iRacing Blancpain GT3 Endurance / Sprint series

Ah crud. Things conspired to where I didn't get enough practice time in this week and other stuff is getting in the way. I won't be able to make any races this week. The internet has been down for a day and a half and Wednesday was my usual practice day. Now I've got too much other stuff backed up before my trip. Guinness anyone? I'll be back for the race on May 2nd though.

Good luck duders.

I just remembered I'm going to an anime convention on Saturday, so that's probably gonna limit me to just doing Sunday's race. Still haven't practiced enough, but I'm gonna do that tonight.

@slowbird: Looks like you might have to run that solo since most of us will be watching F1 at 11:00. :D I'll be in for the Saturday race.

@mouse: The first stint would only overlap with a little bit of the race, so maybe someone can do that and then I'll try to finish with a double D:

Or if I have to do the race alone, I'll race the Ford since I'm dreadfully slow at Road America regardless of the car. Can't do better than a 2:07.2 in any car.

@slowbird: It overlaps with the start, which is usually the most exciting part!

I did a sprint race with Khann's setup which felt fine (I finished 4th). I think mine is a bit faster, so it could be used as a quali set, but indeed it might get scary towards the end of a race stint. Most of my laps were 2:07s and 2:08s. I actually got faster as the race went on, as I usually did in GBGT races because I don't like to practice. :D

Definitely won't make it to the Sunday race because of F1, at least this week is a unique situation since it's the only F1 race in that timeslot.

As for Saturday I don't know yet, tried to do some practice laps just now but it seems like a situation has developed where my sound randomly cuts out. And man, driving without sound is a lot harder than I would've anticipated.

God damn it, why do they have to have only 2 of these per week?! I get that last seasons team thing was a failure because there were something like 40 races per week, but they really have swapped to the other extreme with this. Normally I'd be OK with getting up at 4:30am to do the "Saturday" race (which is really on Sunday for me because I'm in the Future) but I just realised I'm going out to a birthday part tonight and I likely won't be home until midnight so attempting to race after ~4 hours of sleep would be unwise and would destroy me for the rest of the day. Likewise, the "Sunday" race is on Monday morning from midnight, so going to bed at 3:30am and then waking up at 5 to go to work is not the best plan, especially since I drive for a living and driving tired is not fun and likely to cause me to crash a real car.

So unless I end up going to bed early on Saturday nights before these races I doubt I'll be doing any more BES events, unless they decide to change the times again...

Yeah they messed up with the times, no doubt.

Sucks that you won't be able to race anymore :(

@iron1c: @mouse: Well since the start is the only exciting part, then y'all can come back and do the last two stints while Hamilton runs away with it :P

Made a few more tweaks to my setup. Feels a bit better now. Managed a 2:04.1 with the Q setup, 3.7 opt. In the 5s with the race setup.

Qualifying Setup

Race Setup

I might actually be back in time to race today, maybe not the first stint though. If there's anyone racing today, that is.

I didn't race today, but I noticed you guys did and finished 2nd! congrats guys, really well done!

@sebw: That's shitty. :( The original times were so perfect, then they went and messed it all up.

Felt really nice to get 2nd today, only 10 seconds back from the win! I was a decent amount slower than you, Khann. If our tires didn't wear so quickly we probably would have won, and my stint was a bit sloppy. We're going to win one though (as long as it keeps us in the 2nd split without the aliens).

Yeah it sucks, but they are copping flak from all of the Asia pacific region as far as I can tell for the decision. That and the participation levels mean they would be insane not to add more sessions, I remain hopeful that they'll pick a reasonable time.

Congrats to you guys on the 2nd place!

@mouse: Yeah definitely a setup issue there I think. Wish I knew how to better understand why the tyres dropped off so bad.

The guy that won was super fast in his final stint.. we really didn't have much of a chance unfortunately. Still, pretty damn stoked for what is (I think) the first podium for myself and Mouse?

That guy I nearly put into the wall messaged me after the race. We had a bit of a laugh about it, so that's cool :D

I somehow did the whole Sunday race :D in the Ford :D and finished 6th :D

Wasn't as fast as some other people, but I was in the bottom split so just keeping it on the track was a big help. I almost ruined it by hitting a network-blinky lapped car and having to pit 10 minutes early on the first stint, but I managed to stretch the fuel extra far the rest of the way.

Didn't see any bomb cars in my split today. We had a very good chance on a podium in top split today but my team mate uses insane amounts of fuel so we had to pretty much coast the last ten laps and dropped to 6th.

Still great to be sixth in top split and I'm now in 3rd and pretty close to second in the standings. :)

Also really satisfied with only 1 Inc in my hour after a really crash filled week.

@phouchg: congrats :D

So, (old) Silverstone is next, huh? I've completely forgotten how that track even looks like and I'm not sure I want to drive it. They should get the new one already.

@iron1c: They scanned the new one but I think it's far enough down the list that we won't see it for quite a while.

I'm not sure I'll race this weekend; I might pass on buying another [old] track and take the weekend off.

Y'all...y'all are weird. Old Silverstone is cool. Thankfully it's been preserved forever in iRacing despite being replaced with that new crappy layout in real life :D

I'm in for whatever (or both) days again. No F1 to interfere this time.

