Alfa Z-Cup - Johnnypenso and Carracerptp Z-Cup Co-Champions!

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carracerptp
OK, just tried a quick ten lap test.
I was running laps lower than 51.3 for all the laps up to lap 6.
51.5s avg after. seems lap 8 is the first sign of tire wear for me. I would think I just over heated them so running a cool down lap would probably bring back the grip.
How many people besides WRP are running 50s? I kinda think 51.0 is my limit. Could get a lucky 50 but it would be pure luck.
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I don't really see myself running a 1'50 in quali when we only have 2 hot laps to get it done. I think a low 1'51 is more of a reasonable quali target. If I can hit a mid/low 1'51 on my first hot lap I may go for it, but otherwise a 1'50 requires a bit too much risk taking.

Eclipsi on the other hand is likely to run in the 1'49 range. It looks like CSL (D1) may not make the race and will mostly likely be replaced on Team WRS by a D3 driver... not 100% sure yet. Both races should be competitive and fun both individually and team-wise. It will be interesting to see if we can hang on with the top D1 guys. With the draft it's not impossible, but it will be a challenge.

In the WRS EU race positions 3-6 got into an early battle and the two D1 guys (w-g-e and twissy) that started 1-2 got away right at the start... I started 5th and by the time I was in 3rd they were 6 seconds in front and I never got a whiff of their draft and ended up in 3rd about 53 seconds behind after 35 laps!! If that happens Saturday forget about catching them and just try to maximize teams points or hope they battle and slow themselves down.
 
Other than a quick 5 lapper I haven't had any time to run the Alfa online at Fuji. However, I'm hoping to wrap up work for the week early tomorrow afternoon, then hopefully have some time for a good 15-20 lap session. I'll hop into the ORCA Lounge when I'm online tomorrow and post it and if anyone wants to join in, you're more than welcome. If you guys are going to gather later in the day as well, I might join in then too. Be nice to get some nose to tail driving in with the draft. ORCA members only of courseEveryone is welcome...:sly:
 
Johnnypenso
ORCA members only of courseEveryone is welcome...:sly:
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:lol: Only Orca members have access to the lounge so you don't have to worry about unwanted visitors... at least unless you are considering those of us with GTP tags as "unwanted". :sly:

Hydro, Ren and I are driving for team Orca you know! Unfortunately I'll be on a plane home so won't make the practice, but good luck.
 
WRP001
I don't really see myself running a 1'50 in quali when we only have 2 hot laps to get it done. I think a low 1'51 is more of a reasonable quali target. If I can hit a mid/low 1'51 on my first hot lap I may go for it, but otherwise a 1'50 requires a bit too much risk taking.

Eclipsi on the other hand is likely to run in the 1'49 range. It looks like CSL (D1) may not make the race and will mostly likely be replaced on Team WRS by a D3 driver... not 100% sure yet. Both races should be competitive and fun both individually and team-wise. It will be interesting to see if we can hang on with the top D1 guys. With the draft it's not impossible, but it will be a challenge.

In the WRS EU race positions 3-6 got into an early battle and the two D1 guys (w-g-e and twissy) that started 1-2 got away right at the start... I started 5th and by the time I was in 3rd they were 6 seconds in front and I never got a whiff of their draft and ended up in 3rd about 53 seconds behind after 35 laps!! If that happens Saturday forget about catching them and just try to maximize teams points or hope they battle and slow themselves down.
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What were the "race pace" times? 50.000? I think I could say in the draft of that. If mid 49s are the race pace then I'm going to need 3 ORCA guys pushing me plus the draft :lol:
 
The main point of our WRS discussions is bump drafting. And that it takes practice. I'll tell you what I said there about that:

The key to bump drafting is for the car behind to ease onto the bumper of the lead car, not smash into it. If you can stay in contact for 1-2 seconds, you will gain significant speed. If you just "bump" the car in front of you, neither one will gain an advantage.

What I didn't say there, but that I will here, is that is also important to know your partner. The car in front needs to know that the car behind is not going to slam them, and the car behind needs to be competent enough to gently touch the bumper, without losing track of when to back off. And then backing off just enough to follow, without either losing the draft or knocking out the guy you just pushed!!!
 
chukabilly
The main point of our WRS discussions is bump drafting. And that it takes practice. I'll tell you what I said there about that:

The key to bump drafting is for the car behind to ease onto the bumper of the lead car, not smash into it. If you can stay in contact for 1-2 seconds, you will gain significant speed. If you just "bump" the car in front of you, neither one will gain an advantage.

