Round 1 - College Station (Mar 20th)

My favorite shot from the broadcast in the closing laps    Great direction by Ben!

Job done.

One week ago, seeing the hotlaps, I realize there was no use for me wasting time to make my car competitive. It was clear enough I’ll have not the top speed to hope for anything . So I switched to make it as smooth as possible. I managed to tinker a set based on the one Jason gave me (thanks again for it. It was very helpfull ). The car was still very slow (bloody Chevy engine ). But it doesn’t wear its tyres nor be brutal in corner nor put to much stress on the engine. Well that’s the cards I’ve got on the table. Just have to play them well.

Tests show me I could do the race with only one pitstop. Then I decide to apply the motus I’ve seen said many times on the forum : be patient and avoid mistakes. Again thanks to Jason, Alberto and Guillaume for theirs advises on the matter .
A one pit stop with tyres change as late as possible and waiting for attrition to take its toll will be my only strategy. My hope : see the checkered in 15th place.

Qualifications don’t go well. On my first running lap I made a mistake and hit the wall in first corner damaging rear suspension . Final 25th . Not really a good start for sure. I’ve got 10 positions to gain in race. Not really an easy task for the rookie I am on oval.
Things start being worse during warm-up when I clearly saw my Chevrolet engine was no match. Every car could easily overtake me . On contrary it was nearly impossible for me to overtake anyone even with draft. It seems a top 15 to be a inachievable goal.
On a good side I’ve been released of any pressure. Having nothing to hope cools me down very quickly. It will be a key factor during the race as I’ve done it free of any pressure.

I’ve made quite a few rookie mistakes on the track but none with consequences. I didn’t saw the first yellow . I’ve just noticed just in time that the pack in front of me was going strangely slow. I just avoid any collision in the process.
Driving under yellow proved also to be difficult. I’ve to switch constantly between 1st and 2nd gears. But switching for 2nd to 1st made the car very unstable and I nearly lost it quite a few time .
The warning « you drive to slow » was also very stressfull as I thought I’ll be given a penalty trying to be cautious .
I also try to much to overtake the guy in front of me. Rather than staying in his draft I try and try again to overtake him in a futile effort .
Nonetheless I managed to do a race without any damage to my car. My pitstop went well also.

At that time I took a look of my position. To my great surprise I was 12th. On the restart of the before last yellow I lost a place. But Richard Wilks then Jukka had troubles and I managed to finished 11th . With the powerless Chevy engine I was quite amazed and rather happy of the outcome of the race . I was just hoping for a top 15 at best at start. At final I nearly closed a top 10 and I score points. Talk me about a surprise.

PS : Sorry Jonathan about the interview . When Ben come to speak to me I hadn’t realized I have to wait for you to speak . Also I wasn’t hearing you well. Your voice was just a feeble murmur . I realized seeing the review that I was speaking without being questionned . My apologies
If there’s a next time Ben should ask me the questions and I’ll answer in due time

Shoulda gone high  . . .

4th lap under green  . . .  a couple hundred meters ahead a car engine blows mid-track  . . .  lots of fire and smoke.  Closing fast, I have to make a split-second decision (reaction) -- go high or go low?  I went low.  Wrong answer.  I armchair quarterbacked this scenario the rest of the day and my conclusion is that I 'shoulda gone high' then (obviously), and will go high in the likely event that I encounter this scenario again.  

Make no mistake; the underpowered Mongoose/(Ford)Foyt is slow, slow, slow so I didn’t have high expectations for a top finish. But I did want to make the heroic 1973 drivers Dee, Jigger and John and ex-bartender/car owner Pat O’Reilly proud.  I’m sad that I didn’t.

Congrats to Alberto on the win and thanks to Jason, Alberto and the many others who made this amazing mod and series possible.

Congrats Alberto for a great win well done to Dana and Mike

Avec Jonatan, on venait de finir une interview, j'ai sauté dans ta voiture car je n'etais pas sûr qu'il y est encore des drapeaux jaunes apres. Du coup, on avait deja fait quelques tours sous drapeaux jaune et je ne savais pas trop quand le vert allait tomber, je guettais le signal et je pensais que Jonatan allait enchainer.

Thx Jonatan for your hard exercice of the solo commentator. It's really not easy.
Thx Dana and Alberto for that great finish, epic.
Thx to all participants.

well done Alberto and Dana

realy enjoyed the broadcast , but man i was even abit nervous at the start , wish i could drive and chase Jukka lol , i feel very bad about my penalty by watching the crap at the beginning , well i learned from that, in future to only speak with my right foot

what i want to say aswell , not that i did my part aswell, but guys you realy drive on a track ( and future 73 tracks ) that are masterpieces created by Alberto and Co so some apreciation to that man should be recon aswell in broadcast.

i call him a lucky basterd! haha great win mate!

Well my first oval race here, did not think it would be my cup of tea, but I have to say I really enjoyed myself.
made a couple of rookie errors , I blew my engine on the first start . And I tapped Tyler and spun him under the first yellow really sorry for that, A lot to learn and I hope to get a drive at the next one.

well done to the podium.

 

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what i want to say aswell , not that i did my part aswell, but guys you realy drive on a track ( and future 73 tracks ) that are masterpieces created by Alberto and Co so some apreciation to that man should be recon aswell in broadcast.

In the hasten to get the track out we forgot to add a readme  

We will do when we make the other variant of the track for the second race here

For the Indy 500, there will be for sure a commented broadcast, then we won't forget to mention the creators.
Jonatan, you're fired.

I knew I forgot something...

