iRacing Season 5 IndyCar Championship - Barber (Full) - Mar 15

[Simon Gymer]

Leaders lap times could be around the 1:11 mark I guess, so 40*60/71 = 33 or 34 laps?

[Blunder]

Thanks Simon, 34 laps it is then! Session starting now!

Have fun!

[Brendan]

Will try and make it.  Only had about half a dozen laps practice though, so will try and keep out of the way

[Burtoner]

my headset is broken so i got no sound on pc till i get new ones tomorrow..

[BorchersDK]

Bah, it all sucks at the moment. Simply too tired to race these days. Started out well though, had a nice chase going with top 3 fairly close together. Then on Lap 20 I braked to deep into the hairpin, lost the rear, and from then on it all went lala land a little bit. Pitted, and decided to just push hard to stay focused. Worked for a few laps, and then suddenly complete brain failure. I entered the very fast S (the last one) in 6th - I normally do that in 5th, coasting, and then 4th for the last bit. And ofcourse that ended bad. Huh, and i just exploded .

Really hope things will come down a little soon, so Im more well rested. Cause if it stays like this, I might aswell not enter the races in the weekdays. And I dont want that, cause I love the Indycar.

[Ken Murray]

Had a nice battle with Paul in the early laps, until my customary lapse of concentration. I could see he got off line through the final sequence of corners and so went all out to get a good run at him on to the s/f straight. Unfortunately I was a little too eager and I very nearly rear ended him. The subsequent avoidance manouvre had me running across the sandpit!! I then pushed to try and catch, and I was very slowly reeling in the two cars ahead. However a second error had me eating a concrete wall. I made the tow my stop but it still wasn't enough to avoid being a lap down.

[Simon Gymer]

Immense pressure from everyone there, but very pleased to hang on by the skin of my teeth at the end. Managed to go a tiny bit quicker than practice in qualifying. I think a 1:09 was probably on but my final lap when I was up enough for a 1:09 I couldn't hang it altogether and it wasn't meant to be. It was still just enough for pole with Karsten, Mike and Dennis very close behind.

Race started ok, thought I was pulling away ok, not pushing as much as the practice session, but then Karsten was staying with me. I tried to put the hammer down but I just couldn't find the pace of the practice session where I'd done a 1:10.3 with race fuel so he was uncomfortably close behind.

I was relieved to see Karsten dissapear around the pit stops as it gave me some respite, but sad that his race ended and I thought that was going to be it for race fight as Mike seemed further behind. Indeed when the pit stops had all been done Mike was 9 seconds behind. I slacked off a bit thinking I had it in the bag and should probably drive more carefully, but then he took 4-5 seconds out of me in 5 laps and I realised he was flying. I had to put everything into it then and under pressure I wasn't quite as fast as I could have been as I sped up to full pelt. With a few to go it was looking really tight as I had no response to Mike's pace, but thankfully the white flag came out and I just had enough on the last lap to keep the victory.

I did make some more adjustments to the setup after I shared my original one so will post them on the Team Shark website shortly.

Thanks again for hosting, just one round to go, sob sob.

[picnic]

Think I'm out of my depth rather with these cars, in fact most of the iR cars . I was with GPL too but at least in those days we had 6 or 7 divisions so you'd have a group of people to race against.

[Mike Wrightson]

A lucky 2nd place I feel, but it spices up the championship.

I had almost no preparation for this race, so a very hastily adjusted Mid Ohio setup seemed to work OK, but it understeered a lot in the slow turns and was also not very planted through the fast chicane.  No matter, it would have to do.  If I had 15 laps practice in total, I would not be surprised.  

I hoped that some better pace would come in qualifying but it wasn't to be and 4th on the grid was the best I could do.  The optimum splits said 1:10.3 but I couldn't put the lap together.  With Karsten and Dennis ahead, I was looking at my championship advantage being turned on it's head.

Good clean start and I was holding on to the group, but only just, getting past two cars suddenly looked a very slim hope.  Then Dennis spun!  OK that's past one of them, but I was not able to keep up with Simon and Karsten, my only chance was fuel strategy.  Sure enough Simon pitted at half distance, and Karsten and I were both pushing really hard to see if we could jump him while we were lighter.

