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06-29-2007, 08:05 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Representing Canada in the World Cup of Motorsport, a BATracer dynasty
Welcome to my newest addiction, BATracer, a browser based racing simulation game. I kept seeing these threads talking about BATracer, I knew it was a racing simulation game, but the only thing it brought to my mind was Batman riding in his batmobile, until a couple days ago, when I really decided to look around and sign up for the FOFC IndyCar series. Woah, I was first a bit overwhelmed but I soon fell in love.
I love the back and forth involved in trying to find the perfect setup for your car. While the FOFC IndyCar relies on teamwork, this dynasty here will be and only me, by myself, a Canadian against the world! Yes, while most racing series in BATracer relie on teamwork to find the perfect setup, this one is a special one. One driver per country, no team, no excuses... Identical cars, everyone with the same chassis, engine, tires... By myself, can I cut it against the rest of the world? Stay tuned to find out... FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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06-29-2007, 08:37 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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This BATracer season is set to replicate the real life A1GP, also known as the World Cup of Motorsport.
Here are some information as to how the series will work. Qualifying: A 60 minute qualifying session with up to 3 laps per car. Sprint Race: Qualifying decides the order for the short Sprint race. The sprint race consists of a rolling start and no pitting. Qualifying 2: There is no 2nd qualifying - results of the sprint race decide the qualifying order for the "Feature" race! Feature Race: Considerably longer than the sprint race, there is no refuelling, but each car must make one stop and change tyres. The race begins with a standing start. Points will be awarded for each race, be it a sprint or a feature race, as per the following table: 1st - 10 2nd - 9 3rd - 8 4th - 7 5th - 6 6th - 5 7th - 4 8th - 3 9th - 2 10th - 1 Also, an additional point is awarded during each race (sprint or feature race) for the driver that achieves the fastest lap. Some special notes: There is no refuelling in either of the races - fuel loads are thus identical for each car. The absence of a second qualifying means after you finish the first race, you go straight into warmup for the second race. First qualifying may be critical at some of the hard to pass circuits - the sprint race is very short and does not allow you to make big gains and this can carry through to the second race. Even though the pit stops involve just a tyre change, they are very slow relative to some of the other major single seater series - over 20 seconds! The first set of tyres has to last for practice, qualifying, warmup and the sprint race - making tyre management important. However, a second fresh set of tyres is released for the feature race. Each country will be represented by one and only one driver and countries will be represented in the game (more on who's already in later). Every driver will drive identical cars, all equiped with a Lola chassis, a Zytek engine and riding on Cooper tires. Here's what the schedule will look like:
Note that the dates are purely cosmetic. The game will advancea over a period of days not months. From what I understand, this is the pace at which I think we will go: day 1, Brands Hatch qualifying day 2, Brands Hatch Sprint day 3, Brands Hatch Feature Race day 4, Eurospeedway qualifying day 5, Eurospeedway Sprint day 6, Eurospeedway Feature Race day 7, Estoril qualifying day 8, Estoril Sprint day 9, Estoril Feature Race day 10, Eastern Creek qualifying day 11, Eastern Creek Sprint day 12, Eastern Creek Feature day 13, Sepang qualifying day 14, Sepang Sprint day 15, Sepang Feature Race day 16, Dubai qualifying day 17, Dubai Sprint day 18, Dubai Feature Race day 19, Durban qualifying day 20, Durban Sprint day 21, Durban Feature Race day 22, Sentul qualifying day 23, Sentul Sprint day 24, Sentul Feature Race day 25, Monterrey qualifying day 26, Monterrey Sprint day 27, Monterrey Feature Race day 28, Laguna Seca qualifying day 29, Laguna Seca Sprint day 30, Laguna Seca Feature Race day 31, Shanghai qualifying day 32, Shanghai Sprint day 33, Shanghai Feature Race I was asked to name one of these races as my home race. None of them are in Canada so I decided to pick the Feature Race at Laguna Seca as my home race. Finally, there was a warning as I signed up for this, it said the following: Warning - not for the inexperienced player, this can be a very frustrating series. We will see about that, as I'm not really an experienced driver, much more like a newbie. What's the worst that could happen anyway? Yeah, I could put Canada to shame, but I think our military forces (or lack thereof) have already done that a long time ago...  Next up, the drivers, yours truly included... FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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06-29-2007, 09:42 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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So far, 8 drivers including me have signed up for this series. Each driver has two character traits that should influence their results, although I honestly have no clue how much. I will present these traits as they appear. Let's start with yours truly...
