PS4/5 ACC Season 3 Debrief

I think the use of the track map start line is the best way. It can be seen by all drivers through the field. When the lead driver's 'dot' gets there then it's Go.
Importantly the 100kmh limit has to be applied or perhaps a 60/70k limit is easier to manage and is still possible to put some heat into the tyres.
A 3rd option, whilst slow is to activate the pit limiter for the entire lap or at least the final 3 corners, depending on the track.

In am1 we only had issues as someone at the back got hit so majority agreed for a second formation lap as we thought everyone was on in game chat but in the end we all worked together and managed a good start in the end .
With the formation lap communication is key or everyone needs to know what is happen witch is a job on its own
So many guys here so going to be tough to get all on the same page no matter how many posts go out about it jj has done his best so far as drivers we also need to read regs and try understand them if not ask your team captain for guidance
Thats just my 2cents

I'm sure that with experience it will be a lot better, even with the existing system. In the end it is the driver that makes the difference.

AM2
Polled last. Moved through the field to 9th. Following some car that just took off like a plane into the stands on pit straight, I assume they DC'd. Caught car in front, then time for pits. Forgot to turn off change tyres, so much time lost. Back down to 12th (11th). Where I pretty much stayed for the rest of the race.
Had two DTs for track limits I didnt even know where track limits.
Also a wierd encounter with whomever was running 3rd (Red Porsche) they kept losing control and spinning out, i would pass them only to be presented a blue flag almost immediately. This happened 5 or so times over the course of the next few laps, I doubt it would of changed my results but I did lose abit of time constantly giving up my position.

Finally, I finished 100m from the end... kinda messed up my Fuel strat lol.

All in all, some fun shenanigans.

Went in hating Paul Ricard, came out if it actually liking it somewhat! ACC is doing some strange things to my brain that’s for sure.

I felt like I qualified well enough, although my final lap which was over half a second faster was invalidated.
There was some confusion at the start when the leaders in front of me slowed right down on the line, I genuinely thought there was some silly buggers being played so I shot off into the distance, but once I realised there was a crash I slowed down to line back in position.

First lap went swimmingly, jumping from 4th to 1st was unexpected, but I settled into a rhythm. However Karki got a great run on me soon after and nailed me into turn 3, a great move. But the mighty Lambo had fantastic speed down the Mistral and I immediately took the lead back.

Slowly but surely the gap grew to 1.5 seconds, until on Lap 9, I lost the rear end at the end of the Mistral (see previous page) and embarrassingly spun back down the field. Just got too greedy with the entry speed and round she went. I also lost a few seconds fiddling with the stupid ignition as well lol. The tyres were gone so I had to pit within a lap or two.

I upped the tyre pressures in order to make the temps a bit warmer but if anything this just made the car slower, I couldn’t get within 3 tenths of my best lap in the first stint despite more optimum temperatures and a lighter car. The chase was on for some decent points, but I pushed my luck too far with track limits and rightly got pinged with a drive through.

And finally, to add more salt into the wounds, I failed at basic maths and put in 6 laps of fuel not 7, realising this just as I caught up to TB, I had to call off the chase and immediately back off to save.

Aggressive fuel saving is most definitely not akin to GTS where you can save a lap of fuel quite easily if you lift and coast. I was lapping around 12 seconds a lap slower to try and get to the end and eventually I was caught by ckj. I’d saved just enough to have one final push to regain my position but unfortunately we made door to door contact and he speared off, the contact seemingly being massively exaggerated. I waited for him but he didn’t pass.

Overall happy with my pace but an 8th place after leading the first third of the race was frustrating. Congrats @d_karki on a fine win!

i know its early days but the difference between your amazing record on gts vs coming to grips with ACC is very interesting to me. i just suck at both but i do like that i get more feedback of my suck on acc.

On a personal note, and I’ll accept criticism as it is warranted and my faults are entirely self inflicted, I do little to no practice at all for GTS or ACC, in fact for PR my first laps were 30 mins before qualifying.
The nett result for me anyway is clear as day, GTS, simpler physics engine, point and shoot style simulator, easy to jump in and out of, whereas ACC, a much more complex driving model, takes no prisoners simulator. It is interesting to note that despite GTS’s fancy & exclusive FFB for the T-GT, I find ACC offers far more intuitive feedback despite being locked into T300 mode, in my opinion.

On GTS in my beloved Beetle I can usually reach my optimum pace on a blind track & tyre combination within 5 laps, and put up a decent fight in the top FIA lobby most of the time. On ACC however, at Imola it took me a whole week to do a 1:43 after being stuck in the 45’s for the first day until I got a 44. Now my sights are set on a 1:42 which I think is achievable but it will take a lot of work to get there. That ultimately is the difference between the 2 games for me, it’s certainly easier to race hard and battle on GTS, but nailing that perfect lap on ACC and engaging in close quarters battle is so much more rewarding.

