First of all, thanks for posting the video.

Funny eough, I was watching the video and noticed your braking points were all a few meters earlier than mine... So I was wondering what I was doing wrong, as---and with sincere modesty: I am proud to say so---all the rest seemed to be spot on (bar, of course, the fact that I fuck it up once per lap). Then I figured it out: you're doing the same lines and the same throttle, but with half the rear wing I need for that! I don't know how you keep it on track, as your top speed is like 10km/h higher than mine. No wonder you need to brake a few meters earlier.

I am not too sad of where I am, but my pb on optimal conditions of 1.48.9 is still very far...

Quite a disaster, but not all news were bad news. Joined ts at 7:20 saying "hello". But nobody answered...

Got convinced during the week that this would have not been my combo, and I was quite right. In quali 1 I forgot to empty the tank, which might have cost me a position or two, but I was not fast anyway.

I decided to stay on softs for the race, but I lost a pair of positions in a messy start, and so I could not make much good use of the softs in the first 2 or 3 laps, consuming them in trying to pass Bacchulum, which was a bit faster on the straights than I was. When I finally managed to pass him on lap 3, my tyres were already starting to give up, and he could pass me back with a very nice and brave attack at T1 on lap 6 (good race, Bacchulum!). Then Guybrush arrived; I tried to resist his attack, but mid-way through the Mercedes Arena, I realized I had nothing really left on the tyres and I went a bit wide at T3 (sorry GB for that). Rest of the lap was just trying to keep Wally behind. "Nice Wally, sorry GB", I say over ts, but no answer.

Then race 2 came in, and I knew I had a decent setup, having tried it during the day on the practice server. Quali was good, managing a good lap towards the end for P3. This was the good news: despite my pessimism, I was still not as slow as I feared.

I had a contact with Matthew at T1, while trying to stop as hard as I could to let him pass, but did not manage. "Sorry Matthew, I tried to get off the way as I could"... but no answer, again.

Then the mess started: I could not figure out the fuel, as it looked different from the practice server, so I started asking Wally over ts, but nobody was answering. So I started the race while messing up with stuff, and missed a shift into T3 (I remained in 3rd gear) running wide. When I finally entered T4 from a very tight line, Jeremy could not see me on his side and we touched. I went into the wall and I was last. I tried to chase back, but I was not fast at all---maybe because of damage?---and so I went in for repairs on lap 5, putting all my hopes in a second very long stint.

I rejoined in a weird traffic: Jeremy was literally flying over half of the corners with an 850 ping, at times disappearing into a cloud of tyres smoke, and then reappearing 5 seconds later 2 meters ahead of me. I screamed over ts "Jeremy you are warping like crazy"... but again: no answer.

When his ping went back to normal, I finally was able to pass him and tried to keep a good rhythm. But my full tank was too much and tyres started to go off pretty soon. I managed to pass Chap, but there was no way to catch Freezer, well ahead of me and lapping better than me. The last lap... again... was trying to keep Wally behind, with the last 5 corners identical to race 1.

When my "deja vu, Wally?" got no answer over ts, I finally realized my mic was really not working. Unplug-plug, "hello?". "Hi grat," I finally hear. Stupid cheap mic!

Quote from: Guybrush Threepwood on August 31, 2015, 09:08:54 PM

The GTC is about 2.5 seconds a lap faster in the wet conditions, and it's tyres grain about half as much.  Now to find a way to sneak into a GTC without Wally seeing me.

Or you can always pray for no rain.

Tried that all week. Only got a flu-like sickness. God only understands Australian English. GB: can you try?

Hi guys,

the server got stuck at 0C for both air and track temp. I was there with rob and we tried to skip a few times and restart a few times more, but we were always getting 0C. Something seems to have gone wrong. Of course, in my immense ignorance, I have no idea about what it might be, but hopefully you guys can figure it out at some point.

Cheers!

Well, Ferrari used to say that each newborn was 1 second... so you are faster than you think: 2 seconds faster, net of kids...

I think GB has a kid too, though. How fast would he go otherwise?

Tough race for me, but with some good news.

The good news is that the pace was there, suggesting that the podium finish at Zandvoort might not have been a fluke. For a rookie like me, this feels pretty good.

I struggled to find a good setup in the days before the race, but then last night during practice I softened the rear a bit more and stiffened dumpers under braking and I could finally run a bit less wing without getting the rear too loose at turn in. Quali went surprisingly well, then, grabbing 4th place with the last lap of the session, .023 from Matthew in 3rd.

I had no further ambitions than 4th place, really, so I settled for a smooth and easy start, with the idea of trying to stay close to Matthew for the whole 1st stint and then see. But unfortunately Skaife overestimated his hard tyres and arrived a bit too long at Village. I had a look at the mirrors just before braking (everything looked good) and was trying to keep an eye on Matthew's line in front of me. Conclusion: had no idea Skaife was there until it was way too late for me to go wide and try to avoid contact. But I do not think I could have done much in any case. Anyway: no big deal---these things are unavoidable any now and then.

Rejoined mid-pack, but the car was quite damaged: slow on the straights and with terrible understeer at The Loop and Luffield (probably some aero damage and huge graining on front tyres). I was also too tense: I think I really need to learn to stay calm in these situations. And I really did not feel confident enough to try to push or pass other drivers. I thought about a 2 stopper a few times, but every time I was getting a clean-ish lap, I was anyway 1 sec faster than most around me, and so changed my mind: bad idea: front tyres finally gave up on the last two laps of the stint and had a spin and a contact with Wally. (Sorry Wally!)

Went to pit and click repair body. Came out 12th. Car came out of the pits completely different. Now really fast and perfectly balanced. Looking at my times, only GB had a faster pace among 1 stoppers (i.e. Marty and Jeremy were faster than me, but stopped twice). Now the job ahead was to pass drivers as fast as possible not to lose time, as I was over 2 seconds faster than the pack. And it worked, with passes at Copse, Village, Stowe, and Luffield. I managed to gain 20 seconds over Freezer between lap 13 and 20, and finally passed him at Village on lap 21. At this point, I looked at the leaderboard, and Jeremy and Stan Daam were over 10 seconds ahead, so my last 3 laps were just a clean drive home (but I had a go at PB to see if I was really competitive or not: 2.11.899).

It was a shame not to be able to try to stay with the big guys ahead, and with Rolz being fast, it would have been a great night for the team. That said, Charlie Wallying awarded me a mega 12 points bonus for the 1st lap crash, so in terms of ranking I came out 4th of the night anyway, so I can't complain!

Now I am scared: the GX seems quite a handful from what I see from following others...

Wally is there anywhere with ballast levels for race.

Edit found it in season standings.

I did run a few laps and agree with grat plp too soft here, I think I can make a basic track mod and fix that.

I will give it a go after the gp and post the file here if I can get it to work properly as it would be good if we were actually penalized for going 4 wheels outside the white line and not backing off.

I said I would have been fine in both cases. Anyway: if you do this, let us try it, so we all know where the line is. My line is never off the white line at copse (unless I fuck it up, that is) but at the exit of Stowe I probably have four wheels off the line one out of three laps, but I am not completely sure, as you cannot perfectly see where the line is (it also seems that in reality they are very permissive there). I am also not sure about where I am at the exit of Luffield (again, they tend to be permissive there).

All in all: I think it is fine as it is. The only disappointment would be for some of us to start the race and get three warnings in one lap just before the track limits are different than what we are used to. And if you have to do a new track just to be more severe at copse, I do not think it is worth it, as I think you do not gain there unless you really plan it.