AC FWD vs RWD: Abarth/Suzuki/Mazda@Nordschleife, Wed 31st January 2024

[Kek700]

I was fading towards the end, I tried to back off, all that did was cause me to go off the track.
Amazing pace from Fulvio, and an amazing event, a lucky race for me into the bargain.
A well done to all that finished, I was going to go for the Suzuki but that would mean on every long straight I would have been constantly looking in my rear view mirror. The Abarth was much better here, as soon as there was anything representative of a straight I could relax.
A thank-you to Han for the organisation.

 

[stigs2cousin]

Firstly I´d like to apologize to Han, I´ve overdone it with the nagging about the temperature jumps.

Now I now your sneaky ways and will adapt
About the picture:
"you really trying to tell me that is a January in the Eifel day?"

Thank you very much for organizing again, please keep doing the good work.

I didn´t stay on after the race because I´m still mayorly pissed.
I´ll sleep over it and then decide if there will be reports.

 

[Dzul]

It was a sloppy race for me, one to forget. I did little to no practice beforehand and although the layout came back to me during practice, the braking points at some key corners remained elusive and so I couldn't go under the 20's consistently... the odd 19 / 18 was there but more as the result of braking later due to forgetting that a corner was coming than on purpose. At the end I had my brakes dialed in my head properly and could push a bit more, I had a projected 16 but then I overcooked a corner at the last sector and it all fell to pieces.

Apologies again to Ricardo for our collision on the first lap at the first sector... I tried to give you space but as a result two wheels touched grass and the next corner became a straight for me and couldn't avoid bumping your car, sorry man After that I slotted myself at the back and, although I managed to catch up several times, little off-roads deprived me of further progress, all of those due to lack of concentration (a corner I forgot) and a bit of stomach cramps (there, I just blamed the kapsalon, haha! ) I managed to have a couple of fun moments when some of you came out of the pits while I was passing by, but the first sector is not my strongest and it's narrower than it looks, so they didn't last long. I did enjoy the race overall though so, glad I could make it eventhough it was not a great one for me this time... I'm happy I finished 'coz my last race at Nords ended up on the side of the road with a lap to go after running out of fuel.

Congratulations to the winning aliens and podium finishers, those times were blistering indeed. And thanks for organising Han, looking forward to try your choice for next week, it looks like a lot of fun!

 

[Dzul]

Oh yeah, btw... about those qualy laptimes:

 

[abecede]

Oh well, now that my anger has gone... I was so looking forward to finally be able to race again online. Even practiced quite a bit, since I'm starting to love the Nordschleife. But in the race I didn't even finish the first lap; car was so damaged that I couldn't continue. Was dead last after the major crash, suspension broken, and since I'm a slow driver anyways, I would have just limped around all on my own. Was quite upset, so decided to quit and call it a night. Good to see that most of you had fun yesterday!

 

[Twoddle]

Race started good, Allan got past at kottenborn, not much i could do to stop him and later in the lap he made a small mistake and got a little out of shape and onto the grass, It looked like he was going to come across the track so i tried to give as much room as i could and ended up taking too much curb and lost control of the car and collided with Allan. It seems we are magnetized together in these races. after that i never got back into the flow and spent more time crashing than driving and i was to much of a risk to others so called it a day.

 

[a_murel]

Oh well, now that my anger has gone... I was so looking forward to finally be able to race again online. Even practiced quite a bit, since I'm starting to love the Nordschleife. But in the race I didn't even finish the first lap; car was so damaged that I couldn't continue. Was dead last after the major crash, suspension broken, and since I'm a slow driver anyways, I would have just limped around all on my own. Was quite upset, so decided to quit and call it a night. Good to see that most of you had fun yesterday!

Take it easy Markus, this is one of the hardest tracks to have an no-accident race.

This race was challenging for me, as long-distance tracks don't usually capture my interest. This often leads to a lapse in my concentration. I generally excel in races where I can quickly find my rhythm and strategically attack from that point. Despite these challenges, but! I'm proud to say that I managed to reduce my lap time by 4 seconds compared to the qualifying session.

 

[zn1zn2c]

It was good being on the track again after a couple of weeks. And what a track it was! Didn't really know this one so I had to put in quite a few hours of practice just to be able to survive. I'm sure I could've been a bit faster if I had a better setup. Tried a lot of different things until I found something that felt kind of stable, yet I still had to fight the car to keep it on track at certain points. Feels like setups are a big bottleneck for me right now, but I just don't know what to tweak when something feels off.

Again apologies to @JamKart22 for the incident in the first part. Honestly I didn't even try to overtake you there, just wanted to add some pressure. It felt quite weird because I was sure I braked on time, but the car just kept going. Not sure if I missed my brake point (probably) or that part of the road was somehow less grippy.
Apart from that, it was great racing you!

Congrats to Fulvio, Ernie and Thomas for the podium and thanks Han for organizing! See you guys next time!

 

[Allan Ramsbottom]

It looked like he was going to come across the track so i tried to give as much room as i could and ended up taking too much curb and lost control of the car and collided with Allan.

No @Twoddle .. Jason,i ran onto the grass and i knew you were pretty close so i eased off kept on the grass giving u the chance to overtake,then me re-joining but somehow you seemed to hit me and off we went lol..Yes @eN1xes sorry Fulvio,my car radar saw u were close,crew chief was saying stay on line next thing were side by side having a skin rub and for a brief moment it was as if we were stuck together,seemed strange,anyway u got past so all is good..

 

[Twoddle]

Yes @Allan Ramsbottom .. Allan,i am aware of this with hindsight.