CotM GTC65 Corvettes @ Watkins Glen (sprint / feature) 4th July 2009

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Stuart Thomson

The Stoat Without Fear ™
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Servername: RACEDEPARTMENT.COM
Class: Car of the Month - Chevrolet Corvette '65
Track: Watkins Glen Nascar / Long (sprint /feature)
Conditions: 16.00 in game time

Practice: 20 mins
Qualification: 10 mins
Race: 20 laps

Note1: Click here to read the password and golden rules!
Note 2: This is a 2 race event. Race 1 is a sprint race - no pitstops. Race 2 has 1 pit stop as mandatory. Please read Warren's pit stop tutorial here for tips on a smooth and error free pit stop.
 
I probably wont make this meeting, I have a League test of new build of rFactor Caterham Superlight R500s, not as yet public, our league has been involved in testing since before first release, but I digress, I have done a few laps of testing and have uploaded my setup to online folder, fuel adjusted for 20 laps, called "65 Vette Sam" won't tell laptime though because someone else will beat it and I'll be demoralised. :)

Sam
 
I have a League test of new build of rFactor Caterham Superlight R500s, not as yet public,
:jealous:
Sam J Simpson said:
I have done a few laps of testing and have uploaded my setup to online folder, fuel adjusted for 20 laps, called "65 Vette Sam" won't tell laptime though because someone else will beat it and I'll be demoralised. :)

Sam
:unlikely:
 
Well, that was another great night :good:

a few taster pics before the race reviews :D
1. Me (black), Marty (blue), Croucher (orange) in The Boot
2. into the S/F straight
3. entering the Boot next lap round (this should give you an idea how close it was)
4. Kevin (blue) in the chicane followed by me
5. Exiting the chicane 2 laps later (nose to tail for lap after lap)
6. Kev's tyres let him down and I nip through, again through the chicane
 

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Another fun GTL night.

Never really felt on pace in the chevy but gave it my best. Couple good battles tonight with Matt, Kevin and Stuart. Fine edge of control in these cars and found myself off course many times. TS was fun especially listening to Bob and his adventures with the Vette.
Great time see ya soon, Marty
 
Had a hard time adjusting from an Alpine to a Chevy :) So was well off the pace, but by the end of the event I was getting to enjoy the Vette. Done a beautiful barrel roll just for Warrens pleasure coming up the hill, bet it looked spectacular :good: Also acted the good Samaritan by helping out poor old Bob who was beached at T1 :)


Good Samaritan

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Wall Riding

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Hmmmm not exactly sure what happened this morning.

Had some running mid week to get a basic setup and was running reasonable 2:12's on the long track but I downloaded Sam's setup and didn't tweak it enough for my liking I think, so I ended up with a car that understeered more than I would have liked..

Nevermind.

Both races I muffed the first lap at the same place - the chicane at the end of the straight.
I've been very cautious ever since I managed to T-bone Warren a few weeks ago on the first lap in a GTR-E event, so I thought I was gonna skitter up the arse... crap, forgotten who it was now, but yeh... Then the second race I was watching my rear vision mirror and Hans seemed to be approaching at a rather large rate of knots, so I ducked left, and slid down the escape road, watching everyone drive off. DAMN!


Finished the first race, but the second race ended on about lap 7 with I oversteering and nailed the tyre wall on the left as you exit the 2nd last corner... Engine, dead. Race over.
DAMN^2

Was able to watch some fantastic racing between the top guys though.

Well done to everyone.. Good stuff!
 
Another top morning with my GTL mates, beats sleeping in usually.

These beasts were suited to Watkins Glen, good track choice. Matt and I were the only ones to take advantage of the fine American weather and went topless.

Race 1: Nascar:
Qualy P3, dropped a spot off the line, and settled into P4 as Amir, Stu, and Avi quickly opened a 3 sec gap. I was saving tyres for later on, but about mid race, I caught the leaders and Kev was gaining on me, so it looked like being a great 5 way battle to the finish. Amir was sliding all over the track and no doubt chewing tyres frantically, but it looked impressive. Coming into turn 1, Amir seemed to brake much earlier than normal, so I madly braked harder, and the stupid yank beast immediately locked up and dived right. I headed for the inside to miss Amir, but I think he thought I was trying to pass and cut inside, causing me to tap him and send him wide into the boondocks. Very sorry Amir, I wasn't even considering a pass, just locked up badly. :doh: :sorry: I waited, but that allowed Kevin to latch onto my tail, and he soon passed both Myself and Amir. With a couple of laps to go, I could see Amir was almost down to his rims, so I waited for him to burn off the remaining bits of rubber :) , and cruised past for P4.
Grats to Avi, WD Stu and Ken.

