I was heading for one last lap before pitting and into the last turn an LMP tried to over taking me and we collided, not sure who it was but cost me some time. I think this LMP also collected another Mclaren into Turn 4.
First of all thanks to
@JoelK for hosting the race as I've always wanted to get experience with Multiclass events. Decided to take a day to gather my thoughts and also been reading everyone's post-race comments so far; apologies if it runs too long.
@jayk I’m the LMP that hit you at the final turn (and I accept full blame for that) and I did graze someone (I think it was a GTR) at turn 4 on the first or second lap, but I think that was a minor incident (still got called out for it on the radio). As for our incident, I was trying to keep momentum going into the main straight and the fault came down to me timing your reaching the apex wrong (i.e. I got to you a bit faster than I expected) + I locked up a bit...realizing a collision was imminent I tried to commit by going inside to get past the apex before you got there, as going outside would have surely rammed you and possibly blocked the track for the barrage of cars approaching...but I was a hair too late (and the high curb there would have screwed it up anyways). Again my apologies; I did wait for you and half the field to go by before resuming.
Also, I'm also not sure what happened
@JoelK when we hit at turn 3, but I knew you were approaching very fast and didn't want to hold you up (on turn entry you were right on me), so I tried to get through it a little faster than usual and ended up losing the car so I braked at the runoff area just outside the racing line, to not go sailing way off track and to not impede your race, but it seemed that wasn't enough, so I apologize all the same whether it's my fault or not.
That race was one of the worst for me, but most of it is on me for not getting any time at all to practice beforehand this week (more for the car than the track)...I’ll admit my ignorance in that I hadn’t realised until after qualifying that the LMP's use a KERS button
: I've driven the Porsche LMP a few times before (not in an online race), but I figured it was more like a current spec F1, assuming it was all MGU deployment profiles, not knowing manual KERS was an option as well. I kept wondering, new to the car or not, why I’m 6 to 7 seconds off the next guy in practice and qualy (My usual pace within 3 to 4 seconds of the fastest guys I've seen on RD, less on a shorter track like this)...during the race with this knowledge in hand I eventually managed to get around a second or so of the other Audi LMP, although a little too late as I placed last in class. Obviously I'm pretty new to driving LMPs competitively and figured I’d try it a few times in the club races, as most of the ones I’ve done on RD have been a pretty fun environment (the US and AU races especially). If there’s a collision, it’s usually a bit of a laugh, we wait on each other and continue the battle. I’ve gotten so much faster over time in this environment...people are very open and accomodating to drivers of all levels.
All that said: yesterday’s race, in my humble opinion, didn’t have that same club racing feel, and I’ve noticed in particular that tempers run very hot when Multi-Class events come up. Now I’m the last guy to endorse being snowflakes around everyone, but after a few users got very upset on TS about LMP behavior within the first half of the race, it started to feel like LMPs could do nothing right, so as a result I got timid and backed wayyy off whenever I got near the GT3’s to the point of losing 5 or more seconds a lap and drove that way for most of the race. Got a little more confident in the second half of the race, but then the aforementioned collisions changed that.
My main point is: yes we all have that competitive streak in us, but the last time I checked no money, points or bragging rights were hanging in the balance here; as such, we need to calm down a bit on the radio (and that includes myself as I've questioned a move or two in the past, but not to the point of cursing). This wasn’t a league race, there is no rating system in play...we want clean racing of course, but we gotta stop tearing into each other when things don’t go our way...we have human moments, mistakes are made. Yes there are many alien guys here that have been sim racing for many years, but then there's the rest of us that are trying to learn. It's a interesting dilemma: you want to race against humans because AI are either too predictable or too dumb (or both)...you don't wanna go all out on iRacing or any league/rating based system because you might really ruin someone's season with your inexperience...but then you're still scolded for innocent mistakes in club races too? Am I the only one seeing something wrong with this picture? Nearly every RD race (save for the actual RD league events like the Mini Challenge) say they are open to all levels in the description, yet the actual races don't always feel that way, and it's not just this race on Sunday. I could understand somebody trolling on the track to intentionally ram someone; yea that idiot deserves a good talking-to, but that's not what happened here.
I also noticed a decision was made to take a break from Multi-class events, not sure for how long but I don't think that's the solution if it's trying to avoid multi-class incidents is the goal: the races are the way they are exactly
because there aren't enough online multiclass club events to get practice in (and the attitudes found in the ones that actually happen)...the more practice we get driving with each other, we can only get better as a result, but only if we treat each other like an actual club and not a free-for-all 24 man deathmatch
...so I hope this doesn't mean a long Multiclass hiatus. Just my 2 cents, hope I didn't offend anyone...hope to see you guys out on track again; I'll try to be more prepared next time or I'll just give up my seat if I'm not.
