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Formula One Racing Series |
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Formula One Racing Series |
For the 1996/97 Formula One Racing Series (FORS©) Team Benetton is being lead by Tim Carnahan. The team is new to FORS©, but the team leader has been driving in FORS© since the 1993 season. Hopefully, fully matured with the FORS© tracks and rule, Carnahan can bring points to the Benetton. The Team lacks a second drivers and has been pursuing rookie drivers for future seasons.
Tim Carnahan has been driving for Team Benetton in every race. He is also a member of the FORS© rules committe, and keeper of the rules (and HTML versions thereof). Carnahan is also the newest race course designer. His current effort is the Hungoring track to be run this season.
Greg Shirah drove for the first race of the season, Estoril, and has not returned. His performance was fine for a rookie. Shirah comes from the Speed Ciruit tracks and found the increased rolls and chancy nature of FORS© a bit much to take. Hopefully he will return.
Stiles Peabody was a pick up driver for Magny Cours. His performance was novice but good. There has been no indication of a return to the FORS© for Stiles however.
The Team has been striving for a consistant finishing in every race. So far this has worked out with Anderstorp being the only track for the Team not to score points in. With a lack of a consistant second driver the Team will not do good in the constructors champianship. However, performance of Carnahan this season may see him on the podium again and in good standing with the Drivers Champiagnship.
The season ended with Team Benneton in 4th place. The Last race of the season saw Ron Rector, of any team, running for Team Benneton at Mexico. The team did make an apperance at almost every race, but usually with only one driver. This made it impossible for the team to be victorous. The Team drivers, really only Tim Carnahan, have left to join Team Ferrari for the 1997/98 season.
Car set up was a handling car design of 40-60-140-6-6-60 on BridgeRock "B" tires. Strategy at Team Benetton called for no pit stops. Most other cars went for a one pit strategy and ran 60-40-140-6-6-80 on BridgeRock "B" tires.
No special effort to get on the pole. We have another driver this race, Greg Shirah. Start in 5th and 6th position.
Almost is not good enough. Almost had a no pit strategy work. But ran with 6 wear per lap and not five as the plan demanded. Ended in a resounding sixth position. Team Lotus's John Weber clearly won the race with Team William's drivers both spining out and not performing well.
No pit strategy might work with GoodDay "A" tires or should be a one pit design. 60 decel is not needed on this track. Good track with plenty of mix ups.
Car set called for a 60-80-180-9-6-140 with BridgeRock "B" tires. Handling cars were used on the track.
Sat up on the pole in third.
Made a run at the first corner get up, and stay up, in the lead. The handling cars are always at my heals. It is a rough race, but a very fact pit (stop from 140mph) and fast take off keep me one turn ahead of the number two and three car, which are handling cars. I have a tight finish but win the race. My first!
My fast pit was the key. The handling cars sorely pushed me. I had to stay on plan and not be swayed by their advances. I like this track, always exciting.
Car set up was a 80-80-160-3-6-140 on DunTurn "C" tires. A better design on the field was a 60 accel and a 80 brakes.
Race was driven well. No major problems, however, not quite the right car.
Car set up was a 60-60-160-3-4-100 with DunTurn "C" tires.
Using a three pit strategy was acceptable for this course. The two pit strategy won the race.
Was an exciting and fun track. The 180 top speed could be used to effect. The handling cars could be made to work and also could suffer badly in traffic.
Car set up desided, at the last minute, on a 40-60-140-6-10-80 with DunTurn "C" tires. A more common design in use was a 40-40-140-6-6-60 with either BridgeRock "B" or DunTurn "C" tires.
No grand surprises. Everyone that wanted to win at Monaco, bet heavily with their points. I was middle of the pack.
