SimRacing.org.uk

(http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7399/i5raceoneflyer.jpg)

Car: Chevrolet Corvette C6R or Ford Mustang FR500S
Track: Watkins Glen Classic Boot
Practice: from approx. 18:45 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 19:45 (15 mins)
Race: 20:00 52 laps (approx. 90 minutes)

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

THERE WILL BE 1 RESET AVAILABLE!

Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Greetings one and all - we've a few weeks yet before this event - but I for one am already looking forward to this one.  The Grand-Am racing has been hugley fun for me so far this season, and I'm really looking forward to getting back on track with the SRouk faithful (and some new faces).

Good work that man - really hoping I can make this one too Adam.

This week's ACHF event will be a sprint version of this to get us in the mood....details to follow.

Sweet!

That'll be good fun - I'll definatley be in attendance :)

Happy days!  ;D ;D

Nice one for the PM Adam, I have been looking for a league that included the Mustang, well chuffed, tracks are good too.

Take it easy guys.

Good stuff .... I was hoping a few might read the forums and PMs :D  The more the merrier ... spread the word ;)

Finally found a league I can do, and nice to be back with SROU.

Can someone explain to me how the resets work, as I have never tried them to date, and probably missed a few results because of it!

Welcome back Nick :)

The reset allows you to start back in the pits, with a "new" car - hopefully we'll see a few more finishers as a result.

This calls for some new Team Shark paintjobs :D

Ok thanks Adam, will have to program that button and get used to it then.

Since setting up Pinnacle at Race2Play, we have adopted the Gulf colours, so mine are either generic versions of those colours, or hopefully I am borrowing (with permission) gulf skins that are already out there.

Nick Phillips .... in a liverly closely resembling the Legends one .... with his reputation?  :o

 ;D

A reset as well!  ;) Woohoo! Common sense ! Excellent!  ;D

Yeah - I figured I may as well - it's unlikely to change the overall result, but all being well we'll see a few more people reach the chequered flag.

Really looking forward to this Adam, looks like we have some new people too!
Well done buddy!  ;)

Hehe yeah, forgotten about that. I shall, until I receive a better offer, remain neutral in the Shark V Legends battle.

No other Pinnacle people seem to have iRacing at present.

There is no nutrality possible in the ultimate battle of good v's evil....

Dark vs Darker isn't it!  ;D

You could always recruit for team Pinnacle here.  There are plenty of old reprobates to choose from.  :whistling:

It would be nice to see another team challenging for honours.

Yeah - the more teams the better imho.

Phoenix Racing will be coming along as well, we keep the back of the grid nice and warm :)  Not done endurance racing since MoG, so looking forward to giving it a go again.

Ian

If anyone needs a skin painting I can have a go for you :)

Cheers Mike, although I have successfully transferred my usual subtle colour scheme to both the Mustang and the Corvette.

Regards
Gary

I do hope you took the necessary health and safety precautions, Gary ie a welding mask over Ray-Bans.  ;)

On Trading Paints there are a few Gulf skins, including one by Lawrence Terry, which I have downloaded. I sent a message to another guy about using his, Franck something, but have had no response.

However Lawrence Terry is no longer an active user that I can see, so presume it is ok to grab his and use it, unless anyone has a big issue with that?

C'mon Brendan, you know Mr H doesn't allow us any of that namby pamby health and safety stuff. The Mustang looks particularly fetching in my Fruit Salad colours. ;D

I don't have a problem with that Nick :)

Hmm read more on Trading paints and not sure about doing it, so will go with a Wolves (for my sins) based scheme and use that.

Grabbed GIMP to try and paint, but it once again confirmed I cannot be arsed after about 10 minutes!

The Gulf colours passe anyway.  ;D

The Legends will be showing a new livery on the Mustang (as soon as the rest of the team upload theirs to Trading Paints ::) ) .... it is blue and orange ... but you'll not miss this one.  The back of the car is as loud as the car itself!

Have you guys got an idiot-proof guide you might be willing to share?

Given there's only two cars I think i better knock up some Prodigy skins - I'm alright painting the thing it's just the getting it to the car bit that used to drive me nuts in the Simbin games!

Idiot proof guide to ... Trading Paints?

I'm waiting for the rest of the team to test the idiot-proofness :D

To trial/install a skin all you need to do is to name the .tga file with your iRacing customer ID - which can be found at https://members.iracing.com/membersite/account/Home.do and then you put the file (16529.tga in my case) into the relevant folder.  By default it will be C:\Users\Username\Documents\iRacing\paint\cars\fr500s (in Win7).  Once the file is in there you're all done, and the skin will show in the next session you load up.