What I didn't say there, but that I will here, is that is also important to know your partner. The car in front needs to know that the car behind is not going to slam them, and the car behind needs to be competent enough to gently touch the bumper, without losing track of when to back off. And then backing off just enough to follow, without either losing the draft or knocking out the guy you just pushed!!!
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Also some people can work with others better than others.
You need a guy that uses a line that works with yours.
 
carracerptp
What were the "race pace" times? 50.000? I think I could say in the draft of that. If mid 49s are the race pace then I'm going to need 3 ORCA guys pushing me plus the draft :lol:
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The race pace was about 1'51.000, at the fastest. Yes, some laps hit the 1'50.x's, but the leaders were running 1'51's. Most race laps were within a few tenths of 1'52.

The first twenty laps are the only ones that count now, and I expect more 1'50's than before. First, more aggression in the shorter race. Second, the combined talent of the drivers has only increased with experience.

The main lesson of the WRS races I learned was that if the leader loses the draft pack, they won't catch him. It will be harder for the leader to pull away if the rest of the drivers know this! :)

edit: Right on, carracer!
 
carracerptp
Also some people can work with others better than others.
You need a guy that uses a line that works with yours.
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I will say that we worked well together at La Sarthe... You have to have confidence that the other guy can run consistent lines and has consistent brakes.

Also don't forget pushing too much can destroy your tires into turn 1. The guy pushing can back off and be gentle, but the guy getting pushed needs to brake no earlier than necessary otherwise it's a chain reaction of too early braking that just eliminates the gains. In other words the leader in the situation is going to have the worst of the bargain... but every few laps just switch off the baton. however if there is a clearly faster drivers in T3 the faster guy is always better off being in the lead because following someone slower in T3 is murder on lap times.

You know all this team strategy stuff is really what makes this kind of event fun and different. 👍 Even if we think we know more than we really do :sly: In the end it may be about not screwing up... You screw up and all that other stuff is out the window.
 
Gravitron
You can count on me...for screwups. I'm good at that. :lol:
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Good... you are driving for WRS so screw up all you want. :lol:

Seriously though, Lounge A is going to be some shark infested water, it's going to be tough to get a top 3 results there on either team and stay there for round 2.
 
chukabilly
The race pace was about 1'51.000, at the fastest. Yes, some laps hit the 1'50.x's, but the leaders were running 1'51's. Most race laps were within a few tenths of 1'52.

The first twenty laps are the only ones that count now, and I expect more 1'50's than before. First, more aggression in the shorter race. Second, the combined talent of the drivers has only increased with experience.

The main lesson of the WRS races I learned was that if the leader loses the draft pack, they won't catch him. It will be harder for the leader to pull away if the rest of the drivers know this! :)

edit: Right on, carracer!
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50s sound doable. If a guy running 50.5s is leading, I would like to know if a 2 car pack of low 51s drivers can do 50s and drag him in?

WRP001
I will say that we worked well together at La Sarthe... You have to have confidence that the other guy can run consistent lines and has consistent brakes.

Also don't forget pushing too much can destroy your tires into turn 1. The guy pushing can back off and be gentle, but the guy getting pushed needs to brake no earlier than necessary otherwise it's a chain reaction of too early braking that just eliminates the gains. In other words the leader in the situation is going to have the worst of the bargain... but every few laps just switch off the baton. however if there is a clearly faster drivers in T3 the faster guy is always better off being in the lead because following someone slower in T3 is murder on lap times.

You know all this team strategy stuff is really what makes this kind of event fun and different. 👍 Even if we think we know more than we really do :sly: In the end it may be about not screwing up... You screw up and all that other stuff is out the window.
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At La Sarthe, we both had compatible brake points, which made for good lap times.
If that comes about again I hope I can keep it off the walls this time in the last lap :lol:
I hope on Friday we can all test to see which drivers work best together in a 2 car pack 👍
Also we need to master a quick draft switch so as not to loss much time.
 
The pressure is on now fellas we are in the spotlight!!! 👍

From GTPlanet's News Forum:

GTPlanet’s Weekly Race Series (WRS) is the longest running online Time Trial competition dedicated to the Gran Turismo series. Having run continuously since its humble introduction in February of 2003, the WRS has been run for nearly 9 years and boasts 445 completed weekly time trials! For the first time in its long history, the WRS began hosting live, weekly online racing events shortly after the start of this year. Each week, participants from around the globe race against one another in live competitions organized by GTPlanet’s very own team of race administrators.

