Nurburgring 24 - B2O Teams iRacing

[Kenadian]

What time would that be Duchess? I'm looking still looking to test pit length and just general practice of course.

I'm not sure, what's a good time for you?

I don't get on before 8 PM EST tonight so I could probably host it straight away. I was hoping to get a race in at Silverstone but it's Silverstone so I don't really care.

 

[Chris Sierzega]

Another driver is a godsend pretty much Chris, so thank you! 5 drivers is more than enough so that we don't die (of exhaustion).

Chris and Steve, what is your availability that day, and your TZ? I will be drawing up a schedule this week.

I'm in EST and will be able to clear the entire 24 hour time slot for iRacing and will probably hang around for the whole race. However, this is my plan so I will let everyone know immediately if anything changes. But I will most likely be available at any time during the race.

 

[Noodleguitar]

Around 8 PM EST sounds good. We could also do a Silverstone race and then Nürburgring practice after that if you're comfortable racing right at 8 PM.

 

[Skid_Marc_]

...if you're comfortable racing right at 8 PM.

HA! Reeeeeeaaallly, Noel? Phat chance...

 

[Kenadian]

Around 8 PM EST sounds good. We could also do a Silverstone race and then Nürburgring practice after that if you're comfortable racing right at 8 PM.

Nope, I'm not that comfortable yet.

...oh and suck it Zac

 

[Daunt]

This is what I have thus far for a schedule:
http://www.speakvisually.net/Schedule/index.htm

This is a bit trickier than the Daytona race... at the moment I still don't know fuel expectations, lap expectations (how many laps per stint, etc) nor how many laps we're expecting for the whole race.

I tried to distribute hours equally but base it on TZs as best as possible. You'll notice the final hours of the race aren't scheduled yet because I'm not sure how to handle it. It is real early for EST, and very very early for GMT. So kinda stuck in a corner.

 

[Justin Rebelo]

Sorry guy, #RealLife has reared its ugly head and I have to commit to a June 4th engagement. I usually deflect such things with "Well, you should have given me more than a week's notice" and so they did just that.

Fortunately the C-spec car seems to already be fairly well attended so hopefully you guys have a strong run. If I can offer any assistance in the preparation I will do so, but I've never lifted a wrench on the C-spec personally and just learn to drive what gets shared by others. All the same, I can help test settings if someone else does wrenching and wants feedback.

Justin

 

[Peeble]

@Kyle that schedule works for me.

 

[Daunt]

Thanks Peeble. Anyone else have any thoughts thus far? Still not set in stone, but trying to get a feel for everyone's opinion.

 

[Chris Sierzega]

Thanks Peeble. Anyone else have any thoughts thus far? Still not set in stone, but trying to get a feel for everyone's opinion.

I'm totally cool with this schedule, and I'm welcome to any changes you guys think should be made.

I just wanna drive a racecar around the ring a bunch of times in a row

 

[Daunt]

Wow so did a full stint in Testing, default weather:

• Obviously not hotlapping - this is where I expect to be for race pace - high 30s.
• Ended up with 2x total, slid off twice into the grass, once grazing the wall very lightly... I thought it was extremely minor but pit said it was 45 seconds of optional.
• Car felt pretty good the first half of the stint. Aboslutely crazy fall off on the tires. Both rears were down to 80% on the insides and middle:
  
  
  
  
• As the above indicates, might need to adjust rear camber.
• Major time fall off left me losing a few seconds each successive lap near the end... the car got extremely oversteery and just lost a lot of grip in general. Even though Lap 7 was my in-lap, I was still 6 seconds off pace my best lap before I got to the pit in. Not sure how much my very minor damage contributed.
• Full stint ended up being 1 hr and 8 minutes.
• Usage / lap was 14.8 liters.
• Total usage was 118 liters. Yes - as in I had a bit less than 2 liters left before I made it to the pits.
• With less than 2 liters left, the pit window is EXTREMELY narrow. If you use 2 more liters than you should - you'll come up short and need a tow, OR need to pit a whole lap early, which is over 8 minutes early.
• According to fuel buddy, a very simple calculation on fuel for 1440 minutes = 20 pits stops to use 2,495 liters.

