Round 6 - Grand Prix of Cleveland [Jul 9th]

Wöouw! That has to be by far my favorite win in simracing ever! Hadn't even downloaded the track until this afternoon, so never ever did I think that I would be able to fight in the top 5 here. But I think I proved to myself (and to others maybe) that whenever you find a good rhythm, that's when you reap the rewards. Rhythm is essential. I actually shaved more than 1,5 seconds on my previous race best inside those crazy last 5 laps, just by being in-tune with the car. That was what won me that race today, I was able to disconnect my head an appropriate amount and not over-think things.

And then came that final lap. I was surprised that I was able to catch Richard as I did, but I noticed that he had lower top speed than me, and that he was under pressure - I saw he had to cut the final chicane with a couple of laps to go. When I got a run on him, my gut feeling was to go for the outside. I love that corner on the back of circuit, it really invites to swooping maneveurs like that. I'm glad I pulled it of! Never for a moment did I think I risked something there - all instincts. Then, as I exits the final chicane, the last gear shift of the race blows the engine! Since I didn't know where the finish line was, I thought I had lost it! It wasn't until Scott said that I had won that I could cheer somewhat! Absolutely the best and craziest lap I've ever done.

Gotta thank Jaques, Alberto, Jan, Dana, Richard and everyone else for some fantastic racing tonight. And the guys in the booth too, great coverage, it was fun hearing your comments afterwards!

The broadcast can be found here.

Sorry for missing the opening bit of the race but it'll be uploaded during this coming week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ncsulacERE

Adam Hackman wrote:

That being said, I feel guilty having such a good car when I have only finished 1/6 races and don't seem to be skilled enough to figure out how to drive under yellow, so I am relinquishing my ride for the rest of the season.

Dude, take some time to cool down and think about your decision.

those yellows, too much, most of the race under yellow, losing concentration and crashed under yellou to pit entry wall (watching that my pit ooptions are right) lost 600s and too many laps, if no crash, chance to top 10

Points are up

EDIT: So are screengrabs 

Richard Wilks wrote:

From my part i apologise to whited. Totally my fault, even though you were going slow, its me who should see it.

I was stuck in a real crappy position. ...ahead of a pack of cars racing. Hungry wolves ...didn't want to be there. On the restart, I had no chance to go track left. I tried, coming through the final turns onto the stretch... I also didn't want to do to the outside and then end up jamming up at T1, causing an incident behind me. No way this March 86 was hauling through T1 like the group of cars you were within.

So, forced into that situation, rather than lock up or back off so much that I was ran over, I tried to back off enough to let everyone pick a side and filter by (as I was sorta stuck in the damned dead center of the track at that point) Worked well enough, I'd imagine you were somewhere behind the initial cars that got by me, didn't see the gap closing that quickly/didn't expect that fast a closing rate/etc.....whatever....no apologies needed, it happens, it's racing. I noted you waiting slowing up/waiting for me, that's apology enough for me. Knew it wasn't intentional.


..............
Was quite the struggle for me.
Didn't quite do the car justice, got sloppy a few times. Ended up causing a late caution (sorry about...I think it was the last caution? ....that one was me. )
Many thanks to David Jaques for the setup and driving help on this course and with this car. Really helped, though I could have made better use of it. Found the rhythm in practice, didn't quite find it again in quali, then definitely never found it for the race.

After the early troubles, I was behind a few cars that were cornering far slower in various areas than I was. It threw me, and a few times damn near saw me into the rear of another. Luckily (and thank the heavens for decent brakes) I managed not to let that happen.

At the first pit stop I ended up with a stop/go for "illegally passing the car ahead of me while on pitlane"....fair enough, I did that. ....made a stupid amateur mistake and tried to serve the s/g under yellow on the next lap around
Went to the back of the field...served the s/g a few laps later. From there the troubles began...the hit, the impact with the wall...the 282 seconds I lost in the pits, coupled with the time I lost on track (game didn't throw yellow on that one as I got going again quickly.......the ONE DAMNED TIME I need a yellow! Go figure )

....lot of time under yellow, and a lot of time following others that I didn't want to race..being laps down and all. Hoping for miracles, waiting and counting the attrition positions....yadda yadda. Race over.



