iRacing Season 3 Star Mazda - Sebring (International) - May 4

[Dan Minton]

You could cheat the calibration.  Select custom controls for the car and then recalibrate the steering.  When it asks to turn the wheel 90deg, turn it more than 90 and calibrate it there.  That's one way of getting a bit less sensitivity.

Now thats a trick and a half !!  Made a massive difference to the feel of the Mazda....  cheers  

[ross.mcw]

Yeah, I think I was thinking more about steering stability and the self-centering action of the wheels.

[Blunder]

Really looking forward to this! 

[popabawa]

Server is up!

[Blunder]

SROU driving standards = Class D public servers! .....err... told you so! 

[Burtoner]

pointless racing when everyone causing a mayhem at turn 1, what a waste of a evening:/

[popabawa]

Looks like the last update has broken the results import so it will be delayed.

[ross.mcw]

Apologies for my spin in t1 - loads of lag with cars jumping around all over the place completely distracted me and I dropped it.

Once past the excitement of the first few laps, that was a long and pretty boring race...

Sorry that we connected in t2/t3 Peter, I don't have a replay of the early laps so couldn't really see what happened, but I think we were both just wanting the same bit track at the same time and you seemed to come off worse.

Cheers, Ross.

[Mike Wrightson]

I sure didn't expect the front 3 to take each other off at T1  

That left me chasing Brendan for most of the race, trying to keep him under pressure.  After lap 15 he was getting slower and I closed right in, pounced for the lead when he made a mistake onto the back straight.  He then let me off the hook when a mistake dropped him 5 seconds back.

I won!!! WOOHOO!  

Grats to Darren and Simon taking the podium places.

[Adam Parle]

Average qually sesh left me a bit further down the field than I wanted (and behind Pops - oh the inhumanity of it all) - but I was pretty confident I could run well in the race.

After the inevitable smoke, screech, and smash at T1 I made it through unscathed, and set about making progress.  I managed to get alongside TT into the hairpin, and thankfully TT didn't put up too much of a fight, and then I had to catch Shark and Pops who were hard at it  

There was a bit of a train going on for a good couple of laps, until Shark got a good run out of Le Mans, and made the pass into the loooooooooong final bend ... leaving me and Pops to duke it out and let Shark get some breathing space .

I got by Pops in a similar manner to Shark, getting a run down the Ullman Straight, and getting the inside line was enough.  Pops wasn't for leaving me to dissapear though - really had to keep the hammer down.

After Shark span he got by Pops and I again (boo) - my mistake coming out of Le Mans and was powerless to defend ... we ran pretty close until lap 19 when I made a mess of T15, and that was that ...

Some good racing as the Legends v Shark fight goes on, and well happy with a much improved drive from me - just the solitary incident point, and going from 12th to 5th.  

[popabawa]

I really enjoyed that.

I overachieved in qually to get 8th with a new PB and knew there would be pressure from behind so I had to drive well. Which unfortunately I didn't

It was great fun though with good close racing with Simon, Adam, Adam, TT & John

[Reign Man]

Decided to take the plunge and race after quite a gap from when I last raced anything.  I'm glad I did.

Started 11th. Took it very easy and was 14th after the first lap. Thankfully the were no dramas where I were.  I was able to overtake someone into the last coner on the next lap and that was it.  I pretty much kept it on the road from the and was part of a train for the most of the mid to last part of the race when two guys made contact in front of me which allowed TT I think to catch up with me.  He was faster but i hoped i could hold him off for the final few laps.....

I hit a kurb which pointed me in the direction of a nice wall.     how nice!! 

Fun race though....It's good to be back! 

Adam

[Simon Gymer]

Avoided the mayhem on lap 1 after qualifying 14th. I was up to 6th at the end of lap 1!! Chased Pops, just sitting behind him for a fair few laps getting into the groove and being sensible after some of the madness other people were having on lap 1. After a while I overtook him and found myself in 4th. Not to make life too easy for me I then span on the last turn about 13 laps in, losing 3 places and had to pass them all again (which was good fun and really clean, much better than public servers!). With Brendan running out of fuel I then got promoted to 3rd for a ridiculously high finish considering where I qualified, although again I was faster in race than qualifying after yet again not practicing.

The start of lap 1 looked just how most Mazda races are in the public servers, if you avoid the mayhem you can get a top 6 or 7 finish easily. Good luck moderators! People driving far too close to each other and not leaving a decent gap on the rolling start meaning they've all ended up in the same place at the same time and then because it happened at the front the rest of the field have suffered too. Be sensible even if that means you think you might lose out, make sure you get round lap 1 and then race. Just follow the next guy and stop trying to race each other into T1!

There was some very sensible driving from the old guard I was around and I had fun racing the likes of Pops and Adam although I stilled didn't really get the car much tbh. Mike's trick with the steering was a big help to make it less responsive, but the setup I made changes to just before the start of the race ended up having a tiny bit too much understeer.

Anyway, great result for Mike and Team Shark with a starting 1-3 and well done to Darren on the 2nd place too.

[Legzy]

Well I was one of the lucky ones to not get hit by one of our famously safe dodgy SROUK drivers.

I did however manage to get myself in a bit of a pickle cutting over one of the inside corners of the back to back early chicane (T4?) whilst watching another driver over braking . It told me I had to slow so I got pushed back to last & then had a good few laps racing with some of you, probably the closest with Ross... but i think he seemed to pull out of the fight after about 3 laps inches apart. Good fun while it lasted

Back on my own from then as people dropped out & the concentration went as I tried to nail fastest laps each time (nout else to do but try to enjoy myself) & finally nudged a wall. Just lost the one place back to Ross as I retired in 11th.

Lovely combo, shame so many still suffered on L1 T1. A single file rolling start would help, but not sure if side by side didn't make it worse (worth trying again probably).
I reckon we're approaching the time where we start dishing out yellow/red cards & race bans. Simon was right, having a reset or not is not targeting the problem. Thoughtless selfish driving. (Now give me back my reset )

[Truetom]

I hit a kurb which pointed me in the direction of a nice wall.     how nice!! 

Lol, was pure luck that I managed to avoid you.
Managed not to hit anyone this time. YAY for me! After being overly careful through spinning T1 cars I managed to get a spin after catching the wrong kurb. That was fairly in the beginning, so managed to pace myself and get back some places. Like this car, was feeling much more confident, more than any other iCar so far. Corvette is nice, but I'm slow in it (too).
Grats to all finishers.