1:34s are very respectable dry lap times.

Has anyone put in any wet laps?

_________________
"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

none that I made it the whole way 'round, but I did start the track at 100% wet and raced until it hit 81%. Around 85% or less, I'm ok with getting around the track, but not any faster then about 2:00. It's agonizing!!

Wow what a close race tonight. My off track mishaps let Alek take and hold the lead for the most of the race. I was quicker (when I wasn't crashing) but it came down to the final 2 laps! Not since Fuji has the battle for 1st been so close, and yes just like Fuji Alek ran out of fuel on his final lap, he likes to run super light, and had to push his car back to the pits.

The battle for 3rd came down to the last second, with Harrod passing Rob at the last possible second. However after a stewards review, in true Schumacher style, there was no way he was making that turn and Rob was award 3rd place points. But still, bloody hilarious!!!

The season has passed the 1/2 way point, and their are close battles everywhere, with 3rd, 5th and 7th all currently tied!!! There is only a 5pt spread between 3rd and 8th positions, at this point it's anyones game!


Championship Standings

Rank	Name	PSN ID	Points	Fuji	Indy	Monza	Monaco	Suzuka
1	Jason S	MerlinRPM	30	10	10	10	10	10
2	Alek M	AMomcilo	24	8	0	8	5	8
3	Trevor G	nd4speed1	17	6	6	5	2	0
3	Alex R	Albongo87n00b	17	2	5	6	6	3
5	Jason B	Rascusfinkus	13	5	4	0	0	4
5	Scott H	S_AND_S	13	4	0	4	4	5
7	Steve P	stevedp	12	1	8	0	3	0
7	Robert S	sailor923	12	3	3	3	1	6
9	Kevin D	svtunderpressure	10	0	0	2	8	0
10	Varga A	vincentq4	0	0	0	0	0	0

_________________
"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

Well it sounded like a great race, down to the wire. I just wasn't having a good night as far as driving goes. I was off at almost every turn even in the dry and had to pit on average every 2/3 laps for some major damage. I tried to keep going but i was just losing time and getting in the way, so i retired from the race. It was a shame because i put softs on when the track was at about 25% and was getting some decent lap times for the conditions, 1:39's but ya....it didn't last...

Next time...

That was a good night, makes up for Monaco. I started on inter's, seemed okay at first. Switched to softs after the first pit stop. My best lap was 1:37.8. However I could only do 1:40's consistently. The battle for 3rd was good. After Rob had 2 pit stops I caught up to him and just passed him coming out of the pits. He had cold tires so I knew I could pull away a little bit. He finally caught up to me and passed me down the front straight, timer was going. I lost a bit of time from an almost spin then finally caught up to him down the back. Time was running out. I got the draft went for the pass and then there was the final chicane. Passed him, hammered on the brakes, time ran out, then I was off, smacking the wall. I did attempt to turn, but at that speed it wasn't going to happen. I was hoping to have the pass done before the turn, to make it more legal, but ran out of track. Rob definately deserves the position.

Until next time.

_________________
2013 BMW 128I - 2 DS

I am not looking forward to 44 laps of Cape Ring.... why oh why did I choose that track....
I think it's easily going to be the worse track/race of the series in terms of crashing and general mayhem!

_________________
"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

I maybe able to run this event on Sunday...may need some practise though!!

That was an exciting finish to a pretty good race. I had two identical spins back to back on the same corner causing the exact same engine damage. This allowed Scott to pass me while I was in the pits. As for what happened after that. All I can say is that it was an ambitious move by Scott. I highly recommend anyone that saved it, should watch the replay.

Some pictures from the last race Suzuka:

This is how I lost 15 seconds on Lap 49





This is how I lost the race during the next lap after my accident



This was the battle between Rob and Scott, after reviewing the replay I believe that Scott had a moment in the long right hand corner and tried to catch Rob, he got cought in Rob's draft while braking in the last turn and slipped into 3rd place temporarily before the race ended. Looking at Scott's speed, there was no way he could have made the turn when he passed Rob and I believe 3rd place should go to Rob.

_________________
2003 Buell Firebolt XB9R 1:19.6 around AMP Shubenacadie.
2009 Yamaha R1 1:21.7 around AMP Shubenacadie.

So i seem to be lapping 2's pretty consistantly, and managed to pull a 1:59.054 this morning on softs. Not sure if thats a decent lap time or not but i seem to have found a good "flow" with this track. I hated it in the vette, but seem to be in control with the FGT...werid...

Anyway, i am on track a hell of a lot more than Suzuka so its a good day...

Are you talking about Cape Ring?
If so 1:59 is a good lap time.

_________________
"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

Wow what a crazy race... I'm physically tired from those 44 laps.

