Round 9 - Spa Francorchamps (October 20)

Hi all,

Really enjoying this season so far despite not troubling the top of the results sheets.

I'll put my Noob hat on again - question, how's it going to work in the next race at Spa with a 2 hour long race?  I make it to be about a 45 lap race with more than the 3 selectable pit stops.

Is it just a case of manually requesting a pit stop when you are getting low on fuel and doing another stop (x how many stops to get you to the end)?

I should probably know this, just never done a race this long.....  I'll have to get my wife to setup the Bundy and Coke on a drip for this one also I think....

Cheers, CD.

And a pee bottle Chris:no:

grunter67 wrote:And a pee bottle Chris

You reckon I'll need one Grunter??

I know I will, old bladder:)

got some cracker times already, will have to see how the commos go on their fuel and tyres in race. for the enduros will there be parc ferme qually?

Wow, what did you set that 2:35.9 in Chris? Stonking, I had all fuel out and softs on in the Commo with a massive power advantage!

superlight light run in volvo on softs. just enough fuel for 1 flying lap. ran wide on grass on exit of second left before bus stop coming back up the hill so i reckon theres another tenth in it but she was hooked up. just dont want to put any heat into the tyres on the out lap as the tyres get fried after 3/4 of a hot lap.

TRACK DOWNLOAD:
http://www.rfactorcentral.com/detail.cfm?ID=Spa%20Francorchamps%201988

RACE DETAILS:
2 Hour Race

*The race features a 20hr time span in game from 3pm-11am, so ensure that you have your graphic settings & screen settings correct to handle this

PLEASE ENSURE YOU HAVE DOWNLOADED EVERYTHING IN THE SUNDAY DOWNLOADS DROPBOX ON THE LEFT

To get us in the mood, here is the actual 1986 Spa 24hrs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW2c2-hZsso

anyone seen what the night time visibility is? is it as dark as the nurburgring

wtf! a 2:33.4 from the commo.

aus_chrisrx wrote:wtf! a 2:33.4 from the commo.

I see that. Pretty awesome number!!! I figured Webber's 35 in his three initial laps would be bettered fairly easily.

Will be interesting to see how the tyrewear and fuel usage stacks up come race time.....

If anyone would like the setup, let me know...

It was amazing to see how close the top dozen or so were in qually. i had a steup that i was happy with but i was 5 seconds slower than anyone else, so i was very cautious at the start and avoided both of the big pile ups.

After the third start, i followed a Merc through Eau Rouge and he ran wide and hit the wall heavily, bouncing back into the middle of the track, I had nowhere to go and slammed into him and then bounced into both walls, doing a lot of damage, but he stopped and waited for me to turn around and get going again. Half a lap later, i had a brain fade and slammed another wall, cutting a tyre, so i limped back to the pits and rejoined the race half a lap behind the entire field after just one lap.

It was ages before i saw another car and then, they were lapping me. One by one other cars dropped out, eventually elevating me to tenth. Quite late in the race, another car came out of the pits just 4 secs in front of me, at last someone to race! Alas, i pitted for fuel two laps later, so nothing came of it.

I decided not to splash n dash in the dying minutes and short shifted and cruised for the last two laps and ran out of fuel on the grid, literally within sight of the finish line. Thanks Racer69 for pushing me home, the last 30 metres or so.

Being so far out of contention made for an uninteresting race and i don't think i'll ever do another two hour, not with my current seat anyway.

I agree DP, you really have to be racing somebody to make it worth the effort, although it can be rewarding to have to think about pit strategy as you go along.

Unfortunately I was working last night, but checked up on how the race was going on my phone. Great work Sleek for your first win on a tough track!

I agree Patto, it was a pretty long race in which I drove around on my own for most of it.

The opening laps were pretty good, I had a good dice with TTRBenny, Aus Chris and Growler.

It was fun though driving to the gap and trying to keep Aus-Chris behind me, but I made no inroads on GroupC and Sleek.

The vision during the nighttime stint was horrendous, kudos to the guys up the front, I think that was where I lost most of my ground to them.

To break the monotony, I stopped to help push Corty into the pits when he ran out of fuel at the bus stop, but Patto had also volunteered so I kept on going.

I need a decent chair too, har backed wooden dining table chair just doesn't cut it for 2 hours....

Always good fun though, thanks for a top night all!

I downloaded the track just minutes before qually. My first lap of the circuit was qualifying.
What a magnificent track i must say. I always knew that main straight but never seen the rest of it.

I had two cracking starts but alas they were restarted due to pile ups. On the final restart i was able to make a few spots then came to a sudden stop as ChrisRX hit the pitwall and stopped. From then on i was battling Ryan Lee, I was having a blast but I think he made an error and i pulled a slight gap. A few other cars had offs in front of me which bumped me up the field a bit.
I finally caught Growler and was ready to just sit with him and break the solo running and he decided to pit and seeing as i had no pit strategy i followed him in only to see i had 6/7 more laps i could have done. However with the new rubber and some weight back over the rearend we ended up dueling for many laps after that. things were going great...
Until night fell. Holy crap. I was going what i thought was good and i thought if anyone catches me they are doing well. Growler was doing well
We then battled for the rest of the night. A big slide from Growler saw him bounce off the wall right in front of me and with a big impact both cars were damaged. Credit to you Growler, we both pitted and he waited for me Cheers.
With only 30 minutes or so to go Growler put the pedal down ad i could see he was starting to drive away from me until he told me he was going to go on to the end and then promptly drove off the track :SI then thought well shit if he can drive away from me he could easily pass me with plenty of time to go and that i had better get a wiggle on. I ended up doing my fasted lap chasing the commodore of Corty (after he and racer had lapped me) on worn, hot tires and low fuel. Not wanting to right the car off so close to end i just decided to get into a rhythm and finish the race. A quick splash and dash near the end nearly lost me a place but Growler had to do the same the next lap.

Great racing by Sleek, GCA, Racer and the gang. I had a ball.   I would like to see safety cars implemented into the game bunching the group and changing peoples strategies. I know it was trialed by Benny a while back, it's a shame it is so dodgy. Oh well, maybe rFactor 2 can sort it out

I liked racing on that track, just going at my own pace. I was in 11th the night time part of the race was good if u could  see the track but it was hard but fun, it was getting light and i could see the track in frunt of me and i ternd my lights off and i got DQ BUGGER.