Spa drivers' report

[Dave Kadlčák]

Unofficial Results - SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS

[Dave Kadlčák]

Managed to qualify in 6th, with a PB (1:49.5).

Got a good start, beat both Ben and Mike into turn 1, and settled in following Rik. Was pulling away from Ben a slight bit... so I wasn't sure if he was on full tank. Thinking he might be, I thought I needed to pull out at least a 20 seconds gap in 10 laps. Push too hard, I started cutting Curve Paul Frere (the fast right hander before the highspeed stretch on the back side), and eventually jumped the curb too much, car got bouncy and I lost it, spun into the barrier. Could drive it into the pits, but had to reset. Same thing happened few laps later grrr.... Then I just decided to take it easy, and managed to finish in 8th, behind Ray.

Congratulations to Rik for the first win!

And Ray for a great 7th place !!! :gpl_start:

See ya at Road America in 2 weeks.

Dave

[Mike Wrightson]

Set a good PB for 4th on the grid, got a horrible start and was way down the field. My secret weapon was being fuelled for a non-stop race.

Caught up to Ben and passed him into T1, then was chasing Leo when I dropped it into the wall close to half distance.

Sigh

[Jon G]

think i ruined paul's race for what i'm truly sorry for.. had managed to do similar to dave but by spinning the wheels having been full throttle on the rumble prior to the dart right.. i think as u drop off the strips even tho the car feels hooked it can be enough to get the LR spinning then the almost un-savable tank slapper into the barrier.... got caught by 2nd and 3rd and royally messed up trying to concede.. should have come to a complete stop really.. seems paul may of been a bit hot into the turn but that could have been completely due to having one eye on me when really i shoulda been quicker to concede along the straight..

didnt even qual to try and avoid any issues and felt settled and in a rhythm at the point of having my off.. just may have to skip these races if i havent had adequate seat time but then on the same note i dont wanna lessen the grids anymore.. ho hum...

[Leo]

I opted for a stop because the heavy 'non-stop' car felt tricky. Had a good start, gaining a place or 2, passed Ben after a lap and settled into a rhythm. After 8 laps I was in P4 and had a 20+ secs gap to the cars behind me. Things were looking good. Then, in the same corner that did David in, my car suddenly span. I have accelerated off that curb for a zillion times and never had a problem, but suddenly the sim decides it's all wrong...

Car was heavily damaged so I pressed Esc for a tow. While sitting in the pits (for at least 1 minute 20) I figured that the car would be filled up with the planned fuel and that, plus the fuel still in the tank, should see me to the end. Not so, apparently you lose all the fuel you had and I left the pits with only 55 kg of fuel. This sort of stuff is a really infuriating thing about iRacing.

I did a few more laps but knowing that whatever I accomplished would be wasted by the extra fuel stop I inevitable would have to make, made it feel totally pointless. My heart wasn't in it anymore and when I span again I decided to quit and go watch Top Gear - which turned out to be crap too!

BTW my optimal laptime was 48.4 but I've never even been close in real lap times. I seem to lose a lot of time in the braking zones and slow corners. But when I try to go any faster, the car just spins lazily and that really baffles me. Maybe I'm not spending enough time in it but this is still not a car I can trust, and maybe that's just how it's supposed to be. In real life they wouldn't let me even go near thing like that!

Congrats to Rik for his deserved win.

[Paul Langford]

I got a good Q time and started 3rd

I Got a bad start but managed managed to take Rik off the line for 2nd place and over the next 4 laps pulled a 4 sec gap, I realized at that point he was not stopping and I was only 1 sec per lap faster with 11 laps to pull at least a 20sec gap not gonna happen without a mistake from Rik, so I pointed my guns at Mark and to my surprise I was actually closing the gap(Mark's lack of prac me thinks) I had closed to about 1.3secs on L10 and Mark pitted for fuel I ran an extra lap, briefly took the lead but could see Rik was only 10s (maybe less) down the road so I knew he would take the lead, I rejoined in 3rd about 2.5secs behind Mark and put some good laps in straight after my stop and closed to about 1.5 secs, and was confident of a shot at an outbraking manouvere at the bus-stop chicane if I could get close enough, but on L16 we came up behind JonG to lap him at the end of the long first straight(after eau rouge) and he slowed right down to let Mark past but he did'nt see me and parked right on the apex virtually stationary, I had one eye on him and messed up the braking then had to take avoiding and went across the grass and span, no damage, but I lost 16secs ....one of those things .....no worries Jon we have all done it

