Legends TWF1 - Oulton Park, Gold Cup - Report

Unlike the Formula Atlantics practice for the 1979 F1 cars had raised the fact that these cars were especially tricky here. The very bumpy nature made for a hard time and a high attrition rate was expected.

The field all made a clean start with minor contact between David Pym and Mike Peray being the only apparent incident as the field streamed through the tricky avenue to the right hander T2. Fair few cars locked up there but no dramas as the field headed on the run to the hairpin.

The hairpin, however, was not incident free as Baz moved onto the racing line and made contact with Rouke who was pulling alongside. The incident damaging both cars. In Knickerbrook I ran wide and dropped almost to last then the last corner was carnage.

First Berti completely outbraked himself and somehow avoided hitting anyone as he ran through the litter into the barrier. Behind Eric Fulghum spun and was collected by Fulvio's Ligier. The Heavy Metal Tyrell was spun round; right into the path of Corrado who cannoned into him heavilly.

The Brabham rolled and I spun in sympathy ( see above ) distracted by the sight of the upside down car. Amazingly only Corrado retired despite several cars being involved.

At the end of the Lap, the impressive Allar Foht led from Timo Peltola, Marcus Adams, Miguel Bento and Bret Metcalf.

Rookies Foht and Bento were proving to be extremely impressive with both leading their respective Divisions impressively. Baz West slotted into 6th but the action was further down the field.

Midfield was a big mix of drivers from both divisions with David, John Wallace and David Pym all battling with Div1 runners such as Rik Walker, Fulvio and Berti. Every lap had drivers passing others as drivers battled hard and people made mistakes around the tricky circuit.

Drivers of note included Rick Stratton who had finished lap 1 in twelfth place. By lap 10 he was up to ninth just being Ralph Maiph. Rik Walker and John Wallace also seemed to be making progress while David Kadlcak was slipping down the order.

Then on Lap 10 Marcus lost two places and retired a few laps later with accident damage. As he retired Bret finally got past Bento and settled down to chase Peltola.

Very soon it was clear, without mistakes, the front three would remain as they were while behind Paul Langford had worked his way up to fifth.

Stratton was continuing to make progress with John Wallace and Fulvio following just behind as they worked their way up with impressive, consistant runs.

At the back of the field I was struggling with the last turn and spinning a lot but allways in touch with Mark Abbott who I had the edge on for pace but lacked his consistancy.

By Lap 23, the expected attrition rate was showing as Rouke had retired on Lap 11 after contact with myself. I had spun with him just behind and he couldn't avoid me ( sorry Rouke :( ).

Mike Peray crashed on lap 16, Marco Casadei lap 23 and Costa also on the same lap.

Much of the field had settled down but now but John Wallace and Fulvio were embroiled in a ferocious battle for 9th overall, swapping places several times. Wallace eventually broke free on lap 32 and shortly after worked past Baz West for 8th.

Fulvio followed past the struggling Lotus 80 a few laps later while Wallace passed a delayed Paul Langford  on the penultimate lap. Langford regained the spot a lap later but had last seveal spots near the end of the race.

Overall a hard, tough race with plenty of action. Excellent wins by Allar and Miguel in their respective divisions. Drivers of the race for me, however, would be John Wallace and Rick Stratton. They both qualified well down, kept their noses clean and gained a large number of places. Well done to all of you.

 post race discussions by the drivers highlighted Bento might be Div1 speed

G1:GP LMP900 Series.. Standings and Drivers

Leguna Seca marked the 6th round in the 10 round championship. There have been four leaders in those six rounds and the championship is still hard to call.

Laguna Seca, however, did see a big of a gap open up with three likely groups battling. The group challenging for the championship seems to be down to 3 now. Three more seem to be likely to be going for 4th then 7th is the next group.

Plenty to race for and with so many leaders all it would take is a couple of good results from someone to tip the whole table on it's head.

As for the drivers.. I thought a bit of a profile might be fun.

Crippy Oh - Race organiser of this merry band of drivers. Does a stirling job off track and is pretty handy on track. Currently drives a Cadillac in the LMP900's and is sitting in 4th overall. Normally qualifies fairly well, and races well, definatly challenger for podiums and a consistant driver. Bad luck in Canada (Brake Failure) and Laguna ( poor start causing accidental loss of rear wing) has hampered her a little. Season 1 champion.

Jafo Tendaze - One of two drivers of the front engined Panoz cars. Took him a few races to get going but by round three had got onto the pace. Three wins in the last four races has rocketted him to the head of the championship. Quick and consistent he is probably current championship favourite.

Suku Ming - The oval meister. Ming also driver the Panoz but is generally midfield. Very consistant driver Suku will allways keep going and usually manages to avoid incedent that means good results and podiums are often the result.  Season 2 champion.

