iRacing Season 2 Skippy - Road America (Full) - Apr 13

[Fred Basset]

Well done to Brendan and Brian.

Beyond racing at Elkhart Lake in Cart Precision Racing many years ago and four Jetta laps I'd never driven here in iRacing until 10 days ago. Through practice I got into a natural race pace of low 2.35's with the odd high 34.

I knew I was racing Dave for 3rd in the championship and I fully expected him to be quicker than me here as he has more time to race. Therefore I was quite content to trail in behind if necessary and protect my lead in the table.

Things did not go well before the race, issues on the train meant my normal fifty minute journey took two and a half hours and I did not get the normal amount of warm up done. Things initially went wrong in qually with a crash at the kink on my second flyer, just turned in a tad too early. Anyway out again and pushed for a 35.0 which put me 4th.

With Dave up in second I knew I needed to keep my place off the line. In reality I got a great start and had quite an overlap with Brian but settled in behind, this put me at a slight disadvantage and both Paul and Darren were lining up passes at the end of the long back straight. I kept the place with a bit of demon braking into the left hander and this was the making of my race as it gave me a gap whilst the two of them squabbled of a second or so.

When Dave spun this became a 3 way scrap that became quite entertaining to watch in my mirrors. I just drove steady laps with no mistakes, most of the time half to a second off my best race pace but because of the scrap behind even this opened the gap out to 5 seconds at one point. A few laps to go and I just brought it home.

As I said after the race I was lucky, having said that I am quite content that my pace would have put me in good stead against Paul and Darren and I really did not need to beat Dave, just finish within 80 points of him

So whats that you said about the tortoise and the hare before the race Dave?

Like Brendan I'm a little sad to see the Skippy go, I've had a great season with 4 podiums out of 6 races. Thanks to Iain, Paul H and Dave for all the organisation etc

Gary

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

So whats that you said about the tortoise and the hare before the race Dave?

Ruddy hard shelled fiend!

I don't think Rob took my advice - IIRC he binned it on lap 1.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Sorry for getting in the way and ruining your race Dave.  Next time I'll pull over so that you can gain the position your levels of practise truly deserve.  

If you wouldn't mind.

[Mike Wrightson]

I agree Mike and actually one person was out tonight because they were on holiday, another because they were working.

Work was what stopped me too.  If I had finished at 6pm  instead of 8pm, I could have had some practice pre-race.  With having no other practice, I didn't fancy spending 40mins tugging around at the back.  If I'm entering a race, I want to race not spend most of it learning the car/track combination.

[Fred Basset]

I don't think Rob took my advice - IIRC he binned it on lap 1.

No but I did

Gary

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I don't think Rob took my advice - IIRC he binned it on lap 1.

No but I did

Was the 'hard shelled fiend' line too subtle?

[popabawa]

I sucked - thus endeth my race report.

Grats to everyone who got on the podium this season, well done Brian on the championship

[Burtoner]

I was totally godsmacked I was like 3.5 secs of my pb, Started at back being slowest, had a fight on my hands, and really I just couldnt explain, dont think I ever had a race being this far off my pace...

[Truetom]

I swear, the braking was totaly different 3 minutes beforehand on my own... When I joined the hosted server I barely touched the brakes and it was locking the fronts like hell. It was set to 51%, mind you. I had to set it to 47% and then catch the rear every time. Was doing ok - but not fast - until some laps before end. I'm glad we're done with this car.

[Simon Gymer]

TT, in iRacing I always have to push both pedals to the floor whenever I exit the garage for the first time otherwise they are not setup right in game. Another bug since day 1 they still haven't fixed . It's amazing how many times I still forget, go steaming out of the pits to get 100% brake when I tap the brakes for the first corner instead of the amount I'm actually pressing it. Once you've pressed the pedals full once it's fine until you restart the game.

Maybe that's the problem you describe?

[Truetom]

You might be right, Simon. Just came from C6R time-trial and I swear it acted different yesterday. Will try this.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

The G25/27 both only calibrate the pedal ranges when you fully exercise them. I find the same in GTR2 etc. Once I've done it once since booting I don't need to do it again unless I reboot or unplug and replug the wheel.

[Paul968]

Not really sure what to say after Dave's post. Did very little practice as I don't like RA, especially in the skippy and if Brian turned up I knew he would be quicker than me. The race though was brilliant, with so many side by side moments and overtakes that I lost count. What is more remarkable is that we all managed to avoid any contact, although it was mighty close at times   In the end I tried just a bit too hard and took an inch too much exit curb at the kink and it put me in the wall before I knew it. Luckily only Ross was close enough to pass me before I dragged my crippled skippy across the finish line.

Grats to Brendan on a great win to seal victory for the Kerbies, backed up yet again by the 'Gizmo' in our team, Gary Tall. I hope he appreciates my efforts to hold DG back - you can send the cheque over any time m8   Well done to Brian for the series win.

Finally, big thanks to Dave for deliberately making all those little mistakes to let me back past - must be tricky to make it look accidental when you are so talented. Really appreciate the lesson in racecraft too - not often I get the chance to see such a master in action.

PS Thanks also to Darren - I had a blast m8 

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Finally, big thanks to Dave for deliberately making all those little mistakes to let me back past - must be tricky to make it look accidental when you are so talented.

Hmm, must've been a different race, Paul. I made one big mistake in T8 desperately trying to get enough of a gap having overtaken te pair of you to not simply get re-passed after the Kink, other than that every time you or Darren got past was entirely down to the enourous draft effect of my giant Shark fins.

[Paul968]

Hmmm, have a look at the replay - you may be surprised