AC RDEC Round 1 @ Sebring - Sunday 26th March 2023

[H_Belane]

Wow, that was exhausting. My first 90 minute race. I have learned a new muscle or tendon in my left knee due to pain. An hour, no problem. I had no idea that 1.5 hours would make such a difference for me. Also with the concentration.

My race was mostly lonely. I don't know what you guys did with the Corvettes, but I remembered them a little slower. That must be a great setup. I couldn't keep up with that. Especially not after a serious mistake at the beginning of the race. Then nothing for a long time. All LMPs have always overtaken cleanly, thanks for that. Towards the end of the race a second serious mistake. Jason appeared behind me, getting closer and closer. Luckily I was able to stay in front of him until the end.

I hope I can get a little more out of the Porsche in the other races.

Great event, as always on Sundays!

 

[Alfred Wayne]

Great racing all. As others have said, first race over an hour for me (at least since I started sim racing and had no idea what I was doing ). The multi-class kept it interesting even if you found yourself without a racing partner.

Had set my strategy up for 2 sets of mediums, but went with softs for the last 38min, which would have worked had I not fallen off the kerb above and spun into the wall x5 on the back straight (see below )

Very sorry for that scare when rejoining Rob. I had tried to pull a u-turn, then saw you coming and tried to use my e-brake which wasn't mapped. Got my brake down just in time not to hit you

After that it was just tire and LMP1 management, which was all good on my end

Thanks for organizing it Brian and everyone for racing! Time to pack up the vette and get it shipped off to Portugal

 

[Douglas Aird]

@Interslice

As I mentioned on Discord, the game failed to register my lap 10, here's the time from the server...

10 20 04:28.429

It basically put me dead last but I wasn't.

I don't know if you can do something retrospectively but my true track position was ahead of Patrick who was p12 as I overtook him in the last couple of laps.

Qualified p4 but Hanke got me early on then I got it back. Early mistake when I hit Ernie who was overtaking into the hairpin and I misjudged my braking, being off line. I lost some places then when I was catching up again I got the run on a Porsche (Patrick) but tried to make a corner that I had no chance to make which led to my big crash. Apologies guys as this was my first race in these tricky cars.

Made an earlier pit than I wanted as I was fighting Theo and losing time, plus my fuel was showing really low so I was worried I hadn't put enough in (although I was actually fine at the end).

Gained a few places in the second half, although the game didn't think so.

First 1.5 hour race and I was ok for concentration at the end, just need to avoid the silly mistakes next time.

Thanks for organising, Brian, and to all the racers.

 

[Interslice]

@Interslice

As I mentioned on Discord, the game failed to register my lap 10, here's the time from the server...

10 20 04:28.429

It basically put me dead last but I wasn't.

I don't know if you can do something retrospectively but my true track position was ahead of Patrick who was p12 as I overtook him in the last couple of laps.

Qualified p4 but Hanke got me early on then I got it back. Early mistake when I hit Ernie who was overtaking into the hairpin and I misjudged my braking, being off line. I lost some places then when I was catching up again I got the run on a Porsche (Patrick) but tried to make a corner that I had no chance to make which led to my big crash. Apologies guys as this was my first race in these tricky cars.

Made an earlier pit than I wanted as I was fighting Theo and losing time, plus my fuel was showing really low so I was worried I hadn't put enough in (although I was actually fine at the end).

Gained a few places in the second half, although the game didn't think so.

First 1.5 hour race and I was ok for concentration at the end, just need to avoid the silly mistakes next time.

Thanks for organising, Brian, and to all the racers.

Ye just seen that long lap 10 Doug! Doesn't look like it happened anyone else thankfully. Never seen that before.
I'll see what I can do!

 

[Douglas Aird]

Ye just seen that long lap 10 Doug! Doesn't look like it happened anyone else thankfully. Never seen that before.
I'll see what I can do!

Cheers, mate.

Also, apologies to Carsten for running into the back of you into one of the corners, my braking point was later than yours and I couldn't quite get it stopped. At least it didn't really affect our respective races.

