AC Mazda MX5 Cup @Ahvenisto, Wednesday 27th April 2022

Douglas Aird · Apr 27, 2022

Qualifying was ok and got a PB for 7th on the grid.

Took it very careful early on and had a few laps keeping Han at bay. He was faster and squeezed past when I took a corner a bit wide.

Ran comfortably in 8th for a good while, lacking the confidence to try to push.

Made my only big error when I touched the kerb on the outside of turn 3 and I spun out. Lost 16 seconds and 3 places. I didn't feel I did a lot wrong but AC sometimes has tricky behaviour over kerbs.

Held 11th place to the end. Disappointed to be lapped by p1 and p2, then p3 on the start/finish of the last lap. Without the spin I would have stayed on the lead lap.

Thanks again, Han for organising and to the podiums - you had amazing pace.

Kek700 · Apr 27, 2022

I welcomed being lapped, I can say that I finished the race just behind the two alien leaders.

Alfred Wayne · Apr 28, 2022

Good race today for scavengers like myself

Started last I think but managed to quickly grab some places due to some tricky traffic ahead. Eventually found myself behind @pcmoreno for a third of the race, then another third or so behind @Dzul, both of which had the pace to keep me behind, but unfortunately each found the grass a tiny bit, which was the opening I needed. Good pace guys

Then in the closing minutes, had it not been for @Kek700 's almost too gentlemanly driving

, I might have held @Allan Ramsbottom behind me for more than the one lap I did, but he had the pace on me and I can't complain about being able to keep only 90% of my stolen places today.

Definitely a track where having someone in front of you helps you judge your braking points, and when they're gone, those blind turns become a lot blinder

Thanks for hosting Han. Don't go losing too much race pace off on vacation

See you all next week

640er · Apr 28, 2022

Thanks @HF2000 for organizing and congrats to the podium guys

Was a good combo and even though I didn't race for over a year, I could find my pace pretty quickly. Had a decent qualy and found myself in P4 after the first race lap. From there on it was a bit of a lonely race. Had one of the flying Fins always in sight but we were doing more or less same lap times so no chance of catching him. When we ran into traffic, I got a bit unlucky and lost a bit of time. In the end I had one big moment but was lucky enough to avoid a spin. Therefore I ended up where I was after lap 1 in P4

HF2000 · Apr 28, 2022

First my apologies for everyone who has put a lot of time in practice with tyre blankets. I accidently configured the S.GP server without it. So it was not only very slippery in qually and the race but drivers probably also had their tyre settings not correct.

I had a nice race with gaining 2 places when Allan and another driver went off. I noticed that my pace was a little bit better than Douglas so I could stay on his tail. It's very hard to overtake here so I had to wait until Douglas made a small mistake before I could get 7th and start chasing Carsten. With only a couple of tenths per lap I slowly decreased the gap to him (he was one of the drivers that had the tyre settings wrong) but when Josh unlapped himself in T1 I lost about 1,5 seconds there. Another second got lost when Josh went wide in T2 going off track and I could only avoid a collission by lifting and leaving the raceline. So in the last laps I was within 2s of Carsten but I ran out of time to battle him.

Congrats to all Finns for the podium on their home track.
Great debut of Josh! Without your jumpstart penalty it would have been an interesting race for the frontrunners.

I will be away for two weeks. Next Tuesday Markus Winter has organized an interesting event so have a look at that please. For next wednesday and the week after I will set up races on S.GP with the Abarth Assetto Corse and the Mazda MX5 on tracks where they should have similar performance.
I hope that both events will be great!

See you again on track on may 18th.

JoelK · Apr 28, 2022

HF2000 said:
First my apologies for everyone who has put a lot of time in practice with tyre blankets. I accidently configure the S.GP server without it. So it was not only very slippery in qually and the race but drivers probably also had their tyre settings not correct.

I actually quite liked it tbh, 'cause it really made you really work in those tyres. In qualifying, with the out-lap and tyre warming taking ages, meant you had to run a lot more fuel than normal, which for me made it a lot more interesting and challenging.

