The IndyCar/GP2 career of Ronan Griffin (1993-)

[Enforcer]

Lately I dug up my copy of Papyrus' IndyCar Racing. I like this game because it's the only thing made in the mid 90s that got near the MicroProse GP Series, and decided that with everyone doing F1 careers, I'd do something a little different.

The game seems to be based on the 1993 season judging from the driver numbers, chassis designations, (Penske 93 & Lola T9300) and available tracks - although Nigel Mansell is replaced by "Mick Richards" (searching wiki seems to indicate that there is no such driver), the Indy 500 isn't on the calendar, and the teams aren't stated, just the chassis and engine type - presumably because of licencing issues. Between that, and the fact that checking the relevant wiki indicates that only teams to have more than one of their drivers included are Newman Hass (Mansell/Richards and Andretti) and Malboro Penske (Fittipaldi and Tracy) I'll leave out the constructor's championship. I will get to take on a grid that includes Al Unser Snr. and Jnr., the Canadian crashing legend, Paul Tracy, the great Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti, and the not so great Raul Boesel and Roberto Guerrero. Should be fun.





Ronan Griffin's F1 career effectively ended on the 16th of August 1992, just under five years after his debut. The man that many tipped as a potential World Champion had gleaned just 1 win from 75 races, with spectacular drives and spectacular crashes coming in equal measure. Throughout his final season at Jordan Grand Prix, the car's relative lack of performance caused Griffin's relationship with Eddie Jordan to disintegrate. Truth be told, in a season when Griffin had made several 'ill-advised' remarks about the Jordan 192, and in particular the Yamaha engines powering it, a brilliant 5th at Brazil and 6th in Canada were all that had kept the volatile Irishman in his seat as far as round 11 in Hungary, where another repair bill, and a sharp 'F*** off!' to waiting journalists proved the final straw. Just 2 years previously, Griffin had been a racewinner for Williams at this very track...


Breaking onto the scene in 1987 with Arrows, Griffin performed excellently as a substitute for Derick Warwick in Spain and Mexico, outqualifying team-mate Eddie Cheever on both ocassions, and finishing 6th at Spain. He ran third before blowing his Megatron engine in Mexico. But it was enough to earn him a fulltime drive with the team in 1988.

His two full seasons with Arrows set the tone for Griffin's career. Four podiums, 3rd at Detroit and Spa-Francorchamps in '88, as well as 2nd at Silverstone and 3rd at Spa in '89, and 7 other points finishes were tempered by no less than 19 retirements over the two seasons, about half of which were the fault of the Irishman's over agression rather than his car, notably coming off at Tamburello chasing a 6th place during the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix, leaving just a monocoque to be retrieved. His affable demeanour with the press corps often soured after such incidents, with many journalists finding themselves on the recieving end of his ire.

Nonetheless, Williams were sufficiently impressed with his raw speed to offer him a one-year deal to partner Riccardo Patrese in 1990. The season started well with 2 4ths and 2 5ths in the first 5 races, a 3rd at Canada, and a mid-season run of 2nd places at Magny Cours, Silverstone and Hockenheim, before a win in Hungary seemed to form a very good season, with many speculating that he could take the fight to Senna the following season, and such was his form, he even had a very slim chance of creating an upset in the remaining the last six races. But incredibly, his Hungarian win was the last time he saw the chequered flag that season. A rare Renault engine failure was to blame in Italy, but beyond that, the slim prospect of a late title charge seemed to bring out the worst of Griffin's overdriving, with unforced errors denying him certain points finishes and probable podiums in the other 5 rounds. With Mansell returning to Williams in 1991, Frank Williams and Patrick Head decided at the 11th hour not to extend Griffin's contract.

His career was seemingly rescued by Eddie Jordan, who signed him to drive the Jordan-Ford 191 alongside Andrea de Cesaris. Many humourously mused whether the expected repair bills generated by two talented, but wayward, drivers would bankrupt the new team, but both drivers rose to the task and drove reliably. Griffin insisted that his style hadn't changed, the perfectly balanced 191 simply allowing him to drive to the absolute limit without error. Whatever the reason, Griffin's new found steadiness paid off. Despite missing the Belgian and Italian Grand Prix because of an injury (allowing Schumacher to make his debut) Griffin finished in the points 9 times - 4 4ths, 1 5th and 4 6ths, easily outscoring de Cesaris 22 points to 9. More notably, only one self-induced retirement came at Monaco. Reported interest from Benetton never materialised into a firm offer, and potential moves to Footwork and Ligier were rejected as moves in the wrong direction, so he remained at Jordan for 1992.

But then came a nightmare season for both team and driver. With de Cesaris gone, Griffin was now the senior driver, but the grid had moved away from Gary Anderson's simple, passively suspended designs, and Griffin was soon back to his overdriving worst trying to extract time from the car that simply wasn't there. The relaxed demeanour of 1991 was replaced with broodiness and increasing tensions with Jordan, finally ending in tears at the Hungaroring.

Despite Griffin's undoubted talent, no team was willing to take on his volatility for 1993. With the F1 grid closed to the Irishman, Griffin went to America and presuaded Chip Ganassi to run a Lola Cosworth for him for 1993 in time for the season opener at Surfer's Paradise in Australia...


TBC

[FullMetalJack]

Looks interesting, nice to see someone trying something different. Good luck with your career.

[DemocalypseNow]

Looks interesting, nice to see someone trying something different. Good luck with your career.

Different eh?

You just gave me an idea...

[FullMetalJack]

Looks interesting, nice to see someone trying something different. Good luck with your career.

Different eh?

You just gave me an idea...

And what would that be?

[Enforcer]

I'm going to play this completely straight, and take whatever result the racing Gods chuck at me. Although I'll do a fair few free practices before each race since I haven't played this in a long time and don't remember the tracks (at least they give you a decent starting set up). Going to have 20% race distance, because I couldn't be arsed to doing 100,000,000 laps of turning left on the Milwaukee Mile and the like, and the opposition standard at 100% (although I think it goes up to 125%) and see how I do. Might "come back" to F1 via GP2 if I do well.

Qualifying for this is a 10 minute session for street/road courses and 2 laps, best avg. speed for the ovals. I expect to crash in every single oval race.

Anyway, Surfer's Paradise tomorrow when I'm not drunk.

[FullMetalJack]

Anyway, Surfer's Paradise tomorrow when I'm not drunk.

Looks like there won't be any news tomorrow then

[JeanDenisAlcatraz]

The Papyrus IndyCar games were legendary! I'm really looking forwards to this.

[DemocalypseNow]

Looks interesting, nice to see someone trying something different. Good luck with your career.

Different eh?

You just gave me an idea...

And what would that be?

This.

[Salamander]

The Papyrus IndyCar games were legendary! I'm really looking forwards to this.

Speaking of Papyrus, would anyone be interested in a NASCAR career based on NASCAR Racing Season 2003, just out of curiosity?

Getting back on topic, I'm quite looking forward to this, Enforcer. Good luck!

[DemocalypseNow]

The Papyrus IndyCar games were legendary! I'm really looking forwards to this.

Speaking of Papyrus, would anyone be interested in a NASCAR career based on NASCAR Racing Season 2003, just out of curiosity?

Getting back on topic, I'm quite looking forward to this, Enforcer. Good luck!

I'd have done that, but the laptop it was on is knackered now and I don't have the CD...so its a no go

[josh24]

I admire Ronan Griffin becuase he is very didicated to his carrer..
somehow it inspire me to become more didicated in my fields of carrer..
hope you could inspire more people like me..
more power guys..GOD BLESSS..
how to get a girl to like you

[shinji]

I admire Ronan Griffin becuase he is very didicated to his carrer..
somehow it inspire me to become more didicated in my fields of carrer..
hope you could inspire more people like me..
more power guys..GOD BLESSS..
how to get a girl to like you

[tommykl]

I admire Ronan Griffin becuase he is very didicated to his carrer..
somehow it inspire me to become more didicated in my fields of carrer..
hope you could inspire more people like me..
more power guys..GOD BLESSS..
how to get a girl to like you

Epic subliminal spam.

