[GRUNZ]

Round 1 Race Report - 3/06/2017

Past, Saturday we kicked off the BTCC series. Only 4 of us could make it. Paul, Colin and Mike D were all eager to race their cars. Jan went up north to enjoy the long weekend.

We got two Civic, one Passat, one M125 and one MG6.

Here are the cars:

My MG:

Jan's BMW:

Mike D's VW:

Colin's Honda:

Last but not least, Paul's Honda:

Qualify

For the qualify of the first race, we all started with the same power profile. The qualify was a battle between Mike's Passat and my MG. We were quite close for most of the 6 minutes with less than 100th of sec of difference. With only 30 second to go I managed to snatch the pole from Mike gaining the first point of the season! Third was Paul followed by his Young brother Colin.

1 qualify point for G

Race 1 - 24 minutes

For race 1, I got to start from the front row still with the full power profile. The use of different SLTP would be applied from race 2 onwards. Weather was cloudy at the start and end of the race with sunny spells in the middle.

I had a good start and got in the lead followed closely by Mike. Colin had a better start than Paul and was third. Given that the cars are all pretty close there is not a chance to overtake. So the only possible way is to bade your time and wait for the car in front of you to crash. Also the pit stops are very important for overtaking, as Mike will experience at the end of this race.

During the first round of pitstops after the track was dry, I decided to just add fuel to last till the second pit stop while the others went for a full tank. This allowed me to keep my lead even though Mike's Passat uses less fuel than my GM. The positions didn't change until the second pit stop.

For this round, Mike D forgot to check that there were only 5 minutes left into the race and staid in the pit longer than needed. Colin took advantage and closed the gap but was still behind Mike. Paul had also to repair his car so was a couple of laps behind everyone.

I was too optimistic in my fuel estimates and with one minute to go I had to do a splash and dash but still manage to stay in the front. Meanwhile, the battle for position 2 was heating up. With few laps to go, Mike had a crash and Colin manged to pass him gaining second position. With time running out, Mike could only settle for third place.

Race 1 results: G, Colin, Mike, and Paul.

Mike was the fastest in race 1 (40 millisecond faster than me), gaining an extra point.

Race 2 - 20 minutes

For this race, we applied the SLTP to the first three of the grid. As first in the previous race, I got a profile limiting my power to 58 out of 63. Colin as second, got a profile limiting his power to 60. Mike got the third profile limited at 62.

For this race, we started in wet condition but good weather would be seen at the end of the race.

I had a good start but with limited power I could not shake the other two form my tail. However, I was not too slow for the others to overtake me. The waiting game was on.

At around 10 minutes from the end, the rain stopped and the wets performance degraded too much too quickly. It was time for a pit stop. Colin had already performed the pit stop so I went in with some laps ahead of him. After fueling up to 70% and putting inters I went out still in front of him. Mike was trying hard to stay out as long as possible on wets but this costed him a couple of crashes to Colin's advantage.

When all of us did their pit stops, I was still on the lead closely followed by Colin (on the same lap). Third was Mike (one lap behind) and last was Paul. The situation didn't change much till the end. Mike's Passat was solid fast and got again the fastest lap of the race.

Race 2 results: G, Colin, Mike and Paul.

Fastest lap: Mike.

Race 3 - 16 minutes

This is the shortest race and if you manage your fuel should be possible to finish it without stopping at all. For this race we also started in reverse grid with Paul on the pole position followed by Mike, Colin and G.

The weather was cloudy at the start but it would change to sunny by the end of the race.

The start was full of drama: Mike jump started and Colin crashed on corner 2. This gave me second position, while Paul was enjoying alone on the lead. His car was pretty fast I could not gain on him. Mike was trying hard to gain the laps that he lost for his 20 sec penalty in the box. However this costed him some time for some extra crashes. Paul had also some crashes but I was not close enough to take advantage and go in the lead.

With 5 minutes to go, the track was getting dry and our inters were going really thin. After all of us put on hards and some fuel, the situation was still unchanged. Paul was still the race leader, followed by me and Colin. Mike was still a couple of laps behind us.

