ACC ACC Season 2 Monday's rnd 5 Misano 60 minute sprint

For me no massive difference, the Porsche felt a bit better in qualy trim but race trim its a massive compromise as the fuel in the front end means even running quite stiff the front ride height will go up 4-5mm from start of race to end of race. This makes it handle a bit odd but still as the weight goes to the front it creates more understeer so race setups will be a bit more aero loose to begin, otherwise its a snow plow at the end of the stint. I dont run min front ride in qualy but need to for race starts if it can manage.

Suspension wise it didn't make a great change to me, felt overall a bit more driveable and tyre wise I haven't noticed any issue. They did go away a bit more during the stints as clearly I had more pace in the first 5 laps then the last 5 even in 30 minute stints. In the past the car still tended to get a bit faster as fuel drops but then in the 911 the car is better aero wise mid stint then end of stint, its really changes more then any other car during a stint I think. This really makes it quite a challenge in races especially as it usually is also down on top speed to all other cars. Regarding tyres it could just be track and conditions dependant so its really hard to say as I didnt do any longer runs in this combo recently pre these patches.


There is lap 1 looking from heli cam to see what went on there, from what I have seen I dont see any massive issues. Maybe biggest thing I noticed is start of race a few guys from the back rows have tried to get the car in between 2 others and going 3 wide. This is quite risky and especially at this end of the field maybe best to avoid at the start of the race.

The main carnage was caused as @nanlatt was tagged from behind, clearly fault of the car behind but still a fairly easy error. Very close behind and likely unsighted with Nando braking a bit earlier as he was a tighter line. Still fault there would be 100% the car behind as they are responsible to not run into the back of a car ahead of them, early laps with heavy fuel and lots of side by side action. Running that close to the rear of another car in the lower end of the pack is kind of asking for trouble, a good tip is to never try and out brake the car your directly behind.

This contact started a bit of a chain reaction and @Wally was also hit with a silly contact as the car behind spun him, though again likely unsighted and Wally was going slower then normal due to the collision ahead of him. Fault there would go to the car behind again as there is nothing more Wally could have done. I didnt see all collisions as thats pretty much impossible to see with them not being flagged in the replay. There is the protest option available for anyone that feels this may be needed, and it will be looked at by the race stewards.


There is the lap leading to the pass on @kcender and the pass itself, I really cant judge my own move here though its not exactly a great pass. No contact was made and he did get a bit blocked by traffic which pushed him wide and off track the turn before. We then entered this sketchy corner side by side and I tried to leave plenty of room at the apex but expected his car to push wide. I went wider then tried to avoid hitting those sausage curbs as they would have likely made things worse and maybe spun back on track causing a bigger collision. Taking avoiding action I did complete the move fully off track and there was just enough racing room left where I could have stayed legal on track and complete the pass. Maybe I should have redressed though the turn before he was also fully off track and gained by not losing the spot, making this an interesting incident for discussion.

I accidentally tapped @SteveDrivingSlowly in the rear at around 53 seconds in but slowed to make sure not to collect other cars, luckily it was a half spin and he kept going (sorry about that), but one thing i've noticed is some people do the opposite and keep their foot in it. In that case if I didn't immediately slow down and kept going Steve would have done a full rotation and that would have caused carnage (which you can see examples of in the clip above). People need to realise that even if you'll get one extra position in a long race it's not exactly worth the risk if you're bumper to bumper with someone coming up to a hairpin. Take it easier on the first lap or so and get into a rhythm before worrying about making moves for position (especially in longer races)

Anybody else get triggered by how Micro Machines this feels?

That was a 50/50 from my POV - both equally to blame and you did well to react quickly and slow up, leaving me room to recover.

Accidents will happen its part of racing, all we can do is try and avoid contact as much as possible but it will still happen a few times each race just like real racing. It sucks when it happens to you early and thats just why I do my best to avoid hitting anyone every session, you only have full control of your own car. You need to pick your battles well and traffic was pretty good this round. Well I got a bit more luck in the traffic as @kcender was at them first.

