Wasn't your fault. I went up to try to get a better run out of the corner on @slowbird and was an idiot and didn't realize I'd lose the draft, too. Came back down & collected you. It was totally on me.

But honestly, I'm really irritated that all @Trace kept bitching about during the session and in his stream was the setup. It was almost exactly the same one that you had, that @khann had, that @slowbird had, and that everyone else had. I didn't buy it. I did literally the exact same thing that you did and just adjusted a couple things and it turns out my adjustments worked. I decided that since 99% of the setup was identical to the one everyone else had, I'd try to help my teammate and I have a tiny edge and kept it during the race session, but told @slowbird that I'd obviously share it after the race. What's the point of teams if you don't at least try to help each other a little? If you've been paying any attention to how I conduct myself in the GBRL, you may have noticed that a big reason that I finish so far behind most races is that I'd rather let someone else finish ahead of me if it means I'd ruin someone else's race. So if you think for a hot second that I'm colluding in some back alley and trying to gain any Schumacher-like advantage I can at the expense of everyone else in this league, I honestly just feel sad for you. You should probably focus on not turning into corners twice instead of worrying about a setup which has basically no real bearing on how fast someone is.

And what you said tonight in the stream about me was pretty much the final straw. You're probably right, someone who takes jabs at people is totally not good for Giant Bomb, literally an entire website empire created to do just that.

Bye, guys. I've genuinely enjoyed racing with everyone in this league, you're all a bunch of really great duders. Yeah, even you, Nick.

Well, then.

Not the post race drama I was expecting haha.

In my opinion there is too much focus on setups and who has an advantage. If Skullcrusher wants his own setup and chooses to share it with his teammate onlu that doesn't matter. I like that people share their setups as they generally make me more stable, but if every person kept theirs private I would understand that too. We are all competitive (yes even us -10 lap finishers!) but what I like about our league is that from what I've seen people are generally very nice, I haven't watched the stream, but there is no need to talk bad on another racer. We might think things in our head but if it is being broadcast I think we want to give out an image of positivity for our league.

I don't know if the two of you can ever reconcile your differences. I'm not going to get into the middle of this, it's for the two of you to talk it out. I will say that it'd be a real shame to see you go. You help make the races entertaining with your comments, and you're a good competitor. If you feel strongly enough about it and must go, I understand, but for all our sake I hope you two come to an understanding.

Couple of suggestions, for pretty much anyone.

1. Get a sleep in between a frustrating race and the inevitable postmortem.

2. If you have issues with somebody, take it up privately and they'll probably be willing to hear you out, less so if you make a big public stink about it.

I had ALOT of fun in that race, even though I was on my roof inside the first 10 laps. Battled back from however many laps down, had a lot of fun running side by side with @thesupernatural trying to get a shot at the lucky dog. There was a point with maybe 25 laps to go where I was running with the leaders and having fresher tires, felt like if I really pushed I could maybe take a lap back on my own, but I didn't see that ending well, and I was more than 1 back anyways so I passed on that. Came within maybe one turn of grabbing a spot from @Trace at the line, very fun time.

Another Formula Duder oval of hatred in the books!

Yeah I had a fun race as well. The most aggressive race I've had in quite a while, so apologies to those who thought I was a bit pushy.

The inevitable drama that comes from FD ovals is a shame, bu I guess it's all a part of the fun. I'd like you to stay @skullcrushermountain , and I'd hope that once everyone has cooled off that you and @Trace can sort out whatever shit you've got going on.

If you genuinely feel like you're done with the league, then I guess that's fair enough. I hope you deciide otherwise.

Yeah I enjoyed going back and forth there, although I somehow ended up a lot slower. And then I found out the conditions for lucky dog were really limiting... no way to get back on the lead lap after going three down lol. Still, 100 laps of Bristol feels like absolutely nothing in these cars.

I seem to have my moments of frustration right when they happen. I can collect myself post-race, but I get very frustrated when things don't go right on track. I watched the replay over a dozen times and I don't know what the driver was thinking (I'd rather not name names here), but I don't think I was at fault in the slightest. He apologized post-race, which was all I would ask for. It's really just a reminder that short track racing just isn't for me. I tried it with street stocks, legends, late models, and now the formula car, and it always ends up with me feeling uncomfortable being so close to other cars. I tend to hold everyone to a pretty high standard with driving, even in racing. Sometimes shit happens, but I don't feel like respecting competitors and giving each other space is all that difficult overall (although Bristol is more of a challenge than other tracks for this). Things should be a lot more spread out at COTA, since it's one of those tracks that really seems to separate competitors rather quickly. I remember the official sessions having a very large difference between the fast and average times (about 5-6 seconds for the full track layout).

