Gamesta's Super GT GT500 Season 3 Congrats to DragonGT83

[TJC_69]

With the spec II draft changes it seems they've factored in "dirty air" meaning it's much harder to follow through higher speed turns as the car develops a push ( less front downforce?) Plus a weaker pull using the weak setting. It's an improvement IMO, but may mean historical experience at Monza may not apply exactly.

I agree with this also . I said something similar to this ....

TJC_69
An important fact to also remember is that the slipstream strength has been weakened with the rules we run . So Season 1 would've benefitted with much more drafting around a track like Monza back then .

 

[Gamesta666]

Yes, Very True we will have to see what happens on Sunday but if anything it should be exciting.

 

[WRP001]

I ran some practice laps today and managed a full fuel best lap of 1'45.020. For some reason on low fuel I couldn't go faster. I managed 1'45.0XX several times and I know 1'44.XXX is possible for a qualification lap pace. I'm guessing Gamesta's magic lounge should produce a pole time well into the 1'44s.

Dragon, KK or Hydro... any lap times to report? I'm pretty sure with the times above I am not taking an absolutely optimal line in Parabolica, but rather a safer race worthy line. If I can nail a low 1'45 early in quali I may be going for broke in that final corner. Problem is if you mess it up you mess up two laps. 👎

 

[kk20]

Dragon, KK or Hydro... any lap times to report? I'm pretty sure with the times above I am not taking an absolutely optimal line in Parabolica, but rather a safer race worthy line. If I can nail a low 1'45 early in quali I may be going for broke in that final corner. Problem is if you mess it up you mess up two laps. 👎

1:44 is definetely pole time...I havent been doing any practicing since I wont be racing but previous encounters have resulted in low 1:44's...I hope team nissan can make up for my absence by locking out the podium..

 

[WRP001]

1:44 is definetely pole time...I havent been doing any practicing since I wont be racing but previous encounters have resulted in low 1:44's...I hope team nissan can make up for my absence by locking out the podium..

OK, I've made some adjustments to the transmission and I'm running in the high 1'44 range occasionally with fresh tires. My best lap is 1:44.301 with a full fuel load.

@Gamesta: Confirmation please... When exiting pit lane you have to stay to the right of the solid white line (right lane) and under 100 mph almost all the way to the first chicane?

 

[DragonGT83]

OK, I've made some adjustments to the transmission and I'm running in the high 1'44 range occasionally with fresh tires. My best lap is 1:44.301 with a full fuel load.

@Gamesta: Confirmation please... When exiting pit lane you have to stay to the right of the solid white line (right lane) and under 100 mph almost all the way to the first chicane?

good laps, was able to do mid 144s consistantly on full fuel load. doubt i'll be making one stop tho running those kind of laps. if I get a top 4 i'll be happy and more secure about the points finish.

 

[WRP001]

...if I get a top 4 i'll be happy and more secure about the points finish...

You are a comedian. I can't imagine a scenario that puts you out of the top 4 (remember also KK is not racing). Unless of course we reinstate heavy damage in which case anything is possible.

If this were a presidential election I would have already made the call conceding defeat on the season. My slim chance disappeared in turn 1 last week.

Thinking about it though... I pretty much have locked up 2nd place with KK missing also. If Hydro could win he could put some pressure on KK for 3rd in the final event of the season.

 

[DragonGT83]

You are a comedian. I can't imagine a scenario that puts you out of the top 4 (remember also KK is not racing). Unless of course we reinstate heavy damage in which case anything is possible.

If this were a presidential election I would have already made the call conceding defeat on the season. My slim chance disappeared in turn 1 last week.

Thinking about it though... I pretty much have locked up 2nd place with KK missing also. If Hydro could win he could put some pressure on KK for 3rd in the final event of the season.

ya i forgot KK may not be racing this week. I was just looking at the points table and if for some reason i finish last and you win it would be very close for the last race where many mistakes may happen at nurb 24H. And then if for some idiotic reason i mess up during my pitstops or ruined somebodyelse's race i get some penalties. Just saying I wont feel safe till the last race with a 100+ point lead.

On a side note, has anybody from team gamesta done any practice at spa with our yellowhats for the inter-league race next saturday? Gonna be a busy bee tomorrow fine touching my car for monza, getting ready for my saturday night race and I really want to get some practice in for spa next week, also want to try and run some laps at cape fear with the calsonic for the 3D3 event if I can at least make the NA race this week, already know I won't be running in the EU time slot.

