SimRacing.org.uk

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Car: Chevrolet Corvette C6R or Ford Mustang FR500S
Track: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Practice: from approx. 18:45 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 19:45 (15 mins)
Race: 20:00 65 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)

JOINING PROCEDURE:

As we have more than a gridful of drivers that could potentially turn up - can I request that reserve/part time drivers only join after 1905hrs.  Full time drivers please "book your place" as soon as possible, you don't have to connect to the server by this time, but please register.

Being able to practice for this one, I'm looking forward to it much more than race two .... that mess can't fade from my memory fast enough!

Hi Adam is it 52 as the poster says or 62 laps? Just wondering as getting the Ford Barge Mustang through the corkscrew that many times will need a lot of practice!
So far my laptime (after a few tryout laps) is 1:45.9 got told off twice for cutting the track at the corkscrew...

Cheers

Colin

The Corvettes will do 62 laps, the Mustangs will do far fewer, probably around 50.

(Unless all the Corvettes crash out; happened to me once in a EuroGPLeMans race where all the F1 and F2 cars crashed and three of us in F3 ended up doing the full race distance in something like 35% more time that was scheduled!)

Pity we STILL can't do timed Hosted races ::)

Neither :D  It's 65 laps ....

... and now EVERYTHING says so :D

Well spotted on the deliberate mistakes .... there will be 3 in the race 4 announcement ;).

 :-\ this is my least favourite track in iRacing :-\  I've never got my head into it in any of the cars  :-\

I'll more than lightly be racing with the Mustangs in my Vette this time cos they will get round faster than me  ;D ;D ;D

and I'll need at least 6 pit-stops  ::) cos I always rip my front tyres to shreds here  :-\

1m23s in the Corvette's the best I can muster so far (full fuel) - feels pretty damned hard in the Corvette!

Not my favourite either but at least it's better than Infinion. The Cork Screw is awesome as a viewing spectacle but it just never seems right whatever line I take, at whatever speed, in whatever car when I drive it :( If it's hard in the Corvette it'll be almost impossible in the Mustang.

As long as you get a full rotation each time you come down it you should be fine ... it's when you only manage a half rotation or one and a half that it gets tricky :D

I'll kick off the Mustang times with a 1:39.4 (fully fueled).

did I say I HATE this track  >:(

well I got my official races out the way so it's all out practice now on this god awful dust bowl  :-\



yup that will be about my times more than lightly IF I'm lucky ......and that's in the Vette  ;D ;D

I hit a low 1:40 after 3 timed laps - so I'd hope to be a similar pace to Pops. (Pace and Pops?  DOES NOT COMPUTE! ;) )

well did some laps last night in the Vette {sorry Dan scraped the paint quite a bit but the paint guys been working on it all night to make it like new  ;) } :o full tanks and I'm struggling  at high 1:22's :-\ lap consistency = 0  :-\

SNAP, should be interesting  8)

Im REALLY struggling with the Vette here  :-\

Cant find any decent setups either.

I presume there's a 'fixed' one available in the iRacing setups in game - they're normally a good starting point (so good I almost never change them).

I think it's fair so say this track doesn't really suit either car particularly well.

nope they only put fixed in for the tracks in the official season I think  :-\

Although I've been racing the Vette for a few seasons now, this is one track I've never driven it at. I've just done some exploratory laps and got down to the high 20's, a bit like Ian though I need more consistency as I'm all over the place. I'm mainly over-driving, so probably just need more laps under my belt.  It really is a case of going slow to go fast at Laguna. The worst problem I've got it terminally locking the right-front into the corkscrew, I need to figure out something to stop that...

I took my Brands setup as a starting point as both tracks are fairly similar - mid-speed corners and not very long straights - and it seemed to work pretty well. Perhaps trying the Brands fixed set if you're stuck may be a start, although I've never got on with the fixed sets so don't really know.

I did a few laps in the Mustang too (I like to do laps in both cars as it gives me an idea of the Mustang drivers are going through and what braking points they use) and slightly fluked a 38.1 with the baseline set and 11.*g of fuel. I wouldn't like to race that set though as it was all over the shop! It'll certainly be hard lapping the Mustangs here - probably the hardest track of the season - the Vette's will really have to be patient in places. Heading up the hill to the corkscrew will be particularly treacherous.

