Zhuhai Vertigo

had not much luck today.
i did pole, but not with good time.
start was good too and i was in lead, but in first lap i got hit from behind and i come in sand and was nearly last, grrrr.
then i had aero damge and i loose extrem much time to come more in front, the leader was already miles away.
then i change strategy and i did pit in lap 8, because then i can drive free, without cars in front of me, i did 100l, but forgot to do engine off, dump, and loose time.
now i could drive alone, but had 30l more fuel then other cars and i was frustrated and did not good laps, 1.37.mid i did constant in practise, in race it was then 1.38.low-mid.
only if kent welker did DNF and i saw that the 2 front drivers after their pitstop was 5 and 11 sec. in front of me, i did push and i did my fastest race laps in end of race.
i am realy not happy how the race was, without hit in first lap i had chance of win and i am not happy with 3rd place too because today i had good speed.

congrats to winner and 2nd place.

servus

Was a great race for me until we hit the 10 minute to go mark.

Qualifying was really poor, I made the ultimate mistake making several changes to my setup before qual costing me 2nd on the grid. I had nothing for Reinhard.

I got a decent start and made it through T1 nice and clean following Reinhard and Anton with Barry right on my tail. The entire field made it through clean. But someone made a huge error heading to T3, I could see them coming in my mirror think, this is going to be ugly. It was a the car flew through T3 and took out Reinhard letting Anton, myself and Barry through untouched.

Feel real bad about that Reinhard, was curious if I had you pace in race.

The three of us completed lap 1 running pretty close together. Then on lap 2 I missed my braking into the first hairpin T5 but it turned out to be a splendid pass on Anton. He gave me plenty of room and we exited with me leading.

From there on I increased my gap lap by lap until the pit stops which I pitted first taking just enough fuel to finish.

With 9 minutes to go I passed Barry for the lead again while he was pitting. I glanced up and noticed my lap time was well off my pace and though "huh? I better run more consistant than that if I want this win. I never even looked to see what the gap was behind me because as I exited T1 the engine failed on me.

Gutted! controlled the entire event and literally had this one in the bag. Oh well, my guess is that if Reinhard hadn't been taken out Lap 1 the entire race would have been totally different.

Grats to Barry on the win!

A 7th in quali was not ok but I had a good start and was close behind Brian in lap 1. Out of the last turn and onto the straight Brian lagged bigtime and I ran into his stationary car and into the gravel. That is killing on lap 1 so it meant playing catch up the rest of the race. Halfway I approached a group of cars that for sure would not let me pass easily so I decided to change my pitstrategy and went in earlier as planned. Thanks to the new XD I was able to set all parameters right before entering the pitlane. After that I gained some spots when others made their stops. On the last lap I was behind Brian again and there he did something that would made him win the R2P-sportsmanshiptrophy (idea !!!) of the month by letting me pass and handing me 4th overall as a "payback" for what happend in lap 1. Hats off for that Brian. And grats to Barry and the rest of the podium.

My guess would be Kent on that first lap that someone just got a new set of pedals with a clutch and tried using it for brakes. Reminded me of the race at Imola where I did the same thing and slammed into you and Tristan. The clutch makes a lousy brake!

Was saddened to see you smoldering on the sidelines right after my pit. You had the race in the bag and unfortunate for Reinhard. He made a good comeback though!

I missed the stationary car on the end of the first lap by an inch! Just wasn't waiting for that!
Messed up the rest of the race after a couple of laps, could of done a lot better!...
I was doing under 1.39 easy in practice on race fuel, stranger is that the temps were more or less the same. Guess it's the tention of the race.

Well, it was very fun race, although I wasn't lucky enough. Started 4th, but in T3 had my monitor flickering and for a couple of seconds I couldn't "feel" what's happening in the race. NOD32 updated its signature! I was like a missile that moment, totally lost the brakes (I only braked a few meters before the turn) and went on the gravel.
Sorry if I scared you guys. :-)

From the last place I tried to do whatever I could, it was very early at the race and didn't want to miss the fun trying to forget what just happened.

Very soon Andy Graydon and George Pol had a battle together and were losing time. In some point they made an error and managed to pass them both on the s/f straight.
After 5-6 laps reached the first group of cars and had some fun there. Taking as advantage some mistakes and with clean battles gained 4 places.

From 10th place, reached Brian Fairly and Salvatore Schittone, who lost the control of the car leaving me and Brian fighting for 8th place. Early enough I passed Brian when he left plenty of space in my move.

With Brian close all the time I was reaching a great great battle, for a long time, very fun to watch, with Aaron Jackson (go mate!) and Michael Virt for 6th!

