Wednesdays TOYOTA 2000GT 20:30-21:30 GMT- Congratulations Champion PimikiFinished 

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Just like the Chevy thread,the Toyota was even worse. Really slippery and I couldn't get it to turn in. Amazed how fast everyone else was in the Toyota!!

Anyway as per Chevy thread, I'm away next week so will miss the races.

Have fun.

:cheers:
 
I'm back in full force now for the Round 6! The suspension has been served, therefore, I'll be there in this Wednesday!

By the way, I practised today and my best lap time is 2'09.4xx.

However, I'm not sure if the Daytona Road Course will be the Variable Weather or then it will be the Daytona Road Course without Weather and Time Change.
 
I'm not sure if the Daytona Road Course will be the Variable Weather or the Daytona Road Course without Weather and Time Change.

Without the weather - where possible I use the tracks without variable time and weather as this puts less strain on the PS3.


Please be on best behaviour Harsk - no contact with other drivers - be patient, take your time and use your skills to pass when safe.

Time Change to GMT

Just a quick reminder to everyone that the UK changed time from BST to GMT today. If you are not in the UK please check how this will affect you before the race on Friday so that you do not risk missing the meeting.

NB there is a big update (Monday) for PSN required before you can log in to GT6 so allow plenty of time to get that done before the race.
 
Daytona Road Course 20 minute endurance with stock LMPs, tyre change required, was an event I won in the Art of Racing Grand Championship with one of my all-time best drives. Today I could not find the pace, best was about 1:10 while the leading few could do 1:09 and even 1:08.

I didn't get a clear lap before we started the qualifying race. I got blocked in last sector before my only full lap without other cars and only got 2 complete laps. So I started way down and felt like I was going to have a disappointing evening.

Started 9th on the grid.

@richroo span as he changed to 2nd gear off the 40° start grid. I nearly did as well! The front of the field was clear and I'd gotten a good start, up to 7th. Got around turn 1 safe and so did everyone else, it seems.

@simba2009lora and @buybon355 had gotten close in the pit exit chicane and I had a run on them into the 2nd hairpin. Hit the brakes but it was dirty on the inside of the track and I didn't slow down quite enough. When I realised a collision was inevitable, I hit Start to ghost myself and avoid ruining their exciting early laps. Hope that's OK @Sick Cylinder I was only 1 car width away from the apex but the angle might have spun out BuyBon. 30-40s in the replay.

At the final chicane I got a good line in while Simba and BuyBon were watching each other. Gained a slight overlap on Simba and trail-braked to take and ultra tight line, leaving a lane free for the exit. Simba saw me approaching and seemed to think the worst! He left too much space on the inside and went onto the grass. He left a lane free on the high banking and I had enough of a run to get alongside...but his shorter path meant he finished that very long final turn in front!

As I fell down off the banking I seemed to gain speed while he scrubbed it off when the banking smoothed out. I went to his inside and now had the shorter line, dring past at the finish line. He braked early and carefully for turn 1 as he was high on the banking. Ahead of us, @buybon355 had crashed at turn 1 and the smoke might have distracted Simba. Simba spun on the brakes and couldn't spin the wheel fast enough to catch it. He hit the pit exit barrier and lay stranded at the apex, facing @Sick Cylinder ! A terrifying moment for any racing driver, but no significant damage thanks to the tyre protection.

@buybon355 span again when he rejoined the track, his tyres no doubt full of mud. He hit the pit lane barrier and also faced the wrong way as @Sick Cylinder approached! I passed him before the spin.

+0.000 @Heyzeusss666
+2.280 @Zolon32
+2.569 @BTH_pimiki54
+3.356 @Harsk100
+7.107 @BenMillard
+10.73 @Sick Cylinder

2nd, 3rd and 4th were nose to tail and at the start of Lap 3, Pimiki out-braked Zolon around the outside into turn 1. Well worth watching this move at 4:30 in the replay. He set the fastest sector 2 just after the pass, to secure his advantage.

At the end of this lap, @Zolon32 hit the exit wall of the final chicane just as @Harsk100 had nailed the exit perfectly. Zolon stayed high, which was fair, while Harsk darted down the banking to drive past. I was now just a couple of seconds behind Zolon but got too excited, crashing at turn 1!

