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

[AdxRE]

Was quite confident for this Bathurst round until I read it would be a 28 laps race on Hards 😂 I could barely made through the 10 laps Daily Races a few weeks ago without crashing (On Soft/Mediums!) so with heavy damage it is not gonna be fun.

EMEA GT1 Slot #1 - 255 Points Race, Door #7

Qualified 2nd despite setting a time around 0.5s off my best practice time. Pole was 0.6s ahead. Decided to go 10/9/9, push right from the start to pull away from 3rd then do the fuel save from Lap 7. It kinda worked until I went wide at the chase at Lap 2 and the Porsche in P3 is back at my bumper. He flew pass me when I started fuel saving at Lap 7. The short shift really hurts the pace of the McLaren by quite a bit and by the time I pit on Lap 10, the Lexus in P4 is right with me going into the Pit. He came out of the pit in front of me (possibly short fuelled) and we both undercut the Porsche that was in P3 who pitted at Lap 8.

Then the inevitable happened - went through T9 on Lap 13 as usual but the McLaren bounced off the curb hard and sent the rear end wide and touched the wall, resulting in rear aero and suspension damage. That hurt my top speed but I was still quick enough to hold off the Porsche in P4.

The Lexus in P2, Porsche in P4 and myself in P3 all pitted together on Lap 19, when I actually passed the ghosted off Lexus on pit entry where he was a bit conservative. Came out of the pit behind both as I needed 3 extra seconds to repair my suspension. The Porsche actually let me through on Lap 21 when I caught back up (Thanks man) but I was unable to pass the Lexus in P2 as he started to lag very badly with his car all over the place in every corner and I certainly did not want to ruin both our races due to lag. Fast forward to the final Lap, all of us (+the another Porsche in 5th) were still close together but I made a small error at T7 which allowed the Porsche in P4 to close in. Defended hard at the chase and the final corner to take the final step of the podium.

Was physically and mentally drained after the race, but huge huge kudos to everyone in that Top 5 for the very clean race.

A Lexus attempted 1-stop and ended up running out of fuel in the final lap and finished P9. Great effort from him too.

Loved the Day to Night transition in the final laps too.

Bagged 233 points for this round, won’t be counted anyways (Got 237 at GVH and 244 at Deep forest) but at least I had a great clean and close race on Bathurst (Which is highly unusual)!

That concludes my Manufacturers’ series as I probably need another year or so to be familiar enough with the Nurburgring to race on it.

 

[peniu]

For anyone looking past Bathurst (or is already done with it), I did a six lap stint in the 'offical' TT for Nord on Saturday (on the AO account since their Bathurst stint is over).

The whole thing was quiet cloudy. The GT2/3 drivers won't have to worry about rain at all, and even though it did rain in my one session on lap six, the GT1 folk won't have to worry about it either. It barely rained enough for the wipers to come on and not even enough for the grip bar in the lower left to even register the track was wet.

What I can say is it 'felt' cold. I didn't look to see if a temperature was given but with the clouds and generally gloomy weather, the car just didn't want to have grip, specifically on turn-in and accelerating out of slower corners. This was in the Jag. Maybe it was all in my head. Best lap of the six (no tire wear because they were just TT laps) was an 8:00.9. Felt like a good lap but definitely a lot of time left out there (but when isn't there at Nord?). Currently fastest [only?] Jag time out there (of AO people).

I'll be doing more of these, but that is what I know thus far.

Contrary to what you described I just had a practice session that had rain at 2nd lap (middle of the moisture bar). Could it be that the weather is random in the race itself then?

 

[Eggstor]

I headed into the 6 pm CDT GT3 slot not very confident that I would be able to improve on my 12-point first-round run or get back into C DR range. I did some practice, and my (s)low lap was just under 2:07.7, but I picked up a 4-second penalty on my first practice pit stop. I didn't do any fuel or tire testing, so I'm just going to play it by ear. It should be a 1-stop affair judging by the reports from others.

While waiting for the matchmaking, the PS5 threw me out of the wait screen with an "unexpected" error. Fortunately, it was at 5:53, so I simply went back into the queue. I ended up in a 15-driver all-D/S room wearing door #3 on the sole Corvette, with 20 points for the win and 9th needed to get an improvement in points. As usual, I passed on qualifying, which probably was a mistake as the fast lap was 2:08.7 and only the top 4 had times of under 2:10. I also was, as usual, the only driver to skip qualifying.

