rFactor 2 Round 1 Crystal Palace 1969 / Fri Aug 30, 2019

History

The circuit opened in 1927 and the first race, for motorcycles, was on 21 May 1927. The circuit was 1-mile (1.6 km) long, and ran on pre-existing paths through the park, including an infield loop past the lake. The surface had tarmac-covered bends, but the straights only had hard-packed gravel.

Improvements begun in December 1936 increased the circuit to 2 miles (3 km), and tarmac covered the entire length. 20 cars entered the first London Grand Prix on 17 July 1937, a race eventually won by Prince Bira in his ERA R2B Romulus at an average speed of 56.5 mph (90.9 km/h). Later that year, during the International Imperial Trophy meeting also won by Bira, the BBC broadcast the first ever televised motor racing.

With the outbreak of World War II, the park was taken over by the Ministry of Defence, and it would not be until 1953 that race meetings could take place again. The circuit had been reduced in length to 1.39 miles (2.2 km), bypassing the loop past the lake, and pressure from the local residents led to an injunction which reduced motor sport events in the park to only five days per year. A variety of races took place, including sports cars, Formula Three, the London Trophy for Formula Two, and non-championship Formula One races.

Average speeds continued to rise over the years, with the first 100 mph (161 km/h) lap average set in 1970 by that year's Formula One world champion, Jochen Rindt. Also in 1970, the injunction limiting race days expired and racing was increased to 14 days a year. However, driver safety was coming into focus in the early seventies and it became clear that racing around a park at 100 mph (161 km/h) was not safe. Expensive improvements were undertaken, but it was not enough to save the circuit. The last International meeting was in May 1972, the final lap record going to Mike Hailwood at an average speed of 103.39 mph (166.39 km/h).

The final meeting was held on 23 September 1972, but club events still continued until the circuit's final closure in 1974.

Demo race

 

I have replaced the video in post 1 with a demo race with the actual cars at Crystal Palace. That makes for a better presentation.

If you like to start off the weekend on Friday evening with pure racing in a historic touring car from the 70's with no assistance to keep it on the road besides a steering wheel,
4 patches of rubber, 3 pedals and engine in a 40 minutes race, then this is the series for you.

The Datsun 510 is a highly praised car in the rFactor community and I guess that not many people have tried this car, or they would be all over it.
So breath some life in this series and sign up, because it's falling a bit short of attention.
https://www.simracingonline.co.uk/racing/seriesinfo/129

You can see what a great car it is to drive in the video. Hope to see you on track!!

*******************************************************************

Datsun Bluebird - Baseline setup
This is actually the setup from Mondello Park International, but it is stable and fast on all other tracks.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/bhl4b0i7ery3oy7/Datson_510_baseline.svm/file

 

Server is up

 

You will need to make at least 1 fuel stop

A fun fact for this series, is that strategy also comes into play, because the Datsun can only hold 29 litres in its fuel tank.
That makes things interesting if you need 47 litres to complete the race. You can even think about changing to fresh tires if you like to gamble.

 

Race password set.

 

Round one was a bit up and down for me. The car got away from me a few times and in the end I blew my engine because I over-revving it for too long LOL.

Grats to the winner of Crystal Palace: Dmitri Buksha

Thank you all for joining round 1. On to the next. I've never raced on Monaco 66 online, so that will be pretty cool!

 

No shows

The following no-shows have been removed from the series:

Caitlin Penny
Henry Drury
Joao Botelho de Sousa

 

Georgy Koltsov has been given a drive-through penalty for punting another driver without doing a drive-through in the pitlane or giving the position back to the punted driver.

The penalty must be served in his next event immediately after lap 1.