Assetto Corsa Competizione | Season 14 Round 7 | GT3 Sprint @ Imola

[Meers]

The guys over at Prime Motorsport are all much younger than us, haha. The only one older than me is Andrew, who's in his 50s I believe. 

 

I'm getting there as well at 46...

[davejm]

Server is configured for Brands Hatch

[OJM CHICKEN]

3 hours ago, milko said:

 

I chose to believe that it was a bit of studying for some work-related qualification, could be any age!

wasn't work related sorry, im old enough to drink if that helps, in the uk at least

[mrben09]

Love the track, easily my favourite. Happy with my pace (slow as it was ) and consistency as well after nearly 3 months out. Got a nice rhythm going until for some unexplainable reason I booted it off the last corner, went down the pit lane at speed and joined the DQ club. 

Onto brands for another fave track.

I may have found a friend in the M4. 

[mrben09]

2 minutes ago, OJM CHICKEN said:

wasn't work related sorry, im old enough to drink if that helps, in the uk at least

I'm old enough have had my first legal drink in UK, murdered someone that night, done a 30 stretch, and now find myself back in the rat race (for quite a while). 

Careful who you meet online chaps. 

 

Anyway, looking forward to the London meet, I know a pub...........

[milko]

Just now, mrben09 said:

Onto brands for another fave track.

 

Yes, I'm looking forward to Brands as well, great flow and some tricky corners to feel like practice makes progress on. Sometimes. I don't think I've ever felt like I do T1 well though.

[OJM CHICKEN]

Great racing guys had a blast last night, great battle with @Arthisins and @Ian Paskin looking forward to brands where hopefully my pace and tyre management should be a lot better

congrats to @Arthisins on the win it was well deserved 

[davejm]

SGP news... I figured out how to set events so that people aren't DQ'd.  Should just hand out stop & go penalties now.

[Ian Paskin]

Oh I’m someone else 50+ glad I’m not the only one 😉

[milko]

I see @SneakyNinja "I'm not improving or good at hotlapping" has logged a faster time than @Erik on the practice server, very nice. 

 

I'm running pretty high fuel for my testing but not sure where I can find over a second out there, I think I'm in that phase where I push too much and end up sliding through the apex so there will definitely be something but not that much.

[Meers]

Wow, lots of names since last night!

 

 

I've got covid (3rd time). My son got it for the first time this weekend, and now I got infected too. Mrs Meers and daughter still negative. I'm feeling a tad tired / under the weather and coughing up mucus, but that's pretty much it. Will see how it goes later this week. 

[SneakyNinja]

14 hours ago, milko said:

I see @SneakyNinja "I'm not improving or good at hotlapping" has logged a faster time than @Erik on the practice server, very nice. 

 

I'm running pretty high fuel for my testing but not sure where I can find over a second out there, I think I'm in that phase where I push too much and end up sliding through the apex so there will definitely be something but not that much.

 

Blimey, not sure how that happened. Annoyingly I was 4 tenths up on that time too, but messed up the end of the lap. I'm sure normal service will resume come race day.

 

This is where I bore everyone again by disclosing the fact that I've done loads of track days at Brands (indy) including some instruction, so in theory it should be my best track. Hmm, maybe I can see how that time happened...

 

Sorry to hear you're suffering again @Meers - hope to see you on track come Thursday. 

[milko]

ha, I did remember it was your 'home' circuit from somewhere. Get well soon @Meers!

[milko]

No "It's race day!" post? It's race day!

 

I did a little offline session and nabbed a 1.24.6 with race fuel so I'm feeling slightly better about my prospects but still underdone on practice. Natch. Feeling like I need a nice evening's driving, it's been a bit of a week.

[davejm]

It's race day!

 

Apologies for the late configuration of the event conditions.  The plan for this race was high(ish) dynamic weather with a late afternoon race start with 4x time multiplier.

 

I'm not sure I can make the race as work is manic.  If I don't see you, good luck!

[milko]

Just now, davejm said:

I'm not sure I can make the race as work is manic. 

 

That's why I'm making the race. Fuck it, they're getting plenty of hours out of me already including all Sunday, they can lose me for a few hours tonight

 

[davejm]

I've got RDP sessions open to 3 client servers at the moment, with various scripts running   So if I can get this out of the way and sort myself some dinner and don't feel too brain fried then there's a chance.

[Meers]

I'm still a bit worn by covid. But I will try to get on just before qualifying. 

[EuroVapeSim2]

Two crashes In the first 12 minutes, 2 laps down and almost 3 minutes of repairs between them, didn't help I heard my cat puking in the room beside me as I was coming out of the pits after the second repair job and spun again going on paddock Hill, queue an early exit from me.

As I said on the Discord I was woefully unprepared only got about 30 minutes of practice, before the race, life is starting to settle again for me so hoping I have more practice time before next week. I've been really missing getting into the sim, I even picked up a second hand clubsport BMW wheel I've  been itching to try out.

[milko]

ok I should've worked or something instead 

 

jeeez. That rain made sure I understand I have NOT mastered the Porsche to any good level yet. There were some bits where I was driving well and they were few and far between compared to the bits where I was being a colossal idiot, I'm just glad I didn't harm anybody else in the doing. 

 

• Staying out on slicks too long? Check!
• Deciding to get a new set of slicks but at better pressure because surely a dry line will happen soon? Check! (Nope, it won't)
• Going back in for wets with my tail between my legs? Check!
• Getting a stopgo by fumbling the pit exit? Check!
• Deciding to go back in to fix some damage, but somehow topping off the fuel tank and not fixing it at all? Check!
• Getting a second stopgo by fumbling the pit exit? Check!

