Chunx stated in the driver's meeting that once the green flag was given you could race.

yeah same here I let up and acouple guys passed me but I did'nt want a penalty. anyway for the most part I enjoyed the race my strategy was out the window as I was totally thrown by the pit stop engine off restart stuff...and people think F1 is too hard.

You're just lucky that Chunx is in charge Dan. If it was me I'd have loaded your car up with 100 kilograms























(and given you two tyres less )

All,

Just to clarify, we're really working around a shortcoming of GTR2 by doing the standing/rolling start. The game 'thinks' we're doing a standing start. So I am sure if the server could think independently, it would wonder why we were all racing around like grandma's on lap #1, at 70mph. But at that point there's no limitation on passing, aside from courtesy and integrity. Thus, once we call "Green Green Green" you can race all you want, pass cars before the start/finish, etc.

Just don't dive headlong into a pack of cars and cause a huge wreck. That would be very untidy.

Well I'm glad I understood it right... I made several passes after the 'Green' call coming off the corner. A couple cars were bunched, I didn't even think they might've been waiting to cross the line.

Racing was pretty good from where I was. My car was smooth and predictable, the one time I kissed the wall it was on the inside of T1, where I had gotten too aggressive with my turning in. I had worried that my top speed was going to see me at the rear of the pack almost immediatly, but happily this wasn't the case. No doubt though, the Ferrari was doing better on the infield, where I seemed to have a touch of advantage in acceleration compared to those running near me.

I saw that Goon, also in a Ferrari 360, had a very similar pace to my own. For the laps following my pit stop, I was trying to gauge my performance based on how near or far he was in my mirror. Provided quite some excitement 'running' from him lap after lap.

Thanks everyone, and to our hosts! It was a great event!

EDIT: And yes GTR2 has some short comings online. But the physics and FFB are terrific IMO.

Thx to every participant for a great event with excellent organization from our hosts!

Was really happy to put my Porsche on pole with a new PB during qualifying.
Running with 1/2 wing settings for that and while struggling to keep the car under control, the higher topspeed paid off I think.
Plus the 50 extra kilos for Dan probably helped a lot!

Getting nervous at the start because it doesn´t happen to often I´m leading a formation lap.
When the race was on finally I was really surprised to stay in front of Dan and Chunx, the closest pursuers. Even put some distance between us after only a few laps.

My strategy was to do one stop after 16 laps and get only fuel then for the rest of the race.
I knew it would be a close affair with 6.3-6.4 litres fuel consumption per lap for the Porsche.
Didn´t want to run into trouble in that first stint and shifted a bit early to spare every little drop of fuel.

Ran into the back of Ben´s Lamborghini braking for T1 around lap 14. Really sorry about that, I never expected your car coming to a standstill following you close. Entirely my fault!
Damaged my front and lost a headlight as a consequence but the difference wasn´t really noticable at that point.

After I left the pits with another full tank, on the same boots and without the damage fixed I had a comfortable lead on P2.
Though I really wanted to push again without the need to worry about the fuel now, I started to feel the worn tyres.
It got worse with every lap, especially the highspeed section on start/finish was giving me more and more troubles.
In lap 28 the crew chief informed me about the disintegrating tyres. Not a good sign and a puncture would be disastrous for the results.

Glad to see the chequered flag after 31 laps of hard racing.
Though I was running alone most of the time I enjoyed every second of it. Thx to all who let me getting pass!

The atmosphere on this track in the dusk and seeing the lights of the other cars was incredible!

Cu all in two weeks!

NimRud, did you double-stint soft tires?

sounds like it. Nice move, although a huge gamble with softs.

So far as I remember, that was my first online GTR2 race! I only decided I might race a few hours before the off, and only did so because I couldn't resist Daytona. I was quite a way off the pace, but that's nothing new. In the end I qualified mid-field.

With no testing I had no idea about my fuel consumption. I thought I was going to have to pit twice, but managed to pit only once, at the halfway point. My real race was with Adlabs6, as he points out above. After everyone had settled down at the start I found myself just hanging on to him, sometimes closing up a little, and followed him for lap after lap. I pitted, and lost contact, but was surprised a couple of laps later to see him emerging from the pits just a little ahead. I followed trying to close up for the rest of the race!

Great fun once again.

Thanks again guys for another great race.

And what a race! For me at least it had all the ingredients - close racing with laptimes separated by tenths, varying levels of performance due to cars / setups, different strategies, fuel consumption worries, tyre wear etc etc.

