SimRacing.org.uk

Car: Star Mazda
Track: Road Atlanta (Full)
Practice: from approx. 18:30
Qualifying: 20:30 (15 mins)
Race: 20:45 - 30 laps (approx. 40 minutes)

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

THERE WILL BE NO RESETS AVAILABLE!

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=263;theme=33)

Could someone link the event in LM2 please, I get that 'ICAP' error every time I try these days :(

:(  I can't make this I'm afraid .... another badminton match for me.


Looking forward to the racing moving to a Sunday ;).

Looking forward to it.

Could do with some setup help mind. What track setup would people being using as a basis?

'tis done!

I'm not going to be able to resist this one either - think I've got a setup too Spanner, will take a look when I'm home and let you know.

Loving this combo... 1.20.4 for me so far!
Doubtless that is a slow time!  ;)

Shouldnt you be at work....

Didn'y you know Spanner? iRacers get every Friday off, it's kinda like a religious holiday. You need to speak to your personnel team....

Touch and go if I'll be around for this one.  It all depends on when Logitech and UPS decide to pick up my wheel.

OK, my race PC's PSU exploded tonight.  If it took out the motherboard with it, I won't be racing for a week :(

Fingers crossed!

Sweet, the big guns are dropping like flies  :D

VICTORY WILL BE MINE! BWHAHAHAHA!

I probably won't be racing barring a miracle with couriers.  PSU and graphics card required.  grrr.  >:(

Road Atlanta in the Mazda is good fun.

Hopefully I should mange this race before signing off for a while.

Race pace should be low 18s with quali in the 17s from memory.

For you maybe Brian, but not for us mere mortals!!

Practice server is up :)

Managed to get in the 20's once i'd realised i was loosing the back all the time and reduced the rear springs from my silverstone set.

Race distance updated.

I'm a bit sad this is the last mazda race, it's served us well I think.

I'm sure I can knock up an oval race at some point to relive the good times :D

Can't wait.  ::)

That's the spirit! You need a bit more practice after your last effort :D

I guess it will be my last iR league race as well.

You don't fancy some endurance racing then Spanner? :(

I do, but i dont fancy buying the mustang for the sake of it. I'll use the content i have till it runs out in feb.

Err plus as its a toss-up between iR and GTR2, and someone has to loose out.

Now if some one could come up with something to do on tuesdays...

The Mustang is excellent Spanner....  ;D
Shall I send a note to your Mum and ask her if you can come out to play on Sundays!?  ;)

Dammit Spanner - i was hoping you'd be up for painting it too!

I can come round and do it if you want! ;D

Of course mate! I can show you some of my professional race driving techniques while you're here, you'll be back of the grid in no time ;)

Back on the grid .... or at the back of the grid?  I'm not sure which one you were aiming for :D

Bike sheds it sounds like!  ;D

YOUR BATTERIES HAVE GONE IN YOUR HEARING AID MARTIN
 ;)

I can very easily aim for the back of the grid on my own, without Oilys help :)

This will probably be my last iR race too, unless some single seater sprint races are introduced in to the new format. The GT Endurance stuff doesn't float my boat, although Sunday nights are far more convenient for me. So it will be back to the iR system. It has it's pros and cons. The convenience of racing when you want but not with who you want.

I think the plan's to run sprints in between the enduro weeks Ken but I guess it makes sense to organise them one at a time.

Whatever happens, I want a re-match in the Williams on a Friday some time. I'm not sure I reached my full potential the last time out  :turned:.

DNF - I think you did :lol:

Yes, you all made it a bit easy for me. I only had to stay on the track!!   ;)

I'm sure 'we' can come up with some interesting combo's in the weeks inbetween the proper (enduro) racing  ;D

Server is up!

Will "we"? :D

All in good time I guess - I appreciate that what's happening isn't everyones cup of tea - but as long as the racing/attendance doesn't suffer from putting more races on, then I see no reason sprint racing can't carry on.

"we" as in, not me :D

The PSU hasn't shown up yet, so that's me out of tonight :(

Good luck everyone!

Sorry to hear that Mike.