Sulla Looming - Little Miss quick.. Looming is over a single lap probably the leagues quickest driver. Especially given she drives the underpowers but docile Reynard. Very aggressive driver who has become more consistant over time. She allways challenges for a podium and, as long as she avoids incident early on, usually on for the win.

Katier Reitveld - (written by Crippy Oh) Long time SL racing vet , has emerged as a threat in qualifying and races as the G1-Gp seasons have played out. Currently 5th overall in LMP season and 4th in the NSS truck series. Kat has been consistent this season with her best finish being 2nd on podium at Watkins Glen. One of the more unorthodox drivers as far as setups and strategy , sometimes this pays off , other times not as well (as witnessed by her 2 stop strategy at Laguna that may well have cost her a podium).

Suzy Cuddihy - Bit of a revelation in the little pilbeamesque Lola B2K10. Usually qualifies around 6th on the grid but keeps out of the trouble. Straight forward, ultra consistent, and fairly quick driving took her to the head of the championship after the halfway point. A poor result at Laguna cost her the lead and third is likely to be her most likely finish at the end of the season.

Yuriko - The wild one of the bunch at the moment. She is quick, very quick, but has had an incident packed season so far causing a lot of bad results. If she can find some consistency she has the pace to challenge for wins.

Remon - A stunning start to the season with two wins shows he has some serious pace. Two lesser races; a DNF's at Watkins and Mosport hurt his season before a 2 race break has seen him tumble down the season. Hopefully when he returns he will do so with pace and still has enough events to finish well up the standings.

Rattra - Too many incedents have robbed Rattra of decent results including brake failure at Laguna. Definatly has the potential for better results than he has had so far as witnessed by the 5 podiums he has registered in previous seasons.

Kiboe - If he can get his temper in check he should do better than he is at the moment. Tends to get frustrated, driver half heartedly and give up. Blames problems on setups when what he needs is mileage. Watching how others take corners ought to help him.

Nella - It's a shame nella has seemed to given up on the championship as she has potential and the right attitude. Just needs to stick at it to have improving results. 

G1:GP LeMans - Laguna Seca Report

This seasons race around the twists of the Laguna Seca track with it's famous 'corkscrew' turn would have the additional challenge of some of the race being run at night. In fact such was the time sped up, during the 26 lap event we would have around 9 laps in the middle in the night with daylight at the start and end of the race.

Crippy also tried a new start procedure aimed at making things quicker and instead of a 'recce lap' the drivers went straight to grid.  Unfortunatly this caused a red flag and restart with one driver not being quick enough to get to grid then leaving the pitlane too early and getting DQ'd.

The second start wasn't much better when a feline interruption caused a second restart. At the third time of asking, however, the field got away well and streamed towards turn 1. Jafo, second on the grid, made the best start as the uphill start made Sulla's, non-LC start awkward.

The first lap, however, was action packed. Into T1 Sulla recovered from her poor start and took advantage of Reitveld and Yuriko running wide to run second.  Suzi made a good start to slot into 5th ahead.

Crippy, unfortunately, was running last after being slightly slow away a collision, that I didn't even register had happened, took off her rear wing. Very bad luck for Oh and a classic case of the modelling being very wrong. The collision was very slight and between the lowest RF corner part of my nose and Crippy's LR - in RL I doubt anything would have happened but at worse a puncture might have occured.

The next incident occured at the corkscrew. Yuri locked up her RF tyre and cannoned into the back of Looming. Looming ended up in the kitty litter while, for some reason, Yuri's car stopped on the apex of the corkscrew. The corkscrew is a corner where the drivers approach it blind and the incident occured out of sight of myself and Suzy.

Thus we braked normally as we crested the rise and I couldn't avoid the read of the stranded R8.  Suzy took the place only to run wide two corners late and hand the place back to me.

For some reason I was struggling at this stage to find pace and Suku was soon all over the back of me with Sulla recovering just behind. Jafo was way down the road and at this stage looked to have the race 'in the bag'.

Rattra was up to 4th briefly before being passed by the charging Reynard. Suku took second shortly after with a NASCAR style ( as Suku put it when apologising after the race) nudge. I don't believe the incedent was deliberate, just a case of me being slightly slow in the corner.

Kiboe retired on lap 8 and a lap later the intended pitstops started. I had elected to gamble on a two stop race as front tyre wear was a concern. On my outlap I almost took Jafo out of the race. He had spun in the corkscrew while lapping Kiboe shortly before the latter retired. I arrived over the crest of the corner ( above ) faced with him and just squeaked past. 

The stop dropped me briefly to 6th as night fell but I repassed Looming when she stopped a lap later. I also worked my way past Suku on the drag up to the corkscrew.

So approaching half way the field had settled down, Rattra, who had run second for a time, was now 5th behind Looming, Suku, myself and Jafo.

