USA F3: Mills

Sorry about being a slow poke...I hope everyone was OK with my driving. Yeah, Tim I should have just parked it after I lost my rear wing...rFactor says they fix it, but the car is never the same afterward especially since I also had a rear quarter panel yellow damaged which didn't go away. What I'm trying to gain experience on requires that my car be at 100% or else I'm trying to learn too many things at once.

It's strange, but I'm just fine until there's other cars on the track then the car suddenly grows ice on the wheels. I'm hoping more seat time in races will help, which is why I'm trying F3 now as well as the rFTrainer in addition to the "fun is where it's at" F1 cars. At least now that I've gone through driver training I can't blame the car.

Steve, that same ice-skate thing happens here at my end all too often.

In practice everything was totally fine. I even ran my race-car for my best ever lap, faster than the Qual car. 1:10.9 (Though they are the exact same car anyway).

But in Qual, when everyone gets on track, it was notably slipperier and I was lucky to even get the one good lap. The rest were lucky to struggle to half decent times.

But races are where it really shows up!
The more cars and the closer they are, the more detriment.

I had a very good start really and was already ahead of Rob through Turn 1. I braked earlier to be safe through Turn2-3 and just as well, because the car would not turn but it ended up making it a "full speed" type run around there! Rather than the slowed down safer aim.
So by then I knew it was X amount skatey.
But you can just never tell what total effect it is really going to do for any corner area. It takes ages to find out and adjust - many laps.

Turn 4, the tight left, it showed how much again, so I headed to the chicane with an aim to be safe to test it out because that is about the most dangerous area of the track. By then I was over 1 second clear anyway.
But taking a slower run through the chicane made me ride the curb more than normal, and at slower speed it kicked off worse than when fast. Probably with the very low grip making it even worse. So around I went!!
A great 'go slow and be safer' that turned out!! NOT.

I just sat and let everyone go by, I figured I would go for the challenge to see how far up the field I could get. I expected I could get to 3rd or higher again. 23 laps to go is a lot. So off I went.

An extremely tough job to run as fast as I could, whilst keeping tabs on the slipperiness, but it went well for ages.
I think I got to 9th and then finally shot off a corner. BAH.

The next run for positions, from near last again, I got to 6th (or 5th) with about 5 laps to go (or something). After taking AGES and many laps to find a way past Ralph! I was well over 1 second faster still, but there was just no safe way to get around - more so when I needed to pay 100% attention to cornering and acceleration with the low grip.
FINALLY I got past... but not for long!

A car spun out ahead of me in Turn 2-3 and slid rightwards, so I went left..... just as it reversed direction and headed left again! BAMM.. no front wing and red damage front right suspension.
So from there it was WAY slower and became a LIMP rather than a race and cars caught up with ease and got past again.... sheesh.

.
And as it turned out it was all because of the STUPID ROUTER again!! Which I had forgotten to remove! I then headed to the Bullrun track to practice, where I can jump in the car and lap well right away every time... but went spearing off turns, unable to turn 'normally' with low grip as well.
Removing the Router and all went back to perfectly normal. SIGH

It is just so bizarre how it happens much worse at certain tracks. And others you can leave the Router in and never know you did. But it repeats at those same tracks. So something about tracks (TDF?) and the Internet path (Router) tie in together to make things ok, or REALLY bad some times.

So, Steve, if you have a Router in line with the PC and Modem, remove it and go direct to the Modem for online racing!!
If not that, then it is going to be a path delay somewhere else, probably outside your home (Provider, Internet).

First of all, I want to apologize to Dennis. I misjudged your location on that left hand turn and we bumped. Apparently, the bump was enough to send you into a spin and mess up your race. I wish we had more peripheral vision on these things! After that incident, I spun off the track myself 2x, but eventually moved back up to 8th when other cars spun. That fast chicane seems to get everyone almost.

well this was a late call to race so didn't have much practice time.

i was surprised to get 4th in quali, going into the race i was feeling good as i know I'm a quick starter. I followed my team mate Peter off the line who also had a ace start. Went into the 1st turn side by side with Rob, I'm not sure if he wasn't aware that i was on the inside or if i bounced over the bumps into hit but we made contact and we both span i think (sorry Rob maybe i should have backed off)

So i had to make my way thought the field, was making good progress i also managed to do a 360 spin and carry on :D.

Was up to 4th and closing in on 3rd when i shifted down too quick on warn tyres, which made my rear lock and i span into the barriers and lost my rear wing :(

Ah well s**t happens i suppose lol

Interesting note about the router, Peter - good to see you've isolated the issue. I don't use one at home and had never really noticed the grip phenomenon myself, so I figured it was probably just due to FPS fluctuations/stuttering online, as that's the only real difference I've seen from offline performance.

As usual, didn't get home in time to get any offline practice for this one and was thinking of bailing, but figured I'd have a look anyway. Got three laps in before Q which was enough to remember which way the turns go. Done Mills enough times now that it doesn't take a lot of relearning.

