After a bit of a panic at the start getting the server and GTR2 Manager going (urgent post mortem tonight in time for tomorrow's race!) my qualifying went dreadfully, getting nowhere near my best from testing despite only carrying an extra 5kg.
On paper I should've been able to take softs all round and go to half distance. The numbers were spot on but by the time the front left reached 9.5 on the wear indicator, the car felt awful, no grip at the back under braking and understeer in all the right handers.
Up until then I'd been hanging on to, but not making any impression on, the cars ahead, so I decided to pit early, after about 30 minutes, and change to mediums all round. I wasn't 100% sure about just how much fuel I was going to need, so despite starting on 100L, I added about 8 litres just to be on the safe side. I actually finished with 20 in the tank so that was a waste of time.
Came out dead last, but the car felt better again. Kunckled down to a 98% pace; having cut Ascari on the second flying lap I couldn't afford any more cuts. It seemed to take forever for others to make their stops but after 20 minutes or so they started streaming into the pits, and after a few laps of that I was third in GTC, then fourth when Ginsters inevitably slipped past in the more powerful GT3-RS, which became my second podium of the year when PRibeiro retired.
Another good race for me, marred only by running slightly wide once in Lesmo 2, and a lack of preparation which could've cost me dearly had I not had the presence of mind to react immediately when my sofs went off and make a huge adjustment to my strategy, which paid off handsomely.
Good races with Ginsters and Jonzo; a few corners of driving above my station trying to make it hard for Paul968's Morgan; some scary moments with GT1 cars splitting GTC runners on the run to Parabolica; almost taking the front off as the result of a conflagration in the Retifilio.
That's what I hope is the Zed's worst track out of the way too...
had my late race ruined by a stop and go for one ferkin cut corner - how is that right? I was in a good battle with John and Picnic on track and that totally buggered my last third of race
, no previous warnings as i hadnt cut any corners all race until that one occasion whilst in fierce battle with Johns morgan, then it just said 'severe warning, stop and go'
Interesting, I've heard of people getting a stop/go for a first offence (I had it in GTL but not in GTR2), but that's the first time somebody's noticed a specific message for it.
Well, I guess 4th is OK for the first trip out in a new car but I didn't drive very well and managed to ferk up my pit-stop, re-fuelling when I didn't need to. I had "number of pit-stops" set to zero so I guess it defaults to filling the tank to the brim
I was being so careful to change the tyres correctly (bit of a a novelty after a season in the Vertigo) that I didn't notice the fuel. Idiot. I think I would have pipped Dave for the final podium place
I also refuelled unnecessarily (see above) so I think we'd have been close...
Once the issues with GTR Manager are sorted out, please can the practise server run with the correct ballasts for the upcoming race. Is this possible?
It's a bit tricky because
- the driving names have to be changeable until very near the event
- the ballasts for different championships are different
It's possible to practice off line with the right ballast, either by running a local dedi server and a copy of GTR2 Manager, or more simply by hosting a game inside GTR2 and not letting anyone else join, then you can edit the ballast on the Timing page (though I don't think negative ballasts are possible like that).
Even if something was running how would that cause my game to become mixed up and confuse drivers, miss laps completed and times etc?
That's normally a network issue - the 28 car field is suspicious, but unless you've been consistenly the 28th car in (I don't think you were) I can't see a reason why it should affect you specifically.
I'm sure I've asked this already but you
are joining with ISDN set aren't you?