G3x: Oschersleben

Fun race. Congrats to Matjaz, nice win dude. I hope you enjoyed running the Viper. It will be your last thank God. You’ll still go out and kick some ass though. Good run for 2nd Garret, and nice podium for Ed.

Well, 2 off tracks cost me plenty this race. First one while running 4th, but on the bright side, I had one of the best battles ever with Rob. That was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had in sim racing. You drove so tight and excellent Rob, I just couldn’t get the pass completed. Too bad you had that slight error and got loose, but the thrill was second to none running with you. I think you were running a little less wing, (I was running 6) because your straight line speed was faster. Like I said, just bummed I had those two offs because I thought I may get a top 5 tonight. Well, at least I get to stick with the Porsche! See you all next round.
Charlie

Edit;
Crap, I just saw the standings. He's got one more run with the Viper. Have another beer Matjaz.

Disappointment for me. HAd practiced a bit for this one, and was doing some quick times.
Got a major CTD half way through qual, and after a quick restart, all seemed to be ok. No probs I thought, will just start from the back.
Tried to go out for a lap in warmup, and kept getting flicked back to the garage menu every 5 secs. Not sure what was going on there, and rather than risk a disco I decided to pull out.
I noticed Matjaz got a CTD as well at exactly the same time, so maybe tehre was more to it.
Looks like it was fun, congrats to the podium.

I couldn't attend the first race so I was able to pick up the big guns for this one and Viper it was. A nice change not to drive Porsche yet again. I was expecting a tough battle with Ryan von Steinen but he didn't show up.

Qualifying went great until my game crashed and I had to make a quick come back restarting it and doing only one fast lap. Still enough for taking a pole.

Start was average but Viper did the job and I was comfortably leading into the first corner. The rest was just keeping it smooth and hoping my game won't crash again.

Great job Garret for the second place!

First off, 'grats to Matjaz, Garret and Ed - well done, guys. Shame about Kris' PC issues; I noticed both he and Matjaz go out during Q and reenter, so I was wondering what was up. I was sure they were going out to swap their fast rides for Elises, just to make it interesting!

And it would've been; some of the guys were really going in the little Loti, especially Ryan who I had some good dicing with at several points in the race. The Z3/Elise matchup was a lot like the Viper/GT3 for the quicker cars - one kills in the turns and the other makes ground on the straights. The Z3 was a lot slower off the apexes, but made big gains in the second half of the straights. Oschers being as twisty as it is made it a good track for the Elise too, so it made for a fun contest.

I'd forgotten until just before entering about the car restrictions, so I had to look for a setup for the Z3. Found an Imola one from several seasons back that was close enough for a base, and remembered the car as being benign and forgiving to drive if not too quick. That proved true enough, though the setup could've used a bit of work. I was experimenting with nearly open diffs back when I made the setup, and as a result it was spinning up the inside rear off all the corners if I got into it hard and trying to over-rotate.

Qualified it in 6th still finding my way in the car, and with a good group around and ahead the race looked to be fun. The start and first lap were pretty hectic, with a lot of bump-n-grind going on. Was bummed to see my mate JM get forced into a DT after he got into the back of Kevin early in the lap and turned him - tough to avoid sometimes when everyone's jockeying for position and braking/turning unpredictably. I lost several spots myself being extra-cautious while guys were dive bombing into every opening. Pretty exciting opening lap!

Just got down to it after that, and was soon lapping faster than my Q pace on harder tires and race fuel. But like Charlie, I too had a few offs and that put the podium out of reach. Main one was in the chicane leading into McDonalds - got a shade too much curbing on the left and got launched around the other way, ending up in the gravel trap. Lost about 9 seconds that time, and the other mishaps cost another 4-5 seconds.

Thought I was stuck in 5th on the last lap, looking for a way around Justus, but then he spun it off in Shell Kurve just like Charlie had earlier, gifting me with 4th. Would've liked a couple more laps to try for a shot at Ed, but ran out of time - that's what I get for not keeping it on track the whole time... ;-)

Qualy went much nicer that expected with Matjaz taking pole away from me as the clocked ticked to zero. He pulled it off after rejoining with just a few minutes to go.

I had a slowish start as Matjaz checked out from the line. Justin B snuck inside of me heading into T1. He was having control issues as he went off track and back on several times in the opening laps. I got by when he went too far off to cut back in front of me exiting the chicane.

From there, it was a lonely affair. Matjaz pulling out at about .8s a lap. So there was no way to challenge. The group behind me faded quickly as they were dicing for position and I wound up with a +30s gap to 3rd at the end.

Fun fun race here, as Charlie alluded to in his post. He and I hooked up in the middle portion of the race and ran nose to tail for a good 8 laps or so. I was indeed running lower wing than he was as I was trying to get a setup that relied more on mechanical rather than aero grip. The resulting advantage in straight line speed certainly helped fending off Charlie, who probably was on average a couple tenths quicker than me per lap.

That battle ended with me having a little off after the chicane. It wasn't really a matter of getting loose as much as the graphics blink and screen freeze that I had right at corner entry to the right hander before the long back straight. Rather than be a hazard to other drivers while the graphics blinked, I drove it off track and took much too long in the gravel to get out.

That one issue dropped me back to P11, and I was fortunate to get back to P10 at the end. But it was great fun nonetheless, and Charlie, I'll be happy to race you again any time!!

Rob

Fun stuff

Qualy was ok, only a few tenths off my previous fastest lap which had at the end of practice and was a full second better than anything I'd done before. My race setup was basically the qualy setup with medium tires and a lot more fuel. I had an ok start, was able to get past Garret, but for some crazy reason for the next lap or so I didn't clue into the fact that he was the one chasing me.

Anyway, I actually underestimated the car's performance at the beginning, and had a rather awkward tip toe first couple laps. At some point it did clue into me that the driver chasing me actually qualified ahead of me, and was on my tail because he was faster. Tried to push a little harder, but that just gave me a lot of understeer at corner exits. I went a little off taking the corner after the chicane and he got by.

I stayed with him for a bit, but after a few laps my performance really dropped off. I suddenly had to break a lot earlier than I thought I should have had to, and this kept up for most of the race resulting in an off at turn 1. It turned out that the stuff I'd been using to brace my pedals had actually slipped under my break pedal a little. Once I realized I was actually able to push past the resistance, and I actually pushed quite hard for a few laps, actually coming close to my best few laps early on. I think I just pushed too hard for that short period though because suddenly the tires felt shot. Accelerating underpower was tough, quick direction changes were nearly impossible. The car was light so I still had some grip, but I had to respect it dearly and every corner for the last 4 or 5 laps was hairy.

Steve and others were catching me near the end, and I was able to increase the gap during my breaking revelation, but shortly after he was chasing me like I'd stolen something. Anyway on the final lap I spun at Shell Curve letting Steve and others by.

It was a lot fun especially defending against Garret at the beginning. Hopefully I'll be a little more consistent next time if I can ration/realize the cars performance a little better.