AMR DANI3L keeps the sim racing community posted with his upcoming community races and streams. Check him out and join in with the fun!
AMR DANI3L has been back to his sim racing events and streams, Dan is a great community racer that likes to take part in events, but also have fun with friends and like minded sim racers from the gaming community.
Make sure you visit his socials and Youtube channel and subscribe, sign up and join in.
Hello one & all. Welcome to my 4th weekly blog of 2022
As the title picture of the blog suggests, last week was much tougher (mentally) compared to the previous for all kinds of reasons. Some personal and some regarding the content side of things. So, starting this brand-new week, I wasn’t feeling 100% in myself.
It’s not something that’s easy to talk about but one thing I always try to be with everyone is to be truthful and honest. Even through my own personal struggles. And this is no exception.
One thing I don’t like to do however is disappoint my viewers/subscribers by cancelling any of my upcoming streams. So, I decided to try and carry on as best I could.
Because of the challenges/obstacles I faced during this past week, I would like to thank everyone who did tune into my live streams for all your support and the awesome conversations we had.
This is one of several reasons why I love content creating is the engagement I have with everyone who tunes into the streams and watches me drive well or very badly.
To kick off with last week’s action, we had the second round of the BoA eSports GT3 Championship around the circuit of Barcelona. After a strong start with victory at Oulton Park, I was on a real high and couldn’t wait to get stuck into another event.
However, what made this event more challenging compared to the first round, was the fact we had a wet race in prospect. If I’m honest, I haven’t driven that much at all in the wet weather in Assetto Corsa Competizione.
So, I went into this event with a completely open mind and wasn’t expecting to be dominant or be right at the sharp end of the grid. Luckily, I managed to rack up plenty of testing mileage over a period of 2 days. So, I was braced and prepared for every intensity of rain that could potentially be install for the upcoming race.
One thing I wasn’t certain on, was where my main rival for the championship, #692 McLaren of Matt Whitburn, would be in terms of pace compared to myself.
In the first practise session, it didn’t look that encouraging.
I tried to be positive on stream, but my best lap was 9 tenths of a second slower than Matt. Although, part of the reason for that was because I was running my race setup with race fuel added which explained some of the time gap between us.
Going into the qualifying, I knew that if I stood any chance, I would have to dig deep and drive harder than I’ve ever done before in the wet conditions. And that’s exactly what I did.
3 laps I completed in total in the session. The first was 6 tenths away, then on the second, I reduced the gap to 1 tenth. So, on the third and final lap, I had to pull something to gain the tenth I needed to snatch pole position from Matt.
I still have no idea how, but we managed to execute the lap I was looking for and gained pole position by just 5 thousandths of a second. At that moment, I was ecstatic. I thought I had done enough to be at the very front of the grid for the wet race.
But NOPE! Sure enough, Matt had produced one final flying lap and beat me to pole by only five hundredths of a second. I thought “SHOOT!”. I was gutted to lose out by so little time. But as we know in sim racing or real-life motorsport, qualifying is one thing, the race will be completely different!
Then, it was time for the start of the 60-minute wet race around Barcelona. Coping with the tricky conditions was one challenge in prospect, but could I reclaim that top spot at the chequered flag?
At the very start, I tried to drive as hard as I possibly could, right from the moment the lights went green to keep the pressure on Matt. The pressure I applied paid off on the very first lap when I passed for the race lead at turns 7 & 8. There was the slightest of touches, but I pulled it off the overtake.
But the rest of the first stint of the race wasn’t that straight forward. I had to keep focused as the pace between myself & the #692 McLaren was identical. The largest the gap grew between us was just over a second and there was a couple of moments where Matt tried to overtake me, but I managed to hold on by the skin of my teeth.
About halfway into the race, it was time for myself to make my one scheduled pitstop. I entered the pits 2 laps before Matt in the hope that the fresher wet tires would give me the advantage.
However, it didn’t work this time around because after the stops, I lost the lead, but it was very close. I tried valiantly to hold on and put more pressure on, but he was just that little bit too quick for me this time around.
In the end, P2 was a great result and to finish only 2.6 seconds behind despite not driving that much in the wet in ACC, I’m very satisfied with the result. Congratulations to Matt Whitburn on the victory around Barcelona. Very well deserved!
After Barcelona, it leaves us level at the top of the points standings with 5 races left. This will be a very hard-fought championship that’s for sure. Hopefully, it’ll be less dramatic and less controversial than Max Verstappen’s & Lewis Hamilton’s F1 title battle of 2021!
Ha Ha! But, as the slogan says on my Aston Martin livery, “Never Give Up”. I’m very eager to keep trying and keep fighting all the way to the last lap of the final round in this series.
After losing out in the BoA event, the next stream was the first of my fun experiments that I haven’t created on the channel for over a year. It’s a series called “What If” where I take a motorsport category or championship and see what happens if they competed at venues they otherwise wouldn’t.
For this 10-part special, I will be gathering all kinds of vehicle classes including Le Mans Hypercar, LMP1, Dpi, LMP2, GTE, GT3, GT4, TCR and Cup cars and placing them on circuit at the same time to see what happens.
The great thing about these sets of experiments I’ve devised is that I’ll be utilising 2 sim racing titles with Assetto Corsa and the one I used last week for the first experiment around Oulton Park, Automobilista 2.
Sadly, with AMS2, there’s still a lack of content in terms of vehicles (apart from the Brazilian national series cars). However, that didn’t prevent me from trying out the game as this was the first time that I’ve ever streamed AMS2 on the channel. And so far, it’s been really good fun to play.
For this first “What If” experiment around Oulton, we had the P1, DPI, GTE, GT3, GT4 & Porsche Carrera Cup classes and I decided to compete in GT3 with the Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo.