It wasn't a good race. I had a few bobbles and an off coming off Brock's Skyline one lap (no penalty though), and all the spots I gained were courtesy of others' misfortunes. One of those was driving right through a stalled ghost on Brock's Skyline, while hoping he would remain a ghost. Other than that, everything was self-inflicted, as I couldn't break 2:10.3 until the last lap.

I probably should have pitted on lap 8, but I stretched the fuel to lap 9, with tires not a factor at all. I ended up 7th, 22.5 seconds behind the winner, and with 15 points, for a net gain of 3. While the DR arrow said it went up, I didn't notice any change.

 

[Roman_GT23]

I'd rather be at the dentist than this god forsaken track.

I was just at the dentist yesterday to get a crown...... I dunno after yesterday lol

 

[SupaflyIRL]

GT2 B/S, Door 15, Q15. High point lobby where p8 is similar in points to a podium previously. Felt awful and and not confident in the quali but managed to be the first person out and didn’t get overtaken or hold anyone up and got two (bad) laps in. Was dead last in actual pace as the last place guy didn’t get a good lap in and ended up on the podium in the race.

First lap of the race at the top of the mountain, the eventual winner made a really sloppy pass attempt on a slower car in front of me. He put the other car into the left wall, himself into the right wall and he never ghosted. I even braked before it happened, anticipating no ghosting, and still ended up the only one totally backwards and way in dead last.

Had a decent drive and was the last to pit on lap 10 from p5 and came out in p7. Was defending p7 and got booted onto the grass at the end of conrod turns by either an accidental or “accidental” late braker.

Finished P8, which is fine. I could do better I think but I’ve never seen a lobby that high and I didn’t feel good about managing a podium in a lower lobby.

Too much going on this week to upload anything, hopefully feeling better for the Saturday race.

 

[Pfei]

GT1 Americas Slot 2 A/S 217-point Lobby

Qualified sixth in the Audi with a 2:05.3. Track was very slick. Lap 1 clean, no shenanigans anywhere, and my rear snaps out accelerating out of the tight downhill left-hander (with TC on 1). Never happened to me before. Spun and hit the wall, front aero and suspension damage. I exited the race. Don't think I'll go again.

End of report 😅

 

[Canucks_9419]

It's really, really difficult for this to not feel like a massive @$&+ing waste of time when you not only get side swiped by an unnecessary pass attempt at The Chase on Lap 1 (thus ruining even getting to have a race with anyone), but ALSO have the entire lobby crash halfway through the race!

I really wanted at least A result, as I have even less desire to race at Nurb Saturday...

 

[Yard_Sale]

4 races today - all 3 euro slots on my alt and the first N/A slot on my main.


1st euro slot was a 216 point lobby, I couldn’t seem to hook up a good qually lap all day and my best was a low 2:04. Ended up finishing P3 for 197 points. Decided to go again for more DR.

Slot 2 European:

Qualified 2nd with a 2:04.1. Promptly threw it away on my first time down the mountain when I lawn-darted into the left wall just after the dipper.

Standard.

Parked it in the pits for the rest of the race.



Slot 3:

Qualified 3rd with a 2:04.2. Worked my way up to 2nd throughout my first two stints. Spun on cold tires defending the mountain just after my second pit stop. Finished 5th or 6th. Blah





First N/A slot - Door 1 - 265 point lobby.


Qualified 6th with a very mediocre 2:04.3. Really upset at myself with qualifying today. Got shuffled back to 8th by the end of the first lap while avoiding the carnage and getting pushed aside by less discerning opponents. Decided for my normal 10-9-9 strategy with emphasis on getting down the mountain 100% clean for a change. Got a field promotion to 6th when a Porsche spun at McPhillamy park.

Pitted at end of 10 and made sure to set my BB to -5 for my out lap to avoid doing cartwheels down the mountain like my previous two races.

It worked.

Barely.

Slowly worked my way up to 4th on my second stint, and I had locked on to a swerving dip-[AUP] in a AMG that was determined not to work together. Decided to save fuel in an effort to follow him into the pits and undercut him.


It worked…for a lap. Until he pushed to pass at Murray’s 😑



Ended up latching onto his bumper and going for moves a couple times, but he neglected to ever give me any space upon exit. That’s “gamer culture” for ya. Finished 3rd for probably 250 some-odd points or so. In a Ferrari at Bathurst, I’ll take it.



A brief photo expose of my main account race:

First time down the mountain…eaaaaaasy does it there, Yard Sale.

Lap 9. Get ya’ some, 458!!!

