AC GT3 @ Road America - Sun 04 Nov 2018

[Chris Down]

Really enjoyed the track and was super happy with my pole time, shame about the issues in the race. About half way through my VR froze into turn 2, which led to me going off and nudging @Florian Neuberger on rejoin (sorry about that). It also cost me about 4 seconds of lead, but looking at @Aksu's tyre management and speed to the end, pretty sure I would have ended up second anyway Congrats, Aki, great race pace.

 

[Toruc Macta]

Thanks for the great race y'all. Happy to finally have some clean driving after spending a year in PCars2 Public lobbies, seems like I have a long way to go still tho ;p

 

[Celtic Pharaoh]

@Buster no harm at all for me, @xoSx.Racing was the car involved.
Really high quality of racing, despite the accident at the start that spoiled @Celtic Pharaoh race.
Congrats to the podium and more!

I was on 7 with the rear wing and I suffered through the long straight.

Love this track

Great racing Riccardo! I enjoyed our battle and thanks for giving space. I hope I was the same in turn

I had noticed that I was catching up to you, yes, on the start finish straight so your 7 wing explains it. I was running 0-2 wing.

 

[rikirk]

I should have let it go earlier, but since your race was compromised I just wanted to give you some fun and hold your faster pace for a little while.

Each battle when lapping within 1 sec might cost 2 or 3 sec plus some more rubber on the tarmac, so I try to avoid holding faster drivers.

You should definitely try to get closer next time and do some artwork on that boring red skin

 

[manu68]

Congratulations to the winner and their incredible pace .
And Congratulation to Craig and the admin for the choice of such tracks and all the effort put in providing us with the best race experience.

I had personally some kind of frustrating race.
To be honest, I can not compete on the pace itself. I have then to try to find the best strategy to counter that and I had decided to make the all race on medium and start with enough gasoline for the all race. (in order to save time into the pit).
Of course doing so , my race pace was not as quick as my qualification pace, where I could manage a 10th-11th(?) position, but my assigned goal at the moment is place 10 , which is already difficult when looking at the race level here, so my qualification has been "perfect".

Unfortunately, after the massiv wreck at the start , which I could not avoid, my race was already "over". I let the crash on 21-22th position if I remember well, and my chance to reach the line on about 10th became about impossible .

I had then tried to be constant and make no mistake on the track, and I have made a race I can be very happy with, bringing the car back on 14th place to the finish line.
I had some very pleasant fight with some pilots on the track, but also some frustrating moments.

My only bad comment is that some pilots doesn't respect the blue flags "gentlemen agreement". It is not a claim on nobody, just a comment.
(I may be wrong, but pilot in blue and with a race position lower than mine in realtime apps means that they are about to be lapped ???).
In at least one clear situation, I had to fight with lapped pilot I could not clearly overtake because of my strategy choice. I stay behind him many laps, which cost me (my feeling) some precious seconds to (maybe) save a 13th place at the end, because at that time I was engaged into a fight for 13th place, with a pilot 1-2" behind me during many laps.
I know, what means a 13th place for the best of you ? For me it means a lot, because I never give up a race , and it is a better result as a 14th.
Maybe some of you heard me screaming "Blue flag" , or some other french expressions on teamspeak, because of some frustration.
A propos, this is something I will not do anymore. It brings nothing to the situation, It was not polite and I apologize for that. I won't do that anymore.

It will be difficult for me to enter a race before the end of the year.
(maybe one ). I wish you all a great time on the track !

 

[Craig Dunkley]

My only bad comment is that some pilots doesn't respect the blue flags "gentlemen agreement". It is not a claim on nobody, just a comment.

That is a shame, everybody should respect the "blue flag" I will not accept this, the rules are very clear for all and I even made a point of this on team speak before the race. Slower drivers are very welcome, but must respect the "blue flag" rule at all times, this is the only way we can race together.

