[Yet another] Big Race proposal

[Sainted]

Last race, the AA Invitational was a great success: the guy who has proposed the idea (me! ), got banned for aggressive driving and verbal abuse of admins prior to the event, Mikke went on to thrash the field, and there has hardly been any proper racing. So I thought it maybe a good idea to have another go.

In a nutshell, here's what I propose (please feel free to quote this bit in your response and add your comments inline):

01. 40-50 lap race at Blackwood Historic (without the chicane after T1)
02. XFG-only, as with two long straights XRGs have a default advantage of around 1 second per lap
03. Compulsory pistop, no requirement to refuel / change tires - a well-executed pit entry / exit can win or lose you a race
04. 60 minute qualifying prior to the event - this does not necessarily has to happen on the same day
05. Design a handicap system based on PB (Personal Best), so that 1:33:00 people are in the same league as 1:34.50 people
06. Full field (more than 12 drivers), as there is an [AA] non-demo server (???)
07. For safety and enjoyment purposes, any major on-track collission should be immediately reviewed by an admin, and those responsible spectated for the rest of the event
--------------------------------------------------------------

If this idea gets enough support, we would need a volunteer with experience of running such events to set things up and oversee the proceedings. I personally have no clue about these things, therefore unable to offer much help.

Please let me know your thoughts. I personally have a good feeling about this project, as that long straight combined with XFG can put on a great show.

[AA™| Seven]

01. 40-50 lap race at Blackwood Historic (without the chicane after T1)
Sure, an hour race, ish. Long races are always fun... If there's a packed field, which 12 cars is not packed after 10 laps and the faster drivers have separated and weaker drivers have died from tires overheating or rolling on T1.

02. XFG-only, as with two long straights XRGs have a default advantage of around 1 second per lap
Or simply give the XRG a 1% restriction and favor the track for the standard BL1, problem solved. (Besides that open straight will get boring quick. Aston gets boring on an hour race because of the straights).

03. Compulsory pistop, no requirement to refuel / change tires - a well-executed pit entry / exit can win or lose you a race
Maybe even two pitstops?

04. 60 minute qualifying prior to the event - this does not necessarily has to happen on the same day
Again, for 12 cars you can get away with 20 minutes pre-race.

05. Design a handicap system based on PB (Personal Best), so that 1:33:00 people are in the same league as 1:34.50 people
Ballasts have been used before and they do prove effective, but they're a massive pain in the ass to actually arrange. Would have to look in to this more.

06. Full field (more than 12 drivers), as there is an [AA] non-demo server (???)
This would solve the issues with 1. and 3., but then we'd have to advertise on LFS Forum to actually get the numbers (and still nobody's given me the permissions to post there!)

07. For safety and enjoyment purposes, any major on-track collission should be immediately reviewed by an admin, and those responsible spectated for the rest of the event
This is just obvious. Any serious incident is taken care of as it happens. Anything that can't be fixed with a drive-through or stop-go is checked afterwards so the steward can actually keep an eye on the race as it happens. In a sprint race like this it's almost pointless to use time penalties as even the faster drivers will come near the bottom.

Once again, dependent on how much attention this gets and if a date gets arranged that I'm available for I can volunteer my "expertise" to arrange and run it again.

[Sainted]

There are five reasons I feel the Historic layout would be best:

01. The straight does become longer, but only by around 50 meters. I can't see why this is all of a sudden more boring.
02. Because there is no chicane, T1 drives totally different - you don't need to tighten the exit to make a proper entry into the chicane. Kiss the apex, and floor it like there's no tomorrow.
03. Because of "02", you arrive at the end of the straight around 7kph faster than usual, which if you are on the edge in terms of your braking points, can catch you out. I am sure most people have never driven a Historic layout, so they will need to adjust their braking marks, and possibly even their gearing.
04. Because of "02" and "03", T1 is all of a sudden the most important corner of the track. Any slight error there can lose you a massive chunk of time, as you can't win it back in an under-powered car.
05. Lack of chicane will enhance the racing down the straight. Usually, there are 3 errors you can make in the chicane (entry-apex-exit), and why was shaping up as a good race coming out of T1, is ruined by a mistake. Here you just stick with the car in front, and engage in a slipstreaming orgy.

[AA™| Seven]

It's removing a chicane that is a critical part of the laptime. If you hit that second or third curb wrong, you've lost half a second nearly, it also forces you to get in line and makes fights for position more interesting. Seriously, go watch a long race on Historic, then BL1 and compare them. The GT1 drivers who participated in a GenR league on Historic much preferred the race on BL1 and as a marshal, I agree!

Because nobody cares for Historic much, they'll probably also skip it as well since they're unfamiliar with it. That's the other side of the tale, it's the same with car classes - you only get the ambitious, the highly skilled or the curious when doing "unusual" combinations.

That's my two cents anyway. I won't be driving so from an organization standpoint I could care less - but at least it allows people to use both cars. Most people will simply say "No." if it's XFG only. Give it about a week and let some more people (that'll actually drive) chime in.

[AA™| Energy]

will be a demo race?

[AA™| AOR Nova]

+1 on "Will it be a demo race?"
Also, a 50 lap race would favour the wheel users I supposed.. I tried to do a 71 lap enduro on the mouse and only made it to lap 41 before I lose my bearings and the feeling in my right hand :/
What I would propose would be a shorter race (30?) but implement a mandatory tire to be changed onto (i.e hybrid) meaning you can choose to qualify on the hybrid, be it slower, then play a strategy that the GTi classes don't really have since tire compounds are only used as a strat in FBM?

And maybe like the top 6 have to start on their qualifying compound, while the rest can choose to start on the mandatory or the normal compound.?

If you've watched F1 or played F1 2016 you'll get what I mean
Would spice the element of strategy definitely.
Opinions?

[Sainted]

We can't use the Demo server, if we want more than 12 cars in the race. However, I believe Demo users can log on to S1/S2/S3 servers, as long as we race Blackwood and GTIs, right?

Regarding the tires - you can't properly drive XFG with the normal tires at the back. They just don't warm up - ever - and once the fronts are up to working temperature, you start sliding around like a cow on ice.

30 laps may work, but I personally feel this will not give an 'endurance' feel to the race. One server ran a 90-lapper at Blackwood, which took more than two hours to complete, and I ran the race using keyboard. The joints were aching bad, but the sense of satisfaction from completing and winning that race was just too good to pay attention to the pain. :-)

It's great we have this discussion going. I hope more forum members will chime in and offer their take on things.

[AA™| Energy]

We can't use the Demo server, if we want more than 12 cars in the race. However, I believe Demo users can log on to S1/S2/S3 servers, as long as we race Blackwood and GTIs, right?

No, demo users just can join on demo servers,whit 12 cars on track as max and normal bl1

[AA™| joruss]

Last race, the AA Invitational was a great success: the guy who has proposed the idea (me! ), got banned for aggressive driving and verbal abuse of admins prior to the event, Mikke went on to thrash the field, and there has hardly been any proper racing. So I thought it maybe a good idea to have another go.

Good start...

01. 40-50 lap race at Blackwood Historic (without the chicane after T1)

This is Blackwood circa 2003 (screen taken from LFS 01w) Pretty historic if you'd ask me... The chicane was even bigger than it is now and with a tree in it (as it should be). It was flattened some time ago because singleseaters had trouble to make it, from what I remember.

[Mikke]

lol Hello, good idea, but i will not take a part in this race. 40-50 laps is too much for me and my mouse