VLN Championship Series

[Noodleguitar]

Damn, that sucks @Deb. I've had a lot of frame/audio stutters in practice sessions (even in local test) which seemed to decrease when I drive for a while and then re-enter the car. I didn't have too many stutters in the race luckily.

I did the last qualifying session before the race in the Porsche. Was hoping for top split but I kept messing up my hot lap so I ended up in 4th place in second split. Of course the guys around me wanted to touch each other in turn 1. I avoided them and ended up in 5th place. Quite a lot of battling got me into 1st at the end of the first stint.

During the first pit stop I realized the Porsche is apparently pretty good on pace with worn tires in afternoon weather because P2 went 25 seconds ahead on me by skipping tires which I could only reduce to 17 seconds at the end of the second stint. Still, they lost a little time somewhere I think because I did a short 3rd stint without replacing tires and stayed ahead of them with a margin. At this point they also changed drivers and the guy in the car at the moment wasn't as fast as his teammate.

Towards the end I had to guesstimate fuel (for some reason I had 4 full stints in my head but the Porsche can do 9 laps at ~8:20). I guessed close but I realized the white flag lap was going to put us 7 minutes after race end time and I would have to do another lap because the GT3 leaders weren't going to lap me. Luckily the GT3 leaders was about a minute behind me between me and 2nd place so I went to lose some time (read: spin on the GP circuit like a dumbass and make my fast repair useful somewhere along the way) and made sure they caught me before the end of the lap. Got 50+ iRating for the win and 0.50+ SR despite having near a million off-tracks. No Kias, so that was also a win.

 

[Sam Roselaar]

That's a real shame @Deb . I can imagine it must suck to have winning pace and then this happens, better luck next time.

I also raced VLN today and it was an amazing race. I'm going to make an attempt at making a little @ShadniX like storyline, seems fun.

My car #53 Eworks Racing


I was placed in 3rd split. To be honest i had hoped to get into 2nd split, but i didn't care too much since i haven't had a lot of practice since i got my new wheel (i just got it this week! )

I started 5th on the grid and we got the green flag before the chicane which meant the field got really stretched out.

(So far) a clean start

In front of me only 1 crash and i managed to avoid it.

But the other guy didn't even try.....

I finished my first lap like i started it, in 5th place. The next several laps were one big battle for 1st to 5th. But i stayed 5th for most of the time so this is how my first stint looked .

I've got the best seat in the house to watch this battle.

After the big battle settled down the top 3 was driving away from us while i was in a very close batte for 4th place.

Very close battle...


During the rest of the stint, 2 people spun in front of us. The #116 and i kept fighting for position.

1 down, 3 to go

driving 3rd now

I pitted in after lap 8 whereas the #116 kept driving. I fueled 90 liters and didn't take tires. Both Porsches in front took tires so i took the lead. I was driving away from the field so i was really happy, i didn't expect it to go this well.

But tragedy stuck....

I CAN FIX THIS

Yeah i crashed..... Time to use that fast repair.

I lost some time and pitted out in 8th. The leader was a good 2 minutes ahead, but i had no time to be sad because the race wasn’t over. If my calculations were right i only needed to do 1 more pitstop, but most others would have to do 2, this thought kept me going.

I was pushing the car to its absolute limit, risking everything, but i did make up a lot of time. I passed 7th, 6th and 5th. One of the Porsches in front crashed aswell, placing me 4th.

I’m getting there…

I caught up to 3rd, but there’s a big downside to pushing this hard.

No damage this time

At the end of lap 21 i pitted and once again didn’t take tires (you’d think i would’ve learned something by now...). I re-joined the race in 4th, but almost immediately took back 3rd. 1st and 2nd place were about 30 seconds ahead and 4th place was around 15 seconds behind me, chasing me down, gaining almost 3 seconds each lap. 1 hour to go…

Almost nothing changed for the first half of the stint. Here are the last 3 laps:
Lap 26
1st is 25 seconds ahead, 2nd is 5 seconds ahead, i’m 3rd and 4th is only 5 seconds behind me. Of course you can’t finish a race without a final heart attack.

His fault (he didn’t see me and came over to the right just as i was passing him)

Now in a damaged car, i was pushing as hard as i could. I had set my hopes for 3rd since i was catching 2nd place but 4th place would most certainly catch me. 1st was completely out of reach.

When i drove on the pit straight the second best thing all race happened. 4th place pitted in! I guess he didn’t make his second pitstop (since my crash) yet.


Lap 27
I caught up to 2nd around halfway into the lap, and i don’t know why, but at that point he started driving fast, real fast. I was kinda expecting to make a quick pass because i had caught up to him so quick but that didn’t happen. I tried for the whole remainder of the lap but i couldn’t do it.

