RCSO2 GT3 Racing

Apologies for not posting anything lately on here. We have been racing almost every week since September and we are having a blast with RCS-O2.

The software is robust and the racing is very close (in one race the top 3 finished on the same lap after 119 laps). Just by a combination of chance and little planning, the settings of cars and races enable very interesting strategies.

We start with 10 min practice (mainly to warm up motors and tyres), 5 min qualify and then 4 endurance races of 14 min each.

Last week we had different winners in each of the races. And for the first time we tried one race in dusk conditions (one ceiling light on out of three).

Not all the cars had lights fitted so I didn't push for more night racing.

But now things have changed. I installed lights in my Porsche 997s (which are used by some of the guys that have not bought their GT3 entry yet) and one BA Ferrari that belongs to Mike D.

Tomorrow, we should have more racing in the dark...but they do not yet

Now, my Porsche 997s are showing their limitations and some would like to get their own GT3 car to be a bit more competitive.

Yesterday we had a blast racing. We are so lucky here that the situation is under control.

I am going to photobomb this thread a bit with some grid pictures.

Below is my ideal grid of 10 cars. It is not going to happen on my track because it is only 20 meters but it would be nice at one point to have 10 drivers.

Some info about the cars you see here.

P1) Scalex Bentley MK1 with slot.it 3DP chassis. The body has been repainted with decals from MTR32 (I think this is the set that Tamar gave me when I first met him at Manchester in 2016 - my first DiSCA event). I have modified the body adding lots of details and at the same time making it lighter. This is my best performing Gt3. I have to do a detailed post on this.

P2) NSR AMG. This was a whitekit. decals from Atalaya. I have to say that this NSR is one of the best GT3 I have. I borrow this car to Alex (one of our fastest drivers) and he gives me a hard time.

P3) BA F458. This was a whitekit, decal from Patto. I raced this car in my first Suzuka/Best event and with Gary we managed to come 3rd. What a race ;-) It still performs well.

P4) Sideways M6. White kit with Atalays decals. This car is still not tuned properly. Brakes are not too weak (maybe a weak motor or too much weight on the body).

P5) BA F458 Momo. This is Mike D's car. Another nice car, well balanced and fast.

P6) Sideways Posrche 911. This is a nice car. It performs on par with the AMG, F458 and Bentley.

P7) Sideways Lambo. This was another whitekit. the decals were designed by Gary Skipp and printed by Colin. The decals were shipped to me in NZ where I finished the car before racing it at Suzuka/Best. This was a disastrous race for us (Gary and I). When the chip was playing ball the car was the fastest on the track but a serious issues with the firmware made the car unpredictable. We raced again this year on the same track. The car was fast but thanks to my limits we managed to secure only a 5th place as our best result. But we had a blast. This time we had a team of three: Gary, Alex and myself.

P8, P9, P10) NSR 997. These are one of my first NSR GT3 cars and also my Guinea pigs for getting oXigen racing started in my small club. They do perform well being very reliable but they are 0.5 sec slower than my other GT3s. These are the cars that I provide to the other racers that do not have a GT3 entry yet.

This is the grid for race 1 after the 5 min qualify session.

And this is a pic of the qualify results.

Results of race 1 and race 2:

Then for race 3 we went in dusk conditions and everyone improved the number of laps. My 123 laps in 14 min racing including two pitstops is the best so far for me.

Then we went in full dark conditions - the only light was coming from the two large monitors.

In full dark conditions things went south...but I enjoyed it never the less. The rest of the guys not so much. But they will get used to it ;-)

Last night another good racing night. 6 of us this time (Jan is up in the far North).

We did the usual 10 min practice to warm up the cars and in this case clean the track.

All the work that I have done on the carrera track LCs (removing some material on the cover for making room for the sensor board) and drilling the hole in the scaleauto metal chassis has left a fine layer of dust on the track.

By the time the practice was over the grip was back on track (sorry I could not resist ;-)).

Mike D just joined us in time for qualify. The track was a bit slower than previous week...maybe the grip was not up to scratch yet.

Notice team I-Team - that is Ian - in yellow with the slowest qualy time. More on this later

Once the grid was set to go, we started the first race.

However, while I was using the marshal tool to reinstate some damage points, I hit the wrong button and ended the race halfway.. Just after I had my pitstop and was battling to gain back the lead of the race. NOOOOOO!

We moved on to race 2 and this are the results. The last three drivers (let's say that they are in the AM category) all within the same lap but Ian came first. I should have taken a pic of their positions on the track.

But I was too keen to move to race 3 in dusk conditions.

