Sim Racers 4 Life - Porsche 917 League - Round 4 - Belgium

[gorgias1976]

Sim Racers 4 Life welcomes you to our 2017 autumn season.
In this league we will race the Porsche 917. This car is fast, powerfull and demanding. Only the bravest will dare to get inside this car and get on the track.
This fourth round will take place at the Historic Belgium. This is all about being fast... and lucky. Any small mistake you make will most probably end in a destroyed car. All survivors will be winners.




SR4L wishes you good luck for the season.


[SIZE=24px]Please Read The News Before Entering This Event[/SIZE]



Race day Information


2 x 10 laps Race 2 Reverse Grid (Top 10 finishers)


November 5th 2017


***BEWARE OF DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ENDING THE NIGHT BEFORE THE EVENT ON MANY COUNTRIES ***
17:25 GMT (17:25 BST - 18:25 CET - 12:25 EST)
120 minute practice
19:25 GMT (19:25 BST - 20:25 CET - 14:25 EST)
30 minute qualifying
20:00 GMT (20:00 BST - 21:00 CET - 15:00 EST)
--7 minute warmup--
race 1 - 10 laps
--7 minute warmup--
race 2 - 10 laps

1 mandatory pitstop must be done every race with all four tires changed.

Track, car and mod will be automatically downloaded the first time you get in the server (in case you don't have them installed).


Server Settings

Server name: !SR4L Classic league
Fuel usage: Normal
Tyre wear: Normal
Damage: 50%
Auto Clutch on


Race Day Password

917Belgium (*) Password will be case sensitive



Weather forecast at Spa for November 5th at race time (will be periodically updated until race day)

-Skies: cloudy
-Humidity: 75%
-Temperature: 9ºC
-Wind: 11km/h from South-West

Note:
Autumn Modern and Classic League post including rules and Calendar http://www.simracers4life.com/index.php?topic=1846.0
Please read our "Sim Racing Etiquette" post http://www.simracers4life.com/index.php?topic=828.0
Please read our "Members Expectations" post http://www.simracers4life.com/index.php?topic=70.0

Don't hesitate in joining Sim Racers 4 Life http://www.simracers4life.com

Please check this post periodically for posible changes.

Special pitstop instruction for SPA (as posted last year, thanks to DjC for the effort)

You will need to set a 'request pit' button and press it in good time before pitting. Unlike other tracks the pits are on the main straight.



Nikos showing us how not to pit:-







WHEN RACING
On a normal lap when NOT pitting, don't cut the entrance of pit lane.


You can cut the line at your own discretion after the pit entrance. Hitting a pitted car will see you disqualified from the race.


If you decide not to pit after requesting a pitstop, careful not to drive into the pit area or you could get a speeding ticket by the game. Cancel pit request is best thing to do.
When you are low on fuel the game can automatically request the pit crew without you requesting pit, be careful this does not happen if you are cutting into the pit area at full speed or again the game could give you speeding ticket. Cancel this request with the pit request button. This should not be a problem anyway if you follow the above rule of not cutting into the entrance of pit lane.

[Bruce]

Got caught behind the fences in both races. They're evil, they let you through but won't let you back on track. Like s kind of Venus Car Trap.

[lamer of fortune]

Had no time to practise during the week but spend a few hours on Sunday leading to P9 in Q
R1: all hope was smashed in T1 when I was sent straight behind the guard rail. Ramon might want to check the replay. tried to catch up after that but lost concentration and hit something in Lap5, crouched back to pit 313sec stop and bad behaving car after repair. Second crash finished the race
R2: starting from P1 helped to stay on track. Fooled myself in the pitstop as I had not pressed the pitbutton assuming it would come up itself at low fuel rates. No pitbox was visible. Took me 20 seconds to realise this and press the button. No idea how I then acquired a speeding ticked as I was in the very last box where pits seemed to end immediately. Could not serve the drive through ( do I need to press the pit button again for this) and was dqed in final lap when I was entering the pits for the second time for drive through serving attempt. Could someone please check on this. DC reported similar problems but was not DQed. Oh and I was in 2nd place due to many crashes. Those points would have been sweet in my account.

