Split 1 - R6: Bathurst - 23rd April 2018 (1 Viewer)

[Puffpirat]

Wow what a race this was. Having the finale at Bathurst really didn't make it easier on the nerves. All that pressure not to bin it over the mountain and throw the championship away on the last race was accompanying me all race.

During qualy I managed to bang in one lap that was just about enough to pip @Cluck for pole. Great time with the Ferrari there mate, really unfortunate you struggled in the race. Pole would be my luck because P2-P6 with @Cluck @Alex Salmon @fab. ICEMAN @ProjectPD @SillySausage were in a close battle which gave me some breathing space in the beginning. The first stint was horror, the car was mega twitchy as the fog stayed way longer than expected and the Hards just wouldn't want to start working.

I mainly focused on @ProjectPD and the gaps behind around where I would come out after the pit stop. I realized @fab. ICEMAN gained about 5s, if not more, with the undercut but I wanted to play it safe and not get stuck behind someone after the stop. In the end I was just too conservative to really be in for the win. It was honestly a bit flattering that I was leading for so long. @fab. ICEMAN your pace was just really good in the end and without your screen black out you probably would have taken me before the stop already. Grats on the win

Thank you for the kind words after the race. Much appreciated It was a tough season, we all had our struggles, ups and downs but in the end it was very enjoyable and the most competitive RSR has ever been. I fully expect Season 5 to be even more of a fight. Bring it on

And finally @FlyingKman we are Team Champions too

 

[AndrexUK]

Grats to @Puffpirat A deserved (double) champion!
But great to see others giving him a run for his money too!

What an awesome place to finish off a season (albeit joining late for the last 3 races).
A surprisingly high Qually position (VERY high by my usual mid/back pack qually sessions!) saw me in P10
I did my normal Lap 1 (or 2) fast lap, and then just failed to improve
Was in P12 till my last lap gained me back into P10 again - Rather unexpected - and gave me a lot of confidence, as I normally almost match my qually pace in race.

Managed to hold P10, but was on the rear bumper of anyone that was in front of me. (Mostly @miagi )
The car and the softs working very well. Perhaps others started on hards? but I was being held up a lot on those first couple of laps.
Almost getting caught out on the brakes as I was able to brake much later than the guys around me - This is very uncommon, as I'm almost always earlier on the brakes than everyone.
Going into the chase, I could brake about 4 car lengths later, but when they were 2 wide ahead, I had no-where to go, so had to let off and play in the grass.
Happened twice I think, but just seamed to have the pace to catch back up again.
Managed to out-brake @miagi twice, but each time he pushed me off wide, and once was into a wall on the final turn.
He was more looking at the car ahead, and I don't think he was expecting me to dive past on the outside.
Was only 8 aero damage to the front, but it dropped my top end a bit, as I was only just getting into 6th gear on the front straight - but wasn't loosing too much time from it.

Some seamed to pit early, but since my car was behaving, I wasn't going to risk changing a good drive (+ hadn't tested in the warmer conditions, so was unsure my pressures would be right, so kept on going to about the half way mark.
The plan was to go till I was out of fuel (to use the low fuel speed as much as possible), which would mean if I did pick up any damage, I could have it fixed - but I just wasn't touching the walls, and also noticed I was scrubbing the front tires (must have been locking up).
But pit strategy put in about 20L too much, so lost a fair bit of time in the pits
Back down to P10, but still quite happy with that - But really wanted a P7 to complete the 7 - 7 - 7 results.
Didn't think it would really be possible, but new softs again seamed to work no problem.

I think some of the guys ahead had picked up some damage after their pits, so were off their full pace, which meant I could catch up nicely.
Planets seamed to line up nicely and I was able to get past each of them without too much problem.
Back into P7
6 was too far ahead with only 15mins to go, but was slowly catching - just not enough time to get anywhere close though.

With joining late, and only running 3 races, against some great drivers - I'm truly shocked to bring the M6 into a P10 championship position.
I think the fact that the M6 seams to work well on softs takes away some of it's bad points.
I don't think it's on the same level as the Ford / Ferrari / Vette - but it really suits my driving 'style'. So I don't think I would have finished any higher in any other car!
Would love to have taken the Aston instead, but as much as I love taking the underdog cars, it was just too far off the pace - very sad


Huge thanks to @t0daY and the crew for building this season - the GTE cars have to be one of the best classes in the game by a long way imo! (And probably the best balanced too!)
And also to everyone else in the league for the great battles!

Looking forward to S5!!!

