AC Multiclass Abarth 500/Mazda MX5@Watkins Glen Boot, Wed 27th September 2023

Assetto Corsa Racing Club event
This was good fun!

PB in Qualy, so that's cool, P4 on the grid, my best ever. Survived the first one and a half laps, trying to stay out of the claws of Robert and Jari, some good fun fun there, twice in the sandwich to the chicane, second time I didn't make it, I should have back off a little, but decided to race for it, ah well, cost me some positions, but gave me the opportunity to fight my way from the back to 11th place again, real cool. Just when I got close enough to catch Han, I took too much innerkerb on the left and spun. Learned the hard way to be more patient there :cool: . Pitted immediately and back on the chase. Had good fights with lots of people, but most fun in the end with Ricardo, Paul and Steve. It's a shame I still made too many little mistakes, because my racepace was pretty good here. Could make a few - and bold, right Steve? :cool: - overtakes in the chicane and this race learned me a lot about racing, drafting, distances, not chickening out of battles, putting my head down again and focus on less mistakes.

One throttle-lock at 100%, but I could reinsert the usb-plug quite fast, so only Steve could fly by. Moza CRP pedals on their way to Assen right now, hope to have 'em here by the end of the week.

I think Paul, Steve and I were on the same high-speed frame of the finish foto, so nice!

Thanks guys, most enjoyable racing!

Congrats Thomas, Robert and Jason! Thank you Han!
 
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Han, that was gloriuos and excilarating!

Thank you for setting that up !!

So, this time i got it right. :rolleyes:

Some nice close racing in the beginning, only the stewarts will have to look at Ernie who mowed the grass before the friggin´Inner Loop and than used me as a cushion to right his Bawling Bowling Abarth. (gaining an advantage and causing a collission)

(I´m joking of course while howling with laughter!!!)

A few laps in could experience why Ernie likes his "the hunter stalks his prey shtick", it´s really fun to see them sweat :cool:
we must have had 10 laps within 1/10 of each other.

Unfortunately this ended when i had to pit and ernie disappeared into the sunset ( literally :p)

After pitting I had to do some grinding, got close to the front pack again but ran out of time.
My fault, "celebrating the joy of RWD" cost´s a load of time, just driving straight may have closed the gap much sooner.

Very good race everyone, now for a (ONE!!) well earned celebratory Beer:

One Beer.PNG
 
Thanks guys,

That was a very nice race where the different characteristics of both cars came out clearly.
Congrats to the podium.

Next week the first race in the Fat-Alfie championship. We will use the dawn to dusk migration format with the 12x time multiplier as in tonights race.
 
Finally a great result again, was a tough race as I had todo qualy lap each lap, as I guess most of you as competition got so close with these cars. Had lots of pressure from Andre in the first laps. He got the slipstream and I had to defend. Great close racing, thx. Did a mistake at the fast chicane and Andre could get past, lost about 4 seconds. Could close the gap to two seconds as Andre went to the pits. Now plan was to push as hard as possible and do the overcut and a late stop. Robert was not far behind so pressure was always on. Could exit pits with couple seconds ahead after my late stop and brought it home.
Great racing all, especially Andre, Robert and Raul. And of course Jason, amazing Abarth laptimes.

thx Han for organizing and cu all next time
 
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This was good fun!

PB in Qualy, so that's cool, P4 on the grid, my best ever. Survived the first one and a half laps, trying to stay out of the claws of Robert and Jari, some good fun fun there, twice in the sandwich to the chicane, second time I didn't make it, I should have back off a little, but decided to race for it, ah well, cost me some positions, but gave me the opportunity to fight my way from the back to 11th place again, real cool. Just when I got close enough to catch Han, I took too much innerkerb on the left and spun. Learned the hard way to be more patient there :cool: . Pitted immediately and back on the chase. Had good fights with lots of people, but most fun in the end with Ricardo, Paul and Steve. It's a shame I still made too many little mistakes, because my racepace was pretty good here. Could make a few - and bold, right Steve? :cool: - overtakes in the chicane and this race learned me a lot about racing, drafting, distances, not chickening out of battles, putting my head down again and focus on less mistakes.

One throttle-lock at 100%, but I could reinsert the usb-plug quite fast, so only Steve could fly by. Moza CRP pedals on their way to Assen right now, hope to have 'em here by the end of the week.

I think Paul, Steve and I were on the same high-speed frame of the finish foto, so nice!

Thanks guys, most enjoyable racing!

Congrats Thomas, Robert and Jason! Thank you Han!
Hey Boukah, nothing wrong with a being bold mate. Only problem there is relying on the other guy backing down or if not bold then becomes toast ;). Good race man, enjoyed it very much. And everyone else i had battles with, thank you guys :thumbsup:
 
Had a lot of fun tonight guys, great racing all around!
The track was easy, not to technical and quite fast, approved. :thumbsup:

Had a great start, capitalizing on mistakes during 2 laps which then lead to some nice battles with faster drivers. Even had a very shaky chicane that I don't really know how I managed to keep it in the black stuff (mostly) and pointing in the right direction.

After most faster drivers had passed by there was a lull in the action so I've decided to pit early and immediately fell into the back of the pack, but still I could get the ocasional battle here and there.

