V8 Supercars - Season 6 wrap-up and discussion

[F1Fan07]

I figured we might as well start a thread separate from the race thread for this.

My initial impressions of Season 6 are:

- Fuc*ing boolsheet. We can't look back on this season without remembering the technical struggles of Race 1 (and the one and only, to date, banning of a member!). Thanks to all of you for being patient while Jason and I sorted things out over the next few races. The popularity of the series overwhelmed the hardware we were using and it caught us by surprise.

- 2x tire wear really mixed up people's strategy - those that were hard on tires had to adjust as well as those who are easy on tires.

- Jason's idea to force tire compound choices at some events also was I think successful in making people think about strategy.

- The competition has certainly got stronger. ESR/TUM guys and some really good privateer drivers forced the core GBR drivers to work a lot harder in Season 6.

- With competitiveness comes change and we saw some regulars leave the V8 series after a few races but luckily we kept driver numbers at a level where everyone had someone to battle with regardless of where they were in the pack.

- The story of this season for me were the performances of Haeusler and Culbert. If Nick ran a full season then we'd have had a three-way battle at the top of the table. Culbert took a few races to come to terms with the car and its tire wear then when he figured it out, he capitalized on Jeff's weak mid-season then all hell broke loose with Race 12 (Winton) when John started winning. A ten point gap after 19 races is incredible. Honourable mention to Jason Bence who showed up, handed us our asses then disappeared. If he'd stuck around I think the Hooper/Culbert battle would've looked a lot different with another driver sniping the top positions' points.

- In the end it was another classic Hooper championship. Of course, he's fast but mistakes are rare with Jeff and he always seems to get his pit strategy right and it's that consistency that wins championships.

[neverender158]

This was my first season in the V8's and with GBR and I have nothing but excellent memories. You guys put in tons of your own time to run this and we all appreciate it.
I learned so much from this season about car setups, tire strategy, pit strategy and racecraft. I cannot wait to see what next season brings.

[helios16v]

Best $20 ever spent, eh Jimmy? Aren't you glad you decided to take the plunge w/ the "outdated" rF1?

I like the way this season played out. Strategies changed week to week, and certainly seemed to mix up the top end of the field, instead of being the same thing week after week after week. Looking forward to next season.

[Deleted]

Congrats to Jeff, well-earned. Bridesmaid for me yet again.



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Still, for me to come in as a rookie against a bunch of guys I've never raced with, who apparently are quite handy at these cars, and win three races and almost a Championship still feels pretty good.  This along with the Grand-Am series we just finished at ESR have re-kindled my competitive spirit, because the last two seasons in HGT, dating back to over a year ago, have been dismal for me.

I agree fully that if Nick or Jason were here full-time this would look quite different--or even John Nelson, for that matter.  I would say that it was just a case of racing luck that made the championship come out the way it did.  Jeff and I were virtually equal over the course of a season, me better at a given track, him better at another, but never far apart.  In the end, what did me in wasn't little miscue at Phillip Island (though it made it a nail-biter at the finale), it was my embarassing performance a Pukekohe, which Jeff won and I finished outside the top 10 with shredded tires.  That big a gap there, made the season exciting in the end.

I don't  think I "figured out" the tires so much as just realized I couldn't, and focused on speed instead.  At every race where it was a sprint, or where pit strategy was out the window, I was either winning or competing for the win.  That's why Winton was so good to me.  But when pit strategy WAS a factor, after those first few races where I realized there's no way I can handle saving these tires, I just opted to run Softs at all times and pit when I had to pit.  And it worked maybe 80% of the time, including beating Jeff at Sandown.

So, happy overall with the performance, just kicking myself for overthinking tires way back at Pukekohe.

Highlight for me is definitely the win at Sandown, but also the nail-biting last lap/last turn pass of Smokey for the win at Winton.  But running second at Bathurst might have been the most personally satisfying result, because of how utterly horrific my luck is at that place.

Only regret is taking out Nick at Winton, over-aggressive and driving over my head, while also battling his lag, which caused his car to float around a bit, making judgement difficult.  He deserved the win.

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But let's not forget everyone else!  I don't know about previous seasons, but this sure seemed pretty competitive to me, on par with an ESR HGT season.  7 different winners, and 12 different drivers on the podium is better than some real V8 seasons.  Great to see TUM's Kevin Juliot get a win, John Nelson snuck a great one in at Hidden Valley, Nick dominated when he was on his game, and Boza was a threat until some bad late season luck.

As for changes for next season, I say generally leave the formats the way they are.  They're what ALLOW some of these "upset" wins or come-from-behind performances, and really help with variety.

Just minor tweaks--My humble "admin-from-another-league" suggestions:

- Have a warmup lap before the standing starts. They do it in real life, and these tires are always a little scary when cold.

- My memory might be off but I would suggest slightly more "sprint" format races where tire wear is not an issue.  Not for me (ok I admit I like them) but also for guys like Pat Sweeney who, by their own admission, are great when they don't have to worry about tire wear!  Much like the crazy tire strategy races bringing new faces to the podium, so do races where we don't have to worry about it.

- Instead of sticking religiously to the year's real V8 schedule, maybe throw in a classic or two.  I'd trade Queensland in a heartbeat for a race at Eastern Creek, for example!

- Just a thought, but maybe to encourage those who didn't have the speed to contend for wins to stick around and race, you could introduce a Sportsman Cup championship of sorts, much like the Privateer trophy in BTCC.  This would be predicated on enough guys signing up to be IN that division-within-a-series, though.

[Deleted]

And Hooper...

IMMA GET THAT BELT! YOU AND ME, BIG MAN. ADELAIDE, 2014!