 

[kk20]

ya i forgot KK may not be racing this week. I was just looking at the points table and if for some reason i finish last and you win it would be very close for the last race where many mistakes may happen at nurb 24H. And then if for some idiotic reason i mess up during my pitstops or ruined somebodyelse's race i get some penalties. Just saying I wont feel safe till the last race with a 100+ point lead.

On a side note, has anybody from team gamesta done any practice at spa with our yellowhats for the inter-league race next saturday? Gonna be a busy bee tomorrow fine touching my car for monza, getting ready for my saturday night race and I really want to get some practice in for spa next week, also want to try and run some laps at cape fear with the calsonic for the 3D3 event if I can at least make the NA race this week, already know I won't be running in the EU time slot.

I hear what your saying, anything can happen in Nurb 24hr...Definetely my toughest race of the season, especially since I dont know the track

I've had two sessions:
The first session didnt go as well as I'd hoped, Although I managed a high 13.xxx
I later realised I forgot to add 30kg..

Second session
This session went really well, having add the ballast and BHP I went faster by 4 tenths on relatively high fuel...

We really need to practice, Otherwise im gonna feel rusty going into the main event...

 

[Gamesta666]

Yes you will have to stay right for the duration of the pitline at 100 mph fast drivers or on lap drivers must stay right once at the pitline to avoid collisions.

 

[WRP001]

We really need to practice, Otherwise im gonna feel rusty going into the main event...

I know we need practice for the challenge. Unfortunately it's not looking good for me to be able to practice at a time that works for your EU time zone. We'll probably have evening practice this week, but I can't see being able to practice mid day this upcoming week. It's possible I could hang around a bit after the Monza race tomorrow if you want to run a few race laps. What time will the F1 race be finished? Do you want to meet in a lounge after? I"m not sure how much my wife will put up with on a Sunday morning so can't make any definite promises. But if we pick a time **soon** I could invite some WRS/3D3 drivers to join us and even if I can't make it there will be some traffic to run with.

Also it might be prudent for Team Gamesta to have an alternate driver in case one of us has a last minute emergency or even some network glitch that prevents us from staying in the race lobby.

I think the fair way to do it would be to just ask if anyone is interested and available and give priority based on current point standings. So the top three in order would be

1. TJC69
2. Terrible1Fi
3. Gamesta666

If any of you are available Dec 3 at 18:00 GMT let us know if you would like to be the alternate. Honestly I'd give it under 5% chance that you'll actually be required to race so I understand if you're not interested.

It would be a last minute thing and you would basically need to be on "stand by" and watching this thread or PMs starting at 18:00 GMT through qualifying at which point nobody will be able to enter the room so you could "stand down" and enjoy the live feed at that point.

If the alternate did get in the race the primary goal is to be clean and fair and show what this series is all about. Only the top 3 drivers score for the team so if any of the four have a bad race they don't have to feel bad. This is 100% a team focused event.

And in TJ's case, you'd get to drive a GT-R for a change and show what you can do at those specs.

Yes you will have to stay right for the duration of the pitline at 100 mph fast drivers or on lap drivers must stay right once at the pitline to avoid collisions.

OK, i get the pit lane exit part which extends *all* the way and the speed limit applies for the entire length of the solid white line.

But what is the 2nd part? Are you saying cars a lap down have to honor the blue flag and approach the first chicane by staying in the right lane (or leaving a line to the outside) if a lead lap car is approaching for a pass?

 

[Gamesta666]

What I mean is if someone is exiting pitlane it is nesacary for cars that are not pitting to stay left sorry for the confusion my dyslexia came out in that post.

 

[WRP001]

What I mean is if someone is exiting pitlane it is nesacary for cars that are not pitting to stay left sorry for the confusion my dyslexia came out in that post.

Thanks, that makes sense completely.

Cars coming out of the pits have a right to the pit lane exit in the far right lane and cars on track have a right to the area to the left of that exit. And there could be a very large speed difference between the two lanes so proceed with caution.

One note on parabolica if you are going to pit on the lap. You can pretty much take the majority of the turn and especially the entry at full speed and turn right into the pits on exit in 4th and brake and still make the 100 mph speed limit. If someone is right on your tail you probably want to enter as normal and not change your braking, but start favoring the inside a little and give some room on the outside. If someone has initiated a pass on the inside you can just feather the throttle allowing them to pass and duck behind them to enter the pits.

