GP 1 and 2!

[Dantski]

First my and everyone elses thanks to mad + co for all the work they put into making it close and fair. It went pretty well from that point of view I reckon.

1st race

My first GP since May or something. Drove cleanly for 15 laps and looked like I might catch the top 2-3, then my hand felt a bit weird and didn't do so well towards the end. Crashed last corner and let Squeeze past so I finished 5th which I was pretty chuffed with.

2nd race

Same as 1st race more or less only I kept my speed up better at the end. One headfirst plunge in the barriers meant I was 2 secs behind matt at the end. Judging my how much I gained on last lap, I'm guessing matt drove a little nervously!

Muchos Funski
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It's not the winning, its the taking apart

[da dude 24]

cor that was quick posting....

1st race: came late after scoffing down a bowl of spaghetti.

2nd race: didn't do too well, i'll put it down to tiredness . came out of the handi-loops about 15th i think, slowly dropped down into lower places where i started making big mistakes, can't remember where i ended up though

good racing all!

[McInSanE]

First GP: did 9 loops, made me drop down 7places i think, finished 14th or something like that

Second GP: did 8 loops, but was 5-7seconds behind other Eighters.. ..never really caught up on Reh but was more successful than in the first GP, 8th i think

[JawZ]

1st race
6 handiloops - brought me out couple of seconds behind JJG and invictus
and a minute behind leader
come about lap 20, its down to 18ish seconds behind leader
and im starting to reach the slower drivers, and the faster drivers for some reason were on the fringes of me iirc at the time, making the ending to this one a climatic finish.
finished 10th, which was my position for most of the race or there or abouts.

2nd race
6 handiloops - brought me out few seconds behind invictus and jjg again, and a minute behind leader again.
but this race although i felt it was smoother than my previous race, i just seem to not gain anything on the leaders. by lap 10, the ones who had done 8 - 10 handis were taken over me, towards end i was 40 seconds behind leaders which were the more faster ppl this time, but seem to finish a lowly 24th or 25th

the handiloops system for me, worked fine for first race, but seem to fail for me in the second.
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[McInSanE]

[MPS-Reh]

two perfect runs for me tonight
just a few very small mistakes in both races, could keep my pace until the end...nice fight with dant in the first race who had one loop more i guess (i had as many as yussuf and one more than para, so dant did nine?), also close finish in the second race, that was fun!

[JawZ]

[HotSWAT]

race 1: came out of the loops a second ahead of bboy and about 2 or 3 ahead of angel...spent about 10 laps duelling with bboy, i don't think we were separated by more than a second all the way through, but then...(10th lap maybe?) trackmania shut itself down for no apparent reason..

race 2: didn't even start...was restarting the computer because trackmania didnt work...

im looking in to the problem now...


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[YussuF]

Both Tracks were nearly same for me , did a bit better in 2nd.
Til lap 15 (lap 11 in 2nd track) it was just gaining time to leaders, who were about 80 secs away after start. After that part the race became interesting with people coming from behind and getting passed in front, though not a lot movement in my position all through the race.
After the handilaps I was 23rd-25th and at the end 17th-21st, though I didn't feel like racing that bad ( at that point I gotta say that the same amount of handilaps for me and Reh is - after the last season, after these tracks as well - kind of a compliment to me, thanks , but not really well-balanced.)

Though, for it was the first GP with that system - I like it , BUT - I think after racing like this for a month or so , I fairly gonna miss the old GPs, so is it possible to have another time in the week (or maybe just every second!?) to do a "normal" 25-lap-race?
I think I gotta say sorry to question this , because it's an evening more admin work - but you guys do a great job , so....

anyways - great racing, t'was fun

[chris-squeeze]

Race 1: Blitzed it! Caught little deanio and 1 of the homers within about 8 laps, had the lead for ages til about lap 16 wen the pain kicked in and i started listening to kasabian! Unlucky dantski who got past me on the last lap, but i battered it thru the last few corners and got back past, 4th

Race 2: Took a little longer 2 take the lead, wen matt got past and stayed a consistent 7/8 seconds ahead until lap 22 when i was 2nd, to the end when i finished 7th , still happy, considering i spent the last 3 laps commentating to matt how much dtm, dantski and co were catching!

GO SLOTUS!

[msquires]

Race 1: Did the minimum loops I was allowed (4) and so did Squeeze so we left the handiloops following eachother and happened to keep close during the race acting as spotters when one was behind the other. Eventually got past him with a few laps to go and thought I might win as the elites came round unlapping themselves but not for position (fortunately!). Came into last corner and didnt feel I took it too badly but bunsen managed to pip me and I finished 2nd.

Race 2: The ending was much closer This time from more people! I lead from half way through, roughly, and Squeeze was behind in 2nd until 2 laps from the end when he was passed in quick succession by DTM, Dantski etc. I then told him to stop listing names he could now see infront of him so I could concentrate and stop bricking it! Dantski says above I was slow round the last lap...didnt notice as was concentrating more on minimising the throbbing from my fingers on the keyboard!

