Post Longbeach

[Harrison]

Well i must say this was a terrible race. I got clobbered from behind 1st turn......rest of the race touch and go. My observation is that there is a lot of blocking and no give and take between faster and slower drivers.
This is not about anyone specific but it needs to be addressed. I have a problem with drivers that run 2-5 sec a lap slower that swerve and won't let you pass. After an hour of practice and qualifying the drivers are positioned where they should be. If you no where you stand please take that into consideration. Can't wait for the next race. Merry Christmas everyone. Thanks Ced for the great racing and work you put in.

Harrison Nolan

[blackcat77]

I was involved in a couple incidents in the final hairpin for which I owe apologies to Ced and my fellow feline Burmcat.

With that mea culpa in mind, I was a little disappointed with the crazy driving on the first lap. There's really no need to try to win a one-hour race in the first minute and I'm lucky not to have gotten serious damage.

But after the first couple laps, things did settle down nicely. It was a difficult track but it seemed like people were trying to get along with each other and let cars by at the earliest opportunity but the blue flags were waving early and often for me. There were several times where I was at least as quick as the cars behind me in the twisty bits but I was still getting warned to get over or get penalized. It would be nice if we could just turn those off because generally people in this league are very considerate and it's certainly a shame for anyone to be penalized by the game for not instantly letting another car by.

A couple announcements from Miskatonic -- After giving it my best shot with the LMP1 Dome, I'll be getting a Panzer from Audi for the European Tour which will hopefully put me on slightly more even terms with the faster folks in LMP1. There is also new paint on the way for the LMP2s for both me and Brenda.

And to everyone in PORRS, a very Merry Christmas and a Turbocharged New Year from me, Brenda, Woodstock and Monterey the Aussies, and Houdini and Morgana the kittehs.

[JABowders]

Red Weasel Racing Reports

Oh the twisted humor of the Gods of speed.

Long Beach, thy track of temptation and mystic surface grip, I feel as if the Gods of racing laughed at me as they pointed and watched the Weasels slip and slid around this roadway for their enjoyment. Laugh, oh mighty Octane God of combustion, snicker in merriment, Toque Goddess of traction, lay jeers upon your servant as you strip away the effects of down force and leave thy faithful shaking in the torment and anguish of bent sheet metal and fractured carbon fiber.

Well, the Weasel Wench did a little better then the Head Weasel at Long Beach. She pulled off an eleventh place finish to my twelfth about six seconds ahead of me. The Weasels found that the racing surface was a bit to slippery for our choice of tire and even with MAX wing we just could not aggressively enter nor spring out of the turns, so the race plan was to simply run clean laps.

That plan went out the window quickly, a few minor incidents all snowballing up into several mistakes to the likes of a Blue Flag penalty assessed as a Drive Through, so I decided to Pit early and run the race to the end, to find that I was not able to clear the penalty and was required to do a dedicated Drive Through, only to clear one penalty to be assessed another, speeding on pit road. I again respond to the flag and now do a 10 second Stop and Go. In an attempt to make up ground I started to really push the Reynard and found just had bad things can go, lost the car in T7 and misplaced my rear wing, that was a long Pit Stop as the crew eagerly chewed bubble gum and began striping pianos for repair parts. Again on track I had the car on the edge of the performance envelope only to realize that it was addressed to Dear Occupant, as the car snapped loose and in a moment of time that lasted a day I saw that I had it saved, but that moment was replaced with horror as the car snapped back and plowed headlong into the tires shattering my front wing and leaving me with zero front down force. Three laps without a front wing and it was just too much to fight, the time lost on track will be far greater than the time lost in the pits for the repair, well that is what I thought. So as the Crew went to work on the car, I had time to check email, go to the kitchen and make a sandwich, watch a movie then go for a swim….Ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration but I know Ced knows exactly what I mean.

So long story…short…well, shorter than I could have made it. The Weasels finish P11 and P12. Great racing out there everyone, when I wasn’t in the pits I had some great on track battles.

I really like the track I just think the grip needs to be looked at.

See you next time.

James
Head Weasel

Yea, the R5 Turbo on the Rally track 15 laps, that will be a real Ironman event.

