ACC Blancpain GT @ Zolder - Thursday 5th September 2019

[Navoan]

Sign me up again..
Sorry for the confusion !

 

[Chris Zijlstra]

In please!

 

[Andrew Sebastian]

Have I got the time wrong, is this race supposed to be starting in 5 mins??

 

[Ricoow]

Have I got the time wrong, is this race supposed to be starting in 5 mins??

Nope, you are an hour early

 

[Andrew Sebastian]

Sorry, totally screwed up the timing so I won’t be able to make the later start. Apologies, was looking forward to this as well.

Definitely will join next time now I know the timings!

 

[Ricoow]

That my friends, is a consecutive pole for me after getting my first ever pole last Monday. Managed to stay ahead of @Asterix with just 0.045 seconds in a 1:29.769, with @Vlad Zap closely behind at 0.117 from me, whilst my practice times only reached 1:30.2. Really happy with that improvement, a different line through turns 2/3 got me a lot of extra time.

Race time, Weather was light rain, so I've picked the wets for the race. They were burning hot at the end of lap 1 so I pitted for dry tyres immediately (spinning whilst entering pitlane lol). Then basically I was 15 seconds AHEAD of the leader @Asterix who was on a mission to lap as much as he could given the fact that he had nobody to fight with, since Vlad made the same mistake with the tyres. The 15 second gap to Asterix stayed for the entire race, but I've worked my way through the field from P11 all the way up to P4. (one of the guys, @jv_prost I believe, had a massive tyre explosion right in front of me) Being down 30 seconds to @Skinny712 with 10 minutes to go I knew I wasn't going to make it. However, I did manage to put in the fastest lap of the race (1:31.9) in the drying conditions and close the gap to 21 seconds. If only I fitted the right tyres, the battle for P1 would have been epic.

 

[Andrew Sebastian]

Well I managed to race, so thanks everyone for a great first experience.

Managed to get up to 5th and was happily going along when I had a rear tyre blow out at the first chicane with about 5 minutes left. Gutted!

My HUD disappeared at the start of the race so I’ve no idea what state they were in. Didn’t help that Crew Chief was reporting everything fine!

Oculus tracking was a bit flakey at a couple of points during the race, but overall really enjoyed it. Such a refreshing change to have clean racing having experienced the car crash that is public lobbies.

 

[Ricoow]

Managed to get up to 5th and was happily going along when I had a rear tyre blow out at the first chicane with about 5 minutes left. Gutted!

I've noticed the kerbs to be lot less forgiving. This is the only track where I have had pressure loss on tyres due to kerbs.

 

[Skinny712]

well that was interesting qualified P6 made up two places on the first couple of laps just tried to stay calm running in 4 for a good 15 minutes hoping one of the guys infront would make a mistake eventually got into third then with about 10 minutes to go seen @Ricoow moving to fourth i knew he was alot quicker than me but i knew i could afford to lose 3 seconds a lap to him and still come home third so took it fairly handy even though me heart was belting out through me chest...My first podium in a RD race probally be my last but feck it im happy out

 

[Ricoow]

I have started collecting statistics for the sake of collecting them:
So far we have driven, in total, more in the rain this month than in the dry (385 laps vs 427 laps)

 

[SkyMarshal]

Not a good race for me. On qualify a got P8, good setup for the race on dry tires and good pressure setup. But half of the race, untill lap 15, i never took a good drive on track, with 3 spuns and several long braking on turns. Finally from lap 15 I got my pace, stable between low 1:36 and hight 1:35 (more than 3 seconds slower than leaders). I've a lot to learn

 

[Asterix]

Cheers to @Ricoow for hosting and putting up a cracking Q lap.

Seems I got my strategy right - Dry tyres, pumped them up and got away with it not getting really hot as we didn't really have the dry weather kick in properly.

I doubt I'll win another one of these by a 36 second margin again...

