SIM RACERS 4 LIFE - BT44 SEASON - ROUND 2 - SOUTH AFRICA - REPORTS

[1959nikos]

Great attendance, a great car (my all time favorite) and a great track, thank you again Mauro, so sad you didnt make it.

Some stellar times from the usual suspects, but more importand I think that even with 50% damage almost 20 people finished race.

I think we are getting better and better.

Always remember guys, dont attempt a pass if you are not sure it will be safe, better safe than sorry as in real life

Please place your Kyalami reports here.

[Ricknau]

You beat me to it Nikos!

Very fun dicing at the start and early laps. Everyone around me was competitive yet respectful. A lot of fun! Sorry to whomever was behind me mid race when I got a little squirrelly a couple of times, I think Harri was one of those. I enjoyed the first 1/2 of the race but had decided to not change tires, a la Sao Paulo, and that was a big mistake. I think even if a few spots are given up it will be more fun trying to gain them back on good tires than just sliding around for the last half of the race watching everybody catch and pass me.

[gorgias1976]

Qualy
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I had no idea what times I was capable of doing as I only had practiced race fuel. It took me a few attempts but soon the car felt very fast, being able to be very aggresive as tire managing was not an issue.

Race
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I was a bit worried about it. I knew the laptimes I could get (high 9s low 10s) but I didn't know what the others could do and how the tires would feel after half race (longest I had practiced was 30 laps and car was starting to feel a little oversteery).
When the lights turned green I had a good reaction time but as I shifted second and third gears I saw the cars behind getting past me. I wasn't sure what was the cause, I just hoped it was fuel difference.
I entered turn 1 in third place and just focused in racing very tidy looking after the tires and hoping both Davids were doing a pitstop and not gaining too much time on me.
David Coyne was pulling away little by little and DjC was being a little slower. It was about lap 18 when David Coyne went for a pitstop, that was too soon I thought, he should be struggling with his tires if he catches me later.
I kept close to DjC, pushing as fast as I could always taking care of the left front at faster corners and the rear left tire when on the throttle.
At lap 25 DjC went to the pits and then I felt relieved knowing I had now a nice lead so I kept pushing my pace.
Constant traffic helped me keep focused and concentrated. Laps went by very quickly due to this so soon the race came to an end and I got the win. Very good feelings.

I personally thought doing a pitstop was quicker, but knowing my setup was slow on the straight and not good for overtaking I couldn't afford it and my only option was to manage the tires and hope the others did a pitstop and didn't catch me by the end.

[edwin]

Quali:

With a 10th spot and pb laptime i kind off was happy. But i was very nervous about the start of the race with so many people.

Race:

Had a good start and after t1 2 cars got into trouble i jumped on the brakes to avoid a collision and got me a kiss from behind. At that time i didn't know who it was and to be honest i didn't have enough time to look in my mirrors properly to find out who it was.
But next lap the kisser , overtook me and his rear wing showed the word Slowshark :o who the h*ll gave this guy this name because he drove like a shark yes but ohw no he wasn't slow!!! :
Paul next time don't you dare to take those pills again before race
Well Paul and i had a nice battle from there on then he was in front then i again was in front but our battle lasted till lap 25isch by then i managed to get some room and Paul couldn't get into my tow anymore.
But due to the fact i had to push to keep up with Swire i wasn't managing my tires that well and i had decided before the race to not go for a pitstop and now at this time in the race with front left still at 75% i decided to keep out for the rest of the race just like my initial plan.
From there on it was kind of a uneventfull race with lapping some backmarkers and at one point (think it was lap 30 or so) Gorka lapped me :-[ but i was running in 6th place and was happy with myself.
From lap 40 and up i was chasing Andi who was as fast as me or even maybe a little faster but running in 21th? spot, so i thought he must have had some issue because otherwise he would have done better. In the end he let me pass but i think it was because he got the blue flag waved. Cheer on speed i never would have been able to overtake him at that point in the race because i really had to look for the tires, at least that was what i was thinking.
In the end i finished 6th which is good and i am happy with and my front left still had 40% : maybe next time just push a little harder ;D

Well done everybody, Grats top 3 and thank you admins.

