Yes, quite recent and today I saw you had been there and posted a blistering time so I got within 4 hundreth of a second of your time Derek. Must see if I can best it. I always love watching racing at Road America but I have always found the track difficult to hotlap. Turns one and two are insanely fast and then I have a tendency to overcook the slower turns three and four. Turn six, into the kink, and the turn into Canada corner are also hugely challenging.

I’ve also done a bit of lapping at Mid-Ohio in the Formula US. Quite chuffed so far with my laptime there. it is such a rythm track, Mid-Ohio.

Superb. There's nothing in it at all. Nice lap. Thanks for the mention of Mid-Ohio, I might have a crack at that one too.

When I drove past your old ghost, nearly all of the gain had been in one corner. Maybe turn 6? The lefthander that leads on to that long twisty 'straight' where you're running wide open for a mile. For you to close that gap back down I bet you found the time in that corner. Fun car to drive at these tracks. If you do any others post it up!

Watkins Glen Grand Prix with inner loop. Gents; I am Number One.

Aaaaaand, a 1.44.434 at Road America.

Nice one, congrats Jens, well done!

Yes, congrats on topping the table Jens. Your image made me think you were the only one to have posted a lap, but then when I went there I saw you were faster than a number of drivers.

Nice work too nicking my Road America lap. I'll try to steal it back, but that's a rapid one. You're very fast in these cars. Great driving.

I hit Mid-Ohio in this car and it was just brilliant. That was such an incredible sensation, this track in this car, at the limit. I was grinning. Some car and track combinations are just magic for me, and this is one. Did a few stints, and came in each time for some slight balance adjustments, nothing major. I had been losing time in the hairpin and the third sector with a bit of understeer and once I dialed that out the nose felt sharper and I could hit the apexes through that final sector much better, in turn picking up the throttle earlier and improving the lap time..

Then I went to the Glen. Used Jens' ghost to teach me the track. He was super fast so always out in front, which gives you the turn ins that otherwise you wouldn't be ready for and saving time getting up to speed. Even so, it took a while to get used to the layout if I'm honest. Surely I've driven on this one before, but I didn't recall it. Did sort of the same adjustments as Mid-Ohio, plus knocked back the rear wing a couple notches to get a little more speed down the straights and help balance the changes I made to the suspension. This car has a ton of grip, and it's difficult at first to extract the most from it. Gotta ramp it up lap by lap, but the car just keeps agreeing. Good fun.

Had such a good time with that I also hit the other two Mid-Ohio layouts plus Suzuka in the Formula US. So there are a few more ghosts to chase if anyone's keen.

I feel fast in this car, the Formula US. I like it. Hit more tracks last night. I had driven this car round the Ring, but I reckoned I could improve upon it. I was on 5:58, and after a number of laps had dropped that to 5:37. That's rapid round da Ring. And that's despite nearly coming to a stop in the Karussell. Must have bottomed out or something. Still, that's not top of the board. That Sebastian Reeh dude is up there.

Then I went to Bathhurst, Red Bull Ring and Interlagos, topping the table at all of them. Not many laps submitted so not much competition at this stage, but maybe more will be tempted to try their luck

Paging Mr. Bond. I’ve got trade for you at Spa and Imola. Couple of customers at Imola need displacing from the two top spots.

I read your post and thought, you've got to be joking. I had just yesterday busted my ass to top Spa's table. Really grinding a good lap. And then you come along and go faster?

But now I see it is Spa Classic you have driven. What's the difference between this layout and GP? Bus Stop chicane, early 90's version, or which is it?

I think I’ve seen this phenomenon a couple of times in RR and were I cynic, I might remark that this is an easy way to bump up the number of track layouts.

Charade contains two layouts that are exactly the same, one is the School version, possibly with cones as markers, and the other a regular version.

Watkins Glen with inner loop and the Grand Prix version seem to be the same layout, and checking the tiny thumbnails associated with the leaderboards seem to reveal that all three Spa layouts look exactly the same! I can’t imagine why one is called “classic” as there is no bus stop chikane but more or less the current tight right - left combination that leads out to the last bit of track before Eau Rouge.

It makes absolutely no sense to me.

They are identical? That's not cool.

But, this way we can each top the table

That is a very fast lap you did at Spa GP Derek. Wow. I managed to improve my laptime to 1.57.422 but it’ll be tough improving on that I fear.

Thanks man, nice lap yourself.