3 minutes left in the race. The places were about to change again.

Lap 4 and @Harsk100 goes wide into the grass at the 2nd hairpin! @Zolon32 had not given up and was close enough to go past while Harsk returned to the tarmac.

Pimiki was closing on @HeyZeusss666 through the final chicane at 8:20 but not enough to make a pass. That had to wait until the final lap, from 9:10 to 9:30. Zeus ran a bit deep at the 2nd hairpin and Pimiki got a run. It was enough for an overlap through the very fast left and he crowded Zeus at the edge of the track before choosing a sharp turn in. Zeus had to concede the place as the track gets dirty if you aren't ultra tight through there.

That's how the places finished! I was happy to salvage a 5th as I finished over 5 seconds behind 4th place. 6th place Simba was about 6 seconds behind me.

Not my best ever drive, as I crashed at turn 1 twice and it was hard enough to picked up damage once! However, for much of the race I was consistently doing 1:10s and that ultimately kept me in clean air.

Starting 5th can be the worst place. There are 2 full rows of cars ahead slowing each other down and everyone else is trying to push forward from behind, possibly blind from any tyre smoke. But the start was ultra clean, for me.

When the lights went out, @HeyZeusss666 stalled from pole position! I can only imagine the language in the cockpit of the car at that moment.

I had a decent reaction and judged the grip just about right. Steering down the banking and balancing the gas, I was in 3rd as we approached him! I had to go high as Zolon was low and Harsk was alongside him. The high line gave me a good view of the separation between the front 3 as we started the long, curving turn 1 braking zone.

Zolon and @Harsk100 braked lightly and early. To ensure a clean entry. Harsk turned into Zolon a little and bounced off while Zolon stabbed the brakes to avoid harder contact. I rolled through behind Harsk and Zolon left space to the inside - top marks for sportsmanship! I left a lane to the inside but my crazy setup gave neat mid-turn rotation and there was no overlap by the acceleration zone. We had were single file through the horrible pit exit chicane. Respect all round. 👍 👍 👍

For the 2nd chicane, @Harsk100 offset himself from Pimiki to avoid any contact and potentially get an overlap. I had done the same to Harsk which left me 3 car widths off line. As I had no overlap to Zolon I moved to the racing line but Harsk was stopping better than me and I nudged his tail. This sent him forwards and he nudged Pimiki! Thank goodness everyone got off the corner smoothly...no harm done.

My exit wasn't quite as good and Zolon had an overlap as he went towards the fast left kink. He backed out and let me take the line. Must have been playing the long game: to get a good result you have to stay with the lead group, not get drawn into mid-pack battles. Smart racing, again. 👍

I managed to string some very fast splits (equal to the leaders) immediately after this, to gain a 1.7 second advantage and a relatively relaxed 3rd place. Harsk was about 1 second ahead of me. Pimiki was about 0.8 ahead of Harsk.

It didn't last long, as at 6:40 I had my first turn 1 crash and let Zolon back through. Simba maybe got distracted and had some weird throttle overlap just before the corner got really tight. This created a tiny bit of understeer and he touched the grass with the outside tyres. It was enough to spin him out in a moment! Very cruel result to a very small mistake. 👎

HeyZeus did the same thing on the same lap, at 7:10! He finished in a more awkward position and must have felt any chance of a good recovery from stalling at the start was now over. But he turned it around and kept running!

My entry into turn 1 at 9:00 is worth a watch. :lol: At 10:40 Zolon32 gets a bad exit from the final chicane while mine is pretty good. I take the high line around the long banking but have an extra 20km/h for an easy pass. This was the lap I set a 2:08.888 just 0.2 off the fastest of the race! Maybe closing the gap so fast pressured Zolan into the mistake?

Either way, now I see the secret of the fast drivers is simply they can achieve the fastest pace on most of their laps. Speaking of the fastest drivers, @Harsk100 disconnected somewhere in here. :(

@Zolon32 was sticking to the track but I set the fastest first sector of the race at 35.6! The gap was 2.5 seconds at 14:00. A couple more strong sectors (on pace with Pimiki at this lap!) and I finally broke @Zolon32 completely. He span out at the final chicane exit - a corner he must hate, now! @Simba2009Lora gets past him while he recovers from the apron.