A chance corner was required in order to get by a car. Team Lotus's Ron Rector did this to me, then I to him. I was running well but fighting hard. At the first pit I was down to one less wear then needed on Lap 3, could have pitted on Lap 2 but tried to stay out. I came off the line before the pit enterance and spun off track. My return to the track was so slow that I effectively lost all advantages. Pitted again on Lap 6 and the race ended on Lap 9, not ten as scheduled. This was good for me because I should haved pitted on Lap 8 if the race went to 10 Laps. With only 9 Laps I ended the race in fifth place. Were I not to have the desastories pit performance I would have made out much better.
This is Don Tatum's race. His strategy dominated the course and let him take off away from everyone else. My strategy, four pits on Lap 3, 6 and 8, would have been ok, but never would have caught Tatum. This is a hard track to run. If you get off line or battle to hard your position can deteriate rapidly.
After consultation with Team William's construction crew our designers settled on a aggresive car design of 80-60-160-6-8-140 running on the BrideRock "B" tires. This turned out to identical to one of the William's cars, drove by Chris Lawence, the race winner. Another consideration was a fineese car of 40-40-140-3-8-60 with BridgeRock "B" tires. However, this car would NOT do well in traffic and there was to be eight other drivers in the race. As it turned out, many of the other designs in the race were muscle cars.
Having accumulated a good deal of qualification points for the latter half of the season Team Benetton decided to go with a push for the pole with a bid of 31 points. Unforunately Team Jaguar number one driver, Bill Severe, and Team William's number one driver, Lawence, posted higher for first and second, leaving Team Benetton only car on the track in third on the grid.
The start was very good putting me in second position and a jump on Severe. The Williams car commanded the lead at the start and ran one turn ahead of me. After two blocks by me from the oncoming car of Team TWR's Brian DeWitt our cars suffered tire damage. My damage was greater then DeWitt's, by four wear, and caused a great problems getting into our first pit stop. As I set up or a slow pit enterance Team :Louts's John Weber played a defense block against me in the Opel corner, further degrading the timing to get into the pits on lap 3. Once pittied in Lap 3 I had fallen to sixth from second and was not running with the front pack any longer. As the second pit came up at Lap 6, I faded for low wear allowing two other cars past me. However, a misscalculation on Hansen corner caused excessive wear use and a brake failure that ended in a spin off track. Had this not happened I ws looking forward to a return in either sixth to even (at risk) fourth position. As it was I ended in last place. A unsatisfing finish for a good start.
This track is demanding on the cars. No strategy of handling was used, and given any large field of drivers probably should not be. The 40 mph corners can be taken on the outside then move inside, behind the inside car. This does not advance the position of your car, but defends against following cars. Gaining a turn on a car required two over 60 mph rolls in either the 40 mph corners or the two 60 mph corners near the pits. Start postion on the track seems to have a marked effect in race performance. Although Team William's other car made second place from the back of the grid, it was largely due to the lack of compettion from others drivers as their misfortunes dropped them out.. With Lawence quick start and get away, he dominated the race ending in a resounding first place (with the same design and strategy as myself), followed by Higgin, of Team William's, and finally Tatum, of Team Lotus. Weber failed to finish as two spins caused suffecient position loss to prevent any points. Another tough track. Getting off a lap plan or jammed by another car can be very costly. Making up a whole turn requires two corner rolls!
Ran a 60-60-160-6-10-120 on Goodday "A" tires. Was not a bad car, however, the alternate car 40-40-140-6-6-60 on BridgeRock "B" tires with a one pit strategy would have been better. The biggest mistake of the day was running a two pit strategy. It should have been three pit stops with this car.
Working hard for the front row, but ending in third with 35 point spent, was no fun. However, the starting grid was two muscle cars ahead of me. They would be moving fast at the start as well. It was no surprise to see the muscle cars spending points for the pole and the handling cars setting back for the rear of the grid.
The start was a bunch for the muscle cars upto turn one. The Lead William's car jammed the turn by sticking the entry corner square at 80 mph. I tried to drive around the outside at 60 mph over the speed limit (120mph) and spun on track in the first square of the outside on turn one. This caused severe loss of position, and the mistaken belief that the only way out was to go to a two pit strategy. WRONG! The rest of the pack flew by me.
