(This will be a post where I list things that I learned I need to work on in order to take advantage of my qualifying and many practice sessions)
Well what can I say. Fuel calculations you mean witch (to be PC!) I can not believe that this will be the 4th race in a row where fuel comes into play with my race. I am either having to splash and go with just a hand full of laps to go or I run out of fuel on the back straight and the car shuts off crossing the line like at Indy. And this time my mind is tell me one thing and the DashMeter Pro is telling me another.....and I listen to the stupid technology! Any way let get to what happened.
So another good qualifying session by me if I do say so myself. I qualified 3rd which I believe ties my best qualifying position so far this season. However it would be great if I could hold on to those spots. Being a very road race concentrated driver with about a season or 2 of Indy oval fixed under my belt, it makes one feel good when they out qualify people who have many more oval races under their belt. However what gives them the edge is the number of races under their belts. You can be the best qualifier in the history of any series but if you don't know how to handle traffic, draft, passing, clean driving and FUEL (HINT TO SELF!!) it doesn't mean anything. Got to first the race to have a chance at winning the race. So there I am sitting in 3rd thinking to myself. Alright given the fuel runs you have done, not in draft, you will run out of gas at 68 laps. So that is a one stop race. However the tires will last between 20 and 40 laps depending on how hard you drive and what line you take. From the practice rooms and listening to the other drivers, hugging the bottom burns up the tires quick. If you run a mid line around the track then they will last to about the 40th lap before you have to start lifting. Okay pace lap over, pace car in, leader goes and I floor it in 2nd!!! (I have to start practicing which gear is best for starting out based on which track we are at.) I hold my position with some luck but the front 2 get a jump on me probably starting in first. So again I will not give a lap by lap account of everything but the major points and what I took away from this race. Good clean racing till lap 26, the first caution of the race. Starting at about lap 20 maybe 21, Rick Music had caught up to me and we had a close battle for 4th I held him off up to lap 26 then the caution came out. However it must have come out the moment he passed me cause I got my position back. Okay Jeremy lets to math, 120 laps total minus the 26 we just ran leaves 94 laps left. I will run 67 laps then get gas. So that leaves me with 27 laps that I need fuel for after this stop. So a splash for about 7 gallons to be safe.
Alright so here is another part of work that I need to do, PIT STOPS!! I come in sitting in 4th, fuel 4 tires I leave in 7th. And iRacing is good about simulations but all the "Pit Crews" are the same. So where am I losing time? Well after watching the replay that Tony Lurcock does for us every week on YouTube Lionheart Racing Series YouTube Channel (and sitting in 4th didn't hurt LOL) I can see that I come into the pit some what timid. I have the fear of overshooting the pit or sliding into the pit wall. Why do I have this fear.....cause I have done both multiple times. And why have I done both, cause I don't practice my pit stops as much as I should or even at all during practice sessions. And leaving the pits even with the pit limiter on I am nervous of spinning out and into said pit wall LOL. So losing .2 of a second could be 3 places easily. Also I am still getting use to the macro fuel settings you can do in the middle of a race. And after the race that I didn't take tires but didn't know that the tires were unchecked when I thought they were checked. So It is the lack of practice that causes me to lose these little seconds which add up. So out 7th....lets see what happens or I should say where my mind loses all of its smarts.