I think there was more lead changes in this race, than the first 5 races combined, Alek, Rob, Steve, Kevin and myself all were in the lead at least once during the race!

There wasn't as much carnage as I was expecting, but I did spend way too much time in the pits.
For those that were wondering, I did a 1:57.7 (my fastest lap) on the 2nd last lap of the race. It was my one and only lap below the 2min barrier!

Big congratulations to Rob on his 2nd place finish!! That moves you from 7th to 3rd in the current standings, now tied with Alex!
(BTW-Did you use those setup tips I gave you the other night?)

Championship Standings

Rank	Name	PSN ID	Points	Fuji	Indy	Monza	Monaco	Suzuka	Canada
1	Jason S	MerlinRPM	40	10	10	10	10	10	10
2	Alek M	AMomcilo	29	8	0	8	5	8	4
3	Alex R	Albongo87n00b	20	2	5	6	6	3	2
3	Robert S	sailor923	20	3	3	3	1	6	8
5	Steve P	stevedp	18	1	8	0	3	0	6
6	Trevor G	nd4speed1	17	6	6	5	2	0	0
6	Scott H	S_AND_S	17	4	0	4	4	5	3
8	Kevin D	svtunderpressure	15	0	0	2	8	0	5
9	Jason B	Rascusfinkus	13	5	4	0	0	4	0
10	Varga A	vincentq4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

PS- Steve yea there is something really odd/wrong, when I quit I wasn't able to wash my car or do an oil change either. But I know earlier in the series I had to do an oil change, maybe something has changed on the server side of GT5.... I don't know. I'm going to take note of my mileage and see if it goes up after Thursdays race. 2,878.4km BTW did anyone get any prize money for that last race? I don't remember if I did or not, but it doesn't look like I did.

_________________
"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

For those curious, after Canada we want to France, La Sarthe (Weather) and practised.
My best lap was a 3:11 with about 25% downforce.

We did a speed test and Steve with (near full downforce?) was only 7kph slower than me on the straights, just FYI.

Also a reminder that there is no draft in practice mode, so when you setup your transmission you may want to leave some RPM at the top of 7th gear for drafting during the race.

_________________
"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

It's gonna be pretty funny when we finish this series and go back to something slower. This car is absolutely the most on the edge handling wise and speed wise that we've tried. I did a few laps with a full on GT car last week and it was slightly boring

I have a good sweat on after driving these things for 1.5 hours

Well, yet another race I missed. I'm going to be hit and miss throughout this series, and likely for every series for a while. We just found out a few weeks ago that my wife is pregnant again, and this one is making her sick as hell. So, when she either falls asleep early, or is feeling ok again, I'll be back on! I really like running Sarthe, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Well, i'm sorry i quit early, i was able to do good clean laps when practicing offline and when rob, kevin and i had a run around. But come race time i couldn't keep it on track so save my life...Plus only seeing 4 racers was a bit unnerving, no idea where i was on the field and i was worried i was going to smoke someone. Either way i was crashing a lot, and the more i crashed the more frustrated i became, and the more frustrated i was the more i crashed! So i thought it best to just bow out. Its a shame since i know i'm able to race that track quite quickly as well...oh well, i look forward to the next one!

Yeah, crazy stuff. Alex I was one of the cars you couldn't see, and crashed in to. Sorry about that. You were ahead of me position wise when you left, I was in last place. I was trying to move over, and tell you where I was but my mic doesn't want to work all the time. It was working in practice, but once we started the race, no mic. I could hear everyone else talking. If anyone seen me off, which was a lot, I was telling you in advance I was there.

So Jason, are you going to share those settings with everyone, or just Rob. I read the small print. Obviously they seem to work. I was wondering why Rob was so much quicker then me this time.

_________________
2013 BMW 128I - 2 DS

The details are always in the fine print
I didn't share all of the Colonels Secret 11 Herbs & Spices recipe, but just pointed Rob in the right direction.
I'll make this offer to everyone, show up a few minutes early before the next race and I'll help you tune your car.

If I win the next race, I'll share my complete setup/tune.
Just remember, I've tuned the car to my driving style. You should always tune your car for your driving style.

PS-Congratulations on the new baby JB!

_________________
"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

I tried your tranny settings Jason and found it didn't improve my times but that could just be me.

When Alek, Rob and I were testing on the track I tried so many changes but "nothing" made me quicker...somethings made the car feel better but again I feel I was the limiting factor. In the race I was able to pull a 2:02:491 and that was because I was talking with someone...I think I have a problem!!

The one thing about these cars I don't like is that you can't run a clean race...if you slow down to run clean then you become an obstacle for the other racer's to run into..."damned if you do" sort of thing I guess!