One day I hope my abilities will merge between the two games, once I get the time to properly get a crack at this wonderful game. Polyphony recently decided to stick a giant middle finger up at its Oceania pros so I think I’ll be playing a lot more ACC this year! I hope this post doesn’t come across as dickish or egotistical in any way, I figured with Incey’s post I’d showcase my thoughts on what it’s like coming from years of Gran Turismo to being wet behind the ears with ACC, and the new challenges I have to face!

I'd score my AM2 race a solid 8/10. Qualified P1 with my fastest ever time on PR (only just beating HSV) but I lacked in the race. Had a great start and lead for 6 laps with Gazza and HSV tracking me down fast which eventually let to a 3-car-wide situation at the right hand bend at the end of the long straight. Both HSV and Gazza had about 3km/hr on me on the straight but I did persevere with my super late braking and was able to carry speed through the bend and kept my nose infront. After Gaz passed me on lap 6 I managed to hold off HSV for anpther half a lap or so before he made a great dive down the inside into the final corner to make the pass stick. Rest of the race got away from me a bit. Kept it in 3rd but I couldn't catch Gaz or HSV and my tyres were struggling. A final pitstop blunder left me about 12 seconds or more behind where I should have been and 3rd is where I finished.

Good start to my season but I'll be aiming for that top step for the rest of the season! Big props to HSV and Gaz for the super clean racing up the front and the whole AM2 did fantastic!

First race in ProAm and to be honest wasn't feeling very confidant. Practice in the lead-up had been all over the place pace wise and even Tuesday afternoon wasn't in a great mood. Surprised as hell when I set the fastest time in practice and then qualified 2nd. Race started OK but copped 2 early track limits warnings while trying to get into my rhythm on cold tyres. Probably committed a cardinal sin by giving up track position and 2nd place for an early fuel stop strategy. I didn't come back out on a clear track and while it probably didn't hold me up that much it meant I wasn't driving to my own rhythm and copped another track limit warning. 2nd stop at the 30min mark for a planned tyre change and compulsory fuel (practice had convinced me it was the faster option for me). Again cool-ish tyres in traffic caught me out and I slid ever so slightly wide and copped the drive through for track limits. Pretty much put pay to a good result (I think top 3 was a real possibility). The tyre change was definitely the right plan imo as at one stage I was up to 3 seconds a lap faster than some the cars around me. Unfortunately, I think, that led to a couple of messy encounters that probably cost me a chance to gain a couple of places right at the end.

Super stoked to get P2. I put in a lot of practice and had to go through quite a few setups to find one that worked well.
This is a video of all the on-track overtakes I made climbing my way up after my early pitstops.

that pit exit drag race was the highlight of my race!! soooo good

Well done @itspaulybeeatchs on the win. Good drive mate and also @xSkiL8r on the other podium spot. Also unlucky to River. 2nd place was yours if not 1st with my damn pit stuff up due to server restarts and me not double checking. Loaded my setup in free practice and didn’t check again when the race session started as i went to get a drink and a quick toilet brake so it must have put my starting tires back on tire set 1 instead of 5. I had a fairly clean race as that was my plan so to not over drive my tires and went into the pits as i caught up to lapped traffic just as planned. I should have noticed that my pit crew was going to change tires as that screen came up entering the pits but i was so focused on nailing my pit stop and so used to having it all set before the race it totally slipped my mind. I was fuming pretty bad when i saw 30 seconds instead of 3.2 and it felt like forever. Leaving the pits my tires were well under pressure cause i never set them for a tire change and just put my head down and did my best to drive the car like i stole it to keep the pressures up and recover the places lost.

I’m still a little bummed with how my race went even though i got 2nd place. Not taking nothing away from Pauly but I believe i had that race won with the no tire change as i started with full race distance of fuel and was looking after my tires. Had i not won I would have made Pauly work for it and it would have made for a better stream by Demo1 than it already was

Time to put it behind me now and on to the next...

Thanks JJ and Vik , cracking race by skill well do E mate,so glad you got up there and Vik unlucky on the pitstop but I had it engine mode 5 brother plenty left up the sleeve lol joking would have been close ,till we battle again bring on brands and my favourite track zandvoort