Basically, the pit entry is pretty easy here so it doesn't have to cause any problems in parabolica as long as you are aware of the traffic behind you.

 

[kk20]

I know we need practice for the challenge. Unfortunately it's not looking good for me to be able to practice at a time that works for your EU time zone. We'll probably have evening practice this week, but I can't see being able to practice mid day this upcoming week. It's possible I could hang around a bit after the Monza race tomorrow if you want to run a few race laps. What time will the F1 race be finished? Do you want to meet in a lounge after? I"m not sure how much my wife will put up with on a Sunday morning so can't make any definite promises. But if we pick a time **soon** I could invite some WRS/3D3 drivers to join us and even if I can't make it there will be some traffic to run with.

I'll let you know tomorrow after the race finishes if I can make it...

 

[WRP001]

I'll let you know tomorrow after the race finishes if I can make it...

See https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?p=6248798#post6248798

The rest of you are also invited to practice on spa with us. We'll shuffle over there after our race at Monza.

Not sure how long I'll be able to practice, but I'll stay online as long as my wife and kids allow. As far as they know Gamesta is forcing me to run a long endurance race tomorrow. Shame on you Gamesta.

 

[TJC_69]

WRP001
Team Gamesta to have an alternate driver...
TJC69 / Terrible1Fi / Gamesta666
And in TJ's case, you'd get to drive a GT-R for a change and show what you can do at those specs...

Thanks for the heads up & that would be a great opportunity to compete with alot of quick drivers . But i'm going to have to decline this nice offer . I really think that Gamesta should be included , as this is his series that is being represented in the GTP races coming up & I think that would be a nice thankyou for all of his hard work towards the series . 👍

And don't worry mate , next season I will show what I can do in a GTR .

Thanks again for the offer though . I appreciate it . 👍

 

[SagarisGTB]

Good luck to everyone for the race tomorrow. Hopefully the grid will be fairly full and the first corner will be fairly clean.

Do you use a wheel or the DS3 by the way ?

I still use the Driving Force Pro that I got on the day GT4 came out. Though I've had to fix it a few times, it still works properly and I haven't been able to justify the cost of a new wheel considering I don't play GT as much I used to in the days of GT1-GT4.

 

[TJC_69]

Good luck to everyone for the race tomorrow. Hopefully the grid will be fairly full and the first corner will be fairly clean.
I still use the Driving Force Pro that I got on the day GT4 came out. Though I've had to fix it a few times, it still works properly and I haven't been able to justify the cost of a new wheel considering I don't play GT as much I used to in the days of GT1-GT4.

Good luck to you too teamie . 👍

Did you manage to try my set up from Nurburgring yet by the way ? And if so , was there a big difference compared to yours ?

DFP wheel , nice . 👍
//Edit// - I've decided to miss the race today to watch the full F1 broadcast here , ( 4 hours in total ) . The way we watch F1 will completely change for the worst next year , with less airtime , the commentary team departing , only 10 races live etc. I haven't missed a race this season but i'm sure you guys won't mind if I just miss 1 race . 👍

Good luck to everyone today .

 

[Gamesta666]

Free practice room is now open Qualification starts in 50 mins.

 

[Gamesta666]

Good Race today guys. Review will be up soon after I watch the F1 I will open a room for testing of the 24hrs of Nur for next weeks race. Congrats to WRP on pole and the win today.

 

[WRP001]

Yes, good race. I was lucky with lapped traffic and Dragon has some issues which allowed my 1 stop strategy to pay off. First 13 laps swapped positions with Dragon constantly and then he pitted and I ran the last 27 laps by myself for the most part. First trying to keep the gap from shrinking too fast until my pit after Lap 20. Then trying to dig into Dragons gap after that pit. And final after Dragon's last pit trying to manage the gap so he'd finish the last lap just outside of my draft. Plan worked out.

 

[brettcee]

Despite running out of gas with 2 laps left, that was my best race yet. We had small field but I managed to get to 3rd for awhile. Had my fastest lap at 1:46. Pitted once at lap 20 and took on less fuel then the recommend, it said 36 and I took only 17 which should have been enough, but then I was trying to chase down Sag and keep gamesta behind me and I must have started using more fuel.

My wife got up and cranked the heater on and I was sweating, looked at the leader board and saw I was 3rd, did a double take then promptly drove off the track!

 

[DragonGT83]

great racing today, was driving the wheels off trying to close the gap and catch WRP's draft in the last couple laps. think I drove to hard in some places and overdrove the turn cost me a lil time. Great win WRP.

