ACC Kyalami 2hr Monday Season 2 rnd 14

Pump those tyres up in the pitstop.

Quite a fun race this one. I didn't quite get the best lap in for quali ending up in 8th with a surprisingly fast @Bueller ahead of me on the grid in 6th! Great quali mate!

Race start was the usual chaotic one, kind of got ahead of Bueller and @Reilly Blyth but then ran a touch wide and Bueller got back ahead with Reilly behind. It took quite a few laps to get ahead of Bueller but finally made it stick as he went a bit too deep on the brakes into the hairpin at the top of the hill, compromising his run down into the right hander. After that it was just me trying to not make any mistakes as Reilly got past him at the same time and was chasing me down. I think I do better chasing rather than leading as I just couldn't get a rhythm, making too many errors and Reilly got past.

Once he got past I was able to keep my pace up and we both started to close the gap on @marty. We brought it down to about a second but Marty decided to pit a lap early than Reilly and I. We both pitted the next lap but it looked like the undercut worked, plus Reilly and I came out in traffic which hadn't pitted yet. Once those cars did pit the next lap it was enough for Marty to scamper away by 7 seconds.

We pretty much kept in contact for the first half of the second stint, albeit him slighly pulling away, until he made an error going through the chicanes leading up the hill. I managed to pass him, just, and then ensued a glorious battle lol. He was faster but I was able to defend well so it took a fantastic move by him to get past, well deserved too

So after that it was pretty much over with Reilly taking p4 by about a second over the line. Thoroughly enjoyable but I was knackered after that with all that concentration needed for the whole 2 hours.

Bit of a novel that one, sorry guys

No worries mate, all good - it happens!

For my race, it was up and down. I have struggled to get a good lap in during qualy all season and this one was no different - I made a conscious effort to try and find a decent gap but just kept coming up on people spinng/crashing/rejoining. Just bad luck!

That luck went away for a bit as I got a great start, moving up from P17 to P13 in the first half of the lap, tucking into a train and keeping close to @Hatfield (I think) ahead. As @Sparksy84 mentioned, this luck ran out for me a few turns from the end of the lap when we came together and I spun out. Unfortunately I picked up damage here and the rear end was very slippery for the rest of the stint. I found this out when I was attacking Mael at the same turn on the next lap and lost it spinning out again. After this I was very gentle for the rest of the stint, catching up with @nanlatt and Gock by the end of the stint I followed these guys for a number of laps and in retrospect I should have pitted early for the undercut but chose not to at the time.

Second stint after the repairs was much much better. I was almost a second a lap quicker and wprking my way forwards nicely. Had some excellent battles with Gock, @nanlatt, @Hatfield and @krunch right up until the last 6 minutes. I had been waiting for a fight on track with @krunch all season and with the silver championship hanging in the balance I knew this was a battle that really mattered. I followed close behind for maybe 20 minutes, catching him in sector one, holding in sector two, only to have that porsche's amazing exit acceleration take it all away at Leeukop, the hairpin at the top of the hill. Then with only a few laps to go I finally got the braking perfect at that turn and wound up for a great exit, thinking this would set me up to a T1 challenge next lap. Unfortunately I must have gotten overexcited as I allowed the rear end to step out a little too far and boom, I spun out and that challenge was over. Hatfield and Gock sped past and I locked in with square front tyres to drag it home for P 14.

Not the greatest result but a great race - really, really enjoyed that one!

Love / hate this place great fun but that right kink at Cheetah can go die in a fire...clipped it once when up under Andy's rear wing (that GTR is all sorts of fat ) ...back to 3rd - next lap tod myself "dont hit it, dont hit it, dont hit it"....hit it and back to 4th. Of course never hit it again lol

OK, if you wanna go faster get a DIRECT DRIVE....just kidding....
I spent the last couple of days intermittently trying to beat my server best but could barely match it. I made a few minor tweaks to the car set-up, normally just use aggressive, which made the car a little loose in the rear on race night and managed to get into 40's for a decent qualy position. I think the new DD helped me control the rear end a tiny bit. I felt a little out of place up there, surrounded by some big names, lol.
Pushing the car as hard as I could to try stay in front of Jeremy, a mistake was bound to happen and of course it did. Struggling to keep the car straight for two hours was a real challenge, let alone battling. Second half with some fresh tyres and two Hondas hounding me was extremely good fun, smiles ear to ear. A few more minor mistakes like missing gear changes, apexs and brake markers saw me dropping further down the order. The button for headlights was not mapped like thought and had to reach for the keyboard, then also thinking the race was over when there was still one more to go, kind of made it too easy for Jorgenson...lol.
Fantastic race, happy to have finished let alone inside the top ten, awesome race guys, thanks.

Felt I had the pace to snatch pole here, but an incident in qualli had me scrambling to get back out on track and whilst I was up on the last lap, I lost those precious tenths in the rear of the course.

The start was a good one, hounding @Kcender87 on the inside, but he got the better drive out in the first few corners. The next few laps I chased as he caught @andyo450 but he went wide at the kink which promoted me to 2nd. The next several laps involved trying to chase down Andy, but eventually he started to edge away with metronomic consistency. My psi's were a little unbalanced once they settled which I fixed in the pitstop, but the damage was done by then and he still continued edging away after that any how.

