AC F2004 @ Silverstone GP - Sun 14 July 2019

[Spilskinanka]

Heat claimed a victim in me, caused too many mistakes unfortunately. Still I enjoyed the battles I did have; definitely need to turn down opponent volume. Sorry for first lap contacts - I'm too used to racing cars with brake lights!

Would be down to race these cars again, they were a lot of fun.

 

[JoelK]

Next week's event: Multiclass @ Red Bull Ring
Sign ups: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/multiclass-red-bull-ring-sun-21-july-2019.170966/

 

[HF2000]

Well I had a lot of fun. Thanks Joel. Too bad that we weren't with 24 drivers. That would have been awesome. Silverstone is in my opinion one of the best racecircuits, with lots of overtaking possibilities. When you f... up Abbey or Copse or the Becketts than the guy behind will have such a better exit and with enough straight in front of him to overtake and outbrake. Congrats to James and Joel . Joel was so much faster that I decided not to give him a hard time so he could maybe engage James in the last laps. Dewald was also incredible fast but he left at a certain moment.

As for my own race, I am very glad that I finally didn't make big mistakes (instead a lot of small ones though). In the first lap there was a lot going on and I was so lucky to stay out of the rumble and ending first that lap. The guys in front of me were battling in Copse and that gave me the opportunity to do an overtake in the Becketts, which is rare. I think I did it correctly. Haven't heard from the stewards yet so, fingers crossed.

I will end with saying that I was glad that Vettel didn't participate in this race!

 

[Ghiaman1334]

I mean, I was practically just along for the ride today xD Hope I didn't get in your ways too much and apologies to the people I did hold up (can't remember which people you were, but I am sorry: most likely I misjudged where the racing line was). Damn those hard tyres messing up my handling.
Pulled out 'early' as I had just taken a pit stop and repaired everything, and around Village my rear wing decided to disintegrate or something as I had no rear end grip the rest of the lap. Decided that y'all only had 4 more laps so I might as well call it. Hey, at least I wasn't first out, so as I qualified last, I gained two places xD
Congratz to the rest of you! Hope it went well. Was a great experience. At some point I'll join another session.

 

[GEO147]

@GEO147 sorry George, that was not my intention, and I accept any penalty obviously.

I was staying well to the left exactly to avoid contact, and then my car stepped out on the kerb. I am honest if I say I was not expecting such a reaction on that kerb, having said that I never touched that particular part of it before.

My view:

External view - see the slow motion after the full speed:

I promise you I don't take it lightly, as I was looking forward to this as well for days now.

No problem at all Dewald. I said when it happened that I wasn't sure who was at fault and I actually didn't know you were on my left or I wouldn't have pulled over. I think it was just before one of the fast lefts that you need to take wide so I was following the car infron line wise .
I managed to get going fairly quickly afterwards but I think you got the worst of it. The kerbs were really rough in places for sure. Pity it ended your race .

So no apology needed and as you have said sorry I am sorry too that I wasn't aware you were there. A racing incident I think, see you next time

 

[GEO147]

Well I had a lot of fun. Thanks Joel. Too bad that we weren't with 24 drivers. That would have been awesome. Silverstone is in my opinion one of the best racecircuits, with lots of overtaking possibilities. When you f... up Abbey or Copse or the Becketts than the guy behind will have such a better exit and with enough straight in front of him to overtake and outbrake. Congrats to James and Joel . Joel was so much faster that I decided not to give him a hard time so he could maybe engage James in the last laps. Dewald was also incredible fast but he left at a certain moment.

As for my own race, I am very glad that I finally didn't make big mistakes (instead a lot of small ones though). In the first lap there was a lot going on and I was so lucky to stay out of the rumble and ending first that lap. The guys in front of me were battling in Copse and that gave me the opportunity to do an overtake in the Becketts, which is rare. I think I did it correctly. Haven't heard from the stewards yet so, fingers crossed.

I will end with saying that I was glad that Vettel didn't participate in this race!

You were very consistent tonight Han .Nice podium .

 

[GEO147]

@GEO147 sorry George, that was not my intention, and I accept any penalty obviously.

I was staying well to the left exactly to avoid contact, and then my car stepped out on the kerb. I am honest if I say I was not expecting such a reaction on that kerb, having said that I never touched that particular part of it before.

My view:

External view - see the slow motion after the full speed:

I promise you I don't take it lightly, as I was looking forward to this as well for days now.

