rF2 Caterham Superlights @ Philip Island - Fri 6th August

[Toby Davis]

One word. WOW

Two words. Thanks Gary.

Three words. Race 2 start.

Four words. Downshift like a noob.

Five words. Thank you everyone, once again!

 

[Bob Hutchins]

Second race night with Rfactor. Did some practice to get used to the Catssssss.

I had great fun tonight, quali went well, start was good and had a really good ding dong battle getting back upto third, which I lost early on due to brake wobble, then Adam hit me, np Adam thats racing, which put me down the field but managed to drag myself back upto 5th to finish.

Race 2 starting 2nd, another good start but I must work out where the lights are, following Lenno & Toby, Toby goes off but Lenno is streching his legs & Toby starts hauling me in. Now back to third on my own. Lonely middle part of the race and loose consentration & the 6 second gap in down to nothing. Stu catches up and we play the drafting game but 2 laps from the end of the race I put a wheel on the grass and get a monster tank slapper on. Now back in the midfield pack but nick a place before the end to finish 8th.

This was an awesome event on a great track with top drivers. Grts to Toby on the wins and well done all.

 

[Adam Eggbeer]

Good night for me really.

Quali: Was flying in practice and that showed in Quali by putting it 3rd on the grid even though I had a poor lap.

Race 1: Made a poor start and was immediately down to 4th. Chased down Magnus for the first few laps and eventually got past. Had Bob chase me down afterwards and he got alongside as we went through the penultimate corner, I've understeered wide trying to keep alongside and we touched. I slowed up waiting for him to recover. I looked behind and Tim was coming up in the distance, looked forward and i'm getting close to the corner so moved to the right towards the outside, had another check behind and tim was still quite a way back, looked forward and then looked back again and suddenly tim was right on my rear on the outside of the turn so I've had to take avoiding action onto the grass.

Ran in 5th for most of the race until 2 cars had an incident. I was on the grass, the other one had slowed down on the racing line.

If you look at the replay you can see I was on the very outside of the corner where the racing line is up against the curb. Anyway Bob got past and I'm down to 9th. Got past Bob again along with a few others and then got nudged by Nigel? on the last lap. Spun and lost another place but Nigel had slowed to let me back through at the end of the lap (Thanks). Finished 7th.

Race 2: Got another poor start and ended up on my own in 8th at turn 2. Squeezed past the accident at turn 4 and was up to 5th. Got in the slipstream of Neil on the start/finish straight but could only get a part of the way alongside as Dariusz came up on the right and Tim trying to squeeze through on the left. As we reached the line Tim moves right, Neil moves left and I'm the meat in the sandwich going straight. Tim flies off the track nearly taking Dariusz with him, Neil shoots left and I'm thankful to still be going straight. Gained a few more places at the end to finish 4th.

Thanks to Stu, RD, and all those I raced with.

 

[Dariusz Swiderski]

I had a very poor introduction to Cats, all my fault lol. When i started up rFactor this evening the game just wouldn't boot up, got as far as the 1st screen and then freeze. In panic i try to uninstall some files i thought were responsible and was even considering fresh install.In the end i got the game working but the biggest surprise was lack of ffb. I had ff when i run over kerbs but absolutely nothing in between lol. So even after 2 races i still didn't know if i like the cats or not. Straight after the race i did fresh install of rFactor and only put the WTM and Cats mods in. And run the cats again on Bathurst just to see what i,ve missed.
And I LOVE IT
Can't wait for next Friday lol.

Good racing all and Thx to Stuart and RD for the event.See you all next time.

 

[Toby Davis]

I had a very poor introduction to Cats, all my fault lol. When i started up rFactor this evening the game just wouldn't boot up, got as far as the 1st screen and then freeze. In panic i try to uninstall some files i thought were responsible and was even considering fresh install.In the end i got the game working but the biggest surprise was lack of ffb. I had ff when i run over kerbs but absolutely nothing in between lol. So even after 2 races i still didn't know if i like the cats or not. Straight after the race i did fresh install of rFactor and only put the WTM and Cats mods in. And run the cats again on Bathurst just to see what i,ve missed.
And I LOVE IT
Can't wait for next Friday lol.

Good racing all and Thx to Stuart and RD for the event.See you all next time.

I wondered where all your normal ridiculous alien pace was I was expecting a battle with you and Lenno but it appeared only Lenno was there. Even then he was having shifting difficulties!

 

[Tim Ling]

After watching the replay, I have a big apology to make to David Cuthill, as I just caught you on the last corner as I pulled out to overtake you. I thought you'd spun as you hit the gas, but the replay shows it was me. I never felt any contact David, or I would have stopped. Sorry

 

[Ross McGregor]

Well those were two very action-packed races for me! 25 mins felt like 5 mins!

For the second week on the trot, i couldn't qualify. Last week it was ffb that went haywire, this week it was a bad connection that needed rebooting. Quite annoying. Started 2nd last in race 1 and gingerly made my way through t1, and gingerly collected a spinner in t2. Miles behind the pack, i could only try my best to move up the field and get a better grid slot for race 2. Got up to 11th with around 10 mins to go, but made a stupid error of glancing down at the timing splits mid-corner, and found myself off the circuit! Later on while battling with Stu, I downshifted 4 times into the final tight hairpin instead of 3, and this spun me round. Recovered to finish 13th. Oh dear, too many mistakes!

Hoping for a error-free run in race 2, i made up a few places on lap one, avoiding spinners etc, and was in a 5-car battle for 3rd for a few laps, until braking for the first hairpin i experienced some minor lag (while in the pack) and this was enough to send the back end round again. It was quite a little battle we were all having too, i'm just glad everyone got through ok. Rejoined and eventually recovered to 5th or 6th at the end, via a nervy last-lap battle with Neil!

