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@teamsycamoreracing
Prospective livery for Season 27 of the FTCC
Prospective Livery for Season 26 of the FTCC
FTCC Season 25 Round 4
The Leadup to Road America
It's nearly a quarter way through the 25th season of the Forza Touring Car Championship, a season iconic not just for it being a significant milestone in the history of the series, but also for being one of the best attended season yet!
The season so far has been one of change within Team Sycamore's approach. There is now much less emphasis on intensive free practice sessions, and more on track familiarity and a solid overall tuning package. Learning how to handle the Volvo's weight and performance characteristics has also proved challenging (I will be writing a short piece on the car soon).
For the fourth round, the series is headed for Road America's east course. This is a ribbon I have never been very familiar with, even in passing on the single player content, so practice was necessary to avoid complete disaster and give myself a better chance at qualifying.
The section of Road America used here incorporates many of its faster sections and sweeping turns, as well as the iconic uphill start/finish straight. This could end up hurting the Volvo's chances, flavouring the lighter coupés such as the BMW 1M.
Expectations aren't too high, but points will be important here if I am to stay in the top 20 or stand any chance of breaking into the top 15.
Visit our forum at: forzafrs.freeforums.net
Prospective livery for Season 25 of the FTCC
FTCC Season 24
Prospective livery for season 24.
As per request, a collection of shots for the inaugural season of the TRAC Touring Car Championship starting soon!
TRAC TCC Season 1 Livery
FTCC Season 23 Livery
Temporary livery for independant entry for remainder of S22.
Upcoming Changes
Posted 14 June 2018
As it stands, I am in the midst up catching up with the blog after a few months of inactivity. This has caused me to have a rethink on the blog's current formula, as I believe that the current system isn't very time-friendly.
The current system has me writing up pre and post race reports individually, and in most cases very close to the event. With time and motivation being thin on the ground, a streamlined 2-post-per-week system will be starting soon, which will encompass the whole week's events at the start of the week, introducing the tracks and the thoughts going into the meetings, and a post at week's end to report on the events after the fact.
In making this change, I hope to make the blog look tidier for my current followers, and more attractive to new followers, should the situation arise.
All this leads up to a change in how the reports themselves are written. I will be abandoning the clunky HTML writing method and using the site's inbuilt tools and improved app functionality to make things easier.
Eventually this will all tie in with Team Sycamore's image rebrand, as the team's iconography, both on the cars and on the blog, will be undergoing a shakeup.
More to follow...
Season Debrief - Season 21
FORZA TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP
Posted: 12 June 2018
Having only been released a short time prior to signups, moving to the 2019 Hyundai Veloster N was a huge gamble, even more so to opt to represent the works team. Initial testing was positive, so Team Sycamore once more dived in face-first, myself and Mike at the helm.
The start of the season was shaky to say the least, and adjusting to the new wheels was challenging. The pressure was on to repeat, and to improve upon, last season’s performance.
Over the course of the season, we managed to up the pace, even getting pole position in one round. As it stood, it was too late in the season to really affect much, but we were both confident that the car had far more to offer.
Final Positions Mike Barlow: 12th Ciaran Reid: 15th
For more information on the Forza Touring Car Championship, as well as the sister championships of the Forza Racing Series, please visit the Official FRS website.
Prospective Livery for the Improved Production Championship Season 2
The Great Catchup - Part I
FORZA TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP - SEASON 21
So, season 21 has been long completed, and it was a huge learning experience, especially since this was the first season with the new “build your own” regulations.
Overall the season was very challenging. The car was tough to live with, and it took a long time to get any sort of results out of it. That being said, we were consistent - and consistency goes a long way over the course of a championship. So much so that I was able to finish the season higher than in any season before.
I finished the championship in 10th, whilst my teammate Mike finished 8th. We decided that we’d got as much out of the Juke as we were ever going to get, and that another season would merely be a frustration - better to finish on the high than get crushed the next season.
For more information on the Forza Touring Car Championship, as well as the sister championships of the Forza Racing Series, please visit the Official FRS website.
The Great Catchup
So I haven’t posted here in quite a long time, mainly for reasons of time constraints.
Over the next few days I’m posting a big catchup, all leading up to the start of Season 22 of the FTCC and the return of the Improved Production Championship, both coming next week!
