Clio Cup Notes

[fndrbndr]

I've been meaning to do this for a while.  I'll probably update my notes from previous races in here at some point, but here are my thoughts heading up to and after each race.

[fndrbndr]

Reserved for Maple Valley Short

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Reserved for Mugello Short

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Reserved for Road Atlanta Short

[fndrbndr]

I've been running Silverstone, getting ready for this week's race.  I've lowered the front springs into the 350 lb. range, keeping the rears about 400.  I've also set the toe back to neutral.  The results are pretty strong.  I ran a 61.4xx for a best tonight.  More importantly, I was routinely turning in strong 61.6xx's.  I feel like the car is getting more and more dialed in every week.  In a dry run with Spiny, Stank, and Bimmer, I had Bimmer on my tail, much as he was for the entire RAS main race.  Hopefully, as I tweak the car, I can get a little bit of time on him.  I just couldn't shake him last week, and that was part of my undoing.

[fndrbndr]

I upped the rear springs to 410 while running a practice/tuning session with Bimmer.  Team America is starting to look like they may be competitive today.  I ran a 61.316 this morning, after some pretty unspectacular laps to open up the day.  I'm currently chasing my 61.316 ghost around Silverstone.  I figure If I can stay in the ghost's "body" more often than not, then I'm running fast, consistent laps.

[fndrbndr]

Actually, the springs were at 435.  I'm wondering if that's a bit much, but I'm noticing something even more interesting.  I came in third in both races.  That's not bad, about what you'd expect looking from the rankings.  However, my trend of finishing better than my top lap would dictate continues.  I ran a 1:01.411 for a best lap in the second race.  Spiny and Max were both faster (1.200 and 1.225 respectively, IIRC), and were consistent enough that I couldn't close the gap.  I got down to about 1.5xx seconds of Max, but Spiny was long gone.  Anyway, I'm noticing that I don't succeed by going fast.  Rather, I succeed by just staying out of trouble.  I guess that's the way racing is supposed to be.  I'm just intrigued seeing it play out.

[bimmerlovere39]

Of course they were - it IS a British track, after all 

[fndrbndr]

Then what will next week at tsukuba bring??

[Spiny Anteater]

I had a check of my springs and they're both just over 400 F&R, so I'd say we're heading along parallel routes regarding those. Sadly I again got tangled up in a first lap incident in the first race, and again it involved me tagging someone else but fortunately not enough to cause significant damage (stupid beginners mistake, i tried to brake and turn at the same time and slid wide of the apex). Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for scampagni who had the misfortune to do a bimmer - i.e. coming around the first corner to find a car stationary in the road and no easy way to avoid it. That left my aero, rear springs, gearbox and driveline yellow so I could only hobble around to claim 6th in the first race. Scapagni suffered much more though - the last I saw of him was a great rooster-tail of smoke and he ended up pitting.

The second race was much better for me - I managed to avoid incident, managed to get a good run on scampagni onto the start/finish straight on lap 3 and then was able to run away and hide with the fastest lap due to a period in the middle of the race where I ran 6 laps in succession within 0.2 seconds of my best lap.

I've come to the conclusion I'm a poor man's Fillipe Massa. Let me get out front and I can run away and hide, but in traffic I have all the skill and ability of a giant hoover!

I suck at Tsukuba - I have a feeling it will bring a set of bad results for me. It's also the type of track where I can see carnage ensuing in at least one race

[fndrbndr]

I'm worried that Tsukuba will be pretty frustrating for me.  I consider myself excellent at Tsukuba, and even kept up with Serial for a couple of laps there once.  (The race was 5 laps, so we'll ignore the last three.)  However, the tight quarters and lack of real passing zones may make this another race I *could* have won.  We'll see.

[BarbecuePete]

I think Tsukuba is gonna be an interesting couple of races, It really works the front left hard and if your battling for position late on, especially in the Feature race it won't take much too push a bit too hard and run wide in the big sweeper or run too deep into one of the hairpins..

I'm running a different tune at Tsukuba to what i've run so far in the season, it seems to work better in the slower turns. In the couple test races that have run so far my fastest laps have come around lap 5 / 6 at around a 59.6 but Tsukuba is one of those tracks where that can easily become a 60.6.. 

[fndrbndr]

Tsukuba is definitely its own critter.  I'm looking forward to it, but I hope it doesn't turn out to be incredibly frustrating, like RAS was.

[bimmerlovere39]

RAS was kinder to me than Silverstone... 

[fndrbndr]

Well, Suzuka was even less kind to me than Tsukuba.  Going back to neutral toe was a good call on my part, allowing me just enough speed on the straights, along with a line that requires no braking and avoiding downshifting, to make a few attempts at passes.  In spec racing, that's pretty surprising.  Anyway, racing incidents abounded, someone kept trying to dive inside on the last turn, and when I finally had things lining up for a podium, I got disconnected.  lol  This was especially disappointing since the guy who dove inside ran off, keeping the spot, and I managed to catch back up to him after losing two spots.

It's a shame, as I really felt like I had one of the better setups this week, and was driving well.  Oh well, that's racing.