John Mueler was 5th in that point 3-4 seconds in front when he spun the car! I was watching the replay from Aaron's on board cam in that moment and was really a tough one. Great reactions guys, Aaron you sweat there I'm sure ;-)

John was now between me and Brian, and in front, Aaron was making everything to pass Michael. But that's when he tried to make his move on the brakes, both Brian and Aaron braked late with Aaron's rear wheels losing traction and make the car unstable. Managed to keep it but I was very close and made a signal for me to pass him.
I tried to catch Brian, did it in some point, but couldn't pass him, not even got to a real battle. Aaron was faster from both of us, and I was keeping him, so I let room to pass and catch Michael.

With Brian we were between 1 second throughtout the whole race. When I pit.. Second race in GTR2, second pit and second disaster. I can't make the XD work to set my strategy before I pit, so I lost time to say "No tires" and "don't fix my car", I remembered last race where I put the wets on and was very careful also and I had 4 tries to start the engine!! For God shake! And I practiced that!

I got out of the pits 8th watching George Pol passing. Thought that there was enough time to challenge him, but realized soon that couldn't keep his pace. Aaron was 4th in that point and George was reaching, it was a good opportunity to get close with their battle if I keep a quick pace. But Aaron made a mistake letting George pass and finally we managed a 6-7 for Vepra team.

Thanx guys, was a very fun race!

Congrats to podium! See ya at next track!

Nice write up Spy!

It was an intense battle. For me, I've always had a hard time being fast at this track. Kent was right about one thing, its all about braking, and even though I wasnt fast enough. I managed to keep a consistant braking and gearing pattern in the slow corners which help.

I started 4th. After a few laps I watched some cars go left and right off the track. Taking advantage of that I found myself 7th or so. Battling for 4th place. It was a great run between Muller, Virt, and co with us jumping each other hard on the braking zone. Almost shit myself when I came into turn 2 and saw Muller looking the other way. I dont know how Mike and I made it thru that.

After realize spyros was back in last. I felt horrible as he ran a nice qualifying attempt. Was nice to see him chase back to the top 10.

For a while I battle with Mike who was hell bent on not letting me by, with some very clever defensive driving. No need to apologize for it Mike, you were awsome at it. I enjoy racing like that. You made me earn every chance to pass and I enjoyed it entirely, and we didnt wreck each other, lol.

I flew into the pits with Brian close by. I took on too much fuel as my calulations were based on laps and not time. When I came out Brian was 8 seconds ahead of me, and pulling away fast. I figured I could hold my position with Spyros back 2 spots, but here comes GP out of nowhere, and had me so confused to were he came from. I was trying to figure out if he pitted already, and I got some tires off in the grass, which ruined my chances to hold him off.

I tried for 2 laps to maintain his pace, but I was worn out, and just wanted to have a half decent finish. 6th and 7th for the Vep isnt bad at all considering all that had happened, and where I started.

Always a blast racing with you guys, I cant wait for the next round.

Tough break for Kent who always looks strong, and consistant, only to have it go up in smoke.

Congrats to Barry on the win!

Qualified 12th, pretty much like Aaron was saying - I struggle around here, but I always test on race fuel so I had high hopes for the race.

Got an OK start, and with all the mishaps for others in the first few corners I was up to P8 as we entered the last turn onto the long straight. Next thing I see a car shooting off left (George Pol) and then where he had been I was confronted with a stationary car right in my path.

I tried backing off but it was much too late. Watching the replay, it's surreal! I take front end damage from the initial hit, then the other car (Brian's) moves sideways and then right back in behind me, at which point it starts moving again. Because I have diminished speed and Brian's car is now going hell for leather again, I get a tap up the rear which span me across the track and into the armco!

So there is me trying to get back on track, with George just beating me to it. Second to last. A car full of fuel and now she was understeering! So I plodded on as George started to pull away and then Lafferiere got by too.

I was going nowhere, so decided to pit on Lap 8, fill the car up (I had started with 100 litres, so played safe and topped it right back up) - but leave my Hard fronts and Medium rears on. I fixed damage (6.9 seconds) as I had no other choice with the way the car was handling. Like others have said, I was hoping for track space and just drive as hard as I could. As I trundled down pitlane there were two other guys apparently doing the same.

So from then on in it was a case of drive as fast as I could and hope that when others pitted they were taking on tyres and/or more fuel. Kent caught me up soon enough and I let him by, expecting more to follow - but it wasn't to be the case. He must have been a good distance ahead!

Anyway, as cars pitted I slowly started moving up the order. I came out just a couple of seconds behind George when he made his stop (so effectively had gained on him), so knew at that point my pace must have been half decent.

I sat in P10 once all the stops had been completed, but had my arch-nemesis Michael Virt (I used to be his team boss, so he wants nothing but to beat me!!) running me down, with Mueller in tow. As I entered the main straight on one lap I had to change down to 3rd to avoid going off as I went wide, and Michael got through. John Mueller tried but I made it really hard for him. However he got me a lap or so later, interestingly enough both these guys were better under braking than me (going back to Aaron's comment).

