[Wally]

Chat away.

RACE RESULTS

Round Points
Marty    58
Bacchulum    57
Phil.8    52
hylas    52
StanDaam    50
Matthew111    48
Bird    48
Chap111    48
Grat    47
Daniel G    47
Jeremy    45
Mael    43
Wally    39
Freezer    37
Guybrush Threepwood    36
Rob    32
slideways    27
AJ    25
Bafs17    25
Vipergod    23
Doobs    22
Dave O    18
Flattop    14
JamieP    8
Gratulin    1

Congratulations to Wally, Matthew and Daniel on the race wins, and Marty on the overall round win.

Season Podium
1. Guybrush, 72
2. Marty, 64
3. Phil.8, 62

[marty]

Chat away.

Away, Away, Away Guybrush went Away. 

Was some great racing guys, really enjoyed that. I think I had a record number of collisions race 2 but most were just some hurry ups from behind and one brain berp from me forgetting which section of track I was at and using another car as my brake.

Last race I think I only had one slight contact giving a car ahead a slight bump into a brake zone, overall contacts seem much better now and in these cars you can get away with a bit of rubbing and even race 2 after all those taps my car wasnt much slower at the end.

[Bird]

Really nice close & hard racing!  Sadly I had a few contacts that I did not intend.  But then again, I've received my fair share .

I had the best of fight with Phil in Race3, we were swapping a lot of paint through many corners

I'm not sure about the race 2 incident When I've hit Freezer - I've checked the replay it's at the 14 minute mark, lap 9 I think. for the location - he seemed to be somewhat sideways but I'd like to nominate myself for some scrutiny there.  I hit him from behind and he spun - but he might have been in a spun already - I can see his rears smoking in the replay and the nose is coming in...but again, not sure.

In any case: sorry!

[grat]

What happened to Guybrush? I noticed he was not there after like 5 laps.

Races were all great fun. I think I probably need to apologize to many of you, but thank god they were all minor bumps and I checked all my replays and fortunately I did not spun or cause time losses to anybody. Apologies anyway.

Race 1 was a big mess with my false start (used AC light  ) and too much to learn about rush-hour traffic behaviour---so I spun after a little contact, but then things went ok.

Race 2 was the most linear, with a long fight with GB, to whom I had to finally cave in, of course. But podium was all I could hope for really on a track I never liked very much.

Race 3 was a big 13 laps charge from the back of the grid. After the first 3 laps mess, we finally started to pass corners mostly one at a time and I really enjoyed racing with all of you. Happy grat.

[Wally]

I decided to only look at lap 1, for penalties. There are far too many minor contacts in these kinds of races for me to look at them all. I don't think you can only judge by speed either, as even a low speed shove in the rear corner could be enough to spin someone off the track.

To my races: race 1, with me starting on pole after last week's brake debacle, was a bit of a non-race. I just lead from start to finish in clear track - not very exciting.

Races 2 and 3 were much better, with many tough battles attempting to find a pass. I did have one stupid spin in race 2, coming out of the corner onto the back straight. Sorry to Rob for my brake pedal developing a mind of it's own again. I swapped USB ports for my wheel in race 3, and it seemed to be better with no shenanigans. It's weird, in all my testing and practice before, the pedal seemed to be OK, and it was fine in race 1. Maybe it's more of a USB/dirty contact issue, as it's so infrequent. If it was the pot, I'd expect it to be happening much more consistently.

I had a nice final lap stoush with Bafs in race 3, spending most of it side-by-side with him, as we alternated between having the inside of the next corner. Luckily I came out in front after the last turn and managed to take 1 more position.

The racing was kinda frustrating, because it's so hard to pass, but at the same time exciting and a lot of fun.

[Gratulin]

Too many issues with AC for me. This time my throttle started to stick and ping went through the roof just before the race. Tried to keep going but throttle spun me around on lap 2 and Wally was rubber-banding all over the place because of my ping issue.

Seems everyone suddenly has pedal and ping issues. Is there something in the air suddenly causing hardware issues or did AC just do an update!! What a fk up.

[Wally]

Too many issues with AC for me. This time my throttle started to stick and ping went through the roof just before the race. Tried to keep going but throttle spun me around on lap 2 and Wally was rubber-banding all over the place because of my ping issue.

Seems everyone suddenly has pedal and ping issues. Is there something in the air suddenly causing hardware issues or did AC just do an update!! What a fk up.

I don't think it's quite as bad as you make out, in a field of 24
My weird USB pedal connection and your climbing ping (Marty raced OK in the end) is about the extent of it, and you can't blame that on AC.

[marty]

Too many issues with AC for me. This time my throttle started to stick and ping went through the roof just before the race. Tried to keep going but throttle spun me around on lap 2 and Wally was rubber-banding all over the place because of my ping issue.

Seems everyone suddenly has pedal and ping issues. Is there something in the air suddenly causing hardware issues or did AC just do an update!! What a fk up.

I don't think it's quite as bad as you make out, in a field of 24
My weird USB pedal connection and your climbing ping (Marty raced OK in the end) is about the extent of it, and you can't blame that on AC.

