Season 9 vote

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Before doing the vote itself, let's sum up exactly what we will be voting about. As I remember from the top of my head, it is; track vote, date of last race, qual format, pit speed limiter, different track versions... was there anything else?

I'll write my interpetation of the choices/votes we have. Please correct me if I am mistaken anywhere. I'll update this first post when accepted suggestions and corrections are posted

Track vote:
This is the list I found when browsing through our discussions. Is there anything missing here, or some last minute suggestions? And are all the url's correct?

Paul Ricard - http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=15419
Watkins Glen - http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=14138
Imola - Ingame
Magny Cours - Ingame
A1 Ring - http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=7303
Estoril - Ingame
Dijon - http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=10543
Cicada - http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=35950

Date of last race:
The question is if we should move the last round from 19th to the 12th. of December

Qual format:
As I understand it there is no big movement go back to the old system with longer qual and shorter race. The suggestion here is to leave the super pole format to allow a second chance in qualify. This would mean qual would have to be approx. 5-7 min long (depending on track) and would not interfere with the rest of the schedule.

Pit Speed Limiter:
When the removal of the pit speed limit was introduced a couple of season ago it was seen as a "necessary evil" to obtain a format where a 2 stop strategy could be competitive with the 1 stop strategy. However, after it was implemented it seemed the majority liked the extra challenge of pitting very much.

I cannot remember if it was at the same time as the pit speed change, but when we introduced the 5 min super pole (it used to be 25 min normal qual) and (relevant to this issue) increased race length with 7-10 minutes this also worked in favor of two stops.

The result is that today a 2 stop is (I believe) always faster than a 1 stop, I would guess very roughly 10-15 sec slower or so. Re-introducing pit speed limit would in my opinion almost definitely bring the two strategies closer together in terms of race time.

Ironically enough we are now faced with the dilemma, should we accept the "necessary evil" of pit speed limit (seeing that so many enjoy having it off) to allow for closer ½ stop strategies?

Different track versions:
(I hope I was right to assume that Spa 2008 was clearly favored?) From my list it seems we are undecided on Hungary and Hockenheim. Is there an obvious answer to what version we should pick or should it be voted on?

Hungaroring
uploaded 2011:http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=33712
uploaded 2007:http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=7307

Hockenheim
1999 version: http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=12389
2004 version: http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=12596

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Cicada: http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=35950 is the official DL link. I just host the zip, setups and a backup for installer.

Hungaroring 2011: 20 grid slots by default, 25 with my fix, current F1 layout. Hungaroring 2007 version: different 1st turn and cut warning possible in first turn.

 

[Jonas Lex]

Seems very complete to me.
The only thing I would change is not to vote on track versions, it seems that Kennett can pretty much analyze the different tracks and then we should just choose the one which is safer/bugfree to have a race at.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Dear Nicolai, I would like to suggest something, or at least bring it on the table:

Season 1 Round 1: 2008 3rd of September
Season 3 Round 1: 2009 2nd of September
Season 5 Round 1: 2010 1st of September
Season 7 Round 1: 2011 31st of August

Now we are heading towards starting 22nd of August with the consequence that:

Im out for 22-08 race I hope to be in holiday and on top of a mountainbut ready for SPA.

To put this in the right perspective, the last time Vale missed a race was round 3 of season 1! That is in 2008! He have attended our last 75 or so league races. He is the product of one of the red lines in PrestoGP, the predictabillity of our schedule, it have always been the same.

All this is my mistake, I should have chiselled the general time frame into the PrestoGP constitution and said that in 2012 season 9 should take place between 29th of August and 19th of December. (for 2013 we would start 28th of August and 2014 3rd of September).

So what am I suggesting now? There is no good solution to the problem. The autumn is cramped on time. Earlier we have either only done 9 races or squeezed in 10 races with a couple of 1 week brakes as a consequence. I do not know what the best solution is, long or short term, but I can make out the alternatives:

Short term (season 9):
1: Keep the calendar as it is
2: Move Round 1 to 29th of August where it belongs. This would give us a busy season start with round 2 (Spa) the week after and round 3 (Monza) the week after that.
3: Same as 2 but rearrange more dates to space out the 1 week brakes.
4: Remove Hungaroring from the calendar and make Spa round 1, either 29th of August or the 5th of September

Long term (PrestoGP constitution stuff):
1: Start the season 1 week earlier to allow for 10 rounds and not more than one 1 week brake
2: Allow for two 1 week brakes
3: Cut down to 9 races in autumn seasons

 

[Jonas Lex]

I have to say that Im very impressed about that statistic first of all, I wasnt aware that the league is really running the ninth season with such consistent brakes in between.
You could see which year is a leap year only by watching the dates PrestoGP starts their seasons on, now THATS impressive

I think this is something we should vote on too, I'd say we should start the season one week later to keep this balance and make a nine race season, thats more than enough

 

[David Turnbull]

i vote option 2, 3 races in 3 weeks would be alot of fun plus everyone should be well upto speed with them with minimal practise their our first practise races

 

[Bob Miley]

Being new here I'm not sure if I qualify to vote, but just in case 3 races in 3 weeks is fine with me.

