munter Posted June 11, 2016 Report Share Posted June 11, 2016 Interesting report, thanks Quote John Warren Slotcars are my preferred reality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pedro51 Posted June 16, 2016 Report Share Posted June 16, 2016 Dang I can see me upping my aspirations once I get my track running. I have Carrera bits to get it going, (and don't really want to go on a spending frenzy), but............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRUNZ Posted June 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2016 Just one step at the time Pedro. First finish your track, then you can start looking at how to expand. Quote Cheers G "I am an expert at the top of my field when mowing the lawn". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRUNZ Posted June 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2016 Race report 18/06/2016 Despite I landed this morning at 5.25 am from a 27 hours long flight, I managed to open the track and race at 9 am as usual. We had again a full grid with 6 racers (Arturo, Colin, Jan, Mike D, Nika and I). Paul and Mike T could not make it today. Qualify Jan and Mike D were a bit late today so some of us had a longer practice session. For qualify, we decided again to go for a 10-minute session with all of us on the track. We started with a damp track and more rain was expected at the end of the session. All of us started with Inter tyres and less than a full tank. Arturo was the only one going for a 20% fuel while most of us decided to go for 40%. Getting the right lap was a bit more difficult this time. The fuel stops were scattered so most of the time the track was busy. I was the first to break the 8s barrier with a high 7.9xx. But it didn't take long for Jan to beat my time. Then for a quite long spell nothing major happened. A lot of crashes and track calls meant that while you are on your flying lap you might get interrupted by someone making a track call. Sometimes just inches before the S/F line. Some of us were getting frustrated but that's the name of the game. I had to refuel a couple of time before I managed to get a serious fast lap: 7.819s. With that result and two minutes to go I decided to pull in the pit and marshal my corner. However, at 1 minute from the end Jan pulled the fastest lap: 7.817s. At that point it was too late for me to jump back and try my luck. Mike D got a nice 8.119, followed by Arturo (8.223), Colin (8.251) and Nika (8.807) Qualify points: 5 to Jan, 3 to G and 1 to Mike D Race 1 We set the cars on the grid and checked the weather forecast: cloudy and damp for the whole race. Everyone put on Inters. As usual, I took it easy at the beginning and put myself second behind Jan. However, I soon started losing my pace because I crashed quite a lot. With 10 minutes to go I was already low on fuel and had 30% of tyres left. Given that I had only one more set of Inters in the pit and to 2/3 of race to go, I didn't want to put them on too early. Thus, I put on 30% of fuel and went back in the race looing two laps to Jan but still getting back in second place. Jan was leading but his fuel was low as well as his tyres. Moreover, he was now down to 1 damage point. He pulled in to the pit to refuel, change tyres and repair his car. I kept on racing, which gave me some laps in front of Jan. But now I was low on tyres and also with only one damage point left. Time for my second long pit stop. Once done, Jan was back on the lead with 2 laps on me and 6 minutes to go. I managed to close on Jan (mainly because of him crashing) but I could not managed to get close enough to try to take the leadership of the race. Race 1 results: Jan 25, G 18, Colin 15, Mike D 12, Arturo 10, and Nika 8 Race 2 For race 2, we started with wet weather going to easy in the middle of the race. However more rain was expected at the end. If lucky, when the time of changing tyres would come, the track would be again wet requiring only one tyre change. All of us started with Wets on. With the reversed grid, Nika and Arturo shared the first row of the grid. Nika messed the start again with the stewards awarding a stop&go penalty. Arturo got in to the lead and stayed there for the first 20 laps, followed by Colin Mike D, and I – all within the same lap. Jan got into some crashes and lost one lap on us. Nika was some laps behind. At around lap 30, Arturo crashed and Colin took advantage to go into the lead followed by me and Mike D. I was driving really well, managing to deslot only once, and closing on Arturo. After Arturo crashed again, I managed to squeeze through gaining the second position followed closely by Mike D. We were into the first 1/3 of the race, which meant for me a stop in to the boxes for some fuel. My tyres were still good so I just went in for a full tank. When I went back, Colin was still leading and Mike was second behind him. In the meanwhile, Colin crashed 4 times already. With one single damage point left, a single mistake would cost him the lead of the race. The rain stopped and the track was drying up. My first set of Wets were still holding together pretty well but soon I would need to change them. However, I want to make sure that the rain expected in the last part of the race would come. Others, decided to go in for the Inters. Colin desloted using up all his damage points while Mike D was in the pit to refuel and change tyres. This meant that I was now leading the race. Still with decent tyres, I decided to keep going to get as much laps between me and Colin, and also to wait longer for the weather to change. Sure enough, the rain came when my tyres were almost shot. I pulled in to refuel and change tyres. I still had plenty of damage points so no need to repair the car. When the pit stop was done, I got back in the race holding my leading position. Colin was second with still a couple of laps behind me. At this stage, with 6 minutes to go I decided to just control the race and to keep a decent pace to maintain my advantage on Colin. Colin did a second pit stop (and the last for his race) putting on new Wets and fuel. However, my fuel level was lower than his and so the level of my tyres. More alarming, now I had one single damage point left. With 2 minutes from the end, my fuel was at 2% while my tyres were still on 20% and I had plenty of laps in front of Colin. I went in for a splash&dash and when I went back into the race I still had 3 laps on Colin. Mike was just one lap behind Colin, followed by Arturo, Jan and Nika. Unfortunately, Jan had a very bad Race 2 with some mistakes (especially during the pit stops) that have compromised his chances to get more points. Race 2 results: G 25, Colin 18, Mike D 15, Arturo 12, Jan 10, and Nika 8 Bonus point for least damage points goes to Colin with only 12 used damage points. Driver Championship Driver E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 Total Arturo - AMG 43 0 0 0 27 22 92 Colin - Audi 25 21.5 40 0 25 33 163 G - BMW 43 21.5 40 25 36 43 225.5 Jan - Audi 16 12 24 15 50 35 166 Mike D - BMW 27 15 36 15 0 27 146.5 Mike T - Audi 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Paul - AMG 22 0 20 0 22 0 74 Nika 0 0 0 0 16 16 32 Makers Championship Audi 41 33.5 64 15 75 68 296.5 BMW 70 36.5 76 40 52 86 379 AMG-Mercedes 65 0 20 0 49 22 173 Although Jan had a bad Race 2, he still came up second. Coling was third, followed by Mike D, Arturo and Nika. For the next race, Jan get 5% off his tank, Colin and Mike D stay with their current tank levels, and both Arturo and Nika gets 5% more. With today points, Jan has snatched the second place on the championship from Colin. Mike D is third but only ~15 points behind Colin and Jan. I have secured quite a good advantage on my first position. However the fight for the second and third positions is going to be interesting. Quote Cheers G "I am an expert at the top of my field when mowing the lawn". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRUNZ Posted June 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 Race report 25/06/2016 Event 7 of our series is done and dusted. 5 of us got on the grid today. Paul and Arturo could not make it. Nika had something else to do. On the plus side Mike T was able to join us today for his first DTM race. Qualify We warmed up the cars with our usual 30 min practice session. However, we had to cut this short because Mike T had to leave earlier. So we moved on to qualify our cars. I set the time to 7 minutes and reduce fuel to 40% of almost all the cars. We started with cloudy and a damp track. But the forecast were for good weather coming on later. We all started with Inters. The qualify held no big surprises. Jan was again the fastest with a 7.783. After my second pit stop I managed a 7.839. Mike D today was on fire and broke the 7 sec barrier scoring a 7.991. Colin qualified at 8.033 and Mike T at 8.244. Qualify points: Jan 5, G 3, and Mike D 1. Race 1 In Race 1, the weather was going to stay sunny for the whole race. We all started with Hards, knowing that we had only a spare set of Hards and one set of Soft in the box My start of the race was not really smooths. I had some problem with my controller because the damn thing was changing lane when I was going full throttle. The guys decided to start the race from scratch... The first part of the race saw Jan going really well leading for almost 30 laps without a single track call. I was following behind in second position. Mike D had a good start as well but then he went through all his damage points pretty quickly. This required an early go to the pit for repairing his car. Colin took advantage of this and moved in second position. But after the first 1/3 of the race, Jan lost concentration and lots of damage points but still managed to keep the lead. Because of my smaller tank size, I had to pit before him and I also put on new Hards. When I went back in the race, I was last for a while. But then all the other had to pit as well. The first in was Colin, followed by Jan. Colin did fuel and tyres while Jan had to repair his car as well. After managing to overtake Mike T, I was second behind Mike D but he still had to stop for changing tyres. When also Mike D got in the pit I had the lead. Colin was following in second and Jan in third. With half race to go, I had to be careful on how I was using my tyres. Usually, I have 5 brake points but RCS is set to allow only for 4 brake points before adding extra wearing on the tyres. If I wanted the last set of my Hards to last till the end I had to slow down and make sure only to brake 4 times instead of 5. This costs me a damage point while Colin was getting closer. Jan was still not getting in the proper gear, crashing some more. Mike D lost too many laps early in the race and could not take advantage of Jan racing on the grass. Mike T was still getting used to the track (for him it was only the second time on this layout) and the car (he has not raced much on DTM). At the end of the race I was still one lap ahead of Colin, followed by Jan, Mike D and MIke T. Race 1 results: G 25, Colin 18, Jan 15, Mike D 12, Mike T 10. Race 2 For the start of Race 2, the weather was cloudy. Forecasts were giving some chances of sunny weather in the middle of the race but more clouds were expected for the end of the race. All of us put on Inters. With the inverted grid, I started from the back and took it easy. Mike D started pretty good and maintained the lead for some time. Mike T and Jan crashed a bit and this helped me and Colin to sneak up past them and gain some positions. Somehow between Race 1 and Race 2 I manage to lose concentration which means lots of crashes. Before my first tank of fuel was gone (which is around 6 mins of race) I had crashed already 3 times, which left me with only 2 damage points to go. My fuel was almost gone but my tyres were still ok. The weather was still sunny now but the track conditions were still damp. So I decided to go in for a quick fuel up and wait a bit longer for the track to dry up before putting my only set of Hards. By the time I was ready to go in, I managed to crash another time and now my tyres were gone. So I pulled in and did the full service: fuel, tyres and repair. This took a while and by the time I joined the fry I was really at the bottom of the race. But the others had also to pit. So while they went in for they pit stops, I manged to go up in the positions. Colin did only a tyre change and fuel so he managed to join back in front of me. To catch up with Colin I started using more brake points. My strategy was that given that the cloudy weather was back, the track conditions should deteriorate pretty quickly requiring another tyre change. However, although the weather was cloudy the track remained mostly dry. While I was almost out of my Hards, Colin had still more than 50% of tyres. So, I had to get back into the put and put on my set of Soft and fuel up. Colin in the meanwhile was down to 1 damage point left. We had now 3 minutes of race left. Colin was now low on fuel as well. He pulled in for fuel and repairing his car. he didn't change his Hards which now were only at 30%. After his pit, he joined the race still ahead of me but only just. Now what I had to do is wait for his tyres to wear out which would require him another pit stop. But the man managed to finish the rest of the race almost without braking and by the time was up he had only 2% percent of tyres left...the bugger! Well played, Colin!!! Race 2 Results: Colin 25, G 18, Mike D 15, Jan 12, Mike T 10 Least damage point bonus goes to Colin with only 9 damage points used between the two races. Driver Championship Driver E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 Total Arturo - AMG 43 0 0 0 27 22 0 92 Colin - Audi 25 21.5 40 0 25 33 43 216 G - BMW 43 21.5 40 25 36 43 43 271.5 Jan - Audi 16 12 24 15 50 35 27 198 Mike D - BMW 27 15 36 15 0 27 27 174.5 Mike T - Audi 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 20 Paul - AMG 22 0 20 0 22 0 0 74 Nika 0 0 0 0 16 16 0 32 Makers Championship Audi 41 33.5 64 15 75 68 90 386.5 BMW 70 36.5 76 40 52 86 70 459 AMG-Mercedes 65 0 20 0 49 22 0 176 With today score, Colin snatches the second place in the championship from Jan. However, there are only 18 points between them. Mike D is now at 23.5 points from Jan. With still 4 more events to go there are plenty of points for keeping things interesting. For the nest race, G and Colin should get 5% off their tank but they are at the lowest so no changes. Mike D and Jan stay the same. Mike T gets 5% more. Quote Cheers G "I am an expert at the top of my field when mowing the lawn". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRUNZ Posted July 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 Race report 2/07/16 Another fantastic morning racing these fantastic DTM cars. The weather was record-cold tonight for New Zealand and Auckland. We got -2 C during the night. The track was quite cold but I had done a good job cleaning it with the sponge tyres of my conti. ;-) Low turnout today, with only 5 of us making it. Mike D, Jan, and Arturo had other plans for the weekend. Everyone was on time so we started our session of 20 min Practice for warming up the cars and tyres. The tyres got soon plenty of grips (maybe residues from the scaleauto sponge cleaner) and the times were really good. We decide to move on to our qualify session. Qualify We went again for 6 min qualify with all of us on the track. I put 30% of fuel on my car, while most of the other guys went for 40%. Weather conditions looked a bit dull with overcast conditions and damp track, and heavy rain expected for the end of the session. We all stared with Inters and lined up in the pitlane for the lights to go green. The cars had good grip so we were travelling at reasonable speed but also with many crashes and track calls. This means that a couple of time I had to abort my fast lap attempt when I hear a car crashing with the immediate track call being issued. Colin got some decent laps and was leading the qualify. I was running out of fuel so I decided to pit with just 3 minutes to go. I put again 30% of fuel and went back on the track. This time I was lucky and managed a couple of good laps getting a 7.8. However, I knew that this was in the range of Colin’s Audi so I kept going for a little while. We also had now rain and the track was getting wetter. After another couple of hot laps I managed a 7.698 and decided to call it a day. At this stage we had less than two minutes to go with a wet track…no way Colin was going to snatch my pole position. Colin best attempt was a decent 7.929, followed by Paul at 8.307, Mike T at 8.342 and Nika with 8.619. With our grid set, we were ready for the first race of the day. Qualify points: G 5, Colin 3, Paul 1 Race 1 The weather conditions didn’t change for Race 1. Track was damp and more rain was later in the race. But when the rain would come? No one risked big and all of us went for Inters. I was again in the pole but this time I kept my cool. My start was not brilliant as I let Colin go first, but I immediately changed lane moving in my favourite one and set a nice pace behind him. We started to get some traffic after 10 laps but managed to go through without big issues. The most difficult one to overtake was Paul. His car has improved from qualify and I also changed his throttle profile to a softer one. So I just sit there behind in waiting for my change to overtake. In the meanwhile, Colin managed to sneak ahead and was putting some distance between us. My only opportunity came when Paul crashed I managed to go through his car without getting stuck behind it. However, now I was running low on fuel. Colin was pushing hard and managed to get almost out of damage points while I haven’t crash even once. When he pulled into the pit, he had to fuel and repair. In the meanwhile, the track was getting wet now and our Inters had lost their grip. So he had to change tyres as well. I staid a bit longer on the track although now I was almost out of fuel and my tyres were almost to 0. I went for the pits when I had run out of fuel (yeah I know…how can the car move if it is out of fuel?) and did fuel and put on Wets. Because Colin had to repair his car, when I went back in I had two laps in front of him. The rest of the race was quite easy. No big issues for me and no deslots, just controlling my pace. However, after a track call, I lost sight of my car and I decided that Nica’s M4 was mine! Looking at it when the track cleared I floored like devil was behind me…but the moment I realised that I was looking at the wrong car…BANG! My M3 took off the track like a F15 and smacked on the garage door and slammed hard on the concrete floor!!!! SCHEEEEEIIIISSE!!!!! A track call and 1 damage point later, I went to collect the car or its pieces. But to my surprise no apparent damage was done. The wing came loose and one braid was a bit off, but apart from that it was ok. I put back on the track and it was still going hard as before…I would not say better to avoid that other will start smacking their cars on my garage door to improve their performance ;-) I stayed on the lead for the rest of the race, while Colin was fighting with his brother Paul for the second position. However, Colin got the best. Paul was third, followed by Mike T and Nika. Race 1 results: G 25, Colin 18, Paul 15, Mike T 12, Nika 10. Race 2 We set the cars on the grid in reverse order from Race 1 results. Weather was again cloudy but there were good chances of sunny weather for the central part of the race. However, more clouds were expected at the end of the race. We all went for Inters hoping that the track would stay damp until the first pit stop. I started from the back of the grid so I went for a soft start waiting for the right time to attack. However, Mike T audi went straight for the scenery on corner 1 (I must say this is my fault as I had changed his throttle profile…sorry Mike!). He took Nika with him while Paul, Colin and I went through. Paul set a very good pace with both Colin and I on the boot handle of his Merc. However, Colin fell off the pace and crashed and left me in second place. I gained on Paul putting pressure on him but not really serious about passing. We stayed in close for something like 30 laps. He didn’t blink (Paul literally does not blink when he is racing) and I was following him closely. Colin was following us but got stuck with some traffic and had some quite a number of crashed. I think Nica might even have nerfed him once costing him more time and damage points. Then the sun came through the clouds and the track started to dry up. I was running also low on fuel while Paul (having a larger tank size) had still plenty of fuel and tyres. I went in just for