VLN Endurance Championship

[Jes_971]

Anyone doing the VLN race this Sunday at 10am est.? I will be soloing it and running the B2O flag.

 

[Daunt]

I think Noel said he was.

Running a B2O flag on your car may slow you down a bit though. Not very good aero.

 

[Noodleguitar]

Yep, I'm doing the race. I just need not to forget to qualify before Saturday this time.

 

[Deb]

I am racing VLN on Sunday as well with my Fusion teammates. We have three racing right now, so If someone else wants to race, we could set up a second team.

 

[Noodleguitar]

How did Fusion do and what split were you guys in?

I was happy to just about eek my way into top split, as position 22 or something. Sadly, my car limit of 12 had no effect for some reason and I was forced to render all 54, causing all sort of stuttering issues and discounting two of my laps. After those I could refresh it and pit out again with less cars rendered.

I still had some good racing 2 laps down and it was a challenge passing all of the Kias before the end of the race when they were only half a minute slower per lap. Finished 16th in class in the end, which I don't think was too bad considering I was two laps down.

There was supposed to be a Racespot broadcast as well but I can't find it on Youtube.

 

[Noodleguitar]

Oh the broadcast is there now, took a while to be uploaded.

 

[Jes_971]

I can hardly even keep the list straight of what went wrong with my day.
Loaded in, alt-tab out to set team paint, click back into game and my steering calibration is instantly f'ed. Pull into pits on rolling start, pits are closed, derp, try to calibrate wheel, wheel not calibrating. Exit the race, enter the race. Car is towing. Some minutes later I finally get going. Two laps down on leaders. I circulate for several laps. Start of in-lap for first fuel pit. I say to myself, "alright, pit next lap, pit next lap." Eight and half minutes later I drop a screaming f-bomb as forget and pass up the pit entrance. Circulate around the GP course with 0.6 laps of fuel left and pull in the pits using the "back" entrance. Slapped with a 13 minute "cutting" the course penalty. Well, I guess it was either that or run out of gas and tow which would have been 12 -13 minutes. Actually, now that I think about it, I could have completed as much of the lap as possible then towed. That would've been significantly less tow time. These are all thoughts of a rationally thinking person though. Which I was not at the time. I get up to go have a cig. Come back to 2 minutes left in my penalty. Thirty seconds left and a big puff of smoke emits from under my hood. I've forgotten to turn the engione off whilst I waited for the penalty. I still had my quick repair but when I used it my car wouldn't start. Oh well I thought, this one needed a bullet through the head while grazing in the back forty anyhow. I've learned all these lessons before when I first started. (Alt tabbing screws my calibration and when waiting in pits for long, make sure car is off) Taking that break allowed me to forget quite a few apparently. Looking forward to next time and having a shot at an actual finish. I think the next one is a 6 hour isn't it?

 

[Daunt]

Ouch Jes. Sometimes things just don't go your way. Like when you miss the pit window by literally one second.... or you run out of fuel with three turns to go and go from top 5 to 9th...

Racing is always up and down... best to keep at it!

 

[Noodleguitar]

Sounds nasty Jes, bad luck. I think the tow for nearly a full is around 9 minutes (I'd like to see a video of a tow-truck doing that though ).

Using your fast repair when you're already in the pits doesn't seem to work, I had the same issue at Road Atlanta. Even backing out of the stall and go in again wouldn't trigger it.

Did you have any other classes in your split? I think only the top split had Kias, we had about 15-16 of them and the same amount of Mazdas.

I did forget to use my fast repair to get an instant pit stop. Not that it really matters because I was two laps down but in a race it can save you over a minute which is a bit ridiculous if you ask me.

 

[Daunt]

sing your fast repair when you're already in the pits doesn't seem to work, I had the same issue at Road Atlanta. Even backing out of the stall and go in again wouldn't trigger it.

Why do you always have issues in the pits Noel? No one else seems to ride the struggle bus around here except for you when it comes to figuring out a way to die in pit lane.

I did forget to use my fast repair to get an instant pit stop. Not that it really matters because I was two laps down but in a race it can save you over a minute which is a bit ridiculous if you ask me.