 

fuckSAKE. I think I kind of derived some enjoyment out of it somewhere by being on reasonable pace at the start and end and just the sheer "can't get much worse than this" laughing at myself. I had about 80 litres in the tank by the end ffs. I'll have to go some for that not to be the worst race of my season. Onwards to Indy.

 

[Meers]

I chose wets from the start, because it said rain in 7 minutes. And from the green lights onward my tyres were at 35psi! So I was sliding a lot in the first few laps.

 

HOWEVER! When the rain came down (earlier than expected), I suddenly was back in business! When the rain stopped again, it didn't dry up, so wets still worked. The temp dropped slowly, and the sun wasn't able to force me to change to dries.

 

So I managed to catch up with @OJM CHICKEN and after a couple of laps trying to get past him (he's an excellent defender), I managed to do it in turn 1 by crossing over to the inside. Buuuuut we touched in turn 2 straight away. Unfortunately @davadvice1 hit me as well right after, leaving me with 25sec of damage. I decided to pit when they forecasted more rain, and I lost 4 places as a result.

 

I couldn't get back in front (because everyone wised up on the tyres, damnit), and only got lucky to get P5 because @Ian Paskin still had to pit.

 

It was amazing though. I love dynamic weather like this! Felt really rough right after, but I'm feeling a tad better now. Couldn't sleep so I decided to post here.

[Valver]

 

[OJM CHICKEN]

The race was really good, was hoping to be fighting for P1 a bit harder but i'll take P2, driving on slicks in the wet for 30 minutes was easily the worst decision i've ever made and i hope to never do it again. But overall the race was good was close at the end with getting P2 unfortunately i did punt @Meers into druids because i forgot i was on slicks and locked up... sorry meers

[SneakyNinja]

Must have been a tough race, as I overslept this morning  

 

Like others, I started on slicks, and whilst I wasn't very fast I managed to keep it mostly on the road with only a couple of minor trips to the grass as I got used to the COMPLETE LACK OF BRAKES! <ahem>

 

I stuck it out and even though it stopped raining I couldn't get my tyres above 22c so it was obvious they weren't right so I switched to wets at my half-way pit stop. Dammit - I should have done that much earlier as I was a lot quicker. Not quick enough to catch the top three but I'm happy with 4th, which was mainly down to my apparent super power of not binning it. (Famous last words, I know)

 

I followed @milko for a bit and I'm sure I could SEE the despair oozing from his car. Sorry you had it so rough mate. And well done @Meers - you were plenty rapid for guy with 'rona as a co-driver!

 

 

 

[milko]

4 minutes ago, SneakyNinja said:

I followed @milko for a bit and I'm sure I could SEE the despair oozing from his car.

 

haha, that is a very accurate description. I was all over you on lap 1 as well, it was such a promising start!

[SneakyNinja]

6 minutes ago, milko said:

 

haha, that is a very accurate description. I was all over you on lap 1 as well, it was such a promising start!

 

Yeah, that was quite exciting. But when I could see the whole side of your car in my mirror I thought "uh oh..."

[Ian Paskin]

Yeh I got that so wrong, car seemed ok at first on slicks @OJM CHICKENhad a few moments and in the spray followed him but with more speed i went off but car was stuck somehow, in reverse it wouldn’t move so ended up going forward again into barrier to spin it slightly, 

I was then playing the it’s going to dry game, but after the second lot of rain tyres were so cold but I had committed by then,I was close on having enough fuel so tried to eek it out and finish in pits, but would have been 8 litres short so decided to pit for fresh slicks with about 17 minutes left and see how they worked,  

 

the x4 always catches me out I thought the cloud came in again then realised it was 8pm no wonder tyres had died… 

 

Good fun though… and thought this was a round I was going to miss so I will forget about it 😂

 

I have a wet race on Sunday at the Glen so at least some more experience with drys in wet conditions 🤔

 

 

[Meers]

14 minutes ago, SneakyNinja said:

 And well done @Meers - you were plenty rapid for guy with 'rona as a co-driver!

 

 

I was lucky to have picked wets from the start, have them at pretty much the right pressures and that the rain came quick and most of all that the wet conditions remained as temps dropped.

 

I kept my tyres at the right pressures driving through the remaining puddles at the end. Lost it in turn 3 when my rear wheel clipped the slippery outside kerb, that's when I had to quit chasing you. I was so damn close!

 

Well done yourself too, man. I could have gotten away with a podium place if it wasn't for the damage I had accumulated. 

[Valver]

I was being super tentative on my cold slicks and somehow managed to make it up to 3rd while all around were binning it...  There's video evidence and everything, Im not lying!!   But pride before a fall and all that.  Just before the half way mark I had two big spins on consecutive laps (and at the same bloody corner!).  No damage - but they were those annoying slow spins where you take an age to stop, you're off on the grass, and typically facing the wrong way, and you can just see the time loss flying past.  So lost a few places for that. 

 

Pitted for wets right after which made everything a lot less nervous. 

 

Completed the race drenched in sweat from concentration, in 6th.   Oh, but what might have been if I hadn't spun 

[milko]

23 minutes ago, Valver said:

they were those annoying slow spins where you take an age to stop, you're off on the grass, and typically facing the wrong way, and you can just see the time loss flying past

 

Those madden me so much. You can see it happening, you know pretty much exactly how it's going to play out, you know you'll finish up facing the worst possible way and that the first attempt at getting back in the right direction will probably be a complete 360 to start over again. Aaargh.

 

I think I'm having last night flashbacks, I need to go and drive in some nice sunny dry tracks to scour it from memory. I had done really well in most of our rainy nights so far too!