Trading Paints automates the download-and-move-to-the-right-folder process.  Each driver uploads the drivernumber.tga to the site, selects what car it is for, adds it to the SROUK Enduro list, and we have a vibrant (hideously so due to certain persons who shall remain nameless ...) grid for our races :)

Ah ok yes sorry i should have been a little more specific - it's the going from a .PSD to a .TGA in the right format I usually struggle with!

Thanks, though the other info's useful too!

Simples!

32 bit with RLE compression.

Trading paints do a VIDEO TUTORIAL (http://www.tradingpaints.com/files/media/tutorials/rle.html) on the process.

Mike, or anyone be willing to maybe paint both cars in a Pseudo skin for me? Something similar to the C6R we have in GTR2. I would have a go myself but i dont have any software to do the painting.  (waits for the pink jokes)  ::)

Would be much appreciated

Can you send me a pic and I'll have a go :)

GIMP is a free paintshop type program that i've used for all my skins to date.

My first ever skin is now on TP !! under simracing.org.uk  ;D

This one will be there when Gazza gets it uploaded :)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Drifter1971/Team%20Shark/iRacingSim2010-12-0518-35-00-03.jpg)

Very nice Mike.... therefore entirely unsuitable for a Pseudo car ;)

MORE PINK!

(http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5279/stangl.jpg)

A massive thank you to mike for my skin, i think he's done a superb job from what i gave him to work with.

Lets hope i can do it justice.  ;)

I will almost certainly be out of this one, its my daughters birthday on the Monday and we are planning a night out as I have to work on the day.

Regards
Gary

I'm out too  >:(

Sister-in-law's b'day, how selfish  ::)

Hmm, I'm trying to figure out the best way to drive the Vette.   So far I've been trying to take turns in a higher gear to use the torque on the way out, but I find that it won't turn as well mid-corner.  I'm making some progress with setup, but I have no idea how my times are measuring up.  :D

From a full tank I'm getting 1:40.5 but I still need to do some long runs.

2.07's for me in the Stang so far... awesome combo...lovin it!  ;D

I tried both cars in case they were better than I thought, but both were very disappointing. Neither really wants to turn, they both feel very heavy, but most of all I don't feel I have many options when driving them. It is simply a case of braking accurately and smoothly enough to hit the apex and then flooring it to the exit. Power oversteer is almost non existant and the cars are so unresponsive that corner entry is completely safe unless you brake too late and then jump off the brakes ( or mess up a downchange). It would be hard to get motivated to do 30 minutes in either, let alone 90!

As a part time racer atm I know my views count for little, but I do hope for the league's sake that I'm the exception to the rule.

I can't disagree with most of your comments Paul  ;)
but I did pinch a set up and it's a lot more lively!  ;D

I could see why maybe the fast guys wouldn't like the Mustang, it isn't really that difficult to drive but the challenge for me is to keep my pace up for an extended period which isn't an easy task (for me at least).

Throw the lapping cars, and the tyres starting to go off after 40 mins or so in as well and it's an absolute hoot ;D

Hi guys,

What are the thoughts about race strategy.  I guess that it's impossible to make the whole race on 1 take of fuel ?


By the way  Phoenix Racing have a great new paint scheme thanks to Michael Wrightson  :)

Happy Racing

Ben Summers
Phoenix Racing

Not sure about the Mustank, but the Corvette will certainly need fuel. Tyres shouldn't be a problem unless you're locking your brakes a lot, but the faster drivers may see some benefit to changing them anyway as (again for the Corvette at least) there's a pace advantage.

The Mustang will need fuel and tyres over 90 minutes.

Hi,

I saw the event advertised over at the main forum.

I'd like to enter a Mustang into this event if possible.

Hi Robin :)

Add your entry to the signup thread linked below.  See you on track !
https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=8695.0

Welcome aboard Robin (and all the other new guys!), it's great to see so many new faces, I'm really looking forward to getting this series kicked off, it should be spectacular :)

Aye - welcome one and all - less than a week now .... you'd best all get your skins uploaded to Trading Paint (hint hint nudge nudge).

If we could get as many folk onto the Saturday night practice server as possible that would be great - with so many new faces it'd be nice to get to know people on the track before it counts.

you not seen my Tyres after a normal race  ;D ;D ;D I'll be changing the fronts at the very least  :-\

hoping to be there to meet some of you guys before the race  ;)

The way I keep locking up my fronts, I'll be needing tyres as well  ::)

Creeps up on you don't it!

Practice starts now, glad I am off work as I need it in the C6R

Shakedown this Saturday then  8) ?.

Oh yes.  Server should be up 7-11ish I think, I'll let you all know when it's up there.

Way too much practising going on for my liking.  PACK IT IN NOW!!! ;)

Can we confirm here that the usual line seen at Watkins Glen of running wide in T1 is allowed?