 Driver: Steve Gougeon
I'm a self described newbie and at first, I expected to be the least experienced of the drivers to take the start of the season but you'll see theres one who signed up a minute later than me. As you would expect, I have never raced one full season, and only have one complete race to my pedigree. I'm first known to be a driver of great wisdom, meaning that my experience from countless competitive events makes me a formidable foe to my rivals. Unkown to my fellow competitors, I used to race my mom's Chevette on snowy and icy Quebec roads when I was 17. I know pressure... I'm also a lucky driver, meaning that more often than not, I will seem to avoid the worst share of luck on the tracks. ================= As I said, 8 drivers in all have signed up so far, here are the 7 others. United States Driver: Derek Cabanaw
Yeah, he's the guy who signed one minute after me. Also a newbie who's never finished one season. He's qualified as a pole sitter king, meaning that one off fast laps are his speciality. He should enjoy a healthy bonus during his fight for pole and find speed when he needs it most in a race. He's also known as being very good with his concentration. That means that when out on the circuit on his own, he can turn in a steady state of speed without the visible benchmark of another car. That last one could prove handy in a one man team... Ireland Driver: Jonathan Stapp
That's kind of odd, I thought you had to be from the country you wanted to represent... Anyway, he's run a in a good number of seasons, but mostly as a mid-season replacement. He too has good wisdom in addition to good spatial awareness. That one means he should be able to judge his car perfectly allowing for every inch of the track to be used, and every overtaking opportunity to be exploited. Pakistan Driver: Nouman Ahmad
Judging by his name, I wouldn't be surprised that this fellow really represents his home country. Plenty of very positive comments on his profile, seems like a nice guy and a very experienced driver with a ton and a half of previously raced seasons. Will be one to watch. He is known as a speed demon meaning he doesn't shine in one particular area but is instead generally fast be it dry, wet or going for pole, and he's also consistent. It makes him able to set up a good rhythm which allows him to stay within his limits... and on the track. New Zealand Driver: Andrew Black
A third driver representing his home country, he's another experienced driver with plenty of previous seasons, especially many A1GP seasons. One to watch for sure... He too is a speed demon but he also has what is called mechanical sympathy. By that we mean that he is able to gently stroke and convince his car home to the finish line. Australia Driver: Luke Stubbs
Ahh, another one representing his home country, making it 4 of us. Not as experienced as the other, he still has about a dozen previous seasons to his record. He is known as a pole sitter king and as a speed demon. A deadly combination that could also mean nothing if he can't come up with the right setup. Remember, we're all one man teams out there... United Kingdom Driver: Adam Martin
And a sixth driver representing his home country! Despite signing up quite some time ago, he has only finished two seasons, and they happened only in February and April of this year. He is known as a speed demon who is also consistent. England Driver: Gary Taylor
Ah, UK and England and split in two, okay then... A brit who has already raced in an impressive number of seasons, despite signing up only three months ago. Just like me, he's known to be a lucky driver who's also committed. That second trait means he has full belief in himself, his car and his team (in this case, himself again) and this shows in his ultimate results. FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... Last edited by FrogMan : 06-29-2007 at 09:43 PM. |
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06-29-2007, 09:58 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Three more drivers have signed up since I started writing my last post, and they are three fellow FOFCers. Welcome aboard guys!