Didn't really have a good feel for where the limit was, but managed a decent grid spot and was looking forward to a tight race. Worked hard to get some heat in the tires and brakes on the warmup lap, but bogged it badly at the start and lost two spots going into T1. Got one spot back going into 2 and then another spot as a gift when Simon spun.

That put me back into 3rd where I'd qualified. Shortly after I saw Peter go off at the chicane and figured it was just cold tires. That put Rob into the lead, and when I saw an opening under braking at the end of the long straight, I took it. Bit of an overreach to be honest but the lane was clear and I managed (barely) to get it hauled down for the tight corner.

After that it looked like Rob and I had a bit of a gap, so I tried to just control the pace and let the tires come in since there was no need for us to go at it yet. Best to clear off and get some room, then go banging on each other. ;-) But then it looked like Rob turned in a bit soon in a corner behind me and high-centered on the curbing, putting him off. From qualifying I knew he was quicker and unless he was bent he'd be coming back. So I focused on doing steady laps and building a gap without making any big mistakes.

Went ok for the most part, but I got held up lapping Steve a couple of times, going off the second time and losing a big chunk of time. No big deal since he was holding his line, but a wee bit more accomodation would've been welcome... ;-)

Rob had made it back to second and was narrowing the gap bit by bit (more when I had those issues), but I had enough room left to manage it OK.

Chalk that one up to 60% luck and 40% pace. If Simon, Peter and Rob hadn't gone awry it would've been a very different race. Probably more fun, and certainly a lot more work, but still... it's good to be lucky sometimes!

Nice job Steve. A win and leading in both driver- and teamstanding. Looking good with 2 to go.

I almost bailed on this one due to lack of practice time, but I knew the track reasonably well and just used the same setup as Laguna Seca. Ended up with one of the best races and finishes in quite awhile. Maybe this practice thing is over rated:)

@Peter
I hope you weren't too frustrated or PO'd. I thoroughly enjoyed the few laps we raced as I often succumb to the pressure and try to drive too fast. Plus you made several attempts but never once put us both in danger, so I felt pretty confident trying to race you. I knew you'd eventually get a run, but it was fun while it lasted, at least for me.

Last night I just drove my line and braked at the same point each lap. I knew you were faster (no surprise there)but after passing you several times when you went off, I wasn't about to roll over and just move over. I assumed you had handling issues and I might be able to hold my position. I usually figure the first time by me is a freebie, after that you have to work for it:)

@Mike
Sorry to see you go off so close to the end after such a good run. Been there and done that.

Had to esc out of qual so it looked like I was going to start second... to last ;). But then I had a weird non responsive UI issue when it was time to go to the race, I kept clicking the freaking button but it would not put me on the grid. When the timer hit 0 it became responsive again and put me in pit lane.

So now I was starting from dead last and by the time I finally got the green light 14th place was almost 20 seconds ahead of me.

So I spent the time just trying new things in the car, different entry lines, breaking points, and exits. Only had one minor off that I was able to save, other then that the race was actually pretty relaxing.

At the end of the race my tires were just into the yellows, so obviously I was not working them hard enough. Something to work on.

I knew Peter had better qualification speed so I was actually surprised I was on pole.

I got a terrible start, practiced a few starts in warmup, all seemed good, but I must have just tried to dump the clutch a little too fast.

Wasn't too concerned, it was a 24 lap race and I wasn't gonna make or brake anything first few laps. I had run some practice laps on cold tires and full fuel loads and knew that the high speed S where Peter went off required me to lift in 5th for at least the first 2-3 laps, after tires had heated up and fuel was a little lower, it was flat in 6th.

Steve surprised me with his move on the back straight, I didn't think he was actually going to try it from that far back and I was turning in when I saw that he wasn't gonna make it so I turn out to minimize the contact. Fortunately nothing bent.

I was now behind Steve and just trying to get into a pace and setup a good gap. Steve had dropped a lot of speed for the right hander after the high speed S and that again caught me by surprise and I was in a panic not to hit him so I took to the curb/grass -- in hind sight I probably should have bailed out to outside of the corner as that was a safer more recoverable route.

Had to wait for a clear return to track and got back on in 5th place. I knew I had no hope of a win at this point and just did my best to try and chase Steve down - but it would have required a miracle to catch him.

Anyway, too bad that Peter and I had some issues, it would have been a good three way fight and the winner probably would have been the one who was able to best manage the 2X tire wear.

It was still a good result for the team and just 2 more good open wheel races an it looks like Team Venom Racing will be either 5th or 6th in the Overall Team Ranked standings (at 7.338).

Simon, I was keeping as tight a line as I could considering it was cold tires my car didn't have much grip, but I thought there was plenty of track for the both of us -- I did feel some side pod contact but didn't realize it was enough to send you off? I'll have to check the replay.

Congrats all around, great fun!

That was fine Ralph! You put up a great battle to fend me off! It was frustrating, LOL, but I also knew it was my job to FIND some way past - and SAFELY. So that all added up to a near impossible task! Especially with the car so difficult too.

You never faltered under pressure and you were always very consistent even with that pressure, plus very good situational awareness when I was making attempts. So that was a really great job by you! Great racing and a good and tough battle!