Jafo still looked fairly secure but when he pitted I found myself beating him out of the pits. While he had spun once, he didn't lose that much time so the reason for the loss of the lead wasn't immediatly obvious.

I knew it was only a temporary thing, however, so pushed as hard as I could and pitted a second time on lap 19. 

Sulla had been pushing hard also, trying to pass me believing the race to be for position and burnt her front tyres out. This would ultimately pay into Jafo's hands as he had also been past by the Reynard after his stop. By lap 20 Jafo was back in front and able to cruise to victory ahead of Looming.

My second stop had dropped me nearly 30s behind Suku and also behind Rattra. I was 1.5 to 2s quicker than the latter so most likely would have past him, however we'll never know as 6 laps from the end he became the 5th person to suffer brake failure in a race.

So Jafo won from Sulla, Suku, Myself and Suzy. Suzy losing the championship lead after only her second comparatively poor performance so far this season. 

Afte the race Suku had this to say about an eventful event. "Going into the race, before we went racing and practiced and all that, I thought I had a shot at the win. Practice started up, and well.. suddenly I'm sitting 8th, and I thought that maybe that's where I'd finish... I got a little bit faster in practice on race day itself and then when they race came up, through those restarts, I realize I had a shot at a podium. So all in all it was a rollercoaster, it was a blast, I had fun 

"I don't think I've ever seen that many wrecks like... ever. It was like a tornado hit the first two starts XD Totally insane!"

G1:GP LeMans - Nurburgring Report

The LeMans LMP900 series is proving to be incredibly tight. Coming to the GP circuit in Germany it was impossible to predict who would win. I was confident, however, I wouldn't as lack of time to practice and new wheel meant I expected to be damage limitation mode.

Jafo Tendaze put his car on pole ahead of Sulla Looming and led off the start. Unfortunatly I lost it big time when my car spun under breaking due to a break balance error and the red flags came out to clear up the kitty litter.

At the second time of asking Rattra, 6th on the grid, jumped the start and Suzy was slow away. Looming made her best, non-LC, getaway so far but still lost ground as Crippy skirted past her and tucked in behind Yuriko and Jafo up front. 

I managed to outdrag Sulla to T1 but, having caused a crash at start one, took it easy into the corner rather than trying to outbrake Crippy. Into T1 Suku made a mistake and punted Sulla into a spin.

The result was also a spin for Rattra as the AI GT cars arrived at the corner. These were added to add something different to the racing and this was their first impact in the race.

The front three settled down but behind, on lap 2, I made a mistake at the bottom of the hill and ran wide through the kitty litter and came out behind Sulla. Meanwhile Rattra was struggling serving his jumped start penalty and was forced to retired.

Sulla got past Suku on the next lap only for Suku to use the speed of the Panoz to regain the place. Sulla regained the place through the 'twiddly bits' but into T1 on the next lap Suku made her second mistake at that point and again punted Sulla.

This cost sulla a rear wing and she had to pit for repairs. Meanwhile I tried to chase Suku down but she had the edge on speed so I just had to hope the pitstops would allow me to pass her.

Up front Yuriko and Crippy were engaged in a furious battle for position. They past each other on several occasions as the pitstops approached. Jafo and Suku pitted first at the end of lap 9 with many others pitting on lap 11. 

These second pitstops were chaos. First Crippy ran out of fuel in the pitlane. As her pitcrew pushed her down the lane I arrived, just as an AI car was alongside her. This delayed me slightly so when I arrived at my pitbox Yuriko was just leaving. I had to adjust my line to avoid her and overshot.

The end result was a long pitstop for me and Crippy, with me just beating her out. We then battled hard for the rest of the race, both making mistakes around AI traffic causing us to swap places a couple of times. Crippy spun again into T1 on the last lap and I crossed the line with just 0.1l in my tank.

Jafo won comfortably from Suzy after another consistant troublefree run that took her to the head of the championship. Suku was next ahead of me, Crippy and Sulla.

Sadly the field was a bit depleted but still a very good race and a tight championship.

The Kat get's a new wheel!!!

Since coming back to sim racing I've been using an old, non-FF, Microsoft Sidewinder wheel. This wheel is actually still very serviceable which shows how well it's built. 

However, thanks to MS's shortsightedness it is hampered by the lack of official drivers for XP. This meant no split axis pedals negating the ability to easily have throttle and brake on in corners. It also made starts on slopes hard. 

The LM prototypes I race are equipped with launch control. On a sloping grid the brake needs to be on to stop the roll but throttle needs to be on to engage the LC. Needless to say split axis is essential to that.

So it was time to get a new wheel and the first choice, as allways, is to get a Logitech. They simply are the best choice unless going for the 'Rolls Royce' options.

