GP3 Career Thread

I'll try to make it safe...but there was no such word as 'safety' in the 50s so it's gonna be tough.

---

Round 8 @ Guaporé finally done.

From the first free practise session i had a super fast car, and that was proven in qualifying as I dominated both sessions getting the pole for race 1 by 0.6, and for race 2 by 0.8. And at both races i continued to have a super fast car. However, a couple of mistakes on race 1 prevented me to come out from the first trip of the season to this Brazilian short track with more than 20 points.

Race 1:
At the start I lost two places and as I was competing for more in the first couple of corners my righ front wheel touched the inside kerb of turn 2 making me spin. I got back in the track in 20th and from there on i was in a mission to recover as much places as i could, but ten laps from the end while i was trying to get another place of the many i got in 15 laps I had again the misfortune to touch my RF wheel on one of the tricky inside kerbs of this track, making me spin and sending me back to last place. I managed to recover a few places but at 3 laps from the end my computer crashed :S. So, without saving I had to start all over again, but I dropped out in the first as I wouldn't get any points anyway, watched the race and saw a nice battle for 6th and at the end i gave myself the last running place and a penalty in order to the fastest lap i did before my computer crash not to count, and because of that I also wasn't granted with the extra point for the fastest lap. The victory went to one of the official Porsches.

Race 2:
Race 2 was a whole different story. A 50 laps mistake free run gave me my first win in 41 races (since race 1 at Denver in season 1). As I knew that my car would always be fast with any weight and tire degradation wouldn't be an issue I decided to go all the way without pitting, also not minding the extra point for the fastest lap (maybe a dumb decision, 'cause i might need that point eventually). So, in the start i just lost one place, and stayed second until the WRC Team Peugeot pitted around halfway point. After getting into the lead the distance between me and second place was 20secs and at the end of the 50 laps was 18secs. And to show how dominant my car was, only 8 cars finished in the lead lap, which is unusual in a such close Championship. Not even in the 300km races i see so much lapping by the leader. The only thing that I couldn't do was to get the fastest lap. My fastest lap was 0.6s slower than the one that gave the extra point to the second WRC Team Peugeot.

In the end i got out of the first trip to Guaporé with 27 points, 17 less than the new championship leader, the #1 Ford car who, with a 2nd and a 3rd place finishes in this round, jumped from second by 5 points, to the lead by 5 points. My performance also helped to get my team in the second place of the constructors championship 13 points behind Ford. The weekend wasn't good for the 5 teams who haven't gotten yet enough points to be present in the next season. Especially for the Peugeot Le Mans Team, whose both cars didn't finish any of the two races of the weekend. And there's only 3 races remaining.

Now, before the caravan getting back to Guaporé for the season finale, the teams go South to Buenos Aires where they're going to race the third and last 300km race at the super fast Circuito 12 of the Autodromo Oscar Galvez. Experts predict a wild race.

Cheers, and good luck to your 1950's seasons.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2008 03:52AM by Racer#73.

I also hate it when PC crashes in the most unexpected moment :/ ...happened to me too many times.

However, good job during your 2nd race

Thanks for wishing us good luck. Take care

---

as expected monaco has been a carnage o_O' non need of further descriptions
at least i survived 20 laps in practices before being rammed at lap 1



-------------------------------




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2009 02:22PM by R_Scandura.

Awful situation, Roberto. That's what I really hate. You compete for the best place, fighting time...and you get a DNF in first lap.

While I seem to have lost my will to race. I'm still stuck in the first race of the season. I paused it and that's it...I hope to get some internal drive to finish it, though

---

I Upload a 1950 Performance Pack whit all races from that year if someboby wanted


Sorry for my Bad English

3h:16min to the winner complete the race!!! Whoa!

It is always fustrating when your race finishes right on its beginning. Especially when it happens with the help of someone else. That's a shame :|

So, time to pack for the next race hoping that will be better Where's the next race Roberto?

My round at Buenos Aires only needs the Warm up a the race to be complete. Although I qualified 9th, in a very disputed qualifying session, I've bee having troubles all weekend to keep my car on track. So, to keep it on track for 71 laps is going to be a hard task.

Cheers and good luck.

next race is in USA at Indy. This race was ran only by 50 unkonwn americans. it will be a total boredom as the race time is around 3 hours too

-------------------------------

You can expect that. The 1950 Indy 500 was red flagged on lap 138 and it took the leader 2h:46min:55s, without any caution, to complete those 138 laps.

But, good luck for your Indy 500 adventure, Roberto. It's my favorite race. I hope your car survives more than a lap this time.

Cheers.

Round 9 @ Buenos Aires (circuito 12) done

It turned out to be a positive weekend to me, regarding that I kept, the first free practice sessions, crashing out on this fast layout (with no infield section), and in the end i managed to get my first point (without being an extra point) on a full distance race (71 laps).

The weather would turn out to be a factor, as it got worse from session to session.

The 1 hour qualifying session started on wet conditions, but as the minutes passed the track would eventually dry up, leading to a close battle for the pole in its final 10 minutes. At one time I got into 2nd place but would eventually start the race in 9th as the pole went for one of the official Porsches.

