Well, the first sprint race really didn't get very far for me...
Spun in lap 1 because I got onto the throttle too quick going up the hill after the chicane.

End of lap 2 Josh and CMU were having a go at eachother on the straight, after Josh ran wide... I decided I could fit on the outside...
What I didn't think about though was the frikkin' kerb in front of the armco and I hit it at 215 km/h... Needless to say it was quite a mess, and I'm sure that if LFS had rescue equipment, I'd have been cut out of my car with the jaws of life...

I still think I would've made it around them, but next time I'll be hanging behind them 'till the hairpin.

Sorry guys!
(and yes, as far as I know that's the ONLY way you can spin a car there)

Qualified 3rd, 1st race was crap, i spun on turn 3 (the right hander after the hairpin) on the first lap. i shifted down under braking like always, but i was only in 3rd gear not 4th since it was the 1st lap and my wheels rear wheels locked making me spin. Went to the back and after a lap or so had that crash with tag-force and cmu. I pitted after that just cause it's my reflex reaction after a crash, don't know how badly my car was actually damaged.

2nd race was just as bad, had to start near the back unfortunately after not finishing the previous race and then mikey pushed me off the track under braking into the 1st corner and i spun. He obviously didn't see me for some reason. Sorry samiad that was why i clipped you. Didn't hurt anyone too badly fortunately and actually gained me a load of places, but my suspension was buggered on the right side and i kept making mistakes cause it wouldnt turn right properly. After a couple of laps my tyres were melted loads cause of sliding and my suspension was even worse so i quit the race.

I keep making mistakes and effecting other peoples' races too so i'm gonna quit the uklfs league. Maybe if you run another league in the future i will participate in that. I think that if you do run a league again though, you should try and have a more even grid in terms of ability as there seems to be people each race who turn up for quali having never driven the track before.

Bye all, good luck in the league. thanks for spending the time to organise the league darktimes.

Quote :

I keep making mistakes and effecting other peoples' races too so i'm gonna quit the uklfs league.

No mate... Stay on... All you need to do is try not to be so damn fast... I know you can be fast, but then you make a mistake and ruin your own race... Just take it easy (unlike me in the first race), and you'll be just fine...

I'd hate to see you go, especially since the league is so well underway now...
Just race with us, and learn... If nothing else, you'll be better next season.

It's stupid mistakes from being nervous, like shifting when i shouldnt. I did the same thing in the other race. I'm not gonna be able to stop straight away and it's annoying making so many mistakes in races after qualifying well, so i'm just not gonna race.

What you need to learn is racecraft. If you see a wall coming at you, slow down and just wait it out, it's a race and you can make up the time later. Also, the reason why you spin out whilst changing down is because you have too many revs on the wheels so wait a little longer to change down, it also gives you better drive into corners.

Anyway, qualifying was a shocker. I didn't think I'd be that quick relative to y'all but I ended up with P2 after a close duel with josh and Xero

Race 1 was pretty quiet albeit from a couple of spins here and there. Finished 2nd.

Race 2 was more interesting with Xero hanging in there for at least 6 laps and keeping me honest in the turns waiting for a mistake on my part :P Boy that was nerve-racking! After that, it was time to think ahead to pit and secure 2nd place but when VIP got dc/d, I ended up in the lead. I tell you, I nearly lost it in the barrier when I saw it but I kept my cool and kept it controlled. The pit stop was hampered by rear damage from whacking into the wall at the 180 turn at 35 mph. Not nice! But yeah, so 28 points from the races Well done everyone and good work to Aircav for adminin' on DT's behalf

The first technical problems in the second race. My provider internet has joked.

I know why i spun... i shifted down when i shouldn't have and the other 2 spins werent my fault. i get nervous thats the problem, i had a mega high downforce set for this track and it was easy to lap without spinning unlike blackwood.

i'm still not gonna race in the league anymore though cause out of 4 races i've started, i've only finished 1, after qualifying 2nd and 3rd and i cba anymore. Someone has to beat VIP UA before the end though it's getting silly.

The stats are coming in right now, I'll post those in a minute

edit: here they are. Unfortunately, the stats of the feature race are a bit weird, dunno what happened there, maybe because of VIP's d/c. The final results are ok though afaik

Sprint race: stats replay
Feature race: stats replay

===================================================

Qualifying
This was by far my least well prepared qualification as I had focused mostly cooling my tires for the race setup. It turned out to be ok, was 0.5 sec slower than my PB, claiming the 7th spot on the grid (1:16.7x).