I'll officially celebrate now Stogies for everybody:tup:

 

[WRP001]

For the archive my pole time was 1'44.336. After the leader board video is captured I'll publish fastest lap times -- which are sure to be laps that were draft assisted.

Anxious to watch the leader board and figure out how I managed to keep the lead. I ran some simulated runs and thought 1 stop was going to be 30+ seconds faster. But I didn't take into account the fact that splitting the fuel add over 2 stops would make the pit stops shorter (by 6-10 secs).

Plus that first stint my tires got wrecked driving close to Dragon for 13 laps and thus lap times for the first stint degraded more than I expected. I'm pretty sure I was running high 1'47 by lap 20. The 2nd stint I was by myself and ran *much* more consistent times throughout the 20 lap stint and kept it at 1'46 or under for the most part.

As usual Dragon doesn't leave you any room for error... I didn't have a single bobble, off track incident or any issues with lapped traffic and I still only won by 1 second. One more lap and I was toast with those shot tires and Dragon in the draft.

3 wins this season > my goal of 1 win so I'm a happy driver. 👍

EDIT 2: Unofficial points standings google document is updated:

At this point I think the top 3-4 positions can't change in the final round. But the competition for the most victories may be given that Dragon and I are both tied with 3 victories.

Fastest lap today went to Hydro with a 1'44.243 on lap 36. (I think he was drafting Dragon the entire lap).

EDIT 2: Interesting Stats

Just to show how close it was today between myself and Dragon. Here are the average lap times over a ten lap period after pitting (throwing out the out lap which includes exiting at low speed and cold tires):

Dragon (Laps 15-24): 1'45.108 avg
WRP... (Laps 22-31): 1'45.058 avg
Dragon (Laps 29-38): 1'45.000 avg

You'd expect the laps to get faster as we ran with lower fuel weight which the numbers show.

The in/out laps for Dragon who could split the fuel addition over two pit stops (avg): 4'04.042
The in/out laps for WRP who had to add all fuel in one stop was: 4'13.492

That was 9 seconds I did not account for in my calculations when deciding on a 1 stop strategy... almost cost me.

Finally, here's the gap analysis per lap. The slope of the line before my first pit (2-3 secs per lap) is what really threw my calculations out of whack. Basically, in the first stint I really abused my tires and my times slowed towards the end of the stint drastically. Some bump drafts by Dragon making me brake much harder, some missed apexes under influence of draft, etc. The slope towards the end of the race was more in line with my original estimates.

 

[Gamesta666]

That is some awesom work WRP. I personallly can't wait for the final race as it's my 32nd year on the planet and I get to celebrate doing something I love Racing at the Ring.... Bring on the "Green Hell". I will be doing some testing a little later tonight I will post here once the room is open.

 

[SagarisGTB]

Did you manage to try my set up from Nurburgring yet by the way ? And if so , was there a big difference compared to yours ?

No, I only did something like 10 laps around Monza in the SC430 before running quali. Didn't have time to compare your setup, but I'm going to compare it on the Nordschleife.
------------
Congrats to WRP on the race win and to Dragon on the championship. Well deserved. 👍

Race today was interesting. Despite only 6 finishers and only two cars on the lead lap (sort of like a GT3 endurance race), the racing was good. I didn't run much practice, but I didn't have much hope of beating the GT-Rs on a track that really doesn't suit the SC430 and a track I am historically slow at. During the first ten laps or so, I was a trying too hard and locked up a few times, hitting Brettcee and Hydro unfortunately, I apologize for that. Nevertheless, I ended up running in Hydro's slipstream for much of the first stint. At one point, Hydro went wide out of parabolica and partly onto the grass. I was busy watching his theatrics, didn't realize I was following him into the grass and I ended up spinning out. I can laugh about it now, but it definitely wasn't funny at the time. I had lost time and lost my drafting locomotive so things weren't looking good in the battle against the mighty GT-Rs, but luckily (for me, not him) Hydro had an incident and I was able to get back into his neighbourhood.

Despite ultimately gaining time on laps in a GT-Rs slipstream because of the long straights, the dirty air made it very difficult to drive and I was all over the place under braking and in the corners. I never realized the reduction in downforce was that extreme.

