SCC - Ferrari 355 Challenge Series - Series Complete, results posted!

[jjaisli]

Yes, it was quite odd. I can tell you my car felt dramatically different online last night than it had in TT. I hadn't made any changes but then again, I hadn't played in a few days and wondered if it was all in my head. But when I left the lobby and went back to TT, it felt better (rear end was more stable in lift-throttle situations, the front felt more planted and tracked better.) Maybe it was just lucky but once back in TT, I immediately set a lap (2nd lap) that was .5 better than anything I had done in the previous 2 online races.

When I rejoined you all online, the car once again felt like it had in TT. I was not able to better my time that round but that was my own fault. I'm at a loss to understand it.

 

[new_soul]

i think i finaly figured out the 355 at least in SPA

the car dose what i want with default front and - rear toe

i think im to tired right now to go in to the 29's but i got som red ons and that is very good compared to the previouse frusrating sesions that i had wit this car. 31' 32' 35'

i can smile now !

 

[Alan_G]

Does anyone else find the bumps very tricky with this car? Although I'm using hard roll bars, I'm using soft springs/dampers, and Spa has some bumps which are very tricky to handle.

The tricky areas are: 1) Just before turning in for the final right hander of Les Combes, right at the point of change of direction, 2) The straight between Rivage and Liege, 3) Exiting the Bus Stop - although I suspect they just got it wrong in this game (that surface is less than 3 years old, so it's not that bumpy!).

Also, I can't really use any curbs, or if I do, have to use the lower part only. If I go high on the curbs, or over the top, it send the two wheel into the air. Does anyone else have this problem with curbs in this car? I know it's a racing car, and should be pretty stiff anyway, but it seems quite unrealistic to me, and I haven't seen anyone else complaining about it. Practically, when going through Les Combes, I can't touch the curbs without making the car very unstable (i.e. killing the laptime).

I remember before with the Corvette, it suddenly became strangely stiff over curbs and bumps, and I realised that the setup had become corrupted, and I had to buy the car again. I'm going to buy the 355C again and see if it's the same.

 

[arvore]

Does anyone else find the bumps very tricky with this car? Although I'm using hard roll bars, I'm using soft springs/dampers, and Spa has some bumps which are very tricky to handle.

The tricky areas are: 1) Just before turning in for the final right hander of Les Combes, right at the point of change of direction, 2) The straight between Rivage and Liege, 3) Exiting the Bus Stop - although I suspect they just got it wrong in this game (that surface is less than 3 years old, so it's not that bumpy!).

Also, I can't really use any curbs, or if I do, have to use the lower part only. If I go high on the curbs, or over the top, it send the two wheel into the air. Does anyone else have this problem with curbs in this car? I know it's a racing car, and should be pretty stiff anyway, but it seems quite unrealistic to me, and I haven't seen anyone else complaining about it. Practically, when going through Les Combes, I can't touch the curbs without making the car very unstable (i.e. killing the laptime).

I remember before with the Corvette, it suddenly became strangely stiff over curbs and bumps, and I realised that the setup had become corrupted, and I had to buy the car again. I'm going to buy the 355C again and see if it's the same.

Although I felt this problem was even worse at Silverstone(maybe because I used more the curbs in that track),and I don't think the curbs are so high there in RL,I also struggle with this problem at Spa especcially at turn 11, going up Eau Rouge(If I touch the inside(right side) curb I loose control,tricky at the (Old)Bus stop chicane and the exiting curb(left side) of La Source.The odd thing is that,at least in some cars(e.g. the DBR9) the stiffer suspension setup(hard dampeners front and rear) seems to make the car less unstable over the curbs albeit in reality they should have the reverse effect...
This only confirms my believe that setups in SCC(and most other racing games to be honest)don't behave like a real reproduction of they represent in a real car...
And the way to fine tune a car in a racing game is very much achieved by trial \error(vide the ride height bug in SCC the GTR torque distribution bug in GT5P,etc...)which makes the experience less enjoyable and patient and time consuming "stealing"-illogically- racing time from the player...which for most of us isn't that much.

 

[new_soul]

i dont have a problem with the curbs, i try to reduce the power to keep the car in line and with those direction chandes i do a quick lift or two to stabilise the car and then upshift.

my problem is that the rear starts sliding just before hiting the apex, so thats a killer, how can this car be wonderful ???

 

[jjaisli]

the car dose what i want with default front and - rear toe

I'm almost there myself. But not quite.

 

[Alan_G]

Need to do some serious practice later. Still haven't done any wet laps. What time will anyone else be on?

 

[kemp333]

I'm online now for some practice...

 

[Alan_G]

I came across something quite concerning with this game (again!).

