FRL~V8 SUPERCARS - Moleman CHAMPION, ECM Pirtek Endurance Cup ChampionsFinished

[GTracer38]

Not the best debut for me.
Decent qualifying (9th?). Got a good start on the outside, but was bumped onto the grass. Chose to bail out of turn one because I would have barrelled into the back of a couple cars, due to being partially on the grass.
Ended up 20-ish seconds back in last by the first split.

Mostly boring, lonely racing from then on. Opted for the 2 stop strategy but a spin in the second stint cost me a bit of of time (5-10sec).

Safety car was weird. I was a lap down, but when I dropped back when I was told to, I lost a spot about halfway (12th to 13th). After the restart, I was keeping pace with the mid-pack and was close to getting back the spot I lost, but got a nice shunt at the end of the back straight (the other pit straight). Got damage so I pitted and ended up in a dismal 14th...

Hopefully I can do better on what would be my home track, even if I can't get the hang of it on this game.

 

[snowgt]

Was pretty happy with my pace with the "borrowed" setup and the few laps I had done. Qualified in 6th, but got a tap from @Furinkazen in the first corner which sent me wide and into 15th right away. I wasn't too happy about that, but it meant I had an interesting first stint as I clawed my way back up again. I first thought I was going to pit 3 times, but then the tyres were still 7/8 after 14 laps and my lap times were still reasonable, so I stayed out until after lap 18. I was even closing in on @Yeratel84 towards the end of that stint, but he pitted after L17 and his undercut and slightly better pace overall meant I dropped back a little after my stop.

I managed to stay on the road in my second stint to L36 and was rewarded with getting up the order gradually. After I came out from my last planned stop I was slightly behind Yera, but he then spun and I managed to scrape by. Then @cnd01 stopped, came out just ahead of me & Yera, but had to fight his back-end on still cold tyres a bit, so both me & Yera went by. I think that was for positions 4-5-6. Yera then caught me and once he was past I saw he was lagging badly every couple of corners. I also lost a position then to Cnd, who started to make use of his fresher tyres and, shall we say "squeezed" past, but then the lag took us all out. All I saw coming out of turn 1 was a smoke-screen, and when it lifted, there was Cnd, pretty much stationary on my driving line.

I then thought that maybe I could use the fresh tyres in the last 5 laps, but the restart was a big mess for me. Coming out of the last turn, I thought that probably everyone would floor it, but then whoever it was in front of me lifted, so I had to as well, and when everyone ahead accelerated a moment later, Cnd came roaring past me way before the line already. (Not sure about the rules there, but isn't overtaking only supposed to happen after the line…?) Anyway, it confused me enough to mess up my braking point into T1 and burying every chance of clawing back some positions in the gravel.

Very entertaining race though and good driving standards. Should have been able to come in in 6th, but had a lot of fun nevertheless.

 

[Ninners]

IIRC me and mole were doing mid-low 04's at Bathurst pre season?

 

[Furinkazen]

Not the best debut for me.
Decent qualifying (9th?). Got a good start on the outside, but was bumped onto the grass. Chose to bail out of turn one because I would have barrelled into the back of a couple cars, due to being partially on the grass.
Ended up 20-ish seconds back in last by the first split.

Mostly boring, lonely racing from then on. Opted for the 2 stop strategy but a spin in the second stint cost me a bit of of time (5-10sec).

Safety car was weird. I was a lap down, but when I dropped back when I was told to, I lost a spot about halfway (12th to 13th). After the restart, I was keeping pace with the mid-pack and was close to getting back the spot I lost, but got a nice shunt at the end of the back straight (the other pit straight). Got damage so I pitted and ended up in a dismal 14th...

Hopefully I can do better on what would be my home track, even if I can't get the hang of it on this game.

You stayed out of trouble and finished 👍

Was pretty happy with my pace with the "borrowed" setup and the few laps I had done. Qualified in 6th, but got a tap from @Furinkazen in the first corner which sent me wide and into 15th right away. I wasn't too happy about that, but it meant I had an interesting first stint as I clawed my way back up again. I first thought I was going to pit 3 times, but then the tyres were still 7/8 after 14 laps and my lap times were still reasonable, so I stayed out until after lap 18. I was even closing in on @Yeratel84 towards the end of that stint, but he pitted after L17 and his undercut and slightly better pace overall meant I dropped back a little after my stop.