Overall a couple of good races from a championship perspective for me but would have been devastated if that plethora of drivers had got me in the second race! Therefore Im still skeptical of the handicaps.

[mad]

I found the handicaps interesting but with so many drivers it was much harder to keep track of the race. On the plus side the tracks were very busy for me in both races and so no empty procession racing. The points table seems to work ok in rewarding the skilled racers, please point out any mistakes if you spot them. With improved handicap calculations things should be improve with time.

[Bea]

Race 1: Made an arse of handiloops and ended up doing 11 of them I think. I lost count since I was concentrating too much on getting around the handiloop without crashing. Impossible to get anywhere near the front of the field. I didn't feel as if I was racing anyone at all throughout the 25 laps. Not fun at all .

Race 2: Handiloops went a bit better this time, chose to do 9 instead of 10 on this one. Fairly clean race but I had some minor knocks and bugged a few times on the drop down near the pole, if I bugged less and didn't hit the wall I probably would've caught the leaders before the end.
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[bunsenjetson]

Race 1: Did my quota of 4 handiloops (very badly, I should add) and I think I was about 10th when I started the race proper. On lap 9 Bea overtook me but it wasn't for position, and as I was gaining on the leader by about half a second a sector I started to do a bit of mental arithmetic and realised I might be in with a chance. Of course, the maths doesn't take into account that the ones between you and the leader are also gaining, and I more or less followed Matt past the front-runners to engage with him more or less alone for the last three laps. My fingers turned to jelly with intense pins and needles and I couldn't actually feel them. Then I became convinced that I should have done 6 handlilaps, not 4, and thought it might all be for nothing anyway. Halfway round the last lap I was leading and I turned right into a wall thinking I had pressed the left button. Matt swept past me and I thought it was all over. With 2 corners to go I was resigned to 2nd place but just managed to get a sweeter line and took him for an thrilling climax. Checked the table and I was on 4 handiloops. Phew.

Race 2. Mad my way up to 3rd by about 15 laps, but my fingers felt like someone had attached a pair of vibrators to them and the positions just fell. As soon as Bboy and Dant took me I knew there was no clambering back.

Well played Matt in both runs.

[DaCheese]

Tonight was...interesting. I didn't feel the handicap system worked as well as it did in testing, but that's probably down to it being the first couple of series races and handicaps being a tad iffy in places perhaps. The guys on Vent heard (or to be more accurate didn't hear) my disappointment at not finishing particularly high but with plenty of more skilled drivers in the championship I'd have been hard pushed to do any better in a normal GP, especially on tight tracks like the tricky ones created by Dan for tonight. They should make for good racing on pro but in GPs the crashes that happen so often on tracks like these are probably able to mess the time differences created by handicaps up quite easily. I'd like to suggest then that handicap GPs take place on tracks that are slightly faster and more open, with simple handiloops so that you aren't losing sight of racers doing the same number of laps due to hitting a wall or taking a duff line.
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[Munkhi]

I've been really hyped up about driving in this season and was looking forward to it for weeks now. How disappointed I feel after my first two official GPs.

Felt like I was passing random cars on both tracks, I didn't know who was infront or who I was lapping, or who was unlapping themselves or overtaking me. The cars meant absolutely nothing on that basis.

Had to toggle the opponent cars off (I always have them limited to 10 which seems fine for most tracks) for several sections of both tracks due to frame rate slowdown aswell, so it felt even less like a competition. Tracks were good (thx DTM), handiloops could have been less taxing though. They are there to force a specific time/lap penalty onto players, so the less chance to mess them up the better/fairer.

First race I was way down the pack through little fault of my own and second race I was in/near top 10 just because I did one less handiloop. I didn't feel like I'd accomplished anything in either race, but especially in the second when I knew I didn't deserve to be 7th for 20-ish laps... just waiting for the inevitable to happen.

McInSanE told me that the previous seasons have been nine weeks long. Is nine nights of racing long enough to gather improved handicap data?
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Steam ID: munkhi
GfW Live ID: Munkhi UK

[Dantski]

Just want to add that I liked both tracks today which helped me finish higher than in tests.
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It's not the winning, its the taking apart

[DanTheMan]

To Cheese,
Not all tracks are open spaces, had a feeling you weren`t with it tonight by the random noises of things getting thrown.

To All,
I didn`t govern the loops, the first was a pitlane (the track was meant for pro but i put them in for gp testing instead) just designed for looks of the `old skool` style, and in my defence, i didn`t make the second one. But i do agree they were difficult.

To Dantski,
I`ll take that as a compliment, thanks. (not often you make those)
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Never underestimate the power of stupidity.

[msquires]

Yep tracks were really good I thought! Nice work! Wouldnt be what I'd usually look for in a track but for GPs they were brilliant

[DaCheese]