SimRacing.org.uk

Grid/server capacity: 22

Track: Thruxton

Cars allowed: Alpine A364

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins)
Race: 20:40 (32 laps)

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit stops required: No

Server: simracing.org.uk Mondays
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Notes:
(1) It's best if all drivers can make sure they are connected before the Qualifying session as drivers on track during qualifying will not see cars that join after they are on track until they go back to the garage.
(2) Please make sure you are fully aware of the SimRacing.org.uk Rules.
(3) The AI control should be turned off so that you have control of the car at all times, including pitting. Your player file should therefore read
Autopit="0"
Force Autopit Off="1" // Forces autopit always off
No AI Control="1" // AI never has control over car
If you still finding pitting problematic, experience tells us that its less to do with positioning and more to do with approach speed. A slow approach to pit crew chief has proved most reliable.

Special Notes: None

Server was down, complaining of duplicate name, so I restarted it.

Thanks Matt  :thumbup1:

Grats to Rog, master of these again & to Matt & Dan.  :clap: :clap: :clap:

Gonna have to go back to the drawing board with my setup I think, it kills the tyres & the last 10 laps were a nightmare, just could not get around the fast turns without losing the rear. Must have spun 6 or 7 times & somehow lost a lap somewhere, must have missed a timing point or something. Anyway was fun for the first half of the race after recovering from a coming together with Osni on the first lap, think it may have been my fault as I cut across to take the corner & left him nowhere to go. Cya all next time.

My tires started to get bad eight laps from the end. I decided to make a stop and lost a lot of time because the pitlane position was out of place.

Results and replay now posted.

Always a good idea to practice at least one pit stop before the race night.

But at least you finished  :thumbup1:

Finally!

First of all congrats to Rog who is really the F3 Master! :clap: And to the podium finishers as well. :thumbup1:

With many black screens ??? and many more spins :-[ in practice I was not expecting much from this race.
After trying unsuccessfully to identify the cause of the black screen (driver not responding, yes but why? load, power, temperature, everything is normal) I decided to unplug/re-plug my graphics card. Maybe this was successful, anyway I did not have any issue during the race, so I can keep some hope.  :)
To limit the chances of creating a mess I did not qualify so as to start last (in case of a black screen) and the end result is much better than what happens when I (rarely) get a pole position...  ::)

Most of the race I tried to save the tyres because I knew (from experience) that the last laps would be difficult and most likely for me full of spins. Adding this track "special" slope changes (more like steps, making it more suited to a 4x4 than a F3 car) to the usual tyre wear issue with these F3 cars did make for a difficult race. The race itself was interesting with a good battle with nocatu and the encounter with a couple of aliens (Osni, Geoffers) that passed me at warping speed.
Anyway, one more "chocolate medal" in my bag, what more could I ask for ? ;D

From where I am watching this series (usually buried deep in the undergrowth somewhere!!) Rog is an enigma  :-\  I am totally at a loss to understand how he is    a) so quick,     b) so consistent,      and c) comfortable.   :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:

Others have posted here about their tyres running out of use with 8-10 laps to go and maybe adjusting their setups to improve their tyre life.
LOL!! If only my experience was that good  :-\

In all of these races I find that I can wrestle these cars to a respectable grid placement, maybe a couple of seconds off of alien pace but not a total embarrassment. However, when we move onto the race proper things start to unravel very quickly.
Last night's race was typical of this series so far, 2 laps into the race and the loaded tyres are glowing orange/red, losing grip and already showing signs of rapid wear.
3-4 laps, and the tyres are getting to the dangerously worn zone and the car has become very unpredictable. This is manifested by the rear end deciding that it wants to be leading things. Sooner or later the back end slowly begins to come around ( as it did as I exited Church last night ) it does not happen at all quickly, but is totally unstoppable. No amount of opposite lock ( I actually doubt that applying opp lock is even recognised by the game??!!) , lifting off the gas, tweaking the steering to reduce front end grip and re-balance the car.....nothing makes any difference and we sail inevitably in a graceful spin into a barrier/wall/tree and rip off a wheel ( or two!!).

To get as far as the last 8 laps with a car that was just difficult to drive would be bliss in my sad world lol.

Grats to Roger and the podium people on another good race...………….I think that I really need to go back to school with these cars, much as I did with the Minis, and spend a lot of time working out where I am going wrong...but that would involve spending time practicing and this is only a game and not a way of life isn't it??? ::)


 

I am not the best one to give advice here, seeing my poor performance, but...
I now run the car with "too high" tyre pressure, this is the only way I found to somehow avoid over-heating the tyres. Hopefully this limits (a slight bit) the wear as well, and I don't feel that the impact on the grip is that bad.
This also takes into account that the default value for pressure is way too high if you want to balance properly the in/center/out temperatures, but maybe this was setup like that on purpose (maybe to mitigate some other issue with the physics model for this car ?)...
When driving I try to limit as much as possible tyre slip & skid (not sure what is what) noise, at least this gives me an excuse for being slow. ;)
I told you I have no idea what I am talking about  ;D

Result (https://www.avonrise.co.uk/srou/kurts/25112019_Thruxton)

 8)

Glad I managed to finish this one, had practiced a lot but one of the bumps before the chicane still managed to catch me off-guard, car oversteered a bit and when I tried to correct it it turned into a tank-slapper, run out of road before I could stop and made some changes to the scenery. I damaged the suspension as well and the steering wheel kept pointing to the left for the rest of the race. I couldn't drive as fast after that and briefly thought of pitting but the repairs would alter the suspension settings so I avoided it. Had some good fun eith S.Cargo and Geoffers along the way, so at least I wasn't lonely.

With regards to the car and the tyre wear, it is indeed tricky to get it right, and if the set-up isn't correct it might cost you heaps of time. According to XD my tyres were at 45-47 wear, towards the end, quite tricky around fast corners but manageable, well at least if my suspension was ok. This car needs a lot of patience and practice with a tank that is full, to get used to it. At Estoril I found a set up that makes the car quite friendly and predictable. I use rather high tyre pressure as well, my rears were at 152 kpa, higher than that the car would slide a lot. I also have a high ride height, to give the suspension a lot of travel, I was at about 7.5 at the back and 7.2 at the front if I remember correctly. Another important thing is steering angle, especially if you have a wheel which goes up to 900 degrees of rotation. I run it at 30, but I use a g25, for example at Estoril with the steering angle at 16 instead of 30, I was 3 seconds slower per lap!! I could share my setup for Thruxton online if some of you want to check it!

You could share your setups directly in GTL, inside the Online Files folder.