AC GT3 @ Nordschleife, Sunday 16th May 2021

[demetri]

Any idea why the results show us slow ones a lap down? I'm sure I did 8 laps. I assume it only counts how many laps we've done up to 60 mins?

I think Chris DC'ed before you guys finished your 8th lap
Here's the one that I saved: https://simresults.net/210516-9cW

 

[random2k4]

Giving the fact I basically only know the first sector of the track due to some GT Sport challenges, I got a decent time in quali. Started P10 and could make a first overtake heading out to the GP layout. Was in a train with Erwin in front and Han at the back for the entire first lap. But then **** hit the fan. Han got the better exit on the straight and pulled beside me. None of us wanted to pull out so we went into the first small kink to the left, so far so good. Still side by side the second kink was my downfall. I hit the curb and coulndt steer more to the left. Touched Han and went flying. Luckily I didnt hit anyone else and came to a stop facing in the right direction but lost six positions.

Braking down into T1, my tires were still hot as hell, and I hit Paul. Really sorry for that.
Waited for him to move back on track and moved on. A lap later I unfortunately gave him a little punt again ... in the first section of the GP track. Just didnt anticipate him to be that slow in that section. So I Waited again. Couple corners later, I could finally make a clean overtake and tried my best to get some time back, but I already lost over 30-40 seconds. Early pits and some un-fortune from others I found myself in P11 at the end of the first stint. After the pits I only lost one position, but realized both drivers in front needed to pit. They were not too far in front, so I knew I could overtake them while they pit. Back in P10 I thought I can settle in and finish the race on the position I started. Then code brown had a call with me. Han was "only" about 12 seconds in front and seemed to had a disagreement with Mutkurve. He was only visible after the left hander and I tried to move all the way to the right to pass by, but he was in reverse and moved all the way back to the right side of the track. Dont think thats a good idea. I went on the grass and touched his rear, but could handle to stay on the track and get control back before the next corner.

Now in P9 the race just wasnt long enough to catch anyone in front. All in all it was a fun race, but could have been a little more interesting without my stupid mistakes at the beginning, could have been a nice battle for P7-8. Maybe next time.
So see you all next week.

 

[Shed 17]

Giving the fact I basically only know the first sector of the track due to some GT Sport challenges, I got a decent time in quali. Started P10 and could make a first overtake heading out to the GP layout. Was in a train with Erwin in front and Han at the back for the entire first lap. But then **** hit the fan. Han got the better exit on the straight and pulled beside me. None of us wanted to pull out so we went into the first small kink to the left, so far so good. Still side by side the second kink was my downfall. I hit the curb and coulndt steer more to the left. Touched Han and went flying. Luckily I didnt hit anyone else and came to a stop facing in the right direction but lost six positions.

Braking down into T1, my tires were still hot as hell, and I hit Paul. Really sorry for that.
Waited for him to move back on track and moved on. A lap later I unfortunately gave him a little punt again ... in the first section of the GP track. Just didnt anticipate him to be that slow in that section. So I Waited again. Couple corners later, I could finally make a clean overtake. And tried my best to get some time back, but all in all I already lost over 30-40 seconds. Early pits and some un-fortune from others I found myself in P11 at the end of the first stint. After the pits I only lost one position, but realized both drivers in front needed to pit. They were not too far in front, so I knew I could overtake them while they pit. Back in P10 I thought I can settle in and finish the race on the position I started. Then code brown had a call with me. Han was "only" about 12 seconds in front and seemed to had a disagreement with Mutkurve. He was only visible after the left hander and I tried to move all the way to the right to pass by, but he was in reverse and moved all the way back to the right side of the track. Dont think thats a good idea. I went on the grass and touched his rear, but could handle to stay on the track and get control back before the next corner.

Now in P9 the race just wasnt long enough to catch anyone in front. All in all it was a fun race, but could have been a little more interesting without my stupid mistakes at the beginning, could have been a nice battle for P7-8. Maybe next time.
So see you all next week.

No worries Stefan, I did wonder where you came from on the first hit as all I could see in my mirror was Brian going into T1. After the second punt I decided to let you past as I figured you were quicker and it was safer to have you in front of me! I thought I might get you again after you took to the grass at the Adenauer Forst section but you were much quicker when you kept it on the black bits.

I went the whole race on the mediums and not wishing to sound like a certain Mercedes F1 driver, the tyres were well past their best and I had several moments on the last two laps.