I managed to stay on the road in my second stint to L36 and was rewarded with getting up the order gradually. After I came out from my last planned stop I was slightly behind Yera, but he then spun and I managed to scrape by. Then @cnd01 stopped, came out just ahead of me & Yera, but had to fight his back-end on still cold tyres a bit, so both me & Yera went by. I think that was for positions 4-5-6. Yera then caught me and once he was past I saw he was lagging badly every couple of corners. I also lost a position then to Cnd, who started to make use of his fresher tyres and, shall we say "squeezed" past, but then the lag took us all out. All I saw coming out of turn 1 was a smoke-screen, and when it lifted, there was Cnd, pretty much stationary on my driving line.

I then thought that maybe I could use the fresh tyres in the last 5 laps, but the restart was a big mess for me. Coming out of the last turn, I thought that probably everyone would floor it, but then whoever it was in front of me lifted, so I had to as well, and when everyone ahead accelerated a moment later, Cnd came roaring past me way before the line already. (Not sure about the rules there, but isn't overtaking only supposed to happen after the line…?) Anyway, it confused me enough to mess up my braking point into T1 and burying every chance of clawing back some positions in the gravel.

Very entertaining race though and good driving standards. Should have been able to come in in 6th, but had a lot of fun nevertheless.

Wait, that was you T1? I saw a flash of Cadillac on my left and heard a thud and thought it was @raceorama123432 and he was still behind me on the back straight

When leader has accelerated at restart point, then everyone else can go.

IIRC me and mole were doing mid-low 04's at Bathurst pre season?

5's I thought?

 

[Andil]

I did 2 laps of Bathurst after Motegi and did a mid-06, don't know if oil was dirty or anything though, but that felt quite quick.. I'm not great at Bathurst though!

Will give it a try another night with clean oil etc and see what happens, but 05s sound reasonable.

 

[LancerEvo7]

I did 2 laps of Bathurst after Motegi and did a mid-06, don't know if oil was dirty or anything though, but that felt quite quick.. I'm not great at Bathurst though!

Will give it a try another night with clean oil etc and see what happens, but 05s sound reasonable.

I was well into the 05s in testing so you and Nin should be in the 04s.

 

[Spirit]

My first FRL event and V8 Supercar race didn't exactly go too well for me. Just a few days before the race I found myself madly off pace and had to work hard to find a good setup and a good second or two if I wanted to be competitive. The Pirtek Cadillac CTS-V8 is a great car to drive once you get your head around it, and once I did, the lap times dropped lower and lower.

Race day I managed to find even more time in the car during the morning warm-up session and got around to distributing my car settings with the other three Cadillacs, with the help of @Furinkazen. Qualifying went great! Set a new personal best and what would be my fastest time of the weekend with a 1'50.4, knocking @Andil off the pole position.

Lap one is where my issues started. Didn't get the best start (was only my 2nd grid start ever) and lost the lead into turns one and two headed onto the first straightaway. Heading into T5 I was hit by someone (@cnd01?) who was simply going too fast and was too far back to make a pass. I head over the comms that it was a "lag punt" so it wasn't completely their fault. It's always frustrating when something sets you back early that's not even your fault. I received detrimental right-rear damage that lost the leaders and I was forced to make an early pit stop a lap 10 as the car was becoming dangerous to drive.

After that initial pit stop I knew I would have to stretch the stint out to get back on sequence with the others so I just put in laps and surely lost round trying to make it to the benchmark. I gained a few places during the stint so that was good, goes to show how well I could have been doing up front. I pitted a lap or two short of my benchmark as my tires hit the cliff but it was close enough to stretch the next stint out a little and get back on sequence with the other three-stoppers.

I found myself in third position by a large margin at the end but another lag-induced incident brought out the full-course yellow and killed my gap, and my flow. After the restart I made a bid for second but eventually yielded to @R1600Turbo as he was clearly faster than I was. Now here's where it got stupid. I don't know if my tires had fallen off or what but my car would just not turn and I under-steered off at the third corner even after letting off and all of that. There goes third place. I also went off again a few corners before the back straight but after that my car would magically turn again and I was able to at least beat my teammate @snowgt. I would've hated to lose to all three Cadillacs running on my setup.

