i had a nice big fat breakfast before going to the track on saturday....because i knew i end up getting too tired from driving to eat properly at the track. what a big mistake that was :\ i dont know if it was nerves or what, i dont think so lol, i just ended up getting sick and thought i was gonna chunder any second. i managed to hold it down until the 1st session.
so everyone was there in full force....19cars. i was gonna be in the top20 woohoo :P people were so revved up to go....dean was keen (hey that rhymes), but u could see he was very nervous....courtney wasnt even there yet; he only arrived after the session and turned out they got lost :/ ok anyway, so it was time to go out and i just wanted to get a feel for the car again, warm up everything and get set to push like hell in the following sessions.....it went ok. cold tyres seemed interesting, sliding a lot and the brakes very cold....already started to dread the 1st lap of the race to come :D i was just revising that heel-toe stuff, and wasnt pushing. i still had nobody timing me so i had no clue what laptimes i am doing on this track.....dean had a new set of tyres on, as like everyone else i think. he reckoned they were a bit slippy, but when heat got into them he still wasnt sure if they felt faster than old tyres. thats good news!! :)
2nd session....mmmm i cant rem much of it, so it mustve been pretty uneventful. i think i was just pushing pushing as usual, and getting 2nd gear now much better....i still noticed i was getting destroyed by others into the big braking zones...ppl just cruised past me. was time to consult others abt it lol...my teammie courtney was now at the track, and he bedded his new set of tyres in.....weird, he instantly gained 0.7sec compared to the old set he was using last week (which were now on my car for this weekend)....hmmm, not so good news. dean also went around half a sec quicker, and he was happy with the grip levels of the new tyres....seeing as i cant afford a new set rite now its out of my hands...
after sitting around and discussing with ppl, it appears i was braking at least a good 50-100metres earlier than every1 :/ good grief. i sorta figured out the issue....my feet are a bit long, so the top was pushing against the steering column as i braked...so i thought i was getting full pressure when i actually wasnt. going out into the 3rd and final session before quali, it was official. i got meself a transponder so now i would know how slow i was really going eehehhe...i started getting the braking much better, now that i tilted my foot before braking....wow a whole new ballgame. the entire car was shuddering under brakes. tyres bouncing a little i guess, its just the moment before locking up (or so i've heard from the comments in the pits). i could not see a fucking thing!! i'm sitting on the floor and fuel tank (coz with a seat i dont fit in the car), so its direct feedback. my helmet just got thundered around, and i couldnt see if i was stopping faster. required some practise....i was now getting the infield section right i thought, these set of esses were real tight but i was taking them flat out everytime...seems i gained some tenths on ppl there. i found sum1 to latch on again, was chasing down bradley martin, who had been out of racing for a while so we were sorta in the same boat in that session....was fun. still missed some gears which frustrated the hell outa me but was good. came outa the session to check laptimes, and turns out i did 1m18.9....leaders were 16.4 at that point, dean was on 17.6 and courtney 18.4.....so it didnt look too bad. i felt if i got a good lap in, i could get 1m18.5....so was hoping for that in qualifying.
Qualifying
damn. every1 was lined up ready to go. i was told to stick in a pack in quali, coz slipstream makes a big difference, and u have incentive by chasing...everyone stormed off and i was still trying to start my car :P the starter motor wasnt catching, after a while i got it but was too late....i figured wat the hell, i wasnt gonna wait for them to come back past again, i'd just try get any decent lap in. it turns out i started using quali like a practise session. while i was driving i just felt i still needed to try new things....so i was using different gears in corners, different lines...i did get a decent lap in, i thought it was 18.5 but when i came in it turned out to be 18.9...pole was 16.0....dean ended up on 17.5 (p7)...courtney had some problems with his car, only got 2laps in but got 18.6 (p13)....so i was pretty disappointed, as i knew it wasnt my full potential at that time. i was sitting p16 on the grid of 19cars....p10 was 1m18.3, so it was a very tight group....if i got 18.5 i wouldve been very happy, but hey its only qual so watever. it was a DAMN long day and was time to go home and rest.
Warmup
sunday is here. came to the track and was feeling relaxed. i think being far back on the grid, there wasnt much expectation so didnt end up getting nervous. was gonna be a backmarker for the day!! but those that know me will know that i just cant accept being slow - in a freakn computer game tho. i was always trying to figure out where i was losing time...thinking of changing things with the car setup, but i couldnt be sure of how sensitive the changes would be, or if they would be correct at all. i wasnt even sure if i was pushing the car to its limits, nothing was certain. following drivers in the practise sessions, it seemed i was hanging onto them in the infield and oval just fine...maybe those guys i was following were just cruising back to the pits.....or was it only the brakes. but +3sec on brakes alone? didnt seem so, i was confused. losing time on braking is a pretty SHIT place to lose time. especially when u losing lots of it. on downshifts i was revving to just over 7000rpm, which was what others were doing, so cant be that....*shrug* i just accepted that i was slow :/ which was sad lol....
went out into the session, and the car was ALL OVER the place. it rained last nite so maybe there wasnt much grip. i didnt have ANY confidence going into the scary corners, coz those had now become disaster areas, push too hard and was definitely gonna crash....i came in and asked dean - dean nel, not driver dean....ok from now its big dean and little dean lol - yeh so i asked big dean wat the hell, i had no grip :/ he laughed and pointed to my tyres. wat the fuck. surely they cant be that bad...it was depressing when i looked at the timesheets. everyone had gone faster. fastest lap was now 15.9, little dean was on 17.3...courtney 18.3, and i drove a rocking 1m19.7...with my 2nd fastest lap a 20.5. OH DEAR. things were rapidly declining, and i didnt know WTF. so i conveyed my WTF sentiments to big dean, yet again, and he says he changed my rear camber. oh thanks for the update dude!!! :P he took camber off, coz i told him i was having bad understeer, so that change would take away understeer. well, it certainly did. undriveable with my tyres i think or the rest of the setup of my car...told him to put more camber, but not as much as i've had previously....we'll see what happens. i was unsure of how the car was gonna handle, didnt wanna change anything else on setup coz i didnt know what would happen, wasnt getting the gears perfect everytime, still felt i wasnt on limit consistently, was now slow enuff to be dead last, and the only remaining sessions were the heats :/
nice situation, zaahir, very nice.