Some hard work tonight has me near Pop's pace in the Stang. I'm really finding it difficult to comprehend the enormity of struggling to get to the lesser Leg-end pace. I've got a lot to learn, which is pretty good fun and exciting :)

If I learn how to do pitstops before race, I'll join you for this.

This is going to be a tough one alright!  I started with the Brands fixed set and set the rear toe to +1, which was friendlier.  So far I have 1:22.1 on full fuel, but that's with only 10 laps in total.  I should shave a bit more off yet.

Ginsters!.... where did you come from!?.... Welcome back!... lol

Is there a praccy sever going up today?

Yes

Good shout Ste Jones, thats really helped alot  8)

Still very tricky though but at least my times seem to be in the ball park (for now) anyway, im sure later on the praccy server everyone will have found another second  :D

Hey guys, I just signed up for series and was wondering, how do I know if I'm on the entry list?
Up in the password section I'm stated as 2nd reserve, is that something I can trust? And if so, am I to just keep an eye on the server tomorrow, and see if there is a full grid or not?

Edit: Deleted a question, figured it out.

And thirdly, when do you usually start the practise server - the one for tonight?

I'm currently at a fairly consistent mid to high 22's with full fuel, but that's on fresh rubber and some 7-9 lap stints (been tweaking setup), so I have no idea how it will be in the long run :).

I think the practice server will be between 6 - 7pm normally. Sure someone will be along to say exactly soon.

Yes you need to wait till after 1905(might be more for 2nd reserve) and check that theres room for the race.

Welcome by the way  8)

no praccy server  :whistling:

I'll stick one up now guys - in desperate need of some test laps!

'tis done - 3 hours practice and a short sprint to wet the appetite  ;D.

nice one mate, next ones on me  ;)

Ouch!!
I have no idea how to drive on Laguna, and I never enter this track if I'm not forced on to it  :angel:
Hope a small practise tomorrow will be enough to atleast be safe in traffic on this track.  8)

Dang! Now you are forcing me... lol

I'll send a pint later ....


Sorry guys - been cooking for ages as we've got folk round and only just remembered ....

Well Adam at least you have fashionable excuses! :D

Down to low 21's, that's fine :)  though it seems incredibly hard to go much faster on low tanks  ???

thanks for hosting was usefull practice and info  ;)

I hate Laguna.

The end.  :(

Thanks for Hosting James....

Tough combo that!  Going to be really tough racing here for 2 hours.  :o

P.S Welcome Karsten.  :)

P.P.S I like Laguna even more, now that I know Brendan hates it ;)

 :P  ;)

You little liar...  Just seen your time.  You obviously don't hate it that much. ;)

Can someone remind me what I'm supposed to do in regard to being a First reserve?  ie. at what point should/shouldn't I try joining?

Cheers, Ross.

Wait until 19:05, then join.

Oh, but I do.  :-[

The one decent lap happened to be one of the very few that I managed without spinning at the corkscrew, or turning in to early and launching off a kerb, or getting on the power too early out of the final turn..............the list goes on. 

PI felt like it suited the Vette perfectly, Laguna feels just awful.

Lol ta Mike. Just seen that it's on the race details, should have realised before posting!

Server should show in a moment :).

Gutted, lost connection twice in quick succession on lap 2 so I decided that was probably it for the night.

That was shaping up to be a good scrap with Martin and Raimo too  :'(

really sorry Borchers  :-[ I should have backed-off by the backmarker but thought there was enough room, ended up on the sand and then was just a passenger.... sorry for ruining your race  :-\

Nightmare qually!! Not one clean lap :(
Nightmare race!!  :'(

I knew I was in trouble when I saw both Adam and Mike had jumped me on the grid in the dying seconds of qually.  Then to make matters worse I then let Brendan through on lap 1.