I did my first wet races on this track/car combo, with Henrik earlier. It was easy to adapt to, but I was very surprised just how much Henrik was killing me through Eau Rouge/Raidillon; every time, I lost around 1+ seconds by the end of the Kemmel straight. I could only carry about 170 kph through there, and needed to downshift to 4th to get up the hill. The reason I was surprised was because from my point of view, I was taking quite close to the limit through there, and the line was normal.

Even through Rivage and Liege, I was surprised how much Henrik could gain on me. I'm not doubting his speed at all - I'm just saying, on one occasion I felt like I nailed that section, and then looked at the 'Split Time' to see him actually 0.4 closer or something. It just didn't make sense.

I was so surprised, I had to ask about Henrik's setup; there had to be something different between our springs/dampers/roll bars, or something. His setup was the same as mine.

I went offline for a while, and came back later to the same lobby. We did another wet race, and this time I could comfortably carry 190kph through Eau Rouge/Raidillon, and nowhere near needing a downshift. Something was different. My setup was the same, all settings were the same. There simply was more grip, from my perspective.

I know some may say "well you were just getting used to it" - trust me, in the first race, 170kph was near the limit through Raidillon; I tried carrying more and it just understeered wide. Even at the time during that first race, I was surprised just how much I had to back off through there - it felt like I should be able to go faster. Then in the later wet race, there was just so much more grip.

The concerning part is when I think about the Vallelunga event wet race. When I make this point, I don't mean at all to talk-down Henrik's speed or anything; to me he's a wheel user getting the total limit out of the wheel. But in that event race, every time I got around the final corner, I thought "Right, this time that's the lap, must be faster", but it was still several tenths off his lap. Of course he can be faster. But just understand, I had done so many, many practice laps, and just left me thinking where could that time possibly be found.

So it really is a strange one. All I know is there was definitely something different between the two wet races I did earlier. It's like the first one had hard front dampers/springs or something, and the second was back to normal.

 

[jjaisli]

Alan, this is very similar to how I felt the other night in the dry lobby. After I went back to TT, the car felt 'different' somehow and I was much more confident on certain sections. And when I returned to the lobby it was much better. I've had this feeling here or there in several random races over the months (the 330P4 race comes to mind). And if I'm not mistaken, Henrik had a similar experience during the wet race at Monza where he really struggled to get up to pace (well HIS normal pace). It's hard to quantify what's happening. But the car just feels and reacts differently and its impossible to take some corners at the same speed.

 

[Alan_G]

It's a fairly alarming bug, whatever it is. Maybe it's a good thing to only discover it now. I don't think something is different in the game engine when it happens. I think it's more likely something to do with the car setups, especially since we've both noticed some problem in dry conditions with the setups.

//

Good idea to compile an expected list for the event. Anyone else to add on?

jjaisli
AlanG184
mhm66
kemp1010
Simcoeace

 

[Biggles]

Yes, I expect to be there - I will be returning from the annual Niagara-on-the-Lake Peach Festival with peach pie on my cheeks, a song in my heart, & a steely resolve to finish somewhere other than last in the great SCC 355 Challenge series finale. 👍

I did manage to turn in a 2.31.06 last night after about 15 laps of TT. I could see there are a few 10ths more to be had, if I were willing to put in another 20 laps to more precisely refine my racing line. However, there is still the question of actually executing the racing line consistently: not taking Eau Rouge at the max costs easily a second, taking it badly costs 2 seconds, & screwing it up completely because you push too hard costs 5 seconds or more.

Should be interesting ...

 

[Alan_G]

If anyone is doing any practice wet races, keep an eye on the speed through Eau Rouge/Raidillon. I think everyone should manage around 185-200kph. But if you find it a struggle to do more than 170, and need to downshift to 4th, then I'd love to hear about it.

 

[jjaisli]

OK guys--see you all in an hour! Cheers!

 

[Redgate]

I'm just doing a few(much needed) practice laps before the races.

 

[Alan_G]

Here's my brief event review.

Qualifying
Got a good enough lap in; 29.8 I think, putting me first.

Race1
Battled with Henrik a lot on the first couple of laps. My hands were pretty cold for the first few laps which really didn't help. I got Raidillon a bit wrong, got a big slide on, and just chose not to correct it and take the grass (with cold hands, it's really risky to input correction, especially at that place). So that dropped me behind Henrik and Vompatti. Initially, I felt I'd blown the race. But of course I remembered that another 17 laps would be tough going for Henrik and Vompatti on the wheels.

I caught and passed Vompatti, and Henrik was around 8 seconds ahead. Henrik got a penalty at Raidillon, so I got within 3 seconds, and then he had a big moment on the inside of Les Combes, so I got through. After that, himself and Vompatti seemed to be battling for a number of laps.