still in 3rd but 17secs behing Mark now with 6 laps to go i'm still a bit annoyed at spinning I start to relax and not push so much and end up setting the fastest lap of the race, with so much of a gap to 2nd I think its all over and then on the last lap Mark looses the back end at T1 and almost ends up in the pits he has to turn and get going again this gives me chance to close right up to about 1.5secs and I chase him for 2nd but he managed to hold on to cross the line about 1 .2 secs infront

great race WD to Rik for a good strategy and excellent pace with 100ltrs in...great fun racing Mark....shame about L16 could have been a real corker of a battle

WD Ray for 7th and a no damage race

[Dave Kadlčák]

Leo,

iRacing just recently changed the fuel thing after resets, since many complained that it gave them a full tank. I dont think your car got repaired, because you hit ESC as opposed to the reset key (SHIFT-R). If you would've reset, I'm pretty sure it would've given you your starting fuel. I know on my second shift-R I got my 125 lbs of fuel back which I didn't need. Or, maybe coincidentally I had 125 lbs of fuel left when I did crash that second time.

My issue with that corner was that I never really cut it close to the inside curb. Once I started, I upset the car all kinds of ways (bounced to much for that speed and full throttle) that it just spun out. I can't blame it on the sim . That one is all on me.

Here are my key points for reseting:
- If you can make it safely to the pits and without endangering anyone do so - you'll safe yourself a lot of "tow time"
- stop short of the pit-in cones, and reset car there.
- always make sure fuel is checked off before you reset the car, or adjust the amount you want added.

[Rik Walker]

Esc & shift+R should produce the same result. What currently happens with either is that your car is effectively reset to the same point it was at the start of the race: new tyres & the fuel you started with. If you need more fuel then you need to make sure you adjust the fuel to be added amount to the required value - once the 'tow' time is over it will then take a few seconds longer to add the fuel.

In the end my strategy for this race was determined by the gear ratios. The qual setup I posted had a very long 1st gear which was perfect for fast & safe exits from La Source & the Bus Stop but would be horrible off the line. I tried other gearing for a race setup which would have been better at the start but it was either very wrong at those corners or equally wrong at other ones and I just couldn't find something I was happy with. So I resigned myself to a crap start and accepted that I would be behind one or two cars by T1 but that it shouldn't matter if they were stopping. When it came down to it I was much slower off the line than even my worse fears and nearly lost out to Dave as well as Mark & Paul. Thankfully I did exit La Source ahead of Dave and kept ahead of him through the early stages whilst I got the tyres up to pressure. I was a little worried when Mark had a 3 second lead over me after just the 1st lap but then I reduced the amount he was gaining each lap and I knew I would be OK. By the time Mark & Paul pitted they were only around 10s ahead of me so all I had to do was keep it together for the second half of the race.

[fpolicardi]

Sorry, I was out of town again today and came home too late for the race.
Ciao

[Ray Walton]

Well done Rik on your first season win in the TWFW series. Thanks for the comments guys, I must say I really enjoyed this on a great track with a great car. Must try and do this more often though still way off the pace. Just tried to keep it clean and within my ability and got a clear race with no damage, just quite a few off track incidents mounting up and one harmless loss of control incident which was my fault from going over a kerb. Went for a 1 stopper as did not want to bog down in the complications of raising the ride height from Paul's adjusted Rik Q set up. So many thanks Rik for the set up and to Paul for his 1 stop modded version, I just raised the rear wing one click form -10 to -5 on the wicker setting and this made the car so much more stable and at my speed not at all slower it seemed.

Grats to Mark and Paul for the podium spots too.

[Baz West]

Sounds as though I missed a good one I so wanted to do Spa. Well done podiums, great result Graham and Ray.

[JohnW]

Hadn't turned a wheel in iRacing since the Williams race at Road America, but the thought of racing Spa was temptation too great!

Thanks to Rik for the base setup - I adjusted the fuel for non-stop, but otherwise more or less as-is. Car was kind of nervous through Blanchimont until the tires were up to temp, but otherwise fine. Qualled about sixth or seventh I think, which I was pleasantly surprised with, but got the expected horrible start due to the long first gear. La Source was like a knife fight in a 'phone box, with cars everywhere looking for a way past my car which felt like it was moving at the pace of continental drift. Ended up side by side with someone heading for Eau Rouge, and fervently hoped they would back out, as I was slightly ahead and not going to! They did, and I ended up heading through Kemmell back in seventh place.