Lets see what happens for the next race...maybe I'll try some new medications.

Run a clean race and when you're about to be lapped, just move safely to the side and work with the person passing you via chat.
I've lapped one or two people during this series, and I've rarely had problems. People being lapped just need to slow down, at the right times. The only real time that it becomes an issue is when the person being lapped feels pressure or spends too much time worrying about being passed or looking in their rearview and ends up crashing.

Good luck with the new meds, I usually have some Crystal Meth Light during the race.

_________________
"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

It's going to be a flat out race tonight...very high speed track...should make for some spectacular pile ups in the brake zones!!

Time to get some practise laps in...if the system will start up for me...those playstations put out about 125 deg F when they are working hard...need to work on an air evacuation method for them!

"Gentlemen, start your engines please..."

You're gonna need air conditioning for your "server lab". Might need to get some racks too!

_________________

1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Remember to
...change the oil in your car before you start the game...you need all the HP you can get on this track.
...Allow for drafting when you set the tranny...plenty of it on this track.

and if it rains...we are all screwed !!!


HEY...you've been peeking again Scott!!!

I think, once again, I am going to completely change the location of my "rig" to allow for more natural cooling of the systems...cross flow ventilation for the PS 3's and I need serious cooling for the upgraded processors on both the computers.

Kevin's right on all accounts....


I maybe a few minutes late tonight, should be online by five after 8.

_________________
"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

First off congratulations to Alek on his first win, and breaking my winning streak!

Second, I apologize for the long race. Sorry for the mix up guys, it should have been 24 laps not 44.
When I looked online I accidently read the Cape Ring lap # and not La Sarthe.

Just for kicks I watched the replay, and if we had finished on the 24th lap the order would have been exactly the same. So we did the extra 20 laps for no good reasons.

Not to take anything away from Alek's win, but I have to say Kevin had the pace to win the race. To be honest I wasn't paying much attention to Alek until it was too late, I was focusing on Kevin's pace and pitstops because I felt him to be the bigger threat. I was too busy covering off Kevin to notice Alek.

Good racing, both of you!

Championship Standings

Rank	Name	PSN ID	Points	Fuji	Indy	Monza	Monaco	Suzuka	Canada	La Sarthe
1	Jason S	MerlinRPM	50	10	10	10	10	10	10	8
2	Alek M	AMomcilo	39	8	0	8	5	8	4	10
3	Robert S	sailor923	25	3	3	3	1	6	8	5
4	Alex R	Albongo87n00b	24	2	5	6	6	3	2	4
5	Kevin D	svtunderpressure	21	0	0	2	8	0	5	6
6	Scott H	S_AND_S	20	4	0	4	4	5	3	3
7	Steve P	stevedp	18	1	8	0	3	0	6	0
8	Trevor G	nd4speed1	17	6	6	5	2	0	0	0
9	Jason B	Rascusfinkus	13	5	4	0	0	4	0	0
10	Varga A	vincentq4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

PS- I did have to do an oil change and car wash after the race this time. Odd. But I did put 600km on the engine.... 3475km

_________________
"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental

I was having a great race in the begining, held on to 2nd place for a while. After the first pit stop, I had a crash and blew my engine (not the track you want to do that on), very slow to get back to the pits. Then it turned into a race for 5th. It was going great, I was having fun. Unfurtunately I had to go to the bathroom, not #1. I know TMI. I could have paused and been a few laps down, but didn't think of that until after I left.

I thought 44 laps was a little long, but just figured that was what we were doing. That being said I left around lap 20, and could have suffered through and made it to the end of 24 laps.

_________________
2013 BMW 128I - 2 DS

At the start, the last race started to look like the Cape Ring, pushed like crazy and stayed in last and second last place for a long time. Kevin was definitely quicker than me over the race distance but I got lucky in this one, the rain started at the right time for me as well. I can drive on slicks up to 27% rain, with a lot of downforce I didn't start sliding until 32%.

_________________
2003 Buell Firebolt XB9R 1:19.6 around AMP Shubenacadie.
2009 Yamaha R1 1:21.7 around AMP Shubenacadie.

im back and plan to be online tonite for the german gp

_________________
2001 Bullitt......Not Mine, I Just drive it
2012 ARMS Regional Autoslalom 1st Place Overall
2012 1st SM ARMS
2012 ASCC Autoslalom 1st Place Overall
2012 1st SM ASCC
2009 ARMS AutoSlalom Top Novice
2009 1st ESP

I think I'm going to be missing the races for a while, wife is having a very hard time with this pregnancy...much harder than the last two. Getting into anything that I can't drop immediately doesn't go over well.

I won't be there tonight.

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2013 BMW 128I - 2 DS