AM2 Race @ Brands Hatch.
Qly 3rd which is about where I expected to be from practice times as I was really struggling to get the Audi up to speed at Brands. Some late aero changes helped with consistency and with more time Im sure I could have exploited it more. FLYSKYDHK was quick on pole.
The race started in greasy conditions, I had 3 race set ups saved for dry, greasy and wet with 4 different alternate pit stop strategies saved for each set up incase the weather changed mid race, with some small LHS pressure asjustments my greasy set up had near perfect tyre pressures untile the last 10 minutes when the track dried out.
A small mistake 3 laps in allowed HSV to take advantage and I settled into 4th spot at a comfortable pace allowing the 3 in front to battle amongst themselves.
After the 1st round of pitstops I emerged over 30 seconds in front of 2nd place which allowed me some breathing room to run the second half without unessecary risks, going into fuel saving mode to ensure I didnt have to take on any more than the manadatory 1L of fuel at my second stop.
As mentioned the track dried out with 10 minutes to go and I used my 2nd stop with 8 minutes remaining to give the tyres a chance to cool down, re emerging still some 20+seconds in front which allowed me to really conserve the last 4 laps, taking the win in the end by 9 seconds from HSV.
Getting your first league race win feels good, and that cherry's now popped!
Thanks to all the back markers who were considerate and moved aside when we came up behind them, tried to make sure we gave you enough room as well, and for the top 5 guys some clean racing at the start. I think we started with a grid of 15 but it was shame that in the end I think we only had 9 or 10 cars still running, hang in there guys, the more cars finishing the better and the more experience gained.
A big thanks to Vikchan as well for his car setup expertise, your worth double the money we are paying you!

ProAM Brands

First of all thanks to the team captains for not objecting to me dropping from Platinum status, in the past few months I've been away more than I've been at home for work so its been hard to squeeze in some racing. Being able to jump on last night when I knew for certain I wasn't going to be called away for work was great as I now have the flexibility to run on either of the nights.

I jumped on Monday night for a bit of a practice which at least gave me and idea on what tyres to run in what conditions, I played a bit with the wet set up so it was super safe on slicks in the damp conditions.
Quali I used slicks for the whole session but wasn't able to put in a really competitive lap, right at the end I switched to wets and realised that they would have been best as they gave you a good lap before they overheated, unfortunately I missed the cut off for 1 more lap by 3 seconds.

Started the race on slicks as it was showing damp, with the plan to put on wets if it got heavier.
Race start was pretty uneventful and I managed to pick my way forward pretty quickly, car felt really safe and I was able to drive around anything odd it was doing. I stayed out for quite a while and was lapping quite a few guys who did a great job of moving out of the way at the perfect time.

Unfortunately it started to dry out and I realised my pace was dropping as the pressures went up, as people I lapped were catching me lol, so I did a pit strategy on the fly and put on new slicks (with less pressure) plus enough fuel to get me home.

Car felt immediately better and I emerged onto the tail of my old buddy Kartno1 and engaged in battle. It was good fun, he had his car really well set up for the straights but every time I got near him the aero wash would screw me and I'd drop back, there wasn't enough difference in our pace for me to make a safe move, plus I had a suspicion his fuel was lower than mine going off how fast he was punching out of corners. I opted to splash in for my last pitstop and added the mandatory 1 litre only as I had heaps of fuel.

Once the pitstops were all done I was running a solid 3rd, I was happy for that then I realised I was catching Cheesenoodles by a good .7 a lap when not pushing hard, so I decided meh, lets have a crack at 2nd .
Unfortunately I made a few mistakes in doing so and the final one at turn 2 (ran to close to inside curb and she over rotated me) cost me 3rd to Kart who was lurkin.
I wasn't giving it up that easy though so I immediately started pressuring Kart who drove awesomely under pressure and managed to just hold me off, I would have been .1 behind him over the line, hopefully the stream caught that one!

So I missed out on the podium but overwise drove a flawless race considering the conditions and prep time I put in, looking forward to the next round which I hopefully should be able to make one of the races.

People need to familiarise themselves with the start procedure. I qualified 9th AM2. Race starts and onto the (manual) formation lap. Cars behind me come through - I think maybe they jumped the start and am coming through to take the penalty and start from pit lane, as is allowed under the regs. Turns out they weren't coming through to get to pit lane - just taking position during the formation lap. I don't think this can be attributed to incompetence.

Bit of an exciting time for me, with the cyclone around and a 27 hour power outage didn't think i would make the race. had dinner booked to go out before the power came on. I was scoffing dinner knowing i still needed to practice and get tyre settings right. Had about ten minutes before qually to get everything tweaked for the race. aggressive with slight tyre pressure adjustments and away we go. up to 5th from 9th in qually with a bunch of people going off early and server crash. 2 or 3 restarts later and our order was pretty messed up. I started in 9th but with the wrong person in front of me. Had some close racing moving through the field and eventually caught max. I was struggling to find a line around him and unfortunately we both went off due to contact. I redressed and watched a bunch drive by before we got going. gave max a few corners to get sorted and then went past him. worked my way back up the field by staying on the same slicks and came home in 7th. pretty happy with that after getting a hip and shoulders off the track along the way and some unforced errors of my own. the greasy track made things exciting in the lexus and I mostly had a fun race.
Gotta remember to turn off the chat comments though as there was a constant stream from the various chats i'm in. very distracting.
Also gotta work out how to save full replays.
I have already started learning zandvoort in case another cyclone interrupts my practice plans.
congrats to the podium and thanks to the finishers for the good racing