[RAK]

I admire Ronan Griffin becuase he is very didicated to his carrer..
somehow it inspire me to become more didicated in my fields of carrer..
hope you could inspire more people like me..
more power guys..GOD BLESSS..
how to get a girl to like you

I'm pretty sure that this spam has nothing to do with motorsport, particularly as this topic is dealing with simulated racing, which if I'm thinking correctly, isn't exactly something that leads women to be attracted to you.

[Enforcer]

Qualifying was something of an embarassment for the American racing fraternity, as two Indy debutants freshly arrived from F1 locked out the front row of the grid. Ronan Griffin picked up the first point of the new season, putting his car on pole by half a second from Nigel Mansell. Established Indy drivers like Tracy, Fittipaldi and Andretti struggled.

1. Ronan Griffin - 1:39.585
2. Nigel Mansell - 1:40.085
3. Roberto Guerrero - 1:40.615
4. Will Fletcher - 1:41.070
5. Al Unser - 1:41.147
6. Al Unser Jnr. - 1:41.662
-----
11. Mario Andretti - 1:42.748
12. Paul Tracy - 1:42.962
-----
16. Emerson Fittipaldi - 1:43.865
-----


Race - 14 laps:
Griffin's lead didn't even 200m beyond the pace lap as Nigel Mansell got a better rolling start to beat Griffin to the first corner. It got worse for the Irishman as his belated effort to defend put him onto a patch of grass, which spun him and left him facing against traffic. With no option other to allow the field pass, Griffin effectively restarted from 30th and last. By the halfway point of the lap however, he was already past Fred Jones and Vernon Taylor, before Jack Stevens crashed from 24th, bringing out the yellows for two laps.

Upon race resumption, Griffin passed 7 cars in two laps, putting him 20th, behind former Arrows team-mate Eddie Cheever. He overtook Cheever, along with Mike Groff and Didier Theys, and found himself 17th as he started the 7th lap. He dispensed with Mark Smith on lap 7, closing up behind a squabbling Danny Sullivan and Jeff Andretti on lap 8. He cleanly dispensed with Sullivan, and thought he'd achieved the same two corners later with Andretti, only for the latter to run into him as he made a slow exit from the corner. Griffin survived, but Andretti didn't and the course was again yellow-flagged for two laps, resuming at the start of lap 11.

Griffin was now 14th, behind Arie Luyendyk, Raul Boesel and Paul Tracy. He caugt Luyendyk on the 2nd corner and started after Boesel, pulling alongside the Brazilian on the main straight leading into the 12th lap. However, Boesel proved anything but cooperative, pushing Griffin towards to the pit wall. Griffin eventually backed off and took a position line astern of Boesel coming into the first corner, but not before making several obscene hand gestures to convey his dissatisfaction. He eventually got past Boesel on the back straight and started after Paul Tracy, catching him mid way through the 13th lap.

Griffin thought he had gotten by, outbraking Tracy into a slow left-hander, but amazingly, the rear tires spun under full throttle on the exit and the car went through a 180 spin. Tracy, Boesel, Luyendyk and Sullivan all repassed Griffin, demoting him to 15th, before he could resume just ahead of Mark Smith. Despite setting a final lap that would have qualified him in the top 10, Griffin failed to catch anyone else and had to settle for 15th.


After the race, Griffin was typically harsh about the opposition:

"I was surprised to be on pole, the best I'd done in practice was a 1:41, it didn't last in the race obviously. Just as well, though I'd have hated to have had to lap any of these guys. I don't know what Jeff Andretti was thinking. How hard is it not to drive into the back of someone? And the less I say about Raul Boesel the better. Tommy Byrne is right about that guy."


Results:

1. Nigel Mansell (fastest lap)
2. Roberto Guerrero
3. Al Unser
4. Will Fletcher
5. Al Unser Jnr.
6. Scott Goodyear
7. Bobby Rahal
8. Stefan Johansson
9. Mario Andretti
10. Emerson Fittipaldi
11. Paul Tracy
12. Raul Boesel
13. Arie Luyendyk
14. Danny Sullivan
15. Ronan Griffin (pole position)

Drivers' Championship (points for top 12, plus 1 for fastest lap and pole position)

1. Nigel Mansell - 21
2. Roberto Guerrero - 16
3. Al Unser - 14
4. Will Fletcher - 12
5. Al Unser Jnr. - 10
6. Scott Goodyear - 8
7. Bobby Rahal - 6
8. Stefan Johansson - 5
9. Mario Andretti - 4
10. Emerson Fittipaldi - 3
11. Paul Tracy - 2
12. Raul Boesel - 1
13. Ronan Griffin - 1

My first Oval in the form of the Phoenix raceway is next.

[thehemogoblin]

I admire Ronan Griffin becuase he is very didicated to his carrer..
somehow it inspire me to become more didicated in my fields of carrer..
hope you could inspire more people like me..
more power guys..GOD BLESSS..
how to get a girl to like you

Epic subliminal spam.

I knew there was something up with it, but I totally missed it the first time. Whoops.

[Enforcer]

Gotta say, ovals are fun. The AI drivers really don't like each other, they squabbled a lot pushed each other right into walls and stuff. Pretty frantic, so I'm not sure about the number of laps between each incident, I think I've gotten them roughly right.

Griffin faced his first speedway in the form of the tri-corner 'oval' of the Phoenix Raceway. A short circuit with a 20 second lap, the field would be cut to 26 cars. Despite scoffing at the simplicity of 'turning left for a couple of hours' in pre-season Griffin found it difficult to find an appropriate balance of straightline speed and driveability in the corners, and ended up a disappointing 17th in qualifying. Al Unser Jnr. took the pole ahead of Scott Goodyear and Mario Andretti, with Surfer's Paradise racewinner Nigel Mansell in 6th. Malboro Team Penske continued to struggle, qualifying 11th and 12th.

1. Al Unser Jnr. 173.593mph
2. Scott Goodyear - 173.217mph
3. Mario Andretti 172.636mph
4. Raul Boesel 172.322 mph
5. Arie Luyendyk 171.780mph
6. Nigel Mansell 171.102mph
------
11. Emerson Fittipaldi. 169.833mph
12. Paul Tracy 168.388mph
------
15. Didier Theys 168.083mph
16. Danny Sullivan 167.520mph
17. Ronan Griffin 167.085mph
18. Mike Groff 166.945mph
19. Jeff Andretti 166.660mph
-----
22. Al Unser 165.283mph

Race - 40 laps.
Off the start, Griffin sailed past Sullivan, Theys and Jimmy Vasser, and then took care of Eddie Cheever a lap later by running deep into the first corner and cutting back under him. Stefan Johansson was dispensed with two laps later. He then passed Scott Brayton in a similar fashion to Cheever at the first corner. However, he conceded the place back to Brayton just a corner later having been distracted by the spectacle of Guerrero, Tracy and Fittipaldi going three abreast into the second corner. He repassed Brayton two laps later at the first corner, clearly a place where Griffin had an advantage.

His progress was temporarily halted for 4 laps by yellow flags brough about by Arie Luyendyk's engine failure. As the race resumed, Griffin was 10th behind a group that contained Guerrero, Fittipaldi, Tracy, and Goodyear, seemingly being held up by Raul Boesel. On the restart lap, Goodyear dropped to the back of that pack and, along with Guerrero, was overtaken by Griffin and Sullivan, who had effectively "tacked onto the back" of Griffin as he scythed through the field. A lap later, Griffin attempted to pass Fittipaldi at the first corner, but the Brazilian was having none of it and closed the door, slowing Griffin and forcing him to defend from Sullivan for a couple of laps. He again closed on Fittipaldi and this time got by (again at turn 1) and made it stick, he was then presented with an oppurtunity to overtake both Boesel and Tracy as the former pushed the latter towards the pit wall as they both ran high into the second corner. Griffin overtook Tracy, but Boesel touched his rear wheel as he rejoined the racing line. Griffin just contained the tank slapper, but Boesel spun out and took Fittipaldi and Goodyear (and seemingly Johansson who came up as crashed in the final standings, and Jeff Andretti, who was backwards in the run off area when I came back around under yellows, even though neither was immediately behind him) with him, yellowing the track for another 4 laps. However, Griffin was now 5th with more than half the race run, behind Mario Andretti, who had assumed the race lead, Nigel Mansell, Al Unser Jnr and Bobby Rahal.

