AC Multiclass Audi TT/Mazda MX5@Laguna Seca, Wednesday 9th February 2022

[maxilogan]

Guys, the town where my daughter lives has been hit by a modest earthquake. We're here and I'll drive but I do not guarantee to remain the whole time should anything worse happen. We've been directly hit by the earthquake in 2012 and we're quite sensitive now..

 

[stigs2cousin]

Omar,
best wisches to you and your family.

MFG Carsten

 

[Chris Down]

Great race everyone! 40 minutes before qualifying, I found out that I had unexpectedly been put in an... MX5? Well that was unexpected, and all of my TT practice was wasted, but I actually really enjoyed the car in the end. Not totally sure how that happened.

Clearly I have a lot to learn in the MX5, wasn't able to consistently keep it at the limit, but pretty happy. Thanks Allan and the Audis for the great racing, and see you next week! Thanks @HF2000 for organising!

Simresults: https://simresults.net/220209-4bQ

My VR onboard:

 

[HF2000]

I found out that I had unexpectedly been put in an... MX5?

Chris, I saw that you signed up with an Audi so I was very surprised to see you in a Mazda. Only you or an admin can do that. I didn't so I'm very puzzled now.
And also that the glitch was back.

 

[stigs2cousin]

Let´s just call this race eventfull ( again )

After the third try we were on the way, only to get swept away by a little kerfuffle after T5.
(It´s racing, happens)

A few laps later I ran into a Mazda whose driver got loose after T5 and had to wait for him.
Several laps with fair racing (except one who seems to be in way over his head) later I got to chip away at Douglas, but even at -1,5s a lap ( in the end ) we ( predictably) ran out of race.

So congrats to the survivors and big thanks to Han for doing this to himself several times a week.

MFG Carsten

 

[FabianoRL]

Intense race. Realized it was the first time on VRs in this track, it's really fun!
Pretty sure someone hit me in first lap at T5 which led me to spin and touch someone else. Spoke to radio to find the one, nobody assumed and no one was awaiting. After that, nice battle with Paul (down to a hit from my side, fair race, back on battle again), which made my day happy. Mistake at corkscrew which led me to lose couple of positions and at the last lap Paul found the push button of the MX5 (where is it Paul?) and we went down to the end.
See you next time!

 

[stigs2cousin]

Yeah, I was in that kerfuffle at T5 too.
As I was late to the party and got hit by an already spinning car
( don´t they teach to hold the brakes in race kindergarten )
I assumed myself innocent, righted my crown and went racing.
If that was wrong please send your seconds and choose the weapons )

MFG Carsten

 

[Kek700]

Don’t be hard on the new starters, this is a very difficult circuit for anyone, let alone someone starting online racing. I noticed so many wayward Mazdas here , far more than normal.

 

[stigs2cousin]

Don’t be hard on the new starters, this is a very difficult circuit for anyone, let alone someone staring online racing. I noticed so many wayward Mazdas here , far more than normal.

I´m with you here for the most part, the track is difficult and Han likes it slippery.

Still there are things that need discussing, but this is neither time nor place for that.

Sweaty boy signing of now, Good Night ya´ll Carsten

 

[Alfred Wayne]

wew, that was a drive! An interesting one too from the point of an Audi. Think my time driving in NYC came in handy today

First off, thank you Han for patiently getting us going today! The internet is awesome, but it doesn't come without it's quirks

Secondly, I hope I didn't compromise too many Mazda's lines. I did my best to wait to pass you little cars, but as it seemed we were driving in a Mazda TV commercial today, it was hard not to "zoom, zoom, zoom" on by and there weren't many long straights or P2P

All in all, between the traffic and some good battles with Thomas and Colin here and there, I spent the rest of my time focusing more on what I'm doing while driving (imagine that lol). Currently working on making sure I'm not overlapping gas and brake into turns in order to give the car a chance to settle. Finding a few 1/10ths too

Good racing everyone, once the track gripped up a bit (20min on) I personally encountered no problems with other drivers

See ya in the GT4s this weekend

 

[Douglas Aird]

Happy with my performance after spending most of my practice time in the sand.

Got a reasonable qualifying P6 after being pipped by 0.09 by Carsten.

Ultra careful in the start and early laps and made up some places. Made three errors across the race which put me back to P6 and in no man's land. Drove steadily for the last 20 minutes and had a few laps a couple of seconds slower as I was very generous to the lapping Audis as I was not in any danger.

Zero incidents with other cars tonight, all very clean from my perspective.

Thanks Han and good racing, everyone.

 

[Shed 17]

Intense race. Realized it was the first time on VRs in this track, it's really fun!
Pretty sure someone hit me in first lap at T5 which led me to spin and touch someone else. Spoke to radio to find the one, nobody assumed and no one was awaiting. After that, nice battle with Paul (down to a hit from my side, fair race, back on battle again), which made my day happy. Mistake at corkscrew which led me to lose couple of positions and at the last lap Paul found the push button of the MX5 (where is it Paul?) and we went down to the end.
See you next time!

Yes, nice race Fabiano and thanks for waiting after the contact.
My car seemed to slow mid race, or perhaps I just fell asleep as several cars caught me quickly. But an excursion into the gravel at the corkscrew woke me up and with half a lap to go I caught Fabiano. But getting by was another matter and we rounded the last turn together and sprinted to the line but Fabiano just had the legs on me.
Not my favourite track but good fun having another drive in the MX5 which is a great little car.
I don’t know if this helps but at the two false starts, the green/white MX5 directly behind me drove through me before lights out on both occasions. On the third start, it stayed still and we got away ok.
Well done to the podiums and thanks to Han for organising.