I complete the lap to set a 2:08.799 which is about 2 seconds faster than my 'normal' pace. Somehow I found the secrets of this track right when I needed them. Relaxing a bit, I do a 2:09.450 and then settle into 1:10s until the end of the race.


Setup Evolution
During the evening I had tried a few small, random changes to my setup. These were aimed at increasing rotation at turn in and mid corner, while keeping traction at the exit. Tuning it for V-shaped driving line, which Pimki seems to make work so well. It's also where PD paint the almost invisible grippy line and where they put extra banking to make the car lean into the turn.

This favouritism for ultra tight apex, with early entry seems very strong in the way Daytona was made. And very hard to reach with DS3 on CM tyres in a car this old! :lol: But that's the challenge we sign up for. :cool:

Here's the tune I raced with tonight:
Stats (should be the same for everyone)
463pp
276bhp
937kg
29.4kg/m

Suspension
100 70 (+5mm nose, -15mm tail than my last tune, to create more mid corner rotation and because most of the fast driver cars looked even more 'jacked up' than my previous tune)
min min (-0.04 front than my last tune)
1 1
1 1 (instead of 4 3)
6 4 (instead of 7 4 because Zolan32 car looked very soft and he set amazing test times)
0.0 0.0
-0.05 0.07

Racing Brakes
5 5 (instead of 8 4 when I noticed Pimi gets a lot of rotation on turn-in, think he may run rear bias and that's why he uses a LOT of gas overlap with brake to maximise the ABS)

Gearbox
(Same as other tune, just longer final drive.)
Max: 180km/h
1: 2.500
2: 1.800
3: 1.450
4: 1.200
5: 1.000
Final: 3.500

Differential
5 6 5 (instead of 5 5 5 when I noticed inside rear always spinning first in the hairpins - very low speed ~180° turns 4 times in this lap so it seems important to balance traction left and right)

Power (should be same for everyone)
100%
All parts except NOS
Sports Exhaust
Oil Change

Body (should be same for everyone)
Stage 3 Weight Reduction
Carbon Bonnet (Body Colour - I'm not a ricer)
Window Weight Reduction
No ballast
No downforce (although you lose some braking grip in slipstream...The Real Driving Simulator™)
Standard chassis
Maybe some others share their most recent tune now? :gtpflag:

EDIT: See also my Willow Springs: Big Willow traction tune for DS3.
 
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Well, I wasn't expecting that I would be disconnected during the race, because I was doing a good race, chasing after Pimiki and when I got Disconnected, I knew that I hadn't done a good race.

Because of that, I'm too far behind Pimiki... :(
 
Great race summary Ben!

I managed to qualify in 2nd place at literally the last second before the qualifying race started! I had practised starting on the banking before so I was confident I would get ahead into T1. Luckily pimiki got held up battling and I managed to get a bit of gap going. But it wasn't enough once pimiki got a head of steam going and he took the pole position without any trouble.

For the feature I thought i would get a great start again and be in good shape for a possible podium. Unfortunately, I accidentally let go of the ebrake in the start line which earned me a 4 second penalty. I did cuss quite loudly when that happened... repeatedly. I was basically on tilt from that point on.
I tried battling back but I couldn't make clean passes, so my apologies to everyone, however I did self-penalize in order to keep it fair. So after passing everyone twice (once dirty, once clean) I managed to grab 6th place.
 
Great write up @BenMillard - your race report reminds me of a documentary I saw years ago about the McLaren F1 team - they showed Michael Andretti being debriefed during testing by his Technician then they showed Ayrton Senna's debrief. Michael said a couple of sentences which revealed a little, but Ayrton produced a veritable textbook of information, describing from memory in minute detail everything he had noticed about the car and its behaviour at every point on the circuit including where the changes made had helped and where they had hindered his performance - it was truly both spell binding and awe inspiring and you knew from one listen that you were in the company of motorsport greatness - an absolute master of his craft. When Michael spoke it was the commentary of a seemingly normal man, albeit a professional race driver. When Ayrton spoke the level of detail had a superhuman quality - seemingly way beyond the senses of a normal man. (NB in your report Ben, sometimes the lap times begin with a 1 - I believe all the laps would be over 2 minutes).