Sprint race
First off all I'd like to thank all racers for starting that clean, awesome! I was on the inside in the first corner and that turned out to be the wrong place to be, Samiad could overtake me there. My R2's (lol) needed quite some time to heat up, so I lost valuable time in the first few laps. Samiad, Bob and Xero were easily increasing the gap between me and them. But once the heat was in the tires I could close in on Samiad. Eventually I overtook him at the end of the start-finish straight Slowly I started to close in on Bob and Xero as well, but 16 laps were a tad too short for me to really place an attack. End result, 5th. The stats show how close the 3rd place was, only a few seconds between 3rd and 5th, now that's close racing!

Feature race
Since my R2's were holding the pace that well, I opted not to change them during my pit stop, and that almost paid out. The start of the race was clean again and I was able to keep my fifth position this time. For a change I was running behind Bob and Xero again *lol*, and after I got some heat in the tires I could make up the gap a little. If only I didn't make a silly mistake in the fast left-hander after the chicane. Got a bit of damage there, which effectively ruined my pit strategy. Got in the pits on lap 17, saw Xero in the pits (he must have been damaged as well as it was taking quite some time). Bob could pass him during the pitstops. I got out of the pits just behind Xero. Xero and I were closing in on Bob and unfortunately for Bob, he spun going uphill after the hairpin leaving the third spot to Xero and the fourth spot to me. After VIP got disconnected final result was 3rd! Second podium this season

congrats to VIP and Law, both raced excellent! And thanks to Xero, Bob and Samiad for the fights, this race rocked!

And ...
well, err, this was the last race for me in this championship. Sorry lads, I'm going on holiday next saturday for two weeks so I can't participate in the remainder of the series. It's a shame really, you guys are fast and fun to race with. I really hope we'll see each other again in the next season or in another league. Nevertheless, all the best in the remainder in the series. Oh, and please don't stop because you think you make too much mistakes. Try to learn from them and take it easier next time, be gentle for that pedal

Cheers!

Qualifying
Very close at the top. Can't remember the times exactly, but I think I was just a tenth off LawVS, shaving a couple off my pb in the process. Qualified in 4th place.

Sprint Race
Got a decent jump out of the blocks and maintained 4th into a very tight and nervous turn 2. Very nice to see everyone make it through (or at least from what I could see). Josh then span infront of me into turn 3, which sent me into the barrier, but I was able to keep 3rd. Sat confortably in 3rd for 15 laps then came to lap David when he span and I hit him full on. That allowed Bob to catch up for a nervous last lap. Held it though and finished in 3rd.

Feature Race
Got a slow start and had to go defensive. Was down to 4th by turn 2. I pulled wide through turn 2 and got a sling shot down to turn 3 and managed to pass Bob for 3rd again, and started putting pressure on LawVS for 2nd. My front right tyre began to fade badly towards the pit though and he was able to pull away. I lost ground to Bob behind me right before the stop, and it was enough for him to pass me in the pits. I had too much time in there, spent fixing damage. Bob made a mistake though and I managed to regain 3rd place once again. Was comfortably in 3rd when VIP UA unfortunately got disconnected. Up to 2nd nevertheless. Towards the end of the race my front right began to fade again, even worse than before and I was understeering terribly through the last and second turns. That allowed Jag to catch up on me, but I held out to finish 2nd.

Overall pleased with the results. I think I was too conservative with my race pace, but it seems to have payed off. Thanks again to AirCav for keeping control of things (where were you Darktimes?!). Looking forward to the next race. Great driving guys!

Sprint race:
Took it dead easy out of the blocks and lost lots of places. Passed TagForce and Josh as they made mistakes. A couple of laps later I was letting them both past (they're both consistently faster than me - no point me losing lots of my time trying to keep them behind me), whilst defending my position from Mikey. Josh turned in on me unexpectedly on the start/finish straight (I doubt either of us really knew each other were there), and my reactions put me in the wall gently (d'oh). TagForce passed on the right, clipped his kerb and spun immediately in front of me. He was slipping in to the apex under the bridge, so I went high. Unfortuantely, his spin changed direction as his tyres bit briefly, and all I could do was go higher - into the wall. That put me upside down and out of the race, though Tag and I didn't actually touch!