Despite doing a good few practice laps, I think doing 10-15 consecutively helps you get in a rhythm, and find more time. I pushed the braking zones just a fraction more in a couple of places, and it saved quite a bit of time for the faster laps.

Race2
On lap 1, bit of action through Raidillon which had a knock-on; Jeff had to brake, so I had to brake, and Vompatti couldn't avoid nudging me. Up at Rivage, I was braking on the inside of FINGERS, but Henrik & someone else on the inside were placed in a way that I couldn't turn in, and I nudged into FINGERS. Thankfully he kept it on track. (I thought about conceding the place but I felt it was more a racing incident, rather than my fault, and also it would have just slowed you down even more battling with me (provided I caught you up again)).

With a few more moves, I got behind Simcoeace. I was alongside on the outside of Stavelot-1, and when exiting got pushed into the gravel - maybe you didn't know I was there?

Later, Vompatti had a bit of his nose inside on the left approaching Eau Rouge and then into it, which wasn't ideal because there was either going to be an accident, or both of us lose time. So I left space on the left, and with the wrong approach/speed through Raidillon, went off and got a penalty. Then up at Les Combes got another penalty on the right. I got into 3rd place, and was slowly catching Vompatti again. But the laps ran out all too quickly! Nonetheless, it was a long enough race for me, considering the long first race.

Congratulations
Well done to the users with very little practice such as Simcoeace and Jeff, and in particular Vompatti who came straight in with great pace. Also, I'd have to give 'Drive of the Race' to Henrik; I'm well aware about how physical 20 laps is with the wheel; I know from when I do karting that it's easy to underestimate the physicality and required endurance for fighting the wheel for a long period. But you kept a great pace throughout, and also a very fast 2'28.

//

So thank you to Jeff for organising the events over the last 10 months. I'll be around for plenty more events with the SCC GTP players in F1, GT5, and future games.

I may be interested in joining another SCC event in a couple of weeks. We'll see what car/track ideas people come up with. It seems people want the 430C; not my favourite in this game, but it's alright.

 

[hm66]

Here's my recap

Got a desent qual. with 2:30:5x witch was good for 2th.

The start of the race was quite hectic with alan and me(and wompatti)for
the first 2 laps,but I was pushing hard so alan didn't get close enough to draft.I think he lost it at eau rouge and suddently I was allmost 7 sec in front.I manage to set some pretty fast times and after 8 or 9 laps,I sayed to myself that I just had to drive safe to take the win.But that was a mistake because all my practice was to drive as fast as I could.I totaly screw up the eau rouge and got a penalty,and could see alan get closer and closer on the straigt.My lack of speed at the end of the straight made me miss the breaking and I got another penalty.I came back in 3th after wompatti,and I chased him for the next couple of laps.I finally made it past him,but alan was allready 7-8 sec in front and he didn't make any mistakes so I was happy with 2th.Sat my fastest lap on lap 20.

In the wet race I missed the start because I was vatching wompatti just in front of me,and I couldn't beleave that he was there.Got a good run trough eau rouge and passed 2 or 3 cars on the straight.In the next couple of corners there was some contact in front of me,but luckly I was able to get by with no mistakes and that got me in 5th.2 turns later the was contack betwine the cars in front of me,and that got me to 3th.Then I was behind simcoeace,and when we crosed the start/finish line I was right on his bumper.Trough eau rouge I was only 5 meter from his car(thank god there was no lag)so I had a good draft up the straight and I passed him.Then I was chasing turnupdaheat for a lap but he made a mistake so I could sneak by.The rest of the race I just went flat out so not to make the same mistake as the first race.

Wery much enjoyed the racing(and the practice yesterday)and I hope we can do it again soon.

Thanks to Jeff for putting this event together.

 

[Biggles]

Both races were very enjoyable as I was solidly in the middle of the pack with action happening in front of & behind me.

I had some good laps with jjaisli, kemp & especially turnupdaheat, with positions changing hands several times. Sincere apologies for ruining what had been a great battle by rear-ending you at La Source on lap 19, Derek (especially as I taken advantage of your late braking at that corner to overtake you on two earlier laps!). It totally messed us both up, as I sat there waiting for Derek to unstick himself from the wall, while Fingers, who had been a full 13 seconds behind , overtook us both!

Thanks for your commitment to organizing the series, Jeff. Spa really was the most epic & exhausting race of the season. 👍

 

[jjaisli]

Supercar Challenge - Ferrari Challenge Series - F355 Challenge Season

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Event No 5 - August 15th, 2010 - 20:00 GMT - Spa Francorchamps - RACE RECAP


I want to thank those who participated in the 5th and final round of the '1996' Ferrari F355 Challenge season from Spa. Of all the events I've hosted, this is probably the only one which comes close to holding the title of true 'endurance' racing. While just short of an hour behind the wheel barely classifies as a quick stint in real-world sports car racing and indeed, most forms of motorsports, it's a very different experience from the quick 5-10 minute races which have become the norm in the PS3 online world. Pushing yourself and concentrating for such a long time is a test of speed as well as stamina. And I think everybody in the lobby could agree that the feature race from Spa was quite spectacular.

