USA FT: Trois-Rivieres

Oh, my that stunk.

Qual:

12-flat on the first hot lap. Had been in the high 11's but ripped off the front wing on the next lap. Used the remaining time to test a low downforce setup. :-)

Race:

What can I say. For whatever reason I had to brake hard to stay off of Tommy coming up to the arch. Looks like it was just a bad set of circumstances and maybe Tommy's power-braking (throttle+brakes) engine noise throwing me off. Regardless, I was pleased to successfully keep from hitting him.

Then I got drilled from behind. Thanks for the post race apology Vance. I know you were in a bad spot.

As a result the toe-in on the left rear got completely screwed. When I came to the next turn, now back at pace-lap speed, the car wanted to turn right under braking. My correction put me outside my apex and then out into the tires. This, of course, ripped off the front wing but it also trashed the toe-in on the right front.

What a mess.

So at the end of the pace lap I pulled into the pit, content to try and work back through the field. It was really nice to see that rfactor handles all of it well. Admittedly, I had no idea what to do or what was going on but by simply following the lights and lollipop, everything worked as it should. The car was serviced only after the green fell, I was held at pit-out, only briefly and then I was on my way.

But there was a catch. Turns out that they can't fix the rear suspension geometry in the pit (naturally) so the car was still a complete mess. I kept moving the brake bias to the front but nothing could over come the rear-end's need to step out under braking thanks to the left-rear toe-in.

So it wasn't long until I drilled a wall again. More front suspension damage, no wing again, it was ugly. But it worked out nice because after giving up on driving that way I pitted just as the leaders were coming around.

The rest of the race was just hanging on as the car would turn right into the wall on all the left-handers.

The things we do to avoid a DNF... :-)

Tough luck, David; would've been fun to add you to the train we had going for a while.

My race pretty much came down to two things; first, I just grabbed my setup from the last race and forgot to put a shorter 1st gear on for the start (again) so TC smoked us off the line (again ;-)). Second, I had a brain cloud at about halfway and clipped the inside wall on the 90 left after the long straight and spun, costing me (and Rob who was just behind) our front wings.

Was good fun apart from that; the top 3 ran pretty much in lockstep for the first half of the race, and after having a couple of looks it was obvious to me that it was almost certainly going to take a mistake by Tommy for me to get by; not enough room, grunt or grip to get it done otherwise. All the while Rob was right there reminding me that went for me, too. But TC was unaccomodating mistake wise and drove steady laps without any exploitable errors, so all we could do was lurk.

Finally saw a few puffs of smoke from TC locking tires on entry towards halfway and thought a chance might be coming, so I closed up to be ready, but instead I missed my apex and blew what had been a fun chase for Rob and me. Funny collision box these cars have - in the replay my fronts touched the wall but it was the rears that got me, and they didn't even touch visually. Close, these street courses!

Nothing to do but salvage 3rd after that, and with clear track managed to set my FL without a front wing. Was thinking it must've been low drag, but motec says it was all slower except for the last hairpin - must've gotten it right the one time on the night!

GW to Tommy and apologies to Rob for mucking up in front of him.

That was a fun race. Congrats to Tommy.

I didn't forget to change my 1st gear, I thought about it and hoped all of us would elect to make use of 1st, but Tommy made the right call to get the jump at the start. I should have thought harder, cause I knew passing on this track would be close to impossible without some contact.

I made a pass attempt at Steve, but he defended the inside so there really was nothing I could do but back out. All three of use were running nose to tail until Steve's wall clip. Tried to avoid Steve, but it was that almost blind left hander from the back long straight, not much time to react. Lost my front wing from colliding with Steve which made it intersting under braking, had to dial bias to the rear.

Car wasn't as slow as I thought it would be without a wing, but it eliminated any chance of catching Tommy. While adjusting the BIAS, I got in a little too hot and looped it -- fortunately got it going back in the right direction quickly.

Steve was closing and I was starting to heat up my fronts too much, lucky I had just enough to hold onto 2nd.

Good fun.

Ouch.

Qual: My PB was a 1:11.8 in early testing, but could only manage 12's once race day arrived. Started 6th (sort of) on the grid.

Race: Can you say embarrassed? Things got checked up on the formation lap and I was unable to avoid David's car which sent him for a spin. I waited for him to get under way and then watched as he took out his wing the next turn. I felt really bad as I figured his car must have had damage from my contact. Again, sorry David.

Needly to say, I was flustered as we took the grid and ended up forgetting to serve my penalty. Talk about a race to forget....well almost. Omar, James and I had a great battle throughout, which almost made up for feeling like an idiot. Almost.

I know how it feels to get taken out, but it it feels much worse when you're on the other end.

'til next time.

Had a good time chasing Omar and V Hone last night! Good stuff guys.

one thing, my connection seemed good and solid not warping, but the car that was in front of me was tilted sideways with one sides wheels in the air?? Have you guys seen that yet?

BG

Qual:
Barely made it home w/10 minutes to spare. My pb from online practice the night before was an 1:11.0, but had no intentions of hanging it out like that, was more important to be safe and ensure a first or second (preferrably first) row start. An 11 flat or lower was pretty ragged edge for me. So an 11.5 was acceptable.
Drat that damn Rob threw a wrench in my plans for a front row start, so row 2 for me :)

Race:
It's 3 Rivers, really the most important thing in the world is getting to Turn 1 first. No if's, and's, or but's about it.
So when the green light went, so did I, and ended up leading from flag-to-flag. Oddly enough I can do standing starts like that in real life racing too. Dunno why.
I knew the 2 guys behind me could go faster than my pokey low 12's pace, but this is a race of survival (did I mention it's 3 Rivers?) and I had zero intentions of hanging it out. I was going to run this conservative pace no matter what, and it paid off.

About the warmup lap, sorry David and Vance for contributing my little part in that. Steve took off on the pace lap (then Rob followed), then Steve suddenly checked up on the 2nd sector straight, which caused Rob to slow down suddenly, which then caused me to throw anchor to keep from clipping Rob, which it looks like caused you 2 to be caught unawares and have an incident. It was a poor pace on the formation lap and I should have been a big enough boy to know better than to contribute to the accordion by trying to keep with the leader on a pace lap. :(

This win brought to you by the reason I was late, got to meet (again) one of the better heavy rock singers of this time, John Corabi:

Best cd Crue ever put out, oddly enough without Vince ;->
I'll leave it to Bob to find the Hooligan's Holiday video on YouTube and post it up in his blog.

@Bill

It was Omar that was visually riding around on 2 wheels or at a 45% angle partly in the ground.

We have seen that before and it is related to extreme suspension settings (if I recall).

Someone will probably chime in with the exact cause.

It was Omar that was visually riding around on 2 wheels or at a 45% angle partly in the ground.

HA! So, now I know why I was so slow and couldn't catch up...lol... :P

Great racing guys! Look forward to next race... ;)