Sim Racers 4 Life - Lola T280 Season - Round 8 - Laguna Seca - Reports

[1959nikos]

Another great race, thank you SR4L for hosting

place your reports here gents.

[Paul Swire]

Great racing guys.

The results and replays are on the Dropbox as usual for you to download.

[Ricknau]

Sorry I couldn't race. Friend from Indiana was in town and had him over to watch the Indy 500.

[deecee52]

Qually

I wasnt looking forwards to this race , I didnt like the track at all and had great difficulty in finding a setup that was quick without eating tyres . I was pleasantly surprised to find I wasnt far off the pace of our resident alien DJ and managed to claim 2nd place


Race 1

Got the drop on DJ and got into turn 1 in 1 st , managed to keep the place for about 3 laps but found I was destroying my tyres trying to keep away from him , I decided to slow down as I was going to have an off if I kept pushing , DJ made short work of me and passed me into turn 1 after that I drove according to the grip I had and made it to the finish in 2nd .


Race 2

Started ok and avoided trouble until the approach to the last corner , saw a car go off to the left so I pulled right but he came back on track and tagged me , I spun into the wall but wasnt damaged , I didnt know exactly where I was as my screen was full of wall and my mirrors were full of sky , I thought I was round the corner so I thought I would boot it in reverse and clear the track , unfortunately I didnt go across the track I parked in the middle of it instead , slap bang in front of Cookie (sry John my fault entirely) ,
After sorting the mayhem I caused I found I was chasing Cookie with Andi snapping at my heels , this set up a nice little battle that went on for a few laps .
I knew I could lap faster than Cookie if I could get past ,but , the guy was covering the corners well , I could see my car was better on the brakes and I was working out where I could have a go at him , but then Andi arrived , he squeezed up my inside at the last corner and forced me out wide and took the place and proceeded to pressure Cookie , there were a couple of tense moments for the pair of them exiting the Corkscrew and on the run down to the last corner , this gave me the opportunity to do the same move on Andi that he did to me so I got back behind Cookie , I got a run on him approaching turn 6 and managed to outbrake him and make it stick , I then pulled away and started to catch Tim , I could see traffic ahead of Him and decided to pit early to try and pass them in the pitstops , unfortunately they had the same idea and we all pitted together , I managed to pit quickly and chased Jer out of the pits , got past him at turn 6 and could see Thomas ahead , coming out of 7 Thomas lost it and went off to the left so I pulled right and was just turning in for the Corkscrew when an out of control Thomas also arrived , he spun me off , but again I was undamaged so could continue , after that I drove as fast as I could and worked my way up to 3rd .


Great racing guys that was more fun than I thought it would be , Admin (all of you) nice job thanks for setting this up , now for Sao Paulo and hopefully some grip .

[jerry 33]

hey guys..
first off, I was just happy to be able to make this one ;D a family deal had been pushed back to latter in the day which left me time to play, so anything at the race would be "icing on the cake"
finished 6th in both racing with some nice battles with Mel, Andi and Tim, along with others that my head was down too much to get their names. all clean racing and fun
nice to see my team mate finsh 7th and 5th, watched a battle between him and Andi in the second race take place right in front of me. I was turning PB's and couldn't catch them and they weren't making mistakes either so, I had to settle for being a spectator..
thanks to "all" that do the work, congrats to "all" that raced and those that podium'd!
hope to seeeeeeeeeeeee you all at next one..

[c.pucher]

Good reading guys

Sorry I couldn't make it, wasn't at home. Good to see my teammate performing well 8) Awesome job David!

[DJCruicky]

I been having a bit of good luck with the last few races, a few wins. Might be because Gorka is off with a sore wrist.
Qually went great, did PB first lap out. Spent the rest of the session flossing my teeth .

Race 1, poll is on the un-rubbered side of track so DeeeCeeeee gets the jump on me as I wheel spin for grip. Took it easy for first 5 mins then found myself closing the gap to him. Got passed him at the hairpin, think he just let me passed TBH, cheers. A pit and then a easy win.

