F1 2011 Race Report: RaceDepartment Random Fun League Race 4 - 75%

Team: Ferrari
Participants: 8
Qualifying: P4
Race: P5
Objective: Finish 8th or better PASSED

Qualifying:
Run 1 Dry qualifying. Went out on primes. 2 warmup laps, 2 hot laps, and an in lap, good for P4. I decided I wanted to go out one more time. Run 2 I put on fresh primes and, as I was short on time, did 1 warmup and a hot before the checkers waved. I improved a bit but stayed P4. My best qualifying result up until this session was P7 so I was very happy with 4th! Primes were at 91% so I was in good shape for the race. Have to wonder where I would have been on options, but I know a long first stint is my only chance to try and get something over on the 3 guys ahead of me.

Race:

Laps 1-3 I have great pace out of the gate. I'm able to take P3 away from Giles for a few laps but...Lap 4 Giles is back within 1 second. Lap 5 I make a mistake not covering the inside better on the straight after turn 2 and Giles gets the inside. Going around turn 3 I don't have as much room as I think and make contact with Giles, which sends me for a wee spin and drops me back to P4, but I get things right quickly and press on without losing any more positions, pulling away from Dizz behind me in P5. Lap 9 I jump FrenziedSine and Jaegermeister while they are pitted to take P2. This is the highest position I have ever had in a race. My pace is usually not quick enough to stay within the delta by the first pit cycle. Lap 10 I then jump Giles while he is pitted to take over the race lead! This is the first time I have ever led any laps in a race!!! Lap 12 Jaegermeister has caught up, but I do a good job keeping him behind me until I pull into the pits at the end of the lap for another set of primes. I debated going to options here, but I knew that some of the guys I had jumped had fitted primes and likewise some of my direct competition that were back a ways were going on a shorter option stint so I felt it wise to run long again while the car was still reasonably heavy and I would have less of a time disadvantage. I am P4 again after my stop. Lap 25 Pit stop for options. P4 held. I will have to make another stop before the end. Lap 32 Benny has been within 3 seconds of me since about lap 27. As we come around to start/finish he pits and I punch it wanting to gap him as much as I can for my planned stop at the end of the next lap. I figure this is better than coming out of the pits together. Lap 33 Last pit stop, for another set of options. Lap 34 I come out of the pits RIGHT in front of benny. I thwart him down the straight after turn 2, but I make another defending mistake by not staying wide out of turn 3 to cover the inside going to 4. He goes by on the inside and I drop to P5. At the end of the lap, I get a little gift when the lag gremlins put him back behind me lol. Lap 35 Benny gets a clean DRS pass on me down the first long straight, not much I can do. I kick it to mix 3 to try and chase him down. Laps 36-37 I get DRS on benny both laps, but its not quite enough to catch him. I have some opportunities when he makes a few mistakes here and there, but his acceleration out of the turns is just a tad better than mine. Lap 38 benny is getting away. Lap 41 Race finish, and I finish on the lead lap for the first time!

The only thing about this race that was a disappointment for me was dropping the one position from where I qualified. In the end though, I don't think there was much I could do about it. I'm not sure that the 3rd stop was necessarily what cost me, as I know at least one of the guys on the podium did 3 stops as well. I think benny really was just that little bit faster and it caught up to me by race end. Hard to feel bad about it when I had so many other great things happen that were real improvements like qualifying a personal best 4th, actually leading the race at one point, and being sufficiently fast to finish on the lead lap. All very very good things that combined to make it my best race so far.


Race Department Random Fun League Stats
Starts: 2
Finishes: 2
Best Grid: P4
Best Race: P5 (x2)
Podiums: 0
Wins: 0
Points: 20
League Table Rank: 5th of 10

ABS/TC/Auto Gears/Dynamic Racing Line/Penalties Realistic/Damage Full/Tire Sim/Fuel Sim

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Race Department Lifetime Club Stats
Starts: 4
Finishes: 3
Best Grid: P4
Best Race: P5 (x2)
Podiums: 0
Wins: 0
Points: 21

Custom Halo Reach Spartan - Update #2

     

Priming on chest and shoulder armor pieces complete!

Click the 'Custom Halo Reach Spartan' link below to see more posts about this project, or 'Custom Figures' to view posts about all my custom figure projects.

F1 2011 Race Report-Weekly Fun Series @ Monaco & Random Fun League @Shanghai

 RaceDepartment Weekly Fun Series-100% Monaco Special

 After all the work I did to prepare for this Monaco race, this is what happened...

Needless to say I was gutted. This is my favorite track, and I had looked so forward to this event. Disappointment doesn't even begin to describe it. I did have some fun though, spectating and watching the battle at the front for the win.

Things would turn around shortly after the Fun Series race concluded when, just as I was about to power down my console, I received an invite from a RaceDept buddy to join another race.

