Round 3 Road America 2019 - Sat Oct 10, 2020

I've never understood that tradition. If I have time in the session (early across the line etc), I'll find an open piece of tarmac and burn the tyres up in some donuts, but i'd never purposefully drive into someone else's car. It might "just" be sim racing, but keeping a car clean for 90 minutes is still an achievement, and the racing is just as real as proper racing if you want it to be. The respect you have for yourself and the other drivers shouldn't end at the finish line, imo of course.

 

Oh I'm all for celebrating as I said, just there are run-off areas or wider parts of the track where your not going to block anyone (or injure ppl). Do it on a run off and everyone is safe and get to do crazy stuff.

Thankfully nothing permanent this time but if my thumbs get caught just at the right angle its a hospital trip.

 

Not as serious, but the added stress of recording the "effects" of such a burst of activity can also cause glitches for those who have replays turned on. i've noticed this in the final lap of many races.

Having said that, and casting no aspersions, i can't resist mentioning my favorite example of poor behavior from an overall race winner (at R2P, and not involving anyone i remember seeing at SRO):

Having won the race in a prototype, the driver continued on to pass multiple GT cars who were still racing, then pausing to do donuts in the run-off area of a corner they were approaching. He was penalized for multiple incidents of passing GT cars off track during the race (so he wouldn't have to slow down), but not this behavior. Hopefully that would be different here.

 

Grats to Marcos, and Johnny, and lest i forget again, special grats to my teammate Ed (who finished 2nd, coming from a long way back -- massive apologies for being too distracted by my own misfortune, and your wife's gardening venture, to realize that while we were chatting post-race).

I was sooooo happy to be able to run Road America again... finally... please, many more! But i still don't feel fully recovered from the last BOP adjustment and just couldn't find the pace of Johnny and Toni. One clue: i noticed, at least in my replay, is that maybe 2/3 of the field's rear end was a foot or more off the pavement coming up the hill toward the start, as if there was some kind of gyroscope keeping the car level even as it climbed a very steep hill. Mine, and a handful of others, was properly on the pavement. Can anyone confirm that? Not sure if it's just a replay bug, but I remember seeing that kind of thing a lot in rF1, and it was usually attributed to suspension settings. Maybe i have to start all over again, but the car feels good i just can't make it go fast. Yeah, OK, maybe it's just a driver problem that was always there and the BOP update put things back as they should be.

Q went pretty much as expected, with Johnny and Toni in the 02's and then a bunch of us clustered in the 04's.

The race got underway smoothly, but then got real oh shit hairy when someone lost it in the kink, then someone else lost it trying to get around the spinner who wound up in the center of the track trying to get going again. I came off the accelerator, poised on the brake, long enough to see a way thru on the left. Which brings me to my pet peeve:

2.6 Flag Observance

All flag, light, pit-lane, and course-marker rules must be obeyed at all times.

Local-caution flags - Any straight or corner with a visible accident ahead is considered a no-passing area until the EXIT of the next corner that is not the corner or straight in which the accident occurred.

Yellow flag means there has been an incident, take care and be prepared to stop if necessary.
​

I was passed in the next corner at the end of that straight ("Canada Corner"), because one driver just kept the pedal to the metal thru that chaos, narrowly missing another that spun back across the road no more than a length or two in front of him. I know most people don't read the regs and this one isn't always intuitive in simracing (because we don't kill or die if we get it wrong), so i'm just reminding people. And it's certainly possible i've unthinkingly violated this rule myself, but i also know i've given positions back in similar circumstances when i realized i may have gained an unfair advantage. Please call me out after a race if you think i've done wrong by "2.6".

This wasn't a permanent setback and i was soon back behind Flaviu, and finding it very difficult to spot an opening. It seemed no matter how close i got thru the twisty bits, i wasn't any closer at the end of a straight. And i was very unhappy with my lap times, which seemed a second to a second and a half slower than practice, even when i was in clear air.

As soon as my pit window opened i changed to soft tires and they felt so much better.

Eventually i worked my way up into 2nd, and then...

"Connection Lost". Pretty sure that was the first non-server disconnect i've suffered in a race in about 3 years.

As Kurt Vonnegut would say, "So it goes."

