iRacing Season 1 - Skip Barber @ VIR (Full) - Dec 22

[Paul Richards]

In the 2.11s here too with a .4 as a PB. Most are high 2.11s though. For some reason thats quite a bit quicker than the last time I drove the skip here. I think a few races at VIR in the DP have helped.

[Kerr]

If  the roads are clear, I might make the race just

[Mark J]

straight back to 70-20fps drops for me in practise in the hosted session so withdrew for my sanity and your safety  another track ive never had a problem with online or off until these hosted sessions  :'(

[popabawa]

Sorry guys

Had some contact right at the start which left my steering wonky, thought I could carry on without resetting, it was OK for a few laps then it seemed to go completely off into the last turn and I collected a couple of others.

I feel like such an idiot, I tried to steer the spin off the track and ended up right in the middle of it 

[picnic]

Wasn't very competitive and after someone fondled my rear the car was a further 4 secs a lap off my pace. Tows are pointless so I quit out.

[Adam Parle]

Sorry Pops - that was me.  Squeezed in between you and TT at the start, was looking for TT and we touched wheels   I think I may have contacted TT as my car got pushed over to the right.

Kept out of trouble after that, good racing with Don for a while before I lost concentration and went off twice.

This banging headache isn't helping - I guess missing the race would have been a better idea, but not having raced for a while I really wanted to!!

[spanner]

Sorry for the start, Picnic was slow and I tried using the grass on the pt exit! sorry bit too agressive. Then seemed to find myself in a group of legends but with Pops going off in the last corner myself and TT tried to avoid it but obviously didnt. Being mindful i was straight across the track i just tried to get back onto the grass before anyone else appeared.
Not a particularly fun combo, not a fan of this track and the car far too twitchy, here's looking forward to the Indycar

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Bah, perfectly good 5th place thrown away at the end of the last lap just as I was running out of concentration.

[ginsters sponsored]

Crimbo prep done, had some first time pracci tonight and was encouraged when I could stay on, so gave it a go.

Sorry to all for my terrible start as I stalled and rather panicked. Rolling starts would be nice (and not just cause I stink at starts  ). Got rather stuck behind the Bassi train after that with rather fun results. Think there was 3 or 4 of us who had a go at him and only the much faster Brian could get past and even then not easily. I joined Ian again for last 4 laps and was really looking forward to trying to think of a way past and was gutted when he pitted. We'll do that again  

Congrats to all as there seemed to be very few offs.

[Kerr]

I rushed home to make this after visiting someone in hospital 65 miles away. Some not too advisable driving got me into the street with a few minutes to spare.

My driveway is on a slope and so far this week with the snow, I keep my speed up and carry enough to turn 90 degrees on to it to get up.

However because the other cars have now cut tyre grooves in the snow, I turned right however the car followed the tracks and went straight ahead.

It was an effort to get the car out and it looks abandoned at the foot of the drive just off the street road.

19" wheels with 245mm wide tyres do not work in the snow!

My total practice was a full 4 laps which is not good enough for entering any race and it certainly showed.


VIR is one of my favourite tracks and I was just hoping that if I played it safe things would come back to me quickly.

It never really happened through the whole race, I never felt confortable or confident enough to push.

Through the race I made lots of errors getting braking points wrong, running wide or just having to control big errors and lucky not to go off.

I started right at the back as I joined when cars were already on the grid, guessed at 4.5g and went for it.

I was as cautious as I could be at the start and just tried to pick holes as they opened up in front of me.

That seemed to work well and I soon was up to about 8th I think.

Then at the last corner I made a big mistake and had to catch it. I ended up running right off the track and in my attempts to avoid slamming into the barrier I travelled further and further away from the track to control the slide costing a lot of time.

To recover I then had to pass half the cars again.

Stunning pace up front. I just wish I had managed to put the practice in and made it a 3 way battle.

Right, I better go find a shovel and move the car.

[Ken Murray]

Qually was just about on my PB so can't complain. Lost a couple of places off the start. Brian has previously confirmed that the quickest way to get the Skip away from standstill is to rev it against the stop and bang it in to 1st. Previously I had been trying to use my clutch pedal. Anyway, tried the rough method and still got away slow. If everyone is doing the same how come some move away faster than others??

Once things had settled over the first lap or so I was trailing Stuart, and after loosing some time initially I spent the next 16 laps slowly reeling him in. There was a group of three more cars just ahead of him the whole time and for the first half of the race the lead group was still visible on the long straight. I finally got right on Stu's gearbox with the aid of a spin by Gary I think. With a lap and half to go Stuart hit a curb really hard through the twisties and got a right snake on. I went straight across the grass to avoid him and was sure the old black flag would be displayed for me. Amazingly it was never shown and I thought that's it, I should be able to hold him off for the last lap. It was looking good but as we motored up the last long straight I couldn't believe how quick he loomed up in my mirrors. I thought about a really dirty block in to the blind crest but hoped if I gave him the inside he might overshoot. However he was to good for that and held it, even with the distraction of Dave spinning across the grass. Still top six isn't bad for someone of my mediocre talents!!

[Brendan]

For the first five or so laps I managed to hang on to the coat tails of messrs Harrington and Richards.  I was happy to be keeping the gap at 1-2 seconds and was looking to pick up any scraps that were thrown my way.

Unfortunately, I got a bit too enthusiastic and had a half-spin at Oak Tree which cost me 6 seconds.  There was no way I was going to reel that back in so I decided to consolidate and bang in some solid laps.  This was enough to eek out the gap to the Gymer brothers and I was pleased to roll over the line in 3rd.

Stunning pace from the two Paul's, just wish I'd been able to stick around longer to enjoy the show.

Anyway, thanks all for a good nights racing and best wishes to everyone for a very Merry Christmas.  Looking forward to the enduro next week.

[ross.mcw]

Pretty pleased with that one.  Managed a PB for qualy and kept it on the track for all but one corner during the race - which probably cost me a top 10 position.

Apologies if my half spin caused any problems on the first corner after the start - I don't think I caught anyone and I'm not sure why I ended up semi-spinning to start with.

Great track, loved it - but didn't have a huge amount of racing to do.

Cheers, Ross.

[IanBassi]

Got rather stuck behind the Bassi train after that with rather fun results. Think there was 3 or 4 of us who had a go at him and only the much faster Brian could get past and even then not easily. I joined Ian again for last 4 laps and was really looking forward to trying to think of a way past and was gutted when he pitted. We'll do that again  

I had great fun.  My Qual time was very very fast,  thanks to a drag from Rob in Qual.  The start was messy, and I have to apologize for touching Robs car on the first lap.  Just one of those things.  After a few laps Rob made a mistake and I managed to get past.  I then had 15 Laps of Great fun.  Brian showed that it was possible to get past me.  Sorry for holding everyone up, but thats just part of racing.  Hopefully in the next race, it will be my turn to try and overtake someone

Thanks for the race

Ian

[Kerr]

I was not too confident about trying big moves to pass as I was not accurate in what I was doing tonight.

In the circumstances I thought the best thing to do was either aim to get a good exit after the trees on to the back staight or the last best on to the home straight.