SimRacing.org.uk

Car: Star Mazda
Track: Virginia International Raceway (Full Course)
Practice: approx. 18:00 for 150 mins
Qualifying: 20:30 (15 mins)
Race: 22 laps (approx. 40 minutes)

Start: Standard iRacing double file rolling start
Flags: local only

THERE WILL BE NO RESETS AVAILABLE!

NOTE: All sessions protected by the main password, there is no seperate 'pre-event practice'
Password: see above (#post_event_password)
(2) Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=255;theme=33)

I'm struggling here, I'm into the high 1:38's 1:48's on a good lap (race fuel) but I think that's a good way off the pace.

The problem seems to be that I need to run a lot less wing (from the setups I've downloaded) but I just can't control the car if I drop it much.

EDIT: due to lack of coffee

The lap time difference between low and high downforce setups is actually very little.

The problem is then you will find it very difficult to pass and be passed on the straights by guys running low downforce if you go high.

Cheers Brian.

I've always fared a lot better using high downforce, right back to the GTR1 days, and yes, I've always got overtaken!

There was only about 0.3-0.5sec between lap times between low and high before.

You just need to hope Mark Webber is not behind you.

I'm confused, have we not raced this combo before? I swear i remember it but the lap records are only from a skippy race.

I'm pretty sure we've only raced this track in the Skippy.

Server is up.

I'm slower with low downforce because I just can't get the drive out of the corners.

It's been a long time since I touched iRacing and even longer since I touched the Mazda.

After getting back to Aberdeen I had enough time for 6 laps and the Mazda is now completely alien to me now.

The steering reacts quicker than before and it hates kerbs more than I remember.

Hit a corner too hard and the understeer push feels far different too. The tail coming around seems to be a little easier to catch otherwise known as not impossible.

I'm at the bottom of the learning curve again.

Hopefully I can spare an hour or two to prepare but doubt I will be up to pace quick enough.

What laptimes are realistic for the Mazda now?

Here's the practice session results from last night Brian;
http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=2154713&custid=16597

Thanks.

1.45s already?

Will many people be doing 45s? That was super fast when I raced the Mazda.

What I want to know is with 60 incident points in 27 laps did James actually complete any laps other than his quick one?!!   ;)

Brian, I found the latest update on the Mazda made it easier over kerbs, in fact easier all round really.

Welcome back Brian, sure it'll be all of half an hour before you're at the sharp end once again  ;)


I don't know what on earth you mean, looks like consistent race pace if ever I've seen it  ;D

Will many people be doing 45s and keep it on track for 22 laps? That's the question! :D

limited testing as I was a little inebriated after a bbq last night so skipped testing  ;) .... only in 48s with half-race fuel  :-X


I know the feeling..... not that i have had a break from iR ::) ! I increased the steering lock (G25) in iR Options and it took the edge of the turn in erraticness.... my setup is also not very good

:lol: Obviously another graduate of the Eddie Irvine driving school ;)

I was running low downforce (hence the lovely incident point score) but this new build's definitely a chunk faster Brian so I wouldn't be too concerned with the times from when you last drove it.

Server is up.

Got to go and cut the grass, see you in there later!!

Only just got home from work, need dinner, need liquid, too hot to race, had no practice, hate VIR, not keen on the Mazda, all in all should be fun. ;)  :laugh:

Will try to get there earlier to get some practice in, but might not be ready till close to the start of qualifying. A setup from which track we've raced already will work here? Zandvoort will be ok?

I've been using the same setup all season. Once you have a setup you like the only thing to change is the wings and ride height. But I haven't found a track yet that really benefits from low downforce and since dragging the bottom of the car isn't in the physics model then ride height isn't that critical either.

Hmm, just about sums it up, accelerated a bit to catch Shark on the straight, touched the brakes maybe a bit more urgently that i should have left it locked up one wheel and spun luckily avoiding Ade and Rob.


Its clear you lot are just too quick, i was prepared to drive around at the back on my own as i've never quite got on with this combo and wanted a chance to try and work it out. I just dont have time to run iR much at all nowadays, shame you cant sell it back or get a refund :(

Slow (compared to others) but driveable in qually. Somehow with all the fiddling between that and the race though and not looking at what I was doing ::) I loaded completely the wrong setup from years ago and had firm rear arb and soft front arb with stupid wing settings. Undriveable as I normally run soft front arb and no rear arb. I couldn't even keep it on on the straights so I gave up after a sort of half intentional spin as it was just not fun. Very annoying as there was plenty of racing at the back to be had, which is the only reason I turn up cause even with a working setup the Mazda sucks to drive on your own. The sooner this season is over and we switch cars the better.

Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

I must admit I'm enjoying the Mazda immensely (ignore my race results :) )

Unfortunately missed out on any practice time last night so hopped on the server for half an hour prior to qual.  Early signs were not good, but decided to stick around for qual anyway.  Relatively speaking, my q lap wasn't too bad and 8th on the grid was enough to convince me to stick around.

