Round 8 - Edmonton [Jul 22nd]

Thiago Canola wrote:

3rd was surprising considering such strong field.
 

It's not a surprise for me, great race, Thiago !

Well, that was a disappointing race.

Qualifying second was a good start, there was noway that I could match Yves time.

At the race start I let Yves go first into the turn 1 only for Yves to brake too late, run wide and go off track. I proceeded steadily around Turn 1 & 2 but I could sense that the cars behind me were wanting to go quicker. The M8F was able to hold on to the lead running at my pace and then after a few laps I could see Grant trying to get past David Jaques and I thought this was my chance to open up a gap to the others. With the gap more than a second I thought that I was safely away from the battle, how wrong I was. Exiting the final turn I was hit really hard by another car, it was Grant, I thought that he must have missed his braking point and gone straight into my rear side. Somehow the car was still running but it didn't want to move, a flat rear tyre, I managed to crawl back to the pits, if this had happened at any other corner I think that I would have quit. The pit crew would only change the tyres, 133 seconds. As I sat waiting I still could not understand what had happened, and I thought that it must have been some sort of internet lag issue. Once back on track the car was ok to drive but any small mistake and the car would spin. I just keep pushing on to see where I could finish not really expecting to get any points. 8th place finish and 3 points. Thats the hardest 3 points ever. Yves recovered to finish 2nd and it looks like the championship is over.

I watched the Youtube video after the race to see what happened at the final turn incident and it looks like it wasn't Grant's fault. It cleared things up for me, I was really unlucky.
It seems that luck has deserted me in this championship.

Thanks for the tv coverage guys, great to hear Jason again.

David Jaques wrote:

later on, i still dont know what happened.  on the front straight, i saw a flash from left to right and the next thing my car exploded and was flying through the air.

I saw your car explode from a distance. I thought that you must have hit something solid but there was nothing solid around that area. Very strange.

I second David's comment, that it was good to hear Jason on the broadcast again. Jonatan is a great broadcaster, but there's an added something when the pair get together. Plus, there's just something about that slightly disappointed tone Jason has when discussing my shit driving sometimes, something that drives me to [one of these days] do it better
Big thanks and a ton of appreciation for our broadcast crew!

Like Raul, my setup failed me somewhere along the line. Unsurprising, considering I was running a variation of the setup he posted earlier in the week. I made quite a few adjustments, and in the limited practice time I had I managed to pace comfortably, even for extended periods of time.
For me, the car felt great out of the gate. The field was being quite cautious and I was even having to back off for safety, rather than trying to run quali laps each and every lap, which I've felt I've had to do in prior races this series.

Somewhere along the line though, the car started to get a bit sketchy. I eventually half spun it in the final corner, and while positioning the car to get back on track, I managed to back into the wall and took what seemed to be slight damage to the rear wing. It didn't seem like much, but it threw the balance of the car off tremendously. From that point onward the hell began.

I spent the remainder of my time fighting the hell out of the car. Never have I fought a car so hard just to keep it going the right direction. The snap oversteer mid corner, the unpredictable torque steer on exit, the sudden changes of direction, some that almost seemed "weird"....it was tough. I was cursing the car nearly every corner....my focus started to wane.

At some point in that, I think I may have squeezed Gerard off the track. I can't be sure, he was trying to come around the outside of me after we'd passed a slower car, I simply could not stop the car enough to give sufficient room. Not sure if he went off on his own getting too far off line, or if he moved off because I didn't give room, but if that was my fault, I'm sorry.
I looked back to see if I'd caused him issue and managed to spin the car in some strange fashion...looked quite strange on the broadcast, and Jonatan noted as much...but it wasn't me being distracted, it was me being concerned that I'd caused a problem and screwing up further by trying to check that

After that, I had 5 or 6 more offs. I never really hit much, just mowing some grass...but it was getting old.
I just couldn't get the rears cooled down, a problem I hadn't had in my testing..but the track temp seemed perhaps a bit higher and maybe that factored in.....or maybe I was just driving the car a bit too hard, though I felt I was, at times, giving the tires time to cool and I was actively slowing at times, being easy in the corners, to aide in that...it just wasn't enough and they were being toasted.
In comparison, the fronts wanted to stay too cool. Coupled with the slight damage and the roasted rears, that was a recipe for frustration.

I was hell bent on finishing the race...thought that even with the troubles I'd maybe manage a point or two. But it was not to be. A few more spins and now I'm just seeing red.
Final spin that finally caused my exit saw me spinning very near some front running cars that were lapping me. I saw this and decided not to come back on track, I escaped out and left the race. The car was simply uncontrollable at that point, I had fallen out of the top 10, and I didn't feel comfortable staying on track knowing that the slightest mistake could cause me to take out another car or cause other issues for them.

On top of that, I simply ran out of energy. And that factored into my decision to retire the car, perhaps even more than the other things.
Never have I felt such pain in my shoulders and neck from sim racing as yesterday. The fight I had with the car was absolutely brutal from my seat. The ever constant snaps and corrections had me aching in ways generally reserved for hard manual labor. I left the race feeling like I'd been in a street fight...