Overall, this season has been very rough on me. A couple spins at Summit Point, a car-ruining wreck at Watkins Glen, and an Olympic gold medal gymnastics run at Bristol. I've got a worse record in Formula Duder this season than Maldonado :O so here's to hoping for a clean race for me next week, regardless of how fast I am.

Lucky Dog isn't really that limiting, it's a very courteous rule as it is and usually reserved for Stock Car racing and not present in open-wheel oval racing. It really comes down to how the race develops overall and how many people get a lap or more down. We had 6 cautions, so speaking strictly technically you could've gotten back on the lap lead while being 6 laps down. That's pretty insane if you think about it.

But yeah, I feel like this season has been the most competitive yet, which inevitably leads to some drama. That's just the stuff that happens when people get really competitive. I hope we can work it all out somehow and don't lose any drivers in the process of doing so. Really enjoyed the race, it was a bit heated for sure and I definitely made some mistakes as well but I talked about it with the guys I got in trouble with after the race and (at least I hope so :D ) everything's fine now. Looking forward to GBGT today and the next FD Oval race at Richmond. COTA next week can go and eat a dick though. Fucking thing sucks so bad, I just want to finish on the lead lap without crashing.

On a more positive note, prepare yourselves! FDXis coming! It starts July 4th. I'll post infos and details right after GBGT finishes tonight so we can talk/discuss about it during the post-race chat.

@travis_mihm: I had a pretty good setup and was making up ground each lap. Unfortunately there was an incident on front of me and I couldn't avoid the crash. I ended up in the fence, stuck and required a tow. After that I did some solid laps but once you are down a lap or more at Bristol it is extremely hard to get the laps back. Great race overall though and far fewer yellow flags than I expected.

@iron1c: I had a decent run at COTA several weeks ago when the official series was running it, and somehow lost it coming out of the penultimate turn, which is difficult to do. I thought I had it saved and then I see the wall to my left, and then my tires are smashed in. No quick repairs in the official series either :(

But lucky dog only works for a single car, the first one a lap down. I was 3 laps down and behind traffic. Didn't gain back a single lap during 3 cautions.

GBGT qualifying starts in 35 min. Practise is running now.

@c0braje7 LOL. The catch fence took its job much too seriously. I seem fortunate to have missed this one, but open-wheeled race cars and short tracks don't typically bode well. At least in a street stock, you can mash the throttle, turn yourself around, and join up at the back of the pack with some hatred brewing but a car that's still in one piece.

-Travis

VinnCo. presents FDX

After the smashing success of last season's Miata Challenge, VinnCo. is here to bring you another spectacular series.

What?

FDXis our new, fast and furious open-wheel racing series where we go really fast, for an extended period of time.

We will race the DW12 around a fine selection of ovals and road courses, hand picked by our most elusive racing connoisseurs.

When?

Races will be held preferably on Saturdays to keep our tradition of doing open-wheel races on that day and the timeslot will be the same as the existing Formula Duder one. We will have roughly one race per month in the given break weeks for holidays or events of Formula Duder. The first race of the season will happen on a different date though. Prepare yourselves for next Friday, July 4th!

How?

Races will use the DW12 in it's appropiate Oval or Road configuration, depending on the course. Practice times are the same as FD, races will be slightly longer than usual. Every race should be roughly ~60 minutes of pure racing, not taking cautions into account. Fuel won't be limited as the already small fuel tank of the DW12 should force us to do 2-3 stops anyway, depending on the track. 3 Fast Repairs, Lucky Dogs enabled, Double File Restarts. We will use the same points system IndyCar uses, including the bonus points. That means you get 1 bonus point for the pole position, 1 for leading at least one lap and 2 for most laps led.

Setups for Oval tracks are fixed and will focus on driveability to keep the competition close and equal, since most races will feel like plate-racing anyway. Expect the setups to be similar to the iRacing Indy500 one.

Setups for Road tracks will be open to take different driving styles into account.You wanna put that brake bias to 70% and go all low-downforce to have insane straight line speed? Okay, your choice!

Where?

Races will be revealed roughly ~2 weeks before they happen. We have a schedule in mind, but will keep it under wraps to have some surprises and adjust for possible feedback or new track releases. This'll take months after all, so why settle on tracks that are available now? 90% of the tracks should be from other series, so if you attend the other three series you shouldn't have to buy a track. Maybe once.

See you there next week!

Not a great race for me in GBGT, but ah well.

Current FD and GBGT standings.

Team Slowpoke sitting in the gutter lol. Originally I thought it would be a cute joke, but it turns out we actually are the slowpokes here! The GBGT race was okay. I daresay it went well for me, despite finishing 3 laps down and in last place. Only two major incidents, both of which seemed to be video lag related. Not sure what the problem was for me, but I'll do my best to get it resolved before next week.

