rFactor 2 Round 6 Adelaide Street Circuit - 2024-03-24

Thank you for your congratulations ! Today was a good race and a successful hot lap in qualifying. Thanks to the organizers for the championship, and to all the drivers for the company on the track. Hope to see everyone in new races!

 

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I did a bit of practice just before this race and it went as expected. The car trying to kill me every lap!!

Went through qually hoping to get in the top 10. I was keeping an eye on @Matteo Dentella as I knew where I had to finish depending on where they finished. Did 2 stints and pitted to get one final flying lap. I knew how much I needed to make up to jump a place and I managed to just pip @John vd Geest for 7th in the dying seconds but just couldn't quite beat @Freddy Hell.

I thought that because this was a 1980's F1 track that the grid would be more spaced out than our previous rounds. I was wrong and we lined up nearly nose to tail so I was very wary of rear ending the car ahead. I got the best start I could and headed up to T1, making sure to take it sensibly with no heroics being alongside anyone. I braked later than I should have done up the hill into the right hander and got alongside @Kostas Kantzouras with a little door rub, sorry. It seemed I had a little bit of pace but not sure it was top 5 pace.

Kostas followed me close while I tried to not bin it in the opening laps. I looked at my fuel gauge and it looked like this could be a no stop race. Fuel would be tight, but it was possible. I never really like fuel and tyre saving races but I knew I had to stay within reach of Matteo to secure that 2nd place in the championship.

So the first laps I settled in and tried my best to lift and coast a little, shorting shifting where I could and not overdriving. I had a couple of wide and sideways moments which probably scared Kostas as he was close behind. I knew I was holding him up but I knew I had to be this far up the grid just in case Matteo got into the lead! Got my braking all wrong at the end of the straight and got a little nudge through the apex. I was making a few errors under braking while under pressure and running wide. I had become the "Woodee Train", so many cars stacked up behind me!

I took the first chicane different every single time and tried my best to not push my luck with track limits. On lap 6 I made a mess of it and Kostas was close up to the next turn, I stayed on the inside but forgot I was on the dirty line and ended up braking at my normal place, it wasn't enough and slide sideways into the barrier!! Phew no damaged steering like I had at Bathurst which would have been hell around here. I tried to accelerate away my front left fender was still touching the tyres so it just spun me left so I now pointed at them. I then had to carefully reverse but not too much to hinder those coming around the corner. @Jacob Smyth must have been put off by my car in the tyres and ran wide just about keeping it out of the tyres I was trying to get out of. After all these seconds had ticked by and cars had passed, I was now down to 10th and out of reach for 2nd in the championship!!

With damaged tyres and still a fuel number to meet the fightback began. Why do I make these things so hard for myself!!! Lap 7 Jacob ahead got the same corner as the lap before wrong, but this time hit the tyres and I was up to 9th. With Matteo in 2nd I still needed 8th to secure the championship! Little did I know what was about to occur up front!!

My Twitch chat notified me that Matteo was now down to 4th..... things were looking better for the championship, but I still needed to compete on strategy, hitting my fuel number and seeing if I could go the distance! Yellow flags out the back of the first after the fast esses and I see @Mark Hightree sitting across the track, tiptoed my way past, now up to 8th!

Lap 13 and @Freddy Hell pitted from 7th and I was able to overtake! Matteo was now back up to 3rd and pitted dropping down to 5th on exit. I was still in good shape for the championship but I knew this car could bite and especially if I was going to be on worn tyres I needed to be careful!

Crossed the line for lap 15, (insert IS THAT GLOCK meme) a car sat smoking at the side of the track.... it was MATTEO!!!! Up to 6th place I went chasing down @John vd Geest. Now with my closest championship contender left in the race @Kahel Grahf I just needed to stay in the top 14, would my strategy work? I didn't want to drop too far back. It was hard to even take in all the times on the relative I was concentrating so hard!!

Lap 15 and John and Kostas were squabbling over 4th place. John gets rear ended into the last turn and is off the track and I manage to pass them for 5th along the front straight. So far I had only passed ONE person for position, it was like I had paid people to fall off the track in front of me to help my championship!! Kostas really should have given the place back (due to the punting rule in SRO).

John was not done and he started to catch me while I was trying my best to not burn tyres and meet my fuel number. On many occasions as I saw on broadcast John got very close. I hadn't really realised, I think that centre mirror in car is deceptive with distance to cars behind! I still struggled with the tighter turns, the window pillars really getting in the way of seeing apexes!!

Lap 20 and nearing the end of the lap and John disappered from my mirrors, I could breathe a little easier!! They pitted on that lap and I started to think about whether I should. Many arguments with my crew chief about changing fuel. Turns out I may or may not need any if I did decide to pit it could be just for tyres.

Even though I was safe for championship points I wanted to keep this 5th place, I had earned it!! I could see that John was catching back up a little after his pitstop so I decided to come in on lap 24. I saw a car close to my pit stall and I hoped that it wasn't sharing my pit stall. I had to squeeze in at an angle around the front of his car and got new boots! I came out of the pits behind lapped car and just in front of the leader. The chase was on to get my 5th place back!!

As I gained on John little by little I noticed that fuel numbers were getting worse. I was using more fuel to catch up!! The fuel gauge was switching between whether I needed to save a lap or I was OK. I knew I was about to be lapped so that might work in my favour! Leader was passed and I wondered if I could keep up and use them to pass John ahead. I watched their lines and noticed how people had been going faster through cutting the first chicane. Track limits wasn't picked up enough I think

I could now see John in sight but the minutes were ticking down, why do my races always end up like this?! John lets the leader through and loses a bit of time and I'm now withing a second and pushing, but still nervous about fuel, it was a difficult balance!! I nearly undo all my hard work and go wide at the left hander after the hairpin, could 5th be slipping away??

Scary moment on lap 36 when a car was sideways around the track on the entry to the hairpin but we got through without issue. Coming out of the final turn John lights up the rears and spins into the pit wall taking off his front fender. His momentum gone I was able to get passed on the front straight. I like to think I put enough pressure on him to make that happen Back to 5th!!!

Crew chief kept telling me the gap behind was getting larger so I kept saving fuel and kept my fingers crossed. Timer ticked down and I prayed that my calculations were right. I could pit if I needed but didn't want to risk it. Eventually crossed the line with about 0.5 litres in the tank!!



Thank you to everyone that took part in this series. This was a bit of a baptism of fire for me as these really aren't my type of cars!! Thanks to @John vd Geest for organising and @Rob Milliken for the broadcasts (I gave up trying to keep the cars updated as some driver didn't want to stay in the cars they picked at the start )

 

This mod didn't seem to like the paintjobs I packed for my team this series. This is what you might have seen if they had worked!

Neil Wood #6



@Ben Summers #17

 

Thank you yet again Rob!

 

I would also like to voice my appreciation for @Rob Milliken 's excellent, professional and fun broadcasts. Every one a gem.
(Though I'd love to know how he knows when I stuff up - he has a knack of capturing all (well, almost all) of my embarrassing moments )
Great work Rob.

 

*Cut to Woodee just as he spins off* DAMNIT ROB!

 

@Rob Milliken I absolutely love that car! A work of art! Great choice to go with your post.

 

I will be a viewer of these broadcasts. I don’t like old cars, but it would be interesting for me to watch my SRO friends fight and I wish everyone good luck. And for the coming months I choose DTM and perhaps AlfaRomeo