That all turned to crap at....Blanchimont. Forgot the car was nervous, went in as normal, and the rear just let go (had it been in real life mine would have too!). Car was a sorry mess against the barriers, so mosyed over to the pits, checked my fuel, and Shift-R'ed.

From then on I was just chasing to make up time. David came out just ahead of me, and I guessed we would be on equal fuel, but after taking a lap or two to settle he was easing away. Then out of Stavelot I saw him in a barrier. Next up was Ray, who came out of the pits just ahead. I was very keen to pass while he was still getting used to heavier fuel and with cold tires. He looked to get a bit wobbly, again at Stavelot, and I could get around the outside.

Was caught by Rik toward the end, and apologies if it was awkward lapping - the place to catch was really bad. Tried to make it obvious by staying well off line, but it must be tough for the leaders to commit in those situations, not knowing if the door is opened or not.

All in all I was happy with 5th. I lost a lot of time, but I also passed some people who dropped out, so I gained much more than I lost. Spa and the Williams are just a brilliant combination

John

[Mark Muckey]

Sorry for my late report,

Was sick all week so I really didn't get anywhere near the normal practice I get before the League race (I normally practice all week and then run a few iracing races on Saturday) so I almost thought about just bagging it entirely. But I jumped on the server and saw the practice times and I was reasonably close to the top 3 so I felt I'd give it a go.

Qualifying saw me throw down a PB and placed me 2nd on the grid, which surprised me a little. I knew if I could do a high 1:47 I could get P2, figured Rik would get pole as usual

I gridded in the race and instantly went to change my fuel for the pitstop and I couldn't increment or decrement the # , then I exited the car (wasn't sure what that was going to do as I've never left before a race start), then I remembered I've been setting up my new SLI Pro wheel and that I changed some of the in car button settings, jumped back in the car with no issues. I was happy about that So the race starts and I rocket from P2 past Rik and down to T1 by what looks in my mirror like as just an amazing gap. It kind of shocked me, but then I remembered his gear when I tried his setup earlier. Paul got past him as well. I instantly just turned my attention to the track and not screwing up. Within about 5 laps my lead grew to about 5 seconds on Paul and close to 10 on Rik and I thought, I better keep on it cause Rik's not going to stop So then I started making little mistakes and Paul started reeling me in. Then came the pitstop on lap 11 or so and it went off without a hitch and I ended up adding a few seconds to my lead over Paul once he stopped. Paul reeled me in slowly from about 4 or 5 seconds down to a second or so. Then came the mishap between Jon and Paul. Jon was really being nice by letting us by so easily, but my honest opinion is do it early on on the straight and not at the end of the straight. If we're not close enough then keep on your merry way I know I try and give any lappers plenty of time to pick a spot for the pass and that usually works out best. It kind of reminded me of the incident between me and Baz at Road America. But hey, this is racing and this stuff will happen.

Anyway back to the race, without any chance of catching Rik, who was some 20 seconds in front and cruising, and Paul some 20 seconds in the rears because of his spin, I decided to just keep focused and cruise to a 2nd. Until the last lap and T1...... Which I almost looped my car into the pit exit I hate when you start to slide and you back out enough to catch it but then there is that one time it just decides to loop anyway So I get it straightened out and as I juice it going straight, it almost loops again, I catch it with Paul closing from 20 seconds to about 1 second and he's breathing down my neck at this point. I head up through the esses after T1 (sorry, I'm from the US and we don't remember corner names here other than the turn # , I think it's called eau rouge??? bonus points???) and I know if I can keep from making any slips that I'm fine until we get down to the last chicane before the S/F line, at that point he may divebomb me, this is for the championship lead people , but alas I hold him off and no crazt move through the chicane and we come home a close 2nd and 3rd.

So all in all, not a bad showing. Definitely didn't have the pace to win here. Like I said, I've never even turned a lap at Spa before last week so I'm pretty happy with my 2nd. Although, I'm going to have to keep Rik behind me next race or any points lead will be nil.

Nice win Rik, see you guys at Road America!