1998 CART Mid Ohio 200 [ July 17th 2011 ]

To try something a bit different this time, HSO proposes you a rather recent race, the 13th round of the 1998 CART Indycar Series : the Mid-Ohio 200.
This race saw the 2nd race career win for Mexican driver Adrian Fernandez, and also a very chaotic start which took out many of the top contenders ( Franchitti, Vasser, Herta, Jourdain ). But the race will mostly be remembered for Michael Andretti's scary crash after a 180mph collision with PJ Jones. With many yellow flags, the race lasted around 2 hours.

Despite Alex Zanardi's domination, the 1998 season was a very competitive one. With 5 chassis builders, 4 engine manufacturers and 2 tire brands, the CART series was at its very best, and races were as thrilling as ever !

CART's open wheelers were true monsters, powered by turbocharged 2.7 V8 engines, good for 900hp in qualifying trim. Honda had the most powerful engine but Mercedes and Ford were very close behind, Mercedes having in fact a significant advantage in fuel consumption and reliability. Only Toyota was out of contention, as its engine was neither powerful nor reliable.

On the chassis side, Reynard dominated the season, showing its all around capabilities by shining on every types of tracks. However, Swift and Lola also had a good chassis. On the other hand, Penske completly spoiled its season because of its chassis, which never had the pace to be on front, especially on road courses. Dan Gurney's All-American Racers also had its own Eagle chassis (not present in the mod), but it was so outdated they quickly decided to switch to Reynard.

About tires, clear advantage for Firestone, whose tires were more performant, more resistant and quicker to warm up.

Despite all those different combinaison, the field is still closely matched, not even 2 seconds separates best and worst combinations at Mid-Ohio for example.

For this event, we will use the CART Factor 1.0 mod for rFactor : ==> DOWNLOAD MOD <==

For further informations about this mod, I recommend you to read its Read Me : http://www.racinglinedevelopments.com/cartfactor/readme.htm

The track will be the famous VLM version of Mid Ohio, with no chicane : ==> DOWNLOAD TRACK <==

Book your car in : http://historicsimracing.123.st/t1391-1998-cart-mid-ohio-200-available-cars-chassis-disponibles

Planning ( All times CET, Paris Time )

Thursday July 14th
9:00 pm : First qualifying session ( 2 hours )

Saturday July 16th
9:00 pm : Second qualifying session ( 2 hours )

Sunday July 17th
8:00 pm : Free practice
8:30 : Warm-up and drivers briefing
8:45 : Race start

Race distance : 83 laps

PASSWORD : hso98

Starting procedure

The race will feature a flying start

The starting procedure will be similar to the one used at Buenos Aires or the Nurburgring last year.
The main difference will be that we will not start in front of the pitlane but, as in reality, on the backstraight, as you can see on this map :


- Drivers will be placed on the grid according to their qualifying times,
- Once you are on the grid, dont move until an admin said "GO" in the game chat.
- Then the drivers will start their cars to complete a full lap at reduced speed (180 kph maxi) while maintaining their positions.
- The pole-sitter will have to make sure his pace allows the all pack to remain grouped,
- After completing first lap, the pack will maintain its speed, and on the exit of turn 2, drivers will go side by side, on starting grid formation.
- When the leading cars will be in starting zone, an admin will give the real start of the race by typing "GREEN FLAG" in the chat.

First turn is very tight and slow, be careful, the race is long !

Special orders:

- As for every HSO race, drivers are asked to use their real names only, wether in qualifying or in the race itself - nicknames are not allowed.

- Chatting is strictly forbidden during the race.

Pour changer un peu, HSO vous propose une course plus récente, la 13ème manche du championnat CART 1998 : les Mid Ohio 200.
Cette course fut marquée par la 2ème victoire en carrière du Mexicain Adrian Fernandez, l'accrochage au départ entre plusieurs favoris ( Franchitti, Vasser, Herta et Jourdain ) mais aussi le spectaculaire accident de Michael Andretti, percutant PJ Jones à près de 300km/h. Neutralisée un très grand nombre de fois, la course dura près de 2 heures.

