Hey guys, this is a quick summary of how things should go for the upcoming event. It involves setting up pre-race, racing, etiquette, and a few other reminders.
Practice:
Here you should be getting a handle on your car, whether it's wet or dry. Get comfortable racing around others, and get your awareness up.
You should also be practising your pit stops. As with all Wednesday races we require a mandatory 2 tire stop each race. The practice will help you with pit entry, and prevent you from getting a stop and go because of speeding into pit lane.
Now as added excitement of the Wednesday races, we have changing weather. With this in mind during practice you should set a few presets. Here are examples of mine:
1) Two dry front tires
2) All four dry tires
3) Two wet front Tires
4) All four wet tires
5) Full damage repair (In short races like in ERC, you NEVER repair damage unless it is a puncture. You lose too much time in the pits to make it worthwhile)
Setting these presets will decrease your chances of having a problem when pitting.
It's also beneficial to practice both with full race fuel, and with qualifying fuel. Running all your practice with 5-10 litres of fuel will not help when you put in your 45 litres for race time as it adds weight and changes the behaviour of the car.
Qualifying:
We run 10 minutes of Super-pole which is an individual qualification. When you leave the pits you have 3 laps and they are as followed:
1) Out-lap - Used to warm up tires. Also: do not damage car this lap
2) Hot-lap - Your one and ONLY lap to qualify with. It's sometimes better to relax a bit so you don't make a mistake and run off, leaving you with a poor qualification and bad starting position
3) In-lap - A cool down lap which you run and enter the pits when finished , you can hit escape when done your hot lap, but it's more fun and real to finish the in-lap and also gives you another chance to practice pitting in.
****WHEN YOU ENTER THE TRACK DURING SUPER-POLE, ONCE YOU RETURN TO PITS, EITHER BY ESC OR DRIVING IN YOU CANNOT GO BACK ON TRACK****
Warm up:
Use this session to get comfortable with race fuel, and to once again practice you pit stops. At this point make sure you have all your presets set in place, and that you're comfortable and ready to race. Also a good time to hit the bathroom!
Race:
With a full grid, on-track behaviour is critical. Because one aggressive move doesn't just affect you and one car, but more like 5-10 cars. Remember this! Everyone is here to race and have fun just like the rest, but think about how one bad move takes the fun out of it for someone else. We all like to do well and make passes, but keep the big picture in mind. Races are of decent length, with changing weather and with pit stops. Things happen as the race unfolds. Let it get there, use caution in the first lap.
I will not tolerate:
Opportunistic behaviour just after the start into the first corner! Which means no dive-bombing in to the first corner through the pack to gain a couple of places or excessive contact causing other drivers to spin.
Excessive contact when passing another driver in a corner. And if you're a skilled driver - meaning ranking Top 50 and beyond - you should be able to do it clean. If you're not able to do so please do not sign up for this event or I will prevent this for your next event
A few rules of thumb when around multiple cars:
1) ALWAYS be aware of cars behind you and their position. Do not just think about the car in front of you. The car behind you is just as important
2) When changing lanes to pass, or miss cars ran off, check before changing
3) If you are defending and attempting to block, you can only make one lane change. Swerving to block will NOT be tolerated
4) If a car has a run on you and you see him go inside, BE AWARE. You cannot just turn into a car that is fully beside you (and I mean nose-to-nose beside you). He is there, and you have to concede position. More than likely if you turn into him and he is there, you're going off and your race is hindered and he is at no fault.
5) When entering pits do so in a safe manner, that does not cause obstructions, or interferes with the racing line for others.
6) When re-entering the track from the pits, please do so in a safe manner. However remember that you ARE racing for position. Remain behind the pit exit line until it merges into the racing surface. DO NOT pull a Schumacher and swerve into the racing line in front of a full speed car (this will end in sorrow).
7) When you are receiving the blue flag, do not panic. Have a look behind and see how close they are and plan for a safe position to allow them past you. You do not need to hit your brakes. Simply back off the throttle off the race line and they will find their way as they are at full pace.
I suggest to everyone that races in ERC to use teamspeak, even if you don't have a mic. It is beneficial, because if someone runs off they announce it, and it provides early warning. Even if you leave the mic muted.
Michael van Scheppingen
- Matthias Klein
- Alexander Lauritzen
- Menno Hagen
- Mark Sørensen
- Ethan Bass
- Eric Plimmer
- James Fellows
- Jakob de Boer
- Simon Gardner
- Aristide Romanov
- Linus Broström
- Keith Barrick
- Ondrej Kapal
- Hugo Hekkenberg
- Peter Duivelaar
- Mark Guy
- Jadran Dimic
- Jonas Orfelt
- Helder Moreira
- Leonardo Tuma
- Barry Morse
- Morten Wernersen
- Frans Linden
- Wesley Hartog
- Yuri Braham (Safety Car)
- Felix Luding
Reserves
- Felix Luding
- Goran Markesic
- Murat Erdogdu
- Fred Visser
