i7e Endurance Sundays Pre-Season Race - Suzuka - 31 July

[C3PO]

Any chance of a last moment addition to tonight's race? I'm back and can take part!!

[popabawa]

No problem, just jump in!

[Burtoner]

race still on?, or was is called off?

[popabawa]

The race is still on Rob, it was only questionable because if the release delay. 

[Reign Man]

connection crapped out on me and I couldn't rejoin.

Hope ya had a good race.

[Paul Langford]

What a waste of time that was....lasted 7 laps...span myself out twice, never done it in practice lost my nose had to pit came out lapping the GT40 guys who seemed completly oblivious that they where being overtaken, very annoying as I had been practicing all week but you cant practice people driving in to you and changing lines through the freekin corners when your trying to pass   .....Nevermind I'm sure we will all get better at it as the season develope's

[Simon Gymer]

Gotta say I absolutely loathe the new tire model. Can't feel anything, no idea whether I'm about to lock the brakes up or whether I'm using too much power or what. Total pants. Maybe it's the car, I've not tried the Skip Barber, but there is no feel at all with it.

My race was a disaster. Following Purdie through the kink near the end of the 2nd lap after a very cautious 1st lap and for what seemed to me to be no reason the car is unable to go through at full speed anymore, back end breaks away, bam. Pitted for repairs, same thing again two laps later after I'm up to full speed on my own through the kink, back end whips round, bye-bye, bam. Eh? I had no problems going through the kink at full pelt before even with high fuel, bizarre.

And what's with the very low speed physics on the tires? At 5mph you should practically stop dead and the tyres should bite into the track. Instead they lock and you roll for ages. Bizarre.

Brake lights of other cars weren't working either which is very unhelpful.

Car just feels plain wierd, the feedback and steering is odd to say the least. The power steering is nasty as you turn and then turn again and then turn back and then turn again, you can't just turn at the right amount, it needs constant change, horrible.

[Bernie Lomax]

Apologies to Robert Lawrie - was a passenger when I hit you Rob, nothing I could do.
Was shaping up for a good battle as well, looked like we were very close pace wise

[RikW]

Not a very auspicious start here and my worst race performance for a long time

Qualifying was, er, not optimal . I had two reasonable chances at a clear run but messed them up and every other lap was badly affected by traffic - most not anyone's fault I hasten to add, just a result of having such different cars on the track together. 3rd on the grid was OK but it was nearly a second off my PB.

At the start I settled into 3rd and was just taking it easy with the fuel turned down but on lap 3 or 4 we came across a GT car at the exit of 130R. Shouldn't have been an issue and I had passed other GTs there without problems in practice but this time I pinched the car a bit to take a narrower exit, started to lose the rear, over-corrected and got stuck in the tyres. Came out and a few laps later managed to bin it at Degner when passing a GT and not slowing enough for the tighter line I was on.

Really disappointing to end up crashing twice for such silly self-inflicted mistakes.

[Mike Wrightson]

Moved up to 5th by just staying on the track, braked a touch late into T1, spun off and knocked the wall, then spun again at the next turn.  Lost the will to live at that point.  I don't have a lot of confidence in the car, need to improve a lot if I'm going to enjoy this season.

We seem to have an even worse situation than last season with lapping though.  Ford GT's are faster on the straights and (in comparison) hugely slow in the corners.  We thought the Mustangs were slow, these are even slower!

[Rob Lawrie]

Apologies to Robert Lawrie - was a passenger when I hit you Rob, nothing I could do.
Was shaping up for a good battle as well, looked like we were very close pace wise

NP.. got away with no damage, that was to come later which ended my race with Jasper.
As for the GT, it needs taking in the back yard and shooting.
Looking forward to the series.

[JazzGreenway]

That was erm... interesting. Qualified in second and jumped ahead of Adam at the start, looked like he was quicker but he lost connection very early in the race From then on the race went pretty well for me as I was building up a nice lead until I had an argument with my shifter and downshifted when I should have been upshifting. This blew my engine and I had to take a 2 minute tow. As I had no idea about fuel strategy I just filled it up again, didn't take tires since they were all on 99% anyway and went for it. To my great surprise I somehow got back in the lead so I made a couple of self spins to try and make up for that, but despite my efforts I still won the race as people behind me were falling off as well, with 0.6 litres to spare

DP's LMP's were pretty good overall, there were some misunderstandings but everone was getting used to the cars I guess, it will get better no doubt. The Ford's understeer characteristic makes it very hard to move over though, going around the outside can work but do so at your own peril

[JazzGreenway]

Following Purdie through the kink near the end of the 2nd lap after a very cautious 1st lap and for what seemed to me to be no reason the car is unable to go through at full speed anymore, back end breaks away, bam. Pitted for repairs, same thing again two laps later after I'm up to full speed on my own through the kink, back end whips round, bye-bye, bam. Eh? I had no problems going through the kink at full pelt before even with high fuel, bizarre.

I was driving the HPD earlier today and had the exact same issue. Went through there a few times no problem and suddenly the next time, woosh, back end slowly breaks away and there's nothing you can do to save it. I was watching a replay and the car was bottoming out heavily at that point so maybe that has something to do with it? Maybe a different line that unsettles the car?

[picnic]

came out lapping the GT40 guys who seemed completly oblivious that they where being overtaken, very annoying as I had been practicing all week but you cant practice people driving in to you and changing lines through the freekin corners when your trying to pass   .....Nevermind I'm sure we will all get better at it as the season develope's

I think I was one of those GTs. However it's hard to see the cars in your mirror while trying to spot braking/turn-in points and because you were coming back up through the field no blue flags are shown. It's not easy for us either

After all my trials and tribulations practicing and not really getting anywhere the need to drive better because other cars were on track finally got me to drive more realistically and thus consistently. My aim was to get to the end and I achieved that. Was lucky with one proper off and not hitting anything solid, and had a few too many drifting wide off-tack moments but all in all I enjoyed that much more than expected. To get a class podium was not justified but I'll gladly accept it.

Shame that there seem to be some bugs in the system. The obvious one is the random nature of the pit limiter, sometimes it works sometimes not Something I don't understand is why they put fat tyres on the GT40 when you only use 2/3rds of them, 99% 78% 79% was the OMI front left wear after my first 45 mins stint. All tyres should similar wear patterns. Something has to be wrong there.

Anyway, great turnout, fingers crossed for grids like this all season

[Blunder]

omg.. loved every minute...

Was on the practice server last night and they ran a 40 minute race... used that one for all of my mistakes!

Settled on a 2 equal pit stops which meant slightly lower fuel etc. so got quicker all the time!
Even started to catch a few people... that hasn't happened for a while! 

Had to be cautious overtaking... having spent lots of time in the lower/slower classes, I know how hard it is to do the right thing!..... it's simple, the faster car has to be more cautious!..simples! 

Mind you one LMP2 was weeving side to side in front of me down one straight.. not sure what that was about?

Soooo much fun, love the LMP2 car... gets better and better the more I drive it!

Thanks all, hope the season is as good! 
Apologies to Darren, watched the reply, looks like I squeezed you slightly

Th