Up to full throttle again and we are going. Now all my fuel calculations this time are not taking the caution laps into consideration cause I look at those as laps in the bank. WRONG!!! Clean running, then caution 2 comes out. Okay lets run through the math again. Lap 49 plus 67 laps for a full tank run equals 116. Plus the caution laps should be enough to make it without stopping after this. I will just have to conserve my tires as best as possible to have some left near the end. I got this it is taking a chance but the math is sound (in my head). Again due to the same pit fears I come out in 11th. I lost 2 positions before the second caution. Okay starting 11th with a strategy that I feel like will give me a chance to win. Green flag waves and off we go again.. 22 laps later the 3rd and what will be the final caution comes out. Now this whole time I have been running the math for fuel in my head. This time for some unknown reason I look down at my DashMeter Pro, and it tells me that I have enough fuel to make it to the end. Lap 71 to lap 120 is 49 laps. I got this with the fuel I have left according to DashMeter Pro. So I stay out, back to 4th I know I can hold on to 4th so this is going to work. Green flag flies, heart is beating, could this be the first win for me in the series, could my fuel math finally work? HELL NO!! I look down at my DashMeter Pro after getting up to speed and burning fuel. I look at fuel consumption and fuel remaining versus laps left = short 3 laps. But I look at fuel add (which is the fuel that DashMeter calculates I need to finish the laps remaining and it says 0). This is where the brain goes "Jeremy you have messed up 3 times with your fuel math so the DashMeter is right because it is taking caution laps into consideration.....AGAIN WRONG COME TO FIND OUT STUPID BRAIN!) And here I am for the next 45 laps watching the remaining fuel be 3 laps less than the remaining laps. Now I wonder if anyone caught the other mistake I made with the number of laps. In a race that has rolling starts according to DashMeter Pro, you complete 1 lap at the start of the race even though it is the pace laps before the green flag. So a 120 lap race is actually a 121 laps race according to DashMeter Pro. So I am thinking I am going to be 3 laps short actually I am going to be 4 laps short. So with 4 laps left I have to pit. I come into my pit stall with just .09 gallons left. Take 2 gallons and go back out. And where am I after coming back out.....2 laps down and in 14th place!!! I am so upset with myself. I watched the math on DashMeter Pro for over 40 laps and my brain explained what I was seeing was wrong and the add fuel to finish was right. I will have to try again in 2 weeks cause the next official points race will be on the iconic road course of Long Beach. FINALLY A ROAD COURSE.
Well even if I finished in 14th it did take me from 17th in the standings to 12th. I learn some lessons (I hope) and the biggest thing was I had fun (except at the end cause of my mistake). Please check out the video of the race at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqkk57yUMnk. And look out for next weeks race recap of Long Beach, wire frames and all LOL
CONGRATUALTIONS TO THE TOP 3 IN THE TOP SPLIT RACE:
1: Richard Behr
2: Jeff York
3: Danno Brookins
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP 3 IN THE BOTTOM SPLIT RACE:
1: Chris Lanini
2: Korey Connor
3: Vincent Bluthenthal
Showing posts with label Piloti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Piloti. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Monday, July 21, 2014
My iRacing Indy 500 or as I call it my pit strategy failure again LOL
If you have been reading my post for a little bit, you would have remembered me talking about how iRacing back in May tried to have the Indy 500 and Coca Cola 600 at the same time. Well the Indy 500 servers crashed and they canceled both Friday and Saturday races but kept the Coca Cola 600 going on Saturday. For whatever reason no one knows. So they rescheduled the Indy 500 for this past weekend. Now luckily this week's race in the Lionheart IndyCar Series , is at Indy so we had practice and a practice race first on Thursday of last week. Chris Miller shared his setup which along with Anthony Lurcock. They were 2 completely different setups but felt almost exactly the same. However for the iRacing Indy 500, I decided to use Chris's setup since that is looking to be the one we will be using for the race this Wednesday.
I did a couple of fuel runs to see about distance and tire wear so that I could get the data that I could use to come up with what I thought was a good strategy for the race. However after Chicago, I thought to myself "Self, you can do better this time". Why do I lie to myself like that LOL. So I go ahead make sure I have Chris's setup loaded and ready to go. Get another fuel run in before the start of the race. Then formulate a plan: I will break this into 8 25 laps stops getting tires each time cause I get 28 laps on a full tank, and after a full run I have about 75% tires left on the right side. So that is the plan, it will be about 4 laps under a caution to equal saving 1 full laps of racing. Okay keep all that straight in my head while racing 30+ drivers and surviving.
So time for the race. My teammate and me both signed on at the same time, and it said he was 3 minutes ahead on the list compared to my time. Once I told him that we both thought the same thing " this is exactly what happened last time when it crashed". So as his timer went to 0, I waited for him to say "it has crashed". So when he keyed in on TeamSpeak, he said "we are in the same split. I am 8th and you are 14th" I was excited but still waiting to join the race. So as the time ticked down, I crossed my fingers and..........got IN!!
Alright here we go, I have my water, been to the bathroom and I am ready to go. While practicing and seeing people wreck on just getting on to the track, I started saying to myself " I am starting in the mid of the pack. Should I start from the pit?". Let me tell you it may sound like this is an easy decision but it is not. Your ego is in such full force that it tells you that you can make it around any wreck, it won't happen to you, etc. So it was time to grid and it literally came down to the final 30 second till grid before I decided to start from the pits. And boy was it a good idea!!