The third race resumption lasted only two corners, as Griffin misjudged an attempt to overtake Rahal, and nudged him off, again surviving the effort himself. 4 more yellow flagged laps followed, before the now 4th placed Griffin set off after the leaders.

Unser Jnr and Mansell squabbled for 2nd, exchanging places a few times, but Griffin, for the first time in the race was having to look behind more than ahead, as the limits of his raw pace at Phoenix were being exposed. But, after 3 laps of defending from Paul Tracy, Griffin was given a break when Mansell and Unser Jnr, in similar fashion to Boesel and Tracy earlier, both ran high into the banking of the 2nd corner blocking each other, allowing Griffin and Tracy to get past both on the racing line. With only a handful of laps left, and Tracy occupied by Mansell and Unser Jnr., Griffin pushed to the absoulte limit to catch Andretti, and eventually got a bite at him on the first corner with just two laps to go, however he just didn't have the speed to make the move stick and Andretti re-took first position on the short straight leading into the 2nd corner. Furthermore, Unser Jnr. had passed Tracy and was now challenging Griffin for 2nd, however Griffin held on until the finish line, to pick up a very welcome 16 points.

1. Mario Andretti 129.928mph (fastest lap)
2. Ronan Griffin - 0.7
3. Al Unser Jr. -0.8 (Pole Position)
4. Paul Tracy -2.1
5. Nigel Mansell - 2.4
6. Scott Brayton - 5.2
7. Didier Theys - 6.1
8. Eddie Cheever -6.7
9. Roberto Guerrero -6.8
10. Danny Sullivan - 11.8
11. Mark Smith - 12.1
12. Lyn St. James - 15.3

Driver's Championship (not going to bother typing in who's lower than 15th place):
1 - Nigel Mansell - 31 (1 win)
2 - Mario Andretti - 25 (1 win)
3 - Al Unser Jnr. - 25 (1 3rd)
4 - Roberto Guerrero - 20 (1 2nd)
5 - Ronan Griffin - 17 (1 2nd)
6 - Al Unser - 14 (1 3rd)
7 - Paul Tracy - 14
8 - Will Fletcher - 12
9 - Scott Brayton - 8
10 - Scott Goodyear - 8
11 - Didier Theys - 6
12 - Bobby Rahal - 6
13 - Eddie Cheever - 5
14 - Stefan Johansson - 5
15 - Danny Sullivan - 3
= - Emerson Fittipaldi - 3

Next race is Long Beach.

[Waris]

I want pictures! x3

[Enforcer]

Despite a short lap with drivers consistently setting times of less than 1 minute, Long Beach was opened up to the full 33 car grid. This proved a nuisance for Griffin who complained of being 'constantly' held up during qualifying, eventually setting a time good enough for only 20th:

"The understeer was bad enough without running into the likes of Didier Theys practically stopped on the apex of a corner!! I don't know how 19 of these guys are faster than me, I felt like I was tripping over them every lap."

Emerson Fittipaldi was back to his best, qualifying on pole ahead of Johansson and Goodyear. Championship leader Nigel Mansell was 10th. Tracy again struggled in 16th, whilst Mario Andretti was 17th on a very poor day for Newman-Haas.

1. Emerson Fittipaldi - 56.309
2. Stefan Johansson - 56.450
3. Scott Goodyear - 56.532
4. Al Unser - 56.873
5. Dominic Dobson - 57.249
6. Roberto Guerrero - 57.302
-----
10. Nigel Mansell - 57.458
-----
16. Paul Tracy - 57.877
17. Mario Andretti - 57.945
-----
18. Jeff Andretti - 58.146
19. Danny Sullivan - 58.573
20. Ronan Griffin - 58.672
21. Scott Brayton - 58.734
22. Will Fletcher - 58.757

Race - 22 laps.
From the start, Griffin made up two places in the first lap, going past Sullivan and Jeff Andretti. He immediately undid this good work by spinning on the 2nd lap (somehow avoiding the barriers), allowing all both drivers he'd overtaken, plus Scott Brayton, Mark Smith, and Will Fletcher through. Worse still, as Griffin rejoined the racing line in 23rd, Mike Groff took evasive action into a wall, yellow flagging the race for 2 laps. With the track green-flagged as Griffin was on the 2nd last corner, he got a better exit from the last corner to breeze past both Smith and Fletcher down the main straight. Andretti was caught napping between turns 3 and 4, and Griffin finished off a stunning lap by towing past Brayton on the back straight. He set to work on Sullivan down the main straight, touching wheels as they passed the start/finish line (although both cars got away with it):


Touching wheels at 135mph? If I were Rubens Barrichello I'd complain.

before outbreaking him into turn 1. Griffin passed Doug Hanson on the same lap putting him 17th behind Lyn St. James, whom he narrowly avoided running into on the exit from the final corner, such was the difference in speed at that point of the track. He outbraked St. James into turn one on the following lap, and towed past Cheever on the back straight.

Now 15th, Griffin faced his first real challenge in the form of Mario Andretti. He attempted his usual trick of getting a faster exit out of the last turn on lap 7 to try to pull alongside Andretti down the start finish straight and outbrake him. However, Andretti was too good under braking for it to work. This was repeated when Griffin attempted to outbrake him once more at the end of back straight, and for a third time on the main straight at the start of lap 9. Just as Griffin was wondering how he was going to get past, Andretti ran wide at turn 4 and grazed the wall, allowing Griffin through to attack Paul Tracy, who proved a much easier target down the back straight. As they started lap 10, Griffin was 13th.

13th became 11th a lap later, as Griffin, scythed past both Dominic Dobson and Jimmy Vasser coming out of the final turn onto the main straight.


Wakey-wakey gentlemen.

By lap 13, Griffin had caught Unser and Boesel in 9th and 10th place. Fans baying for a 3rd contentious incident in a row between the Griffin and Boesel were left disappointed as Griffin cleanly towed by on the back straight. Again using his final turn speed, Griffin passed Unser for 9th down the start/finish straight, only for Unser to go for a gap that wasn't really there into the first corner, colliding with Griffin's sidepod and taking himself out of the race. Boesel also retired by crashing into Unser's striken car (that's what I'm guessing he did anyway).


I don't care if he's an IndyCar legend, the old man got it wrong. Look at the angles the cars are at: the only way he'd have avoided me would be if he turned early and drove into the wall. Meanwhile, in the background, F1 Reject Raul Boesel lines himself up for a big, fat DNF.

With full track yellows for 2 laps, Griffin used the oppurtunity to close the sizeable gap to 8th placed Bobby Rahal, who then proceeded to have an engine failure anyway, promoting Griffin to 8th, behind Unser Jnr (now in the lead), Fittipaldi, Johansson, Goodyear, Luyendyk, Mansell and Guerrero.

The race resumed on lap 15, with Guerrero getting the jump on Mansell and Luyendyk. Griffin passed Mansell at the start of lap 16, and Luyendyk at the start of lap 17 and was now 6th. Then came another contentious incident. On the same lap, Griffin attempted to go down the inside of Guerrero between turns 3 and 4. He initially got past, but left his braking for turn 4 so late in doing so that he locked up and missed the apex. Guerrero seemed caught in two minds as to whether to hold position or attempt to duck back down the inside of Griffin and eventually did neither, instead punting Griffin up the back and retiring.


How do I get around this obstacle exactly?

Griffin, now 5th, continued, but it took until the start of lap 20 for the race to resume. Griffin used his favoured overtaking spot out of the final turn and passed Goodyear down the main straight at the end of lap 20, but Goodyear ducked back under and outbraked Griffin into turn 1. He only held the place for half a lap, however, as Griffin repassed him on the back straight as they started the final lap.

With the field still compressed from the yellow flag periods, Griffin was able to catch and pass Stefan Johansson for third on the back straight on the final lap to bring in his second podium.