Catching groups of cars battling was pretty cool and gave me a window, the guys did all they could and I think we both new it would come down to a bit of luck in where you catch cars and if you pick the lucky lane or not.

Bigger girds mean its more likely for some contact further in the pack on opening laps as cars are in tight groups. Real races would have a safety car but its not an ACC feature as yet, it would be cool to give guys a chance after a bigger crash early but then also safety cars bread safety cars. Many real world races seem to have most laps led by the safety car. It would add to some strategy too and in this group we possibly could even manage the odd green flag race.

We have had 30+ the last few rounds which is great to see and possibly this could get a bit bigger still as many guys have had to miss the odd race while a few new people will keep joining.

It was nice to see some more new guys in this week, I hope none of them get scared off and hang in there. We have the 3 classes to give people a run at class podiums, its a pretty competitive group here with good racing in all classes.

It doesnt matter if anyone isnt quite at the top of field pace yet, hopefully all can enjoy some good racing throughout the field.

Absolutely @marty, well said. It is awesome to be in a big grid and it is amazing to see more people joining each round! It wasn't that long ago that 10-12 cars in a race was normal...this is amazing by comparison!!!

It was just bad luck for my race - both incidents really caused by accidents in front of me.

But we might have spoken about this before... about blue flags. If you're a lap down due to early repairs, your evening's buggered, because even if you have the pace, you can't really unlap yourself. What do you reckon about a flagged car being in a pack of the same pace (like I was last night)? Fight on? I was actually having some really good racing in a pack even though I was out of sequence, but I dropped out of it because of the blue flags. In the interest of fun, it might be better to just play on.

Obviously if you're in P20 and P1 is coming up behind you, you're going to let the leaders through. It might be hard to figure out in the heat of the moment who's legitimately lapping you, or who's just behind you because you're out of sequence. E.g. I was P25 or so, in a middle of a P18 to 20 pack of the same pace.

nah all good on that one @marty - traffic is traffic - I had to run off to avoid contact with traffic (i probably out braked myself to be honest) and decided to contest the next corner quite deliberately when i rejoined - better you go right than take flight over the sausages - I was only flashing the lights afterwards in some last ditch attempt to distract you was fund defending on my waffle spec tyres (@tezpez85) until they got so bad that it felt like slop in the steering rack on corner entry - must be me being too aggressive on the slow tight stuff here as the rears were totally health - good fun though

I don't know if I just broke my setup or what, I started a fresh one after the update so no idea, but yeah to me Audi was probably one of the worst cars I've ever driven that race, did a full race before the patch and was able to maintain good pace for the hour, last night after 5 laps, it really was like driving a shopping trolley, rear wheels felt completely disconnected, almost like I had a swivel link between the front and rear. End result was contact with a hard object

Hopefully next race at Silverstone will be better to me.

This is where blue flags is a grey area, like in round 1 where I was pretty much out of the race and laps down but did unlap myself with a few cars in order to catch guys on my lap to try gain spots. I did this as clean and safely as possible and got out of blue flag range soon after all passes.

In general I would say your free to race and try un lap yourself but you will then need to be able to clear these cars and get out of blue flag range within a reasonable time. Causing any collision while unlapping yourself would make you at fault unless very clear blame is seen by the other party. If there is a big pack it makes it trickier but the other side is that we do have pit stops in these races and so an early stop may put you a lap down instantly. On a short track you may be battling those you will be directly battling later after they stopped assuming you don't need an extra stop.

Its where blue flags isn't a direct forced rule but a suggestion, never block under blue flags would be my key rule. Do your best to avoid holding up others if they aren't in your direct battle, in qualy its more important then in race to completely stay out of the way when you get a blue flag.