QUALIFYING: 2 laps - conditions 50% dry/wet chosen at random

I flipped a coin and heads meant it was dry qualifying for only the 2nd time this season. At the start of qualifying, I found myself last on the grid of 10 and as such, tried to build up a long gap to the cars in front. I was 'satisfied' with my lap although I felt I might have done a bit better. But I was forth and also knew, to be realistic, It would have been near impossible to run with AlanG, mhm66 or Vompatti for 20 full laps. For the race, my goal was to hold my position and shadow the 3 cars in front and keep them in sight as long as I could, while hopefully using their draft to pull away from the cars behind me. This strategy worked for exactly one lap.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RACE 1 (Feature Race): - 20 Laps - Dry

I made a decent start and didn't take any chances down the Kemmel. I was actually a bit concerned that I was carrying too much speed. It would have been foolhardy to try and take Vompatti because Alan and Henrik were all bunched up together. But with turnupdaheat, and likely the rest of the field, all bunched up behind me, I couldn't brake too early either. Fortunately, at least the first half of the field (that I could see) was well behaved and we made it into Les Combes with little drama.

Turnupdaheat was able to get a bit of a run on me (side by side) into Rivage. But I had the inside line and was able to hold him off. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a bobble at the apex of Pouhon and it allowed the 3 in front to slowly pull away and Derek to once again come dangerously close. But by the end of the lap, I was able to pull out a bit of safety margin. At the start of lap 2, I found myself about 1.2 seconds behind vompatti in 3rd and about 1.00 second in front of Turnupdaheat in 5th. And that's when it all went downhill (uphill?). I got up on the curb on my approach to Radillion, took to the grass and got a penalty. Knowing the rest of the field was coming up behind me, I purposely steered to the left so as not to impede anybody. Even though collisions were off after a penalty, it's still a bit daunting driving through another car. And there's no way of knowing how long the penalty will last. When the dust settled, I was in 8th at the end of the Kemmel with Fingersandthumbs in front of me.

From that point on, the following 9 laps were VERY exciting with great battles all the way through the field. Once the video is posted, I'll let it speak for itself. But at one time or another, I had a terrific fight with Fingers, turnupdaheat & Simcoeace. There was one hair raising moment on lap 3 when I was right on Finger's rear and saw Derek (going slowly) in the middle of the road at Stevelot. Fingers went one way, I went the other and we managed to split him without incident.

After a lot of very enjoyable side by side racing, I eventually worked myself to 4th position with Biggles and Derek caught in a battle behind me. With the two of them losing time off of each other, and being able to put in clean laps myself, I eventually built up a gap of nearly 15 seconds to Simcoeace behind me. But a lapse in concentration on lap 14th almost ended in disaster. A bad entry into Radillion had me bouncing over the curbs and launched me into a spectacular spin. While I don't think I actually hit anything, I finally stopped, backwards on the track, right underneath the bridge. I did my best to get turned around and accelerate quickly and going into Les Combes, Biggles was < 1.00 second behind me. Fortunately, I was able to keep my cool and slowly pull away from him. And so, I finished the race where I started, in 4th, although with a lot more drama, fun and excitement than I was expecting.

Not to make excuses for myself, but I was suffering from a mild bout of food poisoning this afternoon and driving with a wheel for nearly an hour really does take it's toll. By the end of the feature race I was exhausted and even wondering if I should sit out the sprint race. But I was just having too much fun to quit.



Feature Race Results:

[youtubehd]esJ1XD32Q60[/youtubehd]

[youtubehd]IaLUl8YxJ10[/youtubehd]

[youtubehd]hj-XI6rW9yE[/youtubehd]


(All three dry videos now in place)

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RACE 2 (Sprint Race): 9 Laps - Wet


Considering how long the feature race was, and the way I was feeling, I was glad I had made the sprint race only 9 laps. But it seemed to just fly right by and when it was over, I was kind of wishing that I had gone for the full 15 laps. Least of which because I didn't put in a single decent lap time in the wet. And my race was horribly mistake prone.

The first lap was just wonderful. Well, sort of. I got a decent start and squeezed past Fingers. But I had to brake a bit going into Radillion to avoid Simcoeace and Fingers managed to get back around. Fingers then got a bit off-line at the top of Eau Rouge and I had to brake to avoid him, causing a chain reaction where AlanG then hit me from behind. I was able to pass Fingers up the Kemmel but had a bad line going into Les Combes (braking on the inside) and there seemed to be some cars going off so I was trying to both maintain my position and take a conservative entry. Two corners later I was ahead of both Redgate and Kemp.