Interesting yet shitty. Didn't realize you could do that... this is quite an exploit... iRacing needs to change fast repairs so they only function as an actual repair, not generating a new car, which is likely what they do now. Such shortcomings on the damage model as of now.

 

[Deb]

Good race for the team! Not sure what split we were in, SOF was 2333. I was the one that qualified so a slower lap time, I think around 8.23, but Bedo and I both registered so his iRating moved us up. Had some Mazdas for distraction We were running the AMG. We ended up with 4 drivers but decided not to split into two teams because Bedo was testing the Oculus Rift and we had a new member. So everyone drove for an hour. Had some problems in the beginning when we got spun out on 1st lap. Started in 15th. Dropped back after the spin. Had an incident in the 2nd hour, on the last lap but Reid was able to limp in to the pit without a tow and we used our fast repair. So we actually ended up in 12th position!!!! My SR is now at 4.99 I must be the safest A driver with lowest iRating HAHAHA!!! But endurance racing is so fun . . . maybe someday they'll figure out how to give us iRating for it.

One issue I have had the second time and it only happens on VLN is my mirrors and dashboard get blacked out in the race. Real problem, have to shift by sound so it slows me down, don't want to blow the engine. Has anyone else experienced this? I posted to the forum but haven't received a response yet.

Another VLN in a few weeks It will be six hours!!!! And Petit LeMans coming up on Road Atlanta. One of the few tracks that I have driven in real life, in the AMG GTS, so much fun!!!! Looking forward to that one.

 

[Noodleguitar]

Nice, not a bad finish at all. The splits are made by qualifying time so it doesn't actually matter which iRating the team has when signing up (unless you don't qualify).

I saw your post on the iRacing forums, I have never heard of that issue before. In the game those windows are probably rendered separately from the rest so it might be a shader issue or something.

Nice that you drove an actual AMG GTS, that thing looks awesome.

 

[Deb]

It is funny, one of the other drivers had the same problem. Not sure what is causing it and not a situation where there is time to try to figure out May need to call iRacing support.

Yeah, I have been to AMG Driving Academy at Lime Rock and Road Atlanta and drove the GTS and the C63 at both (actually it is training for that that got me started on iRacing). Although the C63 is awesome and is the car I own, the GTS is amazing at how it holds the track. And even if it does start to slide, the safety system tightens the harnesses, so you fell pretty safe even if you get a little aggressive We did have one guy on our team slide into the wall at Road Atlanta on the left hander following the front chicanes :0 Everyone was okay, only the car hurt

Next spring hoping to go to Nurburgring or if that doesn't work out, will drive at COTA. Either will be awesome, but the Ring would be EPIC

 

[Jes_971]

I was in a GT3 only split. Probably bottom as I didn't run a qualifier.

Deb, sounds like you had a good time for the most part during your VLN. Totally jelly over the RL track experience. Had you watched Road Atlanta on tv or ever spectated there before driving? I'm curious as to your initial impressions in RL on track as compared to seeing it from the sidelines or tv.

The Ring always has something laying in store for you along the way it seems. I think thats what brings me back over and over. That many turns and elevation changes multiplies the incident chances enormously. It's the chase for that perfect lap like always, just bigger. It's like your a fisherman (or fisherwoman) and you go out searching for the big fish. You actually find what you're looking for and then realize, "We're gonna need a bigger boat."

 

[Daunt]

I was in a GT3 only split. Probably bottom as I didn't run a qualifier.

Unless VLN is different than other events, which I don't think it is, the split you're in is determined by iRating... the driver(s) who register, that is.

 

[Noodleguitar]

Unless VLN is different than other events, which I don't think it is, the split you're in is determined by iRating... the driver(s) who register, that is.

It is different. It's sorted by qualifying time, and lacking that, by iRating.

 

[Deb]

Oh, that is good information to have.

 

[Will]

It is different. It's sorted by qualifying time, and lacking that, by iRating.

^ Yes, and I'm pretty sure it's the same for the iracing Indy 500 too.

I drove MX5 in the 2nd VLN split because we didn't qualify. Out of 6 unqualified Miatas, we had the 5th worst team irating at around ~3340 and started on the last row, p53 of 54. I think only one of the MX5 teams that qualified managed a Top 5 finish, though.