Is it even worth trying to play the game with a controller, or do I need a wheel? i'm still a couple months out from buying a wheel.

@thatonedudenick: I'd say a wheel is mandatory, really. You could try it I guess, but I doubt you're going to have a good time.

@thatonedudenick: Yeah, I'd say wait a the couple months until you've got a wheel. It's not going to be enjoyable with a controller. The investment to get into iRacing is well worth it, though!

As for FDX, that sounds great to me! I hope that this Friday there can be a slightly longer practice session, simply to allow the Americans some time to watch fireworks and shit (and those happen right when the session opens at 9:00, for those of us on the east coast). If quali starts at ~9:45, i'll be there! I'd be upset if I have to miss a DW12 Auto Club race.

I highly doubt I'll be able to make the first FDX race due to it being on July 4th, but I hope you guys get a halfway decent turnout regardless. I'm kinda happy it's going to be at Autoclub and not Indy at least. If I had to miss an Indycar race at Indianapolis I'd be really bummed.

Yesterday was probably my best GT race so far. For what seems like the first time ever, I didn't crack under the pressure of qualifying and kept improving my own times in response to @c0braje7, which was super fun. When I usually post a good time it's that @khann comes around and destroys it by seconds, yesterday we kept battling back and forth only improving by tenths, with me barely coming out on top. It felt like @c0braje7 had the advantage on cold tyres, but it's hard to pass at Lime Rock so I could hold him off long enough for my tyres to feel good and pull a tiny gap. Did not have any mistakes or problems whatsoever during the race, finished with 0x, which is usually not something I do. When I came up on a bunch of lapped traffic, I didn't force myself through it and just did my pit stop slightly early to avoid them. Overall I had good pace, no mistakes and made smart decisions. It all worked out perfectly.

@mouse said:

As for FDX, that sounds great to me! I hope that this Friday there can be a slightly longer practice session, simply to allow the Americans some time to watch fireworks and shit (and those happen right when the session opens at 9:00, for those of us on the east coast). If quali starts at ~9:45, i'll be there! I'd be upset if I have to miss a DW12 Auto Club race.

Yeah, I asked some people how it would work out with celebrations and timing and got mixed answers, I guess it does depend on your timezone a lot. Let's say we would just delay everything by an hour, would that work for you guys? Keep in mind the race will be slightly longer than usual, so I don't know if it's a problem for anyone that it might get a bit late. So in short:

The 2-hour open practice would start an hour later than usual. Is that cool?

Or Option #2 would be: Open practice starts at the same time so people won't get confused with the starting time, BUT league practice would be an hour longer to give you some breathing room.

I'll wait at least 24h for feedback, before I setup the session.

Looks like BOMBCAR goes into its first break with a dead heat in the manufacturer standings! FORD TRAIN'S A COMIN' WHOO WHOO

@slowbird: I'm sure it doesn't matter but I did MEAN to drive a ford in my one Bombcar race. I just picked the wrong car going into the session. It was pretty funny actually, I had a bitchin' cobrajet paintjob and everything... then I had to switch to a lame Target livery for the Chevy. Oh well... I wish I could make those races, good time running ovals with this group.

@c0braje7: I would totally count you as a Ford, but then everyone would accuse me of favoritism. But I think that's a good tiebreaker. If there's a tie at the end of the season, then Ford will win because your Chevy was supposed to be a Ford.

:D

Shenanigans!

Okay, so since no one had anything negative to say, public practice will open and close at the same time. League practice however will be slightly longer and last until 10:00PM EDT so you can celebrate, blow stuff and what not. I'll set up the session later today.

@iron1c said:

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOOLOLOOLLOLLLLOLOOLOLOLOL

#USA

What are the times again? I dig having this race on the 4th but having it late in the day just makes it difficult. Would it be possible to have it earlier even if only by a few hours?

@iron1c: If I'm the odd man out I will try and make it work.

Maybe I forgot a word there. But you can blow stuff if you like. I won't judge.

Changing it again would turn it into a bit of a clusterfuck. Qualifying will start at 10:00PM EDT, so the race would start at 10:10PM EDT.

@iron1c: I totally understand. I think I am just caught out on this one. Fireworks start at 9:00PST. I would've loved to make it happen but that slot is basically impossible for me to make. If it is possible at all to have it earlier in the day that would be amazing, if not I will have to catch the stream on twitch.

@c0braje7: I have no idea about how your July 4th stuff works, that's why I asked earlier and only @mouse replied that he would love to have it one hour later for the east coast. So I took that into consideration. Ah well, I hope more than 4 people show up.

@iron1c: I'll check out the stream after I get back home Friday night. I don't check the forum everyday so I missed your post until this morning. Sorry for the chaos.

