Season 5 Round 1 The News GT Legends Roundup
VHR:
THE ULTIMATE STOCK CAR AND OVAL RACING MOD
Contents The News ... Page 3 GTL Roundup ... Page 6 Season 5 Round 1 ... Page 8 VHR - Rfactor ... Page 14
Right Issue 2, First of all sorry it's late, secondly sorry it is short. I am at the point where I want to be done with Issue 2 and get on with the next one! Some discipline and deadlines are going to have to be set for doing articles, leaving everything to the week before deadline just did not work as pieceing together everthing takes a long time. Anway this week we have a full amount of news and hopefully we can keep that up. Certainly enough people are up to interesting stuff for it to appear here, We have the hopefully regular reports of racing from GTL and GTR2. Lastly but not least we have the VHR article. This Mod certainly made me put up with some of the rubbish bits in stock car racing to play. In terms of cars running closely it is almost up their with the mini league. Lastly a plea - I need help with this mag, if you can write a race report, or an article or even just go back to your race replays and provide some exciting screenshots it would be a big help. I am commited to doing one more to see how it goes and have some interesting stuff coming up. If you want to help contact me! HJ.
Thank-you to all our interviewees. GC E-Mag in no way represents the views and opinions of www.gamers-crib.com or the GC FIA. Editor: [GC]Howard Contributors: [GC]Howard Screen grabbers: [GC]Howard Contact us at: gc.emag@googlemail.com Layout and PDF created in Scribus - open source DTP software.
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The News Race Controllers Save Event Round 1 of league A was almost thrown into choas but the event was fortunealty put back together by race controllers Tlars and Filip. Connection issues and CTDs plagued many racers throughout the practice and qualifying and many fastest times were lost. Most affected was Segnit with his pole time of a 1.27.2 lost. A few of drivers lost their times more than once as they went back on track to set a new time and then were disconnected again. Additionally Sams car was invisible to all until he rebooted his computer
costing him a lot of practice and qualifying. GC has software that stores the time and reinstates it when the driver rejoins but it was not functioning at this time. Race control realised what was happening and towards the end of the session made a note of the qualifying order despite Filip himself having the game CTD and having to reconnect. When the qualifying session ended a whole load more disconnections occurred leaving the field depleted, the decision to restart the event and allow these drivers to rejoin was taken.
In the new qualifying session all drivers joined and had their previous times reinstated. The race was then started and was sucessfuly run. Sadly Segnit dropped again at the start and could not rejoin and also Rob got disconnected from 4th place towards the end of the race. Causes of the problem are unknown and the GC FIA are investigating. Fortuantly the League C race was not affected at the same time. The following weeks Premier division and League events also ran smoothly. TLARS and Filip should be commended for their action.
Micheal Rassmussen Promoted Micheal Rasmussen has been promoted from league A to the premier division of the GTR2 league following the withdrawal of Willow. Initial rumours indicate that Micheal may be packing away the Viper he had selected to compete in league A with to drive a Lamborghini Murcielago RGT. Micheal competed in three events in League B last
season winning 1 race. It is understood that he was not first choice for promotion. Willow has withdrawn due to not having the time to commit racing the league. The withdrawal and promotion has led to other ripples through the divisions. Richard Hownslow was promoted to league A “It's a shock I did not expect to go up there but I'm looking
forward to it� Richard has immediately made an impact in his 575 moving through the field to 2nd. Tudyman was selected to take his place in League B in his first season in the GC Leagues. Additionally 3 new drivers have joined League C with Supra unfortunatly withdrawing leaving the division with 18 drivers. 3
The News Season 5 Weather Conditions In season 5 the changeable weather is going ahead, albeit only as a temperature change. The weather forecasting and the weather file generation are being TLars. A forecast image or text will be posted during the week leading up to the race generated from weather2.com or a backup site. The temperature will be allowed to vary +- 5% of the forecast, this should have an effect on the grip level. Additionally the sky will change from being sunny or cloudy although this is a cosmetic difference. One comment during the FIA meeting that creating
the forecast and weather file was a lot of work for not a lot of difference for the race, however it is good practice prior to the intention of adding full weather conditions in season 6. Many members were unhappy that full weather was dropped during the lead up to season 5 with the relatively feeble excuse that there were not enough pit boxes in some of the add-on tracks. While this upset a few members as the challenge for the races would be reduced the statement of intent for season 6 can only be welcomed.
iRacing Free Trial A free trial is now available (credit card required) for the iRacing service courtesy of radical sports cars. The trial is for 1 month and includes the base content and the Radical add on and Silverstone circuit. Iracing has been paid for by many members of GC in the past and is very highly rated as a racing simulation. The big stumbling block of the series are the high cost per month, the additional costs of content and the lack of a trial. To apply, find a referral member so they can get some bonus credit visit: ‌ and request a code!
