track types without worrying that the overall pace of the vehicles will make the races too frustrating.
The season opener takes us to North America, specifically to Coquitlam, British Columbia in Canada and the Westwood Motorsport Park.
Circuit Notes
Located about 10 miles east of Vancouver, Westwood was Canada’s first purpose built permanent road racing circuit, opened in 1959, 2 years before after Mosport opened in Ontario. Designed and built in the late 1950’s, and holding it’s first major race in 1959, Westwood was the brainchild of the Sports Car Club of British Columbia.
Westwood is a deceptively simple layout, created along topological features through the heavy trees, adding those extra degrees of difficulty that makes it such a fun, challenging and rewarding drive, and a superb way to start off our season. While the lap is obviously dominated by that long straight, Westwood has enough in it’s locker to mean that brute force will not be enough to succeed.
Westwood starts on a fairly short, humped straight, short enough that, depending on attendance, some of the lower placed qualifiers may actually be lined up on the exit of the final corner, the Esses. It’s not a hairpin or anything drastic like that, but care will need to be taken under the hard acceleration of the Start.
T1R – Carousel - is an absolute monster of a corner to start the League season on, starting with a non-direct, downhill approach, diving away again down and right, positively and steeply (15°) banked, so it will accept some fairly high speeds for its radius, bottoming out just as the corner opens out. The main dangers in this corner are a) over cooking your entry, assuming that the banking will save you, and b) not allowing for the understeer building up as the banking unwinds into the short following straight. 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 T1R, you have a quick stab of acceleration before standing on the brakes for T2L – Clubhouse.
Clubhouse is a tight and slightly negatively cambered corner, the bumpy kerbs protecting the overly aggressive line, and a slight pinch of radius on the exit meaning that it needs the utmost respect from drivers.
You get on the gas out of Clubhouse, but immediately need to regulate that for the double apexed T3R – Valley Corner Curve. It’s a technical turn, the first part fairly fast, taken with a breathe of throttle, but as it progresses downhill, the second apex just tightens slightly, the downhill nature meaning that the nose never wants to turn in as much as you think it should. You can negotiate T3R easily and steadily, but that may compromise your lap, as it is followed by that long straight.
The long back straight climbs uphill, flattening suddenly and turning slightly left – the Deer’s Leap – just as the car is at it’s least settled, and then the straight drops downhill again, the cars hitting their top speed. The track then rises again through the braking zone into T4R – The Marshall’s Hairpin. Despite the closeness of the cars, they are still very different beasts. The Jaguar will not have the same braking distance as the Abarth, so all drivers need to be aware of what is around them as the braking zone approaches.
T4R – Marshall’s Hairpin – is a fairly standard 180°, the main danger is overshooting once tyres get worn and brakes get hot, as there is a not very welcoming sandpit beyond the turn. Once settled out of Marshall’s, it’s full acceleration towards T5 – The Esses. The first part of the Esses T5aR is approached uphill under full acceleration, but the turn is a blind crest, the car wanting to take off and drift left - into the Pit Entry slip - followed by a downhill, off camber T5bR. Careful line and throttle control are needed here to not suddenly snap out of control as the car goes light and traction decreases.
Exiting The Esses, we are back into the S/F straight and across the line for another lap of Westwood.
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.
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. Be aware 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.
T3R – Valley Corner. As mentioned in the Circuit Notes, the exit is sneakily pinched, and the kerbs will throw cars under full acceleration out of control. Be aware of people suddenly snapping across the track after dropping a wheel on the outside kerbs.
T4R – Marshall’s Hairpin. This turn is approached under heavy braking after the high speed straight, 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 T4R. Going in too hot will drop you into the waiting sand trap. Care must be taken when rejoining the track out of here.
T5bR – The Esses. Drivers missing this to the outside will be thrown down the Pit Lane. If you get thrown through here, you must use your pit limiter to avoid getting a S&G penalty.
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 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
As it’s Round 1 of a new season, everyone comes into it with a completely clean slate.
As 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
