Issue 1 - May 2009
Masters Of Endurance Race Reports
Plus: One year of FBM | Interview with [SR] Gil
Content Content.................................................................................2 Editorial.................................................................................3
SR Magazine is an independant online magazine, that covers news about the Sonicrealms Racing team and the simracing scene.
News.....................................................................................4
SR Magazine will provide you with the background informations about areas like software, hardware and race reports.
Race Report..........................................................................5
SR Magazine will maintain an equal distance to every with which it conducts relationships.
Column.................................................................................9
SR Magazine will always defend and claim the right to free speech and will also include editorials which some may deem to be controversial or/and offensive, provided that there is a factual basis that underpins the content.
RaceArt...............................................................................10 Crossword..........................................................................13 Interview..............................................................................14
SR Magazine believes and will conduct itself within two defining concepts: Integrity and Independance. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the writers / contributors or those affiliates, and all content is copyright SR Magazine unless otherwise stated. Should you feel your rights have been violated, please feel free to contact SR Media through the SR website www.sonicrealmsracing.co.uk. Not responsible for contents of linked sites. This segment is a modified version of AUTOSIMSPORT Media LLC’s disclaimer.
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Editorial Please note: We started working on this magazine in early 2009. Since it took us a while to get everything ready, some of the information in this issue is quite old now. We still released this as a test edition, so please excuse some of the old facts in this magazine.
Hello racers, so here it is, the first edition of the Sonicrealms Racing Magazine. In the last few months the team has grown a fair amount, and we decided to write out own little publication, which will keep all the readers up to date with the goings on within Sonicrealms Racing, and the Live for Speed community. Our goal with this magazine, is to give you an insight into the goings on within Sonicrealms Racing. We want you, the readers, to get to know the drivers better, so we began interviewing the drivers within the team. In this edition we interview our Dutch team-manager Vigillio "Gil" Gruppelar. We also have reports on the teams debut season in Masters of Endurance and we celebrate the first year of the Formula BMW car. Finally we also have some team art and a crossword based around Live for Speed and Sonicrealms Racing for you to enjoy. Of course, to get the latest news, we encourage you to keep on checking our website, which will get a major facelift soon. So please, enjoy the first issue and don't forget to post any suggestions on the forum. Gerdoner
We hire! This test run of the SR Magazine, and all the articles were written by very few people. If you want another issue, you must get in contact with the Editor (e-mail on page two) and submit news, pictures or whatever you like, for submission in the magazine itself. All you need to do is write a nice word document, and mail it off. Of course you will keep the copyright to anything you contribute. If you wish to be considered with one of our crack team of journalists, again feel free to get in contact, don't be shy, we don't bite... well except Gil! We also offer advertising space within the magazine too, so if you have an event, or even your own team who would like some advertisments placed within the magazine, get in touch. It won't cost much, it might even be free! Who knows!
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News
SR Premier league starts The SR Premier league, a league for talented racers who want to hone their racecraft, starts soon. The successor to the Sonicrealms Racing Development Team league offers the participants the opportunity to train with the experienced drivers in the SR team. Since the last attempt to start a newcomer series never really took of, Sonicrealms Racing now put a lot of effort in the new series to guarantee a professional league in which you can improve your racing abilities and even get discovered by teams just like Sonicrealms Racing. However, the new league will not be open to the public, you can only join if you’re invited by the team. We are confident the SR PL will be a huge success, and will be a credit to the team and the drivers who participate in it. Of course we’ll keep you updated and do race reports.
Gerdoner gives away helmet designs To celebrate his first year of being a Sonicrealms Racing member, Gerdoner, the team skinner, has offered every SR member the opportunity to get a helmet design done by him. „I had a blast in my first year“, he said, „and now it’s time to give something back“. If you want him to do a helmet design, just write him a pm. To speed up the process, it would be helpful to give him hints as to which colours, sponsors or general theme the helmet should have.
SR 2008 skin pack released
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After a long wait, Sonicrealms Racing released the new skin pack on December 24th.
