TMLW's V8 Supercars 3 Touring Car career

[CarlosFerreira]

I know about the accelerator-meter (as I call it), and as soon as it shows my car, I'm trying to find the amount of accelerator to use. Problem is, I do it so early that the engine is already redlining by the time the lights go out. And believe me, I've tried waiting a bit, but that usually results in my being left behind. The one good start I've ever had in a front-driver only happened because I lifted slightly just before the start. In other words, massive fluke.

Use the practice sessions. Start, stop, repeat. Try to hold the revs at a certain level, instead of going all out, just as you do out of the corners. Most of the success in the game depends on this throttle modulation.

[the Masked Lapwing]

I know about the accelerator-meter (as I call it), and as soon as it shows my car, I'm trying to find the amount of accelerator to use. Problem is, I do it so early that the engine is already redlining by the time the lights go out. And believe me, I've tried waiting a bit, but that usually results in my being left behind. The one good start I've ever had in a front-driver only happened because I lifted slightly just before the start. In other words, massive fluke.

Use the practice sessions. Start, stop, repeat. Try to hold the revs at a certain level, instead of going all out, just as you do out of the corners. Most of the success in the game depends on this throttle modulation.

Hold the handbrake then hold the revs, then release handbrake, right?

[CarlosFerreira]

I know about the accelerator-meter (as I call it), and as soon as it shows my car, I'm trying to find the amount of accelerator to use. Problem is, I do it so early that the engine is already redlining by the time the lights go out. And believe me, I've tried waiting a bit, but that usually results in my being left behind. The one good start I've ever had in a front-driver only happened because I lifted slightly just before the start. In other words, massive fluke.

Use the practice sessions. Start, stop, repeat. Try to hold the revs at a certain level, instead of going all out, just as you do out of the corners. Most of the success in the game depends on this throttle modulation.

Hold the handbrake then hold the revs, then release handbrake, right?

You can do that, but you can also just stop the car on a straight, get it in neutral, than pop in 1st gear. Wait, do you use auto gearbox?

[the Masked Lapwing]

Use the practice sessions. Start, stop, repeat. Try to hold the revs at a certain level, instead of going all out, just as you do out of the corners. Most of the success in the game depends on this throttle modulation.

Hold the handbrake then hold the revs, then release handbrake, right?

You can do that, but you can also just stop the car on a straight, get it in neutral, than pop in 1st gear. Wait, do you use auto gearbox?

Auto, of course, I just can't get the hang of shifting with the analogue control.

[CarlosFerreira]

Hold the handbrake then hold the revs, then release handbrake, right?

You can do that, but you can also just stop the car on a straight, get it in neutral, than pop in 1st gear. Wait, do you use auto gearbox?

Auto, of course, I just can't get the hang of shifting with the analogue control.

R2 to shift up, L2 to shift down. How hard can it be?

[the Masked Lapwing]

You can do that, but you can also just stop the car on a straight, get it in neutral, than pop in 1st gear. Wait, do you use auto gearbox?

Auto, of course, I just can't get the hang of shifting with the analogue control.

R2 to shift up, L2 to shift down. How hard can it be?

Surprisingly, since I pay all my attention to braking, turning and not being overtaken. Besides, I modified the controls ages ago, and now R2 is the look back button, while L2 is the change view button. I can't remeber which buttons are the shifters anymore.

[the Masked Lapwing]

Norisring
After a 4 day vacation in a remote, internet-less area of his native Australia, Frank Zimmer arrived in Germany refreshed, and was prepared with a way of getting better at his starts, after receiving a tip shortly before he disappeared.

Qualifying:
After spending practice trying to fix his starts (and pretty much causing his engine to explode), he went into qualifying with a goal to not bugger his lap up. Somewhat surprisingly, his best lap came while he was in traffic (might have had something to do with my copying of whatever they did), and his 0:56.33 was good enough for pole. Again. His teammate, Andreas Schröder, was second, behind by 9 tenths.
1st: F. Zimmer (JLD): 0:56.33
2nd: A. Schröder (JLD): +0.90
3rd: F. Aristi (Eskardio): +0.97
4th: J. Cunningham (Colex): +0.99
5th: M. Bacon (Solar): +1.20
6th: M. Stern (Rosenforth): +1.35
7th: C. Tyler (JT Racing): +1.54
8th: R. Meadows (JT Racing): +1.70
9th: J. Cook (H&K): +1.71
10th: D. Cobb (Dynamo): +1.74
11th: S. Motoya (YK Sport): +1.81
12th: L. Vanrue (Dynamo): +2.08
13th: M. Brent (Rosenforth): +2.13
14th: M. Tapper (Solar): +2.15
15th: M. Smith (H&K): +2.41
16th: M. Cooper (Colex): +2.54
17th: B. Tallbot (Eskardio): +2.66
18th: H. Seargent (Fosse): +3.02
19th: P. Ransford (Fosse): +3.15
20th: L. Wong (YK Sport): +3.32