The race starts, the marshals let us out of the pits and it wasn't even 5 laps and the first wreck has happened. And guess where the wreck happened at???? That is right, right around where I would have started if I had not started from the grid. So +1 to me for my strategy. After another 2 wrecks, which one was my teammate cause of the strong areo push it started to spread out and go green flag runs. So I am not going to go over a 200 lap race lap by lap but just give some oversight to want happened. I started pitting every 24 laps, 16 gallons (cause you can not fill up with half gallons) and 4 tires. All of the pits from about lap 40 till the end were green flag so I would go down 2 laps and get them back when the leaders pitted. And it started to look like I would be able to fight for a top 3 if not possiblily a win with this strategy. Now 1 problem that I have with other strategies in anything I do I get set on 1 thing of the strategy and don't think about everything. And this time was no different. Around the 3 final pit stops, I started to realize that the leader was going a couple more laps longer than he was before. So I started to change my last couple of pits strategy. Do I take on 16 gallons and tires, then a 15 lap run instead of 24 then take a full tank and run it out or do I split the last 43 laps into just 1 stop? So what did I decide to do? Instead of 24 laps then 15 laps then 24 laps, I decided to do 24 laps twice then a splash at the end for the last 9 laps. For almost an hour all I was focused on was the fuel. So every pit was fuel and tires, fuel and tires etc. So the final pit comes and I hit the button on my wheel that I have binded to change the fuel from 16 gallons to 10 gallons. Come to a stop perfectly in goes the gas but why isn't my tires being put on. Fuel is done still no tires, what is going on, check tire page on F3...NO CHECK MARKS! WHAT THE CRAP HAPPENED!! Okay hit button again to check the tires to change, alright tires are going on.....DANG IT THAT MEANS FUEL IS GOING ON. So I leave the pits 2 laps down and a full tank and actually made 2 pits stops instead of one. I would get 1 lap back but not both laps. The leader who had been saving fuel for almost 70 laps if not more. Ran out of fuel with half a lap left, he lost the lead and I caught him on the front stretch. 1 lap down and finished 5th all because I didn't focus on all parts of the pit stop and just fuel. Plus another thing that everyone should do it PRACTICE PITTING. I would slow down too much the first couple of pits that would make me lose more time than I should have.
So to sum up. Practice pit stops in practice sessions, make sure to think about all aspects of the pit stop. My tires could have made it the last 9 laps but cause every stop was fuel and tires when my tires didn't go on it threw me off. Be adaptable during the race and save fuel when you can. My butt was numb, brake foot was hurting cause it feel weird for me to race with my left foot on the ground instead of in a normal position in case I have to brake and my left wrist was shot from all the left turns. I am proud of how I finished and for racing the whole race minus a lap. I can't wait for the Indy race this Wednesday but I am so excited that season 3 starts next week and I will be back to racing with Jon in the DW12 both road and oval.
I did a couple of fuel runs to see about distance and tire wear so that I could get the data that I could use to come up with what I thought was a good strategy for the race. However after Chicago, I thought to myself "Self, you can do better this time". Why do I lie to myself like that LOL. So I go ahead make sure I have Chris's setup loaded and ready to go. Get another fuel run in before the start of the race. Then formulate a plan: I will break this into 8 25 laps stops getting tires each time cause I get 28 laps on a full tank, and after a full run I have about 75% tires left on the right side. So that is the plan, it will be about 4 laps under a caution to equal saving 1 full laps of racing. Okay keep all that straight in my head while racing 30+ drivers and surviving.
So time for the race. My teammate and me both signed on at the same time, and it said he was 3 minutes ahead on the list compared to my time. Once I told him that we both thought the same thing " this is exactly what happened last time when it crashed". So as his timer went to 0, I waited for him to say "it has crashed". So when he keyed in on TeamSpeak, he said "we are in the same split. I am 8th and you are 14th" I was excited but still waiting to join the race. So as the time ticked down, I crossed my fingers and..........got IN!!
Alright here we go, I have my water, been to the bathroom and I am ready to go. While practicing and seeing people wreck on just getting on to the track, I started saying to myself " I am starting in the mid of the pack. Should I start from the pit?". Let me tell you it may sound like this is an easy decision but it is not. Your ego is in such full force that it tells you that you can make it around any wreck, it won't happen to you, etc. So it was time to grid and it literally came down to the final 30 second till grid before I decided to start from the pits. And boy was it a good idea!!
