I'm in tonight.
I'm in tonight.
I watched the replay of T1. I didn't get a great start and ended up being 3 wide with two AI cars going into T1. I thought if I turned in a bit on the inside guy, he'd panic and brake and put me in the perfect spot for T2. Instead, he didn't back down and somehow I was launched. The outside guy tagged me and we both spun. When I got back on track I was only something like 6 sec off the leader so I figured all was not lost. I was in traffic most every lap but managed to claw back to 3rd. Battling Group A cars in T1 lap 1 was not the plan.
Great race TJ, you executed quite well after your T1 incident.
As for me, I knew I didn't have the pace to run with TJ so I was just trying to run as clean a race as possible and hope that other factors fell in my favor. I pretty much got my wish in T1 with TJ and an AI car both taking themselves out and leaving me in P3 right behind the leaders with a gap to P4. I realized quickly that my tires wouldn't last if I went for the win so I settled into tire preservation mode.
That ended up being a great choice because in the last session I finally got the car handling the way I wanted, but I hadn't any long run testing and it turned out the new setup absolutely ate front tires. And by that I mean I ran hards and finished with about 40% left, and that was running fairly conservatively the majority of the race.
A few laps in I was feeling a bit of pressure from both an AI car and TJ reeling me in and pushed just a little bit too hard trying to get past a gaggle of Group A cars and ended up looping it. That overheated my tires and happened again in short order, but I managed to hold on to 5th. Not my greatest performance but given how fast TJ was and that the AI doesn't seem to be affected by tire wear it was about as good as could be expected.
I had a good setup for even tire wear, but was pretty far off the pace. The AI cars were a good bit faster. I was in a decent position to stay ahead of a few of the AI cars, but that black Mercedes must have hit me at at least +50 mph braking into T1, like there was no intention to brake.... hopefully I am a bit more competitive at the smaller and tighter Sanoma.
In reply to aircooled :
The AIs don't seem to brake for T1. They somehow make T1 then brake for T2. No idea how that works. If an AI is right behind you on the front straight, T1 is very dicey.
Sonoma will be a big change from the last two tracks.
It might be an ABS thing. I am sure they are on full and just dive in and stand on it. I don't run any, if for nothing else, it makes the car more fun to drive. I like to trail brake heavily into that corner and do a semi-drift through T1 and T2. That did allowed me to cut inside Group A cars a few times which seemed to brake way wide into T1.
I won't get stuck at work next Wednesday because I'm off. I was able to run a few shake down laps today just to get a feel for the GT1 cars. Sonoma is a track that I like and have real seat time on. The McLaren is fun but slow. Rethinking that choice. Everything else is about two seconds faster. I think that the F50 is one of the ugliest Ferraris ever but it does come in a yellow livery. I may drive it. Was able to get into the 27's with just a few laps. Similar pace in the Porsche but no good liverys and the steering wheel is on the wrong side (kept scraping the left side of the car off on barriers).
The AIs do not seem like they will be too much competition at this track. I did a practice race this morning and lapped two of the GT1 cars. Maybe a fluke, not sure.
I am happy with my setup. Similar to Sakitto setup other than gearing and tweaks to camber, brake ducts, radiator opening and tire pressures.
Depending on things I am a 50/50 for the race next week. I really can not plan things out that far at the moment.
Brad did you record the race?
I am not sure how I was going to do at that track. I was about 6 seconds off TJ but I was running full fuel an hard tires to there was a little more. The setup I was going to run was a low downforce to maximize the two long straits. I will most likely go back to a higher downforce setup for next week. That we used the race before. That was competitive and fun to drive.
The Panoz “should” be fast at Sanoma. Fat power band and good turn it should serve me well on the tight course. I suspect I will be “encouraging” some of the AI cars to explore the grassy hills at some point though as I try and get by them 
Did we run Sonoma in the GT3 cars? I know we ran it.
I remember trying to hold it wide open up the front strait and being able to do it but it would put me out of position for the turn at the to of the hill.
Interesting thing is the group A AI cars were about 30 seconds off GT1 pace at Sakitto, but at Sonoma they are maybe 15-20 seconds off the GT1 pace with the GT1 laptimes around 10 sec less than at Sakitto. Takes a little getting used to when passing them. The speed differential is not as high at Sonoma.
In reply to dean1484 :
Yes, we ran GT3's at Sonoma. Spools last race with us. He had an eventful race.
What version of Sonoma are we running
there is a jump at Sonoma that if you actually do jump it your race is all but over.
dean1484 said:What version of Sonoma are we running
I've been assuming Sonoma GP and not one of the shorter tracks.
That is what I was running
So what is a good time? Race pace for me is in the low 1:28's on full fuel and hard slicks.
dean1484 said:Brad did you record the race?
No. Was over the arbitrary limit.
Yes. The GP track.
I am slacking on admin duties. Minimal time plus the holiday season equals lame sauce leadership.
dean1484 said:So what is a good time? Race pace for me is in the low 1:28's on full fuel and hard slicks.
I did a bit of practice last night, but I'm still learning the track and working on the tune so I don't have any real input on race pace. I'll have a room open tonight for more practice if anyone wants to join.
BradLTL said:dean1484 said:Brad did you record the race?
No. Was over the arbitrary limit.
Yes. The GP track.
I am slacking on admin duties. Minimal time plus the holiday season equals lame sauce leadership.
I saved the Sakitto replay. I can put it up on Youtube.
That would be cool!!!
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