AC GT3 @ Watkins Glen - Sunday 13th June 2021

[Interslice]

It was a bit of mixed race for me. I tired going in to the race (sleepless nights (hot weather ) & work, so I was happy that I managed to get pole position, albeit by the tiniest of margins - 0.018 seconds .

I had my usual poor start and lost two places before the first turn. I lost another position after a few laps through poor concentration and my lap times leading up to the pit-stop were much slower than I'd planned. The second part of the race had me in clear air so I was able to lap somewhere near my target times. Unfortunately, when I finally caught up with Dmitry I couldn't find a way past. It looked, however, like Dmitry was also struggling in some of the corners, so much so that I had to take avoiding action - ending up in the wall on one of them.

The race certainly didn't got to plan, & I blame Chris for not following the script - adding an extra lap to the previous race. I had two litres going into the last lap & just managed to get over the line.

Congrats to the podium, and thanks to Brian for organising the event.

Haha, ye I had fuel anxiety for the last ten laps also... Finished with only a half lap of it left in the tank!

 

[640er]

Thank you @Interslice for organizing and congrats to the podium.

Qualy was good. Could do my first sub 1.45 time but with such a highly competitive grid like yesterday, that was only good enough for P7

Lap 1 was a disaster for me. GPU couldn't handle this track/car combo which resulted in big framerate drops. Was super cautious through the first corner and lost one or two places. But that wasn't really the biggest problem. In the last corner of lap 1, I ran wide and hit the wall, receiving severe damage to my suspension. Had to limp back to the pits to repair the car. Of course, lost a few more places and a lot of time. The repairs took longer than changing tyres which didn't help either. Therefore my race started in lap 3 from the back. Was a bit unlucky because I didn't encounter any opponents to fight with. 15mins before the end I got @Interslice in sight and started to chase him down. Could get as close as ~2 seconds but ran out of remaining laps to start an attack.. too bad

Anyways, even if I was the first? victim of the newly damage system, I think we should keep it for the next race.

 

[Chris Down]

Here's my VR onboard:

 

[Kek700]

Could not find anything in the pole that was applicable, we really don't have much of a problem on this forums racing that warrants damage penalties with that in mind, just good policing.
Which is good anyway.
Out of 5 years battling away in many hundreds of races, I have only a handful of times needed to have a good moan, so out of 800 or so races two big moans, four frustrated small moans = a bleeding small percentage. And I will also add that is someone who probably opens themselves up to being hit by being over-cautious all too often.
keep it at 10%.

 

[demetri]

It looked, however, like Dmitry was also struggling in some of the corners, so much so that I had to take avoiding action - ending up in the wall on one of them.

My left front was shot (down to 20% in Sidekick) and I was understeering quite badly in right-hand turns, especially if I didn't take the perfect entry line, so I had to coast slightly longer till I could get back on throttle, otherwise I would've had to lift later to stay on track and that's a no-no when you're defending. And GT-R's engine braking is much more efficient (90 Nm at 5K, vs 45-50 Nm for the McLaren at the same RPM) which is probably what caught you off guard those couple of times

 

[Chris Down]

It looked, however, like Dmitry was also struggling in some of the corners, so much so that I had to take avoiding action - ending up in the wall on one of them.

Hah, I feel that. Years of following (and sometimes hitting...) @Aksu taught me the hard way that the GT-R just has a totally different braking methodology because of the crappy mechanical brakes and good engine braking. This means that often things are fine at the beginning, but the GT-R in front will creep closer and closer to you as you as you go deeper in the braking zone. Just something that takes some practice

 

[demetri]

Could not find anything in the pole that was applicable, we really don't have much of a problem on this forums racing that warrants damage penalties with that in mind, just good policing.
Which is good anyway.
Out of 5 years battling away in many hundreds of races, I have only a handful of times needed to have a good moan, so out of 800 or so races two big moans, four frustrated small moans = a bleeding small percentage. And I will also add that is someone who probably opens themselves up to being hit by being over-cautious all too often.
keep it at 10%.

Was it the new damage setting, slightly lower number of cars, or maybe it was because we were running at a nice track again (I share your hate for LS), but I believe there was zero car-to-car contacts on the first lap which is pretty amazing.

 

[Kek700]

Cannot comment on the start, went for a quick pee, when I got back everyone was long gone. so that also meant a complete absence of anyone in the race.

 

[demetri]

Hah, I feel that. Years of following (and sometimes hitting...) @Aksu taught me the hard way that the GT-R just has a totally different braking methodology because of the crappy mechanical brakes and good engine braking. This means that often things are fine at the beginning, but the GT-R in front will creep closer and closer to you as you as you go deeper in the braking zone. Just something that takes some practice

Coming from the Audi, I don't find the Nissan's brakes crappy at all

 

[Partick Eaton]

Well this race for me became a disaster.......I should know by now not to fiddle with my setup just before the race!

I don't like to quit races, but I bailed out just after the half way mark. I did not want to become a liability to others as I was unable to stay on track for more that a lap at a time.

I will miss next weekend, see you back in two weeks.