The shortlist came down to the G27, G25 and, perhaps surprisingly, the Driving Force GT. Why is the DFGT a surprise? It's marketted as a PS3 wheel and as such comes with things you'd expect on a console. It has the 4 direction buttons on the right, a 'hat' and two 'trigger' buttons on the top. Also included are a button marked PS ( never having a PS3 I don't know but assume normally this has some specific function) and the select/start buttons.

Due to cost it was the DFGT I went for and getting it hope I was impressed with the quality. It is a very well built wheel and the pedals feel solid and have a nice feel. Alongside the afformentioned buttons it also has two more large buttons above the 'boss', a +- button on the lower left, the normal 'paddle' buttons for gear change and a sequencial gear lever. 

Perhaps most intersting is the red 'collar' and button on the lower right on the wheel. This is in effect three buttons. The collar rotates left and right, and then there is a button in the middle. The collar thus is ideal for functions such as brake balance, turbo boost levels and wing settings ( say on a modern 2009 F1 car). I use the central button as the Launch control but equally could be say a KERS button.

Overall plenty of buttons and most are easy to reach. The 'trigger' buttons above the 'spokes' are a little awkward but I find I can use an index finger.

Having never used Forcefeedback at all before this was the next challenge. Setting it all up. I downloaded the latest driver from the Logitech website and set to work. 

Initially it felt all wrong but having done some research I tried the settings people used for the G25. These seem to work quite well and perhaps the most crucial setting was to have RF's 'strength' setting to negative and FF effects to low.

In the driver I had everything except Overall effects strength set to 0% with the latter currently at 99%. I'm using 306 degrees of rotation, although the wheel is a 900 degree wheel this setting seems to work well for me ( it's a slider and I was looking at 300 degree's and ended up with 306).

With these settings the car starts to make sense. It's too early to really be confident the FF is setup right but so far she feels ok. I entered my first race last night driving around the modern N'Ring on the F1 layout. This is an interesting test as there are a good variety of corners and overall it felt pretty right.

This is definatly a wheel worth looking at, The buttons can be slightly awkward but it's not hard to get used to them and the important functions can allways be placed in easy to reach parts of the wheel.

Legends FA - Oulton - Feature Race Report

The feature race was up next and with the pitstops added strategy is involved. But before the drivers arrived at their stops the start needed to be negotiated and two drivers in particular made startling starts.

Martin Cooper and Ivor Blackmore, in his first start, both making up places from the start. Into T1 Baz West went three abreast, ran out of room, and span over the nasty curbs that would later claim other drivers. There was also contact between myself and Neill as he squeezed inside me into the corner although neither car was effected by it.

As in the first race the top 3 settled into position while Juan Carlos made a poor get away. He dropped to 5th then into the hairpin was punted by Ralph putting Juan out of the race with a damaged car.

The end of the lap therefore had Rouke leading from Bret, Paul, Nigel and Ralph.

These 5 quickly looked settled but behind there was a monumental battle going on. Cooper's race pace was slightly slower than most of the cars behind and they were soon battling to get past the blue and white car.

Graham made it past into the hairpin on Lap 2, Cooper ran wide on the exit to give him room and promptly lost a place to Neill too. On Lap 4 Ralph lost it in the double apex right hander and dropped to 8th just ahead of the recovering Baz West.

I'd caught Martin by this time and with my tyres warm went on the attack. As in Race one I got past him into the hairpin and got the same traction as him out of the corner. This meant a drag race down to Knickerbrook. Martin lifted a touch to get a better run through and took me on the inside of the corner. Two abreast through the corner!!!

I tracked him through the next lap was unable to pass into the hairpin but used my better cornering through there to sit under his wing on the exit.. Yep you've guessed it another drag race to knickerbrook. This time I got a better run through the corner. There seemed to be a little contact on my side as we AGAIN took this corner two abreast. We both made it through with me now ahead. Martin tracked me through the rest of the lap and I got the line wrong into T1, spun and lost a place to Martin.

Ralph also went through but amazingly I only lost one place as Neill has also spun and took longer to get going than I. Baz West was really on a charge now and on Lap 8 Neill was slow through Knickerbrook and he lost a place to the blue and white car. Neill fought back, repassing him but ultimately losing the place into the last corner.

Next lap Baz made an amazing save in Knickerbrook.. but lost the place back to Neill. The two were going at it hammer and tongues at this stage. By lap 11 though Baz had got past for good after Neill spun in the same place as Ralph.

Up front Rouke looked in total control as the pitstops approached although occasionally Bret put pressure on the leader he never looked to have a chance to pass. End of lap 21 Rouke pitted and changed tyres and fuel, two laps later Bret and Paul also pitted just for fuel and took the lead. 

This was despite Bret and Paul both coming out of the pits right behind me. Shame we don't have lollipops because in this situation letting them past before releasing me would have been sensible. As it was I didn't initially realise there were there until the blue flag popped up and I let them past on the run to the hairpin.

