Sorry that you'll not be joining us for the remaining races Dan, but hopefully following the success of this series you'll be organising and participating in the Autumn Cup?

In respect to Thursday's race at Fern Bay, how do we know which direction the wind will be blowing? Is it random?

Wow, did all that happen?

Great report Dan.

oops - mis-typed that one

Got all the details now. Many thanks for correcting me .

I can't get into www.lfs-league.net . Could you please advise details about pool 6 - time of race and password?

Looking at LFSWorld, it looks like the OLFSL servers are rather quiet, so I am guessing there is a general problem here?

There's an excellent article in this weeks Economist magazine (June 10th - 16th) about Electric Cars, including the 100mpg Prius (improved battery pack, modified control software to enable car to run 30 miles on batteries alone instead of usual 1 mile, and blending in of electric power at higher speeds when petrol engine kicks in).

Big thing at the moment seems to be plug-in recharging, which Toyota seems not to be in favour of, but which can reduce emissions and increase savings big-time. One example is at http://www.energycs.com/RecentProjects2005_08.htm

Pretty much a cottage industry currently, but will hopefully create waves that get the larger manufacturers to sit up and take notice. In the meantime Solar Hydro, when are you going to start hacking your Prius?

I was all set too enjoy the race from the rear, and maybe pick off one or two people along the way. But, less than 100 metres from the startline I managed to miss the fact that I was in fact in front of somebody, and pulled across Col. He braked and hit my rear quarter, which caused his slide (screenshot captured, and awaiting Danowat to load the new gallery photos I took last night). I was very sheep-ish about that, because in effect I was overtaking and should have left space. Sorry again Col

The rest of my race was fairly routine, letting one or two faster drivers who were caught up in the other lap one incident past without too much difficulty (I knew I was rather slow), and then got caught up by Hannu and Paps on the penultimate lap.

My target for the next race is to be a little more competitive. In OLFSL, I tend to have some good battles in the mid-field. There again, in OLFSL I spend time hotlapping and on public servers to gain experience - the latter helping with racing lines and the occasional setup assistance. I couldn't find anybody driving this combination prior to the event whenever I looked - apart from one occasion on 27/5, I think.

Enjoyable race overall though - apart from my start incident. Thanks to everyone for making my role as admin easy

Good suggestion Vain :em31: . Misko's images from Blackwood are now displayed on the website.

Hopefully we'll get a comprehensive 'photo' record of South City and future races, if we all send in a few screenshots.

By the way, I learn't today about Shift-F to view the replay without any screen info appearing, but I'm sure you all knew that

Sorry, given that the race is in 2 days time and we don't yet know the track, I'm afraid I'll need to give it a miss. I don't have sufficient available time between now and then to be able to set the car up, and learn the track.

I hope to be back for round 4, for which we know the combination already .

Qualifying starts at 19:00 GMT

All times on the website are BST, which is GMT + 1

Blackwood GP?

Count me in for the European event.

You'll have to post the replay after the North American event. Be interesting to see what strategy works best; driving as quick as possible and leaving your AI to fend for itself, driving with intent to wreck other's AI, or driving defensively to protect your AI.

Nice idea.

It is a good idea, and yes let's give it a go.

My comment really is that with 22 cars coming out of the pits in random order, there will be a lot of cars trying to overtake and move position. Might see some cars being knocked around.

We could bring some order to the chaos, like drive on the left if you're in position (or waiting for others to overtake), and drive on the right to overtake. Just like being on the road (in UK), which is apt given that we're at South City next

I like the idea Vain, but ...

Trying to find the correct grid slot might be a challenge, especially for those not at the front of the grid. You'd be relying on people knowing their starting position, who they should be starting behind, finding those racers, then trying to get in the starting box right behind those guys. I can see carnage in that exercise also, or did you have a simpler method?

By the way, nice idea about the snapshots you posted in the other thread. Hopefully that'll get implemented ...

Thanks Ant - I've still got 90 minutes ... gulp!

Quote from danowat :

RRSC Media.

Nice report, notably from a new media organisation that I'm sure we'll hear more from in the coming weeks and months.

It was a great race, even for me with my lousy setup and even worse driver. My highlight was a new pb, some 3 seconds off the pace of others :|

Thanks to Vain, who kindly waited for me to recover after tapping me around in turn 1 in the middle of the race.

I kept well out of the way when being lapped, as my priority was finishing by that stage; being miles behind the next driver. Hopefully I'll be a little higher up the order at South City ...

Thanks for organising the event Dan.

I wonder if the weather forecast will be accurate

Quote from Thorvertonian :

... just I'm not that fast

Looking at your laptimes, I wouldn't be surprised if you're in the thick of the midfield battle, especially if you lap consistently.

I was practicing last night with Col (thanks for the driving tips Col, much appreciated), and got my lap times down to just below what you're at Thorvertonian. With both the RAC and FZ50 I found it difficult to be consistent, which hopefully bodes well for some of the front runners having some offs - not that I'd wish that on another racer

I agree with Vain - it takes time to prepare for a race, so would be frustrating not being able to race. It used to happen in F1 a few years back, when they had too many cars for the grid. Slightly different for a professional driver not racing though; they still get paid!

Hotlaps would be fair, but that can take up a lot of time, especially if you're struggling to make the grade.

Superpole would be good. Takes a little less time to prepare for, and the pressure ensures that the outcome will not always be the same.

If (or should I say when ) more people join, perhaps a 'b' series could be an option?

Whichever is adopted, I think that there should be a penalty for anybody that doesn't turn up for a race without advising the organiser. There's enough interest here for a full grid, so it would be a shame if people are excluded and the grid is not full. Could be something like a one race ban?

I found it ... helps if you have the correct car selected

Thanks anyway!

Ok, silly question of the day. How do I turn off traction control on the FZ50?

Quote from minimax :

I'm attaching a race entry form which everybody must download and send back to me 48 hours before the next race (31/5/06)

Can I just confirm your timetable here please Minimax? You'll be receiving the entry forms 48 hours prior to a race. You'll then be picking one of those combos for the race, and announce it to the drivers. Realistically we will then have just the evening before the race (for those who work ) to get a setup and practice the combo. If we are busy that evening, we'll be straight into the race on racenight without a setup and without necessarily having ever driven the circuit (I'm relatively new to LFS).

Can I suggest that we should know the combo at least one week before the race? Perhaps use a forum thread to allow discussion of the next combo, and agree the combo (or state what the combo will be) with 7 days to go. Sign-up to the race could then still take place with the form, or setup another thread as they do for the Danish Cup, with the first post edited everytime somebody joins the race.

I'm going for the FZ5.

Hard choice, especially as the twisty circuits may well suit the RAC better. It's going to make the racing rather interesting, I think.

Still same

Still can't connect. Using LFSPC it tries to connect, then I go back to Join Specific Game page. No error messages.

Quote from minimax :

Lsfpc

Minimax, I cannot connect to this server, nor to LFSPC that you confirmed yesterday.

Are we racing tonight? Am I just too early?