iRacing Season 2 Skippy - Silverstone (International) - Mar 16

[Ken Murray]

Well all the good fortune that came my way in the last skippy race was wiped out in this one. Qualified nicely in mid pack and rounded T1 OK. As we approached the tricky T2/T3 everyone seemed really slow. I did ease off a fair bit myself but as we clipped the apex of the the left handed kink Mike slowed even more just as I had started to brush a bit of throttle back on. I braked hard but still nudged him off track. Obviously all my fault, but was there some sort of chain reaction going on ahead of me? I couldn't see the reason for slowing so much at that point.

Anyway apart from a crumpled nose I was OK so proceeded on chasing Paul T. As we entered the complex on lap 2 Paul went off track. I could see Gary dive to my inside as we turned in to the penultimate corner so I stayed wide and looked to grab the inside line in to the final corner. Out of my view Paul was now rejoining and we just ran in to each other and his car climbed on top of mine!! I was now virtually dead last and had slightly bent suspension. I plugged away and ever so slowly caught the group ahead. Just as I got on Ian's tail I thought I'd got T1 perfect. Just judged it nicely to use all the rumble strip but not the grass. However I had never noticed if you stay on the rumble strip all the way to the end it actually makes you just clip the grass, it doesn't blend back in to tarmac, there is a short patch of grass, and wham it just spun me round instantly. All that hard work thrown away in a moment. There wasn't many laps left after that but I did get some positions due to others spinning.

Sorry to Mike for lap 1, especially after our dressing down by the officials after Brands!!!

[Don]

Here comes a rant from me.
Dire from my point of view, all that talk about safe driving, all I saw during the Qually session was yellow flags and cars off at the side of the road. The race didn't seem to be that much different for the the 3 corners I managed before my race was finished for me.
I may sit out the rest of the season at least, and use what precious time I have to sim race on pick-up races at IR, the odds of me finishing without any contact would seem to be greater.
Putting 3 hours practice in each week to try run safely here just isn't working out for me.
Good luck for the rest of the season.

IR and SR, hell yeah! lol.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Dire from my point of view, all that talk about safe driving, all I saw during the Qually session was yellow flags and cars off at the side of the road. The race didn't seem to be that much different for the the 3 corners I managed before my race was finished for me.

I take it you'll be submitting an incident report then, Don?

I fell off once at the start of qually after which I think I ran incident free despite some major moments. There were an awful lot of cars on track at once compared to an official iRacing Skippy session (max 14 there I think) and with such a spread of abilities practice and qualifying being a short session it was always going to be hectic.

[Ken Murray]

Should we not increase the qually to 20 or even 30 minutes. Why was 15 minutes chosen?

[Fred Basset]

+1 to that Ken.

I was absolutely rubbish in practice, from a 35.1 last night to struggling in the high 35's, it was like I was driving a different car, qually was not much better although from somewhere pulled out a 35.3 and went second for a while.

The race was better, settled down to chase first Brendan and then Stuart, after about seven laps I learned how to drive again. Just a shame I had a bright red Skippy stuck in front of me. I think Stuart and I were around half a second apart for the first 23 laps and then finally the mistake came and I nipped past young Simmo whilst he attempted to grasstrack round Woodcote. I then drove 2 fairly slow laps to ensure I kept the place.

Great fun Stuart.

So I did not spin in the race this time, next time I really must get qually right

Congrats to Brian, Paul and Dave

Gary

[Paul968]

Bugger - think I might have had a chance at the win there. Qual was pants again but sneaked 2nd late on to put me between Brian and Dave on the grid. Brian and I slowly eaked out a lead and once it was a couple of seconds Dave seemed to drop back a bit more quickly. It was really intense for the first 20 or so laps chasing Brian as at first he was so consistent. Then he started making a few slips, mainly into the hairpin but also at maggots/beckets. I had a few trial runs into the hairpin and knew I could brake deeper there but his car was always in the way. When I got a chance I felt there was a gap on the inside but stupidly I missed the braking point by concentrating on Brian's car, which sent me into the gravel and left me only 1 second ahead of the Dave/Brendan battle. I needed a lap or 2 to settle down and make sure the tyres were OK by which time Dave was pretty close. Luckily he was pushing pretty hard and making the odd mistake too, so I could drive just within the limit and keep 2nd to the flag. Grats to Brian and also to Dave who was very quick in the last section. I think I will have a look at my lines in the skippy as I lost out to Brian there too.

[Paul968]

12.02 Mr T? It must be almost nearer breakfast than bedtime for you!

[Fred Basset]

Still here, I get a lay in now on Wednesdays as I work up North, don't need to get up until 6am then.

Off to bed now!