But well done to Dimitry, an awesome drive, and thanks again to Han for another well organised event.

 

[Interslice]

Thanks han for organising. An event to remember for sure.

I had a bad qualy but started off ok in the race. Managed to avoid so many spinning cars by inches throughout! I was able to half follow Erik's crazy push and was up to the top ten by start of lap 4.

Unfortunately trying to create a gap to the cars behind i drove by habit in the group c third gear through the triple rechts instead of lambo fourth. Worn softs and too much fuel i hit a bump, one i had never noticed before, wobbled and ended up facing the wrong way but half sideways in probably the worst place possible. I was a dangerous roadblock. To top it all off my first gear was too long to do a 180… Flashbacks of bathurst last year when i had yo drive backwards up the track to a wider section... Eventually got punted straight and luckily both cars that hit me didn't seem to spin out! Disaster over but my tyres were shot and i had to limp it through the rest of the lap to the pits! Second stint was great fun, so many battles throughout the race! I thought maybe it would be a lonely spin throught the trees after the first lap or two. Came down to the wire with @Fiberoptix in the last few laps. Great fun racing the two lambo's around this track. Well done in the end tim! You had a cool head and a great exit onto dottinger to win the battle. Great drive all round

Contrats to dimitri and the podium. See you's on the next one!

 

[RasmusP]

What a race! Finally a Podium for me again!
Was a bit late for qualy so did one safer lap and spun on the second, risky lap...
But it was enough for P3, very very close with Reik and Luca!!

Then at the start I quickly caught up to Chris but didn't want to get too close, which meant Reik and Luca were moving behind me like a pack of wolves move around their prey

2 laps with Reik within 0.5s behind when I did a small mistake on the GP part and he went past.
Luca luckily didn't stick his nose in completely so I stayed in front, while Reik pulled a 4.5s gap!

Also Thomas got frustrated behind me with the McLaren during the next laps after changing positions with Luca multiple times I think! Way faster through the turns but just couldn't get side to side at the opportunities.

All went for the pitstop and I tried the overcut. The gap was really big so I knew they went for fresh tyres. I also knew Reik would be faster on fresh tyres so I needed to stay on my tyres to stay in front.
Luckily this was my strategy anyway so 1L and a quick clutch kick later I had a nice gap that I needed to manage.

Did almost no mistakes and even put in the best race lap in before the tyres dropped too much and the pace went down.

Struggled with concentration and just tried to keep it safe without going too slow and not losing the inner rhythm.
While Reik put in a race best lap in the last lap, I went about 5s slower.

One more lap and my podium would've been gone but I managed to keep it together and finally take another podium after a long time.

Thanks for the race guys, thanks Han for hosting! That was a really enjoyable struggle tonight!

 

[RasmusP]

To top it all off my first gear was too long to do a 180…

Do you have a clutch pedal? And do you have auto-clutch enabled or disabled?
I disabled the auto clutch because it slows you down in exactly these situations.. And on the grass/in the gravel!
Without auto-clutch and with manual clutch I was even able to 180 the Nissan with 1st gear at 130 kph.

 

[Chris Down]

My VR onboard:

 

[Interslice]

Do you have a clutch pedal? And do you have auto-clutch enabled or disabled?
I disabled the auto clutch because it slows you down in exactly these situations.. And on the grass/in the gravel!
Without auto-clutch and with manual clutch I was even able to 180 the Nissan with 1st gear at 130 kph.

I've auto clutch off I'm pretty sure, will need to check. And a clutch pedal yes... I didn't get any practice/setup time for this so just clicked up the final drive... 1st gear was very long, not sure on the exact speed but i could use it on a good few corners on track. One of those races you'd love another run at now you know what works and doesn't work! It definitely wasn't possible to spin the wheels. I eventually got hit while at full throttle in first and that spun me!

 

[RasmusP]

My VR onboard:

Hah! That's my Audi in the mirror in the thumbnail

Had a short brainfart about trying to snatch P2 onto the GP part but 90% sure catastrophe vs 10% being in front of you for 3-4 corners luckily made me go sane before anything happened

 

[demetri]

First of all, thanks @HF2000 for organizing the event and everyone participating. It'd been a long time since RD had a GT3 Nords event, and probably the first time Cup layout was used here. We gathered the biggest grid of all the most recent months I think.