a quick refuel knowing that my Inters had more to give and biding my time for a longer pit stop when the track conditions were more stable. However, Paul decided to go in as well to fuel up and put on the other set of Inters. I went into the lead while Colin went into the pit repair his car, fuel and change tyres putting also Inters. This was a mistake for both of them as the track was going to dry soon and they had more than 2/3 of the race to go. I kept racing now in the lead, with Paul a couple of laps behind. The track was dry now and I was almost out of tyre when I went in. I put on Soft and did another refuel. The dry track was now getting its toll on Colin’s and Paul’s tyres. They were fighting to keep their car on the track and were running low on tyres. They went in to repair their cars again and to put now Softs. Now comfortably in the lead, I set for a nice pace, trying to brake only 4 time to save my tyres. The clouds came in and the track was cooling down. But it was still mostly dry. Soon my Soft had to be changed but even through the clouds were in the track was taking a long time to get damp and cool for the Inters. When I went in for changing tyres and putting on my last set of Inters, the track was still dry. I joined in and now my Inters were wearing at 3% per lap even though I was only braking 4 times and I had still more than 7 minutes to go. Damn! Finally when I was at around 60% of tyres, the track conditions went to damp and the tyre wearing went down to 1% per lap provide that I didn’t brake more than 4 times per laps. To be honest, I didn’t have any reason to push. Paul was second now but 8 laps behind. Colin was in third with 2 laps behind Paul. Mike T and Nika had spent a considerable amount of time in the pit to repair their cars. With one minute to go, Paul had go in and change tyres (again ;-). Colin had his chances to snatch from him the second place. However, just when Colin was approaching the main straight on the same lap as Paul, Paul managed to get out of the pit and retain his second position until the end of the race. Race 2 results: G 25, Paul 18, Colin 15, Mike T 12, Nika 10. That is Digital Racing for you: you make a mistake in your pit strategy and it can cost you the race! On hindsight, I should have put Hards instead of Softs. But I was lucky this time ;-) Least Damage Point Bonus goes to Colin with "only" 18 used damage points. But Paul was not far off with 20. Driver Championship Driver E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 E9 E10 E11 Total Arturo - AMG 43 0 0 0 27 22 0 0 0 0 0 92 Colin - Audi 25 21.5 40 0 25 33 43 33 0 0 0 262 G - BMW 43 21.5 40 25 36 43 43 50 0 0 0 326.5 Jan - Audi 16 12 24 15 50 35 27 0 0 0 0 198 Mike D - BMW 27 15 36 15 0 27 27 0 0 0 0 174.5 Mike T - Audi 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 24 0 0 0 44 Paul - AMG 22 0 20 0 22 0 0 33 0 0 0 108 Nika 0 0 0 0 16 16 0 20 0 0 0 52 Makers Championship E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 E9 E10 E11 Total Audi 41 33.5 64 15 75 68 90 57 0 0 0 443.5 BMW 70 36.5 76 40 52 86 70 70 0 0 0 542 AMG-Mercedes 65 0 20 0 49 22 0 33 0 0 0 214 Next Saturday, we will be racing for our 9th event. After the race, I will go straight to the airport for starting my trip that will get me at the end of July to the first DiSCA GT3 Open race. ;-) Quote Cheers G "I am an expert at the top of my field when mowing the lawn". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRUNZ Posted September 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2016 Finally after two months (of overseas trips and endurance racing) we are going to race tomorrow. really looking forward to it. Quote Cheers G "I am an expert at the top of my field when mowing the lawn". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRUNZ Posted September 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2016 Actually I forgot to update this thread with the last report before I went overseas. Race report 9/7/2016 Today is D-Day for me: going for an overseas trip. Mostly will be for working, but between meetings and presentations I am going to race my first oXigen/DiSCA competition with the big boys. Despite all the stress to avoid leaving something crucial for the race behind, I decided to have the boys coming for racing anyway. We had to keep the schedule tight. This also meant no oXigen racing afterwards. Pity because the guys have all got their oXigen controller now and were eager to put them to the test! For the day, only 5 of us made it: Colin, Jan, Mike D, Paul and I. We started with the usual 20 min practice session while we waited for Mike D to join us. He joined halfway through the session and could spent a good 10 min with his car. Qualify We lined up the cars in the pitlane ready for the qualy. Weather was cloudy and was going to stay like that for the whole session. We all went for inters and reduced the amount of fuel in our tanks. I went out first and enjoyed some fast laps. However, Jan was always close or ahead. When my car had only 10% of fuel and 100% of power I managed a neat lap scoring 7.679. So I decided to pull in and put a bit more fuel for my next stint. I started the refuel procedure and when to GO waiting for the right level of fuel in my tank before going out. When I pressed the BR button, a track was issued. With all sorted out, the session resumed and I decided to wait a bit longer in the pit for the other to pull in to have the track all for myself. I thought that my refuelling had stopped…but I was wrong: the program ignored my command and the fuel kept going until I had a full tank!! With only 3 min left there was no way I could use 70% of fuel. In the meantime, Jan got a fastest lap: 7.658! Damn…. The other boys fought for third and Mike D got the best out of his BMW almost at the end with a 7.839. Colin didn’t manage to break through the 8 sec barrier (although he did it in practice) and got a 8.085. Paul closed the grid with 8.171 and he was very happy about his time! Qualify points: Jan 5, G 3, Mike D 1 Race 1 Although second, I was starting from my fav spot. The weather was sunny but clouds were expected for the second part of the race with chances of rain. All guys put on Hards, but I decide to put on Softs hoping that I would have needed to change tyres at the same time when the track would be damp. All the other decided for Hards. My start was pretty good and I soon set up a good pace. Jan was close behind but not fast enough to overtake me easily. After some good laps, Jan started desloted and the distance between us increased. I was having a good race and I was trying to save my tyres. However, after only 40 laps my softs were gone. All the others guys were in pretty good shape. I decided to put on my only set of Inters hoping for the weather to change soon. But again I took a bad decision. The track was still hot and dry which meant that I chewed up through my Inters pretty