Interested in joining the fun?

The current week’s WRS Time trial can be found in this thread, and we’ll be running the online version of the event this coming Wednesday, January 25th. After this week’s event, we’ll pit interested participants against members of the ORCA series, one of the many race series currently running in GTPlanet’s Racing Series Forum.


https://www.gtplanet.net/gtplanets-weekly-race-series-expands-with-new-events/
 
'49s folks. In the room with bdubclub now.

Edit: I am becoming inebriated, however, and will only be in the lounge for a few more minutes. Also, for some reason, while I've watched bdub make a few laps I cannot see his times in the monitoring screen. It shows what lap he is on in the upper left corner, but across the matrix it shows no data. Above in the margin it still shows his current lap counter, the best lap in the room, and the total time the room has been open.

2nd Edit: I exited and reentered the room, and now the timing screen appears to be functioning correctly.
 
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Marcus Garvey
'49s folks. In the room with bdubclub now.

Edit: I am becoming inebriated, however, and will only be in the lounge for a few more minutes. Also, for some reason, while I've watched bdub make a few laps I cannot see his times in the monitoring screen. It shows what lap he is on in the upper left corner, but across the matrix it shows no data. Above in the margin it still shows his current lap counter, the best lap in the room, and the total time the room has been open.

2nd Edit: I exited and reentered the room, and now the timing screen appears to be functioning correctly.
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After running some laps for the first time, I need some work in the last sector. I was about a half sec off of Marcus's 49 sec lap until sector 3, where I would lose at least a second. I know I'm not taking the right line through there, hopefully I'm a quick learner come race time. :sly:


Currently a pb of 51.3, but I left plenty of time out there.

Edit: 100 percent for the race on Saturday, will be logging some laps tomorrow, if anyone wants to join I have off all day. 👍
 
Marcus Garvey
'49s folks. In the room with bdubclub now.

Edit: I am becoming inebriated, however, and will only be in the lounge for a few more minutes. Also, for some reason, while I've watched bdub make a few laps I cannot see his times in the monitoring screen. It shows what lap he is on in the upper left corner, but across the matrix it shows no data. Above in the margin it still shows his current lap counter, the best lap in the room, and the total time the room has been open.

2nd Edit: I exited and reentered the room, and now the timing screen appears to be functioning correctly.
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I hope I can see you a a practice session, my best is a 51.0 :scared:
Are you using any "odd" lines for T3, say, going off the grip line and still keeping the grip? or just driving it fast?
 
carracerptp
I hope I can see you a a practice session, my best is a 51.0 :scared:
Are you using any "odd" lines for T3, say, going off the grip line and still keeping the grip? or just driving it fast?
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My best is 1:52.5xx so I'll bring the picnic and set it up in the big run off area at the end of the lap.

Marcus sure drives fast for someone who's over 120 years old!
 
RDAardvark
My best is 1:52.5xx so I'll bring the picnic and set it up in the big run off area at the end of the lap.

Marcus sure drives fast for someone who's over 120 years old!
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I'm in the 1:53's, I'll bring some Guinness to the picnic and we can watch the other guys fight it out! :)
 
carracerptp
I hope I can see you a a practice session, my best is a 51.0 :scared:
Are you using any "odd" lines for T3, say, going off the grip line and still keeping the grip? or just driving it fast?
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I am entering T3 with the car placed mid-left on the track. So I enter it slightly wide, which allows me to get the car turned earlier, giving a straighter shot into the braking zone for the hard LH ahead. This line also allowed me to be further to the RH side at entry to the tight LH turn, keeping my speed up at entry there. You have to really wring it out with the stock settings. The car is a bit more stable when pushed than with the TT settings, so toss it around a bit.

I'll try and see if I can get time to run a few more laps this evening.
 
phil bell
Registration is closed?
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Unfortunately, yes. We have all the people we can handle and we've had to limit participation to 12 drivers max per race due to the online bug. If the bug gets fixed we may have room for a couple more.
 
I can now run 50.5s 👍
I decided to see if having "stock rims" was helping or hurting me.
Stock rims got me a 51.01
New rims returned a 50.55 (3 of then actually, lap 1 50.56 = dirty, lap 2 50.55 = clean, lap 3 50.57 3 tires off but very close = sorta dirty = dirty).
Also I changed my brake bias (4/6)
Then I when back to 51s so....... I'm not sure if I was having a good session or the rims helped, or was it the brakes....
I think I could find a 49s lap now, my exit onto the main straight was really bad on all 3 laps.
 