I had a very good pace on mediums, but @Chris Down came very close to matching or beating me in the quali as he was able to run 650 on softs. In hindsight, I probably should've parked it after my first fast lap (which happened to be barely faster than the outlap, mostly thanks to someone nearly running me off the track on their outlap) and do a new two lap stint on fresh tires, but 4 laps on one set still worked out in the end so I can't complain.

I was debating myself about doing 2x4 laps with the tire change vs full tank splash and dash strategy, both seemed to work and yield about the same race time, but having Chris starting alongside me in P2 settled it on the former, because with my full tank he would've had a decent chance to outrun me into the first turn which was a long way ahead on this layout, and I didn't think I would've been able to pass him back until the end of the lap where the Audi can go yeehaw and draft any other car. This is a track where you don't get to pass unless your opponent makes a big mistake.

The start was OK, I was able to pull my car slightly ahead and block Chris from going alongside into the first turn. And after that I was pretty confident that I could bring it home seeing Chris struggling on mediums that probably didn't heat up enough in his McLaren, but still doing 8 laps at a good pace here is a challenge, no matter how many laps you've done before. I drove much more conservatively in the race (compared to the practice session) until the last lap where I had a gap big enough to not worry about going off a couple of times, so I pushed it more then, but still couldn't beat my PB set in practice.

On the first lap, I was approaching that treacherous Mutkurve corner thinking that I should go easier there and this happened:

I'm still not fully sure what caused it, most likely I braked just a bit too hard while also hesitating to add enough throttle to stabilize it, so the car over-rotated on the brakes. Fortunately, I was able to save it and lost only a second there. Watching the replay after, I saw Han having a similar issue in the same spot, but 488 is not easy to save when it decides to snap on you, so he was not as lucky as me. Other than that mistake, I managed to keep it together and didn't go off the track even once, which was not a given I must say, as I could hardly do 8 clean laps in a row in practice. I guess not trying to push it 100% in every corner on every lap was the key.

Congrats to Chris and @RasmusP for their podiums, and everybody else who managed to finish the race, especially those who hadn't raced here before. Well done all of you!

 

[HF2000]

Congrats to the podium and thanks all for joining. Nice racing with such a great turnout.

My race was terrible. Didn't have time to practice this week and now I couldn't find a decent balance with the 488 on softs. I only tried mediums in qually which was better so I decided to do 5 laps on medium and 3 on softs. Big mistake! In those last laps on softs I must have spinned a dozen of times, leaving me with red tyres on which it's like driving on ice. I don't understand why the 488 seem to have less grip on soft tyres especially the rear. They have better temperatures (green) than the mediums (blueish). It happened in fast turns like Mudkurve and totally unexpected. With the same speed I didn't spin there with mediums.
Has anyone some explanation for that?

@Erik Axelsson you were much faster, didn't you have this problem? Maybe you can share your setup so I can see if there's something that might work for me too.

But the first 5 laps were a lot of fun with many battles.
I still like the Nordschleife very much and maybe we can come back and do the Endurance layout (with more GP circuit). But not in a few months as I understand from what I heard in the voice chat.

And maybe a warning for all: I want to go to Fonteny (25km) sometime this year .

 

[640er]

Thanks @HF2000 for organizing and congrats to the podium

It's done, I've finally raced the Ring for the first time For me it was all about learning the track and trying to get an understanding of what's important here. I've chosen the Lambo because I've overestimated the importance of straight line speed (which in the end wasn't higher than the one of the top guys). After watching some of you during the race and afterwards in the replay, I saw lots of places where to improve.

The race itself was intense. Went for the mediums+1L strategy because I couldn't keep the softs in the green. Even did qualy with meds. Therefore I was a bit of a sitting duck in the beginning especially when my favorite track-friend @Kek700 showed up behind me. Being under constant pressure forced me to a litte inattention and I brushed a curb going down to Pflanzgarten 2 (I guess?) nearly loosing my car completely. That was all he needed to place himself beside and overtake me. I pitted early and came out juuuuust behind @Erik Axelsson . That would have cost you a lot of time being stuck behind me for a whole lap, lucky you Penultimate Lap it was, when Ernie closed in on me again. Really fun battle we had. Especially when he got the slipstream on me and overtook me at Döttinger Höhe. But the straight is long, long enough that I could immediately profit from his draft and regain the position He then overtook me exquisitely on the GP section and I tried hard to stay in his mirror. In fact too hard which resulted in a few minor mistakes which in the end were too much.

