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

[davejevons]

Laguna seca lived up to its old name of the Mazda Raceway! It's a great technical challenge and the punishment for getting it wrong is high.

I got caught up at T1 and found myself at the back with Omar and Raul. I've had too many first lap incidents recently and while not all my fault I think I could improve my racecraft to avoid being in those situations.

The three of us had good fun trying to catch back up to the pack for a few laps and @Dzul and I even managed two wide through the corkscrew being a highlight of the race.

I started making silly mistakes and made some small off tracks and eventually dropped back. I had good fun trying to defend from Omar who was recovering and catch Wim, who drove very consistently and deserved to hold the place by not making mistakes.

@maxilogan it was a fun battle and I was a but gutted when I saw you spin off I appreciate I technically didn't have to wait but it made the race more fun and I was at least partially responsible!

Many thanks for organising @HF2000 - it was a fun race and I like the challenge of the difficult track.

 

[HF2000]

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)

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

Hi Omar,

It must be very frightening to feel an earthquake. I live in a region in the Netherlands where we don't have them at all. Not even a little tremble. But as a parent I can imagine how worried you must have been for your daughter.

Take care!

 

[HF2000]

As for my own race, I didn't have much practice and haven't driven the Audi much lately so qually was not good. But I had a great start and found myself 3rd and could keep the pace of Colin in front of me while slightly moving away from Robert. Then my internet connection got lost and I had to exit and re-enter the server. Now being 3 or 4 laps behind everyone, I just cruised to the end while overtaking all the Mazda's once or twice with a big safety margin in order not to ruin the battles they had.
Very pity for the connection failure. Seeing the post of Colin I probably could have finished 2nd instead of 19th.

I will have to do some testing tonight but next Wednesday will probably a bit different from the usual events.
I hope I will see you all on track then!

 

[maxilogan]

Hi Omar,

It must be very frightening to feel an earthquake. I live in a region in the Netherlands where we don't have them at all. Not even a little tremble. But as a parent I can imagine how worried you must have been for your daughter.

Take care!

I definitely was, and of course if you already lived a very impacting event like that (slept in a tent for a couple weeks, my mother in law lived with us for one month because her house was unsafe etc.), you are always thinking of the worst, however everything's ok so let's keep racing and enjoying

 

[Kek700]

We here in the UK just have miserable weather, with a bit higher summer temps, and a 9 months of mild winter.
All seems pretty bleak and it is, but generally speaking apart from flooding. Which is not a pleasant experience to those it effects, no extremes that a lot of counties experience at random intervals.
I have often wondered what an earth quake would be like, very disorienting experience I assume, and frightening. As opposed to a tornado which is very frightening to experience.

 

[Chris Down]

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

I think it's masked a little by the track ramp up, so inconsistent times get normalised more. During mid stint I was finding it hard to consistently keep at the limit at T5 and T6 especially, so the sector consistency was quite wobbly.

 

[HF2000]

Next week event: https://www.racedepartment.com/thre...-sebring-wednesday-16th-february-2022.219853/