[gorgias1976]

Yes Tobias, you need to press the pit buttom to activate the pitlane in this track and serve the penalty.
In my opinion for future races we should disable pit speed limit everytime we race in both classic Belgium and Montecarlo

[argl]

I practiced a bit in the week leading up to the race and got into the low 3:11s. That netted me a 6th in qualifying, starting next to my team mate.

I survived the start and got into a rhythm in 5th place, where the distance to the front and the back slowly increased. So far so good. I decided to pit early after lap three to not get in the way of everyone else. Unfortunately, I entered the pits a bit too fast, so I got a penalty. Being a good citizen (and I could only blame myself for that), I requested another pitstop to serve the penalty and entered the pits again after lap 4.

And right there my downfall started. The pitcrew got busy to fill my tank up again and change my tires again. Needless to say, I lost another minute in the pits and still did not get my penalty cleared. Got going again with about 1000 liters in my tank and quite upset. Consequently, I binned it at Masta kink and that was that.

In race 2, I started form the absolute back (I still dont grasp the rules of reshuffling, but hey), so I tried to avoid the usual carnage in the first lap. I avoided the crashes and hayballs at Radillion and Malmedy, but at Masta I arrived at a big ball of smoke and crashed into some road furniture while avoiding other cars. My drive was a severely bent, but I could still hold it on track. So I limped back to the pits veeeryy sloooowly. I did run a bit wide at La Source (car would not brake in a straight line), which got me a F***ING penalty because of track limits(!). Entering the pits, this time it did serve the penalty correctly. But this time, I would rather have my car repaired! So after the stop / go I left the pits and had to limp around the track again, to finally end up waiting just under 500 seconds for the repairs. So I took a dump, serviced my cat and got going again, a few laps down and bringing it finally home in 7th place.

I have to repeat myself, I think this track not suited for online racing. I see the challenge of getting good lap times and finding a few mphs out of Masta by going high risk. But having other people around you, having those hayballs getting in the way and having pit rules straight out of mystery land really kills it for me. In all of my sim racing I barely finished a race on that track, and most of the time I could not blame myself.

I never had less fun on any track and if you invest even a few hours in training and setup, its always for nothing and simply a waste of time. So I urge to either drop that track from the schedule, make it a time trial or at least remove the hayballs and have a proper pitlane. The latter would be hard I guess and result in a modified track. So just drop it. Take Spa88 for christ sake, and have a proper race! (Yeah I know, these cars raced on the old Spa in '70, but being absolutely historically correct is not the goal here. And they did have guard rails instead of hayballs in 1970)

[deecee52]

I love this track but like others have said it is spoilt by haybales, fences and stupid pitlane issues , I really enjoyed this car here it taught me a lot about this track as it showed every bump and blemish but was a great thrill to drive on the limit .

Qually

After the synch issues finished with me I went out with a qually setup I had made which should have scraped me into the 3 07s but for whatever reason it stopped working so changed to my race setup and managed to get pole .

Race 1

I new the car was good on cold tyres so I went for it straight off hoping to pull a gap before Masta straight and the drafting opportunities it would give , fortunately this worked and I settled into my rhythm and opened a gap , around lap 4 I found someone had wiped out the 100 metre marker before the Masta kink and this was important to me , It took me a few laps to make a new turn in point , pitted on lap 6 but got a drive thru and 4 laps to serve it , came in lap 8 but it didnt clear , came in again lap 9 drove at 70mph thro pit right upto Eau Rouge still didnt clear , came in again last lap but then just decided to accelerate across the line and see what happened , stuffily I only dropped 2 places and netted a 3rd , Dammit .

Race 2

Got a good start and made places , was behind Cookie and just lining him up for the draft out of Kemmel and he was filling my screen , pulled out and found Dimitrius broadside across the track in front of me , I hit him square on and took some flying lessons but when I landed and got going amazingly the car felt OK , decided to pit so I could have a clear track to bang some fast laps in , i very carefully entered the pit , unfortunately I must have had damage and the car was repaired but it put all the settings to default , came out of pits and car was dog slow , got as far as Stavelot turned as I normally would but car ploughed off into house , so quit and made coffee .

[Edvvc]

This track seems to create mixed feelings. Sometimes I absolutely love the speed and the smooth style that it rewards, but other times (especially in the 917) it is just brutal. I found it very hard to get confident and set a representative lap time. On Saturday I wasn't able to set a single flying lap without crashing during a 45 minute session. It's like the 917 doesn't afford you any room to get out of trouble when you make a misjudgement.