Best job I’ve ever had…

Lap 24. Almost home

Final corner of Lap 24.

This [AUP]ing guy..

When I crossed the finish line, I expected bare chests and champagne showers like I got in Brazil. Turns out they’re a little more conservative in Australia - and the pit crews were rooting for someone else…

Including mine.

“Not sure what you idiots behind me are cheering about! Don’t think I didn’t see you cheering for Ricardo in the McLaren behind me!!”

 

[fardoche]

GT1 with Mazda atenza, BB Rear 5
Q10 despite a shortcut penality.
Overtaked 1 car at the start, on the initial straight, another one ghosted after he lost control.
Finished P6, 125pts, after watching replays every other position I gained were due to other drivers self inflicting damage while loosing control and then being slower or Taking more time pitting to repair the damage.

We had nice sequence of pack of 4-5 cars following each other cleanly.

It was fun, 28 laps in VR was quite the challenge, happy to have pulled it off without any damage.

 

[icycls]

2nd slot, GT1, door 12.

Oh my goodness, am I pathetically, miserably slow here in the Audi. I only had a few 2:05s in FP, although I did more custom races than FP. This lobby was very fast, I Qd DFL and even my best FP would have been Pteen. I know the audi can be faster, just not in my hands.

Okay, no problem, this is 28 laps and my advice was to run clean and you'll do fine. Except this lobby also seemed very clean. I wouldn't really know because I spent the entire time many, many seconds in the back and no one joined me except around pit cycles.

A good chunk of my DR was earned at this track a couple weeks ago, so I had better hopes here. Can I count my CRB as a moral victory?

4 races today - all 3 euro slots on my alt and the first N/A slot on my main.


1st euro slot was a 216 point lobby, I couldn’t seem to hook up a good qually lap all day and my best was a low 2:04. Ended up finishing P3 for 197 points. Decided to go again for more DR.

Slot 2 European:

Qualified 2nd with a 2:04.1. Promptly threw it away on my first time down the mountain when I lawn-darted into the left wall just after the dipper.

Standard.

Parked it in the pits for the rest of the race.



Slot 3:

Qualified 3rd with a 2:04.2. Worked my way up to 2nd throughout my first two stints. Spun on cold tires defending the mountain just after my second pit stop. Finished 5th or 6th. Blah





First N/A slot - Door 1 - 265 point lobby.


Qualified 6th with a very mediocre 2:04.3. Really upset at myself with qualifying today. Got shuffled back to 8th by the end of the first lap while avoiding the carnage and getting pushed aside by less discerning opponents. Decided for my normal 10-9-9 strategy with emphasis on getting down the mountain 100% clean for a change. Got a field promotion to 6th when a Porsche spun at McPhillamy park.




View attachment 1338867



Pitted at end of 10 and made sure to set my BB to -5 for my out lap to avoid doing cartwheels down the mountain like my previous two races.

It worked.

Barely.







View attachment 1338870





Slowly worked my way up to 4th on my second stint, and I had locked on to a swerving dip-[AUP] in a AMG that was determined not to work together. Decided to save fuel in an effort to follow him into the pits and undercut him.


It worked…for a lap. Until he pushed to pass at Murray’s 😑



Ended up latching onto his bumper and going for moves a couple times, but he neglected to ever give me any space upon exit. That’s “gamer culture” for ya. Finished 3rd for probably 250 some-odd points or so. In a Ferrari at Bathurst, I’ll take it.



A brief photo expose of my main account race:





View attachment 1338871
First time down the mountain…eaaaaaasy does it there, Yard Sale.







View attachment 1338872
Lap 9. Get ya’ some 458!!!






View attachment 1338884
Best job I’ve ever had…






View attachment 1338874
Lap 24. Almost home








View attachment 1338875
Last corner of Lap 24.








View attachment 1338876
This [AUP]ing guy..








View attachment 1338877
When I crossed the finish line, I expected bare chests and champagne showers like I got in Brazil. Turns out they’re a little more conservative in Australia - and the pit crews were rooting for someone else…

Including mine.









View attachment 1338885
“Not sure what you idiots behind me are cheering about! Don’t think I didn’t see you cheering for Ricardo in the McLaren behind me!!”

you had me at "Butthole Surfers" (seen in an earlier pic) and Purple Rain.

 

[guitargeek]

Well that was something…

GT1 2nd Americas slot. Was feeling good with my high 2:04 practice times. 171 points for a win.

