Siemens Ausdauer Reject Series

[AustralianStig]

Seron unveiled for Himalayas Racing

Experienced Belgian racer Laurent Seron has been announced as the leading driver for Himalayas Racing for the forthcoming 2016 season.
"Seron has proven on an international stage that he is capable of mixing with the best and scoring race wins, while still retaining a consistent style that will be suited to endurance racing," an enthusiastic Suraj Amatya stated. "Laurent will be our most experienced racer, and therefore will be expected to coach our other drivers in building a team capable of winning races."

The appointment has not been without controversy - Seron previously appeared on a team listing for Tassie Racing, but agent Thomas De Bock stated that there was no formal appointment made and that Laurent has signed a 12 month contract with Himalayas Racing.

Like Himalayas Racing's other senior driver, Renaldo Jiménez, Seron may also be required to leave the team for F1RWRS commitments as test/reserve drivers.

In the press conference, it was also announced that native Nepali drivers Raju Chalise, Ganesh Basnet, Asim Adhikari and Ashok Sitoula will fill the remaining driver positions at Himalayas Racing, giving the team a full complement of six drivers.

Apparently "Nepali" is preferred to "Nepalese", so I will start using that from now on.

So all our TBA slots are now filled:

Car #8: Laurent Seron [BEL], Raju Chalise [NPL], Ganesh Basnet [NPL]
Car #9: Renaldo Jiménez [TRO], Asim Adhikari [NPL], Ashok Sitoula [NPL]

[the Masked Lapwing]

What's this? ZimSport changing their lineup again? I've come up with a "better" idea.

Running short on drivers, John has turned to three drivers he knows from a while back with, um, questionable racing experience: Henrik Dehn from Denmark, Yoshi Suzuki from Japan and JP Laurent from the US.

Who can guess which game I nicked these three from?

[Salamander]

Who can guess which game I nicked these three from?

NFS: Prostreet?

[HawkAussie]

Sam Baromono will go into the Reject Enduro series from Belgium

[FMecha]

For teams with empty spots (I see two), I would like to hire the experienced American racer William Guile.
(Continuing with my theme of naming drivers from video games characters...)

[dr-baker]

Can I be the first on the waiting list to join this series please (preferably the prototypes if there is a choice)? And do drivers in this series count towards the 5-driver-per-user limit?

You can enter now with a one-car prototype entry if you wish. No, they do not - five-driver limit only applies to F1-3RWRS, if my memory serves me right.

Brilliant! Here goes then!

Team Name: West Cliff Racing (obviously...)
Team Nationality: British/Manx (based in Britain, with Manx ownership - Foxdale Auto Racing Team)
Class: Prototype
Chassis Designation: WCR-LMP-001
Chassis Designer: George West (again, obviously, considering the team's ownership and heritage)
Engine: Renault-Alpine
Drivers (First Car): Norman Isles (from St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, a contemporary of Peter Port), Melanie Bourne (from somewhere in Australia ), TBA

West Cliif Racing announce their third driver and their reserve driver

As one of the last teams to announce their final line-up for the new series, West Cliff Racing are pround to announce that their line-up in completed by another female driver, named Anne Dorra, from Pau in France. Ann was originally set on going into single-seaters, having grown up watching the F2, F3000 and F3 race on the streets of her hometown. A visit north to Le Mans on a family holiday in her teenage years opened her eyes to the fact that there was more to motor racing than just single-seaters and has been drawing her in since.

The team's reserve driver will be the mysterious Sam Marino. Whether Sam is related to Marino Franchitti or not is unknown, as is Sam's gender and whether or not (s)he is from the Italian peninsula. All we know is, Sam is the team's official test and reserve driver.

(Continuing with my theme of naming drivers from video games characters...)

You name your drivers from video games, my drivers and teams are all geographical, except for Martin McFly and Pippa Mann, each with their obvious counterparts...

[FantometteBR]

And mine (at least some of the female ones) are named after DC Comics female characters (yeah, you know...)

[RonDenisDeletraz]

Just wondering, did you know about the real Pippa Mann when you created the fictional Pippa Mann?

[dr-baker]

Just wondering, did you know about the real Pippa Mann when you created the fictional Pippa Mann?

Yes. Have you compared their birthdays by any chance?

I had Douglas Mann as a fictional character first (with an obvious pun for those who know anything about the Isle of Man/the Manx TT races), and within days, I thought about him having a sister called Pippa, with obvious inspiration. That was always going to be a tie-in.