I knew I had the pace here but with Brendan and Adam battling ahead we quickly lost touch with the leaders.  By the time Adam and Brendan had a coming together the top 2 were 20 seconds down the road.  To add to my frustration while stuck in Mustang traffic I was hit going into the last corner; which turned my neutral handling Vette into a tail happy monster. :(

I managed to fight my way back to 3rd, but I was soon back down to 8th after I had to swerve to avoid a Mustang going into the braking zone of the last turn.  I guess he didn't see me and just pulled over....  Anyway, once my right wheels hit the dirt there was no chance I was stopping...

I decided to pit early in the hope new tyres would tame the beast, but infact it made things worse.....  Eventually the Corkscrew got me and I spun facing the wall on the inside...  I tried to do a 257 point turn to get out of there (not wanting to reverse on to the track) but eventually got beached, so I quit...

Sorry to hear about your problems Purds and Pops...

See you all at the next race...

 

Good race that :)

Real fun battle with Dave. I need to have a few more iR starts before I know whats going on, and he rather jumped me. He made a "cut" mistake at corkscrew and I slithered pass. My first ever iR stop didn't go well and I overshot. Come out 1 second ahead of Dave and the battle was. Trouble was I had shot my bolt. My poor little hands (aaargh you say) were aching and my arms falling off. A strong ff feels great but I need to turn it down before next race ::) Very impressed by the pace of Dario and Raimo.

Though Vette fellows were mainly very good, I was dived bombed a few times and oddly into corkscrew which wasn't very bright. I would imagine there are easier tracks to multi class race on to be fair  :)

Congrats to all and I look forward to next one.

A difficult race at a difficult track.  Computer crashed on lap 3, and by the time it rebooted, and wheel and pedals were working, I was 7 laps down.  Still pleased to get back on track, get some more experience, and finish the race.

Thanks for hosting, and thanks everyone for making it a fun event.

Ian

That was hard work.

I was gutted to see Pops disco early, as there were a few of us of similar pace likely to be mixing it up.  After Raimo got hit I was one spot further up, and then Blunder ran onto the kitty-litter out of T6 and I got past up the hill.

Due to his damage his pace was a little down, giving me a chance to stay ahead.

A solid pit stop marked the end of me seeing any Mustangs at all really, with the pace in P1-4 being a step beyond what I could manage, and although in terms of racing in-class it was dull, the Corvette's made sure there was never a dull moment.  There were a few "moments" when I got swarmed, and ended up frozen in the middle of the track as they all swept by ... sorry for any confusion guys, due to the closing speeds and the lack of room by that point it was tough to say what to do.

Grats to you guys on the podium - awesome pace.



As ever - if there are reportable incidents, do report them - we want to maintain the highest of driving standards here, and the moderation process is part of keeping standards from slipping.

Cheers.

That was a battle of survival just to finish!

Got a good start to jump past Adam, and Steven and I were soon pulling away from the field.  I was slowly losing touch though, so decided to settle down and drive my own race.

All went well for a while until the tyre performance dropped off a cliff.  Suddenly I was all over the place and the car just felt horrible.  Two spins followed, getting slow-dows at the corkscrew, then got into the pits at half distance for new tyres and fuel.

That felt better I thought, lets look after these tyres.  I then promptly had a huge slide at T1.  Great!  Plodded round just trying to get to the finish unscathed, but had a few misunderstandings with the Mustangs, even getting a slow-down at T1 after contact with Ian Bassi.  Sorry Ian, thought you'd seen me there :(

Struggled to the finish from there, no longer caring about gaps or laptimes.

Thank god that's over!

Congrats Steven, you were in a different class... again ;)

I knew this wasn't going to be a quiet one.

Had to attend to a minor family emergency during qually so only had about 7 minutes to set a good lap (which I didn't).

Before the race, I hastily decided on a 2-stop strategy as I was taking so much out of the tyres and hoped that something a little left-field might pay off.  Start was clean-ish and I got the jump on Gary.  After 4 laps I was up to 3rd after Adam and Darren had made small mistakes.  Coming up to the first round of lapping I think I caught Adam out with my braking for the final turn, he therefore nudged me off track and I lost the 3 places I had gained.  At the end of the straight were some more Mustangs and under braking I just went in a straight line and chopped Raimo off.  Sorry Raimo, not sure if it was damage to my car or driver error, hope it didn't affect you too much.