Having watched the replay, it's just one of those things - a chain of mistakes in a tight situation and some people got hurt. Standard racing incident with no-one to blame really.

Feature race:
Since I was right at the back for the start, I thought I'd just hang back on half-throttle for the first couple of gears to let TagForce go ahead. Again, no point battling for places and potentially taking each other off. In a long 32 laps we'll all settle where we're meant to anyway. Caught the pack again surprisingly soon, and started making my way up through the backmarkers cleanly. I got to a point fairly quickly where nothing much was happening. There was no-one nearby in front or behind, so I settled in to a comfy pace. After a while my tyres were showing the strain a little so I backed off a bit. When they settled I found myself going quicker and quicker to a new PB.

At the pit my strategy was "replace tyres if >50% worn". I didn't have much damage and they only changed my front-left tyre. That was a bit odd as it doesn't really get warm even around most of the track. Then after the pit I noticed something a bit strange - it was getting red hot around the mid-point of the circuit, between the fast bumpy left and the hairpin right. Then it would cool again over the rest of the lap. It wasn't as if I was locking up - the tyre was hot all over, so I couldn't quite work out what was going on. Anyway, that accounted for the excessive wear on it. The other tyres were all sitting at lovely warm green colours so I put in decent-ish laps for ages, slowly catching TechAde. I was only a few car-lengths from him in places on the final lap, but he held it together under pressure and kept his 6th.

Well done to the top placed guys. I have no idea how you can get through the final turn so fast. I got to watch several of you during the sprint race and at those speeds, my car would just push wide or cook its tyres scrubbing off speed. If you feel like sharing your secret for the common good, I'm all ears!

Thought I'd check in, but I don't have that much to add

Was happy with quali, the guy in front of me was under my PB, so I knew I couldn't catch him. Then drove to a nice clean, largely uneventful 4th place in the sprint. My laptimes were horrendous though, never dipping below 1.17!

I was doing reasonably well in the feature race (although again, rubbish lap times) and managed to take Xero with a shorter pitstop... But I got twitchy with him in the rearview mirror after the last hairpin, I wanted to block him (quite unnecessary as he was some distance off...) but steered to abrubtly on the bumpy full throttle climb and spun. On a straight of all places. I managed to regain control reasonably well, no damage but there went my podium position...

Ah well, just goes to show that racing is more about being quick under pressure than about being fast on a lap or two. Somthing I still gotta learn

That was so much fun

Practice went really well, watching the lines and braking points of you quick guys really helps. Managed to get my PB down to a 1:16.4.

Qually was also pretty good, although I struggled to put together a good lap when I had a clear track I managed a 1:16.8 I think it was. Anyone get a replay of qually?

The sprint race went well, although I was over-cautious at the start and was never able to make the time up again. Happy with only 1 real mistake though, clipped the wall (can't quite remember where now) and cost myself about 3 seconds on lap 9, but which ended up costing me more as I started to abuse the tyres too much trying to make up the lost time. The slight damage from the brush with the wall didn't help I'm sure. Held on to 7th in the end, which I'm happy with.

The feature race was even better. Got a slightly better start, managed to stay out of trouble and was shocked to find myself in 3rd before my pit stop. Dropped back down to 6th after my stop, but was pretty happy with my pace, my best race lap being a 1:16.8. The end of the race was exciting, as CMU was gaining on me and I was having to lap backmarkers (wow never thought I'd say that!). How I held my nerve I don't know, but it was a great finish with only about half a second between us across the line.

Quote from TechAde :

The end of the race was exciting, as CMU was gaining on me and I was having to lap backmarkers (wow never thought I'd say that!). How I held my nerve I don't know, but it was a great finish with only about half a second between us across the line.

Yeah, lapping people was a real pain in South City , I had some issues with that while trying to get back to TheJag. The backmarkers did as a good a job as possible though.

I was rubbish, had a tyre eating setup for Sprint race (had to pit twice for punctures, or extreme flatspots) so was rubbish in it - never got into a govve in quali either, no idea why :?

Feature race was stuck behind mikey for about 10 laps (Great racing, cheers man!) and then passed him and my pedals failed, no brakes or throttle

I think I suddenly appeared on the racing line out of the hairpin aswell for some reason, sorry if I ruined anyones race