 

[_Ken Scott]

Instead of reacting with a sad emoji, why don't u try an offer advice to help me? Toxic are you people who did that, just saying

 

[Douglas Aird]

Instead of reacting with a sad emoji, why don't u try an offer advice to help me? Toxic are you people who did that, just saying

Interesting viewpoint.

I put a sad emoji in there as it's alway sad to see someone retire from a race. It's a lot of wasted effort in practice and a opportunity missed to stay in the race and learn. I've had many races off the pace and chose to go the distance.

I've changed my emoji since it offends you and would be happy to help you improve, but there's a lot better ways to ask for help.

 

[Alfred Wayne]

In AC the pit limiter only goes on automatically when you enter the pits. Shouldn't have a way to be on, on track. If the FFB and the acceleration seemed to be lazy or or too heavy, might be something with your wheel? Sometimes if I go to another application then back to AC my wheel will stop working correctly, really hard to turn. have to exit the game and unplug replug in the wheel. Maybe that's something to try?

 

[Interslice]

Cheers, mate.

Also, apologies to Carsten for running into the back of you into one of the corners, my braking point was later than yours and I couldn't quite get it stopped. At least it didn't really affect our respective races.

All is not lost Points-wise you are positioned between @Partick Eaton and @Twoddle in 6th.

 

[davejevons]

Instead of reacting with a sad emoji, why don't u try an offer advice to help me? Toxic are you people who did that, just saying

Apologies, as @Douglas Aird said, it was not intended to be toxic. The intent was empathy, as most of us have been in that situation before.

This community is really supportive and positive. Do keep racing with us if you can. There can be technical issues that take time to solve and there is a wide spread of speeds and experience. I’m not very quick but I get a lot of pleasure from learning from the faster people here. Hope to see you again soon

 

[davejevons]

I’ve not had the time I would have liked to practice for this one. Life has been more exciting than ideal recently and tonight was a nice bit of escapism.

I had a good start and got in the groove early on. It was going quite well until I got hit and slid towards the back. As the lmp1s came past I got sandwiched 3 wide and missed my braking point which cost me a bunch of time reversing out the wall .

As I settled down the lap time came and I was quite pleased with the middle of the stint. I got a bit greedy and pushed the tyres too long though culminating in a spin on the exit of Le mans. After the pit stop I spotted @robthesquare had gone to softs and was only 10 seconds back. I thought I was doomed at that point but managed to hold on until the end despite some awful exits from slow speed corners.

it’s very different to the Mazda/abarth multi class but very enjoyable too Congrats to Enzo and Aki. Many thanks to @Interslice for organising and hosting.

 

[robthesquare]

Despite my recent race weekends going backwards in relative pace (I suspect the BMW is lacking in overall pace and my lack of talent doesn't make up for it.), it was pleasant race. Trying to focus on making fewer mistakes rather than overall pace.

Everyone seems to be racing with a good deal of respect and the I'm really enjoying the vibe.

 

[Interslice]

Similar race to the prologue for me. First stint was horrible. Realised too late that my brake bias was on too much of a knife edge for a stint. Following Thomas and then Ernie the car over rotated into Tower and Cunningham. Trying to catch back up it went again turning onto the back straight... Made a few other trips across the grass. Made a bad overtake or two on the GTs

Maybe a third race at sebring would go well for me!

Second stint was much more enjoyable. Good battle with @Shed 17. Great driving all round from the GT cars.
Thanks to all for racing. A very enjoyable event as a whole

See you at Portimao

 

[cerebralvortex]

Disappointed with P4.. I made the wrong strategy call by choosing to go for 2 stops I need to spend more time to think about this instead of 5 minutes before the race. It seemed like a good idea at the start but I don't think anyone else did 2 stops? I'm also in for a third race at Sebring @Interslice , this time with the right strategy

Other than that the race was quite dark, especially in turn 2,3,4. I realised during the race why it was.. I am running pure and last time out I had a different PP filter which was way too bright, I turned the brightness down about 50% in the pure settings. Now I am using a different PP filter which was looking ok but the race was overcast and that made it really dark for me, a bit difficult to spot some corners.

