Congrats Pelle and Clive!
This will be my last race for a while.
That sucks.
I haven't been enjoying this season as much as I'd like
And that sucks more. I know that feeling. I've been struggling for a while to get my computers to run GPL well. That frustrates me and diminishes my enjoyment.
I hope the mess I was making didn't contribute to your decision.
As much as a fiasco as this was for me, I still enjoyed parts of it. I'm having gpu problems again. D3dv2 was often dropping to 50fps and OGLv2 has stutters from join/disco messages. I used OGLv2 so most of the time I had 60fps. My connection wasn't very good either. The latency was normal but the quality reading ranged from 0.600-0.800. All the other cars started flickering some when I got near them. And I'd guess anybody near me would see my car warping/flickering some. My apologies guys.
My apologies to Andreas too. I wrecked in front of him in practice, taking him with me.
And then I made him fall back from the other cars early in the race. I didn't want to make things more difficult for you.
I wish I could blame the computer for my lousy start but that was all on me. I was late turning into Saite Dévote. I should have stayed on the right and forced Pelle to pass me on the outside if possible. My spin at the chicane had me worried at first, but I quickly realized I could do a 360 without getting in other's way. As bad as the car felt, I was a bit relieved to fall back to 5th. After 4 or 5 laps the car started to feel decent but it still not quite right.
Some of the time, it was fun racing with Clive. But shortly after I caught him, I started having another computer problem. I started get some "tearing" and even though the meter was reading 60fps I didn't look like I was getting 60fps. With my bad connection and strange graphics performance, I was tempted to retire a lap or two after catching Clive. I suspect my cpu or gpu was downclocking during the middle of the race.
My computer was handicapping me a lot while I was behind Clive. It's not like I could have passed him without the problems but I could have stayed in better position to pass if he made a mistake. My apologies for bumping you twice Clive. I was a bit ashamed of myself driving like I was in Nascar, bumping Clive and the guard rails. I hope you realize I was trying to be careful.
At times, it was a lot of fun trying to get past Clive. I thought I was slow through Gazométres but Clive was slower than I was. I tried a few times to do an over and under move there. I often made a wide entry and tried to exit on the inside. I needed the wide entry to ensure if I locked a wheel I'd hit the haybales on the left instead of Clive. I almost made that move work once. I got beside him on the pit straight once. Unfortunately, I happened to do it on a lap when we were lapping a Honda. Things were getting a bit crazy at that point. I was very happy to see Clive miss that Honda. It looked close.
Clive was good out of Portier and through the tunnel. That ensured I'd never be able to beat him to Tabac. He might have been slow in the middle of Gazométres but he could get a good enough exit that I no real chance of passing on the pit straight. I usually carried more momentum through Saite Dévote but the damn track is too narrow for me to ever have a chance to pass him before Massenet. I thought I had him once at Massenet. He looked like he was going to slide wide and I might slip through on the inside. But no, he was just making his car wider by blocking both sides of the track.
I got a good laugh from that one.
I stuck with Clive through most of the race until I spun at Tabac late in the race. I thought it was bad driving on my part but I realized on the next lap that it was the car. The last few laps the Brabham was terrible at Tabac. Jack wouldn't have been happy with the way I beat on his car.
Half of the race was fun. Half of it was frustrating. I've changed gpus again. I reinstalled an old Radeon gpu. It never had the join/disco stutters but it lacks a bit in performance. It might need me to turn down the graphic settings a little but hopefully it will give me a trouble free experience.
Overall, I'm not too disappointed. I did one thing decent. I don't think I took any car out of the race. And that's usually my biggest goal. Don't spoil anybody's fun by wrecking them.
Thanks guys.
It's a shame to see that Tristan and Dean couldn't connect. I wondered where they were along with Doni.