The race starts, the marshals let us out of the pits and it wasn't even 5 laps and the first wreck has happened. And guess where the wreck happened at???? That is right, right around where I would have started if I had not started from the grid. So +1 to me for my strategy. After another 2 wrecks, which one was my teammate cause of the strong areo push it started to spread out and go green flag runs. So I am not going to go over a 200 lap race lap by lap but just give some oversight to want happened. I started pitting every 24 laps, 16 gallons (cause you can not fill up with half gallons) and 4 tires. All of the pits from about lap 40 till the end were green flag so I would go down 2 laps and get them back when the leaders pitted. And it started to look like I would be able to fight for a top 3 if not possiblily a win with this strategy. Now 1 problem that I have with other strategies in anything I do I get set on 1 thing of the strategy and don't think about everything. And this time was no different. Around the 3 final pit stops, I started to realize that the leader was going a couple more laps longer than he was before. So I started to change my last couple of pits strategy. Do I take on 16 gallons and tires, then a 15 lap run instead of 24 then take a full tank and run it out or do I split the last 43 laps into just 1 stop? So what did I decide to do? Instead of 24 laps then 15 laps then 24 laps, I decided to do 24 laps twice then a splash at the end for the last 9 laps. For almost an hour all I was focused on was the fuel. So every pit was fuel and tires, fuel and tires etc. So the final pit comes and I hit the button on my wheel that I have binded to change the fuel from 16 gallons to 10 gallons. Come to a stop perfectly in goes the gas but why isn't my tires being put on. Fuel is done still no tires, what is going on, check tire page on F3...NO CHECK MARKS! WHAT THE CRAP HAPPENED!! Okay hit button again to check the tires to change, alright tires are going on.....DANG IT THAT MEANS FUEL IS GOING ON. So I leave the pits 2 laps down and a full tank and actually made 2 pits stops instead of one. I would get 1 lap back but not both laps. The leader who had been saving fuel for almost 70 laps if not more. Ran out of fuel with half a lap left, he lost the lead and I caught him on the front stretch. 1 lap down and finished 5th all because I didn't focus on all parts of the pit stop and just fuel. Plus another thing that everyone should do it PRACTICE PITTING. I would slow down too much the first couple of pits that would make me lose more time than I should have.
So to sum up. Practice pit stops in practice sessions, make sure to think about all aspects of the pit stop. My tires could have made it the last 9 laps but cause every stop was fuel and tires when my tires didn't go on it threw me off. Be adaptable during the race and save fuel when you can. My butt was numb, brake foot was hurting cause it feel weird for me to race with my left foot on the ground instead of in a normal position in case I have to brake and my left wrist was shot from all the left turns. I am proud of how I finished and for racing the whole race minus a lap. I can't wait for the Indy race this Wednesday but I am so excited that season 3 starts next week and I will be back to racing with Jon in the DW12 both road and oval.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
iRacing Lionheart Series: Finally a win/ Honoring Dan Wheldon
If you have been keeping up with my previous post, you know that the DW12 has come out for iRacing. They released it just before the real Indy 500 for their iRacing Indy 500 that was cancelled and rescheduled for July 17th and 18th. So when Jon Carrigan and I saw the DW12, we knew that was what we were going to race next season. They would have official setups for both oval and road. So I thought to myself, it would be great to get extra seat time in it in a league. That is where I came across the iRacing Lionheart Series. So not only were they running the DW12 for 16 weeks with 12 oval and 4 road, but they were also honoring the man who helped develop this car for the safety of his fellow drivers who tragically lost his life doing what he loved in October 2011. That right there was all it took for me to join up.
From what his best friends in the racing community have said and of course from his sister Holly and wife Susie Wheldon, Dan was a great father, husband, friend and of course driver. His lost is still felt in the Indy community to this day. And if you look at it, if it wasn't for Dan's work on the DW12 (which stands for Dan Wheldon), Dario Franchitti's accident last year at Houston could have been a lot worst. Over the past 2 years, every accident that someone has been in and walked away from in the DW12 is cause of Dan's work on the car and what I like to think him watching over the ones he loved, his racer friends. So Dan, thank you for your work and dedication to keeping your buds safe! Keep watching over Sebastian as he is racing and following in your footsteps. I know that Susie, Holly and the whole Wheldon family are very proud of both Sebastian and Oliver. Look for a link on our Facebook website very soon to The Dan Wheldon Family Trust Fund. https://www.facebook.com/lionheartseries Also wanted to include Dennis Nicoll's car that he will be running in tribute to Dan Wheldon.