 Chile Driver: Alan Tee
Please welcome the Chilean from Atlanta, GA, also known to us around here as Alan T Even though he has yet to finish a season, given he's started his career only a month or so ago, this driver is active in a ton of them with currently a full plate of 12 active series. He is described as a consistent driver with good concentration. (see above for the definition)Mexico Driver: David Yellope
Ayup, the Mexican Pats fan from Massachusetts, aka SirFozzie. Even though he too only started his career about a month ago, he's already finished many seasons. I look forward to butting head with him. He is known as a speed demon of a driver who's also consistent.Netherland Driver: Kyle Kappe
The Dutchman from Temple City, you'll have to forgive me, I have no clue who you are around here. :o Please wave your hand in my general direction so we can know who's with us. This driver has finished a couple of season in his young career, one of them an FOFC sponsored F1 season. He's described as a lucky driver who also a bit of a control freak. This means that as the lights turn green his opponents can't see him for dust as he perfectly judges clutch, throttle and available traction. We shall about what that really means...FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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06-29-2007, 10:06 PM
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#5 |
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Head Coach
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Whittier
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Kyle - MrBug708
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06-29-2007, 10:08 PM
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#6 | |
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Quote:
Ahh, cool! I'd have never guessed though. Alan Tee was easy, and I knew SirFozzie's name, so that too was easy. Yours, well, I needed to look at your archived games to know you were one of us. Welcome aboard! FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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06-29-2007, 10:37 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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The first circuit we will race is called Brands Hatch. Here's what it looks like:
 As I get ready to go on my first of potentially nine practice runs, I take a look at the report from Jules the engineer:  bleh, that's not very helpful Mr. Jules. I started on a first run with nothing narrowed down and some vague idea of where I wanna go. Seeing how now three other competitors are potentially reading this, I will not post specifics...  The weather for this practice run is what they call bone dry. I will go out with the slick tires which are green (meaning cold and never used before). I have set my experimentation slider to 75 (out of 100) meaning I wanna gather some data yet not run too much risk of hitting a wall... And off we go... Guh, my over enthusiasm was counter productive and it took me three laps to get some useful data, and I almost didn't get anything, and the worst of the ten times already posted... Times were 1:18.083 1:17.958 1.17.841 Some adjustments and I go out again, this time with experimentation at 80... that's much better, now at 1:17.081, the 9th best time and some valuable data... 5 runs left, let's try again with experimentation at 80... Just a tad better, 1.16.979 but again some valuable data... gah, again some over enthusiasm caused me to lose a lap, only two left. Times of 1.17.204 and 1.17.124 and it seems my tires are running out fast, already at moderate (down from green, to heat cycled, to light wear)... I switch to the my second and last slick set for possibly one last run at 100 experimentation (I have 2 runs left). I used my last two laps with over enthusiasm but I received some very useful data. Hard to say if that was satisfying or not. Only based on time, it wasn't, but much could happen in qualification and during the race... Here are the practice times as they stand right now:
FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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06-30-2007, 10:03 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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The series filled up over night and we now have 25 drivers ready to go. Here are the rest of the drivers
Serbia Driver: Milos Smiljanic
Straight from the hometown of Serbia, huh? Okay then. That is one very active driver with over 20 finished series, mostly mid-season replacements, in a little over 2 months of racing. He is described as a driver who's consistent and with good wisdom.Argentina Driver: Andy Darby
This Argentinian brit has been racing for less than a week and because of it has never finished a season. He's known to show good concentration but is also cool under pressure. This means that in the thick of the action he is at his best, being able to overtake and pull off difficult maneuvers. United Nations Driver: Wadim Rusov
United Nations, huh? Cool, I guess. A very active driver with more than 30 finished seasons to his record. He's known as a speed demon who's also lucky. Italy Driver: Ed Fransen
A little bit of googling told me that Landgraaf is a little municipality in the Netherlands. This is a bit odd though, he's the first one for whom I see mostly negative comments in his profile, like people calling him a quitter. We'll see if he sticks around. He currently has 5 active series going so he is somewhat active... He is described as a speed demon who's also super fit. That last one means that taking personal fitness to the extreme gives him great stamina throughout the duration of an entire race. Europe Driver: Marc Hupkens
Another Dutchman representing Europe as a whole, there are definitely some very special country designations... Another fairly active driver who currently is juggling with 11 different active series on his schedule. He is known as a speed demon who's also consistent. Scotland Driver: Cameron Hartshorn