Once again driving on the pit straight, when the best thing that race happened…
You guessed it, 1st had pitted in aswell!


Lap 28 (Final lap)
I’m driving 2nd just 1 second behind the leader.

So close

In turn 1 he locked up and i took my chance, i got the pass done but now i needed to defend for a whole lap. My plan was to push even harder early on in the lap so he couldn’t catch me at the ridiculously long backstretch. Even though i almost crashed my car (seriously, again?), it worked. I finished with him 3 seconds behind me.

VICTORY!!!

Great start with my new wheel, i’ll certainly remember this race.

 

[ShadniX]

Welp, it was a day of fails for me, mainly the self inflicted kind. Started with troubleshooting missing audio, which I got fixed just before the race session went live. Ended up in Split 4 with only GT3 and Porsche Cup cars and started at the end of the GT3 field. Rolling up to the start, the field came to a complete stop. The car in front of me came to a sudden stop by bumping a car in front of him, leaving me bumping into him. First damage before the green flag.

The race didn't got any better. Somehow my concentration wasn't where it should have been. I was off pace and made way too many little mistakes. At the end of the first stint, I hit the curb in Wippermann in a way I shouldn't have, throwing the car off balance and me into the guard rail. So, I used the fast repair on my first pit stop. Second stint went ok, but pace was still off and little mistakes continued.

In the middle of the third stint, I hit another curb too hard, this time in Schwalbenschwanz, which send me into a guard rail again. Impact wasn't hard, but the front left suspension was gone. 3.5 minutes optional repairs later, suspension was still broken. I parked it and called it a day. That was my worst VLN race so far by far. At least I haven't killed anyone with my sight seeing tours off the track, so there is that.

Congrats @Noodleguitar and @Sam Roselaar

 

[Deb]

CONGRATS NOEL AND SAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is just awesome and both sound like exciting races.

Hans, sometimes it just seems like you get in this odd crap spot. Yesterday when I went to try to do a QS to beat my earlier time, my wheel went out. Spent 4 hours working on it. Finally figured out it was the cable running from the motor box to the rim. Not sure why that would be bad, but it was. Found a replacement at Frye's, not perfect since it is straight instead of coiled, but it works.

Then I get a text from Bedo around 9:15, and, guess what, of course he wants to change the setup. So I try to get on and drive and my Nvidia surround for the 3 screens is disabled. Not sure if something happened when I was trying to update everything for the wheel. Takes me time to figure that out. Get to drive about 2 laps on the new setup. As usual, he was right the setup was better, so that was bright spot.

I'm hoping all the bad stuff is over now and I get back to focusing on racing. I am not sure what split we were in, just GT3s and Porsches, but the driving was pretty clean for the most part. Bedo had a couple of small incidents, but I was good until I hit the fence on the second stutter. I was having a lot of fun too. One of the few times I was in a race where I was getting to do all the passing and no one was passing me. Oh well, hopefully next time we will have good racing karma!

 

[Noodleguitar]

Nice story @Sam Roselaar and awesome ending.

@ShadniX , you know it's going to be a bad race if there was contact on the pace lap . The crappy weather wasn't helping much either. The next VLN isn't until mid-June and then it's still afternoon default.

 

[SavreticD]

I had an insane 2nd race.Had some 2 I think Russians Speedy Gonzales chasing me 4h.Man, and driving alone on pace 4h is hard.
I build gap 3rd stint about 9 seconds, little by little, long process but my pace dropped a little, leg started to hurt etc and I decided I must double stint tires last stint,Jesus that I don't recommend.

I had gap 30 seconds after I exited pit last time and I won by just 3 seconds, what a pressure I had omg.Tires on 25% and my drunk spotter said 6 laps to go that I don't have rubber and I should take it easy, that scared me, never heard that and man I had 6 laps to go, what to do!?
How I never heard that I was scared what will happen and I have 6 laps, almost whole stint, guys that was hard,that 2nd stint was just insane,how I didn't die I don't know.
Anyway hard-earned win for sure

 

[Deb]

I had an insane 2nd race.Had some 2 I think Russians Speedy Gonzales chasing me 4h.Man, and driving alone on pace 4h is hard.
I build gap 3rd stint about 9 seconds, little by little, long process but my pace dropped a little, leg started to hurt etc and I decided I must double stint tires last stint,Jesus that I don't recommend.

I had gap 30 seconds after I exited pit last time and I won by just 3 seconds, what a pressure I had omg.Tires on 25% and my drunk spotter said 6 laps to go that I don't have rubber and I should take it easy, that scared me, never heard that and man I had 6 laps to go, what to do!?
How I never heard that I was scared what will happen and I have 6 laps, almost whole stint, guys that was hard,that 2nd stint was just insane,how I didn't die I don't know.
Anyway hard-earned win for sure

Wow, that sounds so intense!!!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! I bet that was very scary on the tires, we had considered double stinting on the last stint (if we got there ) but the front tires were at 55% after one stint.