P15. After all that?!?!! Yeah, I'll take it.
Good fun sometimes, a recovery type race.

This was a difficult race to be a backmarker. Because of the high speed , the bouncing made it real difficult to use the mirrors, and the varied track widths. I received comments that I had been in the way a number of times. I even cut off my team mate which caused him to have to bump me out of the way. I apologize. But like I said it wasn't an easy track for staying out of the way.

Quote :

Alberto crashed on his 80th lap and Jan on his 79th

Actually I parked the car because I realized I had not enough fuel for the last lap after having to use high boost to defend myself. Miscalculated thinking that rFactor was indicating the laps completed but no, it indicated the lap I am in, so there was one to go and after the s/f line I only had two liters left. Great precission to calculate the fuel, but wrong number of laps  

@Jan: NP, racing incident. I know I use different entry and brake points than the rest and my car was slightly damaged after having been rear ended on the first laps and then slightly bruising one barrel  

All in all I had good fun, battling with people around was great as there was lots of space and many possible lines. Unable to train during the week, had to practice on sunday evening and my setup was not completely great, as the car surprisingly oversteered a lot in the first stint. Took one click FW out in the first pit-stop and from then on it was good again and allowed me to build up rythm. Lapped cars did a great job as far as I'm concerned, no issues for me.

Great fun battling with some great guys, David Jaques, Richard Wilks and Jacob Fredriksson   

I wish I could have challenged you more but I was in maximum fuel saving mode so I couldn't really challenge on the straight. Well done nevertheless.   I wonder if I didn't make that mistake on the penultimate lap, it may have been different.

Shame about the yellows, people need to just be a bit patient. The cars are cold on restarts, remember that.

Overally solid result for me in this race. 5th place is my best in this season so from this point of view i'm satisfied but to be honest i had for better result especially on this track.

In qualification i was a lot of time frustrated from the heavy traffic so i have no calm to make a good lap. Finally i did my best in this session 1:07.1 which was 4th place on the grid but according the practise i had for more.

After start of the race i was able to keep the pace with David Jaques and Richard Wilks with Coxon on my rear but after first or second yellow (don't know which because there where a lot of them) i started to lose the positions due to a lot of downforce from my wings. I looses everything on the straight and in the corners was not able to take it back. In the middle of the race i had a really hard-attack situation when my H-shifter released from my table so i had to shift very carefully and solve the refixing it on the table. In the full pace quite complicated thing. I did one or two stress laps (i dont know exactly) where i have tried to fix the H-shifter but was not able to do it. Finally before the chicane after long straight i badly donwshifting from the 6th to 4th gear and than i spinned and caused the yellow (sorry all for that). In the second part of the race i was more satistied with the pace and i had a great battle with Ray and David Jundt.Thanks guys. Nice and clean. Now i have to survive the next 500miles race at Michigan against a more powerfull cars and a lot of oval experts and i already can't wait for the next road course race.

BoB Holada wrote:

This was a difficult race to be a backmarker.  Because of the high speed , the bouncing made it real difficult to use the mirrors, and the varied track widths.  I received comments that I had been in the way a number of times. I even cut off my team mate which caused him to have to bump me out of the way. I apologize. But like I said it wasn't an easy track for staying out of the way.

TBH Bob, it is a very easy track to stay out of the way, it is very wide and has wide corners. If you know cars are around you, then just lift off the throttle off line, and wait until the blue flag has cleared from the top left hand corner of your screen. Don't leave it until a braking zone as other cars may be behind the first car trying to lap you.

If you are struggling with your mirrors, i suggest you activate the virtual mirrors in your plr file.

Apology accepted.