Malgré la domination d'Alex Zanardi, le plateau 1998 était extrêmement compétitif. Avec 5 fabricants de châssis, 4 motoristes et 2 manufacturiers de pneus, le CART était à son apogée et les courses plus disputées que jamais.

Les monoplaces étaient de véritables monstres, équipées de V8 turbo de 2.7L, les plus puissants frôlant les 900 chevaux en conditions de qualifications. Honda avait le moteur le plus puissant, mais Mercedes et Ford étaient très proche, Mercedes ayant même un avantage assez significatif en fiabilité et consommation. Seul Toyota était vraiment à la traine, avec un moteur ni fiable ou performant.

Du coté des châssis, Reynard a dominé la saison en se montrant à l'aise sur tous les types de circuits. Cependant, Swift, pour sa première année en compétition, et Lola avaient aussi construit de bons châssis. En revanche Penske avait complètement raté le sien, surtout à la traine sur les circuits routiers. All American Racers avait aussi son propre châssis Eagle (non présent dans le mod), mais il était tellement dépassé que l'équipe s'est vite tournée vers un chassis Reynard.

Enfin pour les pneus, avantage aux Firestone, plus performants, plus rapides à chauffer et plus endurants.

Malgré toutes ces différences, les écarts restent relativement faibles entre les meilleurs et les moins bonnes combinaisons, même pas 2 secondes sur Mid Ohio par exemple.

Pour cet événement, nous utiliserons le mod CART Factor 1.0 pour rFactor : ==> Télécharger le Mod <==

Pour de plus amples informations sur ce mod, je vous conseille la lecture du read me : http://www.racinglinedevelopments.com/cartfactor/readme.htm

Le circuit utilisé sera la célèbre version VLM du circuit de Mid Ohio, sans chicane : => Télécharger le circuit <=

Réservez votre voiture dans : http://historicsimracing.123.st/t1391-1998-cart-mid-ohio-200-available-cars-chassis-disponibles

Le programme

Jeudi 14 Juillet
21:00 : Première séance de qualifications ( 2 heures )

Samedi 16 Juillet
21:00 : Deuxième séance de qualifications ( 2 heures )

Dimanche 17 Juillet
20:00 : Essais Libres
20:30 : Warmup et briefing des pilotes
20:45 : Départ de la course

Distance de course : 83 tours

PASSWORD : hso98

Procédure de départ


Le départ est un départ lancé.

La procédure de départ sera similaire à celle employée lors des courses d'endurance à Buenos Aires ou au Nurburgring.

La différence majeure est que, comme pour la course réelle, le départ ne sera pas donné devant les stands, mais dans la ligne droite opposée, comme indiqué sur ce plan :


Les pilotes seront placés sur la grille dans l'ordre de leurs meilleurs temps aux qualifications. Une fois en place, ne bougez pas avant qu'un admin signale le départ fictif de la course en tapant "GO" dans le chat. Les pilotes s'élanceront alors pour boucler un tour entier du circuit, à vitesse réduite et en conservant leurs positions.

Le leader devra imposer un rythme assez lent (pas plus de 180km/h). pour que toutes les voitures restent groupées. Après avoir bouclé un tour entier, donc lors du 2ème tour, à la sortie du virage 2, les pilotes devront se disposer les uns à coté des autres, comme sur la grille de départ.

Puis lorsque les leaders seront dans dans la zone de départ, un administrateur donnera le départ réel en tapant "GREEN FLAG" dans le chat.

Le premier virage étant extrêmement serré, soyez prudents, la course est longue !

Consignes diverses :

- Comme pour chaque courses HSO, les pilotes devront y participer avec leur vrai nom, les pseudonymes sont interdits.

- Le chat est strictement interdit en course.

A question now that I'm thinking about the strategy: Will there be caution laps under yellow flag behind the pace car?

