31 May, 2005

"It puts hair on your chest!"

Yesterday I joined a pickup race at Monza, 'cause I was bored and that was the server with the most drivers. I moved the shifter knob to the left side and entered the server in the Beast From Bourne, I was ready to kick ass! And indeed did I kick ass, doing a 1:30.77 in qualifying I beat my old PB by half a second, and this was with a shifter knob as opposed to the paddles I used to use. The race was good fun, with various battles with various cars. Most fun was a pass I made on a Lotus into T1: I slipstreamed all the way from Parabolica, he took the inside for T1, I downshifted and slid around the outside of him :D

After that I had a nice chat with the aliens in VROC, before quitting and going to bed a happy camper.

29 May, 2005

WOSEC - Spa (Night)

[Saturday - 28th of May]

Track Map

After the disaster that was Silverstone, I had no intentions to start the race whatsoever. Besides, Spa is a very narrow track when in a Sauber C9 at night and I still haven't gotten the hang of close proximity racing in the Sauber. The start, or should I say starts, were a joke. The race had to be restarted at least 10 times due to The pacecar refusing to go up Eau Rouge, Pileups and cars going missing after the said events.

When the race eventually got going, my car got pushed off the track at Les Combes. No damage done and we continued, eventually settling into a 15th place after the first few laps. Everything went really smooth until not long after refueling/changing tyres, when the car suddenly went off on the exit of Stavelot. The car was too damaged to continue and we were forced to retire our car.

But there was still hope that the primary car could win, as it was leading by well over 40 seconds after the first driver change. But after a mere 3 laps the ignition died on the way to Blanchimont, also being forced to retire... The VTR2 car lasted until a while into the first driver's second stint, when his PC crashed causing him to crash hard into the wall and severely b0rking up the car. There you have it, all cars out of the race.

28 May, 2005

Now you, my screaming fans, can watch me race :P

Download NRTV and type in 195.20.109.80 in the IP adress field. I'll be in the VTR3 #86 car doing the 2nd stint and 4th & last stint, the race starts 12:30 BST / 13:30 CET.

25 May, 2005

It's here!

My beloved MOMO Racing arrived at the post office yesterday at 15:00, and I picked it up 2.5 hours after that (had to wait for dad to come home+have dinner). As soon as I got home I went straight to the PC, put it all together and fired up GPL. Now I knew that there'd be no Force Feedback, since GPL was made before the days of FF, but it still felt a bit wierd. It also felt rather strange in GTR, but after increasing the sensetivity a few clicks it was perfect (despite the lack of FF). I raced around Donington all the rest of the night, trying to "find my car" until it was almost 23:00 and I had to go to bed, boo-hoo.

Had a few practise laps at Spa to get a feel for the track/wheel, and I now know how it works to put it that way. I still need to work on consistency, so I'll devote most of tomorrow to that. I'll also be re-formatting the PC to try and fix a few problems I've been having (not a virus, but it's messed up my fonts) and see if the FF will also start working.

22 May, 2005

Can't wait! :D

Ordered the wheel last night, it should take 2-3 business days to ship so I'm eagerly awaiting Wednesday to come. As soon as I get it I'll have to:

*Test GTR which I bought on Saturday
*Test a new track (Panchine) released for GPL
*Practise for the WOSEC race at Spa on Saturday

The WOSEC race is during the nighttime, so I have also gotten a pair of Nightvision goggles for that little edge.

21 May, 2005

Still out of stock

I went down to the electronics shop today, and it still doesn't have any MOMO Racing wheels in stock. It's quite a sought after wheel, so I'm not the only one anxious to get one...

I did, however, get my hands on GTR. Something I have been looking into doing for quite some time now. I still have no idea when the wheel will be back in stock, so I might just order it online. The shipping has to be quick, as there is a WOSEC race next weekend...

19 May, 2005

OEGL here I come

I have submitted a request to join the Open European GPL League, which is a casual league ideal for the occasional race in the summer. Several other fellow racers from NGPLS will be participating as well, Espen Baklid among others. I think I'll chose the BRM despite it's reputation as "The Tank", because it is one of my favorite cars and it's a casual league so results won't matter.

I'm looking into buying a new wheel, as my old Logitech Wingman FGP has gone senile (see previous posts). I've got my eye on getting a Logitech MOMO Racing, I'm just looking for the best offer. There is a really cheap alternative but doesn't ship outside the UK, so I'll probably be walking out of a shop with it rather than down to the post office...

