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AMR DANI3L SimRace247 Weekly Blog #19

AMR DANI3L SimRace247 Weekly Blog #19

AMR Dani3l drops by with his weekly blog talking about his races and events, whats coming up, and more here at simrace247.

Stay up to date with AMR Dani3l here at simrace247, check out what races and events are coming, and see how the past week has been for him whilst sim racing.

Hello fellow sim racers. Welcome to my nineteenth SimRace247.com blog for 2022. I hope that you’re all doing very well and this past week has been a great one for you?

Compared to the time which I discussed in my previous blog, this last week has been far more enjoyable. There was plenty of competition that I participated in as well as the usual fun streams. But again, this amount of satisfaction and enjoyment that I feel with all this content creating I do wouldn’t be possible without everyone who’s been kind enough to tune into my streams and engage in so many wonderful conversations that we have during. Thanks so much everyone. My channel wouldn’t be what it is without your support and encouragement.

At the time of writing, I’m now up to 59 followers on Twitch which is absolutely amazing. Considering that I’ve been streaming on the platform now for just over a month, I’ve been extremely pleased with the progress.

Having had a bit of time to ponder about it, one of my short-term goals is to try and reach 100 followers on Twitch. If I can somehow achieve that, then I plan to literally punish myself (big time) by doing a live stream where I drive 100 laps around the worst circuit in the worst GT3 car in Assetto Corsa Competizione. The Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo at Paul Ricard. So, if you want to help me reach that goal of 100 followers as well as see me suffer, then please be sure to follow my Twitch channel via the link below:

So, without further ado, let’s talk you through all my Twitch streams and races from this past week.

Monday 16th May – What If Multi-Multiclass Racing Competed Here? Series 2 Episode 4 at Watkins Glen

Kicking off with Monday’s stream, we had episode 4 of my “What If Multi-Multiclass Racing Competed Here?” series around the wonderful and underrated circuit of Watkins Glen, which is situated in the US state of New York. Admittedly, I haven’t driven around the Glen since my days playing iRacing a couple of years ago. So, I was very excited to be back at the venue to conduct my latest experiment with the F1, F2 and F3 cars.

Of all the ones I’ve done so far in season 2, this has been the most enjoyable to date. There were some usual sketchy moments here and there thanks to the A.I bots in Assetto Corsa (if you’re familiar with how they behave), but the experimental race was very exciting and is always enormous fun to perform these “Last to First” challenges I do on the channel.

If you want to rewatch the fun & exciting action from episode 4 around Watkins Glen, here’s a link of the stream:

Wednesday 18th May – Rapid Drivers Club 2point4 World Tour – Round 3 at Imola

Wednesday saw the third round of the RDC 2point4 World Tour from the circuit of Imola, which is one of my absolute favourite tracks in Assetto Corsa Competizione.

Much time was spent behind the scenes to do more development and setup work for the Aston V8 Vantage, especially after the first two rounds when I finished well behind the top two around the Nurburgring and Kyalami. I was feeling confident of a strong result heading into Imola.

Qualifying was very tricky because the track was evolving all the time and the grip was at its peak, or optimum, as I started my final attempt. I wasn’t entirely sure if I had enough fuel (gas) in the tank to do one more flying attempt in the session. Thankfully, there was! And I somehow managed to grab pole position by the slenderest of margins. Just two hundredths of a second separated myself and the 2nd place Bentley of Chris Hack. Despite the close gap, the qualifying lap itself was amongst some of my very best. It was one hell of a lap.

Being on pole position was great, but unfortunately, I knew that the Aston Martin Vantage struggles off the start line with its large amount of turbo lag. And sure enough, at the start of the race, I dropped down to P3 by the time we all reached the first chicane at Tamburello which a shame.

For the first couple of laps, it was a case of trying to settle into a groove and see if I could make up the lost positions. I did initially climb back up into second place when the Audi of Young made a mistake and slid off the track at the Villeneuve chicane. But then, when it came to lapping the BMW M2 CS’s for the first time, it was utter chaos.

