AC GT3 @ Red Bull Ring - Sunday 2nd August 2020

[Chris Down]

Great race everyone! I had a very interesting time when, about an hour from the race, all the power went out. Turns out in my lockdown-induced coma, I'd forgotten to fill up the electricity meter. So I went out to go fill it up, came back, and by then only had about 30 minutes of practice remaining. I was pretty worried that my consistency would be really poor this race, but thankfully everything went ok, and no s️binalla like at Okayama

Happy with the pole time, I went into the first few corners pretty happy with the gap, and was kind of expecting Michael to try one down the inside into T2. He did, but there was really no way for me to make the corner any more.

Anyway, after my whiplash, I got back to working up to Michael, and eventually went for the overtake in the same place he had taken me. From there it was mainly trying to manage the gap, which was easier said than done since Michael was really going fast

Eventually I decided just to do full tyre management, since I couldn't really get more than 1s clear of him anyway. That helped a lot towards the end of the stint, and probably helped a lot with the victory.

Second stint was a lot simpler, just a lot of tyre management. I also offered my services as NASCAR bump draft assistant to @Luca Badin, although it didn't end up very well

Overall a good weekend for me, no major mistakes and I think I extracted more or less what was possible out of the car considering the circumstances. Great racing everyone and hope to see you back next week!

 

[Spilskinanka]

Unbelievable race this week, I managed to get through the first laps of carnage unscathed which gave me some amazing battles with @Aksu @jemmari and @Evgeniy Neytman in the first stint.

Then after my calamitous pit stop procedure I came out too close to @Sheashant L and was swiftly dispatched, only regaining the place after a couple of unfortunate spins from him.

@GEO147 shame you went out mate, I think we would have been very close again like last week.

Results here: https://simresults.net/200802-4EO

 

[nash112]

Interesting start this week, got absolutely murdered on the first straight, was 3 wide with Jens and Miika I believe and then just got rammed off , I guess just a racing incident, rejoined last and had a lot of work to do. Had a great short battle with Luca later on but then overcooked it and was alone for the rest of the race, happy finishing 13th not bad considering. Thanks Chris for organsing

 

[JohannesK]

Thanks for the race, that was great fun
I made a stupid mistake starting on Mediums and was 1-2secs of pace, I didnt even get the tire pressures right, so they were underheated the whole first half of the race. I came back strong though in the second stint, where I beat my all time best and finally got into the 29s. It was really tough keeping up with you @Kek700 and sadly I blew my only chance at overtaking you, but at least you pushed me into getting the 1:29

 

[Evgeniy Neytman]

Sometimes in racing you have to accept that you cant survive the first lap. So was the case - turn 3 i had a hit, then had a 22 -> 4 sprint. Anyway that was fun, first corners were a bit insane

 

[Raresch]

My virtual memory loaded up completely again and the game shut down in the last lap ...

Anyway, back to the race. From 12th to 8th (actually last, because I didn't actually finish ) might be seen by many as a pretty good race. But neither of those places where of my own power. I just escaped all the drama on the circuit and did constant laps again again, being pretty much nowhere. There was only one time I actually had and objective, that when @Chris Down said: "carry on Luca" and realised that Luca was the guy behind be. So I just had 10 minutes to push and stay in the same lap as the leader. It was all I wanted to do.

Anyhow, something feels odd. I feel like i've hit a ceiling of performance. I improve marginally on my previous track records and I don't feel there is any real progression (except consistency) and I just can't go faster.

Maybe it's because I have less practice with the GT3 being caught with other championships during the week?
Maybe it's because we've got very fast new guys and I am already in the middle of then?
Maybe it's the hardware limitation of the G29?
Maybe it's my own limit that I can't get past it?
Maybe all of the above?

Still, does any of you have some tips on how to improve further? how to shove of that extra second?

 

[Sheashant L]

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. So here is a screeenshot to sum up this race for me.

 

[Norkin]

That was a pretty awful race for me.. I got to P7 i think on the first lap, but then @Aksu had already forgot how early you have to brake with Godzilla and hit me in the ass I ended up to P18 and started to fight back. Well there was about 3 or 4 times when I got hitted by someone.. All that mess considering P9 was ok, but was hoping a bit better race.

