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Now, that's not going to be a popular comment, so allow me to clarify. Actually, this might not be popular either... Hm. Anyway:
I *know* how hard it is to drive a slower class car in a race like this, it's incredibly difficult and a great deal of patience, foresight, and compromise is required. Yet, while some are absolutely capable in even the most complex traffic situations, that doesn't extend to all.
I'll mention two people in particular here - Adam Parle, who in both of these races I've done has managed to read every situation thrown at him expertly, and Simon Gymer who in addition to that managed to do it in my 2.4 split yesterday as well with arguably even more bloodthirsty DPs. I think I can speak for Simon T and James as well here; these two are among people - and there are others; most actually - that it's possible to implicitly trust in worst case scenarios.
At several points during the race however, I found myself in a few dodgy situations:
1) A Mustang allows two Corvettes through on exit of a corner, then switches abruptly to the other side of the road in front of me, running as far to the right as possible before a left hander as if to say 'come on through, here's a massive gap for you' before turning in on me at the apex despite the fact that I'd been on that side of the road the whole time. This happened 2-3 times, one topped off with being called an idiot followed by ragequit.
2) A Mustang driving in the middle of the road at various points on the track, umming and aahing about what to do, twiddling thumbs, and then at the last second using a combination of tarot cards, a german octopus, and a broken abacus submerged in enchanted olive oil to make a decision about where he ought to place his car, leading to much panic braking followed by swearing and dread the next time he came about.
3) A Mustang that gets caught in a bad place, thus leading to a Corvette sitting behind mid-corner, but instead of holding his line thinks 'OH GOD I'M GOING TO DIE' before binning it pathetically
4) Mustangs that after several hours of driving are incapable of being driven competently enough to not oversteer on exit with a Corvette on the inside.
So, let's highlight the issues here in each case:
1) Lack of foresight to acknowledge that a car will catch you at a certain point of the track - or a disbelief that two cars can go side by side through a corner despite the fact that other people seem to manage it fine.
2) Not being able to make a decision, or read the obvious 'HELLO I AM ON THIS SIDE OF THE TRACK AND MAKING MY INTENTION CLEAR' car-placement language that the Corvettes were doing.
3) Being scared of everything that moves and a non-acknowledgement of the fact that if a Corvette catches you in a bad place, then the best thing to do is just to hold your line rather than pani... OH GOD THERE IS A CAR HANDBRAKE TURN!!
4) I can't put anything here that isn't offensive.
Mustang drivers, please understand this point: It's not aggression that causes us to be (wrongly) perceived to be rather short with you and unwilling to acknowledge that you're in your own race as well - it's the fact that we have NO time whatsoever to play with. When you see us coming, be it on the track or on the relative screen, you have a comparatively huge amount of time to plan your approach and be ready for it. If we're tucked up behind another Corvette especially, we do not have this luxury, and we have to make a decision instantly. We just do not have the time to process any late information. That's why it's critical to make yourself readable - and that doesn't necessarily mean any compromise on your own race.
If we catch you in a bad place, then that's fine - it's not a problem as long as we're all in control of the situation. The problem arises when Mustang drivers think "actually, I'll go *here*" because we have no chance of reacting to that quickly enough.
I should make clear that these were a handful of isolated incidents, overwhelmingly the traffic was great, but Adam and Simon (and outside of this race, Michael Hornbuckle springs to mind as well) seem to manage it perfectly every time. Why can't everyone? What's happened since Watkins, when there were no major problems?
I *know* how hard it is to drive a slower class car in a race like this, it's incredibly difficult and a great deal of patience, foresight, and compromise is required. Yet, while some are absolutely capable in even the most complex traffic situations, that doesn't extend to all.
I'll mention two people in particular here - Adam Parle, who in both of these races I've done has managed to read every situation thrown at him expertly, and Simon Gymer who in addition to that managed to do it in my 2.4 split yesterday as well with arguably even more bloodthirsty DPs. I think I can speak for Simon T and James as well here; these two are among people - and there are others; most actually - that it's possible to implicitly trust in worst case scenarios.
