Supercar Challenge - Ferrari Challenge Series - F355 Challenge Season
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Event No 2 - July 3rd, 2010 - 20:00 GMT - Hockenheimring - RACE RECAP
I want to thank those who participated in the 2nd round of the '1996' Ferrari F355 Challenge season from Hockenheim as well as apologize again to those who were caught out by the change of date and finally express my appreciation for any non-soccer/football fans who indulged the rest of us in the delay until the world cup match was over.
I normally take this opportunity to thank everybody for the clean racing exhibited and good sportsmanship observed. But in this case, I think everybody deserves a special mention because driving under these circumstances was nothing less than a horror show. I've noticed once or twice, particularly at Mugello during the 348 race, that a car or two momentarily exhibited strange lag where it seemed to shoot forward or backward 20 meters. During this race at Hockenheim it happened regularly and trying to figure out where other cars where was sometimes all but guesswork. I don't know whether this was because of the change to Saturday and there were simply more people logged onto the PSN or it was just a day with poor throughput and seek times from my connection or somebody else's. I did a ping test and speed test after the event and I found nothing unusual. And as always, I went through the trouble to hard wire my connection and re-sync my router and modem before the event. I guess yesterday was just, "one of those days." And we'll have to hope it was simply an anomaly.
QUALIFYING: 2 laps - conditions 50% dry/wet chosen at random
I flipped a coin and tails meant it was wet qualifying for the 2nd time. I was able to set a relatively clean lap until the final 2-corner complex where I lost ~ 1 full second, but it was still enough to put me 3rd on the grid. Turnupdaheat had a problem with his controller so he had to leave the lobby and voluntarily pushed himself back to last for the start of the race.
1) - mhm66 - enzo - 1:57.19
2) - arvore - Mandolin Club Racing - 1:57.89
3) - jjaisli - Forza G27 - 1:58.52
4) - FINGERSANDTHUMBS - Creative - 1:58.64
5) - Redgate - Eurogamer - 1:59.72
6) - kemp1010 - MX - 2:00.06
7) - GTP_bullie77 - Lusitania Racing - 2:03.17
8) - turnupdaheat - ScudEire - DQ
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RACE 1 (Feature Race): - 20 Laps - Dry
I made a decent start for this race and was going to try and take arvore up the inside around turn 1. I was just entering the turn and was tapped from the right rear quarter. At the time I didn't realize but I may have then inadventernly side swiped arvore in that corner. Or he may have gone wide after making contact with mhm. The view from my car, the speed at which is happens and the lag makes it difficult to tell.
From that point on, and for the next 5 laps, I had a dice with Henrik with several other drivers, including FINGERSANDTHUMBS, kemp1010 & tunrupdaheat, all putting a nose in here or there. Sometimes, quite literally.
On the very first lap, down the long straight toward the hairpin, mhm66's car suddenly slowed down while I was drafting him and I realized that lag was going to be a problem. I tried my best to be careful with my lines and not to get too close to him, but I think I touched him at least twice more and I know he was having similar problems because he also touched me several times from behind, once knocking me slightly off the road at the Mercedes
Arena, but graciously waiting for me to regain the position and allow turnupdaheat to get by momentarily as well.
At this point, I was already growing frustrated and wondered if others up and down the field were experiencing the same horrible lag as henrik and I were. I really get little enjoyment racing under these circumstances because it becomes more an exercise in 'walking on eggs' around the field and you can't really drive and race others in an aggressive (but fair) way.
As I already mentioned in my post above, at the beginning of lap 6, the weird lag which seemed to happen on every lap, just before braking for turn one, caused havoc. My screen momentarily froze, Henrik hit me from behind and I shot forward, into the wall, bounced off, spun around and bounced back onto the track, and ended up backwards, against the wall on the inside of turn 1. Credit to both mhm & turnupdaheat who were able to avoid me.
I'm sure it looked pretty spectacular from the outside. And of course had this been a real accident, or let's say, if this game modeled damage properly, I would not have been able to continue the race. But as this incident was not really my fault or anybody else's, I was glad to continue. I finally got moving again in last place and met Henrik a km or so up the road, who was patiently waiting for me like a true gentlemen.
Unfortunately, lag problems continued for me. Trying to get around bullie, I twice knocked him a bit off line and thought it was unfair to complete the pass and hesitated. And when I finally got around him, he knocked me off the track in the corner going into the Mercedes arena and it took me a few seconds to get back onto the road. I'm sure, as with Henrik, this was not his fault and it was down to lag as 3 different people hit me from behind at this spot. I was taking my usual line and had no such problems in practice.
By this point, I was more than 7 seconds behind Redgate but was able to catch up after a few laps. Unfortunately, some lag at the first corner, in the same spot Henrik hit me, put me off and I hit him from behind and forced him wide into the gravel. I backed off and waited for him but the result was more wasted time for both of us. I did manage to pass him a lap later but with about 7-8 laps left, Kemp was >12 seconds in front of me and I didn't think it was possible to catch him anymore.
On the final lap, he and Arvore changed places and I was slowly reeling them in. I finished the race about 0.30 behind Arvore (and even though the game showed me finishing in 5th place, it was clear to me he was ahead). But once again, this shows just how bad the lag was.