Jump into quali, on a good lap when a Lamborghini and a Supra wreck each other at Forest Elbow. I drove through the Lamborghini ghost and am quickly catch the Supra. At the top of the rise on the straight, dude just takes me out hard. Like full on turns into me quickly, twice, in the middle of the straight. I get bumper and both fronts damaged, not enough time to restart to I turn a lap with the damage anyway. 2:09, good for 13th. I don’t know what this guy was thinking, maybe he thought o was the one who took him out, but either way, completely inexcusable. Scared my cat by loudly cussing at the screen, lol.

Anyway on to the race, which was great and much less “eventful.” Nice, clean first stint, pick up a few spots due to wrecks and a couple collision penalties. Pit on lap 9 with light fuel saving, as planned.

Come out for my 10 lap stint and find I’m pretty quick with the short shift and coasting, nearly matching my previous lap times. Make up a couple more spots with more wrecks/damage and find myself in 3rd at the end of lap 19, pitting. I found it much harder to save enough fuel than my custom race practice, short shifting a lot more and even using FM2 a couple times.

Come out for the last stint in 6th. Make up a spot to a 3 stopper, then catch and pass another guy into 4th. 4 laps to go, a viper is catching me, now about 1.5 seconds back and I bin it coming up the hill. Didn’t get stuck thank goodness, but bumper and right front damage. He passes me, but I think he would have anyway. So I settle in for 5th when lo and behold, the viper is on a 3 stop and I get my spot back. Finding myself in no man’s land with 10 seconds to the front and back, I just chill bring it home for a 4th place, 149 points (better than my previous low of 145), enjoying the sunset 🙂.

TBH, with my pace, 4th is probably what I would have gotten even with a good quali lap, so I can’t ask for much more. Feels good to salvage a great result from such a disaster!

 

[Yard_Sale]

2nd slot, GT1, door 12.

Oh my goodness, am I pathetically, miserably slow here in the Audi. I only had a few 2:05s in FP, although I did more custom races than FP. This lobby was very fast, I Qd DFL and even my best FP would have been Pteen. I know the audi can be faster, just not in my hands.

Okay, no problem, this is 28 laps and my advice was to run clean and you'll do fine. Except this lobby also seemed very clean. I wouldn't really know because I spent the entire time many, many seconds in the back and no one joined me except around pit cycles.

A good chunk of my DR was earned at this track a couple weeks ago, so I had better hopes here. Can I count my CRB as a moral victory?


you had me at "Butthole Surfers" (seen in an earlier pic) and Purple Rain.

Every once in a while there’s someone over the age of 40 with a little bit of culture that gets my various bumper stickers 👍🏼

 

[Dep Fishtail]

Rushed home from work and made 2nd slot gt1 na.

Waiting to get out for qualifying I mistimed it and only got in one lame lap.
Q12 and started before the finish straight giving me control mid turn.

Was good to see @JDMKING13 and @Pfei tonight. I watched replay and saw that pfei must have had a wheel disconnect 😮

Race went well. Kept picking up positions and staying out of trouble. Did 10-9-9 and barely had to fuel save on lap ten with running map 2 for 1/3 lap.

Changed tires on both pits because I didn’t want to do what 911s do in the dipper. It might have cost pit time but zero crashes in the dipper!

Last 9 laps were intense. Was in p5 and on 8 to go had a car coming out of the pits when passing by. Now as p6 we were chasing down a bug and after a couple laps we both got by. I’m p5 but in the last 3 laps had a car slowly making ground on me.
By final lap I still had a gap and held all the way until he was catching coming into the chase. We went side by side through the chase and the final turn and I was able to just barely bring home p5.

Glad this one turned out well because it was slated to be a rough day but I had fun with it.

 

[Spider-Racer]

Manufacturers Cup - 2023/24 Exhibition Series | Season 3, round 3
Victory for 324 points! Super excited about this.

My 8th FIA/GTWS win ever and one more with my beloved McLaren. I just kept it on track and applied pressure to a few people ahead and one by one they made mistakes and either crashed catastrophically or got damage that essentially finished their race.

What an exhausting race, but I'm so happy I got home in time to do it.
Three rounds in this season, two wins and one P2. 🙌🏻

 

[Timm Sheehan]

Did not make it home from work in time to run any EMEA races but held off until the last NA slot and ran the ultra quick Thrustmaster Hyundai Genesis for this one and IT WAS AWESOME!

Side 12, Q5 with a walking pace of 2:14.460 (kept getting stuck behind slow Corvettes), with a glorious P3 (4 points & a CRB).