Race day was a wet one, starting with the warm up. But at the start of the race the conditions were awful and monsoon tires were required.

When the lights went off for the start, I had some troubles to keep my car off from spinning, but I managed to keep my car on the right direction, not, however, without creating some panic for the cars who were behind me (I think I made one spin). But the trouble was in the first chicane as the pole sitter and other three cars crashed out right there in the first corner, and a couple of cars got damaged in the carnage. The fight for survival started there.

I managed to avoid all the confusion and climb to 5th place, but would eventually drop one place as I was losing lots of time trying not to spin my car while accelerating coming out from a tight corner (especially from the last one). However, at the same time i managed to stay in the points because a couple of cars in front of me spun. Meanwhile, I got myself in trouble for the first time when i tried to regain 5th place, by out-braking the car in front of me in the last turn, we touched wheels send the other car off track, making him to retire, and me spining. However, I was able to get back on track a carry on with my race. In general, i was doing a good race until my first stop.

My second part of the race, was maybe the worst, I was losing a lot of time because I decided to continue with monsoon tires when my team advised me to go with soft wets as the rain had calmed down a bit. So, i started to lose time, and therefore, to drop a bit in the standings, i even spun in the first chicane while being passed at the end of the front straitgh, one lap before pitting for the second time.

The final part was again a bit better, I went for soft wets this time, and my lap times went considerably faster than they have been until then. But, as that time I was on attack mode, i made some mistakes. I was in 7th, 15 secs behind 6th place, and gaining 1 sec each lap to that car. But my forcing made me go for a couple of excursions in the grass, making me eventually drop to last which turned out to be 7th as another car had retired. So, with only 7 cars on track I started to chase the last position for points, but as the conditions got worse again I spun twice in the long (slipery) turn 3. I wasn't the only one being caught in that trap. The second WRC Team Peugeot spun at that same turn and was forced to retire, leaving only 6 cars on track until the checkered flag came. So, because of this last crash I was able to finish the race in 6th and last one lap down from the leader, and get one point. The race win went to the first WRC Team Peugeot, who also claimed the fastest lap. Only three cars finished the race on the lead lap, and besides only 6 cars finished the race, only 6 retirements were caused by crashes.

In the end it was not a bad weekend for me. I had 300km races in dry conditions way worst than this. And here, at Buenos Aires, it could be seen how well the Peugeot engineers learned their lesson after the fiasco at Bahrain. Only 2 of the 4 Peugeots that retired were forced to do it due to brake downs.

Now i'm heading back to Guaporé, for the final round, where I have a good chance of scoring the max number of points that are still avaiable in the champ (24 point). If that happens I need that the current championship leader from Ford doesn't score more than 7 points to claim the title. currently the top 3 are just separated by only 3 points. Regarding the constructors points, my team is 2nd, 12 points behind Ford, and there are still 5 teams that haven't got yet the 31 points needed to be present in the next season.

Cheers. How are your 50's seasons, BTW?

Season opener for the 2009 European Racing League where I have to defend the title that VTR Honda hardly caught last year. The venue is the sunny Kyalami.
Not the best race report I aimed to do. Things got worse since the friday practises as my main opponent and his RedBull Kronos Cosworth shown me the powaa and yesterday he easily took the pole. I came second in grid with a huge fatigue through the traffic at the last chance. Today the race for me lasted exactly 5km. In time for the first lap where I've been blown like a noob by both Kronos drivers and to see my transmission blow in the back straight at lap 2 of 73. What a debut for a defender!
After the race my humor didn't improved that much. My teammate retired too by a mechanical problem when in 3rd, my opponent dominated by 1.08 min the whole field, almost lapping the 4th. and both drivers of my rival team were easy on an 1-2 if their second driver didn't retired. Definitely will be a long and hard season. The positive thing is that the new format and rules are giving troubles to many teams by the low reliability seen. Let's hope now in some good upgrades soon.

next date: Barcelona, March 29th

-------------------------------

Good to see this thread is still alive

Hi Rob, sorry to hear about your first race. Always a shame when your car breaks down right at the beginning of the race. I hope you have better luck in Barcelona.

As for me, I can't complaint about the reliability of my Peugeot. It was that reliability that help me win my first championship (by 1 point BTW). Over 1000km without breaking down it's impressive!

However, after three rounds on the new season (driving for the same team), I've been having lots of understeering issues, especially on tracks with crucial fast corners as Old Interlagos (turns 1 and 3), and Estoril (the last corner). That's why i've been having very poor results for someone driving the #1 car. The I managed to get was 9th on the second race at Estoril, mainly because I had fresher tires than the guys who finished behind me (who didn't pit). I was by far the worst car in the standings who pitted once!

Now the series will go to Poznan, Poland for the first 300km race of the season. After 6 races the newcomers Acura (official factory team) have dominated the series so far, by leading the teams drivers standings, with 2 wins already, and by being the first team to get the necessary 10% (29) of the total points (288) in order to be able to participate in next season's championship.

