So... Here's my report :
Qualify
Well, nothing much to say, like many, I tried to do a "relaxed" and clean qualy lap, everything went well, I did 6.40.xxx, and I was P4 (I was expecting to be a bit lower, as I don't know this track as much as some other drivers around here).
Race
So I was starting P4... Remco didn't start for some reason, so I was P3, missed my start, but nobody did pass me before turn one, so I could keep P3. Then, I could follow Michal and Dave, but then at Ex-Mühle, it was "slippery" (well, maybe 2nd gear here was not a good idea), and couldn't re-accelerate properly, so the guy behind me hit me, I went in the grass, and a few cars passed me. The car who hit me didn't wait for me for sure. I think I was behind Satoru Ohno at this time (or maybe that was in lap 2), and I tried to overtake him in the right turn just before the Karussell, well, not a good move, I hit him, but no further consequences, I waited him to re-accelerate again, and then continued my race, in the sector three then, Kimmo Kokkonen, rejoined the track just in front of me, his Corvette was badly damaged (I thought it was a puncture, but actually, it was a bodywork damage) and then was much slower than me. So, Andreas and Kimmo already talked about that ...
It's called racing not charity, sorry but read post #1 (Chat) and find word "If" from text "If a driver makes room for you, flash your lights 1 or 2 times to thank him."
Read also post #4 and text "Just because the 2nd racer (the one behind) is in the slipstream and is much faster this doesn’t give him the right to force an overtaking. Even if the 2nd racer goes side by side it is very dangerous for both as these zones require crossing lines to be made at high speed."
Of course you can try to overtake me but it's never so easy but very hard.
Btw, Corvette's mirrors sucks and cause I never use virtual mirror so I can see another cars only from the track map and thats never easy when there's several cars behind me, ok.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, thanks. Note that I didnt know how badly my car was broken, never seen any failure message but noticed that everything wasnt ok but the car was still drivable.
I am sorry, but I don't fully agree with this... Here's my POV :
- As long as your car is not fully capable to depend safely its position (ex : damage), you should ease off and let pass the faster guys behind you.
- IMHO, the kind of damage you had must have consequences in your car's handling, at least, there is the wrench icon in the bottom right of your HUD (just under the tachometer, where you have fuel.) who becomes red when you have damage... Your car was really slow at that time, that's why I think you weren't able to defend your position in safe conditions.
- Virtual mirrors are much better than "no mirrors" at all, I must reckon that virtual ones are not "ideal" (only central mirror), but what's going on behind you is almost as important that what's going on in front of you.
So my advices : Put full HUD (if it's not done yet) and virtual mirrors.
Then after overtaken the Gulf Corvette, I saw Andreas spinning in my mirrors, but didn't know that Yves Larose was implied in this accident too. Anyway, that was a very delicate moment, and it is never comfortable to be between two cars.
So eventful first lap for me, but when I could overtake Steve Bean and secured P4, I was quite alone on the track, so it was more relaxed. Went until lap 6 and first pit stop without more problems. About strategy, I planned 3 stops each 6 laps, I initially though about 2 PS each 8 laps, but during my training laps at Brno with the Viper for RDGTC (so something which is not completely related), I figured out that tyres won't necessary last for a whole hour, so switched to the 3 PS strategy, as the leaders in front of me did AFAIK.
During my second stint, I can't remember when, Dave Stephenson had a problem so I went P3... So despite a quite chaotic first laps, and the fact I was not as fast as the leaders (6.46 as BL in early laps, won't be improved in the latter part of the race), I was happy to stay out of trouble, and have a podium position, but in lap 11, I got damage, and had to make my second PS earlier, but it was only anticipating it, so I lost a bit of time due to the damage and the fixing in the pits, but could re-take P3 a few laps later. Did another mistake when I had puncture in lap 15, at this time, I had just lapped Freddie, and as I lost time and he was coming just behind me, I decided to let him re-pass, but was actually faster than him despite damaged, so I re-lapped him again (fortunately it is only a video game, in real-life, I would have destroyed the bodywork
), unfortunately, I was in the middle of my third stint, so I had to do one more pit stop just to repair the damage. Lap 17, I broken my suspension (well, I think, because I hit the wall and got the red wrench in the HUD, but no message), but the car still was drivable, after my last pit stop, where, the crew didn't repaired the damage, I still was P3, slower than P1 and P2 but faster than P4... So I had "just" to finish the race, but I was tired and did some stupid mistakes. But finished third.
Good result, but quite disappointed by my performance, it was not about speed, but I initially wanted to avoid any damage regardless of position, avoiding stupid mistakes and damage, and I had a lot of damage during this race. However, even without damage, I would still be third, at "just" 3 minutes behind P2...
So thanks to RD and Remco for this event, congrats to both classes podium finishers, and also congrats to all finishers who survived this race in general. Also, thanks to all these slow cars who let pass me when I lapped them, especially Freddie (which I lapped 3 times due to my accident), and Leon Stefan (maybe one of the slowest GT Pro in the field, but from my POV and what I saw, was very correct, at least toward me).
This leads me to reply to this quote :
Maybe it would be also better to make the whole field GTS or GTP because most of the race the gaps was big and 25 cars of the same class will give more closer racing for all participators, specially on such a long track like the Nordschleife.
Maybe, but as I just said, the only problems I had were when I was fighting for position (in the other hand, I was never behind any GT Sport, despite having Andreas just behind my tail), when I was lapping the GT Sports cars, they were all correct and let me pass without problem. And actually I was quite surprised to not have to overtake more GT Sport cars, but maybe it was because of the track length. Plus the fact that some GT Pro were as fast as GT Sports cars (no offence guys, I, and I think everybody around here, prefer slow and clean drivers than fast idiots)