[FMecha]

SARS: Samurai Rocket to replace Jones with Guile

Just before any pre-season testing even began on the new Siemens Ausdauer Reject Series, Samurai Rocket Racing has announced that they have sacked Lazlow Jones over sponsorship issues. The team will put William Guile, a compatriot (Jones is an American) with many experiences in various American racing series.

A spokesman from the team reported, "One of his [Lazlow Jones'] sponsors [...] apparently defaulted their sponsorship agreement money. We need that money." Jones declined to comment.

In short: Lazlow Jones out, William Guile in.

[Klon]

I just had a reasonably smart idea: since, as I have mentioned, the race method is reasonably complicated, we should help ourselves to a shorter non-championship race to test how the system works. Would therefore anyone please be so kind as to finalise their line-up on the wiki page until tomorrow 8:30 p.m. CEST.

[HawkAussie]

So I was looking at the wiki and I realized that every team has a different engine.

[Klon]

Alright, it is time for qualifying:

Qualifying is simple enough. For each track I will give you a time frame:

London (Prototype): 0:50.500 - 0:55.000
London (Road): 0:57.000 - 1:01.250

and a time sum:

London (Prototype): 2:36.600
London (Road): 2:58.200

Now your job is it to name three target times that are within the time frame and add up to at least the time sum.

Example Road Class:
Target time #1: 1:00.000
Target time #2: 1:00.000
Target time #3: 0:58.200

Now after I have every team's target times, a dice roll will decide which time your team achieves (with a minor improvement achieved by cars designed by George West).

You have until Thursday, 13 June 2013, 02:15 a.m. CEST to send me your times per mail ([email protected] or via the big mail icon under my username). You can obviously use two different strategies for your two cars.

[DemocalypseNow]

You mean...there's no simulator software involved?

Oh.

Eugh, maths! I'll have to get back to you later, when my brain doesn't feel like mush.

[Klon]

You mean...there's no simulator software involved?

Aye. This entire series is gonna be number crunching.

[HawkAussie]

Yes, Marhs

[Backmarker]

derklon2000-cars@yahoo or via the big mail icon under my username

Presumably there's a .com at the end of your email address?

[AustralianStig]

Himalayas Racing slams non-championship race
Team principal Vishal Sitoula has publicly denounced the S.A.R.S. organisation's decision to hold a non-championship race on the streets of London less than a week away.

"Dropping this on us at a moment's notice is not just unprofessional, but will be a huge financial implication for us. We were planning to send our teams to Indianapolis in eight weeks time, but instead we've been forced to pack up and ship off to the UK tomorrow," the ex-Buddhist monk fumed. "This isn't such a big deal for the established European teams but for us, as newcomers, the logistics from Nepal are a new exercise to us."

When asked why he simply didn't withdraw the team from the non-championship round, the technical director was quick to answer.

"If we choose to not run, we are missing out on a test day. This is our best opportunity to give our drivers and other team members track time, and I fully exect every team to take advantage of that. If we don't run, we are already a round behind once we hit Indianapolis,"

Himalayas Racing were widely believed to already be on the back foot, but judging from Sitoula's comments it appears that both vehicles will be ready to hit the streets of London on the 4th of March. That's assuming the Nepali team's logistic department is able to deliver.

OOC - Had a bit of fun thinking how a new team would react to being told they had to be in London by the end of the week

[Klon]

derklon2000-cars@yahoo or via the big mail icon under my username

Presumably there's a .com at the end of your email address?

Actually it's a .de.
Thanks for pointing it out anyway.

[Salamander]

Gauthier backs non-championship race
Following Himalayas Racing's slamming of the short notice SARS teams were given to prepare for the non-championship London race, Equipe Gauthier CEO Guillaume Gauthier has come out in defence of the race.

"Nobody forced Himalayas Racing to base their team in Nepal. There is a reason that every other team has at least a base in Europe, if not their main base. It's simply easier to ship your cars and personnel to races when you're based in an area with good infrastructure." He then continued, "To be honest, I have to question the team selection process in this series. There have been plenty of well-established teams looking to join the series, and instead, they approved a team which has clearly put itself very much on the back foot before we've even started by basing themselves in Nepal."

When asked, Gauthier replied that the team, based near Toulon in southern France, was '100% certain' to be at London in time for the race. The non-championship London round will be held on the 4th of March.

