AC GT3 @ Watkins Glen - Sunday 6th September 2020

[GeekyDeaks]

Not my finest hour, but I did okay. Had to resort to mediums, this circuit kills softs, even in the Nissan. Messed up my pit stop completely, bugger.

Considering I watched you drag your car out of the pit exit just after T1, you did a remarkable job of getting it back into the top 10!

 

[Chris Down]

And as usual, my VR onboard. See you all next week!

 

[Gerdoner]

Had a very enjoyable race. This being my first GT3 race here (probably one of 1% who never raced GT3s in AC) and maybe my 4th or 5th online race in AC overall, I decided to play it safe. Had a stable, high-downforce setup and my aim was to have a race without major errors and not getting in the way of the aliens.
Was quite surprised to see me qualify in the midpack. I made up some places during the first lap chaos in the chicane, but since i lacked topspeed down the backstraight, I didnt really try to defend too hard and lost a couple of positions in the first 15 minutes or so. Once the race settled I got into a good rythm and posted consistent laptimes and slowly climed up the standings as others were spinning or pitting.

Originally I planned doing 2 stints on soft tyres, but during official practice I thought I'd play it safe and start on mediums and see how the race develops. "Unfortunately" once I had to pit, I still wasnt sure if double stinting the mediums was possible or if It would be faster to be on fresh softs. Decided to play it safe and thought being on worn mediums was more risky than being on fresh softs, especially since there were only 20 minutes to go or so. And as I said, main goal was to have an uneventful race. Entered the pit in P4, being chuffed that so far I only made one minor mistake (running a bit wide in T8). Well, then I made three errors in a row. First I overshot my pit box (first ever pit in AC during a race), then I reversed into the pit box, the pit animation played, I floored it... but was still in Reverse But the biggest error was that I chose to change tyres. For the first few laps it was ok, but after like 10 minutes I had less grip than on Mediums after 40 minutes. So not only did I loose a lot of time changing tyres and refuelling, the last two laps were also a lot slower, and I finished in P 14 or so.

Right after the race I was very happy to finsih a race without major incidents ontrack and to clock consistent laptimes. After a night's sleep I think I could have finished way higher if I didn't change tyres and only refueld 1 litre or so. But since I consider these club races as an opportunity to race in a competitive, but laid back field, I think it was a good opportunity to learn and improve as a driver and a nice way to end the weekend.

 

[Kek700]

@Gerdoner
Softs get chewed on this circuit for some bizarre reason ! Essentially I am not very competitive on mediums. I get all my pace from utilising the softs to their max. Unlike the aliens who are almost as quick with softs or medium.
That’s my goal, to be almost as quick with either softs or mediums. Nothing like hope to spur you on.

 

[FischBoB]

Got a nice view of the Henry-Aki fight at the start, it was nice being P3 for a while Nice driving with Jens and Andreas for a while too. Too bad both of you didn't change tyres...

Congrats podium guys, thanks for organising, and cya next week!

I did change tyres I didn't had a lot of practice so i didn't know if i could do the whole race with on set of tyres. so i played it save and changed them

 

[640er]

Thanks @Chris Down for hosting and as always congrats to the podium

Had a bad qualy and could not get near my PB which resulted only in P12 or 13. So I had to rely on my experience and try to be consistent. Experience told me, that lap 1 at Watkins Glen will be mayhem and especially if keeping out of trouble at the bus stop chicane will let you pass a few stranded cars Luckily I could avoid nearly all spinning and flying cars around me so I gained a lot of places in the beginning laps. At some place I found myself somewhere at P3 or P4 which was way to far up considering my pace. Even though I felt comfortable in the car I was just slow. Maybe the car setup was to far on the safe side. Could not match the top speeds on the straights and I still don't know how to take the bus stop chicane.. (And I guess I don't choose the best lines through other corners as well) So for the most cars behind me I was an easy target but in the end, and thanks to my consistency of 99.10% <> 0.9554 (whatever that means, but hey I'm first ), I finished P6 which isn't bad.