Thanks

If iRacing allows it - then so do we.

Sri can't make the practice session on Sat Adam!
Wow 30 on the grid, this is shaping up to be a classic!  ;D

I was running some practice laps and thought I was getting nowhere near the 2:07 time stated in the thread.

Guess I should have read the details properly. Was using the bus stop ;)

... then there were 39 signed up.

We're getting close to capacity if everyone shows up - if we could get the last 3 grid slots occupied by Stang drivers to even up the Vette:Stang ratio that would be epic.  I can't wait for this one - the replay should be quite a sight with the prospect of such a large field.

I doth my cap to thee mate - done a brilliant job with recruitment there and if the sprint race we had around the Nascar layout was anything to go by it should be a cracker. Really looking forward to it!

If you happen to accidentally configure a short race at the end of the practice session on Saturday that wouldn't be terrible either :).

Mustangs feel free to be a little selfish and hold your lines if anything - closing speeds are pretty severe and as a C6 driver I'd rather have to go around the long way than be avoiding swerving 'stangs at full chat!

Accidents happen :D

Is it worth making this point to everyone.. we have suffered a few issues in the past with the faster cars thinking it is all about them !?  ;)

Well to be fair I'm sticking to my line and it's up to the Faster cars (ie everyone) to get past me. There's plenty of straights etc. I won't block but I also won't destroy my race.

Erm will this race be affected by snow? ;)

Practice server is up - see you guys in there in a while :)

Great to see so many in practice :)

 

Thanks for hosting the practice lads, I was been quite stubborn with my line so I hope I didn't balls nothing up for any of the Vettes. Fingers crossed for an 2:03.*** qualy.

Take it easy, catch you tomorrow.

I'm crossing my fingers for that sort of qually time too! :D

thanks for the Practice server it was very useful especially the closing speed of the Vette to Mustang we will have to keep our whits about us the whole race ;)


keeping your line makes it a lot easier for us Vette guys to pass so you keep being stubborn  ;)

Almost forgot, I mentioned super socks to some one who was having trouble with heal and toe, not sure of the name now. I got them because its freezing, and then realised there potential, great find £3.

Here are the super socks :laugh:
(http://s.onlineshoes.com/images/br109/94781_366_45.jpg)

Someone was doing 2.04's in the stang last night! :(
Looks like I will be at the back then! ;) as usual!

I'm sure it was a lucky lap Martin ;)

I've been looking forward to this for a while but I'm woefully under-prepared, apart from a few laps I managed in the practice last night. I've got relatives stopping with me at the moment, plus all the snow we had yesterday has thrown all my plans out the window. Hopefully I'll make the race, but I think I'll definitely be adopting the cautious approach (and now I've said that I'm bound to cause a multi-car pileup!)

Apparently my connection was causing a few problems during the practice.

I intend to have a few laps in the practice session to see if I have solved it. If I haven't then it's only fair I sit out the race as it's not fair on the rest of you guys.

How do I download the custom skins pack for those that have uploaded one (sorry been to busy to do mine)?

I am a first reserve, when am I allowed to join?

Can I also say that if you don't intend to or are not sure you are going to be there for the start of the race do NOT join the server. If you join the server you will take up a spot and it will never be relinquished for someone else to use, even if you retire. So don't just use the server for a bit of practice.

Thanks.

P.S. Is practice at 18:45 or 18:00 cause the graphics on the race announcement don't match the text beneath? Thanks.

Go to trading paints and search the lists for SROUK Enduro, you can then download the lot of them.  Easiest thing is to download their program, and then you can just sync with the list as it is updated.

Well it took you lot long enough to spot the deliberate mistake!!!

I'll shoot for the 1845 start as that's what was advertised elsewhere - not that it makes a difference to the race...



EDIT - deliberate mistake removed ... 1845 is when it all goes live.

Thanks

Yeh, but like when? In the rules there is only GTL and GTR guidelines.

In terms of the policy on when reserve drivers / part-time drivers can join I don't know, hopefully Adam will be along shortly to answer that one.

I was merely pointing out the huge bug in the game that even retired drivers take up spots on a hosted session. Some people may not yet be familiar with this so just wanted to ask for consideration for everyone that wants to join and not take up a spot, reserve or full-time if they are not actually going to start the race.

Good luck with it chaps.  I can't race Sunday nights but I'll watch progress with interest.

Paul
:)

SERVER IS UP

As we've a bumper grid in prospect - can I ask that "part time" drivers wait until 1900hrs to join.

Thanks.

Erm ... it is up?

Strange.. I cant see it....  ???

It's there now - bit of a delay for some reason - I'm joined.

How odd, it's still not showing for me :(


EDIT..all good now :)

Close the browser tab down, and come in again - there's a group in already.

