Monstrous Monza

Where do I begin...okay.

So after I got GTR2 reinstalled and done the driving school and a few course tests and the basic championship in order to get myself back into the GTR2 mindset (which came MUCH MUCH easier than last time, yaaaaay!), I decided to jump in balls first to the 2004 FIA Championship.

Car: Freisinger Motorsport Porsche GT3 RSR (NGT)
Opponents: Full (22)
Length: Full (3 hr/87 laps)
Aggression: Real
Skill: 100%
Physics/Tcontrol/Stability: Simulation/off/off
Aids: Auto Clutch, ABS (low)

1st Round...Monza

I must have started this 4-5 days ago, and just finished bout an hour ago. I downloaded a huge pack of setups for all the cars from NoGripRacing.com hoping to pick through and find a setup or two for the car (little did I know it was going to cost me later on)

Found a setup which fitted nicely into my driving style (lucky me!) and began practicing.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

For the first 3 days or something it was pretty bad. I began 4 seconds behind the slowest time in my class and set the goal to at least reach the middle of the field. The worst part was that despite my strong ability to push hard around the track, I was having HUGE problems with line.

One aspect to this game which differs from EVERY other sim I've played is the variable grip depending on your track location (which is realistic). If you stay on the proper line, you got nice gobs of grip and can push in relative safety, but as soon as you get onto the 'dirty' part of the track, it's bye-bye. In the old days I struggled massively with this, cursing the game because the grip simply seemed to disappear. (didn't realize at the time it was my fault :) When I watched my first full Formula 1 and saw vividly what happens, I knew that I had to work hard on getting that line.

Problem was, my consistency during practice was pretty abysmal, (and a factor which I didn't realize until later was also contributing), and I was having a hard time staying out of the gravel for more than 3 laps at a time. Not good, when you have an 87 lap race to do, and you are still learning the limits of the car and tyres. And to make matters worse, I had never driven on a track with so many cars, and so many cars which were much faster, and wanted to pass. It took me a while to stop freaking out about the cars looming in my rearview and figure out ways to let them by without losing too much time or line.

After a while I managed to qualify third in the NGT class which I wasn't quite satisfied with. Tried for another day or two to improve and at that point discovered that my choice of tyre was shoddy. When I found myself doing the same time as custom setup, quali fuel, and soft slicks with a default setup, full fuel load, and medium slicks, I jumped to the mediums and never looked back. I thought that track temp of 37C was warm enough for softs. Newbie :P

Managed a 1:51.1 or something which I was quite pleased with, still only 3rd quali though. Tried a few more times, got some more practice in, and then today I just decided. What the hell, I'm going to give it a shot.

Started dang well off the parade lap, manged to get first in class and hold it. I don't really know what happened, but everything kinda came together. Despite being heavy on fuel, the tires were working great and I think the extra caution I was taking due to it being the full race was saving my ass. It felt like the extra weight of the fuel wasn't there somehow, and I was doing 1:52.6-9 pretty consistently. The guys behind me weren't catching up, and best of all, by the time I reached my first pitstop at 19 laps, I had done a mistake-free race. That was the first time I had EVER gone so long without screwing up. And yeah, Monza is an easy circuit, but even so. Stfu. I was happy :)

Then the hammer struck. I was speeding when I entered the pitlane, and got a stop-and-go penalty. Damn. Okay, did the lap, pitted, served the penalty, came out in last 1 min behind the next guy. Double damn. Okay, time to work.

Slipped back into pace and things were going beautifully. I don't know where it was coming from but somehow there was still more speed coming. I posted a 1:52.2, then a 1:52.0, and then a 1:51.4 or something. The time between me and the next guy had tumbled from a minute and ten seconds to less than 40. Each lap I was thinking "Oh my god, if I keep this pace up I might still have a chance". It was really great, being able to do another 11 laps without incident, at a faster pace than before, on full fuel. I'm sure by that time I had just learned the ins and outs of the circuit and car, but it was the first time I had ever been so consistent and fast, and really put a smile on my face.

But it was not to be. That custom setup which I picked and had served me so well was the end of the car. The suspension was great, there was no way I could have set it up better. (cause I suck :) However, it was originally designed to be a 10 lap setup. I set the proper strategy for the fuelling and tires for the race but I didn't understand the effects of one crucial thing. Rev Limiter

Default for the RSR is 8400 RPM, and the setup had it at the max of 8800 for maximum speed during a short race and/or qualifying. After 31 laps, the engine just had enough. On the pit straight, going into the first chicane, it was over. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but i THINK that as it hit the limiter maybe 100 feet from the braking zone the engine just broke down. It is hard to tell in hindsight whether I downshifted too fast and ruined it that way or it just gave up while pushing it's maximum because it happened so fast and I was honestly thinking about the corner rushing up ahead.

The car stopped in the middle of the first chicane, and my efforts to restart the engine were futile. Looking in my rearview and seeing the steam it was pretty obvious that it was over.

Even so, I was pleased, despite not finishing. Falling out of the race to a problem like this was to me, an acceptable way to go. Much better than having to retire or lose places because of a stupid mistake such as running into the gravel. The stop-and-go penalty and the engine failure were little things that I had overlooked, and both taught me important details which I didn't know before. Best of all, I had done 31 EXCELLENT laps, close to half of which were done at a fighting pace, and my laptimes had finally become consistent.

So despite not finishing the first race of the championship, I am satisfied with what I had achieved. I'm a rookie in a game filled with professionals, and to be able to hold my own for as long as I did was plenty good enough for me.

Next round: Valencia!