AC Multiclass Audi TT/Mazda MX5 @ Watkins Glen - Wednesday 19th January 2022

[mynock15]

I've had rig problems since Thursday so won't be joining you guys this week. I'm sure that will come as a relief to many of you!

 

[Alfred Wayne]

@stigs2cousin I don't mean to keep peppering you with "tips" but your comment made me do a little googling, and I just found a video I previously watched that helped me learn the bus stop "better". (Forgot I watched it when I wrote my earlier comment, but turns out that was basically me summarizing this video without the good visuals

(It's a bit "rushed" as it's some "Track tips in 60 seconds" feature I guess)

 

[stigs2cousin]

It´s not pestering when you answer a question

See you tomorrow Carsten

(and yes, definitely 4.gear )

 

[Chris Down]

Great race everyone! Super clean racing and good respect between TT and MX5 classes from what I could see. Great battles too!

I'd also like to say a very big thanks to the admins for taking action related to the unacceptable behaviour from last week. It's not easy or glorious work but it is much appreciated, and your work is such an important part of keeping the club respect and integrity that we've built over the past years.

From my side, good pace, really enjoyed the track: lovely sweeping corners and great battles. Not much to report from the race side, but I saw some really nice MX5 battles along the way and everyone that I saw was very considerate of other drivers, both Audi and MX5. Congrats to the podiums!

Simresults: https://simresults.net/220119-n5F

My VR onboard:

 

[JamKart22]

Nice clean racing and restored my faith in this racing club

 

[HF2000]

Yes I agree with the above and I'm relieved and very happy that it turned out that way.

I want to compliment Fabiano and Raul with great racing. You both have improved a lot this year!

My race started last because I screwed up my qualify. On top of that I was so busy with my pre race chat that I forgot to click the 'drive' button, You get then transported to the pits with a 20s penalty.
But I had a great race with catching up and overtaking. Especially the battles with Fabiano and Raul were awesome.
And I have to practice more and better. With only 6 minutes to go I discovered that it was faster in 3 corners to shift back to 3rd. When I got that, I broke my PB with 0.5 s!

Thanks all for racing and congrats to the podium.
Anyone in favor to give Allan 50kg ballast next race, please click on 'love' for this post .

See you all next week on track in Virginia, USA!

 

[Alfred Wayne]

My favorite track didn't disappoint thanks to clean racing and active admins

Was in "the back" of the Audi pack but it sure didn't feel like it Had a good battle with Pascal early on (hope my look down the inside of the bus stop that 2nd lap wasn't too aggressive, pulled back once it was clear it wasn't happening lol), then a small one with Axel who eventually got by, then almost caught up to Tiago with Pascal close behind the whole time.

Oh and there were a quite a few well behaved Mazda's in between all that

"Worst thing" that happened to me was when I was passing Han in the turn out of the bus stop on the inside, I pressed my "look right" button while trying to push my push to talk button on my wheel. Talk about a blind turn . So sorry on that if it seemed I ran you wide, I was driving by radar for a second

Congrats to the winners and thanks again everyone for the great race

 

[stigs2cousin]

Almost the same from me, though I never lost faith

Thanks to Han for doing the extra work and make the password PM only for newbies.

And a special thanks to the A-team Allan and Andre who did something moderately stupid everytime they were to far gone for me to watch them so I didn´t get bored following them.

So really not a boring race, could even smell Han at the horizon triing the last-to-podium challenge.
Sorry Han, didn´t like that to much, so I usurped the third step this time.

(And that after AC/CM threw me a curveball (again) and "forgot" my setup.
The setup name was logged on but all the settings gone. I had to recall from memory and of course f.... up the tyre pressures.)

See you in VIR, Han, lets see what happens when you remember to qualify.........

Good Night guys, good race and good fun Carsten

 

[FabianoRL]

By far my best race here, thanks to you guys that keep pushing us forward. I don't know what to say. Very happy with the pace and the battle with Raul and Han (when in the world could I possibly imagine a battle with Han?! #shocked).

Thank you guys for the nice battle and comments along the race, although I really couldn't talk in the same calm way you both were - to try to keep your pace I just couldn't breathe... lol. Shame that Raul ended up spinning 2 laps to go at T6, we were having a really good fun there.

I could see that at about 5 laps to go our tires started to degrade a lot - both Han and Raul were slipping more than the previous laps, and even I couldn't exit the last three turns faster anymore, which was the sector where I could gain some time.

Anyway, thank you all for the really enjoyable race tonight, and see you soon.

All the best!

 

[stigs2cousin]

Anyone in favor to give Allan 50kg ballast next race, please click on 'love' for this post.

Interesting idea.

How about the winner promises to make his setup public so that winning becomes completely undesireable?
( Just kidding, ballast would mix up things really well, but does it punish better drivers?
I´d have to check DTM statistics, they did this in the golden years)

MFG Carsten

 

[Douglas Aird]

Damn, missed opportunity for me. Qualified p4 then made the same mistake as Han and sat in the pits at the start. I seemed to get 30 seconds?

After some lonely laps I managed to pass Erik then Omar. I was then looking to catch Wim but couldn't shake Omar. He passed me again and we had a couple of side by side racing laps.

