Old Racing Club Threads (merged)

[Will Marquez]

Servername: Racedepartment.com MX-5
Password: Same as RD Club Events
Track: Brands Hatch GP
Class: MX-5 Cup / Roadster

Official Practice: 30 minutes (21:00 GMT / 4pm EST / 1pm PST)
Qualification - Lone qualifier (2 hotlaps)
Race - 18 laps (Standing Start)
Entries - 36
Fast tows - 1

Notes: Must be a RD Licensed member
http://www.racedepartment.com/misc.php?do=form&fid=1/

Read the password and golden rules.
http://www.racedepartment.com/rules-passwords/

 

[William Nowell]

Well I will be there tonight, but I have only put a total of 5-6 laps in this week, testing Will's setup (thanks). I need to try to find some pace between now and race time. Haven't spent much time on iracing since last weeks race, so you guys be easy on me!!

 

[Eric Estes]

Geez... you beat a couple of guys one time and they don't want to play anymore... :tongue:

 

[Saul Boucher]

The Mustang is sooooo easy to drive on this track. You'll be up to speed in 2-3 laps

 

[George Pilkington]

Sorry gang have to drop out of this. : (
Have fun, go rearly hard at T1.... not ; )

 

[Dazmaniac]

+Maybe

I so agree 1 hour earlier praccy and all would be great for me.. but its very hard to accommodate every body I do not envy the Staff

Although i do think starting times for EU events need a poll or something, as the last few EU events nobody showed..

The start times are more or less the same as what we have used in the RD iRacing Leagues earlier this year for the MX-5 and Star Mazda (which were run on Sundays). For me it means a 8PM start (UK time) when the server opens up. I could manage an hour earlier in the week, but any earlier and I'm screwed as would still be commuting home from work. So what works for some, doesn't work for others. I appreciate Pedro's situation so its probably something worth raising with Will/Kev and the RD iRacing League Admins before the new season schedules are posted, so we can get some feedback on best timeslots (especially when we are catering for folks from all over the globe).

Sunday's aren't usually an issue for me, so earlier starts in League races would be fine for me, but may hinder some of our US participants.

Regards the lack of no-shows for the recent EU midweek events, I think it was because Ramon posted them all well in advance of him going on his holidays and no-one was left to advertise them and rustle up some interest for participation and the posts just sat midway down the forum. There was also the fact that certain folks had signed up in advance and then never turned up, which doesn't help.

I also suggested having a minimum entry for midweek races put in place before someone goes and pays for a hosted session only to find no-one showing up. If a session guarantee say at least 6 or 8, then its worthwhile hosting a session, but should only 2 or 3 register, I don't think that's worth wasting someone's cash putting a session up. Just my opinion of course.

 

[Larry Stovall]

Damn you, Estes! Now I have to race...

 

[Will Marquez]

Hosted Event Server is up everyone! Good luck, have fun and enjoy the race!

RD club event password.

 

[Glenn Petersen]

Podium finish - 3rd. Best part for me: No inc's. I'm proud of myself.
Grats to Joe and Will. Sorry Saul that you dropped for a few laps.
Thanks to RD and Will etc for the event.

 

[Joe Hubbard]

Great fun everyone, I hope everyone had a good time for sure!... Now go forth and tell your friends to join us on RD... haha

 

[Saul Boucher]

Good time tonight, even though I dropped out from a BSOD (strange). Pretty cool you can re-join a server! Haven't been able to do that before.. Managed to get out on track with Joe and Will so was able to put a little pressure on the guys to keep things fun and interesting

Think I might have to stick with this iRacing thing..

 

[Larry Stovall]

Practice: In 30 minutes of practice, I used up about 21 on track before taking a break after sliding off the downhill into the boot (much to Eric's amusement). The best news from practice was that I managed 2:10's right off the bat, when usually I need almost a dozen laps to warm up to them.

Qualifying: Exited the pitlane a smidge early and earned a stop and go penalty. I take it at the end of my outlap, but once I get back in the pits, for whatever reason, it won't allow me to take my penalty. I drive my next two laps, and since I'm under a black flag, the laps are not scored. Qual dead last, obviously.

Race: In the race I find out I shouldn't ***** about small misfortunes, because using my bad luck up in qual and practice turned out to be a very, very good thing. Managed to stay out of William N's wreck on lap one, and am utterly amazed that everyone else did do. In all honesty, the race report is incomplete, because while I started 13th, I can't remember how I worked my way up to eighth or if I was ever running any higher than that.

Why? Because mostly I remember following Eric E. around the track for what seemed like a third of the race with only one or two seconds separating us. At one point, I'd eaten into his lead until we were .6 or .7 seconds apart, and I was actually watching for places where I might pass him. Sadly, though, over eagerness on my part let him open the gap some, which turned out to be the end of my chances of getting ahead of him; at first I seemed to be catching up again, but then he learned some part of the course better than I knew it and starting opening things up. He'd eventually get about 12 seconds ahead, which I cursed and fretted over, but not for long, because I had a new problem.

Martin had closed on me until he was only one or two seconds behind me and stayed there for a good chunk of the race. At first I seemed to be maintaining the distance, but about 2/3rds of the way through, I think, he narrows things until he's a little over a second behind me, and then less than a second behind me. He damn near passes me on the start/finish straight, and we end up running literally side by side down towards my least favorite corner on this track.

He apparently decides he's not in a good spot and slides back in behind me, but remains planted 1.something seconds behind me until, at some point, I seem to either pick up some speed or he slowed down. The gap begins to widen. For several laps I'm basically by myself, watching my f3 screen warily because I figure Martin may catch up and come back at me, and, just as bad, William N. is behind him and rapidly eating into my lead.

