Welcome to round 5 Rouen Rouen-Les-Essarts was a 6.542 km (4.065 mi) motor racing circuit in Orival, near Rouen, France. From its opening in 1950, Rouen-Les-Essarts was recognized as one of Europe's finest circuits, with modern pits, a wide track, and spectator grandstands. The street circuit (which ran on public roads) had a few medium straights, a cobbled hairpin turn (Nouveau Monde) at the southernmost tip, and a few blind corners through a wooded hillside The appeal was greatly enhanced by the climb from Nouveau Monde at 56 metres to Gresil at 149 metres, with gradients over 9%. Rouen hosted five Formula One French Grand Prix races, the last one in 1968 resulting in the tragic burning death of Jo Schlesser, at the fast downhill Six Frères curve. The circuit continued to host major Formula 2 events until 1978, after which it was used for various French Championships. The circuit had a number of different configurations. From its construction in 1950 until 1954 it was 5.1 km (3.2 mi) in length. In 1955 major works increased the circuit's length to 6.542 km (4.065 mi), its most famous configuration. Construction of a new Autoroute across the circuit saw a new section of track built and the length of the circuit reduced to 5.543 km (3.444 mi). Finally, in 1974 a permanent chicane was built at Six Frères and this part of the circuit was renamed Des Roches. The circuit was closed down in 1994 due to economic and safety reasons, since it is very hard to organise a race on public roads if modern safety standards are to be met. In 1999, following the circuit's closure all evidence of area's racing past was demolished, including grandstands, pits, Armco and track signs. The cobbled Nouveau Monde hairpin was also asphalted but it is still possible to drive around on the original circuit configuration. The name "Les Essarts" comes from a village, which was included into the commune of Grand-Couronne in 1874.
My fillings were rattling from a flat spot braking for the hairpin. It's so hard not to lock the brakes. I was never confident there. Grats to Dino.
I only registered the race for server testing purposes. After testing (and solving my problem to join another server) I unregistered, but John persuaded me to join. With only a bit more than 1 hour practice (unknow car and track) my goal was to survive the race. That is what I did, athough it's clear that have to find some more speed. I hope I did not bother you guys too much. Can someone explain why I saw yellow boxed cars in practice?
Yellow blob car is ugly as sin, isn't it It's a temporary car..placeholder to prevent load in lag. The proper car loads in when you go back to your garage box, and there's also a button you can map, "load vehicles" (but I don't recommend using it on track, there's a 1-2 second delay per car that it loads and it will freeze you in place while all others are still moving as normal. Handy for when you pull into pit lane or are off track though) Good job during the race. Sometimes hard to 'stay out of the way' on this track. Long, sweeping, super high speed corners...but it's all deceitful and it only takes a split second to get completely out of whack. Your car was predictable, stable, and each time I came upon it I could read the body language saying you knew there was faster traffic around. Sounds simple enough, but from one that knows better....well done!
I expected to crash. The fact I didn't is somewhat a miracle. No practice, had already unregistered but decided I had nothing better to do and joined back up. No setup, was still making major changes at race start (hence figuring at some point I would die) Had some fun fighting with Jens for first half...then took way too much fuel at my stop. Gearing was garbage, the car was an unbalanced mess, it did weird things. I cursed it. It didn't help. I'm lucky to be alive. The end.
