I would definitely suggest it. I've managed to break 1:43, but it certainly isn't easy. The big secret is knowing where and how far you can go off the road in certain corners. Those massive gridded run offs are a godsend, and the only way to really go fast on that track.

Just going to say it first..that was bloody terrible.

Yea I skipped last night.
Real life is getting in the way.

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

Bloody terrible indeed.

At 11pm I clicked the JOIN button for the premier race, and for the first time ever, the iRacing application crashed and locked up my computer. I frantically rebooted, got back into iRacing, and rejoined from within the pits just as the green flag dropped.

But as I pulled out of my pit box, I suddenly realized that I had forgot to fill up the tank from qualifying. So I stopped and exited, went to the Garage menu to adjust fuel, but of course it was disabled as the race had already started. D'oh!

I clicked the Race button, tried to leave my pit stall and the car would not move! My first thought was that my wheel / pedals weren't working, but quickly realized it was because I was being "towed" back to the pits. Argh!

While I was waiting for the tow timer to count down, I readjusted my fuel setting for the race. Then when the timer reached zero, I took off out of the pits, 1½ laps down and in last place.

As I was running my opening laps, I looked at my iRace Dash and noticed that I still only had qualifying fuel. ARGH! So I'd need to make an unnecessary pit stop mid-race.

At this point I knew I had no chance at catching anyone and the only way I'd make up positions was if / when other people crash or dropped out. Especially since I'd have to stop for fuel at some point. So I just puttered around at about 2-3 seconds off my race-pace, trying to stay safe & clean.

When I came out the pits after my mid-race fuel stop, I fell in behind a pack running 8-9-10th and was keeping pace with them. In fact, I even passed 10th when he made a mistake. I'm quite confident that had I started the race from my grid slot (with full fuel), I would have finished the race in the top 10. But as it was, I finished 17th and scored my lowest points so far this season.

Here's the full results. Happy to see Ryan joining in the series!

Here are the current point standings. Despite the poor finish, I moved up one spot:

And here's a graph of our current points accumulation:

As for the number of competitors who can potentially qualify for a prize... It's now down to only 70 people now. If it keeps dropping at this rate, Jason & I will win the random draw prizes by default.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

My race analysis is pretty simple by comparison. For a change I did manage to complete the first lap incident free, but when I was coming down Paddock Hill Bend for lap two, I went wide, and slid onto the gravel and mangled some of my car. Made it back to the pits under my own power, and that's when I got discouraged.

Required repairs took 3 and a half minutes, the optional repairs to put my car back to good working order was over 8 minutes. Needless to say I went back out after the required ones were done, but my rear wing was bent, my front wing was gone, and my left front tire was bent to a positive camber.

Oh well, at least I finished, and helped my SR go back up!

Oooooh boy! Okayama this week! The few races I had this week had gone pretty well, though I keep overloading my tires on the first lap. This is gonna be a pretty intense race, because a lot of people know the track, it's just being used to the Skippy that's going to keep it crazy.

I was really struggling here last week, which surprised me as I've put literally thousands of laps around this track in the MX5. My problem was I was trying to use my MX5 driving line, which differs from what is shown in the sample video below.

Once I adjusted my lines and figured out the brake / shift points, I was able to get down to decent & repeatable lap times. So now I'm really looking forward to Wednesday's race!


Here's a good lap (not mine):

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

The best I've managed in a 1:48.3xx, though I average around the 1:48-1:49 range. Studying this video might help me out, but gods know I hated this track in the MX-5...and the Solstice (though I more hated that fat car)...and the SCCA Spec Ford..that oversteering POS.

Yes, I was in the 48-49 range before studying the video. Now I can run fairly consistently in the 46's.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Hmm..definitely worth a study in between testing the Star Mazda at Mid-Ohio.

Worked for me!

Speaking of the Star Mazda, I think that is now my favorite car along with the Lotus 79. Skippy would probably be 3rd. Next season I may focus on just the Star Mazda. Currently I running in 9 different series championships plus two premier series, and I'm finding it too much. Fun but hard to keep on top of.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtSG4vB9nnfNdHpzN2s4aEZoS2ZsSm9vbk4yTTJyekE#gid=7

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Yeeeeeaaa, you might be stretching it a bit I love the Star Mazda, and I quite like the fixed Indy for now (can't do anything else with my license anyway). The Skippy is fun...but oh so very frustrating because it is easily the most sensitive car I've driven in this game.

I'm testing out the Riley at the moment, but that is a secondary at the moment. My SR and iRating are pretty poor, so I need to focus more if I'm going to have any hope of pulling those out of the dump.

Race is tonight! Are we ready to go??

Sure am! Can't have bad luck two weeks in a row, right?

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Last race wasn't bad luck, it was "Brands" luck.

After all my hype and preparation, I'm going to miss it. 30 laps of that track is just too much for my tired mind to take at 11 pm. why don't they have a race at 7? that would be so much better...

Ugh, tell me about it. I've been sleep deprived all week. But I soldered on.

