08-11-2019, 09:43 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-11-2019, 10:11 PM by Nick Catsoudas.)
I'm so sorry if the question is dumb, but it does come from a place of genuine frustration and caring, and I'm sorry if this comes out a bit ramble-y but I just have to ask. It is really deflating to practice the track-car combo during my free time, figuring out fuel/tyre strategies, tweaking setups, finding those extra hundredths and come race-time, someone 2-3 seconds up the road does something dumb, crashes out, spins back onto the track (or re-enters unsafely) and takes out me and usually the people who are following.
Here's some storytime: Had an awful qualifying. Wanted to risk it and try out a new setup I had but the gamble just didn't work, leaving me with no time to change and go back onto the track to try again. Started 13th but thankfully my race pace was a lot better than quali and got myself up to 9th in the first 3-4 laps, following and catching up with 8th and 7th who were about to battle for position (Track by the way was Spa), with 6th just a bit further up. We come up to corner Paul Frere with me being about 2 seconds behind and barely 10 minutes into the 60 minute race, 8th decides that pass to 7th is so urgent and important that they go side to side through Blanchimont almost flat-out (dumb move with GT3 level downforce cars unless the outside car decides to give up and go wide and lose a bunch of time). Naturally the car with the inside line slides into the outside car and they both spin out the track. Both try to save the unsaveable and instead end up right in the middle of the track where me and the guy following (10th) come by almost full speed and get absolutely destroyed. 11th who is a bit further back then gets to drive away with 4 free places. Suspension damage is so bad I ended up in the pits and DNF'd. :| And this example is not the first time this has happened to me in my short time here. A big majority of my incident points is from stuff like this.
So, with all that said what do you do to try and minimize your chances of getting involved in such an unforseeable event (other than reflexes) when you did absolutely nothing wrong other than being there at that time. I know the whole joke that some people are just incident magnets, but I just want to keep it clean and on the road, haha. That absolutely does not undo all the fun I've had racing with some really awesome people on this amazing platform, that has to be said!
Like I said though, it's just deflating to practice alot, and then for the race to end so undignified, because I did have the pace to comfortably get 6th and maybe even a top 5 finish if everything went my way.
Again, sorry for rambling here a bit, I would love to hear what you all have to say.
Thanks!
(P.S: I was on Split 1 by the way.)
Here's some storytime: Had an awful qualifying. Wanted to risk it and try out a new setup I had but the gamble just didn't work, leaving me with no time to change and go back onto the track to try again. Started 13th but thankfully my race pace was a lot better than quali and got myself up to 9th in the first 3-4 laps, following and catching up with 8th and 7th who were about to battle for position (Track by the way was Spa), with 6th just a bit further up. We come up to corner Paul Frere with me being about 2 seconds behind and barely 10 minutes into the 60 minute race, 8th decides that pass to 7th is so urgent and important that they go side to side through Blanchimont almost flat-out (dumb move with GT3 level downforce cars unless the outside car decides to give up and go wide and lose a bunch of time). Naturally the car with the inside line slides into the outside car and they both spin out the track. Both try to save the unsaveable and instead end up right in the middle of the track where me and the guy following (10th) come by almost full speed and get absolutely destroyed. 11th who is a bit further back then gets to drive away with 4 free places. Suspension damage is so bad I ended up in the pits and DNF'd. :| And this example is not the first time this has happened to me in my short time here. A big majority of my incident points is from stuff like this.
So, with all that said what do you do to try and minimize your chances of getting involved in such an unforseeable event (other than reflexes) when you did absolutely nothing wrong other than being there at that time. I know the whole joke that some people are just incident magnets, but I just want to keep it clean and on the road, haha. That absolutely does not undo all the fun I've had racing with some really awesome people on this amazing platform, that has to be said!
Like I said though, it's just deflating to practice alot, and then for the race to end so undignified, because I did have the pace to comfortably get 6th and maybe even a top 5 finish if everything went my way.
Again, sorry for rambling here a bit, I would love to hear what you all have to say.
Thanks!
(P.S: I was on Split 1 by the way.)