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Post by greds04 on Mar 31, 2008 11:58:48 GMT -5
It was a mixed race for myself, the track lived up to it's reputation of giving me a hard time from the half way point onwards.
Qualifying went really well, I managed 6th on the grid with a .33 something (almost as good as the 32.222 I ran in practice), then I got a blinding start on the green, managed to fly past the black and blue Mazda 5th on the grid, and managed to get passed Kevin for the dreaded turns 1 and 2. So I was doing surprisingly well in 4th and having a small battle with the orange judd behind me (ford dude I think), I made a slight mistake at a corner and he slid past me, then a few laps later he braked real late into the beginning of the slow left handers. I later made a mistake which ripped off the front fairing and needed a pit stop to replace it, then later on I managed to off the car again and this time damage the right front wheel.
I guess I saved myself some time by not getting fresh tires at all, I was able to get back into a rhythm and was pushing mid .33's for a few laps, and eventually caught up with Ced in his bright blue Mazda and it stayed that way for the end of the race.
I'm glad I managed to get 8th after all the problems I had, I guess I was overcome by being in the top five for almost half the race and it got to me, I should just focus on my race than where I am position wise.
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Post by BCurtis on Mar 31, 2008 13:59:10 GMT -5
Ran a lo 29 (pb i believe) to get the pole and got away cleanly. The first half of the race I was just trying to stretch out a little lead as everyone behind was battling with each other.
Pitted with about 28 minutes left and then a couple laps later had a brain freeze down the back stretch and braked way too late for the first chicane and slammed the wall.
To the pits for repairs. Came out P3 I think and had a nice battle with Kevin. Began tracking down Paul for the lead and with time running out, musta only been 5-6 minutes left he made a small mistake on the frontstretch and I got by for P1.
Nice racing the final few laps, a few hairy moments but held on for the win. Great battle with Paul!
Thanks to my crew....ran this race in the Dome for the first time this season and they handled the change from the Pesky very well.
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Post by JABowders on Mar 31, 2008 16:33:49 GMT -5
Red Weasel Reports
Race Line: Surfers Paradise
What can I say? Well, I’ll start with, a complaint. Saturday I ran a lot of laps to work out the kinks and insure I had the fuel figured correctly and after tweaking and adjusting the setup I had what I thought was a great setup Which included MAX Down Force front and rear and a tall second gear so I could run the short shoot without redlining. Come race day and the car was dancing around like I was driving a wet track breaking was so far off I had to totally adjust my breaking points starting a lot sooner on the binders if I was going to scrub speed and my fuel load, after my computations I always add four laps of fuel per stint, that’s my feel good adjustment. During the race…I was short fuel. I pitted with 0 (zero) laps of fuel left and after reentering the tack I ran about three laps and saw the 30 minute maker…I knew I was short fuel and would have to stop for a splash to make it to time. Funny how that happens, I started to wonder, during my practice time and practice race on the server I didn’t have any mismatches or MAS errors, and the car was fine (remember it’s a Reynard so the term fine is relative) but for the race event, with everyone else, that is when the Red Weasels have all the mismatches and MAS errors with the Mazda, Could this be the root of the cause with the difference in the cars performance and behavior? (I’d like to do a rematch and have everyone drive the Reynard and see if the problem still occurs.)
Anyway, we came we raced, we finished and all in all I had a blast but then I didn’t go headlong into a wall or knock anyone out of my way. Bob and I had some really close racing for a while and then I noticed something happened to him I think it was a wall or curb, maybe a combination of the two.
As a reminder to all the Mazda drivers, we only see your car as a grey temp car so sometimes it blends into the background when you are in the mirror and it takes a moment to see you, I hope we didn’t cause any undo delay.
Hard to see some of the cars take such a hard lick into a wall and sustain so much damage then half a lap later zoom past me like nothing had happened.
I am a little disappointed that Miss Brenda bailed so early, yes it is a difficult track and racing it will only improve your skill. “Before you finish first, first you must finish.” (I do not say this as a bash, only that she is welcome to race no matter how fast or slow she thinks she is.)
So, until the next time, the Red Weasel Racing Team will see you on the track. We will be in the yellow and white cars screaming past you...Well, more to the point we will be screaming as you go past us.
