Quote from englishlord :

reminds me of this video http://youtu.be/khA67-r5lSQ

That's great. Thank you for sharing

In regard to other matters, I guess I brought up a sensitive subject, but I'll contribute once more. I feel that Vettle has a particular skill with regard to absolute pace and consistency of it relative to the car which is under him. However, the way that he gets pace out of the car seems lesser when he is behind another competitor (aero-understeer). Also, it seems to wear tires (tyres) more so than others in equal equipment.

Perhaps Riccardo's style allows him to pull very similar speed from equal equipment while being easier on tires (tyres). I do feel that Vettle will adapt slowly, but I also feel that Riccardo will maintain an advantage over his more experienced teammate in tire (tyre) management. Natural talent and understanding in a racing area is almost always able to out pace adaptation skills.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm attempting to gain an understanding of this year's engine chages:

1: More power and torque from the engine with approximately the same weight.
2: Lower top speeds and lap times.

I loved hearing and watching the Red Bull teammates battle even though it was short. I've never liked the idea of team orders, but in the end it cost Riccardo a podium I believe.

Vettle's driving style doesn't suit the new regulations, or he has yet to adapt to them. Riccardo has hardly driven in formula 1, so he has nothing relearn. It's easier to learn than relearn, and I think that's showing. Riccardo beat Vettle in China simply by maintaining better tire (tyre) wear. At the start Vettle did have better pace than his younger teammate.

China wasn't close to Bahrain, but it wasn't bad.

Quote from JackDaMaster :

They have more ultimate horsepower and 4x more torque than last year

Wow, I guess I was not aware of that.

I watched the first half and the last quarter of the race. This was the best F1 race I've seen (I've not been around the sport for very long, sadly). There were battles all race long for almost every position. The lower powered motors (as I'd expected) do seem to improve the quality of racing.

Hard to believe how dominant the Mercedes team is, but that's fairly common. Hopefully somebody will be able to catch up to them by the end of the year.

There are a little more than 20 minutes left in qualifying, and he have a large crowd on the server. This is leading to a large number of drivers who do not know what it happening joining the server. For this reason I'm putting the password on the server early.

The password is: runforthehills

It will remain until the end of the race. Race is in about a half hour. There's still time to put down a qualifying lap

Just a little under 2 hours left in qualifying. After (the real) Formula 1 qualifying is over come out and get some practice in before the race and try to get a good lap time in

Qualifying has just kicked off. This session will be open for all and last 4 hours. At the end of the 4 hour session the race will start. Chat will remain open at all times during qualifying.

Don't change your driver name once you have turned a lap in qualifying please.

Have fun

We will be having an open testing day today on [WR] South City Grand Prix. There will not be a password until qualifying ends. DO NOT Change your driver name after turning a qualifying lap!

Car: BF1
Track: SO5
Qualifying: Starts at 13:30 GMT | Ends at 17:30 GMT
Race: 40 laps (around 1 min. per lap) Starting at 17:40 GMT

Drivers will not be required to have a special racer name in this event. Come out and have some fun today while helping us test for a possible Formula 1 South City Grand Prix

Safety Car rules will be determined prior to the start of the event. They will not be those used in other [WR] events. They will be much simpler. Restarts will be single file.

Missed the first race for the Cup race in Martinsville which I attended in person. I should be on board for the rest though

I've decided to skip Indy (this year) and go to Mid-Ohio since it's only a 90 minute drive vs. 4 hours. Has anybody been there before? Advise? (My family didn't follow road racing, so I've never attended a road race before.. I'm determined to change that ).

I just got back from Martinsville for the Truck/Cup race on Monday evening. I must say that the Cup race was (in my opinion) the best race that I've ever seen in person. (which to me is always better than on TV)

No fake cautions, which means 0 since the mistake at Bristol (2 races). Maybe that was the best thing that could have happened, ironically.

I think the elimination of the ride height rule may have made the racing better than I estimated that it would. The spoiler likely had no effect at Martinsville, nor the splitter, so that's really the only other change that would have effected this track/race.

I enjoyed Martinsville more than Bristol as far as the track and view. Atmosphere I don't believe can be beat by any, but that's not very important to me.

What Days/times would everybody like to see? I'm likely to be available on Saturday afternoons, but I can see about other days/times.

Quote from RandomnessInside :

FE24. Didn't see that coming.

K21 and FE2 would work well though. Just not sure what kind of chicane it has, but the one we had in our version wasn't that bad. :P We also included the oval section and it should be included now as well.

The oval section is good, and the Corny chicane isn't much different. But, since we might do F24, I'd rather just keep it traditional. If we don't do F24 it would be a better choice

I made some tweaks as suggested. The reason for the odd Race #1 points was the invert in 5's. I changed to inverting top 8 only, and normalized race #1's points (while adding sandbagging disincentives as well). Endurance is hardly a factor in the MRT, so a longer race is simply to allow the disadvantaged drivers who did well in race 1 time to make up lost time. The longer race will be able to hold excitement to competitors for this reason when a normal race starting grid would not.

I'll begin working on a schedule when I get back from Martinsville and get midterms off my plate

In the mean time, suggest some short tracks to race on. I'm looking only at short tracks with as many passing opportunities as possible (not flipping opportunities though )

Edit: Some round track/lap options:

AS1: 9 & 18 laps
AS2: 8 & 16 laps
SO1: 12 & 24 laps
SO5R: 6 & 12 laps
K21: 7 & 14 laps
F24: 40 & 80 laps
FE2: 8 & 16 laps (With Cornys Chicane)

Last edited by Cornys, Thu, 27 Mar 2014 01:46.

