Gran Turismo World Series (Manufacturers Cup Exhibition Season: Feb 5 - Feb 15)

[amnesiactical]

Had an absolute clunker today, didn't practice as Saturdays are a nightmare with the GT1 timings. Managed to spare some time to get into a race; spin in qualifying start last, tag someone on lap 1 as they changed line under braking into the hairpin, damage to front bumper costing about 5/10mph.

Get into the pits when the rain starts, turns out I picked the wrong car without the wets. Not my day at all

 

[peniu]

That was one of the best racing I ever had in GT7. As I hoped, rain helped me hide my tyre wear issues and Alfa was a rocket in the rain as well.

Started off by messing a quali, I've left myself too little gap to the guy in front on lap 1 and then binned it on lap 2. That put me 11th on the grid.

First stint was rather frustrating as well - two cars ahead of me collided in T1, I misjudged situation and broke my front bumper. Due to few crashes I was around P9 couple laps in. Thankfully most of the high downforce sections are hard to overtake in. Even though, I was going backwards by driving carefully until braking a little too early into Degner 2, which caught guy behind off guard and broke my other bumper in the process. At this point I was hoping the rain would start soon to repair the damage. Pitted end of lap 11.

Second stint was a beauty - Alfa was magnificent in the rain, car without the damage started listening to the inputs. Several mistakes from guys ahead of me resulted in going from P10 to P3 with healthy 10 seconds gap behind. I ran TC 1 for laps with most water on the track. Had a great battle with Mclaren - we both did mistakes in the rain and switched places couple of times, but I had a better pace in the end. Stayed out until lap 27, by that point my rear IMs were dead because of early first pit and late second one.

Third stint I was a little worried that the guy behind me can have a better pace in dry conditions. I also bottled exit of the pits, staying on wet line for braking into T1, which cost me a few seconds trip to the grass. At this point though I found my pace back - I guess the car in the end was finally similar in performance as it was in the free practice. P3 and a 200 points 😁.

 

[afc5150]

Americas slot 1, GT2, all B/S, door 7, 126 point lobby

Thanks to reading reports of what to expect here on GT Planet, things worked out great! I lined up 12th due mostly to being taken out by a rejoining car while on my hot lap. Made up a few positions on the start and we settled into around a 6 car train until it started to rain at Spoon around lap 10.

I pitted immediately for wets and rejoined 14th. The last 5 laps were pretty chaotic as the rain spread across the circuit and those caught out struggled to limp around. The final lap was pretty hairy as my tires were cooked and 3rd was running me down pretty hard, but held on for a surprising 2nd.

 

[Raven-Sport]

GT2, B/S lobby. I am useless at Suzaka and also picked Ford, which wasn't the best idea. But whatever. Qualified 12th, finished 10th. Despite my shockingly slow history around the track, I really enjoyed it. Relatively clean compared to daily race standards. A few mistakes and incidents but nothing malicious.

If only they would apply a little quali session to one of the daily races to mix those up a bit.

Deep Forest looks fun next week.

 

[Michelin Man]

EMEA GT1
Pleased to see weather changeability play a part, made it far more exciting. Suzuka's a difficult track, but I get on very well with the '18 Ford GT.

Slot 1
Had no expectations really, just had to see how things panned out. Qualifying didn't go well, binned my first lap at T1, and my second was overdriven with a 2:03.5 putting me 16th. Not ideal, but probably the safest place to be . The transition to wet happened from lap 11 onwards, too.

Made some mistakes, survived a death at 130R from a spinning BRZ, but found myself fighting for P7 with 3 laps to go. But it all ended after a great 20lap battle with a Brit in a 911, when they accidentally hip checked me off at T2. An honest mistake, they apologised, so no hard feelings. P9 in the end.

Slot 2
I now had an idea how the weather would pan out, and when to pit for Inters, so felt slightly more prepared. But I wasn't prepared for the result that came...

Qualifying was far better, with a 2:01.7 putting me P6 on the grid. The start was very clean, much like slot 1 to be honest. Heavy damage with such a long race really seemed make people more cautious .

The rain hit spoon at lap 11, with myself and the GT LM spec I behind going wide. But just 3 of us pitted for Inters, with a number of those ahead on slicks coming undone at Spoon on lap 12. It seemed 3 poor souls didn't buy wets, as they stayed on slicks even after pitting. Quite an attritional race too, with 5 quitting.

