07/04/2021                                                         
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Title		: Starting Grid Calculator
Filenames	: Starting Grid Calculator.ods, Readme.docx, Readme.txt
Author		: eky78
Description	: it calculates the starting grid for a quick race in GP2
Other Works	: GP2 carsets
Author's Plug	: This file may be distributed freely as long as it is not modified in any way.		
  		  Please let me know if you like this tool or if you got any comments.
Thanks to	: degas from grandprixgames.org, the author of the program for GP3

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DESCRIPTION
This is a small utility I´ve found for GP3 and I have extended and adapted to GP2.

The idea is to set the grid for a GP2 race differently from what GP2 does.
Examples could be Touring car races where the start is decided by reversing the top 10 from a previous race or qualifying, but also the recent rumour in F1 with starting grid which could be decided by a sprint race. 
It can also be useful when you have to run different qualifying sessions (nowadays present in almost all categories) which GP2 can´t do.

REQUIREMENTS
All you need is Excel (or another editor that can open an .ods file, I guess the original file was made with Open Office), GP2Edit, and Notepad.
I´ve worked with Excel 2013, so it works for sure with that version or more recent. Haven´t tested it with other versions or with Open Office, some functions may not be working. Let me know in case.

WHAT IT IS
In the file there are three sheets:
- in the first one you can set the grid from the results of a previous race.
After copying the results of a race, you can decide if you want to reverse the top10, the top8, or the full field (like they wanted to do in F1 last year) or you can also start with the order they finished the race.
- with the second one you can set the grid from qualifying results.
yeah I know it's what GP2 does but again you can decide to change the grid and reverse the top10, the top8 or the full grid.
- in the third one you can simply type the name of the drivers in the order you want. It can be useful when you have multiple qualifying sessions.

INSTRUCTIONS
what you need to do:
- export your carset with GP2Edit
- do your qualifying session or a (sprint) race.
- save the results as a txt file using the menu (for the first time check the print setup to see if the Printer Port is “File”, in order to save the results as a txt). 
In case of qualifying, if you want to save the results as a txt, you actually have to go to “Race” from the Grand Prix Menu to see the grid and save it as a txt file (you can´t save the page with the times after qualifying). After saving the file you can press OK to go to the race, but then you need to exit the race and the game.
- go to GP2 Edit and remember to save the carset with a different name so you won´t lose the original values.
Then go to File ---> Performance --> Save as... to save the performance values as a txt.
- open the txt file with the performance values and copy them in my ods file in the correct area of the sheet (yellow part at the right…pay attention from where you have to start copying)
- open the other txt file, the one with the race/qualifying results. Again copy the results in my ods file in the correct area of the sheet (yellow part at the left…pay attention from where you have to start copying) 
- copy the lines from the orange area from the ods file and past it into the txt with the performance values (overwrite previous values but again pay attention from where you have to start copying). Save it with another name to avoid losing the original values.
- use GP2Edit to load the new values: File ---> Performance --> Load
- press export in GP2Edit
- Start a quick race.

!!! Once you have finished the race and you want to do another race, you need to load the original carset again and export the original values into the game, so that you can do another qualifying session for the next race.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS
With GP2Edit you can set the distance of the quick race (up to 100%), while in the in-game Menu Options you can decide from which position you want to start, the setup and the strategy if you have selected a driver to race yourself (it doesn´t work if you have more than 1 driver selected).

WARNINGS
Things you need to look out:
- avoid special characters like ü, ö, è, etc and commas in names (no problem with apostrophe or dot)
- drivers need to have different names (no repeat of the same driver in the carset)
- avoid spelling errors (particularly if you use the third sheet)

Also note that this tool automatically disables all drivers present in the performance values but don´t appear in the results. 
If a driver is not present or is misspelled he will be disabled from GP2Edit and, if they are more than two, you could have problems loading the performance values in GP2Edit.

AN EXAMPLE: Formula 1 qualifying simulation
In GP2 it´s not possible to replicate the current F1 format for qualifying (3 sessions) for obvious reasons.
You can do the three sessions separately but then you need to use the editor to change the grid.
To make things more automatic you can use my tool (in this case the third sheet) and write down in the yellow area the drivers in the order they finished qualifying.
Follow the steps above to export the new performance values and start a quick race with the grid formed combining the three different sessions.

If you are running a season, it could help to write the names of the drivers of your carset in the green area. That way you can make use of Excel´s AutoComplete function to save time and avoid errors.

 

In the PDF file there is the same text of this file, but with a couple of photos to help you unterstand.