 

[JDMKING13]

Rushed home from work and made 2nd slot gt1 na.

Waiting to get out for qualifying I mistimed it and only got in one lame lap.
Q12 and started before the finish straight giving me control mid turn.

Was good to see @JDMKING13 and @Pfei tonight. I watched replay and saw that pfei must have had a wheel disconnect 😮

Race went well. Kept picking up positions and staying out of trouble. Did 10-9-9 and barely had to fuel save on lap ten with running map 2 for 1/3 lap.

Changed tires on both pits because I didn’t want to do what 911s do in the dipper. It might have cost pit time but zero crashes in the dipper!

Last 9 laps were intense. Was in p5 and on 8 to go had a car coming out of the pits when passing by. Now as p6 we were chasing down a bug and after a couple laps we both got by. I’m p5 but in the last 3 laps had a car slowly making ground on me.
By final lap I still had a gap and held all the way until he was catching coming into the chase. We went side by side through the chase and the final turn and I was able to just barely bring home p5.

Glad this one turned out well because it was slated to be a rough day but I had fun with it.

View attachment 1338952View attachment 1338953

Just terrible night for me… had P3 in the bag and crashed lap 20 or 21… a Mercedes crashed in front and I tried not hit him but I was just distracted…. Ughhh gutted…

 

[Pfei]

I went to bed after my slot 2 rage quit out couldn't sleep so decided to do the last Americas GT1 slot. All A/S lobby but less points than before due to my DR hit from rage quitting.

Qualified sixth again with a lackuster two laps.

Once again, clean lap 1, no shenanigans, but instead of me snap oversteering in the downhill, the guy in front of me lost it at the exact same turn that I did in the last race and was sideways in the middle of the track. I couldn't avoid t-boning him and picking up front aero and suspension damage for the second time in a row at the exact same place on the track on the exact same lap as last race.

This time I trudged on and was fifth when the pits started. Stretched the second stint with some short shifting and was way ahead of the people behind me. I was amazed to drop to sixth somehow at the finish.

Only 145 points but at least I recovered some DR lost from my rage-quit.

The race was a bit too long IMO for only a sixteen car field. Probably would have been more enjoyable with 24 cars.

 

[Dep Fishtail]

Just terrible night for me… had P3 in the bag and crashed lap 20 or 21… a Mercedes crashed in front and I tried not hit him but I was just distracted…. Ughhh gutted…

Felt bad when I saw you ghosted and thought might’ve come out of it all okay since it looked like you pitted right away.
Sucks to be feeling so great right up until you aren’t. Happens in a flash.

I saw a couple of offs that it seemed like guys were distracted or had really bad tires at the time.

Hopefully you finish with a strong showing at nords.

 

[Wannablackbee]

GT2, 3 races today. 1st, Q12 to P10. 2nd, Q10 to P9. My best was the 3rd, Q14 to P8. I love Bathurst but I am slow at it.

A lot of people using assists. Most of them traction control and ASM and surprisingly many using the countersteering assist. It seems that these assist really prevent cars from getting off track when they punt or get punted. I guess staying on track is a good way to get a victory.

Insert funny moment here to forget this painful Manu Wednesday.



Yes. That is me in the pink AMG with my harse getting handed to me.

Two questions remain.

What is it with those really talented drivers doing poor qualification times or mistakes? During the race, they are moving forward from the back by pushing people off track and then starts to drive cleanly when they get near the top 5. It is a bit of a waste because if they would just use their skills to make clean passes, they would surely get to A+ rating.

Also, is it normal that my regional ranking is full of A drivers in GT2? I got a quick glimpse but it looks like half of the first 100 players are As and the other half are Bs. I am aware that B drivers can get to A while they are in a GT2 championship but isn't GT2 supposed to be for B players?

That's about it. I stop complaining now and I go back to play my favourite game.

 

[KaiserJovan]

First ever GT1 race at 9pm AEST last night. Banked 129 points.

Did 9/9/10 stints.

Fun but ultimately disappointed in myself. I quali'd P4 and shot up to P2 quite comfortably. I had a bit of a moment going down the dipper (to be expected) but my pace was good enough to keep me 5 seconds ahead of P3 while heading into the pits.

I didn't change tires for my 2nd stint, I think that was a mistake in two aspects:

1. binned it into the wall at the main straight on my outlap. Not a common place for me to make a mistake - didn't straighten the wheel up and dipped two wheels into the grass - pain. Cost myself 15 seconds.
2. tires hit the cliff at laps 17-18.

