Richard Casto wrote:
Marty,
I loved the standing start!
I have only driven Road Atlanta on the Xbox (I do some spec racing with some friend online) and if you don’t mind, I am really curious to hear your opinion as to how much of what I see in the game translates to the real track. For example…
I find that turn 1 is really hard to do right. If you get your braking wrong (too early and/or too much) you are really slow up the hill toward turn 2. If you brake too late and/or get your turn in/apex wrong (early/wide apex) it’s really easy to go off to the left. In short it seems there is a really narrow window for doing it just right. And if you do it just right (especially with a momentum car) you can really make up time there by carrying speed from the front straight right up the hill.
The same goes for the exit of turn 2 all the way through the esses. That if you get a good exit out of turn 2 you can carry lots of speed up to turn 5. But again, the right amount of braking and right line into and through turn 5 gives you a passing opportunity (maybe) going into turn 6. I know there is “The wall” and rough track surface on the outside of turn 5 and people tend to take that section a bit more cautiously, but if done right, it is another area to make up time and setup for passing.
You seemed to be fast into/through turn 5. Too bad that pass attempt on the first lap didn’t work out! On the Xbox that inside curb is really high and you can’t easily make that type of pass work (especially on stiffly sprung cars).
Lastly I enjoy watching your videos but have a question about the sound. It seems to have a "rattle" nature to it when at speed. Is that wind noise, microphone overload, something loose, or something else?
Keep the videos coming!
Richard
Hi Richard,
Sorry I was posting from a phone last time.
First about the sound. I am recording from a Contour HD and I already lost a camera to a rock so the new one is in a protective case. That mutes the sound and the latch tends to rattle. I am working on getting a remote mic for it soon that should make the sound quality a lot better.
On RA,
Turn one is a great place to make up time. Most actually go into to slow, something I learned the hard way from the other guys last year. There is a lot of space on track out and as long as your turn in location is good you can really cary a lot of speed. That and T3/T4 are two turns I think I do well on at RA. Notice I actually carried more speed than many of the faster cars there. Basically you want enough speed that it carries you out to 3/4 to full track left, there is plenty of room.
T2 is not that critical to me. T3 is much more important. If you get T3 right you can carry full throttle all the way to T5. If your springs are soft enough you can really jump the curbing in T3 to carry even more speed. In T5 I use the outside curbing and pavement. It doesn't seem to unsettle the car much and you can go through that much faster.
T6 and braking into T6 is a great passing area. The turn in on camber so you can really carry a lot of speed and brake late if needed. It reminds me a lot of T8 at CMP.
Don't ask me about T10A and T10B since I don't think I really have that right and there were plenty of people doing T10-T11 better than me.
_________________
Marty Howard
2011 NASA SE Factory Five Challenge Champion
Track Events Logistics Coordinator - TZC/THSCC
2007 Factory Five Challenge Car.
http://www.mh-motorsports.com
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