I like to stress at this point when it comes to multiclass racing, in every drivers briefing we listen to before any race meeting begins, we are always told that the slower cars have to stick to their racing line so it makes the situation of lapping traffic more predictable and that the quicker competitors can thread their way through more easily. But the complete opposite happened for me. Heading down to the first of the Rivazza corners, whilst I was trying to overtake 2 of the M2’s at the right kink before the braking zone, one of them decided to swerve left into my path. This resulted into a collision between our cars. Thankfully, not much damage to either of us was caused, but it was infuriating because of the amount of times we’re all told in the drivers briefing and when not many people listen, incidents like that occur when it could have been avoided.

Then, the complexity of the race changed because the heavens started to open and the rain droplets were tipping down. But according to the forecast, it wasn’t going to last long. So, would I brave it out on slicks or pit for a set of wets? In the end, I decided to it and in terms of strategy, this proved to be the right call. Because after the stops, I regained the lead and managed to stay there until the rain stopped and it was time to switch back onto the slicks.

With the amount of time that was left in the race, I knew that everyone would have to make one more pitstop which meant this would be a 3 stop race. So, I decided that the strategy would be to take on enough fuel to do a 40–45-minute stint, so my car could be potentially lighter than others around me. But unfortunately, I lost around 11 seconds in the pits due to repairs that were required after suffering damage when 2 backmarkers collided. But after the second stop, I was only a few seconds away from the lead again.

The plan for stint 3 was to drive as hard & fast as possible to catch back up. And it worked because at certain points, I was lapping 1-2 seconds a lap faster than those ahead of me. It had to require patience and a few laps but eventually, I regained the lead once more which was really satisfying.

For the remainder of stint 2, I had pressure from the 2nd placed Honda NSX of Lehtinen looming in my rear mirrors all throughout but I managed to hang onto first position before it was time to pit for the final time.

Again, it was very close between the two of us. But unfortunately, I couldn’t stay in the lead due to controversial circumstances. With around 13 minutes to go, myself and Lehtinen headed down to the braking zone for the first Rivazza when he made his move. However, he braked a tad too late, collected the sausage kerb on the inside which sent his car into mine and I wound up in the gravel trap. Sadly, despite the fact he had taken me clean off the road, he didn’t give the position back which was extremely bad on his part.

I tried my upmost to catch back up and regain the lead, but I ended up finishing in P2, just over 2 tenths behind Lehtinen. I was gutted about losing the victory in the manner we did. After the race, I was wondering whether I should place a protest against Lehtinen with the overtake and dirty driving he pulled in that to get past me. But I didn’t want the hassle. It’s always best to move on and not dwell too much on what happened. There’s always another race to try again.

If you folks want to rewatch this event back, here’s a link of the stream which I uploaded to Youtube.

Thursday 19th May – Mastercup Rally Series Event 5 at Australia

After the disappointment of losing the race at Imola, it was time to tackle the latest edition of the Mastercup Rally Series, which was being contested around the dusty stages of Australia.

For this rally, we had the “Up To 2000cc 4WD” class machines which included Subaru’s, Ford Focus’s, Peugeot 206, Citroen C4 and Skoda Fabia. But my heart ruled my head as I decided to compete in a car from my childhood. It’s one of the most iconic rally cars of all time as piloted by hero, Colin McRae. The 1998 Subaru Impreza S4 WRC.

For the majority of this event, everything went accordingly with very few mistakes. And after eight stages, I was in the lead of the rally by one minute and seventeen seconds. I was starting to wonder if maybe, finally, my luck in rallying would change and I could succeed. However, fate intervened as it was time to tackle stage nine.

During one of the 4 rights which went over a crest, the front end of the Scooby understeered, the front left wheel made contact with the scenery which speered the car into the trees on the opposite side of the road. Sadly, I received damage to the radiator as well as a front left puncture. At the end of the stage, I almost lost the lead entirely, but I knew that issues with the radiator meant it was only going to affect the engine for the final 3 stages.

