Round 13 - Monterey Grand Prix [Nov 19th]

Jacob Fredriksson wrote:

Grant Riddall wrote:

Joining the server with Dad but both join and still 2 hours of practice left and NO ONE in the server?? Am i missing something? isnt it not qualifying?

there are two servers running

i am seeing 2 of then for a 2 weeks

We are aware of the server mirroring; we are investigating as to why this is happening.

idi....... _(

Michal Janak wrote:

idi....... _(

I don't think that's harsh enough.....But, what can you expect from a Dick Simon Pay Driver.....

Dumbass certainly comes to mind.

Apologies to you and Jason.

Lapse of concentration - car launched on a kerb - wall.



Grant and David were looking good. Nice fight for 2nd in the race brewing.

Bring on Tamiami...

Blink of an eye, and I lost the car..
such a pitty.. great track, and even greater cars.. I enjoyed it..

Oh dear...


...first of all, apologies to David, I saw you popping up to late behind John's wing and the speed difference was to large to avoid you.

Generally not my best performance,I probably developed the car in the wrong direction (read: too much downforce) because I had to go very careful around the fast corners when following other cars, losing up to half a second in a sector, to avoid running into them. It was a tough week, because I could never get the several aspects of the car really act together. I never was able to post competitive laptimes. At least I had a race setup I was kind of satisfied with. Not fast, far away from that, but I could safely navigate it over a stint through the track. At least as long as I was alone on the track. In traffic I had a lot of difficulties finding a decent rhythm because of the great speed differences. That also caused some situations, but I made a couple of mistakes of my own.
After my first pitstop I tried to regain a rhythm with full tanks again and followed John Thiim (I think), while we got closer to a small group of cars ahead of us. We cleared the hairpin, and I was close to John, when he suddenly moved to the right and David Sabre was ahead of us, very slow. And probably I was a bit slow in the head, too, I hit the brakes, it was near my braking point anyways, locked the wheels and couldn't avoid him anymore. Race over

- 1ère course avec cette Lola-Cosworth
- trop peu d'appuis AR
- bonne petite bagarre à distance avec John et Richard,
- 5ème, impossible de faire mieux (si : ne pas faire un demi tête à queue dans Corskcrew, un aileron av cassé dans le dernier virage et deux arrêts sur trois avec le pit limiter !)
- mais content de ma soirée !

Screengrabs are up

http://historicsimracing.org/en/resultatscourse/1381

Jason White wrote:

Screengrabs are up

http://historicsimracing.org/en/resultatscourse/1381

Some great shots there! Managed to run a few laps this week at this location and I have to say the physics just seemed to worked beautiful here. This combination was the most fun I've had in a sim in a long time. Great work guys. Nice work on the broadcast Jonatan.

Michael Drechsler wrote:

...first of all, apologies to David, I saw you popping up to late behind John's wing and the speed difference was to large to avoid you.

Its not a problem Michael, these things happen. I had damaged my car and was keeping out of the way letting other cars go past.

The further the season gets, the more I realise I'm really not competitive in these cars on road courses. The Chevy engined T88 really should have been higher up the grid than 16th but this track is everything I don't like so all I could do was find a stable setup and hope for a points finish.

I caught a few people napping at the start and moved into 11th place by turn 1. Things were going reasonably well until I spun at the Corkscrew and had to play catch up. After that I just took advantage of other people's accidents to get 10th place. I got lucky in the end when Jason Whited made a very long stop which allowed my to take a lap back on him and take his 9th place. Richard Wilks' late retirement gained me another spot and I finally landed 8th place, 5 laps down.

This was my last race in the T88. I'm looking forward to placing the #5 Penske a lot further down the grid than it really should be at Tamiami.

Rollercoaster ride of an event for me.
I spent the morning of the race doing laps offline as some storms the night before last had taken out internet service in my area. ...figured it'd be back on before race time so I was just doing my normal race day morning thing, albeit offline. With only 10 minutes till race time, internet was still not back on and I was about to give up hope when it suddenly came on. ...yeah, great! Except, it stayed on for all of a minute and went back off. Quali time comes and after the fleeting excitement of thinking I would be able to make the race, I gave up.
At about 7 minutes after the race hour I glance over and notice internet service is back. Lazily (having given up hope of making the race) I go over and check to see if it's messing with me again, about to go back out once more. But, this time it was on for good so I entered the server in spectator mode to make sure I wasn't too late. ...about 4 minutes left in warm up

So, settling down from that bit of excitement was a bit of a task. Luckily, starting from the back it didn't matter and I knew I had the pace to keep up with other cars while I got my bearings.

Race starts and within a few laps I'd moved nearly 10 positions ...yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about. The upgraded 87C was not letting me down (anything beats that old 86C I was "driving")

Eventually I found my way into the top 10. I had breathing room and wasn't really trying to catch anything ahead of me. Just logging laps and waiting it out.
That worked out for a while....then the broadcast crew decided to curse me with some tv time and a bit of the "he's doing a good job today".

I swear, now that I have seen the broadcast and realize when it was they were talking about this and when it was that I hit at the top of the hill before the corkscrew (there's something to this "curse" for sure...hehe)

Just as I had been doing all race, I come to the crest of the hill, already braking as I like to do most of my braking before the crest. And, a weird momentary "grab" from the right front brake (not even under full braking) sends me flying off track right. Front right suspension took a heck of a shot and I was all but certain I'd lost a wheel. Get my bearings (sort of) and realize I'm still in one piece, albeit half broken.

Lots of damage and the car was horribly unstable at that point. Should have just went straight to pits but as I approached pit lane the car seemed to be "stabilizing" (I know, sounds silly...but it felt like I could handle it for what little race was left) Should have known better but I didn't want to pit and risk losing position. The next lap told me it didn't matter and I was losing it either way so I decided to pit to hopefuly power on till the end.