Race 2: Long:
Qualy P2, better start and settled into P2 behind Kev for a couple of laps, but was hit by Avi in turn 1 and spun off. I almost gave Steven a heart attack as I rejoined, but he managed to avoid me, sorry Steve. :embarrassed:
Back to P6 now. Had a great race hounding Steven's bumper until he generously let me by. Next lap I had a great view in my mirrors when Steven tried to jump the high wire fence in spectacular style (10 out of 10 for height) :party2: . See pics attached.
Matt went lawn mowing and Kev must have had an off since I caught him. I decided to pit earlier, rather than try to pass Kev, and then managed to stuff up the pitstop by farting about for ages trying to turn off the repairs (I'd have been quicker just doing the repairs :clown: ). Came out P4 and with Steven again. He then gave me another gem in my mirrors, as he lost it out of the final turn and veered off uncontrollably into the pitlane. :laugh:

Finished P4 again. Grats to Stu for the big win, and WD to Matt and Kev.

Thanks all, more good fun. :clap2:
 

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Watkins Race night

Thanks for another good nights racing everyone,i to did a couple of practise laps earlier in the week and came away fairly disappointed with a time of 2.17.When i logged on this morning both Sam and Amir had loaded setups,.. so i tried them both settling on Amir's(thanks buddy).I now had a car that turned in:)woop:) but was a little bit aggressive on the rears. Qualified 6 for race 1 and had a fairly good start up into 4th i think which i held for a couple of laps till the cat came into the room and decided to jump on my lap as i came out of the esses causing me to brush the wall..lost a couple of spots...Damn Cat.After that settled into a rythym and managed to close on those in front finishing 3rd.Race 2 Qualified on pole with a 2.10.1 which surprised me as i didn't think it was that good a lap,but smooth is fast in these vettes.Got a good start and lead into turn 1 with Warren behind me ,going into turn 1 next lap around i look in the mirror and no one is there , seems there was an incident. Was a bit lonely for the next couple of laps ..but Stu was coming,soon on my rear bumper till a combination of late braking for the chicane,riding the concrete and way tooooo much throttle put me into a big tankslapper which i just about held till the final combination kicked in(Ran out of talent) and i came to rest against the armco nose in. Got going again couple of laps later pitted and coming out saw a flash of orange to my left,Matt was there and we went thru the esses together.I stayed in front till the concrete on the exit of turn 1 bit and sent me round,got going with warren behind me and tried to catch the leaders but ran out of laps (and tyres) finishing 3rd.Not a bad night 2 3rds and a pole and some good racing with a good bunch of drivers .Cheers Kev.:woop:
 
Some cracking racing tonight :good:

Nascar layout
Quallied about 3rd I think, felt pretty comfortable round here. Went a bit cautious into T1 as there were a lot of cars flying about all over the place, more to do with high speeds, high weights and small brakes rather than any reckless abandon on the driver's side. Managed to make it through OK, and soon I was having a great race in the top three with Avi & Amir. We all led for stages of the race, swapping positions regularly, but Avi & I were noticeably less aggressive on the car than Amir. I kept an eye on my tyre wear and it was pretty high for me while I was being as smooth as possible, so every time Amir locked up and threw the arse of his 'Vette round, I was wincing.

I've managed to delete the replay but I think that Avi was already in the lead by the time I managed to get past Amir decisively. I'm guessing that this was just after half distance, and I spent the rest of the race trying to close up on Avi, I managed to have one little charge and close right up, but couldn't get past and that closing up took just enough life out of my wellies that I started to get some unruly behaviour in some of the simpler corners. I could see Kevin in 3rd slowly closing the gap, but at the rate he was going he didn't have anywhere near enough laps to fully close, unless I made a dopey mistake of course, so I settled back and accepted a fairly comfortable 2nd rather than pushing on at Avi, and probably going into a wall somewhere and giving 2nd (and probably 3rd) away.

Great drive by Avi, grats to Kev.

Long layout
After the first race, I knew that qualifying was probably less important than tyre conservation, so I kept my race fuel in to get an idea of what my race times would be if I kept driving smoothly. That put me in about 5th, 2 laps within 5 hundredths of each other 2.11.759 + 2.11.808, which I thought would be a good race pace. Kevin pulled out a ludicrously quick quali of 2.10.122 to get a superb pole.

