To say I’m shock would be an understatement! This was a really tough track to find speed on and whilst not wanting to sound arrogant I really did struggle to get my head around all those slow corners. That was, until I softened up the springs and suddenly the speed came, but sadly so too did the understeer. Whilst the results show almost a perfect night, Mael was super quick all night and he always seemed to be able to fine an extra 10th to take pole or indeed the fastest lap in 2 of the 3 races.

Race 1 - the race long battle with Mael was epic! We ran sure but side for almost the entire first lap and from then on it was real pressure cooker racing. I knew one mistake would mean sudden defeat and I’m sure Mael was hoping I would fall…Despite a couple of close calls as the tyres became red I managed to fall over the line for a very long awaited win.

Race 2 was just as tricky as the nature of this track allowed me to get very close to the leading car but it was really difficult to get a better drive off a corner to make a pass at the next. When I eventually caught up to Rob (who was leading at the time) it took several laps to find a way past as he was very quick in the opening section of the lap where I was fighting understeer  and the only place I felt I had an advantage was at the 2nd to last corner where there was no passing options. Eventually Rob managed to clip Mael’s curb coming onto the front straight and I was able to make a pass into the first corner but then crept home with 1tr of fuel.

Race 3 was more of the same, get a good start, avoid the carnage and press on. The temperature difference really played into my setup for this race as I felt I could run in the mid 8’s for the whole race as for some reason they didn’t seem to wear as much. The conditions felt much like what I’d had in the practice server so I knew tyre wear would not be an issue. Once in front of doobs I tried as hard as I could to build a gap and not make a stupid mistake. I did at one stage cook a tyre with a massive drift and so the next lap I back off a little and lost about a second to Wally, but then the tyres came back and I was able to maintain my lead.

I must admit I’m really enjoying these tracks as they’re all new to me the challenging of learning them has been very enjoyable.

thanks again, it appears I don't have an 'alpha' layer in the Channels, which is what I'm doing wrong....

Well after writing off the Mondeo last week, I've had a little bit of help and now I've got a whole new chassis complete with some new colours for the rest of the season in the form of my EcoBoost '16 LeMans winning tribute livery

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/xrc7ov71lxvyt1jtpj529/h?dl=0&rlkey=in54ha311osam7auvsj0kskjf

thanks Freezer, thats been very helpful. 1 last Q?
How do you do the glass? It's got me stumped 

Race 1 - drove quite well, got greedy on a curb in the infield section and landed on the next hooking the right rear turning me around, fought back to 5th.
Race 2 - was put into the wall at the first corner of race, spent forever in the pits getting repairs as the car was too damaged to drive...finished last
Race 3 - start well, this time getting past the 1st corner well into the lead, building a decent race lead cruising, conserving tyres 2 seconds in the lead and then get crashed into HEAD ON, just for the hell of it...car too damaged to drive, yet another long pitstop...finished last.

I think I'm done!

These cars were not too bad. First crack at both with the cars and this track during practice so with little to no knowledge of either I didn’t play much with the set up, just wings and tyre pressure. Got the tyre pressure wrong in race 1 but then got it right for races two and three and the difference was massive! I really like how these cars have 100% brake which makes them rather tricky to stop but also provide an opportunity for mistakes. I spent a lot of the last two races duelling with Wally who ultimately came home with the chocolates but the most enjoyable part of the night was following Joe going around the outside of another car under braking into turn 1, and then driving about 1/2 a lap side by side. It’s just a shame the numbers are low because I think these would a lot of fun with a big grid.

Some more very interesting choices, here's my 20c worth

Norma Positives: Far more rewarding to drive, able to drive at 10/10th for the whole race, easy to catch if the car started to slide, could easily drive/throw over curbs
Norma Negativities: Shorter braking zones = less passing opportunities, Throttle was very sensitive mid corner, extremely difficult to get a run on a leading car due to a lack of power, almost impossible to launch off the starting grid.

Reflex Positives: Central driving position! Much longer braking zones = more of a chance to make a pass, Far greater acceleration making it easy to make mistakes, Easier to do a standing start with.
Reflex Negativities: Active wings made it trying to find a front/rear balance as I found it had far too much understeer which I could not get rid of, it took a long time to get used to the speed of this car, very easy to spin up the rears making you venerable down a straight.

Overall I actually liked the Norma better as a driving experience, it felt a little more touring car like and I found I could find the limit of this car pretty quickly, however in the race it was near on impossible to pass at times despite feeling like I was the faster car. I think the Reflex would provide the better racing experience, provided you could get a decent number of players, as it was easier to driver closer to the leading car and with the longer braking zones and tougher power down it could open this car up for more driver mistakes.

After having a play with the older version yesterday afternoon and then racing with the updated version, I have got to say that the new tyre model is a great improvement to these cars. Whilst you can still destroy the tyres with the right foot, I liked how you were able to drive more than one consecutive hot lap without turning the tyres red. Mael is certainly the master of these but I must admit it was kind of fun exactly matching his time in qualifying to the nearest 1000th of a second! I then tried dropping the rear wing (and some fuel) and absolutely ragged it for a quicker time but then forgot to put it back up for the race and it was good for a couple of laps but then because undrivable as the tyre wear kicked in, which is what you would expect. In the second race, with a little more rear downforce it was a nice car but I found whilst I could follow quickly it was bloody hard to actually pass, so I do not know if that is the car or this particular track

I think these cars would be best of the older style medium to high speed tracks but it would be interesting to see how they could go on a tight twisty one too, just not Winton.