@c0braje7: Oh, no problem and don't worry about the chaos - there was none. I wish there was a way to please everyone but that's probably not possible at that date.

Pretty sure I'll be able to make this FDX... Will this session just be us, or are we VS.ing the world just yet ;)

@bifflog: This'll just be us as it's basically a new, somehow monthly, Oval championship. Everyone was requesting more DW12 races and it seemed like it could fit into the schedule without being a weekly thing, so we're giving it a shot. I expect attendance to be quite low by comparison for the 4th - since it's a holiday and stuff - but hopefully this takes off by the 2nd race and we can have at least our usual field of attendees.

Since I won't be able to join any practice for FDX (I'll be there right before quali), I'll practice during the week, so what will the fixed setup be? One of the Indianapolis sets?

I hope the car is fun to drive on courses when it's updated (easier than the FW31), so maybe next FD season we will step up again with the DW12. 50/50 road/oval :D Too soon to be thinking about that stuff but it's a nice thought! Having push to pass will be interesting as well.

@mouse: I am personally reeeeeally against the idea of stepping Formula Duder up to the DW12, unless it's incredibly easy to drive, but if that's what people end up demanding...well, can't fight the future, I suppose.

@Trace: That's what I mean, it may be easier to drive than the slippery Star Mazda. I think the SM is a bitch to drive (that step-out can take a lot to get used to). Though, yeah, the DW12 is a monster... we'll see in a few weeks if it's fun with big wings.

It's a shame iRacing doesn't have many options for open-wheel cars. I enjoy the SM but I want a car that is planted and doesn't slip around the turns (that's what I hope DW12 will be).

@mouse: @Trace: I don't like the idea either, unless it is easy to drive. The speed makes everything more difficult.

What might be an interesting thing to explore, though, is using ballast to slow the car down a bit. I don't know what effect that would have on the handling, but it could work. Less (or no) restrictions for any ovals that might end up on the schedule, of course.

e: well, I just added max weight penalty to the current DW12 and it didn't do shit. Made the braking worse and the car understeered more. Straight line speed was barely affected. That all makes sense I guess, but it kinda rubbishes that idea.

@mouse: The setup will feel similar to the Indy500 one (terrible out of the pits, pretty easy once you're up to speed) but is quite different from the values it uses - I'll upload it to the setup garage once I get home.

Concerning the DW12 FD debate: I don't think it would work. The car SHOULD be pretty easy to drive with all the insane downforce and lack of torque (compared to an F1 car) it has but we won't know until it's released. If other sims are anything to go by it should be manageable to drive, but like Khann said with the speed that thing has, precision driving is required and you'll lose a lot more time doing small mistakes than we currently do in the SM, so we would definitely lose some close racing and spread the field further apart. If the FDX thing turns out to be attended, we will definitely have a road course somewhere and can use that as a test vehicle, though I remain skeptical.

@iron1c: Are we using that one Empty Box shared?

@iron1c said:

Let it be known that I didn't intend to launch any debate. Just a thought, that maybe we can run a more regular series with it next season if people like it. The only way I can think of slowing the car down is having a fixed setup with a low-power fuel setting, but.. ehhhh, that'll just cause more issues. Anyway, no need to talk about it more now, let's wait a couple months. ;)

Indeed, post that setup! I tried running with the Indy set and my virtual driver is super dead now.

@khann: Yes, we are indeed using that setup, I just renamed it because I wouldn't know if the file name would be shared as well. If you still got it you can post it as well, if not I'll post it in ~3 hours when I get out of this course on Shakespeare translations from the 18th century. Ugh.

@mouse: Well, a debate doesn't have to be a bad thing and I've been proven to be wrong 90% of the time, so...

EDIT: Setup posted in the Garage, along with some (obvious) notes.

@mouse: Really? I feel like the Star Mazda is the most stable, dialed in road car I've driven on the service. Maybe I'm just running more downforce...

@bifflog: Yep, really. I just don't like the rear-end slip in the low and mid speed corners.

@mouse: I found it to be really slippery for the first week or two, until I learned to keep the throttle going on turn-in. The car is almost impossible to spin as long as you don't totally let off the throttle. What killed me at Watkins Glen was when I let off the throttle in the first couple of laps, too stressed about the racing that I forgot to drive properly. Without the throttle on turn in, the car wants to snap in like crazy.

For sure, it really wants to spin around if you lift completely. Also, I think all open-wheel cars are like that in iRacing. At least the Star Mazda doesn't have enough horsepower to spin the wheels on acceleration :D

On the other hand, those Indycar drivers make it look SO EASY, so maybe the DW12 will be super-bananas glued to the track! I mean, it's like way less powerful than a proper racing car the old CART Champ Cars were, anyway!

Looking forward to some DW12 action... also COTA, because I've never done a race there.