Round 5 - Oulton Park International [March 20th]

Both races were difficult due to my brake pedal issues. I realized that the brake won't go off several times a lap. Zero was not a zero. Everytime I touched the brake, I had to lift the pedal with my toes, but sometimes even this didn't help. I remapped the pedal for the second race which improved the issue significantly, but it still occurred very often and it slowed me down a lot. Considering this little problem, I had good races.

Btw, I took the pedals apart and all it needed was to blow some dust out of the potentiometer. It works flawlessly now.

Well done Dave Miller on taking the two independent wins. I didn't have the speed today so a second and third place was the best I could salvage.

Petr Hlavac wrote:

Both races were difficult due to my brake pedal issues. I realized that the brake won't go off several times a lap. Zero was not a zero. Everytime I touched the brake, I had to lift the pedal with my toes, but sometimes even this didn't help. I remapped the pedal for the second race which improved the issue significantly, but it still occurred very often and it slowed me down a lot. Considering this little problem, I had good races.

Btw, I took the pedals apart and all it needed was to blow some dust out of the potentiometer. It works flawlessly now.

I think the spiking on my G27 pedals is the worst with this game. rF2 is not a problem apparently, but with AMS, the tiniest spiking is gonna show.

I added a bit of deadzone to the pedal, now I can mirror the inputs via the pedal overlay that comes with the HUD and notice it's fine.

Have you done exactly that between the races?

David Jundt wrote:

I added a bit of deadzone to the pedal, now I can mirror the inputs via the pedal overlay that comes with the HUD and notice it's fine.

Have you done exactly that between the races?

No, I went directly to the Leo Bodnar calibration software (I use Thrustmaster wheel and Logitech pedals/shifter, so each is a standalone USB device) and moved the lower limit of brake range. It's the same thing as deadzone in a game, but you can see and set it up very precisely in this SW. The problem is that I eliminated the first 25% of the range and it still wasn't enough, the spikes were too high. But as I wrote above, it was caused by a chunk of dust in the potentiometer, there are no spikes at all anymore and I went back to my original settings.

Now I'm thinking that this probably affected my CART race at Milwaukee, too. Sometimes it felt like I had a "GP2 engine", as Alonso says. There were moments when I couldn't understand why I was so slow on straights. Well, I guess my brake was on from time to time...

Guys i think that the championship table points from 5th Oulton are wrong.

Your points have been added Honza.

Thankl you Juha!

Well done David Jundt & Richard Wilks. Great victories at a great circuit!

My appologise if I did make mistakes when adding the points, did so in a bit of a hurry when being disapointed with my own event, not a great combination. Thanks Juha for sorting it out.


As for me, I love Oulton Park because it's such a nice, flowing track. It has pretty much everything, some fast & scary sweeping turns, a difficult to negotiate hairpin, incorrectly cambered turns, blind crests, open and tight chicanes and known to be the place where British people, for the first time for sure, heard Italian Roadrage in action (Tarquini 1997, going off at Lodge, Murray on que for one of his classic one-liners). So yea, I love the track and location, the 850 on the other hand... I'm not sure Volvo nor Walkinshaw knew Oulton was a thing when they built the car

It was a bit too clumsy, in lack of a better word, on turn-ins around here, I couldn't really solve the issue.


Race 1 went decently, had a decent start and was able to hold onto 5th place.

It was immediately apparent that I didn't have the pace of the nimbler cars (Peugeots, Hondas and Renaults) but I at least had the power, engine wise, to stay ahead if I maximised my exits.

I was holding on somewhat ok until David Jaques unfortunately retired and I had to back off to make sure there was room, Honza was braver and he got a run on me down to Knickerbrook and outbroke me quite easily to take 4th away from me.

Onother few laps later, I had Ricardo on my tail and could sense he was a bit quicker, but not quite quick enough to get by.
Then came Brooklands, again after I had a slow run through and out of Foulston's, and from about 1,5 carleanghts back, he tried to outbrake me up the inside.
I tried to leave room on the inside, may have given just a bit too little room on the inside (haven't checked the replay) as I suspect Richard may have hit the cerb. Outcome was that despite the fact that I was way to the outside coming out, licking the grass, Richard couldn't avoid my car and I had a spin off to the right.
Loosing time and positions that at least heated me up.