Then it was me chasing Michael Virt again, and we had this to-and-fro battle for quite some time. Eventually he cracked under the pressure (yeah!!), and so I started to chase after John again - 3.2 seconds ahead. I wanted P10, having been P17 before the first lap was over! But our pace was evenly matched, and towards the end I knew it would be too much to ask. A semi spin from me meant Michael got near at the end, but his own mistake soon after meant I opened up the gap again.

In the middle of all the on track action, Kent's demise gave me P10 back. So in the end I'm very pleased. But I want to know, when will Brian give me his place back too? Or is this just an "IcePol" livery thing going on here with George!!!!?

Tyre choice was wrong today. Too hard front and rear, softer options would have lasted the race.

Fun as always, cya at the next one. Go Phoenix Racing, down with CS Racing (that's for Michael V!!).

First off, big sorry to George, Andy ( Andy i didn't realise you got caught up in too until your race report) and whoever else got caught up in my 'frozen car' incident. I installed windows 7 yesterday and this was the 1st race ran on new installation. Not a particularly pleasant experience, everything felt different and even though i copied my userdata folder from old drive nothing felt right, my FFB felt completely different, XD was in a race07 format and i could see engine health or change pit strategy, my FPS wasn't as good as it was (cars if front seemed to be slightly jerky in motion but wasn't too bad but i was concerned i might be laggy to other cars).

What actually happened on lap2 was my screen went blank/PC froze for about 3 secs and i though game or PC was going to crash and it caught me out when it unexpectedly came back to life. After that i was feeling bad for George as i knew he was directly behind me beforehand and could see on my XD he was all but last afterwards.

Not sure exactly where i ended up after incident but around 11th. Spent the rest of the first half of race worrying about another freeze and whether i was laggy to other cars. Had some great battles along the way none more than with Spyros and Aaron, Like he said he caught and passed me quite quickly but i managed to hang on to him and we caught the train of about 4 cars in front. It was exciting stuff, everyone seemed to be passing each other. George was catching behind which i was hoping because i was going to give him position then but he never quite got close enough before he pitted. Aaron and i stayed out longer, i pushed him as hard as i could and evertually Aaron made a slight mistake the corner before the pit entry which allowed me passed but he pitted straight away, i pitted next lap.

I was happy with my strategy (med/med & full tank) but knew i was going to loose some time in pit because i couldn't access the pit page on XD. Stop went very smoothly considering i had to change to 'no tyre change' and 'don't repair damage' and was surprised to see i had made decent ground on Aaron.

Fantastic clean racing by all i drove around today, just a shame about lap 2 for all concerned.

Bad luck Kent

Grats Barry and podiums.

A great fun series to race in with a lot of fast clean drivers, one of the most enjoyable series at R2P imo.

I see all the guys posted long reviews :)) So I'll play along.

Terrible my last few races. This one is special though.
I gotta get my shi(f)t together.
This race was the first in GTR2 after I installed the Leo Bodnar USB brake mod. Tested it only in iRacing.
I saw that the raw values don't start at 0 but at 50 or so but I didn't think it will affect the calibration in game.
iRacing has its own calibration program at they worked great as I had full range on the pedals.
As I wrote above the raw values didn't start at zero. This translated in GTR2 like this:
Brake pedal scale was about 10% pushed the whole time.
Accelerator the same. And both didn't reach more than 80% of the scale.
First I panicked and after a few tries to plug-unplug the USB I decided to plug them back in the wheel.
There went my Qualy session.

Started a little slow but gained positions to the front and I was running 5-6th. Came alongside Michael Virt and lost the back of the car under braking as I had not tested the car or anything :( Lost a lot of places again and I had to fight back. Managed good race pace, lapping a little slower than Kent. Than when the pit time came, I selected the pit strategy from the XD 2.1.3 and went in the pit. The crew said that is ok to come in at the end of the lap.

Entered my pit stall, but the board didn't show up, the guys got the wheels and put them back in the garage. I did the same thing 2 more times, exactly the same result :( Frustrating. Went on a new lap again, requested pit, they gave the ok, but this time I switched off the XD plugin and entered without it. NOW the freaking board appeared :( So I made 4 pit-stops. Made a few more laps and lost it in T3. I decided to push the ESC as I wasn't in any mood of driving anymore.

Since I had 2.1.3 I noticed once the plugin didn't show up, on other occasion it had another bug, now this :(
I installed today version 2.1.2 of XD as I didn't have any problems with that.

I managed to tweak the pedals with the help of DXTweak2 and they have full range now and feel a lot better and smoother. I suggest if you have a G25 and do not have this mod to get it. Best 40$ I spent.
I hope it's ok to give the address www.leobodnar.com (Standalone DFP and G25 pedals controller).
P.S. I'm not advertising, I'm just a satisfied customer (after tweaking) :-p
See you at the GT Masters. This time prepared ;)
Cristi.
P.P.S. Brian I see you had some pit problems to.