1. Al Unser Jnr.
2. Emerson Fittipaldi -3.2 (Pole position)
3. Ronan Griffin - 3.4
4. Stefan Johansson -4.2
5. Scott Goodyear -6.0
6. Arie Luyendyk -7.0
7. Nigel Mansell - 8.5
8. Mario Andretti - 9.6
9. Jimmy Vasser -11.2
10. Paul Tracy - 12.2
11. Scott Brayton -14.5
12. Dominic Dobson 16.7

I'm begining to think there's a certain randomness in qualifying. 2nd race in a row that Tracy's been a lot better in the race than in qualy. Mario Andretti and Unser Jnr were also flying on race day relative to qualifying, and Dominic Dobson went backwards. And I swear some of the AI cars were braking on the exit of the last turn to avoid hitting the wall.
Also, crashing into these guys doesn't hurt you unless they hit one of your wheels.

Driver's Championship (there is actually no point for fastest lap as I thought, winner gets 21, not 20):
1. Al Unser Jnr- 46 (1 win, 1 3rd)
2. Nigel Mansell - 37 (1 win)
3. Ronan Griffin - 31 (1 2nd, 1 3rd)
4. Mario Andretti - 30 (1 win)
5. Roberto Guerrero - 20 (1 2nd)
6. Emerson Fittipaldi - 20 (1 2nd)
7. Scott Goodyear - 18
8. Paul Tracy - 17
9. Stefan Johansson - 17
10. Al Unser - 14 (1 3rd)
11. Will Fletcher - 12
12. Scott Brayton - 10
13. Arie Luyendyk - 8
14. Bobby Rahal - 6
=. Didier Theys - 6

[Enforcer]

Biiiig problem here. The game doesn't let you register a DNF in Championship mode. You retire, you have to do the race again. Even if your car is completely disabled, you have to sit in it (sometimes on track with the chance of people hitting it) until the race is done for the game to generate a race result. So I ended up having to switch car damage off in order to get a result at the Milwaukee Mile. That & an exam are what took me so long to do this one.

The sound of Indycars came to Wisconsin State Fair as the grid headed for round 4 at the Milwaukee Mile. Only 26 cars would make the grid on a short, two-hairpin oval. Veteran Emerson Fittipaldi was on pole, with Mansell 2nd and championship leader Al Unser Jnr. 3rd. Ronan Griffin's hopes of keeping up with the Championship leaders were damaged by another poor qualifying performance, and to boot, he admitted on the grid that the car was handling awfully on full race fuel, and he could see no burn from the stern happening here.

1. Emerson Fittipaldi - 168.998mph
2. Nigel Mansell - 168.445 mph
3. Al Unser Jnr. - 167.403mph
4. Paul Tracy - 167.107mph
5. Scott Goodyear - 166.189mph
6. Al Unser -165.944mph
-----
12. Bobby Rahal - 163.146mph
13. Roberto Guerrero - 163.116mph
14. Ronan Griffin - 162.799mph
15. Dominic Dobson - 162.644 mph
16. Eddie Cheever - 161.876mph

Race - 40 laps.
In spite of his dire pre-race predictions, Griffin got a quick rolling start to pass Guerrero, Rahal and Brayton on the first lap, before setting off after Danny Sullivan. He pulled alongside twice in 2 laps, but didn't get past until the start of lap 4. Even then however, Griffin couldn't make it stick, and Sullivan pulled back alongside going into the last corner. Griffin went for the racing line and found that Sullivan was on it, the two collided bringing out an early yellow flag period.


Didn't see him. Honest. Behind, Cheever (orange & white car) is probably wondering how I outscored him at Arrows in the 80s.

The race resumed on lap 9. Griffin made a sluggish restart and was overtaken by Cheever and Guerrero, dropping him back to 12th. All three caught up with a squabbling Luyendyk and Mario Andretti over the next two laps. Cheever was first through, cleanly getting past both Luyendyk and Andretti as they forced each other of the racing line the first turn. Guerrero passed Luyendyk, followed closely by Griffin, but then had to abort his attempt at passing Andretti. Griffin took full advantage and scythed past the displaced Guerrero, who then came under pressure from Luyendyk. This freed up Griffin to slowly close in on Andretti and then slipstream him a lap later, before sending one up the inside on the first turn. It didn't work out as planned, as the cars touched.


Seem to have a thing about getting too close to this particular design of car. And there are 3 of them on the grid (Sullivan, Andretti and Mansell).

Neither retired, but the touch cost Griffin enough momentumn that Luyendyk and Guerrero slid by, and he was soon defending 12th place from Scott Brayton. With the Canadian constanly picking up the slipstream, Griffin was unable to shake him, and began to drop away from the Cheever/Andretti/Luyendyk/Guerrero melee, and to make matters worse, Dominic Dobson had oppurtunistically gotten past both, to relagate the scrap to a battle for 13th. Three times Brayton got by, only to be repassed by Griffin (who on one ocassion resorted to the grass) in a multilap slipstreaming battle, that edged the afternoon's work for both drivers to the halfway stage. As the battle continued, Griffin's efforts to shake Brayton got steadily more underhanded, first trying a slightly late turn in at turn 1 to try and present an opening and then close it, pushing him towards the grass, before squeezing him against the pit wall a lap later, all leading to an increasing sense of inevitability about how this one was going to end. Sure enough on the same lap as the pit wall effort, the collision came, but amazingly Brayton, rather than Griffin, was the one at fault, simply picking up speed in Griffin's slipstream and driving straight into back of the Irishman at the end of the back straight.


Brayton fills out his MENSA application. He took Jeff Andretti and Stefan Johansson with him whilst crashing

4 more laps of full course yellows allowed Griffin to close up to Dobson, who in turn had closed up to Cheever/Andretti/Luyendyk/Guerrero group, which now included Al Unser and Paul Tracy, handing Griffin an oppurtunity to go back on the attack. Depite being passed by a flying Jimmy Vasser on the restart, Griffin managed to find a way past Dobson, Unser and Guerrero, before attacking Cheever (who lost momentumn whilst being passed by Vasser) a lap later. But as had happened before, Griffin's ill-handling car wasn't up to the job and he soon dropped away from Cheever, and was re-passed by Dobson and Unser. 3 laps of desperate defending from Guerrero followed, before Griffin's right front tire gave up and exploded on the exit last corner (wasn't expecting that with car damage off). Without sufficient control to pull the car into the pits immediately. Griffin had to tip-toe around the course, dropping to 22nd (last) place and being lapped to pit for a new tire, resuming with 6 laps left. On fresh tires and low fuel, the car was quick, but a lap down on 21st place it was all for nothing.

Al Unser Jnr. recorded another victory to take a 20 point lead in the Championship.


1. Al Unser Jnr. 134.471mph
2. Emerson Fittipaldi - 2.8 (pole position)
3. Scott Goodyear - 4.1
4. Bobby Rahal - 4.3
5. Nigel Mansell - 4.5
6. Raul Boesel - 4.9
7. Mario Andretti - 5.0
8. Jimmy Vasser - 5.2
9. Paul Tracy - 5.4
10. Eddie Cheever - 5.6
11. Al Unser - 7.5
12. Dominic Dobson - 10.6
-----
22. Ronan Griffin - 2 laps.

Championship
1. Al Unser Jnr - 67 (2 wins, 1 3rd)
2. Nigel Mansell - 47 (1 win)
3. Emerson Fittipaldi - 37 (2 2nds)
4. Mario Andretti - 36 (1 win)
5. Scott Goodyear - 32 (1 3rd)
6. Ronan Griffin - 31 (1 2nd, 1 3rd)
7. Paul Tracy - 21
8. Roberto Guerrero - 20 (1 2nd)
9. Bobby Rahal - 18
10. Stefan Johansson - 17

[Enforcer]

Disclaimer - Boring race.

The pouring rain at Detroit,didn't dampen the spirits of Championship leader Al Unser Jnr. He took the pole for this event, with Ronan Griffin recording his best qualifying performance since Surfer's Paradise, in 2nd. Championship challengers Nigel Mansell and Emerson Fittipaldi floundered in 7th and 8th places.

