Assetto Corsa Round 8 Spa "The RC GP"

Have fun this evening guys, I will not be there.
Eventhough I am looking forward to see who the champion will be!!
The King of the Seat Eurocup who will be on his home circuit? Or the newcomer? Or Alex who is lurking just behind? Suspense

 

Hello all .I cant find server .Any help

 

Just type in "sro". Works for all SRO AC series.

 

Larry, You'll be sorely missed mate. And to be honest, I think all 3 front runners are in suspense themselves.
And yes, I'm hoping I can pull off a win on my home track.

 

Guessing this would be a fantastic race to broadcast. Just sayin'.

 

make sure you have the latest version of the car
https://simracingonline.co.uk/resources/ac-seat-leon-euro-cup.408/

 

Congrats Roy!!!


thanks all in this series.


love it, even though i missed most races.
i did go back and read race reports.
thanks all for a great championship.
see you all in round 4!!

Karl

 

Last race of the series. This was going to be one of double length, but would also wield double points. The idea behind this was that the series winner, or any other position, would not be decided until the last race. And it worked like a charm. The entire top 10 could not be sure of their spot.


The build up to this race was a bit of a stormy one. Last race some people had doubts about how some of the participants were able to finish the race without having to do a pitstop. As there was talk of people leaving the series I then decided to post on the forum how we do it. It seems that some of you have read it and tried it for yourselves because this race there were 6 people able to do 16 laps and 2 even 17 on the 55L of fuel. They all did that while doing faster laptimes than the race in last series where most only managed 14 laps. So I guess it’s all good now…


Anyway. The server was up very early this time, but no one seemed eager to do an online lap and show their hand. Ah well. So be it.


Raceday.

Free practise;

By the time I went on a god few people were on there and were doing some descent times. Good. The series leader was on there too, but still wasn’t doing real fast laps. Hmmm, sandbaggin’ as usual ;-) I did a few laps to see that I didn’t have the same issue I had at the last few races. And yep, the slow laps were back… Weird. Whenever I go online my laptimes are nearly a full second a lap slower. But then it dawned on me. I was missing the brake points due to the shadows being different. Note to self. Don’t use the shadows as brake markers.


Quali;

This was a bit weird. I tried to go on track first to have a clear track. Worked fine as the only pitbox in front of me was Rob’s and his car didn’t move. Right, did my 4 laps. For some strange reason I had no timing on screen, but the Crewchief kept saying I had pole. I wasn’t aiming for pole as it gives you a disadvantage down the Kemmel straight.


Race;

Despite this being the last race 12 people showed up to do this last one. Double the race length and double the points were on offer.

