And we have reached the halfway point of Season 11 of rFactor Racers - Grand Prix Series. I am down in 13th place in the standings, with a little hope of making the top ten by season's end. But with the generous scoring scheme I have finished in the points in every race so far. I guess that is something to be happy about.
A lot of drivers have come and gone and the entry list has become bloated with reserve team drivers taking away many points. This trend looks to continue and I expect to be fighting only for the consolation points as usual in the latter half of the season.
We've been using the same mod for a few seasons now, and I feel like I'm faster in the car. But so is every other regular driver in the league, and I just keep my place in the pecking order.
Only Round 4 of Season 11, but the motivation has failed. I imagine myself as some robot or AI, putting in the practice laps, just to weed out the dabblers and dilettantes. There must be no duty nor deity. Sanction and senescence seems to be the same. (They're trying to kill me, you know!) My secret habits undermine their sorry existence.
Bollocks. So, I try to find the focus that eludes me intermittently. And like the snake that eats its own tail, I offer my vanity for any chance to win. Now you see the shame that burns all who persevere. Your clever witty answer to this blight solves nothing.
It's been years since I was supposed to quit online sim racing and go out into the world and live a life that is expected of me. And yet here I still am, feeling the FoF state as I await another race scheduled for a few hours from now. I have not changed at all, still smoking and drinking away, relishing the endless summer vacation, looking for some next level of discipline and skill that will vault me up the grid and enable me to win races and championships. I did get some sort of part-time job cleaning paintings and other artworks. But I am nowhere near what a guy my age should normally be doing.
I feel no remorse at all. I'm living what I dreamt of when I was a kid. Am I doing something wrong? Sure, I thought about getting married and having a family of my own, buying a house and a car and all that. But it was only for a moment, and then my programming failed. I look at my contemporaries and how they have gone ahead in these so-called stages of life. And maybe I do feel a little bit left behind, even if I sleep well, eat well, and enjoy my time. In racing as it is in life, I know I am a backmarker. First, second, third... or last, the chequered flag will wave. It affirms my despair.
All systems go for Season 11 of rFR Grand Prix Series. I'm back in the Minardi with no teammate this time around. The tires have been tweaked, with three compounds available (Medium, Soft, and Super) but the cars remain the same. Plenty of new drivers and it looks like we will have more than 20 guys every race so points will be hard to come by. I hope to keep this feeling of motivation through all 17 rounds.
The Teams
1985 Lotus #50 - Srdjan Marjanović #12 - Juan Caires 1988 McLaren #27 - Antonio Hreljanovic #11 - Gustavo Montenegro
2006 Renault #74 - Ste Mitch #43 - Igor G. 2014 Caterham #16 - Tom McKay #66 - Alex Hill 2014 Marussia #36 - Massimiliano Ribolli #4 - Jakub Rostkowski 2015 Force India #23 - Denis Belarus #2 - Joe McLaggen 2015 McLaren #78 - Kimmo Savolainen #24 - Nemanja Kovacevic 2016 Ferrari #19 - Arek Kulak #7 - Sven Dirks 2016 Red Bull #18 - Nicholas Ramacci #96 - Manos Mountzougiannis 2016 Renault #79 - Rosmak Valmar #10 - Gabriel Marcos
Two races remain in rFR Grand Prix Series - Season 10 and the Driver's Championship is already decided. Congratulations to Tom McKay on his third rFR Title. As for the Team championship, Antonio Hreljanovic and Sexy Brigadeiro still have a chance to win it for Ferrari.
Meanwhile, I am languishing in 17th place, far far away from my initial goal of finishing the season in the top ten. I anticipated that the grid would thin out by the last few rounds and this has not happened. 18-20 drivers still show up on race day and it has been difficult for me to even get to the final points paying positions. Seems like every week a new driver signs up, and more often than not the new guys are faster than me. I think I need to finish 6th or better in the last two rounds to move up the standings. It doesn't look very promising.
Probably my worst full season at rFR. Still, I suppose 17th out of a total 38 participating drivers is not that bad. Anyway, it will be over soon and we will probably move on to another mod next season. At least my reliability is still there, with my only DNF and DNP due to failed Internet connection.
Another DNF due to disconnect, but the race results show me in 15th place, and the admins still award me the final point. 1 point for just 1 completed lap... I'll take it.
This season has not turned out the way I anticipated. True enough, some of the drivers who raced during the start of the season have left, but they have been quickly replaced by new drivers. And they are all usually faster than me. About 15-18 drivers still show up per event, and scoring points are as tough as ever.
Even though I am about 1 second per lap faster with this same car compared to last season, I am still too slow to run in the midfield, let alone fight for the podium. Just something fundamentally wrong with my cornering, I guess. Maybe I brake too much or too late. Maybe I 'm not on the throttle early enough. Maybe just I'm too slow over the apex, or I turn in too much and don't straighten out enough. Whatever, I'm just happy to finish races at all. I'm an errant driver and a nervous person in general. I think this is the issue I must contend with before I ever get into the specifics of cornering technique.
With 8 races remaining, we are past the halfway point of rFR Grand Prix Series Season 10. I think I can still finish the season in 15th position in the points standings.
Only 1 point after three races. This is not what I had in mind. Where do I fail? Is it because of a lack of skill? a blight of substandard equipment? a quivering resolve? a force of nature? a ploy of the Gods? Whenever I try to drive fast, I spin or I crash. So I take it easy, I let the race come to me if it will. Repetition decays into expertise. So I thought.
