iRacing Season 5 Sportscar Challenge - Laguna Seca - Feb 8

[GizMoTo]

thanks very much for hosting  .

glad I did some hard running because where I have my pedals mounted came loose and I had to drop out for an hour to fix it .would have been a disaster if that had happened in a race 

cy tomorrow night guys

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Server on it's way.

[Robin Durrant]

Sorry not in the right frame of mind.

I'd end up making a mistake and spoiling someone else's race.

Also sorry to Gary in practice, that was uncalled for. I understand you didn't mean it.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Sorry not in the right frame of mind.

I'd end up making a mistake and spoiling someone else's race.

I know how you feel - not felt quite right for a few days and tonight, having done okay in an MX-5 race earlier, my concentration is just not there.

Really sorry about the mix up with the standing start - I use the "Use last settings" option it seemed to have done everything right, all I had to do was bump the track and lap counts to the right values. Obviously I didn't check hard enough. With hindsight I should've called for a single file rolling start under the polesitter's control on the grid but as it was, we went, stopped, went, stopped etc etc. I rearranged the back of Purdie's DP and decided at the end of that lap to reset and get my stop out of the way and a fresh car.

That felt better but with the leaders bearing down on me after about 10 laps I snatched the rears under braking for the final turn and ate the wall That bent the steering and with my reset already used I parked it.

Dunno why the extra tiny grid tonight.

[Brendan]

That..........was............EPIC!!  

Was very pleased with 2nd on the grid and kept telling myself "you're not racing the Radicals, you're not racing the Radicals, you're not racing the Radicals" as I was certain I wouldn't be able to keep the pace.  Imagine my surprise then, when I just drove clean away into the lead.

Great, now I've got to race the Radicals........  Anyway tried to put in steady consistent laps which I was managing until I started to lose focus and the times were dropping off.  This allowed Paul T to close in which was the kick up the backside I needed to pick up the pace.

Decided to take tyres at the stop and expected Mike, Paul and Gary to leapfrog me.  As it was, only Mike and Paul got by and Gary was looming large in my mirrors.  The new rubber felt great and I managed to reel in the 6 secs to Paul fairly quickly.  However, the early pace on the new tyres quickly diminished and I was facing the prospect of a battle with Gary.  I kept getting understeer through T2 and T3 which was probably a result of me overdriving, and it was into T4 where Gary eventually got by on the outside.

Tried to keep up with Paul and Gary ahead but hopes of anything higher than 4th were rapidly disappearing so kept a steady pace to the finish.

Well done Mike on a great win and also to Gary and Paul T who drove superbly throughout.

Dunno why the extra tiny grid tonight.

Probably the Laguna effect.  It's certainly not on my favourite list although I do seem to have decent races here. 

[GizMoTo]

Dunno why the extra tiny grid tonight.

I would say the track ..........did I say I HATE Laguna

well that start got everybody in front of me I think I hit the gas went round 1 car found myself in 2nd  knew i would soon get swallowed up but ran hard for as long as I could ...big mistake this sodding track always gets me in the same way at some point .........normally near the end of the race but this time it was on Lap 15/16 turn 1 sodding flat tyre  tried to keep out of everybody's way and trundled round to the pits for some new rubber and some fuel to last the rest of the race with the intention to run a chunk slower and save some rubber this went real good up to lap 29  when half way round the lap my right foot got the most god awful cramp .felt like my little toe wanted to be where my big toe was  ended up running round to the pits using only my left foot while I tried to sort my right foot it was still bad so I pitted for some more rubber just to give my foot some time I should have left it there but I wanted to finish a sodding Radical race no matter how many laps i was down anyway got back on track with a numb foot took it very easy until I got some feeling back then I ran harder again trying to keep out of Andy and Martins race  as they where having some fun by the looks of it 

have to say I was surprised I was only 2 laps down at the end  thought I had lost a lot more time than that .at least I finished so I'm happy about that even though my foot is killing me

will be very happy though is I never see Laguna again

so sorry if I got in anybody's way along my event filled run 

catch ya all next race 

[Mike Wrightson]

errr, well!

I, again, didn't spot we were on a standing start grid and when the lights went, Gary sort of went and stopped, I parked up behind, then we realised the race had started without us 

We were both pushing very hard trying to recover lost ground.  Gary was carving through the traffic and I got stuck behind Oily.  We passed Robin when he had a huge moment, then I finally got a run on Oily into the Corkscrew.  This is not my favourite overtaking spot, but it worked out.  Soon chased down Ian and finally managed to pass... into the corkscrew 

Then I passed Gary who had spun off.... at the corkscrew.

Now I was 10 sec behind Brendan in the lead with Paul not far behind him, so I pushed it really hard to try and catch up so I might have a chance of jumping Brendan at least at the pitstop.  By half distance I had closed to within a second of Paul and was only 3 sec behind Brendan.  I didn't want to lose time fighting Paul, so into the pits to top up with fuel.

Soon found I had jumped past Brendan, which I had expected, but I also jumped past Paul too!  I was worried about Gary though, I felt it would be touch-and-go to stay ahead of him, but he was in the pits longer than expected and I was past into the lead!