Rejoined and finished and it is what it was. But i had a lot of fun along the way.

 

I love Kurt Vonnegut writings

 

All in all not a bad race, although i got a drive through for 1 cut track after saving the car from going off which i thought a tad harsh but hey. The driving standards of the senna's seem s yet again to be in question. I was ramed buy a driver (who shouldnt of even raced) whilst on the racing line, at the very least their driving was very aggressive. Its almost like they have to drive the faster class to make up in their poor ability to drive??

 

Yeah, this track, and LeMans for that matter, seemed pretty harsh on "track limits". It's nothing that can't be lived with once you know they're there, but harsh nonetheless. I mean, getting a warning for drifting wide at the kink! Who the hell would try to gain an advantage by going into the grass on the exit of the kink!

Not questioning anyone else's experience, but i haven't had any problems with the Senna class this series. Yes, i thought a few passes here and there were "rude", but i saw them coming and had no problem adjusting. I've actually been impressed with the patience of faster classes in all the multi-class series i've raced at SRO.

Just my experience, of course.

 

End of Race niggles (and sore tendons) aside, I had an awesome race, especially laps 2-3. A great 3 corner fight with Toni, twice, through T1, 2 and 3. Those are what I hope for in a race. Sadly, I couldn't keep that pace as it began to burn the tyres so had to let him go.

Knuckled down to maintain a pace until the end. Sorry for some of the corners Barrett just before your disconnect, they were definitely not brake checking. The car got a bit slidey for some reason and in the midst of getting her back into rhythm I had lost what corner I was in causing me to use the wrong gear .

Congrats to Marcos, and Johnny.

In general, most of the time, I don't have any issue with the Sennas, when they pick their places appropriately.
Forcing their way through during an apex of a corner that is already occupied by a GT3 long before they got there, causing damage to the slower class in the process, or going round the outside during a high speed exit (where a lower downforce car is going to slide to because of basic physics), is not really appropriate. That is twice that I have had to do a 60 sec pit because a Senna literally pushed and damaged my car off the track out of its way. Without that damage the pit would of been 27 secs. I could of been in front of or near enough Ed to go for 3rd (2nd after Barretts misfortune).

I hate Wagging on about the rules, but as far as I am aware it's the lapping cars responsibility to pass the lapped car in a safe and none hidering manor.
Only 2.9 general passing is mentioned in SRO's rules, but Lapping by faster or same class cars is near identical except for the part about racing room (because your not racing if being lapped).
I get it that the slower car needs to move over in some situations (already being in an apex is not one of them), but the majority of the rules do state that the slower classes are to stick to the racing line and be predictable so that the faster class can pass at an appropriate place.

 

"Sorry for some of the corners Barrett just before your disconnect, they were definitely not brake checking."

Nope, never thought that Andy. I was having a great time on relatively fresh tires and just thought you were having the same kind of tire trouble i was in the first stint.

I just went back to the replay to re-experience the fun of that patch and saw one of those miss-judged Senna passes in the "kettle bottoms". i remember commenting to Ed over TS that that was indeed unacceptable. It put all three of us in danger.

 

Something I did not mention but want to.

@Toni Talvitie did share his set up with me. At first, his setup was faster than mine and I was wondering why. Checked his setup and he had a different wing. Changed mine to what he had and my car became faster but more stable for myself. His setup wasn't much different than mine so I stuck with mine for this race even though his was good.

The point I'm trying to make is, Toni is just fast with a pretty much a stock setup. Some people are fast with lots of practice and lots of time with setup work like a lot of guys here and that's awesome. Toni on the other hand, he's just fast period.
Thanks Toni for sharing your setup and seeing what kind of witchcraft you had under that body of your car. You didn't have to share but you did. To my surprise, not much difference than stock. Goes to show how fast this guy really is.

Cheers.

 

Agree, some guys/Lasses just are.
I certainly am average in pace with excellent patience that unnerves most people I sit behind. I like racing here because mostly its WAY cleaner than other places I have been, and I actually get to challenge for positions because of it (that lap 2-3 challenge with Toni made me fiz ). I couldn't keep with Toni because I couldn't keep with Toni.
I don't have that kind of acuity with the stock setups because I am so use to feeling what the car is doing rather than seeing.