AC X-Bow GT4 @ Nurburgring GP (GT) - Weds 14th Oct 2020

[pattikins]

It was good Han, such a great car to drive

If I can get time to put the next event up soon it may well be Calabogie, will see how work goes, need to try a few more cars on it

Maybe Skippy?

oops.

 

[Kek700]

No No No No No to the bleeding Skippy.

 

[Medilloni]

Maybe Skippy?

oops.

 

[pattikins]

It sounds like I missed a great race.

In the middle of the qualifying I had to change the setting on my VR headset, and I forgot to save the first part of the qualy. Is there any chance that someone can post the qualifying round? - I'll most likely watch the races re- George & Chris' videos. Ta.

I initially wanted the AC video replay to check my facts before I PM'd someone in the race about their decision making during the qualifying round. As that doesn't seem possible I want to ask a general question about a troublesome event.

When I left the pits @ the start of the qualifying round I found myself behind a driver who was lapping in the practice sessions a couple of seconds slower than me, so I backed off & gave them a 8-10 second lead. I'd fuelled for 4 laps, with the intention of doing a further 4 laps later in the qualy after making an adjustment to my VR headset (VR framerate from 90 to 60). After the first fast lap I noticed that the aforementioned driver had made a mess of the last corner and to all intents & purposes they'd wrecked their current and future lap (it looked like a standing/low speed start on the start/finish line, therefore a slow lap*). Unfortunately, by T3 the gap that I had left had all but vanished and I subsequently had to abandon my qualifying lap (& tests).

So the question is, is it wrong to expect someone to move aside if they have a poor start to the lap & it's clear that the lap time isn't going to be much quicker than an outlap or is track position king?

*their lap times:
02:06.*
02:03.*
02:01.*

 

[Chris Down]

I initially wanted the AC video replay to check my facts before I PM'd someone in the race about their decision making during the qualifying round. As that doesn't seem possible I want to ask a general question about a troublesome event.

When I left the pits @ the start of the qualifying round I found myself behind a driver who was lapping in the practice sessions a couple of seconds slower than me, so I backed off & gave them a 8-10 second lead. I'd fuelled for 4 laps, with the intention of doing a further 4 laps later in the qualy after making an adjustment to my VR headset (VR framerate from 90 to 60). After the first fast lap I noticed that the aforementioned driver had made a mess of the last corner and to all intents & purposes they'd wrecked their current and future lap (it looked like a standing/low speed start on the start/finish line, therefore a slow lap*). Unfortunately, by T3 the gap that I had left had all but vanished and I subsequently had to abandon my qualifying lap (& tests).

So the question is, is it wrong to expect someone to move aside if they have a poor start to the lap & it's clear that the lap time isn't going to be much quicker than an outlap or is track position king?

*their lap times:
02:06.*
02:03.*
02:01.*

I think I'm qualified to chime in on this. In many events, I'll often end up catching people during qualifying. On a number of occasions I've seen those people, in my view, "mess up their lap" and yet continue on to try and set a time.

I eventually conceded two things from this experience:

1. For some people, what you might consider "messing up their lap" might just be another day at the office ;-) I don't want to discourage less consistent drivers from joining, so in my view, if this happens I just find a safe place to pass them and write off my lap.
2. I usually pay attention to who's doing decent times in practice, and if I see someone who's been typically at the back of the pack ahead of me in quali, I either overtake, or I back off a lot (like 10+ seconds), allowing others who I know are within 1-2 seconds of me ahead of me. Usually this gives a lot of clear track.

Qualification is somewhat imperfect, but I don't think everyone necessarily has the same view of what's a small mistake, and what's messing up their lap so badly that they should just abort. I certainly don't think it's easy to codify in any generally applicable way.

All that said though, I do really empathise with you, I've been there

 

[Kek700]

Some circuit tolerate a lot of driver in qualifying, some circuits don’t, sometimes you are lucky, sometime you are not.
That’s qualifying, sometimes I qualify up front then end up after the first corner at the back, sometimes I qualify at the back then end up near the front by lap one.
Qualifying for a mid fielder is no big deal, I think if you are looking to be very competitive, then being careful who and when you join qualifying is an important must do.
It is not something I really worry about, if at all, so this is just for a small percentage of the field.
How you eliminate the problem without individual TT qualifying is beyond me and beyond Mr good luck or Mr bad luck.
For as much as I am addicted to moaning, on and on, I rather like the unpredictable nature of it all, probably why I turn up every week and race.

