ACC RaceOnOz ACC [PC] Season 4 - Round 4 Super Sprint Zolder!

That's what makes it rewarding when you start going alright

I'm with you on that one Bueller, hoping as i find/make more presets and get some experience in the wet things will get a little easier. Had no idea what i was doing last night, a calamity of pit/setup/strategy errors.

Apologize to a gt4 driver (yellow car i believe) that i did a questionable overtake on with around 9 minutes left in the first race. Thought i could get it done but slid on the exit and blocked you, poor form on my behalf ... red hot wets finally started playing up that lap .... sorry for holding you up.

It takes a looooooot of time....the randomness last night was really cool but without all the extra time/effort and a real engineer in my back pocket everything went wayward, still fun though don't get me wrong, it's certainly more rewarding for those that can afford the time....and have an engineering degree lol.
Hopefully one day...if they can simulate a monsoon, tyre deflection, the sun reflecting off my left wheel nut they surely could get tyre type and pressures right for us....
I've been doing it wrong all this time?

I had hopes for a good result in Zolder but cocked it up in spectacular fashion.

Q1 was tricky and could only manage 14th, but a descent race saw a 7th place at the finish of R1.

Q2 was more straight forward, was happy to qualify 5th but ruined my best lap. Had a poor start and dropped spot to 6th but was able to stay with the cars in front. Medved had an issue and I got up the inside going into the first chicane but he stayed in front by not taking the chicane at all. A couple of laps later we came across a bunch of cars at the same corner, I took too much kerb on the exit and slid into Medved. Fortunately he was able to hold onto his car but an innocent GT4 wasn't so lucky. Back to 13th and went about making up places which was a lot of fun. Got back to 9th after an overtake into the same chicane, but in an attempt to leave room I stayed tight an the Audi kept rotating.

This is where the massive cockup comes into play. Facing the wrong way I got onto the grass planted the throttle and turned expecting the car to spin as it had done earlier. It didn't spin...instead it headed straight back onto the track in the worst possible way, perpendicular to the traffic at the apex of the corner giving Murray no chance to avoid. You couldn't put a car in a worse position if you tried. I wasn't trying to rejoin there but that's no excuse. Very sorry for the code brown moment Murray. I was so angry with myself I retired the car. So disappointing as I had genuine pace here for a good result but more disappointing was the "Re-entry of the decade".

Highlights of the round's races are below (as this message is being typed, they still need to process, but should be done soon):

Race 1


Race 2


For my part the rain in race 1 threw a real curveball! Very interesting to see such differing strategies: people started on wets and tried to make them last, some people pitted to change to slicks, and some started on slicks and took the early pain to be competitive later. I was in the middle camp, and timed my stop perfectly for the changeover in grip I think, as I managed to overcut Andy who was a few seconds ahead of me when he dived for the lane. Unfortunately I did not jack my pressures enough and so had a real skatey boat in the drying temps.
Was running 5th when there was an unfortunate incident on the final lap where a lapped car tried to let my past when I was under pressure from a fast-closing @Frostwa. Unfortunately they chose to do it by braking on the racing line in the acceleration zone after the second chicane with me right on their bumper. A bit of a bingle ensued! Ended up limping home 9th, but these things happen. But for the record, if you are being lapped, trying to let a faster car past by braking on the racing line in an acceleration zone is probably not the way to do it

Race 2 went better. Snagged pole by less than a tenth and then spent most of the second half of the race navigating traffic with @andyo450 between 2 seconds and a tenth of a second behind me. I know Andy has self-BOPd with the old McLaren, but I had to defend pretty hard in the last few laps to keep him behind, and ended up taking a surprise win by a tenth or so!

Lastly, a quick(ish) (ok not that quick) word on driving standards. They've mostly been pretty good, and as @krunch stated above, we really appreciate everyone approaching this league with the right mindset - we are here to have fun and for enjoyment. Yes, obviously, everyone is competitive to greater or lesser degrees and we all want the best finishing position possible. But, largely, everyone is on the same page about the fact we want this to as friendly and inclusive as possible!

That being said, and we do accept not only was it Zolder this round, and that with 38-50 cars on track, incidents will happen, but the fact we keep having multi-car lap one incidents is disappointing for everyone. The fact they mostly seem to have been genuine mistakes and miscalculations rather than someone going 100% full send reckless mode is on the one hand great! But maybe, after 4 rounds and 6 races now, maybe it's time for a few drivers to remember for next round that sometimes caution is the better part of valour, and that giving someone racing room and not having an accident will lead to everyone having a better time and a better race. You will never maximise your race by having incidents!

No one is perfect, incidents will happen - even really f*cking dumb ones! I punted @Cooper off the road twice in the space of a lap and a half at Paul Ricard in season 2 like a complete pleb. The first time I raced against @Frostwa I absolutely murdered him T1 lap 3 at Zandvoort in season 1 because my brain no work good. That being said these repeated lap 1 multi car incidents are unnecessary.

Not to steal a twitter meme but:

I don't know who needs to hear this, but, it is ok to back out of a racing situation that is making you uncomfortable, nervous, or you feel has potential for an incident.

