RD iRacing Star Mazda Series - Brands Hatch

Round 5 of the RDSMS series traveled to the legendary Brands Hatch race circuit. I had very little preparation for this event and was hoping to get lucky with a posted setup by a generous competitor. Sure enough, Lars and David both had theirs up for sharing. I jumped onto the server with about 5 minutes before qualifying and grabbed Lar's setup. I managed to shake out a few Brands Hatch cobwebs before going to quali.

Glenn at Brands Hatch

Qualification didn't go very well and I ended up not posting a time. Really, I was ok with that. I figured I'd go easy the first few laps to get used to the car and get my rhythm. I gridded 14th of 17 entrants. Team mate Eric was in the 10th spot and John Sydenstriker gridded 12th.

Eric at Brands Hatch

On the start I spun the car going into T2 braking hard to not rear end the driver in front of me. I drop to the last spot, but soldier on. Brands Hatch turned out to be a brutal course as many top drivers dropped out from accidents or fell back because of troubles. I had a few offs and twisted the nose a bit when I spun in T5. After that the car pushed a bit on the tight turns. With a few laps left in the race I found myself in the 5th spot. I had found my rhythm and was just turning laps. Go figure. So, I finished 5th, one lap down, and Eric was behind me in 6th. John finished in 13th, 16 laps down.



 Eric's RD report:
"Worked last week on a setup based on one found in the forums - got it down to the low 24's. Got on today and couldn't run a 25 with it. Luckily found Lar's setup in shared and it worked much better - right back in the 24's after stabilizing with an easy lap.

Blew my second lap qualifying, but the first was worth 10th on the grid.

Had car in gear and clutch in on the grid - apparently not enough of right foot on brake - as soon as the lights came on screen, i started rolling - instant black flag. The stop took a while because a) it changed all 4 tires and b) i was set to add to 19 gallons. Managed to get to the fuel menu and stop it at about 10 gal.

After that, it was avoiding mistakes for the rest of the race (only 4 inc in race). Paid off, making up 8 grid positions to 6th in the end. Kept an eye on the gap to Glenn for that one-more spot, but made up time far too slowly to have a chance.

Did anyone look at tires after the race? Mine certainly didn't feel very good after 20 laps..."


After 5 rounds, Eric is tied for 5th in points and John tied for 9th. I missed round 4 at Laguna Seca so I'm sitting in 13 place. Everyone gets two drops and I'm ok with dropping Laguna as it's not a track I like. In two weeks we go to Road Atlanta for round 6.