USA F3: Barcelona

Suh weet!

3 or 4 tenths off the pace of the Euro guys, but given an additional hour of practice over the 15 mins of prep I had, no doubt many of us in this field could match (or destroy!) those European skuzzmonkeys.

A patient throttle application at the start gave me a comfortable distance from the pack into 1, and from there is was all about settling in. Only had one mistake throughout the race, when locking up into 5 and running wide. Changing the rears paid off later as the rear equalised in the closing laps. I suspect a lower level of aero would pay off in the end. 19 F and 21 R I ran here, with an otherwise default setup; only cambers (lower neg) and tire pressures (higher by 6 psi) were different, aside.

Looking forward to the next event. This was much better than Montreal.

Eagles in the HizzOUSE!

Now THAT was a fun race. I was struggling to come up with a stable setup, so I borrowed Tim's, made a few minor tweaks, and got myself into the top 10 with a nice, smooth ride. Great setup, Tim.
Kevin, if this race had 2 more laps I'm certain that you would have overtaken me. Around lap 22 I noticed that you were starting to really close in on me, and from that point on I think I started paying more attention to clocks than the road. I knew it was going to be close, and for a while I thought we were going to be dueling on last lap. I kinda wish we had one more lap in that race to see how it would have gone, because I wasn't planning on letting that spot go easy.
Congrats to the podium. I'm amazed at the times you guys are able to pull out lap after lap. I don't know where I'd even begin to try to shave off that many seconds from my lap times to be able to compete with you guys!

BTW...what kind of pit strategy were you guys using that race?

After a great grid start in the Euro, I had a lousy start in the USA race! But that wasn't too bad, I don't mind being behind the competition! I rather hound than be hounded!
And seeing 6th was dropping backwards it meant no one to bother me from behind either.

So 3,4,5 (I think we were) had a long and close battle for ages. Until I think it was Justus ran wide in turn 3 (right) and Matt did something wrong and spun. And I had nowhere to go to avoid. sheesh
Broken front wing and suspension AGAIN!

So I had to pit right away and ended up further back than last! Huh? Well last and 15sec or more behind the car ahead.
And once again I just had to persevere and battle ahead to see what I could salvage. Plus was going to need another pit stop - as per the usual planned one - anyway.

Somehow I ended up in 6th !! Some attrition/errors ahead helping out no doubt!
Though having two run ins, and thus spins, with cars I was chasing to pass cost me over 20secs along the way too. So I could have been 5th, and a chance at 4th even.
Trying to PLAN a better corner exit, gaining speed for the run, and then the car ahead slips up and I have to veer - which you can't do when at those limits.
I managed to catch tons of bad luck this race.

Chris. These cars are really critical in every way, to be fast.
You need a good setup, wheras many other Mods it can be so-so and still do well.
And the driving you must get every entry, corner, exit dead right. Or 0.1secs roll out the window FAST!!
If you lose speed you can't get it back. So that less than perfect corner will lose time AND cause time loss in that next open area too!

You need to work out which corners 'flow' and which that you MUST slow down ENOUGH and get that nose turned in to the inner curb. And then practice getting both types dead right - time and time again!

Overall it is a really tough Mod to be good at. Like all the Open Wheel low power car Mods are.

If you can't do setups, then try to get one off someone. A really good balanced car is essential.
Then to learn them....do LOTS of driving/laps!
You can expect up to 2 seconds deficit if you are just a small amount 'un-smooth' and not doing areas right and thus not maintaining best speeds. That is how critical it all is!

Had a great time in this race. Hope my high ping problem I had at the beginning of the race didnt cause problems for anyone.

Chris G. was fun dueling it out with you. Almost caught up with you but you held me off good job. Good race everyone.

@Peter

Looking at the replay, Justus went wide as you said so I went for the pass and was actually wheel to wheel with him and holding my line and he just came down and spun me out. Racing karma prevailed though as he continued and spun in the next corner. It was to bad though you ended up knocking your front wing off since you were just a bystander.

I have a sad story to tell you all.

I was running 8th! I was in the hunt for my first point in any series. I was going to pit late and be light on fuel for the last 10 laps.

You may remember I was concerned pre-race about the pit lane speed limit start line. I had $103,392 in pit lane speeding tickets, which is sort of similiar to real life for me.

Anyway,went in for my pit stop, hit the pit speed limitor and coasted....to the pitspace 2 before mine!! my car was dead!!

You see, the race started at sunset, so I had light when we started, but I was in the dark by now. I have a keypad next to my wheel i use as a botton box.

I had hit the ignition, not the speed limiter.

The sad thing is I had no idea which key it was.. and I still couldn't see.

After mashing the key pad for a few minutes, it started. I made my pitstop, and

Did the same damn thing leaving the pit lane. I was stopped at the pit lane exit!!

Oh, my.

Its a blur after that. I remember following Mr. Di Pino around or several laps, until I made an ill advised passing attempt and knocked parts from both cars. Felt very bad about that as I limped around the track to pit again.

Sad story.

Pete's comments about these cars is dead on. I didnt arrive at setup with which I was comfortable until an hour or so before the race. Thanks Tim McArthur. Because I couldnt do much with it, I bagged qualifying and just started last.

Race started out well and figured I'd try to hang onto Gregg Mulgrew and try to gain some spots. Worked pretty well until a driver between us went off. He came back on and smacked me on the right side hard enough to knock me into a wall on my left blasting off the nose and bending a wheel. Pitted early because of that and topped off on fuel to get to the end. Began to get some spots back until another driver knocked my nose off again in the very same spot and under the same circumstances. Just limped her around for the remaining laps and took the checkers. I suppose I had a "kick me" note on my back as if we were back in grammar school. Lol.

Great race guys and congrats on the podium. WTG Mr. Gunn.

I accidently hit on a setup that was at least decent and I was feeling pretty good to have about 4 or 5 cars to race with.Then 2 cars ahead got together(probably joseph`s incident)and one car went left into the wall then back on the track.I had to steer right to avoid the car but the track turned left and I ended up in the sand.I tried to nurse it ever so gently back onto the track but no luck,I spun out.No damage there, but put me 10 secs. behind the cars I wanted to race with.After that I pushed too hard trying to make up time and crashed damaging the suspension.From there I had to knock at least 20 mph off my corner speeds just to get around,so I drove the rest of the race watching the position bar so I could move over when others approached.I didn`t sign up as an Eagle for this race because I didn`t want Tristan`s awesomeness to be averaged with my shitty.Good win Tristan as usual.

I think in at least one case, I might have been the car Joe is referring to.

I apologize for sucking so bad as to cause that incident.

I did not realize you were there, and out of whatever turn that was I drifted to the left and smacked someone.

Again, I apologize for that, and apologize for ruining your race.

tks,

Tim