And in the start of the race, I could see a lot variance in mine and Aki's setup, so I could push from the start and he had to drive really carefully until the temps got up, which enabled me to catch up to him and Henry after my horrendous start.

That makes me wonder if I would've had a better get-off, would I been able to pass Aki in the first few laps

Douglas Aird · Apr 28, 2022

HF2000 said:
First my apologies for everyone who has put a lot of time in practice with tyre blankets. I accidently configured the S.GP server without it. So it was not only very slippery in qually and the race but drivers probably also had their tyre settings not correct.

I had a nice race with gaining 2 places when Allan and another driver went off. I noticed that my pace was a little bit better than Douglas so I could stay on his tail. It's very hard to overtake here so I had to wait until Douglas made a small mistake before I could get 7th and start chasing Carsten. With only a couple of tenths per lap I slowly decreased the gap to him (he was one of the drivers that had the tyre settings wrong) but when Josh unlapped himself in T1 I lost about 1,5 seconds there. Another second got lost when Josh went wide in T2 going off track and I could only avoid a collission by lifting and leaving the raceline. So in the last laps I was within 2s of Carsten but I ran out of time to battle him.

Congrats to all Finns for the podium on their home track.
Great debut of Josh! Without your jumpstart penalty it would have been an interesting race for the frontrunners.

I will be away for two weeks. Next Tuesday Markus Winter has organized an interesting event so have a look at that please. For next wednesday and the week after I will set up races on S.GP with the Abarth Assetto Corse and the Mazda MX5 on tracks where they should have similar performance.
I hope that both events will be great!

See you again on track on may 18th.

Have a great holiday, Han.

pcmoreno · Apr 28, 2022

Really tricky race for me. I came to realise that I really suck at slow corners. I was about 4 secs slower than the faster guys but 3 of those 4 seconds all came in Sector 3 so I know where I need to focus on at least. Sector 1 was my fastest being almost on pace with the fastest guys. I could feel this during the race when I had @Alfred Wayne behind me. I could pull out a bit on S1 and then suddenly he was all over me trying to pass me at the slow uphill corners.

Start was ok and I avoided most ppl ending up 10th place after the first laps. Mistakes are costly in this track and rejoining safely is sometimes almost impossible given the amount of cars passing by, so I needed only a few to get to last position. Not that were the only ones I made. I was dissapointed not being able to figure out the slow uphill corners and never coming under 1:28 while almost everyone was pacing 1:27s with consistency. I think I set up a record on the incident count if you combine all the sessions. Even quali was a struggle where it took me 15 mins just to set up a valid lap.

I knew it was going to be a tricky one and I did not even think about racing because I was too busy keeping the car on track. At least I did a good job getting out of the way of the faster ones. Finishing 2 laps down means this was probably my worst performance so far.

Another learning experience. I should try to find some slow corner driving lessons somewhere ;p

I still like the track a lot except for the 2 lap outlap thing.
Thanks to organization for a great event once again!

HF2000 said:
For next wednesday and the week after I will set up races on S.GP with the Abarth Assetto Corse and the Mazda MX5 on tracks where they should have similar performance.

I really like the Abarth, even though I'm not very fast with it. At least it's easier to control than the mazda, I'll be taking it for sure.

Have a nice holiday @HF2000 !

HF2000 · Apr 28, 2022

pcmoreno said:
At least it's easier to control than the mazda,

You are joking, aren't you?

And did you use 2nd gear for T11 and T12? That made a big difference for me in sector 3.

pcmoreno · Apr 28, 2022

HF2000 said:
You are joking, aren't you?

And did you use 2nd gear for T11 and T12? That made a big difference for me in sector 3.

T12 was actually ok(at least it felt ok), it was T9 T10 and T11 that were killing me. But yes, I used 2nd for T11 and T12.

