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NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 7810
Joined: 08 Apr 2002, 9:45 am

Post 22 Aug 2020, 4:21 pm

Congratulations to Kevin for running a great race and Stephen for coming from the back to take 2nd.

Builds: This looked like a from-the-front track, apparently a common belief with all the 100 start speeds (and a 120!).

Bids: My bid was based on the slim hope of getting the pole, for which I had plotted out the race and leaving little room for error on resources. Ha! I did say slim hope. I considered Stephen's strategy of saving wear on the bid - it worked out pretty well for him.

Turn 3: A bad error. I assumed I would get stuffed in The Esses and went 60 instead of plotting 80 with the hope of clearing that nasty corner. I think if I had been running up with Kevin & Russ, I might have had a chance to win.

Turn 10: A bit early for a chance roll but I wanted to win the position battle. A spin would not have been catastrophic here so I went for it.

Turn 17: I considered doing what Stephen did and spend 3 wear. I guess I'm glad I didn't as Russ slow played the next corner to stuff Stephen. Most of you know how I feel about such moves and I am dismayed that its happening with more frequency.

Turn 25: Spending 4 wear on a position battle was probably the wrong move but the constant back & forth gets very frustrating. It did give me clean air for a while, though.

Turn 36: I had a 60 card down. Assuming Rando would plot 80, we could have hung Stephen in the corner. I changed my mind and dropped an 80, letting him through. I figured he would pass us anyway with his wear advantage and I also wouldn't have to roll a brake check. In hindsight, maybe I could have snagged 2nd if we'd stuffed him?

Overall: I think I ran a good race, but not a great one, and 3rd seems about right. The track can be run efficiently with moderate wear but if you're constantly battling for position, it eats up the tires. That makes running from behind a challenge, so kudos to Stephen & Rando for moving up into contention from the back of the grid. It was a difficult race and I'm happy to see Mont Tremblant in my rear view mirror.

The Field: This will be a tough season with four drivers sitting in the top ten of Doug's rankings. It wasn't all business, though, as we had some laughs and got along very well. No matter how I do in the races, it will be fun.

Note: With some newish drivers and a TTS server shutdown, we were really slow getting through this race. I expect we'll move much faster at Lime Rock.
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NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
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Joined: 08 Apr 2002, 9:45 am

Post 23 Aug 2020, 7:23 am

Posted on behalf of Renaud:

It was fun racing again last night despite the distractions!

Not too unhappy with my 5th place finish.

I noted two obvious mistakes on my part: once I miscounted the number of spaces, which let Kelly pass me (but then again I passed him for good later), and more importantly it was a clear mistake to pay my pole bid with wear instead of skill since I raced the last lap without wear left and ended the race with 7 skill. Now it's true that I could have used it to try and catch up to you guys who were in the lead, but I did not see the point of taking a chance when by playing it safe I could get 5th without being caught up by Russ, Kathryn or Kelly.
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NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
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Joined: 11 Apr 2014, 6:13 am

Post 23 Aug 2020, 6:55 pm

Turn 3 - Mike, I understand your disappointment with this move, but it makes sense to me. I look at the situation and think Russ should have plotted 80 and Kevin 60.

Furthermore, this track doesn't let three people race in the front. One person gets the line, and one person makes it through but gets bled hard out of wear. If you would have been with the front two, you would have paid out the nose until the Gulch and then gotten stuck for your effort.

I think sitting in third at that spot you need to just try to hold the line against the chase pack. A tough position, admittedly.

Turn 13 - Kevin is setting himself up here exactly like I did in our race, but he's doing it at the end of lap 1 when I did at the end of lap 2. It pays off in a couple more turns for him.

Turn 16 - Here's the move from Kevin. When you spend out the extra wear going around Namerow, it lines you up to make this move through both Esses. It's expensive, but it gains you a turn on your competition. I'd have to think Kevin was feeling pretty good about now.

Turn 18 - And then there's this one. I couldn't believe it when I saw it, I kept looking at the board to see if I missed something. This was a huge miss by Russ to keep the pressure on Kevin. I realize that his thought here was to jam up the chase pack, but even if someone cleared T6, they weren't getting through T7, so there was no need to do this. All it did was push Russ off line.

I have to think at this point Kevin thought he had won. He's now two full turns ahead of everyone else.

Turn 36 - I think if you stuff Stephen here, he runs Kevin's line, and winds up right behind Rando on Turn 40. Almost certainly beats you both, but has no shot at Kevin.