Next sunday I’m hopefully driving back to Finland from Germany with my new (real) car, so see ya in two weeks!

 

[Spilskinanka]

Just keep driving I think Raresch, since I restarted simracing the other month I'm constantly beating my old lap records from when I raced at tracks before. I think it's just a gradual process, if you stick to one car and maybe gradually evolve your setup, the pace will come.

 

[Chris Down]

Oh, and apologies to @pattikins for the contact in T3. At corner entry I didn't see any overlap, so I wasn't expecting anyone there. I hope it didn't inconvenience you too much.

 

[Kek700]

@Raresch just out of interest what happens if you switch off the virtual memory.
Some people do this.

 

[Luca Badin]

Oh man, what a race, it's the third in a row that is so close in the midfield. Great 3- and even 4-way battles all around, but those first laps were madness, I lost count of how many times I had a car crossing the track sideways in front of me. Between those and some divebombs I saw/received, I have no idea how I escaped the carnage.

Didn't think I'd get top 10 this time but I guess I mostly stayed out of harm's way, except for a few kisses on my back - no biggie though, and it was all surprisingly clean racing considering how tight it was.

(And @Chris Down - next time I promise I won't be so surprised by a bump draft actually working that I forget my braking point )

I made a stupid mistake starting on Mediums and was 1-2secs of pace, I didnt even get the tire pressures right, so they were underheated the whole first half of the race.

Funny you should say that, last time we raced here it was my third second race, and it went exactly like that for me. It definitely was a learning experience

 

[Chris Down]

And as usual, my VR onboard:

 

[erazerr7]

Imma just leave this here.

Welp, sorry to all I "inconvenienced" by going full-on ketamine-fueled aggro mode through the first two turns, and especially to @Evgeniy Neytman who was accidentally sent to Mars on a SpaceX rocket in turn three on said first lap. I knew I was going to lose out to @Chris Down in the long run for sure, so I tried to grab track position in the first few turns without causing too much damage. Suffice to say I failed in two different ways there otherwise a quiet race on my part, I tried to keep up with Chris for a couple laps, but that ended up being at the total expense of my tires... That McLaren sure rips at the RBR

Thankfully the rubber stopper on my load cell ended up somewhat staying in one piece for this race, it really doesn't look great atm, however... I also happened to dislocate (and re-locate) my right pinky finger playing football yesterday, and it held up pretty well during the race itself but now it's become all shades of purple. I think it's for the best I serve a one-race penalty next week for Grosjean-ing and come back with both the pedal and myself in better shape. Have fun next week guys!

Oh, and also, regarding a possible track choice... I'd love to see us run the new version of Eurospeedway Lausitz that was put here on RD this summer in two weeks! The DTM layout seems like it would make for some good racing, and the track model looks pretty damn good

 

[random2k4]

Results here: https://simresults.net/200802-4EO

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[Raresch]

@Raresch just out of interest what happens if you switch off the virtual memory.
Some people do this.

It's even worse. I open Chrome and crashes instantly.

I think it's Chrome, somehow. If I don't open it at all, I don't get full virtual memory. If I open it and then I close it, I still have a chance to hit 100% on virtual memory. RAM is not loading fully either.

I did a Windows check for the RAM, it went to a DOS like interface and made some test and said everything is fine with RAM. I don't really know what is happening.

 

[Luca Badin]

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I also uploaded the results, but it doesn't display quali lap times for some reason. https://simresults.net/200802-uu3

 

[Kek700]

@Raresch , this may not be an option for you, I purposely keep my PC simple, rather like me . I do this just in case I have a similar problems to your self.
I reload Win 10 from fresh, do all the necessary house keeping to make it run at optimum. It so far has always solved the un-solvable.

probably not much help and probably bleeding obvious, but I thought I would say it anyway.

 

[Spilskinanka]

Hm, tried again. https://simresults.net/200803-9dP

 

[Chris Down]

(ed: move page over so people don't miss the announcement...)