AC Rookies: Audi Sport TT Cup at Le Mans - Wednesday 14th June 2017

[Kek700]

I think i am in a good position to comment, i am always at the back of the grid.

I see the really fast drivers when they have had an early off, fast drivers who have had the same problem, rookies, and the real first time learners.

I sometime get a punting or an occasional tap and i just shrug shoulders and get on with it. ( the only exception was le-mans were i picked 10 second penalties for being punted off, driven wide and avoiding an accident . That certainly does not work, and that is not a criticism of third parties involved, far from it.)

having the advantage of seeing all sorts of driver all of the time i think that the driving standards are very good ( including rookies ) and in all the rookie races i had i have only see one person obviously cheating, and in the teamspeak afterwards it was apparent that lots of people spotted that too.


There is alway going to be the qualified 25th and sees himself getting to the front before the first corner there is not much you can do about that, but i never see them again and they are probably not going to be the ones asking questions from the fast guy's anyway.

People sometimes run wide, make errors of judgement, mistakes, irrespective of abilities, i often see it, unfortunately that includes me.

They will do that once and will almost never repeat it next lap.

As i have said before i think there is very little to complain about in these very wellorganised races including the chats during practice, i quite often just sit and listen to the conversations going on, so do not think that you are wasting your time.

I realise that i am not that quick, too old, but i am patient and quite prepared to wait,
Even if it takes a couple of laps and perhaps that the problem in the rookie race most want instant success , if you get overtaken, expecting to reverse it before the next corner.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

Just hold your line the best you can @Arcon, you don't have to jump out the way, the overtaking car has to overtake you. He will pull out from behind you to initiate a pass, this is the same even for a blue flag, even if its through a tight sequence of bends he may have to wait until you exit them, he cant and should not knock you out the way.
respect works both ways when on track.
Just break at your normal points don't try to do anything different than your normal driving a predictive car is a lot easier to pass than car car that tries to help, the faster car behind should realise you may break earlier than him so he should not be sat right on you bumper. (if he knows what he is doing that is)
Because i can guarantee you end up going the wrong way or the driver behind then say you were trying to block him from passing. even though you was trying to help and get out the way.

 

[Tomi]

Jo guyes,

for me its very exciting to read in this thread because everybody is finding good words for his perpective what forces a great and interesting discussion ... thank you all for that great conversation, i'm glad to race with RD

I think @Tomi there is a lot more than only to win a race in simracing. The descition to see the possibilities depends on several very personal character settings and is nothing to be forced by an external person like me or anybody else. Just be aware about rookies like me on track ... for me it's mentally still hard to stay on my line if i want to evade an attacker from behind rather than pulling the car to the side what mostly will force an accident ... ... if you would blame me for the accident afterwords you would kill the fun of others that are really sorry for their rookie failures.

cheers

I agree that there is more than just winning. Many of my most fun and best races have ended places behind the winner.
But wanting to be fast and always aim for win don't mean that I can't enjoy and have fun.

And I never blame slower guys if they cause an accident (Well maybe sometimes in my mind in the heat of the moment but not here ).
It's my job to pass safely and actually the most safest way is that slower guy won't do anything differently.Especially at the corners. Let the faster guy do the pass how he sees it best.

 

[Tomi]

Just hold your line the best you can @Arcon, you don't have to jump out the way, the overtaking car has to overtake you. He will pull out from behind you to initiate a pass, this is the same even for a blue flag, even if its through a tight sequence of bends he may have to wait until you exit them, he cant and should not knock you out the way.
respect works both ways when on track.
Just break at your normal points don't try to do anything different than your normal driving a predictive car is a lot easier to pass than car car that tries to help, the faster car behind should realise you may break earlier than him so he should not be sat right on you bumper. (if he knows what he is doing that is)
Because i can guarantee you end up going the wrong way or the driver behind then say you were trying to block him from passing. even though you was trying to help and get out the way.

Exactly this

 

[Neilski]

I agree with what you guys are saying.
One feature of long tracks is that it takes more track time to learn all of the braking points. Le Mans is an extreme example of that, and Magione is maybe the other extreme. Not that Magione's an easy track to master, but more that after only 15 minutes on it, you aren't going to be braking so early that somebody hits you.
Fun/close racing just needs a driver to be racing against someone with roughly the same speed (front or back of grid makes no difference) and if a driver hasn't had enough track time to be confident of the braking points, they will be losing vast amounts of time and maybe getting hit by others who don't realise they're learning (yup, in a rookie race at least, this is still the fault of the guy behind) and that kinda kills the fun-ness I think. I guess I'm probably in favour of short tracks for rookie races

 

[BrianUK]

I was lucky enough to have 3 chances at Circuit de la Sarthe - DTM, Audi TT, MX5 - so my track knowledge was in from the DTM, and all I really had to do was learn the cars at the other two events, which I think showed through my vastly improved performance in the MX5 over the DTM and TT.

Even so, I find the hour before quali is ample time to get used to a track I haven't driven yet, and I think that is down to my method of practice: long runs. I'll try to give some more detailed advice here (might be useful for some) on how I use my hour.

1 hour is ample time to get used to the car and track, regardless of your driving ability if you split that free practice hour into 2 clear parts. Your goal is to be consistent, not fast, in the first 30 minute long run. Picking up braking points, exploring different gears in corners, you need to be doing all this. Do a slow lap on your outlap to see how the car is - don't rag it in the turns, you learn little by running off every turn as you aren't hitting the next turn at the right speed - then slowly brake later as you run through the laps, see how late you can get and still be in control. Then, just run for the rest of the session, either until it ends or your tyres wear out. If the tyres wear out, strap a new set on and run again.

In the second 30 minute run, make any set up adjustments you need, then just do another long run. Racking up the laps in an unbroken sequence is the best way, I find, to help cement consistency and allow me to run faster and faster. I find I can keep a mental note of turns I want to try something different on, or where I made mistakes, and then implement them right away on the next lap. It may seem boring, but I've found repetition is the best way to pick things up quickly, and cement those things.

Some other useful bits - make sure you have an app with a live delta, it's the easiest way to see if different things are working or not.

Don't get bogged down racing other cars in practice if you aren't confident with both the track and car. If you are, you can use this as a chance to learn taking turns while off the racing line, which you will need when battling in the race.

Use quali as an extra practice session and run another 20-25 minute long run, saving the last 5-10 minutes for your final quali attempt.

Once you are up to speed and are confident with your car, try tailing a faster driver. You might find you learn something new, even something as simple as carrying slightly more pace through turns.

I think saying these events shouldn't be at least semi-serious is bad advice. The only way to really improve is to take what you are doing seriously. If you want to see improved results, you have to be focused. Winning is not the only marker that you have become a better driver, but how much confidence you have in yourself and the car, and the movements up the field you can make. Even if you don't finish higher up, finishing closer to the car ahead is an improvement. The special thing about these events is that you won't be crucified for an honest mistake, they are even somewhat expected, and that is the difference from the more competitive club events.

Lastly, I think it's unfair to even assert that the faster guys just join for an easy win. I can be fast on my day, and I originally joined the 500 and MX5 events to learn H-shifter in AC, which I had previously found hard to translate my 9 years of experience from my real car into AC. We are here for different reasons, even if you have good raw pace, but none of those reasons include easy wins.