UKAC Season 17 DTM Rnd 7 - Mine - Feb 17

[Stefan aka Postal]

Overtaking might just be possible here as there are a lot of corners with changing radius. Should be able to sqeeze your car in somewhere if you are good on the brakes..

Question Mark; do you remember using true heel and toe with these pedals? Or where you able to actuate the throttle with the side of your foot? Hitting the throttle with my heel is a rather abrubt movement and makes my braking force wonky.
Will see if i can adjust to keep using my heel or on a later stage change the mounting of the pedals so I can blip with the side of my foot.

[Mark J]

i cant remember the distance between pedals on them but it was too early in my sim racing career to do any fancy heel and toe especially as i generally wear slippers whilst racing  
As there isnt any lateral adjustment (as far as i can remember) you can buy an add-on plate from any decent motorsport shop that can screw to the throttle pedal. It gives you a wider lip for heel and toe-ing   or if you are a clever fabricator you can make your own.

Something like this:-
https://www.demon-tweeks.com/uk/sparco-pre-curved-anodised-aluminium-pedal-set-249084/

or this https://www.demon-tweeks.com/uk/omp-aluminium-pre-curved-pedal-extensions-ompoa1030/

[spanner]

Hm.. Seeing that video, the track sounds simple and sounds much better than last weeks! However this weeks work pattern means I won't be around on Wednesday evening for it.

[FullMetalGasket]

Every time we have a track that is 'boring' or 'rubbish' it turns up to be an epic race, so I can't say I'm worried.
As for the lack of corner markers come on! The Nordschliefe doesn't have corners markers either and yet I never hear anyone mention that! For that matter Donnington doesn't have count down boards either in real life, merely single corner markers similar to the ones at Combe.
I think you lot are getting soft and spoilt in AC land 

No corner markers here mean more mistakes, which means more battles and passing opportunities and therefore more fun. I'm struggling to think of a single track that's boring both for hotlapping and for racing.

[IbnSolmyr]

@ Kimi : You should still show up for the races, track liking is only a part of the fun.

@ Stefan : You will sooner than you think end doing H&T as naturally that you'd almost be tempted to do in your everyday car.. About the way you H&T, just find what you're comfortable with. In real life, some great drivers do proper heel & toe, other great drivers do left-toe & right-toe. I'm from the former way school. What you describe with a more or less wonky brake pressure while in the very moment you more or less blip the throttle will always be a thing, as the exact timing, and the way you blip. Heel&Toeing is not all about racing, but it for sure is an art. 

@ Tim : It will be fine. But you can't compare this track and the Nords : the difficulty here comes from the lack of corner markers associated with the lack of track details/scenery and this horizon blurring. We can deal with it. But it's not a nice looking piece of work in the track mod department. 

[Jos Ogos]

Hi all,
I'm sorry but I won't be able to race today... Family celebrations. Nothing wrong.

But you still have a tough Sierra to overtake in my teammate  .

See you in the next one.
Jos

[Stefan aka Postal]

Pfew, that was a tough one for me. I think i am doing alright with the for me new 3 pedel setup. It is more that the travel of the pedals is really different.  Also I went all directions with my setup and ended up with something rather twitchy in R1. When I had to brake harder for the pack in front I spun it. With these competative laptimes i was just hanging on at the back.

Improved my setup a bit for race 2 but still not the pace I wanted. This time I clipped a curb when I was full throttle. Spun again and had to catch up again. Had a good view at MJ and Syd dicing, but could not really keep up. One to forget, but it was good practice for me anyways. Next up, some more familiar tracks.

[Mark J]

Totally a night to forget for me. If it could go wrong, it went wrong. Really disliked the track, the high kerbs just ruined any flow that there might have been and i made several errors throwing away multiple places in both races. I had actually got the setup working well enough for 1:34 laptimes but nearly every lap felt a lottery on the brakes and any glance of a kerb would bounce the car laterally and just wasnt for me.
Race 1 i ran out of fuel with at least two laps remaining whilst running in 6th. In race 2 i again rose to 5th or 6th but i fell off at one of the middle sector hairpins 3 blinking times through not getting the car stopped in time Had a decent dice with Lokano? and Syd but my heart wasnt in it and had to resist bailing from the race.

[Manteos]

I guess to leave a NO COMMENT on both races and move on by my side. Unfortunately, yesterday I understood I should go back to the ruthless version of Manteos, cause when you want to be too good, you always lose out

[Fabri Fibra]

Race 1: I was in the lead halfway through the race. I tried to save the tires a little and I had a couple of seconds ahead, but from the middle of the race on I started to suffer with the tires, especially under braking.
Tim in his Mercedes looked like a shark and started to close the gap slightly. The duel lasted a few laps. We arrived paired in T2, me on the inside and Tim on the outside slightly forward with the nose. I preferred not to overdo the braking (having troubles in this point) and not create a mess. So my defense was too weak. I lost there. I have to defend myself with more tenacity if I want to win, even at the cost of risking too much and risking a contact. This is the difference between a winner and a loser. 
The last few laps I just followed Tim and I had no chance to do anything else.