At the entrance to Stavelot, I found myself in 4th and thought I had Kemp trying to sneak his way inside. I was so impressed, not only that he had caught up but that he was now overtaking me (but come to find out it was actually mhm66 (with a similar paint scheme). Although I do have to say, watching him slice thorough the field is pure magic. 👍

At the start of lap 2, I found myself in a familiar position, getting up on the curbs into Radilliion and getting a penalty. I purposely pulled my car off the track at this point so I wouldn't block anybody and the result was I came back onto the track in last place (about + 6 seconds behind the 9th place car by the end of the Kemmel.

By romp back up the field this time was not so successful. Unless I was aiming for comedy gold. A few ridiculous mistakes including TWICE missing my braking point at La Source, once nearly losing the car through Pouhon and once nearly losing the car through Blanchaimont and once when my daughter snuck up behind me, started talking and scared the living hell out of me (all caught on camera), not to mention the fact that I was feeling extremely queasy after losing my lunch (not caught on camera thank goodness), all started to take their toll. I finished the race in 6th, which all things considered, wasn't too bad. But I feel with another 6 laps (to the full 15), I would have either been on the ground dying or I would have given Kemp and Simcoace a real run for their money.

Sprint Race Results:

[youtubehd]Q3xyeiJoqF4[/youtubehd]

[youtubehd]MIlRqNP7vG0[/youtubehd]

[youtubehd]-LuFPTNNCNI[/youtubehd]


* All three wet videos now in place


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Combined Results from Round 4:

As expected, AlanG, mhm66 & Vompatti completely dominated the feature race. The three of them, were and are really in a class of their own, with Alan and mhm66 both putting in laps (during the feature race) in the 2:28s. Absolutley unreal! I felt 4th was about the best I could reasonably manage unless I got extremely lucky. And luck was not really on my side today. But overall, and especially under the circumstances, I was happy with my performance. A good job also from Simcoeace and Kemp who rounded out the top 6. And a special mention to 'new guy' plckr00 who put in a respectable performance considering the rest of us have been at this for some time.



Combined Series Standings (After 5 Rounds)
1) - mhm66 - enzo - 141
2) - jjaisli - Forza - G27 - 109
3) - AlanG184 - GTPlanet - 108
4) - FINGERSANDTHUMBS - Creative - 86
5) - kemp1010 - MX - 75
6) - vompatti - ILRT - 73
7) - tunrupdaheat - ScudEire - 62
8) - arvore - Mandolin Club Racing - 58
9) - Redgate - Eurogamer - 34
10) - GTP_bullie77 - Lusitania Racing - 24
11) - Rhino_WJB - Team Z - 22
12) - new_soul - UKOG - 21
12) - Simcoeace - Mad Dogs - 21
14) - GTP_Hun - T L Team - 18
15) - frawe - Frawe - 13
16) - L449KUX - TheRacingElite - 10
17) - plckr - GtrMafia - 9
18) - Firedshot - TheRacingElite - 4

And so, with all 5 rounds complete, the results lead to the quick man from Denmark once again on the top step of the podium. Congratulations to mhm66 for a well earned victory (especially considering he MISSED one round). His speed and incredible consistency paid off and he's certainly one of the quickest guys ever to play this game. And quite possibly the fastest wheel turner out there.

Considering the rather dramatic points spread between positions 2 & 3, it must be said that Alan missed not only 1 but 2 rounds of this series. Had he been here, there is of course no doubt that he would have finished in front of me, just by virtue of showing up. Either way it's clear that Alan is seemingly in his own league with this game. His speed and accuracy is downright depressing.

Fingersandthumbs and kemp1010 both had good speed and showed a marked improvement in their driving from the early days. Their positions in the championship are well deserved.

And as for vompatti, his 6th place position, like Alan's, is simply a result of him missing out on a few rounds. Considering the relatively short time he's played this game, there's no doubt if he had picked up SCC last September, he would be dominating the leaderboards.

Well done and thank you all. I'll post a complete 'series wrap up' in the next few days.

 

[new_soul]

hi everyone!

i was waiting for the event to start and i did fall in to sleep mode.

sorry

 

[Biggles]

Wow! Those lap times from Alan, mhm & vompatti are just mind-boggling!

 

[Alan_G]

Wow! Those lap times from Alan, mhm & vompatti are just mind-boggling!

My Vallelunga best lap was better than my Spa one I believe, with Vallelunga being shorter, and me having done many more practice laps there. The funny (or maybe annoying to everyone!) thing is I feel my Spa 2'28.5 could've been a tiny bit better - maybe a couple more tenths to be had.