Then Karsten spun!  Wow, I really was being given some presents tonight!  Gave it two more laps and then in I went, but the pit entry was absolutely shocking and undid any gains I had made on the track.  I also put in too much fuel... again.  So, 9 seconds down on Simon now, nothing to lose really, so really went for it.  I was closing... and also dipped into the 1:10's   there were enough laps to catch him so I kept going, but I was about 1 or 2 laps short

Good win Simon.  It's winner takes all at Infineon for the championship now.. no pressure

[ethone]

I hope you enjoyed me bolstering your numbers for as long as I could keep it on the track.

Turns out I shouldn't have run with as little preparation as I did. I got used to the car again quite decently in the few laps I did, as I think my qualifying time showed. But my long run stability on a track as difficult as this apparently wasn't back yet. I fiddled with the differential a bit to make the car more conservative. Not enough though, as I spun out with just a tiny bit too much throttle over the hump...

Congrats to those making it until the end without incident, and a great little group with closely matched laptimes you guys have here.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Results posted.

[Paul Thurston]

firstly, sorry Martin for forgotting to post the numbe rof laps.  That's twice I've done it.  I'll do it immediately I do some laps this time to be sure.

I've been too busy lately to even look at the Indys.  Simon kindly shared his setup, as did Dennis.  I tried both but found Simon's more stable and I set out my stall to finish.

In qually I was pleased to get into the low 1:11s which nipped me above Ken.  We had a great little battle but as he recounted I got my line wriong round the final corners.  I concentrated on getting a decent exit from the final left hander but saw him spin.

The Ian started to gain on me.  He got within a second before I got my act together and stretched the gap to a whole 1.5 seconds.  I pitted a lap early really figuring the new tyres would help me hold him off but my pit crew decided not to give me any so it was a quick stop.

I hadn't checked tyre wear so that left me a little concerned about whether they'd last.  In the event they were fine though my laptimes did tail off.  Luckily everyone behind me had problems so I ended up in 5th with a good gap, which turned to 4th when Karsten went off.

I then used up a chunk of  that gap by going straight ahead at T1 but luckily the gravel trap did it's job and I managed to drive out and carry on without damage.

I enjoyed that. 

Infineon will be tricky but armed with Simon's driveable setup I'm actually quite optimistic of a decent result.

Paul

[Brendan]

Arrived here with only a handful of laps practice and did as Mike did, by butchering a Mid-Ohio setup.

Decided to qualify on race fuel to try and get a better feel for the car and in the first 10-laps or so, I was surprised to be hanging onto the coat tails of the guys in front.  That was until I made a mess of the final turn and smacked the pit wall.  The car was driveable but didn't want to turn particularly well.

Took my stop early and the car felt better on fresh tyres.  From here it was a case of keeping it steady and finishing, which was achieved in a higher position than I expected, although only down to the demise of Dennis and Karsten.

Grats to Simon and Mike, sets the championship up nicely.  Also, welcome to Dennis.  After all the problems we've been having with participation lately, it's good to see a new face.  Hope you stick around

[GizMoTo]

that was fun 
found myself next to last on the grid .just couldn't pull a faster lap out the thing no matter what  sett off with the intent to keep Ken and Paul in sight and see what was gona happen and the first section of the race was real fun  kept a close distance back from Ken and watched his progress in his fight with Paul which has been described above  once that fight was over i felt a little more confident with the car so started to push after Paul and this went well for quite a few laps  and was a real blast then Paul went for his pit stop and I very nearly went in after him ........I was so intent on the back of his car I was nearly in the pit lane before I realised what he was doing 

 I then set off to try and do a couple of fast laps as I was still a few laps shy of my intended pit stop and maybe I could pinch the spot off Paul seeing as we where close when he went in ...............this turned out to be a big mistake  .I had pushed hard to keep up with Paul and it seems had been very heave on my tyres  as on the second lap I was merrily driving along and coming out of turn 5 I suddenly had a flat tyre  there had been no indication of tyre ware  my lap times where consistent no indication of any kind that the tyres where worn I was even considering not changing the tyres to save a bit on the stop as there was less than half the race to go and they felt as good as they had at the start, this killed any chance of continuing the fight with Paul as I had lost 30+ seconds in the half lap to the pits on top of some front end damage as i entered pit lane  couldn't slow down enough due to the flat 

so all in all I was more than happy to finish the race at all let alone be 5th

next race ain't my most favourite track and never driven the car round it so that's gona be fun............I think not 




was fun guys so thanks to all that turned up 

Ian

[Ken Murray]

Yes Ian, I have found to my cost in the past that the Dallara tyres are very fragile. If you are prone to locking wheels, as I am, then punctures are very likely.