I'm only a normal man so I can only remember a few details: At the start Zeus was slow away and I felt that I could have passed, but I knew he had been very fast in the qualification race so I hung back. I had suffered a slight bobble off the line despite being gentle and although already near the back lost a few more places. For the first four laps I just couldn't get back the rhythm I had found in the quali race - I kept misjudging the braking for the chicane, going onto the grass and losing a lot of speed. Eventually I found a rhythm, albeit a slow one and occasionally drivers in front would make a mistake and drop back in sight. On the last lap I focussed on staying low on the banking so Rich would have to go around the outside and I just managed to hold him off by a few hundredths.

Below revised points table including rounds 5 and 6. Note in round 5 Maximusmonster's car @nonka failed post race scrutineering due to incorrect tyres and was therefore dropped two places in the results.

Pictures are from Round 5 at Madrid - Round 6 photos to follow.


It is kind of Ben to share his setup with us and could be very useful to other DS3 users such as Harsk. I recently found a Praiano (wheel user) tune for the Toyota 2000GT so will try it out later and report whether I find any advantage over my current standard race soft suspension setup - NB normally I find GTPlanet tunes are not any quicker than race soft suspension coupled with tweaked brake and LSD settings unless the car handles badly as standard.

Round 5 Slide 1.jpg
Round 6 Points.jpg


Note we have a few spaces if people want to join for the second half of this series - if interested please contact Sick_Cylinder asap.
 
Daytona Road Course 20 minute endurance with stock LMPs, tyre change required, was an event I won in the Art of Racing Grand Championship with one of my all-time best drives. Today I could not find the pace, best was about 1:10 while the leading few could do 1:09 and even 1:08.

I didn't get a clear lap before we started the qualifying race. I got blocked in last sector before my only full lap without other cars and only got 2 complete laps. So I started way down and felt like I was going to have a disappointing evening.

Started 9th on the grid.

@richroo span as he changed to 2nd gear off the 40° start grid. I nearly did as well! The front of the field was clear and I'd gotten a good start, up to 7th. Got around turn 1 safe and so did everyone else, it seems.

@simba2009lora and @buybon355 had gotten close in the pit exit chicane and I had a run on them into the 2nd hairpin. Hit the brakes but it was dirty on the inside of the track and I didn't slow down quite enough. When I realised a collision was inevitable, I hit Start to ghost myself and avoid ruining their exciting early laps. Hope that's OK @Sick Cylinder I was only 1 car width away from the apex but the angle might have spun out BuyBon. 30-40s in the replay.

At the final chicane I got a good line in while Simba and BuyBon were watching each other. Gained a slight overlap on Simba and trail-braked to take and ultra tight line, leaving a lane free for the exit. Simba saw me approaching and seemed to think the worst! He left too much space on the inside and went onto the grass. He left a lane free on the high banking and I had enough of a run to get alongside...but his shorter path meant he finished that very long final turn in front!

As I fell down off the banking I seemed to gain speed while he scrubbed it off when the banking smoothed out. I went to his inside and now had the shorter line, dring past at the finish line. He braked early and carefully for turn 1 as he was high on the banking. Ahead of us, @buybon355 had crashed at turn 1 and the smoke might have distracted Simba. Simba spun on the brakes and couldn't spin the wheel fast enough to catch it. He hit the pit exit barrier and lay stranded at the apex, facing @Sick Cylinder ! A terrifying moment for any racing driver, but no significant damage thanks to the tyre protection.

@buybon355 span again when he rejoined the track, his tyres no doubt full of mud. He hit the pit lane barrier and also faced the wrong way as @Sick Cylinder approached! I passed him before the spin.

+0.000 @Heyzeusss666
+2.280 @Zolon32
+2.569 @BTH_pimiki54
+3.356 @Harsk100
+7.107 @BenMillard
+10.73 @Sick Cylinder

2nd, 3rd and 4th were nose to tail and at the start of Lap 3, Pimiki out-braked Zolon around the outside into turn 1. Well worth watching this move at 4:30 in the replay. He set the fastest sector 2 just after the pass, to secure his advantage.