 

[Kenadian]

Stephen has indicated he won't be able to commit to the race so I think it's best you remove him from the schedule.

I'm ok with the current schedule but it will be interesting to see what changes are necessary now to fill the remaining time slots.

 

[Noodleguitar]

The tire pressures seem awfully low. Is that how they're supposed to be on the Audi? From the other GT3 cars I've driven everybody recommended hot pressures of around 185-190 kPa.

The temperatures look good but your tires might wear out less quickly with higher starting pressures.

 

[Daunt]

No I didn't realize they were - this was a set Duke shared that he got from someone watching his stream- I only saw it when I went to screenshot it for this post. I will defintely mess with the camber as well as upping the tire pressure. I've always ran between high 160s and low to mid 170s depending on the weather.

 

[Kenadian]

I never thought to check the tire pressures either but I like it so far just because the car turns without the rear kicking out on me as much.

I'm finally able to get through the track with only 1 Off Track but consistency is still a really big problem for me. I'm still finding a lot of time on the track but with this time comes mistakes that I got to get control of.

I'm hoping that by the time we're ready to race I can put down mid to high 30's consistently. I noticed today in testing that if I even nail some of the more manageable parts of the track there's a 2 - 3 second gain to be had.

Assuming of course I don't blow it somewhere else on the track.

Incidentally, naming that one reverse curve area to scheisse did me a world of good

 

[Daunt]

OK I will make changes to the schedule and we will see where we're at. I'm assuming we are just going to opt for the 8am EST slot? Because of our American TZ focus, it might be more advantageous to run 12 noon EST. 8am is early for you western TZ-ers and it will be tough at the beginning and end. What do you think?

Keep at it Duke. With each lap you learn something new and learn not to do something or how to hit a turn. It will pay off.

I will run a stint with normal tire temps and see what the difference is - now that I have a great baseline of what to expect. But it should really help with the car's falloff because it is scary and real. Unless you've done a full stint you won't know how dicey it gets.

Last - so far, here's our official B2O Track map. In honesty it would be a great idea to print and have handy during race times for reference. Actually I will probably go through and mark the individual timing sectors as well.

 

[Kenadian]

lol I love the track map, great idea Kyle

Ever since naming Zeitgeist and Sheisse I've rarely been caught out. Since naming Sheisse I only erred one more time, now it's expected and shortly should become cake.

There are certainly some more areas to nail down (I suspect there always will be) but I really think a few more weeks will see me through.

The one area I'm still having issues is the track out position by the Tourist Pits or whatever that area is. It's the bit where you have to brake hard and turn left to get onto the Nordschleife and I get caught out by that stupid curb on the track out. Not to mention there is a hill crest there so it's easy to get loose which certainly doesn't help.

I think Shit out is actually a good name for that convoluted area.

 

[Shilka]

I found these two video's to be quite informative. Not sure how well they translate into the iRacing experience, but it might help:

 

[Daunt]

I found these two video's to be quite informative. Not sure how well they translate into the iRacing experience, but it might help:

Thank you Shilka, these defintely do apply. I've always said there are two indicators on whether you've got a great simulator, or just a knockoff. Though they're kinda related.

1. Real-life professionals can hop in and excel (usually substantially more than others) almost straight away. With iRacing this is defintely true. I've raced against a few RL pros (NASCAR, touring drivers, etc) and they are defintely better than most. Unlike something like Need for Speed, which favor a natural die-hard gamer.
2. Lessons and advice that apply in real life almost always apply to the simulator. So people can take real life experiences, lessons and such and it will apply in the virtual world. Whether it's a fighter pilot takes everything he knows about angle of attack and aerodynamic forces, or a race car driver takes his knowledge of weight transfer or vehicle dynamics.

One big one from the videos concerns the ever-changing camber of the road. It's really difficult on the ring and one of the reasons, in my opinion, that the track is so difficult. It's not really how bumpy the track is, but the fall off on some corners can get you in major trouble.

 

[Kenadian]

I keep getting pwnd at shit-out.

I take it too gingerly and either get on the throttle too early and rebound off the outside curb or take it too slowly and lose the back end hitting the inside wall.

The rest of the track is coming in for me with the exception of the carousels, those are tough to hit properly.