No clue why, but this fellow had me fooled. Must be the name but I would have sworn he was a scot, but no, he's an american. Fairly active, he must race with friends a lot as I see him having raced in many private seasons starting with the letters "UCP". Just like Marc Hupkens, he's described as a speed demon who's also consistent. Germany Driver: Corey White
An American will be representing Germany, and this guy seems to be doing a ton of racing. He has put a profile about 3 pages long listing all the championships he's done. A bragger of sort. We'll how he does with a series of cars that are all equals... He's known as a pole sitter king who's also a speed demon. Slovakia Driver: Tom Fazekas
Finally another representing his home country. And another pretty active driver at that with a dozen of completed seasons since starting his career. He's described as a speed demon who's also got good concentration. Japan Driver: Barry Hitchings
Despite his very English sounding name, this fellow really lists Tokyo Japan as his hometown, cool! Raced a lot from August to November 2006, then seemed to not race for the following six months. Currently has 6 active races. Just like Corey White, he's known as a pole sitter king who's also a speed demon. Isle of Man Driver: Ian Ridley
Okay, I had to go to wikipedia to know where the heck Isle of Man really is. Now I know. Even more special, this driver lists Beds, England as his hometown, but he sports the Canadian flag on his profile... Anyway, he seems like an active enough driver who usually completes a couple of seasons per month. He's a speed demon who also has wisdom. South Africa Driver: Lee Charles
Another driver representing his home country, this fellow has completed a ton of seasons since starting his career. He has also gathered many positive comments on his profile. He is described as a speed demon with good spatial awareness. Austria Driver: Fabrizio Telasio
Another driver who's completed many, many seasons and has also gathered many positive comments on his profile. He is described as a speed demon who's also consistent. Queensland Driver: Liam Callaghan
Wow, he's the third in a row to really impress me with the sheer number of completed seasons on his pedigree, and also with the positive words that other drivers have left on his profile. He is known as a consistent driver with also good spatial awareness. Finland Driver: Mika Kutila
We round up this presentation of the drivers with one representing his home country. This is not his first A1GP series in his career as he has already 4 seasons of this type of racing already. He's described as a consistent driver who's also aggressive. He's the only driver in the series with that second trait that means that battling for position his opponents should beware - he won't think twice about letting them know who is boss. This was a pretty long writeup, but now we're set to start the season. The Qualification for the Brands Hatch sprint race should happen at about 1:06 am eastern time. That would be day 1 in the schedule I posted before. After that, every day will happen at the same time one day later... I've done my setup for the qually run, although I'm less that certain about how this will turn out. We shall see... FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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06-30-2007, 10:05 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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oh and here are the practice times for everyone as we head into qualifying:
Yeah, I'm pretty low down there... FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-01-2007, 11:15 AM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Qualifying results are in and well, while they could have been much better, I'm not totally unhappy about them, given that I felt I had a rough time during practice.
I had set my strategy to go out very early on, so right at the 2nd minute mark of a 60 minutes qualifying session, I was out there for the first of my allowed three laps. That was the slowest of my laps though, but I only because wanted to get one done after crashing in my first lap in an earlier F1 qualifying session. Starting from the back of the pack is never a good option so I had deliberately decided to play it safer. I clocked in at 1.15.714 which if I had not improved on would have had me sitting near the bottom of the grid, but at least in front of drivers who failed to post a time (yeah, there were two who failed at it). Only another driver was with me on the track for that lap, but you don't know that in advance... I went out for my second lap in the 34th minute, again with only one other driver. It followed a period where as many as 13 drivers were out there. I thought it would be best to avoid the straight halfway point and this proved me right. I improved my time a bit with that lap, clocking in at 1.15.439 which would have put me in 19th place. I went for my last last with the last group of drivers, and clocked in my best time of the session despite there being a crowd of 6 other drivers with me on the track. Third lap's time: 1.15.290. Final qualifying position: 17th. Surely not the best, but I'll take it for now. Here are the results for qualifying for the Brands Hatch sprint race:
Of the other FOFCers, only Alan Tee did significantly better than me, with an amazing 4th place. David Yellope (aka SirFozzie) clocked in at a measly 3 thousandth of a second faster than me. Pffft, I'll get him back in the first turn. Kyle Kappe (aka MrBug) seemed to struggle with his setup and clocked in as the last of the timed driver.Next up will be the warmup session where I'll be allowed 9 laps, but I'm unsure if I'll do that many since my two sets of slick tires are now down to light wear (down from green to heat cycled to light wear) and moderate wear (one peg down from light wear) and weather should remain to bone dry for both warmup and race time... Stay tuned. FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... Last edited by FrogMan : 07-01-2007 at 12:03 PM. |
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07-01-2007, 12:46 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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I'll explain a bit more about the setup process, mostly for the non BATracer who might, by sheer weird luck, stumble upon this dynasty.
