Round 6 from Maiwald
I really like this track, with its flowing combinations of corners and slow section, which is why it was a joint winner of the track making competition along with "Shortun". I find that it is suited to a wide range of cars and reminds me of the Nordschleife - it has been compared to the Sudschleife track. When this series (and Historic BSCC 3) was first planned I intended to feature more custom tracks, but we found that the PS3 / PSN cannot cope running a qualification race and a feature race one after the other on a custom track. I therefore reduced the number of custom tracks to two and deleted the qualification race at the custom tracks in favour of a longer practise session.
I don't mind whether people do a lot of practise for the races or none - that is entirely their choice according to their preference and the amount of time they have available and are allowed to put in by their wife, girlfriend, kids or whatever.
Any custom tracks used are available to download from my community page or from the tracks creator if people want to practise on them beforehand. The driving line is available if people have not had time to practise - I used it at Dristelen and Maiwald.
When I select the tracks for a series I try to ensure that they suit the cars and tyres that will be used and that if there is a car change the range of tracks prior and post change is matched. For example a high speed track such as Nordschleife is matched with a second high speed track such as Mount Panorama, a slow speed track such as Laguna Seca is matched with Brands Hatch. Sometimes the tracks are selected for historic reasons to match the tracks or the character of tracks used in an actual event.
If people want to practise together beforehand they can open a room in the club lobby - I often find that one is open before I start the room on Wednesday or Friday.
I really enjoyed the meeting on Friday and was very happy with my result. I was also amazed by and respect the speed of the front running guys - well done to them.
Just a quick reminder about our rules:
It's fine if you don't like the tracks we're racing on, but if you feel the need to exit the lobby during a race please do so in silence.
As the course creator I'd also appreciate constructive criticism. Saying that a track sucks is just pointless and rude.
I second these comments from Eran. If for any reason you are not enjoying an event, it is fine to just leave or park in the pits. I will award last place points as if you sufferred a disconnection. Please avoid comments during a race as they can be distracting.
It might be a good time to point out that my track for next week (Shortun) was designed for small(ish) cars, the LCC Rocket in particular!
Although at 1.5 miles and with only 8 corners it's easy to learn.
The track was tested in advance with the cars from both series so I am confident that it will be suitable. It is a short track and therefore easy to learn, but it is also a track which is sufficiently complex that extra time can be found when you know it well. I expect that a lot of lapping of back markers will occur so that will be one of the challenges of the meeting for the faster guys.
I did say it once before Sick, it would help a great deal if on the custom tracks you used the low edge grip setting instead of real. They can be narrower and drivers are less used to them so it would help prevent the spin outs that are caused by one touch of the grass. This is especially true on Eifel tracks I find. It's best to promote closer racing for longer where you can I always think.
We can try this, but I prefer, as far as possible to keep the room settings the same from week to week.
I think that the inclusion of this track has conflicted with the rationale of the other regulations. If we were expected to be spending time practicing the tracks all week we might as well have allowed tuning also?
The driving line is optional and can be used if people are not confident with a track or have not had time to practise. I would have preferred to race without it, but used it for this race meeting and also at Dristelen which I don't know well and didn't have time to learn.
Now, since we are in the middle of debating this topic, what if we try and let Sick announce the next track we will race on the night before, or even something like 30 minutes before room opening? I'd vote for something like that.
It is an interesting suggestion and could work well with some series, but I don't want to do that with my series. A lot of thought goes into the track selection for each series. Most of our series are inspired by the achievements of great drivers from the past or the reimagining of race series from motorsport history. This series and Historic BSCC 3 was inspired by Frank Gardner hence we have Brands Hatch Indy and GP and Mount Panorama. Dristelen was included as it was inspired by one of the ETCC tracks used in the 1960's.
With these series I try to do what I think Polyphony Digital should be doing with the historic car content in a game - offering something which has an air of authenticity and which increases immersion through being inspired by historic events.
Sorry this is a long post, but a lot of points were raised and I have tried to respond to them.