31 May 2022 Race Report
During the lockdown, DigiPlat Racing have been competing in the new Britcar eSeries on Assetto Corsa. Sim Racing is a great way to give us a bit of competitive buzz while we're otherwise unable to compete due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Round 2 of the series took us to Silverstone GP, and DigiPlat Racing driver Nathan Wells was in a BMW Z4 GT3.
Nathan explains:
"We’d struggled with the setup in practice, and ended up making a bit of a compromise between one lap speed and keeping the tyres in decent shape over a full race distance. We managed to get all we could out of the car in qualifying, and I was pretty satisfied we were closer to the Brabhams and the likes of Morgan Short and Sam Neary than we were at Spa."
"I got a good start in the race (despite having to take to the grass on the run down to Abbey!), and was running in 3rd or 4th for a while before I started dropping down. Had a bit of a scrap with Sam Neary mid-race and came off worse, which put me back to 6th. But it was all academic really as I’d underfuelled the car by about a lap, and had to lift and coast and short shift to make it to the end of the race. One of the Brabhams was closing in so I had to gamble on the last lap and go for it in order to keep him behind, but we just about made it across the line, running on fumes."
"In race two, I got another good start, and managed to make my way up to 3rd in the early stages. We’d opted for a more aggressive qualifying setup this time which gave me good pace in the early running, but the moment I started thinking I might be on for another podium, the fronts pretty much died and the guys behind caught up. I got caught for cutting the corner at Maggots when I was defending from Morgan Short, so I had to yield at the end of the lap to avoid a penalty, and then Sam Neary got past me as well. But we got a bit lucky at the end when Jan Magnussen and Sam had a coming together in front of us, and I was able to grab 4th."
"Very happy with 4th place given the calibre of drivers on the grid. It’s slightly surreal racing wheel-to-wheel with F1 and Le Mans legends like Jan Magnussen and David Brabham, but that’s the beauty of the Britcar eSeries! Roll on Brands Hatch, and hopefully we can close the gap to the Brabhams a bit more and fight them on outright pace next time out".
