Catching up with our simrace247 sim racing driver Jimmy Mansi and his weekly blog that is featured here on the website.
We know that Jimmy Mansi is a great sim racing driver, in this blog, we see how his sim racing events have been over the week. Featuring some great racing from certain leagues let’s see how he got on.
Hey all, it’s that time again to summarise my week of racing. So much like that start of each race, lets take a breath and go..
ACC | @onid_racing GT3 DTM | Mini Championship | R2 Nurburgring
- Q – P2
- R1 (15min Sprint) – P4
- R2 (40min GP) – P2
No Sunday race with oNiD this week, which left me wanting some action. Fortunately, the crew at oNiD allowed me to join the DTM Mini League they had set up. However, there was a catch (for me). I couldn’t use the Aston Martin V8 I have become so accustomed to.
I decided on the Audi R8 and have to say, I enjoyed it.. a lot. I tried the BMW first of all but off the bat, that car is a straight up monster and would take me considerable time to adjust and understand.. fair play to those who succeed in taming the beast!
On to the session.. fastest in practice, didn’t get my optimal lap in for qualifying and then it was race time.. I got off the line perfectly, took P1 with a move around the outside of T1 and held. All was going well until the final 2 laps, when not fully understanding the car caught up with me.
I hit the final chicane and was flicked around by the kerb. Ran off, spun and came back on P4. With my tyres dirty and overheated from the spin, it was difficult to battle with P3. I had a go but could not force a pass in the final lap.
On to the second race, again I made a move around the outside of T1 and by T2 had put the nose of my car in enough to cause P1 to run wide. I took advantage and dived up the inside.
Again, I led for the majority but I made another mistake, riding too much kerb on the inside of what I believe to be T11. I managed to hold P2 and clawback P1, after a tense final 25mins of the race, P2 was the best I could achieve.
On reflection, I was actually quite happy with how it all went, albeit gutted to lose P1 twice, I had never driven this car competitively.. and it’s always nice to change things up!
ACC | @ACRracing GT3 Earth Tour | S10 | R3 Silverstone
- Q – P5
- R – P2
ACR this week was at the track I feel like I have spent most of my sim racing life at lately.. Silverstone! After the 10hr with simrace247, a 2.4hr with simracing.gp and countless other races, I was back again.
Qualifying was tough, for a large circuit, it seemed everyone went out at the same time. Add that to Silverstone being one of the easiest tracks to invalidate at and you’ve got yourself a somewhat stressful session.
I was stuck in P8 with enough time and fuel left for one more lap. I managed to move up to P3 but the track went to optimum at the worst time for me. Suddnenly I was back in P5. Not ideal however, my championship rivals were at the back so there was still an opportunity to open the gap on points to those behind.
I got off the line well, held the inside for T1 and managed to move up to P4 after going side by side through Maggotts and Becketts.
On the exit of Stowe I got a great run on P3 who was struggling with cold tyres.. again, around the outside of Vale and in to Club I had track position. So far so good, P3 before the end of lap one and hunting down P2.
At this point, P1 had already pulled +3 over P2, I needed to pass P2 quickly if I was going to mount any challenge for the win at all.
By the end of the second lap, I had made the pass and taken P2 but, P1 had now pulled 4.7 seconds on the pack due to the battling behind.
In the words of a famous race engineer, it was hammer time. The consistency was perfect, every lap was a 57.8/57.9. P1 however, had other ideas.. every lap he was 0.1/0.2 quicker, suddenly the gap was +5. I started to think I was going to have to settle for P2 and take the points.
I pitted early, trying the undercut. I came out in clear air, this was perfect and I was quickly able to get back in to my groove. P1 pitted a couple of laps later.. on the exit of the pits, I was just over one second behind and he was on cold tyres.
I knew it was time to push and try to force a mistake from him, being on cold tyres. This worked perfectly, his car snapped through Maggotts and Becketts, he ran off and had no speed down the Hanger Straight.