However, now Paul was with only one damage point left and I was gaining on him. Also Colin was pretty close being on the same lap with me and Paul.

With 10 seconds to go, I made my move and trying to beat Paul on the S/F line. But my attempt was futile.

Again the fastest of the race was Mike!

Race 3 results: Paul, G, Colin and Mike.

Championship Points:

Conclusions

I think Scalex has a winner class here. The cars perform quite well almost straight out of the box. With some basic tuning, you can get to lap quite nicely on the SS track.

The fact that we can now use slot.it tyres is another big plus.

Performance wise, big surprise here as most of us thought that the Civic were going to car to beat. Instead the long wheel-base cars seem to favor more my layout.

However, the use of the SLTP will make things more interesting not to mention the pit strategy factor that is enabled by the use of RCS64 simulations.

PS: sorry for any typos but no time for editing it.

 

[Chappy]

Great report Gio.
It sounds like the BTCC class is going to be good and competitive.
The cars look good too.
Keep the reports coming, it's a grand series.
Bob

 

[GRUNZ]

Thanks Bob, will try my best to keep the reporting up.

yeah I think that we will have a close series here.

Which is what we want.

 

[LMP]

Good stuff I think many clubs are enjoying these cars

 

[GRUNZ]

Yep, I think this is going to be an interesting class for Scalex both for home and club racing.

With the new C chip coming this could be also an interesting support class for large DiSCA events.

I just hope that we will see more models coming like the merc and toyota.

 

[Chappy]

I'm with you there Gio. I have been having a lot of fun with mine. And like you hoping to see the makes expand. I expect new liveries ad the seasons unfold, but an addition of makes would be great too.
Bob

 

[GRUNZ]

I would be happy with those two added so to have another hatchback and another sedan.

Plus you could have nice digital grid of 6 cars.

 

[GRUNZ]

Round 2 Race Report - 10/6/2017

Finally, today we had all the drivers on the grid. Colin got a new Honda, because the motor in his previous one was gutless. I think he is happier now. ;-)

Colin's new Civic:

Practice

We started with a 20 minute practice session to get a feel of the cars. This was important especially for Jan given that this was the first time his car was on the track. Jan's BMW was fast on the outset as we all were expecting.

Qualify

We moved on to qualify. We loaded the SLTP based on the position in the overall championship points. I got the slowest, followed by Colin and while Mike and Paul shared the one for third position. Jan got the profile with full power.

We put the cars on the pitlane as ready to exit from the pit box and hit the start button:

The weather was dry so most of us put on Softs. The first laps I was really struggling to keep up with the others. Then when my fuel level started to get low I was making some interesting laps. With one minute to go I managed to get the fastest lap - 9.028 - so I decided to go to the pits. Jan, however, managed to best it with a 9.006. Third was Colin with 9.095, fourth Mike with 9.131 and last Paul with 9.273.

Race 1 - 24 minutes

We placed the cars on the grid ready for race:

The SLTP distribution remained unchanged. I was in the second position in the inner lane with the slowest profile. The track was wet with rainy conditions, but the rain would stop by the end of the race.

I had a good start, followed by Jan and Colin. I could not shake them off but Jan had to release his position due to some crashes. Colin's new Honda had also some issues with the front being unstable and had a couple of crashes. This gave Paul a good advantage now moving up to p2. Paul's Civic was also quite fast and reliable but he could not really pass me. My fuel economy was also good so I knew that I could outlast Paul.

When we were almost through the half of the race, the weather changed to cloudy and then to sunny. The track was drying up but not very quickly. My Wets were still ok but I was almost out of fuel. When I got into the pit, the track went dry enough to be able to put on Hards. All the other guys that went in the pits before me, had put on Inters. Paul went into the pits before me, but he was brave enough to put on Hards even the track was still damp.