Portimao?

 

[Jimlaad43]

An intense race that was really fun, apart from one lap of madness. I managed to battle from P4 to P2 on the first lap by preserving hybrid for the second half of the lap and blasting past on the start straight. After that, I was doing pretty similar lap times to Enzo in 1st, but my soft tyres allowed me to close up. Once we started lapping GTs I was managing to lose less time and caught right up onto the back straight. We both used hybrid and we're sat side-by-side. Enzo was left, I was right and we headed into Sunset with a GT car in the middle of the track. Caught out by this and the overlap rules, I was in about 5 minds as to whether to send it, hold back, not bother with the overtake, fight hard etc... So mass confusion meant I just got it wrong, lost the rear on the bumps, slammed into the right wall and rebounded into Enzo and then got collected by what felt like the entire top 4 and a bunch of GTs. I waited for Enzo to go before I rejoined (Golden Rule, I had caused that), but I honestly have and had no idea who else was involved so couldn't really deal with anyone else. I was able to keep the pressure on though on the next lap as we all tried to get back into the rhythm in P3 and P4, but I definitely tapped Enzo in a braking point and scared a GT off track between Cunningham and Tower trying to go either side of him. However, I settled down and Enzo drove off. I had some light damage to my bodywork which I have no idea how much it affected my pace (and how much the other guys in the crash had).

After that, I had a race-long battle with @thom462. You must be bored of seeing the rear of a Toyota after that. He sat on my tail for about an hour in the race. You were quick through the first few corners, and had amazing top speed down the back straight, but the only thing keeping me ahead was the Hybrid of the Toyota. More boost per lap meant I had a little bit in hand each lap to use to gap whenever Thomas got close or I made a small mistake out the corner. Saving a tiny bit of boost for the final corner seemed to give me enough of a gap to not have to worry about T1-4 and just focus on keeping the pace. Lapping GT traffic was 50/50 as to whether it would increase or decrease the gap, and everyone was fair. We were patient in braking zones if the pass wasn't on, but I had just that extra spare boost to get away on the corner exit. We had a few close calls, and Thomas did get past in the braking zone for T6, but I let him run wide and came back through with boost through the next 4 kinks (somehow by being on the outside for the first 3!).

Thom then tried to undercut me in the stop, I had traffic to deal with on the inlap but still came out ahead. From then on it was try not to make mistakes with a car never further than 2s behind also on new softs. Crossed the line P2 wondering whether I'd have ever had an answer for Enzo if I hadn't so catastrophically ballsed up Sunset early on in the race.

Great fun, onto the next one!

 

[Shed 17]

First of all thanks to Brian for setting this series up and well done to the podiums in both classes.

Now for the bit where I hang my head in shame after watching the replay.
Sincere apologies to Nico @NickB for bumping you off and not waiting, I wasn’t sure if it was my fault but after reviewing the incident, 100% my enthusiasm outweighing my talent.
And again, apologies to Ernie for tagging you going into the hairpin, I got some ‘overspeed’ in passing Rob and following you, but in all the excitement I missed my breaking point. Sorry.

Other than that and two offs through lack of concentration I enjoyed the competition ( nice battle with Brian for a couple of laps ) and strategy challenge.

Looking forward to the next one but Portimao will bring a different set of challenges and more patience in passing methinks.

 

[NickB]

Thanks a lot Brian for the organisation and everyone for a good race! My first proper race in a GTE (apart from the prologue) and at Sebring, and with AC for many years.

I was quite happy with my pace but struggled a bit with consistency and got involved in a few incidents. But I really enjoyed learning the car (soft tires x2 made end of stints pretty scary with oversteer!) and racing multi-class.

Thanks Paul, no worries!

See you all in Portugal!