The number of modifiable characteristics depends from series to series and as I said, in the A1GP, there are 12 of them. They are: Wings for downforce, front and rear Suspension, front and rear Anti-roll bars, front and rear Ride Height, front and rear Tyre Pressure, front and rear Gears Brake Bias Every front and rear setting counts as a separate one. I won't post a screenie of all my settings, as it could give away some valuable information to other drivers, but I'll at least post the wings part of it.  When you go out for a practice or warmup run, you set the slider to a plausible value. Depending on how high you set the experimentation slider, you might or might not get feedback as to how you should change your setup. The experimentaiton slider looks like this:  As you can see, I have the front wing narrowed down to only 4 points and have set it up right in the middle for my next run. The rear wing on the other hand is a bit more of an unknown, with a possible 18 points from one extreme to the other. Still, I have some others, like the rear suspension, in which I have not been able to narrow it down AT ALL. It still reads from 0-100 in possible values... When I said I had no "spot on" values, it meant just that, that it's possible to narrow it down to the perfect setup, with no interval for error left. Time to do some testing now... I've set my experimentation to 80 for my first run and was able to narrow down front wings some more, front suspension, rear ARB(anti-roll bar), front and rear ride height, and the break bias. A good run with a middle of the pack kind of time. 80 again for the second run and got a better time and finally narrowed down the rear suspension a bit, as well as some other. That's encouraging. I up the experimentation to 85 for my third run and it costs me a bit as I lost three laps with over enthusiasm. I did get a spot on for front wing though, as well as for front ride height. With 4 runs left, and both my sets of slick tires showing moderate wear, I will push the experimentation to 90 for the next run. Grrr, I damaged the car in the last lap and will not be able to test anymore. The good news is that before crashing, I was able to add spot on values for front suspension, rear ARB as well as narrow it down on a few of other settings. I feel much better now with this setup... I know practice times could mean absolutely nothing, but I managed the 8th best time out of 23 drivers so far. I am definitely happy about this improvement... Here's what the practice run times are looking like so far:
FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-02-2007, 01:33 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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This is it, the day I was waiting for. The race is a sprint that will last for 23 laps and in which no pitstop are planned.
I started this race not so bad and in the first lap was able to gain a place by easily going by David Yellope. I held him off for a few laps, also frighting with the Irish Stapp. I was still holding to my 16th place until lap 10 in which I made a driver's mistake and started lapping much, MUCH slower. So much slower that in the 11th lap, I dropped from 16th all the way to 20th, and it was just the beginning. By lap 13, I was down to 22nd place, and I would never recover... Final Result
Not what I had hoped for. Maybe I did set my driving style a bit too aggressive... The saddest part about that finish is that there are no qualifying for the second of the two races at Brands Hatch. This means I will be starting in 2nd place for the feature race there. Ugh... Here's a summary of my race: I was kinda worried that my setup was nowhere near optimal, and I was right to be worried. Here's how everybody fared with their setups:
Quite impressive that so many were able to pin the 100% perfect setup in a one man team. Here's the season standing after one race:
Next up, the warmup session for the feature race at Brands Hatch. FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-02-2007, 02:43 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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I have seven warmup runs to try and get a better setup for the feature race at Brands Hatch. With two consecutive races at the same venu, the neat thing is that what you've achieved for the first race still stands, so I already got some value that are spot on. The trick will not really lie in the warmup session but in converting the setup from the "bone dry" weather in which I'll get it done, to the possible "steady rain" that is forecasted for the race itself.
