iRacing Season 3 Mazda - VIR (Full) - Jun 29

[popabawa]

Will many people be doing 45s? That was super fast when I raced the Mazda.

Will many people be doing 45s and keep it on track for 22 laps? That's the question!

[purdie]

limited testing as I was a little inebriated after a bbq last night so skipped testing  .... only in 48s with half-race fuel 

After getting back to Aberdeen I had enough time for 6 laps and the Mazda is now completely alien to me now.

The steering reacts quicker than before and it hates kerbs more than I remember.

I know the feeling..... not that i have had a break from iR ! I increased the steering lock (G25) in iR Options and it took the edge of the turn in erraticness.... my setup is also not very good

[mr_oily]

limited testing as I was a little inebriated

Obviously another graduate of the Eddie Irvine driving school

I was running low downforce (hence the lovely incident point score) but this new build's definitely a chunk faster Brian so I wouldn't be too concerned with the times from when you last drove it.

[popabawa]

Server is up.

[Ken Murray]

Got to go and cut the grass, see you in there later!!

[Simon Gymer]

Only just got home from work, need dinner, need liquid, too hot to race, had no practice, hate VIR, not keen on the Mazda, all in all should be fun.  

Will try to get there earlier to get some practice in, but might not be ready till close to the start of qualifying. A setup from which track we've raced already will work here? Zandvoort will be ok?

[Ken Murray]

I've been using the same setup all season. Once you have a setup you like the only thing to change is the wings and ride height. But I haven't found a track yet that really benefits from low downforce and since dragging the bottom of the car isn't in the physics model then ride height isn't that critical either.

[spanner]

Hmm, just about sums it up, accelerated a bit to catch Shark on the straight, touched the brakes maybe a bit more urgently that i should have left it locked up one wheel and spun luckily avoiding Ade and Rob.


Its clear you lot are just too quick, i was prepared to drive around at the back on my own as i've never quite got on with this combo and wanted a chance to try and work it out. I just dont have time to run iR much at all nowadays, shame you cant sell it back or get a refund

[Simon Gymer]

Slow (compared to others) but driveable in qually. Somehow with all the fiddling between that and the race though and not looking at what I was doing I loaded completely the wrong setup from years ago and had firm rear arb and soft front arb with stupid wing settings. Undriveable as I normally run soft front arb and no rear arb. I couldn't even keep it on on the straights so I gave up after a sort of half intentional spin as it was just not fun. Very annoying as there was plenty of racing at the back to be had, which is the only reason I turn up cause even with a working setup the Mazda sucks to drive on your own. The sooner this season is over and we switch cars the better.

[Ken Murray]

The sooner this season is over and we switch cars the better.

Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

[Brendan]

I must admit I'm enjoying the Mazda immensely (ignore my race results )

Unfortunately missed out on any practice time last night so hopped on the server for half an hour prior to qual.  Early signs were not good, but decided to stick around for qual anyway.  Relatively speaking, my q lap wasn't too bad and 8th on the grid was enough to convince me to stick around.

I'm glad I did.  Had a brilliant battle with Mike for the first 13 laps, with both of us managing to pick up a couple of places on the way.  I'm sure I had a higher downforce setup as I was quicker out of most of the corners but unable to get close enough for the pass, even with a draft.  On lap 13, I got a good run through the fast left before Oak Tree, probably too good a run as the closing speed to Mike was far quicker than I expected.  In an effort to avoid hitting him, I tried to go to his right but caught my rear wheel on the grass and did a full 360, luckily resuming just a few seconds down. 

Maybe I damaged something, or screwed the tyres, because I lost it into Hog Pen on the same lap and was lucky to miss the barrier.  After getting back on track it was clear something wasn't right.  The back end was trying to brake loose and I was snatching my front left brake even after turning the BB down to 46%.  This was to be my downfall, I locked up into Oak Tree and parked it in the tyres.  Race over.

Despite the non-finish, I had a blast with Mike, who drove impeccably.  I just need to get back to finishing these Mazda races, as the fun-factor is being diminished ever so slightly.

Grats to the podium and all finishers.

[Adam Parle]

Frustrating race.  I was happy with qualifying despite being some way behind the lap I put in in practice.

A silly lap one error had me on the dirt and losing about four poisitions, had some fun getting them back though!  Some great moments round the back end of the circuit with Ken and TT.

Sadly a locked wheel into Oak Tree led to a brush with the wall ... damaged steering had me off the pace after that.




More worryingly is the freezing screen/black screen that I was presented with on numerous occasions.  Might also be connection related, but an overheating GPU is the prime suspect.  I was glad to get through the display moments without too much trouble.

Towards the end of the race the damaged steering got the better of me and I had a few spins - glad to put that all behind me.

Now ... lets see if I can cure these computer issues ....

[popabawa]

Pretty pleased with my best result of the season - 6th, even though I should have had 5th but for a stupid error near the end.

Considering how far I was off the pace yesterday, that was incredible. Darren's set-up took nearly 2s off my PB and I was stunned to qualify in 5th with a pretty decent lap. I seem to have done pretty well in qualifying this season getting near my PB in most events.

I got a good start with Mike behind and the first few laps went well but had a couple of shockers to let Mike, Brendan and John close up. I made a small mistake through the last turn to let them all through. Bah!

Brendan and John went off leaving my in 5th behind Mike who I was slowly catching, probably too slow to catch though to be fair, when I grabbed the kerb out of Oak Tree spinning be off with 3 to go and gifting John the place.

Still, nice to be closer to the business end than usual, even though that was my only spin of the season, it was my best drive pace-wise

[Kerr]

Why does the result show I've got unknown tyres?

The race went far better than I could have hoped. I did a fair amount of practice as I did an hour or two before joining the practice session.

Strange coming back to iracing and especially the Mazda after so long away from it.

I never quite managed to hook up a really good qualifying lap to match my possible best according to the lap split chart. Should be hitting 44s but 45s was enough for pole with James not far behind.

At the start I could see him attempting to second guess when I was going to go and could see his car accelerate sharply. I knew if I went he would have passed me on the straight, so I was cute and waited until he had to back out.

Dan behind matched my start and was quick to pick off James.

I nearly binned it lap 1 around the oak tree. Went in a little hot in a heavy car and I could see the grass and tyre wall coming my way.

After that Dan was never far behind. Just a tenth here and there was enough to get some breathing space before he had a little off giving me a big lead.

Clean race with no problems for me.

Good race.

[popabawa]

Why does the result show I've got unknown tyres?

Because that was your first race of the season and the Celtic Star Mazda hadn't been added to the database so I did it quickly without checking the tyres.