I was pleased to get P3 on the grid and kept that position as the race started. Paul was ahead of me and I was aiming to watch him and maybe get a draft for a pass. This did not happen, however, as Paul had a "moment" at the final chicane and I was able to slot in behind Jens. This formation was maintained to to end of the race as our main opposition suffered a series of dnfs . Congratulations to Jens and Philipp on their podium finishes and many congrats to Jens for taking the Championship . It was rather strange that some drivers were unable to take the race start due to a DQ issue but all in all this series has been a blast ... thank you Ken for this RADICAL championship
I fully understand you Ramon, it is though to swallow when you are not allowed to start a race for no reason. Same for Luis and Ed, really sorry for you. In the end the race got close to a farce, after Csaba could even join us, a third of the field got disqualified, Ken had probably disconnect and Paul retired too. Four cars left, Jorge got stuck in the gravel glue or quick sand. With the fact that Jens and Bill were too fast it was a lonley race. I really struggled here but I got more confidence with every lap, but then short for the end I lost my car before the last turn. Lost two laps because of that but it changed nothing. The podium was not really deserved, so I would ok with it if the race would be cancelled or the DSQ guys would get at least the points for attending. Seems not fair to me, when I pass Ramon in the standing because of that.
Sadly it was a case of what could go wrong, did go wrong on many levels at this race. I've no idea why three members got DQ when it switched to Race. Maybe it's the track as there also seemed to be a permanent yellow showing at the final chicane?? After Paul's little problem at the end of L1, which I couldn't avoid, we were catching Philipp after getting past Jorge when I had a screen stutter and then suddenly Philipp was behind Paul (?) and almost sitting in my cockpit with me. Not sure what you experienced Philipp? After I got past you, a couple of laps later I had a massive screen/sound freeze, which dropped me to the Windows desktop which was showing an audio control panel popup box (??) and when clicked back on AMS my car was in the barrier/gravel, so it was end of race for me. An easy victory for Jens/Bill and a bitter pill for me and Paul when he also went out after me. Such is racing life I suppose!
Something wasn't ok with this track. I've noticed the other day training when Csaba entered the practice session, he got an instant DQ. And then was the permanent yellow flag at the last chicane, as Ken said. Also, that last sand trap was bugged, if the car get stuck there, the game went like 2-3 fps and went crazy. Terrible feeling I couldn't start a race wich I prepared with many hours of training, I was really mad when that happened. Time to cool down and let the time goes on. Congratulations to Jens and everyone involved in this great Radical series.
Understand the disappointment of the 3 drivers who got DQ as race session started, there is no reason for that in any logs? This DQ has been mention below and it might be track related (this time Kansai West, 2016): https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/online-instant-dq-help-please.128225/ I have done several multiplayer races, but with AI to prepare for this round (as my single player crashes all the time), except that the AI was particular bad at this track, I had no other issues. Stuck in gravel could be car related and I had no fps issues of any kind. Tarmac was very smooth. Might be best to flag this track until it gets updated. Had around 150 laps of practice and lot of work with the setup as I needed a race without any mistakes. In qualy Paul didn't mange to repeat his sub 39 time, but I did improve a few 10th and got pole with 39.07 and 0.06s to Paul. Again my AMS crashed when going out from pit 2nd time in qualy (have never happen in practice), but as I actually missed pit entry that was no big deal and I rebooted the computer as I have done the last few races. Got a decent start and a small gap to 2nd in first lap, after the incident in last chicane I just pushed the laps. On final lap I also manged session fastest lap. From my point of view it was a well executed race, also teammate Bill had a solid drive. But it would have been better if we had all drivers taking the checkers flag (or at least the chance) Not the best end for a great and fun championship with some exiting races, the mod Radical is a bit strange as it's behavior and feedback changes rather much from track to track. Maybe I should revisit the first track and see Thanks Ken and SRO for hosting this AMS championship
Qualy: I was expecting a faster lap here as I'd got 1:39.3 with race fuel so I thought mid 1:38's would be possible on low fuel. In practice I did a 1:38.9 but too many mistakes in qualy and only managed to put in a fast lap towards the end. Well done Jens Race: In warm up I decided that to have any chance of winning the series I was going to have to pressure Jens into a mistake so P2 was where I needed to be. Didn't get the best of starts and Bill nearly got ahead. But a bit of late braking and I held on to P2. Now to sit as close as I could to Jens to force that mistake. But coming through the last fast left hander I understeered off the track. The car was unsettled and by the time I'd corrected it I was way past my braking point into the chicane. Sorry to all who got caught up in this. All I could now was to hammer in some fast laps and hope that Jens made a mistake. I was throwing caution to the wind in trying to catch up and inevitably I made another mistake into the chicane again missing my braking point. This time I couldn't slow down in time and headed toward the sand trap. I knew from practice that once you stopped in them you weren't getting out. So I floored the throttle in the hope of bouncing through it, but my car came to halt. Race over. Not a great way to end the series. The DQ problem was a bit weird and it was a great shame to loose 3 drivers at the start. I doubt there will be any updates of this track as it was ripped from SimRaceway so maybe not use this track in the future. Shame because Assen is such a great track although I prefer it's old layout better. Well done to Jens for winning the race and the championship Well done to Redline for the team championship Thanks Ken for running another great series Onto the Mini's. Probably my least favourite of the AMS cars but it should still make for a good series. I wonder if the BAC Mono's would make a good series. They seem to be faster than the radicals.
