iRacing Season 1 - Skip Barber @ Laguna Seca - Dec 8

[Stewprovo]

Never doing Laguna again!! Hateful track for me as I'm not good enough to drive it.So, so, so, so sorry to Paul Richards for hitting you. Was trying to see where you were in mirrors, cocked up the top of cork screw entry, once I was on gravel, nothing I could do. After that, there was no way I was going to be a hazard to anyone else, so quit out. I've changed my mind about the skippy, if it was a horse, it would be taken to a field, shot, and then turned to glue!

[Brendan]

2 apologies from me.

First one to Simmo, I tried to give you room but my FL caught your RR and sent you round.  Sorry mate.  

Secondly to Simon.  After the T1 incident with Simmo my steering was off to the left.  I lost the back end under braking and was a passenger from that point onwards.  Looking at the replay, it was a real bonehead move.  Really sorry.

Had a nice few battles after rejoining in last place although I was surprised at the amount of people who gave up their place without a fight   that said, I did have a great little tussle with Ross.

Really annoyed at my standard of driving tonight.  I really can't stand Laguna, and it showed.  Again, apologies to anyone whose race I affected.

[Mark J]

Laguna is a brilliant track, love it !!  

Had a great race despite propping up the bottom end of the field for the majority of the race. Had some good battles along the way and Ian Bassi and Martin Blunder seemed to keep me company the whole night with the odd rejoining spinner thrown in for measure.
I'm dog slow compared to most of you in these, how did you all get so quick in them so quickly ?   but i will say i couldnt get near my fast laptimes due to a lot of light-flutter fps stutters in some of the more technical corners.

Thankfully it seems my previous Ir troubles have perhaps disapeared, though not convinced. Tonight i was mainly on 50-65 fps for the whole race but the slight stutters did hinder my pace, albeit perfectly race-able, and i think Laguna with a full grid was pretty intensive on the gfx front with all that sand being kicked up around the track and many cars running wide here and there.

I had a really clean race upto 5 laps to go then my concentration just seemed to go and i span about 5 times in 3 laps..or was it down to tyre wear/wing damage   It was a naff end to a great race. Didnt hit anyone or anything though so not all bad  

Good clean racing and i am just surprised how fast everyone is. Will need to get more seat time but i find the skip really dull for praccy even though the racing seems great and very kart-like.   Well done to the winners !

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Completely failed to reproduce the 39 I did last week; struggled to 9th on the grid and wasn't too happy with my pace.

Once the race started the car felt great and I battled hard with nsfast until finally squeezing by on the run out of the corkscrew. 0x contact but I don't think either of us suffered.

Unfortunately, it turned out my excellent race pace was because the pit crew failed to put race fuel back in after qualifying.

Crew - you're fired!

Made a splash and dash stop and set about hacking my way back up the field from 12th where I rejoined. Made short work of Pops and Picnic, both falling victim to my better pace out of the last corner. TT was kind enough to sling himself off the road for my personal convenience which put into the top 10, but further progress was going to be tough, with Burtoner's pace just a bit too good for me to hunt him down before the laps expired.

Frustrating because I undoubtedly had the pace for 7th, but some good racing along the way. Well done Brian for another Shark win, and commiserations Simon for an early return to the pool.

Meanwhile I know from TS that you're all waiting on the grid... clicked retire, to go out & come back in... only our session has now disappeared from the server list.

There's never any reason to retire from a live session unless you don't intend to come back to it. You keep the join button at the top until you do.

I'm dog slow compared to most of you in these, how did you all get so quick in them so quickly ? 

Quickly?! It's taken me over a year to be this close to adequate!

[Paul Richards]

Never doing Laguna again!! Hateful track for me as I'm not good enough to drive it.So, so, so, so sorry to Paul Richards for hitting you. Was trying to see where you were in mirrors, cocked up the top of cork screw entry, once I was on gravel, nothing I could do. After that, there was no way I was going to be a hazard to anyone else, so quit out. I've changed my mind about the skippy, if it was a horse, it would be taken to a field, shot, and then turned to glue!

No problem Stew. I wondered what had happened! I saw you go left thinking you were letting me through but there wasn't any need I was a little way back. Then I lost sight of you on my left and then you suddenly appeared! My car looked destroyed but all 4 wheels were still pointing straight so it was ok. Your team plan worked though as Paul got past and then defended from me the whole race Only joking it all worked out well as we had a great battle.

Sorry to Mike C for rear ending you in practice. I broke early to leave a gap but still couldn't slow down enough as we passed the apex in that uphill left. I should have been more careful having not followed you through there before.
 

[popabawa]

I didn't get much practice for this race and boy, it showed

A last minute switch to Paul Richards set-up for qually put me in 15th which tbh was better than I expected despite me qualifying with race fuel on board! (my pit crew, also fired).

I had an awful start to the race, I just couldn't drive the set-up on cold tyres for some reason and lost 4-5 places on lap 2.

I started picking up places as I got more confident and people started leaving the track

The highlight was a superb battle with Picnic, nose to tail for umpteen laps until Pete made his only mistake going a bit wide at the last turn and I was able to nick the place but the pressure was on for the remainder of the race, great fun, a pleasure as always

Good drive by Stuart Symonds to come storming back through the field and nick 11th off me a couple of laps from the end.

[Fred Basset]

Nice racing with Dan and Gary tonight and a nice view of the two Pauls slugging it out in front of me.

