Blue skies and smoking tires

Car: Freisinger Motorsport Porsche GT3 RSR (NGT)
Opponents: Full (25)
Length: Full (3 hr/126 laps)
Aggression: Real
Skill: 100%
Physics/Tcontrol/Stability: Simulation/off/off
Aids: Auto Clutch, ABS (low)

2nd Round...Valencia

So, things have gone far better than I could have anticipated. The weather is a balmy 22C and the track is perfect for the medium tyres. When I jumped out on the track for the very first time, I was having mixed feelings about it, but no longer. Definitely a far cry from Monza and the nice long straights and braking zones!

One thing that I learned decently in the past was trail braking, but this track put a whole new spin on things, literally! When I first peeked out onto the track with someone else's setup, I was afraid that it would take me much longer to learn than Monza did.

I am happy to say that that has not been the case! After tweaking all the major bits (soft->medium, radiator, brake duct, rev limiter, fuel, etc), I jumped out again and started to focus on the line. Once the tires started working things began to come together, and soon I set 3rd fastest lap in class! After that, it was just lap after lap fine tuning my right foot on the throttle, and trying to make positive tweaks to the suspension based on the little I knew.

If my problem in Monza was spearing off straight through the gravel, my problem in Valencia has been doing donuts in it. Turns 11 and 14 were probably the worst because there really isn't any sort of straight braking zone, and I'm not an expert at trail braking. But boy, you do learn to manage weight-shifting pretty fast around this track. I did learn a whole lot about catching the 911's rear end before it got out of control, something which I finally figured out (delicate right foot is the key...).

Turn 11 is still a wild one, cause unless I was driving quite conservative, it was the scene of some massive braking-induced drifts (few of which actually ended in tears, I am surprised to report...though my laptimes suffered, along with my tires). After bringing the ride height up to help clear some nasty creases around turn 7, and some real smooth throttle control around the circuit, I manged to get the fastest lap in my class! When I saw the 1:36.4 on the cockpit readout I almost missed turn 1 :)

Qualifying blew my damn mind. 4 laps out and a 1:35.137 pops up. I was shocked that I could drag out another second and some from the car. The devil really is in the details :) After such a great result I jumped right into Q2 and began testing the car for the race. It behaved better than expected even with a full fuel load and hard slicks, but I'm not sure at this point if the grip in those hard tires will stay as the fuel burns off. That, and 1:38 doesn't seem quite fast enough for the race laps (especially since I was pushing it moderately to get that time) Ended up starting with medium slicks on front and back with a 2-stop strategy for 120 laps (71L per stop)

The start of the race was decent, and I tried hard not to bump around too much. As the field spread out things began to go nice and smooth. I put in a good 17 laps, keeping the two other Freisinger cars behind me for a while before slowly pulling away. Lap 18 though was when I put my first foot wrong and spun the car around on track (not the last time I did it either :). After getting back on the road safely, a saleen decided to suck on my exhaust pipes in the next corner and sent me spinning once again.

After some grumbling and a 1-fingered salute, I got back up to pace and fought back to first in class before my first pitstop. After the debaucle in Monza I wanted nothing less than a penalty to add to my time, so I made my way up the pit entry pretty slowly, unsure of when the speed limit was enforced. Just as I thought I was in the clear a Lister decided to ram me HARD as he sped down the lane, sending me spinning and ending up resting gently against the wall.

Cursing him and praying that there was no engine damage at the same time, I made it to the pit box and began the stop, putting in a bit more fuel than I had originally planned because the car was gobbling about 5% more fuel than predicted. I also decided to try medium on front and hard slicks on the rear, because it felt decent in practice and my tire wear in the back was a little worrying. Tires went on, repairs were finished...but another small disaster struck. I had forgotten how to turn the car on! More precisely, which button was which (ignition or starter). So I sat there mashing one after the other until I heard the engine turn over and left the pit lane grumbling even more. Telling myself that it was only 1/3 of the race, I got set for another round.

Leaving the pits in 21st place (-44 sec) I started to close the gap of over a lap on my teammate cars, struggling to get heat in the tires. A third or so through the stint, I realized that my tire choice did NOT work as well as I had expected. The front had warmed up and was nice and grippy, but the rear was barely within operational temperature range and made for a few nice spins and slides around the track. By this time the grid had spread out immensely, and the AI laptimes were pretty darn terrible due to their worn tires. Even so, I didn't catch the NGT leaders until they pitted, cause the tire choice I made set my laptimes up at 1:40+, making every second gained a challenge. And I had to push, because I knew that if I could get a nice lead then my second pitstop would be much better timed than the AI, giving me a good minute or so back.

As I approached the pits for my second and last pitstop I tried once more to take it slow, this time watching for AI surprise anal rape. However, after switching back onto mediums and having another disaster with starting the car (lost 15 seconds or something screwing around), I was told that I was speeding and had a stop-go penalty to serve. What a load of crap...

After serving the penalty next lap I slotted out in 21st again, 2 laps or so behind the leaders...and for the next 43 laps until the end it was nonstop attack. The tires were brilliant and the AI was driving as slow as ever. I was outbraking everything I saw and honestly being too aggressive. Just 15 laps into the leg and I was surprised that my front splitter hadn't fallen off coonsidering the damage which the front of the car had sustained from all the bumps and scrapes and nudges. I blew past the other Freisinger cars sometime around lap 100 (17th place) and kept attacking all the way up to 15th place (over two minutes) by the time the end of the race was called.

15th place overall, first in class, and 10 points! Sweeeet! Victory dance time!

Looking back, I was actually a little disappointed with how the AI behaved. Sometimes, like when they were keeping up with me and trading seconds per lap back and forth near the start, they were great, but 10-15 laps on their tires and they were suddenly driving like grandma. My team principal was screaming at me about blue flags and I was screaming at him to go tell the other drivers to grow a pair.

Aside from that, my pitstops could use a great deal of work. I'm going to have to include them in practice so I know where the speed limit is enforced (I don't want my first hat-trick to be with stop-go penalties). In addition, I think that now I know the car well enough now to turn off the anti-lock brakes I was using to get started and open up that can of worms...which should be interesting at the very least, because Magny Cours is up next.