Assetto Corsa Round 8 Donington GP

Angelo, life happens. Look forward to series 3!

Nuno, sorry I couldn't help you faster, but I was qualifying. Donnington is not a forgiving place. Sorry you couldn't continue.

 

You were quit welcome. And what happened at the start?
So make sure you do some practise before series 3. I looks like its going to be hard fought

 

it seems like half grid was stoped. Made me thinking about formation lap...

 

Ah, no. The formation lap starts are only done for Endurance races. These are "sprint" races, so we slam the throttle on the green light

Anyway, make sure you register for series 3 when it is posted. And FYI, We will be using V3.3 in series 3

 

Here it is, my last race report for Series 2

Race 8 was to be run on Donnington GP. One of my favourite tracks because racing is always close there.
The server had been up since Monday and a good few guys took advantage of it. During the week it looked good as 12 people said they were going to attend. Regretfully a few had other urgent things to do so only 9 turned up. There were however a few new faces. Fresh blood is always good.

Quali;
During free practise it had become clear that newcomer Pieter had been sandbagging because he pulled a fast one out of the hat. Qualifying was going to be tough....
On my out lap I noticed that a lap would still be valid if you cut the track. Since I don't want to have a lap where I cut a corner as my fasted lap I decided I would slow down if I had a cut on a fast lap. I did a "carefull" first fast lap just to make sure a had at least one descent time set. That gave me a 1.35.75. Knowing I could go faster I pitted, took on new tyres and went out. Couldn't get a good lap in until the very last one. I had to push till the end because Pieters laptime was close to mine and I knew he could go faster. My final lap was good for a 1.35.5, Pieter did a 1.35.8 and another newcomer Philipp had the 3rd time with a 1.36.0.

Race;
I had pole with Pieter 2nd. Having raced with Pieter before I know he is a tough guy to keep behind and even tougher to pass when he is in front. I did not feel safe at all.
The red lights went out and yes, I missed my start Because of that Pieter was able to pull up next to me, but I still had the inside corner. I braked slightly earlier than I would normally do making sure I would not run Pieter off if he was able to stay on the outside of me while taking the corner. Turns out Pieter had sort of the same idea as me and was careful too. Managed to stay ahead, just. And looking in the mirror I seemed everyone got through the first corner fine. Great!
On with the race. I don't know why, but I seemed to be unable to really concentrate. On top of that Pieter seemed to be glued to my rear bumper. Made a few small mistakes through which he was able to stay in the tow for a good few laps. I had to break that tow to get a breather. I also noticed that while fighting Pieter I was burning fuel at an alarming rate. I did not want to pit Finally after a good 15 to 20 minutes I got a bit of a gap. Build that up to about 5 seconds when out of the blue Pieter pitted... OK. Good. That gave me the space to short shift just to make sure I made it to the end without having to refuel. At that time we had Sean 2nd, Larry 3rd. Then on the last lap Sean had to go in for a splash and dash, thus giving 2nd to Larry. But by then Pieter had fought his way back to 3rd and was on a mission. On the last lap he was able to pass Larry. Larry wasn't going to take this lying down and fought back. Paint was traded, mirrors were lost, and a foto finish it was.

The result, Roy 1st, Pieter 2nd, Larry 3rd.


This was a very good finale for the series, and as predicted, hard fought!

I would like to thanks everyone who took part in the series, especially the ones that tried to be there for every race!

A few stats for the series. We had an average of 9.125 people taking part in the series. All 8 races were won by the same person. Places 2, 3 and 4 couldn't be closer. separated by only 13 points.

I hope to see all of you for series 3
I'm sure it will be posted soon.

 

This battle was so close that my pTracker reported that both Larry and Pieter finished second!

 

Oh, and A BIG THANKS TO SRO FOR HOSTING THIS! Without you guys we would not have had such a good time!

 

Which was big surprise for me. I had a good "racing/driving coach" and the approach to adapt my driving style to a FWD car worked better than expected. It was just as you said, stomp on the gas pedal is not ideal here so I tried to drive as sensitive with the right foot as I could. And suddenly the the 36 times came. Thank you for your help, much appreciated.

Probably I should not started the race because I had a sense that it could only go backwards. My start was not good and Sean was right beside me. I lifted because I feared a big one. Prevented a crash but this made me vulnerable to the pack behind. And Larry also managed to pass me.
Then I found my rythm and felt that I could go faster than Larry. But overtaking was very difficult so I tried to stay as close as possible. Which was risky and then I locked my wheels up into the chicane. As a result I was a passenger and turned Larry arround. I apologised for that amateur move, never had that problem before and I hope to assure that it will not happen again.
This stupidity brought Larry and me back into the field of Hakan, Rob and Pasha. Made our life not easier and again I felt that I could go faster than the guys in front but no way past them.
Then karma came back to me, as Rob did go wide into the fast right downhill turn. I had had also better momentum than Larry. I thought about to go beside Larry but I did not want to ruin his race totally so I backed out. At the same time Rob was back on track and we touched. We both went off.

Rejoined in last position, but was able to catch up to Rob and passed him. Later I got back to Pasha but overtaking was still difficult. Then Pieter came into the mix as well, passed me beautifully arround the outside. So I followed him and thought maybe this enables also to pass Pasha on his tail. Nearly worked.
Later I locked up again into the chicane but this time I was more carefully and only cutted the chicane. After three warnings this resulted into a drive through, d´oh. (A question here is, I read during the race that several people ignored penaltys, what did these message mean?)
In the end P 6 after Hakan run out of fuel which is ok for a newcomer I guess. Lesson learned and looking forward to race this mod again later in the year.

 

First off hats off to Mr Roy COP, alias Mr SEAT, championship leader, with yet another win.
And also thanks to everyone who raced on a regular basis.

Before the race Hasan was three points ahead of me in the championship and Nigel three points behind. So, not to be over ambitious, my goal was just to finish ahead of Rob and confirm my third place in the championship.
So everything was going to plan just to the chicane first lap when there was the small incident with Philipp (see Philipp's post above). So after saying a few swear words there I was behind Rob with, I think, Philipp just behind me. So attacking Rob, who incidentally had widened his SEAT by a metre or two, and at the same time defending against Philipp(?) kept me busy for a while. It certainly added interest to the race and kept me warm. After a bit of close, extremely close at times (too close Rob?), Rob went wide and around the 15 minute mark I managed to get clear.
Now it was strategy time. How was my fuel? 2 minutes short to finish the race. Swear word.
OK, fuel saving. If Rob caught up would rethink.
After a while I saw that I was catching up to Hasan. He must be in trouble.
Passed Hasan, he was in trouble.
Plodded on.
Getting near the end, still in front of Rob, and Hasan! Fuel saving mode was working and now theoretically had a minute of extra fuel.
Saw that Pieter was catching up fast. Should I speed up? No. Remember the goal, Rob is still behind. Keep a bit of fuel in reserve just in case.
Last lap, Pieter was on my tail. Remember the goal. Do not fight too hard. Stupid to go off at this time.
Side by side with Pieter across the finish line.
Third place in the race behind Roy and Pieter, second in the championship.
Mission accomplished.
Happy.
Bed.

 

I'll let you all in on a secret. This is my wife's car. It really is her car. Its her second one as she crashed her first Leon 3 weeks ago. This one is brand spanking new. Picked it up 2 days ago. Needs some work, rims and stuff.

I use this for practise So now you all know how come I'm fast in this mod