James
Head Weasel
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Post by forddude on Mar 31, 2008 16:57:13 GMT -5
Man, I sure like street courses, even when I screw them up. A PB in qual got me 7th on the grid and then a couple of cars had trouble on lap 1 and I was running 5th....happy day. The first several laps were a lot of fun racing with Gary. After running into him at our previous race I was going to be careful not to do that again. He did me a big favor by slipping up and I squeezed by. It was such a nice gesture on his part that I returned the favor a couple of laps later and he went back by me. My misstep not only allowed him to get by but let Terry V close up on my wing with his snarling Mazda. We battled each other the rest of the way, even being close together after pit stops. He is certainly a faster driver than I am but the LMP-1 Dome had enough punch to keep his LMP-2 Mazda behind me. He probably thought I was nuts a few times and really did a good job of not wrecking me (or both of us) because every so often my downshifts don't happen when I do them. I don't know if it's mod related or what (I have a Logitech DFP) but it doesn't happen on upshifts and I've not had it happen with the other couple of mods I race. Unfortunately, it really messes up my corner when it happens. Fending him off for the rest of the race made it go by quickly and Terry must have had some kind of problem because toward the end of the race I had opened up a significant gap on him......then disaster with a couple of laps left. I managed to rip the front off in the first chicane. Lost a couple of spots in that mess but the car ran surprisingly well for the damage it sustained. Now, I'm 5th but there's Terry's wounded Mazda on my wing again. No sweat, bud, I'll just hit another barrier and give you the position. Wasn't happy turning a podium finish into 6th but had a heck of a lot of fun doing it. :-)
This takes me to what James said about damaged cars still being fast. I was stunned at how well mine ran without a nose piece and think that maybe we should up the damgage % somewhat. Sure we all want to finish but higher damage would be reasonable and quite honestly might make some of us be a little more careful. JMO
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Post by blackcat77 on Mar 31, 2008 17:37:59 GMT -5
>>I am a little disappointed that Miss Brenda bailed so early, yes it is a difficult track and racing it will only improve your skill. “Before you finish first, first you must finish.”
I'll respond to that for her. We came to a mutual decision that this might be a track for her to take a pass on since her best lap in a couple days' practice was a 2:01. I can appreciate being spooked by walls -- it took me a very long time to get to the point where I could ignore them and she has not yet been able to do so. The result was that she was *extremely* slow in the chicanes and had a good chance of causing a wreck. Besides that, as she said, the memories of the debacle at Mosport is still fresh for her and one more race like that might cause her to give up racing completely.
But never fear, she started practicing for Philip's Island last week and barring something unexpected, she plans to run a full race this week.
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Post by blackcat77 on Mar 31, 2008 18:00:22 GMT -5
I had a very interesting race, to say the least. First, I owe an apology to James -- I think it was -- whom I just clobbered in the first chicane. You slowed up more than I expected and I was on you before I could react. I hope you weren't damaged.
I'd practiced all week in the Dome after I spent some time on track with Brent early in the week and he scared me to death with a 29 lap while I was in the 33s in the Mazda. I got down to a 31 in short order. Then Friday night, I was just plain bored and decided to do a couple laps in the Pilbeam just for fun. I was totally shocked that I was just as fast in that car as I had been after several days of work in the Dome. I never did get faster in the Pilbeam, but I was much more consistant, so I put in a lot of laps over the final 36 hours to get the little car ready to go.
As for the race itself, I surprised myself by setting several PBs over the course of practice and qualifications and started the race in 3rd. Unfortunately, that put me on the wrong side of the track and at the green I *totally*screwed up the first turn, almost slamming a wall and then ending up in fourth gear wihen I was almost stopped. I'm sure that created chaos behind me.
I managed to hold my own through the first half of the race and after the pitstop, I was shocked to find that I was in first place. Unfortunately, I was so shocked that my driving went to pieces, including the unfortunate incident I mentioned at the top of this note. Traffic played a role after Brent got by and I managed to get close enough to read the read the serial number stamped on his transmission case, but that was as far as it would go.