At several points during the race however, I found myself in a few dodgy situations:
1) A Mustang allows two Corvettes through on exit of a corner, then switches abruptly to the other side of the road in front of me, running as far to the right as possible before a left hander as if to say 'come on through, here's a massive gap for you' before turning in on me at the apex despite the fact that I'd been on that side of the road the whole time. This happened 2-3 times, one topped off with being called an idiot followed by ragequit.
2) A Mustang driving in the middle of the road at various points on the track, umming and aahing about what to do, twiddling thumbs, and then at the last second using a combination of tarot cards, a german octopus, and a broken abacus submerged in enchanted olive oil to make a decision about where he ought to place his car, leading to much panic braking followed by swearing and dread the next time he came about.
3) A Mustang that gets caught in a bad place, thus leading to a Corvette sitting behind mid-corner, but instead of holding his line thinks 'OH GOD I'M GOING TO DIE' before binning it pathetically
4) Mustangs that after several hours of driving are incapable of being driven competently enough to not oversteer on exit with a Corvette on the inside.
So, let's highlight the issues here in each case:
1) Lack of foresight to acknowledge that a car will catch you at a certain point of the track - or a disbelief that two cars can go side by side through a corner despite the fact that other people seem to manage it fine.
2) Not being able to make a decision, or read the obvious 'HELLO I AM ON THIS SIDE OF THE TRACK AND MAKING MY INTENTION CLEAR' car-placement language that the Corvettes were doing.
3) Being scared of everything that moves and a non-acknowledgement of the fact that if a Corvette catches you in a bad place, then the best thing to do is just to hold your line rather than pani... OH GOD THERE IS A CAR HANDBRAKE TURN!!
4) I can't put anything here that isn't offensive.
Mustang drivers, please understand this point: It's not aggression that causes us to be (wrongly) perceived to be rather short with you and unwilling to acknowledge that you're in your own race as well - it's the fact that we have NO time whatsoever to play with. When you see us coming, be it on the track or on the relative screen, you have a comparatively huge amount of time to plan your approach and be ready for it. If we're tucked up behind another Corvette especially, we do not have this luxury, and we have to make a decision instantly. We just do not have the time to process any late information. That's why it's critical to make yourself readable - and that doesn't necessarily mean any compromise on your own race.
If we catch you in a bad place, then that's fine - it's not a problem as long as we're all in control of the situation. The problem arises when Mustang drivers think "actually, I'll go *here*" because we have no chance of reacting to that quickly enough.
I should make clear that these were a handful of isolated incidents, overwhelmingly the traffic was great, but Adam and Simon (and outside of this race, Michael Hornbuckle springs to mind as well) seem to manage it perfectly every time. Why can't everyone? What's happened since Watkins, when there were no major problems?
To Jamie:
From my experience after driving the iRacing’s Grand Am –series with both Mustang and DP and collecting almost 1700 laps of multiclass endurance racing (plus all the practice and qualifying sessions, atleast another 500 or so) I really can tell that the faster car is A. much easier to drive and to be positioned at multiclass let alone at overtaking situations and B. is responsible of making a safe pass, even while that would mean being stuck behind Mustang trough whole bus stop.
Main problem with DP / Vette + Mustangs is the huge difference in speed. Faster car just appears at your F3, the blueflag signal comes IMO way too late in this sim. Many times you’re fighting for lead or even win against one or 2 fellow Mustang drivers and then theres come this train of DP’s (or Vettes). Its hard, really hard to just yeld over as Vettes would like us to do. Not to mention the fact that Mustang is atleast 10 times more wobbly, more unstable and especially much more slowly to respond to any steering inputs than a Vette.
Should I just slow down and yeld for em at turn entry, – no way. I wont do that because I have as much right to place my car the fastest, most optimal racing line trough corner X as have Vettes. As they’re the guys to overtake us, they’ll wait their turn for it. Or, as in this sim, just divebomb hell out of the Mustang and cause all these mayhems, simply because of lack of respect other class racing and / or lack of patience.
Especially because I had major problems with my car when it got lighter. Car was a real handfull so who knows what would have happened if Dario would have had a clean race and stay with me.
Eventually average lap of 1.38.4 was enough for pole - with just few thousandth of second between me and Dario.
