I have to agree with Ken, normally I had not a big issue on the brakes but this time... It does not help that I am driving at the moment with my holiday set up, an old Thrustmaster wheel with linear brake pedal and a 290 degree steering wheel. Not impossible to master, but I nearly forgot about the race and joined just in time for the race. Of course, everything felt weird, because I am used to a G29. Especially on hard braking, so Montreal is the perfect track for such gymnastics. As a consequence, I needed too much time to get into a rhythm and Ed/Ken made no major mistake, unlike myself. Good job. Not sure if I am able to join in two weeks, because after the holiday it's time for work again. But let's see.
Stream VOD I knew from practice that a qualifying lap around here would be hanging on the ragged edge with braking. I did two runs but couldn't quite get it together to stay on the front row. When it came to the race I knew passing would be tough, getting a run on any car would mean good exits or waiting for mistakes. I got a good start and decided I would be better off going left rather than right (down the middle of the grid). @Nick Westy blocked well and there was no way through to turn 1 so I held station but overtaken by @Matej Dakskobler around the outside, then inside to turn 2. I then began to give chase but at the time I forgot who I was chasing and I thought I could see my nearest championship contender pulling out a gap in the lead. I was surprised I could keep up with the two cars ahead, I thought I didn't have the pace. The three of us started to pull away from the rest of the field. I tried my best to push but not enough that it would ruin the tyres like in Silverstone. I could see that getting close to Matej was making them make a few mistakes so I wanted to stay close so I could capitalise when they happened. I didn't feel like I was being held up and I didn't really have a pace advantage so it was hard to even get the wisps of draft, straights were just too short! With about 41 mins to go Matej made a few mistakes through the latter chicanes of the lap and I got close but I messed up my braking into the hairpin which speared me into the barrier on the left. I kept it to the left to miss Matej as I wasn't slowing down with two wheels on the grass. Then I had to regroup and close the gap all over again!! I could feel a slight vibration from some flatspots so I had to be very careful going forward. Everytime I would get close and saw Matej spin up the tyres, I would make a mistake to and fail to capitalise. Track limits were strict here but there was enough in hand to cover mistakes and cutting close to the wall through the tight section. @Nick Westy was pulling out a gap and I just wondered how much tyres I would have left if I got passed Matej. Tyre wear seemed to be better than Silverstone and as long as I kept the temps under control I could go flat out. I could see Matej was weaker in the latter half of the lap but I just couldn't get a good exit out of the hairpin to even get close enough to pass. With just under 22 mins to go I was as close as I'd ever been in the race so far. Leader was now 3 seconds adrift and I didn't know if there was time to catch them.... IF I could get passed Matej. But then.... he made a mistake into T8 and out of 9 and saw my chance so I dived to inside on exit. But as luck would have it Matej span up the tyres and unfortunately headed to the exact place I moved to and I had nowhere to go bracing for impact. I was so lucky to get away with a glancing blow between the car and bouncing of the barrier. Now the chase for the lead began... 10 mins to go... 3.5 secs... 5 mins to go and the gap was down to 0.5 seconds. I could see that Nick was struggling with spinning up the tyres on exit... I could smell blood and went on the hunt!! I got a run up the back straight within about 0.3 seconds but not enough for an overlap. Offline and hitting some kerbs in the final chicane got me even closer and I was under the bootlid over the line. Nick defended to the inside and there was no way through. 4 mins to go FINALLY the pressure had paid off and Nick locked his brakes into turn 6 and ran wide, and I was through!! I must have got over excited because I braked at the 50 metre board rather than the 100 metre board for the chicane and I wasn't slowing down and across the infield I went, back through he went into the lead....DAMNIT!! Nick span up the tyres coming up the hairpin and just managed to save it, caught me by surprise and I gave him a little nudge. but the mistake wasn't enough to get close enough for an overlap up the straight. He felt the need to defend into turn 1 and 2 and there was no way through. 3 mins to go and time was running out!! I was pushing too hard into braking zones and losing a little ground, time was ticking down and I knew I now only had one lap left and 0.5 secs between us crossing the line for the final time. Tyre smoke, dust but just spinning up the tyres out of turn 7 meant I lost my opportunity to get close in the latter part of the lap and my challenge for the lead was over. Nice battles, thanks Nick and Matej! You both drove well and defended intelligently. I just didn't have a performance advantage to pass on outright pace. Not looking forward to the last round as it's a track I have never raced on before but I have done laps in other cars and it can be bumpy and similar to Silverstone with it's long sweeping turns. I am cursed to just finish 2nd in every race!
fun race in these twitchy cars, always hard coming into a championship mid season as did not have a perfected setup, probably ran things a bit too stiff for a street circuit as the other guys seem to be able to use more kerb at the last chicane without upsetting the car but was on the pace in qualifying at least. might have pushed too hard in the first 20 mins as by the end of the race my left front was in the red and neil was taking tenths out of me every lap, was lucky to take the win in the end as neil had much more tyre left at the end after watching his stream after the race, nice to see the battle from the other guys perspective in VR, in fact I took the plunge last night and bought a pimax crystal VR headset which should come in a few weeks so I can finally look the the mirrors properly compared to a single 52 inch screen with no side view. looking forward to Potrero De Los Funes as its a very unique track.
You are in for a treat!! A tip is to use crew chief to possibly render windows you need to see in VR. I have my Tinypedal HUD and chat window which thankfully doesn't render on stream, just in my headset.
thanks for the tip, ill look into it, I just hope i'm not going to get motion sickness or it will be £800 down the drain lol
Start VERY slow.... maybe in a slow car on a flat track. Turn most of the cockpit movement and vibration OFF. Don't jump into a race until you can drive laps at the limit for more than 30 mins or so. Use the camera stabilisation options to test them out. If you start to get the cold sweats, don't try and push through, take a break.
good idea, i'm normally fine when driving but as a passenger I will throw up after 10 miles unless its a motorway, the headset I ordered has 4k per eye and a wide FOV so hopefully there will be no screendoor effect to put me off.
My Valve Index doesn't and it's getting a bit old now. I sometimes find that if I am not in control of something and it's moving for me, it can make me feel a bit odd. But when I am driving the car it's fine. The moving without actually moving will throw you off to start with.
