AC Multiclass Abarth500/Mazda MX5#Silver City Raceway, Wed 19th April 2023

[HF2000]

That sounds very interesting!

Yep,

I will probably do a testrace with you all and if succesful I would love to do the @Fat-Alfie championship this year with this format. I tested the Feldbergring in the dark and it's fantastic!

 

[Allan Ramsbottom]

When I first joined this group, I was one of those who was practicing every spare minute I had, and the results improved. Hell, I even won a few races!

Just to add to Pauls post,i now have become (without bragging) 1 of the faster guys due to the fact of learning set-ups putting in the time/laps involved...When i was struggling with depression Sim-Racing was my life saver.I was never off it,still not if im honest lol but not as bad,my point been,this is a hobby, many guys have other commitments and car,nt put in many hrs,if they did i can name a few who would be further up the leader board...I started out in RD many yrs ago at the back,then mid pack and slowly edged to the front..This is where the double edged sword comes in..Out in front its gets boring...Period,mind starts to wonder,slip ups can happen,mid pack racing is where the action is....but where lots of accidents happens..I,ll never be as fast as Fulvio,but i can worry him sometimes lol,same as a couple other guys,but its the fun factor,the competitiveness that gets me,still get a right kick out of it...To the new guys,if you need any help,just ask,quite a few guys willing to offer advice/set ups,and if you get to be 1 sec off me,your getting nothing else lol...

 

[Allan Ramsbottom]

I,ve done a driver swap race in the past,can be quite tricky,you have to be on the ball and it helps if you team up with someone who has nearly the same ping as yourself, plus does,nt forget he,s racing and decides to start cooking some food just as he,s about to start his leg lol..

 

[abecede]

@abecede is good in experimental events.

Thank you
One example of a most likely quite fun experimental event is about to be happening tomorrow... *hint, hint*
There are just eight seven open positions on the grid! (It's a no-preparation event because the track will be revealed only minutes before the official practice. And we have the track creator AND the car creator racing with us!

 

[Kek700]

There was a driver swap arranged with me and someone starting on racedepartment, Brian was helping, both of us were up for it in the GTE class. Eventually we had to give up, as it just did not work for us, from a technical point of view.
But, looked very interesting, I was going to do the start and first stint, thats were all the niggles are mainly and the next driver was going to do the after pit for fuel and tyres.
Completing the next half of the race.

 

[Dzul]

I find the idea of driver-swapping interesting and would be open to test it, to see if that can work for an event.

 

[Kek700]

I hope you did not think it was a dig, certainly not, love driving with the quick drivers. Without these guys it would be an unquantifiable race, So I am in a 100% agreement with you. Often thought about putting in loads of effort, but as you quite rightly said, you end up doing a 30 lap qualifying race, or just racing one person, I like to meet everyone, then punt everyone off without prejudice. ( just a joke from Sunday’s race )
It was just an observation. Tonight I will turn up with no expectations, done my 20 mins practice, and really get a lot of joy out of seeing how the race unfolds for me.

 

[eN1xes]

Cant join tonight wish you all luck ,cya on the buggy race

 

[HF2000]

I hope you did not think it was a dig, certainly not, love driving with the quick drivers. Without these guys it would be an unquantifiable race, So I am in a 100% agreement with you. Often thought about putting in loads of effort, but as you quite rightly said, you end up doing a 30 lap qualifying race, or just racing one person, I like to meet everyone, then punt everyone off without prejudice. ( just a joke from Sunday’s race )
It was just an observation. Tonight I will turn up with no expectations, done my 20 mins practice, and really get a lot of joy out of seeing how the race unfolds for me.

View attachment 656770

Same here. Did only 3 laps. Haven't even figured out the tyre pressures for this track yet.

 

[dbx71]

You are absolutely right Ernie. When I started this format, I envisioned an audience of sim racers who don't want to spend a lot of time practicing and making setups, but just want to race with others on beautiful tracks. The idea was that the official one-hour practice would be enough to be competitive in the race, so that you only have to negotiate with the misses for one night.

That's why we have those fixed two cars with limited setup options, so participants only have to learn the track if it's new to them. The second goal for these series is to be accessible for newcomers in sim racing.

But in the last year there have been some studious drivers who practice a lot to be faster on Wednesday. And that's fine with me, although it reduces my chances of finishing in the top 10 because with my lack of talent I can't compensate for the missed training hours. And I also spend quite a lot of time finding and testing circuits for our events that I would otherwise use for practice.

It doesn't matter, as long as I enjoy racing in midfield or in the back (and I do). But most of all I really enjoy the success of this format with 20+ clean and respectful drivers and almost everyone having a good time. I love reading the posts in the threads and listening to you all on Discord.

I even like having Fulvio around, although it's a bit of a mystery to me why he likes it so much, as he's obviously in a different class than the rest of us.
For some, this format will eventually become too boring and they will look for other challenges such as Brian's events. But that doesn't matter because fortunately new people are still joining us.
The Rookie events of 2 weeks ago brought 8 new premium members of which 4 to 5 will join our Wednesdays. I'm very happy with that result.

