Round 4 Kyalami 2020 - Sun Feb 21, 2021

Had a fun race last night, with some great battles with @Peter Williamson and @Didier Coelo

This race was very much about qualifying I think. I managed to get a banker lap in on my first run but then was unlucky with traffic on all the others. I managed a 29.1 earlier in the day but couldn't find the gaps to re-produce it in qualifying (I was 8 tenths up on one lap but caught a GT3 in a quick section). So it is what it is and 8th on grid it was.

Spent most of the race battling with Peter, he had a moment with a GT3 I think which allowed me through and I managed to pull a bit of a gap.

First stop went ok, I short filled slightly which allowed me to pull a bigger gap of about 8 seconds after the stops, but I lost it all in traffic again.

Coming through the last few turns I picked the wrong gear (4th instead of 3rd) and my slowness out of the corner allowed Peter a stab at the inside of the final turn, I nearly closed the door but saw him at the last minute and gave room, nice move mate.

I think both Peter and myself could possibly have battled for 3rd as we were at times catching Roman quite quickly but then we both caught traffic at fast parts of the circuit and the gap went from 11 seconds to about 20 in three laps. We were all so even on pace that catching from there was going to be tough.

Because of my short fill at stop one I had to stop again for a few litres, I tried to remove the option for new tyres at the stop but not in time so I had a full service with enough fuel to the end.

So I just had some fun and did qualifying laps to the end. I think I took 25 seconds out of Peter over those remaining laps, which makes sense as you say you were on fumes, lol Well done for making it

If I'd got my qualifying right I think I could have been maybe 4th, or 3rd with a push, but it was still a great fun race and I'm learning about this car all the time, it's great fun. Hoping the DPi's make a return sometime in the future after this league has ended.

@Mark Hightree my sincere apologies if that was me, I was lapping a Ferrari into the final corner? I saw it go wide on entry and thought it was letting me through, then I saw the car coming back towards me again! I hit the brakes and tried to get out of the way but it was too late. I think I said "No, No, No" about five times, lol.

This was a tough track for traffic. 90% of the time it was fine but if you caught someone in the wrong place you lost 3 or 4 seconds easily. However all the GT3's were pretty good and just stuck to their line and let us deal with it which was fine.

I looked at my MAS livery files for this car and I can see five that are not me (presumably downloaded from the server), so I've deleted them. Hopefully that will stop the issue with my livery being the CORE team when I join a race weekend. It was fine on the practice server all week so not sure what causes it.

 

@Joe Brown no it wasn’t you, no idea but it wasn’t your Porsche!

 

Always good to see the HSR liveries getting some love

 

@Rob Milliken , that's an awesome screenshot of my Porsche and I think @Jens Roos Bentley? Think I may borrow that for my desktop background....

 

@Johnny Gutierrez I didn't expect it from a pilot like you Johnny! Mistakes can happen in races but it seems too much, from the replay I saw then that you haven't even tried to change trajectory.
You were faster, you would have passed me cleanly later!
Hope it doesn't happen again!

Congratulations to everyone and in particular to Michele, a great teammate!

 

Well, one would think after 6+ years, thousands of hours, and hundreds of online races one would sort it out.
Perhaps you misunderstood what I was saying. I have no problem finishing races (and staying within my limits) when I am prepared. I wouldn't exactly call 90 mins a long race (I'm an endurance racer, have operated LMP2 team at SRC - VEC....Div II, finished P4 in class that year. Was our first year. 0 DNFs. I also have quite a long list of endurance racing and other accomplishments. There's my little flex for the day )
I just got tired. Having done 3 league championship races in 3 days prior to yesterday's race, I should have just skipped it really (especially considering it's a series and well beyond Round 1. Not a points competitor so sort of 'in the way' really)
Defending against Marcos while the Porsche wheels were falling off was tiring as hell! After the off, I mostly just lost the motivation/will power to continue, and got sloppy, hence knowing that I was soon to become a hazard.

But, it was fun while it lasted, no less. I'll try to get back in it soon and make some good showings here at SRO.

 

You're right. I saw your brake lights light up and by then, I was heading straight for you as I wasn't even on my breaks yet. I fumbled and I messed up big time. Again Andrea, sorry. It's like I fell asleep or something while driving behind you.

 

I finally got a handle on my setup, Jens & I had some good heads up runs. I was usually ahead and a little bit faster here & he was a little faster there. I'm sure he was pretty flustrated to be trapped behind me, but that's rac'in. We were together at the lap 4-ish off & at the 4-ish laps togo tango's. Without those I would have been a lot better shape at the end.

 

Not me that makes Hex Sim Racing's Skins, it's @Andy Tomlinson. All I did was add on my relevant Sponsors/Hardware I use.