Grid for Race 3 in dusk conditions. You can notice the difference with the full dark condition by looking at the pic in the previous post.

The dusk race is far the best race for us. We always do most of the laps in this condition.

In the PRO category, Alex (A-Team) and Mike D (Orakei Driver team) neck to neck. and just few laps behind G-Team.

Again I-Team in the AM category takes the lead this time with a substantial two lap gaps.

Finally, Race 4. We didn't start in reverse grid (forgot) and Alex and I were side by side on the first line.

However, in the heat of the moment he started before the lights went green....and a stop and go penalty was issued.

He lost 2 laps in the process but he did recover pretty well and minus some minor issues in the pitlane (controller brake button not responding) we finished in the same lap. Mike D not to far behind.

In the AM, again Ian took the win.

Why I am overemphasizing Ian's 4 wins in the AM? Because the three AM teams are racing NSR 997 all equally prepared by me.

However, Ian's power profile is not 100% as the rest of the AM teams but a bit lower set at 95%.

Although he is not putting down fastest laps over 14 min racing he managed to keep the car on the track for most of the time (very low damage points) and implemented a good racing strategy.

Of course he is aware that he is running with this profile. The main reason I switched for him was that at low fuel he could not keep the car on the track.

During yesterday qualy, he asked whether I could reinstated the 100% power which I refused....Now also Mike T (Kombi Team) wants less power.

hi Marcel

I am taking things easy at the moment and I am not doing a proper series yet.

Currently, we just race on the night without taking any points.

I am taking pictures of each results to keep track on how we are improving (or not) over each event.

I have a pool of 6 drivers (plus me). Usually 5 of us come quite regularly. This week I managed 6. But so far, we have not managed to get 7 cars around the track.

By EU, US, and even AU standards, our clubs in NZ are quite small. Even for analog. My analog club also averages 6 racers a night. Only once a month, we managed 10 racers when members from another club down from Hamilton (~100Km from Auckland) join us on the evening.

Before, when we were running a series, to keep people engaged we were counting a subset of the best scores over the series.

So for instance if the series consisted of 12 events, we would only count the best 10: Even if you missed out two events you could still win the series.

Along the same lines, I am not implementing any balance of performance: racing is pretty close as it is so no need to over complicating things. ;-)

But in the past, I experimented with damage points and power profiles (like performance ballast) and I have to say that I prefer the power profiles as a way to balance things even.

I am using auto-track call: the fact that the system detects when a car is not on the track (or powered) this is a cool feature.

I am also using auto-damage: so when the system detects that a car is not powered it automatically takes a damage point.

This means that if during a track call you stop on a dead flipper then you also lose a damage point (harsh I know but it can help spice things up and bad as good luck is part of racing).

The other aspect that I like of this feature is that when you lose a damage point also an extra bit of tyre wear is taken from your tyres.

I tried to use the reduction of power when losing damage points but I found the amount of power that is reduced is too harsh for our setup.

If I could set the power reduction to a 1% per damage point lost I would definitely use it but as it is currently implemented is not for us.

We had our first race of 2021 last week.

Reduced the profile for Terry (T-Team), Ian (I-Team) and Mike T (Kombi Team) to a 95% max power and made a huge difference in damage points.

Of the three, Ian is the most consistent one and nails the pitstops all the races. Terry can be fast but still struggles with the pitstops (managing fuel and tyres) and getting in the pit without missing the lane changer!

Mike T is improving on consistency pretty quickly.

I run the Scaleauto porsche RSR with slot.it AW pod. What a nice car. Looking forward to their latest release.

Following, some pics in of the cars and race results.

Racing has been slow lately but yesterday we had a full house: 7 cars on the grid!

Terry, Mike T and Ian all got their cars now. I spent the last weekend preparing all of them. Terry got the Slot.it Maser (which is a great GT3 car), Mike T the newly released Sideways M6 and Ian the Strakka Racing NSR AMG. The AMG is still missing - we are waiting for the body to arrive - so Ian had to race with the white 997.

I must admit that Practice and Qualify were very hectic.7 cars on the track and Terry and Mike T had their hands full with their new cars.

Alex and I did a very short qualify session setting our fastest laps and sit it out in the pit. Too many track calls to have a clean lap.

Qualy Results

Race 1 Grid

Race 1 results

Race 2 Grid

Race 2 Results

Race 3 Grid

Race 3 Results

Race 4 Grid

Race 4 Results

During the 4 races, people settled down and racing was very enjoyable.

Also reducing the power to 10 volts from 11 made a difference.

Terry and Mike opted for a reduced-power profile as well.

The result was lots of close battles all across the grid.