Qualifying: Things seemed to come together and unusually I set my fastest lap of the weekend in quali, 2nd on the grid.

Race 1: Things started well and I was following David Coyne until avoiding a hay bale on the exit of Malmedy made me spin. Down to 4th but managed to overtake DJC and things were looking up. Later I carried too much speed into Burnenville and ended up in someone's back yard. DNF

Race 2: Start was ok and avoided some trouble early in the lap and was following DJC. After Malmedy I got a draft from David Hart but then things took a very bad turn. DJC had a minor incident which slowed him and Ricknau and so I pressed on hoping to outbreak Ricknau into Masta. Instead I became that guy who thinks they can go off-line and do an impossible overtake but ends up crashing and ruining other people's races. I'm truly sorry to Andi Pieper and David Hart, and it has caused me some anguish because I had hoped this kind of misjudgement was behind me. It had been a long day, driving home from Wales in the morning and the coffee might have played a part. DNF

[donrandom]

Well, that wasn't really my race.
I did a lot of training and setup work, which awarded me P5 in Quali. I survived the first lap and settled in behind my team mate Andi. Actually a quite comfortable situation. However, by lap 2 I killed myself without any reason. 100% my fault. Ok, so I started race 2 almost last - I took it as a challenged. After the start, I survived eau rouge and even made up quite some places. However, exiting I had to avoid a hay ball and ended up behind the fence. :o

I think this track not suited for online racing. I see the challenge of getting good lap times and finding a few mphs out of Masta by going high risk. But having other people around you, having those hayballs getting in the way and having pit rules straight out of mystery land really kills it for me. In all of my sim racing I barely finished a race on that track, and most of the time I could not blame myself.

I absolutely agree with Andi. The track is a great challenge, but racing is mix of roller-coaster and casino. A wild style gambling. I really enjoy the challenge to come up with a good lap on this extra-ordinary track, but racing is rarely rewarding (I think I never finished a race here).

Just an idea: Maybe we could challenge this track in a non-championship race, say, a Historic Spa Master race? Something special, but not as part of a championship.

[myself9]

I LOVE racing here. It's the one race I'll drop whatever I'm doing so I can participate. I feel an even greater sense of accomplishment crossing the finish line at Belgium than I do at Nordschliefe. Second only to Targa Florio, I'd say. And that's a CLOSE call for me.

But donrandom nailed it by saying it's a "mix of roller-coaster and casino".
It sucks to have one's race ended by a hay bail which landed in an unfortunate location. Or to have one's race ended by a car flying across the road in flames because the driver lost concentration for a split second. Or launching over the fence into the Fields of Despair. Or, or, or... We're really at the mercy of the gods at this course. Just like the heroic drivers who risked their lives on this course 50+ years ago.

I had a great weekend there, and I'm still sore.

First race I couldn't finish a quali lap until my 5th or sixth try. Qualied 7th. Survived the first turn and headed out into the roller coaster in around 11th or so. Threaded the needle between quite a few spinouts and haybails, but did tag one which damaged my suspension. I pitted on lap 5, didn't repair damage and coasted to a 5th place finish. THREE people who were in front of me crashed out on the final lap, I believe? My best league finish EVER.

Second race was a clean start for me. About half way through the first lap, most of the fast guys who started behind me were caught up in a huge pileup. I smelled blood and thought I might have a shot at podium. I pitted for tires+fuel on lap 5, but the cars were stacked 2 wide in pit lane. I tried to ease around the outside, which caused my pit request to cancel. I pulled back out, requested another pit stop and limped back because I barely had enough fuel to finish a lap. Also kind of freaked out that I was in 1st place. Pitted with .01 gallons of fuel left and took care of business. Left the pits in second place behind David C and saw that Tobias was only about 7 seconds behind me with 4 laps to go. And he's faster than me. NOT cool! I usually try to relax and just bring it home after my pit stop. I pushed HARD, and Tobias made up 2 seconds in just one lap. Uh oh. At one point he was less than 2 seconds behind. I just put my head down and tried to drive as fast as I could without taking too many risks.