Huge congratulations to Jundt on the win...very well done, and deserved!
Congrats to the podium finishers as well......and to each and every finisher that survived this one. If the race was anything like it was from my seat, congratulations are definitely in order for sticking this one out and finishing it.

I got caught up a bit in the first lap incident with Gerard and Adam. On my screen it looked like Adam and me were clear, but then a bit of lag later Adam was suddenly stopped in front of me. Fortunately it was at a low speed, so I got out of it with only slightly bent steering and a little bit of top speed loss. Still nothing compared to how David Jaques' race was destroyed by lag.
 

I still managed to find a good rhythm and put out consistent lap times. My main rivals over the course of the race were Ray and Gerard. I was able to get position over both, but they were keeping me honest all the way. We had a lot of fun together, very nice clean racing!


In the end the consistency paid off as I think I finished as the first car among those not on the lead lap and benefitted from a couple DNFs to get 6th - best of the rest I guess.


Edit: Also great commentary on the broadcast, as always!

So thx and see you in the next one - or at the Burgerking Nürburgring!

What to say about this race. I haven't got such a chance to be second in this season. Almost whole race was fantastic except the last 10 laps when the car with less fuel become to be very nervous. Almost undrivable especially in the first fast section. But with no practise after the month without steering wheel i think its not so bad so its a bit of satisfaction to me.
At last i have to ask Mr. Henrique why he had to each time fight with me when i lapping him. I lapped him 4 or 5 times and always it was the big problem. Sometimes very dangerous heart attack situation.

David Sabre wrote:

Yves recovered to finish 2nd and it looks like the championship is over.

Thanks for the tv coverage guys, great to hear Jason again.

Tssss, David, this is not over, you can score 40 points, and win the championship ! like David(s) !

To summarize my race, it is to detail the 1st lap that I finish before last   , and 79 laps at the attack to finish 2nd  

I was very lucky to get out of the first turn alive:

Since I didn't know where David  


I preferred to just leave him the place (hello! back there, it's hot back there!)  


and I'm coming around the bend way too fast !  


It is impossible to brake under good conditions.  


The best solution was to ease off,  

I'm back on the track in fifth position between David and Juha, wow!


But two turns later, Juha hits me slightly and sends me on the slope


A big thanks to you, Juha, for waiting for me !    Nice HSO spirit !  


then attack all the way to the finish !

Bravo David!

and thanks for the TV coverage !

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

Martin Lacina wrote:

At last i have to ask Mr. Henrique why he had to each time fight with me when i lapping him. I lapped him 4 or 5 times and always it was the big problem. Sometimes very dangerous heart attack situation.

+1 D'accord,mais je ne lui en veut pas.Ces voitures sont délicate a conduire.Je lui conseil de régler ses sensibilités (accélération,freinage,embrayage). H shifter,pour moi.
Un trés bon départ pour moi,puis une poussette qui m'envoi dans la cloture (sorry Adam).Je repart dans les derniers.Je reviens sur Ray et Gabriel,et impossible de le dépasser,ma pédale d'accélération plus a 100%.Mais bon j'ai terminer,malgré la chaleur en Belgique.Merçi a mon ventilateur.
Bravo au podium et a tous les pilotes qui ont franchi le
pour le direct.The Broadcast.

Raul Jereb wrote:

Brian Janik wrote:

when Raul Jereb veered into me on the start finish straight while trying to make a pass, maybe he didn't know I was still there? not sure? But the damage was unbelievable from what didn't seem like such a big hit. Was convinced I had lost a wheel, but the graphic readout said otherwise.

So.. it was sarcastic...

I guess you are talking about that touch at the main straightline, when two cars crashed at the last turn..
Im very sorry for that, I think you lift a bit while behind one of the recovering cars, and I allready started to pass you and those cars, I just did not expect that I gues.. Im very sorry. My nose even lift up a bit when I touched you, and it really did not look so hard..

It's cool Raul (not sarcastic this time haha)
I should've waited to comment, after long red mist recovery drive that ultimately led to no points. The incident itself didnt seem intentional or even that big of a deal. Think I was just butt hurt about how much damage and delay I had while watching the rest of you guys rocket away and continue to enjoy Sunday. It was as if I could see the pack of cars smiling and pointing as they went by my crippled POS
See ya next time

Brian Janik wrote:

It's cool Raul (not sarcastic this time haha)
I should've waited to comment, after long red mist recovery drive that ultimately led to no points. The incident itself didnt seem intentional or even that big of a deal. Think I was just butt hurt about how much damage and delay I had while watching the rest of you guys rocket away and continue to enjoy Sunday. It was as if I could see the pack of cars smiling and pointing as they went by my crippled POS
See ya next time

I know what you talk about, and I feel realy bad becose it was my fault.. and what hurts most is that I was DQ at the end.. so, I cant even say that your victim had any good result..
Ill try to do better next time..
see you

Report is up here.

Pics will follow tomorrow.

Thanks Timo. Great report, nice writing.

Some pics have been added to the report.