[BCurtis]

Bleh!! Very disappointed with my performance in the second half of the race.
Had a great qualifying, I started my final qual lap with 20 sec left in the session and was up on Sandy thru the first two sectors but lost a little time in the final sector and missed out on pole by .035 seconds.
Got off to a solid start in P2 and ran pretty steady for the first 30 minutes and by the time pit stops rolled around I was 11-12 seconds behind Sandy and 10-11 seconds in front of Don. Then within what seemed like just a few minutes I put the car into the wall twice and ripped the front off both times. So that certainly ruined my race. Finished P5 which is better than what I deserved after those concentration lapses. Will have to work on that for the I79 Ironman.

My feelings on the blue flag...last night I was pretty content to stay in line behind the LMP2's thru certain sections of the lap as they were just as quick as me. But I assume when they get the blue flag they've gotta get outta the way so sometimes it forces them to get on the brakes and me to make a pass where I didnt intend to do so. I realize this has been discussed before jus throwing it out there since it has just been mentioned again.

[forddude]

Probably in the minority here but I just love street courses. Another 3rd made me very happy but I also realize that it's not going to be that good if some guys don't have problems.....and when Paul gets in his LMP1. I'll still have just as much fun though.

My compliments to all the driver's last night for what I thought was a great job on a difficult track. The blue flag does seem to be a problem but more on that in a minute. To this point I've been fortunate enough to qualify toward the front and haven't experienced the kind of situations that Harrison mentioned. Last night was a good example. I try to be very careful at the start of the race even if it means losing ground to guys like Brent, Sandy, Don etc......and so what? Ordinarily I'm not going to beat them anyway so why cause a problem and possibly end someone's race on the first lap. I'd say that Rob pretty much uses the same theory because he had every reason to race me harder into turn 1 and then probably stay ahead of me the whole race. He chose not to and I ended up with the position but we both (and everyone close behind us) got through unscathed. That's the way it should work IMO.

Blue flags....I don't really know how soon it has to be obeyed but when Sandy came up to lap me and it was displayed I didn't immediately pull over. Wherever we were, I finished the series of corners and then didn't accelerate as hard as normal on the next straight....no problem. During the race when I came up on people it seemed like they tried to let me by right away and I think a couple of them ended up hitting walls or tires because of it. Any of us can make a mistake but I think I speak for everyone by saying I'll never run over anyone on purpose and am content to follow you (anyone) through the corner(s) until it's safe for me to get by. I think trying to take a corner differently than what you have done during practice leads to problems so it's generally best to just drive it like you did the previous lap and then let the overtaking car by when it's safe. I appreciate everyone's courtesy in that situation but you don't have to jeopardize your race to let me by.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone and all the best to you, your families and friends in 2008 and beyond.

Tom

[RobGuru]

Oi, what a day yesterday!

I had intended to get some much needed practice on the IDT Longbeach track yesterday morning. However, the storm in the northeast yesterday knocked our power out from 8AM till 4PM, so I was not able to get any work in. We took off for the mother-in-law's for the afternoon so that Ian wouldn't suffer from the cooling down house. We got home at 5:30 PM or so, then had to deal with doing some dinner and some kiddo play time. I finally got to the computer at 7:00 PM, downloaded the track, and started practicing. Basically took my base setup, revised the gears, springs, and shocks to try to get the car to turn, and that was it.

With all that, I was able to get into the high 11s for qual, good for P6 I believe. I was a bit more agressive on the start (Tom's comment notwithstanding) than I usually am, and was able to slip by Don and get to P4. Touch and go a little bit with Kevin, but we made it through. Tried to get settled in, but my limited setup work resulting in the back end being a bit more twitchy than I would like. As such, I fishtailed the car a couple times early on and grazed a couple walls. Don got back by me, putting me back to P5, and I started working on trying to get to Tom in P4. I would pull a couple tenths here and there, then make a little slip and have to gain it all back again.

I was trying to do a half-and-half pit strategy this time, and made my pit stop at the 31 minute mark. Stupid me though released my pit limiter at the wrong visual cue and I got a stop-n-go penalty. Then I messed up trying to turn off tires and damage repair for the stop-n-go, and ended up with a second 30 plus second pit stop... ugh. There goes my chance to bridge to Tom, who was now in P3 due to Brent's problem.

Ran the last 20 minutes or so with good pace, setting my PB at about 11 flat with about 10 minutes to go. Brent was closing on me at the end, but could not gap the 25 or so seconds to challenge for the P4. Given my day yesterday, I'll gladly take a Top 5!

