USA F3: Indianalopis

Great race everyone -- that was a lot of fun. Good win Steve.

Qual:
Touched the apron on first fast lap and killed myself in a horrific high speed crash.

Race:
Replacement driver had good start (17th to 11th) but then struggled with grip mid-race.

Let a couple by but picked up a couple as well through the race so stayed 11th for the majority.

Was really catching up Francesco in the final five laps using a momentum line and little braking. On the last lap pushed really hard on totally trashed tires to try and gain one measly position.

Crashed on said last lap, losing both wings, bending stuff and embarrassing myself. Watched the world go by.

Would have finished 10th if not so flaming stupid.

Took wing off the rear for qual and forgot to put it back in for race. DOH!

Crashed, losing both wings, bending stuff and and embarrassing myself.

I bet my race ending wreck was more embarrassing than yours... last corner of last lap.

Would have been nice to see some more give along with the take that was going on out there. Close racing incident for sure but still frustrating, especially since I could have done it over and over and didn't, and when I did do it accidently I pulled over and let the guy back buy, giving Peter a chance to catch up and battle me for a spot.

Well that was a surprise. Had almost unregistered, but figured I'd give it a go. Downloaded the track and entered with my Montreal set since I remembered messing with low drag vs downforce setups for that one and settling on a decent compromise.

Hadn't seen a 29 prior to Q, so the first surprise was to do a low one for 2nd on the grid. Still not sure where that one came from...

Race started well for me when Denis was slow away, leaving me in 1st after some good side by side action with Tom in the opening corners. Just tried to drive conservative until the tires warmed up, but had two hungry drivers on my tail. Not for long though; hit the oval and got smoked! When I saw how fast Rob and Tom went by on the straight, I thought I was going to be toast for sure. But I soon saw I had an edge in the infield, and figured I had something to work with if I didn't get freight-trained on the straight. Anyone behind me going onto it was going by, simple as that!

Got under Tom in a couple of laps going into Hulman straight; we rubbed wheels side by side, but no harm done. Then he drafted back by me on the straight, but had to brake a lot earlier. I went in deep and around the outside hoping it would set me up for T2. Bit of tire to tire contact again when his fronts got into the back of mine and he got a bit sideways, but we both lucked out and continued.

After that it was chase mode behind Rob. Wasn't sure I could get by and made some mistakes, overheating the tires for a bit. But I settled down and soon saw he looked to be having grip issues just past midrace. Closed in and was able to get by when he got out of shape briefly in the infield. From there it was just trying to get enough of a gap in the twisty bits that he couldn't drop me on the oval, plus avoiding any big errors of my own. One misstep and that would've been it, but I avoided choking for a change and brought it home.

Was thinking about the setup after the race, that the downforce was what made the difference for me. I feel sure I did have more wing on than most (15F/25R), but I think my slow top end may have been down to gearing. Didn't hear the limiter any, but was pegged at 158 mph/7000rpm either in the draft or in clean air. Looked like most guys were about 10-12mph faster on the front straight, just hitting 7000 at the end of it. Have to mess with the gearing and see!

While checking the replay I saw what a great job Tom did for 3rd - drive of the race if you ask me. Super dice for 3rd all race long, with Tom, Jimmy, Denis and Peter in the mix. Was a blast to watch! Big surprise there at the end for JJ... ;-)

Nice job Steve !!!

I had a good start, as I often do in these. Passing, and moving ahead to pass, several cars off the line. But Denis moved right and into me which then pushed me into the car I was passing at my right, so that squeeze and 'rubbing' erased all my accelration advantage.
Then Denis went on to cause mayhem in Turn 1, so I knew (?) he would be losing time for a drive-thru soon enough anyway.

But I went on to spin by myself and lose about 12secs or so, and drop back to 10th. So most of the race was spent fighting my way back to where I had been.

As the race went on and tires wore, my car hardly noticed that so I was gaining on cars ahead quite fast erally. But it was going to be touch and go whether I could catch Jimmy and Tom who were ahead. Plus was then going to be a tough battle of three cars - though I had the speed that should see me through them when I got there.

It was a tough battle when I got there and luckily for me (and not for Jimmy) he was given a nudge to spin him out, so that left me with a one on one battle with Tom.
I got past, but immediately made a slight slip (slide) and Tom got past again.

Then I got past Tom again down the main straight into the last lap but Denis, who had caught up by then, decided to do an overly ambitious late braking dive from about 3 car lengths back of us - which is hardly likely to work against cars of your own speed AND both using the whole track anyway!
That meant I had to delay my turn in and brake more once I saw his car rocketting in my mirrors! But it was a bonus for Tom, because being further back of me meant he was clear to turn in before Denis had gone past me and out of my way. Thus Tom got ahead again.

The last chance was going to be onto the main straight, where I was a fair bit faster. I did run out of the last turn better and heading to pass Tom, but having to swing out wider to go past on the left meant a longer path and it erased most of my speed advantage. But I still had some acceleration advantage and it was going to be a close finish!!
I came back into line with him for the final bit of slipstream gain as I caught him again, but as I swung left to pass he moved left and clipped my front wing which killed my speed advantage! Tho I think I was going to end up about 1/2 car length short by the finish line anyway.

So I ended up about where I had expecteed to finish anyway.

I had some good racing battles in this event!! So that made it fun, even with the stupid early on spin.

I ran 1-5 wings in the Euro race. TOO LOW.
And used 5-10 for the US race. That was almost 1.5secs faster for my offline testing in between the races. Thanks to the infield gains.
1:28.2 for best Qual test... 1:29.1 to .5 for race laps early on to mid race sort of distance.
But then online I could not come anywhere near that. The car felt fine, great, so its balance was still excellent, but it just could not do the lap times. bah. (lower grip online than offline).

5-10 wing gave me a car that was still great right to the end of the race. That was one key thing I aimed for based on the prior Euro race. Cars that were faster down the straight were really going to suffer on the infield LATER in the race! And that was what allowed me to recover a heap of ground as the US race went on, after my early on lap spin.

The best race setup for these, in the current race format with no pitting, is very often not the fastest car - at first. So there is a need for a fairly different Qual and Race setup now - or will be more often at many tracks.

Thx Peter, interesting numbers - have to give those settings a try.

You're dead on about the effect on tires; early in the race I was hoping that would be the case, since the tires on the F3's don't react well to being slid around at all. Anyone doing much of it was going to pay in the later laps. Turned out that way too, which is why I was able to get around Rob - wasn't a huge difference, but it was enough.

As boring as I find the Indy road course, it does make for an interesting setup challenge since different approaches pay pronounced dividends on different sectors of the course.

That was a pretty weird crash. I was fuming about the contact I had received and just lost concentration. I remember coming around the last corner and drifting down onto the apron and then it was like that barrier reached out and grabbed me and shot me across the track...

It's ok though, I did remember to let go of the wheel right before impact. Hopefully my driver pod stayed intact.

They said I have to get clearance from the Dr. to race in tonights stockcar shootout. Forget them, I feel fine (except for a bruised ego!).