Dazza290 Posted February 6, 2009 Report Posted February 6, 2009 Coventry Stadium, a big name in all forms of short oval motor racing in real life will soon be on its way to the rFactor scene courtesy of one man……. MoR#137. MoR has kindly let Uk Dirt inside the making of one of the most popular Shale tracks about. The photographers have turned up to for some sneaky photos whilst I interviewed MoR on the track, the racing and everything else in between.!!! APOLOGY !!! The recently recruited Uk Dirt photographer has only managed to produce 3 photos from his day out at Coventry, all of which are not as good as we had hoped. Hopefully the track will be available soon so you can see what it looks like for yourself. Luckily, he redeemed himself for some cracking photos of Craig in testing of his 2009 season cars. Q. Craig, Coventry is a track everyone has been waiting for, is it a track you really wanted to model?A. Yes and no. Originally, way back into 2007, i did make a start on Cov (just the track surface and infield) and then lack of reference pictures and time put me off, so I deleted it. Just after that, I decided to do Lynn because I had plenty of reference pics and of course, I had already modelled it for heat (although the rfactor model took none of the heat models, it still helped reference and experience wise). From then on, Cov was regarded as the one nobody wanted to do.... it may look a similar setup to the rest, but theres so much going on with different ground levels, lots of different buildings, the fact you drive past lots of stuff to get onto track..... its just a bit of a beast! However, I set about getting my games portfolio together late summer 08 and realised I wasn't really happy with Kings Lynn and wanted a nice 'environment' piece which could sit in my portfolio for a long time before I replaced it. The opportunity to do Coventry came up again, and this time I really felt ready for it, so I got into touch with Coventry track staff and they let me in on a weekday to take lots of pictures, and then there was nothing stopping me, enthusiasm took over! Q. Kings Lynn seems to be very popular, I am sure you will be hoping Coventry follows in its footsteps? A. Yeah, it's always nice when people enjoy your work, although you have to accept that not everybody is going to. Both Kings Lynn and NIR were both spoilt by having time constraints on them because I always ended up having to rush them, so this time around I've requested fixtures a bit later in the calendar so that it can be done in my own time and to the best of my ability. On track, Cov drives a lot like Kings Lynn but with more banking and less threat from the tyres, so I hope it proves to be fast, fluent and good fun, but you'll never really know until those first few meetings! Q. A question for you as a driver, do you prefer the racing on tarmac or do you prefer ‘hanging it out’ on the shale? A. A. Last year I preferred Shale, I often found it to be a lot more fluent than tarmac but I'm not really 'clicking' with it yet on the new wheel, so we'll have to see for 09.Q. With that in mind, what is your favourite track on each surface and why? A. Shale wise, I really enjoy Bradford, you can get a really good rhythm going there and the banking allows for some fast sustained sliding. On tarmac I quite enjoy Ipswich, due to the fast racing and the wide bends allowing for good bumper battles without wall riding becoming a factor. Q. The Semi Final and British will be held at the new track. Kings Lynn by then will have held the 2008 Semi Final and the 2009 World Final. It must be cool to see your tracks holding the biggest meetings of the year? A. Yeah it's great and is always the icing on the cake! I've kind of been lucky really because whenever I make a track it seems to be just in time to coincide with a real life championship fixture! Q. Is Coventry far off completion or have you still a lot to do to get it race ready? A. It's hard to say really. At the moment, modelling wise I'd say that we're at the 75% mark, but there's still a big two page checklist on my desk and I really don't know how long each individual bit will take. When I modelled the main home straight grandstand I predicted it might take three or four days but it ended up taking two weeks! I might have shot myself in the foot with having too many reference pictures really, I keep looking at stuff and thinking 'Oooh, I'd like to add that bit!' There's a lot to be done after the model is finished, so I can't really put a date on it yet, but I aim for it to be out in good time before the first fixture. Q. Onto this season, are you planning on making some more appearances this year as many hold you as a big threat to winning titles and races?A. I don't know why! Lol..... I can't really hold it together in the big title races, I always get a bit shaky if I'm doing ok, which is no good if your trying to match Hutch's smooth and consistent laps! I'd like to do a full season where possible; inconvenient work hours really stuffed me up last year, so it all depends what happens there, and how much enthusiasm I have as the season progresses. I don't like to burn myself out. If I'm getting grumpy, I give myself some time off. Q. Do you still see the 2009 season being dominated by the higher grade drivers or do you think some of the lower graders will enjoy some more time at the front? A. I think the winter series has really shown that more and more people are becoming interested and many of them are fast! The new default setups have really levelled the playing field I think, so I reckon we could see some 08 red tops finding it a bit tougher and dropping to blue in the early part of the season whilst some of the fast lower graders reap the rewards. Q. Who do you see as some of the main threats to the titles next year and who have you seen recently that have caught your eye on the improvement front? A. Titles wise, I think the season will follow a similar pattern to last year with yourself, Hutch and Kruiz being the three main contenders. Tosh seems to be driving well in the winter series, so maybe he'll start to establish himself with a firm grade next year. Johno has also made a massive improvement from his 'spin out on lap 2' antics from earlier in the season, so I reckon he'll be a solid red roof and title contender if it continues. Q. Is there anyone you wish to thank in anyway, whether it’s to do with modelling, racing or just in general? A. Modelling wise, I'd like to thank all UKSOM members for intital and continued support with rFactor modding. Also, Thanks to Jeremy Heaver and Coventry Stadium for being kind enough to let me in with my camera! Racing wise, I'd better thank Hutch for all of the wheel and car setup assistance he's given me. And in general, thanks to my lovely fiancée Beki for putting up with my modelling escapades and all my ranting about a computer game as if its real! There we have it, the insight and views on the track and the racing from MoR. UkDirt would like to thank Craig for spending the time to talk to us and allowing some photos to be taken on the tracks progress. Im sure everyone will be more then happy with the final result, and are hoping the track will live up to the hype its already being given.
Johno3 Posted February 6, 2009 Report Posted February 6, 2009 Another simply awesome interview. Thanks very much to Dazza for taking the time to put it together, and to MoR for taking the time to interview. I do think I will have to words with the camera man though -he better imporve or else!! Looks superb though in all seriousness, and I cant wait. Cheers Johno
wee dode Posted February 6, 2009 Report Posted February 6, 2009 Great interveiw lads and Coventry looks awesome so far
Kruiz 136 Posted February 6, 2009 Report Posted February 6, 2009 Excellent read Dazza & MoR. Coventry looks fantastic, from what I can see its up there challenging the best of the tracks, I just hope I go better round there than I do at Kings Lynn & NIR
Tosh924 Posted February 6, 2009 Report Posted February 6, 2009 Great interveiw lads and Coventry looks awesome so far agreed wd guys.
Spike Posted February 6, 2009 Report Posted February 6, 2009 GREAT work dazza and great work mor on all your modelling work
MoR137 Posted February 7, 2009 Report Posted February 7, 2009 Thanks all, I'm glad you like the look of it so far and I hope you aren't disappointed when it is released! I'm really pleased with how it looking at the moment and it seems to drive very nice as well! Cheers for asking me for the interview Dazza, I enjoyed doing it! I reckon someone must've sabotaged the camera man's pictures as they didn't look like that when I saw them lol! Maybe the original ones might appear somewhere in the coming weeks....
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