USA FT: Goldenport

Great Race! Congrats to the top.

I was going wild in the form lap, sorry if anyone was scared, but no problems.

Great race all around me the whole time. I got squirelly once but didn't slow down much. Some great drving guys, very close and furious the whole time.

Till next time...
RA

Sorry I ended both our races prematurely Steve. :(
Thought I would clear you, but I guess not...

Well that didn't go so well. Qualified ok, about the pace I expected. Did a half dozen laps in the morning and just managed a high 9, so I figured the front guys would be in the mid 8's which wasn't far off.

Start was good; launched in perfect sync with Tristan and got under George into T1. But I really didn't want to try to get between them since they were nearly a second quicker; figured it best to let them sort out 1 & 2 while I could try to hang onto the bottom step. Briefly bumped George under braking into T3 but no harm done, and was happy that didn't cause any issues.

About halfway into the first lap, heading down the long straight before the 90deg left (T7?), everyone vanished - poof, warp city. I wondered if I was going to get discoed, but then right at the apex they popped back in, so I thought OK, all good. Might have been if I hadn't lost my concentration from all that and missed the apex and run wide on the exit. The curbing turned out to be a car launcher and it kicked the rear end up and around, spinning me onto the track in traffic before I could get it stopped.

Fortunately nearly all the guys behind me got by without harm. But not all for some reason; 5 went by behind me, then 5 more in front after I'd gotten it stopped. Then another went bahind, another around the front while I was just sitting there trying not to move. Then a car came through and nailed me, then two more got by OK ahead of me, then I got centerpunched. Seemed weird since they all had to have been able to see me in time to avoid me . Wondered at the time if a bad connection was at play.

Anyway, the car was bent after that so I pitted for repairs. Came back out to see what could be salvaged and went right off again avoiding a spinning car. Getting back on, I saw the front runners coming through so I pulled over into the grass to avoid getting in anyone's way on cold tires. But after waiting for everyone to clear, I just decided to pull the plug and exit. It was too short a race to try to make up all the ground I'd lost and risk messing anyone else's race up for a low placing.

Did anyone else see any warp issues or was that just me? My conn is usually good, so that was unusual if so.

Sorry to Jim and Chip who hit me while I was stopped.

Just happy to have FINISHED that race. Too much drama during the race. Instead of going after Chris M. at the end, I short-shifted the last few laps, and ran out of fuel out of the last turn and coasted to the the checkered. :)

Consider 1255F was supposed to be a big performance increase, it seemed about the same to me. But I'm running Vista x64 so I get a 10-30% performance hit off the bat. But yes, it was VERY stutter stutter at the start for about few laps. The stutters started for me when someone join the practice session -- I don't recall who, but prior to that all was smooth as silk.

I was gonna be happy with a top 10, I didn't have the pace nor the car setup to run even close to the 1:08/1:09 guys -- I was never able to remove a wicked push. Anyway, people just started spinning in front of me and somehow I ended up in 4th. I think I got some damage when Chris spun in front of me ad I had no place to go - the car had a wicked evil push after that. Chris eventually caught back up to me and I was giving him the inside line to T1 since I was way off pace but looks like he wasn't prepared for someone to actually give him a position and he ended up locking it up and sliding into me.

I hobbled back to the finish.

Still had a lot of fun though. Much to learn on how to set these trainers up.

Steve,

I had the exact same problem, everyone vanashed for a second then reappeared, sounds like at the same time you did. That has happened to me before in GTR2 but not rfactor.

@ Steve B - It happen to me as well, I just kept driving my line and out of nowhere all reappeared and I was clear of any traffic, lucky!

Well I had company and couldn't even turn one real lap, so instead of trying to practice, I had more wine with her then got up and went straight into quali. It certainly showed, 14th, but I had a good race here at Goldenport the last time out and knew the rhythm would come back quickly.
I remembered one thing not to overdrive the car here, so I was as smooth as possible and had some great racing with Ryan A and Brian Noelte, I believe it was just some great open wheel racing. We swapped positions numerous times going into and coming out of so many turns, great concentration and driving guys.
Very pleased with my finish, wished I would have started up front for this one though :) Congrats Tristan and the rest of the podium.
@ Tristan - I thought you owed me a position, your first would have worked for me just fine! lol

I had everyone disappear as well. Never having seen that I lifted exiting onto the back straight and when everyone reappeared they were going by me pretty quick. Lesson #28.

Still I had moved up to P7 and was in a battle with P5 & P6. I felt I was being held up but I wasn't fast enough to get buy.

If I recall correctly, I ended up spinning in an effort not to ram the back of P6 who had slowed much more than me at the fast 90 degree left.

Tried to get back into a rhythm but I was trying a new Alien "cheat"(*) that apparently everyone uses but me (lesson #26) and on a more normal setup it was overheating the rears. I sure could have used this "cheat" at Limerock & Toban where I cooked the fronts.

Kind of cool how greasy and slippery they got. Naturally I wasn't able to save the rear-end that many times so I eventually spun again.

A shame but another few lessons learned.

(*) ...and by cheat I mean being smarter than I and taking total advantage of what the series rules and software allows you to get away with.

I was slow and off the pace, which is odd because it practice (on my own) I got into the very high 10's. I think the last time I raced here I was also in the 10's. Not sure why my pace was soo far off today.

Either way I had fun, except for running out of gas, and having to pit 2 laps before the race ended. Not sure if it was me or the patch, but I was way off today.

Whoever spun me, don't worry about it. I was too slow going into some of the corners because I was afraid I was gonna lose the back (not enough time spent on setup). I was slowing down way to much and I am sure that would have caught anyone out. I even thought about slowing and moving off of the line and letting everyone by because I was so slow, but figured that might have caused more mayhem. Also, no damage from the spin, I luckily missed all track objects and continued on my way.

Thx for the feedback on the warp, guys. Sounds like I wasn't the only one to see it. Just the only one who spaced out and ran off the track from it... ;-)