t took Gerdoner quite some time, but now all the skins have the same 2008 / 2009 look. Preperations for the skins started days after Gerdoner joined Sonicrealms Racing in January. „Gil, who did some of the previous skins, and the team leaders approached me. They saw some of my earlier skins and asked me to update their liveries. The old ones weren’t bad, but they all had different designs. The team wanted all the skins to look the same. So Gil and I started thinking about a new, general design for all 4
of the biggest skinning projects skins“, Gerdoner said. „Of course we wanted to keep I have ever done“, said the team’s trademarks like the Gerdoner. „Especially I’d like to yellow SR on the side and the thank Gil for nitpicking and keeping me motivated in that green and red colors.“ The design process turned out long period.“ The skinpack can to be quite tricky. Not every be found on the forums. design that looks cool on an open wheeler works on a tintop. Also, the templates for some cars changed because of the z - patch. „This was one One of the new skins: The Sonicrealms Racing XRR 2008 / 2009 sonicrealmsracing.co.uk
Race Report
Masters Of Endurance - The races so far Sonicrealms Racing’s first season reviewed
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adjudged to have blocked the Sonicrealms car into the first corner. The AMT car lost its fastest laps from the first session, but this did not help Sonicrealms grid position. Starting from ninth, Jason Lovett immediately made his way forward, and was up to fifth For Sonicrealms Racing, this place by the end of his stint. represented the first foray into Karl Sladek took over, and the Masters of Endurance drove consistently, handing series, in the GT2 class, using over to Johannes Mäkelä, still the FZR car. The first round of in fifth position. As the hours the season, the 12 hours of kept dropping, the team looked Kyoto Grand Prix, saw the likely to finish in fifth, as AMT team struggle in Qualifying, proved hard to catch in fourth only taking ninth place on the position. However, with just half grid. The session included an an hour to go in the race, the incident with the AMT Sim second place Mercury Racing Racing car, which was suffered an unfortunate time he 2009 Masters of Endurance produced some magnificent drama, and magnificent racing throughout the grid. It was a terrific series, with the cream of the Live for Speed crop lining up to take part.
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out, dropping them to fifth, and promoting Sonicrealms to fourth place in the final results. After a positive result in the first round of the season, the team faced a driver shortage for the six hours of South City. Unfortunately Karl Sladek had injured his hand, and would be out of action for the rest of the season, as he was unable to drive for long distances without being in severe pain. Ken Oaten, one of the team’s founders, stepped forward to fill one of the slots, and the relatively inexperienced Chris Ford also offered help to the team. Qualifying went much better, with the team lining up in 5
Race Report
fifth position for the race, and in a good position to score another good result. Before the race began, there was a crash involving the GT1 cars on the formation lap, which Jason Lovett did well to avoid damage in. Jason made a good start, and for a period was in second, before handing over to Chris Ford. The brief for the inexperienced Scotsman was to just avoid trouble and hand back the car in one piece. Despite some brushes with the wall, he managed to do this, and left Johannes Mäkelä in a battle for the final podium position. Before the final pitstops, Mäkelä put on a charge, needing only a splash and dash in the final 20 minutes. When he entered the pitlane, it looked as though the job was done, only for the Swede to make a rare error, and take on a full tank of petrol instead of the fuel required to
do the final 20 minutes. Mäkelä only just made it out in third, but finished off the job to score Sonicrealms their first Masters of Endurance podium in their second ever race. The 6 hours of Westill was the next stop for the series, and Sonicrealms were again confident of a good result, but were again short of drivers. Ever presents, Lovett and Mäkelä, were again joined by Chris Ford, and each were to do two hours in this race. Starting from sixth, Lovett again made a terrific start and was moving up to third around the first lap. As the Mercury Racing car attempted to pass, there was contact around the back of the track, spinning Jason to the rear of the field. Jason made a spirited fight back, and was up to fourth position, when he made a major mistake heading into turn four, spinning into the
gravel. Jason reversed out of the gravel, but managed to be stationary on the track, causing the Mercury Racing GT1 car to take avoiding action. Lovett continued on, handing over to Ford and Mäkelä later on in the race. Mäkelä was on a charge, looking to finish as high up as possible after these setbacks, setting the second quickest lap in the process. Sadly it was all in vain, as Sonicrealms were given a two lap deduction on their race result, for rejoining the track in a dangerous manner. This dropped them to ninth place. With a two month break coming, it was time for the team to look for some fresh blood before the 24 hours of Aston Grand Prix. Jason Lovett spent most of this time knocking up 100 different versions of the race setup, readying for this toughest test of the season.
Johannes Mäkelä giving everything at the qualifiying session of the 24 Hours race in Aston.