At the end of this lap, @Zolon32 hit the exit wall of the final chicane just as @Harsk100 had nailed the exit perfectly. Zolon stayed high, which was fair, while Harsk darted down the banking to drive past. I was now just a couple of seconds behind Zolon but got too excited, crashing at turn 1!

3 minutes left in the race. The places were about to change again.

Lap 4 and @Harsk100 goes wide into the grass at the 2nd hairpin! @Zolon32 had not given up and was close enough to go past while Harsk returned to the tarmac.

Pimiki was closing on @HeyZeusss666 through the final chicane at 8:20 but not enough to make a pass. That had to wait until the final lap, from 9:10 to 9:30. Zeus ran a bit deep at the 2nd hairpin and Pimiki got a run. It was enough for an overlap through the very fast left and he crowded Zeus at the edge of the track before choosing a sharp turn in. Zeus had to concede the place as the track gets dirty if you aren't ultra tight through there.

That's how the places finished! I was happy to salvage a 5th as I finished over 5 seconds behind 4th place. 6th place Simba was about 6 seconds behind me.

Not my best ever drive, as I crashed at turn 1 twice and it was hard enough to picked up damage once! However, for much of the race I was consistently doing 1:10s and that ultimately kept me in clean air.

Starting 5th can be the worst place. There are 2 full rows of cars ahead slowing each other down and everyone else is trying to push forward from behind, possibly blind from any tyre smoke. But the start was ultra clean, for me.

When the lights went out, @HeyZeusss666 stalled from pole position! I can only imagine the language in the cockpit of the car at that moment.

I had a decent reaction and judged the grip just about right. Steering down the banking and balancing the gas, I was in 3rd as we approached him! I had to go high as Zolon was low and Harsk was alongside him. The high line gave me a good view of the separation between the front 3 as we started the long, curving turn 1 braking zone.

Zolon and @Harsk100 braked lightly and early. To ensure a clean entry. Harsk turned into Zolon a little and bounced off while Zolon stabbed the brakes to avoid harder contact. I rolled through behind Harsk and Zolon left space to the inside - top marks for sportsmanship! I left a lane to the inside but my crazy setup gave neat mid-turn rotation and there was no overlap by the acceleration zone. We had were single file through the horrible pit exit chicane. Respect all round. 👍 👍 👍

For the 2nd chicane, @Harsk100 offset himself from Pimiki to avoid any contact and potentially get an overlap. I had done the same to Harsk which left me 3 car widths off line. As I had no overlap to Zolon I moved to the racing line but Harsk was stopping better than me and I nudged his tail. This sent him forwards and he nudged Pimiki! Thank goodness everyone got off the corner smoothly...no harm done.

My exit wasn't quite as good and Zolon had an overlap as he went towards the fast left kink. He backed out and let me take the line. Must have been playing the long game: to get a good result you have to stay with the lead group, not get drawn into mid-pack battles. Smart racing, again. 👍

I managed to string some very fast splits (equal to the leaders) immediately after this, to gain a 1.7 second advantage and a relatively relaxed 3rd place. Harsk was about 1 second ahead of me. Pimiki was about 0.8 ahead of Harsk.

It didn't last long, as at 6:40 I had my first turn 1 crash and let Zolon back through. Simba maybe got distracted and had some weird throttle overlap just before the corner got really tight. This created a tiny bit of understeer and he touched the grass with the outside tyres. It was enough to spin him out in a moment! Very cruel result to a very small mistake. 👎

HeyZeus did the same thing on the same lap, at 7:10! He finished in a more awkward position and must have felt any chance of a good recovery from stalling at the start was now over. But he turned it around and kept running!

My entry into turn 1 at 9:00 is worth a watch. :lol: At 10:40 Zolon32 gets a bad exit from the final chicane while mine is pretty good. I take the high line around the long banking but have an extra 20km/h for an easy pass. This was the lap I set a 2:08.888 just 0.2 off the fastest of the race! Maybe closing the gap so fast pressured Zolan into the mistake?