All credit to mhm66, who not only slowed down and voluntarily put himself in last place because of our incident, but then when on to romp through the field and finish first, passing tunrupdaheat on the very last lap. Well done. And that tenacity shows why he's leading this series. My hat is off to him.
Feature Race Results:
1) - mhm66 - enzo - 1:51.70 - 26
2) - tunrupdaheat - ScudEire - 1:53.77 - 20
3) - FINGERSANDTHUMBS - Creative - 1:53.35 - 16
4) - kemp1010 - MX - 1:53.64 - 13
5) - arvore - Mandolin Club Racing - 1:53.37 - 11
6) - jjaisli - Forza G27 - 1:52.58 - 10
7) - Redgate - Eurogamer - 1:54.22 - 9
8) - GTP_bullie77 - Lusitania Racing - 1:55.65 - 8
Total Race Time: - 38 minutes, 17 seconds
[YOUTUBEhd]fQzudlhzcZg[/YOUTUBEhd]
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RACE 2 (Sprint Race): 15 Laps - Wet
Going into the Sprint Race, I thought I would have a much better chance considering I was starting near the front of the field and Henrik was starting near the back. And the start was indeed pretty good, as I managed to get around Arvore (who my have let me by?) and Redgate, and entered turn one right behind the leader.
I had a chance to get around bullie at the hairpin but the lag and uncertainty of my braking point in the wet made me hesitate. He eventually made a mistake at the Mercedes Arena and I was able to get by. But it seemed like chaos was taking place in my rear view mirror with at least 3 other cars going off the track in this spot. I can see it in the video but during the race, I was only paying attention to the track in front of me.
By the time mhm66 appeared in 2nd behind me, I had built up a lead of about 9 seconds. I had hoped to try and maintain it, as when things were equal and we were both 'on it' he was only about 0.3 a lap faster. But a series of small mistakes here or there meant every 3rd lap he was closing on me by 2-3 seconds.
When you race a guy like henrik, you can't afford ANY mistakes.
I was so nervous about the lag, and my mistakes were making me so frustrated, that I kept looking back to see where mhm was (2 laps from the end) and I misjudged the kink down the straight and drove straight onto the grass at > 200 kmh. I kept it together but by the time I reached the braking zone, Henrik was > 3 seconds up the road.
At that point, the car in 3rd was more than 30 seconds behind me. Knowing Henrik was slightly faster and much more consistent, I didn't bother to fight it and just coasted to the finish line, at least consolidated something.
Sprint Race Results:
1) - mhm66 - enzo - 1:56.60 - 13
2) - jjaisli - Forza G27 - 1:57.20 - 10
3) - arvore - Mandolin Club Racing - 1:57.86 - 8
4) - FINGERSANDTHUMBS - Creative - 1:57.97 - 6
5) - turnupdaheat - ScudEire - 1:58.20 - 5
6) - Redgate - Eurogamer - 1:58.75 - 4
7) - kemp1010 - MX - 1:58.97 - 3
8) - GTP_bullie77 - Lusitania Racing - RTD - 2
Total Race Time: - 29 minutes, 35 seconds
[YOUTUBEhd]JsXtfvQl4k4[/YOUTUBEhd]
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Combined Results from Round 2:
1) - mhm66 - enzo - 39
2) - turnupdaheat - ScudEire - 25
3) - FINGERSANDTHUMBS - Creative - 22
4) - jjaisli - Forza G27 - 20
5) - arvore - Mandolin Club Racing - 19
6) - kemp1010 - MX - 16
7) - Redgate - Eurogamer - 13
8) - GTP_Bullie77 - Lusitania Racing - 10
Mmh66 puts in another dominant showing, taking first place in both the feature and sprint race. Turnupdaheat shows that he lost very little of his speed, despite his limited practice and time away from this game. And Fingersandthumbs continues his impressive display of speed and consistency
I can only say, after all these problems, I'm glad to put this event behind us. Hopefully, newcomer Redgate will be back with the knowledge that the lag and issues in this round was a bit of an anomaly and not typical of what we run into during these races. I thank those for coming and participating and in two weeks, we'll be back to our regular Sunday time. See you in Silverstone.
Combined Series Standings (After 2 Rounds)
1) - mhm66 - enzo - 76
2) - jjaisli - ForzaG27 - 52
3) - FINGERSANDTHUMBS - Creative - 39
4) - arvore - Mandolin Club Racing - 36
5) - turnupdaheat - ScudEire - 33
6) - kemp1010 - MX - 30
7) - GTP_Bullie77 - Lusitania Racing - 18
7) - GTP_Hun - T L Team - 18
9) - new_soul - UKOG - 16
10) - Redgate - Eurogamer - 13
11) - L449KUX - TheRacingElite - 10
12) - Simcoeace - Mad Dogs - 6
13) - Firedshot - TheRacingElite - 4
EDIT: I have no idea what the heck is going on with YouTube. Sometimes live linking works, sometimes it doesn't. Now I have one video working, another not working...anybody have a clue?
) so I tend to devour as much information I can... I tried to play it back in the days of youth (I was central defender for a small local team, Estrela da Amadora) in their youth academy but, lets just say that I was as good at it as I am racing in SCC...
)... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!! 
But at least I'm feeling better and more comfortable with my setup.
Lausanne, Lausanne,...???
:idea
h yea but it's where I live!!!
Sad too read that, but the family...
If this had been my first experience with this game it would have turned me off completely. 