Apologies to Matthew for the last lap brain fade. :-[


Enjoyable race even though my car was not very good .   Lost twenty second in pits when the refuelling didnt start and ended up doing the whole race on one set of tires.
Great fun carving through the mustang guys who drove very well, thumbs up :thumbup2:

Grats to podium in both classes.   

cheers

Thought I had a decent set compared to reference times on iRacing, but know now I need to do my best -1 second at least.

Couple of contacts with Rob which were both racing incidents I guess, first one knocked something out so I tried out the Reset function which cost me best part of a lap but at least a driveable car.

Went as far as possible on fuel, and managed to take a few places until catching Rob again and had a good battle for a couple of laps until coming off the boot we tangled again.

Well done to the Mustangs who made it easy to pass, enjoyed the experience, the result can wait.

Also I can see my gulf scheme does indeed match the Legends pretty well, so I have worked on a new one since leaving, sure you will pick it out when you see it :-]

Shoulders ... aching.

Wrists ... aching.

Me ... grinning .... and beering :)


That was great fun, if a bit mental at times with the Corvettes going past at mach 5 every couple of laps :D

From what I saw T1 was totally clean?  Well done guys - really good driving.  There were precious few incidents I witnessed - a couple of door to door things but nothing major.  Clean, close racing ... loved it.

My qualifying knacked me having a tussle with Pops and Johnathan, but I had a heck of a first third of the race - trying to get past Robin, Matthew and Jasper.  Once I got ahead I managed to get a bit of breathing room - and with 17 seconds to make up on Pops that was that really.

I got caught out on the pit-stop, I didn't realise the pit boxes moved ..... I overshot and had to reverse in :(.  Raimo looked to do the same .....

On coming out I had a pretty clear track, bar the late pitting Robin I think it was - and after that it was a question of getting to the finish.  I'm more than happy with a podium spot - even if it is a step down from where Pops finished :D.  Grats on the win JD - and Darren and the other podiumers in the fast stuff.

Great stuff from the lapping Vettes - looked to be a hell of a race up front from what I saw of the high speed blurs flying by in formation.


Really looking forward to Phillip Island - hopefully we'll see a few more faces too.

Great racing guys!

I had a great start and slipped past Jonathan after he was slightly compromised, built up a small lead, lost it again :D then hit a nasty bit of traffic while Jonathan was pitting to let him pull out of me a frustrating fraction ahead for the 2nd stint.

You deserved the win Jonathan, you drove a great 45 mins at the end  8)

The Vettes were awesome, great job guys.

Isn't it great to be back doing proper enduro racing?  :jumpjoy:

Results up.

Enjoyed that a lot even if the wrong Gymer finished ahead. :laugh:

Struggled a bit in the early laps, especially after the left line got a slow start and John Bayes took no prisoners into turn 1 leaving me stuck behind him and vulnerable for a few laps until he spun.

I had planned to change tyres at the stop but since I thought everyone else would do the same I changed plan and stopped a couple of laps early and just took fuel. That put me at the sharp end for a few laps but gradually all the properly fast people found ways by. Shark knew what I'd done and copied me, coming out of the pits about a second ahead. I could never quite run him down but the last 15 laps were intense with me trying to catch him and both of us trying to deal with the ebb and flow of traffic.

Well done to the Mustangs; I tried to avoid any really hairy encounters but inevitably had my share of "after you, no, after you" and "I don't really want to be here and neither do you" moments.

Good to see lots of new faces here and a generally high standard of driving all round. ;D

On the hard stuff already Pops? :D

How do you get to watch the replay file, which I can see I have saved but cannot see how to view.

Go to the events menu in iRacing, and the replays is under there.

I'm lost for words. This was epic. thanks guys  :D

...and yeah Adam, I steam past the pit box. Lucky I saw you, and managed to reverse in also  :angel:

Great event, even if I did have a complete 'mare  ;D

 First time we came up on the 'Stangs was all a bit chaotic, I got stuck behind one and 2nd and 3rd place got past me (forgive me, I don't know who it was..I haven't watched the replay yet ;) ) Two corners later one of them made what looked like a late decision to go for the inside..I tapped the brake to avoid hitting him and shot into the armco  :o  Car was trashed so I limped round and decided to retire.

 After a good 60 seconds sitting there in disbelief I suddenly realised we were allowed a reset :P  I fired up the old girl  and went out again.

 Had a ball trying to make up positions, decided to not bother with tyres on the pitstop to gain some valuable seconds and the decision looked good as I slowly made my way through the field.  Had one contact with a Stang.. really not sure what happened there. I was convinced they were letting me have the outside line...and then they weren't  :D  Hope your car wasn't too damaged. Mine was :p

 Took a few laps getting used to the dodgy handling and driving with my wheel at a strange angle then was confident enough to push for a few more positions.    To grab 7th after all that seemed like a victory.