After I put on 80% of fuel, I went out still in the lead, followed by Paul. At this stage Mike was running third but his Inters were chewing up pretty quickly. Same for Jan and Colin. Mike pushed too hard with his Inters and he went out of damage points and was forced to go into the pits for repairing his car. This gave Colin the opportunity to move up third. However, he was pushing too hard and losing damage points.

With 2 minutes to go, Colin deslotted just after the pit entrance, running out of damage points. He had to go in for pitting costing him the third place. Jan was struggling to keep his car on the track but in the process he manged the fasted lap.

At the end of the 24 minutes, I ended first, followed by Paul, Mike, Colin and Jan. The fastest lap point went to Jan.

Race 2 - 20 minutes

For Race 2, the SLTP didn't need to change for the first three, except for Paul that now got full power back.

The weather was rainy again but by the end of the race sunny and dry conditions were expected. Colin did some lead distribution changes in his car.

I was starting from pole, with Paul on lane two. The start was pretty good but Paul's car passed on the lane changer together with Mike Passat and this triggered a disaster: sometime the flippers move causing a car to move into the other passing car. This costed Paul a couple of positions and gave an advantage to Colin.

We had a long stint (something like 50 laps) without any crashes so we were reaching the point where we had to make a pit stop. I was still in the lead in the same lap as Colin in p2. He had to pit earlier than me so I manged to gain some extra laps on him.

When my turn for stopping came up, we were with 5 minutes to end of the race. I had to put on hards, but instead of starting fueling up straight on, I waited a bit longer because I was afraid I was going to put too much fuel. This was a disastrous decision.

I came out with 30% of fuel still with half lap in front of Colin. But my estimate of fuel consumption was wrong. With less than a minute to go, I had to do another splash and dash which costed me the p1.

At the end of the 20 minutes, Colin was first, followed by me, Mike, Paul and Jan. Colin car was also getting more effective giving him the fastest lap of the race.

Race 3 - 16 minutes

For this race, we had a reverse grid as shown below:

I would be starting in 4th position which is on the slowest lane and behind car in p2. The weather was cloudy with sunny spells by the end of the race.

At the start there was a big pile up: Mike was a bit too eager and smashed in Jan's car, which also took off Paul car. This cleared up lane two I was able to gain p1 before the track call was called. Now Jan was in second position.

Soon Colin would be sitting in third position, behind Jan and me. Although, my car was the slowest of the three, I had still enough speed to keep up my position. Jan, being Jan, started to deslot losing positions.

Colin was now chasing me down. He tried more than once to overtake me, but without success. However, for this race, my car felt gutless and although I had a SLTP with more power than him, I could not take any advantage. Moreover my car fuel economy was really bad.

Soon enough I had to stop for changing tyres and fuel up. Colin took the opportunity to do a couple of hot laps and then got into the pit. While I was trying to gain and overtake him on the pit, he got out just a couple of inches in front of me.

At one point, he was behind Jan trying to lap him. Jan lost control of his car desloting really slowing. Colin was right behind him and could not avoid bumping in to him. Which basically took Colin's Civic out of the slot. Happy news for me as I could managed to make a clear pass of them both.

With 3 minutes to go, I thought that I had this race in the bag. Unfortunately, I also had a deslot with Colin right behind me. He took the lead and I could not do much. Actually I had to slow down because now my fuel was almost out. Another pit would have cost me even the p2.

At the end of this race Colin got another first finish, followed by me, Mike T, Paul and Jan. However, I do not know how, I managed to get the fastest lap of the race. Huuh!!!

Championship points

It is still early on the series, but it seems that the competition will be fierce.

 

[Minardi]

Brilliant Gio!
Are you satisfied with the effect of the SLTP?

 

[LMP]

Nice reports Gio. Having spent the weekend with these cars for the creation of a new DiSCA formula it's cool to read about your racing B)

 

[GRUNZ]

Hi Marcel, yes, the SLTPs work pretty well. what really makes the difference is how many time you deslot.

At the moment, me and Colin can do a 24 minutes race with just one deslot...and sometimes not even one.

The races are so close we all manage to finish with only two laps difference.

