Archive for the ‘Star Mazda’ Category

“You Shall Not Pass!”

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Just had a pretty entertaining battle with a driver in the Star Mazda at Laguna Seca (during the Intel GP series that is running during week 13).

I caught up to him swiftly during a practice session and set about trying to pressure a pass, or to try and force a mistake. Taking advantage of it being a practice session, I drove more aggressively than I would during a race. It was a lot of fun setting up runs (faking moves right then diving to the left) but I was quite surprised by some of the dubious defending I saw. His repertoire included :

  • Weaving to break the tow
  • Blocking/multiple lane changes (I go inside, he blocks the inside, I move outside, he blocks outside)
  • Chopping me off when I have pulled level on the inside (spotter had called out)
  • Finally colliding with me when I had the inside line

Now with it being an open practice session I didn’t mind the manner of the driving as I had fun attempting the moves but after the collision he actually started insulting me! Now I realise I was driving somewhat aggressively but the only reason I was driving in that manner was purely down to the extent of the blocking – I was having a fun battle (also, I would not try a pass at turn 6 in a race!).

Had it been an official race I would almost certainly have protested any one of a number on his moves, (e.g. the clear blocking, to name but one).

Am I wrong? Was the defending acceptable? Feel free to post your thoughts in the YouTube clip.

Week 12 – Mazda “Race Of The Week”

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Star Mazda Race Results

Sebring

Following the recent announcement that there was going to be an official “Race Of The Week” event last night in the Mazda I was really looking forward to the race. Last weeks ROTW had 99 entrants, and was a really anticipated event.

Last nights ROTW, featuring the Mazda at Sebring, was something of an anti-climax all told. We didn’t break 40 entrants, so had just two grids. Nonetheless I had an exciting race and was glad I made the effort. It was a busy race with 19 racers, and my qualifying time put me 10th on the grid.

As the video below shows, lap one was a blast. I narrowly missed a pretty big pileup behind me, and had a very determined overtake at the hairpin. The rest of the race was pretty intense as I’d be driving at full effort, watching the interval to some much faster cars behind me and watch as they took huge chunks out of my lead, only to spin and fall back further away. The last few laps were very busy as I really had to work hard to hold onto 6th place…. I had a faster car behind and was not planning on defending 6th with my life (I would be happy with 7th) but luckily he ran out of laps to get by me.

A good result then, 147 points for a 6th place and a fitting end to my Mazda season.

Week 11 – Epic Race Splitting at Sebring!

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Had a very cool night last night. At short notice iRacing planned an ‘insiders night’ that involved a short Q&A session with one of the founding members of iRacing, Dave Kaemmer. It was an interesting night with some little snippets of information on future features such as the looming private league support and general service improvements. John Henry held an impromptu Q&A in a separate chat area which also revealed some interesting comments, such as confirmation that iRacing have had a dialogue with the FIA about a partnership but nothing imminent to come there (a bit of a non-story but interesting nontheless).

To cap off the night we were told iRacing staff would join the 01:15 Skip Barber race at Sebring International, and anticipation was very high for an epic set of races!

Skip Barber Race Results

Sebring

A total of 99 racers joined the race session (the highest I’ve been part of) and it looks like we spawned 8 packed grids. Ian Berwick, Tim Wheatley, Randy Cassidy, Dave Kaemmer and Divina Galica (all iRacing staff) all joined in on the action, although unfortunately my split had no staff participation.

The race itself was pretty good – it was a high SOF (3656) and I was rated 9th of 13 so I was just looking for a solid and consistent race. Sebring is challenging to drive in the Skippy as weight transfer is really hard to keep on top of, especially in the first and last corners of the lap. In the end I had a safe, if slightly forgettable drive to 6th place and 133 points.

Here are the results of all 8 race splits (clickable if you are an iRacing member…) :

SOF = 3656

SOF = 2708

SOF = 1946

SOF = 1542

SOF = 1436

SOF = 1317

SOF = 1302

SOF = 902