 Grats to the podium, and thanks to the Mustang driver for generally being very predictable.  I hope my overtaking of the mustangs was fair, I tried to make my intentions clear as early as possible.

 Cheers for organising the league guys.  Look forward to the next event.

 

Thanks yes found it.

I loved it!

I was really nervous on the pace lap but settled in to a rhythm, got up to third fighting with Jasper and Adam. Then on about lap 16 I tapped a curb coming out of the boot which put my boat into a wiggle. I got a tap from a chasing Vette which was unavoidable, so sorry for that. That knocked my alignment out a bit. By a bit I mean a 45 degree change in the wheel.

I caught Adam coming out of the pit lane and he spent a lap or so trying to get past and he was gone like a scalded cat.

The Vette drivers were really good on the whole. Bit more patience would be nice but this is the first time we've all done it. So good on you, nothing major :)

See you all in two weeks. Have a good Christmas all if we don't speak before!

No probs, by that time I'd already been crashed into about 3 times by Vette's and my steering was destroyed, it wasn't fun driving it that way anyway.

Do replays get put up so we can look for incidents like in the good old days of UKGTR?

I think I've only done one race in the Vette before, at Sebring 12H event, but soon got into it. Found the car pretty hard to throw off the track tbh, but still finding the brakes too sensitive for my liking. Anyway, the fixed setup here was a godsend asI just used that and moved the brake balance back to my liking.

Had some great luck near the start as I got past some drivers into T1 on the first lap after the right hand side got a better run than the left and then in the first wave of Mustang lappings I got past some faster drivers. In the middle of the race I was up to the heady heights of the top 5 and after starting on a full tank ran the car to quite a few laps after the mid-point of the race.

With Gizmo pitting before me I listened to his chatter to see what he said about his tyre wear. At 75% on the front left I thought ok, that must be doable on one set of tyres and he had gained a lot of time by not changing. When I took my stop my tyres were down to the low 60s so I was a bit concerned, but it was too late by then and I didn't want to change strategy half way through the pit stop. As Gizmo said I managed to duck out a couple of seconds ahead of his freight train.

This put me in the lead for a few laps, hoorah, awesom, but as soon as the faster guys got past Gizmo they came barrelling towards me. By this time I couldn't do anything like the lap times I was in the first stint and I did my best to hold them up for as long as possible, but eventually all the faster guys got back past and put me down to 5th.

Then it was just a case of managing the car and trying to not to eat into the tyres anymore than I already had.

I think overall, the tyre gamble didn't pay off as I really was struggling in the second half and near the end. I think I would have easily gained back the 12 seconds less in the pits in lap time.

Anyway, well done to everyone, very very pleased with 5th, it was great to be doing Endurance racing again and one of the best races I've had for a long time. Not sure about the two classes as the Mustang really is a bit of a pony compared to the stallion that is the Vette, but most people did a great job in general.

I tried the Mustang for 30 minutes before hand so I knew exactly how hard it was going to be to keep out of the way and still focus on your own race and the track ahead. You really have my admiration as it looked really tough out there to keep it together. Well done.

P.S. Great to finally put one over on the Gizmo for a change. Don't suppose it will happen again as he's usually better than me in iRacing, but I shall enjoy it for the time being.

Hope so, I needed the john so bad I didn't save!

Not really - the replay files are massive, so hosting them is not really practical.

I've got the replay saved - so I should be able to see what's gone on.  If I get time I'll look through all the car contacts - but if reports can be made in the normal way, stating the lap, who is involved and your side of the story then that will help on the moderation front too.

Too much Grand Am! :D

So, my first race with you guys, I had a blast! Even though things didn't go as planned ;D

The start of the race went really well, I had a few scraps for the first few laps until I managed to bury my car in the wall coming out of the boot.
It was pretty undrivable after that so I took the tow and forgot to put in enough fuel to finish the race... so I had to make a quick stop with three or four laps to go to be able to finish.

Besides that no major incidents, the driving was really good and I'm happy with a fifth position all things considered. I'll be back for more in two weeks! Thanks guys!

Jasper Groeneweg

What a race!

After a frustrating qualifying I started on the grid in 7th in the middle of a Ninecraft, Shark sandwich. :o  The race started well and I soon settled into a fast pace behind the 3 Ninecraft boys.  Great looking car btw. :thumbup1:  However, chaos soon erupted ahead when the first few Vettes came across the Mustangs for the first time.  Luckily for me I was able to avoid everyone and soon found myself up into 3rd right behind my old nemesis Mike.

