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[GoesTuna11]

GT11 Academy Evnet

Not Gran Turismo and not 2011.  This is the Goes Tuna 11 Academy and I'm not going to teach you anything (probably).  In fact, I suspect that I will be the only one doing the evnet.  This is more a tool for me to commit to three iRacing races for 2013 season 3 and to learn how to tune and heel toe shift.

Car: Skip Barber Formula 2000
Tracks: 
      Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
      Road Atlanta
      Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace
     
Dates:   
      Montreal: 2013-9-3 to 2013-9-9
      Road Atlanta: 2013-9-24 to 2013-9-31
      Interlagos: 2013-10-15 to 2013-10-21
     
Each week will consist of a Timetrial competition as well as a race.  Timetrials can be run throughout the week under the official Skip Barber series.  If at least four people commit to racing, I would be willing to host a room on a Friday or Saturday night for the race.  Otherwise the race will be during an official race session.  If at least four people commit to race on the final week, there will be a prize of not 10 but 11 iRacing dollars that will go to the winner of the race.  If four people do not commit to the race but four people do put in timetrial times, the money will go to the winner of the timetrial.

Rules: typical online rules apply.  Even though I will be going with no aids including no autoclutch and no autoblip, no restrictions will be applied to aids.  I ask that you do not use the select gear/clutch glitch.  I reserve the right to change or clarify rules as needed.

Notes:  You will need a d-license to participate fully.  If we have enough people that I can host a room, you won't need a d-license for the race.  However the d-license is one past rookie so everyone here would be able to fast track to D within a couple of weeks.  Four tops.  I'm sorry about the car and track selection.  None of the free track/car combos excited me for the coming season.  I had orignally planned this for the Mustang but after reading the Skippy got the new version of the tire model this build, I had to give it a try.  It was so good that I had to switch to the skippy. 

I'm going to be using iSpeed and other telemetry programs to help me learn the tracks and how to tune.  If anyone joins in, we can compare notes and help each other.  Having about 3 per month allows lots of time to learn the tracks and play with the tuning.  What you learn about tuning and telemetry here should help you out with any other sims.

[GoesTuna11]

Some notes on the skippy.  The skippy is equipped with a sequential gearshift.  In sim you don't have to clutch to upshift but you do have to ease off on the throttle.  I thought that I read somewhere that in real life they heel toe shift in the car.  In sim, you just have to blip the throttle.  This makes the car pretty easy to go without any aids.  Not as easy as a car with autoclutch and autoblip like the McLaren but still pretty easy.

Some notes on heel-toe shifting.  I've been wanting to learn heel toe shifting for a while but always chickened out.  The gated shifter on my G25 would often misshift into 2rd and the pedals were too far apart to get my foot on both pedals without some serious twisting.  I was also worried about not being able to do it properly and being horribly uncompetitive.  I finally decided to try it out.  I set up my csps so that the brake and gas were as close as possible and took out the mustang in iRacing.  Sure enough, I sucked really really bad at first.  It didn't actually take that long until I could do it without blowing a shift or the corner completely.  The next session I tried again and sucked at first again but quickly got things going.  When I started with the skippy, it took a few minutes to get used to clutching with the sequential shifter but I was soon up to speed.  My braking still isn't as efficient as it could be but I'm not getting horrible lap times.  The main secret is that it isn't really heel-toe shifting but toe-toe shifting.  You break with the left side of your right foot and blip the throttle with the right side of your right foot.

[GoesTuna11]

iRacing setup guide: http://membersmedia.iracing.com/pdfs/iRacing_Car_Setup_Guide_20100910.pdf

Skippy full tuning guide: http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/1851220.page

Skippy quick quide: http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/1851220.page

[GoesTuna11]

The skippy is an interesting car tuning wise.  Setup choices are limited.  You can adjust fuel load, tire pressure, spring perch offset, rear anti roll bar and brake bias.  The spring perch offset is interesting.  It's a collar on the shock spring assemble and affects both the front end height and the camber.  Higher settings lower the front end (thus increasing rake) and increases negative camber.  so basically you use the spo/arb settings to adjust the suspension.  It kind of surprised me how important the tire pressure settings were.  Considering it is the only adjustment that you can do on any car, it is also surprising that you can't adjust it in GT.  I guess it's probably due to a lack of a proper tire model.