Hit escape in disgust but had a few moments to calm down and decided to try again, but now on a 1 stop strategy.  Rejoined a lap down in 15th behind Mike in 2nd.  This was convenient for me as it gave me something to focus on and by the time we caught up to the back of the pack I was hopeful of being able to take advantage of Mike lapping and slip through with him.  This worked twice with Simon and Ross I think.  Anyway, with 27 laps gone I had to pit for fuel and try to make my new tyres last the final 37 laps.  Entering the pitlane I thought I had pressed the limiter, but obviously not as I was soon given a penalty for speeding :(

A very long stop later, and I rejoined with Simon right on my tail and closing.  Spent the next few laps trying to get my tyres up to temperature and just managed to sneak back past Ross for 8th when he took his stop.  Spent the rest of the race trying to chase down Ian and although I got the gap down from 36 to 6, there just weren't enough laps.

So much more fun than I expected considering my hatred of Laguna.  Grats to the podiums, and great work by the Mustang drivers.  :thumbup1:

My practice for the race were the 10 laps i did in the server yesterday, i hate the track with a passion so i couldn't bring myself to do more.
I had the speed here and there but i had no real hope for the race: in qualify i was surprisingly close to Samu, but as the green dropped he took off and i just minded my own business and brought it home with way too many mistakes but still in second. I hope i didn't cause trouble to the Vettes, i just switched to 7 so the fresh iR install still had the insanely wide fov in the virtual mirror, i couldn't see a thing.

Thanks for hosting and grats to the winners!

Had almost zero experience from here with Mustang before the race so I was a bit worried. Tricky track and I have done maybe 10 laps here when Mustang came out at last April. Especially while this track aint at the Grand Am -calendar so the tyre issue was a big ? -mark for me. I knew from my Grand Am -experience that Mustang could do these 55 laps (or 1,5 hours) without pitstop, but finally I decided to get fuel for around 40 laps and see how the tyres are going to wore.

Qualifying was a disaster for me, I couldnt get a single clean lap and got twize "slow down" message from corkscrew  >:( Eventually average lap of 1.38.4 was enough for pole - with just few thousandth of second between me and Dario.

 Start was a bit hasty but also Dario didnt get best start so lucky me. Then after maybe 7 or 8 laps Dario just dissapeared from my F3 -window and from that moment I went to "safe mode". Slowed down and tried to yeld Vettes as much as possible in order to minimize accidental contacts. Made my pitstop around lap 40 and took new tyres. I saw from tyre management window that I could have easily done whole race with same tyres so another waisted 6 or 7 seconds there. At this point the gab between me and Dario was around 22 second so I decided to do few hotlaps in order to see how the car is behaving when pushed to limits. I got almost 0,7sec better laptime than in qualifying, even while avoiding two Vettes at that lap  :)
After that I just slowed down and cruised to finish. Easy win after Dario made mistake or so, otherwise would have been different story.

Thanks for every Vette driver out there, I felt so much safer and relaxed here than at official season Grand Am -races. I really could trust on you guys  :)

Results:

http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=2980830&custid=18021



PS. Nice to see you Dario here, I remember how we had some really nice fights during last spring Skippy seasons  :P

No worries Purdie, there wasnt much you could when you first came on the sand. Gave me quite the scare though.. BAM, hehe :).
I had a pretty good race, all taken into account. Got T-boned in the Corkscrew on L18 when in pos 4, and had to Shift+R (was in doubt if it was allowed, but since the option was there, I guess it was allowed?), and when back in the pit I filled the tank, and hoped for the best.
Was now last of the Vettes, so my race now was just 'damage control'. I was surprised to find myself in the top 10 not long after, and when the pit stops started I quickly made up a few more places. Was right behind Adam and really wanted that 4th place, but I had to make a choice. Do I gamble or do I play it safe, cause if I went back on the lead lap, then I wouldnt have fuel enough, and the leader was just some 10 sec ahead on track at that point. I opted to play it safe and started to save fuel, I crossed the line with 1.1 laps left in the tank :).

I was surprised how well my tires held up, I had 65% on Front Left and around 71-73% on the others, and that was after 47 laps of driving. Granted, I didnt push as hard as I would normally have, cause I was worried about my tires in the long run.