Lap after lap I followed Oliver and Mike, with Jamie close behind.  I kept catching them up, only to then encounter a Mustang in the worst possible place, time and time again.  On lap 25 I decided to pit due to the traffic ahead.  A couple of laps later I managed to nip around T1 and just squeeze pass Mike coming out of the pits.  This was a huge event!  A couple of laps later Oliver rejoined the battle, and it soon became clear that the sneaky Shark twins had jumped out in front with a risky no tyre change strategy.  Thankfully Oliver and myself were able to take advantage of our fresh tyres to get past both quickly.  :-*

From then on, Oliver and myself had a great battle.  As we worked our way through the traffic the gap between us remained no more than 1 second.  But with 11 laps to go Oliver made a small mistake, but it was enough for me to take the lead.  I was soon able to pull a 3 second gap, which I managed to keep to the chequered flag.

Great race Oliver.  It's the first time I've raced against you and your team mates and I hope it's not the last.  I'd also like to thank the Mustang guys.  You were great!!

It's good to see proper Endurance racing back on Sunday nights at Srouk.  I've missed it, and I hope it continues....  Thanks Adam for all your hard work to make this possible.  :notworthy:

Congrats to the podium guys, especially to my team mates; Pops and Adam for their 2nd and 3rd in the Stang.  I know you guys have both had a tough time in iRacing this week, you deserve a change in fortune...

Welcome to the new guys.  Hope to see you all in 2 weeks...

Well, that was... eventful!  :o

During practice I found a couple of setup tweaks that actually made the car better  ;D This resulted in a decent qually time and 3rd on the grid.

The start was good and I was keeping up a pretty good pace, not letting the leader get too far away, and pulling a small gap over 3rd place, then we came across the Mustangs for the first time.  Since it was still only lap 5, the two classes were still bunched up.  Stuart got himself trapped in the Stang queue, I had been mugged by Oliver after I went the wrong side earlier in the lap and we went up the inside of the turn. On the straight after, I got a bang in the side, only a 0x recorded but my steering was now bent.

While I was learning to drive my new car (tight on left turns and loose on rights) Jamie and Darren were closing in as Oliver was running away.  After a few laps I had figured it out and recovered some pace, but I was now holding up a train of Vettes  :D  Darren wasn't going to let me relax and it was all I could do to prevent him getting a run at me.  We were now catching Oliver I noticed!

So, now I was trying to attack Oliver and defend from Darren, with a bent car, then Darren pitted.  I knew he would gain pace with fresh tyres, so 2 laps later I pitted, but just lost the place when I rejoined.  We were now up behind Dave and Simon.  I got round Dave OK, but I could not find a way round Simon for absolutely ages and when I finally managed it (a slightly rude pass, but it was the only way), Oliver and Darren were long gone.  Now I had Jamie to worry about, but I felt I could hold 3rd place.  Until I misjudged a Stang braking for T1 and clobbered him at the apex :(  My steering was even more bent now and a few laps later the inevitable happened and Jamie was through.  Now that I had a big gap behind I just brought it home.

I enjoyed the racing, fourth with a damaged car is a good result, but I misread the Mustangs a few times, which cost me dearly in the end.  We'll get better at that as the season progresses, I had no problems in general.  Well done everyone, and congrats to Darren for a well deserved win  ;D

Thanks Mike.  Don't forget to give your leader a nudge to get your team skins uploaded to Trading Paints. ;)

I forgot about the reset so when my car got bent i watched from the pits for a while and then left :( gutted.

That was one of the most exhilarating, intense, and enjoyable races I’ve ever done.

Practice
I was massively pumped for this race, so I’d done a lot of laps before Saturday’s official practice session, both solo and with the team. I’ve never really gotten on with the C6R at any track, but James had made a setup back when Pocono was released which with one or two minor tweaks was absolutely spot on for Watkins Glen. I ended up having massive faith in the car in any situation, which for me is a bit of a novelty.

In the Saturday session, I had a good little leaderboard scrap with Darren - after I’d done a fuel stint, killing my shoulder in the process, I took the fuel out and ragged it to beat his time only to find 10 minutes later I had an extra light on the side of the car again. Naturally I went again immediately upon finding this out, posting a 1:39.982, some 0.003 ahead - hurrah. I had another two tenths on the following lap but couldn’t hold it to the line; it wouldn't have been enough to topple Stuart’s 39.4 anyway.

In the Sunday session I focused almost entirely on long full tank runs but I did empty it for one qualy run at the end of the session, but it was only good enough for a 41.2 putting me 8th.

Qualifying
Based on the traffic in practice, the qualifying was always going to be a matter of who could secure the most robust gap to get their lap in.

I did two two-lap runs. On my first, I ended up in the middle of a Mustang conference near the end of the lap, but on the second lap despite having a completely clear run, I only managed a 40.3, which was a bit disappointing as I knew I could do a high-mid 39 if I really put my balls on the line. The second run was clear again, but I fubarred the lap resulting in a 40.7 - it was only good enough for 6th on the grid, but being ahead of Darren was a silver lining.

