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Week 4
Jan 3, 2024 18:51:14 GMT
Post by tomlory on Jan 3, 2024 18:51:14 GMT
If I don't buy CTMP (Mosport), I'll be off from Weekend Warriors FF1600 but might instead race with them on Saturday morning in the Formula Vees.
On the Official side, there's Advanced Mazda @ Brands Hatch Indy and Skip Barber @ Zandvoort available to me. I'm still stewing on a ruined top split race on Monday so I have to decide to either let go of $40/year Participation Credit or let go of caring about iR and SR. Universally, it's always a human that ruins my day...
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Week 4
Jan 9, 2024 1:59:04 GMT
Post by tomlory on Jan 9, 2024 1:59:04 GMT
Patience and luck put me in almost full single split races, one with the Skip Barber F2000 @ Zandvoort, the other @ Brands Hatch Indy in the Global Spec Mazda MX-5.
Both went well as far as being clean but in the formula car race I qualified poorly with a slow "banker lap" and a wheel off on the much better second flying lap so I started about 16th. The standing start first lap went fine with everyone nearby being reasonably careful but a car spun in front of me a handful of laps into the race @ T1, which forced me to a complete stop on a early lap and I lost some positions. I made my way back to I think P10 but I still lost single digit iR.
The Mazda race was better, qualified 4th with a decent lap after setting a PB in the less than 10 minutes I spent in official practice. I dropped to P5 after a near spin, had an almost race-long nose to tail battle for P4 until I got balked by a lapper with blue flags waiving for more than a lap and my ***BLUE FLAG*** chat button not enabled. It looked like he finally was letting me by at the last turn but maybe no as he turned down into me and was seemingly got hooked together, slowing to near stop. I had to settle for P5 at that point not enough of the 35 laps left to rejoin the contest for P4. I gained 30 or so iR but lost 0.11 SR.
I can't get myself to completely let go of SR and iR and treat racing like a lottery but I am lowering my licensed SR goal to A4.50. The closer one gets to A4.99 the harder it is to keep it, with 2X or maybe even 1X being enough to trigger an SR loss at some tracks during 25-30 minute races and clawing back takes a lot of time and effort.
I skipped Advanced Mazda @ Long Beach Week 2 because there are too many corners at which to get plowed or get caught in someone else's mistake. Sticking to Skip Barber F2000 and Spec Racer Ford, being selective with tracks when possible and only entering races with a big single split has worked for me as far as a steady iR gain and maintaining SR. The Mazdas are riskier than the other two but are arguably worth the gamble so long as I minimize the risk as outlined above plus getting enough practice to be at or near my best possible pace.
I ended the week A4.62 x 2865 and kept Race Participation credit in play for Advanced Mazda, Skip Barber F2000 and Spec Racer Ford.
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