Round 3 Lausitzring GP - Thu Oct 29, 2020

really hope some punishment is dished to whoever caused that T1 pileup. There isnt any excuse for piling into the pack from the back of the grid at high speed. I lost 8 places to that debacle and meant all my qualifying efforts to get ahead of as many Div2 cars as i could was completely wasted by Turn1 that set the tone for a dull evening racing nobody except a solitary div2 car for me. I actually enjoyed it when the Div1 cars turned up to lap us as i at least got to see some cars in action.

 

Very intense race yesterday. The Ford Escort 78 is probably the weakest car in the div2 of the DRM cars (although it might be just a combination of the car and myself ), but what a sound and handling it has, outstanding.
It's unavoidable to acknowledge that I was blessed with luck in the race as the faster div2 cars got embroiled in many battles and mistakes in the back and didn't have time to catch me on time. Only @Ted Hough was there on time and, in spite of all my efforts, he went through to win the div2 race (Congrats Ted, that drive shouldn't be undermined at all as dominant it was). Those first 12 min of the race were really intense and huge fun.
The long middle part of the race was relatively quiet and the only objective I had was to keep a reasonable pace and avoid making mistakes. That was the only way I was going to keep any chances for a podium. However, @Toni Talvitie and @Kiril Kirilov behind were not prepared to give it away without a fight. Those final minutes (from 0:52) were really glorious: fighting with everything I had left in the car and myself, maximising the strikes of luck that delayed Toni's attack to the last few turns of the race, and keeping it cool.
I found out later, watching @Caitlin Penny stream (thanks again for a great coverage ), that @Kenny Houghton (it wasn't Maxime's) being in the middle of the fight for p2 in div2 whilst seeing blue flags was completely within the rules and it did help me a lot as it retained a bit longer the other lancia's attack. Thanks!
All in all, I think I did well and can happily accept Caitlin's title of 'Master of T1'. Really honoured about that I had great fun. Hope you enjoy!
And, here the race from my perspective (hope you enjoy!):

Congrats again to the podium in both divs and thanks to @John vd Geest for setting this up! See you at Nords.

 

Sat out quali this time because I just can't get the Ferrari off the line quick enough to not cause trouble behind....no clutch pedal and long gears. I knew T1 would be difficult so held right back as half the field seemed to totally miss the apex Cold brakes, cold tires and heavy fuel load peeps! Anyway picked my way through the wreckage and made a few places by doing so.

Race was horrible. Ferrari just felt like a barge through those tight corners and I had to be so careful with my braking points and exiting the slow corners onto the oval. Had to run more wing than I like to help with my braking and exiting the quicker corners so ended up just being dog slow everywhere. Enjoyed the battles with some of the Div 2 cars but felt their pain at being held up in the slow bits and then having me blast away down the "straights". The rest of this season doesn't look great for me either with exception of Sebring where I think the Ferrari will be better suited.

Well done to podies and thanks to Caitlin for her commentary

 

I think track was made in wrong spot, clearly.

 

At the start I was totally surprised at the braking, missing the 150 mts mark I was waiting for So, for a while, I became The lawnmower man.
If I were dishonest I could have kept the position on Filip in that first corner, but I consider myself a fair driver, so I decided fairly to let him by.

As I was so pissed off by the first corner mistake, I decided to do another half spin during the first lap, so Tim and Louis could gain a position
Then Louis was so kind in my regard and made my life easier. Tim went wide at the long right hander some laps later and I took back the second position. Now I was finally in a good mood to pull a bit that Capri, but noticing that Filip has hidden some tenths into the pocket during the practice days before the race, I could only keep its pace roughly, gaining nothing on him, with a gap nailed at 8.3 seconds for the most part of the race, until the 12 minutes to the end, during which, as a Swiss watch, my wear bar indicator went red, and I was slightly slower than Filip.
Without that stupid mistake at the start, race could have been much more interesting, but once Filip escaped, I had no actual chances to keep his pace.

