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Week 3 has the Advanced Solstice series at Laguna, and this is a track I know well. I spent a lot of time there last season in the rookie series so I’m really looking forward to going back with the advanced car and seeing how much faster I can go. I’ve also been spending a lot of time working with the setup changes allowed in this series and I’m really happy with how you can adjust the feel of the car to a particular driving style – very cool.
The start of week 3 also is the first time the racers get to find out which division they’ve been allocated to. Based on iRating, I have been put into 40-strong division 3, which I’m really pleased about. There are ten divisions all told, and the current allocation (which won’t change all season) means I am currently leading the standings with 261 points, with Chris Hannigan in 2nd with 227 points. This is the result of some fortunate victories in weeks one and two, where I capitalised on some strong strength-of-field races with wins and netted some high points (137 and 124 points respectively). I don’t anticipate being able to lead the standings all the way to the end but my division 3 goal is a top 3 placing, and a top 20 placing in the overall standings (i.e. all divisions).
I’m also going to have a fair go at the time trial championship too (currently third overall). Unfortunately there’s no way to compete in time trial divisions (at least, there’s no simple way to view the rankings). iRacing tend to push ttRating to the back seat compared to iRating and racing (which is fair enough, but at least allow people to participate in a meaningful time trial championship).
As of right now I’ve worked a little on my Laguna setup, and the car is handling nicely. I started off a baseline of my Lime Rock Park setup, with some adjusted tyre pressure and some revised camber settings to account for the demands of Laguna Seca. The car is handling fantastically, and I love driving it here. The setup is very neutral, with a sharp and responsive initial turn-in (the front end really bites in), no understeer mid-corner, and the car reacts to the throttle post-corner excellently, allowing the driver to rotate the car without the rear end breaking away. I don’t anticipate any further changes all week (message me if you want my setup).
Given that I have the setup down and it’s only Monday I expect to run a fair few races this week, and with time left over I might borrow a Skippy setup and run my first races with it (the series is as Summit Point this week).