Well said Han (and Ernie). I initially signed up for these Wednesday races because they were advertised as being 'beginner friendly'. However, from the moment I jumped on the track for the first event, I realized I had been sold a bill of goods. It was painfully obvious that I was totally unprepared for the race, and facing seriously dedicated drivers.

Now, with that said, this experience has motivated me to work on improving my own skills (still got a long way to go to catch Fulvio!) and I've been able to learn a ton from the other drivers. I'm thankful for the tutoring I've received along the way. It's also a great experience to be able to race with such skillful drivers over long events and have such few incidents.

I may not be getting onto the podium anytime soon, but I still really enjoy these races and look forward to them each week. Perhaps you can consider adding another event, for true rookies only where new guys / gals can get their feet wet and work on getting up to speed...

 

[HF2000]

Perhaps you can consider adding another event, for true rookies only where new guys / gals can get their feet wet and work on getting up to speed

Thank you for your kind words, Dominic.

We organize Rookie events about every 6 weeks. But you mean on a regular basis?

 

[Boukâh]

Results are in:

https://simresults.net/230419-r08

 

[stigs2cousin]

Han,

that was avery nice track and a lot of "interesting action", most of it good racing.

Please go on like this

As some may I have heard even without Discord I " was not happy" with some driving action here, discussions will be had offline.

See you next week

Beertime. Carsten.

 

[Wayne Morgan]

Sorry who i hit up the rear last lap rubber banding you just appeared in my car

 

[Wayne Morgan]

bummer was in 3rd and lost it silly mistake
Thanks all

 

[rooim_87]

Apologies for the lags it's my internet see you all next time

 

[Alfred Wayne]

Han, speaking of fat Alfie tracks, I just recently did some ai racing on them with the Audi TT VLN, very fun! As the car is made for the nordschleife, it's right at home on those twisty roads. Not that there isn't a lack of great cars to drive on the great tracks.

As for todays race, it wasn't my best, but I stuck with it and ended up having a fun repeat of last Thurs, following Paul around. And for once in recent memory, I also raced against Han a bit without wanting to rip my hair out over his abarths weird braking points

Thanks once again for putting it together Han and everyone for showing up. Nice seeing the group continue to grow.

See you all next race.

 

[Boukâh]

P: ok 3, Q: ok 7 R: Made it through the first couple of turns quite well, got touched the downhill lefthander, spun off, restarted from the back with Andre and Raul, some fighting next couple of corners and then slowly picking up pace and fellow drivers. Did some laps with Collin (warpin' all over the place), trying not to make too many little mistakes, chasing the Fazzi train in the end, losing focus a little and ended up 13th. Happy to finish without too big mistakes of my self. On to the next!

Congrats to Alan, Jason and Jaari, thanks Han 'the White Tulip' Fazzi for another good one!

 

[HF2000]

Thank you all for racing! I had a great race on this difficult track. I even managed to break my PB at 1.8s! I was very surprised to see the Abarths competitive here.

My compliments to the new guys for integrating so well into our community. I hope you all had fun!

Next week a friendlier circuit for all of us, but especially for the newcomers.

https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/multiclass-abarth-500-mazda-mx5-meadowdale-raceway-wed-26th-april-2023.257911/

 

[RS242]

Another fun race for me.
I was expecting a better result after all the practice I had put into it, but it only goes to show how good the field really is.

Had 3 major mistakes tonight:
Twice I've overdriven the car in the chicane into the side wall and one purely out of tiredness in the long left-hander where I let it slip slightly into the gravel and lost control.
Funny thing I had just passed Rooim in a very similar situation not even 2 laps earlier.
Easy come easy go I guess

Also had an "equipment failure" to add to it - with all that heavy braking my chair was slipping inch by inch each each lap, to the point where half-hour in I noticed I was very uncomfortable.
Used the straight to try and pull it back into place but doing it while keeping the foot on the gas and the wheel straight proved a challenge.
It never got back into the right driving position so I made the best I could out of it. I hope my back won't hurt much tomorrow...
I was already planning on getting a wheel base with a cradle to hook up the office chair, this puts the nail on the coffin. I just hope it arrives before next week's race.

This track also marks 2 major milestones for me:
1) First time I actually felt good driving the Mazda. Had a lot of fun with it. Makes me even question which car I will take for the next races...
2) Finally understood how to tune the car to my driving style. It's still not perfect, but thanks to some mods I finally got a good enough understanding to make adjustments and feel the difference. Perhaps the Mazda also helped here as I felt there were more things to adjust and each change was more noticeable when compared to the Abarth.

Overall this was a challenging but very fun track, I think everyone got a bit of fighting here and there and a genuinely a good time.
I'm happy to see more new guys joining the group: keeps things fresh and adds more people on all skill levels to battle with.
Congratulations to the podium and I will see you again in the next race.

- Ricardo