Hey guys, I know the admin says before each round, 'take care into T1' etc. etc. But we will need to be extra careful here. The front row is 4 wide, with Pole on the left, however, the 4 wide turns into 2 wide before the braking zone.
An apology that the server is not up and running yet, but we are currently migrating STEAM to a new hardware server, which necessitates frequent shutdowns of STEAM on the existing server whilst this is in progress. We should be good to go sometime tomorrow.
In both races it was a case of what could have been for me. Got a great start, in both races actually, to take the lead but as expected Andrew was as strong as ever and was quicker exiting onto the home straight so got ahead when I ran a bit wide into T1. I was able to stay with him as we both eased slowly away from John/Bill, and a few laps later Andrew ran a touch wide in the middle of the first loop (T3?) and I was able to get inside him before the exit. I thought I was through so kept the gas down running wide as usual, but he was still alongside but out of view to me. The resultant coming together ruined both our races, so apologies to Andrew for that. The problem I then had was when I pitted the crew ignored my request for repairs and it took another two very slow laps before I somehow got serviced with a 300 sec repair. The pit entry and pit-lane width for this track is not very clearly defined and I'm still not sure where it is. I'm surprised more of us didn't discover this either before or in the race. In R2 I took the lead again at the start, Andrew got past and then I re-passed him, but then lost it under braking at T1, ran into the end of the fence which decided to hold onto me and not let me go. Race over> A good car/track combo despite the track issues, so we could possibly use it again in the future.
I agree with Ken, interesting track. Reminds me a bit on the Norisring or the Salzburgring. Although I think it is really difficult to overtake here and very easy to crash while trying it. With two very poor quali sessions (crashing into a traffic sign and beeing slow over one lap) I feared to get stuck behind a faster car. In the first race this was kind of true, because it seemed that I was faster than Gerhard and Klaus but not able to pass both. At least at that moment, until something strange happend. On the straight suddenly I drove into Gerhard an we had a huge shunt. Jens and Ed behind us both lost a wheel because trying to avoid us. (Really unlucky, sorry for that) I recorded the replay and have a look by yourself Looks like a lag from Gerhard, so not really an error by him nor myself. We both could continue, although my the rear axis was broken. The car seemed to oscillate to the right, but I got used to it. I passed Klaus, who seemed to have a bigger problem than me. And because of Ken and Andrews collision I was suddenly on the podium. The second race was different but somehow similar, I suddenly ended up on the podium and stayed there. It seemed I had the luck Ken (and others) had not, and I stayed on track Regarding the pit entrance, I tried it in the warm up, it seems that the trick was, to get as soon as possible fully on the light grey conrete plates. But I´m not sure how much tolerance you have there, maybe it was just luck to get it right.
Q1 Good lap for P4 Race 1 Got a good start and saw Jens go off into T1. I was behind Ken and in front of Bill. 3rd place. Andrew and Ken began to pull away. Then the information I'd been waiting for and I'm so glad Steam informed me that the connection to the Friends list was offline. Happy days. I have no friends so this information was bloody useless . The dialog box was right in the centre of my middle monitor so I couldn't see much. I could see the sides of the track and it couldn't have happened at a worst place into the last hairpin. So I had to drive blind until I got onto the start/finish straight. By the time I grabbed my mouse and minimised the dialog box Bill was past me. A few laps later he took the lead when Andrew and Ken crashed out. So could I have won this race without the problems. At the time I had pulled a slight gap over Bill but he did get faster towards the end of the race. Think it would have been a good battle. However with Andrew, Ken and Jens all behind me a 2nd place was good for my series lead Well done Bill . Q2 As with all Q2's it was a slower lap. I'm guessing the track is in a green state. P2 Race 2 Got a good start but that's about all the good that happened to me in this race. Going through T1 I caught the kerb and it turned me into the fence. Now with broken steering and the car swerving badly under braking I was now driving a bucking bronco . Took a few laps to get used to it modifying my braking points and corner turn in using the fact that the car loved turning left which helped in some corners and was a real handful in others. Caught and passed Klaus and Ed. But another spin through T1 again clipping the kerb saw me drop behind them. Took back a place when Klaus crashed. Towards the end after a number of difficult laps Klaus had closed the 11 second gap. Another lap or 2 and he would have got me. Thankful for the short race. 5th place. For such a short and straight forward track this has proven to be difficult for a lot of drivers. For the series the results went my way and I've extended my lead to 25 points. Well done Jens
R1 - poor start (managed that both races) and had to lift to not hit Jens as I squeezed to the right. Jens took the scenic route and Ken took the lead. Was having a good fight with Ken then we had the incident described above. My car didn't drive straight and braking was tricky. I tried to pit for repairs, but my mechanics were on a tea break it seemed. Tried to continue but lost control into T1 and lost a wheel with it. R2 - Ken again took the lead, and I knew from race 1 that he braked later than me, so would be hard to pass. Fortunately (for me), Ken got hungry and went for a picnic at T1 leaving a clear track ahead and two team mates behind. Redline podium lockout on the cards, but Bills PC didn't like that plan Had a fun final laps with Jens, passing each other a couple of times, but didn't want to push too hard and take both of us out. Congrats to Bill and Jens for the wins.
Who the hell is the mysterious John person. Could his ghost car be the cause of all our problems? Bloody idiot I call to ban him
@Phil : Agree 100% with you: no mistake of you or me when crashing on the straight. I got the same steam-message as Paul, same time Klaus had to suffer to this information. this caused a lag and united our cars. after that my screen went crazy and the message and the task bar reduced my view. In spite of this i had very heavy FFB and the view was like somebody was shaking my old bones. I will try to find out a way to avoid Steam Messages during the races. Thanks for joining, nice series with unbeleivable performances, it would have deserved a larger grid. Please stay tuned to this time slot, in January we will have the first Formula 4 Championship at SRO, with the Tatuus F4 (free mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?l=spanish&id=1782909995) Enjoy driving without fxxxxxg halo. https://dragonracing88.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Tatuus-F4_3.jpg
https://www.ghacks.net/2013/05/08/how-to-configure-move-and-block-steam-notifications/ I found this but I already have the 'never flash window' option set. So what I have done is position the Friends window in the bottom left hand corner and resized it to the minimum you can get away with. When you make these changes ensure you close the window. When it opens the next time it will reappear in that position. Best I can do at the moment