Looking forward to the green hell on those beasts.

Grats to Filip for a deserved victory and Tim for third place. Grats to Ted, Jos and Toni for Div. 2 podium.

Thanks to Caitlin for live streaming the event.

See you soon

 

You can spot my dedication in picure 2 on that face expression when doing my work keeping the lawn tide and nice

 

No one single driver caused it tbh so you can't really penalise it.

 

I have this issua and it seems to be the custom shader patch thats causing it so I disable this when online racing. Haven't had the problem since.

 

Great video Jos. Firstly apologies for the lap 2 T1 incident. I locked my rear brakes and it almost span me around. Hope you didn't pick up any damage.

Question about your rig. Are you running monitors without a bezel? From the video it looks like you are. If so how. what monitors do you use?

 

Here's my setup Tudor. It may not help as I'm not so good at setting up the car so take it or leave it up to you. But you need to be up front with the rest of us so don't give up on it.

 

No worries Paul, I realised it was a lockup and there wasn't much you could do. It was good we didn't suffer more from the incident.

Regarding the bezels, it's a bit of a post-processing trick. This is how I do it:

 

Got caught up in the lap 1 T1 incident. Went to turn in and got punted off onto the grass. It's be said before but I will repeat COLD BRAKES AND COLD TIRES. Come on peeps it's not that difficult to remember. We are not 10 pin bowling here. . That said after ranting about it for the rest of the lap what do I do into T1 on the next lap I lock my rear brakes up and almost spin. COLD BRAKES AND COLD TIRES you idiot. Sorry to Jos who just clipped me as I half spinned. For 3 laps it was like a skating rink. I'd noticed this in practice so didn't come as a surprise but my right foot didn't get the memo and I did a half spin coming back on to the oval later on in lap 2. . From the point I overtook Jos I was in no mans land and got really lonely. I was on the same pace as Michal ahead and couldn't make any in roads to get the gap down. Qualified in 7th finished the race in 7th.

I agree with everyone about this track. Not the most exciting track but one of the best looking tracks in AC. The detail and work put into is is staggering so kudos to the track creator(s).

Well you fooled me. Nice one. Pity we can't do that in real time. Maybe an upgrade to my eyeballs is needed.

 

I have reflected on this many times and I can tell you that I don't really see the bezel when I'm driving. My brain 'removes' them. Obviously, I can see them if I try or check but, when I'm on concentration mode, with a couple of Lancias on my back chasing me like hell, I cannot even see my wheel!!, let alone the bezels. It's a good trick for the videos but not really essential for real-life... Until I move to VR. Then, everything must be perfect!
BTW, not sure if you picked up on my optimistic Crew chief when you overtook me (min 3:16 of the video): "Don't panic. We'll get him back!" LOL

 

Here's the link from my stream if anybody wants to see the big T1 dink from my perspective. Sorry for the bad sound levels and Mac's displeasure with her race in the BG

 

Thanks for that Paul, I'm rubbish at setups so I'll certainly give this a go
Don't worry I won't be giving up, just a bit frustrating to be scrapping around at the rear like a newbie these days

 

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It's the same for me. The bezels are not a problem. Yes I did chuckle when I heard that.

 

I don't agree with that one.
And because since yesterday no one has not even said a sorry for that 1st corner incident, i watched the replay. In my opinion the two cars on the inside (@John vd Geest and @Jari Laakkonen ) had no chance to take that corner. You don't have to even look at the replay for this, just watch the upload from @Jos Ogos .

 

Yeah, I mean, I would report it, but last week JVD said to my teammate that they couldn't report an incident they weren't directly involved in.

So by the time John and Jari had hit 3-4 cars that then hit me, who am I supposed to report in there? Will I be told there were too many people involved so I can't report it? Should I even bother if I ever see somebody blatantly taken out but it didn't directly affect me? I don't know anymore so I just don't bother.