[lamer of fortune]

It wasquite a challenge to just make it to the Race. Friday training was horrible with lots of Lag and warping. The need for a computer upgrade was strongly felt. The only missing thing was time as there also was the Birthday of our 7 year old to be celebrated with friends. J also planned to build a second Computer from my parts for the older son.
I knew this was risky business as things never go as Smooth as plannedand so it came.
Only one hour was left between the BD party and Qualify with the reassembled but untested computerJust made it in timefor a few practice laps and Q. First tried the lower wing setup which is fast but eats the tyres fast and then applied the mid wing with the plan to make it home without a pitstop. In the end it was p7 with PB.
ln the race I managed to stay out of trouble and turned in slow but tyresaving lapsThe strategy worked and in the end Ifinished P7. I am very happy with that result given the quality of the field.
best
Tobias

[gorgias1976]

I remember in lap 2 between turn1 and turn2 seing a wheel in the middle of the track. Someone had a big crash at the start.

[deecee52]

I really struggled to find a setup that didnt eat the front left and yet allowed good laptimes ??? so I decided to approach the problem from a different angle , looking at everyones laptimes I decided I could maybe make a 2 stop strategy work and providing I cleared traffic quickly I should finish somewhere around 3 > 5th

Qually

I knew I couldnt get on front row so was looking for a second row slot to help me with my race strategy

Race

Got a good start behind DJ and dropped in behind him for 2 nd at the first corner , at the speed DJ started lapping I thought he was doing the same as me but by lap 5 his tyres started going away and I managed to overtake him on the main striaght :o :o .
I started to pull away and open a gap ,but , more importantly I was taking a lot of time out of the guys in 3rd to 5th spots , pitted on lap 17 and came out alongside George who was in 4th , my tyres allowed me to get past him quickly and start chasing down Ramon. For the next stint I managed to keep my laptimes up and thanks to the excellent driving of all those I passed managed not to loose too much time in traffic .
I pitted in a comfortable 3rd and came out alongside George again (he must hate the sight of me) , had a little dice with him but once my tyres were up to temp I passed him and got 3rd place back , Ramon was the guy I was worried about so pushed a little to open a buffer and then just managed the gap to finish 3rd .

[jerry 33]

well, qually went well - I did PB with .88 version and got 8th. I had a one stop strategy, so I felt good for the race.
I got a good start, up to 5th with George behind me, didn't want to use up tires early so fell back into 6th place just cruzin and loving life - right up until I hit the guardrail on lap 7 - ????? How in the Fudge did I do that - all by my lonesome, with nobody around me! add a couple of minutes to limp back to pits, fix damage and do 44 laps on one set of tires - Oh Well....
just to say - top guys were running lap times that were unreal - great job you guys....
Thanks to all that make it happen.......

[Mike Bennett]

Evil. This car with the setup I was using. It took a lot of focus just to keep it on track at the best of times.

So I was hoping for a top 15 start...just missed it with 16th but thought I would just try to hold the car on the track and hope for the best. Got a good start and with a few guys up front going off I was 9th on lap 1. That lasted until lap 2 when I had my first spin exting the slow left/right. Rejoined in 21st then the weirdest thing happened...entering the tight left hander behind the paddock it felt like I hit or got hit by something but there was no one around. No damage or anything but I think I went off again there...(no replay so this is from memory).

Rejoined then a few laps later went off at the fast left (T3) and crashed into the Armco...and the game locked up HARD! No escape, no Alt F4...task manager came up but no mouse cursor so I pulled the plug. I sincerely hope no weirdness was caused by this. I actually had the game CTD in practice a couple times when I went off in that area.

Grats to all who finished. See you at Monaco hopefully.

PS...is the server replay available? I'd like to review my race (as short as it was) but mine didn't save due to the game locking up.

[Hedlund]

PS...is the server replay available? I'd like to review my race (as short as it was) but mine didn't save due to the game locking up.

Everything should be available here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iquryzimdwtfq...LYcSa?dl=0

Race results > current season > kyalami > vcr

[Mike Bennett]

Thank you very much!!

[Harri Mac]

Rejoined then a few laps later went off at the fast left (T3) and crashed into the Armco...and the game locked up HARD! No escape, no Alt F4...task manager came up but no mouse cursor so I pulled the plug. I sincerely hope no weirdness was caused by this. I actually had the game CTD in practice a couple times when I went off in that area.

Don't know what happened to you but I've been experiencing on CTD in single player. It tends to happen if I crash into a wall or barrier, the wheel locks hard to the left and the game crashes to desktop. This happened 4 times today at Monaco (one a light touch to the Armco), have to either unplug the wheel and plug it back in or restart the game to make the wheel centre again. Game is behaving oddly the last month or so.