Week 1 - Watkins Glen - pre and post race chat

[Jeff H.]

Pontiac sucks. That is all.

[Kelly G]

I know I see lots of Camaros in the NAGT races so maybe give one a whirl and see if it suits you better.

Also I know that TenbearZZ doesn't really come on the forums but if someone can let him know that I have a setup for the Whelen Corvette that might help him out. I think helios might have a setup for the Whelen as well.

I'll upload my setup to dropbox tonight and post a link here if he wants to try it out.

[oldrustybelly55]

Sorry Sheldon for takin you out. My wheel quit on me. Ran the wheel for two hours before the race with no problems. Hope the new circut board I ordered will fix the problem. Back to the fanatec wheel for now.

[boza]

Sept 26, 2012 19:59:48 GMT -8 helios16v said:

I expect to see Boza on top of the podium during this season. He's got that Mazda figured out. Glad you were at least able to recover for 2nd. We still got that Mazda 1-2.....which is probably good after all the trash talking. ;D

Thanks for running this.

Not so fast, have you driven the Mazda at Autumn Ring?? Not a good track for the Mazda. I cannot do a full lap without spinning. ;D Good race last night, I thought I had it won until I got in a little mix up with Sheldon. My fault Sheldon I should of let you know that I was going to try to pass you on the right but oh well shit happens. 1-2 finish for team Mazda ;D We're off to a good start.

[helios16v]

Sept 27, 2012 7:09:38 GMT -8 boza said:

No so fast, have you driven the Mazda at Autumn Ring?? Not a good track for the Mazda. I cannot do a full lap without spinning. ;D

Notice I didn't specify next race, just at some point this season. Yeah, next event is going to be tough. I'll be happy if I can get up into the top 5. The Mazda does well at momentum type tracks, but technical tracks w/ a lot of braking.....well, that's another matter. I would expect to see the GTO, Volvo & Skyline as the cars to beat at the next event.

Good race last night. I had fun chasing you down at the end. I was still running fairly conservative, so it would've been interesting to have seen if I could have caught you by turning up the wick on the last lap. Though I think we were both running low 34's, so I don't know exactly how much more I could have pushed before it started to get ornery.

[Kelly G]

Damn, sounds like the bullseye was on Sheldon last night. Please don't pick on him cause I want him to come back for next race.

[helios16v]

He'll be back. He beat Hawks!

[F1Fan07]

Crazy race for me. I knew from practice that the Volvo was about 15 km/h slower on the straights so my plan was to make up time in the corners. In all my practice (running precise laps when I could pick my own line) I didn't discover that in the high g-force corners if I got a wheel off the concrete the car would spin.

I managed to pass Hawks for 2nd around the time his kids were distracting him then a few laps later I looped it. Then I did it again. No biggie, I'll change tires, top up the tank and cruise in empty air until the rest of you pitted. Well poop, the profile I created for this series didn't have additive fuelling selected so I pitted with about 40 L on-board, selected 80 L and left the pits wth 80 L instead of a full tank. Screwed.

Compounding things is that the total pit lane time here is so long that instead of coming out in clear air I came right back into the podium battle except I was a lap down. So... I started laying down quali laps but was losing little bits of time behind Jarhead. He was faster in the parts of the track I wanted to get by and I was quicker in the areas that were bad for passing.

Eventually I got by and started pushing even harder. Well, that resulted in at least 2 more spins over the remaining laps. Because of the fuel snafu I had to do a splash-and-dash which (due to the pit speed/length) put me way back again. Pretty well just cruised home from there.

[Kelly G]

Those are the races you just shake your head and set up for the next one.

[oldslowfred]

Sept 27, 2012 4:41:55 GMT -8 oldrustybelly55 said:

Sorry Sheldon for takin you out. My wheel quit on me. Ran the wheel for two hours before the race with no problems. Hope the new circut board I ordered will fix the problem. Back to the fanatec wheel for now.

no problem, I was thinking I should have let you know I was inside
despite some pretty impressive gymnastics my car actually didn't seem all that damaged

[oldslowfred]

Sept 27, 2012 7:09:38 GMT -8 boza said:

...Good race last night, I thought I had it won until I got in a little mix up with Sheldon. My fault Sheldon I should of let you know that I was going to try to pass you on the right but oh well shit happens. 1-2 finish for team Mazda ;D We're off to a good start.

actually I think it was my fault, that chicane seemed to be getting the better of me as the race wore on... I messed up there and was worried I had taken out Tony, got disoriented and was wandering around the track, ended up getting in your way
at least that seems to be my recollection ;D

[oldslowfred]

Sept 27, 2012 8:04:36 GMT -8 Kelly G said:

Damn, sounds like the bullseye was on Sheldon last night. Please don't pick on him cause I want him to come back for next race.

I really like that Skyline
Started with the Challenger (ran it in NAGT race last week).
However, like Jarhead says it is not easy to see out of

But with the Skyline I seemed to have a pretty good race pace.
Now just need to learn how to keep that pace 'and' keep out of trouble

[Dan W.]

Sorry for bailing out of the race last night, but I was just getting in every ones way and got very frustrated.
I'm used to qualifying 1-4 seconds behind the leaders. And normally I gain 1-2 seconds in the race. But with that car or Mod, I was 5-6 seconds off the leaders and it got worse as the race went on.
I'm going to try the #25 Mustang in the next event. But if I can't be competitive enough to keep from going 2 or more laps down, I may have to give up on this Mod. I know I'm not fast, never have been. But at least with all the other Mods we run I can keep up with the tail end of the field. So maybe it's my driving style that dose not work with this Mod.
I've never been pissed off no matter how bad I did in any of the races we have run here. But last night... I could have crushed my controller and still needed something to break. I've never even been that pissed at Forza, and I absolutely hate the crappy driving physics in that game.
So as I said, I will try again next race, but if it winds up being not fun at all, I will have to drop this series.
Maybe it was just me last night, we shall see. But I have never come away from an event here and been pissed.
Jason took me out on the last lap once when I had the win in my pocket, and I still came away with a good time and a smile.

[F1Fan07]

I think once you get back on the wheel you'll be fine with this mod. Your tire wear was insane. I could've done the entire race on one set if I'd backed off slightly.

[helios16v]

Wolf, take the other Skyline for a spin too. The AWD cars are easier to drive...but have greater tire wear. With the mandatory pit w/ tire change, that Achilles's Heel has been removed from the AWD cars...so now the only disadvantage they have is they tend to push.....unless you're running a Fantomas tune. ;D

Another thing to keep in mind, most of us that were running towards the front have spent a fair bit of time with this mod over the past 2-3 months at R2P between the Fabcar/NAGT & North American GT series. So we've had a lot of extra seat time to get adjusted to the mod.