Okay now back to my first WIN! I jumped into the practice session with about 9 minutes to go. I didn't go in with any expectations what so ever. I was just hoping to be able to finish this race with no accident at all LOL. Practice was over and Qualifying go started. I did something that I heard from John Downing, which he said he ran 3 laps on the high side then the last lap down low. I did it different though, I ran 2 laps up high and 2 down low. After my 3rd lap, I was sitting on the pole. I had my eye glued to the Standings black box and I held pole until turn 1 on lap 4 LOL. Jorge Anzaldo was ahead of me by .03 of a second. By the time it registered I was already on the back straightway +.3 off my already pole time, so I knew I would not have the pole but hoped I could hold second. Which I did!! Every race so far I have been qualifying in the top 5 or 6 to the best of my memory. Sitting outside lane on the grid, I started thinking how to handle this. I am a very forgiving and cautious driver, I just thought I need to get behind Jorge as soon as I could so that I would not give up 2nd. Waiting for the pace laps, Jorge just disappeared. I late hear him say he lost power and got disconnected. So the 3rd place driver pulled up and took over 1st place. Sticking to the same strategy with what I was going to do with Jorge, I go behind him and just held there till I could make a move on him. After a couple of laps the spot opened up and I was in first. I held first for about 14 laps, hugging the bottom line like an AirTitan LOL They were starting to shuffle around behind me and another racers replaced second right behind me. As soon as he got behind me I thought to myself, he is very close.....didn't even get the thought out of my head when I see my nose angle to the left and toward the back straightway inside wall I was heading. Car Contact 4/17. I remembered what I had read a while ago. You will steer where your eyes look. So I started looking at the grass at turn 3 at 200 mph. I barely touched the inside wall at around 190 and the next thing I knew my steering wheel was at 45 degrees to go straight. Time to think now and test out the car. Can I keep the car straight on the track and take turns, YES but cautiously. Okay am I still on the lead lap? Yes but for how long. So driving with the wheel at 45 degrees I wanted to stay on the lead lap hoping for a caution. I stayed out like this for I don't know how many laps. I heard someone say "it is nerve wrecking at 230" I looked down and saw I was doing no more than 220. Then in the relative box I saw the red names of the leaders creeping down on me. 30 secs down to 12 seconds, I thought to myself I am going to have to pit under green and go a lap down. Maybe if I do it on this lap, I can get the lap back when the leaders pit. "Caution is out"!!! I have never been so excited to see a yellow flag in my life LOL. Into the pits, I knew according to Dashmeter Pro I needed 7 gallons to finish. In the pits, 7 gallons, no tires and the reset and away I was in 10th. Now in previous races I have gotten into accident, been a couple of laps down and went from 12th to fighting with the leaders to get my lap back, so I knew it could be done. Head down, green flag and it was go time. 10th to 7th in 2 laps. Got behind a driver who didn't like being on the bottom at all, so as soon as he had a chance he jumped up to the top line and that put me in 5th. I knew that you could pick up the draft of the car in front a good distance away (not saying how far out cause it is an ancient Chinese secret LOL. So my eyes where glued on the 2 inside red lights on the rpm. As soon as they flashed red, I was into 6th. Slowly I was running down 4th when another caution came out. This was great going to have 10 laps to go at the green. Plenty of fuel. Left front tire had some good wear on it but I knew that it could last only 10 laps. Green flag waves in the air 10 lap shootout begins. Oh leader at the time had to go cause of stuff he had to do, so I went from 5th to 4th before the green flag. So 4th to 3rd, 3rd to 2nd. Just hugging that bottom line waiting for any kind of bobble. Tried to make a couple of passes coming out of 4 and 2. But it is so hard to pass on the outside, then the planets aligned and as I was making another try coming out of turn 2, the leader made a slight mistake. So I am in the middle of a three wide and make it stick to take the lead. 3 laps to go and sweetest words I have heard all day. 'CAUTION IS OUT!! Not the way anyone wants to finish but I will take it! I knew with my qualifying times that I have had I have a car that can finish in the top 3 at least but this just gives me more confidence for Wednesday's series opener.
Can't say enough about how much fun this has been just getting ready for Wednesday's opener. The quality of racers that were in the league member only first race was outstanding which I had hoped it would be. After about 15 laps people were already talking if the race could go green the whole way. Such a night and day between open practice servers and league only server. I can't wait to get started with the season and racing with such a great group of guys. Again thank you to the Admin who are working their butts off getting this ready.