Richard Coxon wrote:

BoB Holada wrote:

This was a difficult race to be a backmarker.  Because of the high speed , the bouncing made it real difficult to use the mirrors, and the varied track widths.  I received comments that I had been in the way a number of times. I even cut off my team mate which caused him to have to bump me out of the way. I apologize. But like I said it wasn't an easy track for staying out of the way.

TBH Bob, it is a very easy track to stay out of the way, it is very wide and has wide corners. If you know cars are around you, then just lift off the throttle off line, and wait until the blue flag has cleared from the top left hand corner of your screen. Don't leave it until a braking zone as other cars may be behind the first car trying to lap you.

If you are struggling with your mirrors, i suggest you activate the virtual mirrors in your plr file.

Apology accepted.

I do have the virtual mirrors. Still not easy to focus on them with all the shaking, and the cars easily blended with the background. The area of the track that gave my problems was the last chicane before the S/F. It looked like I was going to be the meat in a three wide sandwich through there. But yeah I could have handled it better.
Thanks for the reply

BoB Holada wrote:

I do have the virtual mirrors.  Still not easy to focus on them with all the shaking, and the cars easily blended with the background.  The area of the track that gave my problems was the last chicane before the S/F. It looked like I was going to be the meat in a three wide sandwich through there. But yeah I could have handled it better.
Thanks for the reply

Mr. Bob, there is an parameter which turns off objects shaking in the mirrors, so, no metter how much your car is jumping arround, the objects in mirrors are still... it could ease your troubles..

But I fully understand what is Bob saying. In such bumpy tracks, with exploding barrels and cones, trying to push as much as you can, and being aware of cars wich are to lap you, with blue flags poping up too late, it is very hard.. Im speaking for myself, I run off the track a lot of times simply becose I was being too care for cars behind me, and some times even make situation worse than I would if I just continued to drive normal..

It takes practice, confidence, and what is worse, it stops you from pushing, simply by distracting you..

Richard Coxon wrote:

Great fun battling with some great guys, David Jaques, Richard Wilks and Jacob Fredriksson   

I wish I could have challenged you more but I was in maximum fuel saving mode so I couldn't really challenge on the straight. Well done nevertheless.   

I figured that! It was in my mind the whole time that you had done your last pit stop with 35 to go or something like that, which would make you vulnerable near the end. I meanwhile took my last stop some 10 laps later - track position wasn't essential at that time, being able to race hard the final dash to the flag was. But I still can't be believe how this race fell into my lap. Sometimes you just get too pleased with your own driving - this was one of those times.

I am very happy with my 6th place result!  Especially when I consider that technical tracks like this are not my forte. Yes, attrition helped, but pit strategy, luck and the Judd engine also helped

In the early laps I played it very conservatively, as advertised during the week via chat.  During the early yellows, I found Jason Fitch's lack of attention behind me a bit unnerving, so I pitted on one of the yellows to get back in the serial and drive in some clear air -- which worked for a bit. I was extremely lucky not to pit during the Drechsler-Jundt-Bos pit exit bottleneck. Eventually, through attrition and pit strategy, I ended up in the top 10 with 3/4 of the race run. The late yellows allowed me to conserve fuel, and thanks to the Judd engine's superior fuel economy, I was free to turn the boost all the way up with 10 laps to go. Juha tried to overtake me twice on the last lap, but I was able to hold on. Great, clean racing and a thrilling result. Had Jan and Alberto not retired, I would have been 8th. But even so, I would have been happy. Qualifying 19th and ending in the top 10 is a good day:)

I think the lack of attention under yellows needs to be addressed further up the field. Reminded me of the early days of the USAC series last year Cautions here were a constant accordion and there is no reason for it. I was either having to run flat out to catch the field or was slamming on the brakes because everyone was suddenly stopping. Pace speed is a set number, and it's slow enough to run around, there is no reason for the constant starting and stopping under yellows.

It shouldn't take 3 laps or yellow for the field to be formed up.

Jason Fitch wrote:

I think the lack of attention under yellows needs to be addressed further up the field.