I quite like Laguna!

Regards
Gary

[Kerr]

That's me in work now, not bad going if I do say so. Hire cars are without a doubt the fastest cars.

Messing around in practice I managed 39.1s with both quali and race setups.

Started qualifying with the whole track ahead of me but at the end of my first flying lap I suffered a disco.

Jumped back in and found it hard to work an opening for a fast lap. Happy with the time and pole obviously under the conditions.

Race started well with PaulR hot on my tail. After a few laps I managed to ease away a little to allow some breathing space.

I think PaulR got tangled up whilst lapping and dropped behinf PaulH and that incresed the gap to over 7 secs.

Knowing they were having a fight I had nothing to push for and just maintained a steady pace and eased off  a little more at the dangerous corners.

Well happy with another win.

Good to see a large number of people suddenly finding a lot of pace. It should get interesting the more we go on!

Good racing.

[picnic]

Much more controlled race than the disasters on the public servers last night. However I wasn't terribly consistent. Got a new PB on the penultimate lap but no idea where it came from really. Only had one proper off at the cork screw out braking myself and having to cut the right hand part out. The Slow Down thing costing me around 5 secs. That's not very real world, you'd get away with the odd indiscretion as long as you didn't gain a place. So much for simulation 

I am actually enjoying the Skippy, just tried a few laps a Sebring as that's this weeks track on the public servers. Boy are the 1st and last corners tricky.

[Ken Murray]

What a bummer. Last time I was in a position to actually race on a Tuesday night a mate rang just as qually was about to start. Tonight, no Dad's taxi's required, the mrs out picking her son up from cubs, so I'm left in peace to concentrate on the race, or so I thought. Just as qually is about to start my brother and his wife arrive unannounced with a card for my daughters birthday, which is tomorrow. They've only just left now!!!!!!

[Paul968]

Although it wasn't the greatest night for the Kerbies, I had a really good one. Managed to stay fairly close to Paul R in the opening laps (Brian was just too quick for everyone tonight though). Then when Stew accidentally took Paul out (thx m8, cheque is in the post   ) I nipped past Paul. Considered giving the place back given the circumstances, but Paul's a good mate and I knew the racing would be much better with him chasing me than vice versa, so I carried on. He was still very quick despite the bent car, and I had to battle hard right to the end to keep him behind - twice we went round t1 side by side  . One or 2 close moments where both of us seemed unsure about who would go first, but Paul was a gent as always and we survived to the end. Very happy with 2nd, and also really enjoyed the driving - laguna is so much nicer than the first 2 tracks. Grats to Brian, who was just too quick this time. On to VIR, which should be fun - can we run a sweepstake on crashes at the tree turn?  

[Gazza49er]

Wow that was the most concentration Ive ever had in a 40 mins  

Had a free day today so spent the afternoon testing at this track. Was getting more comfortable as time went on but i knew there was more time to gain so i went on you tube and studied some fast laps. That really helped and i made good gains.

Qually went really well and i was really surprised to be 4th and so close to 2nd    this brought the butterfly's even more though as i suspected that there were probably a few guys behind that were faster and just didn't get in a good lap.

Race started well and i managed to keep ahead of the two behind and even keep the guys in front in view. Gradually Gary was creeping closer and he made a great move on me into the last corner ( i was sure you weren't gunna stop it as you came from quite far back but you did) so i gave you some room, this allowed  Brendan i think to get along side me aswell and i decided to just slip in behind them both and follow them. Managed to stay with them for the most part until one of them went off at the squeaky bum left up the hill. Kept Gary within 2 seconds from then on doing good times until he had some problem which left his car looking pretty bent lol and i went into 4th. Thought i just needed to keep calm and bring it home but alas Dan came from nowhere and started catching me, he got close a few times after minor mistakes and i had to defend the last corner on the last lap a little but made it. A few more laps and i probably would of let him past.

Really chuffed to bits with that result as i class Iracing as very tough.

No incidents aswell i just noticed which is good  

Well done Podium and everyone.

[Fred Basset]

Ah stopping was no problem Gary and I was quite tentative in case you turned in. Its one of the real benefits iRacing's multi view I think, I could see where you were the whole time. Thanks for the racing room and I enjoyed it too, right upto lap 20 when as you say my car became bent out of shape, I did a lap but it was just too hard to continue.

Regards
Gary

[Blunder]

You reep what you sew! 

Little or no practice... strangely the Private leagues have got me hooked into iRacing again but can't be bothered to put in the time with the Skippy, especially at Laguna!
Actually have never been a fan of that track but quite enjoyed it!
Got down to 1.42's in the race but need to practice more if I expect to do any better!

Oh, big apology to Gary Tall, looks like I completely wiped him out when he was lapping me!!
Am holding my head in shame and plead for forgiveness!  :'(
Was limping back to the pits thinking the car was good enough but lost it on the next to last bend and was a passenger after that!
Sorry Gary! I will be getting 20 sirens to flog me! 

 

[Truetom]

Was showing missus The Charms of Surfing and what do I get? Less time for training! Had a plan to finish a crude setup from Paul but couldn't get on PC in time. Car was a lot better than in previous training sessions, only oversteer corner entry was the issue. When I got it right I had low 1:41s and when I didn't I spinned. Twice. Lost a few places unnecessarily. But I'm getting there. Umm, somewhere.