Sim Racers 4 Life - Lola T280 Season - Round 13 - Imola - Reports

[1959nikos]

Hope it was a nice race for you all

Place your reports here please.

[gorgias1976]

For me it was a complete disaster.
The setup I had been using the previous two races wasn't working well in Imola. Front tires were cold while the rears took a lot of temperature. If I tried to compensate that I got lots of understeer, so I decided to stick with that setup.

Qualy
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My first lap was a personal best my more than a second, 1:43.7 I really pushed the car over its limits and that proved to be faster for a single lapper.

Race1
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Did a good start but I was too confident approaching the first turn, running wide through the gravel and losing first position to DjC. It was very difficult to get close to him due to the turbulence. A few laps later his car started to smoke at the straights due to overheating.
I tried for an early pitstop to try and gain some advantage but I found some traffic and DjC came out of his pitstop ahead of me.
He started struggling a bit with temperature and that helped me getting close to him. But at lap 14 at the straight I missed the 200m braking mark and when I realised I was approaching the 100m one it was too late to avoid him and crashed against him. Fortunately his car wasn't damaged.
I decided to retire in embarrasment after the crash.

Race2
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Starting at the back everything went fine until lap 3 when at the end of the straight I again took the two cars ahead of me. This time I didn't miss the braking signal but I just didn't expect them to brake a little earlier than me. My mistake.
I kept running without damage and pushed hard trying to catch DjC. Also tried for an early pitstop but it didn't work either.
DjC went on Hammer Time and started lapping low 44s easily. I tried pushing hard to mantain his pace but that only overheat my rear tires. My car started oversteering everywhere making the problem even worse. It was like driving a go-kart for the last 7 laps, happy tail every corner.

Nice driving from mister no mistakes who keeps showing why he is leading the championship.

Note. "Mister no mistakes" is said in a sense of humor

[DJCruicky]

You sure did have some bad luck Gorka, plus everyone else around you . You did get Poll so not a complete disaster, nice time.
Back from my holiday after missing last race keen to drive again. Found the track slippery so added lots and lots of wing to my setup. Track looked good, think it was converted from Race07 game, looked the same in every way.

Realroad was a bit odd this race, one side black and other side white. Guess which side I was starting the race on, yes the white no grip stuff! Add a few marbles too would you!! . So as expected got a slow start and had DC overtake. Then was funny to see him and Gorka drive off into the gravel trap for me to take the lead . Ohh my...
Soon into race, with Gorka caughting me, my engine started smoking and getting worst each lap. I was having to lift on the straights in fear of my engine going pop. Not sure how rfactor handles this would it have blow up if I was not lifting?, no idea. This was helping Gorka keep up with me.
Few laps later after the pits stops, at the end of the long straight, Bang!! , not from my engine but from Gorka who had braked way to late and knocked us both into the gravel. I continued on my way, unsure of damage still in 1st. Gorka, I'm sure if you had have continued you could have easyly presured me into blowing my engine as I was having to nurse it the rest of the race.

Race 2 was fun. This time I added a bigger radiator. Just followed everyone and let them take each other out I saw Gorkas crash right in front of me, it was like the cars exploded into each other, cars spinning or going backwards into the gravel, nice to keep me on my toes and the heart rate pumping, thanks.
As Gorka said I seemed to be doing some good lap times so could pull away to finish the race in 1st again. Just a lot of luck.

The final next, 2 hours eeek!

DjC