1976 F1 Season - Round 13 Italy Monza REPORTS

[Ricknau]

Qualified 15th (I think). Finished 8th But nothing to be proud of. Just everybody else dropping out. Had a few fun laps half way through with Tobias. He passed me then I passed him, both of us keeping it clean. Then I pitted and we parted ways.

[myself9]

Very disappointing race for me. That huge lag during lap seven put into a wall and badly damaged my aero. Seven laps later, I was pushing a little too hard for the damage I had and I put it into a wall, ending my race.

Had some fun battling with Dan B and John while it lasted.

[Keeper]

Eventful, to say the least.

When I joined the server a few days ago to get some practice in, all on my lonesome, after I was done I checked the server time sheets expecting to be outside the top 10, as surely everyone had had a slipstreaming lap. I was third on the list. Say what? Some more practice and I was second. I had to assume that no one had been getting a draft in any practice yet.

Then came race day and an unexpected pole position. Usually I can never find a draft, or never get one that doesn't cause all time to be lost later on. In this case, I had a draft past Stuart but then lost all that time when he drafted past and took the inside into the first Lesmo. But then I got it back and more overtaking him back into Parabolica, with an additional draft for a moment on the way out from another car that as I recall headed into the pits. My best non-tow lap would have put me 4th on the grid though, so finally I began to think, heck, maybe I'm genuinely rather quick. Weird!

I knew my long second gear would be a problem at the start and it was. I fell back to 5th into Curva Grande. Heading toward Parabolica, I was taken by surprise at the early braking up front. Had to swerve to avoid hitting DJC but of course couldn't brake in doing so. Drove into the sand and fell back to 12th. Well, there goes that race, I thought.

But quickly I worked my way back up through the field. On lap eight or so I took over 4th braking into Lesmo 1 with 3rd place Ed right in front... then the big server burp happened. It seemed on my screen that Ed had gone wide into the corner. I went low, then Ed's car magically slewed across the track and wiped me out. I smashed the inside barrier a few times and was left with a car that really didn't want to turn right, which is a Bad Thing at Monza, to be sure.

I was back in 11th again, with a damaged car, and the field spread out. Oh well, I thought. There goes that race for sure this time!

But still I was catching cars, and made my way back up to 4th before the pit stop, after a little back-and-forth with Ed until he had a tank-slapper behind me in Curva Grande. I was just seconds behind a podium place heading into and out of the pits. I got into 3rd pretty quickly after the pit stop and set off in pursuit of Daniel Tani in 2nd about seven seconds ahead. Looked like I was going to get to him but then caught Bruce at the entrance of the Lesmos and lost over two and a half seconds. Then I was trying to drive qualifying laps (albeit on worn rubber) to reduce the gap again, while realizing I had 10 liters too much fuel in the car, which wasn't helping. I may have been able to get within drafting range right toward the end, at the rate I was going, until I pulled an Albon out of the second Lesmo. Smacked up the car some more. Then the goal was just not to lose the podium result. And I didn't! My first podium other than I think a reverse-grid affair in the F2000s, perhaps...? or the Spark?

So, I'm rather pleased at that.

[Tygernoot]

Quite disappointing for me as well unfortunately.

I had a decent qualifying with the March, ending up in P6. All was lost at the start though. I had a good getaway from the line and tried to squeeze myself between the grass and Dave Coyne. It barely fit until Dave had a bit of wheelspin and moved ever so slightly to the left pushing me onto the grass. He probably had no idea I was there and what hit him when my front locked into his rear tyre, and we both went into the wall. Ugh. I wish I had backed off, but it just happens very quickly.

After extensive damage repairs I came out of the pits right in front of the leaders. After a few laps I let JP go by. Then when Ed approached slowly but steadily, I was about to let him through, and he was suddenly gone. A few laps later, DJ disconnected from the game. What was going on?

My car was feeling terrible, pulling to the right and I had to fight it a lot, but I did my best to gain places. I was mostly helped by the high attrition rate. After a while I was behind Ed when he came out of the pits. I overtook him and again Ed disappeared! Sjeez, I am spreading my bad luck it seems. Well, actually, spreading my teammate Antti's bad luck! :p He decided to skip this race due to lack of training, having had several accidents in the past races already.

I was in P10 when I noticed I was gaining between 1-2s per lap on P9, and figured I'd try and make up this last position before the end of the race. However, I was tinkering too much with settings and statistics, didn't pay enough attention to the track, touched the grass in the very easy full speed left hander (the one which is now the Variante Ascari chicane), lost control of the car and crashed with lots of bits and wheels flying off.

