Radders
EV Fanboy & Host of large EV Meets
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Cars owned: Pagani's, Ferrari's, Porsche, Ford's, Mclaren's, Mercedes - all that is cool
just a quick report for those of you who might be interested.
Oulton park was the latest round of Carrera cup, my favourite track and where I was likely to be most confident
tested there two weeks ago and was in punching in 1.25.4 laps, very happy with that. came away wanting more speed and decided to alter the set up to hopefully improve the cornering grip/speed.
arrived Friday for the official two practice sessions and was a second down on the previous times through both sessions until the last few laps where I managed a 1.25.9. Was really disappointed and annoyed at my decision to alter a setup that was previously working fine. just to clarify my reasons for the setup change, I am a beginner at this and as a result we have a very basic setup and a long way from the pro cars, I wanted to take another step forward and add more camber etc
after a long discussion with the team about putting it back I decided to stick with it and we simply made some changes to ride height and corner weights to dial out some of the issues I had reported.
quali on Saturday came around and I went out on new rubber for the first 15 minutes and I was 8th in class, back in for a second set with 12 minutes to go, back out and two 1.25.2's were done putting me 2nd in the 1st race and pole in the 2nd race. So sticking with the setup seemed to be a good decision.
race one was Saturday evening 5pm, rolling start and 2nd on the grid, got away and took 1st on the approach to island bend on the first lap. from this point I simply managed the gap and kept it at around 1.2 seconds. made a small error on the exit of island on one lap and lost 7 tenths however I pulled these back in the following laps and got it back to 1.2. with 4 laps to go a red flag came out due to a big accident and I had won. Result
Race 2 on sunday was a very different story. standing start and on pole in class, arrived on the grid from the formation lap and sat there in the 29C temps for over 10 minutes cooking in the car due to previous race touring cars being recovered from the track. didn't sleep the Saturday night + the heat and as I sat on the grid I didn't feel well at all, felt sick and my mind seemed to be slow, can't fully explain but it was like I just wanted to sleep. anyway off we went, not a great start, bogged down and lost three places off the line. several laps in after many failed attempts to over take, another opportunity presented itself, going to island I went down the outside of the cars in front with a last minute braking move, the car in front pushed me wide and onto the grass, locked up the rear and spun. race over, carried on and just tried for the fastest lap despite the rears getting too hot. finished 6th due to other cars crashing which was proof why carrying on pays off, missed fastest lap by 0.015 tenths
learnt a great deal this weekend
1. I didn't know oulton as well I thought, an endurance lap is VERY different to a sprint lap. by the end of the weekend I was attacking the track like it needed to be and my mechanical sympathy from the endurance racing was starting to filter out which is good.
2. my competition have certainly improved, there was 100th's between me and 4 others in class all weekend, 9 in class in total and 5 of us are extremely close, 100ths is just bonkers for five cars and proves that I am currently in my rightful place in the class structure.
3. its extremely difficult to overtake at oulton with cars of this pace, if you get it wrong or your pushed offline its likely to be a huge accident.
Croft is next in two weeks time and I will be doing everything possible to win both races despite not knowing the track, I'm there Monday and Tuesday testing to get up to speed.
Oulton park was the latest round of Carrera cup, my favourite track and where I was likely to be most confident
tested there two weeks ago and was in punching in 1.25.4 laps, very happy with that. came away wanting more speed and decided to alter the set up to hopefully improve the cornering grip/speed.
arrived Friday for the official two practice sessions and was a second down on the previous times through both sessions until the last few laps where I managed a 1.25.9. Was really disappointed and annoyed at my decision to alter a setup that was previously working fine. just to clarify my reasons for the setup change, I am a beginner at this and as a result we have a very basic setup and a long way from the pro cars, I wanted to take another step forward and add more camber etc
after a long discussion with the team about putting it back I decided to stick with it and we simply made some changes to ride height and corner weights to dial out some of the issues I had reported.
quali on Saturday came around and I went out on new rubber for the first 15 minutes and I was 8th in class, back in for a second set with 12 minutes to go, back out and two 1.25.2's were done putting me 2nd in the 1st race and pole in the 2nd race. So sticking with the setup seemed to be a good decision.
race one was Saturday evening 5pm, rolling start and 2nd on the grid, got away and took 1st on the approach to island bend on the first lap. from this point I simply managed the gap and kept it at around 1.2 seconds. made a small error on the exit of island on one lap and lost 7 tenths however I pulled these back in the following laps and got it back to 1.2. with 4 laps to go a red flag came out due to a big accident and I had won. Result
Race 2 on sunday was a very different story. standing start and on pole in class, arrived on the grid from the formation lap and sat there in the 29C temps for over 10 minutes cooking in the car due to previous race touring cars being recovered from the track. didn't sleep the Saturday night + the heat and as I sat on the grid I didn't feel well at all, felt sick and my mind seemed to be slow, can't fully explain but it was like I just wanted to sleep. anyway off we went, not a great start, bogged down and lost three places off the line. several laps in after many failed attempts to over take, another opportunity presented itself, going to island I went down the outside of the cars in front with a last minute braking move, the car in front pushed me wide and onto the grass, locked up the rear and spun. race over, carried on and just tried for the fastest lap despite the rears getting too hot. finished 6th due to other cars crashing which was proof why carrying on pays off, missed fastest lap by 0.015 tenths
learnt a great deal this weekend
1. I didn't know oulton as well I thought, an endurance lap is VERY different to a sprint lap. by the end of the weekend I was attacking the track like it needed to be and my mechanical sympathy from the endurance racing was starting to filter out which is good.
2. my competition have certainly improved, there was 100th's between me and 4 others in class all weekend, 9 in class in total and 5 of us are extremely close, 100ths is just bonkers for five cars and proves that I am currently in my rightful place in the class structure.
3. its extremely difficult to overtake at oulton with cars of this pace, if you get it wrong or your pushed offline its likely to be a huge accident.
Croft is next in two weeks time and I will be doing everything possible to win both races despite not knowing the track, I'm there Monday and Tuesday testing to get up to speed.
