eye laws dug aim

 

OEL Blancpain Series Round 3 - Birmingham (250 miles)

Only 4 drivers showed up for the race. Due to the small grid, it was decided to go just half-distance. I got disco'ed on lap 32. As per league rules, I get the points for third place anyway.

continuous lapse

HRL Super Formula 2022 Series - Round 1 Suzuka

pic from Iker Vera / HRL Discord

I qualified 5th out of 12 runners, more than 1.5 seconds slower than the fast guys. My top speed was slower by more than 10 kph compared to the fast guys as well, so I must have been using too much wing. It was a terrible start, I immediately lost 2 or 3 positions off the line, and then I got nudged wide coming into the first corner. And so, I found myself in my customary last place going into the famous esses.

There were some erratic drivers ahead, so I made some positions back as the race went on. There was even a safety car period because of a crash or two, which bunched up the field. I was the last driver to come in for a pitstop and by that time I got up all the way to 2nd place. But the field was still pretty close to each other and when I came out of the pits, I was back again as the last runner.

I had a clear track ahead and I was able to put in a string of good laps. With some drivers ahead making mistakes and / or coming into the pits, I was able to climb up to 6th place. The field had settled in and with a few laps to go I ran wide again at the first corner, just plain driver error. I bounced over the kerb and spun into the wall. I recovered and kept my 6th place somehow, but the car got bent and I lost my rhythm. 

I was in limp home mode, and I couldn't stay ahead of the guys coming up from behind. There was a scary moment in 130R where we were three wide and I got overtaken. At the checkered flag I was in 7th place; regrettable.

tornado outbreak

 

Joined the HRL Super Formula Series preseason test race at Okayama and it was terrible. I experienced stuttering, lag warps, blinking cars... and I even got the dreaded RFE plugin DQ bug. But the worst of all, I was slow, around 4-6 seconds slower per lap compared to the fast guys. With more testing I think I can go maybe 2 seconds per lap faster, but that won't be enough.

So I am thinking of withdrawing from this series, but the admins are looking into the problems (I wasn't the only driver who had issues) and might release a patch in the coming days. But this league doesn't have a dedicated server, and I wonder how I'll be able to test the changes before raceday. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things work out. Anyway, the next round of OEL Blancpain Series is coming and I will focus on that for now.

fever coat

 

Signed up for HRL Season 5 - Super Formula Japan. Gonna be the second driver for Action Express Lotus. The lead driver and team owner is Balint Borkovitz. I finished 2nd to him in OEL WEC series - GT class last year. He is a fast guy and I hope to support him in winning the team championship.

I have started testing with the car and it hasn't been easy. More than a hundred laps just to get a good baseline setup. Now it is time for the little tweaks and find a good pace. I think it is somewhere in between an F1 and an F2 in terms of its capability. There is also a push-to-pass system that gives a power boost for a total of 100 seconds. We can use this anytime, so I still have to figure out how to optimize this during the race.

So far, ten teams have registered for this all-Japan series. With two drivers per team, it will be a big grid. It's my first time racing with HRL so I am not familiar with the pecking order. But most of the drivers who have signed up I have raced with in other leagues, and I have done testing or racing on all of the tracks in the schedule, so I think I can get some good results.