In the end, I was relieved and super happy to have completed another rally. Even though I’m still having issues and incidents, at least the consistency of finishing events is improving all the time which is the important thing. Progress is being made. It’s only a matter of time before I’m able to finally claim an overall win in the series.

If you want to rewatch my efforts from Australia, here’s the link for the Mastercup stream.

Friday 20th May – Low Fuel Motorsport Mission: Escape Rookies (Part 1)

It had taken a little while, but after some suggestions from my followers on Twitch & Subscribers on Youtube, I decided to finally tackle the daily races with Low Fuel Motorsport.

The reason why this one is more intriguing compared to the daily races I used to compete in with “The Sim Grid”, is that your performances can affect your safety ratings and your licence. Kind of similar to the system that you see in iRacing. So, you have to race more with your head compared to events of a similar format.

Because I’m new to competing in LFM, I have to start out as a rookie, which considering that I’ve been doing online competitive sim racing for the last 14 years, it’s a hard pill to swallow at the moment. Ha Ha! So, this stream was the start of my mission to get out of the rookie license.

It’s my intention to do these daily races every Friday and compete in various GT3 cars as well. But for now, I decided to compete in 3x 20-minute races around the circuit of Suzuka in the tried and tested Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT3. And in the 3 attempts, I managed two wins and a second place which is a great start to this new venture with Low Fuel. But, I reckon it will require a few races before I finally get out of rookie license.

If you want to rewatch my first efforts with Low Fuel Motorsport, here’s a link for the live stream.

 

As you can see from the schedule, there will be a slight change to the format for a little while. So, let’s talk you through all of the content that I have lined up for this week as I go live once more on my Twitch channel.

On Monday, I’ll be taking part in the first round of the British Masters Series hosted by RCI (Racing Club International). If the pre-qualifying session is anything to go by, this will be a very competitive and hard-fought championship which I’m really looking forward to. The opening round will be around the circuit of Oulton Park where I was victorious earlier this year in the BoA eSports Championship. Can I repeat this success again? We’ll wait and see.

 

If you’re familiar with my channel and streaming format, don’t worry! I haven’t dropped the “What If” series. For the time being whilst I’m competing in the RCI British Masters, I have rescheduled the series to a Tuesday instead. For the 5th episode, we’ll be moving back to Europe after two trips to North America. The track in question this time will be the Sachsenring in Germany. How will this track fair in terms of multi-mulitclass racing?

 

Wednesday will see the second round of the RDC Sprintathon championship from one of my least favourite tracks in any game nevermind just Assetto Corsa Competizione. Yep! Sadly for me, it’s Paul Ricard. But the consolation is that we’ll be driving the new Ferrari 488 Challenge machines. As the name suggests, the cars are exactly that, challenging. After claiming first and fourth places in the first two races, can Paul Ricard produce more success for us?

 

For this week only, there won’t be any rallying action of a Thursday. The reason for that is because I will officially be another year older. Can’t believe I’ll be 21 all over again! Ha Ha! So, I’ll be taking the day off to celebrate my birthday with my family.

But I’ll be back on Friday to drive in more Daily Races with Low Fuel Motorsport to see how many more races we compete in before we upgrade our license from “rookie”. After such a strong and positive start, can we keep this great progression going?

 

If you want to, please be sure to follow me on Twitch for my live streams as well as subscribe to my Youtube channel for future video projects. You can also join our DiRT Rally 2.0 club for fun, monthly rally events and see how you fair against other members of the community.

That’s about wraps things up for this week’s blog. Thank you so much for taking the time to read. Take care, stay safe & happy sim racing!

 

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Darren Buckner

Darren Buckner

Darren became a member of Simrace247 in January 2021 and has been a valuable addition to the platform ever since. He began his journey as an Editor and has progressed to the position of Editor in Chief, owing to his unwavering commitment and hard work. With his profound interest in motorsport and gaming, Darren is passionate about sharing news and exceptional content with like-minded people worldwide.View Author posts