[FMecha]

How the whole dice-roll stuff work? Like, in tommykl's alternate F1? You should tell us earlier.

Nifty link to do the 'add up the time' stuff.

(Times sent - also noticed that Ecurie Prenois does not have first driver for car #6)

[pi314159]

(Times sent - also noticed that Ecurie Prenois does not have first driver for car #6)

Because I'm too lazy to create another driver, I'm going to run Lucas di Grassi.

[FantometteBR]

Alright, it is time for qualifying:

Qualifying is simple enough. For each track I will give you a time frame:

London (Prototype): 0:50.500 - 0:55.000
London (Road): 0:57.000 - 1:01.250

and a time sum:

London (Prototype): 2:36.600
London (Road): 2:58.200

Now your job is it to name three target times that are within the time frame and add up to at least the time sum.

Example Road Class:
Target time #1: 1:00.000
Target time #2: 1:00.000
Target time #3: 0:58.200

Now after I have every team's target times, a dice roll will decide which time your team achieves (with a minor improvement achieved by cars designed by George West).

You have until Thursday, 13 June 2013, 02:15 a.m. CEST to send me your times per mail ([email protected] or via the big mail icon under my username). You can obviously use two different strategies for your two cars.

The time is overall for the team or each car brings its own?

[Klon]

You can decide to use one time for both teams or have two different set of times. That is basically up to you.

[HawkAussie]

Tassie Racing has their talk in trouble
Following Himalayas Racing's slamming of the short notice SARS teams were given to prepare for the non-championship London race and Equipe Gauthier talk, Tassie Racing has also talk about the bases problem.

"Just because Himalayas doesn't have their base over in europe doesn't mean anything, look at us though. Our base is all the way back in Tasmania, Australia and no one realise that, the manager fumed hoping that he would get noticed. "Honestly I hope this doesn't get off the ground.

[dr-baker]

Out of interest, what happens if a team does not submit their qualifying times? Are they awarded the slowest time from the time frame or is it a DNQ?

(By the way, I'll be submitting mine tomorrow).

[Klon]

Out of interest, what happens if a team does not submit their qualifying times? Are they awarded the slowest time from the time frame or is it a DNQ?

For now I will just put them at the end of the grid (for their respective class). I will think about DNQing those entries who fail to deliver times in the future.

[Klon]

Alright, I've got mails from the following users:

Salamander
FantometteBR
Onxy Wrecked
FMecha
Backmarker
AustralianStig
TMLW
Matt121
Ataxia

The deadline will be in around eleven hours, so more than enough for any missing mails to arrive.

[dr-baker]

Times sent, with an hour or so to go, I believe!

[Klon]

SARS Official Presentation Race - Qualifying

In a rather hectic scramble, the thirteen teams of the SARS made their way to the impressive city of London for a presentation race. Before four hours of racing through tight streets began, both classes did a 15-minute session, compared to the 45-minute sessions the main seasons will see.

Prototype Class

The main class of the series was not really able to fully show their potential given as the track did not allow for their power advantage to truly play out. An especially impressive showing came from Foxdale, who managed a great lap time as young rookie Anne Dorra risked everything and was rewarded richely for that, managing to drop right below the 50-seconds barrier and dominate qualifying, no doubt proving that their former F1RWRS chassis designer has put out another qualifying masterpiece. Foxdale with their West Cliff brand, however, were not the only ones pushing. Generally speaking for the risky nature of the track and the fact that we are talking about a NC race, many teams pushed hard and a few were punished for it: the Citroens by Prenois were unlucky to hit the wall on their first timed laps, ruining their time and not allowing them to come back out to improve on it. Not slow going was the Zimsport of Dehn/Suzuki/Laurent, showing that the one-car approach may have its advantages. Another reasonable time was set by British home driver Anthony Davidson, putting the Gauthier in fourth and in a good position for the race itself. Schröder drivers Torroes, Nthala and Latif will be a bit displeased that they missed the breaking point on the decisive lap, costing them a possible better result whereas their colleagues played it safe but paid for that by having to start further down the back. IBR's drivers decided to go for a rather safe approach and will look at making up ground in the race itself.