I finished about 2 seconds in front of Tobias (hope he gets his points for the race) in 2nd place. My first ever league podium. In over a decade of simming. Felt fantastic -- that I finished, podiumed and wasn't responsible for ending anyone's day

[argl]

Just an idea: Maybe we could challenge this track in a non-championship race, say, a Historic Spa Master race? Something special, but not as part of a championship.

Now thats an idea, just do it as an all star race!

[gorgias1976]

I keep in my idea of doing a 1960s three race championship event. Belgium, 10k Brianza and Montecarlo, driving the BT20 or the Eve/Spark F1, depending on which laps closer to reality.
Races would be done according to 1960s style. Full GP Laps with no pit limits and pit requirements.

People should take it easy during the race start considering the length of the race.

[deecee52]

I keep in my idea of doing a 1960s three race championship event. Belgium, 10k Brianza and Montecarlo, driving the BT20 or the Eve/Spark F1, depending on which laps closer to reality.
Races would be done according to 1960s style. Full GP Laps with no pit limits and pit requirements.

People should take it easy during the race start considering the length of the race.

Why not make it a battle between BT20 and Ferrari 312 , could be interesting fight

[Ricknau]

Late report from me. Seems that the SR4L server is often not online when I try to log in. (Late at night in the USA, maybe the server is down for post midnight service in Europe.)

First I'd like to say I am not in favor of dropping Spa from competition races. That is, if we can eliminate the hay bales. There is a version we've raced before without them ("league friendly" version) and I thought I'd seen somewhere in the forums that that was the version we'd use. I don't think we should blame the track for over aggressive driving in Eau Rouge, Masta and elsewhere. And the race announcement thread pointed out that the pit lane ended at the end of the pit wall and gave all kinds of warning about pit entry and exit, etc. And yes Tobias, you must request a pit stop to serve a penalty. I've been burned before on that one myself. Cars stacking up in the pits was a problem for some but aren't there other tracks where we share pit stalls? I'm wondering if you're stall is occupied if you can't position yourself in the next stall and back up into the right one when it is vacated. I don't think you'd get a DQ for backing up twenty feet. Not sure but it could be tested. This would prevent one waiting car from blocking the guy behind him. That's mainly what I wanted to say but here's my report for what it's worth.

Race 1, Qualified 9th with a 13.9 which was a surprise. I thought there would be many more guys faster than that. Race went well. Got past Dan Bayford on lap 3 running through Burnenville to take 7th. It was a bit scary getting by just at the entry to the right hand curve (under the ArcTex banner) but it came out OK. Either we were lucky or Dan was cooperative with the pass. I think the latter. That was my only pass for position in both races as the field spread out. Ended the race in forth due to attrition. Very satisfying finish for me.

Race 2 was waaaay more eventful. Started 7th due to reverse grid. Held position and was just cruising along to my pit stop after lap 6 when hell broke loose. Clipped the barb wire fence on the exit of Malmady but damaged the car as if it was a cement wall. Severe damage and almost quit but decided to limp to the pits... that's a loooong limp. (Watching mirrors very closely) Almost quit again when I saw the pit stop was going to be 8 MINUTES! But I hung in there, feeding the cats, snacking, doing some channel checks on TV... etc. Was passed in the pits by numerous cars but my position only went down to P6! I guess those guys must have had their own multi-minute pit stops earlier. When I finally exited the pits there were still 2 laps left for me. But... I was too anxious in my haste and forget to hold off accelerating until the end of the wall and got a freaking stop-and-go penalty. Arrgh! Served it and still didn't lose 6th. And on the last lap someone must have crashed-out ahead of me because I ended up finishing 5th! Unbelievable.

P.S. I love the feel of this car on this track with all the road surface effects. I'm racing in VR now and the bounces along with the FF and the 3D look inside the cabin is VERY immersive! Actually I like this car in general except that it is very un-optimised and drags my FPS way down to the 90FPS threshold of VR.

[Ricknau]

... I requested another pitstop to serve the penalty and entered the pits again after lap 4.

And right there my downfall started. The pitcrew got busy to fill my tank up again and change my tires again.

Andi, that's a real bummer. I too served a stop and go for speeding but the crew did not give me gas. I'm wondering if it has to do with how you set up your fuel strategy pre-race. To setup two fuel stints you have to set the number stops to 1 or more. This is in order to enable the fuel counter for the second stint. Once I have set the amount of fuel for the second stint I change the number of stops back zero. This way I get a fuel warning but it does not request a pit stop. It's totally up to me to stop before I run out and I must alert the crew (request the stop). In your case it may have prevented your second refill when you stopped for the penalty. If you had multiple stops preset it automatically assumed it was a scheduled fuel stop. Not sure but I'll bet that's your problem.