I think I just pushed too hard early on trying to catch up to P1. I ended up going much quicker and was much more consistent on my last stint when I had to save some fuel.

Thought about doing it all again at 11pm but was concerned I'd want to fall asleep instead.

Why oh why can't they be more flexible with time slots? I love the Nordschleife but bloody hell there are far nicer things to do on my Saturday night after 9pm!

 

[GlockPants]

Also, is it normal that my regional ranking is full of A drivers in GT2? I got a quick glimpse but it looks like half of the first 100 players are As and the other half are Bs. I am aware that B drivers can get to A while they are in a GT2 championship but isn't GT2 supposed to be for B players?

For some perspective, there are a few different explanations that could answer this.

1. When registering for the season, they were B rank. Then leveled up doing daily races or other GTWS events. This is me, however, I don't do the daily races currently so all my DR promotions have come from Championship series races.

2. It's an alternate account for time crunched players. See, in GT1 there are fewer time slots available to race. Anybody who wants to participate from DR A or higher might tank their DR before registering for the season to have an opportunity to race in the championship.

3. Smurf alt accounts. Strictly to club baby seals. I suspect there aren't too many that fall in this category, but there certainly are a few.

This is not an exhaustive list, but hopefully sheds some light on your concern.

 

[911RSR]

Hi guys, here's my 'Bathurts' excperience:

It was a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs. Starting with 2 practice sessions. The 1st was complete chaos, with me spending more time cuddling the walls than driving. 2nd practice was completly different. Somehow i managed to improve my time by 2 seconds, to a low 2:06! I know that is still slow compared to the real fast drivers, but my theoretical (best sectors added) best time was a low 2:07 so far, so that was a big surprise to me.

With that i went quite confident into the qualifying of my first race (like the 2 racedays before, i excpected i need 2 races for an acceptable result).

But the qualifying took me back down to earth! I tried to build a good gap to the guy in front of me, but the driver behind me was pushing, so i only had a small gap of 1 to 2 seconds up front. The Ferrari in front of me had a pretty bad lap, i even had to break for him at the beginning of the downhill section. Dristracted by his driving i also made little mistakes. That summed up in a 2:10 for the 1st lap. The second wasn't any better. I pushed to hard, made even more mistakes. That meant no improvment and i had to start from P14 with only 2 cars behind me.

The race (GT2): The McLaren in front of me had a bad exit to the start/finish line and i knew if i break into the 1st corner staying right behind him i'll kiss his butt. So i risked the move, changed the line and went left of him into corner 1. As he turned in, i hit the curbs a bit to hard and we had a little bump. Fortunately without bad consequences for both of us.

I made it over the hill without an accident and on to the long straight. There i had 2 cars side by side with another guy pushing them from behind. I don't know what happend, but suddenly the pushing guy went of and i gained another position.

One lap later i was already on P8, thanks to cars spinning in the narrow hilly part.

But then of course the inevitable happend. I hit the wall, lost 4 positions and a had some guys right behind my back.

After that, i don't know how but somehow, i managed to do more consistant and errorless laps. Even with spotless overtaking on the straights.

I pitted after lap 8 and also changed tires. They still looked surprisingly good, but for the narrow part i need grippy rupper for my 911.

After the pit i rejoined the race on P10. In this lap all the drivers who hadn't pitted yet, made their stop. And the result of that was a very, very unexcpected P5 for me.

With this massive surprise and a group of 3 cars within 1 second behind me, i went on to hopfully get my best result so far.

Thanks to the fresh rubber i slowly inreased that gap to 2s. Up front i had a big 12s gap. Which was good, because i could concentrate on my driving and did a couple of low 2:07. The gap up front only reduced to 10s, but to the guys behind me i had 5s now.

That felt very comfortable and i just wanted to manage those gaps and bring P5 home.

But in the last lap the distance to the guy in front of me melted drasticly. On the long straight after the hill i could even see him. I thought he had a big penalty. But as i passed on to the very last left hander, he was cruising almost at walking pace and i passed him easyly. He just went out of fuel! So i finished an unbelievable 4th place!!! I'm so happy with that!

Of course i didn't had a second race after that!

My results so far are 11th, 8th and 4th. If i want to keep up the progression i think i have to win at the Nordschleife

 

[MetalApe]

GT1 Slot 1 5pm
I haven't had much time for practice, especially just before the race, straight off work video call into practice, just time for 2 laps. I'm planning on this race being a practice session, and I'll go again at 9pm unless luck goes my way.

