UKAC Season 17 DTM Rnd 3 - Nogaro - Jan 20

[Mark J]

Another gearbox failure for me, my second mechanical retirement in two nights with my puncture the night before, both a first for me in sim-racing in all these years whats happening?!

Think i was suffering a bit of combat fatigue last night after 3 consecutive nights racing. Felt alright and brimming with enthusiasm for this event but then two ctds in practise and qually seemed to sap my mojo as i constantly then expected it to crap out again at any point in the race and it threw my concentration. 

Anyway had some great battles in race 1, albeit i did somehow manage to turn my team mates Beemer around at the end of the straight. I was able to brake much later and still turn in earlier. I duly waited and allowed him back past but it also let two other cars past that had been a few secs behind us and also allowed our quarry 'Syd the Dam' to escape down the road    Within a few laps though my gearbox was already pinging out of gear and showing yellow damage, not sure why, maybe i had done some drastic downshifts in battle.   Whatever, i had got upto 7th i think by lap 10 when the gearbox finally gave up in the hairpin and i had to pull off the road with a box full of neutrals. 

race 2, now demoted to the back of the grid in a gaggle of Mercs, got a tardy start where i felt in a daze and just watched the pack go off. Took me a fair few laps to get in the groove, including a 5 second costing spin behind SRW's stout and clever Cossie defence. I re-caught him after a few laps and had another short battle but this time he seemed to back off a bit and let me go 
I then caught a pack of cars all in an intense battle with each other and at some point it got messy ahead with several cars fighting for each tight corner. I think i may have nipped Bobs left rear out of the hairpin but i was being equally nudged by someone on my right rear, so sorry for that Bob but not much i could do at such close quarters  I wasnt even on the throttle at that point i think and seemed odd the way your car went off at such light contact.  though you looked heavily damaged already!
Several cars seemed to be having issues, retiring with gearbox damage or spinning off and think i finally got to about 9th at race end. This track was a car killer!

I struggled for overall pace in both races, even though the car felt quick, everyone has upped their game in this series.  My gears never felt quit spot on though, too many options!   

Got to say, hats off to Tim for getting these cars right, the colourful grid looks simply fantastic and watching cars streaming through the hairpin in action looked terrific 

[Bob]

  Was already badly damaged due to unavoidable contact with car across track a bit earlier. Think I had missed a gear at the time so not to worry Mark. Decided to retire rather than get in the way. First race was great very enjoyable, on replay noticed an all white beemer, need to get the skin sorted. Off for my first covid jab now, advantage of being over 75

[FullMetalGasket]

1st attempt at results upload has gone wrong with race 2 I'll try again...

Race 1 might need adjusting too - although it'll need to be the result of review by another moderator, as we don't have any precedents I know of to allow me to alter that one myself.
Proper post-race post once I've figured this out....

[FullMetalGasket]

3rd time lucky - results should stay up now, I finally found my mistake

Race 1 might also need editing - Watching the replay back I see I disconnected on the start line and rejoined at the rear of the train on the same lap.
As there seems to be a bug here with the pits not counted (Kimi needed a lap back in race 2 also from a pit stop) I think I was dropped a lap and shouldn't have been - but as it involves me I can't be the judge of that so will have to report myself to A.N. Other moderator.


My races:

Race 1 looked like it should be fantastic, although I qualified badly (I've almost given up trying for pole as the Alfa's pretty much negate it's value ) I knew from sector times that I was on-pace to annoy and fight with Matteo all race.
I'd clawed back a few tenths by lap 4 and was feeling pretty happy, as the Alfa suffers more from tire wear at the end than I do (Or at least Matteo's fat Alfa does), so was waiting for the fight to come to me and just had to avoid mistakes in the mean time..
Then the disco (In Matteo's replay I seem to disconnect exactly as I cross the S/F line - I'd be curious to know if the other disco's also happened there). I rejoined as fast as I could and got straight back on track. But the game said I was a lap down and I had no way of checking it so only passed cars that I could easily get by.
I caught Stefan and Kimi having a massive fight some 3 or 4 laps from the end - I decided not to get involved and mess their fight up as I wasn't battling for position.
It now looks like it was and I should have pressed on hard while I had surprise on my side...

For Race 2 I elected to run Hard tires (happy with my own FL Vs Matteo therefore ) as I knew I could equal the pace around me at the start and then just drive around people from halfway onwards when their tires melted.
The start went well, I had a good launch but had a scare when SRW was checked up infront of me and I locked up very easily on the hard compound while avoiding him
On about lap 3 or 4 I got alongside Kimi between T2 and 3 and then had contact when he turned across my nose - sorry Kimi, but even if I moved further right I'd only have bounced off the kurb/grass and hit you harder. As I was in your mirror (intentionally) the entire way to the corner and was alongside when you turned in I didn't wait. If you think I hit you or it was avoidable then you can raise a report and I'll draft another mod in look at it.

A few laps later I got a good dive inside Kai at the hairpin in T4 but lost the back end after putting a front wheel on the kurb and hit him - Sorry Kai, hence waiting for you wide around the outside of T5.

From there I drove like mad and thanks to my ever improving hards was up to about 4th I think when the fuel light came on.
I still don't understand how I got through so much fuel as there was enough for 15 laps in there based on practice runs - I guess I should have factored for the extra fuel burn required to fight up through the field

On the positive side my wheel only moved about 5-10 degrees last night so as it was a H-shifter car I barely noticed

Clearly all the Disco's and kit failures were the work of MJ so I'll dock all his points later

[Mark J]

Not many points to deduct from last night sadly 

i often get a big freeze/stutter as i cross the line first time (must be trying to write something back to the HD?)

