The points are in (Race#1 Results)

Points sorted folks. Finally.

What a full on race night. The track perhaps wasn't the best choice for eight cars racing, insofar as it was very hard to overtake. And even with the tyre wear set to 'very high' seven laps wasn't enough to force any tactical tyre changes.
And perhaps I'll not even mention the clubman race - great for some not for others. Certainly racing the Gallardos there a few seasons ago was more fun. Perhaps I'll just get on and do that race again some time...

Race Round Up

Clubman
Well, this was a race of two cars, the one that won and the one that didn't. Luke and I in the Jaaaaaaags didn't seam to have a look in. Faster maybe out of the corners but hopeless at getting around them. I remember them being so much better - perhaps a physics update at some point?
Special mention to Rod in this race, chap you often get smashed by those that practice practice practice. But you got a well deserved second place. Excellent, and a fine start to the Clubman season.

Championship
I do so like the HRC460 class. Watching the replay the cars are such different handling things that every corner was a hoot to watch. Tyre wear didn't make much of a difference in this race, shame in some ways. And as Chris pointed out, those that started in front finished in front - we'll pretend that it wasn't that ballistic Lambo then.
Special mention to Callum - social racing at it's finest as I think you visited every position in the pack at least twice...
And special mention to Evan - only because you drove a car which has been described as "throwing a dart backwards". Sadly it was more "drive backwards" this week.

The GT590-4 was a wash out for me. What you lot don't know is that in a practice race the week before that car was untouchable around Monaco. So what went wrong? A barrier marriage didn't help, but I do put a chunk of my issues down to pit stop strategy. My car wasn't really troubling the tyres so I stayed out another lap, what this actually did is put me at the back of the field - so I had to pass everyone, or rather I didn't as you're all quite capable drivers of course. And that was the end of my race.
I've yet to watch the replay in detail (too painful for me), but what I recall there was some pretty close racing at points, if not throughout the race as we often get.
Special mention to Evan on this one again - sterling start to finish lead I believe. Good show

Official Points

Clubman
1. Callum
2. Roderick
3. Evan
4. Paul
5. Chris
6. George
7. Luke
8. Andrew

Championship
Race#1
1. Chris
2. George
3. Andrew
4. Callum
5. Paul
6. Evan
7. Luke
8. Roderick

Race#2
1. Evan
2. Callum
3. George
4. Chris
5. Pual
6. Andrew
7. Luke

Updates

Note that the race log (linked on the right) and all the points over there >  are all up to date now too. Check how close the top points are in the Championship...


Video
And here is that HRC460 Race in all it's glory (remember, my ISP wants you to watch it in 720p)...

This weeks racing.

We have in the calendar to race another street race, but this one as a time trial. I'm thinking that we'll stuff that and do some circuit racing, as I don't know about you lot, but I'm over the narrow racing for now.

Expect to race the TC500 track - I've shared it out if you want to download and practice.

Re-start your engines!

So, last week we didn't do points - you lot were busy propping up bars somewhere telling folks you're their best mate or something.

Anyway, the post below covers what we're doing this week, read it, it covers the official race details etc.

Pictorial Interlude
What we found out last week, is that cars like this:

Are quicker than cars like this:

What remains, is it quicker than car like this?

And once we've done that, we've got the GT590-4, which means you can have a car like this:

If you're brave enough...

Other news
In other news my PS3 decided to turn itself off last night, full on no power moment. Could well be the beginning of the end for my machine - back time essential!

Top Racing. To be sure...

Our compact and bijou race night was excellent fun folks.

For those that couldn't make it, don't worry, we scrapped the points. Also, Lamborghinis are slow mmmkay (wink). Seriously, I think they'll be a hard car to beat in the season.

News of the night is the return of Paul, great to have you back chap!

I've not recorded anything from the night. Doh. Though I think you had to be there to really appreciate it anyhow with just four racers.

So, instead here's some top Irish rally action. Real pros showing poetry in motion between co-driver and pilot taking their car to the limit...

Season Points Race #1

Well, here's a test of commitment right here...
The first points race of the season on the same day we celebrate our fallen heroes by drinking ourselves into a stupor before lunchtime and head for oblivion before nightfall. And it's a street race.