Really intense to race here, can't wait for Group C...

 

[Fiberoptix]

I enjoyed that, interesting track to race on for sure. I took a different approach for this one, I put quite a bit of time in to try and learn the track but didn't feel comfortable racing on it. I probably could have qualified midfield but just wasn't confident being in the middle of the pack at the start this time. I decided to run from the back and not qualify but still wasn't quite at the back on the grid so I lifted on the start and let everybody run through the first few turns. Staying out of trouble I just remained consistent and ended up 12th, I didn't race so much other than @Interslice hounding me last 10 mins or so. I just plodded along picking up places where other cars made mistakes. Thanks @HF2000

 

[Kek700]

A really simple uncluttered race for me, two things stood out.
One, Erik gave me a master class in why the aliens are so quick, reinforcing what I had always observed and known, Nords is especially good for that.
And yes I did back off on the long straight Erik. The Ferrari was never going to get passed?
Two, give Andreas as much grief as I possibly could, especially enjoyable, as those in front were too quick, those behind were too far away.
I was also helped by Andreas being on a medium strategy, with softs I don’t think I would have had even that opportunity..
I really really do not like this circuit, thinking about my next Group C visit on Tuesday with dread.
Well done to all who finished in front, well done to all that did not catch me, saved me from a lot of grief on this circuit. And of course a mention to Andreas for giving me a lot of fun on what is for me a drab circuit.
And of course @HF2000 for his organisation, just try and forget this circuit for 12months please.

 

[Interslice]

A really simple uncluttered race for me, two things stood out.
One, Erik gave me a master class in why the aliens are so quick, reinforcing what I had always observed and known, Nords is especially good for that.
And yes I did back off on the long straight Erik. The Ferrari was never going to get passed?
Two, give Andreas as much grief as I possibly could, especially enjoyable, as those in front were too quick, those behind were too far away.
I was also helped by Andreas being on a medium strategy, with softs I don’t think I would have had even that opportunity..
I really really do not like this circuit, thinking about my next Group C visit on Tuesday with dread.
Well done to all who finished in front, well done to all that did not catch me, saved me from a lot of grief on this circuit. And of course a mention to Andreas for giving me a lot of fun on what is for me a drab circuit.
And of course @HF2000 for his organisation, just try and forget this circuit for 12months please.

Well done ernie! You have been pretty solid here all week and I think secretly you enjoyed it! I going to pur you down in my book as a nords specialist!

Don't forget you need a car for tomorrow night I'm not going to mention the class of vehicle!

Oh and sorry of i held you up in qualy i was tring to do a slow lap to set a time and go for it on the third... Didn't anticipate it creating very cold tyres and no grip between the carousels! Binned it and then realised i only had 2.5 laps of fuel and had to start from scratch So many layers to the tire a fuel management on this track!

 

[edo22]

Green hell couldn't be more appropriate, and the fact that i didn't practice at all didn't help, this week was a disaster for me both for GT3 and multiclass

Congrats to everyone who finished the race and especially the ones that didn't do any serious mistakes, well done!

 

[Luca Badin]

Right, that was a proper messy race, but I'm still happy I somewhat powered through and finished P6. I knew the track well enough, but I should have taken the time to get used to the R8 and its idiosyncrasies after two months with no club racing at all. I used a custom setup that was way biased towards hotlapping rather than consistency (I did go under 8 minutes with it last year), so I should have used something safer, less slide-y/oversteer-y and especially NOT used softs in the race. They felt great in quali but no way they were suited for a 4 lap stint

I got so close to P3 in quali and I knew I could go faster still, but P4 was still one of my best results I think, so I was pretty happy with that. In the start I immediately lost a place to @Reik Major and settled into P5 and a four way fight for P3, except for a lap where @thom462 took advantage of a small brain fart on the GP Strecke where I ran wide and botched the run down to the chicane, only for me to overtake him on the Döttinger Höhe later that lap; then @RasmusP did pretty much the same thing I did, but I didn't complete the move on time to be safely ahead and had to lift enough for him to have the advantage. I also witnessed a code brown moment for Reik at Metzgesfeld where he put two wheels on the grass earlier on, but I just wasn't close enough to take advantage.