Just watched the slow motion and saw your car being kicked to the right and into me. So yeah not much you could have done there. Kerbs were vicious on places. No worries

 

[JoelK]

I mean, I was practically just along for the ride today xD Hope I didn't get in your ways too much and apologies to the people I did hold up (can't remember which people you were, but I am sorry: most likely I misjudged where the racing line was). Damn those hard tyres messing up my handling.
Pulled out 'early' as I had just taken a pit stop and repaired everything, and around Village my rear wing decided to disintegrate or something as I had no rear end grip the rest of the lap. Decided that y'all only had 4 more laps so I might as well call it. Hey, at least I wasn't first out, so as I qualified last, I gained two places xD
Congratz to the rest of you! Hope it went well. Was a great experience. At some point I'll join another session.

Hope you return to our little club soon Great to hear you had fun even tho' it wasn't necessarily an easy combo for a new-comer and especially a pad-user

 

[HF2000]

You were very consistent tonight Han .Nice podium .

Thanks George! The setup provided by Joel helped a lot. Much better turn in than the setup I got from the Market.

 

[GEO147]

Thanks George! The setup provided by Joel helped a lot. Much better turn in than the setup I got from the Market.

I was using Joel's setup too and found it great. Did you make any changes Han, you were a fair bit quicker than me in qualy! 1 and a half seconds I think!

 

[HF2000]

I was using Joel's setup too and found it great. Did you make any changes Han, you were a fair bit quicker than me in qualy! 1 and a half seconds I think!

Only tyres (psi) and a bit more rear wing, George. I was on a two stop strategy what meant that the left rear was in red zone in the last laps and then the car started to drift. So more downforce in back to mitigate that. Qualy I did on softs. But Joel was the whole race a second per lap faster so there's still a lot of learning to do.

 

[GEO147]

Yeah my left rear was cooking too, didnt help that I drifted her around the hairpin several times either!!

Really enjoyed it last night, the time flew by and cant believe I was able for 1hr 20 mins. We all could have been F1 drivers

 

[Ghiaman1334]

We all could have been F1 drivers

Yeah, you could all be professionals like Schumacher, Verstappen, Rosberg, Hill etc, and I could look like Taki Inoue XD

 

[Asterix]

Had a good evening's racing.

Pole, just, and then a safe win in the end.

Did a wee bit of practice and knew that to finish first etc... I needed a set up that was going to be sympathetic to me screwing up every now and again, but also having enough speed in it to race. I had an old Spa set up that I could tweak and it worked OK.

It was extremely close between @Ho3n3r and I for pole - I think it was 0.025 or something - but I just managed to hold him off, which was great as I needed a strategic pooh taking up time at the end of Qualy. No way was I going to last 80 minutes otherwise!

Good start but very heavy on fuel, 124 litres on Hards, and was dicing it out with @JoelK up until Copse where I backed off a bit, but this allowed @HF2000 to gain enough ground to think about having a go through Maggotts - Had I stuck to my line, he'd have taken us both out so I lifted and let him through knowing we were both on different strategies anyway. @Spilskinanka gave me a love tap in Becketts which let a few through, including Dewald who had a rubbish start. Matt graciously waited and we had a nice fight for a little bit but I knew I had to crack on to keep Joel & Dewald in my sights not knowing exactly what strategies they were going for.

Dewald left shortly after - had a look at the replays and it is bizarre how the car jinked right - a real glitch there - shame as we never got to find out how that battle would have panned out.

Pretty much went to plan from there on. Managed to get past Han on the brakes at Brooklands to take the lead then he boxed the next lap anyway and I had a clear run.

I boxed after 27 laps, the tyre wear indicator had disappeared a few laps earlier and I honestly didn't know if I was going to make it or not, but it was driving OK. I came out just in front,124 litres heavier on fresh Hards, of @GEO147 who was a lap or two down but I let him past as it was going to take a few laps to get back to race pace - Han was right behind me. He then boxed again not long after and Joel was behind, around 25 seconds or so. I was back to lapping at a comfortable 1:31/1:32 which allowed Joel to gain a wee bit. Every now and again I'd drop in a 1:30 just to show him I could and managed the gap until the finish.

Long old race in these cars but was fun and needed to work hard all the way.

Thanks to Joel for hosting and my fellow drivers for making it fun.

 

[GEO147]

It was a brilliant race to be fair. So demanding but the track car combo was manageable for mere mortals. I felt by the last 10 laps or so I knew what I was doing and had a bit of flow, which gave me a taste of what it must be like when you are just concentrating instead of worrying!
It really is a pity about Dewald, I was worried initially that I had done something wrong but I knew he was much faster so would have let him by without incident within the next turn or two, had he not been kerbed!

 

[Medilloni]

....as I needed a strategic pooh taking up time at the end of Qualy. No way was I going to last 80 minutes otherwise!

Oh man, too much detail James, I just cracked up

 

[Chris Down]

Since I mentioned I wouldn't be here due to being at Silverstone, here's a photo I'm pretty happy with from the race:

Hope you guys had fun! Sad to miss it but looking forward to next Sunday