Round 4 | Circuit of the Americas

Can't race also, too many internet problems... can't seem to make a connection last more than 5m
Already talked to my ISP
Waiting solution
Have fun guys!

 

Hello everyone, the broadcast link is available but since youtube is taking its sweet time, we only have about half an hour of footage for the time being.

I'm gonna plug the link here but i suggest waiting an hour or more for it to process all the 2+ hours of stream and upload it all.

Cheers for everyone that participated trough chat and raced in the series.

Congrats for everyone who finished.

 

So after a few good races here at SRO it was time for a not so good one. Did not get a grip of this track and was a bit of pace, and in last part of the race I spun the car and "parked" on what I assume an corner exit. Got hit by an Porsche (I think) so I'm sorry causing that for you, hope you could finish your race.

 

It was indeed a Porsche that hit you. It looked like you were going to re-enter the track so I made a split second decision to try go around you on the inside, and then you moved to the inside at the last second in an effort to stay off the racing line.

It ended up costing me 4th position, but fortunately I was still able to finish in 5th place.

 

What a race. Finally got that elusive first win. Probably my best one to date. Carl made me work my ass off. What a race Carl, when I had my spin I thought I threw it away. Your car was getting faster and faster over that first stint. I went into the pit 15 secs behind you and only matched your pit to see where you would come out. Crew chief told me you were on softs and I was on soft/med combo but only 5 secs behind after pit. Made me think you ran light load the first stint for your pit to be so long. After exit I was catching you pretty fast which was surprising, maybe you were just taking it easy on tires. Once I got around your car seemed to really come on and mine was fading in comparison. I saw a lmp2 ruin your pace in the hairpin and that really hurt you as you were primed to pass within a lap or two. Once you caught back up to me it happened again with a P2. Terrible luck. I didn't see what happened to you at the end with under 10 mins but must of been a heart breaker for you. You did everything right to win that race. Race gods just owed me one.

 

I had about 1 hours prep time for this which wasn't ideal and it showed in my quali and race pace and s few problems in my setup. I was experimenting with tyre pressures and after the pit i reduced them which helped me a lot. I couldn't adjust the brake blanking but I noticed after about 35 laps that I was riding the gas when braking but now checking Motec my brakes were getting up to 900C and I was getting really bad brake fade giving me really inconsistent braking zones. Anyway i struggled on and somehow managed to take 3 places in the last part of the race

 

Love turning laps at COTA, it's a real driver's track. Really brings out the different strengths and weaknesses of the cars.
I was running a high downforce setup, so I would gain time in sector 1 through the esses, but wouldn't have the top speed to match the vettes down the long back straight between turn 11 and 12.





First 10 laps or so had some good battles with Simon and Barrett. Simon seemed like he had more acceleration than me, I'm guessing maybe I had too much TC turned on. So the only way to get by was to try and get deep on the brakes at the turn 11 hairpin inside. So we did the over/under thing at turn 11. Here's me running wide on exit after getting by him on the inside by braking late, and Simon getting a better launch on exit. He'd get the position back by the end of the long straight. Fun stuff.


Watching the replay, I saw there were some awesome battles through the field. Here's Cody holding off a train of Vettes early on.


Carl and Lance had an epic battle, I'm still not sure how Carl made this pass, and I watched it 5 times. This is going into the tight 1st gear left hand downhill hairpin in the infield at turn 15. Carl just throws the car in DEEP on the brakes on the inside and somehow gets the car to rotate enough to hold the pass.



So after about 10 laps, managed to get by Simon and Barrett, and got to work on chasing down Johnny. Lap after lap, i managed to draw the gap back until I was only about a second behind. I would gain time through the esses, but that V8 in the Vette would just pull away just enough down the back straight so I couldn't get close enough to try an overtake going into turn 12 hairpin. Was hoping to put down a couple of blistering laps as my fuel load dropped away, but Pablo came out of his pitstop right between Johnny and I, so I think I lost a little time there, as my last 2 laps before my pitstop were not great.

After pitstops cycled, Johnny came out about 5 seconds ahead. Once again, I started working on the gap. A few tenths here and there every lap and I was able to close in on him, and we spent the last ~10 laps nose to tail. It was awesome racing.

Here's us through turn 12 hairpin at the end of the back straight. I picked up some damage on my front left nose, lost one of my end plates in some minor contact with an LMP coming out the pits. It didn't seem to hurt the handling too much, I was still pretty fast through sector 1.


With about 3 laps to go (i think), I could tell Johnny's rear tires were gone. He was slipping and sliding trying to put the power down. At turn 12 I was right on his tailpipe, I got a great exit and nailed the the throttle just as he got a side ways on full opposite lock which slowed his forward momentum, and I "nudged" his rear fender and he went around on a lazy spin. I waited for him and gave the spot back on the next lap, but that meant Simon slipped by both of us.


Great racing by all. Bahrain is another horsepower track, and it doesn't have as many slow speed turns as COTA so will be interesting to see if I can manage to keep up with Johnny's Vette there.

 

Unfortunately for me I lost connection during the practice session, only came back on line 2 hours later which is a real shame.

Will watch the broadcast later this evening.

Regards,
Bret

 

Q Pole so cant complain

R After 1st corner had the luxury of free run where as others fighted it out. Pace was ok and managed to keep the rhytm and flow of the track full 90 minutes.
John jumped on me at pits. Had lost lots time due traffic but had taken it super easy at 1st stint so not the fault of lapped cars and I suspect didnt swap tyres?
Got me little worried if he gonna race to end where I should pit for that 20liters or so, but then remembered that he pitted before me so just drove to the flag.
Great race, lots battles where tried to pass with minimal effect to it. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
Good race everyone!

 

yeah John. Had to move seat incar to where i dont like it.

 

A race of two halves. The first half was to the sound of that thundering dirty sounding engine, the second half complete silence. Second set of speakers to die this year.
Sorry to the LMP2 car who got mixed up with my pit entry. I didn't see you until you passed me .
Called it a day late on after yet another spin damaged my suspension. It's amazing how much of a difference sound makes. Without it, it just seems pointless. Still that's the future we all have to look forward to.

 

Before the review, I want to ask how many pit stalls does this track has?
When I tried to pit there was a p2 at my stall. Waited for 3-5 secs and gave up, had to come back next lap. It costed me around 30s and if Cody and Jens didn't have that incident, I would have lost the position.

 

Np buddy, looked great on John's Vid

 

I was wondering what happened that allowed me to catch back up to you. I thought maybe you got a stop n go penalty for speeding in pit lane.

That accident with Jens right at the end of the race really annoyed me and shouldn't have happened. I got tangled up with a P2 earlier as well, as he was rejoining after a pit stop. Not sure if that was Jens too or if it was Marcos Junior, but that was also a very avoidable incident and shouldn't have happened.

There seemed to be a number or careless incidents caused by P2 drivers this race. Hopefully next round there won't be more of the same, but I have my doubts.