I have no words. Just a terrible display from start to finish from me

[deecee52]

Another awful event for me , I got taken out on the startline even before I managed to get 2nd gear , this put me into the barriers and damaged the front suspension , got going and worked my way up the field , i survived the big lag on lap 7 when everyone around me just disappeared then had a misunderstanding with my Teamie whilst passing him into Curve Grande which ended with me punting him off (sorry Tim) , got back up to 6th and was then collected by a spinning Stuart which put me behind the barriers at the start of the Lesmos so that was it race over .

[Fergy]

If you have any issues can you please PM me. Not sure what's caused the Lag as things have been running well. We will have to look into it. Sorry all.

[gorgias1976]

Yes, server was fully restarted as always before the event to prevent this issues.

[SBart_uk]

Very disappointing for me too. qually went ok, couldn't get into the right position for a decent slipstream lap but managed to equal my pb from the night before to get 2nd. I made a huge mistake for the race and decided to go with hard tyres and a full tank. I got overtaken several times during the first few laps and there was pretty much nothing i could do about it. Then i was in the slipstream approaching Lesmo 1, pulled out of it and the car just went straight on in the weirdest place to crash at Monza. I got on the grass and round it went.
A huge sorry to you Deecee! I don't know what to say other than I don't usually have silly crashes like that and end up ruining peoples races. I hope it doesn't affect your championship too much.

[deecee52]

Very disappointing for me too. qually went ok, couldn't get into the right position for a decent slipstream lap but managed to equal my pb from the night before to get 2nd. I made a huge mistake for the race and decided to go with hard tyres and a full tank. I got overtaken several times during the first few laps and there was pretty much nothing i could do about it. Then i was in the slipstream approaching Lesmo 1, pulled out of it and the car just went straight on in the weirdest place to crash at Monza. I got on the grass and round it went.
A huge sorry to you Deecee! I don't know what to say other than I don't usually have silly crashes like that and end up ruining peoples races. I hope it doesn't affect your championship too much.

NP its all part of racing , with the speeds we carry at this circuit , when things happen its usually too fast to respond

[Harri Mac]

Hi guys, I had a busy day and was too tired to even attempt this race so stayed away as I would have been a dozy mare and caused accidents. From outside the server on LiveRacers, it looked like poor internet connection. All the drivers kept crashing at the same time (flashing red rings around cars) and the site would freeze than you would all transport halfway around the track to your "real" positions. There was continual disconnect warnings too. Could have been a Steam issue. Could have been my internet, no idea. Just thought I'd give a heads up.

Looking forward to Montreal (I'm guessing Montreal) even if I don't race will be sorting out a setup for DJC

[bullwinkle]

Well I was very happy with practice and qual with deecee's help I was able to get a pb and was very happy with it. Start of race I was trying to stay out of some of the wrecks and mayhem and was doing ok until on lap 6 I had an oop's and went flying into wall lost both wheels and wing fun over. I watched the rest of the race it was very strange. I will not race next race due to a commitment but I will see you in practice.
Our team is going backwards but we will be back.

[bendx]

No pace here, I didn't have time to adjust the setup correctly, which is probably very different than usual... Except for set wings to 1, not enough I guess....

Anyway, I have succeed to stay away trouble, did a pretty clean race and finish 7.

I was lucky too during "the big lag", I was on the main straight and just lost a bit of time.

[J-P SImard]

First bravo to the drivers present at every race, without drivers, the race is nothing.

On my side I was satisfied with my qualification, I managed to find a rabbit soon enough to follow but Ron and Stuart were faster. Good job guys.

At the start of the race i jumped to the first place and I really spent the Lesmos as quickly as possible creating a gap allowing me to shelter from the aspiration.

I was expecting a big battle for the victory with Stuart and maybe Ron, I finally found myself alone in the front so I just had to make my race. Sorry guys if you had problems, the race can be cruel. I followed my strategy without problems, a race without history that allows me to breathe better, now I can not wait to be at the next race.

See you soon and thank you to the organizer, we will never tell you enough.

[Daniel Tani]

Lotsa attrition, huge lag, some more attrition then slow and steady = 2nd place.

Many THANKS to the Admins and Organizers!

p.s. don't know if it's symptomatic of a greater problem... I have a second PC, I use that to view the server to compare times e.t.c. whilst I'm practicing. While practicing for the last 2 events the SR4L server on the LiveRacers will constantly loose connection so it appears that I'm not on track while I'm running laps. It will also display a message that it's trying to "Reconnect". I don't think it's my connection but I can't be sure. Don't know if it means anything just thought I'd bring it to someones attention.

[Bruce]

Another points finish for me. Equalling my best for this season. Took all the wing off (1 on each) and changed gearing, left all else as it came. Not too far off pace but had to stop once to change front tyres even though running hard (flatspots more than anything). In hindsight could have half fuelled which would have got me a bit nearer the other runners. As it was I qualified with full tanks.