Either way, now I see the secret of the fast drivers is simply they can achieve the fastest pace on most of their laps. Speaking of the fastest drivers, @Harsk100 disconnected somewhere in here. :(

@Zolon32 was sticking to the track but I set the fastest first sector of the race at 35.6! The gap was 2.5 seconds at 14:00. A couple more strong sectors (on pace with Pimiki at this lap!) and I finally broke @Zolon32 completely. He span out at the final chicane exit - a corner he must hate, now! @Simba2009Lora gets past him while he recovers from the apron.

I complete the lap to set a 2:08.799 which is about 2 seconds faster than my 'normal' pace. Somehow I found the secrets of this track right when I needed them. Relaxing a bit, I do a 2:09.450 and then settle into 1:10s until the end of the race.


Setup Evolution
During the evening I had tried a few small, random changes to my setup. These were aimed at increasing rotation at turn in and mid corner, while keeping traction at the exit. Tuning it for V-shaped driving line, which Pimki seems to make work so well. It's also where PD paint the almost invisible grippy line and where they put extra banking to make the car lean into the turn.

This favouritism for ultra tight apex, with early entry seems very strong in the way Daytona was made. And very hard to reach with DS3 on CM tyres in a car this old! :lol: But that's the challenge we sign up for. :cool:

Here's the tune I raced with tonight:
Stats (should be the same for everyone)
463pp
276bhp
937kg
29.4kg/m

Suspension
100 70 (+5mm nose, -15mm tail than my last tune, to create more mid corner rotation and because most of the fast driver cars looked even more 'jacked up' than my previous tune)
min min (-0.04 front than my last tune)
1 1
1 1 (instead of 4 3)
6 4 (instead of 7 4 because Zolan32 car looked very soft and he set amazing test times)
0.0 0.0
-0.05 0.07

Racing Brakes
5 5 (instead of 8 4 when I noticed Pimi gets a lot of rotation on turn-in, think he may run rear bias and that's why he uses a LOT of gas overlap with brake to maximise the ABS)

Gearbox
(Same as other tune, just longer final drive.)
Max: 180km/h
1: 2.500
2: 1.800
3: 1.450
4: 1.200
5: 1.000
Final: 3.500

Differential
5 6 5 (instead of 5 5 5 when I noticed inside rear always spinning first in the hairpins - very low speed ~180° turns 4 times in this lap so it seems important to balance traction left and right)

Power (should be same for everyone)
100%
All parts except NOS
Sports Exhaust
Oil Change

Body (should be same for everyone)
Stage 3 Weight Reduction
Carbon Bonnet (Body Colour - I'm not a ricer)
Window Weight Reduction
No ballast
No downforce (although you lose some braking grip in slipstream...The Real Driving Simulator™)
Standard chassis
Maybe some others share their most recent tune now? :gtpflag:


I still have not found the right setting for my driving style GTPlanet .This is the only guideline must be good for everyone in the car to you. When we go to the factory settings just because I suffer through the tuning deficiencies.
Difficulty in adapting to the factory setting but perhaps the reason it's own settings.
First symmetrically saying the front and backs prisoner from beginning to freeze and boil but "at a time is set to one" attention and behavior. All other settings must orbit. The transmission setting is very important due to full throttle.
So already experienced a behavioral error recovery options include how to improve driveability and so is expected to improve the lap times as well.
The Lexlator version of the same setup we could not go because it does not match your driving style and shared with each other our setting.

Sorry for machine translation!

postscript:

I do not understand V concentration curves Describe please!
 
If you do not insult a few comments regarding the setting'm at work so I can not tell numerical setting but can also be set to yourself:
- High and soft to the front shock absorber / heavy motor / load switching is not stable
- Long track is not usually toe and toe slows the car just stopped because you are very wrong turn
- The brake, I think it was 6 5 4 ABS
- The differential brake better used
- Gearing the end it was a little bit Longer
- Helping the throttle cornering

Maybe that's a good trial and error!

post files: The track is the most important knowledge !!!!
 
@Zolon32 top picture is nearest. But the turn-in and drive-off phase should be shaped like the 2nd picture.