Race2, this time on the rubbered side I'm 10th on the reverse grid. I do a good start. This time it's me jumping DeeeCeee. I then go round a few more drivers the long way round outside of the hairpin. I swap paint with Dan a few times but get passed. This car is good that it allows wheel to wheel action, as other cars would flip then fly to the moon if you get too close. He gets the place back as I get held up from cars later on in lap. I follow him for short time, but then gives me a big shock as he drives over a red kerb and flips up into air and fly's over my car. Other people made mistakes up front so again was a easy win again.

Looks like a few other people had fun on the red kerbs watching replay. Massive crash Mel and Cookie had at the corkscrew, ouch.

DJC

[argl]

Had a good (for my standards) handle on the track, but could not practise as much as I would have liked. Anyway, got near my PB in Q, 3rd on the grid, if I remember correctly. Did a very bad start where a bunch of competitors passed me easily on the first meters. I was able to grab a few places back, and after some self-induced errors I decided to take it easy and settle for 4th. Also, the Indy 500 was running in parallel, Saavedra had just crashed with uncertainty on his condition (turned out he has only relatively minor injuries) in the final phase of the race. So I was destructed a bit. After our race, Indy had also finished, and I was pleased to find out who had won.

In the second race i botched the start again from P7 and this time the whole field bar one passed on the straight to T1. I was able to pass a few people in the opening laps and found myself behind DC who was chasing John. In a slightly opportunistic move I squeezed by DC in the final corner for which he kindly paid me back by staging the same move on me next time around In the further course of the race, I approached Tim, catching up a bit an every corner. I misjudged my abilities and drove into him on the last corner which turned him around (sorry for that!). I parked the car to let him by again, but that took some time and about 100 other cars passed us as well. Not long after that I was closing in on Tim again, and this time I somehow made it stick in a proper fashion. The pitstop and the race was over in a blur, in the end I reached 4th place again, so its a 4/4, with which I am pleased.

I will miss the next two rounds I guess (road trip to Le Mans!), I wish everyone all the best for those races and a larger grid. I think this one was the low point of the season with about 14 participants. Definitely not for the quality of the races, which continue to entertain and amaze me. Grats and thanks to all involved.

[DJCruicky]

Mark of a true petrol head, can both do a league race and watch the Indy 500 at the same time .
I counted 12 people for the 1st race, so yeah a big drop in numbers. I fear there will be less next race as F1 Montreal race will be at same time as our race.

[lamer of fortune]

Hi all,

I really sucked in this race. Came in last minute after family commitmments and did not even get a qualifiying lap together. In the race i hit the brakes too hard in the first lap and had to go with a flatspot for 10 laps until tires got changed. It was more fun after that.

In the second race I really lost it. The first few laps were not too bad but then i became unsure whether my pit settings were saved from the previous race or not. unfortunately I could not see the setting due to a misplaced gauge from he trackmap plugin. I started to fiddle with the LCD whil driving and it was only a matter of time to loose control and hit a wall. Needless to say, I got the previously correct setting wrong and after repairing the damage from the crash for 180 seconds I only had fuel for another 3 laps, causing the need for another pitstop. I must prepare better next time. However it was still a lot of fun and I look forward to the next races.

Best
Tobias

[gorgias1976]

Mark of a true petrol head, can both do a league race and watch the Indy 500 at the same time .
I counted 12 people for the 1st race, so yeah a big drop in numbers. I fear there will be less next race as F1 Montreal race will be at same time as our race.

I preffered racing than watching the Indy 500, but... :'(

For the next race I'll be away celebrating my wife's birthday, so no chance.

[cookie]

not my best day ....

my vid card blew up a day before the race so i was struggling to get up and running again in time for the race..

quali - i was 2 seconds off my lap times with the new vid card... lost my connection twice in practice..but it seems fine in quali

race 1- i got 7 laps in with some weird lag and 'synchronizing' messages then my internet went down for few seconds and i disconnected.

race 2- got my connection stabilized but started at the back and poor frame rates hit me making it difficult to judge brake points- i got into the back of nikos- misjudged his brake point , i slowed to let him catch and go by again - later i caught up to mel , he made successive mistakes heading up the hill to the corkscrew and i pulled beside headed for the corkscrew-i thought he was off pace but he caught back up in the braking zone ,- no room and nobody would back down - disaster -we both crashed , i got a couple [points due to ;low turnout -

gotta get my frame rates sorted now in time for the next one