Come and check us out live on Zach Trull's Twitch channel www.twitch.tv/zachttrull23 tomorrow to see live streaming and commentary of the race.
From what his best friends in the racing community have said and of course from his sister Holly and wife Susie Wheldon, Dan was a great father, husband, friend and of course driver. His lost is still felt in the Indy community to this day. And if you look at it, if it wasn't for Dan's work on the DW12 (which stands for Dan Wheldon), Dario Franchitti's accident last year at Houston could have been a lot worst. Over the past 2 years, every accident that someone has been in and walked away from in the DW12 is cause of Dan's work on the car and what I like to think him watching over the ones he loved, his racer friends. So Dan, thank you for your work and dedication to keeping your buds safe! Keep watching over Sebastian as he is racing and following in your footsteps. I know that Susie, Holly and the whole Wheldon family are very proud of both Sebastian and Oliver. Look for a link on our Facebook website very soon to The Dan Wheldon Family Trust Fund. https://www.facebook.com/lionheartseries Also wanted to include Dennis Nicoll's car that he will be running in tribute to Dan Wheldon.
Okay now back to my first WIN! I jumped into the practice session with about 9 minutes to go. I didn't go in with any expectations what so ever. I was just hoping to be able to finish this race with no accident at all LOL. Practice was over and Qualifying go started. I did something that I heard from John Downing, which he said he ran 3 laps on the high side then the last lap down low. I did it different though, I ran 2 laps up high and 2 down low. After my 3rd lap, I was sitting on the pole. I had my eye glued to the Standings black box and I held pole until turn 1 on lap 4 LOL. Jorge Anzaldo was ahead of me by .03 of a second. By the time it registered I was already on the back straightway +.3 off my already pole time, so I knew I would not have the pole but hoped I could hold second. Which I did!! Every race so far I have been qualifying in the top 5 or 6 to the best of my memory. Sitting outside lane on the grid, I started thinking how to handle this. I am a very forgiving and cautious driver, I just thought I need to get behind Jorge as soon as I could so that I would not give up 2nd. Waiting for the pace laps, Jorge just disappeared. I late hear him say he lost power and got disconnected. So the 3rd place driver pulled up and took over 1st place. Sticking to the same strategy with what I was going to do with Jorge, I go behind him and just held there till I could make a move on him. After a couple of laps the spot opened up and I was in first. I held first for about 14 laps, hugging the bottom line like an AirTitan LOL They were starting to shuffle around behind me and another racers replaced second right behind me. As soon as he got behind me I thought to myself, he is very close.....didn't even get the thought out of my head when I see my nose angle to the left and toward the back straightway inside wall I was heading. Car Contact 4/17. I remembered what I had read a while ago. You will steer where your eyes look. So I started looking at the grass at turn 3 at 200 mph. I barely touched the inside wall at around 190 and the next thing I knew my steering wheel was at 45 degrees to go straight. Time to think now and test out the car. Can I keep the car straight on the track and take turns, YES but cautiously. Okay am I still on the lead lap? Yes but for how long. So driving with the wheel at 45 degrees I wanted to stay on the lead lap hoping for a caution. I stayed out like this for I don't know how many laps. I heard someone say "it is nerve wrecking at 230" I looked down and saw I was doing no more than 220. Then in the relative box I saw the red names of the leaders creeping down on me. 30 secs down to 12 seconds, I thought to myself I am going to have to pit under green and go a lap down. Maybe if I do it on this lap, I can get the lap back when the leaders pit. "Caution is out"!!! I have never been so excited to see a yellow flag in my life LOL. Into the pits, I knew according to Dashmeter Pro I needed 7 gallons to finish. In the pits, 7 gallons, no tires and the reset and away I was in 10th. Now in previous races I have gotten into accident, been a couple of laps down and went from 12th to fighting with the leaders to get my lap back, so I knew it could be done. Head down, green flag and it was go time. 10th to 7th in 2 laps. Got behind a driver who didn't like being on the bottom at all, so as soon as he had a chance he jumped up to the top line and that put me in 5th. I knew that you could pick up the draft of the car in front a good distance away (not saying how far out cause it is an ancient Chinese secret LOL. So my eyes where glued on the 2 inside red lights on the rpm. As soon as they flashed red, I was into 6th. Slowly I was running down 4th when another caution came out. This was great going to have 10 laps to go at the green. Plenty of fuel. Left front tire had some good wear on it but I knew that it could last only 10 laps. Green flag waves in the air 10 lap shootout begins. Oh leader at the time had to go cause of stuff he had to do, so I went from 5th to 4th before the green flag. So 4th to 3rd, 3rd to 2nd. Just hugging that bottom line waiting for any kind of bobble. Tried to make a couple of passes coming out of 4 and 2. But it is so hard to pass on the outside, then the planets aligned and as I was making another try coming out of turn 2, the leader made a slight mistake. So I am in the middle of a three wide and make it stick to take the lead. 3 laps to go and sweetest words I have heard all day. 'CAUTION IS OUT!! Not the way anyone wants to finish but I will take it! I knew with my qualifying times that I have had I have a car that can finish in the top 3 at least but this just gives me more confidence for Wednesday's series opener.
