This is the last day of iRacing before the big race weekend at Portland International Raceways. The goal today was the same – another 20+ lap sessions, with no accidents, pushing for consistent, fast but not personal best laps. Just get into a rhythm and pound out lap, after lap, after lap – all near the limit (or at least mine).
The session started off normal, with low-1:20 lap times steadily falling and then suddenly, lap 6 – BOOM! 1:19.410 – new personal best.
I smell blood in the water…
That lap was good but there were some small mistakes, I can do better. So I put my head down and starting pounding away trying to repeat it and make improvements. over the next 10 or so laps, I got close several times and even spinning at one point, but keeping it out of the wall.
I checked up, let the tires cool down, as I would in real life and went back at it.
More mid-1:19’s and suddenly… 1:19.351 – another half tenth shaved off. But I wanted more, especially with a low fuel load, I knew I could do it. So I pushed on but ultimately, I dropped a tire on the exit of the chicane and ended up with a 1:19.398.
What happened?
I found that if I can slow down, just a tiny bit more, in the entrance of the ‘esses’ and turn 7 and the chicane, I was able to get the car turned faster and back on throttle and full throttle, sooner. Same lesson from before, just applying it better and better.
Check out the throttle traces of the graph below.
Now seeing as that new personal best was done at the end of the session, with yes lower fuel – it was also well past the peak performance of the tires. Something I started thinking about today, as I have been preparing for the Portland race this weekend, is that I’ve noticed that many times, in a real world race, my fastest lap of the race comes in around lap 2-4.
This is when the tires, brakes and everything are at their prime conditions. I wonder what could happen if we did a low fuel run, with just 5 or so laps and fresh tires? I am thinking that the lap times would come down significantly!