Also, I'm not joking, it's quite difficult to spin out on corner exits with a fwd car ;p

HF2000 · Apr 28, 2022

pcmoreno said:
I really like the Abarth, even though I'm not very fast with it. At least it's easier to control than the mazda, I'll be taking it for sure.

Glad to hear it. I was afraid that nobody would pick the Abarth.
I find the Mazda much easier to drive.

Kek700 · Apr 28, 2022

I see the Mazda as a car that tests your driving skills to the limit, holding onto speed, using the gears to aid exit traction whist holding onto the cars speed, using the nose of the car to point on initial turn in.
Balancing the car mid corner with a correct apex.
None of the above I can do very well, if at all.
So I will definitely go for the Abarth.

PS looking forward to hopefully giving Alan a run for his money with the Abarth vs Mazda

Aksu · Apr 28, 2022

JoelK said:
I actually quite liked it tbh, 'cause it really made you really work in those tyres. In qualifying, with the out-lap and tyre warming taking ages, meant you had to run a lot more fuel than normal, which for me made it a lot more interesting and challenging.

And in the start of the race, I could see a lot variance in mine and Aki's setup, so I could push from the start and he had to drive really carefully until the temps got up, which enabled me to catch up to him and Henry after my horrendous start.

That makes me wonder if I would've had a better get-off, would I been able to pass Aki in the first few laps

Answer is simple.... NOT

HF2000 · Apr 28, 2022

As promised the new events to keep you busy until I get back.
For the 1st race (4th of May) I will be in the vicinity so maybe you will see me in the crowd

!

https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/abarth-500-mazda-mx5-portimao-wednesday-4th-may-2022.230768/

https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/abarth-500-mazda-mx5-bathurst-wednesday-11th-may-2022.230769/

stigs2cousin · Apr 28, 2022

My race started with a WTF moment when Racer Data screamed "ice cold tyres" at me.

I adapted my setup for Quali (win) and the race ( fail)

Quali went to the best of my abilities, start kerfuffle as always and I could inherit two positions after my "1,5sec nemesis"

absented himself in a spin.

Lapping as usual, around midrace my hasty setup changes took effect and my front tyres went bad.
The rest was damage control, keeping my tyres alive and atoning for silly mistakes.

I should have not had any trouble with Han as he had been held up in the early stages and our pace was similar.
But the difference shrank much faster as was comfortable for me

(must have been my deteriorating tyres that led to the plethora of mistakes, can´t be a stressed out and mistake prone driver

.

In the end I could keep my gifted position and never went "more than 2wheels off" which means success in Ahvenisto, at least for me

.
Thanks to all for sportsmanly conduct on the track and especially to Han for organising (and putting up with my constant complaining

)

About the "intestinal corners" in the end with the spectacular camber errors, I found them easier to navigate in third as I could place the car more precisely and modulate the power better.
(also I drive stick, so shifting in corners takes takes a hand off the wheel and costs steering precision)

MFG Carsten

stigs2cousin · Apr 28, 2022

Portimao: YIPPY

Bathurst: ÖRKS

Have a nice holiday, Han

Douglas Aird · Apr 28, 2022

HF2000 said:
As promised the new events to keep you busy until I get back.
For the 1st race (4th of May) I will be in the vicinity so maybe you will see me in the crowd !

https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/abarth-500-mazda-mx5-portimao-wednesday-4th-may-2022.230768/

https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/abarth-500-mazda-mx5-bathurst-wednesday-11th-may-2022.230769/

Mixed thoughts. Portimao was one of my first multiclass races and I have learned a lot since then. Bathurst is the only track I voluntarily DNFd from last time as I was a danger to everyone.

Douglas Aird · Apr 28, 2022

pcmoreno said:
Really tricky race for me. I came to realise that I really suck at slow corners. I was about 4 secs slower than the faster guys but 3 of those 4 seconds all came in Sector 3 so I know where I need to focus on at least. Sector 1 was my fastest being almost on pace with the fastest guys. I could feel this during the race when I had @Alfred Wayne behind me. I could pull out a bit on S1 and then suddenly he was all over me trying to pass me at the slow uphill corners.