The battle for the lead was intense now. Paul, leading, was probably a touch slower than both Bret, 2nd, and Rouke behind. Knifing through traffic they ran nose to tail. Paul almost lost the lead when he bumped into Raiph who appeared to have run wide to let him through. Paul also went wide, but regained the place on the exit.

Paul caught Baz West at just the wrong point, had to lift in the double right hander and Bret Seized the chance taking the lead. Meanwhile Rouke had dropped back behind Raiph and was unable to recatch the lead two before the end. Nigel was the last of the pitters, on lap 33, dropping a lap down in the process. 

After 35 laps of intense fighting Bret deservedly won from Paul and Rouke. Graham and Nigel in 4th and 5th ahead of Baz West, Ralph and Martin Cooper. I finished just 3.5s behind Cooper in 9th ruing two spins and, more importantly, the 10s I lost bogged down in the gravel after outbraking myself at the end of the lap before my pitstop.

Overall though a most enjoyable pair of races around an excellent circuit.

Legends FA - Oulton - Sprint Race Report

The first race of the Formula Atlantic Race meeting was the 12 lap sprint race. This counts for 1/3 of the points available and is followed by a 35 lap event which includes a pit stop.

At the start Rouke made a clean get away and the top three finished the lap as they started. Behind Juane Carlos Huarte, however, had an incedent in the hairpin and retired at the end of the lap.  Nigel Metcalf inhereted the place.

David Pym made a lightning start, slotting into 5th ahead of Ralph Maiph and Neill Johnson who also made a lightning start. I made a poor start dropping to 12th but while the top 6 settled down quickly places changed behind.

Neill Johnson and Ray both making mistakes in Lap 2 to drop several places. On Lap 4 Gary and David both made mistakes into the hairpin, David overshot and harshly got a stop and go penalty. Gary destroyed the marker cones and continued in sixth place.

Neill was on a charge, however, and was back up to 8th by lap four. During the same lap Thomas spun in the double apex corner hitting the tyres fairly firmly. He retired two laps later with suspension damage.

On Lap 8 Nigel Metcalf binned it at the same corner and dropped to 10th. Up front the other Metcalf was continuing to pressure Rouke with Paul not far behind in third and Ralph and few seconds further back.

By now I was up to pace and chasing 8th placed, Martin Cooper, down. The gap narrowing lap by lap as he struggled, especially in the hairpin, to keep up my improving pace.

By Lap 11 my pink car was breathing right down his neck.  Into the hairpin I took my chance and we went round side by side. Cooper got the better run out of the corner and through Knickerbrook he managed to pull a bit of a gap. (picture above for the hairpin)

I tracked him through the first part of the last lap and took the hairpin better than him. I was right with him up towards knickerbrook. I spotted the yellows as Gary had spun there so didn't look to pass but stick with the blue and white car ahead. Entering the corner Cooper seemed to turn a touch too sharply.. his car slid a bit then as it took the jump slid, he caught the slide but it snapped the other way across my path.  I spun after contact with him and was fortunate to be able to continue after contact with the tyres up the hill.

Cooper rejoined minus his front wing and with a skewed rear wing while I wasn't sure what damage I had. In the event I think I'd got away with no appreciable damage but still took the last few corners easilly.

A good win for Rouke under pressure from Bret and Paul Langford. I was pleased with eighth in my first FA outing and Neill did very well to recover from poor qualifying to take 5th.

Oulton Park Musings

Built in the undulating parkland of Oulton Park this race track is fast and challenging. With several sharp changes of elevation traction can be an issue and it has one of the most deadly and challenging corners on any circuit.

Knickerbrook is a fast, off camber, undulating right hander at the end of the longest full throttle run on the circuit. 

But let's backpedal. T1 is a fast right hander, it's just short of flat in 4th/5th on entry then flat mid corner with a tricky curb on exit it's easy to get wrong and quite crucial for the short, but fast, run through T2 into T3. T3 is another important corner leading onto the first true straight, it is a fast left hander probably running in 4th gear with the run down to the next corner being one of the two overtaking spots that are truly on the circuit. For our Formula one circuit we run down to T4 as a tricky fast 5th gear left then T5 is a hairpin before running back flat through T6. The Formula Atlantics do a hairpin T4 just before the F1 circuits T4 and rejoin just after T6.

Both circuits run the rest of the lap the same and the next corner is Knickerbrook. This is where Derek Warwicks brother, Paul Warwick, was tragically killed and caused a chicane to be implemented there. However we are running the pre-Warwick accident layout so this corner is approached at max speed and in the Atlantics is flat out.

Get the line wrong and the off camber nature can put you in a spin. After Knickerbrook we have a flat left and approach the next right hander at max speed. This corner is almost as challenging as Knickerbrook due to it's blind nature. It is a double apex corner and get it right can give you the speed you need to take a place into the penultimate corner. This is a 2nd gear 'humped' turn with the car going light just as you want to accelerate through Deer leap and over the S/F line.