 

[HF2000]

I don’t know if this helps but at the two false starts, the green/white MX5 directly behind me drove through me before lights out on both occasions. On the third start, it stayed still and we got away ok.

Thanks Paul,
When this problem occured a couple of months ago, I suspected it to have something to do with a jump start of one of the drivers. Your observation confirms that.

There was a bug in S.GP that when I configured the jumpstart penalty as 'drive through' it was in fact the 'teleport to pits' one. I reported it and from that moment on I configured it as "teleport to pits' suspecting it to be a 'drive through'penalty in effect.
I see now that for last night configuration I've forgot it to set to 'teleport to pits' so that might have been the cause in combination with the actual jumpstart of one of the drivers.
I'll check it for the coming events.

 

[JamKart22]

Thanks Paul,
When this problem occured a couple of month ago, I suspected it to have something to do with a jump start of one of the drivers. Your observation confirms that.

There was a bug in S.GP that when I configured the jumpstart penalty as 'drive through' it was in fact the 'teleport to pits' one. I reported it and from that moment on I configured it as "teleport to pits' suspecting it to be a 'drive through'penalty in effect.
I see now that for last night configuration I've forgot it to set to 'teleport to pits' so that might have been the cause in combination with the actual jumpstart of one of the drivers.
I'll check it for the coming events.

I can anticipate we'll all disappear at the start because about 2 secs before lights out I can see all the cars shifting from side to side slightly. I certainly saw that on the second false start. Do we think someone jumped the start by a few seconds?

 

[HF2000]

Do we think someone jumped the start by a few seconds?

Well this was the first time in months that this error occured and it was also the first time since then that I configured the jumpstart penalty as 'drive thru'. So if there was a jumpstart or not, I think it's definitely related to that setting in the configuration. It's just too coincidental.

 

[Dzul]

I can anticipate we'll all disappear at the start because about 2 secs before lights out I can see all the cars shifting from side to side slightly. I certainly saw that on the second false start. Do we think someone jumped the start by a few seconds?

Had the same thing, I was behind that Mazda and saw him "shake" left and right before lights out.

 

[stigs2cousin]

I can anticipate we'll all disappear at the start because about 2 secs before lights out I can see all the cars shifting from side to side slightly. I certainly saw that on the second false start.

You´re onto something there, I noticed this "crab crawling" just before the first start (ing attempt)

MFG Carsten

 

[JamKart22]

Good quali for me as I managed to just cross the line for an extra lap so managed to get P2 while the track was improving

Hung on to P2 for about a quarter of race and was on Ernie's tail until we started lapping Mazda's.

A few careless tyres in the sand saw me lose precious seconds and allowed Thomas to catch and then pass. We had a good battle for some time until I again put wheels in the sand You'd think I'd learnt my lesson as this circuit really punishes sloppy driving.

It was then Robert's turn to catch and left me finishing back in fourth.

I've only raced here once before so not too disappointed as this is a tricky track to get right.

Thanks to Han for organising and thank to everyone else for nice clean racing.

 

[hape]

Clearly I have a lot to learn in the MX5, wasn't able to consistently keep it at the limit, but pretty happy. Thanks Allan and the Audis for the great racing, and see you next week! Thanks @HF2000 for organising!

Simresults: https://simresults.net/220209-4bQ

hi @Chris Down
thats a little bit understated with 99.04% consistency (best from all) and best MX5. But it sounds so interesting to take a look on your drive Chris
hape

 

[maxilogan]

Pretty disappointing race. All the premises were very good, had a good qualify for my standards and was ready to battle, 7th was a good result with so many Mazdas on the grid (to the point that @HF2000 congratulated with the Audis before the race, they were almost just the right amount for the three stands of the podium )

Then everything was messed up at the race start: clutch pressed, gear engaged and.. everyone disappears. After the server restarted, and because I remembered it happened because of a jump start in the past, I tried to concentrate: clutch pressed, gear engaged, brake pressed to prevent any movement and heel-toeing to keep revs up. Jump start again.
At the third attempt, again clutch pressed and heel-toeing, revving the motor up, ready to leap, THE START IS GOOD! But if you read well.. something was definitely missing, and it was the gear, so I remained like a fool on the grid while everyone paraded on the right and left.
I managed to recover few positions at T1 and tried to stay out of the mess by remaining on the track's right but finished in the sand and bumped @davejevons . In the end, me, him and @Dzul (if I'm not wrong), started from the bottom of the pack and it was nice to battle with them. Then my ping started to get worse (started at 35-50 and it decreased to be as low as 200, don't know why) and I saw David going here and there. When the situation seemed stable I tried to pass him internally at T3 (or T4?) but we collided and I had to restart the chase (Thanks for waiting Dave but I think it wasn't your fault, I'll have a look at the replay).
From then on it was more or less uneventful with the exception of trying to overcome Muhammad for a few laps (not that easy in fact) and in the end I met Dave again, nice battle for a couple of laps before I spun at the corkscrew and this pretty much ended all my ambitions. You definitely deserved the place ahead of me!
I was not very concentrated, between the quake and my younger son that distracted me halfway through the race and led me to drive into the sand just before the last corner, very disappointing not being able to at least drive into the high 1.38, it was most probably possible but the last laps I wasn't focused anymore.

As for the quake, after it hit relatively hard a couple times, everything settled to much lower ratings. As I said, I live in what was pretty much the epicentre of the earthquakes of 2012 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Northern_Italy_earthquakes) so when we hear something we keep our ears open.. (and this time it was 80 km from us but where my daughter lives because she's studying there)

All in all, it's always nice to race with you, see you on track next Wednesday!