Challenger TC | Sunday August 5 | Sarthe '09

Took a spin earlier with 3:54 being my best. Still not happy with the gearing but did like the results of lifting up the chassis a bit.

Tried a bit higher based on ^ and it helped a bit here. Only went to +10 from where I was, will likely try more next time I'm in it. Tune and time in GTData.

edit: Citron Yella with white NASCAR wheels

Tough to find the pit entry brake point so that you get caught by the computer but don't initiate a cheater extra fast run into the lane (running over the sand). I make this statement just to be sure that we try to avoid such things.

Indeed ^

In.

I'll send the (new) chat right after the thingy closes. Also I upgraded to Vitamin C, the black wasn't working for me.

Did a quali race in open lobby. Forgot to set it to +1 lap, so we couldn't see our times from the one hot lap. tim went to check replay for that while we (ie: g) made the DriverSports lounge up.

I got a ~13 second delayed start, turned out that just made it dramatic. 13.x seconds back first few splits lap 1. Passed the carnage of Agent/g44 lap 1 in Indianapolis. Caught biker before pitstops, traded the spot a couple times, pitted from ~7 seconds back and ... I guess 3rd as Rooster had pitted one lap early. My screen order showed me leading the entire time, so I wasn't entirely sure where I was.
I pitted right at halfway behind tim and in front of biker. Rooster took the lead as we were in there I think, but I passed him for second as he recovered from a gravel expedition at Mulsanne. That left ~5 seconds or so to leader tim. Got within draft with about 2 to go. He ran deep into the second Mulsanne chicane on the final lap, I almost followed him into the gravel (I am so smart, S-M-R-T) but managed the pass and made it stick to the end.

Live quali:
3'51.476 me
3'53.047 tim
3'53.498 Agent
3'53.751 biker
3'54.070 Rooster
(crashed) g44
(bailed due to insufficient practice) Juan

Race result:
39'51.188 me
+1.708 tim
+9.951 biker
+13.145 Rooster
+1'16.398 g44
+? Agent

You shouldn't have stopped, Agent.
That first lap incident wasn't your fault.
Three of us just made the same mistake - touching the grass while on the brakes.

Robiker, during the post race, I did see the mention of others touching the grass. At the time, i didnt know that tho. I was 2nd behind timney and after touching grass I got outta shape and rapped timney pretty hard. Good driving to hold onto that timney! Looked up to the map and saw spinning triangles all behind me. Thinking chain reaction from my blunder, I just pulled to the runoff.

After that I kept thinking my car was acting funny in the DSO Lounge. Brake points were way off from the previous practice races, even running by myself. Group showed kindness by waiting up for me, but I didnt really return the appreciation .... rapping his bumper at bad times.

I was just disappointed with myself as Sarthe is my favorite in GT and I've got more miles here than anywhere else. I do alot of night racing here as well. Oh well ...

I'll look at the replay. Wanna see how badly the group got seperated, and to see how clacksman came from so far back to win. Really nicely done!

See ya next time ...

AgentWD40_FL wrote: I was 2nd behind timney and after touching grass I got outta shape and rapped timney pretty hard. Good driving to hold onto that timney! Looked up to the map and saw spinning triangles all behind me. Thinking chain reaction from my blunder, I just pulled to the runoff.

No problem. I've done the same many times. For the next few corners I analysed whether I might have gone to my brakes too early, over compensating for the extra speed from the pass and luke warm tires. Was actually half glad to hear it was because you got grass.

Couldn't ever keep clacksman at bay with a 5 sec gap after the first stint. Rooster had an interesting idea, pitting on lap 4 to take the lead. I figured it was probably foolish, but interesting, nonetheless I hoped to draft him a couple of laps to try to keep the gap to clacksman, then pass him when I figured his tires would die early. He wasn't very helpful and outbraked himself into Mulsanne.

Even my replay thought I was first the entire race, it starts when all you guys are braking into 1. FWIW I thought about the early-pit to get back in touch but forgot until I was past pit-in on lap 4 - I had been behind biker through the entire Porsche curves and overdistracted myself with math (is my pace fast enough? how much is biker holding me up right now? where would my tires be after 6 laps? etc).

Interesting you should mention the seeming change in braking distances Agent. I sure felt like I hit my mark several times and ended up missing the corner by a mile. Figured it was just me not being on my game. That said, as to the "stupid driver" syndrome you mentioned last night, I have a hard time shaking him too. Seems he's always in my mirrors... staring back at me

group44 wrote:Interesting you should mention the seeming change in braking distances Agent. I sure felt like I hit my mark several times and ended up missing the corner by a mile.

Good, it wasnt just me .... well, not good that you messed up the corners, but good that someone else felt the change too.