But what a hard race, never really had an opportunity to relax, there was constantly something around that required my full attention. Was great fun, and super cool to finally do some long races again - has been a while.

Thank you all for a great race, I'll defently see you for the next one.


P.s. Sorry to 5th on the grid (cant remember your name, sorry). At the end of the pacelap in the last corner, I gave you a tiny notch. Hope I didnt bend your car in any way - never know with the iRacing collision.

I can not remember that, did we have contact?  I did not have any contact incident points.  Half my fault as I don't even remember seeing you :(

Ian

I hate it, I hate it.

Horrid qualifying. Every lap was messed up one way or another. Nobody's fault in particular. Just crap.

Race, got off to a good start and latched on to Adam. Then whilst being lapped, I was turning in whilst watching my mirror and had quite an expensive and spectacular roll.
That casued a reset and put me out of contention. I was really just wanting it to end.

Can my roll be included in the end of season highlights? :)

Yes - good racing that Robin.  Shame it didn't last longer.

I know, if I wasn't such a gonk then it would have. I was so annoyed at myself. Oh well.

Must mention that the Corvette's were very good tonight. Guessing they're kind of getting used to the Mustangs now. Still one or two dodgy overtakes in to the Corkscrew?!  :o

Sure ;D  In fact if anyone has some good racing moments, PM them to me and I'll see about putting a little movie together.

Well, a good race for me! Had a decent start and managed to hold on to the back of the front runners (except Samu who seemed to be driving a Vette :laugh:) until the Corvettes came. I didn't have a whole lot of practice here so the traffic took some getting used to, and that cost me a couple of times. Finally I got into a rhythm and managed to stay out of trouble generally. I had a few minor misunderstandings with Vettes and lapping Mustangs, but no contacts thankfully!

I have to say the driving standard was great, I had no problem putting trust in the Corvettes and even had me giving too much room at times. Thanks everyone!

I'm quite happy with the result but not particularly pleased with my performance. Stuffed up qualifying by stupidly running wide Nico Rosberg style on the pit exit, then losing the tail when the right side reached the tarmac and clouting one of the Corvettes who was coming out behind me. :-[


I realised during the formation lap that you haven't done many rolling starts; I struggled to keep behind Dario with you using the whole of the track and decided to make sure I was back on the inside line for the final turn come hell or high water, which worked rather well. :laugh: :angel:

For the first few laps I had really, really good pace, getting a 1:38.9, but I destroyed the tyres in the process, and not only got a black flag at the corkscrew, handing not just one place back to Ginsters, but letting Jasper past as well. ::) To add insult to injury I touched the back of a Corvette in the corkscrew and bent the front a bit.

The car felt like junk after that and I couldn't pull away from Adam or Blunder behind. I agonised about whether to take tyres or not but in the end decided that I couldn't afford a reset, and would have to change them and hope that the car's handling would return.

Stopped a lap or two ahead of schedule, and after that the car felt great again; with hindsight I should've stopped 5 laps earlier still, but of course I couldn't know for sure that the tyres were the problem until after I stopped. As it turned out I might just have squeaked past Ginsters who came out of the pits a few laps after me, literally right in front of me. We had a great scrap for a few laps before he started to eek out a gap, until there was an unfortunate mix up with a Corvette that turned him round and I think sucked amnother 'Vette in the mess too. That gave me 4th place back and, unable to make any impression on the ~8s gap to Jasper I just settled into a rhythm and tried not to get too many new black flags, not especially easy with a big bulge of damaged bonnet on the ride side of the car!

Was a tad miffed with myself at the end - almost avoided getting lapped by Samu, missed out by just one lap. :laugh:

Hah, I almost ran into the back of you there, didn't realise you had a black flag and figured you'd pick up the pace. It was especially scary since Vettes were lapping us to the right but I managed to sneak past through the middle ;)

Good racing again guys!  and kippis to Samu and Steven

Very slow but exciting start. Iain came up and passed into last corner on lap 0. Looking good for a nice battle when Iain suddenly dropped  :o
In any game I have ever driven on this track, I always have bad luck. Thats why I have an epic distrust in this track  :laugh:
On lap 5 into 1st corner 3 vettes where batteling, as I turn in I get a small scape from Brendan and my steering is 50 degrees off. I try 2 more cornes, and deside to call for towtruck. Rest of race was just trying to survive, waiting for what this track could throw up next. Had a couple of hairy moments, and I'm sorry for any confusion or dents.