Thanks to everyone else that raced

 

[Skinny712]

Cheers to @Ricoow for hosting and putting up a cracking Q lap.

Seems I got my strategy right - Dry tyres, pumped them up and got away with it not getting really hot as we didn't really have the dry weather kick in properly.

I doubt I'll win another one of these by a 36 second margin again...

Thanks to everyone else that raced

Fair play lad from what i seen of you your always there or there abouts and then for some reason it goes wrong for you (i dont mean that in a smart way) well deserved your a serious quick pilot

 

[Andrew Sebastian]

Lots of little details to take away and consider from last nights race.

Firstly, the HUD disappearing at race start. Did anyone else experience this? I was using an Oculus Rift, and wondering if the issue was specific to that?

I have the in-game engineer turned off, and use Crew Chief instead. However, I’m not sure how reliable the information was. The lap times and distance to car in front/behind seemed accurate, but was still reporting tyres fine after blow out?

So based on the HUD issues, and Crew Chief, I wasn’t sure of what tyres I should have been on? Reading back the comments, I clearly should have been on dry, but at the start of the race it was raining, and didn’t appear to let up (from my perspective).

Would the in-game race engineer have been telling me to come in and change tyres, or is that a call I would have to make based on the HUD information?

 

[Ricoow]

Firstly, the HUD disappearing at race start. Did anyone else experience this? I was using an Oculus Rift, and wondering if the issue was specific to that?

Not oculus related, acc sometimes is a pain and turns it off. Luckily you can simple enable it again by using F2

Lots of little details to take away and consider from last nights race.

Firstly, the HUD disappearing at race start. Did anyone else experience this? I was using an Oculus Rift, and wondering if the issue was specific to that?

I have the in-game engineer turned off, and use Crew Chief instead. However, I’m not sure how reliable the information was. The lap times and distance to car in front/behind seemed accurate, but was still reporting tyres fine after blow out?

So based on the HUD issues, and Crew Chief, I wasn’t sure of what tyres I should have been on? Reading back the comments, I clearly should have been on dry, but at the start of the race it was raining, and didn’t appear to let up (from my perspective).

Would the in-game race engineer have been telling me to come in and change tyres, or is that a call I would have to make based on the HUD information?

I game engineer is lazy and doesn't tell anything. However if you have the HUD, then in the bottom of your screen it will say slicks optimum or something alike. Another way you could tell is that (for me at least) the wets will be terribly hot after a lap which also means they have no grip at all.

 

[Andrew Sebastian]

Not oculus related, acc sometimes is a pain and turns it off. Luckily you can simple enable it again by using F2

I game engineer is lazy and doesn't tell anything. However if you have the HUD, then in the bottom of your screen it will say slicks optimum or something alike. Another way you could tell is that (for me at least) the wets will be terribly hot after a lap which also means they have no grip at all.

Thanks for that, very useful to know re F2.

I was putting in quite consistent laps (although slow relative to those in front) so was difficult to judge whether it was the wrong tyre, or that was the performance of the tyre. I now know after the blowout they must have been shot.

Thanks for the info and organising, look forward to the next race.

 

[robt100]

I have started collecting statistics for the sake of collecting them:
So far we have driven, in total, more in the rain this month than in the dry (385 laps vs 427 laps)

And its the one month I havent been able to make races I might be able to make Sunday....but Monza doesn't appeal. I haven't done Misano in a while mind you......next week perhaps?

 

[Ricoow]

And its the one month I havent been able to make races I might be able to make Sunday....but Monza doesn't appeal. I haven't done Misano in a while mind you......next week perhaps?

*looks at @Daniel Monteiro

 

[Daniel Monteiro]

*looks at @Daniel Monteiro

One of my favourite tracks? Upon my return? How likely would that be?

(might come with a twist)

 

[robt100]

One of my favourite tracks? Upon my return? How likely would that be?

(might come with a twist)

As long as its not on a Thursday I can probably make it