Women in sim racing here at simrace247 continues with our weekly blog from Yvonne Houffelaar. Lets catch up with her for blog #53.
Women in sim racing continues with our resident female sim racing blogger Yvonne Houffelaar. This week in blog #53 we catch up with her sim racing events and more.
Welcome to my fifty-third weekly blog !!
Theamusante Community Rush Hour
On Friday 25-02-2022, it was the final round of Theamusante Community Rush Hour, 1 hour at Misano. It was multiclass team racing, I drove in the Bentley GT3, and Sophie Aeronwen drove in the Porsche GT4. I was looking forward to the race, because Misano is one of my favourite tracks, and I have some good pace there. My qualifying time wasn’t as good as it is normally, but enough for the pole position, which gave us 1 extra point for the championship! Sophie started P6 in the GT4 pro class. I had a very good start, me and P2 drove a little bit away from the field. Unfortunately, in turn 12 the hairpin, I got hit in the braking zone, and lost 4 positions, or I would have had an unsafe rejoin.
For an unsafe rejoin you’ll get a penalty, and I didn’t didn’t want to have that. When I was trying to come back through the field, the driver who hit me got a 15 seconds time penalty, and I knew I could still win the race, especially with my pace that I had. Unfortunately his teammate hit me with his GT4, because he wanted to go to the pitlane, and I didn’t know it. It cost me loads of time, because I just passed 6 GT4 cars. He got a drive through for it, and I needed to gain at least 35 seconds to be on the podium. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time, I finished P4, 2 second from P3, and 12 seconds from the win. Sophie also had an eventful race, she finished P7 in the GT4 pro class. We finished at P6 in the championship!
eSports Italia Women’s GT
On Saturday 26-02-2022, was round 2 of the eSports Italia Women’s GT, 40 minutes at Barcelona. When we were practising in the afternoon, it was not going well, and I was a second too slow compared to Sophie. I wasn’t happy with my pace, and I knew it needed to be better, I practised a bit more before the race, and suddenly found a lot of pace! I needed to change some lines, I’m very used to the Barcelona track in Assetto Corsa Competizione, and not in GT Sport. I’ve found a bit of confidence also, and I was ready for the qualifying and race. I had a very good lap in the qualifying, I drove my first pole position in this series! I knew that I wasn’t there yet, I always say; To finish first, you first need to finish!
I started on the soft tire compound, two drivers behind me started on the super soft tire. I knew it would be difficult to keep them behind me at the start of the race. It turned out exactly how I thought, one driver passed me with the start. I overtook her in lap 3, and Sophie also overtook her. I was surprised to see that Sophie made some mistakes and I could drive away from her. I could hold my good pace till the pitstop, for the pitstop is fuel and tires mandatory. I switched to the super soft tire, added the required fuel and I kept the lead. I finished P1!! My first win in this series! I was very happy with the result, for the first time, I had the pace and consistency to win! Sophie finished P2, after a good race. Sophie is leading in the championship, I’m standing 3rd now!
RCI Diamond Drive Cup
On Wednesday 02-03-2022, was round 5 of the RCI Diamond Drive Cup, 1 hour at Misano! I was looking forward to this race, because I knew my pace was good there! We were just on time at home, to do 10 minutes of practice, in the race server. I was already very exhausted, and decided to go for a nice Sunday drive. Safe but also knew it was good enough for the silver class win. In the qualifying, I finished 3rd overall and pole position in class. After an hour of racing, trying to survive, and just stay on track. I finished P2 overall, and a win in silver class!! I now have a 11 points lead, for the final round, on Wednesday 09-03-2022, 90 minutes at Imola.
Upcoming races:
06-03-2022 : My first Gran Turismo 7 stream !!
09-03-2022 : RCI Diamond Drive Cup, the final round, 90 minutes @ Imola
