rF2 Porsche Carrera Cup GB @ Le Mans: Bugatti Circuit - Fri 11th February 2011

[Gary Lennon]

A mighty lunge forward start from 2nd meant a sweet clear lead in to T1 and the chicane,which i managed to totally balls up badly and cut over and missed the lot ://,just managed to not spin and got back on track,started feeling guilty about the whole mess so backed off a bit then decided to give my illicit lead to Caner,followed ok for a bend or two,then went all rubbish and shakey again,a theme that continued for a few laps,one weird buggy moment coming out the final turn too wide and i hit a "invisible thing" and got chucked in the air a bit and in to the wall :o,that let Caner really build up a massive lead and forced me to knuckle down a bit and do some calm clean laps,i managed to acheive that just about the time Caner was starting to have some mistakes problems ahead,but he recovered and responed holding his lead to the finish.
Again could not go sub 38's like i managed in a dozen or so laps practice earlier today peaking out with a 37.6,so away from 2nd spot again with Caner on pole,i thought i broke clear again with a decent start,but Morten W. screamed up the inside right between me and the pitwall,i moved a bit left to give him room and noticed two others on my left side ,all through the T1 comples properly this time for me and keeping a hold of 2nd place following Morten but with a serious pack behind me including Caner,i knew i needed and early break so lined up a run on Morten down the back straight and managed to just outbrake him enough and keep tight and take the lead going in the final stadium complex turns,now was the time to give it some push,then the race just all panned out in my favour with Caner having battles behind giving me just enough gap to play it a bit safe near the end and bring it home .
Quality racing again in Friday PCC scene,tonights track again had a slightly dodgy T1 sequence of turns,but both races it looked good near me,my race one doesnt count tbh ;p,but race 2 had a tight busy pack arriving there,and again i never even felt a scratch,excellent!.
Over the weekend i am going to be proposing to Lee an idea for a little sort of "Summer Fun Mini Series" using this mod and attempting to mirror the real life series that supports the BTCC calender,so we race the same track on the same date here at RD on the Sunday evening,obviously any clashes might need a tweak to a Monday night or something and also i am a bit sketchy on the legality of Knockhill and Rockingham tracks available in rFactor,but again easy worked around with the help of LautsitzRing replacing Rockingham if need be and something wee and pokey to replace Knocky.
I am putting this up here just now to get a bit of a gauge of interest levels for this idea,ive noticed good numbers in all the Friday events Lee has provided for us so far,and usually the announcement of any kind of "League" has people crawling out the woodwork from all sides to take part,if my idea becomes too much of a problem to do,then for sure something more simplified and structured within available RD calender space,then i would be on for that too,not sure if Admins want a race report thread turning in to league proposal discussion,cut-paste-move as neccessary please .

Big Thanks Lee/Adz & RD

(BTCC Track & Dates HERE)

 

[Adam Eggbeer]

Quali 1: Decent lap but could of gone quicker. P6

Race 1: Great start and was up to 3rd. Had to let Luke go as he was lagging all over the place. He eventually DC'd and I was left chasing Gary who was making a few mistakes. Kjell closed in on me and about halfway through I lost the rear around the penultimate corner and lost 2 places. Spun off again and lost more ground before a third spin cost me another 2 places. Ended up bringing it home in 7th.

Quali 2: Distracted on my quickest lap although I was up on other laps and threw it away. P9

Race 2: Ok start and was following the field through the opening turns till I got hit from behind and ended up hitting Ross and spinning. Recovered from 13th and slowly overtook people one by one and was lying 5th with 2 laps to go where I span in turn 1. Got going again but lost a place and then at the end of the lap I thought that was the end of the race so I slowed up pushed ESC (sorry Kris if I held you up) only for the bar to come up. Realised we had an extra lap to do so floored it again but didn't have time to remove the bar from the screen toll over halfway through the lap. Rolled it home 6th.

Did not enjoy the track tonight and my car just wasn't settled at any point especially in race 2 after the contact.

Thanks Lee, RD, and all those who raced.

 

[Carlos Andre]

Quali 1: Got a 14th, I guess. I wasn't very fast, even though I was over 1 sec faster than my practice laps in this morning. I was probably the slowest guy on the 3rd part of the track, just wasn't able to go fast on that turns.

Race 1: All I could see at the start was a big massive cluster of Porsches ahead of me, fighting greedly for positions. Tried to stayaway for confusion, but I was hit on T2, and fell to last place. Did a cr*ppy 1st lap, going to the gravel twice, so I found myself at least 10 sec behind the next guy in the first lap. I thought, well, there are still 18 minutes left, many things can happen... people spinning out, crashing, or just giving up. So, I recovered some positions trying to drive calmy and smoothly. I finished the race in 12th, if I can remember well, and had a good battle with Pavel in the last 5 or 6 laps.