Start was ok and I avoided most ppl ending up 10th place after the first laps. Mistakes are costly in this track and rejoining safely is sometimes almost impossible given the amount of cars passing by, so I needed only a few to get to last position. Not that were the only ones I made. I was dissapointed not being able to figure out the slow uphill corners and never coming under 1:28 while almost everyone was pacing 1:27s with consistency. I think I set up a record on the incident count if you combine all the sessions. Even quali was a struggle where it took me 15 mins just to set up a valid lap.

I knew it was going to be a tricky one and I did not even think about racing because I was too busy keeping the car on track. At least I did a good job getting out of the way of the faster ones. Finishing 2 laps down means this was probably my worst performance so far.

Another learning experience. I should try to find some slow corner driving lessons somewhere ;p

I still like the track a lot except for the 2 lap outlap thing.
Thanks to organization for a great event once again!

I really like the Abarth, even though I'm not very fast with it. At least it's easier to control than the mazda, I'll be taking it for sure.

Have a nice holiday @HF2000 !

I find it useful to go back to the track you have just raced, watch some onboards from the other drivers and see if you can copy to find time. (Especially if you were well off the pace as there's maybe a couple of big things to change). Then, on to the next race.

Dzul · Apr 28, 2022

My race was remarkably consistent... I had consistent pace AND I made consistent mistakes.

I had a decent Qualy with a last-lap push that got me back into the 27's after struggling through practice. A steady start kept me in position throughout the first lap, managing to avoid other peeps "rubbing-is-racing" moments. I gained a few positions by being careful and staying on the black stuff while others went out to collect gravel, grass, caress the walls or have a picnic among the trees. I was keeping Han @HF2000 (who was chasing after @Douglas Aird) on close proximity during the first stint but lost time avoiding a car re-entering the track from the pits which got me kissing the wall. I managed to recover quickly (thanks to plenty of practice on the weekend learning to bounce the car back onto the track after close encounters with walls) but lost sight of those two. But then I had Dave in front of me, with good pace, so I decided to get back into rhythm by following him, which worked until he had to go for a weewee into the trees.

After that I had an overshoot of my own with not much loss luckily, but that put @Alfred Wayne on my rear mirror. We had a fun chase quite close to each other until I overshot a corner again, this time from keeping an eye at him on my mirrors. I slightly clipped the soapy grass and had to go straight on it to recover, that cost me the position. After that I was in no-mans land for a while so I focused on apexes and exits. At some point I came across Allan, who had gone picnicking, getting back on track. I got ahead but he was close and pacey so I let him pass and decided to stick to his bumper as long as I could... which worked for a few laps until I overcooked the first corners... I forgot that I can't skid as good as he does so I, once more, clipped the grass in front of the pitlane and lost time decelerating and keeping the car straight in order to avoid graffitiing the wall. This one error I repeated every third or fourth lap, as my tyres faded and I failed to compensate properly throughout the last stint. So I was still consistent but not in a good way.

The rest of the race was about bringing the car to the finish line without further mistakes, which I managed after all, although I had Josh closing in with a quicker pace than mine. Luckily for me the race was not a lap longer.

Ahvenisto was a ton of fun to drive as the track kept changing and so the race kept delivering fun challenges. Congratulations to the all-Suomi podium, you all had blistering pace guys! Thanks again for organising Han, not just this one but the two upcoming races already, as well. A great choice of venues IMHO, very much looking forward to both.

I hope you enjoy your holiday a lot señor!

maxilogan · May 2, 2022

Have a great holiday @HF2000 Han! I kind of hate you for the Bathurst choice but I'll do my best to drive there as well. As for Portimao, I subscribed with the Abarth at the moment to see how good I can be in that car, but I'm not 100% sure I won't be changing back to the Mazda if I don't feel comfortable in the little Italian.