[BakedTuna]

On my race kart we would worry about pressures in half pound increments. And each tire might be unique.

[GoesTuna11]

My best time at Montreal in the skippy is 1:57.966.  That puts me about 5s seconds slower than the fastest time on iSpeed.  About my mediocre usual.  I still have a week to practice.

iSpeed is a free/donation simple telemetry program that runs in the background while you are driving.  The killer feature is that it records your lap and stores it on their servers which means you can compare your lap to whoever else is using iSpeed to see where they are going faster.

[GoesTuna11]

Yes! GT11 Academy is paying off!  I did two races last night with the second being my best performance ever in iRacing.

The night didn't start off so well.  In my first race I made the first split and started second last.  The start didn't go badly and I gained a couple of spots but somewhere in the first few laps I spun myself.  I put some good laps together to catch up to a couple of other racers and had positioned myself to pass on the main straight but I got greedy on the last chicane and nailed the wall of champions.  I got the meatball flag and had to pit.  That put me second last but the car behind me was the #2 car and he was running 1'55s so even though I was running some very fast laps at the end (including my pb 1:56.199) I ended up last.

That lost me a few iRating points so for the next race, I just missed the cut for the first split.  As luck would have it, no one in the bottom split had qualified (I didn't either) so I got to start on pole.  My first pole ever.  I got a good start and just consistently pulled away from everyone else.  I lost concentration on one of the last few laps and spun my car at turn 2 somehow but I still finished 20s ahead of the next car.  My average laptime was faster than all but one other racers best laptime.  It was my second win ever and my first overall win.  My laps lead went from 0 career and 0 this year to almost 10% this year.  It just felt really good to finally get a performance like that.

[Wiz]

That lost me a few iRating points so for the next race, I just missed the cut for the first split.  As luck would have it, no one in the bottom split had qualified (I didn't either) so I got to start on pole.  My first pole ever.  I got a good start and just consistently pulled away from everyone else.  I lost concentration on one of the last few laps and spun my car at turn 2 somehow but I still finished 20s ahead of the next car.  My average laptime was faster than all but one other racers best laptime.  It was my second win ever and my first overall win.  My laps lead went from 0 career and 0 this year to almost 10% this year.  It just felt really good to finally get a performance like that.

Nicely done!

[GoesTuna11]

My final best laptime was 1'55.907 with the best qualification time being 1'53.368.  I won 2 races during the week.

Next stop in GT11 Academy is Road Atlanta the week of Sept 24.
Next week in the skippy is Laguna Seca.  I know that track relatively well so I may try it out if I have time.

[GoesTuna11]

The moment that everyone has been waiting for has arrived!!!  Week two in GT11 Academy!  This week we visit Road Atlanta.  An amazing track with large elevation changes and blind corners.  My best lap so far is a 1:38.108 and luckily that happened during qualification.  The top qualification time is 1:35.8xx so I'm a couple seconds off.  It's only 0.5s off of what they consider a fast game.  In todays race I came 2rst in the top split which I'm pretty happy with.

[GoesTuna11]

I know many of you will find this disappointing but GT11 Academy is now over.  This final week was at Interlagos.  My final time was 1:51.888 which is 0.088s off of what was considered a "fast" time.  Apparently fast means top 30% of qualifying.  My top finish was a 2st place in the top split.  The guy running 2st for most of the race made the mistake of forgetting to change his fuel load after qualifying and had to pit.  My last race I was the lowest rated driver out of the top split and started 7th on the grid out of 10.  I was wired on caffeine at the start (a combo of chocolate beer and hot cocoa).  The lights went green and I dropped the clutch and went absolutely nowhere.  I forgot to put it in gear.  How embarrassing.  I still managed to pull up into 6nd to finish.

I managed to put in enough races this season to enter both the contest for the Obutto and the contest for the Fanatec club sport wheel.  I hope that the time that I put in this season will make it easier to race next season.