I breifly lead the race on lap four, only to be passed by the second William's car of Chris Lawence. The end of the race saw only two cars on the field and me in last place. Because I would get fourth place if I finished or not, I choose to risk turn one again on Lap 8 to try to catch up. No joy AGAIN! I spun off track this time and broke my front wing. Thus I simply cached it in and recieved fourth's place points towards my driver's points.
The high reliabilty of the car did help. And it was interesting to note that the other muscle cars had low reliabilities and suffered for it. They both failed their accel rolls and one of them had two bad pit stop rolls. My pit rolls gained me spaces and reliabilty never caused the car to suffer.
I am not happy with this track. The latest incarnation of the circuit seems to favor two car/strategies. Method one is a High handling car (60) with one pit stop and method two is a muscle car with three pit stops, stopping every two laps. Breaking away from the pack is not easy, but that may be a good thing. And there are certainly corners worth taking a risk in, and others were there is no good benefit. I do not think the track design should be changed, because this represents the real circuit. However, it is not my first or second choose to race on.
Decided on a 40-60-180-6-6-100. With 'C' tires I had hoped that my low acceleration could be compensated for by drafting and a 'few' reliability rolls. The majority of other drivers were driving a 60-60-180-6-4-120 on A tires. This turned out to be a faster car, both cars ran a one pit strategy, however, some people pitted on lap 3 while others on Lap 5 and me on Lap 4. Grid position is not a big deal here.
After bidding only 10 points I was happy with a fifth place start. If I had bid eight more point I would have gotten 2nd Row. Oh, well. This was enough for me to grab the slipstreams the car needed.
Once the car gets going, with a 40 accel, it goes. However, it is not as fast as the 60-60 cars. I fought with Jay at the last lap for position and he wrapped his car around the 'Kink'. I got fourth, not bad for car design that was not optimal.
Ending in fourth put me too far though from the driver's championship. There is next season! This was a fun track with lots of room for manuvering. This track has good places to spend wear and bad. One of the critical spaces to be in is the corner before the long straight. You want to exit this corner in one turn to quickly get to 180 and go.
The set up for this course was a 60-40-160-6-6-100 on B tires. Many others choose a 60-60-160 with varing handling and tire compounds. The winner, Chirs Lawrence, used a 60-60-160-3-4-100 on A tires and pitted once.
I bid high for the pole and get 3rd. Missed 2nd by 5 points! Grid position seemed not matter too much. The winner started in 2nd, but second and third came from the back of the pack.
I have a great start from the 2nd row. However, I get bunched in the frist turn and decided to push the corner. There is no GOD! I spin and get a busted suspension. With a 100 handling I can keep racing, but a good result is out of the question. I fall back to the back of the pack, waiting for the others to fall. I take turn 5 at 60 over on lap 6 and 7 to set up for the last lap. The race is very tight! Dick Higgin's, the William's backmarker, jammed me in turn 12 . I fall back to seventh. I get sixth when Brian Dewitt spins out.
This track needs a 60 decel car! The 160 or 180 top is ok. An accel of 60. Handling can be 120, but not 100! A 140 Handling would be tough on the tires. Car's that pitted twice are very fast. I like this course, everyone fights it out. No one takes off and is never seen again. This was certainly an exiciting race.
The last car was a 60-60-180-3-2-120 on A tires. Same as William's, great minds think alike?
All our points are pre-determined. I start in fourth.
I choose to run a conservative pace. I stay with the front pack for three laps, but must pit on Lap 3. To my surprise so does everyone else! I am 2 full turns behind the leader. Jay's 80 accel gets him out of the pit's ahead of me! I jam Jay on Lap 5 and he spin's off. Ron backs off and lets me get 4th place.
William's take 1 and 2 and Jeff August get third. I had a slow enterence to the pits on lap 3 that badly effected my position. Also, I fought too hard in the esses in the first half. Good car and a good track.
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