Where the Atlantic and F1 circuits re-combine is one of several bumps that are upsetting for the F1 cars more than the Atlantics.

Overall a very fast, challenging circuit that should provide a lot of enjoyment and produces some classic racing in the Atlantic event today.

G1:GP Trucks - Phoenix Raceway

The third round of the Stock Trucks series took place last Wednesday at the D shaped oval of Phoenix Raceway. This track is a bit quicker than other circuits we've raced in and the field was amazingly tight. Most drivers managed to get their trucks into the sub 29s bracket at least some of the time.

Katier put in a 20 lap stint in practice that prompted race organiser, Crippy Oh, to extend the race to 45 laps in an effort to force a two stop strategy.

This wasn't as successfull as she'd hoped as afterwards Katier admitted had she been really coy she might have managed a 1 stop race, but only aided by yellows. This was because she drove the entire first stint in 'fuel economy' mode.  This started from the go and resulted in her having more fuel from the start.

Up front the top 5 drivers, Suku Ming, Sulla Looming, Crippy Oh, Yuriko and Suzy Cuddihy all started the race with the intention of running flat out throughout and stopping twice. Suku took the early lead from a battle between Sulla and Crippy. Suzy and Yuriko settled into the next two positions with Katier, despite running less than full throttle, still able to just cling to the back of the lead pack.

Jafo, who was suffering badly with an illness started but had to pull out while Nella, lacking in practice, struggled and both had retired by lap 15.

Suku led easilly and pitted on lap 15 a lap later than Crippy and Kiboe.  By lap 20 all but one of the drivers had pitted. Katier led and was a lap up on some of the field with Suku on the same lap in second and Sulla having just unlapped herself in third.

Then the yellow flew and Katier's fuel saving seemed to be paying off. She dived into the pits at the earliest chance while, strangely, so did Sulla. Loomings stop was strange because it meant she wouldn't unlap herself from Katier and in fact dropped a lap down on Suku. 

So with the first stops finished and the field under yellow Suku led with Crippy Sulla and Suzy sandwhiched between her and second placed Katier. The field, at half distance, still under yellow was Suku, Katier - both on lead lap. then Crippy, Sulla and Yuriko a lap down followed by Suzy being 2 laps down and then Kiboe about 3 laps off the pace.

Yuriko pitted again on lap 23 deciding that she could stretch fuel to 45 but lost time due to not catching up the field before it went yellow.

Suku Pitted a second time on Lap 30 and dropped to 4th briefly then 3rd when Crippy pitted a second time. Sulla's third stop bumped her up to 2nd but she was a lap down on the race leader.

Given her early tactics had worked so well Reitveld decided not to stretch her second stint so, having driven this segment flat out ( equating to about 0.5s/lap better than first stint) she decided to pit as soon as her tyres started to go off.

Unfortunatly a completely amerturish pitstop, bad timing, a Rfactor screwup and general bad driving cost her three places. In short she spun and in flick spinning her car snagged the back of it. Rfactor thus decided to repair her damage ( which she'd told it not to ) and overall she lost probably nearly 25s with a stop.

A second yellow two laps later, which Reitveld could have got to without trouble, meant that had she stuck to the first segment tactic she'd have won by dint of pitting with the field all settled and thus Suku would have been unable to regain the lap she'd lost.

A Final mistake by Reitveld, jumping the re-start, brought out a third yellow when a minor contact between Reitveld and Sulla spun the former and she was collected and suffered a LR puncture. (picture of spin above)

Unfortunatly a messy end to an excellent and entertaining race.

Suku won deservadly from Yuriko who had benefitted from the second yellow as she ran out of fuel. Crippy was third for a season's best result from Sulla and Katier. Katier was left to rue her serious errors as it cost her 3 places. Suzy spun on entry to pits twice and finished 6th ahead of Kiboe.

Legends - TWF1:Mugello Report

24 cars lined up for the opening round of the 2009 Autumn TWF1 season opener. The smooth circuit seemed to suit the Lotus 80 with it's huge amount of downforce no doubt helping the general lack of grip Mugello provided.

As a result three of the advanced Lotus' lined up on the front 4 spot's on the grid joined by the previous years Lotus 79 of Bret Metcalf in third. Behind the Lotus lockout Brabham seemed to be providing the best option with no sign of makes such as Tyrell, McLaren, Ferrari or Ligier featuring in the top 10 of the grid.

Roberto Berti led from pole with Ales Simunek and Bret Metcalf arguing over the rest of the podium. Timo Peltola joined in that battle on lap four the all four Lotus cars keeping position ahead of a tight battle between Rouke and Rik with Tony Cederholm just behind.