The track
This is one of my favourite tracks in real world terms. Monaco has so much history, not only for the racing but also the harbour and it's floating palace collection. I've been there, and yes, the track is awesome, Loews  (the downhill hairpin) is epic in it's steepness, and of course no run off.
Anyway, of the track, old archive footage most of you have seen, an old recording of my N1 Skyline going large at the track...

Safe to say that the car was crazy quick for a road car. Though nitrous, ceramic turbo, tuner suspension and qualifying sticky tyres all helped of course - I miss that game *sniff*.

And some fantastic archive footage of ol' Jackie talking about driving there (pre air-conditioning I suspect)...

And here's a map as if you need it.

The cars
We're triple heading it again this week.
1. Clubman - I'll see if I can select a car that's as well suited to this as the TVRs were last week.
2. HRC460 - Last official race for this shorter season. They'll feature in the off nights of course.
3. GT590-4 - Note the "-4" folks. 4WD might be a good thing on this course.

Obligatory car pic:

Notes
Hold your horses, more than a normal race, we have tyre wear on. Perhaps that 4WD won't be so crash hot... Seriously, our GT590-4 race is 8 laps and it'll have the highest tyre wear on. I'd expect a munching car to eat through a set of tyres easily in that time. Mind you, max setting will still be racing/med for those cars and racing/hard for HRC460.

Official Details

Clubman
Host: Andrew (Andyc709292)
Lounge: FCT GT5 Andrew
Date: 25-Apr-2013
Track: Cote d'azur / Monaco to it's friends
Start time: 9:00 PM
Laps: 4
Cars: Fixed
Tyres: TBC - Wear Off.
Boost: High/Low

Championship
Track: Cote d'azur / Monaco to it's friends
Start time: 9:15 PM
Laps: 7 & 8
Cars: HRC460 & GT590-4
Tyres: Race Hard / Race Med - Wear On.
Boost: Low/Off



Race on!

Historic Racing Goodness

Well, what an excellent night's racing that was.

Epic fun across the board, but for me the HRC460 race was the winner. And what's more the replay shows it too. What a top race:

Race on!

Season starts here!

Hi Folks,
Don't forget the season starts this week. Whilst it's a pointless race it is the first organised race night of the season.

Track
Grand Valley Speedway.
You know this track, you know it so well. Laptimes in a TC500 car are around the 2 minute mark, so expect around 10 seconds more in a HRC460 and hopefully around 10 seconds less in an Exotique (587pp) car.
There's nothing too complex about this track, or this race, so get on and practice a bit and we'll be fine.

Cars
With Clubman as well we'll have three classes of cars.
Clubman works by my "randomly" selecting cars from the online garage and all racing that car. Most of the time it's worked, but we've had some ringers for sure.
So this season, expect more often than not the SLS Merc, Aston Martin and 206/Mini as set cars - these seemed to work well. No guarantee though!

The other cars you'll need are the HRC460 and Exotique class cars. I'll not go on about the two specs, it's in the charter linked on the right and in posts below. One point, there are some reasonable HRC460 candidates in the online dealer garage thing - the one that updates regularly. This beauty for example:

It might not look much, but it's the fastest HRC460 car I've got at the moment.

Also, time to fire up a supercar and tune it to 587pp for the Exotique racing. You'd be right in thinking that we've done this race before...

Mind you we've had a few seasons now so not surprising.

Other news
Last Thursday there was only four of us racing, but meh, we had fun. Luke had to head off but that didn't stop the three of us remaining having some top racing, below is a test race at our GT590-4 (note the -4) dedicated track. It's great, but really only suitable for these cars as it's too open for TC500 and too tight for the 650Open cars, crazy. Anyway, enjoy...

That's it folks, hope to see you all on Thursday.

Race on!

2013 Sports Season - Starts Here

It's back folks.
Not a long break eh...

Perhaps I just couldn't wait. Certainly I wanted to get the racing back under way again so we don't all get bored of racing...