This is my death act. Even though I am a slow guy, a career backmarker, a privateer just here to make up the numbers... they will revere me because I give up all I am programmed to do to be an online simulation racer. No prosperity, no romance, no light at the end of the tunnel, no glorious vindication. The years have been kind. I enjoy my sacrifice.
I look up, but the stars keep their place. And I hear music, and machines, and malevolence. I cannot ignore this cacophony. One voice in my head has a simple job to do: say her name. And with the power of my futility vehicle, I sullenly curve the time and the space to confirm my false persistent belief. Now I remember, I never saw her eyes.
All systems go for rFR Grand Prix Series Season 10! The league didn't open any slots for custom teams but I am not disappointed because I got the Minardi seat. Woohoo! I feel like I'm coming home, driving for the Faenza team again after all these years.
The Teams
Marlboro Ferrari 2000 #27 / #1 - Antonio Hreljanovic #11 - Gustavo Montenegro
Jaguar Racing 2000 #63 - Ariff Roslan #78 - Kimmo Savolainen
Benson & Hedges Jordan 1999 #36 - Massimiliano Ribolli #40 - Jakub Rostkowski
Orange Arrows 2000 #74 - Steven Mitchell #37 - Rodix
Mild Seven Renault 2006 #38 - Marcel Garcia Crespo #55 - Quentin L.
Red Bull Racing 2012 #81 - Jake Smith #33 - Dario Azevedo
Yes, it is a full grid, 12 teams and 24 drivers, and I expect the first few races to be jampacked. But I feel confident in the car, and with the generous point scoring scheme I think I can score in all the races, just like I did during my rookie season in this league. My teammate, Arek, is a frontrunner and proven race winner so I hope to contribute to his championship bid as well.
Antonio Hreljanovic is the defending champion and he has a capable teammate in Gustavo Montenegro AKA Sexy Brigadeiro. They will be running the coveted red cars of Ferrari. However, the strongest team seems to be Mclaren Honda with Tom McKay and Sven Dirks, who both showed ominous form in pre-season testing. Also, look out for Mild Seven Renault with Marcel Garcia Crespo and Quentin Lag. Expect them to be at the sharp end of the points standings as the season rolls on. Alex Hill, runner-up in the Driver's Championship last season, will pair up with veteran Juan Caires at West Mclaren, and they will also present a challenge. JPS Lotus with Joe McLaggen (who would have won the Driver's Trophy last season if not for an unfortunate disconnection) and Srdjan Marjanovic are this season's dark horse team.
The Calendar
As you can see, the calendar is incomplete, with the weather conditions still to be decided for rounds 6-17. In last season's wet race at Suzuka I finished 8th out of 18 runners, gaining many positions as some front runners got caught up in the changing conditions, so I am looking forward to more events with dynamic weather. I'm no wet weather expert, but the practice laps I put in for that event really paid off.
Round 7 and 8 will feature Detroit and Sochi, which are tracks I'm not familiar with. Otherwise, it is a good mix of classic tracks with some Tilke-dromes thrown in. It is going to be a long season and it is important to get some good points in the early rounds when the grid will be full. I expect it to thin out by the time we return to Suzuka, and if I'm in a good position by then, I think another top ten finish in the standings is possible.
There is this thing called earworm, where you keep hearing a song or a part of a song over and over inside your head. I get this condition a lot, but it is just one noise in the cacophony of my mind. Apart from the earworm and what my ears actually pickup from the physical world, I also hear various monologues or points of view. One of the most dominant of these speeches that I give attention to is a voice of opposition and negation. I call this elocution The Contrarian.
The Contrarian verbalizes all the doubt and uncertainty that has infested my character. It incessantly belittles whatever I think, or feel, or do. There is no escape, except maybe when I am able to focus on a simple, quantifiable task. So I fire up my sim racing car and I do some laps. Then there is no confusion and I find my peace running around in circles.
Congratulations to Antonio Hreljanovic, rFR Grand Prix Series Season 9 Drivers Champion! Congratulations to Joe McLaggen and Arek, rFR Grand Prix Series Season 9 Teams Champions! I only ran in the last five rounds so I only got a 21st place in the standings out of 36 participants. But I did score points in every race I was in. Based on that performance, I think I would have finished 15th or better if I had contested the whole season.
Onto Season 10, where we will use the same FSOne 2009 cars. I hope the admins open up the car setup menu, though. They limited the configurable options this season and I had some trouble setting up the car. I also hope to be able to enter a custom team next season, with my own helment and car livery. Thankfully, the league will return to the classic single race event, instead of this Season 9's complicated and gimmicky Sprint and Feature race format.
rFR Grand Prix Series - Season 9 - Round 15 Preview
I signed up for the last five races of rFR Grand Prix Series Season #9 and it's going to be a wet race this weekend at Suzuka. I haven't driven in the rain since many years ago in Crammond's Grand Prix 4 and completing just one lap is an ordeal. Variable weather in rFactor? It is available now with the superb RFE Weather plugin that rFactor Racers has implemented for the current season.
It really works... the changing grip conditions, the distinct performance levels of the Intermediate and Wet tires, adequate graphics and sound for raindrops, car spray, and tire skids... and if the rain stops the dry line (and its corresponding grip) slowly appears as the track dries out.
I don't know how I'm going to fare in this race. The added challenge of wet weather turns any race into a kind of lottery. There could be some spins and crashes, and if I can keep it on the track I might get some good points. Could a podium be possible? So the plan is to practice, practice, practice. I hope to put in some 400+ laps throughout the week.
