Sim Racers 4 Life - BT20 Season - Round 11 - Circuit de Monaco

[1959nikos]

Obviously not for me this race.

it started good though:
At Practice I was awfull, couldnt do better than :35 and I kept doing :36s.

Then, at Qually, I decided to take a different approach to the chicane, go in it in 4th, than change down to 3rd.
Well, that did it good, I was into :30s

Race 1 I started fantastic, I was 4th, but then I had some damage, dont remember how.
Steering was bad, but not lethal and I was turning :32s.
Also traffic behind was in a safe distance so going into pits I dicided not to fix damage.
Now I always try to remember to have the keyboard on my right side but I always forget it to the left, so it takes some funny moments to change its place while racing.
I usually do that on a straight, but theres no place like that in Monaco.
So, while moving the keyboard I accidentally pressed something (I later found it was the minus key), and suddenly I found myself on board of David Hart's car.
For a while I turned my wheel and his car responded (or so I thought), but when after we (lol) completed a lap, I saw my car lying vertically at start finish :S

I suddenly realised what was happening, I started pushing every button on keyboard trying to get back in my car, no way, so I pushed esc
Sorry to all who had to avoid me lying there.

Race 2 I got lead position as I was 10th in Race 1, and disaster stroke again.
While I was trying to find my view back hitting the keyboard, I turned autoclutch off, so I stalled everytime I tried to get off, scaring I guess people behind and receiving some blows.
I finally got off, steering bend again, but I was doing :33s so I thought I might make it.

I had some luck too, Edwin had problems and he went into pits.
When my time came, he just passed me, and I followed him close into hairpin, he seemed to have problems and I smelled blood
Suddenly, a fast guy came after us, lapping us.
I gave way just before the right hander that goes into tunnel and Ed opened up to let lapper go.
He went too wide, so I easily followed the fast guy and passed Ed.
Then I suddenly remembered this is one of the NO NO things to do, I gathered back my senses and waited Ed to pass me back in the tunnel.
I got back hard after him, so I forgot I had damage and I hit the ramp at Tabac clumsilly and I ended on the wall

Car was drivable yet, so when I saw Hart limping in front, I thought this is my chance so I followed him close.
Then at chicane, I realised my damage was more than I thought, car did some strange swerving under brake and I went for a swim into harbour.

Definatelly not my day

[gorgias1976]

Things weren't bad to me despite result in race 1. It seems that taking races as individual fun races makes me feel more relaxed and make fewer mistakes.

As I've had very little practice for this race I decided to take qualifying as part of the practice session doing laps after laps in race conditions. My fastest laptime was good enough for a 5th place and checking the laptimes of the other drivers I thought that could be a good place to have an uneventful race in no man's land.

Race 1
I got surprised how race started, 4th on the grid after all trouble with the CTD issue I started very nice with very little spin wheel and getting to second place at turn 1.
I wanted a quite race and I found myself with both DjC and David Coyne right behind me.
During the first lap I was a bit nervous but a couple of laps later I saw I could build a little gap to them enough to concentrate on the driving and not on the mirrors. Meanwhile Rikard was going farther away but was the expected. I decided to pit at the end of lap 9 (I wasn't sure about fuel lasting so I entered pits by then). A couple of laps later I checked positions and I saw I was still in second place while David Coyne was pushing hard 3 seconds behind.
Laps went by and I was feeling quite confident until in the lefthander after the chicane I found David Hart recovering from an accident. I just couldn't avoid him and crashed hard against him damaging both front suspensions. Car was very difficult to drive so 3 turns later I crashed even harder and had to retire.

Race 2
My 9th position after the race 1 incident brought me on the front row alongside Nikos. I did a good start and I saw in my mirrors Nikos was still stopped so I got clean to turn 1. I started pushing hard as I feared sooner or later DjC and David Coyne would show up in second place. When that happened I had already built a 12sec gap. My left front tire started to overheat and suffer as I realised I was locking it quite a lot due to the hard pushing. I had to drive a little slower to avoid trouble.
Pitstop came uneventful and the remaining 9 laps were endless trying to keep concentrated on the driving.
During the last two laps my left foot was starting to hurt. Too many gear changes here (22 per lap) and therefore too much left foot/clutch work (let's hope it won't be a problem in the 2 hours race of Le Mans). Fortunately lap 19 was completed and I made it to the end in first position.
Damn, that felt good.

[edwin]

Well......

My results definitely didn't come from my driving skills tonight. Man was this a struggle. Once more it's proven that i need practise which i didn't have that much.

I struggled in quali and couldn't make a choice which set-up i was going to use. understeer, oversteer, neutral....so i choose the one i did my pb in which was in the low 29s but even with that set i just could get "into" it.

Race 1 had a reasonable start but was pushing way to hard causing me 2 times severe damage but both times was able to limp back to pit and get repaired. At one point i thought i'm not going to race anybody anymore i just try and see if i can finish the race.
Which i obviously did giving me a 8th place.

