Round 5 Virginia Full - Thu May 14, 2020

After the blow in Round 5 -the Nordschleife had to be- when my internet connection failed just after the race started, we were back with the Daytona in Virginia. It was a fun race where I feel I didn't get the most of my progression from the earlier tests in practice. Not a bad start although I was hit in T1 but could correct in time. Then I took an unnecessary risk that early in the race and a second hit put me 6 positions down from 8 to 14. The rest of the day was about trying to recover from that hole... Fights against @Mark Johnson and @James Bird were great fun... I lost concentration after struggling a bit with a lapped driver and that was it on my fight with James... All in all, a fun race. Congrats to the podium, James and @John vd Geest for the great strategy that surprised me at the end of the race. Sorry not to see Catlin and her great commentary on the live race. Enjoy.

 

Great racing guys, I thoroughly enjoyed that race. I opted to not do a pit stop and try to conserve my tyres and fuel ( did anyone else not stop?) which worked out pretty well in the end as i got a 5th place even after being punted a few times. @ Paul Ansty : Don't worry about the punt mate, i know it wasn't intentional and you did let me back past. @Jos Ogos: Great battle, your car looked loose AF . @Davide: Pretty clear what happened looking at the replay mate, a decision has been made. You need to accept it, you weren't 'Verstappened ', I was ' Rob Collarded' . . Anyway thanks to the admin for setting another great series up and giving us something to do with our huge amounts of free time. I hope everyone is safe and well and i'll see you on track next time.

 

Love the transparency in posting reviews on the forum @John vd Geest - Video simple and there for everyone to see. No way Davide would have made the corner without hitting James (who was simply taking the corner).
I think it's great for the rest of the grid to see the incident to understand what is expected of them. Will this be the case in all series on SRO from now on?
Would have liked to have joined you all but didn't have enough confidence in myself that i wouldn't have done a Davide myself!
Thanks for the race replay too, Looks like a great series.

 

Indeed! Hadn't realised until you mentioned it. I was keeping an eye to my right and I think we get close to touching each other but made room to each other pretty well. Very tight though. You had an As up your sleave though with the strategy at that time I was completely unaware of...

 

Another tough but enjoyable race in the RSR. Had great battles with Jari, Christian and David in their Pantera's who showed great restraint while obviously being held up by me for most of the lap which then allowed other cars to close in. The one area where the RSR seems to have some strength is under heavy braking and I managed to use this to my advantage several times into T1.....no doubt adding to the frustration of those trying to pass.

Good to see another RSR in the field too with Glyn seeming to gather pace as the race went on. Looking at the replay I got a bit out of shape at the end of the back straight and he had to take to the grass to avoid going into the back of me Apologies for that.

It's a shame the RSR isn't quite up to the pace of some of the other cars in the pack, although I'm sure a better driver could compete in it especially given that it doesn't need to refuel. There is actually a '73 2.8 RSR now added to the GTL pack which handles so much better than the '74 car. Unfortunately it is around 3 seconds a lap slower at VIR

While I was in the mood I had a quick blast around VIR in some of the TC Legends cars and they seem to vary in performance at least as much as the GTL cars and not just between 60's and 70's groups. In a 1 hour race most would need a stop for fuel but some won't and they are not necessarily the weaker cars!

Looking forward to Calabogie, I've not raced here before and it seems to be quite a fast but technical track so I'll need a lot of practice

 

Imp

 

The Imp is one of the fastest I think. It was a second faster around Riverside than the Fairlane when I tried it

 

You just took a word out of my mouth...

 

Ok, it will become the Imp single class championship then?

Yes John, that was a good battle. I could not get past you, so opted for a stop with new tires to see if that would give me an advantage over you. Just to discover you were not pitting at all. Your strategy paid out well in this case.

 

Bullocks...The fact that I had a penalty doesn't make you special considering you were 2 seconds slower than me and you didn't even realize I was coming, you just was unprepared and also mistaken your braking, locking right front wheel and moving under braking. I tough you were more experienced and my only mistake was to trust you.

To do a Davide yourself first you need to be fast like him dude...

 

Anyone heard anything from Caitlin?

