Assetto Corsa Porsche Cayman GT4 Round 3 Imola

Two mostly very good races for me too last night, with good pace and plenty of action. This series has turned into a surprisingly good one, better than i expected.
Race 1 i think i qualified 6th, got a good start whilst someone ahead of me got a slower one. However Jos got a lightening start from behind me and he went around the other side of the slower car and got ahead for the first chicane. Alas for him he got clattered by a car getting out of shape at the 2nd chicane whilst i fortunately got around them both without contact and now found myself 4th. Phil Brown chased hard behind me the entire race but only got close once or twice if i made a braking error, and each time i was able to pull a 1-2 sec gap again after. Finished a fine 4th in the company of aliens
Race 2 i qualified a good 5th, and got another good launch at the start. Saw someone get a jump start and pull off, bad luck. But after 1 race and 2 qually sessions i seem to tire in race 2 and make mistakes, usually due to getting hot and bothered in a VR set After a couple of laps i went to turn into the 2nd chicane but bounced off someone who must have been on my blind left rear quarter. Sorry to whoever that was, i really couldnt see you, but it sent me flying off track to the right too. I just about kept it together without spinning but it allowed Jos and Andy to assault me on the uphill run. I had some great side by side action through a few corners with Jos, as we can trust each other, and he squeezed past cleanly into Acqua Minerale. I was so impressed i flashed my headlights in admiration!
I thought that wouldnt be the end of the story and was determined to fight him for my place back but under braking behind him i was getting a bit out of shape and this allowed Andy to attack me and also get past then i made a third error and let a German driver past (Mann?) so had gone from 5th to 8th in several bad laps. Now however, i got a second wind and got my head down. Soon i was back past Mann and closing in on Andy W. I made up 2 seconds on Andy, closing right up and chased him hard once again to the lights. Great stuff but only finished 7th.
Good clean close racing by all

 

Mix fortune for me in yesterday's race in a series that, as @Mark Johnson says, is delivering much more fun than originally expected.
I still need to improve in qualy but it's taking quite some time to get used to this car in each race. It seems especially sensitive to a couple of my worst defects (late braking and short-shifting).
The first race was spoiled soon after a good start. I was already halfway someone else's car and I believe I had gained the right to be on his right but he closed to the right nevertheless and bumped into me. In any case, and being an event on the limit, I waited until the car recovered and passed me just in case... The rest of the field did also passed and the race became a catch-up exercise. Unfortunately, there were other incidents and decided to stop in pits giving up on the race.
Second race was much better. Good fights with Mark and @Andrew Williams and an agonising chase on @Phil Brown. I was improving my times and catching like hell but missing a bit of consistency and with Phil's solid drive, it wasn't feasible and eventually finished in a decent P5.
Congrats to podiums in both races and enjoy the video of my second race here:

 

I knew the track limit abuse was going to be bad here, but didn't expect it to be THAT bad

Good luck with the rest of the championship

 

I messed race 1 up for myself, first by bouncing off the limiter in 1st after a pretty good launch and dropping to 4th - then by spinning out of the final corner at the end of the first lap in a location I don't think I've ever had an off! On the plus side I had an epic fight back up the order, part of which was spent battling another driver who must have dropped back - until he span out of Variant Alta while we were both hassling someone for 8th place.
I eventually caught Andrew but couldn't get passed him in time, as we seemed to synchronize our mistakes

Race 2 went much better, the personal PB on the final lap of qualifying was a nice bonus too (I was showing as having pole from Ilya by 0.001 of a second until that point!).
This time I got a great launch and was able to comfortably hold position at the front, until at around the half way point my wheel lost calibration and I found myself having to steer 45 degrees left in order to go straight
This slowed me quite a bit as I lost confidence - I'm frankly amazed I held on as long as I did.
Things then went weird with 2 laps to go when Ilya rear-ended me into T1. The strange part is he braked first and certainly didn't seem to lift, yet couldn't slow in time to avoid me - this might be due to my very aggressive downshifting but I'm not sure.
My trip through the gravel put me back on in 3rd - with a straight wheel I'd have allowed myself to see red and used that to claw my way back to the front. As my wheel was broken I forced myself to stay calm and make what pace I could given that Matteo and Ilya were having a good scrap for 1st.
As Matteo mentioned Ilya then broke off and allowed me back through while approaching the finish.

This isn't the first time my wheel has played up, but I thought it had sorted itself out when I upgraded my pc - this concerns me as I may need to fork out on a new wheel.
I don't like that idea as I'm tight and so far have at least 10 years out of my £150 G25 and haven't even finished designing, let alone building my own H-shifter yet...

 

You still haven't installed the skin pack Jos! How can you let the world miss out on my caffeinated goodness!?

 

That's unforgivable! I must act on this promptly.

 

I am always enchanted by the movement of your hypnotic slippers

 

My wife calls mine 'racing slippers' I Must invest in a pair of Karting boots

 

White socks and loafers is the answer Mark

 

Yes, but Senna could have driven like that in Wellies!

 

where can i buy these magic loafers? if they give me his talents, money is no object

 

I'll trade you my racing shoes for your spare wheel?

 

I knew you had some magic trick for your impossible speed!! Getting one of those as we speak!

 

[QUOTE = "Philipp Pichler, post: 49423, membre: 563"] Moniseur [USER = 5431] @Charlie Triboté [/ USER], tu n'étais pas très gentil avec moi dans le virage deux, permier tour, course deux.

Pas vraiment ma journée, dans la première course je manquais de rythme, dans la seconde, les choses étaient hors de mon contrôle. La course était encore meilleure jusqu'à ce que je jette P11 en roulant sur le gazon astro.:furieux:
Désolé [USER = 4631] @Stephen Hayward [/ USER] pour mon impatience et merci d'avoir offert de l'espace pour faire fonctionner ma manœuvre un peu trop ambitieuse. [/ QUOTE]
[QUOTE = "Philipp Pichler, post: 49423, membre: 563"] Moniseur [USER = 5431] @Charlie Triboté [/ USER], tu n'étais pas très gentil avec moi dans le virage deux, permier tour, course deux.

sorry Philipp,

sorry Philipp, I did not anticipate your braking enough. I had the pressure of the car behind me, the brake pedal pressed, I still hit your rear bumper. SORRY
Google traductor

 

Well - I've had had the G25 apart and found the mounting for the encoder PCB/light source was loose.
That's now well and truly tight again, so I'm hoping my problems are solved (for now at least).
The bad side is I found a large crack running through the housing that the bearings and gearbox are mounted to/pressed into so now is probably a good time to retire the wheel to ceremonial PS2 duties only and get a new one for the regular events

Hopefully I'll now be able to stay on track and on pace for the next round
It'll be interesting to see if a newer, posher wheel makes me faster, slower, or has no effect!

 

Indeed! It's going to be a good test.
I guess, after a sensible adaptation time, you will be as fast as now... You realise that you cannot be any faster, don't you!?

 

So we hope

 

No - to fix it I'd have to get the bearings out to clamp and glue it. It would likely crack somewhere else when the bearings are pushed back in again