Race:
Can I just say that any ideas that anyone has to improve my starts would be appreciated, because Carlos, yours didn’t work. At all. I probably did it wrong, because I had it at about 6000 rpm, but I got annihilated. So, yeah. Zimmer was 4th(!) going into the hairpin, but the usual late braking thing got him back to first. Behind him, Schröder and Cunningham fought (with much damage) for 2nd, with Stern, Aristi and Meadows trading punches behind them. By the end of the first lap, despite his useless start, Zimmer had a similar lead to the one he had after the first lap at Oschesleben. Schröder won out against Cunningham, while a mistake at the final corner saw Stern tumble to 8th. Then, Zimmer did his usual thing of doing a couple of fast laps, starting with an effort on lap 2 that was faster than his qualifying run, despite a massive slide at the first corner. However, there was one thing that stopped this race being ridiculously uneventful – whilst fighting for 19th place, Matt Brent and Peter Ransford came together at the first corner on lap 5, and Ransford went wide, straight into the wall! He managed to limp back to the pits, but at a pace that was so slow, the yellow flags were out for 3 of Zimmer’s laps. (There is no safety car in this game, so you can go as fast as you want, you just can’t overtake.) When he did eventually get to the pits, he never emerged, and retired from the race. Brent also sustained heavy damage, but made it to the pits much faster, and got back out again, but he became the first driver to ever be lapped by Zimmer. (Yay!) In the end though, the race was still very boring, and Zimmer took yet another easy win, and led JLD Motorsport to a 1-2.
1st: F. Zimmer (JLD): 9 min 39.85 sec
2nd: A. Schröder (JLD): +14.10
3rd: J. Cunningham (Colex): +16.23
4th: M. Stern (Rosenforth): +18.26
5th: F. Aristi (Eskardio): +29.24
6th: J. Cook (H&K): +30.27
7th: C. Tyler (JT Racing): +31.09
8th: M. Bacon (Solar): +31.40
9th: R. Meadows (JT Racing): +31.60
10th: D. Cobb (Dynamo): +33.20
11th: L. Vanrue (Dynamo): +33.61
12th: L. Wong (YK Sport): +34.35
13th: S. Motoya (YK Sport): +34.87
14th: M. Cooper (Colex): +36.14
15th: B. Tallbot (Eskardio): +38.01
16th: M. Smith (H&K): +39.88
17th: M. Tapper (Solar): +40.71
18th: H. Seargent (Fosse): +42.09
19th: M. Brent (Rosenforth): +1 LAP
DNF: P. Ransford (L5)
Fastest Lap: F. Zimmer (0:56.06)

Drivers’ Championship:
1st: F. Zimmer (48)
2nd: J. Cunningham (36)
3rd: A. Schröder (32)
4th: M. Brent (28)
= 5th: J. Cook (20)
= 5th: S. Motoya (20)
7th: M. Bacon (14)
8th: F. Aristi (12)
9th: C. Tyler (8)
= 10th: R. Meadows (6)
= 10th: D. Cobb (6)
= 10th: B. Tallbot (6)

Teams’ Championship:
1st: JLD Motorsport (80)
2nd: Team Colex (36)
3rd: Rosenforth Engineering (28)
= 4th: H&K Racing (20)
= 4th: Yazuru Kopi Sport (20)
6th: Eskardio Racing Team (18)
= 7th: Jim Taylor Racing (14)
= 7th: Team Solar (14)
9th: Dynamo Motor Sports (6)
10th: Fosse Racing (0)

Another race down and Zimmer has a good lead in the drivers’ championship, while JLD has a massive lead in the teams’ championship. The next race is at Zandvoort, and hopefully Zimmer can continue his winning ways.

