Round 4 Long Beach Post race reports and discussion

Not sure what's going on Tyler. I've been struggling with an intermittently activated brake pedal this past week so wondered whether that might have been the problem but it seemed ok tonight and looking at the readout it didn't seem like it was on at the times my car was stuck. It happened several times when my car was still, once when I spun in the section before the final turn in qualifying, then on my pit stop and finally that incident. But it didn't seem to happen all the time. I haven't changed anything on the car or my settings so who knows why it suddenly has started happening. Just another of those frustrating gremlins I guess but I can certainly do without it as it makes the time spent too much of a waste which I can certainly do without when my free time is so limited.

I'm done with it now though... These game issues seem to be following me every race lately. Time to take some time away, re-evaluate what I want going forward and start enjoying the offline side for a while. I need to get some time in with ACC where I seem to have less issues to deal with. 

I can do without the frustrations league stuff is creating for me these days. Work is stressful enough without adding to it through the racing that is supposed to be a release from it all.

There's a strong enough field now that I can step away from it without adversely affecting it which I am pleased about.

Moan over lol...

Q-2nd
R-5th

Man, that was a difficult one for sure...

I was concerned I wouldn't have the pace to keep up after all my practice last week so I spent most of the week in my natural habitat rally racing in dirt, but somehow managed to post the fastest lap I had ever ran by almost 2 seconds right as qually ended. I got a decent banker in at the start and kept finding traffic or making mistakes that killed my laps right until the very end. I grabbed fastest sector 1, thought alright keep going, see what we get here.. Then fastest second sector... That's when the heart rate spiked. Car was amazing through the parking lot sectio, my exits onto the main straight weren't the best but i got a good one and had pole for I'm assuming all of 2 seconds because Liam ended up with it but I was still stoked, massive and much needed confidence boost.

Starting that far up threw my strategy right out the window but I figured I'd try my hand at a more agressive tire strat and see what I could get. Had an okay start, took it real easy so as to not crash immediately and fell to 3rd after Dave's crazy start, then watched as Liam drove off into the sunset... Was in cruise control behind Dave and content to stay there for a while but on lap 5 I got loose under brakes and lost my nose in T5. Lost a ton of time fixing that, and repeated that same mistake a couple more times but managed to claw back up to 5th in the end. I was gaining massive time on Tyler as he was saving his engine but a lock up and almost crash in 4 dashed those hopes.

All in all I'm quite happy with this, my best result so far and an unexpectedly high finishing position for me. Indy GP is another track I always enjoyed (old layout is better but the new one isn't that bad) so I'm looking forward to that one in a few weeks

I'm still a little pissed at myself so I'll keep it simplish.
First off...I apologise for the couple major mistakes I made involving turn 1. Lap 1 i got bumped into the wall which put me 3 laps down. Upon reviewing the incident....yep my bad,thought i left enough room to but didnt. Instant karma there.
After that I had no confidence in the car,especially the braking which kept overheating (set up issue). Hence why I was letting frontrunners by easily. I cant remember who i took out at turn one but i apologise. Should have waited a corner or two to slow up for you. Underestimated the distance,bumps and dodgy braking and i had some wheel issues pre race and during the race. But no excuses....just a stupid brainfart on my end brought on by no confidence. I'll accept any possible penalty for it. In the end,my final stint was my strongest. The blacks were not fun....
Never felt confident around Long Beach but looking forward to the Indy GP for sure.
Again,my apologies to those whose races I affected.

All good mate,was completely my misjudgement and stupidity. Not my finest moment for sure lol. well done on the win 👍

I was quite concerned in the opening laps that you were holding on to my gearbox and I was quite relieved when you spun out but it was shaping up to be a great battle and I’m hoping we can have some more racing like this in the upcoming events 👍🏻😎

I stand by this too, if it wasn't for you Peter asking me to host my vintage F1 stuff at this site I wouldn't have found this awesome group of people or this IndyCar league in the first place. It's been a one of a kind experience learning about race driving, different car classes and doing so with such respectable peers over the last couple of years. You are the voice of reason and our leader Pete

Race report
Q-3
R-2

Quali - set a personal Best lap time that was 2 tenths off the pole....until Liam and Ian went on their final runs...lol. Still happy with P3 though, didn't expect to be that far up to be honest.

Race - What can i say, a bump into turn 1 kinda ruined my start. When i made it back to the pits for the repair and came out i was just behind the leader (Liam) and two full laps down. Liam looked to be on the Reds, as was i, so i hung back a bit. I was lapped so no point ruining Liams race by trying to make a move. He did seem to struggle a bit and there were a few times i could have made a stab up the inside but it wasn't worth the risk considering i was 2 laps down already. Anyway, I watched him slide a few times then after about 12-15 laps he asked me what tyres i was on. Turns out he was actually on the Blacks the whole time and i should have just passed him and got on with it since i was on the quicker Reds. He let me go and i started to gap him.

I stopped at the end of lap 29 and put the Reds back on. Had some pretty quick laps during that stint and buy the end of it had worked my way from P7 all the way up to P1.