Gary

[Kerr]

Bugger - think I might have had a chance at the win there. Qual was pants again but sneaked 2nd late on to put me between Brian and Dave on the grid. Brian and I slowly eaked out a lead and once it was a couple of seconds Dave seemed to drop back a bit more quickly. It was really intense for the first 20 or so laps chasing Brian as at first he was so consistent. Then he started making a few slips, mainly into the hairpin but also at maggots/beckets. I had a few trial runs into the hairpin and knew I could brake deeper there but his car was always in the way. When I got a chance I felt there was a gap on the inside but stupidly I missed the braking point by concentrating on Brian's car, which sent me into the gravel and left me only 1 second ahead of the Dave/Brendan battle. I needed a lap or 2 to settle down and make sure the tyres were OK by which time Dave was pretty close. Luckily he was pushing pretty hard and making the odd mistake too, so I could drive just within the limit and keep 2nd to the flag. Grats to Brian and also to Dave who was very quick in the last section. I think I will have a look at my lines in the skippy as I lost out to Brian there too.

Did you race with Brendan's setup?

The 1 ARB helps a lot through T3 and T4 but I find that corners where you were heavy on the throttle it would not turn in well enough for me in the last section.

[Brendan]

I was a tad disappointed with qually.  Couldn't hook up a decent lap and lined up 5th on the grid with a 35.1. 

Start was clean and I followed Simmo for 3 or 4 laps until he ran wide at T1 and gave me 4th place.  I then set about trying to reel in the 2 second gap to Dave which proved a lot more diffcult than I had anticipated. 

By about lap 15 the gap had reduced to around half a second and when Dave made a small mistake into T2/3, I took the opportunity to nip by on the inside.  I didn't get a great run onto the back straight and promptly out-braked myself at the hairpin and gifted Dave the place back.  The duelling continued over the next couple of laps and although I nudged infront a few times, I couldn't make it stick.

So, hats of to Dave on a fine drive under pressure with very few mistakes and grats to Brian and Paul also.

[Adam Parle]

Yep - this goes into the "what might have been" pile too ....

I was pleased to finally break into the 1:35's at the end of qually, can't really complain wiht a new PB - especially given how busy the session was.

The race started ok, although Shark got past me into Bridge early on, side by side, I had to lift to get round the corner, and the let Simon carry more speed round the corner and safely past.  I seemed to lose focus, and never got close enough to attempt a pass, although we both made enough mistakes to keep things interesting.

A lack of consistency through T2/3 cost me dearly, barring the tap from Noel that's where all my IP came from, one silly spin and a few off tracks.

After my spin I was behind Pops - nooooooooooooooooooooooooo.  With a beer to the victor I did my utmost to get back in front, and we had a few cracking laps - and a very close finish - for some really enjoyable driving.

Without the mistakes it could have been very different .... but isn't that always the case.

Looking forward to the next race.

[Paul968]

Did you race with Brendan's setup?

The 1 ARB helps a lot through T3 and T4 but I find that corners where you were heavy on the throttle it would not turn in well enough for me in the last section.

No, I ran a modification of my silverstone setup from last time which had 4 ARB. The place I seemed to lose out was bridge, which I think was down to line. You and Dave carried more speed through it and compromised the line for priory a bit, whereas I was trying to stay right to open up priory. This is a longer line though and I think it showed. What I would say though is that it was possibly a safer race line, as if you mess it up there are more options open to you.

[popabawa]

Replay from last night;

http://www.legendsracing.net/iracing/SRouk_Silverstone_I_Skip.rar

[Simmo]

I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The standard of driving in the front gaggle was very high.  Only 10 seconds between the top 6.

I had a scruffy qualifying, spun on the first lap and decided to wait until everyone went by to get some clear air.  After a few laps settling in again I put in a PB of 1:35.1 which to my surprise put me on pole!!  In my shock I binned it on the exit of T4 so decided to park it and watch as there were only 4 minutes left.  Ended up 4th which was ok.

Got a good clean start and everyone was very sensible round the first few corners.  Struggled to settle for a while and was losing ground to Dave but keeping Brendan at bay. Made a mistake on lap 4ish at T1 letting Brendan by but following him actually helped me settle.  Gap to Gary in 6th was fairly stable at about 0.6 for the first 20 laps.  When we all caught Welling it helped me get back onto Dave and Brendan and when they started squabbling I had a look at Brendan into the tight hairpin but he slammed the door shut.  I stayed between 1-2 seconds behind Brendan until the penultimate lap when I ran wide at the last corner allowing Gary to sneak passed!!  Gutted!!

Was a very enjoyable race and it was great watching the fight between Dave and Brendan, I was sure you were both going to come off when you went side by side though Bridge!!

[Gazza49er]

I had a terrible qually session, dunno what happened to me  so started a bit down in 11th.

Start was good and a few spun which put me in 8th. Got up to 7th and was kind of staying with Gary and Stuart for pace but 2 secs behind and i just couldn't close the gap even though i was banging in mid 35's which was as fast as i had gone in any session. After lapping Welling i was a bit closer to Gary and i started to push but i realised i had started with 3.8 fuel and it might not be enough so i slowed down to make sure i finished    i started spluttering at T3 on the last lap so was pretty close.  Bit of a shame coz i might of been able to race the two ahead in the last few laps if i had enough fuel.

Grats Brian, Paul and Dave