See you all for the 2h on Daytona  :)

for a track I totally detest that turned out to be a cracking race can't believe I only had 4 incident {slight off track type} after my practice sessions so I'm more than pleased with my result


sorry to a few Mustang drivers I was a little confused a few time as to your lines the closing speed was real difficult to get a handle on  don't think I touched anybody {well didn't according to the result page} I remember on lap 33 coming out the last turn on the inside of a mustang I caught in the corner of my eye this car loose it on the dirt and to be honest I shut my eyes for a sec and prayed he didn't collect me .it was answered and I was on me way ;)

I seemed to spend quite some time chasing my team mate  in that race which must have been a little confusing to some mustang drivers seeing the same car pass them in quick succession ;)

have to say on the whole the mustang drivers awareness was superb yet again it is good to race with guys ya can be pretty sure of what they are gona do  :) ;)

well done podium of both classes  :punk:

thanks to ALL for a superb night entertainment i think i lost a few pounds in that race with the way my shirt was {had to have a quick shower  ;)}

till next time  ;) :clap: :clap: :thumbup2:

First of all, big  apologies to Brendan for the contact toward the start of the race, not really sure what happened, but I just couldn't slow down enough.  ???

Put some practice time in yesterday for the race and was happy with the car.  The car today felt nothing like it did then.

I got one clean lap qualifying..Just as the chequered flag was waved and managed to pip second place on the grid  :o

Got a dreadfull start and was immediately down to 3rd place...the car felt awful.  Probably just the pressure  ;D  I made a lot of mistakes and lost a couple of places and ended up hitting Brendan into the last corner (so sorry).

I struggled on , the car was understeering like crazy (which I simply loved :cursing:) and to make matters worse  I rear-ended my teamate who had just rear-ended Darren  ::).  It was just a mess, a total mess!!  ;)

After that, Darren and Gazza pulled away while I understeered around the track (oh the joy!) until around lap 35/36 when I pitted.  The car felt so much better, and I was able to have a decent pace up to the finish.

Thanks to the Mustang drivers who were great and sorry to one stang driver who span in front of me and I just could not avoid.   I hope I didn't cause to much carnage on my way through the rest of you stang drivers.

Grats to Podiums  (Gazza for Team PINK in 3rd)  ;D

Roll on the next one

Ah, after consulting my replay, you can't remember it because it wasn't you, it was Raimo  :-[  Apologies again Raimo. :(

No problems Mike.
I saw you comming and was making room for you, when I had a small lock and cut in front of you. Good work saving your equpment  :angel:

That was an eventful race, almost a bit too eventful at one point! I got a few laps practice in on Friday afternoon, with the plan of getting a few more in this afternoon, but that didn't work out. I went into the race with no idea on fuel strategy and no long run testing either, so it was a bit of a journey into the unknown.

Qualifying seems to be more stressful than the races here :) With such a short session and so many cars it's quite hard to find a clear lap. My last lap was a bit of banzai job, caught a couple of Mustangs in just the right places, and broke my PB by three tenths to get pole. I was already sweating after qualifying, I think I could have filled a bucket after the race :laugh:

I managed not to jump the start this time and the first part of the race was a fairly relaxed affair. Mike was never too far behind so I couldn't back off, but I'd got a nice rhythm going and was just going with the flow. As I hadn't worked out a strategy I decided to split the race in half and play it safe with the fuel load. Just as I hit pit exit, after my stop, I came across a huge gaggle of cars, then realised I was right behind the battle for what was then second place between, I think, the two Pseudo Racing boys. They both pitted in quick succession after that but I knew I'd lost some time and wasn't exactly sure where Mike was. As it turned out I was okay but I'd pushed quite hard for five or six laps and took a lot out of the tyres.