Cheers, and good luck for the Barcelona race, Rob.

BTW, could give me any advice on how to setup the suspension for Kyalami. The series will go there for its 7th round of the season, and I'm hope with some of your tips I can get a good result at that great track. Thanks.

Racer#73 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good to see this thread is still alive

wanted to up it so people can tell their adventures


> BTW, could give me any advice on how to setup the
> suspension for Kyalami. The series will go there
> for its 7th round of the season, and I'm hope with
> some of your tips I can get a good result at that
> great track. Thanks.


can't be of a big help i fear. i used a reshaped layout/heights so things may change a little. for my driving style i tried to increase the oversteer but messed around with high rear springs, lower arb's and lot of packers and height as the car touched the ground in a couple of depressions.

btw i added your Map work in my site

-------------------------------

R_Scandura Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> wanted to up it so people can tell their
> adventures
>

It kind of motivates me to play. Especially when I'm getting a bit frustrated for not managing to be competitive.

>
> btw i added your Map work in my site

Thank you! I'm so proud . If you open the map on Google Earth it looks even cooler, it shows all the places names, instead of having to click on the place to see what track is that. Thank you once again.

Cheers.

Really great to read all this stories, makes me think of startinga 100% race career. But then again im seeking work and im in my exam period. Plus the fact we are trying to seel our house and stuff makes it very hard to find any time :p

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"If in doubt, Flat out."

Rico Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Really great to read all this stories, makes me
> think of startinga 100% race career. But then
> again im seeking work and im in my exam period.
> Plus the fact we are trying to seel our house and
> stuff makes it very hard to find any time :p


You should start something. It's good for distracting a bit from the stress and stuff. Don't need to race all the time, just when you have the time and you feel like it . And the more people telling their racing stories the merrier.

Cheers.

PS: I'll try to post my Poznan story tomorrow.

mabey i will, question im now doing only 10% or 15% lentgh races.
At Pro level ( i dont have a tseering wheel and cba to set the car up :P) But in my 1993 season with Footwork i can keep up with the Williamses and Mclarens :| Is there a more realistic perf or ... ? nyway i hope you can help me

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"If in doubt, Flat out."

There's several possible solutions to your problem. 1st of all, make sure car power team dependent is ticked. Second, in the perf file, the best CC usually has a grip value of around 16300 I guess. I have sometimes increased that up to 16550 or so to make it harder, of course you have to increase all other CCs accordingly.

Those are the simple and quick ideas. Installing the Belini grip patch (means you'll not have the standard value of 16384, but the one specified in the perf file for the driver you are driving as) and then experimenting a little with the grip values works really good, although I'm not sure if it works in other difficulty levels than ace.

Adjusting the CC setups or the values for CC grip and CC power in the magic data also helps, the latter two only if you haven't the grip patch installed of course.

I usually play around with all those values until I get really close racing - but sometimes that means that preparing the game takes half an hour or so, which is certainly not worth it for one 10 or 15% race...

The Belini grip patch is the best option, IMO.

I'm used to play with all cars set to perform the same, on my personal champ, and without the patch installed I used to beat the CC during timed sessions by around 1sec. After I installed it I was having trouble to keep the pace with the CC cars (driving on Ace mode). So, I guess it's pretty effective. And you need to select "Car Power Team Dependant" on GP3edit.

I set the Magic Data grip and power values to default in order to stay at the same level as the AI, and if I get into the top 3 I increase the grip value. My wing and gear ratios setups are also the same as the CC, and just change things in the suspension. All this to have no advantage against the AI. Now, as you play with a real carset from a certain season, I don't know what happens if you try to set things like these. If things get more real. Anyway, first try to install the grip patch and see if things get better.

BTW, why don't you try 25% races. It doesn't take longer than 25min. The other option is go for 100% races by saving the game in the middle of the race, so if you don't want to continue to play anymore today, save it and come back tomorrow to finish it.

Cheers.

Racer#73 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The other option is go for 100%
> races by saving the game in the middle of the
> race, so if you don't want to continue to play
> anymore today, save it and come back tomorrow to
> finish it
Yeah. The 100% races produce more fun.

By the way...You might remember that I played 1994 F-1 season some 3 months ago, about which I gave the race-by-race reports. Then I wanted to take up 1955 season but I couldn't get a reasonable physics file and gave up on this idea. Now I am proud to announce that...

I have just started 1979 F-1 season with Niki Lauda in Brabham-Alfa Romeo. Of course, I will try to give up-to-date information about my progress. Here's the first taste of what's ahead of me


Race 1 - Oscar Galvez Circuit, The Argentine GP

I entered the qualifying session with fear as ,doing some test drives, I wasn't competitive comparing to the other drivers on this circuit. Especially in comparison to Villeneuve and Scheckter...but after re-adjusting the car setup I gained much more accelration and was able to keep a regualr pace throughout the whole qualifying lap. I managed to grab the pole position by 0,4 sec in front of Villeneuve and Arnoux. Now it's only the race which awaits me

I will keep you informed.

---

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2009 06:42PM by abdelkader.