Apart from the Cringing of hearing my own voice on the commentary I must agree with previous speakers, really great job on the camera's Ben, really good to watch

I just finished watching the replay, you both did indeed amazing jobs. Ben really masters the cameras now and Jonathan was awesome, doing it all alone. :cheers:Bravo!

A little late but here is TWS looks like today. This footage is of the road course and I believe is from a ChumpCar race (similar to 24 hours of Lemons). The center of the main straight is still the flag stand and the stands are still much like they were in 1973. The road course is huge.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HCo9kHpzDFU&feature=youtu.be

Speaking of, is the banking of the real track flat or progressive? I think the one on the track we have does not match the real one, hence the different lines and the lack of speed when going higher.

The track we drove on is pretty close but I have never driven the full oval as it is horribly off level due to settling. In the past there were big elevation changes between the transition joints in the banked sections. The water table in Texas is very high and foundation issues are common. All those black stripes you see in the 73 model are crack repairs. I do not think the track can pass code for high speed races any longer. The road course is pretty much the track now and it is booked months in advance for track days.

All the asphalt you see in turn 1 is new since I was there last. Maybe they are rebuilding! That would be awesome.

Alberto Ibañez wrote:

Speaking of, is the banking of the real track flat or progressive? I think the one on the track we have does not match the real one, hence the different lines and the lack of speed when going higher.

do you mean the track surface was alot rougher on the suspension of the cars?

i mean in rfactor the real feedback is comming from the tires ans suspensions
when driving this with the 65 mod you realy feel and notice the cracks and bumps

( as i spoke in the server to you about the tires they could generated very less bounch and feedback)
but doing this same track with for example a camaro 70 from historix or again a 65 car the track surface realy comes alive ( not saying to change the whole mod but a tire improvement would give it a very impressive boost ( Dave Purdy is the man for that)

notice for example drive at clermont ferand with a 71 mod car and then a 65 car
you find out what the difference is and i made that track very bumpy but its hardly unnoticed with a 71 car but with 65 you alomst trown out into the woods when doing it wrong
same for the rumble crack parts at spa again alsmost nothing with a 71 car but 65 is dangerous as hell and ment to be

in the end i can make the road much more alive but then it must be setup for the mod itself
otherwise other mods becomes undrivable on it and jumping around a oval isnt realisitc

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do you mean the track surface was alot rougher on the suspension of the cars?

No, I'm referring to the banking, the inclination of the track. If it is flat (Goes up in a perfect diagonal), you lose time going up, but if it is progressive (A curve) you can actually run quicker when high up, or at least at the same speed.

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( as i spoke in the server to you about the tires they could generated very less bounch and feedback)
but doing this same track with for example a camaro 70 from historix or again a 65 car the track surface realy comes alive ( not saying to change the whole mod but a tire improvement would give it a very impressive boost ( Dave Purdy is the man for that)

The indy tires are much stiffer to be able to cope with the huge loads, so you are much more limited in what you can do. If Dave Purdy can make better tires, he is welcomed, just send us what he does and we will test it.

Great job Alberto!! Great race Dana and the podium!!

I qualified 12th and finished 10th. I knew almost from the start that I couldn´t expect a much better results since I got damage in the car in almost all the yellows. Great dices with some guys, almost till the checkered.

One question I would want to ask: can we pass other car going outside the white lines at the left of the track? I was passed that way once at the main straight and I paid back at the back straight, but it is very dangerous. Way too much dangerous for my taste

Arturo Pereira wrote:

One question I would want to ask: can we pass other car going outside the white lines at the left of the track? I was passed that way once at the main straight and I paid back at the back straight, but it is very dangerous. Way too much dangerous for my taste

Technically the apron is part of the track surface, so yes, it is legal. But you are correct, it is risky and not something we would like to see done with regularity.

I had to put most of the car at the apron when I overtook Jukka and Dana for the lead at the last restart. Like I said, I was not comfortable with that, so when Dana recovered the position in the last lap and I had to get the win by overtaking on the track, I actually felt relieved. It's the way it's meant to be

That sure got me quite a scare for the first time, when I was told I had a car on my inside, thought 'Inside? Must be a bug, there's no space for that' and then someone blasted by me on the apron... Sure a daring thing, it can send you elsewhere if you're not in the right spot at turning in...

Bravo Alberto,Dana,Mike.
A tous les participants,a l'organisation.

Gérard Ryon wrote:

Bravo Alberto,Dana,Mike.
A tous les participants,a l'organisation.

Nice to see you post. Hope all is ok for you and yours.

the inside i used to put on dirt and lower grip like i did at daytona
this time i didnt put any effects on the inside , washed off by the rain
but the sunny version i can do the same trick as daytona if you want , and dirt was always on the inside with a combination of slippery marbles

For this time period all American tracks are flat banking. Currently I think Homestead and perhaps Phoenix are the only NASCAR tracks on the championship schedule with "progressive banking".

Darlington was the first modern banked track. The banking was to be used as a safety barrier instead of a rail. But very high tire wear on the flat portion on the track as well as higher speed (although further distance) obtained by running on the backed portion, made the banking the way to go. The banking was never intended to be raced on.

Paving technology was not very good compared to today. We all know how well the banking at Monza turned out. Doing a smooth change of angle on asphalt could not be done. you had to have each angle be a separate lane. Transition from one angled lane to another would no be easy. A flat banking was the only way to go. A nice addition was running side by side and passing on flat banking was easier than a progressive banking where you would have to move down to a less backed portion of the track and try to go faster to pass someone.

Check out you tube for Southern 500 / Darlington races from the early 50's. You will see quite a lot of drivers running on the low flat part of the track because it was much shorter.

Also check out 50's Indy 500 films and pay attention to the lines taken in qualifying. It was very different.