I were on the same wavelength. I was one with the car and it felt
good. It's almost as if I merely had to think where I wanted to go and
the car would just do it, no questions asked. So what better time to
try and improve my Ring time?
I have avoided the Ring like the plague. My GPLRank has been stuck
around 118 for I don't know how long simply because of my pathetic
9:43 at the Ring. So the time had come.
My initial plan was to take a couple of laps in the Honda just to
familiarize myself with the track a little (since I have completed
maybe 20 laps there altogether since I bought the game.) Good lord,
what a mistake that was. Does the damn thing have hamster on a wheel
for a motor? You can stand on the gas in first and never so much as
squeak a tire. And it handles like friggin oil tanker. I am used to
throwing the Lotus's ass into a corner and catching it with the
throttle. I'm used to being able to let off the gas ever so slightly
to correct understeer and make the car turn in nicely. The Honda is
simply a big smelly turd. It was as if my trusty steed was in the barn
wondering why I had abandoned her...
So I went back to the real car, apologized for my fit of temporary
insanity, and climbed back in. We had a nice warmup lap just to get
her feet used to the track. Then the second lap was going well til
near the end when we spun a couple of times. No problem...happens to
everyone. My fault, not yours. You're doing great. We'll get 'em next
lap. And we did. I went from a totally pathetic 9:43 to a still
pathetic but not quite so bad 9:24.80. Cutting 20 seconds off in 3
laps ain't bad if you ask me. My rank went from 118.09 to 99.44 with
that performance.
For the first time, I actually was able to start visualizing the turns
that were coming up, and I am convinced that that is absolutely the
key to the Ring -- PRACTICE, pure and simple. You gotta run it over
and over and over and over until you know what's coming up next. I
wish I weren't going to be out of town this weekend -- I would
dedicate myself to breaking into the 8's, which really shouldn't be
too hard. GH's setup that I am using is perfect. I just gotta learn
the track...
Todd Walker
GPLRank: +99.44
twalker at jam dot rr dot com
http://www.racesimcentral.net/