Legends: Giuseppe Memorial Race

I can only add that Giuseppe was a person that never gave up on any challenge despite he was often towards the back of the pack, and this paid off cause he rarely had to retire in the races. He loved very long races as me and we teamed up in many endurance. On track I was his "harsh friend" and we raced a lot of races nose to cone with many simulator, always in a gentlemanly way. We were used to speak often in chat voice about our real life and family. He was one of the first person with which I have shared the joy for the birth of my grandson. I'll never forget him.

Ciao
Fulvio

Giuseppe was a popular driver in the sim community who sadly recently passed away. The words above are from one of his closest friends. To celebrate his life, and remember him, the legends team organised a race at the Monza Race track. This event, held in the heart of Giuseppe's home country of Italy, was a single car/fixed setup event featuring his beloved Ferrari's.

Prior to the event a 2 minutes silence was held and other drivers then said a few words.

Ray Walton: RIP Giuseppe you are always a winner in Legends

Mario Wojahn: Rest in peace Giuseppe, goodbye

Martin Cooper: sadly a legend takes the chequered flag rip Giuseppe

Antonio Wojahn: Racing with Giuseppe was always fun

Rik Walker: so long Giuseppe, we'll meet again

Rick Stratton: A good man and a great competitor. He will be missed by all. 

Rouke vd Hoek: lets have a good one for the man

Baz West: A great turn out to remember a good man, this ones for you Giuseppe

With that the drivers took their places on the grid, 26 Ferrari flat 12 engines roared into life, and the race began.

Three drivers started from the pitlane and sadly, one of them, Giuseppe's great friend Fulvio Policardi was let down by his engine and was unable to start the race.

Just on the other side of the pitlane the 26 T4's roared away and unfortunately there was some damage caused as Costa briefly spun to the right causing Baz to lift and Tallini to cannon into the back of him. Tallini, David Pym, Ray Walton all pitted early on to fix damage with Tallini and Pym unable to continue.

Meanwhile up front a battle Royale was developing. Showing spirit that would make any Italian proud Mario, Richard Walker and Mike Perray were embroiled in a tremendous battle for the Lead. By Lap three the field had settled a little and Perray led from Mario and Rik with a gap developing back to Langford and Bret. Costa was next up ahead of Bento and Antonio.

Tallini had retired after his spot when he 'did a Hamilton' as the leaders were lapping him with Rik using all the track and more as he chased the leaders hard.

The lead battle soon built up a gap but the midfield were embroiled in their own battle for fourth that was every bit as spirited as the lead one. 

The event was a timed race but halfway round lap 7 proved to be the halfway point. At this stage the leaders had pulled clear of Langford who was under pressure from Bento with Antoniio, Marting, Nigel and Costa in close attendance. Rick Stratton was rounding out the top 10 in his bright yellow Ferrari. 

As lap 8 started an almighty battle had started behind Rick. Dave Hawt finding himself under intense pressure from Marco Bret with Petra and Steve Shelley holding station a few seconds back.

Up front Rik was trying everything to get back into the lead and eventually managed it on Lap 9 while Perray continued to close the gap up to the lead pair. On Lap 11 he got past Mario with a bold move into the first chicane and passed Rik into the second chicane.

Mario started to drop back now but up front Rik quickly put pressure on Perray. This Spirited battle looked to be going down to the wire. The pair were passing, repassing and jousting like a pair of Italian Knights on thoroughbred horses. They passed, or half passed, probably half a dozen times over the closing laps.. a fitting tribute to the spirit of Guiseppe.

Probably the most notable thing about the race was the huge number of passes and battles throughout the field. The lead battle was the highlight, of course, but the spirit shown in the battles throughout the field was excellent.

Finally however, I feel it's appropriate to close with a couple of post Race Tributes from 

Ray Walton

Congratulations to Rik as the first to cross the line, an excellent victory. However, Rik you really came second as the real winner of this event has to be Guiseppe himself and I only hope that somehow he was able to look down on this occasion with a big wide Italian smile. I am personally deeply saddened by his death, but we must now stop the mourning and instead look back to the many, many good times we had racing with him, and although we will all miss him, we should now celebrate Guiseppe's life with long remembered smiles. I am honoured to have known him albeit only here on-line with Legends League. 

and Petra 

It was a wonderful event, although hampered myself, properly doped with Aspirin before the race still had pain, was dead tired as well I thought for me it was sort of duty to be there. I did not much practice either I had only 2 practice sessions before the race, but who cares about speed in such a race?