Race
Steven had failed to arrive on the grid, so the left-hand lane had moved up a row, gifting me 5th place at the start, but the right-hand lane got the jump negating any advantage. I slotted in behind Olly and Simon and with Darren in tow behind we set about trying to establish a gap to the group behind. We hadn’t actually done a great deal of practice following each other in a line so it was a little surprising to find just how comfortable we were inches behind the car in front.

James elected not to take part in this race as his connection is intermittent currently, but he joined as a spectator and took the role of crew chief over Ventrilo, keeping us three informed as to what was going on ahead and behind.

Naturally one of us had to cock up eventually, and that honour was bestowed to me when I snatched a brake into turn 7, the uphill right hander, opening the door for Darren who duly took 5th place. A short while later, the lap counter ticked up to 5...

Lap 5 was quite the lap. Stuart started catching the stangs in the esses, which meant we were going to catch them on the straight - easy enough, you might think, but one of them had been displaced to the right hand side due to the way that Stuart had got through. The end result was a 185mph mobile car park - Michael picked the left hand side to get past but was immediately held up by another stang. Olly naturally kept his boot in, dived to the inside and bombed past to take 2nd place.

This led him to mark the occasion with the FT-Ninecraft Ventrilo Quote of the Day™:
“OH GOD, I AM BUZZING OFF MY TITS”

At turn 7 we went into ‘after you, sir’ mode and started tripping over each other trying to get past the lead end of the mustang field which unfortunately claimed the suspension of erstwhile leader Stuart, but we managed to get through alright, despite my best unintentional efforts to go drifting. After getting slightly held up by my own indecision behind Adam at the top end of the esses, I lost a position to Simon Gymer on the following lap, and so the rhythm was established for a while. After getting a monster run onto the straight on lap 11, I passed Simon into the Carousel in an unintended sideways fashion and followed Darren right up until the pitstops.

To allow leader Olly an easier time in the pitlane, I delayed my stop until the end of lap 28, but on my in-lap I encountered Ian Bassi at turn 8. He missed the apex, so I thought he was allowing me through on his right, but he veered right slightly so I thought he was diagonalling the straight early giving me a route on his left. That veering, unknown to me at the time, was actually a slide - by the time I was there, he’d straightened it out but there wasn’t quite enough room. I ran on the grass, but the tip of my splitter gave his rear quarter panel the slightest of kisses - it was enough to unsettle his car and turn it into a spin. I’m really sorry Ian, but it’s difficult to read whether a car is moving intentionally or sliding slightly when you’ve only got a second to make a decision!

I came out of the pits to find a few extra cars in front of me that had gambled on tyre strategy, but I got my head down and pumped in some decent laps to catch Michael and Dave who were having an almighty scrap. Unfortunately this scrap was holding up James Steel in a lapped Corvette, who quite rightly wanted his lap back, but in a great display of sensibleness after he realised he wasn’t going to get past the front two he kindly dropped back out of the way. I hung on to the back of the group until lap 38, passing Simon through turns 8 and 9, which due to the limited traction felt like the slowest overtake ever. Again I got my head down and settled into a rhythm to catch Michael, now clearly struggling, and passed him into the Carousel on lap 42 to take 3rd place behind Olly, which I held to the line.

Across the line, I tried to move my right leg in a direction it hadn’t been moved for some two hours, which was a mistake.

Sometimes there are moments in simracing that make you step back and think “wow, we can actually do this”, and this race has an abundance of those moments. Braking behind someone I’ve never raced before anywhere, let alone in a high-stakes league environment into an awkward corner like the Chute after the Carousel, staying a foot or two off of his diffuser on the brake pedal is actually something quite special.

I think the only person outside of the team that I have a memory of racing before is Stuart which I’m betting he can’t even remember, on the LFS STCC TBO server around so2r in 2006 or so, yet I felt I could trust everyone as if I’d been racing them for years. I’m massively grateful to Adam for inviting us here and thus allowing us to experience that race. I’m still absolutely beaming nearly a day later.

Props to the Mustang drivers as well, you guys had a hell of a lot on your plate and you coped excellently.

We’ve entered part time as we’re not sure which races we’re doing, but I think the next one we have any certainty over is Silverstone and then Spa, both of which I’m massively looking forward to. See you there, and best of luck to the full time drivers going for the championship :)

 ;D

A gentleman never reveals he's getting that excited. ;)

Big sorry to John Bayes

Really sorry for messing your race up tonight.

really not sure why it snapped like that.
i saw 2 of you coming and i kept right and had to slow a bit more so i don't touch the curb
all was going fine...next thing it snapped the other way....really don't get it.

i was just hoping you would miss me.