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A reminder to everyone, we'll be having official Fuji practice tonight starting at 9pm EST. I would like for as many of you as possible to show up, preferably everyone who will be participating tomorrow but we might have room for a couple non-participants too if you want to practice with us. We'll do at least one or two 5 lap races and then try to do a longer 10-12 lap race so we can practice different strategies.

Some things to think about and practice tonight:
- Find which turns you're best able to make passes, and practice passing.
- Work on getting a good exit out of the final turn so you can get a good run down the straight.
- Find which corners allow 2-wide and which ones don't, obviously learning to avoid going 2-wide in the ones that don't.
- Work on proper bump drafting, ease up and give a gentle bump, trying to stay "connected" to the driver in front. If you slam into them it could cause you to lose speed/momentum.
- Practice "leap-frog drafting" where the trailing car gets a good run, passes the lead car and then pulls them with the draft. Sometimes this is more effective than standard bump drafting.
- Patience and consistency. This is a team based event and any points our members score will be valuable. If you find yourself alone on the track, keep on pushing and try to lay down consistent laps. Somebody in front of you might screw up and you'll gain a position just by being persistent.

Above all, just have fun. I don't have any expectations for this event, I don't expect us to win or lose and I'm not at all concerned with how we fare. What's important to me is that we all race as clean and hard as we can and have a good showing. If we end up winning, fantastic! If we don't end up winning, as long as we show the WRS guys we're capable of good, clean, fun racing I'll consider it a great success and be proud of everyone. We have one of the cleanest, most respectful group of drivers on GTP and that makes me far more proud than being the fastest. 👍


Good luck, good racing, and I'll see you all at Fuji! :cheers:
 
Well said. I'm claiming membership for whoever wins. :lol:
 
Please turn the Mics on for tonight. Make it a lot easier to work out Strategies and what not.
 
GMT sucks. 9pm EST equals the wee small hours in my part of the world.
Good luck tonight and I'll see you all tomorrow.

edit: gonna try changing my wheels following carracerptp's findings.
 
RDAardvark
GMT sucks. 9pm EST equals the wee small hours in my part of the world.
Good luck tonight and I'll see you all tomorrow.

edit: gonna try changing my wheels following carracerptp's findings.
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You wanna jump on earlier? I'm pretty free over the next few hours.

Also of you change rims. Do you have to reset the trans still?
 
BrandonW77
A reminder to everyone, we'll be having official Fuji practice tonight starting at 9pm EST. I would like for as many of you as possible to show up, preferably everyone who will be participating tomorrow but we might have room for a couple non-participants too if you want to practice with us. We'll do at least one or two 5 lap races and then try to do a longer 10-12 lap race so we can practice different strategies.

Some things to think about and practice tonight:
- Find which turns you're best able to make passes, and practice passing.
- Work on getting a good exit out of the final turn so you can get a good run down the straight.
- Find which corners allow 2-wide and which ones don't, obviously learning to avoid going 2-wide in the ones that don't.
- Work on proper bump drafting, ease up and give a gentle bump, trying to stay "connected" to the driver in front. If you slam into them it could cause you to lose speed/momentum.
- Practice "leap-frog drafting" where the trailing car gets a good run, passes the lead car and then pulls them with the draft. Sometimes this is more effective than standard bump drafting.
- Patience and consistency. This is a team based event and any points our members score will be valuable. If you find yourself alone on the track, keep on pushing and try to lay down consistent laps. Somebody in front of you might screw up and you'll gain a position just by being persistent.

Above all, just have fun. I don't have any expectations for this event, I don't expect us to win or lose and I'm not at all concerned with how we fare. What's important to me is that we all race as clean and hard as we can and have a good showing. If we end up winning, fantastic! If we don't end up winning, as long as we show the WRS guys we're capable of good, clean, fun racing I'll consider it a great success and be proud of everyone. We have one of the cleanest, most respectful group of drivers on GTP and that makes me far more proud than being the fastest. 👍


Good luck, good racing, and I'll see you all at Fuji! :cheers:
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All really good points 👍
If we can master the leap frog draft teams, and it works here, we could have weapon.
The thinking about the WRS "top" drivers is an average lap for them is a flying lap for some of us (me).
 
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