Can't say enough about how much fun this has been just getting ready for Wednesday's opener. The quality of racers that were in the league member only first race was outstanding which I had hoped it would be. After about 15 laps people were already talking if the race could go green the whole way. Such a night and day between open practice servers and league only server. I can't wait to get started with the season and racing with such a great group of guys. Again thank you to the Admin who are working their butts off getting this ready.
Come and check us out live on Zach Trull's Twitch channel www.twitch.tv/zachttrull23 tomorrow to see live streaming and commentary of the race.
Monday, June 16, 2014
My 24 and half hour 24 Hours of LeMans Journey Grind!/Dempsey Racing/Allan Simonsen Honored by win!
As I said in my blog http://40yroldgamingtriathlete.blogspot.com/2014/06/iracing-using-f1-williams-to-recover-sr.html , I have been watching the 24 Heures du Mans for the past 15 years or more. I would get up and swap out VCR tapes in the middle of the night so I would have the whole race recorded. But this year I would do something that I have never done before, stay up 24 hours and watch the whole race on Fox Sport 1 and 2!!!
Their coverage of the race started at 8:30 am on Saturday and ended at 9:30 am on Sunday. They had a break in coverage between 5:00 pm and 6:30 pm. So in between this time I switched over to RadioLeMans.com to listen to their coverage. So I got up at 8:15 am on Saturday to begin my Racing Grind. I completely forgot about the 30 minute pre-show before the flag waved at 9. SO THAT WAS 30 MINUTES THAT I COULD HAVE BEEN SLEEPING LOL. Fernando Alonso Ferrari F1 driver was the Tricolor waver, which in layman terms mean he waved the green flag. I was sitting up on the couch so excited for the next 24 hours of nothing but racing on TV. Now I can go on and give a some what detailed description of what happened every hour but instead I will just give my thoughts and impressions from the race.
The Toyota Driver of the #8 should not have been going that fast in the rain. I was a stupid mistake that took out the third Audi and come definitely have been avoided with a clear head. It is such a long race to be thinking that you could have gained that much in those conditions.
It was so good seeing Dempsey Racing sitting on pole of the GTE AM class at the start. Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and Patrick Long make up such a good team. Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster have been partners for a long time. Adding Patrick Long to the team for the second year is a no brainer. Do to an unfortunate penalty for spinning the tires the team dropped down to 6th and fought hard and steady to finish 5th this year. I look forward to seeing them there again next year. I think the strategy they had this year combine that with some good luck and we could be seeing the Winners of 2015 LeMans GTE AM class. Speaking of that class, it was very nice to see Allan Simonsen's team from last year win this year and honor he in doing so. In case you don't know Allan died last year on only the third lap of the 2013 LeMans driving for Aston Martin Racing. Aston Martin went on to withdraw after his death. So it was great seeing them on the top spot of the podium this year.
Having Porsche race in the LMP1 class this year brings more competition to Toyota and LeMans dominating Audi. The car looks great, unfortunately had some very bad luck at the end with Mark Webber's team car and lost the drivetrain. Can't wait till next year when Nissan joins back and racing in 2015.