An unfortunate incident with @Mia_09 before the stops where I got turned. He was faster at that stage and I was defending as I could, but instead of redressing he said something about not having grip on the front tyres and dove into the pits early (probably ruining his race by forcing a 2 stopper because of stint limits). A simple redress would have been fine, and would have only cost him a few seconds. If you're faster, I have no worries at all if you get by cleanly, but instead of pushing the car so hard to ruin the grip on the front, perhaps just sit back for a few corners and calculate a good move. Much better than ruining both drivers rhythms.

Qualified badly but that's to be expected since I practiced mainly with the planned fuel load on board, got through the start ok and just kept trying to hit my marks and keep consistent. 15 laps in the car decided it didn't like that and span into the wall, then span again 10 laps later so I left, was being lapped and didn't want to spin into someone since the car just looks for any opportunity to regardless of how easy you're going on it. Keeping up with people to some degree only to spin out is the only experience I get with this car now.

In retrospect I shouldn't have tried to drive this thing again, any attempts to drive it over the past 3 races has had it step out for seemingly no reason and is just a miserable experience in the end. I cannot drive the car with any sort of confidence since it seems ok for a while, then you start to trust it a bit more to do what you know it can do, what you have done previously and what the other drivers do only for it to kill me. It's honestly just killed any self-confidence I had when it comes to sim-racing since now I have to question anything I do when approaching a corner even if it is the same method as the last lap or 5 laps before since it's not if it will become unstable and spin, it's when it will.

Probably the best race I've had all season from an enjoyment perspective, Honda was probably the most competitive it has been since Bathurst.
Quali was good, start was clean, made up some spots and ran side by side with @Frostwa for several corners with no contact which was good fun.

Once things settled down spent most of the first stint with @Cooper in the other NSX under my rear wing and as the stint wore on we ran up to the back of @Bueller. My pace dropped at the end of the stint slightly and @Cooper got past and @Bueller started edging back away. Tried the undercut and got both of them by nailing my stop and outlap.

Stint 2 had them right behind me for 45 mins with some swapping around of positions, but I hadn't quite got my rear pressures right and as the evening drew on really struggled to trail the brake into the slow corners without the rear sliding from under me and with getting the power down out of the hairpin before mineshaft and eventually both got by.

Right at the end I started catching @Bueller really quickly again, but was unlikely to make a pass - but as he noted above as we started the final lap he thought we were done, lifted slightly and this gave me a run into T1 on our final lap which was a shame for him.

But super enjoyable race, and huge appreciation for both @Bueller and @Cooper as we all ran so close for huge periods of the race with no contact, especially when they were both stuck behind my slower car!

My race with my only practice being the wednesday races I didnt expect to have great pace. In those races I found tyre wear not great in 15 min so I just spent the practice to do some heavy fuel runs.

Qualy I didnt get in a great lap but probably would not have got a much better spot anyway. Start of race I decided to take it quite easy and leave some life in the tyres to the end. I also ran less fuel to try reduce the aero balance effect at the end of the stint.

I didnt have the pace to keep up with the top 4 but had a bit more then those directly behind early. The gap was kind of building at the same rate ahead and behind. End 2nd half of my stint I stopped losing that much to the guys ahead but those behind started gaining on me.

Unsure of fuel usage I decided to turn it to full power and managed to get a few tenths back and slow the gains behind. My tyres werent going too well and then they all caught me close to the hour mark.

I stopped a couple laps sooner then planned assuming fresh tyres would be worth a second or so per lap and maybe build a gap. This extended to 7 seconds then up to 12 as I went full power with a bit more fuel on my stop. My pressures werent great on the second stint, with wear I was never going to catch those ahead. Stopping earlier then planned probably would have taken my tyres off the cliff the last five minutes.

However a big brain fade and I didny make the small left link on the back straight. Nailed a wall properly and wrecked the car. Dragged it to the pits and made a mess of a stop, plus 1m30 in repairs, overshooting box and being in revers as I was dropped meant I lost over 2 minutes in the stop.

I ended up behind the 2 I was ahead of but also 2 laps down on them. Car felt good at least on lower fuel and fresh rubber, I was too far back to make any gains.

Another shocker of a race which has been fairly common for me this season. Best I really could have got was 4th anyway. It was nice to get in a longer race and congrats to all that made the distance.

Obviously it's pretty late in the season and I'm assuming you'll most likely bin this car but Coach Dave Academy has released their Nissan setups if you were interested? No idea if it'll help you or not but by all reports their setups tend to help quite a lot

GTR group has been fine with setups, it's something that I don't think can be fixed with setup since everyone else seems to be fine with it. I'm just not getting it for whatever reason, also Coach Dave is waaay to expensive for something that in the end would probably be more of a placebo effect. Last time I drove Laguna it was horrible so I'll probably just skip next week, I really don't care about the championship stuff and it'll just be another nightmare

+1 to the coach Dave stuff, even if it's a placebo it still gives me confidence to drive the car in its state and focus more on lines and technique in practicing for a race

The best way to improve at certain tracks is to run them, it seems maybe your just overdriving it a bit or could possibly be a hardware setup issue? I still like to race even if I know I haven't got the pace its still fun to have a go, there are battles through the field generally. Also the more people that race the more people will likely have others around their pace to battle with, honestly my least memorable race of the season was the one I won.

Made it a point to not overdrive it and change setup for race specifically, didn't matter since it still wants to have the same issues, the thing is at this point it's not fun for me personally to drive this car and I don't want to speed another night being frustrated and depressed about it. I'd rather take a break and look at other cars for now

@krunch here I was thinking I was the racecraft god

Had to sit this one out with a bad back

That sucks mate! Hope it is better soon.