Qualifying for this event I set a new personal best, but was still only good for mid-grid. I started 8th of 16.

I got a good start and held my position. However midway through the first lap I made a little mistake and dropped two positions to 10th.

The remainder of the race I was in a continual cycle of slowly catching the car in front of me, passing, then making a small error and dropping back to 10th. I was ever-so-slightly faster than the next couple guys in front of me, but they ran flawless races and finished ahead of me. I almost got 9th on the last lap (where I set a new personal best lap time), but came up just a car length or two short.

The mistakes I speak of were all relatively minor. Things like braking too deep into a corner or getting oversteer on corner exit; costing me a few seconds. No spins nor off course excursions. But we were all close enough that it resulted in lost positions. None of the drivers around me made any mistakes the whole race, which amazed me.

So in the end, I crossed the line in 10th, scoring average championship points, some iRating, and a pile of SR.

Here are the current point standings. Again, I moved up one spot:

And here's a graph of our current points accumulation:

Another 11 competitors have dropped off the list of people who can potentially qualify for a prize... It's down to only 59 people now.

The top three will all win Skip Barber Race Schools, and there are two random draws from the rest of the field. So if there are 59 competitors, subtract the top 3, giving 56 to draw the two prizes from... My rough math yields about a 3.5% chance of winning one of the two $800 Skip Barber Race Schools.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Unlike Brands, where small mistakes usually equal death, Okayama is a little bit more forgiving, however it is a track everyone has seen at every stage of their iRacing career, so it's definitely very competitive. Excellent work Scott, and hopefully you'll catch up on sleep soon.

Now, to get ready for Mid-Ohio with the Star Mazda for the rest of the week!

Soooo...Road America this week. I've been doing some testing and despite the lengthy straights, this is a pretty tough track to get a fast time on with the Skippy. I've been tuning the hell out of the car to try and find a good set up, and I think I might have found it.

How goes preparations for everyone else? Are you going to be able to join us on this one Jason?

Nope, spending the time working on my real race car.
Trying to get it ready for Digby!

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

I can definitely respect that. I wish I could make Digby with my flying brick, but money is what money is..and that is not in my possession. Have fun Jason!

I did some practicing last night at Road Atlanta. Haven't turn a lap at Road America (in the Skippy) yet, although I do really like that track. I'll have to get some practice in tonight.

Here's a couple old setups I found on the forums:

• Road America - Steve Bates – 2.34.5xx: http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts ... 23711.page
• Road America - Peter Kuhn – 2.33.6xx: http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts ... 29731.page

And here is the World Record lap:

And a few other quick ones:

• http://youtu.be/2ilnLwlh_bY
• http://youtu.be/eFqDKTfb8R4
• http://youtu.be/1iOPLnuUryg

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

It is a great track, I really love it in the skippy, but given that it is a brake heavy track, you gotta be careful about how hard and how deep you go into the corners before braking. The Skippy has such a sweet spot under braking between excellent stopping and lock up that I'm finding Road America tricky, but fun as hell.

I always struggle with front wheel lockup with the Skippy, so I tend to shift the brake bias rearward as compared to most other people's setups. It makes it tricky to brake while turning, but in a straight line it really helps a lot.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

My front brake bias is always at 55%. I prefer a balanced car, and I found that particular bias helps quite a bit to avoid going crazy when braking hard. But I agree with you Scott.

I find it amusing that despite the relatively limited amount of configuration you can do with the Skippy, it is extremely customizable.

Did qualifying last night. Got a 2:36.2xx which puts me 15th of everyone who has qualified so far. My personal best is a 2:35.8xx with an optimal of 2:35 flat. I'm hoping to get my qualifying time down to a mid-to-low 35 tonight before the race (which would probably put me mid-field on the grid).

Looks like there was only 12 competitors in this morning's time slot, which is low (i.e. Brands Hatch numbers). We might not even get any splits tonight, which mean head-to-head competition between Ryan and I.

Until I crash out....

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Given my first lap blunder history, I think you're going to be fine. Haven't had a chance to run qualifying or additional testing since Sunday, but I'm hoping to give it a good go this evening and see if I can at least complete more than a lap

As always, life gets in the way. Won't make the race tonight...surprise surprise...

Well, I didn't get my mid-to-low 2:35 qualifying time but it was still my best qualifying result for the series; 25th overall and 10th of 24 in my split.

It was all wasted in the race however. I performed horribly! Tons of mistakes, several off course excursions, a collision with another car (my fault), and 5 minute repair in the pits. My fastest lap was a second off my qualifying time, and most other laps were waaaaay off pace. Horrible performance.

But I wasn't alone... A lot of people had a rough race and despite my poor performance I was still able to finish 15th / 24, score higher than (my) average championship points, and even gain some iRating.

I also moved up a few spots in the championship.

Now it's down to 46 competitors who qualify for the random prize draw. The odds keep getting better!

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

It's a vicious track that is easy to overshoot the corners. You normally don't die as a result, but you still loose tons of time.