After that I found myself 3rd, but to my surprise as the whole track got wet, 1st and 2nd decided to pit for full wets, promoting me into an unlikely lead...A couple more stopped for wets, but it never felt bad enough for them, so I stayed out and found myself 20+seconds ahead. I switched to slicks on lap 25, but those early laps were so scary on a track with one dry line. The gap slowly shrunk until the end, but I just managed hold on to a rare victory, with 228pts for the win .

Such a fun combo, I really welcome longer races like that. Makes GTWS events worth doing with weather-time changeability and lower/sensible multipliers. The racing was really respectful too, so look forward to the rest of the season after that. The GTWS Manufacturers Cup should be more like that for me. The only way I get interested with Gr.4 and 3 races is when they're more fleshed out like today's Suzuka race 👍.

 

[Kamikatze]

GT1 - my first endurance race and admittedly my heart hasn't pounded so hard for a long time thanks to adrenaline only after I got rear damage I somehow relaxed (see video; yes I braked a little bit too early and cautiously)

Admittedly, my connection was terminated after 14 rounds ("CE xxx - an unexpected error occurred"). But it is really fun and thanks to heavy damage it is somehow more relaxed, even though there were some Rambos. Hope that will improve

Key takeaways:

• always leave a gap in Quali. 2 seconds isn't enough and both timed laps will get destroyed if performance gap is big or some mistake happens.
• keep out of first lap shenanigans - there's nothing to gain but much to lose
• consistency is key - as an amateur I raced 0.5-1.5 second slower in race than quali to stay on track; need to improve long-term concentration
• boy are pit entry and exit slippery when wet xD
• I let my traction control correlate with track dampness - saved me couple of times
• don't expect other people to exert good racecraft
• you really don't want damage - makes you soo slow but is not worth pitting; lose-lose situation.
• Keep calm if someone crashes into you. You can't change it but your reaction shows your sportsmanship
• have fun! It's just a game

 

[Fezzik]

A good start to my retirement season down in the League of Plebs (where I belong). Placing in the top 10 Hondas is a good target & motivation.

 

[RacingGrandpa]

This race is completely botched. I'm a 20 year veteran if Gran Turismo. I rarely race online due to the behaviour of others, but usually finish 1,000 to 5,000 in time trials.

After finally being able to get in to a time slot today, I qualified first in my lobby. Within 2 corners, I was dead last after being knocked off the track twice. Not a single racer was punished

Ok, I persevered as it was the last time slot of the day. I worked back up to 4th position by the time the rain came down. I pitted at the end of lap 9, only to find that the car I was given from the manufacturer does not have Intermediate or Rain tyres.


To pay $120 for PlayStation plus, they need to employ stewards who monitor races and hand out bans to dirty drivers. And to the Devs who set up a race without the prerequisite tyres, you need to consider a new career. That is 40 minutes of my life I will never get back

I am sorry you feel this way and I realise it's a bitter pill to swallow but it's a lesson we all learned when we started in the tournaments. There's never anything but a set of racing hard tyres on the sponsor cars.
That's the main reason I never use the sponsor car, as buying tyres for it and then loosing those at the end of the season is an expense I can do without.

Now, the price of PS+ has nothing to do with PD, it's Sony. If they had to provide stewards for all their games our PS+ would easily be 1000 $ a month.
The penalty system is and has been a joke more or less always, the concept of knowing who is to blame appears to be impossible to determine.
Giving all involved in any contact a penalty is probably more useful.

Anyway, I hope you will come around and see the time you lost as a learning experience and come race again.

 

[787Bee]

I am sorry you feel this way and I realise it's a bitter pill to swallow but it's a lesson we all learned when we started in the tournaments. There's never anything but a set of racing hard tyres on the sponsor cars.
That's the main reason I never use the sponsor car, as buying tyres for it and then loosing those at the end of the season is an expense I can do without.

Now, the price of PS+ has nothing to do with PD, it's Sony. If they had to provide stewards for all their games our PS+ would easily be 1000 $ a month.
The penalty system is and has been a joke more or less always, the concept of knowing who is to blame appears to be impossible to determine.
Giving all involved in any contact a penalty is probably more useful.

Anyway, I hope you will come around and see the time you lost as a learning experience and come race again.

