Split 2 - R6: Bathurst - 23rd April 2018 (2 Viewers)

[Zenny]

yeah so I fractured my hand in a go kart incident and now my right hand is all in a cast. Obviously I can't race. Sorry for the short notice.

 

[Cluck]

yeah so I fractured my hand in a go kart incident and now my right hand is all in a cast. Obviously I can't race. Sorry for the short notice.

Ouch. Hope you hand mends soon and you're back racing again before too long

 

[Pete Morrish]

Definitely starting this one, but unsure if I'll finish. Just started running (5.5 miles on Saturday, then an accidental 7-mile walk on Sunday, and then a quick 5-ishK just now). My legs aren't happy. Genuinely don't know if I'll have the strength to operate pedals for 75 minutes!

Will likely sit out of Quali. Haven't practiced the track, and don't want to scupper people's hot laps by being very slow (plus, the chances of me qualifying outside the bottom five are... limited).

 

[Damian Hall]

I had no choice but to retire...someone knocked my car on the side..It wont go back on the wheels sigh...I'm not even sure how I could be hit so hard unless the person I was going by ran off and came back on..I for sure saw him go deep at the end of the straight so i took the inside and just in case he didn't run off I stayed out wide to take the right on the outside then all of a sudden my car is in the air on the side headed to the tire wall..It came to rest on its side and no matter what I tried it didn't come over lol.

 

[Stokemon]

Firstly @xImJakeyy I didn't hit you on the warm up lap. From my view you just shot forwards. I'm guessing some sort of lag event. I'm really really sorry.

That incident didn't help my state of mind. Taking the call I did moments before quali messed with my head. Couldn't string together a proper lap, 2.01.2 potential and I think I should have got a 2.01.5.

Race no better drifted into the wall on turn 2 then after a fix hit another wall and thought better of it as I felt dangerous to others.

Gutted to end the season that way.

 

[Cartman_SP69]

Thanks for an Awesome first season with RSR I can not wait for the next one.
It is a Pity Bathurst the race i was enjoying the most and was 7th when my bloody ISP decided to reboot the connection.

Any how hopefully next season i will have fiber and the problem should be resolved.

To the RSR staff as always great job with the community, I know its a lot of work to manage a community like this and kudos to you guys keep up the good work, this is by far the best racing community I've been part of.

 

[Jakeyy]

Firstly @xImJakeyy I didn't hit you on the warm up lap. From my view you just shot forwards. I'm guessing some sort of lag event. I'm really really sorry.

That's fine man, on my end I didn't have lag it was just the jump forward from an impact.

At the end of the day it gave me minimal damage compared to what else I got later in the race.

Thanks for the Admins for running this season, and thanks to @Darksi for running our Lobby!

Will be back for S5, hopefully will get some single seaters!

 

[FuBii]

not sure what happened in T1 but I was on the gravel & got hit. let the pack pass me to be safe. had a good race but my hands couldn't hold the controller any longer, did too much practise in the run up.

 

[Invincible]

I raised the car (front/rear) by 4mm and put the bump stops to 0. Increased suspension/dampers by 2 clicks. set camber to -1.6 and -0.7 (or the lowest possible).

Massive shout-out to you @Ashnoom. You saved my sorry arse with this. I ran 8 practice races and always hammered the car into a wall after 45 minutes at the very latest. So I thought I give your changes a shot for qualifying. And it worked like a charm. I finally had somewhat stable cornering, whereas before my rear was always stepping out with high speed corners like T2 and those on top of the hill.

 

[Henri]

Awesome race, had great fun in my first season - thanks guys.

I had to pit twice to receive new tyres (cost me two extra places, but maybe just one extra - if i had received them in the first pit stop), but for the rest I had a great race. 9th (after having run 4th at 50 minutes in)

 

[drukqs]

Nice race and great championship.

Quali: crappy quali, just 10min before the race on quali conditions i did what would have been P2 today...but i dont know maybe the nerves on quali so P7. It was allright.