As the second half of the race wore on I was starting to struggle both with the car and myself. The tyres had really fell off a cliff and the car was sliding around a lot, plus with the constant concentration needed round here, and I had to back it off a notch to stop myself doing something silly. With only about seven laps to go I came up to lap Pete into the last bend and, in cruise mode, decided to pass him after the corner. As I pulled alongside though he hit the astroturf and spun into the side of me - cue completely knackered steering! (by the way, no hard feelings from me, it was just one of those things). Part of the reason I like to build a big gap if I can though, especially in enduros, is for just these eventualities and it paid off in this case. If the race had been another two laps longer though it may have been a different story :)

Congrats to all the other podium finishers, I know it was definitely one of the hardest races I've done. I think hoping for three-in-a-row at Daytona may be pushing my luck slightly ;D

Laguna has never been a track I've enjoyed, great spectacle for watching but I hate driving the place. This is backed up by I've never had a race here where I've been on the pace  :-[ I couldn't fathom the braking last night either in the Stang. Seemingly braking at the same place I'd arrive at the corner 10 mph faster and it just wouldn't go round. This resulted in too many understeer moments off the track :( Again, sorry for my mistake Steve. That was initiated by one of those moments. Glad you still got the win, I was mortified when it happened. I hate screwing my own races up but REALLY hate screwing up someone else's.

I quite enjoyed PI 2 weeks ago but last night I just wanted it all to end. Hopefully next time out at Daytona will bring back some love for the Stang.

I think I owe you an apology, Picnic.  I had a brief look at the replay last night and noticed that I chopped you off in the penultimate turn and you went off track.  I thought I had more of an overlap but the replay says it was a lot closer than I thought.  Hope it didn't affect you too much.

 :o wow what an event that was!!

Again Qually is so hard with so many on track but i managed to get in a decent lap at the death and was quite happy with 5th. A great lap by Adam my teamate though in 2nd  8)

Start was weird as i got hit up the rear on the formation lap in the last corner which thankfully didn't do much damage to the car but it kind of made me late on the start and Brendan took advantage. Few laps in i was doing ok just holding on to the 3 cars battling ahead. Then Adam made a mistake at the corkscrew and i got past along with Darren i think. Was trying to stay with Darren but he was a bit faster but i think he got slowed up with traffic and in the final corner we all seemed to bunch up and i caught his rear and Adam then did the same to me  :-\ i didn't think any harm had been done but Darren half spun i think and i felt bad going past. He caught me back up and i waited for a safe place to let him back past me. By this time i was really struggling as i had destroyed my front tyres and with Adam on my tail i decided to pit a few laps early for new tyres ( front tyres were in the 40's   :o )

Came out with no Corvettes around me in 6th i think and just tried to not make mistakes and be very careful with traffic and it worked as i didn't see any other Vettes for the whole second stint which eased the pressure. Had one squeaky bum moment at the corkscrew when a mustang tried to let me through on the outside but i was more than happy to wait but kinda made me outbreak myself a little and scrabble through the corkscrew but got a slow down. Couldn't quite believe i was now up to 3rd and with no one catching me so just brought it home for an amazing 3rd.

Was great to have my Teamate back and we worked well with a great 3rd and 4th for the team  :)

Grats to Steve and Mike and the mustang podium.

Sorry for the noob question but, do the tyres automatically get changed at pitstop? I used F(something) to get fuel sorted but couldn't see one for tyres.

Ian, you need to press F6. Personally I think the pit stops let iracing down. Considering how good they were in NR2003 too.

By default they get changed -and tabbing through the "F-screens" will get you to oe for the tyres.  it'll show the pressure settings, and there's a checkbox you can unselect if you don't want fresh tyres at the stop.

