UKAC Season 7 599xx - Road Atlanta - Feb 14

[Baikal]

Don't worry Jeff, we are all be in a same condition. 
But i dont know i am in race or not here. Will try to test now. I want race but probably i'll be not 100 percents fresh after my holyday drunk 

[Mark J]

Got a damn disco with 6 minutes remaining when our broadband went down  no doubt due to the biblical rain falling tonight 
Shame as was enjoying a good race with Felix up to then though he had just got past me after many laps pressuring me, but was still hoping to harass him to the flag.
My car felt useless once the tyres wore out and was a real handful in sector 1. I had hoped to be battling in the top 5 tonight based on my practise and qually times but I soon dropped to 7th and couldn’t keep up with even the ballast laden cars 
I ran 6th for ages with a 9 sec gap to those behind until I ran wide after half hour at the fast downhill right and clouted the Armco, my first smashed Ferrari of the series  that dropped me into the clutches of Felix.
Shame to get no points in the end.

[Simon Gymer]

Had a very enjoyable race battling for the last podium spot but ultimately my own mistake at the last corner where I was lucky to be able to continue saw me finish a very respectable 5th.

[frex]

Not raced here before and was challenging to learn it properly. Nice track though and fun race, but damn I just knew I was going to mess it up somewhere along the way..

MJ clearly had his mind dRIFTing away on other things in the first lap, and he lost several places. I was last to get by, and had to fend him off a couple of times, but then settled into a rhythm and started to pull away. Saw the FMG group up ahead and tried to close them down, only to get too much kerb at the Esses and get thrown into the gravel. No contact with anything, but took far too long to get out onto the track again. MJ and Alexey went by and with hot rear tyres I let Felix by too.

We all closed up again, but I could not get by Alexey until he spun at the chicane before the last corner. Small contact with you there I think as I went around - sorry, but could not avoid you. Just cruised to the line after that.

Fun race; congrats podium.

[Mark J]

Ha I went from hero to zero on the opening lap! Did some deft clean overtaking to get to 4th or 5th I think, just behind Simon but then threw it all away when my cold tyres understeered me off onto the speed bumps on the exit of turn 4? (First uphill left) and promptly lost about 5 places 

Had a good fight with Frex early on but he did his usual once a race trick and fell off allowing me the place back 

[frex]

Had a good fight with Frex early on but he did his usual once a race trick and fell off allowing me the place back 

Hehe, every time.. 

[FullMetalGasket]

A great race and result for me! (although it means I'm gonna eat some pies for the next round
I have a lot of experience at Road Atlanta, but it's mostly from the Historic version for GPL or from the somewhat different version in Forza - As a result I recon it took almost as long to adjust as it would take to learn a new track!

Saw the FMG group up ahead and tried to close them down, only to get too much kerb at the Esses and get thrown into the gravel.

This made me giggle - I took a gamble in my setup in the closing minutes of practice and as a result was nothing more than a hanger-on until the final 15 minutes 

I'd noticed during practice both on and offline that whenever I made a small error or just pushed really hard my rear tires would start edging into the red temperature wise, which made me question how good they'd be towards the end of the race. Normally the mediums are fine after 40 mins but I had a nagging doubt...
So with about 12 mins left on the server I chucked some Hards on to see how they compared. Amazingly I was doing almost the same lap speed as before, but better was the fact that the car was moving around more consistently than on mediums and it was no longer possible to overheat my tires. I stayed out on them for the remainder of practice to see if any changes were needed and decided to risk using them in the race.

Qually wasn't great, I kept messing up. Based on times done previously I should have started around 4th or 5th with last nights qualifying results (which are very close I notice!).
The start of the race was therefore extra hard, as I was right in the middle of the pack and having the added problem of trying not to bin it on the cold Hards. Even watching the replay I'm not sure how Mark managed his faultless pass up the inside towards T1 - he must have gone 3 wide because I was on the outside of another car while this was going on and got very confused when I next glanced at the leader boards

I got a fairly easy pass on Felix (I think) early on when he ran wide onto the S/F straight and then seemed to let me by easy rather than make me work for T1. This was about when the Hards were starting to work so I was able to then start catching the 3-way battle between Simon, Manteos, and NSFW ahead. Manteos got clear around when I caught Simon, leaving a 3 car train which I think stayed closely together for about 30 minutes.
NSFW was warping slightly which might have explained Simon's' difficulty in passing, that or they were just too evenly matched (My own problem against Simon for most of the race).
At about 15 mins to go it started to become clear that the guys in front were having to work to maintain pace - so I stepped up and pushed harder. Simon made an error onto the S/F straight which was big enough for me to nab him cleanly before T1.
3 or 4 laps later NSFW made a smaller error which allowed me to get up the inside before T1 - I would probably have had to back out but for the backmarkers ahead. Who rather conveniently were on the left side of the track
So I got a free pass again

By this point I knew my car was faster so just pushed a little to make space (nearly ran wide onto the back straight and gave the place back). Another 2 laps later and I was comfortably clear and pulling away.

The only excitement left after that was when everything suddenly went quiet as I passed under the bridge on the final lap - I hadn't had a chance to watch my fuel through the race and had run out! Luckily the 599 must apply the auto-clutch or something as even stuck in 4th I managed to coast across the line just ahead of NSFW. If the line had been more normally placed towards the end of the straight I'd have finished 4th it was so close......

Well done Jeffery and Manteos, and it's also nice to see Syd joining us - shame you missed the Lotus 25's last year.

[Simon Gymer]

NSFW was warping slightly which might have explained Simon's' difficulty in passing, that or they were just too evenly matched (My own problem against Simon for most of the race).

