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Post by tomlory on Aug 29, 2023 4:18:06 GMT
Looks like FF Weekend Warriors @ Spa, Sim Lab PCC (Mustang) @ Daytona and Skip Barber @ Lime Rock for me this week.
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Post by tomlory on Sept 4, 2023 17:02:40 GMT
From great to bad at the end of two races.
Sim Lab PCC @ Daytona with a chicane after Bus Stop went fine, albeit I got slower and slower as the race went on. My goal was 0X so maybe I was overly cautious. My left shoulder has been a problem, maybe that translated to slower hands. I ran more front bar than usual, maybe the Mustang lost front grip over the 25 minute race. I gave up enough positions to lose iR but I did but I did achieve the 0X so maximum SR gained.
Skip Barber @ Lime Rock was great under I caught a lapper with maybe 4 laps to go. Not only did he not yield but he BLOCKED me for most of two laps, including spinning to a stop in front of me, resuming ahead of me and continuing to defend for the rest of the lap until I was able to pass him going into T1. 5X thanks to oblivious gamer, gained some iR but lost a chunk of SR to the lowest level that I've seen in over a year.
Thanks to wins and good races in the first half of the season and atrocious ones that last 5 weeks, I still had the points lead in the <3000 iR S2 class for Weekend Warriors Formula Ford. My main rival Michael McConnell has been much faster than me, especially in qualifying.
The finale was at Spa.
I have been struggling in qualifying but this week was looking much better with me latched onto a faster driver from the top class and benefitting from his draft but continuing the theme of being kneecapped by others, a new and slower guy went off track and impeded the two of us faster drivers until Slower Guy went off again. Cost me what would have been my fastest lap and a great banker lap that would have allowed me to push harder in the 20 minute open qualifying session. As it was, I languished in P22 till the very end when I finally got a clean lap in to put me P12, three slots behind McConnell.
My race starts have been consistently good. Rolling start but I seem to be good on cold tires (thanks Historic GT and Touring Cars) and I've been positioning myself well. I gained a couple of positions on the first two laps and not much later find myself behind McConnell on track running P7 and P8 I think.
Here's my Weekend Warriors race report:
First time angry for me with WW.
Apologies for not biting my tongue during the race.
I've been nursing an unhappy left shoulder for the last 6 weeks doing the bare minimum as far as race preparation believing that I had just enough of a cushion to McConnell for first place in the S2 championship. I did a little more laps with the Formula Ford this week & miracle upon miracle I found myself directly behind & competitive with McC during today's race, believing that I had a 13 point advantage in the S2 standings.
Unfortunately, Master class driver Degasis got himself involved, inexplicably at the time but I now see that prior to the race he was 21 points behind Stevie Ray & 44 points up on Wolbodt & ahead of Stevie in the race so every position had value.
I was pretty sure that finishing directly behind McC would be good enough for me but after I passed Mike during the fuel stop and had an opportunity to put Degasis between us, I took it, only to get rear-ended by Alan at the third slowest corner of the track which triggered a drive-thru penalty for me. To my mind at the time, no reason to be so close with TWO top of 4th gear sections to make up time & positions with the help of the draft.
It is on me (mostly) that I had racked up 8X to that point but I had been managing it for most of the race.
In an iRacing official race, I would have let them both go, lesson learned.
Unexpected capper on a terrible iRacing Season 3. WW takes priority but I do enough official races to get paid ($8-10 iRacing credits) for Race Participation. Irritatingly, that saw my license plummet from A4.99 to A3.34 from no fault of my own. Without at least 15 hours of Time Trials to try to offset the SR hits, I'd probably be below A2.60. My patience and tolerance have been exhausted. Aside from probably A-license 60-minute races solely to get my SR back up, I'm staying away from Official Races for Season 4 and should be in a better mood come Sunday as I move up to Masters
I did truly end up second in the championship. It looks like if I had finished directly behind Michael, we would have been tied on points. I am unsure what the tie-breaker would have been.
If Degasis had finished between us, I would have lost.
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Post by tomlory on Sept 14, 2023 17:10:04 GMT
I ended the week A3.33 x 2797
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