Turn in early, stay tight, create high rate of rotation, keep rotating, then drive off nearly straight.

The long left near the end of Madrid is very extreme example of where Kaz painted sticky grey paint. You must be half a car inside the kerb to get the extra rotation. Then you only go to middle of track through the exit, if you go further wide your car will slide and get more wheelspin.

It is very unnatural. You are forced to drive an 'aesthetic' line in GT6 to match the 'textbook' style PDI feel is 'right'. It is not a true racing line, by my understanding anyway.

Some tracks are a bit more natural and the grip paint is wider - Cape Ring South has narrow inside line for hairpins but very wide sticky area at the end of the longest fastest right.

Bathurst has extreme ridge shape along the road. You turn early here to get a banked turn effect. And you stay tight, then exit late to avoid going off camber too soon. That is authentic to the real track: it's mostly a public road and must drain well in (rare) storms.

It's a track where overtaking requires high awareness, patience and extra racing room between all drivers. The braking zones will be extremely long in places, I expect! Hope to try it out next week.
 
Awesome...my absolute best offline time was 2:34.7 but it was a total fluke. Best laps were 2:35 and most around 2:37, 2:38 or 2:39.

Online I was about 1 second slower. In the practise session my best lap was about 5th. Wanted stronger braking so I altered the balance. This erased the time I set and I started the race dead last in 13th! Never saw this happen before...usually your time is stored for the whole session.

The grid is ultra tight here, everyone nose to tail and door to door at the start. Quite a lot happening from the start and the first two sectors.

@tarnheld crashed and had suspension damage. As he limped over the mountain, @Sick Cylinder and I approached at high speed. I tried to ghost through it as my life flashed before my eyes. :eek:

At some point during the race I tapped the back of @Sick Cylinder near the start of sector 2, the awkward left kind before the steeply uphill left hairpin. (Turn 3 and 4 I think.) He had very slow apex speed and was holding a defensive line. The defensive line here only became apparent when I was already committed to an inside pass. It's a continuous braking zone. He slid wide but regained traction before touching the wall.

Sorry for my message during the race; with my pre-qualify time erased I was feeling so frustrated. To then be blocked from passing (fairly) for minor places when I had a lot more pace was adding insult to injury! Then encountering a slow car on the racing line, with a bunch of cars seeming to cruise through certain sections...it really felt like my whole evening was ruined.

But I soldiered on rather than retire to the pit lane. Finished the race in 9th place with a strong lap (for me) near the end.

Starting from 9th seems to be a habit for me. :lol: Quite a few races in this series I've started from 9th and reached 5th, 4th or even 3rd.

The early laps were lucky for me. Staying ultra tight through turn 1, I sneaked inside some of the mid pack drama with a clear run in a 6 car slipstream to turn 2.

Braked early and switched to inside line when I saw the car ahead was taking a wide exit. It moved towards the inside but thankfully I had already slipped by, using the massive banking on the ultra tight inside line. (It's like driving on the Daytona banking, if you don't touch the kerb!)

There was a slow moving car at the exit of turn 2. It had slid to the inside, I think and it sensible held that side allowing cars on the racing line at racing speed to go past. That included me! The car immediately behind the slow one looked a bit boxed in.

@buybon355 clipped the outside wall in one of the fast right kinks on top of the mountain. It rebounded his car back around, nose first into the wall. The nose dug in and he was broadside to the racing line. Thankfully my preferred tight line gave me enough wiggle room to cut even tighter to the inside. The car behind me, @simbalora2009 may have been less fortunate. If there was any collision, we can only count our blessings it was not the driver side door.

Somehow, my luck and caution had landed me in the upper mid pack. Think I stayed in 4th for the rest of the race, although my pace was all over the place.

To begin with, the clear air and good fortune got me into my stride. I was reeling in @Zolon32 and fancied my chances at capitalising on the inevitable ABS 0 lock-ups he would encounter. Sure enough, he went from a speck on the horizon to a blob in the middle distance. But he never became a smear on Mount Panorama's walls...exceptional brake control. :bowdown:

@Pimasz was also in sight, just a couple of seconds ahead of @Zolon32 . Maybe a podium was possible for me, on a track I hate so much? Well...no. I lost my mojo and my lap times fell by a couple of seconds a lap. @Pimasz also pulled himself together and drove away from us, little by little.

