GT1 Season 4- Summit Point

Summit Point is the first track I drove in Iracing with the MX-5 and it was a great little track for those cars so I was interested in how the much bigger GT1s would go around there.  I had also done some poking around the week before the race and came to the conclusion that they'd never run a series race here so everyone was starting from point zero.  Setup wise, I decided to use the VRS set for the Okayama circuit which is another tight twisty 'club' layout and this seemed to work pretty well throughout my practise runs.
As usual though I stuffed my qualifying up and had to start way down the grid (p18 out of 27).  This was frustrating as Id have easily been in the top 10, if not top 5 had I matched my practise runs.

Given the nature of the track, this going to be an exercise in patience as overtaking was difficult so the best strategy was going to be to sit back and let others make mistakes. 

Starting well down the field

Down the inside at the final turn

The start was surprisingly clean, with a small number opting to start from the pitlane.  I kept out of trouble and made a few places out of the usual few that pushed too hard too early.  I also managed a clean move down the inside of the last turn.  From there it became pretty processional until the group of cars in front started squabbling.  There was a spin, a couple collected and I had to stop the car to avoid hitting the spun car.  A few others got by so I ended the exchange in the same position as before.

A coming together.  I had to stop with nowhere to go.

Later in the race again caught a group of 3 fighting.  Being late race I decided to get the elbows out a bit and when one of them went too deep into turn one, I managed to get alongside.  He was having none of that and pushed into me to hold the position.  Perhaps smarting a little from this, I took a bit of a half hearted look down the inside two corners later.  It was a bit clumsy and sure enough he shut the door hard enough for me to give him enough of a love tap to spin him around.  It was unfortunate but he had laid down the rules of how he wanted to fight it out earlier in the lap....

Another tight pack with the lights on

A gap on the inside out of T1...

But old mate isn't having any of it

Two corners later and a half a look.....

......but the door closes and he comes off second best

That was it for the excitement and I coasted home p14.  Not disgraceful but disappointing given where we could have been if I hadn't fluffed qualifying.

F3 Australia- Week 7 Nurburgring

I haven't had the best of luck in the Australian F3 league this season.  A couple of silly mistakes and a couple of tangles meant that heading into this week my best finish was a P5 at Interlagos.  With this in mind and the car feeling good on this track, I was hoping to have a good week.  Practise went well, I did my usual full tanks run and seemed to have good tyre wear right throughout the stint.  Quali was not so good and I didn't find a rhythm which left me further down the grid then I wanted. 

A clean start from the middle of the pack

 As I mentioned in my series blog post, the first corner in the arena layout had proven 'tricky' on the first lap when the cars were bunched and the tyres cold, so I was a bit nervous starting in the pack.  Thanks to the quality of the F3A field though, all 24 cars made it through the first corner although there was a spin at turn 4.  Ive learned its best to take it easy for at least the first 3 laps to give the tyres time to come up and knowing that the race is 38 laps long, I didn't mind giving up positions if necessary. 

A tight fight in the top 6

I soon became involved in a brawl over 4\5\6th place though which was effectively holding me up.  It eventually got to the stage where we were 3 wide into turn 1, with me on the very outside but on the inside for turn 2.  Unfortunately we didn't make it that far....

Being this close cant end well....

Car 8 squeezes Car 76 and I hope that they dont collect me...

Car 76 does a barrel roll and Car 8 tags me

Luckily I didn't get spun and there was negligible damage to the car so I was able to continue at a decent pace through to the pitstops.  I took mine comparatively late but it was enough to put me out in 4th, although somewhat down the road from 3rd place.

Moving into 3rd.  He was struggling with his rear tyres

I was content to hold 4th to the end but 3rd place ended up having dramas with his tyres so I was able to close the gap and slip past when he ran wide.  The car behind me was also pushing hard and closed to within a second at the finish.  Had there been another lap he might have got passed but I crossed the line 3rd for my first podium in the league. 

F3 Season 4 week 7- Nurburbring GP

Week 7 is one of my stronger tracks- The Nurburgring GP.   As well as one Ive been familiar with through the Formula 1 games, its also a track with two twisty chicanes where you can pick up a fair bit of time if your line and commitment are good.  I covered a lot of ground in practise here trying to set up those lines just right and it paid off in pace, as I was able to lap just a second off the real pros.

First split went really well with a P3.  This was good fun as I was racing against some of my RSREsports teammates and a professional real world driver called Daniel Juncadella (DTM, F3, F1 Test).  Its always great to see these guys online, providing a chance for us dreamers to get a bit of a benchmark (and some fleeting bragging rights if we beat them ;-))

On the Grid with Anthony Pisano, one of my RSR teammates

Into the first corner, we appear to be racing a 1988 Lotus, a 1998 Jordan and a 2019 Red Bull.  We made it through ok in this race but there was generally carnage right throughout the week here.

