Beal60th - 24th of April 2025 - Round 4

[Olaf Lehmann]

Track.ini with more distance between pitstalls and visible flag for the pole setter at the race start:
http://race.eolc.de/Olaf_Lehmann/trackiniBeal60th.zip

RESULT:

Code: Select all

Track: Beal60s             Thu Apr 24 21:41:08 2025

PRACTICE TIMES

Pos No Driver                           Team     Nat      Time      Diff Laps
 1   9 Andre Jahren                     Cooper   MON 3m32.249s              9
 2  13 Bjørn L Finnestad                Brabham  SWE 3m36.593s   04.344s    6
 3  20 Seb Gore                         Lotus    GBR 3m37.259s   05.010s    5
 4  16 Olaf Lehmann                     Eagle    GER 3m39.480s   07.231s    6
 5  18 John Hammonds                    Ferrari  GBR 3m39.570s   07.321s    3
 6  14 Rainer Alpen                     Honda    GER 3m41.851s   09.602s    3
 
RACE RESULTS (After 17 laps)

Pos No Driver                          Team     Nat Laps   Race Time       Diff
 1  13 Bjørn L Finnestad               Brabham  SWE   17  63m32.403s            
 2  18 John Hammonds                   Ferrari  GBR   17  64m51.322s  1m18.919s 
 3   9 Andre Jahren                    Cooper   MON   17  65m23.809s  1m51.406s 
 4  14 Rainer Alpen                    Honda    GER   17  65m30.980s  1m58.577s 
 5  16 Olaf Lehmann                    Eagle    GER   16  63m37.867s   1 lap(s) 
 6  20 Seb Gore                        Lotus    GBR    7  28m39.858s  10 lap(s) 
 
RACE FASTEST LAPS

Pos Driver                                 Time Lap
 1  Andre Jahren                      3m36.006s   9
 2  Bjørn L Finnestad                 3m38.297s   7
 3  Seb Gore                          3m38.542s   7
 4  Rainer Alpen                      3m40.796s  12
 5  John Hammonds                     3m41.405s   8
 6  Olaf Lehmann                      3m42.412s  16

[Seb Gore]

Thanks Olaf.

[André Jahren]

Server is updated

[Olaf Lehmann]

Hi André...server is missing...

[André Jahren]

At work. Will restart it when I get home

[André Jahren]

The server is up and running again

[André Jahren]

Qual
Managed to get a good lap in at the end.

Race
An ok start. And then I made a mistake in to Dog Hill. Breaked to late and hit the fence. Was lucky not to pick up to much damage, but needed to pit after the first lap.

After the pitstop I had a good run, and passed Rainer, John, and Seb. Then as I cought up with Olaf, he made a mistake in to Heyside and as I was to close I hit him when I tried to pass.

We both needed to pit for repair. I was not aware of which lap it was and hoped I only had 10 laps left. So I changed tires and fueled up as well. When exiting the pit I saw that it was 12 laps to the end.

Put my head down and planned for a new pitstop with 2 laps left.

Then as I had 3 1/2 lap left I breaked to late going into Cross Street and hit a hey ball. Limped back to the pit and was still P2 after the pitstop.

Then with 1 1/2 lap left I made a mistake in Hill Stores and hit the fence on the exit and spun in to Cross Street. And on my way back to the pit I spun again in to Heyside, and John passed me, and I needed a new trip to the pit.

A messy race, but a fun one to.

Congratulations to Bjørn for a solid win, and John for joining him on the podium.

See you all at Thruxton.

[snafu]

My attendance might be a bit limited for the remainder of this season, I have just too much going on at the moment but I'll try to make them all even with little or no practice time.

Beal was one of those days. I didn't even download the track until earlier today and spent a good few hours trying to make sense of it. Times were only just getting below 4 minutes with a few hours to go. So assuming my slow pace I decided to take enough fuel for the whole race thinking I would not punish the tyres too badly. (Actually finished with nearly 5g/22L left).

After getting the jump on Olaf off the line, chasing Seb for a few laps and a spin at Dogs Hill I somehow I found myself in 2nd place with Bjorn a long way up the road and Seb, Andre etc having presumably had problems now behind me. The tyres screamed enough somewhere around lap 11 so stopped for a new set. Was passed a few times by Andre but either pit stops or accidents kept promoting me past him on track. Finally on lap 16 I came across his stricken Cooper and passed him again for 2nd only to wrap the ferrari around a barrier on lap 17. Fortunately for me Andre's previous accident required another pit stop for him so a shift-r got me to the end for a very undeserved 2nd place. I've not checked GPLRA but I'm pretty sure my lap times will be amongst the slowest today but keeping it reasonably clean got me onto the podium.

Congratulations for Bjorn for a master class today and Andre for joining us on the podium.

TTFN
John.

[Olaf Lehmann]

I produced very high tyre wear values in the PreQuali. That's why I toyed with the idea of making two stops. But I took enough fuel for the first half of the race.
Strangely enough, tyre wear in the race was only half as bad as in pre-qualifying. So I would only have made one stop...theoretically.
In practice, I damaged my car for the first time on lap seven (sorry for the inconvenience, Andrè), so I had to pit (for the first time). I then decided to change the tyres straight away and try to drive to the end.
Unfortunately, there was more damage. Halfway through the race, the car was so crooked that I decided to ShiftR. After that I was missing third gear.
That was a challenge. I tried to adapt my shifting to the conditions (I don't have a shifter, so I always have to shift through all the gears). I realised pretty quickly that I had to shift up from third gear (which worked like fourth) to fourth gear on Besom Hill in the bend (where I always take my foot off the accelerator) so that I could get straight into fifth gear on the long straight. I found it more difficult to change gears at other pointsof the track.


During my penultimate lap, the gear regenerated (i.e. after half an hour). That's why my last lap was my fastest (but still very slow).

Grats to Bjørn!

BR Olaf

P.S: Someone posted in the new SRMZ forum that he wanted to come along for the ride. Unfortunately, I only saw his PM after the race.
A Sepp who writes in German. Does anyone know who that is?

[Seb Gore]

Well, that was interesting.
Started off really well with a third place start, got a great launch and got close to Bjoern, but kept it sensible and tucked in behind. Andre and Bjoern were pulling away a bit, but no worries. Then Andre pulled into the pits, wow, second, keep it calm Seb......
Lap two and I started to close on Bjoern slightly. Feeling ok......
Then it all went pear shaped going into the right hander with the pink farmhouse, I braked a little bit late and clipped the bales. Managed to get back to the pits for a repair and kept going until lap 8 when I spotted that I only had 4 litres of fuel.... then I lost it again and beached myself on a kerb. Game over!

I do take a lot of positives from the race though, not least that I absolutely love this track. I can just see the locals in their mark 2 Escorts tearing around this circuit in the early seventies every time I drive it.

By the way, that was an awesome practice lap Andre.

Right, on to Thruxton! I'll try that again.