That way, it gave me a direct comparison of what the GT3’s are like in AMS 2 compared to Assetto Corsa Competizione. For those who haven’t played either title yet, ACC has the better handling and tire model for definite. But, AMS 2 is still a good game and very enjoyable as well so don’t be put off from trying either title.
I forgot to point out that in this series, I’ll be driving against the A.I for all 10 episodes of this series. So, 45 minutes of racing later, we survived in one piece. Although, I had quite a few scary moments in the race, including this very amusing moment when battling for second in GT3.
A full 360-degree spin and overtake all in one. Pure luck or a testament to my driving skills? Ha! I’d say luck for certainty. But it was absolutely epic. Just imagine listening to “You Spin Me Round” by Dead or Alive as you’re watching this clip.
MY 360 SPIN AND OVERTAKE
As part of the rallying theme I have on my channel every Thursday, it was the return to the career mode in WRC 10 that I started on a couple of occasions last year, but I never had the chance to continue with it because of the 2 month break at the end of last year.
So, it was great to be back in the game and I’m very much determined to continue right the way through until I can climb to the very top of the WRC ladder.
In this first stream, it was time to tackle the very twisty, slippery conditions of the Monte Carlo rally. An event I’ve always enjoyed but endured relatively mixed results in the past, no matter the rally title. It’s always tough to judge the conditions right in this rally with lots of dry tarmac but all of a sudden, patches of ice/snow appear as you climb further into the alps of Monte Carlo.
The great thing about WRC 10 is that you can create your own driver & navigator (co-driver) in the career mode. Obviously, my rally driving alter ego, Danny McCrash, had to make an appearance in the game. That was relatively easy.
However, during the stream, I had difficulty trying to gather any names for my co-driver. I wanted to go with something amusing but I couldn’t think of anything. So, I decided to select someone from the channel.
The one person who, every time I create any rally streams, is always waiting a long time and types in the live stream chat long before they even start. That’s dedication which is awesome. In the end, I chose one of my subscribers, Crystal Starr, to be my navigator in the WRC 10 career mode.
And on the very first event, we kicked some major butt, winning the WRC 3 category in the Monte Carlo rally which was awesome. It wasn’t all plane sailing. There was a few knocks and bumps in the scenery and the last stage didn’t go well because I made an error with tire choice. But, just over 50 seconds was enough to seal victory in the Monte. YAY!
Finally, to conclude the end of another busy week of streaming, I hosted the second of my Friday Night Forza Horizon convoys around the gorgeous landscape of Mexico. It’s the only stream during the week where I can properly relax and it’s always great to share something like this with my subscribers.
We had a larger convoy this time around with a total of 7 people (including myself) who joined in for some fun and antics. Huge thank you to Annalise Riot, AMR Pro GT (Joshua Vanstone), ShogunNoire (Rhydian Lloyd Davis), naztytrainz, FirePower376 (Toby Vanstone) and new channel subscriber, GoosyyDuck, for participating in the convoy for a couple of hours of enjoyment and fun!
Let’s quickly discuss about the upcoming streams I have for this week. Monday will be the third round of the BoA eSports GT3 Championship from the demanding but wonderful circuit of Brands Hatch. This one will be even more tricky to prepare for and compete in because we have dynamic weather in prospect. So, it could either be a dry race, or another damp one, or everything combined.
After narrowly missing out last time around at Barcelona, can we reclaim the top step of the podium ahead of our main championship rival? Fingers crossed we can pull it off!
UPCOMING ACC STREAM
Wednesday will see the second episode of the “What If Multi-Multi Class Racing Competed Here? Series where we’ll make the switch from AMS 2 to Assetto Corsa. This time, we’ll be trailing out the Jeddah circuit in Saudi Arabia.
We all know the controversy that occurred during the real-life Formula One event around the venue. So, how hard can it be at hosting multiple classes of racing car at the same time? Hmmm…. It’ll be an interesting and scary ride for sure!
UPCOMING ASSETTO CORSA STREAM
It’s a little bit overdue, but this Thursday will see myself returning to the most famous rally championship promoted on SimRace247.com, which is of course, the Mastercup Rally Series.
My results were mixed shall we say during season 1 of the series, which is why I’m determined to make amends and become a better rally driver. My fortunes in the most recent AMR DAN community rally was just a blip so ignore that one! Ha Ha!
For the first event of season 2, we’ll be tackling the highland stages of Scotland in the powerful Rally GT machines. Rear wheel drive, over 400 horsepower on fast roads that are similar to Finland. Easy right? NOPE!
Knowing the previous Mastercup series, it won’t be easy but is always guaranteed to be immense fun. Cannot wait to see how we cope….or not!
MASTERCUP RALLY STREAM
Finally, we’ll finish the week with another community convoy in Forza Horizon 5.
If this is the first blog of mine that you’re reading, I’ll be hosting a convoy every Friday in Forza Horizon 5. Everyone is welcome to join in. So, if you would like to participate, then please be sure to do the following:
- Add me to your XBOX friends/followers list. My gamertag is “AMR DANI3L”
- Send me a message on XBOX live to inform me that you would like to join my Horizon convoy
FORZA HORIZON 5 STREAM
If you want, please be sure to subscribe to my Youtube channel and you can follow me on social media and join our DiRT Rally 2.0 club with events being hosted once every month.
That’s everything folks for this fourth blog. Thank you so much for taking the time to read. I always appreciate it. Take care, stay safe & happy sim racing!!
Follow AMR DANI3L
- Youtube: AMR DANI3L
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- Twitter: Twitter AMR_DANI3L
- AMR DANI3L’s DiRT Rally 2.0 Club: Dirt rally 2.0 clubs