I don't know whether they started fighting each other or all our tires were dodgy by that point or what, because, while both seemed to be gaining on me, their march up to 8th place seemed to stall when they were about nine seconds behind me, and the gap opened a little more after that. Though I kept checking the 'time remaining' and wondering I'd look up to find them on my bumper (especially after I took the turn just before the pit straight too wide and lost a lot of speed), I ended up crossing the finish line in 8th place.

Very, very, very pleased with that result, as I have trouble keeping the pace at Watkins and am routinely 10 seconds off the leaders most times I've messed around there. Tonight, though, the 10's in practice were faster than I'd ever gone there before, and I kept setting new PB's throughout the race. Current fastest lap is mid or low 2:08, with an optimal of 2:07.

Hell of an improvement.

 

[Ramon van Rijn]

Signup buttons will be activated when the track is released (since I don't know yet how many drivers are allowed on Suzuka)

 

[Martin Bird]

Great write up Larry

My failure properly pass you down at turn 1 was due largely to some pretty stout braking on your part. I thought I was getting it done when lo and behold, you car appears on the left of my screen. At that point I adjusted to ensure there was no accident, figuring another lap - another opportunity.

Sadly that chance didn't really materialize, seemed like my tires dropped off a cliff. Started struggling quite badly for grip and William N blew past like I was standing still (on the last lap i think ... doh!) Still, a fair day out for my first time on that track, and in that car.

 

[Dazmaniac]

Signup buttons will be activated when the track is released (since I don't know yet how many drivers are allowed on Suzuka)

Ramon,

Found this over at iRacing whilst searching for something else, lol. Kevin Iannarelli is on the iRacing Staff. It was posted 13th July.

60 stalls for the full configuration. In the process of figuring out how many stalls can be made for the configurations that do not use the main pit road.

 

[Onno Naber]

The start times are more or less the same as what we have used in the RD iRacing Leagues earlier this year for the MX-5 and Star Mazda (which were run on Sundays). For me it means a 8PM start (UK time) when the server opens up. I could manage an hour earlier in the week, but any earlier and I'm screwed as would still be commuting home from work. So what works for some, doesn't work for others. I appreciate Pedro's situation so its probably something worth raising with Will/Kev and the RD iRacing League Admins before the new season schedules are posted, so we can get some feedback on best timeslots (especially when we are catering for folks from all over the globe).




Sunday's aren't usually an issue for me, so earlier starts in League races would be fine for me, but may hinder some of our US participants.

Regards the lack of no-shows for the recent EU midweek events, I think it was because Ramon posted them all well in advance of him going on his holidays and no-one was left to advertise them and rustle up some interest for participation and the posts just sat midway down the forum. There was also the fact that certain folks had signed up in advance and then never turned up, which doesn't help.

I also suggested having a minimum entry for midweek races put in place before someone goes and pays for a hosted session only to find no-one showing up. If a session guarantee say at least 6 or 8, then its worthwhile hosting a session, but should only 2 or 3 register, I don't think that's worth wasting someone's cash putting a session up. Just my opinion of course.

True!!!

 

[William Nowell]

Great fun guys. I must have told myself a hundred times to becareful on the first lap as the setup I was using was pretty touchy on cold tires. However the moment the lights turned green I forgot all about everything else including the part about letting the tires warm up. Lucky I didn't take anyone else out. Good race guys.

 

[Saul Boucher]

So what's up for next week Will ??

 

[Eric Estes]

Had a blast. Honestly thought I was dead meat to Larry in the first half, as he steadily ate up my lead. I finally caught on to the last turn, and got better runs out of T1 which gave me some breathing room and allowed me to slowly catch up with Jim. Finally got up to Jim on the last lap, but was only faster down the mainstraight and turning into the boot. Managed to get alongside in the stretch, but he held right alongside through the banked turn and going into the boot I had to back off, being in an awkward position turning into the boot.

Oh, and for those keeping score on Wednesday night races:

Eric: 2
Other Amigos: 0

 

[Lars Strijdonck]

Somehow Dazz it makes me wonder why your not a staff member yet very insightful post as always.

The start times are more or less the same as what we have used in the RD iRacing Leagues earlier this year for the MX-5 and Star Mazda (which were run on Sundays). For me it means a 8PM start (UK time) when the server opens up. I could manage an hour earlier in the week, but any earlier and I'm screwed as would still be commuting home from work. So what works for some, doesn't work for others. I appreciate Pedro's situation so its probably something worth raising with Will/Kev and the RD iRacing League Admins before the new season schedules are posted, so we can get some feedback on best timeslots (especially when we are catering for folks from all over the globe).

Sunday's aren't usually an issue for me, so earlier starts in League races would be fine for me, but may hinder some of our US participants.

Regards the lack of no-shows for the recent EU midweek events, I think it was because Ramon posted them all well in advance of him going on his holidays and no-one was left to advertise them and rustle up some interest for participation and the posts just sat midway down the forum. There was also the fact that certain folks had signed up in advance and then never turned up, which doesn't help.

I also suggested having a minimum entry for midweek races put in place before someone goes and pays for a hosted session only to find no-one showing up. If a session guarantee say at least 6 or 8, then its worthwhile hosting a session, but should only 2 or 3 register, I don't think that's worth wasting someone's cash putting a session up. Just my opinion of course.

 

[Dietmar]

I might join you guys, did not sign up yet, first need to check whether I find quick enough a rythm with one of the cars.