 

[Kek700]

For some reason I just could get no pace from this car, I suspect I have been over fiddling with the setup and managed to make the car slower to the point where there was too much to do to get it back again.
But and this is a big but, I really struggled in this multi class large “discrepancy” racing, I think it is all me , as others do not appear to suffer in the same way.
I was enjoying my battle with a fast charging Enzo, even though the out come was enevitable, I managed to give him a battle for some laps. To then come across a gte car that lost me so much time, probably me not taking the appropriate risk. Most would have barged though, but I waited out the corner, only to be pounced on and quickly dispatched by our Enzo. That was not the problem, the problem was that I decided to be more decisive and force my my through the next pair of Gte drivers only to cause havoc.
I don’t think I have the right instinct for this type of racing.

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

We both used hybrid and we're sat side-by-side.

Nope, with the Audi I run out shortly after the exit onto the back straight, but the car's aero is pretty efficient so it still gets decent top speed.

For some reason I just could get no pace from this car, I suspect I have been over fiddling with the setup and managed to make the car slower to the point where there was too much to do to get it back again.
But and this is a big but, I really struggled in this multi class large “discrepancy” racing, I think it is all me , as others do not appear to suffer in the same way.
I was enjoying my battle with a fast charging Enzo, even though the out come was enevitable, I managed to give him a battle for some laps.

You were really fast when I caught up to you though, if it wasn't for a mistake/inexperience in traffic with these cars, I don't think I would've been able to pass you.
Were you running low wings?

be more decisive and force my my through

Being decisive is good, forcing your way through isn't. It's a balancing act that you'll pick up over time.



As for my race itself, I was impeded on 2 of my quali laps, so the third was a bit of a banker. Though I should maybe just try one of the earlier sessions next time.
For strategy, I started on mediums with a full tank (54L in the Audi) and stretched that tank a little bit with lifting and coasting. Then I made my pitstop with a little over half an hour to go and switched to softs.

 

[Jimlaad43]

For some reason I just could get no pace from this car, I suspect I have been over fiddling with the setup and managed to make the car slower to the point where there was too much to do to get it back again.
But and this is a big but, I really struggled in this multi class large “discrepancy” racing, I think it is all me , as others do not appear to suffer in the same way.
I was enjoying my battle with a fast charging Enzo, even though the out come was enevitable, I managed to give him a battle for some laps. To then come across a gte car that lost me so much time, probably me not taking the appropriate risk. Most would have barged though, but I waited out the corner, only to be pounced on and quickly dispatched by our Enzo. That was not the problem, the problem was that I decided to be more decisive and force my my through the next pair of Gte drivers only to cause havoc.
I don’t think I have the right instinct for this type of racing.

The whole "overlap" rule with passing GTE's makes it pretty good for lapping. The advantage the LMPs have over the GTE's is on corner exit with acceleration, especially when we are on the boost. If you approach a GTE, be prepared to wait it out on the exit of a turn, get a cutback and whizz past on the inside as they run to the exit kerb. Turn 1, Gurney, Tower, Le Mans and Sunset are all prime examples of this. Hairpin turn and Cunningham's exits are particularly tough to get right if you catch a GTE up before, but there is space to go around the corners on boost, you just need to keep an eye on the GTE car and be prepared to back out of it if they haven't given space.

Really, just drive at the cars and focus on getting past on the exit of corners and you'll be fine.
Somewhere here like T2-4, you basically have to wait your turn through there unless the GTE obviously gets out of your way in the first corner. If you drive with a cars width of space down the straight and through the corners you'll be at little risk of contact.

Braking distances in these cars are pretty similar, and speeds through slow corners are very similar, so diving to the inside leaves you parked on the apex and losing you both time. Wait for the GTE to choose it's side of the track on corner exit and boost past without losing them any time. Get good at this and you'll find yourself losing less time.

there are always awkward spots where you just have to be pushy. The curved straight between Cunningham and Tower is a classic example of where you just have to get on with the pass early, or at least get alongside so the GTE knows you're coming through and can leave room. It's just a case of both sides being predictable and the faster car being the one that can use it's extra grip to make the pass on the corner exit. I made passes into Le Mans corner in the race by being proactive out of the previous corner.

Having the hybrid boost button mapped for manual use is very handy, as it can be used to get you out of sticky situations if they ever arise.