Coming up to the second pit stop, I was feeling ambitious and thought I could get a chance at third if I could stick to Hydro. I knew that I had to be ahead of him after the stops so I could get used to the cold tires and not lose touch with him. I figured if I could get out of the pits ahead of him, I would able to get used to the tires before the first overtaking point on the straight to Ascari. So on lap 27 before the pit stop, I passed Hydro and pulled into the pits ahead of him. I took on 18 units of fuel though, and Hydro got out of the pits just ahead and (as I predicted) I couldn't keep up on the cold tires and lost touch. Brettcee was running right behind me at that point, so I shifted my mindset to concentrate on running consistently to keep him and Gamesta behind me and finish in 4th place.

Sorry to Dragon if I held you up when you were lapping me. You were far back when I looked back going into Curva Grande and the next time I looked back you were very close going into Roggia. I eased off but stayed on the racing line to avoid any confusion or an accident since you were quite close.

 

[WRP001]

No, I only did something like 10 laps around Monza in the SC430 before running quali.

Seriously you guys have to put in more preparation time than that! This wasn't a week where I prepared that much relative to other weeks and I still must have put in at least 80 laps. I do best when I run at least one full race length "simulated" run to understand how the car will behave over an entire run. I've run full simulations three times this season and guess what.. I won all three of those races. At GP/F the longest run I did in practice was 8 laps and the results showed that... I finished 5th.

When we run 3D3 races there are week we put in 150+ laps offline for the WRS and then another 75+ practice laps online. "Practice makes perfect"... or in this case practice makes you fast and consistent and allows you to avoid mistakes. When all drivers know their lines and their limits it makes for a much better race. Mistakes happen even if you practice forever, but the frequency goes way down and the ability to recover with minimal damage comes with many laps and many mistakes made before race day.

Here's the leaderboard video.


I'm working on a highlights video showing the start and then the 13 lap first stint battle between Dragon and I. Some close and clean racing... you can always count on Dragon for that. It's amazing he can stay so close to the brake zone and not punt you even once. I tend to back off a little earlier because I don't trust myself, but he has an uncanny ability to brake at the perfect time. Don't try this at home!

PS> You'll see on lap 20 that brettcee's pit stop is *much* quicker than mine. I was wondering how he did that until I saw that he only put in 17L of fuel. I took the recommended 36L.

 

[Gamesta666]

I have my lounge open for testing at Nur 24hrs all are welcome to join.



EDIT: Did about 6 laps fastest was 8:25.239 tires lasted about 4 laps.

 

[TJC_69]

SagarisGTB
No, I only did something like 10 laps around Monza in the SC430 before running quali.Didn't have time to compare your setup, but I'm going to compare it on the Nordschleife.

No worries . A Nurb 24 comparison should be interesting.

WRP
Seriously you guys have to put in more preparation time than that!

Not every driver in my opinion but conversely you do have a point . Some of the more technical tracks or tracks that aren't your best then sure , extra practice will reward you with more laptime from practice & setup time .

Take my race at Nurburgring last week for example . All I needed was a gear selection test for the car as the setup was perfect already & I just needed to test top speed .

I've driven an estimated 3000 + laps on all iterations of the 'Ring over the last 12 months , so extra practice wouldn't have made any difference in my case for sure. Fastest non GTR laptime , running competitively in 4th plus driving my best & most consistent race so far would also attest to this.

SagarisGTB
Congrats to WRP on the race win and to Dragon on the championship. Well deserved.

Agreed . 👍 Well done & congrats for a great season.

 

[SagarisGTB]

Seriously you guys have to put in more preparation time than that! This wasn't a week where I prepared that much relative to other weeks and I still must have put in at least 80 laps. I do best when I run at least one full race length "simulated" run to understand how the car will behave over an entire run. I've run full simulations three times this season and guess what.. I won all three of those races. At GP/F the longest run I did in practice was 8 laps and the results showed that... I finished 5th.

When we run 3D3 races there are week we put in 150+ laps offline for the WRS and then another 75+ practice laps online. "Practice makes perfect"... or in this case practice makes you fast and consistent and allows you to avoid mistakes. When all drivers know their lines and their limits it makes for a much better race. Mistakes happen even if you practice forever, but the frequency goes way down and the ability to recover with minimal damage comes with many laps and many mistakes made before race day.

I usually run much more practice than this. I ran 70 laps at Spa and 60 laps on La Sarthe as practice for example. I lacked free time last week, but to be honest, I don't know if I would have gained any positions at Monza through practice with the way the GT-Rs run there. Plus, running alone on Monza is fairly mundane so that doesn't provide any extra motivation.

I feel like a student giving excuses to his teacher for not doing his homework.