I got a podium finish in Shanghai after starting down in P8. And I also got the Driver of the Day award. I didn't have the pace of the frontrunners, but I managed the tire wear better. With one less pitstop compared to the fast guys and some overtakes early in the race, I was able to move up the order. An encouraging result, especially after I had to sit out the previous round in Sepang due to connection issues.
I gave up trying to figure out the setup for my car in this series and turned on the Stability Control. Instantly the car behaved as expected, I could use the kerbs and take on the bumps without any fear that the car would slide or spin out. And then I felt relaxed, and I could go for the limit and do a hotlap.
But even with the Stability Control helping me, in race trim I was still around 2 seconds slower per lap compared to the Esperantes. They are just plain faster, having more horsepower and with lighter weight. Even in my test sessions with AI drivers, the Panoz was consistently faster than the other available cars.
Not making any excuses though. I know I can win a race in this series if I do my best and get help from circumstances. I mean, I did lead a few laps in the race, but only because the two guys ahead of me on the grid botched their starts. It was only a matter of time before I would get overtaken, but if I drove better and maximized the car's capabilities, I could have kept the lead for longer. In the end, I finished more than 1 lap behind the winner.
I have withdrawn from the AMF GP3 Series. It was fun racing against such a big grid and being seen on a YouTube livestream, but it was also frustrating getting punted off every race. It just wasn't worth all the practice laps to just get crashed by inexperienced and casual drivers.
So instead, I have signed up for Virtual Speed Masters F1 2011 Season. I return to the HRT team that I raced with many years ago. I've done a few shakedown laps and it's been good; except I can't figure out how to make the KERS/DRS plugin work. I'll just make do without it, even though I will be running at a disadvantage. I don't think I'll be at the sharp end in this series. Anyway, it is a long 19-race schedule and there will be plenty of chances to do well against a better grid.
OEL IMSA GTS1 Series - Round 1 Miller Motorsports Park
I was way off the pace, almost 3 seconds per lap behind the fast guys. This is the most frustrated I have ever felt trying to setup a car. I just don't feel connected to my car at all. It behaves so unpredictably, particularly over bumps and kerbs. It feels so volatile at the limit. The tail wants to snap and when it does there is little chance to recover. It punishes me for every error. And even when I get it right there is no reward; I'm still slower than my rivals. It doesn't help that the setup parameters have so little range. Minmaxing the values don't seem to affect the car much. I just can't figure it out. Looks like it is going to be a tough series.
Another crazy race in the AMF GP3 Series. I survived not one but two barrel roll flipovers to finish 3rd out of 25 runners in Round 2 at Bahrain. Damage was set at 50% but I was still very lucky not to lose any wings or wheels in both incidents. I was the second fastest driver all throughout, had qualified 2nd, and should have finished in the same position as well if I had stayed out of trouble.
Lucas Taraciuk took the victory and was comfortably faster than everyone else. He fought a great hotlap duel on the server against Magyar Janosh in the days leading up to the race. Unfortunately, Magyar Janosh (who set the fastest lap time overall after more than 500 practice laps) did not show up for the event.
A fair result for myself I suppose. You can't expect a clean race when it's just a short Sprint against more than 20 other drivers, most of whom seem to be novices that appear to be using keyboards or game controllers. It is still great fun and quite entertaining, but a lot different from the Endurance battles that I favor.
I signed up as a wildcard for AMF GP3 Series - Round 1 in Melbourne, thinking it was going to be a simple sprint. The car was easy enough to drive and I also knew the track. I didn't expect that there would be over 30 cars coming in and going out during the event. It was the biggest grid I had ever run with in all my years of online sim racing.
The Practice session went fine. I was able to put in some good laps and tweak my car's setup. There wasn't much traffic on the track, although there were plenty of joins and leaves, and much chatter. The chatbox was a constant, flickering distraction. By the end of the session, I clocked the 3rd fastest lap.
The Qualifying session was much more frantic. With over 30 cars fighting for a good grid position, there was just no space to do a proper flying lap. I couldn't unleash the pace I had found and qualified in 7th position. I could have been as high up as 2nd, had I been able to replicate my fastest practice lap.
The Race was full-on mayhem. There must have been an incident on every lap; cars spinning, bumping, crashing... and even some lag warps and stuttering. I got punted off early on in the opening lap and fell down to 24th. Mired behind the traffic, I couldn't push and had to carefully weave through the slower cars and avoid the numerous incidents happening all over the track. I recovered to 8th place at the checkered flag.
What a wild and wacky race, it reminded me of when I ran on public servers many years ago. It seemed more like an arcade game mad dash than a league sanctioned event. Maybe there should have been a 107% qualifying time cutoff or maybe an entry limit of only the 20 fastest drivers. Anyway, I enjoyed it, all things considered. Maybe I will try again in the next round of this series.
I was very happy to see good old Tripp on the track again. A long time ago, I was feeling low and was considering quitting all of this when I found Tripp's website and joined his league. It renewed my enthusiasm for competition and kept me going on this racing fantasy adventure.
