AC Formula Abarth @ Silverstone! Sat 6th Dec 2014

[Giuseppe Marconi]

someone crashed into me at start and the race was over too much early....not funny this one

 

[Si]

Nice to get my first ever race win .

The only incident I had was when I was following Simon and we suddenly teleported into each other which caused me to crash off with some light damage to my front wing.

Grats Stephen! so sorry about that, I thought it was my boy watching videos taking up bandwidth, however not so sure! I was getting so many micro stutters al through the race, don't know whats up!

 

[Ricoow]

2 spin-outs later - and it still was fun.

Btw guys I was JakeDunc, sorry about that. I changed my name after the booking but the game decided to show my original nickname. :/

Yeah if you book, the server will remember that name

Anyways: My race:
Practice: 5th
Quali: 15th - Apparently race setups really take you down 10 places :o
Race: 6th

Spun twice, once in the maggots beckets section. And once in copse damaging my front wing.
Had a good start, gained 7 places in one lap. Then was stuck behind @Simon Knight who has a son that does not yet understand the importance of SimRacing to his dad and was killing his connection by downloading Got past him luckily due to him making a mistake not having to gamble on a millimeters space overtake.
Then continued battling up front until I reached P4. Then bad luck struck me in lap 9, I was a bit too enthusiastic, hit a kerb and lost it. Got back in P7. 2 laps later crashed my car and damaged the front wing from P6. It instantly ruined my pitstop strategy I had planned during (!) the race. I was going for 10 hard 10 hard, but I saw how easily they lasted longer and decided to go 14, (my fuel usage was lower as the game told me during Q) only having to do 6 on the mediums. So basically I did 11-9 hard.
Got back in the middle of nowhere, cruising around at P9. After catching some guys pitting and or spinning I was in 6th the last few laps.
Lap 18 I was 6 seconds behind @Fred Locklear and I thought I would stay 6th. Then lap 19, Personal best and only 2 seconds behind him heading into lap 20. Pushing for what I was worth and got at his back in Vale corner, attempting a pass around the outside jsut to have the inside going on the straight but then....
Fred locked up his brakes, went wide and I had to react quickly if I wanted us both to finish, leaving me locking up and almost off track. Gap 1.7s at the end.
Great race, great fun. Thank you Abarth, you never disappoint.

Also it is fun to see my own livery on track as well driven by somebody else.

Edit: Action shot of the close encounter:
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/27350000438642445/0727050CF7B5BB0ACEA527C29132235B9391613F/

 

[Fernando Deutsch]

Was doing a great race, until for some reason I did not load enough fuel. I swear I set to load 10Laps of fuel on pits. What a disgrace. Was fighting for 4th place after my pitstop after started from 15th place due to issues on qualifying. When pitting to load fuel I ran out of it and was meters away from my pitbox, check the image.

Still a lot of fun. Thanks for allow me to race with you.

 

[Ricoow]

Was doing a great race, until for some reason I did not load enough fuel. I swear I set to load 10Laps of fuel on pits. What a disgrace. Was fighting for 4th place after my pitstop after started from 15th place due to issues on qualifying. When pitting to load fuel I ran out of it and was meters away from my pitbox, check the image.

View attachment 74056

Still a lot of fun. Thanks for allow me to race with you.

Im sorry but I laughed at how close you were :$

 

[Nathan Pearce]

What was the pole time anyone?

 

[Andrija Midzor]

2:00:6xx if I recall correctly.

What tyres were you guys on? It might just be my setup, but after 7-8 laps my Meds really gave up, I was losing 1-2 secs a lap.

Copse is one evil corner btw.

 

[Stefan Sparco]

Hard tyres for me. Used the same set for all 20 laps. Just took fuel only at the pit stop.

 

[zAmboni]

Qualified 4th (!)
Finished 5th.

Before practice I was doing laps in hotlap mode and for some reason the tire temp app kept showing 98% even after 10 laps. So I decided to do something unorthodox, for my first stint I would go with softs to see if I could hang with the front, and see just how long i could stand them. For the second stint I would try to see how long I could make the mediums last.

That strategy didn't work out since I screwed up a couple of times in the first several laps. At start I got off good, but was wary going into turn 1. The front two almost touched wheels so I hung back a little, at the hairpin I had to lift to avoid rearending, and next thing you know I had cars left and right of me going down Wellington Straight. That put me back in 7th I think and I didn't take account of the lower downforce in traffic and took a penalty coming out of Maggots/Becketts. That lost me another 2 spots. A lap later I nearly spun going into Abbey trying to pass @Simon Knight and took yet another penalty . I tried to press a bit to get some spots back, but the soft tires were gone by lap 7. I pitted at the end of lap 7 and they were reading 94% front 95% back.

The early pit put me in open track. Was able to get by a couple of the slower cars and was wondering where I would be when everyone pitted. I was surprised that I was in 6th. @Fernando Deutch was ahead, maybe I could catch him? Then I heard about Fernando's grief on TS, and then I was up in 5th. Around lap 16, P4 might have been in reach, I started pressing, but It was apparent that the Mediums were starting to give out on me. Then I had to try and hang on to 5th and finish the race without blowing a turn.

I thought I had a comfortable gap, but on lap 19 I could see @Ricardo Umans on the position tracker behind me and started getting nervous. I just need to put in 2 solid laps and I should be OK. On the last lap he popped up in my mirror coming around Copse...I thought I got through Maggots/Becketts OK, but he was gaining. Hung on through Stowe, and thought I was home free. Just needed to baby it through the chicane on bald tires. Braking into the chicane and there was a flash in the mirror *PHEW* that was close....and got through to finish P5. At finish my front tires were at 93% and rears at 94%....another lap and I would have been driving on ice cubes.

 

[Stefan Sparco]

What was the pole time anyone?

http://simresults.net/141207-7sq

 

[Fernando Deutsch]

Im sorry but I laughed at how close you were :$

I was blowing to the monitor if it may take the car to the pitbox.

Is there a tutorial or instructions on what options and how does the pitbox tool works?

 

[Ricoow]

I was blowing to the monitor if it may take the car to the pitbox.

Is there a tutorial or instructions on what options and how does the pitbox tool works?

No dont think so, it is quite easy though. Just drive in WITH fuel and then the buttons appear
The buttons and its functions speak for themself

 

[zAmboni]

Is there a tutorial or instructions on what options and how does the pitbox tool works?

@Fernando Deutsch
Here is a screen cap of what I did in the race. (I pitted at lap 7/8 so I had a bit of fuel left).
1) I had on softs so I switched to Medium tyres
2) The fuel part showed that I had 10L of fuel left in the tank (green). I clicked on the line and it added the 30L (fuel to be added in Red). Fine tune fuel with the + - buttons. [If I clicked on the "fill" button to the right it would have completely filled the tank]
3) You have to make sure and click the confirm button at the bottom.! I'm guessing if you didn't you could just drive out of the pits and it wouldnt do/add anything.
4) when you click the confirm button, it goes to the overhead animation and shows tyres being changed

 

[Si]

Great Post @Fred Locklear

 

[Fernando Deutsch]

Excellent post Fred, thanks !

I think I added 10Liters thinking it was 10Laps. So its very important to know the liters/laps ratio.