All-in-all, a very misfortunate race. If everything had run smoothly and didn't have a caution I could have possibly had second place from @R1600Turbo. This was the first race in seven months where I finished off the podium so I was and still am disappointed in the outcome. It's silly how someone else's lag can indirectly screw your race but I guess you'll have that in online racing.

Hopefully I can get Bathurst down and learn all of the ins and outs to persevere next weekend and finish well and have a good race without any idiocy that's all but certain on a track like Mount Panorama. Thanks to @Furinkazen and @FlyingFox for the opportunity to race for you guys and sorry for letting you down. Also thanks to the back-markers who were very courteous and didn't cause any issues. Most notably: @The Stig Farmer and @Roo.

Hopefully see you all next weekend.

 

[FlyingFox]

I'll be back next week and yes @R1600Turbo I'll be keeping out your way.

 

[Furinkazen]

Working on a special preview for Bathurst

 

[Yeratel84]

Working on a special preview for Bathurst

Why? Are you going to use the Ford Falcon for it?

 

[Furinkazen]

Why? Are you going to use the Ford Falcon for it?

Because why not? It is biggest race of the season

 

[Yeratel84]

Because why not? It is biggest race of the season

Sometimes, you're really easy to read...

 

[paulmac2k9]

You could have used the Commodore you know.. Considering Ford have all but pulled out at this point .

 

[LancerEvo7]

You could have used the Commodore you know.. Considering Ford have all but pulled out at this point .

Standard cars suck though.

 

[LancerEvo7]

Standard cars suck though.

This premium car, however, does not:

All 4 ECM cars will be running special colorschemes this weekend.

 

[cnd01]

I too will be swapping up the liveries this weekend with something completely different and not even papaya orange

 

[Furinkazen]

I too will be swapping up the liveries this weekend with something completely different and not even papaya orange

Ford colour related I wonder?

 

[cnd01]

Ford colour related I wonder?

It'll be a color that hasn't been run this season

 

[Furinkazen]

It'll be a color that hasn't been run this season

If you want to send a pic in PM i'll put it in the preview...

 

[cnd01]

If you want to send a pic in PM i'll put it in the preview...

Noted

 

[Andil]

Anyone for testing tonight?

 

[cnd01]

Anyone for testing tonight?

yea! when?

 

[Andil]

yea! when?

Few mins? Bored

 

[cnd01]

Few mins? Bored

Sure!

 

[Andil]

Sure!

Room up 👍

 

[Andil]

Double post, what you gonna do?

Good test tonight, car was initially pretty horrible to drive with my RBR & Motegi setup, bouncing all over the place. Could do some good lap times every now and then, but very inconsistent - have made some tweaks and now very consistent and comfortable with the car - Probably a bit more time to come, but would rather keep the car out of the barrier than anything else round here!

 

[Furinkazen]

Double post, what you gonna do?

Good test tonight, car was initially pretty horrible to drive with my RBR & Motegi setup, bouncing all over the place. Could do some good lap times every now and then, but very inconsistent - have made some tweaks and now very consistent and comfortable with the car - Probably a bit more time to come, but would rather keep the car out of the barrier than anything else round here!

Need to work on the preview... just reminded me...

 

[cnd01]

Double post, what you gonna do?

Good test tonight, car was initially pretty horrible to drive with my RBR & Motegi setup, bouncing all over the place. Could do some good lap times every now and then, but very inconsistent - have made some tweaks and now very consistent and comfortable with the car - Probably a bit more time to come, but would rather keep the car out of the barrier than anything else round here!

The Erebus is so much more nimble than the Brostang. I have no chance here unless you all end up in the barrier

 

[CAMikaze]

The Erebus is so much more nimble than the Brostang. I have no chance here unless you all end up in the barrier

Or have a tree fall across the track...


...or have kangaroos hopping along side...


..or have(highly unlikely given the lobby setting specs) a heavy storm.

 

[Spirit]

I haven't turned a single lap of practice unfortunately... I'll try to get some work done tomorrow evening. I have GTPES testing all weekend so I'll be a busy busy Bambi.