2nd session....mmmm i cant rem much of it, so it mustve been pretty uneventful. i think i was just pushing pushing as usual, and getting 2nd gear now much better....i still noticed i was getting destroyed by others into the big braking zones...ppl just cruised past me. was time to consult others abt it lol...my teammie courtney was now at the track, and he bedded his new set of tyres in.....weird, he instantly gained 0.7sec compared to the old set he was using last week (which were now on my car for this weekend)....hmmm, not so good news. dean also went around half a sec quicker, and he was happy with the grip levels of the new tyres....seeing as i cant afford a new set rite now its out of my hands...
after sitting around and discussing with ppl, it appears i was braking at least a good 50-100metres earlier than every1 :/ good grief. i sorta figured out the issue....my feet are a bit long, so the top was pushing against the steering column as i braked...so i thought i was getting full pressure when i actually wasnt. going out into the 3rd and final session before quali, it was official. i got meself a transponder so now i would know how slow i was really going eehehhe...i started getting the braking much better, now that i tilted my foot before braking....wow a whole new ballgame. the entire car was shuddering under brakes. tyres bouncing a little i guess, its just the moment before locking up (or so i've heard from the comments in the pits). i could not see a fucking thing!! i'm sitting on the floor and fuel tank (coz with a seat i dont fit in the car), so its direct feedback. my helmet just got thundered around, and i couldnt see if i was stopping faster. required some practise....i was now getting the infield section right i thought, these set of esses were real tight but i was taking them flat out everytime...seems i gained some tenths on ppl there. i found sum1 to latch on again, was chasing down bradley martin, who had been out of racing for a while so we were sorta in the same boat in that session....was fun. still missed some gears which frustrated the hell outa me but was good. came outa the session to check laptimes, and turns out i did 1m18.9....leaders were 16.4 at that point, dean was on 17.6 and courtney 18.4.....so it didnt look too bad. i felt if i got a good lap in, i could get 1m18.5....so was hoping for that in qualifying.Qualifying
damn. every1 was lined up ready to go. i was told to stick in a pack in quali, coz slipstream makes a big difference, and u have incentive by chasing...everyone stormed off and i was still trying to start my car :P the starter motor wasnt catching, after a while i got it but was too late....i figured wat the hell, i wasnt gonna wait for them to come back past again, i'd just try get any decent lap in. it turns out i started using quali like a practise session. while i was driving i just felt i still needed to try new things....so i was using different gears in corners, different lines...i did get a decent lap in, i thought it was 18.5 but when i came in it turned out to be 18.9...pole was 16.0....dean ended up on 17.5 (p7)...courtney had some problems with his car, only got 2laps in but got 18.6 (p13)....so i was pretty disappointed, as i knew it wasnt my full potential at that time. i was sitting p16 on the grid of 19cars....p10 was 1m18.3, so it was a very tight group....if i got 18.5 i wouldve been very happy, but hey its only qual so watever. it was a DAMN long day and was time to go home and rest.
Warmup
sunday is here. came to the track and was feeling relaxed. i think being far back on the grid, there wasnt much expectation so didnt end up getting nervous. was gonna be a backmarker for the day!! but those that know me will know that i just cant accept being slow - in a freakn computer game tho. i was always trying to figure out where i was losing time...thinking of changing things with the car setup, but i couldnt be sure of how sensitive the changes would be, or if they would be correct at all. i wasnt even sure if i was pushing the car to its limits, nothing was certain. following drivers in the practise sessions, it seemed i was hanging onto them in the infield and oval just fine...maybe those guys i was following were just cruising back to the pits.....or was it only the brakes. but +3sec on brakes alone? didnt seem so, i was confused. losing time on braking is a pretty SHIT place to lose time. especially when u losing lots of it. on downshifts i was revving to just over 7000rpm, which was what others were doing, so cant be that....*shrug* i just accepted that i was slow :/ which was sad lol....
went out into the session, and the car was ALL OVER the place. it rained last nite so maybe there wasnt much grip. i didnt have ANY confidence going into the scary corners, coz those had now become disaster areas, push too hard and was definitely gonna crash....i came in and asked dean - dean nel, not driver dean....ok from now its big dean and little dean lol - yeh so i asked big dean wat the hell, i had no grip :/ he laughed and pointed to my tyres. wat the fuck. surely they cant be that bad...it was depressing when i looked at the timesheets. everyone had gone faster. fastest lap was now 15.9, little dean was on 17.3...courtney 18.3, and i drove a rocking 1m19.7...with my 2nd fastest lap a 20.5. OH DEAR. things were rapidly declining, and i didnt know WTF. so i conveyed my WTF sentiments to big dean, yet again, and he says he changed my rear camber. oh thanks for the update dude!!! :P he took camber off, coz i told him i was having bad understeer, so that change would take away understeer. well, it certainly did. undriveable with my tyres i think or the rest of the setup of my car...told him to put more camber, but not as much as i've had previously....we'll see what happens. i was unsure of how the car was gonna handle, didnt wanna change anything else on setup coz i didnt know what would happen, wasnt getting the gears perfect everytime, still felt i wasnt on limit consistently, was now slow enuff to be dead last, and the only remaining sessions were the heats :/nice situation, zaahir, very nice.
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