[the Masked Lapwing]

Zandvoort
Qualifying:
A fairly basic (and boring) qualifying saw Zimmer take yet another easy pole.
1st: F. Zimmer (JLD): 1:03.12
2nd: L. Wong (YK Sport): +0.91
3rd: M. Tapper (Solar): +1.09
4th: C. Tyler (JT Racing): +1.10
5th: D. Cobb (Dynamo): +1.26
6th: J. Cunningham (Colex): +1.46
7th: M. Bacon (Solar): +1.70
8th: R. Meadows (JT Racing): +1.71
9th: B. Tallbot (Eskardio): +1.85
10th: F. Aristi (Eskardio): +1.86
11th: S. Motoya (YK Sport): +1.92
12th: M. Smith (H&K): +2.18
13th: M.Cooper (Colex): +2.23
14th: A. Schröder (JLD): +2.45
15th: H. Seargent (Fosse): +2.52
16th: P. Ransford (Fosse): +2.59
17th: M. Brent (Rosenforth): +3.14
18th: M. Stern (Rosenforth): +3.38
19th: L. Vanrue (Dynamo): +3.53
20th: J. Cook (H&K): +3.73

Race:
For his start, Zimmer would go back to his regular technique (patent pending). And, it worked just as well here as it did at Oschersleben. He led into the first corner, and led coming out, as behind him, Merv Tapper and Lei Wong fought for second. With a bit of pushing, Tapper won, while Wong was demoted to 4th, as a quick Danny Cobb capitalised. Further back, Bryan Tallbot was up to 5th from 9th, with Charlie Tyler 6th, and Fernando Aristi 7th. John Cunningham, running second in the championship, dropped to 8th, ahead of Mitch Bacon and Ross meadows. Zimmer’s teammate, Andreas Schröder, had lost one spot, and was in 15th. As they crossed the line, it seemed that this would not be cakewalk for Zimmer, as Tapper had a quick car, and was almost right on the wing of Zimmer. That didn’t last, as Zimmer drove like he was trying to overtake, and started to break away. After lap 2, the top 10 remained the same, and so did the bottom order, except for Schröder, who was up to 12th, and looking to break into the 10. At the first corner on lap 3, while trying to make some ground to Zimmer, Tapper ran off into the beach, falling back to 10th, and separating the race into 2 groups – Zimmer (1st) to Meadows (9th) and then Tapper (10th) to Lee Vanrue (20th). Like Tapper, the now-second Cobb had a fast car, and closed the gap to Zimmer almost immediately, only to fall away again. At the same time, Tapper again ran off, allowing Schröder, Shigeru Motoya and Mat Cooper through. Schröder now led the second group, and was trying to find a way to break away, while ahead of him, Meadows struggled to keep up with the leaders. As the race wore on, Zimmer continued to build his lead, and the groups both slowly started to break up, making gaining position very difficult. By lap 8, the race looked like staying in the same order until the end, except for Tapper, who was still losing position. Indeed, the lap 7 order was almost exactly the same as the lap 9 order. And then Zimmer, hmm, what’s the best word for it, ah yes, CHOKED!!! about halfway around the last lap, oversteering massively before spinning and hitting the wall. He managed to recover, and still went on to win the race, but by a somewhat diminished margin.
1st: F. Zimmer (JLD): 10 min 55.57 sec
2nd: D. Cobb (Dynamo): +3.35
3rd: L. Wong (YK Sport): +5.67
4th: B. Tallbot (Eskardio): +6.71
5th: C. Tyler (JT Racing): +7.64
6th: F. Aristi (Eskardio): +10.75
7th: J. Cunningham (Colex): +12.69
8th: M. Bacon (Solar): +14.17
9th: R. Meadows (JT Racing): +21.37
10th: A. Schröder (JLD): +24.93
11th: S. Motoya (YK Sport): +28.81
12th: M. Cooper (Colex): +30.36
13th: M. Stern (Rosenforth): +30.38
14th: J. Cook (H&K): +31.08
15th: L. Vanrue (Dynamo): +33.34
16th: M. Tapper (Solar): +34.00
17th: H. Seargent (Fosse): +35.17
18th: M. Smith (H&K): +35.17 (Not a typo)
19th: P. Ransford (Fosse): +38.40
20th: M. Brent (Rosenforth): +38.70
Fastest Lap: F. Zimmer (1:02.93)

Drivers’ Championship:
1st: F. Zimmer (72)
2nd: J. Cunningham (44)
3rd: A. Schröder (34)
4th: M. Brent (28)
5th: D. Cobb (26)
6th: F. Aristi (22)
= 7th: B. Tallbot (20)
= 7th: C. Tyler (20)
= 7th: M. Bacon (20)
= 7th: J. Cook (20)
= 7th: S. Motoya (20)
12th: L. Wong (18)
13th: R. Meadows (10)

Teams’ Championship:
1st: JLD Motorsport (106)
2nd: Team Colex (44)
3rd: Eskardio Racing Team (42)
4th: Yazuru Kopi Sport (38)
5th: Jim Taylor Racing (30)
6th: Rosenforth Engineering (28)
7th: Dynamo Motor Sports (26)
= 8th: Team Solar (20)
= 8th: H&K Racing (20)
10th: Fosse Racing (0)

With Zandvoort down, the teams pack up and head back to Germany, to contest the next race at the Nürburgring.