Spa is known for having a stinker of a corner right after the start, La Source. Pile ups are not uncommon there. Red lights…. Green… Go go go! I had a fair start, but so did Dzintars and Alex. We went into La Source close, but without touching. And apparently everyone got through it without damage. This had us close going down to Eau Rouge/Raidillon. Not what I would have liked. Taking the Raidillon cautiously gave Dzintars a good tow down the Kemmel straight, just as I had feared. But anticipating this would happen I “forced” him to take the outside line for the Les Combes corners. Dzintars was able to pull along side me but realised that I would not give up the position that easy. He braked a bit earlier than me giving me a clear line into the corner. Attempt one fouled. It was clear that he would not give up, and neither would I. This was going to be a very hard race if I did not find a solution quick. Having had only clean racing with both Dzintars and Alex all 7 previous races I was not prepared to “play dirty” but I still had to do something. The only clean solution I could think of was have Alex join the fight to distract Dzintars and hopefully have him lose time defending. This part worked out better than I had expected because Alex got past Dzintars. Great, now I had a buffer and in the process the tow was broken. That gave me a breather for a few laps. I was hoping Alex would keep Dzintars behind him up until the pitstops. If he could do that I would have the 5 seconds gap I needed to have “plan B” work. Plan B was where I would have the lead after the pitstops and not taking on the full 55L of fuel. This would see me do 31 laps instead of the 32 laps of “plan A”. But as all good plans go, it didn’t go as planned. Dzintars got back past Alex and was chasing me at a blistering pace. I was able to keep the gap fairly stable until I made a small mistake at Stavelot. I just clipped the sand losing me a full second. This had the gap down to where he could again take advantage of the tow down the two main straights. Yes, I’m calling Blanchimont a straight because its basicly full throttle in any race car. For the next few laps I managed to keep him behind me trading some paint along the way. All fair racing in case someone’s wondering. Then on lap 16 the “paint scrubbing” resulted in me drifting through turn 18. In all fairness Dzintars immediately slowed down enough to not take advantage of the incident. And again, it was a racing incident nothing more. This was the lap I had to pit and where it would be clear if I was still on for plan B. Some quick thinking and calculating convinced me (sort off) that doing a 31 lapper was the way to go. So I gambled on taking only 52L of fuel. Saving valuable seconds. It worked. I was able to leave the pit first and saw no movement of Dzintars car. Exiting the pit I saw a black dot starting to move in the pit. Was convinced this was Dzintars, but it turned out to be Alex who had pitted on the same lap. Dzintars appeared to have an issue, or Alex had the same idea as me (the 52L deal). If Alex had the same idea, then good. He could be the buffer again I needed. All through the lap I couldn’t see Dzintars on the timing sheet. Where was he? Passing the timing line on the start finish straight he suddenly appeared in 8th position. WHAT? HOW? This had me off guard a bit. At that time I had an 8 second lead over Alex. In all fairness, Alex would not be a threat to me gaining first in the series. This had me no longer needing to take risks and the lap times showed it. All went fine until about ten laps before the end my steering wheel came loose! NOT NOW!!!!! Called for the wife to bring me tape right quick! She came running with one of those narrow paper tapes. USELESS! The tape, not the wife ;-) How I managed from then on I can’t say, but using one hand for steering, and the other for holding the wheel steady does not do any good for the laptimes. Anyway, in the end I was able to hold off Alex who had closed the gap. A WIN!!! And more importantly, No1 in the series!


In all fairness I have to say that if Dzintars did not have his pitstop ordeal he would surely have won.


Again, it was a great series with this Seat mod. Some numbers, On average there were 13 people taking part. Most taking part in a single race, 16. Lowest number, 11.

The midfield was highly contested with a good few people fighting for positions up to the finish of the last race.

The top 3 lifted and pushed one another to new heights, and I loved every second of it.

A massive thanks to all taking part!

And last but certainly not least, A BIG THANKS TO SRO FOR HOSTING THIS GREAT SERIES!

 

Well done Roy well deserved...

 

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. What can I say. I was super excited to be back at Spa-Francorchamps, where it all began. The double-length race was going to put fuel conservation and pit strategy front-and-center, so I strapped on my virtual pink fuzzy slippers and headed to Belgium to save the environment.

I've become accustomed to being slower than the leaders but this time somehow I was fourth-fastest in free practice with a purple sector 1 and 3. I could barely believe my eyes. When we joined the practice server there were hotter laps being turned but my race pace was still dependably in the 2:33 range. Before quali I started pushing my brake points and stopped lifting-and-coasting into corners, and set a PB in the 2:32s. During qualification everyone was good about leaving gaps and I managed to maintain that pace for an unprecedented P5 start.

With 80 minutes to race I was playing it 200% safe going into La Source and immediately surrendered 5th place to James H. That allowed to me to follow single-file through Eau Rouge and Raidillon and stay on the tail end of the lead train. The fight at the front was going all-out but they weren't pulling away! A few laps later I crossed the start-finish and almost drove straight into the wall when Crew Chief Jim said "That's the fastest lap. You're setting the pace." I'm… I'm what? A purple lap? Me? Are you sure you're watching the right car?!

By lap 4 I was watching James and Sean battle and hoped it would let me close the gap, but instead I just kept it stable and kept up my fuel numbers. My strategy depended on going a lap longer than everyone else and then taking a daring short-fill in the single stop, and I was maintaining just under 3.2L/lap while keeping up a 2:33.xx pace. It was exactly what I needed. My gap to Sean in front was steady and James B was coming up strong on his last-to-first challenge but wasn't going to catch me before the pit stops. Every lap the track conditions became more comfortable, the tires got better, and the pace kept getting faster. Lap 12 came and went and James H and Sean were still in sight ahead. James B was catching, though, and seemed to be on the same one-stop strategy. I knew then it would be tough to keep him behind. It would all come down to the pit stop.