I have never heard of a person signing to be a driver with a manufacturer and providing their own tyres. From what I have seen, there was a 50% DNF rate in most races with this being the main reason. It's poor design

 

[Mercia]

That's the main reason I never use the sponsor car, as buying tyres for it and then loosing those at the end of the season is an expense I can do without.

Seriously? It's 60K..

That's only 1 week of roullette's.

 

[r_epp]

Well, I had a good start today in the first slot, B/S lobby, qualifying in 1st. Fell victim to nerves early on, and then got punted going into the chicane, followed a few laps later being pitted by one of the least sportsmanlike racers I've come across.

Just from what I personally witnessed, he intentionally knocked 3 people, including myself, off the track as they were going for clear passes on straights. I doubt this was all he was involved in. Didn't see any penalties for him either.

I'm hoping to get home today to get into the last race and actually finish this time with a decent position.

 

[RacingGrandpa]

Seriously? It's 60K..

That's only 1 week of roullette's.

Old habits die hard, I guess.
And the roulette mostly gives me invites and 5k's

 

[Moose78]

A win! I don't know how that happened. Winning is not something I often do. But there it is. It happened. I'll take it.

Given my performance at last week's daily race at Suzuka, I was expecting to be trounced, but somehow my mediocre time of 2:03.17x gave me pole. From there it was mostly just a matter of driving it out and keeping the car on the track.

I made one blunder in the esses of lap 2. P2 attempted to capitalize on it. There was contact. He went into the sand. I haven't had a chance to review the replay yet, so I don't know whose fault that was. At the time, I felt it was a racing incident with no one at fault. I kept driving. P2 lost a few positions, but within a couple laps had regained P2 and was running 4s behind me. He posted the fastest lap as he did.

I managed to keep a 4-5s lead until the rain came. It first showed up at Spoon on lap 10. I stayed out for another lap on racing tires. The rain hadn't worked it's way down to the rest of the track yet, but by lap 11, Spoon was getting pretty sketchy so I pitted for some IM tires.

P2 followed me into the pits. He was right behind me when we came out and passed me cleanly on T1. I wasn't too bothered by that as he was clearly faster than me. When we got to Spoon it became obvious how he managed to catch me out of the pits. He was still on racing tires. He didn't change them when he pitted. I'm guessing he'd forgotten to purchase them. He slid right off the track, clearing the way for me retake P1 to the finish.

 

[bliprunner]

Thought it was absolutely epic, one of the best races I've ever been in, and I didn't even do that well!

Chose McLaren. GT1 5pm UK time, had a nightmare in quail with a slow Mustang blocking me all over the place. P12, nevermind, it's a long race.

First corners I get a couple of bumps, back left wheel is damaged, costing me 2 secs a lap and I'm last. It's a long race... repeat mantra... Slowly catch up with other cars that I assume have damage too, overtake a few and rain arrives, pit on lap 11.

Total chaos is now going on and somehow I get up to 5th, battling with two other McLarens. The leaders are in sight. People are dropping it at the hairpin constantly, I saw 5 cars spin there and one quit straight after.

I think I have a bit more pace than these McLarens so decide to pit back to hards around lap 23, poor decision as I instantly drop it coming out of the pits, then have two spins in the next couple of laps.

P7 and once I'm used to the wet lines I'm catching the distant McLarens in front lap after lap and finish 4 secs behind, the sunset fading and darkness falling, pounding around setting my best times in the final few minutes.

Loved it.

 

[Roggers]

GT1 - my first endurance race and admittedly my heart hasn't pounded so hard for a long time thanks to adrenaline only after I got rear damage I somehow relaxed (see video; yes I braked a little bit too early and cautiously)

Admittedly, my connection was terminated after 14 rounds ("CE xxx - an unexpected error occurred"). But it is really fun and thanks to heavy damage it is somehow more relaxed, even though there were some Rambos. Hope that will improve

Key takeaways:

• always leave a gap in Quali. 2 seconds isn't enough and both timed laps will get destroyed if performance gap is big or some mistake happens.
• keep out of first lap shenanigans - there's nothing to gain but much to lose
• consistency is key - as an amateur I raced 0.5-1.5 second slower in race than quali to stay on track; need to improve long-term concentration
• boy are pit entry and exit slippery when wet xD
• I let my traction control correlate with track dampness - saved me couple of times
• don't expect other people to exert good racecraft
• you really don't want damage - makes you soo slow but is not worth pitting; lose-lose situation.
• Keep calm if someone crashes into you. You can't change it but your reaction shows your sportsmanship
• have fun! It's just a game

Some very good points here.