Quali 2: I had trouble with my wheel. It was losing its ffb in many moments, which didn't allow me to do a good lap. I had tried to reset ffb using a signed button, had tried to shut rF down, unplugging the wheel but nothing helped. So, I saw the power cable was kinda loose in the wheel, so, it wasn't being electrally supplied as it should be. Reconnected it, worked fine.

Race 2: Starting as 13th this time, I decided to put 8 on the rear wing, in order to make the car more smooth to drive though the turns. It helped! My car was better to handle and as fast as the previous setup. But, even though, I was slower in the corners than most people, but I could manage to be faster on the straights. I gained many positions, and after Kris incident, found myself in the top 5! I had nice battle with him and Marcel and Adam. Adam was the only one who could overtake me, lol. I was impressed by my ability and defending my position with many any (serious) mistake, seems I'm getting better at it.


At overall, I had a lot of fun. These cars are hard to control, very technical, and I see that it stills lacks me the raw speed most of you already have. But, anyway, I'm very glad with my perfomance here. I'm not sure if I'll race next fridays, since I got home just in time to quali 1 today - and that because I was lucky, I was supposed to get home at least 30 minutes later - but I'd like to race again. Cheers!

 

[Samuli Leinonen]

It's been very busy fridays for me since Silverstone and I haven't been able to join the sessions but I hope these races keep going on!

 

[Ross McGregor]

Not such an enjoyable track from my perspective- too many slow turns for these porsches- but had a decent couple of races anyway, albeit average qualifying.

In race 1 i picked my way through the usual turn 1 shenanigans and was looking forward to joining the lead battle when Kris hit me (twice i believe) Had a fairly long battle with Marcel, but was just too scrappy to catch Lee in 4th. Also was delayed somewhat when Adam half-spun during the race- once these cars get away from you it's a hard task to try and guess where the spinning car wll end up!

Race 2: was the innocent bystander when i received a couple of knocks from someone else's incident, no matter as i kept going. Worked my way through the usual lap 1 spinners/outbrakers, and had Morten ahead with Kris/Carlos/Marcel chasing. I got past Morten after he was distracted by a spinner ahead (i think) and was building a decent-sized gap when i made a mistake and Morten go through. Followed closely for the remainder of the race, and might've overtaken him if he hadn't spun right in front of me! Good dicing nevertheless.

Cheers for running the event, look forward to next week's track.

Also, i like the sound of Gary's idea, but i'd prefer a series of individual club races mirroring the BTCC instead of a league. I want to keep enjoying my friday night races rather than take them seriously. Saying that though, i'd probably still take part, if only to double the scottish attendance!

 

[Rich Dozier]

Arrrgh!!!

1 lap from the end I get ANOTHER rF screen freeze!!! By the time it quits I lost 2 places and had to drive with massive artifacts on screen!

Had to disco and couldn't get back in....

I dunno but for the last 6 months or so it seems like rF has been doing this to me with almost EVERY mod. I have the latest drivers for XP.

Beats shiite out of me....

 

[Sami Pesari]

meh everything i did to car just didnt help i felt like it was understeering alot and i tried different lines too but still was over a sec behind but racing was fun even tho it was mostly just trying to keep guys behind cause of my bad pace

 

[Mapu]

In summary I can say that it was a nice event with the exception of one mishap in the 2nd race, 1st chicane (I'm sorry about it) and a significant driving error that made me loose car control in a later stage of the same race while I was chasing Carlos Andre through the fast chicane.

I hope we'll see more Porsche Carrera Cup Race Tracks in these Events.

Just in case: a good start to search for references could be this place: http://www.porsche.com/international/motorsportandevents/motorsport/racing/carreracupsworldwide/

Thanks to our fellow drivers for participating, Lee Palmer for planning and organising and RD for making it possible in general.

 

[Morten Wernersen]

My rocket start from race 2, went from P6 to P1 before the first corner

 

[William Crudup]

R1: Finished 14th
Told myself, take it easy T1 L1, people are going rush for it on cold tires and brakes, let them go. Well that idea worked in sorts until I succumbed to watching cars disappear down the track so decided to get a bit more aggressive with the speed. Went off track with a few others but re-entered the track at a safe place. Had a few good fights for position and was able to take my ride in both races to the finish. That's all I wanted. Ultimately R1 I placed 14th, many thanks to Rich Dozier for allowing me back on track after I got loose last lap.

R2: Finished 9th
Again, William says to himself, "Take it easy T1 L1, people are going rush for it on cold tires and brakes, let them go".
T.Lee had me worried T1 L1, slid up on my right side, had a bit of contact with him going into T2. Glad he made it through by the hair of his chiny chin chin. Again my goal is to just finish. Started to feel the car and track a bit better in R2, though I was thinking I should have stayed with my initial setup. In the end finished in 9th place. I had a really good time racing with you all and cheers to the gentlemen drivers!
Thanks for the race host.