 

[jjaisli]

I've added some more video to my recap post on the previous page. I still have 2 more in processing and they'll be posted (hopefully) in the next few hours. I didn't think it was worth it to post more of the feature race since almost half was just me driving on my own. But in the 3rd video, I did get my spin as well as my fastest (red) lap and my PB lap, which turned out to be lap 20 (go figure).

And Alan, you were right. My lap did go red at Eau Rouge. I didn't notice it and only saw it was red after the entry to the bus stop. But in this case, I don't think I gained any time through Eau Rouge so it's 'almost' a legitimate 2:29 lap.

hi everyone!

i was waiting for the event to start and i did fall in to sleep mode.

sorry

Poor guy--I wondered what the heck happened to you. Sorry you missed out on the fun.

 

[Alan_G]

That wet race lap-3 penalty was a bit of a sham JJ! You still have two wheel on the curb. And really, Raidillon is not exactly a shortcut opportunity. That would make me mad.

 

[vompatti]

Qualify:
I messed up Eau Rouge quite badly, so when I saw that I was still 3rd fastest I considered myself lucky.

Race 1:
Well, I think I need to do a little bit of explaining before I get going with the actual race report. We drove a practice session that Alan hosted right before the event. In the session I had some weird lags. But because this was the first time, I thought that my connection to Alan isn't good, my wife is still using PC in the other room or something like that. I wasn't too worried about it and when the actual event started, I had turn off all the PC's and was ready to roll. But then the real state of things got revealed...

I got warps right from the beginning. I thought that I was having lags, but when couple of laps went by, I noticed that these warps happened always in the same places. I realized that they weren't lags caused by internet connection, but by some sort of hardware/software problem. There was actually 5 places in the track were I had these warps. Then I started to monitor it and I noticed how I always lost time in splits when these warps occurred. I couldn't believe it, I thought that it was only the split times that were bugging. But couple of laps went by and I had Alan behind me on the following straight after Eau Rouge. I was watching mirror (because I knew where it would warp) and I saw how Alan's car jumped towards my car and he almost crashed into my rear thanks to my warp.

I was so frustrated of this and it really ate my motivation in the first race. I counted that I was losing around 0,3-0,4s every lap just because of that. And against Alan and Henrik, it meant that I needed to do half a sec faster lap times than them to gain any time. And that simply isn't possible against them.

So, in the race I was most of the time 3rd, occasionally 2nd. At one point it was Alan who was behind me, then it was Henrik. I didn't actually first realize that it was Henrik who we overtook. I was thinking "what, we lapped someone already and now he is fighting back?" . Then I noticed that it was Henrik. And then couple of laps later he humiliated me totally by going around me from the outside in the hairpin

Those problems really made it a frustrating race for me. I felt that there was a slight chance to challenge Alan and Henrik, but my "technical problems" destroyed that possibility and my mentality. Considering those, in the end I was pleased to finish 3rd.

Race 2:
Before the second race we had a lot of chatting and I decided to reboot my PS3. And it did the trick! I had no warps in the wet race. But we all assumed that I would start from the first place (reverse last race result and I had to quit the lobby to reboot), but for my surprise (and apparently Henrik's too):

In the wet race I missed the start because I was vatching wompatti just in front of me,and I couldn't beleave that he was there.

I was on my own spot. In fact I was so surprised that I thought that jjaisli forgot to put last race reverse on. When the green lights came I was still thinking that "hmm, I wonder how we'll set things up for re-start". I didn't really accelerate at all but somehow I realized that jjaisli was in front of me and Alan and Henrik were behind, I jumped on the throttle and started to accelerate (late) to the first corner.

From my point of view the race went quite nicely from there on. I think my only contact was that little nudge I gave to Alan in the beginnings chain reaction, otherwise it was a clean run.

Later, Vompatti had a bit of his nose inside on the left approaching Eau Rouge and then into it, which wasn't ideal because there was either going to be an accident, or both of us lose time. So I left space on the left, and with the wrong approach/speed through Raidillon, went off and got a penalty.

This. I have to say, that I had a little bit of smile on my face after this incident. I knew that I wasn't quite side to side with you. But because I had my nose inside and we were coming in to Eau Rouge, place were driving line is really critical, I decided to keep my line because I had much better line. I knew that Alan would have much more problems in there with his line. As it happened, he went wide and got a penalty and I got past him. At this point I was 4th, only Biggles and Derek in front of me. They were both kind enough to drive corners wide so that I got pass them from the inside.

Unfortunately Henrik was already more than 8s ahead, so I knew that I couldn't catch him. I knew that Alan would be coming fast from the behind, so I started to increase my speed to make a safer margin. When I saw Alan's name pop into 3rd place, I drove couple of max attack laps. On those laps Alan was able to gain only some tenths and as the laps were running out, I backed off and put a safe mode on. I knew that he couldn't overtake me in the remaining laps if I could drive without mistakes. That worked out and I was second over the finish-line.