• Quali gaps - I wish more people would do this. The worst are those who go off track and then block the road for the person behind even though your lap is over
• Consistency - Agree, my race today (myself included) people were running wide. As for race pace, my race pace is poor at times. People were doing quail times on lap 2 which I don't understand
• Traction Control - Same here. As the tracks gets more wetter I start to up the TC. Helps so much
• Others Crashing into you - This is something I have improved on massively in the last year. If I'm crashed off I may say a few choice words for 10 seconds, but then I'm over it and just get on with the race. The thing that annoys me the most is if I make mistake on my own, then been crashed off.

I have never heard of a person signing to be a driver with a manufacturer and providing their own tyres. From what I have seen, there was a 50% DNF rate in most races with this being the main reason. It's poor design

Yeah it so stupid that you sign up to a Manu and they give you car but on give you half the tools.
I just run my car that I have bought as I know I will have all the tyres available etc...

 

[peniu]

Thought it was absolutely epic, ones of the best races I've ever been in, and I didn't even do that well!

Chose McLaren. GT1 5pm UK time, had a nightmare in quail with a slow Mustang blocking me all over the place. P12, nevermind, it's a long race.

First corners I get a couple of bumps, back left wheel is damaged, costing me 2 secs a lap and I'm last. It's a long race... repeat mantra... Slowly catch up with other cars that I assume have damage too, overtake a few and rain arrives, pit on lap 11.

Total chaos is now going on and somehow I get up to 5th, battling with two other McLarens. The leaders are in sight. People are dropping it at the hairpin constantly, I saw 5 cars spin there and one quit straight after.

I think I have a bit more pace than these McLaren so decide to pit back to hards around lap 23, poor decision as I instantly drop it coming out of the pits, then have two spins in the next couple of laps.

P7 and once I'm used to the wet lines I'm catching the distant McLarens in front lap after lap and finish 4 secs behind, the sunset fading and darkness falling, pounding around setting my best times in the final few minutes.

Loved it.

Seems like we were in the same race .

 

[bduddy]

DC'd on lap 10 or so with the rain just about to start. Ugh. Dunno if it was my router, my PS4, or the servers... Either way it's annoying. 2 more chances to go...

 

[samppa_944]

Decided to give manufacturer series a go one last time. Same goes for nations cup. Due to being busy in personal life and losing a bit of interest to gaming in general, I've decided to not race gtws for a long time, after current exhibition series. Too much effort and I just want to have league race fun instead, less tryharding.

In any case, Suzuka rd.1 then. First attempt was a disaster, qualified in 14th, spun on lap 1 and got damage, and a very rare ragequit due to the insane race length. Got SR back up by 2 daily c's.

Second attempt, still kinda slow in quali, 2.02.9 for a P12. Race was very chaotic, and I drove okay, but also a few mistakes cost me 15-20 sec. My biggest weakeness is when you are on dry tires and it is still wet just outside the driving line, so last 10 laps were absolute hell. Still managed to not spin and avoid damage. I did go to inters on lap 10, maybe 1-2 laps too early, but at least my tires were in good temperature when lap 13 it was fully inter weather. Defended smart the last 3 laps to force a much quicker chasing bmw driver for a spin on last lap due to touching wet parts of the track. 😏

P6 and 158 pts, I take it. Only 9 finished the race. I finished over 1 min from the winner and over 20 sec from P5 so not much to complain tbh, I think max position pretty much, because it is pointless to speculate with the last 10 laps because it is my inability for once, not a brainfart or lack of concentration etc. Solid start, 3 races left of my manu career since I skip GV Hwy 1. I hope for a miracle to win one more nations or manu race before retirement/long sabbatical leave.

 

[SUBZERO-8K]

I decided to take part in the race to earn the big payout at the end of it. I wasn't expecting much, maybe a finish in 6th if I was lucky, but managed to qualify on pole position.

I pulled away from the pack within a few laps, as there seemed to be a lot of squabbling going on. Spent most of the time up until I pitted just focusing on not making mistakes.

I had read up on some of the strategies here beforehand, so I stayed out in the rain a bit longer, pitting and swapping to wets a lap after the person behind me. This gave me a bigger lead but I squandered it a bit since I hadn't practiced racing in the rain at all. The person behind me was really close for the last couple laps, but I managed to keep the lead and secure an unexpected first place finish!

