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More a test of Vimeo than anything else, here is a lap at pace around Laguna Seca in the Advanced Solstice. Not a perfect lap by any means (in fact the line I use in the first three corners is quite different to the line I used in this video), but just a quarter of a second off my current PB.
1:48.264
iRacing Solstice @ Laguna Seca Hotlap from Samiad on Vimeo.
iRacing.com recently announced their agenda for events that will run during the 13th week (i.e. the one week that follows the conclusion of Season 3, and immediately precedes the start of Season 4).
As a recap, the details are as follows :
The official series – the 13th Week iRacing Legends Cup, featuring the Rookie Legends Car at South Boston and Lanier; and the 13th Week iRacing Solstice Challenge, featuring the Rookie Solstice at Summit Short Configuration and Lowe’s Infield Road Course – are essentially mini-championships in themselves. Safety Ratings and iRatings will be in effect. Points will be scored as they are during the regular season, but instead of race weeks, points will be averaged and finalized at the end of each day. Each day’s point total will count towards the 13th week championship. Divisions, meanwhile, will carry over from the regular season, so if your closest divisional rival beat you in the regular season, here’s the chance to get even!
The unofficial series will feature some of the latest additions to our car and track inventories. We’ll have The Rotary Roundabout, featuring the Formula Mazda at Richmond and Milwaukee and the Targa Transamerica, featuring the Radical SR8 at Sebring and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Generally, I am quite happy with these arrangements. I think there’ll be enough to keep me occupied for the entire week.
I’ll be passing on the rookie legends championship – there’s nothing there beyond a normal four week rookie series held over seven days. Might have been interesting if they had switched up the tracks just a little bit (e.g. why not use the legends oval layout at Lowes; everyone has the track).
I quite like the look of the rookie Solstice series – a chance to drive the car at two new layouts, and I don’t have to invest time to work on a setup either! Summit Point Short is very similar to the full layout, so not really that exciting, but the Lowe’s infield road course should be a really unique experience. There’s no easy overtaking points that I could see from a few laps there yesterday, and plenty of immovable barrels just off the track to destroy the car, so it should be a really hairy challenge. I think it might be an SR killer!
The only bad thing about running those series is that you have to complete a race every day to have a serious attempt at taking the title. It’s a large commitment and one I am not sure I will be able to do.
The other series also offer some interesting combinations. I would quite like to tackle the Mazda at an oval because I’m not sure when the next opportunity will arise (if ever!). The only problem is that I don’t own the ovals yet, so will need to pick up the tracks. I’d also need to find a decent setup too, as I don’t think I’ll have to time to build one of my own.
I would definitely like to sample the Radical too, both at Laguna Seca and Sebring. Sebring will be a challenge to master as I am not completely familiar with the track, but Laguna is an old friend at this point.
I’ll definitely capture a lot of fraps footage of the action when the week comes around!
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Week ten saw the series return to Lime Rock Park for the third and final time. I think this week will actually be the very last time I take a Solstice out at LRP. Not that I don’t like the Solstice (I love it!) but because I don’t get on very well with LRP. There’s something about this short track that requires full commitment and sheer bravery to lap at the very fast laptimes. So many corners are fast entry with very limited run off area, and this combination means that any mistake is usually going to result in a very fast accident, and usually a wall or hard object involved at some point! A 99% lap at LRP is worth almost nothing – I find I can lose a second easily, unless I’m at 100%, ragged edge driving.
I had considered not racing this week, but felt I should at least give it a cursory race, just for the sake of completion. I had a race of 92 points to beat to increase my season tally so far.
I did a few quali sessions to warm up and joined a sparsely populated race session. I was gridded #1 and saw two much faster drivers, so I was a bit dejected and saw the race as a poor opportunity to increase my season score. It wasn’t so bad though, as I started the race from third and managed to steal second place at turn one, thanks to second place running out of road and going cross country. The rest of the race was uneventful – the highlight being seeing the fast second place driver rejoin the order in third place with a handful of laps to go. I had to do some quick sums in my head to calculate how much of a threat he would be, and also what pace I needed to run to be safe. My laptime always goes south in the second half of a race at LRP (a result or tyre overheating, or wear, I don’t know) but it just about worked out OK and I took a comfortable second place result, with no incidents.
Race Results (iRacing members only!)
Race score 109 points, which coincidentally is now my lowest weekly result, so it now becomes the next benchmark to beat as we go to week eleven – back to Laguna Seca!