quickly. When I was almost out of tyres the weather finally went cloudy and the track started to slowly cool down but was still dry when I had to pull in the pitlane. I didn’t have any Inters left so I decided to go for Hards instead giving that the track condition was not changing that fast. The choice worked out pretty well because the track staid dry almost until the end. For all my bad decisions I was in the last position for almost 2/3 of the race far behind the other guys. I managed to avoid finish the race as last because Mike D had put Inters in his first pit stop and had to change them before the end of the race. However, he didn’t realised that he had no more Inters sets left in the box so spent a lot of precious time trying to select them from the pit menu. This allowed me to catch with him and at the end of the race I was 4th – worst ever result for this series so far. Colin and Paul started with Hards and put Hards at the first pit stop so they didn’t kept the lead for most of the race helped also by a Jan that was crashing a lot. Race 1 results: Colin 25, Paul 18, Jan 15, G 12, and Mike D 10 Race 2 For Race 2 we started in reverse grid order from Race 1 finishing position. This meant I was back in my fav starting position. The weather was pretty wet with lots of rain with just a brake expected during mid race. This time, I decided not to play stupid games and went for Wets as all the other guys. I had a good start and went on to the lead. Jan was a bit too eager and got a stop&go penalty for jumping the lights. In the process, he also rear-ended Mike D and we had our track call even before the first lap was completed. The first part of the race was pretty ok for me. I stayed in the lead without any crashes and managed to lap others with no issues. At around 40 laps, I had to go in for fuel. My Wets tyres were still ok so I just decided to do a short fuel break and put in enough to last until my tyre stop. Colin pitted for the same reason quite at the same time as me but he went for a full tank which cost him some one lap. When I went back, I was third behind Paul and Mike D because both of them had larger fuel size. Colin and Jan were behind me. I stayed put without pushing too hard to save my tyres and I was biding my time to get back in the lead when their turn for pit would come. In the meantime, the rain stopped and the track was drying. Now my tyres were low and I had to go in for my second pit stop. The track was damp when I got in the pit but I knew that more rain was expected. So decided to put Wets tyres anyway and fill up my tank. I got back in the race and I raced carefully to avoid burn out my tyres too early on since I had more than half race still to go. After some laps, the rain came back but the track was not completely wet until some more laps later. I was again third behind Paul and Mike D. I managed to overtake Mike D and I found myself in second place behind Paul’s excellent Merc. Although I was faster than him and managed to close the gap, there was no way I could overtake him without risking a deslot. However, soon enough he crashed and I took advantage of this to get in the lead. Anyway, Paul was almost out of fuel by that time and went to the pits after a couple of laps. At this stage the track was fully wet and my tyres got into the right spot. Colin was 3 laps behind and followed more or less my same strategy. I think he did managed to delay a bit longer than me his second stop because he used less brake points than me resulting in his tyres to last longer. This also meant that he had more fuel than me. At almost 3 min to go, I was again out of fuel and had to do a splash&dash. But it was an easy one as the gap between me and Colin didn’t change much. Paul maintained a third position in front of Mike D. Having lost 3 laps at the beginning for the stop&go, Jan was driving really fast to catch up for the whole race but this resulted in more crashes and losing more laps. Race 2 results: G 25, Colin 18, Paul 15, Mike D 12, Jan 10 Overall results: Colin 43, G 37, Paul 33, Jan 25, Mike D 22 This means that Colin and I since we are at the smallest tank size, we stay as we are. Paul and Jan maintain also their tank size. Mike D goes up 5% for the next race. Least damage point bonus goes to Colin with only 8 - although I only had crashed twice in the whole event but I am not allowed to get any of this bonuses. Driver Championship Driver E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 E9 E10 E11 Total Arturo - AMG 43 0 0 0 27 22 0 0 0 0 0 92 Colin - Audi 25 21.5 40 0 25 33 43 33 43 0 0 315 G - BMW 43 21.5 40 25 36 43 43 50 37 0 0 366.5 Jan - Audi 16 12 24 15 50 35 27 0 25 0 0 228 Mike D - BMW 27 15 36 15 0 27 27 0 22 0 0 197.5 Mike T - Audi 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 24 0 0 0 44 Paul - AMG 22 0 20 0 22 0 0 33 33 0 0 141 Nika 0 0 0 0 16 16 0 20 0 0 0 52 Makers Championship Make E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 E9 E10 E11 Total Audi 41 33.5 64 15 75 68 90 57 68 0 0 511.5 BMW 70 36.5 76 40 52 86 70 70 59 0 0 611 AMG-Mercedes 65 0 20 0 49 22 0 33 33 0 0 250 With two more events to go in this series and only a 50 point gap between me and Colin it means that I have to make sure to win as many races as possible until the end. Quote Cheers G "I am an expert at the top of my field when mowing the lawn". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRUNZ Posted June 8, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2017 It has been a while since last update from the digital kiwi front. After the Carrera DTM, we have done two more series: a slot.it group C and a Carrera GT3. Now we are starting a new one based Scalextric modern BTCC. I have to say that the new scalex cars are way better out of the box compared to previous generation. I still do not like the IL configuration, preferring a SW. But, if you know how to handle the power they lap pretty happy on both wood and plastic. Of course, we do not run them box stock: for one we remove the magnet, add some lead and then put slot.it P6 on the back. The race format is similar to the 1:1 scale series, with 3 races per events and balance factors for the top drivers. Huge fun! Race report 3/06/2017 Past Saturday, we kicked off the BTCC series. Only 4 of us could make it. Paul, Colin and Mike D were all eager to race their cars. Jan went up north to enjoy the long weekend. We got two Civic, one Passat, one M125 and one MG6. Here are the cars: My MG: Jan's BMW: Mike D's VW: Colin's Honda: Last but not least, Paul's Honda: Qualify For the qualify of the first race, we all started with the same power profile. The qualify was a battle between Mike’s Passat and my MG. We were quite close for most of the 6 minutes with less than 100th of sec of difference. With only 30 second to go I managed to snatch the pole from Mike gaining the first point of the season! Third was Paul followed by his Young brother Colin. 