Anyone talk to Ed? Is he going to join us for this series?
I may be on a bit tonight. Need to do some longer stints to get used to the flow of a race instead of working on a few laps at a time.
Anyone talk to Ed? Is he going to join us for this series?
I may be on a bit tonight. Need to do some longer stints to get used to the flow of a race instead of working on a few laps at a time.
I have to figure this out. Got kicked twice. The last time right before the start. 
In reply to Argo1 :
Probably time to get off that AOL dial up.
Too bad you got dumped Argo. Hope your connection works out better on Wednesday.
I learned what I wanted to learn tonight. Hopefully I can get in another 30 minute race tomorrow to test the other strategy for comparison.
This track with this AI is pissing me off. I can not get one lap in with out getting dumped by them. I did learn that I can burn off either set of tires in less than 10 laps
tj. I think you need to check your room settings. I did some testing after I left that race and I had it at accelerated for tire ware and they were wearing much faster than in your room.
In reply to dean1484 :
I'll check next time I am on, but I'm pretty sure it was set to accelerated wear.
T.J. said:In reply to dean1484 :
I'll check next time I am on, but I'm pretty sure it was set to accelerated wear.
Driving style makes a big difference at this track. Driving at 8/10s doubles the life of both sets of tires, but puts you behind the AI.
I didn't have any issues with the AI driving in any of my tests, but we know that they hate Dean extra. T1 can be tricky, but if you are defensive around the fountain you can make the AI take to the grass.
I haven't had many AI issues other than struggling to find ways to pass them when they get ahead. They seem to be very slow for the fountain so be careful following one into that section.
Ended up running the whole race last night. One stop on reds. I was slow. Sauce did a one stop on blacks and won no problem. The AI makes two stops.
I think Sauce is right about my gearing.
Staying in 2nd gear for turn 6 results in my RPMs being way down into the 7k's. The only gain is that I don't have to shift to 3rd between T1-T2 or between T4-T5. It is slower, but it saves me four shifts a lap times 50 laps, so 200 less shifts over a 50 lap race. I think not having to shift is better for me to concentrate on braking and turn in for T5, so I am thinking I will keep things as they are even if that means giving up several tenths a lap. Hopefully the trade off is more consistent laps and just making the lap a little less frenetic.
In reply to dean1484 :
If I can make the time today I need to do some more laps on the black tires to see how close my lap times are to red tire lap times. Not sure yet if I will go blacks and 1 stopper or reds and a 2 stopper. I hadn't considered reds and a 1 stopper. I don't think I could keep the reds alive for 25 laps.
The additional stop (of a 2 stopper) will end up being maybe 45 seconds longer in the pits than the 1 stopper, but if the reds are 1 sec/lap faster, then that time gets made up over 50 laps. Seems like the two strategies end up having fairly similar overall times as long as you can make the red tires last 16-17 laps per stint.
The key for me will be to maintain my pace and not push too hard and overheat the tires. It all goes bad when I get the rear tires up to about 225F or so. I like them best below 220F.
FYI, Indycar allows fueling simultaneously as tire changes and tire change takes longer than adding fuel, so the time for a one stopper pitstop will be the same as the time for a 2 stopper pitstop. I was thinking that it would take longer to add 70L than it would to add 35L, but it doesn't since both happen faster than the tire change.
As a result, if committing to a 2 stopper there is no reason to start with a full tank. I doubt having a little less fuel will really make any noticeable difference, but it's something to think about.
Math is telling me that the 1 stopper on hards is the best strategy if you can stay within a ~1 second of your soft average laptime (ignoring any increased risk of spins). If the delta is ≥ 2 seconds, then 2 stopper on reds comes out ahead.
Of course, none of that really matters if you keep finding yourself in a wall or pointing the wrong direction.
T.J. said:Of course, none of that really matters if you keep finding yourself in a wall or pointing the wrong direction.
This is the hardest part about running the hard tires. They are MUCH less forgiving than the reds in terms of inputs and accuracy. If you brake a little late on the reds you just miss the apex, you do that on the hards and you're likely to clip the outside wall. They require a different driving style, and for me at least it's very difficult to go back and forth between the compounds.
I am thinking reds with two stops just so I can not worry about anything.
Oh and as the track rubbers in tire ware goes down so maybe start on blacks run to the halfway point then go reds. My 2nd stint on reds I had 12 l fuel left and maybe 1/3 of the tires left except for the RF that may have had about a quarter left and I ran my fastest lap in the 2nd stint. Where as the first stint I made it to halfway plus one lap and had 2+ l left
Another plan was to put a black tire on the left front and see how the car drives. Then there would be no issues with tires and if you got say 90 percent of the grip. Or just put blacks on the front and adjust the car as needed. The car would push but maybe it could be made to work with some tuning.
Oh
Brad can we just have practice be qualifying and skip the 10 min qualifying?
I'm super excited about having to be on-call tonight. We have a big executive presentation tomorrow and the on-site team is working on it still tonight. If they call, I'll have to retire and work. Yay! It's not like I haven't already put in 60 hours this week.
I'll probably go with the lowest common denominator for strategy tonight. I'll plan on 2 stops but try and extend each stint to do a 1 stopper.
I have no issues postponing things a week and just run practices
I have a bunch of potential things to test with this car.
Practice would be good. See if I fixed getting kicked. I relocated the entire rig.
I'm hoping we are on for tonight since I'm going to miss next week and would rather miss Laguna Seca than Long Beach, but if we push it wouldn't be the end of the world.
That was fun, but I messed up big time on my strategy. Planned for 2 stopper. Got cute with fuel and only started with 55 planning to pit at end of lap 17. Problem was I managed tire wear way better than I counted on and could've done a one stopper on the reds but didn't have enough fuel. Pitted at lap 20 (I think). Pitted the second time which I knew was going to coat me the win. Somehow I thought I'd end up with a couple laps margin on fuel, but with 11 mins to go the math said otherwise. Switched to lean, but it wasn't enough. Was down to 0.9L when I pitted on lap 50. Only had two big issues the whole race otherwise. Once I hit the share button on front straight and the left third of my screen was covered up and buttons didn't work. Didn't die at T1 but lost 3 seconds since I was in 5th gear and couldn't shift. Spun one time. Overall happy, but wish I would've started with a full tank to give myself the option to 1 stop.
Good race Sauce.
Aha. I thought that if me pit strategy was set to add 39L of fuel, it would add 38L of fuel, but it turns out it adds fuel until you get to 38L in the tank. I failed to notice this after my first stop, so I repeated the error on my 2nd stop. Now I know. That left me 5L short of what I planned on.
I was shooting for an average laptime of 1:09 and managed to average 1:10.3 excluding 1st lap and pit-in/pit out laps. If not for my 3 bad laps, I would've averaged 1:09.5.
This was the first race in a long time where I didn't run any full practice races. I only did two 30 minute races and didn't catch how the pit strategies work. That would've still put me in P2 since I didn't start with a full tank and thus was not able to switch to a one stopper strategy when it was clear my tire wear would allow for it. Lesson learned - I will make sure to prepare better for Road America.
My race strategy was not to crash will refreshing the application as I was driving down the front not-straight to see if it had completed. I got messed up when I had to pull over before the hairpin to send an IM. Ugh... work...
It's a shame because I was pretty good and consistent at LB. I actually found some time to practice, that helps.
Brad you were still faster than me. LOL.
My race was a train wreck.
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