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Above: TLars - relishing his role as the weather man.
GC is for Gaming Political discussion has now been banned on the forum. GC is about gaming and we all play together happily regardless of race, colour, religion and politics. We should be able to manage a mass debate without causing trouble and arguments but a mess has been made. The incident causing issues was caused by feeling running high and possibly an issue with the language barrier resulting in one dedicated member leaving GC. Pizzaman if your out there please reconsider and come and join the fun. Politics affect no one and everyone.
The News Race Pro Released SIMBIN's new game was released on Friday for the Xbox 360. Releasing a console game has raised many eyebrows in the sim racing world to see what they can do and whether this is where their future lies. www.gamespot.com has reviewed the game and given it a 7.5 out of 10 liking the physics, tracks and options but not the presentation and lack of extras. The game is the first for SIMBIN on their new Lizard gaming engine which will hopefully come to the PC format in the future although the next release will be another Race 07 add on. The game contains the same cars from GTR Evo with the addition of the Volvo S60 in the WTCC
class. Of the 13 tracks we have seen 11 before but Laguna Seca and Road America are new from SIMBIN. Comment I had the pleasure of trying the new game with some friends on their Xbox using a joy pad. We went straight for hot seat racing mode where two controllers race 1 car swapping over after a time period, and us passing the controllers around between five people. First impressions were not good, nearly all of the cars were locked apart from the MINI, WTCC and WTCC 87. Out onto Monza and instantly you can see the track graphics are better and more detailed than on Race
07 but still no where near as luscious as for example GT5 Prolouge. The car graphics looked identical to Race 07 but with more reflections and less detail in the car liveries. The proof is in the racing though, and even on a joy pad without any force feedback the car felt lively and twitchy to drive, a really big step up from normal racing games on the consoles. I think I would want to try with a wheel and pedals before commenting more but this is one thing that puts me off the Xbox – the G25 is not compatible! If you want to play a sim on a console though it is arguably the best option.
S5 Underway GTR2 Season 5 has now kicked off. Round 1 has taken place at Zuhai and despite some problems for League A everything has run smoothly. This news item is really to say thank you to the GC FIA for their hard work in organising the Leagues. Getting it off the ground with the track pack, car pack, servers, weather, race control, SLS system, and TV is is a big effort to get it all arranged. Thanks to Whoopster, Kevs, BigG, Segnit, TLars, Gassniffer, Professor Fate and the Race control teams.
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GT Legends Roundup Ron and Danny win in Monaco Probably the third most prestigious event at Monaco after the F1 and Rally – the occasional visit of the gamers crib mini league. This double sprint event attracted an encouraging entry for the league of 15 and consisted of two 7 lap races. Monaco is very tight, narrow and unforgiving. With the Minis it was always going to be an exciting and unforgiving race! Ron Burgandy took pole with an awesome time of 1:58.678 for race 1 with several racers struggling with a small amount of practice! Remco was 2nd on the grid and Danny Wilde 3rd. Away from the lights Ron led away into the distance
once again. Danny took a tumble from 3rd to last after spinning at Rascasse. Remcos challenge was blunted when he got disconnected while running 2nd on lap 3. Laverda also slipped down the order on lap 1 due to an incident at the hairpin. Everyone had their fair share of incidents and 3 close battles developed between Joni and Vfast for 2nd, Tokin and Jimmy for 4th and Kartoffel and Howard for 6th. Unforunatly Howard crashed on the ultimate corner and lost out. With his Race 1 incident allowing him to qualify Danny Wilde took pole position with a time of 2:00.15. Kartoffel secured
the other front row spot with a 2:00.66 lap. Danny led away from the lights and on to the end with the top drivers stuck held behind the qualifiers. A first corner incident dropped Howard to the back. Ron Burgandy managed to make up an excellent 7 places on lap 1 to get up to 5th. Dany41, Tokin, Jimmy, Laverda, Vfast1, and Joni also made up a lot of places. Three drivers sadly retired due to damage. At the end of Race 2 Danny Wilde and Ron managed to crash and Danny ended up being disqualified after hurtling backwards down the track. After an appeal however his race win was allowed to stand.