From then on it was maintaining a decent pace and keeping an eye on the gap.  Epic race guys, enjoyed that a lot

[Ken Murray]

Probably the Laguna effect.  It's certainly not on my favourite list although I do seem to have decent races here. 

Yup, probably the only track I truly hate!!

So even if my central heating system hadn't gone belly up tonight I don't know whether I'd have made the effort tbh.

Anybody know a good plumber?!!

[Fred Basset]

Dunno why the extra tiny grid tonight.

I suspect its Laguna, up to the last time we've been here I hated it, last time I started to get, this time I love it. It flows better than many of the other tracks, overdriving just doesn't work here.

Right, sorry about the start I'd forgotten about the transmission model so with a boot ful of revs and no clutch I could not get the thing in gear. Apologies to anyone I messed up, with this, worst affected must have been Mike but it turned out well for him anyway fortunately

Going through the grid was brilliant fun, getting on the tail of Paul and spinning at the Corkscrew wasn't so much

Andy, I hope my rejoin was ok it looked like I had enough time to go.

It was then great fun getting past Oily and Ian and then reeling in Brendan, Paul and Mike and I had some home of leapfrogging them in the pits but my extra laps on low fuel weren't great and I lost time rather than gained it I think.

Undeterred I set off again and had a great scrap with Brendan, I have to say I expected the DP to be much quicker here. I caught Paul but he was driving too neatly to be able to get him although I tried to the end.

With hindsight I should've called for a single file rolling start under the polesitter's control on the grid but as it was, we went, stopped, went, stopped etc etc. I rearranged the back of Purdie's DP and decided at the end of that lap to reset and get my stop out of the way and a fresh car.

Yeah, I had lots of fun tonight but can we do this in future because we could have had carnage tonight. I've not done a standing start since the Skippies.

Regards
Gary

[Paul Thurston]

Interesting that everyone hates Laguna yet when I did the analysis of previous SRO races it indicated it gets good grids.  I hate it too but if you avoid the tracks you don't like you'll never get better.

I hate it slightly less now.

Sitting on the grid something didn't feel right.  Luckily I dropped it into first when the lights appeared but still didn't twig, then my spotter shouted "Green, green, green" and my subconscious slammed my right foot down.

Ian flew by but luckily Brendan had gone and I has a clear space in front and got to the first corner in third.  Ian slid wide at T2 (It's T1 - that kink's not a corner ) and I got by.

I was expecting Brendan to pull away but I seemed able to keep up.  I wasn't keeping up to the same pace I'd been able to in practice but I wasn't crashing.  Which was nice.

Mike appeared behind.  I knew he was quick here and he closed the gap, but not quite as quickly as I'd expected.  He dropped into the pits at about half distance but I wasn't as comfortable now the fuel level had gone down.  I was getting oversteer and and lost me the extra lap advantage which resulted in Mike getting past when I came out of the pits.

To my surprise though Brendan was behind.  Surprise turned to shock a couple of laps later when I passed Gary in the pits as he'd been right behind me when I stopped.

I tried to ignore them and concentrate on my driving.  That mostly worked as I was still not crashing.  Which was nice.

I made my immediate aim to stay ahead of Brendan till Gary caught him, hoping they'd concentrate on each other and forget about me.  That worked nicely in the event.  It took Gary 4 or 5 laps to get past during which time they lost 3-4 seconds.  When Gary did get by he started to home in on me.  I checked how long to go and saw 3 laps.  OK I thought, this is doable.

Coming into the last corner Gary closed right up but he wasn't quite close enough to get alongside.  I suspect I'd not have survived another lap but luckily there wasn't one.  I'll claim I paced it nicely.

Congratulations to Mike on a perfect drive and apologies to him for chanting incantations throughout the second half of the race in an attempt to make him crash.

Paul

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Re..re..re..reeeeesults.

[Paul Thurston]

Re..re..re..reeeeesults.

Thanks Dave.

[purdie]

great race and lots of fun  .... small grid was hardly an issue due to how close we all were (sort of  )...shame because I do enjoy Laguna and in the DP it seemed a good combo.

With swarms of Radicals I had no excuse being 5th when Brendan was very veeery quick in the DP  

The start was iffy for obvious reasons and I was hoping everyone would default to GTR2 mode for the pace lap but no such luck. I slammed on the brakes a bit too hard in the confusion and Dave caught me, sorry mate   ... my car looked worse than it drove until I tee-boned Ian or Martin about 15 laps in when they touched wheels and I couldn't avoid them  

Carried on for the rest of the race with a car that wanted to go left so lucky its an anti-clockwise circuit! After pitting and just changing my tyres the car felt better and I had a great race with Martin to the flag. Thought I would end up losing the position but I defended with the fat backside of the DP   and finished 5th! or 2nd in DP class as I prefer to say  

Andy, I hope my rejoin was ok it looked like I had enough time to go.

More than enough, plus when your 2 secs quicker I was not gonna waste any time defending you!

Bring on the Indycars next  

[Paul Thurston]

Carried on for the rest of the race with a car that wanted to go left so lucky its an anti-clockwise circuit!

Corkscrew must have been interesting!

[Dan Minton]

Anybody know a good plumber?!!

Yeah ...Me !!   Although im a bit far away.



Got called out at 6pm and didnt get back till midnight so apologies for not being able to make the race.   

hope it was a good one if not a small grid.