Yup, weather isn't a fixed component in life, well it isn't in for BATracer either. In fact, it can fluctuate from one lap to another, making it even more difficult to predict what setup will be the right one. It's usually one big gamble, as it pretty much is in real life. Here are the many levels that the weather can change to and from:  Bone Dry = 0% Wet Factor Greasy = 9% Wet Factor Moist= 18% Wet Factor Drizzle = 27% Wet Factor Light Rain = 36% Wet Factor Rain = 45% Wet Factor Wet and Slippery = 54% Wet Factor Steady Rain = 63% Wet Factor Heavy Rain = 72% Wet Factor Treacherous Rain = 81% Wet Factor Monsoon = 90% Wet Factor Storm = 100% Wet FactorMy engineer has given me some values by which I should adjust my perfect setup (or whatever setup I'll decide on) for a bone dry weather to make it a fully wet setup. Depending on what weather they are forecasting, or which one I think it'll stay on for most of the race, I will adjust my bone dry setup. Now time to hit the track... here are my laps in reverse order:
I lost my last lap in a bit of overenthusiasm. I pretty happy with that wrmup session, as I was able to gather spot on values for all but three settings. The rear ride height I'm within 6 of perfection, rear tyre pressure is within 3, but the break bias setting is a bit of an uncertain, with a gap of 20. Still a lot will rely on luck when race time will come, as the weather could go either way... here are the practice times for the drivers who have taken the track so far:
FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-03-2007, 10:11 AM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Race #2: Brands Hatch feature race
I was quite psyched for that race as I felt I had done good work with the car setup and that I had translated that dry setuo well to a rainy setu. That was until I started my engine and the green light came on. It started slippin' and slidin' all over the place. That's when I realized I had FRIGGING SLICK TIRES on!!! Frigging moron, I forgot to switch them to rain tires, AAAARRRRGGGG!!! I pitted in lap 3 but the damage was done. I dropped all the way from 22 to 25 and tried to work my way back but the rain got worse. I had set my car for some steady rain, but I could never foresee that it would be more of a monsoon, even going to a storm the last couple of laps. A disaster... Here are the final results for that race:
I had the 7th best setup, as you can see below.
That's sort of an average of all the laps ran during the race. Funny thing about top setuper Nouman Ahmad, he retired from the race in the 9th lap, or before it really got to be raining badly... Here's my lap by lap analysis for the race:
Next up in the schedule, we will start a new sequence of two races preceded by a qualifying session. Time to really get going... FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-03-2007, 10:50 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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What a sloppy practice session this one was. With rain pouring down on the circuit, but bone dry weather forecasted for the qualifying session, it meant rain tires for everyone and engineers converting wet setups to dry ones. Oh the joy...
It was a far from perfect practice session in which I achieved to find spot on values only for the rear suspension and the two tyre pressures, but yet still was able to pull in the 14th best time of the session. Hopefully, my middle of the road values for many settings will be good enough to convert in a good qualifying spot. Here are the practice times as they stand right now:
FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-04-2007, 12:37 AM
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#16 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: The State of Insanity
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Don't forget to change your settings for the qualifying (it's dry)
__________________
Check out Foz's New Video Game Site, An 8-bit Mind in an 8GB world! http://an8bitmind.com |
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07-04-2007, 07:49 AM
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#17 |
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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yeah, I made sure I did, fool me once, well you know how it goes...
 FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-04-2007, 10:16 AM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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and I guess I did the adjustment quite well as I nailed a second row spot for the upcoming race, woohoo!!!
Weather is back to bone dry for the warmup session and should stay the same for at least the start of the race... Practice results a bit later... FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-04-2007, 03:06 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Pre-race warmup sessions are hard to gauge. I feel like I put in a good one, narrowing 5 settings to spot on values. However, since this is a sprint race and we will all be going the full distance on one set of tyres without pitting, I decided to use only one of my two set of slick tyres. This kinda skewed my lap times as worn out tires tend to slow you down.
Here are the practice times as they stand for now:
I will start tomorrow's race from the second line after qualifying with the fourth best time. As a reminder, a good finish in this run will be even more important, as finishing position will serve as starting position for the feature race the day after... FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-04-2007, 07:51 PM
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#20 |
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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We're only two races into the season and there's already a replacement. The Dutchman representing Italy, Ed Fransen, has been replaced by a an Italian named Francesco Cecchi. Cecchi, even though he has been a BATracer since May 2006, he raced in four seasons from May to September, then stopped racing. He is currently in fours different series that he all signed up for in the last couple of days...
As for Fransen, he didn't seem to go AWOL, as he posted a fairly reasonable time in the last two practice sessions... FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-05-2007, 10:22 AM
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#21 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: The State of Insanity
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(awaits the torrent of four letter words that will surely come)
__________________
Check out Foz's New Video Game Site, An 8-bit Mind in an 8GB world! http://an8bitmind.com |
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07-05-2007, 10:23 AM
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#22 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: The State of Insanity
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Actually, I'll let you guys know the cause right now:
Lap 1: Gougeon has collided with Black whilst trying to defend P4! Black is out of the race! Gougeon is out of the race!