I have been lucky this season I am mostly running at the front, but if you check our results history of our fun runs, season 1 and season 2, I was Mr Mid Pack, and I cant tell you the number of times in early laps I would find myself in three or even 4 wide situations and just thought to myself "how about no", and just eased off the throttle or covered the brake slightly early and slotted in behind other drivers.

I might lose a position or two.

I also didn't tw*t myself into a wall or another driver.

Hey mate, that's ok, it happens to all of us

Managed to do that myself at Kyalami. Got turned around on the last corner, floored it to spin around, traction control nanny took over resulting in a neat 90 degree parked Alpine in the middle of the road

good races considering such a large field at a somewhat small track! especially with rain being thrown into the mix.

R1 - I avoided most of the chaos qualifying P5 and had very good pace sitting on the back of the top4/5 however I stayed out a little too long on the wets before boxing for slicks and ended up going from P5 to P12 by end of race. disappointing as my pace on slicks was great with me laying down the second fastest lap in the field.

R2 - I qualified poorly in P7, i had P3/P4 pace but i either messed up the last hairpin and hit the first chicane too hard. Go tagged in the rear by Murray at the first chicane on lap 1, however for the first time in ACC history it didn't spin me (was more like he drove past and slapped my ass with his hand out the window). Had the pace and cruised up behind P4/5/6 but got caught on the wrong side of GT4 traffic at the back end of the circuit and Benny Hill music played as I lost 15 seconds in a single lap trying not to dive and murder gt4's who were in their own battle, while defending for P8 who cruised up to our pile of cars trying not to trip one another. I spent the rest of the race running into GT4 traffic in groups of 3 in the second chicane and fast rights which cost me 4 second a lap 6 laps in a row haha. Just the nature of Zolder and my own stringent following of the briefing notes that caused me to lose so much time.

I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming rounds (with a wider track haha) as my nerves are starting to subside and I'm getting my pace back. I've never been in multi-class racing so I've been quite nervous and slow first few rounds.

hope to see you all next week!!

LOL mine are increasing every race!

here here, i totally agree, wish i had the setup knowledge of some of the lead guys

RACE 1: Bad setup choice and bad wet tyre pressure setting, tyres up to 31 at the end of the formation lap. Started the race and just set about tyre management. After some time found myself in 1st with most of the leaders pitting early and changing to slicks, couldn't decide what to do as tyres were now 35.1 all round so pulled into pits, came out 8th and fought back for 6th position

RACE 2: I have 2x sorry's in this race. First up goes to @Paulfaus ( freeland )
I was hunting @Reilly Blyth with all my might , trying to take his 3rd position off him and we passed Freeland coming into the 1st chicane, or so i thought, the replay shows me pulling back in front of Freeland in the braking zone with not enough space there, tagging him with my rear, sending me into the wall but i managed to keep going only losing 1x spot to @lhendersen, badly misjudged move anyway ! Very sorry @Paulfaus !
2nd sorry goes to @SteveDrivingSlowly - After the above incident i lost my driving rhythm and clearly part of my brain as i came up fast onto a pack of GT4's entering the last chicane, didn't brake early enough for the concertina effect nor did i judge the speed this pack had slowed to entering the chicane. Piss poor judgement again. Very sorry @SteveDrivingSlowly !
Ended up coming 5th

I literally spit my dummy and throw a massive tanty if someone hits me and destroys or effects my race so it does eat me up inside massively if i do it to someone else. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN !! (this season at least..........)

Maybe we need a practice start! The first lap of race 2 in GT4 was intense but amazing - two or three wide for most of the lap.

On a personal note, race 1 was going so well until I got all excited about catching Steve. Total brain fade on my part and punted him at the final chicane. So sorry about that. It took me a while to redress because I didn’t want to get I anyone else’s way on the main straight. Not sure about the etiquette there - if I should have just pulled off immediately? Anyway I hope race 2 was decent payback when I stuffed up the first chicane and you got back past.

Finally, big thank you to Mironenko. You were much faster. Just goes to show how hard it is to overtake at Zolder. I can’t believe the speed the AMG was carrying through the first chicane!

I thought that track was going to be horrible. Much more fun than I expected.

Oh and no worries Frostwa, see above. It’s a bit hard to be angry when you make your own mistakes.

No worries chaps, no hard feelings on my end in either case! Freeland, I think you redressed that perfectly mate, waited until it was safe for all and pulled over like a proper legend, meaning there were no secondary incidents etc. All G you bloody awesome blokes.

So stoked to have my best result so far at ROOZ with the help of the rain in R1! I luckily started on slicks, pumped them up to 29psi and didn't need to pit. What was even more amazing than my 2nd place, was the fact I kept out of trouble and didn't hit anyone and kept the Porsche on the track for once. Still had some great battles with some close racing and had so much fun it made my last 2 rounds DNFs a distant memory.

Looking at the highlights, I probably wasn't cutting the track enough in various chicanes. That's one of the reasons I don't like Zolder all that much - you have to find out how much of a cut you can get away with.

That's well and good... while the cones are there!