Dropped to 6th, Marty flying through into 5th, and I settled down for an entertaining drive through the field (hopefully). I managed to out brake Croucher into the chicane for 5th, and I was up on Marty's tail who was now in 4th. Marty superbly held a really nasty grass instigated slide going into the Boot, but it allowed me to close right up and keep my momentum up into the tight right hander and nip through into 4th. I kept the right lines through the rest of the Boot, and I rejoined the Nascar track closing in on Avi & Warren, a couple of seconds ahead.

Avi tried a rather ambitious dive up the inside of T1, and it didn't end well for he & Warren, pushing me up to 2nd as they waited and recovered respectively.

I set off in pursuit of Kevin, but to be honest I wasn't entirely confident I'd be able to catch him - if his pole lap was anything like his race pace, there was no way. It soon became apparent that there was more than a chance, as the gap dropped, and kept dropping, until I was right on his bumper. On about lap 6 or 7 I got a really good slipstream through the Esses and the front straight, but had to back off early to avoid taking us both out in the chicane, although I kept the gap down to about what it was the previous lap, 0.3-0.4 sec. Again, I got a good run through the Esses and was right on Kevin's bumper as we entered the Chicane. Kevin braked a bit later and turned in a bit later too, whereas I was a little slowly but on a much straighter entry. As Kev tried to turn for the second part of the chicane, his rear tyres let him down and he went into a slide, allowing me through into 1st.

From then on, it was a case of managing my laptimes and my tyres, and as soon as I dropped from comfortable 2.11.xxx into high 2.12's and low 2.13's I decided it was time to change my wellies. Luckily I had been contact free, so I knew there was no damage to repair, was running with full race fuel, so I took it easy, came in and got 4 new boots. Kevin and Avi flew past me as I was stationary, Croucher came in the same lap as me as took 3rd as his pit stall was just beyond mine. I was away long before him, and rejoined the track in P3.

As soon as I had the new tyres up to temp (about 3 corners in the 'Vettes :D) it felt so much better I couldn't believe I had been driving on the old ones, and so I pushed on to make sure that I would leapfrog Avi & Kevin at their stops

Straight down into the mid 2.11's, past Avi & then Kevin as they stopped, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, a 2.10.6. That opened up a comfortable enough gap for me again to just keep an eye on times and tyres and come home for the win.

WD to Croucher & Kev for the podium.

TS was - as always - extremely good value, especially Steve & Warren when Steve took to the skies.
 
  • Matt Crouch

I think the races were slightly harder than I expected after joining practice a bit early to try a few laps out, and getting some decent times

Race 1 I qualified in 8th. Qualified with the medium gears but decided to drop it down to short gears for the race to see how it was.
Broke a bit late in T1 and realised I was on a collision course with Glenn, so I steered off the track which put me at the back. Worked my way up from there over a few laps back to 6th, with Glenn following behind.
Toward the latter part of the race it felt like I was struggling for grip and managed to get 3 cut warnings for oversteering into the corners earning me a tasty stop n' go. Came back out and did a lap to find that Glenn had also been in the pits the lap after me. I think we were playing a game of Simon Says as I then crashed at the chicane, followed by Glenn, I nearly hit the barrier coming into the final turn, Glenn did :p...
Got another SnG on the final lap for a single cut, but I guess you can just ignore them on the last lap :confused: Finished a lap down in 7th

Race 2 - I personally find this long track easier than the nascar one overall. Went back to the medium gears which I think I preferred. Qualified in 4th - prefer being on the other side of the grid though ;). I quickly had to yield places down to 6th. I had fun chasing Marty for a couple of laps and it was a shame he had to leave.
I shortly had Stevie P and Warren on my tail, before I went chomping the grass on the inside of a corners letting Warren past.
Warren pitted, leaving me to chase Hopikins. I held off pitting for a couple of laps as I was still doing decent enough times. Kevin pitted on the next lap and came out directly next to me. Due to the timing and the layout of the track he was completely in my blindspot all the way round T1 and up the start of the hill so I could just hear an engine which I was looking around and failing to actually find :D.
He got past and started to get away, but a final mistake handed me P2. By this point Stuart was getting further ahead every lap and Kevin was very much gaining, but there weren't enough laps left for the order to change so I kept my P2 :)

I look forward to more Vettinary action
 
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