1 qualify point for G Race 1 – 24 minutes For race 1, I got to start from the front row still with the full power profile. The use of different SLTP would be applied from race 2 onwards. Weather was cloudy at the start and end of the race with sunny spells in the middle. I had a good start and got in the lead followed closely by Mike. Colin had a better start than Paul and was third. Given that the cars are all pretty close there is not a chance to overtake. So the only possible way is to bade your time and wait for the car in front of you to crash. Also the pit stops are very important for overtaking, as Mike will experience at the end of this race. During the first round of pitstops after the track was dry, I decided to just add fuel to last till the second pit stop while the others went for a full tank. This allowed me to keep my lead even though Mike’s Passat uses less fuel than my GM. The positions didn’t change until the second pit stop. For this round, Mike D forgot to check that there were only 5 minutes left into the race and staid in the pit longer than needed. Colin took advantage and closed the gap but was still behind Mike. Paul had also to repair his car so was a couple of laps behind everyone. I was too optimistic in my fuel estimates and with one minute to go I had to do a splash and dash but still manage to stay in the front. Meanwhile, the battle for position 2 was heating up. With few laps to go, Mike had a crash and Colin manged to pass him gaining second position. With time running out, Mike could only settle for third place. Race 1 results: G, Colin, Mike, and Paul. Mike was the fastest in race 1 (40 millisecond faster than me), gaining an extra point. Race 2 – 20 minutes For this race, we applied the SLTP to the first three of the grid. As first in the previous race, I got a profile limiting my power to 58 out of 63. Colin as second, got a profile limiting his power to 60. Mike got the third profile limited at 62. For this race, we started in wet condition but good weather would be seen at the end of the race. I had a good start but with limited power I could not shake the other two form my tail. However, I was not too slow for the others to overtake me. The waiting game was on. At around 10 minutes from the end, the rain stopped and the wets performance degraded too much too quickly. It was time for a pit stop. Colin had already performed the pit stop so I went in with some laps ahead of him. After fueling up to 70% and putting inters I went out still in front of him. Mike was trying hard to stay out as long as possible on wets but this costed him a couple of crashes to Colin’s advantage. When all of us did their pit stops, I was still on the lead closely followed by Colin (on the same lap). Third was Mike (one lap behind) and last was Paul. The situation didn’t change much till the end. Mike’s Passat was solid fast and got again the fastest lap of the race. Race 2 results: G, Colin, Mike and Paul. Fastest lap: Mike. Race 3 – 16 minutes This is the shortest race and if you manage your fuel should be possible to finish it without stopping at all. For this race we also started in reverse grid with Paul on the pole position followed by Mike, Colin and G. The weather was cloudy at the start but it would change to sunny by the end of the race. The start was full of drama: Mike jump started and Colin crashed on corner 2. This gave me second position, while Paul was enjoying alone on the lead. His car was pretty fast I could not gain on him. Mike was trying hard to gain the laps that he lost for his 20 sec penalty in the box. However this costed him some time for some extra crashes. Paul had also some crashes but I was not close enough to take advantage and go in the lead. With 5 minutes to go, the track was getting dry and our inters were going really thin. After all of us put on hards and some fuel, the situation was still unchanged. Paul was still the race leader, followed by me and Colin. Mike was still a couple of laps behind us. However, now Paul was with only one damage point left and I was gaining on him. Also Colin was pretty close being on the same lap with me and Paul. With 10 seconds to go, I made my move and trying to beat Paul on the S/F line. But my attempt was futile. Again the fastest of the race was Mike! Race 3 results: Paul, G, Colin and Mike. Championship Points: Conclusions I think Scalex has a winner class here. The cars perform quite well almost straight out of the box. With some basic tuning, you can get to lap quite nicely on the SS track. The fact that we can now use slot.it tyres is another big plus. Performance wise, big surprise here as most of us thought that the Civic were going to car to beat. Instead the long wheel-base cars seem to favor more my layout. However, the use of the SLTP will make things more interesting not to mention the pit strategy factor that is enabled by the use of RCS64 simulations. Quote Cheers G "I am an expert at the top of my field when mowing the lawn". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRUNZ Posted June 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2017 Round 2 Race Report - 10/6/2017 Finally, today we had all the drivers on the grid. Colin got a new Honda, because the motor in his previous one was gutless. I think he is happier now. ;-) Colin's new Civic: Practice We started with a 20 minute practice session to get a feel of the cars. This was important especially for Jan given that this was the first time his car was on the track. Jan’s BMW was fast on the outset as we all were expecting. Qualify We moved on to qualify. We loaded the SLTP based on the position in the overall championship points. I got the slowest, followed by Colin and while Mike and Paul shared the one for third position. Jan got the profile with full power. We put the cars on the pitlane as ready to exit from the pit box and hit the start button: The weather was dry so most of us put on Softs. The first laps I was really struggling to keep up with the others. Then when my fuel level started to get low I was making some interesting laps. With one minute to go I managed to get the fastest lap - 9.028 - so I decided to go to the pits. Jan, however, managed to best it with a 9.006. Third was Colin with 9.095, fourth Mike with 9.131 and last Paul with 9.273. Race 1 – 24 minutes We placed the cars on the grid ready for race: The SLTP distribution remained unchanged. I was in the second position in the inner lane with the slowest profile. The track was wet with rainy conditions, but the rain would stop by the end of the race. I had a good start, followed by Jan and Colin. I could not shake them off but Jan had to release his position due to some crashes. Colin’s new Honda had also some issues with the front being unstable and had a couple of crashes. This gave Paul a good advantage now moving up to p2. Paul’s Civic was also quite fast and reliable but