Ron in a league of his own Goodwood The Mini League made another visit to the historic Goodwood circuit in the UK. This track and race were a complete opposite to the Monaco event. The track is very wide and very fast, the only place on the calendar you can reach top speed. With all that speed though it is tough to stay on track and a lot of time can be wasted on the grass. The format for this event was 20 laps so a lot of concentration was required by drivers. Ron Burgandy took pole with a fantastic time of 1:27.73 and the top 10 drives all achieved lap times under 1:30. This weeks grid swelled out
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to 17 drivers including one person practicing for the Abarth round! The big winner on the first lap was Howard making up 7 places as other racers got over competitive. Howard then lost out in a battle with Arppa, Joni Jurmu and Kartoffel when his car got wrapped around the front of Arppa on the straight. Series leader Ron Burgandy got in front and stayed in front througout the race setting the fastest lap a 1:28.473 on lap 13. His main rivals Vfast1 and Joni Jurmu both ran into problems, dropping 6 places each on lap 5 in unrelated incidents. Danny Wilde was one of
those to pass Vfast1 for 2nd place, he continued his good form and held on to the end. Tokin ran off on lap 6 dropping 6 places. He fought back towards the end to catch Howard but an accident cost them both places to Joni Jurmu. Geoffers ran an excellent and fairly quiet race to finish 3rd! Jimmy, Mikko and Peter Close had fairly stable races after lap 5 to finish 4th, 5th and 6th respectively. Kartoffel was unfortunate to blow an engine running 11th while R Brown was Disqualified for unknown reasons.
GT Legends Roundup Monaco Race 1 Results 1. Ron Burgandy 2. Vfast1 3. Joni Jurmu 4. Jimmy 5. Tokin 6. Kartoffel 7. Howard 8. Danny Wilde
14:01.558 +0:16.788 +0:17.174 +0:26.385 +0:27.660 +0:30.766 +0:43.883 +0:45.180
Monaco Race 2 Results 1. Danny Wilde 2. Ron Burgandy 3. Kartoffel 4. Joni Jurmu 5. Vfast1 6. Jimmy 7. Mikko_S 8. Laverda
14:15.961 +0:15.240 +0:15.798 +0:20.009 +0:20.328 +0:24.198 +0:33.267
Mini League Season 10 Standings after Goodwood
Goodwood Race Results
From Top to Bottom: Danny Spins at Rascasse Mikko Meets Wall Four abreast at Monaco spot the problem Ron holds off Vfast1 at Goodwood
1. Ron Burgandy 2. Danny Wilde 3. Geoffers 4. Jimmy 5. Peter Close 6. Mikko_S 7. Vfast1 8. Arrpa 9. Joni Jurmu 10. Howard
29:51.116 +0:04.942 +0:13.850 +0:13.991 +0:22.930 +0:25.545 +0:25.751 +0:30.282 +0:45.799 +0:55.003
1. Ron Burgundy - 149 2. [GC]vfast1 - 120 3. Joni Jurmu - 106 4. Danny Wilde - 92 5. [GC]Remco - 65 6. Geoffers - 59 7. [SWE]Jimmy - 57 8. [GC]Howard - 43 9. [GC]Laverda - 40 10. Peter Close - 37 11. Mikko_Skinnari - 32 11. Tokin - 32 13. Kartoffel - 22 14. Swanny - 18 15. Arppa - 7 16. Paul Cowan - 4 17. Richard Bhamb - 2 18. Nick - 1 19. Pizzaman - 0 19. PIPPIE - 0 19. GTL R Brown - 0 19. Dany41 - 0 19. [GC]Professor - 0 19. MartinNS - 0
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Premier League round 1 Race 1 Season 5 for the premier League conisited of an action packed 57 lap Race at Zuhai. The weather was clear and warm so there were no excuses for bad racing. 19 racers made it to the grid. Fernando Rees took his first pole in the top division in his Saleen with a 1:26.235. Close behind were Micheal and Filip in their Ferraris. An astonishing seven drivers posted a 1:26 second lap and everyone else was in the 1:27 or 1:28 bracket. Away from the lights and Micheal got the jump towards the first corner. Fernando fought back but with a little bit of contact that cost both drivers the lead. Team 3 Kings benefitted and slipped ahead with TLars leading from Filip. Daen was the big loser off the start losing places off the line and then being hit by Hecto approaching the
first slow left hander. LeGod was also forced to retire after hitting the wall. LeGod was forced to take action avoiding TCatts spinning car and unfortunatly ended up in the wall. Back up front and TLars yielded his position to his team mate and was then tapped by Micheal and dropped down to 11th. position. Filip then ran wide allowing Fernando through to 1st and Micheal to second. Hecto was the first driver to blink for the pitstops on Lap 26. Most of the other racers pitted on lap 27 or 28. Fernando Rees stretched his fuel out to lap 31 but unfortunatly ran into problems and had to do another lap and another stop. Luckily for Fernando he was so far ahead that he only dropped to 3rd position but the problem probably cost him the victory. After the pitstops things