He was holding me up a little especially in a couple of unpassable places (possibly very cleverly! ). The warping was making me extra cautious so had decided to not try anything unless there was a really big opportunity as every time I got ready to make a move his car would just start dancing around and I didn't want to throw away a good position. Besides who wants third anyway?! Unfortunately I waited so long you caught us and instead of worry which side the bulls danglies were swinging you grabbed them and swung them right out of the way.

Was a good fight with you both and I really enjoyed the track. I know it well from my iRacing days, but the corners were narrower than I remember from iRacing, so I had a little bit of adjustment to make. Road Atlanta definitely needs you drive with some blind faith of yourself, your car and other cars mind you!

[Felix Simoes]

What a way to start the race: disconnect when I was already on the starting grid. I tried to close exit and reconnect, but when I did the race had already started. And, to add insult to injury, I had to wait about 10 seconds before I could start.

Because of this it was another race coming from back and try to recover as max as possible. But, on the 3rd lap, I did a mistake and touched the grass on the last corner which made go straight into the wall. Luckily the damage was minor and didn't have an real impact on my pace.

I started again and I got pass a few cars until I got to 10th or 9th and I saw that the next car was about 11 seconds ahead and the car in front was a couple of seconds ahead. I still had over 30 minutes of race so a lot can happen. At this moment I realised I might get to pass the next car but, without mistakes or problems from the other cars, I couldn't get much further in front.

Nevertheless I continue to push and those errors and problems started to happen. At one point I got close to Mark and we had similar pace, so passing was not too easy. The only solution I had was to pressure to maybe cause him to make a mistake. Than happened with a corner exit too wide into the grass that I could pass him as Mark had to slow down.

After that I noticed Maikel going at a quite slow pace and I gained about 1 second a lap on him. But still once I got close it was difficult to pass. So we got to the last lap and I knew I had nothing else to throw at him to force the pass. But then in the last corner of the last lap (you gotta feel sorry for him) he went wide and I got the final 6th place.

In the end it was a very fun race. Starting from the back is not good championship wise, but it's a lot of fun! And I'll have a lighter car next round which will also help

[Jeffrey]

My race was helped a lot by all the obese people racing around .

Matteo got me on the start and we had a nice drag race on the back straight. Was able to regain the lead in the chicane and fend of nfsw after that.

Next race the ballast will be quite similar allround, so it should give more equal playing field. It's the downside of success ballast in simracing, people often can't make all the races which causes the system to go out of sync. It helps with the championship on paper, but not with the on track balance.

[Baikal]

Unlucky race for me in all aspects. Only thing i've done well- it's a short "show" for Jeffrey's smile and wow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cO03x8iYU4

[nfsw55]

That race was proper work for me

Started P4 but immediately got into P3 when Felix disappeared from the grid. On lap 1 I also got past Matteo who went wide at the last chicane, but he catched me again a few laps later.
After that I had a very close battle with Simon and FMG behind me, most of the time just tenths away. It was frustrating to see how much better the acceleration of the cars without any ballast was, but that's part of the game I guess Tires also went down towards the end which didn't make it easier.
Huge respect to the guys with 100 extra kilos.
With 6 minutes left FMG finally got past me, during the race I wasn't very happy to lose the last step on the podium, but now I'm quite pleased to not carry another 20 kilos with me for the next round

[Maikel K.]

Not the best of races for me.

Probably should have done some more practise as the track was all new for me.
Start went okay with me just taking it easy, didn't expect Mark to squeeze by from the inside 
After that I was chasing Simon for a few laps.

I got a fairly easy pass on Felix (I think) early on when he ran wide onto the S/F straight and then seemed to let me by easy rather than make me work for T1.

That was me and I just clipped the grass there and was feeling lucky I managed to keep in on the track so I was in no position to defend there 

After that I was chasing fmg around for a few laps but the extra ballast made quite a difference on the long straight. Halfway through I started making a few mistakes and crashed twice in the last corner ( definitely need more practise on that sneaky blind corner ). Car was pretty mangled up after that second crash with some slight suspension damage. Saw Felix closing in fast and almost managed to keep him behind if it wasn't for that pesky last corner 

After that I noticed Maikel going at a quite slow pace and I gained about 1 second a lap on him. But still once I got close it was difficult to pass. So we got to the last lap and I knew I had nothing else to throw at him to force the pass. But then in the last corner of the last lap (you gotta feel sorry for him) he went wide and I got the final 6th place.

That was uhmm.... all part of the masterplan to lose alot of ballast for the next race....... 

[spanner]

Another race for me where i muck up the start procedure and gain a drive-thru, but happy with wherei ended up. Gave me chance ot get into a rythym around here and not get too scared around others. Good race with Apex towards the end.

Be interested ot know how ou can overheat the medium tyres! At no point did i think the tyre temps were warm enough, ok the pressures were indicated to be green at 32psi. Plus were you guys really running such high ARBs?

[Manteos]

Nice race despite my idiocy

Nothing to do with Jeffrey cause my braking at that chicane wasn't good enough to resist. Actually it did cost me 3 places, because nfsw exploited my picnic and in the subsequent lap I was passed at that damned chicane even by Simon, even if his joy did last only one corner 
After I regained the podium I finally found a good pace and took back the second place on nsfw after a good manouvre on the outside from the last corner to the first corner. Great duel with both of you

The rest of the race was an attempt to understand better the first sector and during the last laps my laptimes were getting better without particular tyre issues.
Grats to Jeff and FMG that complete the podium.

See you