TO BE THE MAN, YOU GOTTA BEAT THE MAN! etc.

[totalo]

This was definitely a great series to be a part of. Running these crazy tracks was alot of fun. What I liked about it the most was the fact that every track was brand new to me, except Bathurst (and even Bathurst I just hotlapped a lot but never raced and not with these cars). Having to learn the track and what the car wanted to do was fun. Of course learning the car was fun too. Not gonna lie, before the first the race I was thinking about backing out. Once I got everything installed and ran a couple of laps on the first track I questioned what I was getting into. You have to be a certain kind of crazy to race these cars on these tracks.

The grid sizes were just right. Not too many , not too few. Nice size where chances are you would be racing with someone, ain't that right Tony

I have to say this series single-handedly kept rF1 on my hard-drive, well let's not say hard-drive but it kept rF1 solidly in my racing rotation.

Next season coming up I'm gonna plan vacation to have the least amount of negative effect on my events! lol
I literally was on the plane on the night of the Hidden Valley race so that was two races blanked and when I got back if I remember correctly I was walking through the door on the night of the next race and jet lag killed me for that one. Definitely gotta plan those better LOL.

The tire strategy is a DEFINITE plus and should be kept no matter what. Of course only when it applies in real life. Hopefully we can get things even more accurately to real life the next season. I know you guys are looking at that hard for next season. This series alone has me wanting to invest in some more gear for next season. Maybe a proper button box, proper sequential shifter, etc.

Gonna do some post season evaluating and see if I can come back stronger for the next season, no matter which platform we choose (ahem rF2). This was great stuff to be involved in. Glad you guys had a spot for a new guy to get in. It's going to be weird not coming back for another V8 race in a couple of weeks trying to gather some points.

Thanks to all the admins and guys who contributed to putting this together. Fantastic job.

Seems like just yesterday old 44 made it's debut.

[K Juliot]

Wow what a race season and I think the longest time I've been in one. First thank you Jason and Dale for all your hard work putting this on and the great GBR regulars for the tough competition all season long. I know us TUM guys had a great time and finishing in the top 10 of any race I felt was accomplishment with this crowd.

Congrats to Jeff on your championship and to John for keeping him honest, this could have gone so many ways was exiting to the end. I was in for a bit in the very beginning but too many poor races that out weight the good ones for me.

I had so many great super close tight nose to tail moments over the season with a bunch of guys that I can't remember names right now but thanks again guys for the hours of fun! The guys running in the back half for the most part were great all season, great heads up driving guys!!!

As for the pit stop strategy that really mixed it up and caused problems for me by not making the right decisions. Was very interesting to go from the beginning of race then have the middle get all scrambled up to it with the different strategys, then have it all coming back together near the end.

I think in the upcoming season the 2X tire wire needs to evaluated on a per race/track basis. Some of the tracks were so abusive on tires that the 2X wear was ridiculous and really not needed, it just took the "Fun" out of some races. There would have been pit strategy and more than one pit stop for most anyways. On the hand the forced tires for some of the races did make it interesting letting some people show their strengths and others struggled keeping it interesting.

I’ll look forward to the upcoming exhibition races and next V8 season.

[Deleted]

Well I have 3 regrets for the season. The first was not being in the championship from Race 1, the second is having to leave the Sandown race when I had a handy lead to pick the kids up from school (damn you real life!!!). The biggest regret however was having to drive a bloody Holden (had to wash after each race as I felt dirty)!

Besides that, I thoroughly enjoyed my time racing with you guys. I'd always watched previous seasons via Jasons race videos (remember them?) and finally got around to joining you mid season after sweet talking Narelle into letting me race on Thursday mornings whilst she looked after the kids needs.

I had some great battles, banged some doors and got my doors banged on occasions, this happens sometimes when you race hard and get's left on the track after the race for me as you can tell that the incidents are far from intentional.

Big congrats to Jeff and John on a great battle throughout the season and Jason and the GBR crew for putting on a great championship. I'd keep it pretty much the way it is for next year, if anything, I'd like the races to be a little bit longer. But tyre wear and tyre format as well as a mix of 1, 2 and 3 race rounds is a definite winner in my opinion.

I presume a lot of discussion will turn to whether or not to run rF2 next season. I've owned rF2 from day 1 and I'm still not sold on it, Graphically (for the cars) I think it is still disappointing, (the rF1 ORSM cars look way better on track), and it is so un mod friendly for little tweaks and additions compared to rf1. rF1 continues to be developed with lots of add ons, and I always seem to find some little piece to fiddle with as well and offer up to the community. If there was a mod change, I'd recommend GSC2012, otherwise my overwhelming support would be to stick with rF1 (for at least another 12 months).

If you do stick with rF1 I'd be happy to help out with some track tweaks for you if you like Jason, the odd tyre bundle here and there as well as personalised trackside advertising which can be included in the track pack...

Thanks again all, look forward to some practice races as well as next season...

[boza]

Congrat Jeff on the 3peat!! Also congrats to John C. for making it tight series and finishing 2nd in the standings. You definetly made Jeff work for it this season. All in all with the competition stepping up this season I think I did ok since I was finally able to get a win this season Had alot good races with different people this season John C at Adelaide, Dale passing me on the final laps at couple of races, Hawks at Bathurst, Jeff at Wanaroo, and Nick at Surfers are the ones that stand out. I really liked the 2x tire deal even if it bit me in @$$ couple times. It made the racing that much better. I had blast this season and can't wait for the next. Thanks to Hawks, Dale, and Dan for their hard work they put into this series. Cya next season!!