I'm glad I did.  Had a brilliant battle with Mike for the first 13 laps, with both of us managing to pick up a couple of places on the way.  I'm sure I had a higher downforce setup as I was quicker out of most of the corners but unable to get close enough for the pass, even with a draft.  On lap 13, I got a good run through the fast left before Oak Tree, probably too good a run as the closing speed to Mike was far quicker than I expected.  In an effort to avoid hitting him, I tried to go to his right but caught my rear wheel on the grass and did a full 360, luckily resuming just a few seconds down. 

Maybe I damaged something, or screwed the tyres, because I lost it into Hog Pen on the same lap and was lucky to miss the barrier.  After getting back on track it was clear something wasn't right.  The back end was trying to brake loose and I was snatching my front left brake even after turning the BB down to 46%.  This was to be my downfall, I locked up into Oak Tree and parked it in the tyres.  Race over.

Despite the non-finish, I had a blast with Mike, who drove impeccably.  I just need to get back to finishing these Mazda races, as the fun-factor is being diminished ever so slightly.

Grats to the podium and all finishers.

Frustrating race.  I was happy with qualifying despite being some way behind the lap I put in in practice.

A silly lap one error had me on the dirt and losing about four poisitions, had some fun getting them back though!  Some great moments round the back end of the circuit with Ken and TT.

Sadly a locked wheel into Oak Tree led to a brush with the wall ... damaged steering had me off the pace after that.




More worryingly is the freezing screen/black screen that I was presented with on numerous occasions.  Might also be connection related, but an overheating GPU is the prime suspect.  I was glad to get through the display moments without too much trouble.

Towards the end of the race the damaged steering got the better of me and I had a few spins - glad to put that all behind me.

Now ... lets see if I can cure these computer issues ....

Pretty pleased with my best result of the season - 6th, even though I should have had 5th but for a stupid error near the end.

Considering how far I was off the pace yesterday, that was incredible. Darren's set-up took nearly 2s off my PB and I was stunned to qualify in 5th with a pretty decent lap. I seem to have done pretty well in qualifying this season getting near my PB in most events.

I got a good start with Mike behind and the first few laps went well but had a couple of shockers to let Mike, Brendan and John close up. I made a small mistake through the last turn to let them all through. Bah!

Brendan and John went off leaving my in 5th behind Mike who I was slowly catching, probably too slow to catch though to be fair, when I grabbed the kerb out of Oak Tree spinning be off with 3 to go and gifting John the place.

Still, nice to be closer to the business end than usual, even though that was my only spin of the season, it was my best drive pace-wise :)

Why does the result show I've got unknown tyres?

The race went far better than I could have hoped. I did a fair amount of practice as I did an hour or two before joining the practice session.

Strange coming back to iracing and especially the Mazda after so long away from it.

I never quite managed to hook up a really good qualifying lap to match my possible best according to the lap split chart. Should be hitting 44s but 45s was enough for pole with James not far behind.

At the start I could see him attempting to second guess when I was going to go and could see his car accelerate sharply. I knew if I went he would have passed me on the straight, so I was cute and waited until he had to back out.

Dan behind matched my start and was quick to pick off James.

I nearly binned it lap 1 around the oak tree. Went in a little hot in a heavy car and I could see the grass and tyre wall coming my way.

After that Dan was never far behind. Just a tenth here and there was enough to get some breathing space before he had a little off giving me a big lead.

Clean race with no problems for me.

Good race.

Because that was your first race of the season and the Celtic Star Mazda hadn't been added to the database so I did it quickly without checking the tyres.

I wasn't really enjoying practice and didn't feel I had enough consistency so I decided to watch the Spain - Portugal game instead. Is there any way for the system to work out that I left the server halfway through practice and didn't rejoin?

okay race and just in the top 10  ::)

after trying loads of different setups, including my last season one.... I couldn't get comfortable  :-\ I opted at last min for the race for my high downforce setup and it probably was the reason I finished  :laugh: I think I was generally bait on the straight for everyone  :P

Start was steady and I was overly cautious at the beginning.... slow and steady the whole race with good races with Ade, TT and Adam  ;)

Want to get back into the DP... Mosport is the official track this week  8)

Least said the better. I think the times in the practice session on Monday lulled me in to a false sense of being on the pace. Tonight I couldn't quite match what I had been doing and there were many others well in the 46's. I'd tried a bit less wing and didn't see any improvement but I don't think I took enough off. I ended up using a high df setup and what Brian predicted was certainly the case. I could run faster lap times than the low df cars around me but it relied on me having a clear run. When Ross half spun in front of me and caused us all to virtually stop I was eaten up by both him and Adam as we got going again and then a rush of blood to the head as we approached the chicane at the end of the straight put paid to my race. I wish we could race at Zandvoort every week!!  :)

Never found a set I was happy with at all here, and not really keen on this track either.