As it happens, my wheel isn't being collected till Thursday at the earliest, so I'll be around for this one, albeit with a slightly wobbly wheel.


That's a shame Ken.  At first glance, the enduro isn't my cup of tea either, but the interest being shown suggests there may be some good racing to be had.  .I hope you, and Spanner, and all others who are undecided, can give it a go.

Sorry guys, my sound card has just died.  So that's me out as well. :(

Good luck to those that race.

Well that didn't last long.

Spent most of practice struggling with the setup only to hit paydirt near the end making a ridiculous change that had totally the opposite effect from what you'd expect.

That gave me 2nd on the grid and I promptly stuffed it up into turn 2, braking at the wrong place on the wrong line. Tried to keep it out of the wall and almost succeeded, but the slightest contact was enough to bend something at the rear and it didn't steer straight. Rather than run round in last with a bent car I quit before I took somebody else out. :(

Must've used up my karma last time out with that flukey win.

At least there'll be no more single seaters for me. :P :laugh:

What a disappointing finish to the Mazda season.

I was going OK in 7th when my router rebooted itself :'(

So much for trying to drive conservatively - sorry Ken  :-[  :'(

Struggled tonight to get anywhere near my pb which was slow to start with!
Had a minor drift when slightly on a kerb, as Dave, thought I'd saved it but the slightest of contacts with the barrier and it's game over :(

Up til then it was quite close racing! :)

Back to my usual after a couple of decent runs in the last two rounds that I competed. For once I didn't fall apart like a cheap watch in qually and managed to secure 3rd on the grid. I tried duking it out with Brendan through the first series of bends but it was me who bottled out as we approached the quick uphill left, but since Dave had already gone off I was still running 3rd. I then had a go at Brendan at the chicane but again we were side by side and I lost all momentum out the other side, and having to come right out the throttle to cog it down lost me even more time. Thankfully I held my place and gained on Brendan again through T1 but I got a bit squirrely in the braking area for the first chicane and jumped the curb. That got me a black flag and slowing down to clear it cost me about 3 or 4 places. BTW How long have you got to take your penalty for one of those. I've always slowed immediately but how long can you go before you are penalised further. Slowing where I did was dangerous for following traffic, so could I have waited till we were on the straight? Anyway hope of a podium had faded fast but I thought I might have a good race chasing through the pack. This was true for the next couple of laps and I put a nice move on James in to the final chicane but a lap or so later Pete spun at the fast left and I could not avoid hitting him. So my last Mazda race turned out to be a damp squib. :(

Off now to de-ice the car and pick up the daughter from a pop concert in Newcastle. Wish me luck!!

I was terrible in practice last night forgetting how to drive.

Tonight practice was going fine. Lower mid 18s and dipping into the 17s in quali trim.

Qualifying went all wrong. Caught a few cars making mistakes whilst on hotlaps, made quite a few mistakes myself and suddenly frustration was building. It took a while to be a reasonable lap which got pole.

Surprised to see Dave make and unusual error and with a few guys all fighting for position after a couple of laps I was near 10 seconds ahead with no threat.

Had some fun throwing the car about. The Mazda at Road Atlanta is one of the best combos. Deceptively tricky.

You are always lulled into feeling you can go faster. Try it and it bites you.

The race went smoothly for me but sad to see so many retirements.

You get loads of time to slow down Ken. I've also had quite a few times where it tells me that and I just ignore it and then it goes away without a penalty. I think if you spin and cut a chicane for example but you happen to go really slow coming to a stop or something it will come up with the warning, but if you just keep going it will go away without penalty. I like to live dangersouly so I often ignore those warnings, especially when I've lost out cause I "cut the course".

A great finish to the season for me to finish 3rd. With Brian way too quick for anyone else, I attempted to keep Brendan honest. Mid-way through I seem to have got the gap down to 2-3 seconds, but I'm sure he was just toying with me cause I just couldn't reel him in and ended up 6-7 seconds back. Managed to get under 1:20 in the race on the penultimate lap which was pleasing and certainly the practice I had on the server before qually helped me no-end this week, compared to my usual lack of practice.