Everyone's got to be on the same page though. It's tricky because I caught up with the guys where I probably should have naturally been, around P20, even though I was a lap down. So that meant I was racing with a bunch of guys about my pace, and I couldn't just pass them and zoom away. It was always going to be a prolonged battle. I would prefer in this situation to be "allowed" to race in the pack like normal.

Very frustrating race, in effort not to get punted I ended up being too aggressive in wanting to get ahead. It feels like lose/lose, either I drive more conservatively and risk getting hit from behind, which makes the car unstable, more crashes follow, and then costly repairs in pit OR I turn up the aggression like in this race and end up causing trouble for someone else +doing another apology tour on the forums . Lack of experience coming through clearly, there has to be a sweet spot in the middle right?

@Wally being gracious in not singling me out but incident between us was within a hair of being completely avoidable. It wasn't an attempt at an overtake, from my angle it just seemed the path ahead was clear, that we were both accelerating to get out. Lot to process in a split second and was already rattled from getting rear-ended in T1 and in back of my mind was trying to avoid that happening again and just clear that corner. Anyway apologies to @Wally, for what it's worth it was fun racing you for a few corners later in the race.

https://imgur.com/MALFN5Y

Being all on the same page is not easy, general rule be respectful to everyone and when you are shown a blue flag you should never defend your position. This will mean you cant have a normal race type battle if you have no actual defence, in the longer races people will be out of position and its where you need to make a judgement call.

We don't have any strict blue flag rules so people shouldn't assume those ahead will abandon their race just so they can continue on with their hotlap lines in a race fully unaffected. It is racing and with bigger fields and smaller tracks we will all be in lots of traffic, people should be able to make a reasonable judgement call on what to do with cars behind. I know I wont be driving cars I am lapping off the track but I will put pressure on them as clearly I wont to get past if I am lapping them, I will always do this as clean as possible and all I expect of them is to be predictable and not block any moves.

Reasonably happy to end up with 5th after the patch ruined my setup. It introduced a lot of understeer which took forever to dial out, I got there in the end but the setup never felt as good as pre-patch.

Race itself was fairly uneventful. Made a couple mistakes in the turn 4/5 combo which let @Shawn Jacobs through as well as @Daniel Benefield. I finally found my rhythm as the pressures started to stabilise and I caught back up to Daniel and Shawn. Got past Shawn as his shopping trol... I mean Audi started to fall apart, then spent the next laps up until the pit stop within a second and a half of Daniel.

For once I had a good pit stop!!! Still ended up behind Daniel though as he came out of the pit the next lap. Again, maintained that 1,5 second gap until he came upon a back marker. He unfortunately took the wrong line through the second last corner, went over the bumps and spun the car, allowing me past. After that it was my mission to catch up to @tezpez85. I brought the gap down to 3 seconds but unfortunately as I was passing @Sparksy84 he misjudged his braking distance and hit me, I lost about 4 seconds and had light damage but no problems. Honestly, even if I had managed to catch Terry I don't think I would have been able to pass him so I was happy to bring the car home in 5th .

I enjoyed my race but I would have enjoyed it more if the patch hadn't changed the way the car handles as much as it did. Hopefully starting the set from scratch for Silverstone will reap more rewards

Sorry @nanlatt for ruining your entire race on the first lap, I misjudged the braking zone but that's no excuse. I know that doesn't really make up for it. I have to make more of an effort to be more attentive and observant in situations like those where the usual reference points aren't always visible.

About halfway through the race my wheel cut out and I had to turn it off and on again. Unfortunately this left me with no FFB at all so that was the end of it.

Thanks for the apology. It was very disappointing to have my race ended on the first lap, but hey sh1t happens. I know it's never intentional in ROOZ races as it's full of very considerate racers. I did it to @Wally I think, in the first race at Monza last season and it's not a nice feeling for either party. I did learn from it, however. You just can use normal references on the first lap with so many cars finding there way around. On to the next one and hopefully we both have better races.