ACC ACC Season 2 Monday's rnd 13 Barcelona 60 minute Sprint Cup

Also to compare against a public server lol, I did one race on an open pub server during the week as I saw one at 250ms SA90 with a few guys in this combo. Thats how 3 people do a short rolling start in a pub server.


The race was a solo hot stint anyway as they had no real pace and only 1 other of these finished a 20 minute race.

Just needed to get some points here as it's basically just @Frostwa and I fighting for 5th in the championship. Probably a good thing as I didn't really have the pace to do much more than what I achieved last night.

Qualified in 7th but dropped to 8th as @Sparksy84 overtook me in turn 1. There ensued a race long fight between us, there was never really any door to door battles, more just on the delta. I overtook him about lap 3 as he made a slight mistake and I was able to capitilise on that. Then he was holding on by about a second up until he dived into the pit trying to get an undercut. I had a poor in lap and then the engine didn't stop the first time so once I exited the pit I saw him flying by

The next stint I just set to it and tried to catch up the 3 second gap. For the first half of that we were holding station but, as Tom mentioned in chat, he burnt his tyres a touch too much and I was able to creep forward until about 10 minutes before race end he made an error coming out of the corner leading onto the back straight and I managed to nab him into the next corner.

What could have been quite a boring race, as we were in no mans land, ended up being quite a lot of fun

On a side note, @TakFR I know you're frustrated but it just looked like a bit of bad luck that you were involved in that incident. If you look at things another way you're very close to @krunch in the silver Championship, still plenty to play for mate

Sorry to hear your race was OK, clearly I should have messaged Sparksman to sort you out on behalf of Team Aston !!

After breaking my loadcell last Monday I was very happy to pick up the replacement from my local PO on the way home and get it installed with about 5 minutes to go before the race! I emailed Fanatec mid week last week after confirming the problem and they shipped the part next day, here to me in time to race - I think pretty amazing. Of course the failure was annoying in the first place but still - happy with the recovery!

This meant I hadn't done any practice and had no set-up (I had old ones from a few updates ago but was not confident these would work so just went with default agressive), so I was very much off the pace last night. I know I can get into the low 44's/high 43's when I'm on it but last night I was happy with a high 45 or low 46. I had periods where I was catching and challenging for position, I thought possibly heading for a top ten finish, but unfortunately two incidents that had me spun and carrying damage put paid to any dreams of catching @krunch ...this week anyway!

The second incident I had was with Nanlatt where we touched after the hairpin. At the time I felt like I had overlap and was forced almost off the track before inevitably touching but looking at the replay it was more a 50/50 - I could easily have backed off a touch and avoided it. Bummer for both of us as I think @nanlatt ended up losing more than I did from the incident. Had I realised at the time it was not your fault mate I would have waited for you and redressed rather than buzzing off - apologies for that.

Anyway in the end I salvaged a few points which just about keep me in the running for SILVER so I will have to make sure I am on it during the next two races.

Sorry Shane, Larrie Stroll didnt give me a phone call to order the hit!

Another solid one, P8 with a delta battle against @Jeremy Talbot.
Massive undercut but cooked the tyres (Barcelona Burn).

@SteveDrivingSlowly, feel free to let me through on to the silver podium

I let emotion get the better of me last night and I apologise, it's not fair to everyone else to take my own frustrations out on here. From my point of view at the time I saw cars spinning at t1 and went off track to avoid only to be slammed into giving damage for something that I was completely innocent in, it's also not the only time this has happened (most races have had some pileup or spin in the first lap affecting at least 3-4 cars) and the frustrating part is I take it easy most of the time for the first lap or so to get through since most of the time it's not worth the risk of taking damage (this is kinda what I meant by public lobby btw, I do the same thing there and it also works out most of the time) but the one time I decided to not just let people through and make a gain is the time I get murdered albeit by complete accident, get damage and have the car do it's usual no you spin now despite taking the same line and braking + accel points, although this may be due to damage which is why I just ended it.

That being said I am very tired of how the car behaves in regards to understeer into snap oversteer, pointing out that Andy is leading so the car is fine isn't really fair since I think you are underestimating how much of that is him and not the car. I really do get the impression that he would be winning or in the top 3 in pretty much any car that isn't the real bottom tier BoP cars. Both @nanlatt and I have struggled with the car's issues, Andy has just outpaced everyone despite those issues if that makes sense.

As for the Silver championship I don't really care, I'm only placed there because I've been at every race. Most races have had me racing alone with people ahead spinning out, taking DT penalties or being stuck behind a train. I don't deserve to be there anyway and with Laguna Seca being the last round I can't unsee this being a horrible, frustrating experience since the car is so terrible there.

I'm just going to end by saying sorry again, a lot of my personal situation and state of mind at the moment is making incredibly anxious, depressed and frustrated which has been seeping into driving at the moment which in turn is only fueling it creating a spiral over the last couple of weeks. I'll see how I feel about doing Kyalami since it's a track i've never done a long race on, but i'll stop making selfish and dumb posts on here.

Agree on Andy being competitive in nearly every car thats in the ballpark BOP wise. Probably all the 2019 season ones, unfortunately its tricky as the potential in the cars may be there but getting it out just wont be for everyone.

Future seasons we may have a mid season forced car switch as I think a few people have given up on the season frustrated by a car. The hard thing is the physics do change during the season and all cars have their better and weaker circuits. The top of this group is crazy competitive too and to beat Andy either needs his car to be a bit crippled at that track or doing an absolutely perfect race.

I though on pure pace the Porsche would give me more of an edge, there was maybe 3 tenths on pure qualy single lap pace, Andy got much more from that then I though he would. Race pace wise with the Porsche characteristics it was much closer and I didnt have the pace to get away even though I did about all I could for the first 55 minutes with only a couple minor brain fades with TC and ECU mix up's that only would have cost a few tenths on a few laps and probably helped me make the distance on fuel.