I respectfully disagree.  From my vantage point, you weren't anticipating the accordion effect well enough. I lost count of how many times you sniffed my gearbox. That didn't happen with others who were behind me under yellow. Just saying.

Peter Blom wrote:

Michael Drechsler wrote:

I'm just so terribly devastated right now. I've been driving very restraint and careful for the whole race, and still can't finish anything...

Keep your head up Michael, I think you are putting yourself under too much pressure to perform for these races. Stay positive and most of all have fun with this mod. Tip: do not expect to finish and have good results..just do your best and see where it will bring you..it helps

+1

Adam Hackman wrote:

That being said, I feel guilty having such a good car when I have only finished 1/6 races and don't seem to be skilled enough to figure out how to drive under yellow, so I am relinquishing my ride for the rest of the season.

Well after a day's reflection, I feel pretty silly for my actions and comments yesterday. I'm still not sure why rFactor was so quick to hand out an end-of-the longest line penalty. I think as a rookie, I'm overly sensitive about doing something stupid, and when I was confused on where I was supposed to be I got flustered and quit. I already felt bad about my poor attempt at a pass on Lewis in turn three that almost took him and Alan out (sorry guys), especially since a similar pass at Portland caused Lewis damage. I have to admit that I've struggled figuring out how to make good, clean passes on road courses even when I am faster. I suppose that just comes with experience as getting up to speed is only a small part of the equation.

If it's not too late, I would like to stick it out with the #14 for the rest of the season. Maybe Lone Star JR will bring me some luck at Michigan.

Adam Hackman wrote:

Adam Hackman wrote:

That being said, I feel guilty having such a good car when I have only finished 1/6 races and don't seem to be skilled enough to figure out how to drive under yellow, so I am relinquishing my ride for the rest of the season.

Well after a day's reflection, I feel pretty silly for my actions and comments yesterday. I'm still not sure why rFactor was so quick to hand out an end-of-the longest line penalty. I think as a rookie, I'm overly sensitive about doing something stupid, and when I was confused on where I was supposed to be I got flustered and quit. I already felt bad about my poor attempt at a pass on Lewis in turn three that almost took him and Alan out (sorry guys), especially since a similar pass at Portland caused Lewis damage. I have to admit that I've struggled figuring out how to make good, clean passes on road courses even when I am faster. I suppose that just comes with experience as getting up to speed is only a small part of the equation.

If it's not too late, I would like to stick it out with the #14 for the rest of the season. Maybe Lone Star JR will bring me some luck at Michigan.

I figured you would feel differently upon reflection. The car is still yours, no worries.

Adam Hackman wrote:

Adam Hackman wrote:

That being said, I feel guilty having such a good car when I have only finished 1/6 races and don't seem to be skilled enough to figure out how to drive under yellow, so I am relinquishing my ride for the rest of the season.

Well after a day's reflection, I feel pretty silly for my actions and comments yesterday. I'm still not sure why rFactor was so quick to hand out an end-of-the longest line penalty. I think as a rookie, I'm overly sensitive about doing something stupid, and when I was confused on where I was supposed to be I got flustered and quit. I already felt bad about my poor attempt at a pass on Lewis in turn three that almost took him and Alan out (sorry guys), especially since a similar pass at Portland caused Lewis damage. I have to admit that I've struggled figuring out how to make good, clean passes on road courses even when I am faster. I suppose that just comes with experience as getting up to speed is only a small part of the equation.

If it's not too late, I would like to stick it out with the #14 for the rest of the season. Maybe Lone Star JR will bring me some luck at Michigan.

It's definitely a question of experience. I started roadcoursing when I was 6 (the 1st time I rode go-carts) and have been playing racing games/Sims since I was 4. What you could do, if you have the time, is to run with AI's to speed up the learning curve. It's not perfect but it works as a base, you could then use that experience to then faster know the limit of when and how you can pull a safe move off. 

Good to hear that you will keep digging and running with us