Race 2. started 3th and saw Nikos staying at his spot. but trying to keep up with Gorka wasn't a good idea and i once again managed to get me some left and right rear damage. Tried to keep going but that also wasn't my best idea this yeat so next lap i decided to pit and once again get repaired. In pit i thought well drive your own race and pace and lets just see what is going to happen. Fighting Nikos and he gave me back my place after overtaking me as he told (Class act Nikos but imo you could have go on..... i made a mistake while DC overtook me and you took advantage of that) but as said Nikos as a fair sportsman gave me back my spot and i was setting my self up for a hell of a fight. Nikos did disappear in the same lap tho and i thought wt* happened there. Well in the end i finished 4th but as said not because of me driving that well. I'm glad this one is over because Monte and me........hmmmm love and hate.

Thanks all for tonight hope next race we will have a more stable build again because those f*(peep)* game freezes or CTD's are getting pretty on my nerves.

[329Kane]

I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say I wasn't disappointed. Set a series of fast laps in qualifying below my personal best and achieve my goal of qualifying on the front row barely ahead of DJC and David Coyne.

Was surprised to see myself on the last row of the grid when we entered into the race session and even more surprised to see the administrators carry forward with the race with three or four drivers in their incorrect grid positions.


At any other track I probably would carry on but at this circuit and these cars it's not worth the risk trying to make passes and possibly take someone out trying to fight my way back to the front.

At least I wasn't in the championship hunt but it still didn't make me feel any better to let all that practice down the drain. I've really enjoyed all of the events I've participated in here at SR4L this was a pretty bitter pill to swallow. I think if you're going to run a league you need to do all that you can try to make a fair event for all participants.

[1959nikos]

At least I wasn't in the championship hunt but it still didn't make me feel any better to let all that practice down the drain. I've really enjoyed all of the events I've participated in here at SR4L this was a pretty bitter pill to swallow. I think if you're going to run a league you need to do all that you can try to make a fair event for all participants.

You must understand we had to go on with it as time was running out for some members.
Last build is getting to our nerves to all here.

[jerry 33]

hey guys...
I had some wheel problems starting on Friday that I thought I had fixed by early morning sunday. so I was all set for the race. ;D
as it turns out - nope >
race one I was wrecking and pitting, wrecking and pitting. I wanted to just make it to the finish but I started wrecking on the straights and I thought - time to click out.
second race - was same, so I got out of the race so I wouldn't collect anyone else.
good thing teammate Tim did well - at least in first race - hopefully in second race also.
we all knew this race was going to be a tuff one and this build has not been friendly to us. it is very tuff to practice all week and have glitch's mess up all of your hard work. for me, at the back of the field it's not as bad. for those at the front - I would be livid and understandably so, but please try to remember - Paul is doing his best and I thank him for that and thanks to Nikos for all the organizing you are doing.. Good job to them both in some very trying times. we all hope next build is more friendly - I betcha Paul's name is on top of the list!

[Hedlund]

We could have restarted, put Kane back in front row and skipped the warm up session. I don't think we had lost much time. From front row to the back.. that's not fair. Even if this is a fun league we should be somewhat fair. Or we could just as well ditch the qualifying. Paul confused me with Robert when setting the grid for race 2 at Essington and I had to start further back than I should, but I was okay with that. But I really feel sorry for Kane.


Well.. race report!

Qualy went well. Not the first laps though. At my first attempt I crashed the car at Tabac on my warm up lap. I was driving quite slow but I used 4th gear instead of 3rd and I think that caused the massive understeer :p On my second attempt everything went fine until harbor chicane on my hot lap. Someone had just crashed and it was impossible to avoid disaster. On my third attempt everything went fine. I felt like I made a lot of small mistakes but I was mighty surprised when I crossed finish line and saw that I just did my first 1:24 lap, with 6 tenths margin too! I tried to improve a few more times but I just couldn't. The second half of qualy I took some rest. Probably 1:23 would be possible towards the end as grip must have improved but that would have required a perfect lap, and it was not neccesary.

RACE
With the grid set wrong I was not sure if we were going to restart or not and it felt a bit awkward. But we started and I was surprised to see Gorka and not DJ on my right side, but I thought I was a little in front of him so I was going to brake a little later and take the lead I didn't realise he was still on the inside when turning in so we touched - but with no serious consequenses. My reaction was to quickly move to the left to leave more space but then I gently hit the armco. I couldn't imagine that little touch could damage the car but of course rf2 started to automatically request pit stop for repair (one thing that I really, really hate about rf2 is the automatic pit stop request). Track was less grippy than in quali because of the server restart and it took me a few laps to find a good pace and adapt to new grip levels. Although I was driving carefully I could build up a gap to Gorka, and that made me more relaxed. Pitstop went fine - 48 seconds and without a speeding penalty, yey! The final laps were about to keep concentration and avoid crashed cars, suspension parts, tires, hay bales etc Managed to avoid them and won the race.

Congrats to Gorka in race 2. Well deserved

Thanks for hosting. I hope we have a new build before our finale at Le Mans but I guess that would be too much to hope for.

[1959nikos]

Was surprised to see myself on the last row of the grid when we entered into the race session and even more surprised to see the administrators carry forward with the race with three or four drivers in their incorrect grid positions.