I’d opted for a 1 / 4 aero package with a slightly shorter top gear but engine maxed to 8800 RPM which made for a very quick car down the straights – though just a little bit lively through the infield.
I’d done everything I could to soften the car to increase my mechanical grip in the slow corners and my turn in was generally great but oversteer more often than not took over but mostly this was easily held (loving the Porsche!!). Flip side was that my rear end was dragging on the tarmac through the banking.
But of course whenever I’d come up against a car with a stronger aero package it was really telling! My braking distances too were very long as LC was to find out the hard way come the race.

I’d given up on qualifying even before it began – I just couldn’t make the car go much faster even with an empty tank. I was happy with my race pace though so I decided to focus on that.

For some reason, unlike Nimrud in the sister Porsche I wasn’t really concerned about fuel (perhaps our difference in pace had something to do with that ) so a one stop was always the plan. The question mark was tyres. I was running soft front / hard rears – the only combination that would give me fronts warm enough to turn in and a RR that wouldn’t catch fire on the banking. I’d run a test race against the AI where I didn’t change tyres but the wear come the end of the race was a bit scary!

Qualified 5th, which I was more than happy with, however the first racing lap was a little disappointing. Ran wide at the first infield hairpin and Joe and Chip were past me. Now I’m not sure of the correct sequence of events but within a lap or so I was back past Chip and a spinning Joe (although someone briefly got past me as I lifted to avoid the Nissan – DJ I think – love to see a replay to confirm). Thanks Chip for making it easy for me to pass you – I was a bit worried about trying to outbrake you around the outside into the bus stop.

I started lap 4 in clean air and it was to be my fastest lap of the race as I set about maintaining the gap to the leaders and stretching the gap back to Chip. The gap remained static right up until lap 12 when came the first of my brain fade moments! LC had already pitted – on lap 10 so obviously 2 stopping - and I was up to 4th. Coming around the first banking on the back ‘straight’ I was puzzled to see my name tumbling down the order list in my HUD ( a ‘feature’ I think other drivers also enjoyed )– so much so I completely forgot about the bus stop approaching me at 168mph. I stood on everything, narrowly missed the cones and temporary tyre wall and took rally cross option through the chicane rejoining the track at the exit and bogged down in 2nd gear. The whole adventure cost me only about 4 seconds but could have cost a whole lot more.

A few laps later I was into the pits – end of lap 16. Time for the gamble. Only fuel taken on board and I was back out – past a stranded Dan still in the pits – and 20 seconds down on Nimrud with Chunx still to stop. Chunx stopped a lap later and was probably surprised to rejoin behind me and a charging LC. I was up to second but not for long.

The next of my mistakes came under braking for the second hairpin loop of the infield. LC had been bearing down on me for several corners and I think was struggling to come to terms with my impossibly early braking points in the infield. Now experience would have given me the common sense to let him past as I knew he had to stop again in a few laps. But the Rookie in me wanted to keep the Lambo behind rather than concentrate on keeping Chunx at bay for real race position. Bang.

Now behind Chunx and down to 3rd I was entering a battle that was to last almost until the end of the race. For about 6 laps the gap rarely ventured above a second as we traded laps within tenths of each other. The Porsche was quick on the banking and a few times I was in a position to gamble on a lunge into a corner. But realistically I knew the risk wasn’t worth taking. My worn tyres were fading fast and my third place wasn’t under threat. All I could hope for was that my pressure would force Chunx into an error somewhere on the track. I think I’d have more success getting blood from a stone .

The battle continued until on lap 25 when we came upon Doug at the first corner. I’d crossed the line closest yet to Chunx but decided to back off to prepare for the corner. Chunx took the inside line as Doug made room. With my car a little unsettled by my lift off I opted for the outside. Bad move.

Now 2 seconds back I could do nothing to close up. In fact the gap grew. My tyres were in a bad way and without the tow from Chunx down the straights I began to really struggle. A few more minor errors and I gave up and counted off the final few laps.

A podium position looked highly unlikely after qualifying but I knew my decision on tyres would be critical. It paid off but on another day it could have been even better. However I’d have been in no state to defend my position at the end of the race had I needed to!

If you’ve got this far sorry for the long waffling post. I enjoyed myself out there. My 4 online races so far (2 in GTR2) have been a great learning experience and I can’t wait for the next race.

Thanks again to the organisers and congrats to Nimrud on a great win.

Jon