Race: Nice start, no problems, and until the middle of the race interesting nerves battle with Ashnoom for P4, even after we both pitted. Both of us found ourselfs behind Henri which was a difficult nut to crack and we both lost position in the track. Finally we both passed him but i binned it on T2 somewhere with 30min left while i was trying to get near Invicible and Crow. Back to the pits, got my place from Henri back and a spin afterwards and an altercation with a backmarker (i must admit i didnt need to force a pass) finished at P5 and well...was good fun

Cya next championship guys!

And of course, congratulations @Stokemon for the championship and radgie gadzies for the team championship!

 

[UnstopaPaul]

I guess I should do some kind of race report too!

Bathurst is a track that scares me silly. That video (above) got me both pumped and a little afraid. Like others, I saw qualifying as a way to escape T1 shenanigans, but with a 75 minute race pit timing was also going to be important.

Qualifying:
This was a little frustrating for me. The length of the course, plus time of day meant that there were really only a very small number of possible hot laps (maybe 2 or 3) where tyres were up to temp. Combining this with the narrow track and a few people clearly learning the track in quali meant I got very little clean air. Still, with the one clear-air lap I got I did manage a 2:01.101. Good enough on the night to get pole (I'm sure others were struggling to get clear laps too), but a way short of what I'd hoped to run. The nerves really started to get to me once I realised that @Dama_The_Crow was in second position, the closest person to me on the table.

Race:
Interestingly, split 1 started with the P1 driver on the inside . Fortunately, on race start, Dama clearly was as interested as I in getting around the first corner cleanly rather than challenging, so I held P1 into the first lap. Sadly my nerves were actually getting the better of me. @Dama_The_Crow was clearly about the same pace as me (if not faster), and seeming just in range for a light draft down towards the chase. For the first 3 laps or so I massively overshot my braking point at the chase (I was probably "eyes rear" rather than "eyes front", and this got me punished severely with Dama going ahead and starting to pull away.

I settled into rhythm and started to reel him in, but passing just looked too dangerous, and he was better than me out of the dipper, so I rarely got that draft, and annoyingly I was faster in the first sector, always closing, but never wanting to make a move on the mountain. So I just started putting on the pressure.

There was a bit of a code brown when Dama had a spin on the last corner and covered the entire track, forcing me to come to a halt and tap his door handle. Fortunately it seemed we were both mostly unharmed, but we had a little bit of fun trying to keep ourselves ahead of @Invincible (?) who caught and nearly passed both of us on the straight. Dama waited for me like a boss, but sadly I'd stalled the car on tapping him, so it was pretty slow.

Dama seemed pretty robust to passing attempts. Fortunately I'd prepared a secret weapon - the pit strategy!

For some reason, though many were complaining about softs degredation, I wasn't experiencing this issue (I really don't know why. I guess setup or driving style). Having done some fairly in depth testing the week before, I had decided I could stay out longer than the likely pit window for everyone else, with tyres that were going to be faster than the hards. While the softs were not at their best, the hards would not yet be optimal either. My plan was therefore to pass via a late pit, which seemed to work out well. The second part was to take fresh softs and not hards. These softs were not going to deliver their best, but still could (for me anyway) deliver about half a second per lap more than hards could). No one else seemed to have reached that conclusion on the forum, so it seemed like a nice asymmetric play.

Coming back on the track I had not only come out ahead, but gained a decent lead on @Dama_The_Crow of about 7.5 secs. With the fresh tyres I was pulling away at about 0.5s per lap so the rest was about keeping the head down and avoiding code-brown moments with the lapped cars. Fortunately (almost) everyone did a sterling job at this.

The last lap or two was predicably nervy, but with 17 seconds banked I was able to mostly coast it home. I could almost say I enjoyed my time on the mountain...

A second win for me is still staggering and its going to take a bit of getting used to.