Race Results
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quietend down while racers lapped towards then end. The big mover was Graham coming up from 10th after incidents an pitstop up to 5th. Daen also found some pace and made up places from a low of 16th to finish 9th. The season started very poorly for M&D racing with LeGod forced to retire on lap one, and Mactheknife also retiring on lap 32 while running 16th possibly due to a pit problem. Additionally a last lap incident between TCatt and JohnnyDee forced the retirement of TCatt. JohnnyDee was the last finisher in 13th although TCatt was still classified. All in all this was a good race showing how competitive the Premier League will be. Some people are a little race rusty and others have been unlucky so the rest of the season should be cracking.
Premier League round 1
Top Left: Fernando pushes through at Turn 1 but loses out. Top Right: Problems in the pits for Fernando Above: TLars and Filip lead on lap 1 Right: Daen takes Choss Below Left: TCatt gets into trouble on lap 1 eventually hitting Legod Below Right: TCatt gets pushed by JohnnyDee at the end.
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League A round 1 The first race this seasonwas delayed as the race session was restarted following many disconnections from the server. Most affected was Segnit who set the pole time of 1:27.267, he dropped out late in the seesion and did not make the restart. Recently promoted Richard Hounslow took 2nd on the grid with RS in third. The first lap of this race was not a classic and was full of incidents. RS got the best start and led into the first corner. Richard got a horrible start and Alex ran into the back and still passed him by the first corner. At the tight chicane Pat was running 5th but was hit by Ben lightly and then by Grinsomat. The RSms drive was approaching the corner out of control and asleep and had no means of stopping. Additionally
Dentproof and Pats team mate Chris got turned around as the rest of the racers got stacked up. Further round the lap at the hairpin Lee Johnson managed to run into Dentproof and spin him around. Dentproof then pinballed into Joosta. While they were recovering Chris was forced off again! The big winners making up places were Nanno, Gasssniffer and Howard. Immediately though Richard was on the charge after his poor start and he was back up to 4th by lap 6. Howard had a tough time trying to pass Gassniffer while holding up Malcolm and Grinsomat. Eventually he put the move on at the second hairpin but got touched onto the grass allowing Malcolm through. Gassniffer then spun on the very next corner and hit the wall damaging his car and bursting a tyre. He had to
Race Results
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limp a whole lap back to the pits and came out in 17th and last position. Glen was busy swapping places every lap or two with Pat in the leadup to the pitstops. Howard was the first to need to pit on lap 25. Most stops came on lap 27-28 although Kevs managed to hold on till lap 30. In the second half of the race things settled down. Malcolm passed Grinsomat after a bad pit stop, Pat caught and passed Howard. RS continued to maintain his lead at the front comfortably. Rob Blanford was suddenly disconnected on lap 47 from 2nd position. Howard had to pit on the last lap which cost him two places and made for a tense last lap with Sam. Malcolm caught Alex and was really pressuring him in the last few laps. Alex held on though for the podium finish.
League A round 1
Top: Four wide on track and grass. Above: The Grinsomat missle finds Pat :( A little help from Ben as well. Right: Howard battles with Malcolm and Grinsomat Below Left: RS leads to victory. Below Right: Malcolm and Alex battling for third.
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League B round 1 Race Results
League C round 1 Race Results
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Top: Berger Leads Away on lap 1 Above: This is not how to bump draft Below Left: Not all plain sailing for Berger Below Right: Trusler with problems in the pits.