Congrats to Henrik for winning the series, once again 👍 It would be interesting to see Alan and Henrik taking part in every event, it would be really tight for the first place in the overall standings. Also I want to thank everyone who took part in the series. Even though Jeff is the man, these events wouldn't be possible without us

But of course biggest thanks go again to Jeff. We owe all these great experiences to you 👍 Thank You!

As expected, AlanG, mhm66 & Vompatti completely dominated the feature race. The three of them, were and are really in a class of their own, with Alan and mhm66 both putting in laps (during the feature race) in the 2:28s. Absolutley unreal!

This is just my opinion, but after the comments that you guys said about how the car behaves differently in some occasion and everything else, IMO SCC's timing is biased. I mean, I was losing 0,3-0,4s in every lap, and I'm absolutely certain that my 2'29.17 wasn't as fast as my 2'29,56 TT lap was. Still I should believe that I simply drove about half a sec faster in the race?

If you guys think about it, I didn't see the leaderboards before the event, but I assume that both Alan and Henrik took well over 0,5s out of their times. I took too, if you consider that little extra I had on my laps. We are no F1 drivers, but if you give Vettel a mission for 2 weeks to practice certain track and drive the fastest possible lap without the need to worry what are the consequences if he crashes. Then comes the race day and there he can't take that much risks, because crashing can break his race. I'm sure that he won't shave off over 0,5s from the time.

There is something fishy going on with the timing.

 

[Alan_G]

When you're referring to "time warp", do you mean the way, at some point(s) on the circuit, the screen freezes momentarily? This happens to me a lot. The car is not freezing on track. It's still moving, but you just have no input to it.

When I said your car jumped back, I'm talking about general lag, and the whole way from La Source up to Les Combes. Coming onto the Kemmel straight, it was really risky using the slipstream because your car was lagging around quite a bit. There was the same problem in the practice race in the lobby that I hosted. It's definitely possible that you were losing time from this freeze, although to be honest I don't think it's likely. Did you pay attention to the 'Split Time' to Henrik or myself before & after crossing the line?

All I know is, doing 15+ consecutive laps helped me get into a seriously good rhythm, and find bits of time on track that I may not have found by doing quick time trials. Earlier in the race I was putting in high 2'29s thinking they were close to the limit. But as time went on, and I pushed the braking zones a fraction more, the tenths came off a lot - much more than expected.

I think that the car setup issues that JJ and me were raising are separate to this time-warp thing. The practice wet race problem I had was specifically a handling problem; there was noticeably less grip around fast corners.

 

[vompatti]

When you're referring to "time warp", do you mean the way, at some point(s) on the circuit, the screen freezes momentarily? This happens to me a lot. The car is not freezing on track. It's still moving, but you just have no input to it.

When I said your car jumped back, I'm talking about general lag, and the whole way from La Source up to Les Combes. Coming onto the Kemmel straight, it was really risky using the slipstream because your car was lagging around quite a bit. There was the same problem in the practice race in the lobby that I hosted. It's definitely possible that you were losing time from this freeze, although to be honest I don't think it's likely. Did you pay attention to the 'Split Time' to Henrik or myself before & after crossing the line?

All I know is, doing 15+ consecutive laps helped me get into a seriously good rhythm, and find bits of time on track that I may not have found by doing quick time trials. Earlier in the race I was putting in high 2'29s thinking they were close to the limit. But as time went on, and I pushed the braking zones a fraction more, the tenths came off a lot - much more than expected.

I think that the car setup issues that JJ and me were raising are separate to this time-warp thing. The practice wet race problem I had was specifically a handling problem; there was noticeably less grip around fast corners.

Yup, car was freezing on the screen. But as I said, before the freeze you were further back and after the freeze you were closer. Same goes for the splits, on the long straight it was easy to monitor. I always lost time when the freeze happened.


I didn't mean that my time-warp and the general weird stuff with the timing are related, just that there is something weird with the timing. Now that you have found those places where to gain time, I suggest that you go and do some TT and try to match your PB.

 

[Alan_G]

EDIT:

We are no F1 drivers, but if you give Vettel a mission for 2 weeks to practice certain track and drive the fastest possible lap without the need to worry what are the consequences if he crashes. Then comes the race day and there he can't take that much risks, because crashing can break his race. I'm sure that he won't shave off over 0,5s from the time.

There is something fishy going on with the timing.

Ah I understand what you mean.

