@OutlawQuadrnt The night got faster, still not as fast as you are!
I kept it simple tonight, no qualifying, no practice, GR1, first the hipster alternative, then the meta.
This time I used the correct R18, the '16 version and not the '11. That helped a bunch. The first race I managed to get the clean race bonus 12 positions up to 6th. Second race went even better, same amount of positions up yet with a 3rd place finish. I did accelerate on the grass once after the U-turn and got a 0.5 sec 'wide' penalty. The third race in the R18 did not go as planned, I got hit by impatient 919's and bumped off the track a couple times. So I figured better join them before they manage to give me a penalty.
First race with the 919 I still had to get used to the differences, spun out once, finished 11th. Second race I was stuck behind someone attempting a no stop and while being a bit too patient got passed by an unstable driver squeezing in between us holding me up even further.
Next race I started right behind the no stop guy and passed him right away before the first turn not to repeat the same thing, 5th place finish with clean race bonus, most cars passed in that race at 14. Then after a 7th and a 4th place finish, adding to my clean streak.
The last race however I got stuck behind 3 messy drivers so decided to pit in lap 4 and get 7 laps of fuel. That worked beautifully and they were all behind me after they pitted. It was a fast room though and I only made it to 8th before an overtake went wrong. I had a better exit from the U-turn and was on the outside overtaking the car on the inside. Either he didn't see me or could not hold his line as he was drifting over. I was afraid he would make contact and went too far to the side to avoid his car with predictable results. 3 positions down, clean streak gone (for avoiding contact, go figure!), but still penalty free. I had some great saves in that race, avoided the car insta-stalling when he bumped the car in front of him off the track, avoided the car cutting me off by stopping in time and managed to get around bad track re-entries (don't trust the ghosts).
Fun night, no SR loss and only once a 3 sec penalty from a bump passer. Apparently cutting the corner and bumping a car is seen as you making contact with a car that went off-road, so you get the penalty! I gave one other bumper a penalty in the race where I got 14th. He bumped me from behind a couple times already to create an opening so when he bump passed a bit later I put my car wide just off track and ping his sign started flashing. This penalty system is dumb as rocks. Anyway no more contact after switching to the 919, driving the meta helps.
DR up 800 points after all that, for overtaking 83 cars total. 10 points per car!
Did they change how the sportsmanship rating works? I fell back down from SR.99 to SR.57(The lowest I'd ever been) in the last FIA race I participated in.(I don't want to talk about it.)
Anyway, I jumped back on today since I found a nice window of time and did a couple A races. The first one was clean, but I only went up to SR. 59. Barely 2 points gained. The next race I got one penalty and it fell all the way to SR.52!(My new record low)
Anyone else noticing harsh drops with very tough gains?
I hate to think I'll get stuck down here with the knuckleheads even though I've been able to maintain DR.A. I can do well to avoid most rough traffic, but I'm definitely not perfect.
Daily A and B races are only worth 4 or 5 points. You need a daily C to quickly regain SR, preferably one with many laps. Brand's tomorrow, 12 laps, should be worth about 20 points for a clean race, perhaps more.
Every contact now costs you SR. It may seem that rubbing is fine now, yet points are still deducted behind the scenes even when you get punted and it's not deemed your fault. A clean race bonus with red SR rating is easily possible. Getting a time penalty costs a lot. It seems to be at least equal to or maybe double the time in SR loss. One 5 sec penalty already gives you a neutral rating in a daily B without any further contact and all perfect sectors. On N24 daily C one 10 sec penalty would already cause a neutral rating.