 

[joeymac]

I initially wanted the AC video replay to check my facts before I PM'd someone in the race about their decision making during the qualifying round. As that doesn't seem possible I want to ask a general question about a troublesome event.

When I left the pits @ the start of the qualifying round I found myself behind a driver who was lapping in the practice sessions a couple of seconds slower than me, so I backed off & gave them a 8-10 second lead. I'd fuelled for 4 laps, with the intention of doing a further 4 laps later in the qualy after making an adjustment to my VR headset (VR framerate from 90 to 60). After the first fast lap I noticed that the aforementioned driver had made a mess of the last corner and to all intents & purposes they'd wrecked their current and future lap (it looked like a standing/low speed start on the start/finish line, therefore a slow lap*). Unfortunately, by T3 the gap that I had left had all but vanished and I subsequently had to abandon my qualifying lap (& tests).

So the question is, is it wrong to expect someone to move aside if they have a poor start to the lap & it's clear that the lap time isn't going to be much quicker than an outlap or is track position king?

*their lap times:
02:06.*
02:03.*
02:01.*

I think it's good manners to move aside if you've made a mistake in quali or practice. After a very long day yesterday it took me until midway through the first race to get a feel for the car, so I didn't end up setting a fast clean quali lap, but following any shaky moments I still moved aside and checked the track map to ensure I would not hold anyone up. I had a spin at turn 6 (my bogey corner) at the start of quali and the car behind couldn't avoid me. Maybe they were unsighted due to the elevation change or maybe they were a bit too close, but either way I let them get on with it before I got going again.

 

[640er]

Thanks John for this one. Hope to see the KTM soon again. (But not before 3.11 when I finally get my connection)

I had the possibility to mount 3 monitors for this race (with no time left for decent set up or testing) and of course I did. What I didn't know was that having a bigger (27) screen in the middle than those two on each side (24), is a bad idea. When an opponents car makes the transition from one monitor to the other, it is vertically offset by about 2cm. Oh that is irritating as hell

But nevertheless I found myself always around good company and had lots of fun. Hope my rig will soon be set up as it should.

 

[GEO147]

Sorry for delay. Had some issues with the upload to YouTube. Here it is anyway for anyone interested:

 

[Chris Down]

Sorry for delay. Had some issues with the upload to YouTube. Here it is anyway for anyone interested:

I feel better knowing I'm not the only one who punted someone in T1

I think this and the other video neatly illustrate why it could happen to anyone though: for such a tight-but-wide corner, the braking is really unpredictable because it depends on people 4-5 cars ahead of you who you have almost no view of due not only it being a hairpin, but the entry and exit being incredibly wide there. Even at Monza or somewhere like that, it's a lot easier to infer what people 4-5 cars ahead are doing because the track is much narrower. Here it's a nightmare into T1 due to the sheer width and variance in lines, even if you're not being opportunistic.

 

[joeymac]

Sorry for delay. Had some issues with the upload to YouTube. Here it is anyway for anyone interested:

Some nice and close racing there. Well done to all. From what I could see, the racing yesterday was generally excellent.

It was embarrassing watching myself there in race 1 though, I had absolutely no confidence or feel for the car at that stage and I was soo hesitant, yet at other times last night I was over-driving like an idiot. More practice would be good, and more sleep is definitely required! Despite having typically 100 FPS, I did notice a few glitches before the pc finally crashed yesterday, so I wonder if there was an issue causing a greater than usual disconnect between me and the car.

 

[Neilski]

It sounds like I missed a great race.

In the middle of the qualifying I had to change the setting on my VR headset, and I forgot to save the first part of the qualy. Is there any chance that someone can post the qualifying round? - I'll most likely watch the races re- George & Chris' videos. Ta.

Did you get that replay yet? I seem to have saved mine.

 

[Axel Moebius]

Quick note for a near-future race (Not next week): Have a play on Calabogie Motorsport Park full version, I almost ran the X-Bow here, it's simply stunning... multiple lines for overtaking, wall-of-death corners, a really enjoyable challenge imo. Stay tooned

Could I suggest the newly updated Legends Ford. Its a blast on this track.

