Season 14: The Tifosi Have Spoken!

Top fun cheers fellas.
Crazy track with danger at every turn. Turn 3 lap 1 was pretty busy with at least two cars abreast so I tucked it in tight to allow room and keep the traffic flowing - too tight - and the ripple strip grabbed me and sucked me onto the grass, got going again but there was a mess through 7 and 8 which is not surprising, that's a real danger area for incidents when it's busy, so fell back until attrition ahead of me gifted a few gains.

Race 2 reverse was cool, I love reverse order, makes for lots of challenges for both fast and slow cars, and I totally understand the concerns, but IMHO they're tops. Lets the slower cars not feel like despondent losers for at least a while (though can obviously be nerve wracking for them as points leaders come onto them), and gives faster cars good practice at smooth overtaking. All good.

Stayed near the front for a long time thanks mostly to wreckage behind me, with a few laps to go Teamy Marty was closing up with Shaun right on him so was waiting for the inevitable passes and hoping to not cause any grief when that time came, but fate intervened and I ran wide on 9 letting them through without needing to give way, because we are still racing after all and it was tops to see so many occasions where approaching cars weren't expecting people to let them through - you gotta fight for it otherwise what's the point?

Great to race in a full grid, Suzuka will be a better track. For sure.

I believe we are done with reverse grid this season as the rest are normal and one enduro round. Their problems are escalated with cars this fast, other cars they aren’t so bad really

Here are my views on dealing with traffic, its in no way an official policy just how I deal with it and what I see many others do wrong.

In a battle for position all thats expected really is to leave racing room but this is both cars. Most of the early contact in race 2 without seeing any replays is at least 1 guy not leaving room for the other so causing a collision. It can be fault of either car or both and often one makes an error causing the collision. In racing best to try moves you know you can pull off cleanly, late dives and kamikaze moves you fail on more often then not wont be something people want their races ruined with. Also driving others off track or multiple moves to block multiple lanes on the straight should be avoided. In defence pick a lane and make it clear then if you chose the inside and someone takes the outside you need to leave them racing room here. Racing room is at least 1 car space inside track limits to an overlapped car to whichever side it is the entire time there is an overlap.

With being lapped or in qualy when someone is giving spots up under blue flags or because they arent on a hotlap its a bit different. The thing that I seem to see people doing is lifting at corner exit and also moving across the track last second while exiting slower then usual. The intention is good but is very hard to predict for the car behind, if your close behind and a car suddenly slows on exit you need to move across to pass and if they do the same its quite likely to cause a collision thats easily avoided. It also costs the car ahead more time then needed, I think the main thing people conceding spots should do is make moves that are predictable.

If a car is directly behind and close never lift off too much in a spot you would never normally do this, or zoom across to another lane as they will be trying to move around you. Ideally you will exit at normal pace and hold your line then if there is still a reasonable gap behind and you want to conced the spot assuming the car behind hasn't already moved across to show they want the other lane. If it comes to the brake point and your on your line and a car lapping you has move inside just leaving them the inside lane is enough. If the faster car is still a fair way behind then taking your regular line even if possibly it may cost them some time in one corner during a race isnt much of an issue, just try not to hold them up for multiple corners. In the f1 cars the tricky thing is dirty air so if a car is within one second and you have blue flags then best to let them past at the first safe opportunity without holding them up too long.

There is no need to drive off the track and simply try to avoid doing unpredictable moves.

In qualy if your on a hotlap then there is nothing you have to do, if you have messed the lap up already or are on an out lap then do your best to leave the full race line to cars behind on a hot lap. Usual best way I find is to move off line mid straight and slow well before the brake zone to let the other car have its full lane and not lose any time trying to pass a car not on a lap.

Exiting the pits in qualy sessions is another thing many seem to make a mess of, there is no need to tell people on voice chat that your exiting pits. Saying that your exiting makes no difference if you mess someones lap to t1 so just avoiding this is all thats needed. Its the guy exiting's responsibility to not come out in traffic and ruin peoples hot laps, mirrors help here as will the full track map to help find clear track. If you see traffic coming just wait at pit exit til the track is clear, try to pull out only when you wont get into anyone's way to t1.

Was a better race for me, managed to keep things fairly clean on race 1, (only had a really gentle tap to @Brenton Foggo that was my fault).

Race 2 wasn't as good for me, taking out @tezpez85 with a ty pass after the long straight, which made me feel bad.

Feel like i'm getting a better feel for the cars, had more time to spend on the tune this week, will hopefully see the laps edging closer and closer to competitive.

I didn't get a replay file saved for race 1, is there any setting I might have wrong? I had a good save on race 1 I wanted to watch again.

@Anon666 can I have a team please thanks

Cheers

Here you go mate
Hopefully the link works - first time I've shared with Dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xqdz8x27xk44ijn/AC_050318-184441_R_ks_ferrari_f2004_china-gp_?dl=0

So what track are we doing? I have tested suzuka and get a small washboard effect as described by Marty, which won't bother me so much, but may bother others

Seems good to me .

Unfortunately due to me deciding to race at the last moment, I didn't get everything setup in time and therefore didn't get the password to enter the room. Doh! definitely my fault. Got Discord set up now at least. Not sure how my relative lack of pace would have gone last night in the reverse grid race. At least I finally have some time to race now.

working, thanks

Hey guys,
Just getting back into AC after several seasons in Atomic Racing League, is it possible to join season 14 still? I've heard the racing is excellent and well organised. What do I need to get started (if you have space)? Thanks!