Race Report From Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg December 10th.
The Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg is a motor racing circuit situated near the town of Hockenheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Amongst other motor racing events, it holds the annual Formula One German Grand Prix.
Situated in the Rhine valley, the circuit is completely flat, without any changes in elevation.
Track History
1930s - 1960s
Hockenheimring was built 1932 using roads in the forest, originally as an alternative to the Wildpark-Circuit in Karlsruhe, which became forbidden as a racing circuit by German officials. It was used for motorcycle racing and was expanded to be used as test track for Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union in 1936. In 1938 it was renamed to Kurpfalzring, which lasted until 1947. After the war, Grand Prix motorcycle racing events were held, with the German motorcycle Grand Prix alternating between Hockenheim and other tracks.
The original circuit was almost eight kilometres long and consisted of two long straights with a long "Eastern" corner in the forest and a U-turn inside Hockenheim joining them together.
1960s - 2000s
In 1965, when the new Autobahn Bundesautobahn 6|A 6 separated the village from the main part of the track, a new version of Hockenheim circuit was built, with the "Motodrom" stadium section. After Jim Clark was killed in 1968 in a Formula 2 racing accident, two chicanes and armco were added. In 1980, another chicane was added at the Ostkurve (east curve), after Patrick Depailler was killed there.
This version used to be quite large, with a very long, fast section going through forests essentially consisting of four straights of roughly 1.3 km, separated by a chicane sequence, followed by a more tight and twisty "stadium" section (so called because of all the grandstands situated there) named Motodrom. This made setting racing cars up difficult, as a choice had to be made - whether to run low downforce to optimise speed through the straights and compromise grip in the stadium section, or vice-versa.
2000s
In the early 2000s, F1 officials demanded a shortening of the 6.8 km track, threatening to discontinue to race here, moving to new sites in Asia and elsewhere. The state government of Baden-Württemberg secured the financing of the redesign by Hermann Tilke for the 2002 German Grand Prix. The stadium section remained mainly intact, despite a new surface and a tighter Turn 1 ("Nordkurve"). However, the circuit was dramatically shortened, with the long, sweeping forest section chopped off in favour of more tight corners. As always happens when a circuit is redesigned, this has led to grumbles that the track is not as good as it used to be, although the tight hairpin following the very long back straight offers an overtaking possibility.
The circuit has a capacity of 120,000, due to new large grandstands sponsored by Mercedes-Benz.
Todays Race
With the RS1800 Escort being a relatively new addition to most folks garages. the talk on the grid was about the lack of time to develop a good tune and setup.... we would see shortly.
The Race Start order was:
CarlosSultana
MarmiteEngineer
MeltingBrains
ChillDomination
DeadlyDC
GSLooney
SilentDrifterGT
The lights went to green and the race was on..
Into the first corner and as was expected with such a short run into it, formation was tight but everyone tried to avoid contact with each other
Melting Brains passed Marmite Engineer on the exit of the first corner and began his pursuit of Carlos, with DeadlyDC also gaining a place.
Carlos held his lead through turn 5
but was passed on the straight after turn 5 by the flying brain!
Into turn 6 and despite a knock from Carlos, the Brain held the lead on the exit.
Silent Drifter managed to get a bit of a slide on the exit of turn 6 which sealed his position at the rear of the field.
meanwhile back at the front on the exit of turn 10 the brain and carlos were locking bumpers.
The brain led into the stadium section but couldn't catch the slide. This let Carlos through..and put the brain back into 4th behind DeadlyDC and MarmiteEngineer
unlucky for some turn 13 saw Marmite late onto the brakes with the consequential off track excursion. He was passed by deadlydc, melting brains and myself. As he rejoined the track, an unfortunate collision with the back quarter of my car
saw us both spin off onto the grass and chilidomination pass through the dust on track to take 2 further positions.
By the time marmite and myself were back on track Carlos had started the 2nd lap, and SilentDrifterGT was catching us up.
So much for lap one, the result was a stretched field. Myself and marmite began the chase to make up the lost ground following our spin.
At the front the positions would remain the same until a bizarre incident on approach to turn 2 involving Chilidomination and Melting Brains.. brains appeared to slow although there were no brake lights which resulted in Chili hitting him and spinning towards the right hand side of the track.. (network glitch)
He was very careful when rejoining not to cut in front of myself and Marmite and was passed by silentdriftergt ending up at the end of the field..
There were now two races going on deadlydc and melting brains racing for 2nd and 3rd followed by myself and marmite who were catching them.
Lap 3 saw Silent Drifter overcorrect on the exit to turn 10 and Chili take the place sending silentdriftergt to the back once again
Turn 10 also claimed deadlyDC's 2nd place on lap4 with an off track that looked very like a controller failure.. it was costly.
the brain pounced for 2nd place and the off track excursion allowed myself and marmite to close the gap..
into lap 5 and much drifting was in evidence through the stadium sections.
deadly dc continued his pursuit of the brain and by the exit to turn 10 they were locked in battle again..
turn 12 saw them both run wide the brain on the way in and DC on the exit they were neck and neck into turn 13.
the brain ran wide to of 16 and DC pounced for the inside line.
By Lap 7 I had caught melted brains and the race for third was in full flow..
DC ran wide in the stadium section but got away with it. As we exited turn 16 the brain went wide and I saw my chance for a pass on the inside.
With a podium spot up for grabs melted brain wasn't going to site back and relax..
as we entered turn 10 I was too late on the brakes and ran wide. The Brain passed through a gap as wide as the panama canal to retake 3rd place and a podium slot.
It was not to be though on the exit of turn 12 he ran wide and I reclaimed third place..
The positions wouldn't change till the end of the race.
try as i might i just couldn't get close enough to put DC under pressure.
Carlos strode across the line with no other car in sight to take the victory.
And the final positions were:
1st Carlos Sultana
2nd DeadlyDC
3rd GSlooney
4th Melting Brains
5th Marmite Engineer
6th SilentDrifterGT
SilentDrifterGt wins the award for the most flair at the finish with his Handbrake exit from the final corner
And Chilidomination failed to finish (network Issues we think)
I really enjoyed myself guys, I didn't think that car tune was going to be too competitive, in the end it was good for some fun and it's something I can work on going forward.. hope to see you all again soon.
Cheers