 

[GeekyDeaks]

Sorry for delay. Had some issues with the upload to YouTube. Here it is anyway for anyone interested:

I know I don't get involved much, but the after race chat in this vid kinda sums up what this group is like to race with for me and why I really look forward to Wednesdays!
Looks like a nice triple setup... you got pics of the whole thing to hand?

 

[640er]

I know I don't get involved much, but the after race chat in this vid kinda sums up what this group is like to race with for me and why I really look forward to Wednesdays!
Looks like a nice triple setup... you got pics of the whole thing to hand?

That's so true. To keep my ping low I wasn't using TS for this event and there was definitely something missing. Its just not the same when nobody warns you about T1 and wishes you good luck

 

[Neilski]

To keep my ping low I wasn't using TS for this event

Do you reckon it helped? I don't think TS uses much bandwidth but of course it depends on just how bad your link is.

 

[640er]

Do you reckon it helped? I don't think TS uses much bandwidth but of course it depends on just how bad your link is.

Yes I do. With TS activated my ping got up to ~120 and without stayed around 40. But of course, that could have been just a coincidence as I only tried it once. My connection atm is pretty meh, just a router with simcard (4G) which is connected via cable to my PC. Especially upload is very slow so I think every bit counts

 

[pattikins]

Some circuit tolerate a lot of driver in qualifying, some circuits don’t, sometimes you are lucky, sometime you are not.
That’s qualifying, sometimes I qualify up front then end up after the first corner at the back, sometimes I qualify at the back then end up near the front by lap one.
Qualifying for a mid fielder is no big deal, I think if you are looking to be very competitive, then being careful who and when you join qualifying is an important must do.
It is not something I really worry about, if at all, so this is just for a small percentage of the field.
How you eliminate the problem without individual TT qualifying is beyond me and beyond Mr good luck or Mr bad luck.
For as much as I am addicted to moaning, on and on, I rather like the unpredictable nature of it all, probably why I turn up every week and race.

I realise that qualifying can be problematic, but it doesn't have to be anarchic. The point I was trying to make, as Joey says, is about drivers being mindful of others on the track. If I make a mistake & I see that there is a faster driver behind me and they're likely to catch me I move aside. I've always done that - not to do so could impact on everyone else on the track as they in turn have to make adjustments (extra laps...) to my mistake. So it's got nothing to do with being competitive, & more to do with fairness - I'd be just as happy with a random grid start (& less knackered to boot ).

If someone else is playing by a different set of 'rules', then 'being careful who and when you join qualifying' is a tall order. I do, however, accept Chris' point that what I might consider 'erratic' driving might be the player's normal standard of driving [in a sim ]. So I'm not going moan about it any more... in the future I'll just go for the 'safe' overtake .

 

[Kek700]

Completely agree with you Patrick, if it were league racing, I and everyone else would have a different approach.
I know generally speaking know how fast everyone is, either before practice, certainly after practice.
On exiting the pits I am constantly looking to see who is in front or behind before I start my qualifying, adjusting accordingly.
I stand by what I said, for our fun races different people have different goals, the fast guys need quality because they are looking for a win, mine is more for survival.
I have only once put a lot of effort into qualifying, ( usually use it as final setup, because I have been lazy prior to the event ) Mercedes C9 at Sebring, only chance I had against the Porsche’s and Mazda was to be on the front in their way.
Once people cottoned on to that ! so only had one opportunity.
Because it is a fun event I do not expect others to see the racing as I do, some are learning, faced with a steep learning curve and being in a very stressful situation , they at this moment in time do not see things the same as us, they soon do usually.
When stressed they are trying to juggle a dozen plates at the same time, let alone trying to do a qualifying lap, trying to see if they are in someone’s way, trying not to come off, if they do trying to access it impact on their lap or am I going to be in someone way.
I have eventually learned to do all that at a quick glance, as most do.
Waffle end.

 

[GEO147]

I know I don't get involved much, but the after race chat in this vid kinda sums up what this group is like to race with for me and why I really look forward to Wednesdays!
Looks like a nice triple setup... you got pics of the whole thing to hand?

Yep will try get a pic up