Kane Im not sure you realized the situation.
Admin (Paul) couldnt see if you were at wrong place, he had lost data, thats why he was calling each one of us to say his position.
If mistakes were made there, blame it to the stressing situation, not the person, he did as much as he could.

We could have restarted, put Kane back in front row and skipped the warm up session. I don't think we had lost much time. From front row to the back.. that's not fair. Even if this is a fun league we should be somewhat fair. Or we could just as well ditch the qualifying. Paul confused me with Robert when setting the grid for race 2 at Essington and I had to start further back than I should, but I was okay with that. But I really feel sorry for Kane.

We all feel sorry for Kane.
But you are talking of fairness and you say that League should be...somewhat fair??
Well...thats unfair to all of us, to you included, to judge the place here as unfair.

Kane happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, it could happen to anyone of us.
As a matter of fact it did, many of us started at wrong lineup, Paul tried his best but the result was wrong.
Also, I dont recall if Kane actually responded to Paul's questions about our positions, I say that because he didnt respond twice when I asked him (Kane) something.
Anyway this situation with this build is totally unexpected, im glad there is only a race left for season to finish.
Cross our gingers that future is brighter.

[gorgias1976]

It will be brighter.
We've overcomed worse builds from ISI. I remember when the pit bug appeared. I was fighting for the championship lead in the F3 league and I got two zeros because of crashing to desktop when going for the pits.
Another buggy build when CTDs were also often when changing sessions, I "missed" a couple of races too because of that.
But this things are as they are. Paul is busy managing the server, restarting it because of CTD, dealing with mod downloading problems.... he is doing a very good effort with the little spare time he's got.
This season is about to finish, a newer one will come. ISI will make better builds, worse... some (me included) will crash and feel sorry for crashing other drivers..... errare humanum est

And to change the mood, I am willing to test the GTX760, I just hope to get a lot better performance than my actual 550ti

[cookie]

Qauli- got a pb and broke 128 with a 127.5 - was a good way to start-

Race 1 - the mistake on the grid order threw me off- i thought for sure a restart was coming - so i hit the wall at t1 and broke my car in the excitement - . got my pit on the first lap - then proceeded to hit the wall again on lap 8 and 14- i finished 5th way down on laps nursing a broken car- 4th was mel who had a lap in hand almost

Race 2 was a little better , i got into second early with edwin losing time behind me - by the time i made a mistake DJ and DC were on me - i made a couple errors letting them by and almost ate a lightpost - with others crashing i got my first podium with a 3rd place 8)

[Hedlund]

I totally understand that builds can sometimes cause problems and bugs can ruin our races. We have all been there.. But this is a different thing. This bug only requires the server to be restarted. I'm not sure about what's so "unfair" of me to think that we should be able to set the grid correct. When I said "somewhat fair" I mean 1-2 places wrong doesn't hurt, but from front row to last... I think we should have restarted, put Kane and others to their correct positions, and jumped straight to race again. Why not take a few minutes extra to make things right rather than to rush? I was one of them who had no time for delays, but still I rather want things to be handled the right way.

I don't think of this league as unfair. But this time it was.

@Gorka
Good luck with your new GPU!

[deecee52]

Guys be fair on this one , Paul is having to jump through hoops to give us a race meeting , he is battling with problems not of his making and he and Nikos are under a lot of pressure and doing a damn good job , none of us are rushing to help are we ? . Kane didnt respond to Pauls question , people were saying they had a time problem BUT not telling him HOW much time they had , so he did what he thought was right , this guy is doing this for US at the expense of his own racing did anyone see him on track , i think its time for all of us (me included) to look at how we can help out and share some of the load so he can have a good time as well .

race 1

had a slow start and dropped behind DJ , car didnt appear to have any front end and i struggled for a couple of laps , decided to pit early which went ok , came out and slowly worked my way up but buy lap 17 my tyres were suffering , on penultimate lap i brushed the barrier and damaged the car , spent the last lap watching DJ take huge chunks out of my time and he got on my tail just before last corner , fortunately i held my position to the line .

Race 2

Started slow luckily , as a crash happened right in front of me and that was the only luck i had in that race , poor driving from me on different laps saw me spin at Casino , crash at the chicane and eventually try to join the ladies on the balcony on the run up to Casino , so i retired in disgrace .

[1959nikos]

Race 2

Started slow luckily , as a crash happened right in front of me and that was the only luck i had in that race , poor driving from me on different laps saw me spin at Casino , crash at the chicane and eventually try to join the ladies on the balcony on the run up to Casino , so i retired in disgrace .

Joining the ladies on the balcony a disgrace??
Priorities man!

[cookie]

these ladies?

[1959nikos]

these ladies?

that sure is a disgrecefull balcony :

[gorgias1976]

Earlier in the year, my parents, on their wedding aniversary took a short cruise vacation accross the Mediterranean sea.
One of their visits was in Montecarlo and they bought me this cap. I said to myself "If I reach to win a race in montecarlo I'll proudly show it here"
So here it is. ;D

[jerry 33]

Very Cool 8)