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Comments on race traffic and blue flags. I personally had no trouble with lapped cars, although a couple of lapped cars really moved off-line to let me go by in areas where I would've been contented to follow. Thanks there anyways... still appreciated. Regarding the blue flags, I know from running another two-class league where I was in the slower class that the blue flags come out quick and the game penalizes quick. I think we all have a good enough sense of where people are running to ensure that we're not holding lead lap cars up. Quite frankly, I find that I rely on the car position graphic more than watching for the blue flag and chat window warning. I think we can manage satisfactorily using the car position graphic only and just turn the blue flag system off. My $0.02.

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Great fun everyone, again! And Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!

Rob

[Klaus Zinardi Cedwig]

Uggggggg,

One of my favorite tracks wasted with a horrible performance. Wasn't "I" the one that said PATIENCE before the race started and I think I was the MOST guilty of it on lap one. I guess because I felt this was my home track and wanted a good show. I apologize to either Tom or Jim for my first Zinardi pass and Paul, that wasn't your fault that was TOTALLY me in the hairpin. Pat actually witnessed the whole thing and commented on how weird it looked. For some reason when I went to turn the car it just plowed forward, it never did that again the whole race and I have no explanation for why it did it then, so I am really sorry to Paul and anyone else that was involved. What really pissed me of even more was when I would let some of the front runners by, I was able to stay with them so I really new then I threw away a good finish. And as James said, that 82 second stop on lap 1, sitting there watching the cars go by....uuuuuggggggg. Then trying to save 12th and stay in front of James I smacked the wall and damaged the rear end with 5 minutes to go. So I limped the thing home, probably trailing sparks.

Ok, Blue Flag. This is probably something ISI will need to address because I have set everything I have read about getting them not to penalize you. So the only option left on the server is no flags. Since I trust everyone here I'm sure this will not be a problem. Now the first person I see doing 100mph through the pits may make me reconsider. So just use good judgment when pitting or better yet, try to stay as close to the pit speed as possible. If everyone agrees to use their pit speed limiter, this shouldn't be a problem ;D

We may have a F179 fun race sometime during the off season.

Once again I'd like to thank everyone for making this the league it is and Everyone have a Great XMas and Happy New Year.

Woodstock and Houdini, love those names. Our cats are named Myst and Shadow..lol.

[nasty13]

Harrison, that would have been me that rear ended you on lap one, but not because of trying to win on the first lap, but because I happened to misjudge where you were. As a result, you spun and I think hit James and I apologize to both of you for that incident.

The one saving thing was when you came blowing back by me on lap 11, Harrison, I was thankful that the hit hadn't wrecked your day and you were still moving along.

Happy Holidays to all ...

Jim N.

[Harrison]

As I said in my post I am not calling anyone out. I make mistakes too. It just seemed like such an odd race race. A lot of weird things happened. Anyway np on the hit, it's just a racing incident in my mind. I can't wait to get racing with all of again after the new year. May everyone get a Porsche for X-mas...LOL

Harrison

[Klaus Cedwig]

I'll take an Al Holbert 962...Thank You Santa

[DaveS]

Klaus said:

I'll take an Al Holbert 962...Thank You Santa

Santa's bringing me a 1976 F1 Tyrell P34 six wheeler for Xmas ;D
(a Tamiya 1/12 scale plastic model of one that is)

[RobGuru]

I want a set of CST pedals, an external hard drive, another Gig of RAM, some video capture software and hardware, and some other stuff.

A Porsche 917K would also be nice... how about this one?



;D

[Ced Collins]

Two questions

Rob, did MNRL get their hands on the mod (or are you insider trading to get your paint ready...lol) Where's the link ROFL.

Second, this is about cars not computer stuff. And where do you think you will have the time as a new dad to install all that stuff. I'm amazed you had time to paint a car...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS MY FRIEND.

[RobGuru]

Two comments.

1. MNRL does and will be doing a private shakedown amonst the admins this weekend. I think, although I am not sure, that they intend to release the mod to the series drivers sometime during the holiday period... I suspect tomorrow's test will dictate.

2. The second part really wasn't a question, unless you count the rhetorical part about me not having time cuz of daddy stuff. Bah! Besides, I need all the computer stuff to run the cars I want, cuz there ain't no way I, or anyone I know who would give me a present, can afford a real 917K.

So there...

[Ced Collins]

Ok you got me on the second question...lol. ;D