1.: Isles/Bourne/Dorra - West Cliff - 0:49.801
2.: Dehn/Suzuki/Laurent - ZimSport - 0:51.003
3.: Lukauskis/Jankstrom/Lotterer - Pulsar - 0:51.117
4.: Davidson/Edens/Adél - Gauthier - 0:51.296
5.: Voeckler/Fisichella/Bruni - IBR - 0:51.303
6.: Torres/Latif/Nthala - Schröder - 0:51.322
7.: Moreira/Horford/Premat - Pulsar - 0:51.987
8.: Dong-Geon/Coelho/Fabián - Schröder - 0:52.083
9.: Caffi/Chiesa/lminpietro - IBR - 0:52.092
10.: Sarrazin/Gauthier/Tucker - Gauthier - 0:52.117
11.: Di Grassi/Toft/Heidfeld - Prenois - 0:54.835
12.: Connes/Rossi/Duval - Prenois - 0:55.386

Road Class

The "small guys" tried to put on a better show than the prototypes, but it looked like they would fail after the Dofasco cars failed to pull out a time that would make them competitive. Their qualifying-specialised cars would have been needed because spirited lap by Nepali rookie Asim Adhikari broke the competition by beating his opponents with a time two seconds faster than what had been the fastest lap so far. However, one team did not surrender. In a last-minute bid Tassie Racing sent out their cars on only one flying lap and told them to go for it at any cost: both cars adhered to that message but with completely different results. Minor mistakes by Power/Baromono/Blog added up to remove them from contention whereas Jamie Whincup did the job just about perfectly, snatching the lead without giving any opponent a chance to improve on that time. A true last-second effort earns Tassie Racing the pole in this exhibition race. A very strong showing by Équipe Fantomette by Euromotor International and the Toyota-powered Onyx who seem to be quite competitive as well.

1.: Whincup/Lowndes/Moyenmoutier - Tassie - 0:56.605
2.: Jiménez/Adhikari/Sitoula - Himalayas - 0:56.768
3.: Brown/Bastürk/Senna - Fantomette - 0:58.239
4.: Kikkawa/Ide/Hirate - Onyx - 0:58.432
5.: Vercuisse/Lance/Rojas - Fantomette - 0:58.434
6.: Seron/Chalise/Basnet - Himalayas - 0:59.130
7.: Vranes/Enge/Matsuura - Onyx - 0:59.314
8.: Toreno/Hibiki/Ceara - Samurai Rocket - 0:59.965
9.: Power/Baromono/Blog - Tassie - 1:00.050
10.: Vaille/Guile/Fukami - Samurai Rocket - 1:00.312
11.: Tajner/Witzberger/Mueller - Dofasco - 1:01.021
12.: Broniszewski/Malinowski/Stapel - Dofasco - 1:01.372


* Just a short explaination for the times:
A driver achieved which ever of the target times the dice roll picked + boni/mali for the driver skill as determined by RNG + if applicable the qualifying performance boost given by George West. In case we had a tie, the place was decided on driver skill and, if that was equal, chassis designer (West > Carbonell > Ansari). Don't worry about the thousands and houndreds of seconds of the lap time, they don't mean much and are only for optical purposes.

I will mail you guys on Sunday with how the series progresses.

[dr-baker]

Cool, pole position with our former designer!!!

But the team only races as Foxdale in F1RWRS; the team is entered as West Cliff Racing in all other categories, including this one.

[AustralianStig]

Himalayas Racing team owner Suraj Amatya collapsed onto the couch in the team motorhome, exhausted. Trekking an entire team from somewhere near Mt Everest to the streets of London was no mean feat. Finally they could not only say that the team were there but they had arrived. Qualifying one car in the top half of the field was great, but to have BOTH cars in the top half was a dream come true. Add to the fact that Adhikari had somehow almost put the #9 on pole (which was believed to be the weaker vehicle) on his first outing as a professional racing driver and Suraj was beside himself. Not only that, with Ansari's design the vehicle was likely to get better and better as the race went. While there were no points up for grabs this weekend, he had scored plenty of respect.

"We have shown the world that we are here to win races, not just make up the numbers," he had defiantly declared to the cameras following the incredible laptime that was a lap record for a matter of minutes.

When later asked if he was disappointed that Tassie Racing stole pole at the death, he had laughed it off and stated "We'll see what happens tomorrow - today was never about winning pole position,"

[Backmarker]

I will mail you guys on Sunday with how the series progresses.

I've not received anything, has this email been sent out?

[dr-baker]

I will mail you guys on Sunday with how the series progresses.

I've not received anything, has this email been sent out?

Email's been sent (on 18th), and I've replied. How many replies have yet to be sent?

[Salamander]

I will mail you guys on Sunday with how the series progresses.