Decided to just try and take it easy and bring it home in the points despite a couple of minor offs brought it home 5th after Pops went rural at the oak tree.

Good close racing with a few guys and was fun.

I've put my setup on the Team Shark site if anyone wants a shot.

It's almost the same as the setup as I used a few seasons ago. Just a few minor tweeks here and there.

Low downforce but it handles nicely.

...and mine.  Not sure where you saw me half spin Ken.  I did get it slightly wrong (certainly no 'half spin') going into Oak, so I backed off and let you past on the exit and Adam went through as well.  On the next lap after my pass though you completely wiped me out in the next corner!

Cheers, Ross.

A rather lucky 4th place there.

I didn't get much time for pre-event practice and comparing to Dave's PB times, I thought I would be OK.  Wrong!  Once into the server, I realised I was a good second at least off the pace.  Made some small changes which helped a bit, but there was no time to test anything more, so I had to make the best of what I had.

The car felt really nasty on qually fuel, but finally dragged out a lap that was good enough for 6th, but a long way off the pace of those ahead.  It was looking like a tough race.

It was. John jumped ahead at the start and I was really struggling to stay consistent, the car had loads of understeer in the slow stuff, bad braking and seemed to want to do something different every lap.  It was miles away from where I wanted it to be.  No matter, chased John and Pops with Brendan right behind me until Pops little mistake in the last turn allowed us all to outbrake him in T1  :o  I then got past John when he ran off at Oak Tree, then I had Brendan breathing down my neck.  He must have run high downforce as I could hold him off on the straights, and staying on line on the rest meant there was no way past.  This pressure removed itself with his spin on lap 14.  Maybe I can relax now.  Err, no!  Pops is still only 3 seconds back and he's gaining slowly.  Kept plugging away and suddenly the gap shot up to 10 sec.  Brought it home there and gained a place from another retirement.

That was a good, hard, clean race.  Really enjoyed the fight, even if I was disappointed not to be fighting nearer the front. ;D

Oh, what could have been!
Really enjoyed that and was pushing those in front of me hard until an unforced error into the last left right combination saw me eat grass!!
Rejoined 10-15secs down and was doing well but could not make up for that one error!

Thanks all, great fun!  ;D

Awesome pace from the Aliens!

Yes, very sorry for that Ross, big big apology. I may have got the events mixed up. Maybe it was Adam that half spun and caused my drop in momentum that allowed you to get the run on me. Your original mistake did cause me to lift and maybe even a small contact as you let me by, and again that lost all my momentum allowing Adam through and you to re-pass before the next corner. Anyway no excuses. If we ever go back to that track I will not run high down force that is for sure!!

Thanks Ken, no worries - shame though as I'm sure we'd have had some good racing!

Slightly delayed report I know but I enjoyed that one, and what a bonus - I finished lol! I think I must have lost half my body weight in the process however...was soooo hot and unfortunately I couldn't quite reach the patio door to open it more from where I was sat which was winding me up a treat, and also causing me to have some wobbly moments on the straights!

Happy with qually, was a PB even if not a serious threat to our "rusty" Mr. Kerr. I'd suggest another six months off mate :).

Got suckered in majorly on the rolling start with Brian's feathering of the throttle, was expecting a bog standard getaway for some reason but was happy to concede that one as I like to see that kind of thing, keeps you on your toes! Unfortunately Dan wasn't deceived in the slightest so that was me in third by T1....and I certainly wasn't going to do any squeezing after our last encounter.

From there on I knew I just had to try and find a comfortable pace if I wanted to finish. Banging the laps in during qually is one thing but even in the early stages of that session I was still binning it so knew I would have had to drive harder in the race than I wanted to stand a chance of sticking to the guys in front. As it happens I'm glad I didn't try, looking at Brian's lap times it was definitely never going to happen for me! It is tricky to try and settle down into a rhythm where you're not flat out thought I must admit! 

Anyway I spent most of the race in either just in front or just behind of Darren, and although we weren't really dicing too heavily  - I really enjoyed the pressure for what seemed like almost the entire race.

I eventually locked up at the end of the long straight causing me to run wide, almost on to the grass, at which point he sailed past, leaving it up to me to stick with him this time. I think it was quite some laps before he twitched and got it out of shape at the last corner (?) leaving me free to take the place back. Shame to see you not at least get your fourth spot after all that Darren but cheers for the race anyway, kept me honest throughout!

Grats to Brian and Dan, and all those who brought it home in one piece, again i think that's an achievement around here - so very easy to make a mistake.

See you at the next one!

Next!

I was behind you guys until you guys got the slow exit out of Oak tree - the next lap was when it happened, don't think I got it sideways at all, but did wonder if you got caught out with my braking at the end of that long straight, I may have been slightly early on the brakes as I was trying to calm down after getting all excited having passed two cars in one go :D.