Race Debrief - Round 7 - Prague
FORZA TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP
4th January 2018
It was that time again. For me, the highlight of the season is here. The narrow winding streets of the Old Town and the unforgiving barriers give the circuit a claustrophobic and frantic atmosphere which always makes for close racing and big crashes.
Qualifying - DNA - Technical Issues
Router issues saw both me and my teammate disconnect before Qualifying. While this didn’t put us dead last, we were in, from my standpoint, a bad position for the first sector meleè.
Feature Race - 25 Racing Laps - 1 Mandatory Pitstop
From the back of the grid there was always going to be a lot of work ahead, but a lapse in concentration caused me to miss the race start and I was immediately languishing at the back of the pack.
The first lap went surprisingly well and I avoided trouble, but in the fast section through Old Town I was caught out when the car in front understeered into the barrier and slowed down severely. Fortunately I was only a stone’s throw from the pitlane, but it was outside the pit window (being between 5 and 20 laps) so I was already at a huge disadvantage.
After emerging from the pitlane, I was immediately thrown into a blue flags situation. This made things difficult, as our cars were very evenly matched and I was trying not to fluff up either the lead car’s lap or my own charge to catch up after my extra pitstop.
Many laps passed and I had started to whittle down the competition as many other incidents put people down the order. It was then that I had the worst possible scenario - an unannounced incident on the bridge left one of the works Renaults stranded on the bridge. Seeing it at the last minute I had to swerve to avoid it - which the Juke does NOT like, and becomes very difficult to catch when control is lost. After hitting the bridge wall during the maneuver I had to pit yet again, but this time I was well within the mandatory pit window, and this would count as my mandatory stop.
As before, I had to play catchup and found myself up in 12th, nestled in a comfortable gap. It was nearing the end of the race and I had settled into a good rhythm. 2 laps from the end, however, I took the second turn too tight and collided with the inside wall, destroying my driveline and gearbox. Being so close to the start of the track, and being so close to the end of the race I had to pull off-track and retire. A disappointing end to an eventful race.
Final Position - DNF (Retired)
Sprint Race - 15 Racing Laps
With the grid reversed, I was on the front row for the start of race 2. I was hopeful that I could snatch first and let everything unfold behind me, sparing me the danger of being caught up in a major incident. What materialised, however, was quite the opposite.
Going into the first corner I was swamped - the Juke having a less than ideal off-the-line punch - and things were looking a little sketchy. I tried to open up some room by backing off slightly, but ended up harpooned down the inside by my teammate. This started a chain reaction of small collisions that eventually resulted in a pileup at the mouth of the tunnel. A safety car was then called, allowing me to catch up to the safety car train. I was able to escape major damage, and in turn an unplanned pitstop. This allowed me to climb up to a good position, well within the top ten.
While I had escaped the worst of damage, my right front suspension was heavily damaged. It wasn’t enough to badly affect the drive, but seconds trickled away each lap. It was a catch-22 - if I’d pitted, I would have lost slightly more time than if I stayed out. I was well and truly on damage control. I had a good position up in 5th place, but I lost a place due to the slightly slower car.
It wasn’t long before the next car began bearing down. The last 2 laps became a tense battleground to salvage points and offset having to retire in the Feature Race. The last corner of the last lap I was having my bumper chewed off by the car behind when the worst scenario possible happened.
One of the works Renaults had spun out before we had arrived at the final turn and attempted to rejoin the track just as we were halfway round. I had no hope of stopping or avoiding the car and hit it hard in the side causing the car behind, barely a millimetre off my bumper, to pile into the back of me. In that moment, I felt a pit of dread in my stomach - another race about to be decided by a broken car, and a lot of work for no points.
Miraculously my engine was fine and I had enough drive to make the finish line 200yds down the road and retain my position in what was nearly the worst possible meeting I’ve ever had.
Final Position - 6th
Final Thoughts…
The beginning of the meeting was certainly a letdown. I’d been looking forward to this meeting all week, and to be disconnected from qualifying was galling. The first race wasn’t much better, though I’d had a good run last time at Prague so I was due some troubles this time round.
Overall I was happy with the meeting. I still scored decent points, and I was happy with the setup - much moreso than in recent weeks. A definite progression..