I've not received anything, has this email been sent out?

Try checking spam messages. For some reason Gmail has decided forum PM's are spam...

[Onxy Wrecked]

Try checking spam messages. For some reason Gmail has decided forum PM's are spam...

Yeah, Gmail does that. As a result I will send Klon my strategy a bit late.

[dr-baker]

Try checking spam messages. For some reason Gmail has decided forum PM's are spam...

Yeah, Gmail does that. As a result I will send Klon my strategy a bit late.

No problems with Hotmail.

[Klon]

In the first test race only seven guys have sent me the mail. That does not bode well for the series. However, I was prepared for such an event, having learnt my lesson on interactivity from RoGT. That is why I will go tommykl on the series and turn it into a non-interactive series. The London event will continue as planned, though - the first two hours are up online by tomorrow night.

I will post results tomorrow, meanwhile a checklist as to who has sent me a mail:
Onyx Wrecked / pi314159 / FMecha / Backmarker / Fantomette / dr-baker / Australian Stig

[Klon]

SARS Official Presentation Race - Race

Noticeable events (Prototype):

* Di Grassi spun early in the second hour, losing four laps on track due to the difficulties of going back on the racing line safely. His team made up for it by pushing hard the rest of the hour and already being the dominant car on track during the first hour.
* Connes suffered from a terminal engine failure shortly before the end of the first hour. The Prenois team was not able to fix the damage before the end of the second hour but were able to send him out again.
* Coelho tried to push too hard, touching the wall several times during his run. That caused severe bodywork damage which over the course of the second hour costed Schröder eight laps to fix.
* Most of the class retired during the first hour with fatal technical problems which led to a number of SC periods.

Prototype Class

Current standings:
1.: Di Grassi/Toft/Heidfeld - Prenois - 114 Laps
2.: Isles/Bourne/Dorra - West Cliff - +2 Laps
3.: Torres/Latif/Nthala - Schröder - +3 Laps
4.: Dong-Geon/Coelho/Fabián - Schröder - +5 Laps
5.: Connes/Rossi/Duval - Prenois - +58 Laps
Ret. Dehn/Suzuki/Laurent - ZimSport
Ret. Davidson/Edens/Adél - Gauthier
Ret. Lukauskis/Jankstrom/Lotterer - Pulsar
Ret. Voeckler/Fisichella/Bruni - IBR
Ret. Moreira/Horford/Premat - Pulsar
Ret. Sarrazin/Gauthier/Tucker - Gauthier
Ret. Caffi/Chiesa/lminpietro - IBR

Currently Fastest Lap: Nick Heidfeld - 0:52.315


Noticeable events (Road):

* Sitoula did not manage to match the impressive lap times of his team mates and lost almost two laps worth of time during his stint in the second hour.
* Laurent Seron lost the car at T1 after around 45 minutes. He managed to recover to the pits but only rejoined the track from the pits after 70 minutes of repair work.
* A gearbox issue during Toreno's stint kept the Samurai Rocket Kamata in the garage for half an hour.
Standings at the end of the first two hours:
* Yuji Ide caused two punctures during his stint and lost time equal to six laps.
* The Tassie and Dofasco cars did not start the race due to technical gremlins.

Road Class

Current standings:
1.: Jiménez/Adhikari/Sitoula - Himalayas - 98 Laps
2.: Vaille/Guile/Fukami - Samurai Rocket - +2 Laps
3.: Vranes/Enge/Matsuura - Onyx - +4 Laps
4.: Vercuisse/Lance/Rojas - Fantomette - +6 Laps
5.: Brown/Bastürk/Senna - Fantomette - +7 Laps
6.: Kikkawa/Ide/Hirate - Onyx - +9 Laps
7.: Toreno/Hibiki/Ceara - Samurai Rocket - +26 Laps
8.: Seron/Chalise/Basnet - Himalayas - +83 Laps
Ret. Whincup/Lowndes/Moyenmoutier - Tassie
Ret. Power/Baromono/Blog - Tassie - 1:00.050
Ret. Tajner/Witzberger/Mueller - Dofasco
Ret. Broniszewski/Malinowski/Stapel - Dofasco

Currently Fastest Lap: Asim Adhikari - 1:02.003


Alright, could everyone who has not send me the results for the third and fourth hour yet please do so ASAP so I can close the London race.

[AustralianStig]

Yes! Mountain power!

3rd and 4th hours for Himalayas Racing sent