 

Woops, this took longer than I thought to write. As the race is starting soon, I'm putting this at the top so you know @John vd Geest that I won't be making tonight's race. Sorry if some red lights (if there are any) might miss out because I'm slow!

That was me in the Pantera which which you had contact in the esses; sorry for that. It wasn't the best place to be side-by-side, but being on the inside I guess I could have lifted more. Can't remember how well I could tell your position from the mirrors :-/
Glad it was still fun though!

The first half of the race was OK for me, I didn't know the track as well though as I'd just discovered it during the practice session. Had the usual fight with Laurent , but then I had the usual Louis moment and lost 5-10 valuable seconds on the grass in the double turn before the back straight. Needless to say Laurent passed me there! For some reason I just couldn't get those two turns right, and Laurent as well as someone in a Daytona (Paul Anstey I think?) visibly pulled away into the distance on every lap after that.
The rest of the race was kind of lonely, until the pitstop. Somehow I Did It Right this time, and gained considerable time on Laurent. I got over-enthusiastic though, and (again) at the exit of the dreaded double corner, missed my second to third upshift; and very strangely my engine instantly blew! I don't think I threw it into first either; rather the stick bumped into the divider between 1st and 3rd. Also I doubt second is sufficient to blow the Pantera's engine in < .5 secs, at 50% damage

So an unfortunate end to yet another race in this series
It's too bad, especially for the Nordschleife as I really was looking forward to that one. The tracks for this series really were well-chosen, despite the fact that maybe they unbalanced the cars slightly. Honestly I'm fine with that, the racing was great anyway! If we're looking for total balance, single-car championships are probably the way to go.

Anyway, I'm posting this unusually long message (for me! I really should summarize my races more often, when I read your posts I often get useful insight on my driving) because I'm unfortunately going to sign out from this series (and perhaps the Lancia series as well but I'll post that over there). Exams are approaching, faster than previous years it seems, or so it feels given my total disconnection from uni after it closed due to the COVID-19 stuff.* First of all I won't have time to properly practice for these demanding races. So you can understand the second reason, I'll treat you with a couple of photos of what my racing setup (about which I had a small talk with Tim) looks like:



Sorry for the shitty quality, this was taken with my other (10 year old) laptop's camera.
Notice the tape holding the Thinkpad to the good ol' G27, which is itself strapped with masking tape to the table. Also not very easy to see is the cardboard box holding the pedals away from the wall. The box alone is too light, so inside it is a French dictionary which I got in high school. Thanks to my G27 I finally found a good use for it!



You must be wondering why in the world there's so much tape. (There's more under the laptop; the whole system is quite sophisticated actually.) The reason is that about a year ago, one of the wheel's two clamps broke, and I've been too lazy to open it up and replace the old clamps with the new pair I've had for months now. (Since October actually. I am lazy.)

Anyhow, under all that tape there's a desk, which I sort of require to in order to have some hope of surviving geometric group theory and friends... So my adhesive magnum opus is unfortunately going to have to be taken apart. As I'm not nearly as talented with a gamepad as Vasilis, this is the second reason for which I'm signing out

Thank you for the racing guys, and Caitlin too! On the flipside this will leave me no excuse for procrastinating after exams are over. Which means that when the TC Legends cup starts up,

In the meantime, have a great race tonight on what looks like another great track from Google's aerial photos!
Might have a peek on the livestream.
Be fast and keep it clean

* I just remembered reading a long time ago that someone here had come down with the virus. Was it you Jos? That would explain last race's password. If so, congrats on recovering, and sorry again for the bump there. My way of welcoming you back I guess

 

I look forward to embarrassing you on track soon Davide. I'll make sure to have a nice message for you on my rear bumper.........if you can get close enough to read it

 

I really wish i could give you a bit of my talent on playing, (not racing-somehow i feel like a gamer not a simracer as long as i am participating with a pad ) if this could have change your mind and not leave. I understand clearly, exams is and must be your first priority right now and i hope and wishing my best for you. I hope we will see you back soon again and who knows, maybe i will ..catch you at one of the live servers a late night

I think it was Maxime and thankfully he recovered and racing with us again

Once again i am wishing the best for you and looking foreword to have you back Louis