 

[SavreticD]

Tnx! That was insane Deb, especially the last lap, that was just insane. Don't know how to explain, I must push but its like track temp was 100c, 0 grip and you cant turn, sliding, cant get on the throttle, nothing, so hard.Now with this new wear on GT3 it's so hard to double stint in this weather and worst part is I never tried that in practice hehe

 

[Sam Roselaar]

@SavreticD no spins at all? that's insane mate, congratulations!

 

[SavreticD]

@SavreticD no spins at all? that's insane mate, congratulations!

Hehe nope, I still didn't spin in VLN, got collected 1st corner once and that is it Tnx!
I'm sure Noel will say I had rubber for 5 more laps,pihhh 25%, nothing

I use to had more wear on rear tires,like always but from the patch and when cars got this downforce Im destroying fronts just a little bit more than rears and I'm loosing pace because then I get more understeer.
I use to setup car so its more understeer first 2 laps on Nords and then because rear tires wear more I get a neutral car but now I don't know what to do, need to explore more.
I think now it would be good to setup more oversteer initially to get neutral balance after 2 laps
This last stint more wear on front helped I think,If I had rears that bad like fronts were..omg,I would spin I think

 

[Deb]

Well, good news, sort of! I sent a bunch of information to iRacing over the past couple of days to try to figure out if the issue Saturday was them or problems with my computer. Since I couldn't find any errors in any of my log files, I was hoping that meant it wasn't my graphics card. iRacing sent me an email this morning and said it was them. They said they think it was likely related to a host of sound issues they were having Saturday. I know we were hearing this strange drumming noise when you tabbed over to another driver. But does that seem right, could audio really cause that kind of issue? I guess if audio got in a loop it could cause the picture to loop as well, not sure, and (according to Ken ) I am not the one to diagnose technical issues

 

[SavreticD]

Deb in iRacing everything is possible.Remember audio problem was when in Sebring 12h people game crash when FF RW in replay

 

[Deb]

I didn't get to race Sebring 12 HR because I was in Mexico, but sounds like iRacing is having some serious audio issues, glad to know it's not me Sure hope they get it fixed, I can't go through that pain too many times

 

[Ryan Walker]

Apologies for dragging an old topic back up but was wondering if anyone was doing VLN this weekend as I quite fancy doing it. Don't want to ask Debs, Hans or Bedo if they have a space as they're doing quite well in the series and don't want to hamper their good results.

 

[Deb]

I am wondering if we should put something more formal around this series as a number of us drive in it and it might make sense to have a pool of drivers since there are 8 races in the series and it is hard to make every single one. There are only 3 races left this year but last year there was an unofficial Winter VLN that was really fun too.

Hans can't drive this Saturday. Bedo and I are driving. I think @Jes_971 and @Hydromani both expressed an interest and possible even @Kenadian. It be cool to have some PP sessions on the Ring if we have enough participation.

@Ryan Walker, what car are you use to driving on the Ring?

 

[Ryan Walker]

I am wondering if we should put something more formal around this series as a number of us drive in it and it might make sense to have a pool of drivers since there are 8 races in the series and it is hard to make every single one. There are only 3 races left this year but last year there was an unofficial Winter VLN that was really fun too.

Hans can't drive this Saturday. Bedo and I are driving. I think @Jes_971 and @Hydromani both expressed an interest and possible even @Kenadian. It be cool to have some PP sessions on the Ring if we have enough participation.

@Ryan Walker, what car are you use to driving on the Ring?

The Mazda I was planning to use and just solo it but don't mind switching to the GT3 and the Merc if there is enough interest.

 

[Deb]

The Mazda I was planning to use and just solo it but don't mind switching to the GT3 and the Merc if there is enough interest.

I think most of us drive the Merc, although @afroducks may drive the Ferrari, not sure. We've driven the Ferrari a couple of times, but prefer the Merc on this track. I'm not sure if anyone drives the Mazda, so you might give the Merc a try

 

[Jes_971]

@Kenadian I was gonna hop on last night but we got a call about my GF's grandfather passing away. I might still do the race but I think I'm going to just solo it. This is due to the fact I can only do the Saturday time slot more than likely and that I don't have a whole lot of time to practice.

 

[Kenadian]

@Kenadian I was gonna hop on last night but we got a call about my GF's grandfather passing away. I might still do the race but I think I'm going to just solo it. This is due to the fact I can only do the Saturday time slot more than likely and that I don't have a whole lot of time to practice.

Ya sorry about that d00d, take care of what needs care taken first, that's most important.

I ran some laps last night but I'm slow and dangerous so I need a lot more practice before I'd commit anyway.