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

.............To put this in the right perspective, the last time Vale missed a race was round 3 of season 1! That is in 2008! He have attended our last 75 or so league races. He is the product of one of the red lines in PrestoGP, the predictabillity of our schedule, it have always been the same................

you make me blush Nico. tenacity pays



me too for 3 close races at the end we have a sufficient skill for run 3 near races we know these tracks and then is a nice dare

PS:
Hungaroring same or Kennett evaluation
Hockenheim sure 1999 version

 

[Jonas Lex]

it seems what we all agree on is to have the league start one week later on August 29.
So we should add following question to the vote to sum it up...
A: nine races
B: 2 one week brakes in the beginning
C: 2 one week brakes in the end

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

3 races one week apart in the end suits me too. I didn't know either that the season start-date has been so consistent. I'm fine with starting with Spa, don't really care for Hungaroring anyway.. and that would sort the track problem... If we do that then I would like to vote if we use the 2008 Spa with fix or do we use the common version, if "The Fix" is used then it's the only version that we have installed at any time (no installs on raceday, period!)

Sorry to keep this going on but i feel it's my duty in this little dictatory democrazy, i'm defending the best track available option, like i promised. Having two track with fixes is not in the best interest of the league so skipping Hungary would be a good option. Solves (a) track problem and schedule problem. Having some races one week apart could spice things up, hope our members in the southern hemisphere can cope with that.. So their voice is a more imnportant on this issue, northeners aren't such a pussies that we would rob southern dwellers of their chance to drive every race. I can say that i will vote what ever suits you guys the best, any option is fine with me.. No matter what time/date, i'll race you....

 

[Peter Marshall]

One week separating races is fine by me. Season start and end dates likewise.

 

[Jim Hawley]

I'm not sure if I'll make the early rounds as yet? so I'm cool with whatever is decided

Jim

 

[Reik Major]

I have a question about qualy format.

Does the option of having a second chance mean we have full traffic on the track within those 5 - 7 minutes, or is there an option to be alone on track also in this format like you are in super pole?

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

I have a question about qualy format.

Does the option of having a second chance mean we have full traffic on the track within those 5 - 7 minutes, or is there an option to be alone on track also in this format like you are in super pole?

Good question, I had not thought of that... I think both are possible. I think (since I had not thought of this prior) we need to treat the vote as super pole vs. second chance, and if second chance is elected we need to chose between closed or traffic. This is not the optimal way to do the vote, but the best way to solve this little problem as I see it.

 

[Reik Major]

Well, I have no problem to make such a second vote. I just wondered if it's even possible to have a "normal" 7 minutes qualy without traffic. I never hosted a server race so I have no clue what options are possible.
My intention was to know about this opportunity before making my vote, because it I knew such 7 minutes can only be driven with all the traffic around, I knew what I would vote for then... You got my point?

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Well, I have no problem to make such a second vote. I just wondered if it's even possible to have a "normal" 7 minutes qualy without traffic. I never hosted a server race so I have no clue what options are possible.
My intention was to know about this opportunity before making my vote, because it I knew such 7 minutes can only be driven with all the traffic around, I knew what I would vote for then... You got my point?

I totally get your point, it can be a (de)motivating factor in itself if the track will be crowded or not. However, as you say, 7 min crowded track will not work (if the objective is to give a second chance) and we can therefore safely assume that the second chance option will be without traffic.

 

[Reik Major]

...and we can therefore safely assume that the second chance option will be without traffic.

Ok... But excuse me for still being stupid. I still don't got an answer if you are able to setup the server to have no traffic in the second chance option. Are you?

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

just observation Reik,I had not thought for me it was assumed lonely on track maybe little carnage 25cars 7minutes 2laps

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Ok... But excuse me for still being stupid. I still don't got an answer if you are able to setup the server to have no traffic in the second chance option. Are you?

You should be an interrogator Reik, nothing get's passed you (I like it)

I have never tested it but I am 80% certain that it is possible. For this vote I think everybody can assume that it works. If it against all odds does not work, well, then we are left with 1 alternative regardless of result of vote (iow if 7 min second chance option wins vote, but it turns out it is not possible to do it so we are alone on track, we will do super pole as we did last season.)

 

[Jonas Lex]

Just noticed that I posted this in the wrong thread so Im posting it here again:

I dont want to push or something but it would be good to have the vote done in the near future because I have several things planned or already done to "promote" the league like an article with the video, Info thread, sign up thread and then maybe even a rule video which cant be finished because nothings safe yet.
Those things could all have a "promotion affect" so it would be good to do them as soon as possible.
After the vote there wont be much more to do then untill season start I think.