I went hell for leather for the final few laps and, thanks to some lapped traffic putting some trouble in the way of Matthias, I was able to get a run through Druids and had a go at Lodge. Broke up the inside, made a tiny bit of side by side contact (TC door-handle to door-handle stuff) and was able to outdrag his Nissan to the line to pick up 5th.
So finished where I started, all good so far in terms of keeping up the points-scoring.

Race 2:
The second race another matter entirely.

For this race I had made changes to the car which made the car handle better in the slow stuff, which I had seen was my weak point during the first race.

The start was bad, bogged down completely and lost out to Grant who shot off the grid like a scolded rat. Was now able to hang with the cars ahead but made a mistale down at Knickerbrook after a few laps, sorry for the hit up the rear Honza, I believe I either broke a bit too late and had an immediate lock-up but either way was unable to avoid your car and then the guy behind me had no-where to go either and made contact with me, I hope both of you were able to continue, more or less, without too much time loss.

In my case, I span off on the left this time and dropped to 15th or 16th behind many of the privateers.

Got going and started chasing after them. Had a couple let me by (thank you very much) before I caught up with Michael, Yves and Ray.

They were all fighting hard for the positions and I felt I was the quickest of us 4 but I mis-read a situation down at Island Bend and I ran off towards the outside but thankfully had been able to reduce the speed enough to avoid the barriers and snuck through the opening on the inside, loosing my position to David Sabre, sorry if my re-join was a bit dodgy...

He again was very curtious and let me by.

As the laps ticked away I was able to catch back up to the others ahead but wasn't able to make my way past. I had a couple of stabs but couldn't make it work and finished a disapointing 11th for another point-less race...


Hopefully you all enjoyed yourselfs though, the track was great to race at

See you all in a couple of weeks at Snetterton, another place of rich history (and Murray-isms) which I'll share when the time comes.

Although my results were not as I had hoped, I had a lot of fun!

Q1: I quailed 9th. After struggling to get a decent lap in.

Whilst on the subject of quali, I did mention it last night and want to mention it again. When the session starts and everyone's going round to start there first flying lap... the reason cars are slowing down at the end of the lap is so each driver allows them and the car ahead and behind an adequate gap to do a clean run. Why some feel the need to race past, causing them to scupper there lap and the driver there now right behind or infront of... and in my case last night, actually slam into, is beyond me. A little patience and common sense would benefit everyone.


Race 1 got off to a troubled start. Yves unfortunately spun infront of me and both collided. Had some damage but continued and then a few laps later Daniel unfortunately spun infront of me and again I had no where to go so a bit of bad luck left me near last with a heavily damaged car. Had some really good racing though and the last laps with Dave Miller was awesome. My Audi had a lot of pace on him but he defending inch perfect for a number of laps. Really good racing. Finished 9th


Q2 again I felt great getting a 41.8 but only managed 7th.

Race 2 and I decided I wanted to try a new start technique with the clutch and I guessed it worked as I had so much traction. 7th to 2nd by T2.. after that I knew I would be picked of one by one. Just cannot maintain pace once tires are overheating. For the entire race I had a great battle with Honza and Rob. For the life of me I couldn't get past Honza. Lap 15 and Rob had a run on me into the second chicane but I missed my braking clipped the curb and slammed into the anti cut barrier. Tried to continue but front right puncture.

Since donnigton I have been on a downward spiral with this Audi. I don't like it and it doesn't like me but I am on a mission to understand and figure out how to sort my tire temp problem out


Awesome racing though and well done to David for the first win and also to Richard on an impressive second win!

Quote :

Since donnigton I have been on a downward spiral with this Audi. I don't like it and it doesn't like me but I am on a mission to understand and figure out how to sort my tire temp problem out Very Happy

You use too much steering angle. This is a thing you do in almost every  mod, and its really hurting you here. Not amount of setup tweaking will cure the fact that you ask too much from the front tires.

