Delaware 200

Caught between rock and a hard place...needed a lot more green laps, but when cautions started flying late I knew it wasn't good. Had a good set for full fuel runs, and almost got there twice. Passed a lot of cars...got passed a bunch on restarts, but thats cool cause they always came back after a while. Love this race track. Lotta folks found out how easy it is to spin cold tires on concrete.

Tim, love these longer races. As we get to the point where cautions decrease, they'll really get to be fun in these cars. The response you get from pit stop changes is quite nice, and you can manage your tires with good effect by varying how hard/easy you push them. For an old garage rat like me, this is a whole lotta fun.

That was one hell of a race.I experienced a little of all sim-racing has to offer(except the win).I was passing cars and I was getting passed. I was leading laps,then struggling with the handling. Almost went a lap down at one point but was fighting for the win at the very end.On the last turn I really think I could have made the pass for the win,but by dumb luck there just happened to be a slower car there and I came vey close to taking three cars out about 200 feet from the finish line.Thankfully that didn`t happen and it was just a good close race.
After last week I set out not to make anybody mad this time around, I hope I succeeded.

By the end I was just trying to be running when the race ended and get all the experience I could. I stayed out on the last caution thinking I had a shot at getting a position after getting that lap back. The Monster really bit me on that one. My tires were shot by the end of the race.
I tried to be smart and not cause anyone problems. My restarts were a little slow but I figured that was slightly safer than spinning the tires and shooting up into the wall.

OK, Greg and Pat, point taken, as I seem to resemble those remarks! I took a penalty at the start for spinning out at the beginning of the formation lap and being to far behind. Then I got a speeding violation for exiting pits after serving that penalty. Down three laps at the start and the race went downhill from there. Tried to stick it out because I really hate Dover but after the restart where I made a hard 90 into the wall I decided enough was enough.

The messages on the yellow really don't let you have some space between you and the car in front of you. Ditto for the start.

Had a fast setup, just did not know how to drive it. I really tried to back off to save tires but when I did it got extremely loose. I knew I was in trouble after my huge lead disappeared and I got passed like I was standing still. Started trying to make tire pressure, wedge, track bar, you name it I tried it. Only made it worse.

My apologies to Larry, the first thing I thought when it happened was oh crap, he's going to think I did it on purpose after last week. You bobbled a tad bit and caught me by surprise, I lifted but not enough. I slowed down and waited for you to pass again, would not have mattered if I had not you would have passed me about 20 laps into the run anyway.

I was getting some amazing restarts, was reluctant to back off for fear of getting rear ended so I went for it.

I'm done with these cars for now, it's just not fun when you don't know how to set them up...

JJ

Jimmy, you cant give up on these. You are amazingly fast in them. You clearly know how to go fast, at least in a single lap (pole baby!). If you want a little setup help for the race, follow;

- Take your normal race setup
- Drop 1 pound of RF air pressure (more understeer all around and safer)
- During race, if you want more understeer, drop that left-front pressure.
- During race, if you want more oversteer, add pressure to that left-front.
- The same applies in reverse to your left-rear if you need it (+pressure=understeer, -pressure=oversteer)

That's all you need to know for in-race setup changes. You can drastically alter how your car handles with just 1 poind of air pressure. Your speed is fine, but making a fuel run is a different beast and that is what needs to be focused on. You want the car to be as stable as possible, not on the edge for all out speed like your qualifying runs.

I was sad when you left Bill. You were the only one around me that I could "race". :)

Was a good mostly clean race (as much as a stock car race can be). The only wreckess driving I saw was from Amir, he was all over the place both during green and yellow flags.

Larry gave me a good run at the end, I knew he had a really good car. I don't think you would have passed me had Patrick Curtis not been there, because I wouldn't have taken the high line in the corner if he wasn't there but with 5 more laps it would've been a good show I agree :)

@Jimmy, you will just need to save your tires and then you will be more consistent. Don't give up the league, I had the same problem you did at the Arizona Shootout race. My car was good for 10 laps and then by lap 20 was 5 seconds slower, not a good strategy to have but I learned from that race and learned to be smoother through the corners as the track was eating up my tires.

Looking forward to Richmond.

Few things on handling with these cars:

Lotsa folks are enamored with dropping the rear ride heights and spring rates, which can in certain conditions gain speed. The flip side of that approach is often a car that gets nightmarish in traffic on worn tires - the loss of rear downforce by getting the spoiler down out of the airstream is intensified by the effects of traffic around you (particularly behind you) and can really make the car dance and feel loose. And the closer they get, the worse you'll feel...

As Tim alludes to, these cars will respond much more significantly to small changes than most any other stock car mod you've driven. Make changes in small increments, one parameter at a time, until you develop a feel for what a particular change will do with our approach to setup: the results of taking out 1 round of wedge will likely be different in at least magnitude for me vs BillJ, because we have different philosophies on spring and bar rates, weight distribution and aero settings, and will be further differentiated by the differences in how we drive the car into and off the corners (which means different physics of weight transfer, which changes grip, and so on).

Yeah, I understand the setup I had for this race was not a good stable setup for me. Nic Morse is in a class all by himself with stock car setups. He can make em that loose and drive the heck out of them to victory lane. All of the stock car leagues I have participated in have been fixed setup, so I have never had to learn how to deal with them. It seems totally different setting these cars up for ovals then it does setting up open wheelers for road courses. I am just barely getting a handle on open wheel road course setups, I tried to learn what I could last week for stock cars but it's just way over my head.

I understood I needed to save my tires, but if I was not driving the thing hard it was a real handful to keep from spinning out(heck even when I was driving hard it still had severe over steer in corner entry and exit). I bet I had to save it at least once every two laps. After the race I was seriously tense just from trying to keep the car from wrecking the whole race.

I love racing stock cars, I just don't have the time to try and learn how to set them up right now... not to mention the 2 hour races because of cautions on a Saturday night might be irritating my wife a tad bit :)

Btw, I have never driven a real stock car before, but this mod feels much different then any other stock car sim I have driven. I might even say it surpasses nr2003... I love it!