This week's NASRL Vintage Series event was at Riverside -- we're now past the mid-season point and we've switched over from the "little" Touring Cars (TC) to the bigger Gran Touring (GT) cars, which means Mustangs and Falcons and speed, oh my!
Everybody chose Mustangs except for the winner, Miguel de Raton, who wisely went with a Falcon. All the Mustang drivers seemed to choose the same car, because aside from Miguel's Falcon, my yellow Group 5 Mustang, and one lone blue Mustang, all the other cars in the field were either red or red-and-white, which made for a rather bland race for the spectators.
This I know, because I ended up spectating for the last half of the race after suffering engine failure on Lap 13. This marked my first NASRL Vintage Series DNF, but not as disappointing as it could have been -- in fact, I'm only disappointed that I missed out on runn [... more]
This week's qualifying for totally sucked -- after dipping into the 2:09 range earlier in the week during practice, I just couldn't get it together on race night. I wasn't overly wound-up, but I just couldn't seem to find my way around. I turned a 2:10 lap in practice, then couldn't do any better than a 2:12 in qualifying.
Starting from the rear was probably a blessing, though, because the start was ugly! My qual time put me at the back of the field for the start, one spot ahead of Bill Guillame, and things in front of me were just plain crazy -- and not in a good way. With a view from the rear, things seemed to go well going through Tarzan (T1) and Gerlach (T2), but as I came up on Hugenholtz (the T3 hairpin), things got really messy. Several cars had gone wide and apparently tangled at the entrance, and other cars ahead of me were bumping and jostling each other fo [... more]
What a race! I chose the Alfa Jr. because I just couldn't find speed AND consistency with any other car. I did manage to put together a good setup and I got pretty consistent with the Alfa during practice throughout the week, so I knew I SHOULD be able to run in the 1:39 range throughout my full fuel run with no problems.
Sunday was a busy day, though, and unlike most weeks I didn't get a chance to turn ANY offline laps at all before joining up for official practice online. I was tired by the time the race rolled around, so I had no expectations going in.
My 11th place qualifying run was no surprise -- about what I had expected. What I hadn't expected was how "off" I was during practice . . . I just couldn't seem to get myself in-sync with the car and the track, and I found myself constantly chasing the car and fighting with understeer that I had never experienced [... more]
Internet connections can be tricky things -- thankfully for me, this week's NASRL Vintage GT race (using the Power & Glory mod for GTR2) went off without a hitch, which was a refreshing change of pace after two consecutive DNFs for the first two races of the season due to discos (that's "disconnects," not something dance-related). Not sure if the stars were aligned, or if changing my "Connection Speed" in the multiplayer lobby from "ISDN" to "DSL/Cable" did the trick -- whatever the reason, it was definitely nice finally be able participate in an actual race.
And what a race it was! This week's scheduled event was Monaco -- beautiful track with lots of great scenery and history . . . not very high on my list of favorite tracks, though, but the racing was good so I'm not complaining.
I have no idea what went on in the front of the field but the mid-pack racing was [... more]
What a week! It all started over the weekend when one of the steering springs on my TSW2 wheel broke -- or I thought it was the spring, anyway. After I opened things up, I discovered that the coupler that attaches the spring to the bolt on the steering shaft had actually sawed THROUGH the head of the bolt, shearing it off.
Yikes!
That might seem like an odd failure, but it’s not so odd when you consider that this wheel has seen almost constant use over the past 10 years (yes, I’ve had it that long). Aside from the occasional potentiometer replacement (I’m on my third set of pots) and the recent re-wiring I did to make it easier to replace the pots (I also added a switch to allow for dual-axis brake and throttle support), I haven’t had a single mechanical failure. Thankfully, Thomas Enterprises [... more]
Yes, this really IS a public service announcement . . . but it is racing-related, so please read on:
If you live in or near Indianapolis and you're a race fan -- especially an IndyCar, IRL, or CART fan -- you might want to check out the "Cookin' Out for Kids" benefit for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis. This is a benefit backyard barbecue-type cookout that is being held on Thursday, May 1st, 2008, 6:00 pm, at the Brickyard Crossing Pavillion at 4400 West 16th Street. The evening includes guest drivers Will Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay, special guest team owners Michael Andretti and Derrick Walker, and photo opportunities with IRL drivers. The Walker Racing show car will be available for photos, and the Walker Racing Race Transporer will be available for guest tours. Sponsorships and corporate packages are available, and single admission to the event is $150. [... more]
Tonight at Mid-Ohio in a Jaguar lightweight 5-speed E-Type was supposed to be my first outing with the R2P NASRL Vintage Series league -- I had raced with the NASRL folks a bit in GTL, but this would have been my first organized outing in the GTR2 Power & Glory cars.
Notice yet how I'm speaking in the past tense? "Was supposed to be" . . . "would have been" . . . etc.
Yeah, me too -- I noticed that it was going to be past tense as soon as GTR2/P&G locked-up on me before I even made it to the starting grid. Still kinda steaming about it, too.
There's irony afoot here, because in the prerace message thread for this race I made a post in response to some discussion about disconnects indicating that to some degree disconnects actually ADD to the realism, serving as virtual "mechanical failures," if you will. I even mentioned Parnelli Jones in the Turbine car at Indy [... more]
It's been at least a couple of years since I did any organized, online racing, and I had also pretty much drifted away from sim racing in general. At my "peak" a few years ago, I was actively involved for about four seasons (and part of a fifth) with the Virtual Online Racers (the VOR league) and was part of the 2005 Team Series Championship team, bringing home four victories for the team in the "B" Division.
The VOR Team Series league was a lot of fun, and the camaraderie was great, but I let myself become intensely competitive towards the end of my tenure there and the amount of preparation I was putting in was starting to take its toll, especially once our second daughter came along. Around the same time, I managed to go negative in the GPL Rank, and by t [... more]
Name: John Bodin
Nickname: "jbodin" on most sim racing forums
Profession: Process Control Engineer
Age: 46
Residence: Indianapolis, IN
Interests/Hobbies: Sim racing, real racing (IRL/IndyCar/F1), computers, movies, reading, writing, game mods, my wife and daughters
Favorite Movies: The Usual Suspects, It's A Wonderful Life, Le Mans
Favorite Music/Band: Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow
Favorite Drink: Coffee, Green Tea, or Diet Mountain Dew
Favorite Book: Illusions (Richard Bach), The Last Open Road & Montezuma's Ferrari (Burt Levy), The Dark Tower (Stephen King)
Real Vehicles: 1998 Saturn SL2, 2005 Saturn Vue
Real Racing Experience: Track Attack Driving School (Indianapolis), some non-competitive karting (2-stroke non-shifter race karts)
Sim-Racing Experience: ICR2, Viper Rac [... more]