1. Al Unser Jnr. 1:23.748
2. Ronan Griffin 1:24.489
3. Paul Tracy 1:24.576
4. Danny Sullivan 1:24.750
5. Al Unser 1:24.910
6. Raul Boesel 1:24.961
----
7. Nigel Mansell 1:24.985
8. Emerson Fittipaldi 1:25.385

Race - 14 laps.
From the start Sullivan passed Tracy, but otherwise there was no drama. Unser Jr. and Griffin soon began to pull away from the pack, but the different set ups employed by both drivers was quickly coming aparrant, with Unser Jr. quicker through the corners, only for Griffin to eat up the tarmac between them on the back straight. He attempted a move on both laps 2 and 3, but couldn't make it stick. After being too far away on laps 4 and 5, Griffin turned down his boost pressure and seemed to settle for 2nd place. Allowing Unser to quickly open up a 5 second lead.

But, on lap 7, a yellow flag period caused by Vernon Taylor running off the road, closed the gap back up. As Griffin prepared to launch an attack from the restart, Unser Jr. ducked into the pits, and retired with a brake failure.

The race resumed on lap 8, Griffin retained the lead, with Tracy moving into 2nd place. Griffin failed to pull away as he had previously done, and was now clocking speeds some 12mph slower on the back straight than in the early part of the race. Clearly fuel conservation had become an issue, and from lap 9, Tracy, and everyone behind him were crawling all over the back of Griffin's car:


Coming this summer, from the director of The Trulli Train...

However none could find away past Griffin in the next 3 laps, and Griffin, having saved sufficient fuel turned the wick back up with a lap and a half to go, to leave Tracy more than 3 seconds behind at the chequered flag.

Speaking after the race, Griffin had this to say:

"I'm obviously delighted to have won, it puts me back in Championship contention, hopefully I can kick on from here and teach this country a thing or two about driving.
I ****** up the fuel consumption runs in practice, and that put us out by a couple of laps, so I had to kill the turboboost for a while. I wasn't expecting any of these guys to be good enough to pass me on this narrow track, but my main worry would be that Tracy would get a rush of blood and run us both off the road. Pretty pleased with the car today, although it's the first time since Australia it hasn't felt like a truck in qualifying. I never thought I'd want to drive that feckin' Jordan 192 again, but after a few months in this, I'd gladly take it back."

This naturally led to questions about Griffin's recent test of the prototype MazdaSpeed F1 car, and whether this would see an early departure from the American racing scene:

"Yeah, I drove it. It's decent. But I haven't signed anything, and they haven't even got their entry approved by yet. They paid me a few quid, paid Chip a few quid in case I got injured. Everyone's happy, it's not a big deal. Their engine's still illegal, for feck's sake."

He also dismissed rumours linking him with a return to F1 with McLaren, who are widely believed to want to see the back of Michael Andretti sooner rather than later.

"Nah, I haven't talked to McLaren. Somehow I don't think myself and Ron Dennis would get on anyway."

Result:

1. Ronan Griffin - 84.009mph
2. Paul Tracy - 3.5
3. Danny Sullivan - 7.3
4. Al Unser - 7.6
5. Nigel Mansell -11.7
6. Raul Boesel - 11.4
7. Emerson Fittipaldi -11.7
8. Bobby Rahal -12.0
9. Stefan Johansson -13.2
10. Mario Andretti -13.6
11. Scott Goodyear -15.1
12. Roberto Guerrero -29.8
-----
DNF: Al Unser Jnr. (pole position)
-----

Championship
1. Al Unser Jnr. - 68 (2 wins, 1 3rd)
2. Nigel Mansell - 57 (1 win)
3. Ronan Griffin - 52 (1 win, 1 2nd, 1 3rd)
4. Emerson Fittpaldi - 43 (2 2nds)
5. Mario Andretti - 39 (1 win)
6. Paul Tracy - 37 (1 2nd)
7. Scott Goodyear - 34
8. Al Unser - 28
9. Bobby Rahal - 23
10. Roberto Guerrero - 21 (1 2nd)

Anyhow, if anyone's reading, I've decided I'll be returning to the F1 fraternity in 1994 with a modified GP2 grid (additional rejects added), and using that gaudy orange and green MazdaSpeed car I posted in the Racing Game thread.

[shinji]

Sounds good!

[Enforcer]

A second wet weekend in a row produced one of the races of the season at Portland Raceway. Ronan Griffin took his first pole since Surfer's Paradise ahead of Paul Tracy and Nigel Mansell. Championship leader Al Unser Jnr. was 8th on the grid. It was a somewhat unexpected performance from Griffin who spent the plenty of the practice sessions in the grass.

1. Ronan Griffin 1:11.036
2. Paul Tracy 1:11.528
3. Nigel Mansell 1:11.671
4. Raul Boesel 1:11.767
5. Al Unser 1:11.927
6. Mario Andretti 1:11.944
-----
8. Al Unser Jnr. 1:12.485
-----

Race - 20 laps.
From the start Griffin maintained his lead from Tracy for only half a lap, as he ran wide onto the grass at turn 5, allowing Tracy to take the lead. Worse still, as he attempted to rejoin, he collided with Nigel Mansell, bringing out the yellow flags for two laps and causing Mansell to retire.


Sorry about that Nige, but that's what you get for stiffing me with the bar tab at a post-race party in 1988. I remember all...

From the restart, Griffin struggled badly at turns 4 and 5, and on lap 4 was demoted to 4th by Boesel and Sullivan after again going onto the grass at turn 5. On the plus side, Championship leader Al Unser Jnr. retired for the 2nd time in a row with a mechanical gremlin, affording Griffin the oppurtunity to close the gap to him with a good finish.

Griffin finally got his act together on lap 7 and began closing in on Sullivan. By lap 9 Griffin had caught him, and despite the continued twitchieness of his car, Griffin went up the inside of Sullivan at turn 3 with a late, late breaking manouvre, briefly running onto the grass in the process.


Gotcha!

However Griffin's hopes that the move would go down in IndyCar legend were quickly dashed as he got his line into turn 4 wrong and then ran wide at 5, allowing Sullivan back through:


Or perhaps not...

before Griffin finally settled the matter, pulling into third place on the back straight. He then caught Boesel a lap later in the same place, and set off after Paul Tracy, who was some 3 seconds up the road. That 3 second gap didn't last long as Tracy was held up trying to lap Vernon Taylor, and by lap 12. Griffin was close enough for an unsuccessful outbraking attempt into the first chicane. On the same lap, both drivers caught up with a melee of battling back markers in the form of Fred Jones, Chris Bentley, and Stan Green.

As they moved onto the back straight, Griffin and Tracy went either side of Jones:


"These guys are crazy..."

with Griffin, again unsuccessfully, trying to pass Tracy into turn 7 after the manouve, narrowly avoiding contact with Chris Bentley in the process.



Griffin had another run at Tracy along the main straight and into the first chicane as they both passed Stan Green, but Tracy once again proved too good under braking for Griffin's effort to succeed. Undeterred, Griffin got a quick exit from the chicane to slip past Tracy into turn 2:


Gotcha!!!!

but then lost it into turn 3 and ran wide into the grass, allowing Tracy to retake the lead.


...or perhaps not...

It was becoming clear however, that as long as Griffin could keep his car on the black stuff, it would only be a matter of time before he took the lead. And he did that a lap later down the back straight, and drove a consistent remaining 6 laps, using his superior ability to dispense with back-markers to open a 6 second lead to Tracy and record his second consecutive race win. Even better, with the retirements of Mansell and Unser Jnr, Griffin's race win took him to the top of the Championship standings.

1. Ronan Griffin 94.170mph (Pole position)
2. Paul Tracy -6.8
3. Mario Andretti -14.4
4. Raul Boesel -16.3
5. Al Unser -38.0
6. Stefan Johansson -38.9
7. Danny Sullivan -39.6
8. Emerson Fittipaldi - 40.0
9. Bobby Rahal -41.6
10. Scott Goodyear -41.6
11. Roberto Guerrero -41.6
12. Arie Luyendyk -41.8

Championship:
1. Ronan Griffin - 73 (2 wins, 1 2nd, 1 3rd)
2. Al Unser Jnr - 68 (2 wins, 1 3rd)
3. Nigel Mansell - 57 (1 win)
4. Paul Tracy - 54 (2 2nds)
5. Mario Andretti - 53 (1 win, 1 3rd)
6. Emerson Fittipaldi - 48 (2 2nds)
7. Al Unser - 38
8. Scott Goodyear - 37
9. Raul Boesel - 29
10. Stefan Johansson - 29

[JJMonty]

I got a quick question........ what version of Indy Car are you playing?

