I most recently ran a Championship race at Interlagos. For the record:
P133, 16 Mb RAM, Cirrus Logic 5430 PCI
Speed (c.f. DX2-66): 258
Video speed: 94
VGA, everything except track, sky, verges; 23.2 suggested frame rate
Quickshot joystick (fire buttons to accelerate/brake)
Semi-Pro mode (with Indestructibility disabled)
Steering help and Opposite Lock help disabled
After doing a lot of work in the two 90 min. practice sessions to tweak my
setups, I posted a 1:17.XXX on my final qualifying lap with eleven minutes left
in Saturday qualifying to take 4th on the grid (behind Schumi, Hill, and
Coulthard).
I then used the 30 min. raceday warmup session to do a little more work on my
race setup, and I got it pretty stable, hitting consistent 1:19.XXX laps with
new tires and running 1:21.XXX when the tires had 24 laps on them. However, I
still had a hard time getting around the Bico do Pato hairpin, so I adjusted
wheel lock from 13 to 14 degrees after the warmup (IOW, I didn't have time to
test the setup change on the track, but I was confident it would be for the
better in the race).
Bad mistake. The start was typical for running with switched acceleration (as
opposed to analog): mondo wheelspin. However, I was able to hold onto 6th
place going into Curva 1 (Senna curves?). But my 14-degree wheel lock started
to rear its ugly head; my car was more uncontrollable into the turns, and, so
while I was able to keep up with the leaders on the straights, I was losing
substantial time in the turns.
A couple of runs in the grass runoffs later (f***ing curbs!), I found myself in
19th by the time I went for my first scheduled pitstop on lap 24. It was the
first time I've ever pitted in a GP2 race, so I was caught off-guard by the new
LED display I was confronted with while in the pits, but I came out of there
okay. I was expecting to have to choose which tire sets to run myself, but I
guess my crew automatically does that for me. Do they put on r1 at the start,
then r2 after my first pitstop, etc.?
Then my joystick started acting up on me. I was driving, minding my own
business, when the car would suddenly lurch to the right. Sometimes, I was
able to hang on to the car and keep it on the asphalt, but other times, I went
grass-cutting. It went on like this until the end of the race, even when I
tried to recalibrate within the program, recalibrate after exiting and
re-entering the program, and recalibrate even after exiting, turning off the
computer, turning on the computer, and re-entering the program. Is this a
gamecard problem or a joystick problem?
Lap 46, my screen starts acting up on me; the display was jiggling vertically.
I said, "Crap, NOW what's wrong with my game?" Then I saw the amber light on
and looked at my LED display -- I had a loose RF wheel! Kewl! Since I was on
Reta Aposta when it happened, it was a LOOOOONG way back to the pits to fix the
problem and I lost a couple of positions in the process, but I was able to get
that done as well as perform my scheduled stop at the same time, which was due
to happen on lap 48 (I know someone on r.a.s. asked about how pitstops are
juggled to cope with these random troubles; it seems like my crew chief in GP2
is somewhat intelligent after all, automatically adjusting my fuel load and
knowing that I wouldn't need to make another scheduled stop).
Getting to the finish was difficult, especially with my *** lurching
problems. I was mired at 2nd-from-last, but was able to get within 3 sec. of
Zanardi for 17th with about eight laps to go before my car lurched into the
grass, meaning another run at Zanardi would be impossible. Fortunately, David
Brabham was in last place, a full lap behind me. :-)
I finished 18th, not very impressive. But a lot has been learned, and I look
forward to taking it to Aida next.
It'll take a while for me to get used to my nearby surroundings compared to
ICR2. I had a tough time figuring out how close I was to someone alongside me,
until him and I touched wheels and did some air.
--
+------------------+--------------------------------------------+
| G. Warren Abao | Official BBL Jacksonville Jaguars Website: |
+------------------++------------------------+------------------+
| SPOOOOOOOOOOON!!! | BBL Jacksonville 1-1 | IFL Chicago 11-7 |
+-------------------+------------------------+------------------+