I just did my first race at Silverstone since Forza 4. It took me a while to get used to it because it wasn't that similar to my memory of Forza's version, lol. But I still think it's a fun track, really challenging to nail a perfect lap and lots of fast sweeping corners.

I've been working on something this week and I just don't have enough time to learn a new track by the weekend. No hate for old Silverstone; this will simply be a break week for me. ;)

Made a setup. Did a race, did some more tweaks and did a second race. Car feels really good, and still felt good at the end of the race. Race pace was somewhere around mid-47s, managed a 46.6 with the Q setup.

Silverstone Qualifying

Silverstone Race

Is it just me and @slowbird this weekend?

@khann: I would have the time, but I really don't know if I wanna do old Silverstone.

@iron1c: I wasn't too keen on the idea either, but after doing a couple of races it's actually really fun. Plus you only have to learn a few new corners. The track being as wide as it is, and the corners being what they are, you can go side-by-side with someone for like an entire sector.

got distracted and missed the race...oops

@slowbird: I would have been all alone. See how things work out? :D

@mouse: Nah I was ready to go, I just couldn't because I played a dumb monster truck game and forgot to register. I noticed about 10 minutes too late :(

Well then, another successful race! Aside from a few minor incidents. But still, lots of fun!

Yep :D Crap start unfortunately, but we had a good run through the field for the rest of the race.

So, are we all going to run the Ford this week? :D

why do you hate me, Mouse?

Hi again guys! I haven't forgot to comment on the last race, I'm just a bit late ;)

Didn't see you guys much this race, only when you went off in the first few laps. And then again in the end when you turned up behind me.

I had a real shitty qualifying so started down in 26th but then had a steady climb up the field with only a couple of half spins and a missed pit box (lost lots of time because of that though since it made me come out in a slower pack again).

15th was really good in the end. Couldn't find enough speed round Silverstone to challenge any higher.

I watched some of your twitch stream today and Michael was really fast. Without that last crash that you never repaired you might have been right there wih me fighting for 15th and higher.

@khann said:

Because I thought you were the last man who liked the RUF a little, but now I know you hate it too. :( I know the computer-crashing team wants to run the Ford again so I thought we'd all jump in. But if you want to stick with the McLaren we can do that.

I just love the RUF, it feels so much better than the other cars to me (can't speak for that BMW, but, it's a BMW so fuck that car). I'm a fan of oversteer happy cars; you can hold back a bit and be safe, but there's extra speed there if you need it, something I can't find with the McLaren. Personal taste is all. :)

Depending on who's racing when (Saturday/Sunday) I'd be alright with doing both the McLaren and the Ford this week :D

I'll possibly be here Saturday, definitely Sunday. ;)

@mouse: Nah I don't hate it, I've just fallen in love with the McLaren :D

I think I'll stick with the McLaren this weekend.

Not sure if you guys like metal, but I'm going to paint our McLaren with some evil shit. Our number will be 666. \m/

Not huge on metal, but that looks awesome, so I'm cool with it :D

@khannwhat setup are you using? I practiced with the Suzuka setup, which felt fine I guess. Finished 4th in a sprint race and averaged a 1:26.2 (1:25:2 was my best).

@mouse: Just using the Silverstone setup with minor tweaks at the moment. I need more practise though; I don't feel comfortable at all.

Who's ready to have a scary, inconsistent race at Brands Hatch? OHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(I think I'm almost starting to understand how to drive this track)

@slowbird: Yeah started to feel a bit better in the sprint race yesterday... hopefully gonna be able to keep it together for a stint.

Wow, what a race! Qualified 3rd. Forgot to change to race setup so had 5 laps of fuel at the start and a really twitchy setup that i hadn't practiced at all on. Decided to pit on the warm up lap and then go balls out to catch.

Turns out going balls out on a unknown quali setup means a lot of spins. But I was pretty fast while doing it. Got tangled in with the leading cars a lot and unlapping myself, then spinning, then unlapping and then spinning again. I must have been the most annoying driver ever. :P

And then finally with an hour left I was about 30 seconds behind you guys, pitted and came out right behind you, now a lap ahead of course. Knew we were actually fighting for position when you guys pitted so passed and used the new tires to take out 10-15 s of that advantage.

You guys came out about maybe 18 seconds ahead and I just kept on pushing, and spinning and pushing and finally passing. Felt pretty awesome to go from one lap down to 5th but next time, let's not do that. ^^

Well apart from one little incident near the end, we had a super clean/solid race. Our pace would have been OK for second split, but damn those top split guys are fast. 12th is OK all things considered :D

Yeah I watched some of your race, looked solid. A lot of cars crashed out though it seems? Wish I had gotten in top split. Could've gained me some more points... or not really if I had made the same mistake there..

@phouchg: When I started my last stint, I wasn't sure if I could hold you off but I only needed a few laps to figure out that I definitely couldn't match your pace :D I was just hanging on there, but pretty happy to finish 6th thanks to @iron1c's speed during the middle stint.

Yeah I think half the field dropped out. We were last of the cars still running.