Because I have the origanal Indycar CD..... but it only comes with 8 tracks..... Places like Detroit etc are not on mine!

[Enforcer]

That's the version I had originally, but apparently they released two expansions, one with 7 extra tracks (Detroit, Phoenix, Road America, Mid Ohio, Surfer's Paradise, Cleaveland Airport - worst track ever, and one other that I can't think of) and one with the Indy 500 on it. I went looking for the expansions, but actually found the complete game with the first pack of extras on an Abandonware site, and acquired it from there.

I'd rather not link to it since Abandonware has no legal status in any jurisdiction, and Ii don't want to land F1R in the shite, but if you google "Abandonware" it should be the top hit.

[Debaser]

Cleveland airport may have been a rubbish track but provided great racing - the 1995 CART race was wonderful, the race is on Youtube and is well worth watching. You even get Robby Gordon ranting at Michael Andretti over the team radio.

[JJMonty]

Ok I got it working!

Bringing back good memories here

Though....... my axis is going all over the place so it keeps on scrolling up and down uncontrolably!

Did you have this issue?

(sorry for going off subject!)

[Enforcer]

I did. I think I just disconnected my gamepad to fix it.

Cleveland airport may have been a rubbish track but provided great racing - the 1995 CART race was wonderful, the race is on Youtube and is well worth watching. You even get Robby Gordon ranting at Michael Andretti over the team radio.

I pulled out of the pits and was nearly blinded by the sea of light grey with few reference points. I might go look at the real thing though.

[Enforcer]

I've basically fallen out of love with IndyCar in the half season I've played. First thing I did wrong was 'set up' my changes to GP2 that I mentioned above, which made me want to play it properly (rather than just test races to see did the changes do what I wanted them to). Furthermore, I already mentioned that I didn't like Cleaveland Airport, trying to drive it proved no better. I couldn't get within 9 seconds of pole position, putting me comfortably last, and furthermore this was despite tripping over AI cars left right and centre during the qualifying sessions, leading me to believe that it was almost randomly picking the times out of its head rather than simulating the laps. I recorded a DNF here (by parking the car in the pits after the first lap and waiting for everyone else to finish), but had no real desire to move onto Michigan.

So I decided to pack in the Indy season and fast-forward to 1994 and GP2 with my day-glo orange Mazda F1 car. It should prove more interesting, at least to me. So first off, I didn't want to kill Senna, or Ratzenberger, or severly injure Letho, Lamy and Wendlinger, so I'd progress with the grid mostly as presented in GP2 (except with Mazda where Pacific should be). Two things occured to me though: 1) Williams wouldn't have gone into the season with Hill and Coulthard as drivers, and 2) Simtek will never get on the grid with Pacific gone. Don't want that.

So I tried to solve those problems as follows:

1994 Pre-Season build up.
1994 was expected to be dominated by Senna and Williams. You could engrave the trophy now, everyone said. McLaren, Benetton and Ferrari wouldn't get a look in. Then came 'that' press conference. Completely unannoucned, Ayrton Senna, presented himself to the world's sporting media and simply stated that with his rival Alain Prost gone, he simply had no appetite for the season, and was taking a sabbatical. A sabbatical that might become permanent.

Williams weren't pleased, but they couldn't force the man to race. Rumours circulated that Prost or Mansell would be retrieved from retirement and IndyCar, but neither came to fruition. In the end, after much wrangling, and many public backings of Damon Hill and their test driver, David Coulthard, in the media, Williams wrestled the services of Jean Alesi from Ferrari, who was persuaded to jump ship after two fairly poor seasons at Scuderia. Suffering the rare indignity of having a driver poached from them, and with an F1 grid in transition, with most proven talent tied firmly to a contract, Ferrari plumped for Minardi stalwart, Pierluigi Martini ahead of tester Nicola Larini, Lotus pilot Alex Zanardi, and ex-Jordan, Williams and Arrows driver, Ronan Griffin, who was deemed unemployable. Minardi will field an all ex-Scuderia Italia line up of Luca Badoer and Michele Alboreto.

The other main news is the arrival of two new teams. The well funded MazdaSpeed F1 team, who've hired Ukyo Katayama and Ronan Griffin as drivers, using a 2250cc rotary engine, following the FIA's decision to overturn its rotary ban, instead of the 3500cc V8, V10 or V12s used by the rest of the grid. The other team, Simtek Racing, is not so well funded, but nonetheless are a professional organisation who shouldn't disgrace themselves. David Brabham and debutant Jean-Marc Gounon will drive for them. Katayama's departure for Tyrell has opened up the door for another Japanese pay-driver Taki Inoue, hired largely at the behest of his cash and Yamaha. Along with Gounon and Inoue, Dutch German F3 champion Jos Verstappen (Benetton), Frenchman Olivier Panis (Ligier), German Heinz Harald Frentzen (Sauber) and Swiss pay driver Jean-Denis Deletraz (Larrousse) will make their debuts this season.

Alesi starts as pre-season Championship favourite, ahead of team-mate Damon Hill, although pre-season testing suggests that Schumacher's Benetton will be the car to beat, although his young team-mate, Jos Verstappen doesn't seem to match him very often. Ferrari are most definitely the third quickest team, with Berger generally being quicker than Martini, although not by the margins expected.

McLaren start their life with new engine partners Peugeot, and a winless driver pairing of Mika Hakkinen and Martin Brundle, pre-season testing suggests they're only marginally quicker than Jordan, who've retained Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine, and MazdaSpeed. Ligier, Sauber, Footwork, Lotus and Minardi all follow, whilst Larrousse look the slowest established team, being quicker only than Simtek. Lotus and Larrousse are reportedly struggling quite serverly for money and may not survive the season.

Complete grid:

Rothmans Williams Renault
#0: Damon Hill
#2: Jean Alesi

Tyrell Racing Organisation
#3 Taki Inoue
#4 Mark Blundell

Mild Seven Benetton Ford
#5 Michael Schumacher
#6 Jos Verstappen

Marlboro McLaren Mercedes
#7 Mika Hakkinen
#8 Martin Brundle

Footwork Ford
# 9 Christian Fittipaldi
#10 Gianni Morbidelli

Team Lotus Mugen Honda
#11 Alex Zanardi
#12 Johnny Herbert

Sasol Jordan Hart
#14 Rubens Barrichello
#15 Eddie Irvine

Tourtel Larrousse Ford
#19 Jean-Denis Deletraz
#20 Erik Comas

Minardi Scuderia Italia Ford
#23 Luca Badoer
#24 Michele Alboreto

Ligier Gitanes Blondes Renault
#25 Eric Bernard
#26 Olivier Panis

Scuderia Ferrari
#27 Pierluigi Martini
#28 Gerhard Berger

Broker Sauber Mercedes
#29 Andrea de Cesaris
#30 Heinz Harald Frentzen

MTV Simtek Ford
#31 David Brabham
#32 Jean Marc Gounon

Renown MazdaSpeed Racing Team
#33 Ukyo Katayama
#34 Ronan Griffin

Selected pictures from testing in Spain.















I've made a couple of other changes, namely increasing the unreliability of all cars, to better reflect the number of retirements that 1994 saw, and reducing the power of the player's car to keep me off the first couple of rows. It's normally set to 790hp in qualifying and 780 in the race regardless of what your driving, which is on par with the Renault engine and less than only the Ferrari engine. I've reduced it to 760hp in qualy and 750hp in the race.

I have helmets for Coulthard, Beretta, Gachot, Aguri Suzuki and Hideki Noda in reserve (I'll probably do up one for Montermini too), so I can give all of them races during the season.

Brazilian GP coming tomorrow.

[watka]

Martini in the car he deserved to drive!

[shinji]

Love the big breaks.