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Check out Foz's New Video Game Site, An 8-bit Mind in an 8GB world! http://an8bitmind.com |
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07-05-2007, 10:42 AM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Quote:
you mean as in KEEL KEEL KEEL KEEL KEEL KEEL KEEL KEEL KEEL KEEL KEEL KEEL KEEL I KEEL YOU NOW!!! Yeah, that sucks, but shit happens. I had my aggression slider set to 70, maybe the other guy had it at 90 or so. There are tons of drivers who are overly aggressive on BATracer... To make matters worse, the finishing position of this race also determines the starting grid for the second race at Eurospeedway... Anyway, here are the final results for the race:
Congrats to FOFC's David Yellope (SirFozzie) for coming in second. Good job! Here are how the season standings look after three races:
Next up later on, warmup laps for the second leg of the Eurospeedway event... FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-05-2007, 11:18 AM
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#24 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Mountain View, California
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Your dynasty has sucked me into the dark underworld of BATracer. Just when I was getting over HT too
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07-05-2007, 11:29 AM
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#25 |
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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way cool, I've achieved my goal.
 We could coordinate ourselves if you want a teammate in a public series. I have one public slot available, but we'd have to set a password to the team beforehand... FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-05-2007, 11:37 AM
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#26 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Mountain View, California
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I haven't decided to be addicted yet - maybe in an hour or so
Anyway, I'm already in a public series, and I haven't shelled out the cash yet - so I'm good for a month or so. |
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07-05-2007, 11:40 AM
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#27 |
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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That's cool, feel free to ask any question you may have. Took me a couple of practice laps before I was able to understand how the setups were narrowing down, but after that, it went quite well.
fwiw, the kool tools are really worth it, and they never expire. FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-05-2007, 09:34 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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I know I don't usually put much value into practice session times, but I'm quite happy with this practice session. Take a look at the times:
Maybe it's because I used both of my two allowed set of slick tyres evenly instead of killing one, but to see myself this close to the very good times is nice. Even better is the fact that I have a nearly perfect setup for this race, barring any drastic change in weather. That's the nice thing about racing twice in a row at the same venue, the setup you worked on for the first race remain valid for the second (or even third in the case of the V8 Supercars series) race of the weekend... Sure, sure, remind me that I still start 24th thanks to my DNF in the last race... We'll see what we can make out of this... FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-06-2007, 10:39 AM
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#29 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: The State of Insanity
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Hey Froggy.. you have some team chat on our F1 team
__________________
Check out Foz's New Video Game Site, An 8-bit Mind in an 8GB world! http://an8bitmind.com |
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07-06-2007, 11:30 AM
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#30 |
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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seen and replied to, GO AGURI!!!
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-06-2007, 12:51 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Race #4: Eurospeedway feature race
The feature race at Eurospeedway is a 45 laps long race in which each driver will have to make one preplanned pit stop. I started this one from way back in 24th place, since starting positions were given based on the Eurospeedway sprint finishing position and I didn't even last one lap. Well, this one was my best race of the season so far. It started with a couple of easy passes and by the 10th lap, I had moved up 6 spots to 18th place. By then, I was also in one heck of a battle with Cameron Hartshorn from Scotland, battle which I won in lap 10 after trying to pass him for 3 laps, only to relent 5 laps later as he passed me again. The weather started getter a bit wet from there but not enough that anyone felt they had to pit to change tires. I was in 16th position when I decided to pit on lap 18. That stop dropped me back to 21st position. I worked my way back up and with stops from other drivers, I was in 12th place by lap 26. It was a fight to keep my position all the way to the end and I come in in 11th place, one position out of points... Here are the final results:
Congrats to FOFC's David Yellope and Alan Tee who both finished in the points. Just a shame that my DNF had to happen in the sprint race or else I would have got some points today... That race was a fight though, as you can see, I was nowhere near the top of fastest laps during the race:
But I did have a somewhat good setup:
Because of the varying weather, nobody achieved anywhere close to 100%. Here's a table of changes from qualifying position to finishing position:
Next up will be practicing runs for the qualifying session for the Estoril sprint race... FM
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A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... Last edited by FrogMan : 07-06-2007 at 12:56 PM. |
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07-06-2007, 08:21 PM
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#32 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Well, that was a tough practice session, one in which I was able to only nail one settings spot on. But it's usually the case with most of the first sessions at a new venue. You start from nothing, and there are no teammates to help you out.