 

[Eugene Flerko]

I managed to survive the race despite illness Before race I felt dizzy and wasn't sure that using oculus rift will be ok. During qualification I felt really sick and didn't manage to set a good time, so my starting position was at the end of the field. Fortunately when the race began I started to feel better. Not sure if it was because of adrenaline or drugs finally started to work.
Overall the car was predictable and stable on this track, just had some tiny sliding on the top of the hill at the entrance into the chicane. My front tyres didn't heat up enough and I decided to go into the pits a bit earlier, hoping that new set of tyres will be preheated and it will help to avoid further sliding, but I was wrong and new tyres didn't change a thing. @Dutchtastic (p11) was 25 seconds ahead and I aimed to catch him and I believed it was possible as I was 1.5-2.0 seconds faster each lap. Unfortunately several laps after my pit-stop I spun my car into the chicane and got some serious damage to front aero and suspension and I was forced to make a pit-stop again to fix the damages. Because of it I lost some positions, exited pits at p17 and now my goal was to finish within points. Soon enough I took p16 and wondered if it's possible to get more I wasn't hoping to catch @miagi and @CatchAGlimpse, however I saw that @Hujkis is loosing a lot of time due to front damage of his car. Two minutes before the end of the race I passed him and was p14 at the finish line. It wasn't the result I was hoping for, however I'm still happy with it.
I'm also happy with high p5 finish of my teammate @Nighttiger who helped a lot during the season. It was a great pleasure to be in one team with him! Next season I will try to be more consistent and will aim for top 10

 

[Cluck]

First and foremost, a massive congratulations to Puffy for his well-deserved driver victory this season and to his partner-in-crime KMan for bringing home the team championship between them. Well done to both of you, a very popular victory in a hard-fought season

I'll sum my Bathurst race up in 5 words:

"That didn't go to plan"

I wasn't comfortable in quali, with my hunger for food (I missed dinner trying to sneak in at least some sort of race practice before the race) leading my brain to mistake the stomach rumbling for nerves, not really a message I wanted floating around in my head in the middle of a quali session at Bathurst. In the fog. In the end I was about 0.3-0.4s off my proper pace from the only test I did the previous evening. It wasn't enough to keep Puffy off pole but I don't mind losing out to him. I'll hate him forever but I don't mind

In my brief testing, the fog had cleared by the time I'd used 20L of fuel and, mindful of needing an extra 30L to finish the race, I knew I had to run to the 53L mark (or thereabouts). That resulted in a change of mind for tyres and I opted for the hard tyres, as the softs starting running very warm as soon as the fog cleared and I couldn't risk running 5 or 6 laps on overheated tyres, not with the field that would be around me. As it is, the hard tyres were an unmitigated disaster, coupled with the fog lingering until way past the time I was expecting. With the damage I'd sustained in the opening lap (I don't know exactly who it was but please, for the love of all that is holy, the mountain section is NOT somewhere you should be trying to pass people in the 1st lap) I knew it was a waste of time bimbling along any longer so, with exactly 30L used, I popped into the pits. That extra fuel and damage repair saw me lose my spot to Alex and at that point my enthusiasm for the remainder of the race dropped dramatically. It's nothing against Alex, it's just that my only advantage was in the mountain section, a place where it is foolhardy to try and pass, so I resigned myself to just doing what I could and hope people screwed up.

Sadly, it was myself that screwed up.

Firstly, I was following SillySausage a little too closely in the drop from the top of the mountain. Between a small mistake on his part and his higher ping, I had to take some evasive manoeuvres and smacked into the wall, picking up 8 front aero. I knew straight away that this was a lost cause so I pitted.

Pit stop #2

Damage repaired, I came out but hadn't considered the colder tyres and higher pressures resulting from the pit-stop. Smack, straight into a wall on the outlap. 14 front aero.

Here we go again.

Pit stop #3

Car repaired and now it was just about finishing the race. I didn't care where I finished, I just wanted to drive my socks off and do as well as I could. Points didn't matter (they never really did this season), it was all about finishing and keeping the car damage free.

Oh cock.

Pit stop #4

I was following KMan through the mountain and got caught in the aero wash, helping my car run a little wide, with the tail pinging one of the walls. 5 rear suspension was enough to leave the car nearly undrivable. As twitchy as Quentin Tarantino after inhaling a tonne of coke, there was no way I could drive to the end or hope to keep people behind me at bay.

Fresh set of tyres (even though the 'old' tyres had barely shown any signs of wear, but I was mindful of my earlier stupidity), damage-free car, clear track, 30L fuel left. It was time.

Time to attack the mountain.

I set off out of the pits like a scalded cat and proceeded to drive like my life depended on it. The car was finally hooking up beautifully, with every corner feeling just right. The car, the driver, the track, we were finally at one with each other and I had a smile a mile wide. Until I crossed the S/F line on my best lap just thousandths off a 1m59. My focus had now gone. I was angry, kicking myself for the mistake in the final sector, the remaining laps would see me overdrive the car, trying too hard to nail that 1m59 lap that had so narrowly eluded me.

And across the line. And straight into the assembled masses at the end of the S/F straight for an end of season victory smash


With my staff hat on, I want to thank everybody that took part in this season. Yes, we had our challenges at times but we all battled through them and created a season that, in our opinion, was the best we've had. We create the Revolution Cup but it's you, the members, that make the Revolution Cup.

Don't forget to leave your feedback in the feedback thread and let's start looking forward to Season 5!

 

[Jamesl91]

Firstly I want to congratulate @Puffpirat for his faultless season once again!

As for my season....well Iv not really got to grips with the Ford and have found it really tricky to setup and find the limit of hence the lack of good results. my 3rd season and the first time iv really struggled.