Congrats to Toby and Gary, and also to Tim for his first podium! Thanks again Stu.

 

[Gary Lennon]

A couple of the best Cat races for me at an old fave track,the practice times on display suggested this could be a 6 car squabble up front but me and Toby managed to break away good despite constantly passing each other,that was down to no contact and using slipstream to full effect,but no matter how good a final sector i could put in and even look like ive broken the tow to Toby,everytime he could easily cruise up behind and swish past down the straight as if he had a turbo-cat! :o....i ended up in a knot at the bottom of Lukey Heights on the final lap and binned the chance of a final dive somewhere .
I got some very valuable gear change schooling from Toby bewteen races,screaming the revs too long and shifting up too late was the feedback,thats my old early days Academy training at work there...also using another bit of Toby advice with the starts as well these 2 races with manual clutch and found good success with that,race 2 start was good enough to clear everything ahead of me on the grid but just not good enough to keep in front of Toby,so 2nd place at T1 ,after a lap suddenly at T2 Toby's back end snaps around and i juuust scrape past,he drops back a bunch of time in 3rd and i assume thats the last i will see of him this race....going along all smug and a bit too casual while each lap Toby is tearing lumps out of the gap and it ends up like race one all over again,my new found gear changing style seems to work nice as well,probably sometimes now a bit guilty of shifting up a tad too early some gears,i was happy to hold it to the end this time and even attempting a might draft run out the final turn to nick the win at the line,but it just didnt happen.
For the percentage of time me and Toby spent racing within cm's apart over the 2 races i think we touched cars about 3 or 4 times,no bit of contact was ever bad enough to cause spins either,i reckon the worst hit between us was me in to the back of Toby at T4 tight right on lap one race one,thankfully low speed and not hard enough a hit to cause grief,still apologies to Toby for very avoidable contact.
The racing last night gives a little hint at how the league will hopefully be,im looking forward to some battles involving more than 2 cars as well,ive been involved in some of those in the past and its just brilliant,ofcourse a proper 1 on 1,Mano o Mano scrap is nice,but a pack of 5 or 6 is really special.
Very large congrats to Toby for a couple of very deserved wins,i enjoyed your Caterham school lastnight.
(Uh oH!....Lingo is developing a case of "Podium Fever",i predict he will need to have more!).

Many Thanks Stu & RD

 

[Toby Davis]

A couple of the best Cat races for me at an old fave track,the practice times on display suggested this could be a 6 car squabble up front but me and Toby managed to break away good despite constantly passing each other,that was down to no contact and using slipstream to full effect,but no matter how good a final sector i could put in and even look like ive broken the tow to Toby,everytime he could easily cruise up behind and swish past down the straight as if he had a turbo-cat! :o....i ended up in a knot at the bottom of Lukey Heights on the final lap and binned the chance of a final dive somewhere .
I got some very valuable gear change schooling from Toby bewteen races,screaming the revs too long and shifting up too late was the feedback,thats my old early days Academy training at work there...also using another bit of Toby advice with the starts as well these 2 races with manual clutch and found good success with that,race 2 start was good enough to clear everything ahead of me on the grid but just not good enough to keep in front of Toby,so 2nd place at T1 ,after a lap suddenly at T2 Toby's back end snaps around and i juuust scrape past,he drops back a bunch of time in 3rd and i assume thats the last i will see of him this race....going along all smug and a bit too casual while each lap Toby is tearing lumps out of the gap and it ends up like race one all over again,my new found gear changing style seems to work nice as well,probably sometimes now a bit guilty of shifting up a tad too early some gears,i was happy to hold it to the end this time and even attempting a might draft run out the final turn to nick the win at the line,but it just didnt happen.
For the percentage of time me and Toby spent racing within cm's apart over the 2 races i think we touched cars about 3 or 4 times,no bit of contact was ever bad enough to cause spins either,i reckon the worst hit between us was me in to the back of Toby at T4 tight right on lap one race one,thankfully low speed and not hard enough a hit to cause grief,still apologies to Toby for very avoidable contact.
The racing last night gives a little hint at how the league will hopefully be,im looking forward to some battles involving more than 2 cars as well,ive been involved in some of those in the past and its just brilliant,ofcourse a proper 1 on 1,Mano o Mano scrap is nice,but a pack of 5 or 6 is really special.
Very large congrats to Toby for a couple of very deserved wins,i enjoyed your Caterham school lastnight.
(Uh oH!....Lingo is developing a case of "Podium Fever",i predict he will need to have more!).

Many Thanks Stu & RD

Yeh I have some more advice for you after watching the replay with shifting, if you notice, I'm able to brake about 5m later than you which helped me defend into the tighter corners. I'll see if you can work it out ready for the next Cat race (watch the replay when we're side by side and then we both change gear ) But yeh, that was literally one of the closest and fairest races I've had on RD - it's amazing, we were able to trust each other and run side by side through almost every corner - it really isn't often that this happens. In the final laps of each race I was trying to work out how to get by you and break the tow coming onto the straight, and I found that the 3rd gear left hander (turn 5, is it?) was the best place to stay on the apex and delay your exit, so that I could get 5 tenths ahead. I was also a little bit faster than you through the final couple of turns so I was able to just stay ahead in race 2. Race 1, of course, you spun under braking.

I actually think though now that you have a handle on the starts that it's fairly pointless where we start, if everyone in front of us is using the standard rFactor starting procedure and it's a longish straight then it shouldn't be too hard to get straight to the front in turn 1. A few weeks ago I went from 10th to 1st in the first couple corners at Lime Rock.

I won't claim to be that fast through corners though - Ries was way too fast at Zandvoort for me, but it's this shifting, starting, drafting stuff which enables me to be ahead of where I should be. This is the goal for the league anyway.