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STOCK CAR RACING IS FUN No, it's not! On TV it is the most boring confusing sport to watch as all the cars go around in a pack on a track with no right turns barely making up ground and passing each other. Then some are a lap down, some need to pit add into it some “dubious� safety car periods and the whole thing is a farce. In game with VHR it is very fast, very noisey and the racing is very close, even with just turning left the driving is a challenge. There are three types of V8 stock cars included the pickups, and sprint and national spec stock cars, and xx tracks. Driving an oval in these cars is nothing like anything I have driven online before. They try to pull you hands off with the steering wheel and for that the cars barely turn enough to get out onto the track. Out on the banking and they feel more natural although they still pull hard one way and are very difficult to make line adjustments
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without hitting what you are avoiding or spinning out. The tracks are a mixture of speedways and super speedways, the shorter tracks providing more of a challenge as you have to slow the car down to get around. The super speedways provide better racing as less effort is required to keep the car on course, some are full throttle all the time! Additionally there are a couple of road courses including watkins glen but as I said before these cars do not really do steering, or for that matter braking. Good set-ups are vital for success with some cars and tracks being impossible to drive with a standard setup. Luckily the mod is in the friendly more the merrier stage and if you ask for a set-up someone will generally pass you one. Similarly if are struggling to get up onto the track banking and up and running you may be best advised to sit the race out and just do
the practice and qualifying. Qualifying gives you only 4 laps on a clear track to set a time, 1 out, 2 hot, 1 in which is somewhat frustrating if you bump the wall on your first hot lap! Race session is started from the pit lane and the grid forms up and follows the safety car for two laps before being given a green flag. This is a most frustrating period of time as people struggle to get moving and up onto the banking. Then as the grid moves around it is very easy to lose concentration with the speed of others as they speed up and slow down trying to keep the grid together, and have a big crash before the race is under way. Getting to the green flag without an incident on a public server is very good going, this is something that could be simplified to a rolling start format such as in Race 07 with the cars already lined up and travelling.
Once the race is go the cars try to jostle for position behind others in slip stream, and those whose qualifying did not go so well try to make up for time. Accidental contact is frequent and this mod really punishes you as you slide or try to regain control. Not only are you very quickly left behind but the chances of spinning or hitting the wall are very high. Crashing in this game is one of the great features, the cars just spin and slide for a very long way when it all goes wrong. You can be spinning end on end for the whole length of a straight with no chance to regain control. Hitting the wall always damages the car in some way, even a light touch will make your steering pull quite severely one way. Staying out of trouble and out of the wall is vital to get a good result. What is worse is what happens if a few cars spin out or the track has cars parked on it, a
caution is called. In this situation the safety car is deployed and the racing cars have to try and form up for the grid again. As I said before getting into a “grid� and staying there is tough and dropping down from racing speed is very hazardous. This caution can go on for as long as is necessary which requires real concentration to stay slow and in formation without crashing. In a caution the pit lane is closed which is a bit of a bummer if you are in desperate need of fuel or repairs. Not that getting to and through the pit lane is very clever, it is a flaw with ovals and the cars rather than the game. The pit lane entry is on the inside of the track, simply spotting it is incredibly hard. Then as I mentioned these cars do not want to turn very well or slow down and most of my pit entries have been spinning around backwards. Afterwards you then have the hazard of trying to build
speed and get back on the banking without crashing. When the racing is up and running though it is very good. Drafting is the most vital thing to learn after staying on track and you do not want to overtake until the last corner of the last lap! Without a suitable partner car to follow and build up speed with you will be left behind. This makes the racing close and exciting as some drafts of cars manage more speed than others with no one wanting to take the real hot seat at the front. This requires real team work then with a bit of back stabbing which is great fun but remember one mistake, a wheel down onto the flat part of the track for example and you are doomed. To help you with positioning on track the game has implemented a spotter feature to call cars inside or out of you. He will also call out your lap times and the race statuss
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as the race continues. It is a nice and unique feature that adds more of a feel to the game although I kind of miss the “Your burning up the tyres� from Daytona USA! The mod comes as a standalone or as a mod for Rfactor and is now on version 3. This has jumped from version 1.4 since the middle of January but apparently we now have a break from updating till May! I installed the standalone and the real feel add-on to give the cars even feeling to drive. So if you want to experience the kick of these stock cars and have some very close racing, or alternatively just have two first names I suggest you get this mod installed.
Above: Getting it wrong Top to bottom: Cockpit view note: big wheel Pit entry is tough! Trying to stay tidy in formation for the start A view from the stands 16