Apologies again for that run over Jonathan, i could have made the turn tighter, but my car understeered at the very last minute (out of the ideal groove).

Well the weekend didnt start so well, with a poor qualy on the first race, but i made up for that in race pace, and together with some errors from other drivers in a very tight track, i was able to climb all the way to second!

Race two i was already warmed up, and after having the pole stole from me at the last second, i was determined to not let anybody slip me by at the start, and i managed that. Things got a bit hairy in the first corner, but i kept my foot down and went on, while Grant gave me a crucial buffer of time  that i was able to manage the whole race. My first win in a while

These races are always a lot of fun, and it was a good idea to bring these cars to AMS. I will try to keep working and improving some of the weak points they still have (sensibility to flatspots,  etc).

Richard Wilks wrote:

Quote :

Since donnigton I have been on a downward spiral with this Audi. I don't like it and it doesn't like me but I am on a mission to understand and figure out how to sort my tire temp problem out

You use too much steering angle. This is a think you do in almost every  mod, and its really hurting you here. Not amount of setup tweaking will cure the fact that you ask too much from the front tires.

Admittedly I haven't played around with this since yesterday. I use wheel settings (rotation and lock) that most probably don't but last night turned my lock down from 20.0 to 18.0. Although I still didn't see a massive difference in temps it did help other aspects. If you don't mind me asking what lock do you use?

I leave the default one myself.

Quote :

Admittedly I haven't played around with this since yesterday. I use wheel settings (rotation and lock) that most probably don't but last night turned my lock down from 20.0 to 18.0. Although I still didn't see a massive difference in temps it did help other aspects. If you don't mind me asking what lock do you use?

The lock will depend greatly from the steering rotation you are using. I usually have 15º on game for 360º real wheel rotation and it works for almost every mod perfectly. ISI sims have been known for rewarding braking the cars against the corner on entry using friction and the fact the tires gripped way too much when sideways and under brakes. This is unrealistic and Ricardo has slowly perfectioned dialing it out of his mods, though IMO it is still there too much in some. The only one where you really have to brake straight and carefully as in a real car is Procar, due to the rear being so nervous, and that is IMO by far the closest to what a real car does. Even front engined street cars on track days will let you feel that, in a real car you either brake straight and then enter the corner off the brake (At most with the perfect amount of trail braking), or you are hopelessly understeering and cooking the fronts. That is what is happening now in this mod, but many people are used to the exploits the ISI engine and the older mods allowed before. You need a full change in your approach, both driving and setup-wise.

Thanks for the info! I'd say 80% my problem is what you both mentioning. Steering rate and driving style. Procar and Indy suits me great! But I'm not ashamed to admit BTCC has me struggling and it's more than evident perhaps my sometimes aggressive style is causing more damage than good.

Heck when my tires heated up the first few rounds I just became more and more aggressive with turn in to try and combat it

My rotation is 280 degrees and normally use anywhere from 17-20 lock on most mods.

But the info is great to see. Just got to try and implement and use this at Snetertton

Here is an interesting video where Brudle analyzes the style for several top drivers in F1, pay attention to what he says about Alonso because that is what ISI sims have been allowing to get to outrageous levels:

The results table

So Oulton race from my opininon.

Q1 was good for me
R1 good start and i had good feeling about set with more fuel. Some good battles with Jonathan and Richard. I dont remember Jonathan any contact between us, i think everything was ok, and if there was some, its touring car racing Then i made one minor mistake and Richard used it instantly! 3rd place after my teammate mistake was surprise and my first podium at BTCC

Q2 was same as first one and i was expected similar result.
R2 But it was much harder. Great battle with Grant and Rob. Guys you were faster than me and i was doing my best to defend position, i hope everything was under the rules. At the finish I was sweaty and happy with 5th position.

I really enjoyed this race after Silverstone fiasco
Thank you guys for great hard but clean fighting!

Gratz to other podium winners!

Thank you HSO, looking forward to Snetterton. Go Peugeot go