Shame to see so many drop-out/crash-out/unable to attend as it's a great track and suits the Mazda actually Being quite wide there's quite a lot of room for racing even though there are an awful lot of very difficult corners. Still not a fan of the pansy car that is the Formula Mazda, so I can't say I'm sorry to see the back of it. ;)

Hopefully someone will run an IndyCar series somewhere so I can drive my favorite car again as I'd hate to lose the single seater stuff. After 10~ seasons of GTR/2 I can't say I really want to do the Vette/Mustang series, especially as I don't have the Mustang anyway. I really want to carry on with the IndyCar preferably, but the F1 will have to suffice for the time being. It's good, but not as good as the IndyCar, it's slightly too frantic in comparison.

I will spend some time with the Vette to see whether it's something I really want to do before deciding.

Phew, 2nd place was far beyond what I expected, or deserved.  I hadn't turned a wheel at RA before last night and my last ever visit was this https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4875#event1405  :o

I really struggled during qually and a 19.2 was a long way off my optimum.  Anyway, had a good start and after Dave's uncharacteristic demise I went side by side with Ken through the esses.  Luckily I had the inside line for the left hander and got through ahead, very relieved that there was no contact.  Ken had another go at the chicane and I fully expected to lose out, but again I managed to keep the optimal line for the exit.

After a few went missing from my F3 screen, I was left with Simon approximately 4 seconds back.  Got this upto 6 at one point but it came crashing down to under 3 after a combination of lapping and my waning concentration.  I had a stern word with myself though, and tried to focus on putting some decent laps in which was enough to get the gap back over 5 secs.

And that's how it finished.

Grats to Brian on a great win (fantastic pace) and to Simon for keeping it interesting.

Oh, and nice to see my old GPL buddy Kruger (Nihad) back on track, it's been too long.  :thumbup1:

Very pleased with 6th place,  kept it on the track, and out of the wall.  Nice to finish the season, with a race finish.

Thank you to all the hard work the admins and Popabawa put in to organising this season.  Even though I have been at the back of the grid most races, I have had a great time, and really enjoy the rollercoaster season I have had :)

Roll on season 5 :)

Ian

Wow, just seen the final championship standings. How on earth am I 2nd?! Completely undeserved, with a flukey win at Daytona, two very helpful drop scores and considering there are at 6 guys consistently faster than me in this car. Well done to Mike on the win and of course to the great Team Shark on the team title, suck it up Legends. :-* ;)

Thanks to Pops for the hosting and organising and for all the attendees for the honest racing.

No prob Pete, that's racing. I'm used to it by now, I seem to have a magnet on the front of my car that attracts anything spinning near me!!

We'll see. Sunday nights are actually much better for me, but 90 min races are just too long. I only do this for a bit of fun and haven't got the motivation to get through races that length. I can see the attraction for people more dedicated than me and I'm not knocking the series, it's just not for me.

The Mazda really suited me. Short races, limited setup adjustment. Just choose your wings and go!!

I do hope that some sprint racing can be arranged next season, whether it's Skippy or Star Mazda it would be a shame to lose the open wheelers.

^^^ What he said ^^^

Good race from me, started from 6th place which was very decent. Noticed Dave go off at t2.. lap 4, I hit a spinning Peter, sorry m8, by lap 5 was up to 4th, not sure what happened to Ken..
Was right behind Pete, Simon when few laps later James got a run on me at last corner, but I overtook him at the 1st corner, nice fight that was :)
I held James off till he made a mistake later in race and i was 15secs clear, by that time Simon was already 10sec ahead and held on to finish 4th, one of my best finishes of the season, that but me in top 10 for the end of season championship :)

Need more races like these :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmhvwu-5sp0&hd=1

Even though I managed only three laps in the race, having had practice and quali before, this was about the most fun I`ve had in iRacing :)

Haven`t had Star Mazda until few days ago so this car at this track was a first time for me. I fell in love with the car and regret I didn`t join the fun earlier.

When I first started the practice, I was doing 23 laps and in quali I managed 20.7 lap (I think). With a bit of practice I think I could have joined the 19 brigade. Pushing the car to get competitive time, my respect for Huttu grew realising what he had to do to get 24ish lap in real  :o I7d probably shit my pants right there at T1.