So the first stint wasn't that bad, but the second stint was such a mess... the race for P4 was on with Reik as I think he lost time in the pits, but I promptly bogged down out of the pit box and his lead was soon back to pre-pit levels (4 seconds or so and about 7s ahead of Erik I think). Then I started feeling the fatigue, making mistakes and overheating the rears - I spun at Eschbach and lost a ton of time (I legitimately forgot to brake, my brain thought I was at Hedwigshöhe still) and then kissed the wall at the Kleines Karussell, which was just enough to let @Erik Axelsson make up the remaning few seconds. Did a whole lap bumper-to-bumper, where he was probably just waiting for this idiot to make another mistake, and then I did just that at Hatzenbach, f'ed up my braking, didn't shunt or anything but still went wide and gave him an easy overtake. And there went my top 5 finish (though deservedly so)

Congrats to the aliens on the podium and thank you @HF2000 for organising!

 

[HF2000]

Guys,

There's a problem with the Monaco track when online. It can crash in the pitlane. With a mandatory pitstop, we can't have that.
Offline is fine (that's why I didn't notice it while testing).

So we're now going to Thomson Road. I know that's not a city street circuit but we'll do that next week.
Sign up for the jungle here: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/gt3-thomson-road-sunday-23rd-may-2021.203303/

 

[Taj Johal]

First online race on the green hell (and it was hellish) but defo not the last

I know the Norschleife from previous sim racing but knowing a circuit is not the same as knowing the braking points, apexes or which bump is to be avoided as the times from the quick guys showed

My race was a series of spins, some self induced but mostly due to the Ferrari Diesel having a back end like a shopping trolley. It will lose the back end

if you go too fast into a corner
go to slow into a corner
trail brake into a turn
coast into a corner
accelerate out of a turn
on mediums
on softs
on a bump or kerb you've hit 100 times before without a hint of a spin
on fresh tyres but then not on worn tyres

Maybe I've upset it by calling it a diesel But as the other 488 drivers have shown it can be tamed and I'm not giving up yet

Congratulations to the podium, many thanks to all who took part and of course Han !!

 

[RasmusP]

About the Lambo:
In 2018 I practiced the endurance layout a lot with it, together with Matteo Caruso, if that rings a bell for some.
He did a freaking 8:06 with it! A little colder track (16/20) and on softs, which went red for some right handers.

My all time pb is a 8:11.4xx iirc, done in 2019 after getting the Fanatec wheel and finally feeling the increased grip at higher speeds due to the aero. (the increase of strength was hidden for me with the G27)

I tried it for this race too but couldn't put in a single clean lap. That car wants to kill you and itself too many times..
Hit a kerb, dead. Brake a meter too late, dead. Hold the brakes too long, spin. Lift the throttle in a slightly wrong way or moment, dead.
No matter the setup, it always wants to wash wide, while over rotating in the most unpleasant ways haha.

But if you manage to keep it on the track and keep the momentum while being just early enough on throttle, it's flying!

The Audi, being almost the same chassis drives similar but it has a bit more grip, less "character" while being a tiny bit slower.
Overall the safer bet and while a Lambo can overtake you on the straights, in the slipstream the Audi can still retake position against it!

My Audi setup is very stiff and high. Just soft enough to not bump into the barriers when touching a kerb.
The Lambo setup is pretty soft though, which is why it's so fast.

then @RasmusP did pretty much the same thing I did, but I didn't complete the move on time to be safely ahead and had to lift enough for him to have the advantage. I also witnessed a code brown moment for Reik at Metzgesfeld where he put two wheels on the grass earlier on, but I just wasn't close enough to take advantage.

Hehe yeah we all had our little moments until your pitstops
Thanks again for backing out before the GT chicane! I was constantly changing my mind whether I should back out in the last moment or not. You made the decision a bit earlier and I just hoped I could maintain enough pace until the Döttinger Höhe to stay in front.

Btw. What wing settings where you using? I was on 5 at the rear and my ride height was pretty high (70/74 in the live view in the pits).
But both you and Reik weren't flying past on the straight...

Then I started feeling the fatigue, making mistakes

I think everyone got to this point during the race. I had some moments where my left hand wanted to shift down another gear and luckily some inner rhythm kept it from doing it just before the *click*
Did it once right before the full throttle part though, causing a massive code brown moment and losing me more than a full second until Mutkurve...

It's another reason for my "stiff" setup. It's just easier to stay precise and not wander across the track or washing wide or similar.