Or is simply any player who crashes and can't recover the car asked to quit the game?

Nope, no safety car periods, only local yellow, as any usual HSO race.

OK thanks

There will be a pitlane speed limit during this race so make sure to map the speed limiter to your keyboard or a button of your steering wheel.

Il y a une vitesse limitée dans les stands, n'oubliez pas d'assigner un bouton pour le limiteur.

And don't forget to bring a towel. (spécial dédicace)

I'll be at home this weekend, I think i'll come drive in one of the quali session, I miss those cars

Certainement pas!

Guillaume Siebert wrote:

I'll be at home this weekend, I think i'll come drive in one of the quali session, I miss those cars

About time too

Guillaume Siebert wrote:

I'll be at home this weekend, I think i'll come drive in one of the quali session, I miss those cars

Only on quali session?

I won't be home for the race sadly

Guillaume Siebert wrote:

I won't be home for the race sadly

I'm so sad.

Gui, it would certainly be nice to drive them a bit more. Maybe a recreation of the 1998 season using only the road courses would be good for next year? (I think also that ovals would be great, but I remember you said oval racing doesn't work well in rFactor)

CART had ovals, so no ovals, no CART.
But thats why we have open races. And anyway I think this mod is too demanding for a whole season, many people wouldnt find the time to practice and quit.

Alberto Ibañez wrote:

Gui, it would certainly be nice to drive them a bit more. Maybe a recreation of the 1998 season using only the road courses would be good for next year? (I think also that ovals would be great, but I remember you said oval racing doesn't work well in rFactor)

I think it's not the oval race which don't work. You could do race on it without problems. It's in fact the management of yellow flag which doesn't work as well as it should as you can't have have a random duration of safety car period depending of the seriousness of the crash.

Make the pace car in the mod driveable and assign one of us to drive it! Problem solved

Yeah we thought about it, its possible but you'd need at least one more guy to marshall while the other is driving the pace car. And anyway it would still be a big mess to get the cars in the exact order of when the yellow came out or things like that. Better wait for rF2 imo.

Mmmm or alternatively we could race without yellow flags like in these open events, and have an additional rule where any player who crashes and can't make it safely to the pits (I mean at reasonable speed) must quit. That would mean any broken suspension is instant DNF, whereas losing a wing or having a puncture allows to go to the pits and repair.

But anyway OK if there is no such championship, I just wanted to say that I would join it gladly and seeing how much success this open event is, probably some more guys would. I also admit that running it together with another open wheel big one like F1 1979 would make difficult attending both, but if people are a bit tired with F1 1979 for next year this could be a good alternative for a change.

Anyway thanks Gui

salut à tous,
je me suis pété la main et donc pas de volant pour moi pendant 4 ou 6 s'maines
pas de Mid-Ohio même si ça ma démange...
(et dire aussi que la Targa version Rfactor est arrivée, sniiiiif)
bon amusement !

Une main cassée c'est la merde, je connais, j'en ai une qui est encore déformée. En plus en été ... mon pauvre Jieffe. Prompt rétablissement à toi.

Bon courage Jieffe.

Ma participation devient incertaine. Ca dépendra si je recupère ou pas de mon insolation d'hier:pale: . Pour le moment je ne me vois pas bien tenir la voiture sur 83 tours. Ceci dit j'ai jusque samedi soir pour faire un temps. Normalement je devrais avoir récupéré d'ici là.

Quote :

Ma participation devient incertaine. Ca dépendra si je recupère ou pas de mon insolation d'hier:pale: . Pour le moment je ne me vois pas bien tenir la voiture sur 83 tours. Ceci dit j'ai jusque samedi soir pour faire un temps. Normalement je devrais avoir récupéré d'ici là.

Sad to hear, hope you get better Ludo. You were Team Kool's best hope of a good finish

I'm not really fast at Mid Ohio if I'm looking at the hotlap I saw.

Just one question: Is the Lola chassis noticeably worst than other chassis or are they all very similar?