The other way around this is... DON'T GET A PENALTY!! ;D

[argl]

And the race announcement thread pointed out that the pit lane ended at the end of the pit wall and gave all kinds of warning about pit entry and exit, etc. And yes Tobias, you must request a pit stop to serve a penalty. I've been burned before on that one myself. Cars stacking up in the pits was a problem for some but aren't there other tracks where we share pit stalls?

Ah I forgot to mention that I had to wait for another minute behind another car occupying my pit stall, adding some more scratches to insult to injury whatever.

A league-compatible Belgium track would heave to be modified in these areas:

• No hayballs
  
• Wider spaced starting grid (let it run past La Source if necessary)
  
• More pit stalls (there should be space for at least a few more towards the pit exit
  
• Remove the fences in some areas. A simple wire fence can send a race car skywards? Not really convincing on the realism side.
  

Is it possible to edit 'original' tracks these days with tools like 3dsimed? I could try to come up with something. I am still furious that my races were such a mess because of these track stupidities, but my modeling superpowers are a bit rusty and only rfactor1 compatible.

With these modifications, the track would not lose anything in terms of lethality, but it would reduce the casino-ism.

[Ricknau]

Is it possible to edit 'original' tracks these days with tools like 3dsimed? I could try to come up with something. I am still furious that my races were such a mess because of these track stupidities, but my modeling superpowers are a bit rusty and only rfactor1 compatible.

With these modifications, the track would not lose anything in terms of lethality, but it would reduce the casino-ism.

As I mentioned, someone did a no hay bale version so I would think that at least some of your desires (all good ones IMO) could be done by someone with moderate modding skills. I think spreading out the grid is a common trick that our server person could do. Adding pit stalls... I think this could be done in GPL but in rF2 I don't know. Would be real nice if possible. Changing the fences would be real tough I think except by an experienced modder. Finding that person who is willing to do it would be tough I think. But maybe you can get you modding chops up and be that guy! I'll bet such a modded track would be very popular even beyond SR4L!

P.S. Here's an idea... how about no pit stop for this race! That's an easy fix! Or... first half of starting grid must pit no later than first half of race (no later than lap 5 for us), last half of grid must pit after half way point (lap 6 or later).

[1959nikos]

As I mentioned, someone did a no hay bale version

I think DJ did that some time ago.

I'll bet such a modded track would be very popular even beyond SR4L!

I think that what this track badly needs is a smooth tarmac so you can race 917s, Lolas and 70s Formula 1.
I know its a tough act but this would be greatly appreciated by all rfactor2 community.

What do you say Mauro.

[argl]

P.S. Here's an idea... how about no pit stop for this race! That's an easy fix! Or... first half of starting grid must pit no later than first half of race (no later than lap 5 for us), last half of grid must pit after half way point (lap 6 or later).

Agreed, but pits are used for repairs and penalties as well, not being able to serve a penalty is quite the hindrance. Not that adding pit stalls will solve this, but maybe having entries / exits and limits clearer marked on the track, apart from building a real pitwall.

PS Oculus here as well! Quantum leap in immersion. A bit heavy after longer periods of usage tho. But I dont think I can go back to a normal screen. Even larger 3-screen installations look dated to me now.

[Ricknau]

I think that what this track badly needs is a smooth tarmac so you can race 917s, Lolas and 70s Formula 1.
I know its a tough act but this would be greatly appreciated by all rfactor2 community.

What do you say Mauro.

Funny thing is I like the uneven pavement. Really brings the track to life. I don't know if it is realistic to how the track was back in the day but I like it. It didn't hinder me.

Hey Nikos, when will you be back on track? We miss you!

[Ricknau]

PS Oculus here as well! Quantum leap in immersion. A bit heavy after longer periods of usage tho..

I have a Vive... even heavier. What I did was attach a weight to the back of the head strap (a piece of lead I had hanging around) as a counter to the front weight of the HMD. Obviously doesn't make it lighter but keeps the weight off my nose. Still a lot less weight than a real racer would have on his head with a helmet.