The faster drivers in the field, from my experience, have no issues with the slower drivers being there and learning the trade, but they need to know that EVERYBODY will respect the "blue flag" immediately, not 5 seconds later !! please remember, that ANY delay could cost them the race and rightly so, would be very annoyed..please guys, no excuses ...respect the "blue flag" at ALL times.

You had a good race my friend, you are getting better and better, I really hope we will see you again very soon ..if you experience a problem with someone not respecting the "blue flag" again, please speak to me and I will deal with it, immediately.

 

[manu68]

My goal is not to blame any driver in particuliar.
In my case, I don't think that i was really quicker on the track.
In in this case, The pilot didn't made any particular mistakes, but he stayed 1-3" in front of me during some laps, which has made my fight for 13th more complicated, just because I had someone 2" behind me. I don't remember exactly how I came behind him , probably after a pit stop from him or a mistake on the track.
He should have in my opinion let us both pass him, and then follow us .

I don't know if I could have kept my 13th position at that time until the end, just because it was not easy to contain the pilot behing me (Silvio ?)

I try to be very careful on the track myself, and it is not always easy.
Because of that, I never try to force the passage , even on lapped drivers, in case they are quicker as I am . I fully respect that everyone has its own race and own pace, and it is also true that I don't lap often myself other pilot
Yesterday, for example, at the very end of the race I have been surprised to see Florian Neuberger appearing behind me in "blue" at the end of the race (what happened to him before?, I may have not interpreted well the situation). Not depending on the colors on realtime apps, I let him pass immediately, just because he is 3" quicker as I am on the track.

I don't have saved the replay, so I can only talk about what i can remember, and once again I may be totally wrong .

I would also have a confirmation on the realtime app.
Green pilot behind you are about to overlap you.
Blue pilot in front you should respect blue flags.
Yellow pilot are fighting for position with you .

In case I misinterpret the realtime app, my humble apologise to everybody.

 

[Medilloni]

Thanks for putting on the event Craig @Buster , what an amazing track Road America is.

A bit chuffed, best result for me in that it's the first GT3 race I didn't have and 'off' all by myself, and remembered which corners were coming up most of the time ...and quali, beat my best time by a full second, spent the pee/beer/fag break wondering where the f**k that came from!

Thanks to all for a clean race and congrats to the podium guys

 

[Francis76]

After a while out of Racedepartment races, this one was worth it! Was on the reserve list and had practiced with the Merc but with quali already running had to chose between the Lambo or the R8, so went to the track with the R8 with no setup.
Starting on the back and after the mayhem at the start, managed to crawl up to 7th. Very good race, very consistent drivers and fair battles along the way.
Congrats to the podium!
PS: @Buster I was right behind you when your wheel got loose!

 

[Craig Dunkley]

PS: @Buster I was right behind you when your wheel got loose!

haha ...I was suffering from my setup as usual ..I just could not push any harder.

 

[RasmusP]

Hey guys,
just wanted to apologise to you for the server shutdown right before the end. A few months ago I configured some automations and due to daylight saving and time zone confusion, the Server went down.
Hope you enjoyed your Sunday evening anyway!

Regarding blue flags:
I can really really recommend this mod:
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/top-center-flags-for-vr.17416/

I always struggled with blue flags or yellow flags! I just never saw them...
With this mod they're just in front of your face so now I definitely see them

we were all reaching the breaking point for a corner and my wheel clamp left my desk, I was holding my wheel in mid-air

 

[Craig Dunkley]

Great post @RasmusP ...I will add that blue flag app to my event threads

 

[manu68]

Thanks Rasmus !
Blue flags App downloaded.

 

[serge07]

It was a really great race yesterday, at the beginning of the race I think I was fighting for 13th place or something like that and then the same thing that happened to Craig happened to me, my wheel got loose in a middle of turn 3 and crashed after that i only tried to not make mistakes and finish my race, but it was really fun. Thanks and hope to join you soon.

 

[Craig Dunkley]

Give it a few weeks and we can do Road America again ...everybody seems to love the course

 

[Fallenangel22]

Love this track!