Grid/server capacity: 22

Car/Track download pack available by pm to WT

Track: Avus

Car restrictions: Four drives maximum per make. Check your car allowance here

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins) Drivers must not leave qualifying to change car make.
Race 1: 20:40 (20 laps)

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit stops required: No

Server: simracing.org.uk Wednesday
Password: see above

Notes:
(1) It's best if all drivers can make sure they are connected before the Qualifying session as drivers on track during qualifying will not see cars that join after they are on track until they go back to the garage.
(2) Please make sure you are fully aware of the SimRacing.org.uk Rules.
(3) The AI control should be turned off so that you have control of the car at all times, including pitting. Your player file should therefore read
Autopit="0"
Force Autopit Off="1" // Forces autopit always off
No AI Control="1" // AI never has control over car
If you still finding pitting problematic, experience tells us that its less to do with positioning and more to do with approach speed. A slow approach to pit crew chief has proved most reliable.

Special Notes: None.

Results and replay now posted.

Well I was amazed to actually finish this race & 2nd place was a real bonus.

I had done a few laps practice & was pretty happy to lap in the 2.15s, then joined the server & saw Erling was 2-3s faster in the same car & realised I would need some big setup changes to get near those laptimes. Obvious was to inflate the tyres more to be faster on the straights, so gave that a try & then could not get the car to stop for the hairpin & had trouble negotiating the banking too. So after spending most of practice & qually not recording a time I resorted to my original setup with just a small increase in tyre pressure & was fortunate to get 3rd on the grid. But after all the errors in practice & qually I had no confidence I could reach the finish without some big incident.

Race start was poor but the tow got me back up to the leaders before the hairpin which I then took far too slowly & fell back to battle with Kurt for last place. At that stage any thoughts of a podium were gone as everyone else was 3s or so up the road & without the tow that gap was increasing. However fate smiled on me, first Matt spun at the hairpin, then Daz was off the road just after the hairpin, a few laps later Tony spun at the hairpin & finally Clive lost it exiting the banking. So now in a far from deserved 2nd place   Erling was already around 12s ahead & the gap was increasing by 1-2s a lap so without a mistake from Mr Consistent 2nd was the best I could hope for. More mistakes from everyone else meant I did not have to push hard for the second half of the race & by not pushing hard my laptimes got better & I was quite disappointed that I never quite managed a 2.13 lap before the end.  

Congrats to Erling on a faultless drive & to Tony in 3rd.  

Was thinking this would be a great slipstream battle whilst practising Monday night.

Didn't quite go to plan, couple of reasons.

I couldn't find the same pace last night as I did on Monday.

Erling was just too fast in the Merc.

I did do a 2.12.8 in practise offline, but seeing the times Erling posted in practise before quali, and then in quali also, had me checking the gearing options I had to ensure I was actually on the longest. I couldn't find my best pace, but even had I done so I was still not fast enough to challenge for pole. Ah well, let's see what happens in the race.....

Made the best jump, helped by the Aston absolutely having better acceleration than the Merc, but by the kink Erling was alongside. Held him off that time, and pulled away from the hairpin nicely, and just for a few moments thought this may be more competitive that I feared, but then he zoomed up behind with ease, uh oh....It came to a head a couple of laps in, Erling now leading over the start finish line going onto lap 3 I think, and I was tucked right in the slipstream for the first time and getting a good tow. My car zoomed up behind with that help, but I pulled out to go past and just stopped going forward immediately, and Erling moved away as soon as I was not tucked in. Uh-oh number 2, as now it was obvious that he could draft me and zoom through, but I could not do the same. Honestly, there is no way to combat that on a track like this, there is no substitute for top speed here.

All this was moot as out of the hairpin about 20 seconds later the car got very, very angry with me and decided to throw itself at the bales on the right of the exit, despite for all appearances appearing to want to go to the left and only to the left. So, this left not only me, but Erling as well I think, feeling a sense of loss, as at least we could have had a laugh at me failing to overtake a few times over the course of the race, not to be...

Car was now bent and slow, but I had some fun catching up to the rest of the field, there were great laps with Clive, and then Tony, and then Clive and Tony. I have to congratulate Tony on what was quite simply the most copy book block pass I have experienced for quite some time, you ensured there was no way I could turn into the hairpin until you were 100% ready for me to do so there, I had a good old chuckle at that one!

I then ballsed it up again later, hit the fence on the edge of the Nordcurve which trashed the car and involved a visit to the pits just to make it drive somewhere near straight so I could get it home...

Grats Erling, unstoppable combination of speed and consistency here.

Thanks Kurt 

Definitely surprised at being quickest last night.  Avus is a track I really hate, but ironically I've often had good results at tracks I don't like.  This isn't one of them though, as something always seems to go wrong.

Pumped the tyres to the max, which helped with the speed.  Trickier to stop and turn, as Geoffers points out, but I didn't find it unduly so. Had to work actively to keep it from swapping ends under braking for the hairpin though.  In the one right-hander, I grazed the wall a few times and began to worry about cumulative damage, but fortunately it was only superficial.

As Daz says, the Aston had a clear advantage under acceleration, prob. due to the 5-speed box, while the Merc had the edge on top speed.  Couldn't help a chuckle over his 'Buggerit!', when he pulled out from the slipstream and hit an invisible wall, stopping the overtake  Was still shaping up to be an interesting race, so quite a bummer when the car mugged him on L3.  Not much excitement left, with a constantly growing gap; only the fear of hitting one of the invisible obstacles, or otherwise screw up, kept the attention focused.

Grats to Geoffers & Tony, and commiserations to Daz and the victims of the track.

Clive: Forgot to mention; I downshifted to 3rd in the Merc when entering the banking, for what it's worth.

LMAO Tony, brilliant.. "Think you're gonna turn, huh?" 

Well, I never thought it was deliberate, but it still worked splendidly