[Enforcer]

Jean Alesi takes pole position for the Brazilian Grand Prix on his Williams debut. Schumacher joins him on the front row, with Ferrari debutant Pierluigi Martini 3rd, and Alesi's team-mate Damon Hill 4th. Mika Hakkinen is 5th, with Gerhard Berger in 6th. Ronan Griffin is 7th for Mazda on his return to F1 alongside Rubens Barrichello, with the pattern repeated on the next row, with Katayama alongside Irvine. Spare a thought for Verstappen and Brundle, both hammered by their team-mates. They start from 19th and 20th. Simtek fail to qualify, although David Brabham only missed the grid by .2 seconds.

Brazilian Grand Prix: Qualifying
1. Jean Alesi 1:16.385s
2. Michael Schumacher 1:16.506s
3. Pierluigi Martini 1:17.026s
4. Damon Hill 1:17.098s
5. Mika Hakkinen 1:17.464s
6. Gerhard Berger 1:17.584s
7. Ronan Griffin 1:17.586s
8. Rubens Barrichello 1:17.822s
9. Ukyo Katayama 1:17.826s
10. Eddie Irvine 1:18.025s
-----
Reject watch:
13. Luca Badoer 1:18.571s
-----
24. Taki Inoue 1:19.655s
25. Alex Zanardi 1:20.725s
26. Jean Denis Deletraz 1:21.805s
DNQ: David Brabham 1:22.001s
DNQ: Jean Marc Gounon 1:22.64s.

Race coming later.

[Enforcer]

Lap 1: Poor start by Martini, he's down to 6th. Hill challenges for the lead from his 4th place, but ultimately ends up 3rd behind Alesi and Schumacher. Griffin and Berger are both quick of the start to pass Martini and Hakkinen.
Order: Alesi, Schumacher, Hill, Berger, Griffin, Martini

Lap 2-4 Ferrari are on the move. Berger passes Hill at the first corner. Martini does likewise on Griffin two laps later.

Lap 8: Martini's passed Hill for 4th. Hill isn't looking at all quick. He could come under pressure from Griffin and Hakkinen soon. Katayama's pits from 9th with an electrical problem. Alesi and Schumacher are pulling away in the lead.

Lap 9: Hakkinen pulls into the pits. That doesn't scheduled either. Irvine is now 7th.

Lap 12: Griffin had closed to within a second of Hill, but his pursuit ends when he runs wide into the grass at turn 9. He resumes 7th, a couple of seconds behind Irvine. Barrichello's been off the circuit and needs a new front wing. He was 8th.
Order: Alesi, Schumacher, Berger, Martini, Hill, Irvine

Lap 15: The scheduled stops begin. Irvine pulls in from 6th just before Griffin's caught up to him. Panis pits from 8th. Taki Inoue becomes the first retirement. He was running 24th, ahead of Zanardi and Deletraz.

Lap 17: Alesi pits from the lead and emerges 4th, just ahead of Hill. Martini passes Berger for 2nd (presumably net 3rd place). With Irvine and Panis' early stops, as well as unscheduled visits from Katayama and Barrichello, de Cesaris is just outside the points in 7th, but he's 20 seconds away from Griffin.

Lap 18: Schumacher and Berger are in the pits. Schumacher not only comes out behind Alesi, he's also behind Hill. That'll cost him some time. Martini is the temporary race leader.

Lap 20: Schumacher's past Hill, who once again is coming under pressure from Griffin. Still no stop from Hill, Martini or Griffin.

Lap 22-23: Martini and Griffin pit. Martini comes out 4th, just ahead of Berger, whilst Griffin is a comfortable 6th. Hill hasn't stopped yet and is still circulating in 3rd.
Order: Alesi, Schumacher, Hill, Martini, Berger, Griffin.

Lap 25: Alesi remains a couple of seconds ahead of Schumacher. They're both dropping Hill in 3rd, who's probably one a one-stop strategy. Martini's pulling away from Berger in 5th, and Grffin's 9 seconds behind Berger, and 9 ahead of Irvine, who is again 7th.

Lap 30: Griffin's quick. He closed the gap to Berger down to 6 seconds, and he's ditching Irvine by more than a second a lap.

Lap 32: Griffin's taken another second out of Berger. Martini's also closing in on Hill for 3rd place.

Lap 36: It's down to 3.5 seconds. Griffin lost some time encountering Christian Fittipaldi in the infield section. Lap traffic has also slowed down Martini's pursuit of Hill, he's only gained half a second in the last 4 laps.

Lap 37: Berger's held up whilst lapping Zanardi, Griffin's closed up to 2 seconds. Damon Hill pits for his presumed only stop. He comes out in 6th. Irvine stops from 7th (3 stopper?) whilst Katayama and Barrichello make their only scheduled stops from 8th and 9th. Hakkinen's resultantly climbed back up to 7th.
Order: Alesi, Schumacher, Martini, Berger, Griffin, Hill

Lap 40-41: Griffin's closed right up to Berger, but he's not quick enough on the main straight to get by. He then makes a mistake coming out of turn 4 and drops back by a couple of seconds. To complicate matters, Hill's now closing on both drivers on fresh tires.

Lap 45: Drama! Berger's held up through the middle section by another backmarker - Heinz Harald Frentzen. Griffin's catches him on the main straight and they go side by side into the first chicane, with Griffin eventually coming out on top.
2nd round of stops beginning too. Schumacher and Martini are in, Schumacher remains 2nd, Martini emerges 6th.

Lap 47: Alesi pits from the lead and emerges 2nd, behind Schumacher. He must've been held up whislt Schumacher was setting banzai laps on fresh tires. Griffin pits from 3rd, he was about to encounter a train of traffic of no less than 7 cars. Berger keeps going.

Lap 48: Berger pits and comes out behind Griffin in 6th.
Order: Schumacher, Alesi, Hill, Martini, Griffin, Berger.

Lap 50: Hill's race is over, he grinds to a halt with a mechanical failure. Hakkinen moves into the points.

Lap 58: Alesi's now more than 20 seconds behind Schumacher, he must have had an off shortly after his pit stop. He's 9 seconds ahead of Martini, who in turn is 22 seconds ahead of Griffin, who's 3 seconds ahead of Berger.
Order: Schumacher, Alesi, Martini, Griffin, Berger, Hakkinen.
Think it's going to remain as is for the last 13 laps.

Lap 65: Still no change. Martini's opened up the gap to Griffin to 25 seconds, who in turn is now 5 seconds ahead of Berger. Hakkinen is under no threat from Katayama in 7th.

Lap 71: Race won by Michael Schumacher. Alesi and Martini mark their debuts for their new teams with podium finishes. Griffin's a solid 4th on his return to F1, scoring points in MazdaSpeed's first race. Berger comes home in 5th, giving Ferrari the only double points finish, whilst Hakkinen is 6th.

Results:
1. Michael Schumacher.
2. Jean Alesi + 20.942
3. Pierluigi Martini +39.853
4. Ronan Griffin +1:09.283
5. Gerhard Berger + 1:14.679s
6. Mika Hakkinen - 1 lap
7. Ukyo Katayama - 1 lap
8. Eddie Irvine - 1 lap
9. Rubens Barrichello - 1 lap
10. Olivier Panis - 1 lap
11. Gianni Morbidelli - 1 lap
12. Andrea de Cesaris - 2 laps
13. Luca Badoer - 2 laps
14. Jos Verstappen - 2 laps
15. Eric Bernard - 2 laps
16. Heinz Harald Frentzen - 2 laps
17. Mark Blundell - 2 laps
18. Martin Brundle - 2 laps
19. Erik Comas - 2 laps
20. Christian Fittipaldi - 2 laps
21. Alex Zanardi - 4 laps
22. Jean-Denis Deletraz - 5 laps
23. Johnny Herbert* - 7 laps
DNF: Damon Hill
DNF: Michele Alboreto
DNF: Taki Inoue

*Retired, but completed enough laps to be classified.

Drivers Championship:
Michael Schumacher - 10 points
Jean Alesi - 6 points
Pierluigi Martini - 4 points
Ronan Griffin - 3 points
Gerhard Berger - 2 points
Mika Hakkinen - 1 point

Constructors
Mild Seven Benetton Ford - 10 points
Rothmans Williams Renault - 6 points
Scuderia Ferrari - 6 points
Renown MazdaSpeed Racing Team - 3 points
Marlboro McLaren Peugeot - 1 points.