Overall - I think you're absolutely right about eating up tires. It loves to. I think the trick is not to let people push you into spending where you don't want to. There's really only a couple spots on the track where it really hurts to get stuffed, and honestly the worst one is the Gulch by far I think. Everywhere else leaves room for catch back up.

The other thing that's interesting is that you really don't have to spend that much wear on the track. With clean air, you can run a tight lap on 5 wear. Which again, just goes to show exactly how bad the fighting makes everything.

I would have liked to see an alternate history of this race where Rando doesn't lose his brakes. I'm sure he would too.
Indy Car Driver (Pro IV)
 
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Post 18 Sep 2020, 1:04 pm

Builds - Definitely a from-the-front track, or so it appeared in pre-race planning. The plan was to bid big and get the front row.

Bids - Once the builds were in, I had to rethink my planned bid. It appeared my planned large bid would be wasted given the number of 100+ start speeds. So I bid lower and hoped I could use extra wear to recover. (Side note: I don't usually run from the back, so this was a stretch for me, and a learning experience.)

Early on, I was just trying to get thru the field, without large wear expenditures. By turn 5, I was in the front of the chase group and had spent only 2w. By turn 9, Rando had done the same with minimal wear use and had lots of skill chips left (which he used well).

T12 was a reactive (and bad) move on my part. It's much easier to make rash decisions in a live race in my opinion. Clean air is very attractive, although this move, though technically successful, really did not accomplish the goal of clean air. (Probably due to Mike and Rando's influence.)

T18-20: Russ's move hurt both of us. Pretty much set Kevin free from a chase till the very end. Probably hurt me more, diminishing the value of the 3w move just before and directly causing a 2w move in T20. If this had been a more typical move, I believe I would have gotten by Russ and begun the chase of Kevin with wear to spare. Instead, Mike and Rando had opportunity to catch me and we continued our battle letting Kevin escape. Being a bad move for Russ also bore out, since he really wasn't much of a factor for the rest of the race.

T25 and T28: Mike and Rando make expensive/risky moves that pay off. I'm now running low on wear and decide I need to run my line and let them go, hoping that they will bleed each other dry.

T36: The slow hairpin allows me to catch back up to the two battling for 2nd. I reasoned that Mike would go 80 as opposed to a naked overbrake test to stuff me. If he had braked to 60 (slowplaying the line), then Rando would have had the speed and accel coming out of the corner so would have had inside position. With my wear, I was likely to get by eventually. Forfeiting 3rd (maybe) would have been a high price for Mike to pay to slow me down. As it was, Mike matched Rando's speed and kept the inside position.

T39: I anticipated Rando's naked chance in the Gulch. I planned to beat him there with a 120/late brake since I could spend 2w. I did not anticipate 3 rolls for Rando: Naked chance in Corner 10 at 120, naked late brake to 100, then another naked chance in the Gulch. Even my 120 was painful and cost me any chance of passing Kevin.

T43: Caught up to Kevin with no chance to pass. If I had been closer, Kevin would likely had made it much harder to catch up. As it was, I think he was pretty confident that he had it won.

Overall: Pleased with 2nd given the beginning and my mistakes. So much to learn in this game. I agree with Chris's comment that this track "can" eat tires, especially when you get pushed off your "line". It was fun and I look forward to more races.
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NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
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Post 18 Sep 2020, 1:44 pm

srpray wrote:T36: The slow hairpin allows me to catch back up to the two battling for 2nd. I reasoned that Mike would go 80 as opposed to a naked overbrake test to stuff me. If he had braked to 60 (slowplaying the line), then Rando would have had the speed and accel coming out of the corner so would have had inside position. With my wear, I was likely to get by eventually. Forfeiting 3rd (maybe) would have been a high price for Mike to pay to slow me down. As it was, Mike matched Rando's speed and kept the inside position.

A point on the bolded section (mine): This could be a definition issue but I interpret 'slowplaying' a corner to mean going under the speed limit. That was a 40 corner with a line allowing for 60, thus I would have been at the speed limit. It doesn't change your analytics of the situation but I can't miss a chance to loudly proclaim that I am very much against driving into corners below the speed limit for the purposes of stuffing other cars. :tsk: You will never see me do it. However, I am very much in favor of stuffing other cars at the speed limit. :yes:

Excellent write-up, Stephen!
Indy Car Driver (Pro IV)
 
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Post 20 Sep 2020, 6:46 pm

Of course you are right Mike. I misread the numbers and completely ignored the clear speed limit sign. Maybe I should write my comments sooner after the race so I remember better.

I think I also just remembered thinking so strongly that you would go 80 that I equated it (incorrectly) with a slow-play move. Sorry for saying that, since I clearly know your opinion.