11 May, 2005

NGPLS - Watkins Glen

[Tuesday - 10th of May]

Track Map

I spent most of qualifying in vein trying to help someone get into the server, he was on his brother's PC with orders not to d/l anything. So he couldn't d/l the necissary programs to get into the server (long story short). My poor old veteran of a wheel (Logitech Wingman Formula GP) has gone senile, as you might already know after my dLeague race at Magny Cours. Both the wheel and throttle were spiking, plus pushing the brakes not even half way down would lock up the wheels. Because of this I filled up the car for 10 laps worth of fuel as I knew I wouldn't last 33 laps with the state of my wheel...

Needless to say I was way off pace. I started last, and the only reason it didn't stay that way was because of other people crashing. I miraculously avoided a massive crash at T1 on the next lap (or so) and stumbled on. Pitted brutally by smashing myself into a wall of hay (no time to lose, who needs those silly "brakes" thingies?) after a while and carried on, this is when the crappiness takes over. I get passed time and time again, and when I spin off in the loop after starting lap 16 I realised that this wasn't fun anymore. So I retired, sad but true.

08 May, 2005

Quote of the week

"We have all the bloody problems..." - Peter Gethin

I dropped out of the WOSEC race due to my brake pedal failing, for then the camshaft to go bust on lap 81 out of 298. Then the pedals stopped bloody working, after clening out the pedals for a ridiculous amount of crap (thanks dad, btw) they worked again. I got smashed and bashed and crashed in the VT Nurburgring race, my favorite track of them all, working my arse off for a non-point 8th position.

Then in dLeague I arrive late for the start, despite practising on the same server for several hours before the race. Problems start brewing near the end (read report for more detail) and now my accelerator pedal is spiking and my brakes are so good I only have to push them halfway down before my wheels lock up.

I'm hoping to be able to reformat my computer tomorrow, since I've also been having a ridiculous problem with fonts not showing up. If not I might miss the last race of the NGPLS season at Watkins Glen on Tuesday, and that might just make me blow up due to severe stress and frustration.

Rant over.

06 May, 2005

dLeague - Magny Cours

[Thursday - 5th of May]

Track Map

I had to reboot, due to me not being able to get into the server, and once I made it in the race had already started. Luckily I got to start from the pits (1 lap down) so I set off into 62 laps of pure mental and physical fatigue. Had a spin once every 10 laps or so, and got a black flag for spinning while cutting a corner, there is no tjustice in this world... A few cars fell out of the race and I eventally found myself all the way up in 7th place from 12th. But those bloody brakes started fading (despite my recent cleaning of them), so I pitted and recalibrated the wheel. Re-entered and everything was fine until around 5 laps left, when the wheel would spike to the left into the quick right-handers. The throttle also hung wide open into the last corner, causing some damage to the nose. Spun while cutting a chicaine with 1.5 laps to go, and just went for the finish. Punishing me for that would be like rewarding Tony Blair for accidentally killing Derek Bell.
The Finish

Vader Trophy - Nürburgring

[Wednesday - 4th of May]

Track Map

I took Turn 1 niiiiiice and sloooooow. A bit too nice and definately a bit too slow for the dude who sent me flying in T3 (cheers, m8 :)). After waiting for everyone to pass I could embark on an übercrappy first lap, including the out-taking of a ridiculousy slow Lotus just before Kesselchen.

I saw a loose wheel passing "The Tree" on the nest lap, so I knew I was catching someone. I almost avoided a Ferrari/Eagle crash in the hedges (The wheel probably belonged to one of them), I only grazed the hedge so I continueed unharmed. No lift at Tiergarten, and a new lap. Unfortunately I El Crappified the triple left after Breischeid and smashed my poor Cooper against the wall, luckily I managed to stop the car and reset before anyone came and stole my position. No lift at Tiergarten this time either.

Around 30 seconds up to Stuart Knibbs so I pushed. But I had a lazy little spin just after the Karussell and the gap was up to around 50. Blitzed the next lap and the gap was down to 27, blitzed again but never got Stu within eyesight (although I heard him into T1 and Karussell on the last two laps).

All in all, a pretty lonely race with not too much going on after Lap 2.
The Finish

Test post

Here comes a test post, I hope this works. Laa-dee-daa.
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