I almost held my hands over my eyes, I checked your car over afterwards in the replay and the impact could have been worse, but to have any tow wrecks your race so sorry again! and nice one on finishing 5th after that, I should have carried on in hindsight  ::)


Really enjoyed my 17 laps even so  :). Mustangs had a really hard job here and it must be really hard not to mirror watch the entire time, considering the fast closing speeds. At some points it seem about 10 cars into a corner, but I barely saw any contact   8)

My practise time was a pb after trying Darrens setup, it worked out the box (cheers again mate ;))! In quali I couldn't replicate it even with 10g less fuel, had a chance at the beginning with clear road but ran wide on my hot lap ruining my chance. After that every attempt was plagued with traffic, so it pays to get out early. Reminded me of that quali session I had at Brands last year when Dave and Simon were watching, no clear lap and always overtaking!  :-X

The race was going well with only 4 small off-tracks before my incident at the corkscrew, oh well, into the Indycar tonight and some more arguments with the gf to why 'I'm on that bloody computer' again!!  :P

"Bacause it's more fun than you are!  Now get back to the kitchen!"

That should put an end to the arguements ... you'll never have another one with her :D

LOL - made my day  :-[

If the gf still has a sense of humour after that you could ask her why women get married in white. It's because all domestic appliances come in white. Ducks and runs for cover ;)

hahaha, i most certainly will not be risking vitals parts of my body by quoting any of the above... least of all marriage!!!!!!!!! :eek:

 :lol: Most amusing  ;D.

For the first time in a while I actually put some time and effort into this one, particularly with buggering about with setup - so I shudder to think where I would have been without it!

Couldn't get a qually lap but wasn't overly bothered - I quite enjoyed just poodling along for the first few laps at the back of the GT1 pack. I was convinced we'd never make it through the corkscrew so I really hung back and just followed the pack, watching the horizon for clouds of dust  ;D. They never came and a couple of laps in it was pedal to the metal time!

Made some decent progress running closely with Jim and Ross until I reached Mr. Gymer negotiating some Mustangs. I think it was just a racing incident to be fair but it all got very clumsy and ended with us both in the gravel, my car with what felt like some crabbing and a long, long way behind after being over-cautious about rejoining (note to self - really must map a look left/ look right button!!).

Aside from trying to make love to Martin's Mustang a couple of times, and the resulting rejection causing me an off-track and then a tow respectively (love yoooo  :-*) - followed by a bit of slow mo confusion at the last turn when lapping Raimo (this is sounding worse now I'm committing it to writing), I managed to keep up a nice consistent pace and actually felt very comfortable. I can't believe I didn't cock up the corkscrew once....ok I was pretty damn slow admittedly but just making it through alive was the priority here! I was spinning at less than 5mph in praccy I'm sur"!

In practice I don't think I ever managed it more than four times consecutively and cleanly - always makes me giggle how much extra grip/ pace I find over practice once things get "serious"!

I have to say - due to my little hiccups, had it not have been for the Mustangs there would have been large periods where I would have struggled to keep motivated. The whole race however, I felt like I was having to concentrate fully and that made it a lot of fun for me. Really starting to think this format is a master stroke....but please lets leave it while before going back to Laguna!!

Grats to everyone who finished, I think we all deserve a pat on the back for that one and as for Ste, just another league mate, well done indeed.

Thanks Mustangs, the mind boggles how every race isn't a multi-car, multi-class pile-up and that's really testament to some great driving in both classes.

Thoroughly enjoying this season and it's great to see so many new faces on board, and three races in too.

See you at Daytona!  O0

Race video :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9cgwTk_4Ak

Wasn't sure I'd really enjoy a full 90 minute race (especially round here), but in the end it was pretty good fun.  Finally managed to get a 1m22s in qualy so I was happy with that despite being a bit off the pace.

Got a clean if slowish set of early laps in and settled down to a steady pace that I could manage without any major dramas.  Was looking like a 9th place might be possible, but ended up having a bit of a fun battling for it with Simon for a few laps ending with me having a half spin into T1.  This left Simon nowhere to go except to hit my front end which resulted in a tow.  In hindsight I should probably have just struggled round for the last 3 or 4 laps as then I might not have lost the three extra places that I did, but who knows.

Really have to hand it to the Mustang drivers - really excellent driving, I can imagine it was incredibly hard work for you guys.

Incredible pace up front, really amazing.

Thanks Mike.  Just out of interest, how well does it work if you leave the camera focus set to 'Most exciting'?  Is it any good for a race like this or does it just result in lots of jumping around.

Also, have I seen somewhere, there there's some kind of TV style overlay plug-in available that someone's done for iRacing replays?

Cheers, Ross.