But both my ctds were at random points around the track. I dont get why i have one in each practise session the last two weeks, then its fine the entire race with more action/cpu/gpu load  very odd. Seemed to be a few ctd's last night though so may have been something up with the server?

Will go check that wheel and gubbins in the loft lunchtime and report back.

[KDiesel]

On about lap 3 or 4 I got alongside Kimi between T2 and 3 and then had contact when he turned across my nose - sorry Kimi, but even if I moved further right I'd only have bounced off the kurb/grass and hit you harder. As I was in your mirror (intentionally) the entire way to the corner and was alongside when you turned in I didn't wait. If you think I hit you or it was avoidable then you can raise a report and I'll draft another mod in look at it.

I watched replay and I think you should wait for me there, but no point to wait if you only get penalty -2 places instead - 10 places if you wait... I don't bother to do report, waste of time so to speak.

[Mark J]

For Tim, Stefan or whoever - kit available : https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=23821.0

[Bob]

Off topic anyone use a Quest2 in vr?

[SmokingSteelGarage]

Thanks for last night gents. Unfortunately I rolled forward off the line in race 1 and got myself a drive-thru (No not a big Mac) So that pretty much buggered me, came out the pits on a charge and Zinged the motor twice with a missed gear. So I conceded tonight wasn't my night and parked it. Race 1 start was already seeing me go past midnight in Bahrain and I had work the next day. So I opted for my bed.
Hopefully be back for the next round. Cars looked amazing in the liveries!

[FullMetalGasket]

Thanks for last night gents. Unfortunately I rolled forward off the line in race 1 and got myself a drive-thru (No not a big Mac) So that pretty much buggered me, came out the pits on a charge and Zinged the motor twice with a missed gear. So I conceded tonight wasn't my night and parked it. Race 1 start was already seeing me go past midnight in Bahrain and I had work the next day. So I opted for my bed.
Hopefully be back for the next round. Cars looked amazing in the liveries!

I noticed this in the replay and meant to comment - As the server is set to a drive through for jump starts, my best advise if you accidentally creep/go is to just go as soon as you realise your mistake.
The drive through will cost you far more than any advantage from an early start will (I think gears only become active with about 10 seconds to go) so you might as well get started on your punishment . The most important part here is to ensure you go safely, I don't think I need to say where the blame will get directed if you go pin-balling down the grid

[IbnSolmyr]

Qualif : I was rather late and had got the bad idea to tweak some hardware settings on my racing config in addition to trying to solve some problems. Eventually I had to quit before the end of the qualif to revert back to my previous configuration. Laptimes suffered.


Race 1 : Was fun to try to grow up into the field, untill I reached Syd's car that was really unpassable, a true Maginot line with a much better straight speed ! Half of my race on his back, got passed in the snail where the Sierra was the most advantaged but with a little side contact, and as the situation was unclear to me, I decided to immediately give the position back into the next left turn. Eventually he did a mistake later, so that all this threat wasn't useless, but he hold the pressure very well, being very strongly defensive.

Race 2 : I did a dumb mistake right after the start in the esses and ended getting back on the track behind almost everybody. Then it was a really fun race, trying to weave into the pack. Tim's misadventures led to him being just ahead of me in the same situation. Plenty of action ! He finally had to pit due to overconsuming his fuel I guess, so that I even was able to finish in an unexpected 4th position.

Unreal Matteo, we should give him a camper van really. Special congrats to Jos for some great races, very solid driving with 2 wins amongst the human people (and unfortunate other aliens). To the point he slightly grabs some alien traits himself actually. Damn, we're getting invaded. 

[Jos Ogos]

Unreal Matteo, we should give him a camper van really. Special congrats to Jos for some great races, very solid driving with 2 wins amongst the human people (and unfortunate other aliens). To the point he slightly grabs some alien traits himself actually. Damn, we're getting invaded. 

LOL. Thanks for the kind words, Maxime. I think the only alien trait I have, now that I know Tim's secret is, his sleepers  (you need to read the Imola Cayman GT4 thread in SRO to understand this...

You had a great couple of races despite the issues you suffered. The team is going strong 

[spanner]

I'm just not enjoying this, I'm not sure I'll carry on. With cars have widely different characteristics It feels like Im flogging the car and myself and not getting any time out of it to find everyone else braking in half the distance, the braking is a bit variable depending on the ABS,  The wing is helping downforce but then cant carry the same corner speed when following people. The lack of proper grip on the front end means the back can be a bit too loose. Low grip, soft, old cars has never been my thing. I just don't have the feel for them.

 

[FullMetalGasket]

I keep forgetting to send you may setup - however calling the Merc soft is a tad inaccurate! My biggest fight with it has been softening it enough to actually get the wheels to stay on the floor
As for the ABS, it's rubbish - you can go much faster if you turn it off and just reduce the brake force to 90-95% (do it to suit your own driving).

Don't compare your braking with that of the Fords BTW - they have insane brakes, I couldn't do anything to stop that effectively hence why they have a slower-than-you'd-expect top speed.

I don't have an Avus setup yet but will upload my Nogaro one for you later tonight - I have to upload some cameras anyway

[FullMetalGasket]

Here's the setup, it was designed for Mediums but worked pretty well on hards also

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mibk927m1jrx6vl/Meds%2014Lp%20Race.rar?dl=0