 

[Ashnoom]

I'll put this here first. Timed annotations are in the description to easily click through my race events

 

[SteveO916]

qualifying didn't go so well, put in the wall on cold tyres, restart try again...back in the wall - cold tyres. Do a slow couple of steady laps to heat up tyres then push a bit. managed to finish a lap, missed T1 while trying to see what my previous lap time was. At this point I needed a Slash (needed a Wee, NOT put on a top hat to do some awesome guitar riffs..).
Came back with only a few mins of Quali left so no time to warm up and attempt another lap so decided to fiddle with the setup instead. Made a change to the gearing so I wouldn't be bouncing off the limiter on the back straight. Also got scared into changing my fuel load with all the talk of needing 30L topup so added 10L. (finished race with over 10L left)

The race itself didn't go so well either (as usual). My hedtracking stopped working on the warmup lap and several attempts to restart it failed. So no chance of seeing any apexes or anybody alongside me. Made up some places after T1 and with people pitting for damage was quite comfortable in about 16th. As the temp went up people must've been changing tyres but I started on Hards so I stayed out. No one close enough to chase or be chased by I thought "this is alright" - boom in the wall. Missed the braking point into the Chase while trying to use the stupid ICM and change pit stategy to damage only. Sat on the grass for a few seconds to get that done.
My gear change change had gone the wrong way so I was over revving on both straights now and the extra acceleration was making the car twitchy out of the corners. At one point I decided to try a corner in a different gear, but it didn't pull well so changed down mid corner and spun leaving me sideways down the mountain waiting for a load of cars to pass. Had enough room in the tank for my 30L so figured I may as well do the Fuel/Tyres stop while in fixing the damage. Came out the pits, cold tyres into the wall. Almost crashed again using the stupid ICM to change back to Damage only strategy.
Then at 9pm all my animals go to bed and all their lights went out leaving me in pitch black. The missus was obviously not within shouting distance so I had to park up and go and turn the light on. From then on I should have just taken it easy and I might have gained places from people having to pit, but no I pushed on and even tried to keep up with a car that came past to lap me (bad move, result another visit to the wall / pits).
Even when last I was still pushing and doing quick(for me) laps...

Apologies to @Ashnoom for being more of a handicap than a team mate. Thanks to @Mearcat for his words of encouragement after the last disaster race, although I think you confused me with somebody else as I've never been anywhere near your pace.
Thanks to the Admins for organising the series and Congrats to the winners....

 

[Dama_The_Crow]

Best race so far in my opinion. I really love Bathurst.

I knew I can get below 2:02 but for that to happen I needed a bit time before the race to just feel the wheel and car, and of course I could only to sat in cockpit just sec before driver briefing.
So I thought to go first out, have clean lap soon as possible, but that "feeling" was not there for the first 10 minutes of driving.
Just before the end I got my time of 2:01,something and last lap, just minute before the end of qually, I had 0,5 sec advantage in the mountain before my best time and I thought here is the pole, but too much pushing and track said no in the chase where I get a bit of the track and time was lost, bu I was very happy about second place.

I intentionally didn't want to push @UnstopaPaul in the first corner after start, because didn't want to cause any aero damage to him or myself so I waited opportunity for clean pass if so... And I noticed that in The Case @UnstopaPaul first lap is breaking too much late so thought next lap I'll try there to pass, and second lap he again did the same, and I overtake him. I was a bit faster so I did some advantage in next few laps, but than again my concentration started to play games with me. I missed apexes, "lick" the walls... I needed to get a grip after I spin in Murrays Corner and I thought that @UnstopaPaul is easily passing by, but he tapped my door. I tried to wait for him, because I didn't know is it my mistake or his and then I saw @Invincible coming and just decided to go (I did try to communicate with Paul but my mic was in off position).
I needed some time to get in rhythm again. I got 6 aero damage and that affected too much on straights and that is the most reason why I went to pits after about 13-14 laps.