I nearly managed to pinch P2.  The car ahead was struggling with his tyres and got sideways coming out of the last chicane.  Unfortunately I had nowhere to go to try and get passed him and had to settle for P3 just .2 seconds behind

Unfortunately, this was as good as it got.  My other 3 races ended early  twice shunted at turn 1 in someone elses accident and then in the last one an embarrassing spin at the final chicane left me beached  on the kerb and unable to move (no pictures of that one...) so although I banked some good points for the round thanks to that P3, my ranking has taken a bit of a hit.  A real shame as I felt really good here and the car was set up nicely.

A quick thanks to Anthony as well for the new car livery which now includes my name and flag.  I reckon it looks great.

Stats after week 7.  From the Top: Championship position, Points gained this week, Championship points, IR Points gained, Safety points gained, Races completed, Best finish\Strength of field, Incident points penalised

GT1 Season 4 Week 6

Part 2 of Bathurst week and its into the Aston for the GT1 race.  I was looking foward to this one and managed to get a bit of practise in through the week.  The top ranked guys were doing sub 2 minute laps but I was happy enough to get down to the 2.03.000s which were comparable with the other guys running in my division.  One thing that stood out a fair bit was that it was taking 2 laps to get the tyres up to temp, so the outlap in quali and first couple of racing laps were going to be crucial.
I was on for a decent grid slot but both laps I brushed the wall just slightly.  Not enough to ruin the lap from a time point of view but Iracing gave me a 0x penalty which discounted both laps. 
Oh well.

Given what I had learned through practise about the tyres and with no desire to get mixed up in someone elses accident down the back of the field, I opted to start from the pitlane for safety.  This would also give me the first lap or so to take it easy on the tyres without worrying about jockeying for position.  It worked out pretty well.  5 or so cars had 1st lap incidents and by lap 3 Id caught the back of the pack and started to make places up on the track.  Unfortunately, I came across a damaged car going down into skyline and in avoiding it I messed up my own braking and went nose first into the wall.  A crawl back to the pits and I was going to need 8 minutes to fix it up.  As it was early in the race, I decided to stick with it as this was the only race I could do in the category this week and given the attrition rate, I could still bank some points.

Got back onto the track 5 laps down on the leaders but on the same lap as some other casualties and with about 15 minutes left in the race.  From there it basically a cruise to the flag whilst trying to stay off the walls and I ended up 18th out of the 34.  Not brilliant but it could have been worse and it still left me tied in 1st place in the Div 3 championship.

Stats after week 6.  From the Top: Championship position, Points gained this week, Championship points, IR Points gained, Safety points gained, Races completed, Best finish\Strength of field, Incident points penalised

Next week: Summit Point!

F3 Season 4 Week 6

Its Bathurst week baby!
Bathurst in the F3 is a lot of fun.  Get the setup right and you can really throw the car around, especially across the top of the mountain.  As such, it generally attracts some big fields and often some racing celebs.  Last season I managed to race against Max Verstappen, even starting alongside him on the grid.  The race went less well for me....but it was pretty cool none-the-less

Racing against Max at Bathurst.  This was the week before he won the German GP

I had a pretty good week last season here, won a couple of splits and felt I had the car pretty well settled so I was hoping to go well again.  I ended up running 7 races, which is a break from my policy this season of maximum of 4 but what the hell, its Bathurst. Doing more did mean I needed 2 good results for the points instead of one though which made it a little more difficult.  My best scores were a 2nd and a 3rd, which with the average point score ended up netting me 132, highest of the season so far so its been a pretty good week.

Championship stats after Bathurst

Wouldve liked to have run a couple more clean races (I threw away a possible win on lap one in one race) but its a difficult ask on the mountain when the red mist comes down!

More disappointingly, I missed the Australian League Race this week because of work, so there's nothing to report there.
Next week- Round 7 at the Nurburgring!

Gday!  Im Andrew and Ive been playing racing games on the PC for close to 25 years.  It all started on a 386 with the original Microprose F1 Grand Prix.  Now, I primarily race in the online IRacing series in the F3 and GT1 categories with occasional appearances in various Endurance races for the team I'm with, RSREsports.
This blog is where Id like to share my experiences online (The good, the bad and the messy) with the aim of hopefully encouraging others to take up sim racing as an Esport and showing that you can have fun even if you're average.
If you are interested, have a look at Iracing.com.  They have some great pages showing what you need to get started