Finally by the end I managed to catch up to David and we had some intense last laps. Thanks for the nice racing mate, that was a lot of fun!

Some may have noticed I was not on my usual drive. Well, last race I got really fed up with the understeer so I sold it and bought a light Japanese mean green machine.
So for the next races, including the Fat-Alfie championship I will be drifting around in a Mazda instead. Wish me luck! :roflmao:

- Ricardo S
 
Thanks guys, that was really fun! Especially @Shed 17 , nice battle once again :thumbsup:

Sorry for tapping you into a half spin on lap 2 and losing us both some places, I misjudged where the Abarth would be braking.

Unfortunately that also set me up for a crash a few corners later on corner exit with Ricardo, I think. Different lines that converged into a slight overlap.

That put me to the back and fighting to regain some places.

Pitstops is what killed me, though. I came in and the crew did nothing. Went out, came back in and same thing. Went out, did another 10 minutes then came in and realised that AC had lost my pir strategy so manually added 2 litres and off I went.

I emerged in amongst the leaders but a lap down. I had fun trying to keep on pace with them but not holding them up when they eventually caught me.

Great racing with you all again.

Thanks, Han, for organising
 
Sorry for tapping you into a half spin on lap 2 and losing us both some places, I misjudged where the Abarth would be braking.

Unfortunately that also set me up for a crash a few corners later on corner exit with Ricardo, I think. Different lines that converged into a slight overlap.

That put me to the back and fighting to regain some places.

Pitstops is what killed me, though. I came in and the crew did nothing. Went out, came back in and same thing. Went out, did another 10 minutes then came in and realised that AC had lost my pir strategy so manually added 2 litres and off I went.

I emerged in amongst the leaders but a lap down. I had fun trying to keep on pace with them but not holding them up when they eventually caught me.

Great racing with you all again.

Thanks, Han, for organising
Hi Douglas,

I'm sorry about the pitstops. When there's a restart of the session, you need to load your setup again but even then sometimes the pitstopstrategy isn't loaded somehow. So that are things to check whenever we do a restart.
 
Sorry for tapping you into a half spin on lap 2 and losing us both some places, I misjudged where the Abarth would be braking.

Unfortunately that also set me up for a crash a few corners later on corner exit with Ricardo, I think. Different lines that converged into a slight overlap.

That put me to the back and fighting to regain some places.

Pitstops is what killed me, though. I came in and the crew did nothing. Went out, came back in and same thing. Went out, did another 10 minutes then came in and realised that AC had lost my pir strategy so manually added 2 litres and off I went.

I emerged in amongst the leaders but a lap down. I had fun trying to keep on pace with them but not holding them up when they eventually caught me.

Great racing with you all again.

Thanks, Han, for organising
No problem, but I wasn't actually braking there. I had braked much earlier, and was already back on full throttle when you bumped me. I don't know if there was some lag also, because in my replay it didn't look a like a bump that you would normally do.
Anyway, it's ok. I didn't lose too much time, and you waited for me. :thumbsup:
 
I would have let Carsten overtake, but he was quicker for half the circuit I was quicker for the other half. Which went on for what seemed like most of the race.:)
I was concerned about a fast charging Jason who on the first lap gave me an instant three place overtake shove, :roflmao::roflmao:
But looking at his lap times, the inevitable, was just that, inevitable.
My only hope was with his fight with Andrea’s Mazda, when he was actually following me I came into the pits and resigned myself to the, yep, the inevitable.
I really find this close racing with Mazda and Abartth of late as most rewarding. As a two car series, generally speaking we can actually race together.
:)
 
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So, that was a fun race! It reminded me why I like The Glen so much... what a great old school flowing track. :inlove:

I did some practice in the weekend which got me a good line and a comfortable setup. Practice time on wednesday allowed me to peek on the top-runner's lines and gearshifts which helped me to a faster laptime. It was a struggle to stitch the sectors together but at the end of Qualy I managed a couple of consecutive quick times that got me P3... a true "what is this place?" moment. :laugh:

I had a solid start and focused on keeping Thomas and Andre at sight's distance. The fact that they were constantly racing each other helped and I managed to stay close for a third of the race. It felt almost alien to have space around me straight from the start but I made the most of it. The second stint of my race was about managing pace and the faster cars closing in. Robert was slightly quicker and had a much better exit than me at two corners so we had a good chase for some laps until the inevitable happened. I kept him on sight until the sun set and with darkness came the last stint, where my focus got a good strain, the racing line was harder to see and my laptimes started to suffer as a result. I decided to play it safe but that allowed Jason to close in. He was in a rocketship so I had no reason to fight him. Then Ernie closed in, with no lights, which made it a challenge to defend. Jim and my radar helped me keep tabs on his position but also got me caressing the grass and losing the position. The final laps were about staying focused keeping the car on track, which I managed on P6 at the end.

All and all I was very happy with my race and the outcomes. Short of a podium but on my own steam with no big mistakes. Congratulations to the winners and podium finishers and thanks for organising and rebooting the start Han :thumbsup: I will be missing next week's race but hope you guys have a good one, cheers!
 
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