In pits I have changed tyres to hards and wasn't really satisfied with their performance. Couldn't even get close my lap times earlier.
After @UnstopaPaul went to pits he came out in front of me with a decent advantage. After that I couldn't catch him at all, so I just tried to not-hit-the wall and safely come to really good 2nd place.
Later I saw that I made best lap time in a race so that was a bit reward also

During this season I decided to step a bit more in sim racing and bought some books about it, and start to learn (finally) about setups. Just to understand more racing cars and to enjoy myself even more.


Thanks to my teammate @The Breeze for support, and I hope that you also learned even more about sim racing as I did through this season.

Really looking forward for next Season 5 of RSR League.


Here is my video of the race:

 

[Michael]

Oh boy! What a finale!

First of all, a big thanks to the RSR staff for putting this together. That was (again) a pretty enjoyable season.

My qualy was quite decent from my POV, as I put in my PB here, which on the other hand only set me on P15, but I am used to running from mid-pack, so no worries there. As always, my strategy was to keep the head down, don’t get caught in any incident, and especially on this track, don’t hit a wall, which worked quite well.

The start however, was a bit rough (again), as some guys in split 2 still think, they can win the race in the first corner, and are lacking awareness and caution obviously. Starting from P15, coming around T1 and seeing at least 2 cars in the gravel, and @Darksi being shunted around (again*), and two or three cars being involved in the carnage mid-track is not what we would like to see again, would we? Kudos to my teammate @Reapper[ZA], who jumped from P14 to P7 at the start (I hope that was all clean ).

I managed to slip through the mess and found myself on P11 with clear air in front of me, so I could start pushing it within my means. It didn’t take long until @xImJakeyy appeared in my mirrors, and I was trying to give him a hard time to get past, but that didn’t last long. He was giving me lots of pressure which nearly made me crash the car in the mountain section. I had to let him by at one point, but that was expected.

I was again lucky to pass some people who were pitting to get repairs and even got up to P3 before my pitstop. With a new set of hard tires and +30L of fuel my lap times were 1-2 seconds slower and I couldn’t catch up with the guys running in front of me. Miraculously I found myself sitting on P6 at some point and was able to drive it home.

*I really feel sorry for you @Darksi! You seem to have become the punching ball of split 2 in the last races, I guess you were rage-quitting after that T1 mess, and I can totally understand that.

 

[Darksi]

*I really feel sorry for you @Darksi! You seem to have become the punching ball of split 2 in the last races, I guess you were rage-quitting after that T1 mess, and I can totally understand that.

Unfortunately that wasn't me, I would of loved to make the start of the race, but unfortunately i missed pressing start race while trying to clarify what was announced in the driver briefing about starting odds right and evens left (I have clarified and we did start on the correct side) so i missed the start. If anyone has saved the replay i would be grateful if somebody could send me the replay file, it will be interesting to see the race,

 

[Michael]

Unfortunately that wasn't me, I would of loved to make the start of the race, but unfortunately i missed pressing start race while trying to clarify what was announced in the driver briefing about starting odds right and evens left (I have clarified and we did start on the correct side) so i missed the start. If anyone has saved the replay i would be grateful if somebody could send me the replay file, it will be interesting to see the race,

I was pretty sure to see your Black Beauty being tossed around again...but anyways...a pity you couldn't race with us. I'll edit my post above accordingly.

 

[Jamesl91]

Firstly huge congratulations to @Stokemon for taking the split 2 championship, its thoroughly deserved. All of you in Split 2 have been a credit to RSR in the way you have driven this season, we look forward to even more battles soon!


As @Darksi has already requested. I too need the replay file if someone would be so kind to upload and share.

 

[Invincible]

Ah, I just wish this one came here yesterday. I bet this would've given me a 150 hp boost and 50% more grip so would've easily won the race.
Anyway congratulations to @UnstopaPaul and @Dama_The_Crow . At times I thought I would be able to catch you, Dama, but after I've switched to hard tires, it all went iffy.