Monterey Grand Prix

Congrats to the podium and to all the racers that finished.

I was impressed to see so many fast drivers. Unfortunately, I didn't feel much confident with this car (not practised much, I must admit). In offline testing I made 1:09, way too far from 1:02 I saw in qualyfing.

I managed to avoid the incident after green flag, but couldn't make my way to finish a couple of clean laps and had to leave the race after my second crash. Sorry if I was an obstacle for anybody when I first pitted to repair a crash (I think I let people pass me by cleanly).

I'll make sure to be more prepared before joining a champcar event again, I don't have enough level yet. But I really enjoyed being an spectator, thanks all.

I forgot to practice as i had been busy, so decided to start at the back.

Race started and due to some peoples impatience there was a wreck on the start line had to slam the brakes on and slid into a parked car, then got tapped in the rear.

After a few laps my rear right tyre was toast so i must have got suspension damage or something, span after the tyre got too hot and hit a wall.

after so many spins i just parked it as it was impossible to drive.

hopefully the next round people will take it easy on the 1st lap!

11 DNF's!...Was this driver error or issues with the car? I need your input as we're working on the final patch for this mod.... Your feedback is welcome...

Tnx!
OG

There was an early 4-5 car wreck right at the green flag. One of the cars actually came to an instant stop and everyone else piled in to it. There was zero time to react and surely not the fault of the stopper. Just one of those sim-racing flukes that happen from time to time.

The rest of the DNFs were all driver related.

I guess I would attribute my crash to issues with the car, or maybe MY issues with the car. :P People say these cars are easy to drive. Well, it's easy to find the limit, but when you're driving on the limit all the time it's easy to go way over the limit very suddenly if you put a wheel off. I just touched the curb on the outside of turn 6 a little bit, and the rear end came around before I even realized what was happening and had a huge crash and flipped over. It was odd because I had touched the curb and even put a wheel way over the curb there countless times in practice and never saw the car react that way. I must have put that rear wheel in just the right place to upset the balance.

My best guess is that the tire model is too forgiving, and that compels the driver to explore the limit more than would otherwise be sane. Not sure if this is something that can or should be fixed. I don't think it was diffuser stall because I had the rear ride height at maximum and the rear third spring filled with packers. Which could point to another issue with the physics, come to think of it. I chopped a full second off my laptimes, and was able to take turn 6 flat by using that extreme setup.

By the way, why was the pace lap so slow after the pace car went into the pits? Does the leader get penalized if he passes the pace car at that point? Seems like it would have been a lot safer if we had started accellerating coming off the last corner.

Grats to Craig on the win and George for an awesome fight!

Qualy went okay at P3, I did much better on the original date, but Ill take third any day.

Race: I got off to a good start but the Flu I have been battling for the last week prevented me from really getting my head into this race as full concentration is fully required for this Mod. All went well for me until 15 laps from the end when I had a misstep and looped it into the tires, thank fully it was still drivable, sort of, I pitted and got myself fixed as good as possible but the wheel was 25 degrees askew, I struggled to stay in the game and was awarded a podium, and Ill take that any day. Thanks to all the drivers who made passing easy.

Cheers, Cya next time.

Thanks for the input... The physics are not 100% accurate as everyone knows. The new physics are more forgiven, but not 100% close to the real thing.

Thanks,
OG

Wow, Took me a while to recover from that workout :-) That was the best race I have ever had. Craig you were awesome!

I tried to shake you and loose you a bit in the first stint but you had nothing to do with that. I thought I put up a couple real good laps after you pulled into the pits 2 laps before me but as I came out of the pits you were there again right on my rear wing.

I made 3 mental errors in the race.

First one. I didnt get a good run thru Turn 6 and Craig got a run on me up the hill and passed me going into the corkscrew. I then got back by Craig as we exited Turn 11 and I think Craig was in the wrong gear. I accelerated by him and then had to zig zag thru 2 laps cars. I see they almost closed the door on Craig when I watched the replay. Dang I paid them both alot of money and they failed me ;-)I want my money back!!! ;-)

Then my 2nd mistake was getting on the gas too soon coming thru the corkscrew. I got crossed up and had to save the car into the sand. I didnt touch anything and got going right behind Craig. Then the final mistake which cost me greatly. I had requested a pitstop and as I was just going to turn the corner into the pitlane I was going for the pit speed limiter and hit unrequest Pitstop. Then desperatly hitting the buttons again to engage pit speed limiter and re-request pitsop but that wont help. There wasnt enough time. That pitstop was like 6 secs longer than it should have been. Ok well I guess there was a forth mistake...found it hard after that pitstop to stay concentrated. Laptimes fell a bit. I had to keep telling myself to stay focused. I was getting tired. I wasnt gonna look at the tire wear on the last stint. I was gonna drive it till they popped. I was gaining but I did take a look at tire wear with 5 to go and I had one red bar remaining for the right front. I backed off and managed to get 5 laps out of less than one bar.

Back to what I said earlier. That was the best race I have ever had. Craig kept the pressure on me and when he got by I pressured him. We ran clean and I had 100% faith in driving wheel to wheel with Craig. We could have ran side by side thru the corkscrew.

Congrats to Craig on the win. Congrats to Jeff on the 3rd.

I also send to congrats to all that finished and to all the cars that had to put up with me and Craig splitting sides and passing them. You guys held your lines good. Great job everyone.

Ohhh btw Aubrey. I controlled the start. I maintained 48 to 50 MPH to the green flag. If I would have accelerated after turn 11 I would have got the accel too soon message from rFactor and would have received a stop and go. Does that explain it?

Agree George it was the best OW race I have ever had anywhere :)

First stint I planned on sitting behind you and take it easy.. That didnt work out as I thought because you were flat out right from lap 1. near the end of the stint I made sure I was as close as possible and pitted ealier to make sure my rubber was up to temp after your stop. Came out less than a second behind you and so it carried on.
The 2nd stint was the most intense. We were literally nose to tail for the entire second stint until the pass in the corkscrew. Then came my one mistake of the race coming up to lapped traffic in the last corner. Exited in 2nd instead of 1st and GS came flying past. Dont know how on earth we managed to get past the Malwart twins and it could have all gone south right there and then. Laid the pressure on thickly until GS's error out of the corkscrew and was able to maintain the lead until the final pitstop. Luckily came out ahead *grins* and then managed the tyres till the end.
At 1 point you started closing the gap and I could a little nervous but then a few laps from the end you backed off to save the tyres. Was really an awesome performance GS.
I have never seen anyone soak up the pressure like you did in this race. Was absolutly amazing considering we were flat out nose to tail for 90 percent of the race.

We both drove almost perfect races with not a single contact between us which is almost unbelievable considering the track and the pace we were running. There were times when I felt like I was just the passenger and somebody else was driving the car... that feeling is very rare for me but when it does happen its really special.

Well done and thanks to all those left on track who made it pretty easy for us to get through. GS and I were slicing through the field from beginning to end and at times it must have scared the living shits out of you guys... I know I had to change my diapers a few times through the race :)

Congrats to Jeff on a well deserved podium and big thanks to GS for a memorable race. You are an awesome competitor my friend..... We were both winners in that race, thats for sure!

*hands the milk over to George*

Cheers to the Sponsors.. thanks dudes! :)