Lack of practice showed in qualifying, neither lap clean, so down in 12th. As the race settles down the good news is I've got good pace here, unlike Grand Valley where I had hopeless pace. The bad news is there's a lot of slower cars in my way. I was on target for 10 laps on a tank, so pitted lap 8 to get clear air, can't remember too much details from here on, but approaching the finish I was 8th, with 5th, 6th and 7th close ahead. I'd easily have had pace for 5th or better if I'd started up the front.

As I mentioned earlier, last corner drama, the engine cut out approaching the final turn. I'd been complacent and assumed as I was good on fuel earlier for 10 laps I had nothing to worry about, wrong! Overshot the turn trying to keep up momentum, spun it rejoining when I found another drop of fuel in the tank. Finished 12th, no worries I was going again anyway.

GT1 Slot 3 9pm
What an Epic this turned out to be. Disapointing qualifying, a bit of a scrappy pair of laps, but not that bad. Ended up 13th, it looked a strong field ahead. On the first lap luck was with me, cars ahead crashing on the mountain, another with a 5s penalty, another straight into the pits to repair damage. Before I knew I was up from 13th to 6th. End of lap 2, I've got a run on 5th down Conrod, brake just too late into Conrod! Onto the grass, cut the corner, I recover with not too much time lost, but down to 8th. Within two laps I'm back on the tail of the group fighting for 5th.

I'm really not too keen on getting stuck into the middle of an already crowded three car battle for 5th, so decide to fuel save and bide my time. See if they can take each other off, or else try something clever in the pits to jump ahead. All credit to the drivers ahead, they kept it clean. End of lap 8 no one ahead pits, so I do. No tyre change, 8 laps worth of fuel on board and I'm away, hoping to jump the lot. None of them pit until lap 10, Bingo. I'm upto 5th place. (I thought I'd jumped the lot, checking the replay I actually jumped 2 of them, the extra spot came from the leader braking too late for the pits going onto the grass and nose first into the wall. Poor sod also got a penalty for crossing the pit entrance line.)

It's getting interesting now, Another spinner on the mountain and upto 4th. I'm closing in on 3rd, 5th is closing in on me, soon we're all together. I really really want to make this pass for 3rd and get some clear air, I don't want to be stuck in the middle of a 3 car sandwich. My cars got good top end, so down Mountain straight I've got a run, alongside into Quarry and I make it stick. I'd hoped the 5th place car would get held up and leave me alone, but he was soon passed and on my tail again, with my old worn tyres I'm not going to get stuck into a dangerous battle so don't defend and he's soon past and off into the distance.

For the final pitstops things didn't work out as well, I stop on Lap 18 for new tyres and 10 laps worth of fuel. When all is done by lap 20 I find I'm down in 6th, jumped by two cars. I didn't have the pace to close in on them, so it looked I had to settle for P6. Even that came in doubt as in the closing laps there's a blue arrow on my radar closing in. The pressures on, I just do my best to bang out the best laps I can, two laps to go he's with me, but I manage to keep it clean, get good exits, a little defending on key corners and I hung on to stay sixth at the flag.

PD! Why can't we have more races like this? This game can be so epic at it's best, but most of the time PD just give us boring short simple races. This race showed just how good this game can be. It had everything, need to recover from a poor qualifying, luck with first lap incidents going my way, a mistake on lap 2 I needed to my best to minimise the damage. A period of biding my time instead of getting stuck into a battle that was not worth the risk. A spur of the moment unplanned pit strategy to get clear air. A decisive pass for P3 when it was needed. Withstanding pressure in the closing laps to hold onto P6.

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

Bathurst last night was good fun, long but fun. The race settings worked well for making things interesting. Tyre wear wasn't a massive issue but there was still a strategy choice there on whether to double stint the tyres or not to gain track position, usually with the high wear it automatically favours whoever is best on tyres and can undercut everybody around them. The fuel was nice too, everybody could make it on 2 stops but you had to judge when to push and when to save. I entered 3 slots:

Attempt 1 (Slot 2 EU): S: 1st F: 1st - 272 points
This one was the least eventful but good fun nonetheless, ScottieSNR was in the lobby and his streams are always a one man party with a decent group in the chat. I didn't have time to do any practice when I got home from work so went in cold but luckily know the Porsche fairly well and we had Bathurst as a daily recently so qualified on pole by half a second and won, I tried to do some donuts at the end but they were a bit shoddy. The shame!