Ethos of the season
A few of you (me included actually) have commented on the length of the season. And certainly last season dragged on.
Also, we've got a bit boring in our racing, one week on, one week off. It worked for a while to ensure that we had a good turnout on race nights, but perhaps the same people were winning too much or something, but the attrition in this season has been pretty high.
So, this season is more about enjoying racing, having a thrash and really just getting into a mix of cars and trying them out against other racers online.

Race types
The following race types will be in play:

• Set Race - clubman on steroids. No choice in car, I'll pick.
• Thrash - Just that, we'll get cars, race them, pick tracks and race them too. All on the night.
• Multi-class - This is all classes in ascending order doing practice/hot laps. Fastest wins!
• Sprint Race - Shorter races, in single class. Your typical race really.
• Enduro - Full on endurance racing, tyre wear the lot. We do enjoy these!

Cars
The cars we're racing are a mix of all the classes we've done, plus some no-point specials that either I can supply for a night or you can buy and tune. I'd encourage those that enjoy the tuning to share the skill with those that don't.
Core classes in this season are:

Check the calendar for more detail on the special racers required.

Race Calendar
The season is much shorter this time, half as much in fact. Overall there's only five points nights. We've talked about no points racing at all, but I think we'd just get bored of driving around without the push to win a season. But it is less paramount now.
What I've done is make three of the five races endurance races, so basically points where the nights might drag on. Hopefully you'll like it:

Comments on the season are most welcome, I'm happy to consider changing it.

You'll notice that there are many 'thrash' nights, this is bring back casual racing somewhat. Also, there are some no-points race nights, this is to try out some other forms of racing (Targa, Rally etc) so we get to enjoy the whole spectrum of racing in the game.

Details in the right hand side panels will be updated as soon as Google fix a bug in blog lists. pah!

Let me know what you think folks.

Race on!

A little something something for the easter weekend

I stumbled across this vid on  http://www.motorsportretro.com/ a brilliant site with a great selection of articles and videos from yesterdays motorsport.

This screams the new HRC460 class to me.  

5 minutes of pure historic joy.  Full screen and full noise recommend:)

What's small than a Mini?  A slightly compressed mini.  Good news is driver was ok.  From a historic meet at Lakeside 2 weekends ago.

On that note, a story from a sprint meet earlier this year at Lakeside.  A honda went into the wall under the bridge and 000 was promptly called(more precautionary than anything, driver ok with a bit neck pain).  Ambulance and police were dispatched to what was logged as a traffic accident.  The police felt obliged to write it up and determining the accident was the result of excessive speed.....

Finally, a neat little animated clip - Evolution of the F1 Car

The final finale finally. Race #10 & Season Results

Well, that's that then.

Finally we finished the season. And a long old season it's become. We've lost a few on the way through... Rod, Paul - are you still interested. Almost had a resurgence - Baloo? and ended up with a core of racers that has just about kept us afloat.

But you slackers, you missed an epic final race of the season...

Race round up.

Clubman
We've had the SLS Mercs before, but they were so well suited to Nurburgring it was unreal. We did a single lap race (forgetting to turn off tyre wear too) and I think we four finished within probably five seconds. Perfect racing. What's more the lap was around 7m30s so not too shabby either. We'll race those cars again for sure...
Surprise win for me, and that gave me the clubman cup. I'd have not bet on winning that all through the season, but I think it's fair to say that the stock car racing has been great fun with many different winners all through the season.

Championship
This was the do or die race for me - if I won and Chris was at the back I'd have taken the title. So mostly die then...

Tyre wear was set to normal, which for seven laps of the 'ring was about right. It allowed for some strategy, that being Med>Med at the half way mark which seemed sensible and Chris's plan which ultimately paid off which was Hard>Soft. I'm sure that the catch up played a part in all this (was on low) but in reality we all knew the rules and it worked for all of us in some way or other.

Chris, I think that the late pit was a great gamble - another lap and you'd have been toast, but the catch up speed on fresh tyres totally paid off with Evan and I on worn medium tyres.

But of the race - I'll upload a video at some point, if you can watch a 50minute video of four cars racing... You should as it was seriously good fun. I think that everyone pressed for the lead if not had it outright for a period of time. And certainly that track has some interesting characteristics - being smooth is not one of them.