So back to me and my Grind. At about 2 am I decided to get online and try and get some more of my SR back on iRacing. I was so jonesing to race after watching so much quality racing on TV. So I booted up the computer. Threw on my Piloti Lmp PRO 17 racing shoes, my Alpinestar Tech 1-ZX gloves and my Turtle Beach X12 headsets and I was ready to go. This is where I learned that I can not listen to the race on RadioLeMans.com and race a F1 car at Silverstone cause everytime I would hear the noise of the race in the background, I would think it was my car. Plus it made me realize how much I use sound to drive on iRacing. But it was still fun to get those laps in finally get back over 2.00 in SR. So after doing the math I realize that I would have to do 10 more time trials to get to 4.99. This is a learning experience and punishment at the same time. So next season season me and Jon have decided that, if we lose SR in a race that we will jump on the time trial to recover what we lost instead of thinking we would race our SR back up like we did this season. It is going to be long and tedious but a good learning experience. We are also contemplating using the Star Mazda practice to work on car control to get ready for the DW12 road series. I was very happy I watched the whole race and I also recorded it on my DVR. As soon as the cars crossed the finish line, I was asleep 5 minutes later. I am hope that next year I will be able to make a trip back to France and watch the race in person. If not I think I have found my 24 hour of LeMans tradition now, and that is Grinding out for 24 hours of Racing Bliss.
So thank you again for reading this post. I am still on the fence if I am going to do 1 or 2 more about this weekend. Definitely 1 more but possibly 2. Until a couple hours later for the next one LOL.
Their coverage of the race started at 8:30 am on Saturday and ended at 9:30 am on Sunday. They had a break in coverage between 5:00 pm and 6:30 pm. So in between this time I switched over to RadioLeMans.com to listen to their coverage. So I got up at 8:15 am on Saturday to begin my Racing Grind. I completely forgot about the 30 minute pre-show before the flag waved at 9. SO THAT WAS 30 MINUTES THAT I COULD HAVE BEEN SLEEPING LOL. Fernando Alonso Ferrari F1 driver was the Tricolor waver, which in layman terms mean he waved the green flag. I was sitting up on the couch so excited for the next 24 hours of nothing but racing on TV. Now I can go on and give a some what detailed description of what happened every hour but instead I will just give my thoughts and impressions from the race.
The Toyota Driver of the #8 should not have been going that fast in the rain. I was a stupid mistake that took out the third Audi and come definitely have been avoided with a clear head. It is such a long race to be thinking that you could have gained that much in those conditions.
It was so good seeing Dempsey Racing sitting on pole of the GTE AM class at the start. Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and Patrick Long make up such a good team. Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster have been partners for a long time. Adding Patrick Long to the team for the second year is a no brainer. Do to an unfortunate penalty for spinning the tires the team dropped down to 6th and fought hard and steady to finish 5th this year. I look forward to seeing them there again next year. I think the strategy they had this year combine that with some good luck and we could be seeing the Winners of 2015 LeMans GTE AM class. Speaking of that class, it was very nice to see Allan Simonsen's team from last year win this year and honor he in doing so. In case you don't know Allan died last year on only the third lap of the 2013 LeMans driving for Aston Martin Racing. Aston Martin went on to withdraw after his death. So it was great seeing them on the top spot of the podium this year.
Having Porsche race in the LMP1 class this year brings more competition to Toyota and LeMans dominating Audi. The car looks great, unfortunately had some very bad luck at the end with Mark Webber's team car and lost the drivetrain. Can't wait till next year when Nissan joins back and racing in 2015.
So back to me and my Grind. At about 2 am I decided to get online and try and get some more of my SR back on iRacing. I was so jonesing to race after watching so much quality racing on TV. So I booted up the computer. Threw on my Piloti Lmp PRO 17 racing shoes, my Alpinestar Tech 1-ZX gloves and my Turtle Beach X12 headsets and I was ready to go. This is where I learned that I can not listen to the race on RadioLeMans.com and race a F1 car at Silverstone cause everytime I would hear the noise of the race in the background, I would think it was my car. Plus it made me realize how much I use sound to drive on iRacing. But it was still fun to get those laps in finally get back over 2.00 in SR. So after doing the math I realize that I would have to do 10 more time trials to get to 4.99. This is a learning experience and punishment at the same time. So next season season me and Jon have decided that, if we lose SR in a race that we will jump on the time trial to recover what we lost instead of thinking we would race our SR back up like we did this season. It is going to be long and tedious but a good learning experience. We are also contemplating using the Star Mazda practice to work on car control to get ready for the DW12 road series. I was very happy I watched the whole race and I also recorded it on my DVR. As soon as the cars crossed the finish line, I was asleep 5 minutes later. I am hope that next year I will be able to make a trip back to France and watch the race in person. If not I think I have found my 24 hour of LeMans tradition now, and that is Grinding out for 24 hours of Racing Bliss.
So thank you again for reading this post. I am still on the fence if I am going to do 1 or 2 more about this weekend. Definitely 1 more but possibly 2. Until a couple hours later for the next one LOL.
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