he could not really pass me. My fuel economy was also good so I knew that I could outlast Paul. When we were almost through the half of the race, the weather changed to cloudy and then to sunny. The track was drying up but not very quickly. My Wets were still ok but I was almost out of fuel. When I got into the pit, the track went dry enough to be able to put on Hards. All the other guys that went in the pits before me, had put on Inters. Paul went into the pits before me, but he was brave enough to put on Hards even the track was still damp. After I put on 80% of fuel, I went out still in the lead, followed by Paul. At this stage Mike was running third but his Inters were chewing up pretty quickly. Same for Jan and Colin. Mike pushed too hard with his Inters and he went out of damage points and was forced to go into the pits for repairing his car. This gave Colin the opportunity to move up third. However, he was pushing too hard and losing damage points. With 2 minutes to go, Colin deslotted just after the pit entrance, running out of damage points. He had to go in for pitting costing him the third place. Jan was struggling to keep his car on the track but in the process he manged the fasted lap. At the end of the 24 minutes, I ended first, followed by Paul, Mike, Colin and Jan. The fastest lap point went to Jan. Race 2 – 20 minutes For Race 2, the SLTP didn’t need to change for the first three, except for Paul that now got full power back. The weather was rainy again but by the end of the race sunny and dry conditions were expected. Colin did some lead distribution changes in his car. I was starting from pole, with Paul on lane two. The start was pretty good but Paul’s car passed on the lane changer together with Mike Passat and this triggered a disaster: sometime the flippers move causing a car to move into the other passing car. This costed Paul a couple of positions and gave an advantage to Colin. We had a long stint (something like 50 laps) without any crashes so we were reaching the point where we had to make a pit stop. I was still in the lead in the same lap as Colin in p2. He had to pit earlier than me so I manged to gain some extra laps on him. When my turn for stopping came up, we were with 5 minutes to end of the race. I had to put on hards, but instead of starting fueling up straight on, I waited a bit longer because I was afraid I was going to put too much fuel. This was a disastrous decision. I came out with 30% of fuel still with half lap in front of Colin. But my estimate of fuel consumption was wrong. With less than a minute to go, I had to do another splash and dash which costed me the p1. At the end of the 20 minutes, Colin was first, followed by me, Mike, Paul and Jan. Colin car was also getting more effective giving him the fastest lap of the race. Race 3 – 16 minutes For this race, we had a reverse grid as shown below: I would be starting in 4th position which is on the slowest lane and behind car in p2. The weather was cloudy with sunny spells by the end of the race. At the start there was a big pile up: Mike was a bit too eager and smashed in Jan’s car, which also took off Paul car. This cleared up lane two I was able to gain p1 before the track call was called. Now Jan was in second position. Soon Colin would be sitting in third position, behind Jan and me. Although, my car was the slowest of the three, I had still enough speed to keep up my position. Jan, being Jan, started to deslot losing positions. Colin was now chasing me down. He tried more than once to overtake me, but without success. However, for this race, my car felt gutless and although I had a SLTP with more power than him, I could not take any advantage. Moreover my car fuel economy was really bad. Soon enough I had to stop for changing tyres and fuel up. Colin took the opportunity to do a couple of hot laps and then got into the pit. While I was trying to gain and overtake him on the pit, he got out just a couple of inches in front of me. At one point, he was behind Jan trying to lap him. Jan lost control of his car desloting really slowing. Colin was right behind him and could not avoid bumping in to him. Which basically took Colin’s Civic out of the slot. Happy news for me as I could managed to make a clear pass of them both. With 3 minutes to go, I thought that I had this race in the bag. Unfortunately, I also had a deslot with Colin right behind me. He took the lead and I could not do much. Actually I had to slow down because now my fuel was almost out. Another pit would have cost me even the p2. At the end of this race Colin got another first finish, followed by me, Mike T, Paul and Jan. However, I do not know how, I managed to get the fastest lap of the race. Huuh!!! Championship points It is still early on the series, but it seems that the competition will be fierce. Quote Cheers G "I am an expert at the top of my field when mowing the lawn". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pedro51 Posted June 17, 2017 Report Share Posted June 17, 2017 Thanks for my brief introduction to digital. A bit complicated for my ageing brain to take in all at once, but I'm keen to get home tonight and look at what is possible on my Carrera based track. I will look at my current aftermarket race program and see what is possible and maybe try Bruce Yingling's program which I think has heaps of possibilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRUNZ Posted June 18, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2017 Hi Peter Great to have you. Hope you enjoyed it. Yeah as I said we are a bit hardcore here, so I can understand if it sounded too complicated. But all of us started from there and had more than a year to practice and refine our pit strategy. I think the big change is also the long race format compared to the 2 minutes heats in analog. Bruce's program only support fuel I believe. Quote Cheers G "I am an expert at the top of my field when mowing the lawn". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRUNZ Posted June 18, 2017 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2017 Round 3 Race Report – 17/06/2017 Today, we had Peter (Pedro51 for AuSlot users) visiting us for a guest race. Peter had no previous experience with SSD and RCS64. Thus, there was a “bit” of learning curve before he got used to the simulations and the way in which we run our races. Practice I spent part of my qualify time coaching Peter to get up to speed with digital (lane changing and all) and RCS64 GUI (e.g., pit menu and dashboard). Colin’s Civic was in top shape as was Jan’s BMW. Mine was not too shabby but really hard to keep in the slot. Qualify We set the profiles according to the championship standings and put all the cars in the pit lane for the qualify. Colin and Jan got the best laps early on. Paul, Mike and Peter were struggling a bit behind. After I managed to have enough space in front of me without traffic on the track, I started to make some quick laps. It soon turned out to be a race between me and Colin. Towards the end, I got a fast lap just below the 9 second barrier (8.964) while Colin got close but not close enough (9.090). Paul was third with 9.216 followed by Mike with 9.245. Jan had problem with power and could manged a 9.496. Peter closed the ranks with 10.127. Race 1 – 24 minutes With the SLTP set as for Qualify, we moved on race 1. We put the cars on the grid with overcast conditions and damp track. But forecast looked good for most of the race. When the lights went off, I went for it resulting in my car crashing on corner 1. That basically set the pace for the rest of the race. My race was diabolical with lots of deslots that forced me to an early pit stop for changing tyres and repair my car. My car had a very good fuel economy so I knew that if I kept my cool I could outlast the competition. When I joined back the race, I was running in 4th position with Hards tyres and a full tank that should last me for the end of the race. Colin, Paul and Mike were up in front of me running with Inters tyres. Soon I caught up with Mike and after some tense moments I overtook him. When Paul went in for the pitstop, I was able to take his 2nd position because he spent a bit too long in the pits. Next in line was Colin. I tried to make some fast laps but every time I was getting closer I deslotted losing time. When he went in for his pitstop, he still had 2 laps in front of me which were enough for him to put new tyres and fuel up. However, he didn’t managed to fill his tank. By the end of the race and with only 2 damage points left, I was getting closer to Colin. He had overestimated the fuel economy of his car and it was clear that he needed another pitstop before race was over. With only 15 secs to go, we dived in the pit, put fuel on and went out while I was barrelling down the main straight. He just came out of the pit a couple of inches in front of me (again) by which time the race was over. Race 1 standings: Colin, G, Paul, Mike, Jan and Peter. Fastest lap: G Race 2 – 20 minutes With the SLTP set according to standings in the previous race, we put the cars on the grid. Track was again damp and rain was forecasted for the second half of the race. During the break between the two races, I put more lead in my car to stop it from bouncing around. I had a good start from second position and I got corner 1 before Colin but I could not gain enough lead to be able to bounce in the outside lane. So I decided to be happy to sit in second position avoiding to crash and lose more time. Although my car was now better, it was still not as planted as the previous week. This meant that in some corners my car was not behaving as I expected with the obvious consequence of giving me a deslot. And of course, Paul was there to gain second p. Through half of the race, rain start to fall and the track was getting wet. With the Inters already running low, keeping the car on the track was a challenge. Colin had gone through the pit already, and now I was running second behind Paul. His car was really going well even in wet condition and worn out Inters. But his fuel economy was not as good as mine. When he was almost out of fuel, Paul went in for fuel and tyres. I decided to take advantage of the extra fuel I had in my car. As I said, the conditions were not the best so in the process I managed to crash a couple of more times. Now I was down to 2 damage points left. I went in the pit and refuelled while changing tyres. However, since I didn’t need much fuel as the others, I was able to bank on a shorter pit stop and going out in the lead. Moreover, now the rain had stopped and the track was not wet as before. Thus, I decided to put on Inters instead of Wets. I joined back as second, with Colin in front of me, while Paul was in third. With the track now dump, Colin had to pit again with 5 minutes to the end. I got the lead but got another crash and was down to one damage point. A crash now would cost me the race. I settled for a nice pace to keep Colin and Paul behind but not too crazy to avoid any crash or to run out of fuel. The plan worked and I finished the race first after the longest 5 minutes ever! Race 2 standings: G, Colin, Paul, Mike, Jan, and Peter Fastest lap: G Race 3 – 16 minutes For this race, we start in reverse order from race 2. This means that I was at the back of the grid. Unfortunately, we had to restart this race 2 times. First time, I forgot to change the driver profiles. Second time, Paul’s controller gave an unwanted burst of power during the starting procedure resulting in a jump start penalty. In both case, I managed to have a good start despite being the last. When we finally got the race going, believe it or not, I again crashed after corner 1. I didn’t lose much given that I was last but still… This time I decided to race less like a maniac to reduce the wastage of damage points. Soon I found myself running second behind Paul. Jan had problem with the setup of his BMW causing a lot of crashes. Peter was running out of tyres too soon. Strangely, Colin’s Civic decided to misbehave for this race letting go in too many corners. Out of damage points in the middle of the race, Colin had to pit to repair his car which cost him the race. Mike’s Passat was going quite well for this race. He went in the pit quite early on and put more fuel and new tyres. Towards the end of the race, his car was in good condition to finish without requiring neither fuel nor tyres. But he was down to one single damage point. Paul got some crashes as well and was also down to 1 damage point. This gave me the lead of the race. Moreover, I was lucky enough to have no traffic in front for several laps. This widen up the gap between me and Paul and allowed me to set fastest laps. When I went into the pit, I just changed my tyres. When Paul went in, his pit strategist (me) got it wrong and only put in fuel. This meant that by the end of the race, he had to pit again to change tyres. While this didn’t gave me any advantage (I was already in P1), it costed Paul his second position. With only one damage point left, Mike had to drive carefully until the end. But this was true also for Paul. Both of them managed to stay on the track for the remaining 3 minutes. Race 3 standings: G, Mike, Paul, Colin, Jan, and Peter Fastest lap: G – only 4 milliseconds faster than Colin (8.990 G vs 8.994 Colin) Championship Points Conclusions It was good to have a full grid. The races were all closed and again won if you had an excellent pit strategy. Peter was so energized after racing with us, that he wanted to go home and fire up his own digital track. Below a pic of the full grid ready for race 2. Quote Cheers G "I am an expert at the top of my field when mowing the lawn". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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