Division two formed a 'B' division in this race and the pace setters were David Kadlcak, Eric Fulgrum and John Wallace. Unlike the Div 1 start this was an incedent packed event with several drivers spinning early on. Amongst them were Wallace, Kadlcak and as a result Marting Cooper in his pink painted 'pig' took the early lead. 

By Lap 10 Berti continued to lead the main race with Ales in second from Metcalf and Timo.  In Div 2 Cooper had spun and dropped down the order and Wallace had recovered from his early off.

The Div 2 race now settled down with the main interest being the prescence of the Div1 back markers in the fray. Nigel Metcalf working his way back through the field after early troubles and Rick Stratton dragging his relunctant Ferrari around a few places behind.

On Lap 16 the complexion of the race changed, an incedent involing Timo and the Race leader handed Metcalf the Lead with Ales also benefitting to take second. Timo dropped back and a lap later would be past by Rik Walker's Brabham who seemed to have broken free of the attentions of Rouke behind.

Metcalf let to lap 24 before a Ales made it past only for him to spin twice and finish in 3rd behind the recovering Berti.

In Div2 John was untroubled with only Div 1 driver Nigel Metcalf passing him before the end of the race. Eric Fulghum and David Pym, however, were embroiled in a battle to the flag that finally went Pym's way on lap 24 possibly after the Heavy Metal Racing driver spun and lost two places.

Div 1 top three thus was Bret Metcalf in his Lotus 79 ahead of Roberti Berti and Simunek. Div 2 honors went to John Wallace from David Pym and Eric Fulghum.

Overall a very good race on a very tricky race track.

Legends - TWF1:Gallio Racing - Mugello

Gallio Racing's T4 Ferrari's proved to be a real handfull around this twisting Italian Circuit. Within a few laps, as the two bright yellow cars circled at the back of the field, the stands emptied themselves.

Without the sweeping bends and long straights found at Imola and Monza the two heavy cars struggled throughout. Seemingly unable to get grip out of their tyres they frequently left the track.

Dom retired with terminal suspension damage 12 laps from home while Rick managed a more respectible 16th. The biggest issue for the Ferraris seemed to stem from the fact they are not very nimble and the frequent quick direction changes hampered them.

Both drivers are hoping the more flowing nature of Oulton Park will provide a venue much more suited to their cars.

Legends: F179 Mugello

Mugello is the host of the first round of the TWF1 championship and makes for an interesting choice. Think Italy and no doubt Monza and Imola spring to mind first, but Mugello is our Italian foray this season.

Unlike Monza and Imola, both of which,are generally considered fairly high speed circuits, Mugello is much slower with several left/right sequences. 

In 1979 cars these are essentially chicanes although nothing like a classic left/right flick normally associated with these types of corners.

So what do I think of the circuit? 

I think the afformentioned chicanes are a bit much, it would be nice if one of them was a flowing S, maybe the first one as that would add to the challenge of the loser second chicane.

With downforce a compromise T1, while it looks fairly quick, is deceptively slow and thus after such a long ( I'd guess over 20s at full throttle ) main straight a genuine overtaking point. 

T2 comes up on the driver almost before they're ready for it and it's easy to run wide and compromise T3 which after a short straight feeds into the T4/5 'chicane'. T2/3 is slower than the second one and the exit from T5 is important.

This is my favourite part of the track. From the exit of T5, in my case in second gear I never drop below 3rd gear for about the next 20s as the track flicks right then left down a fairly steep slope then through two fast right hand sweepers before hard breaking for the final 'chicane' which in speed is similar to T2/3. The second hairpin is next up and as with the first ( and last ) hairpins is tricky.

Next is a fast chicane taking without lifting in 4th gear before the run down to the last turn which is another hairpin. 

Over all a circuit which is good because of it's challenges however it's a bit 'fidly' in places for me. Feels a bit samey at times with two styles of corner dominating. But the mix between high and low speeds is marked so downforce levels are tricky.

G1:GP Mosport Report

Well what a topsy Turvy race that was. Full of action, problems and incedent from the start to the finish line.

The whole circuit here is very cramped and this was highlighted when we lined up for the start.

On pole was Sulla and unfortunatly her lack of Launch Control (LC) had a trigger effect. Yuriko, 3rd on the grid, seemed to pause while Katier behind made the best start of anyone.

Katier nudged the back of Yuriko causing her to lift off the throttle. This disengaged theLC so when she floored the throttle she spun. Meanwhile Nella (9th on grid) had nudged Remon (7th) who had stopped as a result of a gentle nudge in the back of Katier.

Katier's spun put her into the side of Suku who spun, unfortunatly for whom a nudge with the pitwall removed her rear wing, requiring a pitstop and causing a couple of spins on the first lap.

So early on Crippy Led, having got the jump from second on the grid, from Sulla who had benefitted from the tight grid preventing any of the LC cars behind from jumping her.