Team: Red Bull
Participants: 16
Qualifying: Random Assignment-P15
Race: DNF (P15)
Objective: Finish 16th or better PASSED

Race Department Weekly Fun Series Stats
Starts: 2
Finishes: 1
Best Grid: 7th
Best Race: 10th
Podiums: 0
Wins: 0
Points: 1

ABS/TC/Auto Gears/Dynamic Racing Line/Penalties Realistic/Damage Full/Tire Sim/Fuel Sim


RaceDepartment Random Fun League-75% Shanghai

Team: Virgin
Participants: 10
Qualifying: P9 (moved up to P8)
Race: P5
Objective: Finish 10th or better PASSED 

Qualifying:
Run 1 Its wet so everyone is out on inters, knowing that the forecast for the race is clear. I go out mainly to find out what I need to do to the setup, since I haven't got any setups saved for the Virgin car. I get up to P3 before packing it in back to the garage. Run 2 I've made a few tweaks to help me get around better, and get back up to P3 with about 30sec left in the session. At session end I was still shown as P3, but then in the garage before race start my display says P9??? lol. I would get a lucky break when a player got dropped as we were being put on the grid, moving me up to P8. Its ok because I setup with dry in mind and I am pretty sure to have a much better pace in the race proper.

Race:

Lap 1 I was committed to the outside coming into the first turn, and ended up doing a bit of lawn mowing in the process of trying to avoid any collisions. But I maintained position and then, because I got a nice entry into that first apex, right where it tightens up, and a few guys got it wrong and went wide, I was able to sneak past for P7. Lap 3 Things got interesting when I came out of a corner to see a crashed McLaren spinning across the track in front of me. Fortunately I got past without getting tangled up in it...until, at the next corner, I see that my fellow Virgin (Marussia) driver Benny has overcooked it and gone off. I tried to go wide to give him space, but we get into contact. Technically that was an unsafe re-entry, as I was far too close. Mired in the gravel as I try to get back on track, I lose a position. Coming onto the back straight, neither benny or I have registered the yellow flag. He pulls over to give the position back to me (for spinning me) and...I get a drive through for ignoring the yellow flag, which ironically was out as a result of benny pulling off for me. Lap 4 I decide to go around another lap before serving my drive through, seeing that boothy, who had also passed benny under yellow, go into the pits in front of me to serve his drive through. I pull into the pits at the end of the lap and benny and Ry go past. For now boothy is out of the picture and the damage is nominal. Lap 6 I've caught up to benny and Ry duking it out for P5. Ry makes a mistake around turn 8, getting his wheels up over the curb and onto the grass, allowing me to dive inside going into turn 9 for the overtake. This was my personal favorite moment of the race. Lap 7 Chasing down benny. He goes wide in the hairpin at the end of the back straight, but I can't quite capitalize. Lap 8 I'm in DRS range coming out onto the back straight behind benny. Benny has also gone a bit wide exiting. I select fuel mix 3, open the DRS, and punch KERS. Safely past, and it sticks through the hairpin. Lap 9 While I was catching benny, boothy has been catching me. Nice battle between the three of us for P5-7. I make a mistake not covering the inside coming down the back straight and he gets the DRS pass on the inside. I thought it was more than a little unnecessary for him to make contact with me a shove me off the outside edge coming into the hairpin, especially when he owned the inside completely. Fortunately it didn't cause me to crash. Lap 12 I get my revenge when boothy's options have had it and he pits while I fly by on my still good to go primes! Lap 15 Defending against benny. Lap 18 More defending. Looks like benny has an off/spin. Either way he drops way back. Lap 19 Pit stop for options. Position held. Laps 23-25 benny is really catching up...and then he gets disconnected! I'm all alone in last place (P5). Everyone else is DNF or DSQ. Early pit stop for primes to go for the easy finish. I realize in reviewing the video that maybe I should have stuck with my prime-option-option strategy, as I was taking a a second or so off Dizz every lap. Who knows if I would have caught up but darn I could have tried and I just didn't notice the time I was making. Lap 41 finished the race +1 lap.

It really bummed me out that benny got disconnected as we were having a good go at each other all race. Same for boothy and Ry. With them gone I had no one left to race and it was a very lonely drive to the finish. I would really have liked to see how our strategies would have played out. As it was, I was very happy to bag P5 and 10 points. Washed the bitter taste of Monaco failure out of my mouth nicely.

RaceDepartment Random Fun League Stats
Starts: 1
Finishes: 1
Best Grid: P9
Best Race: P5
Podiums: 0
Wins: 0
Points: 10

ABS/TC/Auto Gears/Dynamic Racing Line/Penalties Realistic/Damage Full/Tire Sim/Fuel Sim

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Race Department Lifetime Club Stats
Starts: 3
Finishes: 2
Best Grid: P7
Best Race: P5
Podiums: 0
Wins: 0
Points: 11

Custom Halo Reach Spartan - Update #1

  

Left leg priming completed! I was in the mood to do some extra painting, so I also put the first coat on the shoulders and chest pieces. 

I'm ashamed that I haven't done much work on this in the time since my last post, but once again life has exploded in my face and I haven't had much time I could devote to this project. Hopefully more will get done now. Might take me a while, but this will get done. 

Click the 'Custom Halo Reach Spartan' link below to see more posts about this project, or 'Custom Figures' to view posts about all my custom figure projects.