- 3,277
- Whitehaven Cumbria Englan
- johnwells69
I'm not sure if the Daytona Road Course will be the Variable Weather or the Daytona Road Course without Weather and Time Change.
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. 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! But that's the challenge we sign up for.
Here's the tune I raced with tonight:
Maybe some others share their most recent tune now?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
I was only 1 car width away from the apex but the angle might have spun out BuyBon. 30-40s in the replay
Slick Cylinder!
There was no tire wear was based on the tactical set!
Something I did not know well?
Great art work there ,just missing a bit of colour and maybe some trees and ,,,,, lolView attachment 603968
@Pimasz I think this is what Ben means, with the 'V' line through a corner.
Cheers, Zo.
Great art work there
OK thank you!Great art work there ,just missing a bit of colour and maybe some trees and ,,,,, lol
The points race is looking pretty tight, after today's event!