I got past again after t1 and up the hill but I moved back onto the racing line a fraction early and caught the front of Omar's car which spun me. All my fault, Omar.

Back to last I caught Erik again with a lap to go but he passed me right at the end while I was playing "after you" with an Audi!

Good clean racing this week, back to normal. Well done to everyone and thanks Han.

 

[Kek700]

Very happy with my race after my mini-disaster on Tuesday, but still, it was a very enjoyable mini race, only three of us, I think, none the less every lap after the 6th lap was action-filled.

This race was far more straightforward, great racing Colin, Axel and Thomas.
Really enjoyed chasing Thomas, but made a sloppy bus stop mistake, but to be honest, I was probably not going to get by, so just shrugged my shoulders, and accepted the inevitable.



So well done podiums, and a special thanks to our host @HF2000 for creating a great event.

 

[Dzul]

Totally agree with all said before about the return of proper, respectful, tough but fair, good racing... because that's what it was. Thank you for the compliments Han, I was pleasantly surprised myself that my pace was so consistent and could keep up with you and Fabiano... it was a blast guys! Too bad that spinning happened two laps before the end but it was indeed due to degradation as Fabiano said... I slid too much, corrected too much and touched the kerb on the inside of T6 maneuvering, I managed to keep it straight at the end but scraping the barriers on the left and couldn't avoid bumping into a small elbow on the armco, which got me spinning twice... I managed to recover quickly but it was driving in no-man's land on the last laps... still ALL the laps before were a ton of fun racing you guys... let's try that again in VIR!

Thank you for organising it Han, and keeping the order, cheers to that. Congratulations to the winners and podium finishers... I think we can order a couple of kebabs for Allan (he likes them) as ballast next week...

Looking forward to another fun race with you guys, you're a great crew!

 

[HF2000]

Damn, missed opportunity for me. Qualified p4 then made the same mistake as Han and sat in the pits at the start. I seemed to get 30 seconds?

After some lonely laps I managed to pass Erik then Omar. I was then looking to catch Wim but couldn't shake Omar. He passed me again and we had a couple of side by side racing laps.

I got past again after t1 and up the hill but I moved back onto the racing line a fraction early and caught the front of Omar's car which spun me. All my fault, Omar.

Back to last I caught Erik again with a lap to go but he passed me right at the end while I was playing "after you" with an Audi!

Good clean racing this week, back to normal. Well done to everyone and thanks Han.

Could you check if it was a jump start that made you teleport to the pits?

 

[HF2000]

Just to notify you. We have changed the regular password for joining the servers. The new password will be in the first post of the event thread.

 

[thom462]

This was not an easy one but a great one. So glad to bring this home. After good qualy in P2 I was a little worried as I was not sure where the limit is on the low starting grip. Was on practice server yesterday but grip was already 100% there. Had a good start but was wide on the outside at turn 1 and Axel could overtake me on the inside. Not having Chris' pace main goal was drive steady and no errors. Could follow Axel close in lap 1 and as he got sideways before the backstraight I took my chance with P2P and could pass him on the inside. What followed was pure pressure the next 20 minutes. Glad I could keep the pace constant and make no major mistakes, as normally I am far more confident and error free following someone close with the same pace. You can't practice these situations I guess, you just have to experience them and handle it. So there was little relief as he got his incident whilst lapping but then there was Ernie @Kek700 not far behind and I thought, oh well this wont be just cruisin til the end......and it was the same pressure, we were about the same laptimes and I knew one little error and that's it. But I kept it constant and so I am happy with the result.

Some impressions:



.....5 minutes to go, chased by Ernie watching MX5 fight for the lead..........

....at the limit on the brakes for busstop.....

Congrats to winners, podiums, thx all for racing and thx @HF2000 Han for organizing another great event!

 

[Alfred Wayne]

Ooh nice shots

 

[Douglas Aird]

Could you check if it was a jump start that made you teleport to the pits?

I will check the replay, I was so flustered I don't really know what happened!

 

[a_murel]

What a race! And what a nice track, with a flow!

And what a nice and respectfull croud we had last night, Audi's being patient and everyone coaching each other, THANX GUYS!

Qually went oke! At first I knew I was just a tiny bit slower than Allan but nevertheless I wanted to be up front, because I knew my race pace was simular to Allan's. So I ended up 2nd

The start went oke, taking it easy, lacking very much grip because the track had low grip and my setup doesnt like this at all. This lets Carsten, who had a very good pace, overtake me in the first few laps.

After my tyres warmed up and the track had some more grip I started to pick up pace and overtook Carsten and started to challenge Allan. But then... Axel in the Audi had a brave move and took me off in de chicane. (These things happpen not a problem, he appologised very kindly afterwards)

From there I had to overtake Carsten again! which I managed to do and chased Allan, having us to do qualifying laps for the rest of the race. Allan made a small mistake and we raced very close and even 1 whole lap next to each other!

As you can see on this lovely picture!

Great fun guys!

 

[HF2000]

@Allan Ramsbottom

Anyone in favor to give Allan 50kg ballast next race, please click on 'love' for this post .

Allan, you do realize that you voted to give you 50kg ballast, do you ?