Jafo, winner last race, was 3rd from Yuriko, Suzy, Katier and Remon. The initial battle was between the latter three with Rattra, Nella, Kiboe and the delayed Suku filling out the field.

The trio swapped places on several occasions. Lap 4, Suzy lost two places with in the double first gear corners on the far end of the track when Remon pulled a demon move on her, causing her to be slow in the corner catching Reitveld out who nudged her into a spin.

From 7th, Suzy's recovery would be incredible. But behind them the first retirements had registered themselves. Nella crashed on the main straight and pulled out with damaged suspension on lap 6 while Kiboe retired on lap 11.

Suzy had another spin shortly after but a spin exiting the double right handers caused Reitveld to lose 20s as she struggled to regain the track. That was the start of Suzy's recovery and a good pace kept the R8 driver behind her as Suzy got into her Rythmn.

Behind Rattra was struggling and Suku was finding some pace as she tried to salvage something from her race. While up front Crippy was struggling, her tyres went off by lap 10 when Jafo took the lead. Sulla was still in touch and Yuriko made a front four covered by a matter of seconds.

Remon pitted on about lap 10 and retired a couple of laps later for unknown reasons while the battle continued up front. Crippys dead tyres cost her another place on lap 11 at which point Sulla was second, Yuriko despite a small off fourth, Suzy up to fifth ahead of Katier, Rattra and Suku.

Crippy and Katier both pitted on lap 15. Crippy due to dead tyres and Katier in an effort to leapfrog Suzy with a couple of lightning laps on fresh tyres. Unfortunatly a fuel rig problem ( aka Rfactor losing a setting) caused the R8 driver to be filled for 18 laps of fuel not the intended additional 18 laps.

Katier pushed hard but then when her tactic clearly failed she had to back off in order to attempt to stretch her fuel, a late race splash and dash (which failed due to the afformentioned RF problem) put her a lap down so she started to push harder.

Up front the battle for the win clearly appeared to be between Jafo and Sulla. Crippy looked fairly secure in 3rd from Yuriko, Suzy and Katier. 

Things changed late on however. First Crippy pitted again, her tyres just not working she did a quick tyre only stop dropping her to 5th.  Then on lap 27 Jafo ran wide in T3, spinning he got hit by Sulla who's impact removed his rear wing. Katier then took to the grass to try to avoid the carnage only to hit Jafo as he tried to rejoin.

Jafo would retired two corners later while Sulla and Katier continued to run. The final incedent occured on the next lap when Yuriko when off, lost her rear wing and a lap.

So Sulla took the win from an excellent recovery drive by Suzy. Katier came home 4th ahead of Yuriko, Suku and Rattra.

Drive of the day must go to Suzy for her recovery while mention must go to Suku for showing perserverence is worthwhile as her finish of 6th earned vital points.

1 31 Sulla Looming 38:59:536 
2 377 Suzy Cuddihy +29.56s
3 8 Crippy Oh +48.18s
4 38 Katier Reitveld +1L
5 301 Yuriko +1L
6 251 Tsukuba Ming +5L
7 338 Rattra +5L
8 310 JAFO2RHh +7L DNF(Severe Accident Damage)
9 202 Remon Franizzi +20L DNF(Suspension)
10 327 Kiboe +24L DNF(Suspension)
11 201 Nella Boccara +29L DNF(Accident) 

Mosport Musings

I allways quite enjoyed visiting Mosport on the GPL circuit so pleasently surprised that it is completely unchanged from that layout.

I don't know of any other racing circuit in the world that has so little changes over a 40 year history. However this does cause problems which make it a less good circuit now than in the past. The first of these is lack of breaking zones. 

A Quick trip around the circuit and the corners arrive as follows. T1 your in 4th on approach, lift, turn in, floor it. Up to 5th for T2, lift, turn in, floor it. Some cars will touch 6th on the run to T3. This is the first braking zone and it's a corner than I suspect some take in 2nd while the front runners probably take in 3rd. Either way the exit is in 3rd which shows how fast the corner is.

Three corners in and the brakes have been used ONCE and even that wasn't a long zone. T4 is a flat out left before the one and only serious braking for the uphill right handers of T5 and T6. These are first gear corners but the approach makes outbraking VERY hard. T7 and T8 are sweepers down Andretti straight ( not sure if they're normally counted but I will for completeness).

T9 is over a blind but whereas the GPL cars would probably break as they went light over the crest.. yep you've guessed it the Sportscars lift, maybe drop a gear and floor it. T10 is a quick, down to 3rd slither through corner before T11 which is a 2nd gear right. 

Eleven corners, 3 braking zones and only 5 corners taken in less than 4th gear. All these medium to high speed corners mean the setup requires some downforce to maximize exit speed.. However I'm considering looking at a low downforce race setup. Due to the track layout I feel the best overtaking chance is keeping close through T6 then slipstreaming past on the long run to T9.