For more information on the Forza Touring Car Championship, as well as the sister championships of the Forza Racing Series, please visit the Official FRS website.
Season 20 Catchup
DECEMBER 15TH 2017
Five rounds have passed, near enough the halfway point of the season, and the learning curve has been steep. The Nissan Juke isn't the easiest car to live with, and I certainly didn't choose it because it was the best car in the field. That said, I feel that myself and my teammate BarlowM51 have taken great strides.
Round 1 / 16th November / Autodromo Internazionale Mugello
With this marking the start of a new set of regulations in the FTCC, the saeson opener was always going to be an unknown quantity for every driver on the grid. This was true especially of TSR's debut. We struggled to find a solid tune to keep the car competitive. Between us, we scored very low and were left with a lot to think about.
Round 2 / 23rd November / Brands Hatch (Indy Circuit)
After a huddle between teammates about the setup of the car, we tried a new tune - somewhat more radical than the banal tuning calculator outputs. Round 2 also saw the first look at the dynamic weather system.
Previously the race organiser would choose whether each race/session would be wet or dry, according to the availability on each circuit - some only had dry conditions, others allowed rain. The only issue was the weather was the same all race. With the move to Forza 7, the weather can change between different presets allowing for changing conditions. Coupled with an probability system, not even the race organiser would set the course of the weather, but have no control over weather it would actually happen.
As predicted, in typical Brands Hatch style, the rain didn't hold off for long and started halfway through qualifying. This put spanners in anyone's attempts for a late-session hotlap - luck of the draw.
The results here were slightly more encouraging, and we both scored in both races putting our campaign on firmer footing going forward.
Round 3 / 30th November / Mount Panorama (Bathurst)
Due to real-life problems, I myself was unable to attend Round 3 leaving my teammate flying the Nissan flag. As expected, the tight twists and turns proved the undoing of many drivers. This allowed my teammate to make some gains through consistent driving.
Unfortunately, Alfa Romeo also made some major points and pushed them further ahead in the manufacturer's standings.
Round 4 / 7th December / Autodromo Nazionale Monza
A new round, and the team back together, it was time to take the fight to the opposition. Qualifying went extremely well for my teammate, taking a 2nd row start in 3rd.
During the first race, one of the other driver's internet connection degraded causing their car's position to be misread and the car jerked right across the circuit before even the first turn. This spun me round and put another car onto its roof. Fortunately Barlow finished pretty high, making up for the stunted finish I had to endure.
My luck didn't change much in the second race, being pushed wide and face-first into a tyre wall. I was able to make a lot of time back over the course of the race and we both finished with strong points-paying positions.
Round 5 / 14th December / Maple Valley Raceway
Round 5 makred the first time the FTCC had raced at the (fictional) scenic American circuit of Maple Valley since Season 14 (3 seasons before my time). Once again weather would play a huge factor in the following rounds.
Qualifying went better than expected, with us both landing in and around the top 10. This started us with a strong platform from which to make a push. Indeed, during the early part of the race I was able to push up the top 10, knocking on the door of the top 5 at times. Being stuck behind a battle in front of me, I elected to make a pitstop right on the opening of the window. Inadvertantly, by entering the pit lane that lap, I ended up avoiding a huge smash on the final turn. This brought me out in a safety car snake up in 2nd place.
This put me in the dream position - I'd already made my mandatory pitstop and I was top 3. If there was anything I was good at it's holding a position I have no business being in! For a time this worked, but the persistence of the Subaru behind me payed off and I slid to 3rd. This was the time that I made a huge push to combat the inevitible panic that I usually suffer when I'm overtaken.
If I'm going to slide down the field, I'll make them work for every position - one fight at a time.
This mantra certainly worked, and almost immediately I began to settle back into my groove and stop the destructive cycle of anxiety that plagued me in every race before. This didn't hold for long, taking a knock and sliding off the curcuit and tumbling down the order. The latter part of the race I was bullying the lone works Renault alongside Barlow - a fight which was decided by thousandths of a second.
The second race got off to a great start, being swarmed at turn 3 and thrown off the circuit and back down stone last. Due to frustration and impatience I ran wide, destroying my progress. After settling I was able to get back into the points.
Final Thoughts...
Over half the season remains, and I remain positive that we can only get better - the only issue is, the same can be said of the other drivers.
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