Thanks for the help guys. I think I'll got to the Road Race with general admission. I might consider attending the Indy 500 on the same ticket (general admission) if my work remains steady.

Why not just grind the back stretch to smooth it out? Done

Why is Fontana great now? Increased drag to close in straights coupled with a track wide enough to allow aero-tight to be negated by running a different line.

Really good race. I'm headed off to Martinsville Friday morning for the Truck & Cup races . Middle of turn 1 3/4 of the way up. Never been to the track before.

I've been thinking this over. How does this format sound?

Group Qualifying: 10 min.
Race #1 (Direct from qualifying): ~10 min
Race #2 (Invert top 8*): ~20 min

* - Invert top 8 means that the starting grid for race #2 would be as follows.

8th place in round #1
7th
6th
5th
4th
3rd
2nd
1st
9th
10th
11th
12th
(Ect.)

Race# 1 points
1st - 30
2nd - 25
3rd - 22
4th - 19
5th - 16
6th - 14
7th - 12
8th - 10
9th - 8
10th - 5
11th - 4
12th - 3
13th - 2
14th - 1
Others - 0

Race #2 points
1st - 50
2nd - 40
3rd - 35
4th - 30
5th - 25
6th - 22
7th - 20
8th - 18
9th - 16
10th - 14
11th - 12
12th - 10
13th - 8
14th - 6
15th - 4
16th - 3
17th - 2
18th - 1
Others - 0

Last edited by Cornys, Thu, 27 Mar 2014 01:20. Reason : Taking some suggestions into consideration

Quote from ChristijaNL :

Great race today. Oval racing at its best.

Yes, two reasons.

1. Near terminal velocity on the straightaways.

2. Low grip level in the corners

Fake yellows were (arguably) non-existent (I only watched last 20 laps or so)

I understand that the at track experience suffers greatly with the new motors, but I think that once the teams become acclimated to the new engine package that the racing will be much improved for a TV audience (which is where the majority of income is obtained in today's motor racing environment).

I enjoyed Sundays race despite the engine failures. I thought that it was in all a pretty good race.

On a side note, maybe silence would be better. Tires squealing, crowds cheering. The atmosphere would be more pure, but clearly something would be missing unless a rumble / shaking was still achieved (which would be most awesome) . How to do this? You can't (with today's technology)

I'm seriously considering making the 2.5 hour trip to Indy for the Indy GP this May. General Admission is 25$. A seat in T1 area (T4 of oval) is 51$. Which is the better deal, or does it depend? I'd be taking my GF, so I guess the question is if the 52$ more is worth the reserved seat for the both of us. Neither of us would object to walking for the entire day.

In other news, I've made a pretty serious commitment to trying to follow this series more than ever. I'm hoping (since the racing is better in IndyCar already) that I will like it enough to forget about the crap that NASCAR's national series' have become

Quote from IsaacPrice :

Doesn't count if you don't watch it live, you muricans have it easy

I hate watching things recorded, but those rounds from 2 - 4 AM are not worth it.

I think I'll make the commitment to follow this season from start to finish this year. Personally, I think the smaller engine will make the racing a good bit better (at the price of in-person atmosphere I'm afraid, but I've never been to an F1 race sadly).

I will be disappointed to see the final race come down to double points, but oh well.

DVR is set to record at 2AM next Sunday morning local time

Las Vegas... worst races of the year. NASCAR loves going there though. Phoenix TV ratings were the lowest for the 2nd race of the season since Rockingham in 2000.

Yesterday's Nationwide race was bad. It displayed how thin the Nationwide series is now. It took only about 55 laps for less than 10 cars to be left on the lead lap. 15th place finished 3 laps down.

Now, lets see if NASCAR knows what it's doing. If NASCAR cannot make their 1.5 mile track package better, we're in for another LONG and dis-interesting year. More speed, more downforce. Sounds like something great for racing . Looks like Phoenix tells us what the fans think about the off-seasons changes. We'll see if that trend continues.

Edit: If NASCAR wanted to promote a sport rather than a show I, and thousands of other fans, wouldn't be complaining about much if any of this. The race so far (90 laps to go) hasn't shown much promise. 22 lead changes last year in this race. This year so far: 12. Most this year have been in commercial or caution

Last edited by Cornys, Sun, 9 Mar 2014 21:09.

Something has popped up in my schedule and I will cancel this event rather than move that item on my schedule. Low interest, and only 1 sign-up. Sorry

Quote from Texpelt88 :

Crap, it's private.

I never knew that was my default setting. It has been fixed

http://youtu.be/lfhrPWxhrUo

I plan on running the 4th annual IndyCar 250, but with a big changes for testing purposes. Feedback would be appreciated.

Full Course Yellows will not bring out a SC. Instead, all drivers will activate their pit road speed limiter immediately when the yellow flag is displayed. (reasonable allowance of .5 second reaction time of course) The track will be cleared and then the green flag will be displayed once more. Pit road will be closed during yellow flag periods. Penalty for pitting under yellow flag will be a 1 lap hold at pit exit. Passing under yellow flags and running side-by-side will not be permitted. The driver on the inside of a side-by-side battle once speeds have evened out will receive the track position.

The 4th annual IndyCar 250 would be ran in April or May on a Saturday. This will allow it to be a good practice for the Kyoto 500

Bad weekend for me, but I knew this would happen before I made my plans.

I'll help when I can. Good luck. I hope it's clean and fun!