Round 6 Longford 67

Most time is to be made onto the straights on a track like this, apart from a healthy chunk that can be made braking down to the bridge - although that last one is highly risky if you push it too much! Especially as there is no usable pit lane on this track - if you total your car you're out tonight.

For driving tips I can only really give the following here as I haven't been able to watch onboard when you're driving (and can't, I haven't figured out how to change focus in the Rift still).
If you have to back off the throttle mid corner for anything other than over steer then you accelerated too soon and are wasting speed/time onto and along the straights.
If you have to back off a lot to keep the car vaguely straight out of turns then you've either geared the car too high or are in the wrong gear - use the gears to limit wheel slip if possible, pretty sure the Eagle had enough variety in it's ratios to manage this
For braking play with balance (and brake force in the Eagle) until you're comfortably able to brake on the limit, then just make certain you learn your brake markers!

 

Going to skip this one, have fun !

 

Good start. Got up to 2nd after Jukka and someone else crashed under the bridge. Tried to hold off Fabrizio behind but made a few mistakes, so he got past. Jukka then passed me and I was then in 4th. Was really struggling with the brakes in the race for some reason and they kept locking up (both front and rear brakes), so slowing the car down for the hairpins was dodgy. After another mistake, Phil Brown caught up and then tried a stupid move down the inside at the bridge, giving us both terminal damage. You can barely fit 1 car wide through the bridge section but he thought it would be a great inside to shove it down my inside even though I was ahead.

Could have easily had a top 4 finish today but someone just had to ruin it.

 

This one will be my last race in a championship during the week for a long time. During the last 2 championships I tried to come back in time to have some warm up laps but it's becoming practically impossible due to my work hours and Rome traffic.
I must say that tracks like this does not fit my taste at all, and after I went to say hello to the farmer for the umpteenth time during this week, I decided to retire form the race, cause my gearbox was practically melted and I'm sure that I wouldn't be able to finish the race.
Sorry to Jukka and Tim, but after the first right hander I've lost the control of my car and I needed 3 or 4 countersteer to regain control before crashing into the wall. On a track like this the only way to have a chance to follow Honda and Lotus was to try to keep the slipstream of the car in front of you, but once Jukka past me it was clear that with a Cooper you simply can't follow a Lotus even when you got some slipstream. 10 kph difference on the straights are too much.
Considered that in Monza will be the same, I won't simply bother to hurry up to come back in time for the race.

Have fun chaps

 

Well whats new ...i started .....I raced ..... I crashed......... I DNF

The new bit was that as I tried to pit for repairs,couldnt find how to pit and in the process nudge Caitlans car out from pits onto track. I was horrified as the car rolled onto the main straight. Thankfully it left enough room for people to pass so i waited until leaders passed then drove out of pits trying to push Caitlans car back into pits.
It wouldnt budge so i just cringed and skulked away.
My own car had engine and bodywork damage so i decided not to cause anymore mayhem and retired.
Well done Tim for the win , I watched the rest of the race on the live stream, made enjoyable with Caitlans commentary.
I set the car up with max power and preload and highest gears and was equal ,but no faster on the straights than anyone else. My setup was good but I could not repeat my 2.10 practice lap. At times I was on target to equal r beat it but always made a mistake
I also still get very tense when someone follows close.
Enjoyed the driving and i think i may be just getting a little faster each race.
Im only registered for the final race of this season so I will have to look at what else is starting soon
Im going to buy Assetto Corsa Comp this week.
Cyas next week

 

I decided to sit out qualifying in order to start at the back of the grid in case there was a big crash at the bridge on lap 1 like there was in the DNF series. Although Jukka suffered at the bridge fortunately there was not the scale of carnage that I was anticipating and so I was able to settle down and see how things turned out. I picked up a couple of places as people made mistakes but then threw those positions away as I ran straight on in the final braking zone. I managed to settle down again and found myself slowly making ground on Jens. Several laps later I was on his tail and he made things easy for me by jumping his car over the bales at the final corner. I was able to consistently reel in the laps as people had various incidents and found myself in P4. Despite a couple of "offs" in the final laps I was able to bring the car home and grab a couple of points ... YAY .
Congrats to Tim, Jukka and Fabrizio for their well deserved podium positions and thanks as usual to Caitlin for the entertaining and informative broadcast .

 

Wow. What can I say. First lap punt on @John vd Geest - I’ve looked back at my replay and I had a lot more room than I thought behind me so I didn’t need to be as close. Only excuses I have is that I was flustered after the amount of action there’d already been in the first minute, and it was very unexpected to have what looked like a jab on the brakes from John there. But still. My bad. Apologies. Again. Especially as it totalled his car but I came off scot-free.
The rest of the race was quite unsatisfactory as well. Missed my braking point on the next lap and had to let @Bill Grewcock and someone else past. Then spent the rest of the race trying to catch up. Was managing to do so, but when crew chief told me I was reeling Bill in, I promptly put it in the hay bales under the bridge. Then didn’t see anyone for the rest of the race and managed to hit the wall again with 3 mins to go, finally breaking my suspension. So dnf but 5th place. My best result so far but not proud of it. Mostly due to lucking out and surviving all my offs when others were less fortunate.
Still, points is points, right? Right??
Congrats to the podium and good job to Caitlin as usual - apologies @Caitlin Penny for stating the obvious in Youtube chat about your car being in the middle of the track. I figured you must be aware of it, but just had to double check