With getting some practice for a round I think using the ROOZ practice servers that are setup for races are much more beneficial. These are set fairly high SA but I dropped them a bit as nobody has been using them anyway. But with the weather settings set the same as the Monday and rarely getting optimum conditions it will help you set the car up for a race much better then setting it up in optimal static conditions. Each time you join it may be a bit different and learning to adjust to this is fairly critical IMHO, I use the hotlap server just for a base qualy setup or a race run test to see pace over a stint, tyre wear and start fuel.

Running races also helps to learn the race fuel balance, you can even start a short race on full fuel to se how that goes. The session before the race on a Monday I spend all but maybe the last 10 or 5 minutes on race fuel and setup. Then put in a qualy run at the end. Practice sessions are generally set the same time as the race will be on the main server, grip will be down a little but wind and temps should be around the same as will time of day during the session to reflect the start of the race.

The hotlap server is setup similar conditions to whats expected in qualy but add some wind and different grip levels plus lots of traffic youd learn more in the dynamic race server qualy sessions.

The balance on fuel is fairly critical, not sure how much in the GTR but this is the biggest factor in the Porsche probably more then any other car. It can change 4-5mm front ride height from a full tank to an empty one, the extra weight at the front makes a big weight balance change at the start of a race and the end with the nose lifting by a fair bit aero balance can change 3% during the stint. Thats why I have been trying to run less fuel then needed and try save some during the race to avoid the low fuel balance issues it has.

Hey my dude, no harm done, and don't hold back on your posts on my account at least. IMO you have to be able to say what you are thinking. Everyone else gives it a good crack!

I certainly didn't mean to trivialise Andy's input into making wins/great pace - I only meant to hold that up as proof that "there is a way" - there is a way to do better, in every car. Maybe not win or set a lap record, but improve...yes. You are right - Andy and a bunch of the other guys here are right on it no matter what car they are in/track they are at. My point was, with determination - you can do it, and knowing the battle you are having with the car I'd say you certainly deserve to be where you are in the championship.

I often - and I think probably many of us at least some of the time - forget that we are here to escape from stresses and worries and have a blast, blow out the cobwebs and have great fun racing with a bunch of good blokes. It is a competition, sometimes a fierce one, which sometimes sends us off in another direction...but I believe the core of why we are all here is for fun. For me, I am fastest when I am just having a blast, not worrying so much about it and not fighting it so hard...weird how that works!

I'm thinking I should take that Nissan next season and prepare to eat my own words!

Here is a full replay of my race, I enjoyed the battle with @andyo450 immensely. My brain berps with the TC instead of ECU are evident but didmt cost too much, I lost some time after the stop when I planned a full attack with full power. Instead I used this extra fuel on the last few laps once beaten and out of rubber.

I had ECU correct on the formation and race start but then didnt notice I was changing tc instead of ECU until lap 19. Credit to Andy for staying patient and not having any contact in those multiple t1 battles. The auto highlights didnt do our battle justice.

Well this was another race befitting of my season so far.....

After struggling with the GTR's setup and being miles off the pace and finding it virtually undrivable I found a solution that I was reasonably comfortable with. Did a qualy lap only good enough for P11 but was in P9 due to the T1 carnage. With @Medved seemingly forgetting what the blue flags mean lap after lap, I was being backed into the following pack. Pushing hard for an overtake I looped it going into the corner before the final chicane(this corner had been my biggest issue). Then got a drivethrough for what seemed like an off track that would have barely invalidated a lap. Oh well....served that, move on.

Caught the fighting pack in front, got an overtake on @SteveDrivingSlowly only to have a coming together at the next corner which ended with me in the wall. I was a bit pissed off at the time as I thought I had done enough to keep the corner. As Steve said it was probably a 50/50 racing incident. I probably could have left a little more room but I couldn't see where he was and he could have backed out of it. That's racing though.....Things can look very different depending on which seat you happen to be in.

The car was pretty rubbish by now but the excitement wasn't over yet. With my car not great and @Medved primed for an overtake, I let room on the inside of T4. Well it didn't seem to be enough as he slammed into the side of me sending the wounded Nissan into a spin. He stop and redressed the position (thanks) but the car was stuffed and I dragged it home into P19.

If it sounds like I'm a bit salty, I'm not actually. I always enjoy the racing even when things don't go to plan...which to be honest has been pretty much every race this season. The next one will be better...right?

@TakFR don't give up on us mate or the GTR. It is a tricky beast but rewarding when you can get it right (which isn't as often as we would both like). @andyo450 has been extremely helpful with setups and tips, but to make the car fast he has it very edgy and I just don't have the skills required to tame his setups. The only one I've actually used was at Suzuka.

Everyone here does the best they can and I'm damn sure no-one is out to try and ruin anyone's race. Hang in, only 2 to go.

Jumping in off bugger all laps and having been very fatigued from work in recent weeks I wasn't expecting any miracles for this race.

Qualifying 6th was an okay start, had a better time in me but couldn't get the lap down but was at least in a decent spot for the start. Getting away cleanly it was a fun battle with Reilly and Laurenson until the stops, managing to miss my pitbox I lost a few seconds in the stop so aimed to try and at least get back past Reilly if I could by the end.

Pace was good and was making gains on Reilly, finding it hard to line a move up with the monster the GTR is in a straight line! Catching the car ahead a three way battle followed, the other two coming together in the dying laps allowing me to slip past. Ending up 4th it all worked out despite the slight time loss in the pits, awesome fun as always and assuming nothing changes schedule wise at my end Kyalami should be suuuuper fun!