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Race Report
Again Mäkelä and Lovett were present, joined by new signings Kim André Gjerde and Dave Southword. As many other teams, Sonicrealms Racing were running a special livery for this round. The team’s skinner Christian Zörner made a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles skin, based of an inteam joke. The skin was voted as „Best GT2 skin“ for this round by the LFS community. Again Lovett started the race, but was involved in an unfortunate collision with the AMT car as they battled over third place. The collision sent Lovett down the other Aston pitlane, dropping him to the back of the field. A great recovery saw him up to fourth by the end of his stint. Kim André Gjerde took over, but sadly suffered a disconnect when closing in on the SPDO Racing car in third place. Despite Johannes Mäkelä regaining the lap later on, it was always going to be a tall order to catch and pass the SPDO car. Despite a late timeout, SPDO held on for third place, with Sonicrealms settling for fourth slot. With just two rounds to go, Sonicrealms had a great chance of ending up in third place in the championship. The series headed to the oldest Live for Speed track, Blackwood. Mäkelä managed to put the car in fourth place on the grid, but sadly Jason Lovett
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Lovett’s crash after the start in Blackwood
was involved in another unfortunate incident at the start. Jason made a terrific start, and was battling F1RST’s Rudy van Buren and Nikolin from AMT for the lead. Nikolin decided to make a move to cover off van Buren and Lovett, which caused a rather large pileup. Nikolin escaped without damage, still in the lead, as Lovett dropped to the back of the field again. Once again Lovett made a charge through the field, and was up to sixth by the end of his stint, handing over to Kim André Gjerde. Kim drove competitively, getting closer and closer to the cars in front. When he finished his stint, it looked like Sonicrealms might be able to close up for a top four position. Chris Ford, back in the team after missing the 24 hour race, had been doing well in practice, but
unfortunately suffered a number of problems during his stint. The first was team-mate related, as Kim André Gjerde left him with 30% more fuel than he needed to complete the stint. The second problem was lag related, leaving him spun on the side of the track, losing 40 seconds waiting for the other cars to go past. The final issue was wheel issues, when breaking for the corner at the end of the backstraight, his brake pedal suddenly stopped working, and he went careering into the wall, thankfully not receiving any major damage. Johannes Mäkelä went on a charge after the fifth placed CoRe Racing car, which appeared to be having some issues. Mäkelä was just 40 seconds behind heading into the final hour. Two spins from the CoRe car gave Mäkelä
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Race Report
hope, but eventually time ran out, and Sonicrealms had to settle for a disappointing sixth position. The final round of the season took the teams back to Kyoto, but this time for the 6 hours of Kyoto National. Despite the blow that the sixth place at Blackwood was, the team wanted to end the season on a high, and wanted to end it with another podium. Despite a very bad Qualifying, the team were confident in their race set, and pace in the race. Makela and Lovett were joined for this race by another debutant in Jack Taylerson. Mäkelä took the first stint for this race, and was quickly moving up to the front. While CoRe scampered off into the distance, Mäkelä moved into second place, but disaster was to come. While overtaking the Prodrive car, Mäkelä was hit by lag, went flying across the gavel, and as he came back on, hit the Prodrive car. This left Mäkelä with a drive through penalty, which Jack Taylerson took during his stint. The debutant Taylerson drove a mature race, and closed in on the CoRe racing car during the stint. The only challenge from behind was the F1RST
Racing car, who were suffering with a bad setup for the race. Taylerson handed over to Jason Lovett, and can be proud of his first Masters of Endurance race. Lovett again closed in on the CoRe car, but sensing that victory was not really on the cards, made sure that the car came home in one piece, and in a season’s best second position. A great end to the season, one which all involved can be very proud of. Sonicrealms Racing eventually finished joint fourth in the Championship, only one point behind AMT. With a season of experience, the team will be back to compete in GT1 next season, and will hopefully be able to keep a presence in GT2. (CF)
Jason Lovett drove this year’s last stint in Kyoto
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Column
One year of FBM
Gil takes a closer look at the newest open - wheeler in LFS We're coming up to the first anniversary of the release of the Formula BMW in Live for Speed, so to celebrate it's birthday, let's see what has actually happened in this year. It’s fair to say that most of you will probably have driven this car a lot, so you will all know it's a 465 kg single-seater with a 1.2 liter engine producing 140 bhp. This makes it the slowest open - wheel car in LFS, providing very good close racing since it is so easy to drive. After the launch, the majority of LFS users didn't drive anything else for a couple of months, making it the 4th most used car since the start of S2! Also contributing to this has been the immensely popular sonicrealmsracing.co.uk
CTRA Single Seater 1 server, which uses the FBM as the entry-level car to the singleseater class. The Formula XR (FOX) may be the most popular car, but at this rhythm it will be dethroned by the Formula BMW sooner rather than later. In the first quarter of this year, Sonicrealms Racing organized a Formula BMW league, won by the infamous Robert Deek, which was a great success. Most of the team became pretty fast in this car, and it became the SR car of choice, replacing the FOX. In the summer, the V1 Championship, the reason the FBM was added to LFS in the first place, started. This championship was created to
find talent for real racing, through a series of LFS races, physical tests and real trackdays. At the moment this competition is in the real racing phase, which will be shown on TV in the UK. The FBM also recently got it's birthday present from the LFS developers, as in the most recent series of test patches it's got remade (and very good looking) wheels! (VG)
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Race Art
Race Art
Race Art
Crossword
Across 1. Sportscar from Finland 4. A car engine in LFS 8. Endurance league 11. LFS league racing the BF1 13. Where is the Fern Bay track situated? 14. His LFS name is evilpimp 16. Made the present SR skins 17. Racetrack in Japan 19. Winner of the SR Open Wheel League 2008: Robert .... 21. Non-fictional LFS car 22. SR driver 23. FWD car 25. Abbr. for the XR GT 28. SR driver from Egypt 32. Multiplayer replay format 33. LFS website 34. Dutch SR driver 36. LFS brand 38. SR driver
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40. 42. 43. 45. 46. 48. 49. 50.