I pulled out of the slipstream and was ahead before Stowe. Half the battle was done, now I had 35mins to defend as he was not letting up.
At no point was he more than 0.6 behind me, constantly applying the pressure and letting me know he was there. Towards the end of the race, we caught a pack of backmarkers who were locked in a battle of their own.
Not wanting to yield, I quickly lost the 0.6 gap I had. Whilst he didn’t make it past during our run in with the backmarkers I had lost my concentration, I ran wide out of Abbey, almost lost the car but was able to recover. Sadly I had lost P1 with 1.5 laps to go.
I was absolutely gutted but only had myself to blame (which made it worse!). I took P2 but due to P2 and P3 in the championship not finishing, after 3 rounds I have a healthy 49 point lead over P2.
ACC | @isdaracing GT3 Autumn Season | R5 Misano (2hr Special Event)
- Q – P2
- R – P6 (provisional on penalty appeals)
Sometimes, you can be the quickest driver on track but, sometimes, you are just not meant to win or even have a chance.. this was one of those races.
I had 25mins of practice for this race, the conditions were set to random, and that’s where the fun began! In Q the track was greasy but able to take slicks, albeit with zero temp and huge pressure issues. I managed to take P2 in Q, losing P1 on the final lap. I was pleasantly surprised by this due to just throwing my dry setup on and going to race.
The race started, I held on to P2 after a strong attack from P3. I was sitting comfortably and able to stick with P1.. I could see he was struggling with the car. Towards the end of lap 2, my chances of winning were gone.
Around the final hairpin, P1 was struggling with the car, on the exit where I expected him to accelerate, he didn’t, he was still off the gas trying to turn the car.. contact, not just with P1, P3 behind ploughed into me.
We all spun off, with me facing the traffic in the middle of the track. This was far from ideal.. 15 cars passed and there was enough gap to get back on.
Again, my pace was still really strong, again I closed up to the driver who was P1 originally but he was struggling even more. Someone decided to make a move around the outside of me, turn in before they had cleared me and that was it, contact..
I was put in to the wall on the inside, with more damage and more time loss, I didn’t think it could get much worse.. I was wrong, very wrong.
I was handed +20 for the contact with P1 towards the start of the race.. I took this one on the chin, felt it was harsh but carried on. Next up, +15 second penalty for having someone make a move on me and turn in before clearing me, causing contact and me to spin in to the wall.
At this point, the air around me had gone from blue to royal navy. I couldn’t believe I had been put at blame for an incident someone else caused.
Time to pit.. I came in for a one minute pitstop to serve the 20 second penalty, have the damage repaired, refuel and stick wet tyres on. With no idea of what my pressures needed to be, after 3 laps I was running on balloons made by Pirelli! 34.2 on the left, 33.4 on the right.
I needed heavier rain and I needed it fast. After the pits I came out in P21, this was quickly becoming a nightmare race for me and I did question after the second penalty was applied as to whether I should box and retire the car. I decided against it, there was over one hour left, lets see what the best result was I could pull from this!
I battled my way back through, some slower cars doing their best to make it as difficult as possible to pass, some slower cars deciding that running me off track was a better idea.
Somehow, when the timer ran out and the last lap was completed, I had made up 15 positions and got home P6. If the +15 is reviewed correctly I should move up to P5 but we will have to wait until next week to find out.
All in all, a successful week of racing again (if you take out the issues and look at the results). Tried a new car and had pace in oNiD, extended my lead in ACR and battled back from P21 to P6 (possibly P5) in ISDA.
This weeks races coming up looks like this
- oNiD Multiclass League | Spa | 17/10/21
- ACR Earth Tour [Gold] | Barcelona | 19/10/21
- ISDA Autumn Season | Bathurst | 20/10/21
Two tracks I love in Spa and Barcelona and one I just love to finish in Bathurst. Let’s see what we can achieve and fingers crossed another set of solid results will come!