 

[GRUNZ]

Hi Gary

This class should be really cool for a DiSCA national championship using the format that we have here in Auckland (3 races per event).

Using oXigen chips should be not a problem as these cars have plenty of space inside.

I would be curious to know how these cars with stock chassis run on a bumpy Ninco track...

 

[LMP]

Hi Gio

They key performance enablers for Ninco are finding a sweet spot with the front tyre dia., gluing the motor and axel bearings and getting good float from the body. Other than that they run very well although the standard tyre isn't as good on plastic as it is on wood. I've been testing on N18 which works nicely.

The biggest task is finding a B.O.P. between the cars as the Civic is lightning through the wiggly stuff and the MG is over 10g heavier right out of the box. I'm happy with the work done so far and I'm confident of writing a solid formula base don what's been tried, tested and discovered.

 

[GRUNZ]

Round 3 Race Report - 17/06/2017

Today, we had Peter (Pedro51 for AuSlot users) visiting us for a guest race. Peter had no previous experience with SSD and RCS64. Thus, there was a "bit" of learning curve before he got used to the simulations and the way in which we run our races.

Practice

I spent part of my qualify time coaching Peter to get up to speed with digital (lane changing and all) and RCS64 GUI (e.g., pit menu and dashboard). Colin's Civic was in top shape as was Jan's BMW. Mine was not too shabby but really hard to keep in the slot.

Qualify

We set the profiles according to the championship standings and put all the cars in the pit lane for the qualify. Colin and Jan got the best laps early on. Paul, Mike and Peter were struggling a bit behind.

After I managed to have enough space in front of me without traffic on the track, I started to make some quick laps. It soon turned out to be a race between me and Colin. Towards the end, I got a fast lap just below the 9 second barrier (8.964) while Colin got close but not close enough (9.090). Paul was third with 9.216 followed by Mike with 9.245. Jan had problem with power and could manged a 9.496. Peter closed the ranks with 10.127.

Race 1 - 24 minutes

With the SLTP set as for Qualify, we moved on race 1. We put the cars on the grid with overcast conditions and damp track. But forecast looked good for most of the race.

When the lights went off, I went for it resulting in my car crashing on corner 1. That basically set the pace for the rest of the race. My race was diabolical with lots of deslots that forced me to an early pit stop for changing tyres and repair my car. My car had a very good fuel economy so I knew that if I kept my cool I could outlast the competition.

When I joined back the race, I was running in 4th position with Hards tyres and a full tank that should last me for the end of the race. Colin, Paul and Mike were up in front of me running with Inters tyres. Soon I caught up with Mike and after some tense moments I overtook him. When Paul went in for the pitstop, I was able to take his 2nd position because he spent a bit too long in the pits. Next in line was Colin. I tried to make some fast laps but every time I was getting closer I deslotted losing time. When he went in for his pitstop, he still had 2 laps in front of me which were enough for him to put new tyres and fuel up. However, he didn't managed to fill his tank.

By the end of the race and with only 2 damage points left, I was getting closer to Colin. He had overestimated the fuel economy of his car and it was clear that he needed another pitstop before race was over. With only 15 secs to go, we dived in the pit, put fuel on and went out while I was barrelling down the main straight. He just came out of the pit a couple of inches in front of me (again) by which time the race was over.

Race 1 standings: Colin, G, Paul, Mike, Jan and Peter.

Fastest lap: G

Race 2 - 20 minutes

With the SLTP set according to standings in the previous race, we put the cars on the grid. Track was again damp and rain was forecasted for the second half of the race. During the break between the two races, I put more lead in my car to stop it from bouncing around.

I had a good start from second position and I got corner 1 before Colin but I could not gain enough lead to be able to bounce in the outside lane. So I decided to be happy to sit in second position avoiding to crash and lose more time.

Although my car was now better, it was still not as planted as the previous week. This meant that in some corners my car was not behaving as I expected with the obvious consequence of giving me a deslot. And of course, Paul was there to gain second p.

