Well, there it went my 1st
RD couple of races…
SPA is a track I know well, but from
real live and
GTR2 (24hrs)… before connecting to the server I did very few laps with GTRevo and as everybody, I had to setup the car from default.
I though a good
Q lap would be in the
13s/
14s, only managed to do a
16 with the
C6R wish gave me 3rd on the grid.
1st RaceHad a start without any problems and kept my position. After the 1st lap I saw I could only circulate in the mid 17’s low 18’s at best, so the 2 front runners (doing 16’s in race) were away.
When under pressure from 4th (Jari Vinnari’s Audi) made a mistake exiting Bruxelles (too much power too early) and lost the rear wish dropped me to 7th.
With the other’s misfortunes by the final laps I was in 5th and closing on 3rd, 4th but then I saw that at that pace I didn’t had fuel to go to the end, as 6th was 30sec + back, had no trouble in shifting around 5000 rpm to be sure to reach the final in 5th.
2nd RaceThe 5th at the 1st race had its advantages as it placed me in 4th for the 2nd race with racers in front that weren’t able of going below 19’s/ 20’s (at this race).
Race started, kept my position but was able to overtake in the 1st straight 2 racers only leaving me “Rolo’s” C5R in front. “Rolo” was about 2 or 3 seconds slower/lap, at times I had to slam the brakes just not to hit him (and it would have been my fault, nothing against you, you were correct mate). I finely did him on the 3rd lap braking into Stavelot, wish brought me to 1st. Immediately after that I tried to concentrate in doing a few fast laps wile my more direct adversaries were held behind slower drivers (grid inversion).
With that I built a 5 secs + lead wish was useful to manage to the end of the race. Jari Vinnari’s Audi (2nd) was about .5 of a sec a lap quicker than me and by the end of the race he was very close.
All in all, after observing the replays, I saw I had the 4th quickest pace around, wish means a 5th and 1st (who average a 3rd) is slightly better then I could hope with my race pace. I was also lucky to be sufficiently forward in both starts, so I was able to escape both
Eau Rouge accidents.
... Some of the driving standards were bordering on suicidal in the first lap of both races. When will people show some respect in the opening few turns.
...I knew it needed a careful entry into Eau Rouge, but Mehmet and Mtommi both charged each side of me into the turn and I knew it would lead to grief. Sure enough, they touched each other, setting off a monumental pile up...
...Another careful start this time (safer at the back of the grid), and passed a huge number of cars along lap 1, as they all drove off track or were punted off track by others...
These were sprint races (25min each?), so some people setup and drive cars in way that I'm sure they wouldn’t do in an endurance race.
For instances, everyone knows (or should know), that it is possible to do
Eau Rouge flat out (especially with a
Q setup). The problem is… it is basically
too risky to do it (in race), especially with others near, and one knows that going by there an
X amount of times it easy (once) to misjudge the trajectory. So one should leave some room for a possible mistake or one can easily end his (and others) race there.
Like in many other tracks,
some people like to “invent” overtaking points in
SPA.
For the record, excluding the situations when the front driver permits (or does a mistake), the classic overtaking points in
SPA are:
Braking into Les Combes, braking into the 1st turn at Fagnes (hard to do because Pouhon exit is very fast), braking into the 1st turn in Stavelot area, braking into Bus Stop, braking into La Source.
Eau Rouge, Raidillon, the turn after Bruxelles, Pouhon, Blanchimont are absolute one liners. In order to overtake there, or the front racer permits (voluntarily or by mistake) or someone will be “killed”.
Notice that, for instances, you can cleanly overtake in
Blanchimont (or any other place), but for that, the front racer has to exit considerable slower from
Stavelot (his mistake) so one can gain the line going into
Blanchimont.
If any of you have (or had) a look into the replays, you will see some very “optimist” overtaking attempts going into/in
Blanchimont and
Eau Rouge.
A small note… the “race” started (the practice) about
7 min. earlier (8.53 GMT) then the appointed time, wish I think isn’t fair for everyone (I was there 1 hr earlier so it wasn’t a problem for me).
Finely and just to leave it clear,
everyone was correct to me, I didn’t had any problems in any of the races and I hope no one had with me.
Thanks to all that participated for the very good races and to
RD for the server availability.
Congratulations to
Vinnari for the overall win.