A few times I saw @simbalora2009 and @richroo closing in on me. But they were always 5-10 seconds behind me. Until I softly crashed at the final hairpin on the final lap. :banghead: The gap was barely 2 seconds as I pulled away. It seemed my car had great speed though, as I seemed to increase my gap in the 2nd half of Conrod Straight?

Drove ultra careful through the last few corners. Proud to say I didn't crash in that high speed chicane all race! A few times I slid over the white lines. Any time it felt like a shortcut, I lifted fully off the gas somewhere on the next straight.

Feel like @richroo deserved the 4th more than me. He got wiped out at the end of Conrod Straight by a cannonball @pretend racer (PSN: HeyZeus666). If you are totally out of control, I know it's not authentic, but I tend to ghost myself to avoid spoiling another driver's race. Maybe you could have turned left into the gravel trap, as you were on the grass for ages. Don't ask me how I know, but during my test laps I discovered that slows you down really fast. :P

Conclusion
All in all, 13th to 4th was an emotional rollercoaster of an evening. It's a story I would love to watch as a motorsports fan and can reflect back on it postively. Glad I stayed to the end!

Maybe I could have held up @Zolon32 in the first 10 minutes? But my pace loss was real in the middle of the race. 4th was my ideal result on the day, even if the early sessions had gone my way.

Car Setup
Finally, my heartfelt apologies to everyone because @Harsk100 was using my tune. Lap times out of this world! I will have to watch the replay from his perspective. He stayed on 5 5 brake bias but I went 2 8 offline, then 3 8 online, as I was getting understeer.

Think the solution to make 5 5 work is brake blending more smoothly. I kept losing my feel and stabbing at the controls. At Daytona I actually had great feel. The 2 laps I did within 0.2 of the outright fastest of the night were mostly from nailing the braking and turn in phase. A couple of tenths at every corner adds up to seconds on these long tracks.
 
I had a qualifying time of around 2:36.8, I couldn't put in a clean fast lap, so I kind of expected to be starting in the middle of the pack. I was kinda surprised when I started 12/13! Not sure why that happened...

I was a little confused, and frazzled, at the same time - trying to figure out how I ended up starting from there. I focused on getting a good start, which I did. i somehow managed to thread the needle through the crowd and eventually found myself in 5th spot! Unfortunately, simba and I came together, which spun me a bit. Simba was kind enough to wait for me to get the position back. In the meantime we both lost another few spots.


Starting the main race in 8th position, I got another great start and by t3 had made up a few spots. But I couldn't handle the speed and "cannonballed" into richroo. I did go for my ghost button Ben, but I have to take my hand off the wheel to hit it, and I couldn't manage it in time.
I had to get through a bit of the pack again, and I worked my way up to 7th behind simba. He made a mistake and I got by to take 6th place.


The points race is looking pretty tight, after today's event!
 
The points race is looking pretty tight, after today's event!

Round 7 Points.jpg


Race report to follow ... off to collect my new PS4 Pro now. I will need to wait until Christmas to use it. I have Project Cars Game of The Year Edition ready to load (at Christmas). GT6 based championships are planned through till the end of March. I will start testing Project Cars in January. I have decided to pass on AC at the moment based on reports of problems with the online multi-player aspect. NB it is possible that we will stick with GT6 for longer in 2017 - I will give plenty of notice if I am planning to switch to Project Cars.

Our next Wednesday Championship, starting January 2017 is a tribute to one of the Legends of Motorsport - one of the greatest all rounders of all time - Daniel Sexton Gurney.

Dan Gurney Series Poster.jpg
Dan Gurney Series Poster 2.jpg
 
@Benny44 is interested in historic racing, he was going to run Thursday morning (UTC) 450pp classic races. We drove together for a bit this morning at Spa.

@SolidSnake7735 was driving a Mercedes 300 SL 1954 nicely on CM tyres at Autumn Ring Mini when I took over the test room.

A couple more drivers dropped by. @brian_d_martin I'm not sure what their GTP account names are, though.
 
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