Through half of the race, rain start to fall and the track was getting wet. With the Inters already running low, keeping the car on the track was a challenge. Colin had gone through the pit already, and now I was running second behind Paul. His car was really going well even in wet condition and worn out Inters. But his fuel economy was not as good as mine.

When he was almost out of fuel, Paul went in for fuel and tyres. I decided to take advantage of the extra fuel I had in my car. As I said, the conditions were not the best so in the process I managed to crash a couple of more times. Now I was down to 2 damage points left. I went in the pit and refuelled while changing tyres. However, since I didn't need much fuel as the others, I was able to bank on a shorter pit stop and going out in the lead.

Moreover, now the rain had stopped and the track was not wet as before. Thus, I decided to put on Inters instead of Wets. I joined back as second, with Colin in front of me, while Paul was in third. With the track now dump, Colin had to pit again with 5 minutes to the end. I got the lead but got another crash and was down to one damage point. A crash now would cost me the race. I settled for a nice pace to keep Colin and Paul behind but not too crazy to avoid any crash or to run out of fuel. The plan worked and I finished the race first after the longest 5 minutes ever!

Race 2 standings: G, Colin, Paul, Mike, Jan, and Peter

Fastest lap: G

Race 3 - 16 minutes

For this race, we start in reverse order from race 2. This means that I was at the back of the grid. Unfortunately, we had to restart this race 2 times. First time, I forgot to change the driver profiles. Second time, Paul's controller gave an unwanted burst of power during the starting procedure resulting in a jump start penalty. In both case, I managed to have a good start despite being the last.

When we finally got the race going, believe it or not, I again crashed after corner 1. I didn't lose much given that I was last but still…

This time I decided to race less like a maniac to reduce the wastage of damage points. Soon I found myself running second behind Paul. Jan had problem with the setup of his BMW causing a lot of crashes. Peter was running out of tyres too soon. Strangely, Colin's Civic decided to misbehave for this race letting go in too many corners. Out of damage points in the middle of the race, Colin had to pit to repair his car which cost him the race.

Mike's Passat was going quite well for this race. He went in the pit quite early on and put more fuel and new tyres.

Towards the end of the race, his car was in good condition to finish without requiring neither fuel nor tyres. But he was down to one single damage point. Paul got some crashes as well and was also down to 1 damage point. This gave me the lead of the race. Moreover, I was lucky enough to have no traffic in front for several laps. This widen up the gap between me and Paul and allowed me to set fastest laps.

When I went into the pit, I just changed my tyres. When Paul went in, his pit strategist (me) got it wrong and only put in fuel. This meant that by the end of the race, he had to pit again to change tyres. While this didn't gave me any advantage (I was already in P1), it costed Paul his second position. With only one damage point left, Mike had to drive carefully until the end. But this was true also for Paul. Both of them managed to stay on the track for the remaining 3 minutes.

Race 3 standings: G, Mike, Paul, Colin, Jan, and Peter

Fastest lap: G - only 4 milliseconds faster than Colin (8.990 G vs 8.994 Colin)

Championship Points

Conclusions

It was good to have a full grid. The races were all closed and again won if you had an excellent pit strategy.

Peter was so energized after racing with us, that he wanted to go home and fire up his own digital track.

Below a pic of the full grid ready for race 2.

 

[Chappy]

Very cool Gio.
Love the new bTCC class too.
Bob

 

[GRUNZ]

Thanks Bob. Are you guys racing this class at your club?

 

[Chappy]

We will be on my track Gio but it is analog. So only 3 car's at a time.
Mind you we need marshalls anyway so it should work out quite well.
I have just started testing and tuning, as our main season starts in October with my annaual Octoberfestival of Speed.
Really looking forward to ot this year with the addition of the BTCC cars.
Bob

 

[GRUNZ]

Hi Bob

please make sure that you take pics of the event and share them with us.

I really would like to see some images of your new track(s).

 

[Chappy]

Will do Gio. Latest pics are under Quinte in the clubs posts.
Bob

 

[shoddyback]

Great write up! I'm liking the adjustable throttle profiles to simulate success ballast.