He has the Team No. 8 LFS track since S2 LFS racing fuel ... Roberts Top poster on the SR forums GTR car ... Bailey F1ST’s special livery in MOE is inspired by this comic
Down 1. LFS league 2. Motorsport clothing brand 3. SR driver from Sweden 4. SR's Resident Emo 5. Made the song used for the SR OWL 2008 video 6. Winner of the 2008 IGTC season 7. SR driver from Australia 9. Decal on every SR skin 10. New car in LFS
12. 15. 16. 17. 18. 20. 24. 26. 27. 29. 30. 31. 34. 35. 37. 39. 41. 44. 47.
SR skinner LFS team SR driver SR website admin LFS racetrack in West-England LFS league LFS open wheeler Tool to watch LFS races Sponsor of the SR DT: .... .net Racing software Birthplace of Sonicrealms Racing Abbr. for the XF GTI Victor van ... LFS racetrack Brand of a LFS car SR hardware guru Abbr. for the Formula XR LFS racing tyres GTR version of the UF1
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Interview
„We can mount a good challenge for league wins in 2009“ First in our series of interviews will be an interview with [SR] Gil
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ou may know him as the team manager of the SR IGTC team and the SR Masters of Endurance team or simply because he’s the second top poster on the Sonicrealms Racing forums. He often represents the team to the outside, but this time it’s all about [SR] Gil himself. Hey Gil, thanks for taking a few moments and giving this interview. So, tell us a bit about yourself. How old are you? I'm 18, will be 19 on the fourth of July, so don't forget my presents (laughs). Where do you come from and where do you currently live? I live in Coimbra, Portugal, and was also born here, even though I am Dutch. My parents moved here a couple of years before I was born. When and how did you hear about LFS for the first time? What did you play before, or what sort of games do you currently play? I had played the demo for a bit, many years back, but then forgot all about it. Then one of my Football Manager mates - I
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used to play FM an awful lot before I started LFS posted about it on a forum, and I started playing again, in March 2007. When and how did you hear about SR? Any previous LFS teams? When and why did you join? That Football Manager mate was actually [SR] Keith, so I pretty much got fast-tracked into the team a couple of months after I started playing. I think it was July 2007 or so. Never been in any other LFS team.
within a chance of winning races in major events. People like Jason, Johannes and Chris have really helped the team forward, and I look forward to that continuing, especially with the recent signing of Rudy van Buren and Christian Krognes.
What are you looking forward to in 2009? I think the team has a very strong base of drivers now, and we can mount a good challenge for league wins in 2009. We might not get there What do you think right away, but we about the teams definitely are on the developement in correct path. I'm also the last one or looking forward to two years? seeing our website The team has redesigned, Gil waiting before the iTCC race in and I'm sure developped Westhill very well the Gerdoner will last year, we have basically do an amazing job of it! come from nothing to being
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Interview
Which is your (least) favorite car / track? My favourite track is Kyoto Grand Prix Long, it just has everything you could wish for! Shame about the easy to cut chicane, but not everything can be perfect. Favourite cars would probably be the XFG the only car I'm decently quick in - and the FZR, despite the fact I can't actually drive it well. My least favourite track is probably one of the Rallycross tracks, I'll say Blackwood
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RallyX Reversed, and my least That is a hard one... I have no favourite car is the FZ5, the idea actually! I guess I'd go on boat. a nice holiday, or buy myself some racing skills (laughs) Does your current helmet design have a meaning? Does your family know about My current helmet is made by LFS? If yes, do they like it? Gerdoner, and it is a nice They just call it “that racing design, with the two hotels my game�, so I guess they don't parent's run as sponsors. It really like it. doesnt really have a specific meaning. Thank you Gil for the interview, see you on track or in IRC. What would you do if someone No problem. (CZ) gives you one million Euros?
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