The good news out of all this is that I've rediscovered the Pilbeam and in the course of getting it ready for Surfers, I dialed out some of the quirks in handling that made it difficult to drive. I'll be using it again at Philips.
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Post by Greg 'GP' Haley on Mar 31, 2008 18:00:47 GMT -5
not a great first lap-
got pinned against the wall exiting the t1 chicane trying to avoid kevin's spinning audi--restarted at the back but we both made up a lot of places before stopping. he in the pits and me two turns from pit entrance, doh! didn't watch the actual fuel remaining and just went on my preset window. as soon as the call-in showed, the motor started stuttering...*&^%, race over!
got to watch my teammate battle with the concrete, the odd weasel and brents dome; very entertaining last 10 laps could've gone either way.
all in all, this has to be my favorite street circuit alongside st. pete (not in the bmw)--incredible rhythm and sense of immersion make pushing that extra bit very pricey.
next leg i'd like to run a partner car to paul's lmp-1 mazda. i've got the 'castrol syntec' livery (ala speedsource rx-8) and the player files sorted.
to avoid any errors, will make sure it's good to go before posting this time.
cheers,
greg #78 miska
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Post by Ced Collins on Apr 2, 2008 1:24:09 GMT -5
Where to start.
Going out and trying to run this one for Pat who had recently been released from the Hospital (He's doing fine), I found myself in unfamiliar territory. Not because I never would be prepared and never because I know I can run up there on any given day with the right motivation, I was chasing Terry in 5th for the first 26 minutes. Then as James noted. My fuel light came on...WTF....Either I was doing something waaayyy wrong or driving so hard trying to catch and pass Terry that I burned way more fuel. Luckily I checked the time left in the race and up'd my fuel stop to make it to the end. Well of course, after the pit stop it all went to hell. I guess I am glad to have finished in front of Greg because I sure did try to give the spot away a few times. But my ultimate fu pah is what I love to do to other inexperienced drivers that think they know it all. I buckled under Paul's pressure and over shot a turn entrance and that sent me back into the pits two laps after I had stopped. UGGGGGG.
Surfer's is one of my fav tracks and I have to give everyone big Kudos on a tuff track....I knew you could do it. ;D
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Post by blackcat77 on Apr 2, 2008 12:20:02 GMT -5
And the really ironic thing is that I was going into the pits that lap and had no intentions of trying to get by.
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Post by Ced Collins on Apr 2, 2008 23:16:02 GMT -5
Greg,
go ahead and zip up and send to my snowced account. I will probably make the paint the same name as it is now so if someone doesn't have it downloaded it shouldn't matter.
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Post by Ced Collins on Apr 2, 2008 23:19:06 GMT -5
On the damage front. We are running 75% which for a street course I think gives everyone a shot at finishing. But I'm open to upping the ante on it ;D
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Post by BCurtis on Apr 3, 2008 8:17:29 GMT -5
Interesting Ced...I guess I just thought it was a little lower than that.
Perhaps I should give my crew a raise, they're better than I thought hehe.
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Post by forddude on Apr 3, 2008 8:24:48 GMT -5
On the damage front.......
I've got a couple of thoughts about it. We might be a little more careful if we knew that an incident was going to be more detrimental to our efforts. Don't take that to mean I think we have a big problem with that because I don't but more damage might make us say, "Maybe I shouldn't try to stick this thing in there just yet." Secondly, when I tore the front end off at Surfer's I figured I'd have to tip toe around the last lap or two but could actually run pretty good. I just didn't think that was quite right. Of course then increased dnfs enters the picture and do we want to have that become a problem? Probably not......so why don't I just shut up. :-)
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Post by blackcat77 on Apr 3, 2008 18:47:23 GMT -5
I think I'd prefer more people finishing to more realistic damage. Nothing's worse than practicing all week to get taken out in the first turn...
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Post by Ced Collins on Apr 6, 2008 16:58:34 GMT -5
Yes this was an issue I dealt with in the Heat days when I had some eh um inconsiderate racers. We have a great group right now that respects each other and like Paul said. I would much rather have everyone enjoy the fact that they have a shot at finishing the race. Street courses can be brutal for some. And if you eat it on an open road course at speed, your car will be hurt. ;D
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