Project Cars 2 Round 9 Long Beach

Let,s see if a can find a sled in time!!

 

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A quick race report then from me then

I'd already raced on this circuit before in PC2 in both P2 and Indycars so I kind of new my way around although I'd never raced the GT3's.

Did some practice before joining the server for the official practice session, was in the 19's so happy so far. In the official practice session I managed to go quicker than that and tyre wear was good so pretty happy.

Got pipped to pole by @Rob Milliken by a few thousands, well done to you sir. I was a few tenths up on my last run but got sideways in one corner and that was it, however I was still happy.

Temperatures were low at 66 degrees (and fog) so softs were fine, the rears were getting a bit hot in practice but as long as I was careful the car was fine.

Got a good start and grabbed the lead from Rob, I could see @Travis Brown behind me so just eased off and took it easy through turn one and into turn two.

Then something weird happened, I can see it in the replay as well. The game froze for about half a second, just as I entered the roundabout. Not sure what caused it, but maybe it was the chaos at the first corner and the server was catching up I don't know but all of a sudden when the game recovered I had a concrete wall in front of me! lol. So I hit that and went around, really disappointed as I think I had the pace to win last night. It did it a few times in the race as well, usually when some cars came together so I assume it was a server or game issue (some sort of game/server lag?) Anyway it didn't spoil my evening just annoying it happened.

Tried to recover but I had damaged steering, but kept going for 25 minutes to try and make my strategy work and was still in the 20's. Upon pitting I managed to change the settings to fix the car but couldn't make the change fast enough to get enough fuel in for the end, so I knew I would have to stop again.

Anyway, fixed car, new softs and away I went. Made very few mistakes, car felt great and I eventually made my way up to 2nd behind Travis, took the odd second out of him here and there, but like at the Red Bull Ring just tried to put as much pressure on as possible.

I then had to make a quick fuel stop, which dropped me behind new champion @Xavier Eugeni. I was faster than him but as usual he drove very well and I just put as much pressure on as possible, I had a top speed advantage so waited for my next opportunity. However that never came, he made a mistake on the kerbing onto the back side of the circuit, I went to the left but he rolled back and we came together pretty badly. So I was up to 2nd again but badly damaged on the front.

So I made the decision, big gap to third, so if Xavier pitted I would stay out as the loss of time to him would mean I would still stay in 2nd. So that was what I did, I was about two seconds a lap slower but Xavier lost nearly a minute in the pits I think and with 20 minutes to go I just had to make it to the finish line.

So another 2nd place, kind of happy with that but I had a really good car and I managed to make it work on the softs so a victory would have been possible around here. Anyway a good end to the championship for me.

Well done to everyone who took part and SRO for running the league. It was a pleasure racing with all of you. Would be good to see these cars again maybe.

I've done some Project Cars 2 multiclass races on RD with P2 and GTE. That would be great if we could get enough people but PC2 is in the minority and that's a shame. I get a lot of enjoyment racing on it. I'm not a fan of Assetto Corsa, still undecided about ACC, it looks great but the physics don't like me, lol.

Wishing you all a great Christmas and here are some pictures from the replay

 

I was just about to come online when a friend from out of town called and was stopping by.. (bad timing!)
Andrew, I was getting some stutters in the roundabout and the last corner in practice.
Ahh softs huh, thats why everyone pitted 1/2 race. I was feeling pretty good on full fuel and hards, but I had temps set a bit higher..
Sorry to have missed it!

 

Yeah I think if the ambient temps were higher, hard compound would have been the way to go but I was finding the softs ok as long as I didn't abuse them too much.

If you had the option of a no stop strategy then yes, hard tyres and a full(ish) tank could've been the ideal strategy. Depends on whether you could make the time up with a full tank one stopper on softs (and save time by not refuelling).

Thanks for confirming the stutter! lol Long Beach is a gloriously detailed track, looks amazing. Maybe that's part of the reason.

Shame you missed the race, these things happen. Hope you have a good Christmas.

 

I managed to qualify in 3rd but realized quickly that I’d made a mistake going with the hard tires. Rather than switching to use the soft tires for the race, which I hadn’t tested, I opted to stick with what I knew.
At the start, Andrew did a nice job describing an exciting first lap (above) that left me in the lead with a 5-8 second gap to second. I tried to focus on my consistency and once my hard tires heated up I was able to extend the lead to 15 seconds or so. 30 minutes into the race, I missed my braking point at the end of the long back straight (I.e. not the front straight), and oversteered into the right wall taking 20 front suspension damage and 15 aero damage. I did two more laps to try and preserve my pit strategy, which by the time I entered the pits had my lead down to only 6-7 seconds. In the pits, I had my suspension repaired, but not the aero. After the pits, the track started to warm up and my car’s engine temps rose with it, which slowly caused engine damage. Apparently, I didn’t have the radiator opening set high enough as my oil temps rose above 250 degrees F. It was in the 220s before I pitted. Perhaps the aero damage impacted the cooling... I don’t know. By the end of the race, I had 13 aero, 0 suspension, and 25 engine damage. Because my pace kept slowing, I tried to stay out of Andrew and Eugene’s battle as they unlapped themselves and managed to limp home for the win. It was a strange win since everyone else’s race was compromised on lap 1, but I guess that’s endurance racing. Really looking forward to next season as this was my first ever sim racing league and I loved it. Congrats again to Eugene... I’m coming for you next season.
PS - GTE cars and/or prototypes would be fun as I love IMSA.

 

Nice circuit. First time here, seemed not that diffcicult. Started with soft and change to hard in pits. But that was a wrong choice, the opposite when I was training. Too cold outside I suppose...
Had to change again to softs as I was losing + 3 secs from my usual pace. Had an strange accident, as it was a slight touch that send my directly to a wall. Anyway my fault, car was undriveable, and the game itself marked a pit stop for repairing, so I trusted the game, but pitting didn't repair anything and just my new fresh tryres were changed again. Damn!. Another pit stop... So the only thing was able to do is try to set the fastest lap, which I managed, but this didn't leave me satisfied in any way. I love the circuits were you need a plus of concentration, and I failed to keep my head down...
Congrats all for this great season! Don't expect to be that lucky again next one (if any) !

Next season I'd prefer any GT series, same time slot and duration. The weather changes have been amazing, it's a must we have to take from PC2. Maybe some more weather changes, I mean night to day and vice, 24 hours cycle again, more random weather after one/two prefixed slots etc etc ... Just my 2 cents.
And later on....ACC!!!