Well, when you're talking about a timing problem, do you mean at the moment of crossing the line? Or somewhere else around the lap? One thing I do is to create my own split-times at particular places on track; for example, what is the laptime (approx) when passing the end of a particular curb, etc. For the Spa race, I had a split for touching the Pouhon exit curb (depending on line of course), and also for crossing the final-place grid hatching from the F1 grid spots. When I was putting in 2'29 laps, a low 1'09 was good for the Pouhon curb, and mid 2'07 for the grid hatching. I put in around 4 mid-high 2'28s, and for each of them, I could see at my split points that my laps were better than before (Pouhon curb was high 1'08, and grid spot was mid-high 2'06). So I knew during the lap that they were definitely better from previous ones.

Of course, there could be a timing problem at the start of the lap. To be honest, I've never had a reason to query this. I'm thinking hard about how these timing problems could occur, if they are there. The problem I have is that it has to happen locally, on the user's perspective, and I've never noticed anything online/offline with this. There is a huge bug (I believe in FC also) where the 1st lap of a TT session is always around 0.4 faster, because they messed up the way that control is released to the user, and the timing doesn't begin until after the line (I've never seen such a terrible bug - A timing bug, in a racing game!). So given my experience (and fury) at that TT bug, I will accept that almost any proposed bug is possible in this game.

About the Vettel thing practicing for two weeks (not comparing anyone here to Vettel!). Personally, it was really Wednesday of last week was when I got started really (and shaking off the GT5P steering feel is a big deal). So really, my TT laps were not bad, but there were not many practice laps behind them. Also, I always try to do TT and races in the same way. I think Henrik mentioned something about this - when he tried to be a bit cautious in the race, he actually made a mistake.

Compare this to the Vallelunga event; I did a lot of practice laps for that one over the 2 weeks, and in the race I could only get within 1 tenth of my TT best.

 

[vompatti]

Yeah, I may do that. Tuesday evening is the soonest.

Ok, I would be interested to hear the results.

Are you suggesting that the 28.5 I did could be partly due to a bug (such as improved grip)? I believe that there is something wrong with this game which means something players can go below the normal, but I'm not sure what would cause it to go above normal.

Well, I don't know. But if it's already known that players can go below the normal, why not above? I'm just thinking, that what if there is some difference between TT and online times. It wouldn't be the first game to have some difference and if I remember correctly, someone else has had these thoughts already before me (can't remember who). Of course online times are comparable between each others, so the differences between lap times in the event are what they are in the results.

My own times are the ones that got me thinking. Personally for me, I very rarely can match in a race my own times that are done with only one goal in mind: fastest lap as possible. Reasons for this are really simple. When I drive only for one fastest lap, I take a lot more risks and my focus for every input is to gain time. Of course this should be the same thing in a race, but it's quite a lot easier to focus hard for one lap instead of 20 laps. If I mess up, I start again at the next lap from scratch, with the same goal in mind. In a race situation, there is no room for mistakes so I can't really push that hard. Even if I'm trying to go fast, it's still not the same thing as when driving for a single fast lap.

This is basically how it's in every driving game I've played and I dare to say that this is how racing is for most people. If they drive for 20 laps only for the fastest lap, they might crash half the laps, but they'll still get a time that they can't beat in a race. Because there is no room for crashing in the race. For example on Dirt2 when we used to drive it online all the time, there was this one special stage that I had driven 2'57. I think that with more practice 2'56, maybe even faster was possible for me. But when we drove online, 2'59 was quite close the maximum I could drive. Otherwise the possibility of crashing became so big, that there was too big risk of not surviving till the end of the stage.

This is why I wonder how I was able to suddenly pull 0,4s faster lap time in a race, especially when the lap didn't feel at all that fast. To me, it's a bit weird if people drive a lot faster laps in a race (in clean air) compared to what they've done when practicing. Of course it's possible that this is the thing that's slowing my driving down, if I can't match my own PB's in races and others keep beating them

EDIT:

Well, when you're talking about a timing problem, do you mean at the moment of crossing the line?

What I meant with losing in splits was that running split for a car in front of me and behind me. Every time (on those 5 places on the track) I had that warp I lost time compared to car in front and in that warp point the car behind me gain time on me.

 

[Alan_G]

Yeah, I edited my previous post.

Well, I was much more comfortable beyond lap 10 in the race. I think having done 10 consecutive laps, there was a solid template in place for the lap (I reached a nice level of consistency). After that I could consciously pick 3 or 4 places to push it a bit more, and the rest of the laps until the end were much more threatening of 2'28s.

It was a very similar experience to the Silverstone event. I didn't do all that much practice beforehand, so I was still slightly improving during the race. I reached a consistent lapping level after which I consciously had to think about where to find a bit more time. After doing this, all of the laps until the end were a few tenths faster in Silverstone.

But anyway, I do take your point; there are a lot of things wrong with this game, and crucial timing bugs certainly could be in it.