Overall I had a lot of fun with the race and was surprised I didn't make any big mistakes and end up in the gravel like I often do at Suzuka. The real-time weather was great too, it was fun to have only part of the circuit wet for a few laps. Makes me wish we could zoom the weather radar in one more level though.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Isn't it a BoP race? I'm not sure the car is affected by worn oil during these races...

When I got back to garage the oil shows yellow so I assume I had some power loss in the latter part of the race. Don't know if the power loss is nullified in a BOP race. But better be safe than sorry. Oil change is peanuts anyway.

Simply put, I want the credits at the end of the season and don't want to do an endurance race.
If it wasn't a forced endurance, I would've done the race - or if there was no credit reward, I wouldn't do it at all.

Assuming you got all bronze awards at the end of the season that's around 800k - you can get the same in half an hour of driving Tokyo or Sardegna instead of wasting electricity and/or adding wear and tear to your console for 5x1.5 hours.

Or if you don't want to do it yourself, you can use the grinding script. There's much much easier ways to get credits without doing anything than cheesing off an online race and potentially taking a grid slot of someone who wants to actually RACE.

 

[MrHatss]

Qualified 8, a pity cause I did a couple of mistake in the best lap...then a great start, from 8 to 5 in a lap, I felt really good and people were behaving better than I thought but then......well, I spin off during the third lap, by myself before the last chicane I touched the grass with 1mm of tyre and sbang, off I went.
From 5 to 14 with the whole race ahead....so I started to go flat out, today I hadn't enough spare time to try again the next hour so being my only shot....regained everything I was 8th, first drops of rain immediately in the pit with wet tyre...but then I spin again, guys I was almost screaming.
Thankfully people were flying around under the rain and managed to finish 9th...it's hard to say that I'm happy but it's true considering my mistake and the fact that I had the ferrari 458gt3 that is quite tricky at suzuka

 

[Nebuc72]

Or if you don't want to do it yourself, you can use the grinding script. There's much much easier ways to get credits without doing anything than cheesing off an online race and potentially taking a grid slot of someone who wants to actually RACE.

I'm sure they'll live. You aren't going to be able to guilt trip me into feeling bad for afk'ing a race that 4 people left anyway lol.

 

[icycls]

well, my first GT1 race, whew. It was fun. But first, let me say that I was not competitive at suzuka last week, I did not choose the Genesis for that track and I really don't care for wet races! But thanks to this thread, I had an idea of what to expect.

The lobby was a low A lobby, the points (162) about what I've seen in the top GT2 lobbies. Only 14 started and 12 finished.

I Q at P11 and that was okay with me. Race starts pretty good, around lap 2 or 3 I get slightly tapped from behind and the rear bumper is blinking red, but I know that is must just be cosmetic. Didn't seem to affect lap times, they were slower anyway because I wasn't at all trying to push for positions. And when I did pit (lap 11 or 12?), it didn't list any time for repairs and the blink was cleared.

(racer post-chatted to me 'that bump got me'. I don't know, it's hard to tell intention, but he bumped me, so I took it as an apology???)

The rain section went pretty okay, no major mishaps, but neither were too many others making mistakes. I might have onlt picked up one position(? can't recall) I actually kept pace with the leader through all of it (still, it was about a minute out!) I got onto hards probably a lap or two too early. Picked up a pit penalty on entry (didn't feel like it to me, but I can't argue with a computer.) And spun on exit to get a second pit penalty for 6 seconds! urrrrgh.

Final stint on hards with lots of space, my fastest laps came in laps 30+. I was P7 and reeling in P6 but he had about 10 seconds head start.

Prior to the race, I was worried I'd get lapped or timed out. Guess what? I cross the finish at 1:29 from the leader, so neither! P7, without that 6 second penalty, I might have had P6.

 

[JDMKING13]

Man what a race!!! In Vr it was just incredible… Qualified 10th took 6th. Between the rain coming and then gambling putting on hards once the dry line formed was surreal. I got damage early like lap 3… two Porsche drivers were just terrible! No sportsmanship.. diving in turns when there’s no gap ughhh.. What saved me was the rain… once it came I got my damage fixed then went on a hunt! Went from 12th to 6th. If I didn’t take early damage I would of had a better race! Still the experience was great! I have a hour league race tonight… if I didn’t I would have definitely hop in another slot! Good luck to all!!!