The only time iv really started to get on with the car was Bathurst which historically is a good track for me but again lack of pace caused me some headaches and meant i had to think of a different approach to the race.

My plan for this race was to gamble on first lap incidents and start at the back of the field. I spent 15 minutes of qualifying sat in the garage watching the lap times to decide where i could qualify. with 5 minutes left I could have qualified around P14. I got my first flying lap in to put me P20 with the 2nd lap being the more aggressive, sadly this didn't work out as planned as i clipped the wall going up the hill and lost too much time.

I started the race from P20 on the hard tires which after the slow formation lap were stone cold, all warming up didn't keep them alive. I had a very near miss with @Cornworld who sadly was out of control down the first straight. I squeezed past with some last second avoidance.

the first 2 laps i had a queue of cars behind as i struggled for pace the pack in front drifted further away. My plan for the race was simple to stay out of the walls and pick off anyone who had issues. once the cars behind found a way past i was running close enough to them but still struggling with tires. By the time the guys on softs pitted i was getting some heat and performance out of the tires which gave me enough to fend off @SillySausage for a lap before @Alex Salmon joined the party. Silly made a small mistake down the hill gifting Alex the place and chance to attack me. I defended my position making it difficult for Alex to get past but once he did, i changed tactics and let @SillySausage go as well in the hope i could tag along and not loose time to them. I was running as high as P11 at one point until my pit stop. Later in the race i was running P13 until i let @Puffpirat passed at the chicane down the hill and caused myself damage, i had to pit for repairs and rejoined P17 before getting passed @stolnikas. I finally crossed the line with a sense of relief, i had made it to the end.

Finally Its been a pleasure to race with you all this season!

 

[Nighttiger]

(...)The next thing to happen was @Nighttiger putting in some great laps early on and staying out for a lot longer before pitting which meant we were side-by-side when he came out of the pits. I had just enough momentum to make it past him before T2, but as we headed up the hill my rift stuttered the tiniest bit in the off-camber, left-hand kink heading into The Cutting. This was enough to throw off my braking and I spun into the wall, @Nighttiger getting very lucky when my car ghosted for him. This also saw my teammate jump me and I was now in P7. Now with 14% front aero damage my race had gone a bit downhill, (...)

Yes I stayed out, I started on the hards and they were in a very good window and actually I had no one in front of me for the next 25 seconds so I thought, free track, time to push. The tyres were good so pitting would only risk me getting stuck behind someone and lose time. That's how I almost jumped you and how I jumped @Battenberg .
But your spin man, I almost shit myself, I thought GG race over, as I drove into you, but you were made of air . Shame, it would most certainly be a fun battle.


A quick season summary, this was an absolute blast to race, I had so much fun and had a great teammate in @Eugene Flerko . One of my most consistent performances, finishing 5-DNS-7-5-6-5 and in the end P5 in the championship! The best of the rest lol because Alex, Iceman, Puff and PD were too fast for me. I wonder if it would be any different if I've run the Ford or the Vette, but it the end the Ferrari was a great stable car which enabled this consistency. Very happy with this result!

The Bathurst race was I think the most intense race I've ever driven in RSR, you need so much focus, no mistakes and keep the speed up, it was amazing. Had a good quali, P8, ran around this position until a lot of drivers started to pit and eventually even ran P2 as I chose to keep on driving in the clean air/track. Did a overcut on @Battenberg and passed @SillySausage when he spun. Ran P5 until @ProjectPD had to pit again and then was P4. However 4 minutes before the end @ProjectPD overtook me again as he was so fast and I had some very sloppy laps in succession. In the end very glad with P5 and really 0 mistakes!

 

[Nakor]

Starting from P19 with Softs i somehow managed to drive them more than 50min. (no problem with my slow pace )
I had good fights in the beginning and gained some places. After my stop I came back i think at P11 and could hold it until the end. Cluck was pitting about 10 mins before the end and I had a short glimpse to P10. But Cluck was about 4s faster than me per lap, and so he catched me 2-3 laps later. I'm still very happy with P11. At least one race this season that wen't well.
Thanks for all the fun!

 

[Col_McCoy]

@CatchAGlimpse sorry for the ´whipe-out´. I had to avoid 2 slow cars steering into the corner, thus went on the grass as I was already steered into the corner.... car was sliding around and unfortunately I was not controlling the rate and direction turning back on the asphalt.... steering right but car was not reacting yet.... unfortunately dont have access to the replay now, would like to see how it was for you to anticipate were I was going/would end up...

 

[CatchAGlimpse]

@CatchAGlimpse sorry for the ´whipe-out´. I had to avoid 2 slow cars steering into the corner, thus went on the grass as I was already steered into the corner.... car was sliding around and unfortunately I was not controlling the rate and direction turning back on the asphalt.... steering right but car was not reacting yet.... unfortunately dont have access to the replay now, would like to see how it was for you to anticipate were I was going/would end up...

I've already logged it in the stewards room for review, I attached a video in that thread. In my opinion you should have gone straight on over the grass rather than trying to rejoin at the exit of the next bend where everyone was fairly bunched up with it being the first lap.

No dramas though, these things happen mate. We all have our moments... I seemed to take out half of the field at Spa on Sunday.