The next stint i had to do on the Blacks and my engine wear was getting really bad so i had to lift and coast down the last half of the main straight. I was really close to Liam at the start of that stint, but by the time it was over he had pulled a gap of about 20 seconds again. If i had looked closer at the Rad setting at the start maybe i would have been able to push more and give him more of a fight.

the other thing i was trying to do with the lifting and coasting was to save fuel. The first lap incident meant i had to pit outside of the pit window and that was making it look i needed to make an extra stop. I was saving fuel but in the end I was going to be one lap short. I had a big enough gap back to Dan in P3 so i could have just let Liam come around and lap me, then i would have had enough fuel, but i decided to put fresh Reds on instead and go for fastest lap, since i was already going to have to finish a lap down anyway. The Reds were super quick on low fuel and i accomplished the fast lap and the extra 5 points.

All in all it was both frustrating and rewarding. great job by all involved as the only retirement was Peter with his car starting issue. Everyone else finished. no disconnects, no major incidents. not even a SC (which would have helped me immensely i think).

As for the potential loss of my teammate for the rest of the season, i'm speechless really. I've raced online with Peter for what must be a decade now. He's always been reliable and helpful. We've raced together in 3 or 4 different organized racing leagues through the years and helped hold a group of guys together from one place to another. We've run F1 leagues and other series together.

We've all been frustrated with these games in the past and it seems Peter has reached his limit for the moment. My hope is that he will return to this series before the end. He's not been one to commit to something and then quit it completely before, and i can't see that happening now. Like Tyler said, he is always the voice of reason so that's where i put my hope for his return, on his voice of reason.

Video of quali and the race is here:
Race start around the 48min mark

Q:7 R:DNF

Well what can I say. That was a tough one for me to take Saturday. Apologies for the rant, a culmination of things over the past couple of months and some extremely long working hours had me seeing red with my race ending issues Saturday.

Qualifying went ok but I left a fair bit of time on the table as I twice had the car swivel on me in the end of lap left-hander before the final hairpin, both times on schedule to improve my time by a good margin. But I was not too concerned as this place was always going to have a good share of incidents to change everyone's race. Great to see places 3 to 8 seperated by less then 7/tenths. Concerning was the strange inability to get the car going again after those spins and a couple if times from my pit box.

Race start was good and I managed to avoid the first corner incident and gain two places before the carousel. Following closely behind Will for about 4 laps until I was able to get close through the final sector and last corner before using some P2P to pull ahead into turn 1 and move up to 4th place with Dan just ahead. This was a really fun part of the race. Not wanting to risk any damage I kept pace with him without taking any risks, watching for any possible passing opportunities. On lap 19 the same opportunity arose as with Will and I closed through the final sector, got a good exit from the hairpin and used P2P to get the advantage along the straight and into turn 1.

I had a pretty decent consistent run over the next 8 laps until my first pit stop and built up a nice gap and by the time I was due for my first stop I was right on Dan's tail who was now almost a lap down after his stop. I was holding first place at that point with Liam having pitted. I knew with almost a lap over Dan that I was going to comfortably come out ahead of him and when my stop seemed to go smoothly all was looking good until my engine died and I couldn't get it started again. Eventually I got it going and got out of the pits just in time to hold off Dan at turn 1. I hadn't actually realised he was there until the last moment.

From then it was just a case of staying consistent and my laps were all in the 1:08's as I closed on Tyler in 2nd place. We had a good few laps nose to tail and with a nice gap behind to Dan and Will I was confident that a podium finish was on the cards. Then it all went pear shaped.. not sure what happened as myself and Tyler went into T5 and I ended up facing into the inside corner barrier with my engine off. Nothing I did would restart it and the cars started filing past my stranded car. After trying everything I could I had no option but to retire from the race with no way of getting going again and knowing cars would be coming round again soon it would be unfair to just sit there and risk ruining someone's race.

Majorly disappointing.

I have now managed to find out what caused the engine start problem but there are still other problems that I can't seem to resolve as the game has become very unpredictable in how my inputs are interpreted. One minute all nice and smooth as expected and the next massive oversteer and i'm in the wall.. This was especially apparent in our Vintage F1 finale tonight where I could barely keep the car on track at several points of the race. My only real option at this point is a complete game uninstall and reinstall but with so many settings and setups saved it's too long a task to undertake right now. If anyone has any suggestions I am more than happy to take them on board.

If I can find some solution to this problem I will still continue the season and race at Indy Road Course which is a circuit I really enjoy. But if I cannot resolve it i'll have no option than to pull out for now until I can get to the bottom of it.

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement 👍

I don't see any option to pick and choose what to remove Dave, just an overall uninstall option.

It's the individual setups for various cars and tracks that I want to keep as they've been built up over the past couple of years of playing this game and it would be a major pita to have to go back to create them all again. I doubt I would bother tbh, that would be like another job lol. It's a shame on console we don't have any kind of export facility rather than having to go into each individual car and track to save what we have created.