Sim Racers 4 Life - T290 Season - Round 8 - Sebring - Reports

[Paul Swire]

Lets see your reports for the final race of the season.

Mine ended in disaster again.

After contact on the first lap with Nikos I was playing catchup to get close again, I was gaining time and getting closer each lap. Then boom my PC decided it had enough of rF2 and restarted itself

[gorgias1976]

Qualy
-------
I had only practiced with race fuel lapping high 2:07s so I had no idea how fast the car could go in low fuel conditions.
In the first two attempts I did a high 2:06 with a bad first sector. Refueled the car for a single lap and I got a high 2.05 which surprised me. I was happy with that laptime so I got back race fuel and practiced race pace on the track.
Finally my time was good enough for pole position.

Race
------
Starting on the dirty side I was worried to lose one or two places at the start. Lights went green pretty early, I guess it caught everybody a bit distracted so I was able to start quick and remain first at the first corner.
I was in a mid wing config and I didn't expect David to be in such a low wing configuration. Approaching the heavy braking for turn 7 I didn't defend the inside and he outbraked me there coming at a very high top speed I wasn't predicting.
I spent the next laps trying to find a way past him but it was imposible due to his top speed. The only thing I could do was to go for an early pitstop. So I did at the end of lap ten. A 24 sec pitstop when car started smoking when I was about to leave the pits (hot after many laps close to David and high temeratures on track) but it quicly cooled down as I went back on track.
I then pushed really hard for the next laps and when David took his pitstop I had taken a 6 seconds advantage.
Night was approaching and I started to do the math of the race length. I was expecting 26 to 27 laps, having fuel for 28. But as I was calculating it I realised we could even get to do 29 laps. That brought me into panic mode, I had no fuel for 29 laps.
It was already fully dark, having a 7 second advantage to David I decided to lift and coast at some corners trying to save some fuel.
It was getting really busy, night driving, approaching lapped cars and calculating whether we were about to do 28 or 29 laps and if myfuel was enough for it.
10 minutes to the end of the race, with David 4 seconds behind I could calculate that we weren't going to reach 29 laps by 10-15 seconds, so I was relieved and drove normally to get to the finish line, finally winning the race.

Season is over. It took me a few races to understand how this car worked but finally I've been very comfortable driving it fast. Now time to get in the BT20 and get a relaxing summer at the back of the grid.

[Harri Mac]

I was not really looking forward to this race as it's very long with a fairly high chance of an accident caused DNF ending.

Quali - wasn't sure whether to try for a position on the grid or not, worried about traffic jams in the first 3 corners, went for a position was surprised to start in 10th on the grid.

Race - I thought my car would be killed before the 3rd corner of the first lap and was surprised to find I was still living and in once piece, had a few hairy moments where there was peculiar handling, where one second the track felt gluey and sticky then went slick. It was tiring to drive for an hour like that, I ate cheese before the race hoping that if I fell asleep at the wheel I'd have nightmares and wake up quick as there was no passenger to scream to do the same trick.

I did do a practice race with AI a few days ago and burned through 32 litres of fuel per 30 minutes (28 laps total), when everyone was saying 70 litres to do the race I added more at the pit but ended up finishing with 7 litres spare (for me 3 and a bit laps worth), not like the first race at Nordes where I crossed the finish line just as the engine started to cough for lack of fuel. I must drive in a virtual eco friendly style.

One thing, the lights are bright when it's fully dark but why, WHY? does the car behind you look like 2 Honda C50's have hit the tarmac in tandem? It was hard to see the guy behind in the mirrors the lights were that dull.

It was good to see my teamie do so well and congratulations to all who drove in this and all other races this season. It's been real fun , thank you to everyone who makes it possible and all the racers who make it a league.

[deecee52]

Qually

Went out twice but could only manage to get 5th , Ramon and Andi were both on fire and faster than me .

Race

I could see from the lap times both Ramon and Andi looked like they were running low downforce setups , my setup concentrated on tyre wear so I hoped I would be able to stay with them until their tyres went away.
Got a good start and dropped in behind Ramon , kept an eye on Andi but surprisingly he slowly dropped away , this was good for me as I could now concentrate on Ramon .
Ramons car was faster than mine in a striaght line but I could stay with him over a lap , I decided to just stay on his tail and see if I could push him into a mistake . But it never happened , he kept it clean and stayed on track .
As the race progressed I could see his tyres starting to give up as he was locking brakes more frequently , my tyres were fine and I knew I could lap faster if I was in clear air .
Ramon pulled off for his pitstop and I still had fuel for 2 laps so I went for it , unfortunately I came across Tobias fighting with his car , I dont think he knew I was there so it took most of a lap to pass him which lost me time , next lap was clear so I pushed hard .
Did my pitstop and came out just in front of Ramon , I decided to gamble and push hard on cold tyres as if he got in my draft it would be game over , fortunately I kept it on track and slowly pulled away to finish in front of him and in 3rd spot , Mega pleased to see my Teamie get another top ten finish , its going to be very close result in the team championship

This has been a great season and a lot of fun , thanks to everyone for making it so .

[sdancourt]

Qualy: Not in the mood of fighting this days, so just a compromise to avoid be the last driver of the pack, P13.

Race. After the usual mesh on T1, I managed to put on P9, just for a while, then, gradually the faster guys recovered their places and I drop to P 13 again. I made my pitstop late and after things settled down again , I found myself chasing Cookie, we ran very close during many laps, I was a bit faster than him but with very inconsistent pace, I made 2.10 on one lap just to made 2.13 on the next, so the night comes and 2 laps before finish, Cookie made a mistake, actually dissapears in front of me and so I got P12 in the end.

I want to say thank you very much for been part of this great comunity, was a great champ, my second here and very glad to share my lifetime passion with you guys. Special thanks to Paul, Gorka, Tim and Nikos.

[myself9]

I got a little raced out and just could NOT motivate to prepare for the race. Even though I was a mere 2 or so championship points behind Harri going into the event -- which would have made the race even more exciting.

This season was some of the most fun I've had racing in a while.
Thank you Paul, Gorka, Tim, Nikos and everyone!

[bullwinkle]

glad to have you n your brother around

[Siarhei Pakhodnia]

That was a special season for me. So many new things to learn, to develop. I would like to thank Shannon for the tip to join this league. Thats a big luck. I'm very proud to know you guys!

[bullwinkle]

glad you joined us but did you have to be so fast????????

[Siarhei Pakhodnia]

glad you joined us but did you have to be so fast????????

Could be faster indeed ;D