Sim Racers 4 Life - BT44 Season - Round 9 - Brands Hatch - Reports

[1959nikos]

Besides our technical problems there was much racing at Hatch.

I thought all week I was doing well, I even had a 22, but on race day I couldnt believe the times you girls and guys did, amazing!

I stayed back with Paul and Bruce and all was going well, I was up to 12th and I stayedthat way till the end, but, at the half of the race the car showed a mind of its own, braking late and overshooting me at bends, till I did some serious damage by lap 30.

Obviously tires were dead, and risking my position against Swire I chose to repair, luckilly pitstop only took 43sec so I was back in my 12th place,no harm done.
Teamie had a great placing, so all well.

At this point I would like to give my warmest thanks and wishes to Paul for enduring all this stress making the servers work right.
Im pretty sure his belly tightens when he hears us shout "WARP WARP WARP" all the time.

You are doing a great job Paul mate, please dont mind our fits

[bullwinkle]

I had to avoid tagging Harri on lap one and it put me in back of field had to fight for spots as all the warping made it impossible to go anywhere safely ended 11 disappointing for sure. Well done all the rest of you I was surprised we did not have more wrecks. Good driving.
Paul I want to second Nikos statement (oh God I am agreeing with Nikos shoot me) we all know you are trying and we are really with you all the way. Keep with it as best you can we yell and scream but only to let others know there is a problem. I do hope you can find the issue for I fear we may lose drivers if we don't. If I can be of any help just say so.

[gorgias1976]

Qualy
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I wasn't expecting good laptimes here. Practicing half race fuel I could only do 19s and never below it. When I reached a 17.4 in a very light car I was really surprised.

Race
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I was very doubtfull about race strategy. Trying to do no pitstop was 10 to 15 slower according to my calculations than doing a pitstop and also tire wear was quite high. But, seing the warping issues on the server and that I was not starting on pole I preffered to take the risky strategy to avoid incidents.
Firs corners were very difficult in a 102 liters car. Lost second place to David and almost got overtaken at turn 4.
As things calmed down I was able to lap concentrated on being quick while looking after the tires.
About half race David did his pitstop and he exited 13sec behind me. He was coming faster and faster as I was struggling more and more with the tires. 7 laps to the end he was 2 seconds behind me. I made a mistake and went wide at the final corner losing the first position.
Being second and having Kristjian 27 seconds behind I decided to pit for tires so I could still keep second place while getting the race fastest lap.
I miscalculated the gap and exited 4 seconds behind Kristjian. I did my fast lap and 3 laps to the end I was right beside him when defending his position he went wide braking for turn 2 and brought me to the gravel. I went back on track and he, in a very gentleman way, waited and let me pass him.
As I was crossing the finish line with two laps to the end I saw David coming from the pits right ahead of me. Was he also looking for a fast lap to get the extra points? I tried battling him as he was on colder tires and both our tires were fresh but warpping car issues made it imposible, finally ending as I started in second position.

(later I checked the laptimes and though struggling with the tires the car was able to lap constant mid 20s the whole race. The lighter car just compensated for the less grip though the mid 19s average of a pistop strategy should have been quicker)

[Harri Mac]

Knowing this would be difficult I drove to survive, even then it was a close call.

It was hard to pass because the cars were both warping and going invisible while warping. I crashed a couple of times to avoid hitting the guy in front of me and taking us both out. I might be a a lady but I try to drive like a gentleman.

Nikos, the mess at Druids was not your fault, I couldn't tell where you were on the road and had to go off the road so as not to hit you, hence very wide and slow, had to choose a place where I thought I could pass safely even if not sure of your exact position on the road.

I crashed and sustained minor damage avoiding hitting a warping car that went invisible then reappeared right off the front wing. Drove last 15 laps or so with the damage, made the car just under a second slower a lap but better that than pitting again.

For me this race was only about surviving to the end.

I've made the suggestion of my networking friend in the "our server" thread, to request the server be moved to a different stack to determine if this is a hardware issue. I hope it is Paul, think you are pulling your hair out for something you can't fix. Like Nikos, I think you are doing a great job and I agree, it must be stressful for you. Hopefully you can make the stack request on Monday and we can see what happens from there. Good luck with it Paul.

[jerry 33]

well, i went into this race worried about getting a lost connection and that did NOT happen in the race - so - I WON! ;D
See Paul, all your hard work did help. i echo the sentiments of us all in saying how much we appreciate all your hard work and effort!
qually went well and my start was good, i was running 2nd in the non-supercharged class right behind Dan, 5th overall. Dan was running some very clean lines and all i could do was wait for an opening, i was lucky enough to get my chance but Dan was right behind me - very clean and nice driving Dan! as i was coming up on Lapped traffic, i was having the same problem Harri had, i couldn't tell if traffic was going to stay off line or just was warped there?? I thank them all for being Very well Mannered. i did notice a strange thing about warping, if someone would warp into a sand trap, they would throw a cloud of sand into the air. even though, they themselves never went into the trap.. wierd!
near the end i got one giant frame freeze, i held my breath, praying that the next thing i seen wasn't a "Black Screen" - it wasn't - i was able to finish in 4th - first in Non Supercharged Class! - Tim had his problems, as stated above - but all in all we had a good day and didn't get Booted!
congrats to the podium - well done - and thanks to all that make it happen.
8)

[dan bayford]

I've never experienced so much warping if that is the term for cars disappearing and appearing to go off the track and one second being 5 seconds behind you and the next second hitting you in the rear and the next second 10 seconds behind you I just hope I didn't hit anyone or cause anyone to hit me I saw Harri go off behind me due to me really sorry for that Harri and to Paul sorry if I did hit you t3 you dissappear ed and then appeared on my car but if was my fault I'm sorry man and anyone I may of knocked off really really sorry I would not do it intensional ly the only thing I know for sure is Paul and all that make sr4l possible do a great job and the warping is not there fault just something with there hard work will be fixed for our benefit and for them I am great full other than the warping I had a great race I should of got some new tyres half way through but I was to steady Eddie at the beginning so made the choice to go it on 1 set of tyres wrong choice in the end I had vibration lap 19 and crazy undestear Jerry drove a great race and passed me twice great drive Jerry great racing teamie and thank you to all of you racers for making all this so good see you all at the next one ))

[gorgias1976]

near the end i got one giant frame freeze, i held my breath, praying that the next thing i seen wasn't a "Black Screen" - it wasn't - i was able to finish in 4th - first in Non Supercharged Class! - Tim had his problems, as stated above - but all in all we had a good day and didn't get Booted!
congrats to the podium - well done - and thanks to all that make it happen.
8)

I had it by mid race, it lasted like 3 seconds. Also had some minor that lasted a few tenths of a seconds, a bit scary sometimes.

Only Brianza to go. We must start working on the spring-summer season.