97 LOOOONG seconds later, I exit the pits as Juha and then Bruno go by.
Instantly realized the "repairs" did very little for the car...but, at least it's stable enough to turn left at this point.

Bruno crashed hard at the corkscrew, so back into the top 10 (was kicking myself for the braking fail at that point, realizing I was no outside top 10 running order)....so that helped a bit.
I then realized I was again catching Juha and decided I wanted my P9 back. Spent a few laps getting close but then the car decided that wasn't happening, I pushed too hard and spun...didn't hit anything, but that stopped the advance, for sure.

At that point, I just finished it out, only a few laps remained anyways and I wasn't about to kill the car that close to the end after such a series of events.

So, after all that, I'm very happy with the P9.

Grats to points finishers and Grant on the win.
And to the broadcast crew, who never let down around here. Best in town, imo! I watched most of it later last night and enjoyed.

Jason Whited wrote:

Spent a few laps getting close but then the car decided that wasn't happening, I pushed too hard and spun...didn't hit anything, but that stopped the advance, for sure.

Nearly took my wheels off while avoiding your spun car. Could bring it home with a badly hurt rear wing. Nevertheless great effort with a 87C

Jan Kowalski wrote:

Jason Whited wrote:

Spent a few laps getting close but then the car decided that wasn't happening, I pushed too hard and spun...didn't hit anything, but that stopped the advance, for sure.

Nearly took my wheels off while avoiding your spun car. Could bring it home with a badly hurt rear wing. Nevertheless great effort with a 87C

Yeah, sorry about that.  And thanks for the heads up driving and not barreling into me and [probably] ending both our races.  I was clinching teeth on that one, hearing you guys coming, knowing you were close and probably unable to avoid me.  I was actually surprised when I didn't get T boned there...took me a second to realize I was still in the show.  

...and thanks for the compliment.  The 87C is an improvement, in terms of power.  Handling, not so much.  Or else I don't have the car completely in tune with me yet.  In the 86C, I felt like I could turn the car at will, and over time I found confidence in the car and was able to drive it essentially into the ground (which I was having to do just to try to keep up)....with this car, I feel I can keep up (toggled boost most of the race and was able to keep pace even at 1) but it pushed like a pig in some of the corners here, and I could never work that out of it without causing other, worse, issues.

Still, fun and challenging.
I kind of enjoy these inferior cars and trying to push them to their limits, thus pushing my own as well.
Here and in F1, I've had a blast just trying to keep up.  Though, I am looking forward to the coming season where I can get in early and have a shot at a ride that can propel me nearer the front (if I can keep it on the track and not muck it up, that is...lol)

Grats on your excellent finish as well, Jan.  

What an eventful evening! And I didn’t see any of it

I was “mathematically” still in the championship.. I needed a miracle. That was only going to be possible with a total win, fastest lap and pole. So boost 5 and off I went. Love this track, like
Mid Ohio I feel very at home with these type of cambered tracks and was pleased with my pace. The race I just had one objective and that was to just go for it. Didn’t have much of a chance left in the championship so I didn’t really have any worries about engine life lasting or not. That was until I saw Jacob leaving. After that it was boost 1 revs down and 3 seconds a lap slower.

The longest 30 Laos I’ve ever done.. seeing dad’s engine blow I was just so cautious of mine.

So the next race is quite simple for Jacob, David and myself. We each need to beat the other for the win.

Still shocked how it’s all turned around for me but anything can and still happen!!

Grant Riddall wrote:

That was only going to be possible with a total win, fastest lap and pole. So boost 5 and off I went.

That's only for show-offs

AH, Boost 5! Now I know why I was gifted some lead laps, thanks!


I was happy I "kinda" made the best of the potential of the car, but being 1.3s off while using boost 5 was once again disheartening(to fight for pole). But I was happy enough I suddenly one-upped Martin(Mr Super Qualifier) and crucially, Jacob.

Had the wrong gear at the start, so nearly rev'd out, but managed to keep 2nd. Of course couldn't keep up with Grant, but managed to sneak away from Jacob and Martin to create a gap, which started to disappear once we hit traffic(seems like I am too careful or catch cars at the wrong place here).

Thanks to that and Jacob probably being more efficient on lower boost settings, he managed to fool me not once, but twice.

But as the chances to bring it to the season finale at Miami was on the line, I made important moves on both occasions to take 2nd back(sorry about the from my view clumsy first overtake).

I usually play the waiting game, but here, I had to be a bit more... active than usual.

I then decided to drop the "brush"(pedal to the metal) and use boost to try and get another gap to Jacob, who was rising to above 4s when I noticed him dropping to 10s when I was past the Corkscrew and finally seeing the DNF(I didn't pay too much attention since 1. I had to take corners and 2. the timing sometimes bugged out so expected the gap to come down again).

After that, I didn't get into "hibernation mode", but slowed down and especially kept away from reving too high, since a blown engine would've been one of the stupidest things to end up with.

I kinda tried to edge closer to Grant's FL near the end, but it wasn't quite enough and brought it home.


Now we're back to square one from like two races ago, to make for an exciting season finale at Miami

I guess I was being way too conservative on the boost button, trying to make up time by driving aggressively with minimum amount of boost. Celebrating the wreck with a new avatar. <--

I don't think the March was being particulary kind to me here, but Tamiami will be a very different track for us.

Bring it! Looking forward to a fair fight.

Its good to see the thoughts of the three that can win the championship and how things changed during that race.
Whoever ends up being the champion will be a worthy winner.