FIRST WIN IN A BIG COMMUNITY
And where better to do it that at my simracing home, RaceDepartment.
I have won one race at C-online in 2009 and 2-3 in another league but to win a race in such a big community of simracers with a live broadcast was an affair long overdue, I admit I was surprised by the pace as Camaro should not be so good on Nurburgring but I guess my experience gave me a tad advantage.
Practice :
With everything everywhere happening in my life I had little time to do proper practice, I did some laps with Adrian in one night and from then I gain confidence as even tho he was faster than me on that specific night, when we tried to follow each other with full tank he could not get passed me easily and that was enough to know where to focus my setup. Did some Leaderboard lap times and I always use AI at 120% to see roughly what proper alien lap times would look like(since from my experience proper aliens are at least as fast if not faster than AI at 120%, that rule of thumb worked great for me so far as a benchmark for myself)and see where I am at. Friday before the weekend I think I did 1h and a bit and I focused on full tank setup and concentrating on corner exit so I could make enough gap on the straight and be safe in the braking zone, Saturday did some more hotlapping and dialed in the setup and bragging or not this has to be one of my best setups that I have managed to cook up for myself and my driving style on this specific track. Sunday before race day I was lurking around the server to spy on the competition and got a bit scared when I saw a few people in the 57's, I knew I could do 56's with a full tank but wanted a bigger gap so I feel safer
).
Qualy:
This was one of my hardest Qualy sessions ever, I knew I had a 55 in me somewhere but just didn't manage to pull it off, and I really wanted to be P1 so I have a good chance to win against Adrian as I knew if I get P2 and behind him, even tho I was a tad faster than him overall he was more consistent and I would do more mistakes trying to overtake.
Started straight off the bat with a high 56's then started lowering the time, felt confident and with a 56.1 while Adrian was on a 56.6 I think I felt pretty safe.
But then I heard, "Bogdan this is going to require one of my best" and I knew Adrian will pull something out of the hat, went straight out on track trying to improve and few min later I saw it and heard it " Take that Boggers", 56.060(or something like that), I was going, man, a 56 flat and I can't get that golden 55 lap, 10min to go and started with 20L and dialed in the laps but Adrian and a bonkers S1 time I was always .2 or .3 slower and I could not figure out how was frustrating.
2:15min to end of Qualy and I started my last lap, Sector 1 +0.235 I was "**** it" all most pressed ESC but I had a very very good hairpin and the following chicane and said "let's see what comes of it" S2 -0.135 with green(I think) and I focused really had but still made a bit of mistake in the last chicane but the last turn was just perfect, just a tab of break from 4th to 3ed, use engine braking clip the inside kerb and flat out in 3ed gear, 4th and over the line -0.014 and "FUUUCCKKK YEAAAAHHH" , " Ohh nooo, you got this" from Adrian was pure satisfaction, but I was wasted already and the hard part was just around the corner.
Race :
I tested starts a bit and had a good one in 3ed corner I saw Adrian in P4 and in 4th corner I already went gung-ho and full attack mode to make as big as a gap as possible, in the first 3-4 laps I got 4-5 warnings and had to dial back a bit but was pushing like crazy, low 57's and abusing the tires.
So far so good, Adrian arrived in P2 with me 10+sec ahead, I was expecting him to recover some but I was in a good state of mind and was confident that I had the legs on him.
Probably close to 30min mark Adrian was under 7sec and only because I was shitting my pants looking behind at the gap instead of looking ahead and focusing on lap times, gather my brown trousers back up and put some 57's again and it went up a bit and stayed there for 1 or 2 laps and while focusing on lap times I see +20sec to 2nd place, asked "what happened" and he had a break for some weed and a spin, "sorry Adrian" but my face was smiling like a little kid with pocket full of candy's and was focusing on the upcoming pitstop.
Soon I realized how good the setup was, if in Silverstone the fronts where yellow after 30min or so, here at 30min I had all 4 yellows and still doing 57's, and that was a very good sign for me, did a good pitstop and after a warm-up lap I wanted to do 4-5 fast lap and entered low 56's with a 56.4 not realizing what I was doing actually, woke up with 35sec gap and all was Heaven.
When I did my maths with crew chief app I was doing high 57's in practice session and was expecting race pace to be 58's - 59's but my race pace was better than that and I presume that's why I all most finished with no fuel.
20min to go and I do some slight calculation and 11 laps to go estimated with 30L when I needed about 36-37L, and I was like....hmmm....might have to slow down a bit, immediately I started using higher gears in some corners and lifted more but that only dropped 1sec or so with 11-12min I realized even more that I ain't' gonna make it and I should have pitted for a splash/dash when I had a 35sec lead rather than save fuel, so slow right down to 2.02's and was just cruising around, never going into 2nd gear and jumping gears, 2-4-6 and I told myself no matter what when Adrian is bellow 5sec I put the hammer down.
Last lap and in T2 gage went to show 4L remaining, I knew that flat out was going to do some 3.8/lap at least that what crew chief told me, so put the pedal to the medal had one or two moments going up to speed but as I was getting close to the last chicane I saw 2L left and I was relieved, crossed the line with 1L showing on the gage and was just done, finished and very tired.
Such a big moment for me and I loved the feeling but I was very tired and last 10min being all stressed out about fuel where very demanding driving slow.
After the race, I was like
i got this)))))
@Adrian Campfield finished 4.4sec behind and like in the article, never say never, but I am really glad for this win and hopefully, I don't muck up in Monza.
Conclusions and stuff :
- no pictures this time or more specific details as 3h after the race I went to work and never really been properly been home with time in hand to write the race report from home, sorry
- very very enjoyable league!!!!
- thank you all