Attempt 2 (Slot 3 EU): S: 5th F: 1st - 279 points
I really enjoyed this one, it felt like a much faster lobby so I started a bit deeper in the pack but that opened up strategy options with saving fuel in the first stint and extending over the cars around. With a bit of short shifting and coasting into the chase I could get as far as lap 11 with a couple of push laps as the cars ahead stopped to jump one of the quick guys from qualifying, another lost out with a pit entry penalty and one of the cars ahead had stopped very early on lap 5 (I can only assume they had forgot to go to the toilet before it got started and made a emergency change).

That longer first stint meant the race was pretty much full pace until the end, shifting at around 90% the 911 uses around 10% fuel per lap, even better the Porsche comes alive as the sun goes down and presumably the track cools so I could slowly close on the leader and pass him by running a couple of extra laps with a light car after he stopped, I only needed 7 laps of fuel so gained a little there too. We exchanged tenths in the final lap so it was a really close and even battle, good fun.

Attempt 3 (Slot 1 NA): S: 16th F: 2nd - 279 points
I don't like to qualify on my alt account so started from the back, pole was taken by a Japanese player, also on alt account, who was 1.5s quicker than the first actual American. This was the same strategy as my second European race, no intention of racing anybody but to sit in and save fuel and only go for moves when cars were stopped in the fence which was good for 5 places. Again as other cars pitted and the road opened up I pushed on for a few laps which was enough to jump from 11th to 5th(!). The last few Americans were dispatched in the second stint and then I could try to chase down the leader but the 15 second head start was too much (at the finish it was just over 5). I didn't save the replay but suspect he had done the whole race on a single set of tyres.

Something different but good fun, the Nurburgring is going to be even better, bring on Saturday! 💪

 

[SupaflyIRL]

Just saw something neat. The #53 ranked GT1 driver in North America in the last Nations Cup has "PSVR2" in their driver name.

Something not so neat, I raced against that Shaggy_Doo guy ranked #37. Not in the last cup but the one before. The catch? I was in GT3, racing his alt...

I was also right about that lobby being higher points. My P2 and P1 from Nations got me 64 and 65 points (my two highest point scores). My P8 last night got me 64 points.

 

[JDMKING13]

Man when I tell y’all I couldn’t sleep last night… I have a ceramic job 10 am today and I went to sleep around 5am and got back up at 7am…. My crew of 10 was watching the whole race… I was so embarrassed! I need a miracle this Saturday.

 

[Talon16]

Anyone else done any 'official' laps at Nord to see what kind of weather you're experiencing? I've only done one stint thus far of six laps (even though only five required) but @peniu and I got very different results with mine being dry and his being wet.

 

[Moose78]

Anyone else done any 'official' laps at Nord to see what kind of weather you're experiencing? I've only done one stint thus far of six laps (even though only five required) but @peniu and I got very different results with mine being dry and his being wet.

I did a few laps this morning. The weather indeed seems to be randomized. I exited and re-entered a few times to see how the weather radar changed. Sometimes it was mainly clear with maybe a few blobs of weather appearing out in the corners towards the end. Other times there was a wall of rain heading towards the track.

For example,

In different sessions it moved in from different corners of the map, so it really does seem to be random, not scripted.

It seems like Free Practice is set up to give you 1 full dry lap. I tried a couple sessions with this wall-of-rain pattern and the rain hit the track shortly into lap 2. It was only the light-blue stuff, but it was enough to push the moisture gauge slightly into the IM range.

It'll be interesting to see if they follow the same script for qualification and/or the race on Saturday. Best to check the weather radar before you get on the track, I suppose.

And remember to buy IMs or Ws before joining the lobby.

Edit: I'll also add that the weather is slow-moving enough that if you are watching the radar in the car, you shouldn't be caught by surprise if it starts raining while you are out on a lap.

 

[Lewmatic]

Haven't got around to fixing my wheel so jumped in this race using controller which I Haven't done since early GT Sport. Didn't practice any pit strategy because I was more concern with being comfortable on controller again and feeling out the stability through the mountain. Didn't get a good qualifying time but I'm satisfied with finishing P6 and I know I could haven't finished higher. I think I might have this car figured out here and won't hate this track so much once I get the wheel working properly again.

 

[SupaflyIRL]

Wasn't going to post anything, but here are two quick shots of the contact that sent me into dead last (with a cameo by me in the mclaren at the end), and me making a pass mid-race in a similar spot.

Wreck:


No Wreck:


kind of caught me a little by surprise with the braking but managed to get around with just a light rub