Race2 - Kyalami - [Part1 - Friday]

I slept nicely that Thursday evening. I felt I really got nicely focused for what to do, and seemed pretty calm going to the track. Just tried to keep focusing and to not get nervous. What did get me a little nervous was how wet the roads were...it had obviously rained early morning, and was drizzling a bit on the way there.....sure it’s fun and everything being on a wet track, but let me learn the track first :P Oh and the Johannesburg traffic pissed me off a bit :P I ended up getting to the track on time though! Can’t afford to miss a session when I only have 3...

Getting to the pits, it was nice seeing my baby again :) With new tyres and rear shock fixed, as well as new brake pads. But greeting big Dean wasn’t very nice....he told me I had a misfire, soooo that sucked. There was no time to fix it for 1st session, so I’d just have to go out and learn the track a bit and get everything warmed up anyway. Took a look at Courtney’s car which made me jealous :P He has a TOTAL REBUILD of the car. Basically everything was new. Everything. He had a freakn new car there hehehe....wouldn’t mind swapping…

Before heading into the 1st session, I wanted to find out from guys what gear to be in for which corner, what to watch out for, etc. But the session came too quick and had to go learn it myself. Anyway, big Dean told me to just chill out and bed in brakes and tyres, plus the track was pretty green from the rain, so there was no way I could push from the outset. The rFactor computer game on Kyalami was my only hope LOL....driving out on track made me smile....and made me a bit surprised too. Smiling ‘coz hell, I was driving on Kyalami for God’s sake....but surprised ‘coz the track seemed quite small and narrow....it’s quite big compared to Wesbank, but quite smaller than I’m used to with rFactor. Gradient changes seem a lot more noticeable as well, and there’s bumps in the rF Kyalami that just aren’t there on the real surface :P Quite odd....anyway I drove around with my foot on brake pedal occasionally, to just get the brake pads bedded in. The engine misfire was quite bad, so I had no power anywhere. But it felt good to drive around on the track, been waiting so long for this moment :) Attempted my notorious 2nd gear downshifting, and it was bad as usual hehehe. But it wasn’t grinding, 2nd gear was just difficult to select, felt very hard. Session was over pretty quickly, I think I only got 3 or 4 laps in....and they were useless laps, so nothing to learn really.

Second session went okay. I could start to push now, and try figure out the track...it was basically dry now. Misfire was sorted out inbetween sessions, so I had power again. I’ll try to briefly describe the differences of the real track to the rFactor one. There are some real scary corners on this circuit :/ and quite a few 2nd gear corners, so that sucks :P Anyway, the first 2 corners of the track are hella scary. There’s no way I’m trying taking that 2nd corner flat out (some other FVee driver said he was)....that thing is SO tight...and you are really travelling at quite a speed. Turn3 is real tricky too, I didn’t know whether to shift to 3rd gear before the initial kink, or cruise into there in 4th and downshift after that....either way, that corner is real scary, and damn tricky. Sunset corner (turn4) is so cool. I thought that would scare me, but it’s just so much fun. New tyres ROCK by the way, I have a lot less understeer! Can’t quite take sunset flat out, I tried once and the back-end started stepping out (scary). The Esses are pretty cool too...nice gradient changes, and you really throw the car into there. Wesbank hairpin is bloody weird :/ It’s nothing like the rF Kyalami, the line is quite odd and different, and seems so much narrower. My arms started to hurt going through here...getting 2nd gear for this corner is a bitch too, ‘coz I’m busy concentrating on getting 2nd, and the line and speed is so important, so that ends up getting messed. Was still struggling with engaging gear, the damn thing just wouldn’t go in....as for Mineshaft corner....the run down to there is quite a steep downhill!!! I was amazed, as you can’t really feel this in rFactor. Taking Mineshaft flat out is quite some concentration :P back-end always wants to step out, but you keep it going and stay sensitive to the steering wheel. On the brakes at the bottom of mineshaft isn’t very fun, car shudders quite badly – but not as bad as it was back at Wesbank Raceway. The chicane/kink thing is a bit of a joke. Being a 2nd gear corner, it sucked already...but it’s so small and stupid. It’s much flatter than what it is in the computer game, but the kerbs are high, so you can’t ride anything there. Going into the last corner there aren’t those bad bumps you get in the game either, it’s pretty smooth. The only noticeable bumps on the track are in the Esses....your arms really get mushed around when the feedback comes through the steering wheel!

I felt the session went okay. There were some corners which I still needed to learn fully, but it just felt great to push on such a circuit.....WOW :) Didn’t know laptimes yet, I am alone here at the track....so, no pictures or video either :( MAJOR bummer. Anyway, I didn’t need to know laptimes...when I’m on the limit then only I’d like to know where I’m losing time. Right now I know I’m losing time everywhere hehehe....fastest lap of the session was 1m58.3 I think by Peter Hills. I’ll see if I can get within 5 seconds of that?? The track is tricky, most corners are not straight forward...and I’d imagine there is so much time to gain in all of them. This is why to me 5 seconds is not a lot :( Hope I can learn more in the 3rd session.

And no, I didn’t :/ This session was pretty crap. I asked around for some tips with some of the tricky corners and gear changes....had some things to try out! Oh it appears I may have gearbox issues according to big Dean....would make sense why hooking 2nd gear is such a bitch. May have to rebuild the gearbox for next race, but nothing I can do now. Anyway, the 3rd session was a pain....I couldn’t get a clean lap in, always someone ahead of me, or slowing down, or some shit. I tried experimenting a bit with the corners I wasn’t sure of….but nothing seemed to work. I’m also still scared of that 2nd corner :P and a couple other places.

And just like that my practice was over. I really feel I need quite a few more laps to sort things out. This weekend is too short :( All that is left tomorrow is qualifying and the races!!!! I don’t even know what laptimes I’m doing, or totally comfy with the track. I’ll get some laptimes in qualifying tomorrow now that I have my transponder....but that’s a bit late isn’t it? :P The weekend is going too quickly, I hope I end up hooking things up and enjoying myself.....and I REALLY hope I’m not that slow. Even though the car feels real good, I feel I’m going to perform worse than at Wesbank....just need more practice.

We’ll see how it goes. Right now I need sleep :) And grow some balls. Being a pussy through some corners is just not on.