Race 2: I tried to defend myself from Tim, without success, and then I was attacked by Maxime. I had to defend myself for the whole race and it was quite difficult, but this time I managed to do it.

Two races in total defense, with a car never in good shape for braking. It was hard.
Congratulations to Tim and Maxime for great battles!

[FullMetalGasket]

I enjoyed that, It's always good to have a tight and aggressive technical challenge from time to time - especially when a round I think will favour the Alfas actually seems to favour me for a change!

Due to having races the previous 2 days, my preparation wasn't to the same standard as last week so I couldn't quite get dialled in fully for practice - mostly it was brakes bias and modulation issues for me, later rectified about halfway through qualifying.

In the race Matteo got a terrible start, bad enough that had I been in front of him on the grid then I might even have out dragged him into T1
This gave Fabri a clean run at T1 and put me right on Matteo's tail, which was great until he ran wide at the left hand hairpin (T3 or 4 depending how you count the corners) and ended up in front of me on the outside of the track - sorry for the nudge but it was gentle enough not to trouble you at least!
I managed to get a run around the outside towards the really tight right hander and was clear in time for the turn - I think this is where Matteo's issues occured as he left me some space and was then hit from behind. I haven't seen the replay properly yet but will have to go over the incident later.
That left me with a gap forward to Fabri who was making very good speed, and another gap back to Kai who then fell into Maxime's hands and had to start defending.
As I'm fairly confident that the Alfa gets through the mediums faster than the Merc (when I behave at least) I held pace with Fabri and waited for him to slow, rather than pushing hard to catch him.
When he did start to struggle and make mistakes I jumped immediately, put my headlights on and encouraged him to make some more mistakes
With this method of attack the pass for 1st was relatively easy, at least once I'd managed to position myself properly for it.

Race 2 started with me entering T1 in a close 2nd, but now with the added problem of Maxime behind me and already holding pace on his Hards.
I decided to reverse strategy as I was so close to Fabri and throw everything into gaining the lead and then using him as a shield from the Sierra (Matteos normal tactics with me).
After a few laps of harassment I got through and put some fast laps in while Fabri suddenly found himself having to deal with the Ford - This allowed me to drive the majority of the race a bit slower and to preserve my tires, I think I had much better late race speed Vs race 1 as a result. Although it also encouraged me to make a few small mistakes that allowed Fabri and Maxime to gain on me a few times.

All in all I really enjoyed that.

@Mark. Kurbs just require adjustment of your shocks and careful timing with your throttle pedal, you won't be thrown all over the road when you hit them then.
The BMW copes with them fine so you just needed some extra adjustments I suspect

[Manteos]

In the race Matteo got a terrible start, bad enough that had I been in front of him on the grid then I might even have out dragged him into T1

That "terrible" start was "programmed" to let Fabri and you pass me, but Merc is really so "terrible" at the start that I had to wait the exit of T4 to lift up the throttle a bit to let you by. Unfortunately on the subsequent corner I had that contact with Syd, so my race was over after 4 corners. It was an attempt to avoid racing alone to be honest. Without any intention to lack respect to you chaps, starting from 1st spot and fly away from the pack with Fabri covering my shoulders was becoming rather boring. I like to have some fights, and I don't really care to the results. Alfa is too advantaged on the start, and that "strategy" that puts Fabri to defend my back is only a natural consequence of this fact, as we can start by the 4th spot and be 1st at T1. Cars are surely well balanced, as my laptimes prove every time I try the other cars, but being always 1st at T1 it is a very favorable circumstance, so I just tried to feel a different experience, trying to put myself in attack mode. My intention was that, but all in all, a hole in the water

At the start of race 2 I got even a punishment by AC, that placed my car on the 14th spot or so, even if we were 9. Next time it will put me behind the blackboard

[Lokanas]

Yeah Manteos... After R1 I wondered what will be your mood. In R2 it was clearly visible when you just decided to stop chasing leader pack and rather just slowed down on the straight to have some fun with me.
Unfortunately this was my first race with H shifter and i made the only serious braking mistake exactly afterwards when the tyres turned yellow.
From that point on I just cruised and watched your Alfa doing the same somewhere ahead.

All in all this time R1 and part of R2 was not so lonely - i think we had decent contactless chase with Mark and another strange interaction with Kai - I would guess he killed the tyres as his pace was either amazing or the car was all over the track...

[MaxVeloce]

Sorry I missed this one, been having some issues...

Hope to be back next week! 

[FullMetalGasket]

I've entered our lone incident from race 1 - unless you both can/want to respond before the weekend is out, I'm afraid It won't get officially dealt with until after the Hockenhiem round as things are rather busy at work for me now and are eating into my spare time more