Road Atlanta Preview

Hello and Welcome to the first race preview! so lets crack on:
The next race is round 8 of the series at Road Atlanta Speedway, and it's very close at the top!

1st in the standings is SoW Achill on 168, even though he missed the last round at Sunset Peninsula he is still 2 points infront of Jenson09 (166) who had a bad round last time, connection problems costing him at least 15 points!
3rd in the standings is Jimmy Storie on 163, who missed the last round of the championship too. He's also a real threat to the title and has had some top results so far this season. 4th is TVR fan with 151 and 5th is Chucky 1982 with 150! The championship is so close that to seperate the drivers into a 'top' group you would have to go back down to 7th place! all the drivers in the top 7 have a realistic chance of winning the championship in the next 2 races!

RESULTS AFTER ROUND 7:

1) SoW Achill: 168

2) jenson09: 166

3) Jimmy Storie: 163

4) TVR Fan: 151

5) Chucky 1982: 150

6) Horselegs: 148

7) GR33N TORTUGA: 142

8: FIR3START3R UK: 118

9) Highcroft: 112

10) SoW Sangheli: 90

11) MTR PR3DATOR: 90

12) culchi: 77

13) TLM SUPERSTAR: 74

14) MonkOfMadness2: 52

15) Legg2k8: 50

16) flyboypete: 46

17) samurai1000: 38

18) LilMissNephnie: 36

19) Lord of all joy: 32

Road Atlanta Speedway is a complete contrast to Sunset Peninsula, the cars minimum speed is about 70mph! the circuit is covered with fast swooping corners and hills, drops and blind corners. Drivers will be trying very hard to get every inch out of the track, but it's not always the fastest wa around here.



Turn 1: This is the first corner on the track, approach on the far left and make sure that you don't miss the apex here, because the grass doesn't take long to make friends with your wheels!
Turn 2: This is the small left hander before you go over the crest of turn 3, keep it flat and stay left until you pass the end of the kerb on the left low to fourth gear and aim at a cone on the inside.
Turn 3: That cone is turn 3, and you don't want to mess this up, aim at it and try to crash straight into it taking as much speed as possible, if you get it right you can just run across the white kerb on the inside and collect no penalty, and still have a good exit speed if you can just keep it off the grass on the inside at turn 4.
Turn 4: Sweeping back to the left and preparing for the long right hander down the hill into Turn 5, try to keep it flt and keep on the track, if you mess up here there will be a big crash!
Turn 5: Coming back up the fast hill now, try to brake as late as possible and hit the kerb on the right hand side before you turn in, then run onto the kerb on the outside but don't go past it, because you'll find a hefty penalty for that.
Turn 6: Turn in early for this one because there is a white, banked concrete line on the inside which you can follow all the way through the corner, but watch your exit because you will find the grass easily.
Turn 7: There is also a white concrete line through this corner, follow it and hit the outside kerb to get as much speed as possible out of the corner onto the straight.
Turn 8: Doesn't exist, you can brake here and crash into the barrier if you want.
Turn 9: get in tight and keep it flat to the floor, more of a bend in the straight then a corner.
Turn 10a: Get really wide for the entry, brake at about 150 metres and get all over the inside kerb, then get to the centre of the track for trn 10b
Turn 10b: Take loads of kerb here too, DO NOT RUN WIDE! that will really cost you in the gravel and up a hill aswell,
Turn 11: Get in tight under the bridge and get wide for turn 11, this is the entrance to the final corner and follow the outside until you absolutely have to turn in!
Turn 12: Keep your foot in and don't take any kerb on the inside, make sure you don't lift unless you really have to. Keep it flat and you'll get a fast lap. This should be taken as one big swoop, all the way from the bidge, get tight under the bridge to the grass and head straight for the yellow line on the tarmac on the outside, as soon as you hit the line turn right smoothly and let the car ride through the corner.

Set-up wise the drivers will be looking towards more downforce and softer rear suspension to keep the front end direct and to keep grip in the back wheels. Gear ratios are going to be the main factor here, because you want good acceleration up the hills, onto the straight and out of the chicane, but a fast top speed for the straight and the fast corners. The track will favour the four-wheel-drive cars because they can keep their grip, but the understeering nature will also hinder them, so the best overtaking oppertunities are going to be around the early apex corners, where if you can get a four-wheel-drive car on the outside they will have no return.

The rear wheel drive cars will have to crank on the downforce for this one to keep the grip in the rear, keeping the car absolutely stuck to the road and being able to trust your car will really help in qualifying.

Braking is going to be another problem for some of the drivers, without ABS it's going to be difficult for the drivers coming down the fast straight to braking from about 165mph into the chicane. So watch out for crashes here.

TOP TIPS:
1: Keep it flat around the last corner.
2: Don't worry if you aren't going as fast as possible everywhere, around here lines are sometimes more important than outright speed.
3: In Qualifying don't push too hard, that 0.2 of a second you saved by going fast wasn't worth the 2.0 seconds of penalty.
So thanks for reading and i'll see you on sunday, hope you enjoyed the first installment.

Monk