Thanks to Mario and Petra for the images. Thanks to Rick Stratton for organising the tribute and Thanks to everyone for making the event so successful.

G1:GP - When Trucks go Bang.

Week 3, rounds 4 and 5 of the Truck Championship proved to be highly eventfull events. The first of the two races was held at the Joesville racetrack. Pole went to Sulla Looming from Crippy, Yuriko and Suku.

This event proved to be eventfull from the start to the end. Initially the front four got away well with Suku getting the jump on Yuriko. Near the tail of the field, however, I got a good start but going two abreast into T2 with Suzy we touched and I spun. Contact wasn't hard but was enough to unsettle my truck. As I caught the slide I lost time as newcomer Gage and Kiboe came past. Kiboe got into Gage and the first yellow was flown.

On Lap 6 Suzy pitted dropping to the tail of the field while the main battles were between Crippy and Suku for second and Kiboe and I at the tail. Kiboe proved to be hard to pass until he ran wide in T3 on lap 12 and I took the place.  Around the same time Suku also took the place from Crippy.

Suku pitted on lap 13, surprisingly early, and at the same time Jafo worked his way past Yuriko.

The next few laps were quiet until Kiboe brought out the second Yellow flag after losing it in T3. Half of the field diving into the pits at the earliest chance. Unfortunatly the field hadn't completely closed up on the pace car and the short lap, combined with the fairly fast pace car, dropped several drivers a lap down.

Normally yellow flag stops are 'free' but in this case they cost several drivers dear. Two more yellows, both caused unfortunatly by myself, were features of the race as Sulla Cruised to a fairly easy win. She had Dropped to 3rd when pitting under the second yellow but regained the lead after the third. 

The 5th round, unfortunatly, was a contreversial event at the Scotia Raceway. This tight 0.300 mile oval was expected to produce a lot of incident and as a result Crippy decided to run it without yellows. This turned out to be fairly unnecessary as only one incident would have flown them.. but boy was it a biggy.

Off the Start Sulla got a good one straight into the lead but behind Suzy got involved in the first of several collisions during the first laps. She got into Crippy exiting T2 giving me the chance for a run up the inside into T3. Suzy didn't give me any room causing us to collide, she bounced wide into Crippy and letting Suku through. 

Suzy then bumped Suku almost into me exiting T2 on Lap 2 before completely ignoring me into T2 a lap later and driving me round. The spin caused Chaos. Suku was completely unable to avoid me despite braking hard and we hit head on. Gage glanced off Suku while my truck slide broadside on down the track. Crippy collected my tail as I slid past and finally Yuriko hit my pinball. 

All that left us with a truck stranded mid track and with no real chance of a safe recovery.  I had to turn round on the racing line with other cars at full pace. Further collisions caused by the totally unsafe location of my truck with every other truck in the field left me with two left side flat tyres and not a straight panel on the bodywork.

Being honest due to the position I was left in post spin Crippy should have restarted the race. When she implimented the no-yellows she was expecting a lot of spins but I don't believe ever expected a car stranded mid track facing the wrong way with no easy way to get the vehicle turned.. and certainly no safe way. To put it simply it's a lesson learnt and certainly no critism of Crippy as it's one of those mistakes I think most people would make if running their own league. It must be remembered she does this on her own and does a stirling job. Sadly however it put two drivers out of contention straight away.

Yuriko having retired with damage after her collision with my stranded car. I pitted for repairs and finished the race 8 laps down. Why Yuriko decided to instantly retire isn't clear as she could have gone straight into the pits for repairs.

The rest of the race was amazingly uneventfull apart from a late race collision between Suku and Crippy.  The collision was caused by Suku's spotted calling 'clear' just as Crippy's nose was about to come alongside Suku. Suku went low in response to the clear call to protect her place just as Crippy's nose came alongside. Suku was forced into a spin and lost the place to Crippy. 

As far as can be assertained pure racing incident caused by a poor spotter call.

Sulla won the race easilly despite a heavy collision with My damaged truck during the early accident.

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.