SIM RACERS 4 LIFE - BT44 SEASON - ROUND 7 - SILVERSTONE 1975 - REPORTS

[1959nikos]

I was doing good, really good.

I was up to 13th place mid race with hopes of something even better if guys took pitstops and I had planned not.

I was doing no mistakes either, I was feeling very proud about it too.

Then Mel came close, I fought him for couple of laps but he passed me.

Then, I had the most stupid idea of the evening, to get in his slipstream at the straight before the chicane.

I tucked in, his slipstream sucked me in, and when time came to brake for the chicane, I just couldnt brake enough, and trying to avoid Mel I went straight and on a stupid barrier that left my back wheels off the ground and car completely immobile.

So much for clever ideas, btw Fergy came back, really glad to have him racing with us again.

Place your reports here people.

[Harri Mac]

What is it with the epilepsy inducing weather? Not much fun.

Why have we got so much lag since the new build? It makes the car feel like it has a dead elephant strapped to it, not so much fun to drive and slow! Don't understand why the lag makes the car go slow.

Quali, was hard, got one good lap in.

Race - Car in front didn't move at go, then the car in front of me was lagging and warping really badly also disappearing and reappearing, I couldn't attempt to over take and then it appeared right in front of me and I did a sort of controlled crash to avoid hitting it, was passed. Then I had 3 lagging cars in front of me!

I setup to pit, I didn't need to, could have done the whole race on one set of tyres, grrrrrrrr.

Well done everyone, hard conditions for all.

[small][small][small][small][small]disappears off into the distance swearing softly and hoping this doesn't all happen in the Tuesday races[/small][/small][/small][/small][/small]

[1959nikos]

[small][small][small][small][small]disappears off into the distance swearing softly and hoping this doesn't all happen in the Tuesday races[/small][/small][/small][/small][/small]

lol I had to magnify this to read

[jerry 33]

qually went ok - 8th
at start, bill stumbled a bit and i got thru, harry was fighting her problems next to me - i was up to 6th...... by lap 6 i was in 4th with ramon ahead and andi behind. we were doing good, warping and light and dark flickering besides... then on lap 13 :-\ Yes 13 going into final chicane i noticed my track map said andi dropped back 16 seconds. didn't know why, but went thru chicane, front straight and then out of turn one, i seen everybody disappear off of my track map. OH SHIT - i know what that means and then within a couple of seconds - screen goes BLACK and i get BOOTED. as i told you bryan - got to be lucky here and it is a crap shoot and i lost.. oh well, nothing i could do.
i sure hope it is nothing more than this track doesn't like steam upgrade and that we are done with it...... last 2 races have not been fun for me.... >
Congratulations to all you Lucky Buggers anywho..........


if you want to see what it looked like for me, i got my replay in my dropbox..... start at end and go back a lap......https://www.dropbox.com/s/k6s2xn8za9d1ft...d.Vcr?dl=0

[Harri Mac]

lol I had to magnify this to read

Awwww, thanks for taking the time and effort Nikos

[bullwinkle]

hate the cloudy day stuff too hard for me too see and my teammate got kicked off that sucked I qual about where I expected and had a good start that some did not have sorry guys not sure how that happened. Was having a good race with Bryan and Bill all very close till the last few laps and I made some dumb old man mistakes on two laps and they got by me nice n clean darn it but feel great that I even finished Good racing guys.
Nikos "no points for you" as they say on Seinfeld.

[Fergy]

Well... finally. Back on track at the place I love yes it's been sometime, long story

Getting up at 6.30am and jumping into the simulator wasn't so bad. I'm sure your reactions are slower at least it seemed that way for about 30 mins or so.

Qual; went ok happy with 12th considering no vegemite and toast had been consumed

Race; I was unsure how my ping would be and thought starting at the back might be appropriate, request denied I was pretty cautious the first few laps and it was interesting seeing the server perform with 22 on track. Had a great chase going on in what was a 4 way battle for pretty much the entire race and a lot of fun trying to keep up with Tim McCoy.

All in all a lot of fun. Agree with all about the weather affect we probably just need to set a clear sky for now until it improves, ordinary stuff ISI :o
Great to see so many that have been around for years and all the new faces. It makes me really proud to see how things have evolved.

Cheers,
Fergy.

[gorgias1976]

Maybe illumination effects in the game happen a bit too quick. I think the game tries to simulate going from clouds shadow to an area where the sun is shining. It looked a little wierd but it didn't affect me that much.

When thinking in race strategy I calculated pitstop time lost. In this track it was like 30", quite a lot. That meant you should be 0.6" faster per lap as an average compared to doing no pitstop.
When I practiced both strategies I found out race fuel strategy was like 1" sec slower per lap so there was no way in risking doing it.

Qualy
-------
Got very little improvement compared to half race fuel. Just 0.3" faster as it looked this setup didn't quite like going light.

Race
------
Had a good start, good enough to get ahead of David but I was a little offline entering T1 and had to lift to avoid going to the grass, getting back to second place.
In this moment I thought of letting David drive ahead while staying away from his turbulence, saving tires and waiting for pitstop time to come. I did so for a few laps but quickly I found I was driving way too comfortable and that I could go faster, so I pushed harder to see how much I could get close to David's car.
In a lap I got close behind his slipstream and so I overtook him braking for the chicane.
At this point I thought David could be going for a single stop as I had seen going a bit wide at turns the first laps (what happened to me when I practiced full race fuel), so I decided to push very hard to try to get as much distance from him as posible.
When lapping some cars I suddenly lost him from my mirrors and I found out he was already 10" behind, maybe he had had some kind of problem lapping a car.
By the end of lap 22 I went to do my pitstop. The next lap I saw David doing his. At this moment, seing I had a 22" advantage I decided to drive very carefully looking after the tires, lapping high 14s and mid 15s.
Moving through the traffic helped me keeping concentrated and finally making it through the finish line pushing hard the final two laps to try and get the race fastest lap getting both a 14.2 and a 14.0 in a 25 lap tire set (not quickly enough).

[argl]

Good day for me and my team!

In Q, i managed to get up to 3rd (third!! THIRD!!), and was pretty pleased with myself considering that I did not train too much during the week.

Filled up with confidence, I promptly botched the start and had to let Ramon through. Not too bad, but still. In the first few laps, there was already someone getting lapped (probably some pitstop repair job on the first lap), and wasnt too keen of letting people through. I damaged the tires a little bit while nearly spinning in T1, trying to avoid him. That cost me the connection to the front runners and Jerry slipped through as well. I was trying to close the gap, but suddenly Jerrry just disappeared like he was switched off. Computer problems, I heard.

So I kept trying to be consistent on my laps, rattling through the race with my flat spotted tires. After an eternity, it was time for the pit stop and with fresh rubber, it was smooth sailing again. When the dust settled after everyone pitted, I found myself behind Dan, but I saw that with iron discipline I could close the gap and eventually overtake him. And so I did, outbraking him at the chicane and passing on the outside. Dan helpfully played along to get me the excited cheers of the audience.

But when we ran up to another backmarker who chose to take a detour through the grass on full power, threatening to cross my line when finally re-entering the track, I cowardly got off the throttle in a defensive avoidance maneuvre. Dan kept his foot planted and re-took MY place on hangar straight. So I had to set up another pass, again on the entrance of the chicane, this time on the inside it worked beautifully again. After that, Dan fell away slowly and I pedalled on to the end, with 20 secs in front and 5 secs behind me, eventually finishing 4th. FOURTH!! Team result: 3rd and 4th, I am very pleased.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to take part in the next race, because I will spend a week in Denver, probably the least motorsport place in the US.