Most of all, it was so great to see so many familiar names and share the track with you lot.It feels much more like home :) I will give my best and try attending more races in season five.

Cheers all

Kruger

Just a quickie to say thanks all - my days that is one hell of a track! That's the MX-5's, the Williams and the Star Mazda I've driven around here recently and all have been great fun - even if the performances have varied on my part!

For the first time in a long time, wheeling the car out in practice last night I actually felt instantly at one with it - totally relaxed and loads of feel. Unfortunately I will insist on buggering about with setups and i seemed to make things more difficult for myself as time went on, until I eventually lost my way. I also seem to be tightening up again - caught myself with white knuckle syndrome at certain points of the race as I held on to the wheel much more than was necessary, always a bad sign!

Bit of a mental start with so much bunching *cough* Gizmo *cough* going on, made incredibly nerve wracking by my FPS dropping to 38 in the first twisty section any time another car was close by...not fun at all! Once the front few found a rhythm though I settled in for a really enjoyable race.

Had a quick go of your setup Brian and all I could do was take my hat off to you and switch back to my original one immediately! I'd love to be able to drive the car that loose but definitely beyond me at the moment. Fair play on a great drive, different class yesterday!

Had a great little battle with Rob so cheers for that - no silly stuff and plenty of racing room on both parts while some hard moves went in, look forward to more of the same dude. Shame my little excursion on the grass at T1 saw me drop back a good 10-12 seconds or that could have been a race long battle as our pace seemed fairly close.

Made a couple of mistakes and the concentration was definitely going around lap 20 but a quick brown pants moment on the curb snapped me back into life and in the end I felt like I could keep going quite happily.

Nice to see Kruger on the grid finally, welcome mate - hope racing with you is a regular thing (and a little longer lived next time :)).

Must say a thanks to Pops as always, great choice with this one - as the other chaps have mentioned, I really hope we can slot some sprints of some kind in between the enduro stuff. Being totally selfish that would be my perfect timetable, serious stuff at the weekend leaving me the week to do Club England on a Wednesday and ACHF on a....well...Friday.

Really? I was being very restrained compared to usual as I was trying to conserve fuel, not being absolutely certain I really had enough.

Ah it might not have been you at all then Dave, I assumed it was you from the comment above!

Haven't actually checked the replay, all I know is that you front chaps in what seemed like many many blue cars were going damn slowly for the first couple of laps....unless of course it was my blistering race pace kicking in :).

I tried Brian's setup too. Undriveable for me. Went back to my setup after that (which I think was one based on Watkins Glen). How you drive it with that low downforce that close to the ground feeling very loose (firm rear, soft front) is beyond me, but heck that's why you're really quick and well the rest of us aren't. :)

My setup for this track is nothing near what others use.

It's strange how you have to drive this track. You have to be on the power going through most of the corners which is not always the easiest thing to do when you use your right foot for everything!

The setup seems loose until you get the grasp and confidence to push it then it actually becomes stable.

T1 is a killer but I find that if I give it a little braking and drop to 5th, turn, give the throttle a jag on turn in then get the throttle to the floor very early it does go round easier than trying to roll around.

Road Atlanta in one of the gems in iRacing's track list.

I didn't try Brian's setup, but I was on a ldf setup (13/13.5). I did try some more wing at one point but I found it was only sector 2 where it helped. Even sector 1, with the quick T1, and sector 4, with the final chicane, were faster with less wing for me.

Yes Brian, it makes your speed even more incredible when I think you are a rfb'er.

Yes, finally :D I`ve been trying to show up for ages. Even this was a last minute decision, hence the poor form.

It felt so good being around you lot, and seeing everyone congratulating Brian for pole, it reminded me of good `ol GPL days. That is definitely one thing that bugs me with iRacing official servers, people just don`t communicate.

I`m hoping to become more regular though. I realised that I can`t compete in different series since my iRating takes a big hit so I basically do two races per week, which is nice since it leaves me time for hosted racing ;)

Yes, great to see you out there Kruger. As you say, just like the old GPL days.