Griffin said after the race: "Yeah, the car's been fairly quick out of the box. I thought we might crack top 6 in qualifying, so I was a little disappointed to be 7th, but I had a good start, and a purple patch mid race which got me up to 4th. I'll take that. Ukyo was unlucky not to score points today, I think he could well turn out to be the best driver motor racing has ever produced.... Sorry, Japan has ever produced."

Surprised at only 3 DNFs, got at least 8 in my 'test' races.

[Enforcer]

Pacific GP - TI Aida

1. Jean Alesi 1:11.183s
2. Michael Schumacher 1:11.338s
3. Damon Hill 1:11.724s
4. Pierluigi Martini 1:11.877s
5. Mika Hakkinen 1:12.039s
6. Gerhard Berger 1:12.190s
7. Rubens Barrichello 1:12.237s
8. Ronan Griffin 1:12.344s
9. Ukyo Katayama 1:12.459s
10. Eddie Irvine 1:12.613s
-----
Reject-watch
13. Luca Badoer 1:13.047s
-----
24. Taki Inoue 1:14.084s
25. Alex Zanardi 1:15.021s
26. Jean Denis Deletraz 1:16.211s
DNQ. David Brabham 1:16.482s
DNQ. Jean Marc Gounon 1:16.944s

Lap 1: Schumacher's slow off the start, he's overtaken by Hill. The Mazdas are lightning quick of the grid. They're 5th (Griffin) and 6th (Katayama) by the end of the first lap. Hakkinen's the big loser, he drops from 5th to 8th.

Lap 2: The action continues. Schumacher retakes 2nd from Hill, whilst Griffin passes Martini for 4th.

Lap 6: Griffin's into 3rd. He had a look up the inside of Hill at the Hairpin, where he passed Martini, but ended up going for a more unorthodox manouvre at Redman.
Order: Alesi, Schumacher, Griffin, Hill, Martini Berger.

Lap 11-12: Griffin's caught Schumacher, as a matter of fact he almost ploughs into him at Attwood. He takes him at the Hairpin on the next lap. Alesi's 6 seconds further up the road.

Lap 13: Berger's race ends with a puncture. Barrichello's up to 6th.

Lap 17: Griffin's early pace is explained, as he's the first man to pit. It could be a 3 stopper or an early 1st of 2. He had closed the gap to Alesi down to 4.5 seconds. He emerges 8th, behind his team mate, although he quickly overtakes Katayama into the Hairpin. Will this be a tactical masterstroke or just a glory run for the local fans?
Order: Alesi, Schumacher, Hill, Martini, Barrichello, Hakkinen.

Lap 19: Griffin's into 6th. Again the Hairpin is his preferred spot.

Lap 21: Barrichello pits, elevating Griffin to 5th.

Lap 22: Martini pits from 4th. Further back, a truly rejectworthy incident occurs as Deletraz emerges from his pit stop in front of 3 cars that are a lap ahead. Unable to decide which line to take through Williams to allow the faster cars through, Deletraz ends up leaving a gap for, and then cutting back in front of, Martin Brundle, who punts him into the wall, ending his afternoon's work.


And what is Deletraz doing?

Lalp 25: Alesi pits from the lead. Re-emerges 4th, behind Griffin. Hill pits the following lap. Griffin's 2nd behind Schumacher.

Lap 26: Griffin's race is over after a tangle with Brundle. Griffin passed Brundle down the back straight only for Brundle (despite being a lap down) to duck back underneath him at the Hairpin punting him into the barrier. Griffin's livid, throwing his steering wheel out of the car.
Schumacher leads from Alesi, with Martini 3rd, Hakkinen 4th, Hill 5th and Katayama 6th. Schumacher has yet to pit.

ACCELERATED TIME FROM HERE:

Lap 29: Schumacher pits and emerges 4th.

Lap 32: Alesi has some sort of incident that demotes him to 5th. Martini leads. Barrichello progresses to 4th after stops from Hakkinen and Katayama, as well as Alesi's incident.

Lap 41: Schumacher and Hill have both passed Martini.
Order: Schumacher, Hill, Martini, Alesi, Barrichello, Hakkinen

Lap 55: Seem to have been a few more pit stops. The order's settled to:
Schumacher, Hill, Alesi, Martini, Barrichello, Hakkinen.

Lap 65: Alesi up to 2nd. Gap to Schumacher is showing as 23 seconds though. So it looks like another win for the German.

Lap 75: Some consolation for Mazda as Hakkinen retires to elevate Katayama into the points.

Lap 83 - RACE RESULT:
1. Michael Schumacer - 1h 48m 07.451s
2. Jean Alesi +18.845s
3. Damon Hill + 35.571s
4. Pierluigi Martini + 1m 03.245s
5. Rubens Barrichello + 1m 04.716s
6. Ukyo Katayama -1 lap
------
DNF: Ronan Griffin (Collision)
------
Reject watch:
19. Taki Inoue - 3 laps
20. Alex Zanardi - 4 laps
DNF: Luca Badoer (Loose Wheel)
DNF: Jean-Denis Deletraz (Collision)

Afterwards, a clearly seething Griffin responded to questions about his retirement from the race as follows:
"I don't want to talk about it. I was on a two stop strategy, not three, so I should've had a podium today. You know Martin's an experienced enough driver that he- No. I won't talk about it. I'll just get in trouble."

Driver's Championship:
Michael Schumacher - 20 points
Jean Alesi - 12 points
Pierluigi Martini - 7 points
Damon Hill - 4 points
Ronan Griffin - 3 points
Rubens Barrichello - 2 points
Gerhard Berger - 2 points
Ukyo Katayama - 1 point
Mika Hakkinen - 1 point

Constructors:
Mild Seven Bennetton Ford - 20 points
Rothmans Williams Renault - 16 points
Scuderia Ferrari - 9 points
Renown MazdaSpeed Racing Team - 4 points
Sasol Jordan Hart - 2 points
Marlboro McLaren Peugeot - 1 point

[Klon]

"Go home, Martin Brundle!"

With that out of the way, good races so far...

[Enforcer]

Brundle's been diabolical so far. I think he qualified 23rd in both races. He's never great in the game, but normally a little sharper than that. I'm tempted to up his stats slightly, but I don't want to compress the midfield too much.

[Enforcer]

The European season starts that the Autodromo Enzo et Dino Ferrari for the San Marino Grand Prix. Schumacher carries an 8 point lead from Jean Alesi - although the Frenchman may feel a little hard done by, having led for more laps over the first two races than Schumacher. His spirits wouldn't have been lifted by a poor Friday qualifying performance that put him in 7th, almost a second and a half off team-mate Damon Hill in first place. He improved to 4th on Saturday, but was still a second off Hill. Schumacher will start alongside Damon on the front row, having been beaten by only one thousanth of a second, with Berger 3rd alongside Alesi, and Martini and Griffin making up the third row. Hakkinen, Verstappen, Frentzen and Panis make up the rest of the top 10. Jordan's form in the flyaway races deserted them, they're all the way down in 17th and 20th. Simtek make the grid for the first time courtesy of Jean-Marc Gounon, at the expense of Jean Denis Deletraz.

1. Damon Hill - 1:21.893s
2. Michael Schumacher 1:21.894s
3. Gerhard Berger 1:22.077s
4. Jean Alesi 1:22.947s
5. Pierluigi Martini 1:22.949s
6. Ronan Griffin 1:23.025s
-----------
14. Ukyo Katayama 1:23.928s
-----------
Reject watch:
22. Alex Zanardi 1:25.054s
23. Luca Badoer 1:25.065s
24. Taki Inoue 1:25.381s
26: Jean Marc-Gounon 1:26.158s
DNQ: David Brabham 1:27.304s
DNQ: Jean Denis Deletraz 1:27.485s

Race to follow.

[Enforcer]

Ooookayy.

My hard drive died. Spectacularly. Computer's under warranty, so I get a free replacement hard drive, but any sort of recovery of data from the old one is unlikely, and I'm probably not going to have the will and time to remod GP2 to conitue this in the near future. So this one's over.

[the Masked Lapwing]

Sad Super Mario death music.

[wmetcalf68]