Special mentions to Luke and Evan. Luke for a storming drive and a fair crack at winning the race actually, you were right in the mix. And Evan for having a car that went like a rocket - straight. Or something... You've gone from Schumacher to Senna chap. Mind you, looking at the racing I think the problem was that your car was faster into corners, and marginally faster down the straights, but mine was faster through and out of corners. So several laps were spent with you barrelling past me into corners, losing it as I zipped past and then collecting it for the next corner based assault. Great stuff.

Official Result

Clubman (by poll - might have forgotten to record them!).
1. Andrew
2. Chris
3. Luke
4. Evan

Championship
1. Chris
2. Andrew
3. Luke
4. Evan

Season Results

SuperStars 2012 Season Results

93 Points - Chris

84 Points - Andrew

61 Points - Evan

51 Points - Luke

45 Points - Paul

17 Points - Simon

11 Points - George

09 Points - Roderick

05 Points - Baloo

Clubman Championship Results

38 Points - Andrew

34 Points - Chris

33 Points - Evan

23 Points - Luke

19 Points - Paul

09 Points - George

07 Points - Simon

05 Points - Roderick

03 Points - Baloo

What's next...
Well I'm away for a bit now, so nothing till after Easter to be honest. Though the room is open and able to be  used in my absence.

What I do know is that next season will focus on fun a bit more, and be shorter - this has become laborious.
It'll also likely make use of all our classes, which are:
HRC460
TC500
587PP (Exotique)
GT590 (to be GT590.4)
650Open

Sounds complicated? It isn't really - five cars ready to roll is not too hard in this game. More on the classes and a league charter update to follow as I sort out the details.

Also expect Clubman to continue and perhaps some rally cars.

Drivers
Rod, Paul, Baloo - Let me know if you want a place in the next season please.
And, I'm touting for new racers - we may have a few next season, which will be splendid.

Race on!

League Race #9 Results

Hi Folks,
Short update this week. I think a season of 10 races pushes the interest envelope a touch too far...
Video to follow once I've got some data allocation back.

Race Round-up.

Clubman
We started with the Evo thingy, too much understeer. So we went to the Zonda R. Too much everything steer... Mad car. 651pp in fact, and lower spec tyres made for a race of attrition. And in that, Evan lost out. mate your lead in the series is slim now at best, get your Internet sorted before the finale!
But of the Zonda race? Well, we now have driving line as an optional aid for those that don't know the track. I don't think it'll make much of a difference to the lead racers - I'd like to think that we don't use it, but for those more occasional racers I think it'll help.
The race? meh, too hard with those cars, and that was with a progressive throttle. Kudos to those that use a controller.

Championship Race
Top race folks. I was proper gutted at losing, but it was my own fault for pushing too hard with worn tyres. I could see Chris, Evan and Luke in front, and there was only a slim chance of passing - ruined by over exuberance on one of the corners and having to back out of the wall. Still, Evan saved the day, a spin in the last corner gave me a third. Close enough.
Special mention to Luke. Dude that was a fantastic drive. To be challenging for the win in a race with such strong contenders as Chris and Evan (more on that in a minute though) is top effort.
Special mention to Simon. That there is tenacity. I promise that we'll have some more sensible clubman races for you to get into - being new to the game, the circuit and the cars was a challenge and alas it showed. But damn good show to stick with it!
Final special mention to Evan. Throttle link issues chap? Yup, damn near a podium complete with mechanical  issues. Legend.

Official Results

Clubman
1. Chris
2. Andrew
3. Luke
4. Simon
5 Evan (DNF)

Championship
1. Chris
2. Luke
3. Andrew
4. Evan
5. Simon

Absent friends
Paul, Rod, Baloo - let me know if you want in next season please. It's great to have a good racing field when we can. George, assuming you'll be on when you can.

Next (this) week
We have TC500 and GT590 races with no points this week, around London reverse. Maybe some 587pp racing too. Simon I'll gift you a car you use (don't break any you have).
And, Simon, read this on how to download gifts.

That's all folks.

Race on!