I turned out at Imola and ran a cracking lap I reckon

Spa was a good lap in the end but I had to work for it. So many laps running ahead of my ghost only to foul it up in the Bus Stop, even if it isn't called that any more, but you know what I mean. Such a fast track, slow in fast out is the key here isn't it? Any understeer on entry just kills your laptime. The 'full throttle percentage' would be high here, so exits are the key. If I could take the final chicane better I could find a few tenths I believe. Stringing together three strong sectors is a challenge.

What's your secret at the Brickyard Jens? I'm on the limiter the whole way round and aero's zeroed out. Where is that time coming from? I should load your ghost.

Yes, the perfect lap is also hard to put together for me. I always seem to make at least one mistake, often more, per lap.

I’ve improved on my time at Imola and done Red Bull Ring, ok laps but nothing truly fast and my ankle is getting sore from pressing the brake pedal, so I need a break.

Strangely, I managed a tiny improvement at the brickyard when comparing my lap to your ghost. Part of the secret I suspect is that you have an abundant amount of downforce even with all wings set as low as possible so it becomes a game of hugging the inside of the track all way round. There’s no need to unwind the steering and use all of the track because that is just lengthening you lap with a few more feet or yards.

Nice work. Take a break, you've earned it. Good driving.

I'll revisit the Brickyard, but I'm chasing tiny margins. Can't think of a mechanical change I can make to find more speed. Maybe my tours are a touch longer as you say and I need to tuck it down to the apron. The fastest guys though are over a second faster and I won't find that by moving inside by three feet.

Imola was another grind. Lots of laps to set the the PB. I was determined to sit on top and kept going until I could manage it. Tricky track, and hard to put three sectors together here too.

Having a blast driving the Formula US. I feel so comfortable in it. Hit more tracks including Donington GP, Brands Hatch GP, Brands Indy and two of the various Paul Ricard configurations. Top of the table at all of them. Partly this is due to low turnout, but you gotta go with what you got. Matter of fact I think there are only three tracks I've driven this car where I am not on top. Laguna Seca, Road America and the Nordschleife.

I also hit two RR comps. Stuck it inside the top 10% at Mid-Ohio (BMW M2) and top 30% at Brands Hatch (DTM 2016, I drove the Audi RS)

The Formula US feels to me like a benign car with no vices or tricky handling streaks. In spite of being fairly fast it feels like it is a drivers’ car first and formost. Personally I feel it is underrated and RR could do more with it, specialfly if they added the current iteration to their roster.

I guess I’m basically at odds with the heavy emphasis on GT cars. I wouldn’t mind more US content, even NASCAR and some big bad ovals.

It has gobs of grip. It rarely argues with me, no matter how fast it is going. Of course mistakes are still punished, but in the main it is predictable, stable and fast. It responds so nicely to my inputs, and to my setup changes. Most cars take a while to ramp up as I spin and lock up as I get to grips with the circuit. But this thing it is fast right off the transporter. I'm using pretty much the same setup everywhere too, with maybe some aero and suspension tweaks to suit the track. The default base setup is pretty good already. On most tracks I slide brake bias back to 52.5 front, pressure to 90%, add one notch of front wing (8), drop one notch of rear roll bar and change rear wing depending on whether I think I want more grip or more top end. Engine braking is already at zero and the differential feels good as is since the car is so agreeable. On some tracks I do alter the power and coast sides and/or springs a touch to fine tune entry and exit behavior. But overall I'm close to the default.

Monza is one I've yet to try and I think my magic won't work here like some other tracks. There are already fast times posted and the nature of the track isn't one where you gain a lot of time with suspension changes. The top posted lap is a 30-flat and not having given it a go yet that feels quite fast indeed. But then I like a challenge like this.

Hit the track and noticed Jens had just been here and turned a rapid lap. Nice one.

I found it a bit frustrating, overdriving. Usually when I post a lap, my theoretical is about two tenths faster. At Monza it's six tenths. I just cannot put one together. I ended up making some changes to help get through Rettifilo. Brake bias more to the front than usual as that's probably the heaviest braking zone we drive. I was struggling with exit oversteer in Rettifilo too, and changes to tame this cascade through other, different style turns. Lesmos 1 and 2 are easy in this class of cars, but all the chicanes are tough. There's no good marker for me heading in to Ascari. I need to slow down in to these chicanes to come out of them faster. Even so I think 30-flat is beyond me. That's a really fast lap here.