 

[Yard_Sale]

3 different accounts, 3 different races today.

Put a lot of time into testing for this one (I absolutely love race prep btw), so I wanted to perform to the best of my abilities.

Woke up at 0545 California time to jump the last slot in the oceanic region. Low A/S lobby…heard murmers in the pre race chat that there was gonna be rain. Sweet. Completely botched qually and failed to even set a time. Got caught in the back of the pack amongst the other window-lickers, and tried my best to eat my way through the pack. Rain came and I played it safe and pitted probably a lap earlier than I had to. Rain stint…..actually went decent. The secret must’ve been out already being that this was the 3rd GT1 slot, and everyone was prepared. I did my best to keep the tires cool and stayed out probably a lap longer than I had to, and pitted for RH’s at end up lap 27. Came out of the pits in 6th, and put the hammer down to catch up to the four car trains front of me. Picked them off one by one, and was closing in on second with 2 laps to go. Last lap, I got a run on him down the finish stretch, and he covered the inside but it compromised his exit out of T1 and I got to his inside before the esses. He stayed on me the whole lap, but I held on for second. 15th to 2nd…. I’ll take that.

Had a cup of coffee, a quick BM and I jumped in for the second slot of the EMEA region. Another Lowish A/S lobby. This time I set a decent enough qually lap at 2:01.003, and took a pole —-> win finish. Had a couple oh **** moments in T1 before the rain came. Had an ‘ok’ rain stint, and took Hards at end of 27 again. Cruised to the finish. Loved the sunset in VR 😎.

First slot NA on my main account. Decided not to push for DR this week as daily C seemed like a chit show, so I was in a very high A/S lobby. Nerves got the best of me, but I still managed a pole somehow with a 2:01.3. First 2 laps I got a good gap on second as there seemed to be some squabbling. Went on an absolute heater and was up by 28 seconds when I took IM tires. In hindsight, I think the top 5 took intermediate tires a lap earlier, so I guess it’s not too impressive 🙄

Didn’t have a very clean rain stint at all, but others must have had worse, because I still maintained my gap. My second RH stint was, ok I guess. Kinda scruffy. Went off once, and spun once in the last 9 laps. Still was able to bring it home

Couple thoughts:

Heavy damage is key. The racing was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cleaner. Hopefully, these long races are here to stay. I know this was a copy/paste of the live event, but between last season and this season, I think PD are knocking it out of the park. While I think it was dumb that GT1 didn’t get any GR.4 events, I think these longer races really level out the playing field, and will enable guys to pick cars that their comfortable with over long races, rather than ones that have outright pace. Yo my surprise, since GT1 is Gr.3-only, there was still a very wide swath of different cars out there today.


Oh yeah, slow-moving weather is soooooo much fun. I can’t wait for even longer endurance races online or in SP!!


Well done PD 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🇺🇸

 

[TheWeapon874]

Well, that was disappointing.

Joined the 8pm slot in Asia, looking forward to the pending weather challenge (even softened up the suspension on the McLaren to be ready for it)….

A couple of small mistakes in qualy, 2.01.5 put me 14th in GT1, A+ lobby. Took it easy the first few laps, passing some people with damage, but generally being much more cautious given the damage and the loooong race. Up to 7th by lap 10, and the two cars in front of me went straight on at the final chicane… then another 2 against the pit wall…

Ah no, that wasn’t mistakes, that was my network failing. Disconnected and turned off the ps5 and went to bed

Just didn’t have the energy to try again in the next race (10pm start, finishing around 1130….I’m too old for that ****, especially after mountain biking all day!).

Bummer. I hope everyone else had fun! I felt the driving standards were better with the high damage, at least in my split.

 

[Dep Fishtail]

@icycls well done!

I barely got home in time to log in and had time for only one practice lap.

Q13 with about a second off my practice times and didn’t sweat it too much.

Lap 1 was reasonably clean and all was well until I had a car lost it and I tapped him for some front damage and we both continued on until the chicane and I got rear ended which sent me to the wall and landed rear damaged aero and suspension 😬. Now p16 I tried to work through it but was losing 4 seconds per lap. Finally realized that I was losing and not getting better and pitted on lap 7 as I couldn’t wait for the inters.

After the rain started I started seeing some folks quitting.
I lost it braking into the chicane twice before getting it right. Didn’t feel great on the inters and again just tried to stay out of trouble.

