[Donnchadh MacGarry]

I don't think there was a news post for this, so for those who mightn't be aware there is a new youtube SRS championship starting this Saturday at 12:00 GMT that uses RaceRoom Racing Experience (R3E). It is MoonieGT's DTMurica SRS Championship. The series will use the DTM cars from 2014-2016 with fixed setups on all American tracks, which are:

• Week 1 (2th Jan):  Watkin's Glen GP Inner Loop
  
• Week 2 (9th Jan): Sonoma Raceway WTCC
  
• Week 3 (16th Jan): Daytona Road Course
  
• Week 4 (23rd Jan): Mid Ohio Full
  
• Week 5 (30th Jan): Laguna Seca
  
• Week 6 (6th Feb): Road America
  

Moonie is an awesome guy who I've been lucky to have gotten to know over the last few weeks. He has a great youtube channel where he will be streaming these races. He also has a discord channel where you can talk about the series and many other things in sim racing. Feel free to join both of these, I'll leave a link below. I won't be doing this series most likely as I'm often not around at this time on Saturday's (I'm normally coaching football at that time) and I currently don't own this R3E content at the moment, but I know for a fact this will be a very fun series to try and its cool to see another sim being used on SRS (I don't think R3E has been used for quite some time).

MoonieGT Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MoonieGTRacer/featured
MoonieGT Discord: https://discord.gg/JCJ4QVx



As an aside, Moonie runs some community races after the SRS race which normally start at about 12:45 GMT, these events are called the Saturday Sendacular and normally compose of three 15 minute races. This week we are trying out the new GT1 cars on AMS2. If you are interested in doing these races after the SRS join his discord linked above to see more details, or you can always watch the event as he also streams that on his channel. These events are quite relaxed and people of all skill levels are more than welcome so long as you are respectful on track, just like how we should behave in SRS events. Note you don't have to do the SRS race to do the Saturday Sendacular, so if can't do the SRS race you are still able to join the races in Saturday Sendacular, I've joined in late for the last race or two in the past.

[Donnchadh MacGarry]

Since Ireland is in a new full on lockdown again it looks my Saturdays are free, so I bit the bullet and bought the 2016 DTM pack so I'll be doing todays race at the very least.

[Simon Watton]

You will love them Donnchadh. I have to remember the DRS button! he he

[Donnchadh MacGarry]

Tomorrow's race is at Sonoma Raceway WTCC, which I just gave a test today and is a very fun, challenging track to drive. I really like sector 1 with its elevation changes and blind corners. If you weren't involved in last weeks race, then I would highly recommend watching MoonieGT's or Donk's video of the race. I was in a battle with them for the whole race, along with two other drivers, so it was basically a group of 4-5 drivers constantly overtaking each other throughout the race up to the final corner. It genuinely was one of the best SRS races I have ever been in. I won't link every race they record for this championship, but I felt this one was one that absolutely deserved a shout out to be watched.
MoonieGT POV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stqtVfGvyzI&t=2268s
DONK POV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N38nBZVWaRU&t=831s

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If anyone wants to try this event and didn't do last weeks race, don't forget about mapping a button for DRS, it proved to be incredibly powerful at Watkins Glen. Be careful how you use it though, the back gets very loose with it enabled and if you need to lift your throttle completely then it auto turns off (the same as when you touch the brakes). I also misunderstood at the start of the race on how DRS was dealt out, but I think I understand it now. Basically if you are within 1 second of the car in front as you cross the line to start the next lap, you get 3 allocations of DRS for the next lap that you can engage at any point in the lap. However if you are in front, or are over 1 second behind the people in front, then you get nothing. MoonieGT (Allen Moon) used this to great effect on me, he hung behind me after I overtook him on the 3rd last lap and waited until the final lap before making an easy move on me on the straight. Then when I got side by side with him around the final corner, he could use his final DRS allocation to beat me to the line.

[Donnchadh MacGarry]

Daytona Road course tomorrow so that should be interesting. I did some practice earlier today, it seems DRS was about 1.5 - 2 seconds quicker per lap so it will be insanely OP. This could cause some interesting tactics and positioning being used for the final lap, those without DRS will be really exposed. It will most surely be game over if you fall behind the group and lose DRS at any point in this race.

It was great to see even better participation for race 2 last week. I tried being smart and letting Moonie pass me going into the final lap so I could get DRS, but unlike Watkins Glen (and what I forsee with Daytona), the DRS was nowhere near as powerful that I ended up getting nowhere near to make an overtake. That is the 2nd race in a row he has passed me just at the end, lessons will be learned and I will have my revenge.

[Donnchadh MacGarry]

So I didn't make any updates the previous two weeks. I apologise for my laziness and I should be sacked from my position   .

I've had some incredibly fun races at Daytona and Mid Ohio. At Daytona I was trying to form partnerships to keep a DRS train going to catch cars in front, it was very fun even though I made a hash of it in the end. Mid Ohio proved to be a real rollercoaster of a track, sort of like the first sector of Sonoma. Quite a few corners on elevation changes that lead to some blind turns, it was a really fun race to drive in. Last week at Laguna Seca I had a much quieter race as I couldn't keep pace with those in front.

I had mostly been using the default setup excluding fuel for this series so far. Front tyre wear had been an issue for me, especially at Laguna as I struggled for grip after the first 10 minutes even though I actually was pretty cautious in my braking. After speaking with a few others in Moonie's discord, I've tried moving the brake balance to about 53/47 (default is 60/40) and the brake pressure to 100% (default is 90%). It seemed better at Road America so far from my small testing.
I also have been using the prime tyres the whole time baring testing out the optionals in qualifying in Mid Ohio. The optionals are definitely quicker than the primes, but I didn't use them in the race as I wasn't sure on their lifespan. This turned out to be a mistake as it seems that optionals can last a race as Moonie has found them good in the last two races. However a recent update to R3E has set it that only the 2014 cars can choose between the two compounds, whereas the 2015 and 2016 cars can only choose primes as that is what the rules were like in the real life DTM series. I had just been using the 2016 cars, so I couldn't use optionals last week at Laguna. I'm not sure if I'll go to a 2014 car or stick it out with the 2016 cars, I suppose I'll decide when I register.

So finally Road America is this week to conclude the series. There are three obvious places to use DRS, after turn 3, after turn 10 (Carousel ) and after the final turn. Its pretty easy to hold DRS through the kink (turn 11), and I find it even easier as the front tyres wore out since it made the car more balanced through there. I'm looking forward to this final race. This series has produced some of the most fun races I have ever been in, I've been really impressed at what type of racing these DTM cars can allow for.