I only managed the 17th best time out of 18 drivers and even though I tell myself that these are only practice times and count for nothing comes race time, I can't help bu be worried a little. Here are the practice times as they stand now:
To add to the complexity of things, these practice laps were made with a perfect bone dry weather, yet the forecasted weather for the qualifying session is supposed to be a bit more humid, moist as they say... Time to adjust that setup a bit... FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-07-2007, 06:29 PM
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#33 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Well, that moist weather wasn't too bad to me as you can see from the results of this morning's qualifying session:
8th, middle of the top pack, not all bad. Now the weather is playing with us again. While it's a bone dry day for the warmup session, they are forecasting some treacherous rain and spray for the rain. hrm, that could be tricky, but first time to practice and try to improve that setup... FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-08-2007, 10:34 PM
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#34 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Race #5: Estoril sprint race
Qualified in 8th place, I was so happy I guess I must have wet my pants because when they kicked it off at Estorily, I was passed by no less than 6 other cars before the end of the first lap. From 8th to 14th in the first of only 23 laps, with no pitstop strategy to come into it... Still, I had to laugh a little at this mention in lap 2: Yellope makes a pitstop from P23 lasting 21.92 seconds. Tyre choice is Rain. oops. The race started under treacherous rain and spray and th weather got better, which is not always a good thing when you planned on it being really bad. The good thing is that about everyone had planned on it being bad, so we were all at a disadvantage. I fought my way back into the crowd and by the halfway point of the race, I was back to 12th place. It was a tight spot though, and I could not gain more than one more spot from there and I finish in 11th place. Here are the final results for that race:
Yup, once more, I finish right outside the points leaving me with a big fat goose egg on the season...
I better start scoring points soon if I want to at least make an honorable season out of this mess... Weather's been tricky for a few days now. The warmup session for the feature race at Estoril, a session very important since you can build on your setup work done prior to the sprint race, was a drizzle after the treacherous rain and spray of the sprint race. More adjustments are necessary, since the rain should start under a perfect bone dry weather... While warmup sessions can be worth absolutely nothing in predicting a race result, it's always nice to see yourself in the top 10...
FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-09-2007, 10:33 PM
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#35 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Race #6: Estoril feature race
That 11th spot on the starting wasn't the best, but I'd dealt with worse in the past. Even better, this time aroung, I wasn't so hyped about my starting position that I actually had a good start which saw me gain to spot to 9th place before the end of the first lap. Go me!!! I kept working hard and before the 4th lap, I'd gain another two spots, now up to 7th place. I held my ground and right before pitting at lap 24, I had crept all the way up to 2nd place. The stop pushed me back to 8th place, but it still was going well... Three laps later, two drivers ahead of me had to pit themselves and I was back in 6th place. One more stopped the following lap, giving me a 5th place that I would never lose for my first points of the season!!!
Weehee!!!! I had far from a perfect setup, as you can see below, but I fought it out:
And here are the points standings after 6 races of 22...
FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-10-2007, 09:42 PM
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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In order to save my tires a tiny bit, I opted to go with only two of the three qualifying laps and it didn't turn all that bad with an 8th place for the upcoming race...
And again, I know you can't put a lot of value into these practice laps, but putting in the 3rd time is always nice...
The start wil lbe about everything in that race, as it's a sprint and because of the short length of it, no pit stops will be done... FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-11-2007, 11:32 PM
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#37 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hattrick Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada
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Race #7: Eastern Creek sprint
These sprint races are always tough, but you know what can make them tougher? Weather changes... We started on a bone dry weather and it got worse every lap all the way down to a final lap under some treacherous rain and spray. After starting 8th, I was pushed back from my 7th place when I decided to pit in the 7th lap in order to switch tires. At the time, weather had gone all the way down to some light rain. The good news was that about half of the drivers ahead of me were still on slick tires and the weather was getting worse every couple of laps. I was up to 13th by lap 9, to 11th by lap 14, and finally back to my starting position, 8th, by lap 17 of 24. It was a fight from there the last lap and I was only able to gain one more spot, finishing the race in 7th place...
Still, that's 4 points, better than nothing... Here are the points standings after 7 races:
FM
__________________
A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... |
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07-12-2007, 01:22 AM
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#38 |
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Head Coach
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Whittier
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I really, really suck at this game
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