I think possibly my ping issue is simply ISP related as it seems to be turning to crap around peak most nites the last few weeks. Near the end of the practice session my connection dropped completely and only just came back before the start of race 1 so I blame the crappy Aussie network and quite a few crappy oversold ISP's more then anything else. Pedal issue I think we are all doing a few kilometers and this puts a fair bit of wear an tear on the hardware and over time they just start spiking.

My server also flaked out once over the weekend and so I dropped all the servers to 15hz and since then they have been more stable, possibly the new net-code is using more data and maybe we can try 15hz on the race nite server next round. I really haven't noticed any difference racing people at 15hz but much less general ping climbing so maybe the new net-code uses a bit more bandwidth.

[Wally]

Good point Marty. It's worth a try, dropping the Hz.

[Freezer]

Bit of an up and down night for me.
R1 hard a long hard close race doing my best to keep some of the faster cars behind me.  Got up to 7th but eventually slipped back to 12th.
R2 this was again a hard fought battle up until half way when a tap from Bird saw me go around and drop a heap of places.  I was having a bit of a slide and Bird finished me off but I wouldn't say it was worth a penalty, more of a racing incident as I slowed due to the slide.
R2 After a good start getting myself from 12th to 5th I found the surging effect getting really bad making it difficult to drive.  I came though the last corner with a bit of a slide but as I corrected there was a big lag which resulted in me spearing off track and down to 16th.  From there it was just a case of getting it home.
Its good to see the collisions being a lot more realisitic although despite some very good close racing I also had a heap of contacts on the rear of my car (13 in R1, 13 in R2 ) of which some assisted the passing so it would be good to clean that up.

[AJ]

I understand the appeal of this reverse grid racing, but as one of the slower drivers in the field, it's quite disheartening spending 3 races each Tuesday night being constantly overtaken. There's no point in me fighting anybody trying to pass me when I know the majority of them are 2-3 seconds a lap faster than I am anyway.

[marty]

I made a video of race 2 more as a collision test 

All the early rubbing was with Daniel, the first contact I probably squeezed a little and the last one I tapped him slightly.The middle ones he just got me a little but only 1 I had to save the car, with most of them only small hurry ups  . Seeing I gave him 1 good one in race 1 on a stupid mistake on my part we can call it even lol.

Beyond that I had a couple contacts with Bachulum with 1 tiny rub side to side early and the other I tapped his rear as he stopped when a car ahead of him spun and I just couldnt pullnit up in time.



Race 3 was a much better race for me but I did this race more to show how the new collisions are working.

Its good to see the collisions being a lot more realisitic although despite some very good close racing I also had a heap of contacts on the rear of my car (13 in R1, 13 in R2 ) of which some assisted the passing so it would be good to clean that up.

We should still all try and have as few a contacts as possible, in race 1 as I passed you there was a contact.

I havent seen the replay but at the time I thought I was well inside into the right hander after the back straight and holding the apex but you may have squeezed me a bit with side to side contact.

I would like to take another look at that just to see if I held my line there. In practice I made sure I learned a line there that kept me inside and easily left more then 1 car space outside for the other car.

You can see I did this move many times in this video with no contact and the only car I touched there was yours in race 1. I was fairly sure I was holding the inside line but until seeing the replay I can be certain.

[marty]

I understand the appeal of this reverse grid racing, but as one of the slower drivers in the field, it's quite disheartening spending 3 races each Tuesday night being constantly overtaken. There's no point in me fighting anybody trying to pass me when I know the majority of them are 2-3 seconds a lap faster than I am anyway.

That may be a bit of a disheartening thing but one thing this should teach everyone is how to be better in traffic. I dont think anyone shouldnever really excessively defend or block constantly but there is no need to pull over and give positions away. You can still hold your lines and make them find a way past, if someone gets alongside both should try to avoid contact and leave enough racing room for the other car.

It cant be the most postive thing being up front expecting to get swamped each race though. Its not like every season will be like this but I think its fun to mix it up at times. Compared to race 1 in the first round which was just a boring procession up front for me personally its been much more fun from the back.

[Wally]

Exactly, not every season will use thus format, but it's part of mixing it up and trying new things. Only the very slowest miss out a little, although it must still be a bit of fun trying to defend your line fairly, all good skills to have.  And in theory, virtually everybody should have someone to chase. The racing's certainly not lonely, as normal formats can often be when the field just stretches out.

[StanDaam]

Good night of the racings for me, many close tight battles through out all races (Rob, Dave, Viper just to name a few!!) Some rubs and bumps occasionally but in tight quarters like this you'd expect that, and like Freezer said, the contacts seem better now.

Having said that though, there was one contact with JamieP in Race 3 which surprised me. I fully expected for us to both come out of that corner side by side, but there was some contact and after watching the replay, poor Jamie went off. I'm sorry if you think I was at fault, but I thought I was fine on the inside, leaving room, but our cars just seemed to get tangled up badly. 

Overall, good fun, much enjoyed, hope your gremlins get sorted Wally!!