Regarding tires, I went with one set of mediums but I did split my fuel 55/55. I don't like to go with a fully loaded (110L) car and having a few seconds during pit stop to get a sip of water is vital

Speaking of tires. @Chris Down why is the pit stop mandatory? Wouldn't it allow for more strategic options to go with an optionally pit stop? On most of the tracks, going 1 set of mediums+1L is not a good option as you don't gain enough time. Running 2x softs gives you better lap-times (and for me a better time overall), a lighter car for half of the race, more fun and better racing. Changing tires takes about 20 seconds but at a circuit with 2mins a lap you have 30 laps, and at least for me, I loose around 1 sec per lap on mediums compared to the lighter car on softs. So in the end I loose about 10 seconds with one set of mediums over the race distance. But taking away the time you loose due to pit entry/exit, it could become a considerable strategy depinding on the pitlane delta of each track. Is it just me who has such a big difference between the softer and harder compound? It's almost never an option to go on one set of the harder compound.

 

[640er]

I did change tyres I didn't had a lot of practice so i didn't know if i could do the whole race with on set of tyres. so i played it save and changed them

Glad to hear that I had no chance against you in the end with my old mediums

 

[Chris Down]

Speaking of tires. @Chris Down why is the pit stop mandatory? Wouldn't it allow for more strategic options to go with an optionally pit stop? On most of the tracks, going 1 set of mediums+1L is not a good option as you don't gain enough time. Running 2x softs gives you better lap-times (and for me a better time overall), a lighter car for half of the race, more fun and better racing.

We've tried it before, and reality is that for the front runners, no mandatory pit stop means the best strategy is always medium and no pit, more or less regardless of track, which isn't very interesting. The front runners also tend to be a lot better using the mediums, so the pack spreads out even further, and there are fewer cars on the lead lap. The same is true even at low tyre wear tracks. For example, just doing calculations at Spa with my old race simulation times: the medium no pit strategy gains 20s(!!!) on every other strategy, compared to being pretty much level pegging with soft otherwise.

 

[640er]

We've tried it before, and reality is that for the front runners, no mandatory pit stop means the best strategy is always medium and no pit, more or less regardless of track, which isn't very interesting. The front runners also tend to be a lot better using the mediums, so the pack spreads out even further, and there are fewer cars on the lead lap. The same is true even at low tyre wear tracks. For example, just doing calculations at Spa with my old race simulation times: the medium no pit strategy gains 20s(!!!) on every other strategy, compared to being pretty much level pegging with soft otherwise.

Interesting to hear that, thanks. As always, there is no free lunch

 

[Leon Charmant]

@Chris Down I just want to say thank you for all the effort you put in to organize, communicate these events and even share your onboard replays with us. I think the nicely filled-up grids are because of that.

It's cool to see the "VR onboard" setup of another user, where you keep which data and whatnot. What headset are you using? I'm running the Valve Index and my onboard setup looks quite similar.

@hape It's a shame you spun near the end of the race. I felt you had the edge over me, and it was exhausting to have you chase me in the last laps. Very tense! My goal was to get into the top 10, which I didn't quite manage.

 

[Chris Down]

@Chris Down I just want to say thank you for all the effort you put in to organize, communicate these events and even share your onboard replays with us. I think the nicely filled-up grids are because of that.

It's cool to see the "VR onboard" setup of another user, where you keep which data and whatnot. What headset are you using? I'm running the Valve Index and my onboard setup looks quite similar.

Thanks! I use a Rift CV1

 

[butcher85]

For the first time I tried soft / soft and they were a bit dodgy towards the end but manageable. Probably going so slow that they didn't wear out anyway. Starting from 7th I was so optimistic but that changed pretty much from the moment the lights went out

 

[Partick Eaton]

That was a fun race. I was able to get past the first lap mayhem and settled into running in 9th place. I had a pit strategy of 14 laps on soft and 20 on the mediums. I ended up in 14th after the stop. One stupid downshift error put me back to 16th chasing Hann. More work on pit strategy is required.

Thanks for hosting and well done winners.

 

[Chris Down]

Thanks everyone for coming out this week! Next week, I'd love to see you all again back racing in sunny Italy at Mugello!

EU - GT3 @ Mugello - Sunday 13th September 2020

by filnove on Flickr: link Mugello is on the F1 calendar for the first time, and we're following it in the GT3s afterwards as a support race ;-) Come join us and learn this track first hand! Welcome to the Assetto Corsa racing club! This is the place to be for relaxed, friendly racing and...

www.racedepartment.com

 

[butcher85]

My replay didn't capture the first lap so I didn't see the mayhem that resulted in me being 29th after half a lap - probably for the best

Had a couple great scraps with @HF2000 and @GeekyDeaks though, cheers guys!

Also, how the hell do you do standing starts in AC? Every different thing I try gets the same result, I just bog down. The clutch pedal seems to have no bearing whatsoever

 

[EireGreen™]