I kept inters on until through lap 23 and made my 1 and only pass of somebody who was ghosted 👻. Weak to say it was an overtake but that’s all I could muster 😂

I was trying to be super careful leavening the pits on lap 24 with slicks but low and behold I spun, crossed the line and hit the wall backwards to gain rear damages again 🤬

Finally started getting some pace and tried to chase down p10 for the last 9 laps.
First car I had a sight on since lap 3 🤷🏻‍♂️.
Finished p11 only ahead of one car with the other places from the dnf’s.
124 points and enjoyed the experience enough that I might try again in the last slot.
Didn’t run my best race but definitely glad to give it a shot!

GL to all who are still racing!

 

[SPL170db]

What a roller coaster of a race. 9th > Last > 3rd


First GT1 slot in NA. Never was particularly strong at Suzuka, I don't hate it, I just don't normally do well here. I don't recall my Q time but it was about what I was doing in practice and it put me 9th on the start. Have to thank the lads on the other side of the pond (TheKie/Rory) for putting up their livestreams so I knew exactly what the best strat was for this race...pit for IM at the end of 12th lap, then pit at the end of the 25th lap for RH and exit the pits with TC on 5 since the exit is still soaking wet This plan worked perfectly for this race.

Off the start my plan was just to keep things as clean as possible knowing how long this race was. Which worked for a few turns but about 1/2-way into the first lap I just barely tapped 8th place's rear bumper damaging mine. Fortunately a few people ran off the track and I stayed reasonably clean promoting me up to 7th by I think the 3rd lap and that's when things completely fell apart. My damaged front bumper started allowing the guy behind me to catch up and he then did to me what I did previously and smacked my rear bumper. So now its the 3rd lap and I have damaged front and rear bumpers and I just start slowly going backwards, helped out by 2 screw ups of my own that sent me off track. So I think by about lap 5 I was in dead last. At that point my brain just started wandering thinking about if I should plan to do the 2nd or the 3rd slot to make up for this. Then I started remembering watching TheKie and Rory's streams earlier and all the people flying off the course when things started to get wet, so I put my head down and just tried to put in clean laps since I was all alone with no one to bother me....although I wasn't making up much time with the damage my car had.

I took notice that a few guys dove into the pits for IM at the first hint of dampness I think at the end of the 10th lap which I knew would bite them later. In fact most of the field were ducking in by the end of the 11th if I remember correct. Spoon was treacherous but honestly not as bad as I was expecting.....but that's probably because I had watched it on those streams repeatedly lol. So by the time I ducked in for IM at the end of the 12th I had moved back up to 8th or 9th. Don't recall exactly what position I exited, maybe 10th or 11th....but I started gaining on guys ahead of me now that my damaged car was repaired and some folks got caught out by the rain. Another guy dipped back in for full wets when it got REALLY wet for a couple laps. Kept climbing back up until it was getting close to the last pit cycle. I noticed some people dipping in early (23/24th laps) when the track was still too wet for RH, moving me up some more and at the point I was pushing hard on the IM's to capitalize on those guys coming back out struggling on the slicks. Dipped in at the end of the 25th, exited pits on full TC as I watched Rory spin his car coming out since pit exit was still full wet, came out in 5th I think. Started to make up ground quick as the guys in front of me had not pitted yet for RH. Easily caught up and got into 3rd again. At that point 2nd was about 25 seconds ahead, and I just kept pulling away from 4th until it balanced out about 30 seconds clear ahead and behind. 2nd was slowly pulling from me and 1st's best lap was 2 seconds better than my best lap, so even if I managed to not have the early foul ups I'm pretty sure 3rd place is where I was going to settle in this one.....even if I didn't have my unfortunate trip to the back of the pack to make things more interesting lol.

Last stint was about as lonely as the first one which was fine with me. I was mildly dreading this race, but even the race length didn't bother me once we got going. Just kind of settled into a groove and lost track of all the laps. At the end I noticed my car had a 3 as the door number, so yeah finished right where I was supposed to, haha.


.....oh, and sorry for the verbosity 😂

 

[icycls]

@icycls well done!

thank you and sorry to hear about your run. (you still scored two more points than my p7!) Good luck if you try again. For me, I could do much worse than p7, so I'll call it a night!

 

[GT5 Level 41]

Been too busy today. One slot left. Too much football on. Priorities.