No excuses but its all down to me.

Really really sorry.

Andy.

 i had a good race other than that, yes i had a couple of spins but it was really good fun.

Must admit on the first lap it was all rather nice and peaceful and had myself in order with the other mustangs.
nice and dreamy kind of drive........then something on the outside of me at one hell of a rate of knots......WTF is that...made me jump and just in time....i had forgot all about the incoming Corvette's lol.........was great when a few come steaming past.

I kept out of there way and gave them the fast line as often as i could, i never had any problems with any untill the cock up with John.

Look forward to the next race.

I really enjoyed last nights racing, thanks for organising it all Adam.

Good racing Iain I thought you had it in the bag. I noticed I started catching you, I think I managed to get 2.5 seconds behind you, then you pitted. I thought if I kept running and tried to make a lead on you, a late pit strategy would pay off. I was watching you on my relative in the pit's, I was lucky to get out in front of you, it was really close. The first time the Vette train came passed was very impressive.

Grats to the Vette's for been so patient, there were a few 'hold breath' moments, but other than that it seemed very fair. well done lads.

This was the most intense race I have ever been in, and the overall standard of driving was good.

See you all at the next event.

Thanks.

No worries Andy, was just a learning experience for me, my arms and hands were killing me anyway, did not realise we had a reset till i set off again, then following Simon G he came across a mustang and backed off I didnt react in time it was either hit him or the barrier I chose the barrier wrong choice lol!

Dave apologies if I was agressive in T1, I actually thought I had gone easy into there but looks different from each perspective.

Wow what a race... 90minutes seemed like about 10 !  ;D
It was intense in the Mustangs, sooo difficult... the slightest lack on concentration and you could have one of the Vette's off in a heartbeat.

Apologese to Stuart and John I think!? Another one of those... as Gizmo so perfectly put it...

"I tried to avoid any really hairy encounters but inevitably had my share of "after you, no, after you" and "I don't really want to be here and neither do you" moments."

Ian b and I had a little coming together late on.... felt like he hit with with a hammer but looking at the replay it was the slightest of contacts which just totally upset the Stang :(
Bit of a shame as I missed gaining a place, then slammed it into the barrier a few corners later and spent the last 2 laps nursing a very sick car and came over the line 0.2 secs before Andy behind! Phew!

Very difficult to keep a race going though as I was obviously not good in traffic and just seemed to loose more time than those in front of me.. frustrating but something to work on  ;)

Thanks Adam, awesome event!

Hope all the new guys enjoyed it and will be sticking with us for the championship!?

(http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/3259/stangrace1.jpg)

Darren - you've left your car out in the sun again ... the paint's all faded :D

Whats that a caption comp.... Adam beats team mate in slower car!..  ;D

Well, that was a bit of a non-event for me. Unfortunately, right at the very end of qualy, I had to dash off to attend to a family emergency. A bit disappointing in hindsight, I reckon this was the only track I could put a bit of pressure on Stuart (even more so as it looks like he had a 'mare of a race) but my family comes before any sim-race, so that's all irrelevant really. I'm just going to forget last week ever happened and start afresh at Phillip Island!

Reading through, it looks like the race off went pretty much without a hitch. Congrats to the podium finishers in both classes and thanks to Adam for organising it all :)

It's Pops driving - if it were me I'd have been trying to run Darren off the road :D

You can't even hit an apex which is stationary, so you stand no chance hitting a moving target.  :-*

I just couldn't shake off Jamie..  Even the trusty smoke screen didn't work.  ::)

(http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h179/crapgolfer/SRouk2.jpg)

2s company, 9s a crowd  :o

(http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h179/crapgolfer/SRouk3.jpg)

Someone was a lucky boy  :whistling:

(http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h179/crapgolfer/SRouk4.jpg)

I've thrown some onboard clips together:

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/790534/srouk/videostill.jpg) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAtQ--6PtZ8&hd=1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAtQ--6PtZ8&hd=1

(pardon the occasional glitch)

Nice vid Jamie.  Glad you guys enjoyed it.

Hopefully Ninecraft will be back before Silverstone....

Sorry to hear about your problems Steven.  I hope everything is now ok.  See you at the next race...

MY GOD :o the closing speeds! Big respect to the Mustangs! looks like i'd be well out of my depth sadly.

Sounds like it was quite an event, glad everyone enjoyed it.

again my deepest apologies for that Mike and thanks for your understanding  :thumbup2:

I could have continued but I was gutted at that shunt and putting you out the race I retired soon as I realised you was out :-\

not the best showing for my first race with you guys :(




Ian

Moderation is complete - race one is in the books.

See you guys next week for race two.