Finally lap 16 came around and it was time to find out what was going to happen. I had almost saved enough for an 18-lap stint but decided it was better to play it safe and come in at the end of lap 17. So I was shocked when I approached the chicane and everyone ahead was already in the pits. I was so freaked out I almost stopped in La Source. Then Crew Chief Jim confirmed, "You're leading." NO FREAKING WAY. It didn't score because Roy had already crossed the start-finish going through the pits, but there I was in the actual lead of the race. I couldn't believe it.

No time to rest, though. James B also made it 17 laps on the opening stint. I had to keep up the pace, fend him off, and calculate fuel numbers, all while trying not to float out of my chair from the excitement of being in front. At the end of the lap I dove into the pits, having practiced the tricky pit entry countless times. James B rolled past into his stall further up the lane. Then all I had to do was sit and endure the agony of waiting for the fuel to finish. I calculated a 48L fill would just barely get me to the end. Of course I was wrong. First because I'd saved more than I expected in the first stint, and second because I was assuming a 32 lap race, forgetting that we'd lose a lap's pace with the pit stops themselves! So I could have taken even less fuel and saved precious seconds. I'll know better for next time!



The pit stop finally finished and it was go time for the second stint. I passed James B in his stall and came out inches behind James H at the exit of La Source, in fourth place overall. I was absolutely over the moon. I had taken a second set of hard tires after deciding not to take the risk of my fuel numbers going down on mediums, and setting some great laps on hards at the end of the stint anyway. I managed to get the tires warmed up quickly and get right back on the 2:33 pace.



But the James sandwich around me was closing on both sides. I knew JB was faster and I would gain more time by letting him through and following than by fighting him, so at the start of lap 20 I just let him through at La Source and smashed the throttle to stay with him. I was content to follow him but he went on the defensive and actually held us up going through Les Combes, and we lost precious seconds to third. After I braked to stay off his bumper he had a second's gap out of Bruxelles and pulled away. Then I settled back into a groove and waited for the James & James Show to provide the battle I needed to catch up. Meanwhile our pace was getting even faster, and I started flirting with, and finally breaking into, the 2:32s. I was already excited for this race but it was turning out better than I had imagined.



The Battle of the Jameses started in earnest at the end of lap 23, where JB made a daring overtake on the approach to Blanchimont, but JH won the battle of braking points into the chicane and onto the main straight. I regained half a second and was eager to see more. Their tussle continued cleanly through lap 24 until again JB used the lesson of the previous lap to turn the tables going into the chicane and jump into third. I was now a second closer and could practically smell the exhaust. I would never wish ill on my competitors but the prospect of a podium finish made me question that philosophy.

By the end of lap 27 the battle ahead had finally settled down with J.Bird ahead of J.Houghton, and me about three seconds behind in fifth, having just put in a 2:32.9 still saving fuel. On lap 28 I started reeling James H. in and I started to get greedy. On lap 29 I checked the fuel numbers and had more than a lap in reserve, so I decided to go into full-on win-it-or-bin-it mode and went back to my qualifying brakepoints. Of course that meant I immediately lost a second a lap and threw away any chance of battling James for the Position. Then to start lap 31 we caught Norman at La Source, and he was a perfect gentleman to let us through, but I completely botched my exit all on my own and never got back on pace to challenge. We finished lap 31 with James B in third, James H fourth, and me rounding out the top five, still with over a lap's worth of fuel in the tank, and wishing I'd taken only 42 liters.

I then proceeded to pull onto the runoff at La Source and do donuts like a man possessed, because holy crap, a top five.



From a spectator's perspective my race was pretty boring, because I was in a bubble most of the time, which is why I don't have my usual dump of screenshots. But from where I was sitting, I was setting near-lead pace and battling directly with people who spent most of this season more than 20 seconds up the road from me, and I was so thrilled I just about floated up out of my chair. THIS IS WHY WE DO IT, LADS. There's nothing quite like driving the race of your life in an imaginary race car against real people.

Time to start preparing liveries for season four!
Thanks to everyone for a great season three!