Battle for 1st Position!

Hi readers. It's been a real long time since my last update.

Due to my activity in Racevoltius, I abandoned my own website for around 3 months. You can read some of my post there if you speak BAHASA.

Yet, for you who do not speak BAHASA, I try to translate some of the engaging posts to be translated into English here. Maybe not all of my post but, I will try my best!

For you who speak BAHASA, you should do like Racevoltius fanpage on Facebook.

It's been a while since I do not update Super GT news.

(source: http://newsroom.toyota.co.jp/en/download/10265504)

Today when I open Supergt.net, there is a quite great announcement that there will be round 3 replacement for the last round, at Motegi Circuit. The format will be 2-days race, which the replacement will be held on Saturday. Surely it will be much more fun for you who live around there, included Tokyo.

Ah, I wish I were still in Tokyo during November 11th-13th haha.

(news source: https://supergt.net/news/single/16099)

Before the start of Monaco Grand Prix (or while you are watching Nurburgring 24 or preaparing some snacks for Indy 500), let me ask you a question. Are you familiar with "slipstream" term?

Slipstreaming, or some people say drafting, is a method used by racers to align their vehicle behind the opponent. When a car runs, there is a drag that is created from airflow. The faster it runs, the more drag will hit the car, causing some effects, like shaking vehicle or speed reduction. To memorize this thing, let's use "dirty air" terms.

Behind the dragged car, there is a space which has less drag effect compared to the front part. Let's use "clean air" to label this space. There are so many advantages for the rear racer to be in this clean air, such as:

- Decreasing drag, which will increase speed to overtake opponents
- Saving fuels

In stock car racing, slipstreaming is much more advantageous, not only for one driver. Clean air sector has slingshot effect which might attract rear drivers. Thus, despite of oval track, drivers still have chance to gain higher position if they can take advantage of this effect. Well, actually I still need to study the effect on stock car racing, due to the racing nature which differs from normal on-road racing.

Here it is my short glossary about slipstream. On the next glossary, I might continue my writing about racing flag rules.

Racing in the middle of a big city is not only Monaco's pride. Formula E has proven that many great cities around the world can be converted into a racing circuit, including Berlin. This weekend, the historical city of German's history will become a proving ground for 22 drivers to become the fastest one. Also, don't forget that Lucas Di Grassi and Sebastian Buemi are now competing really hard to become this season's champ.

I am interested very much on how Berlin is turned into a racing track. Just check out the video below!

This kind of street circuit always make me wonder. How about if my neighboring area holds one of Formula E racing? And I just find out that Mahindra Racing holds a kind of competition to transform New Delhi into a racing track. You might not want to miss the video below!

The race is about to happen some hours to go. If you think you are not about to go anywhere this Saturday, don't miss the battle of the 8th round of FIA Formula E! Watch all the session here

Unlike many other sports which basically have same basic rules for different championships, motorsport is an entirely different world. Each racing championship might have some slightly different rules, despite the fact that they might run in the very same circuit (for example F1 and GP2 championship, which both run on Catalunia Circuit). This time, I would like to share flag rules, which is one of the basic rules for many kinds of on-road racing championship.

This time, I will focus on the flag rules that shows the current condition of the track. Check it out the graphic's below!

Hope that simple explanation helps you in understanding flag rules. Next I will focus on the instruction flag rules. See you on the next part!

Just finished watching 2016 Spanish F1 Grandprix

To be honest, I made this racing blog to discuss many kinds of on road racing championship, but F1. Beside there are already so many F1 blogs out there, I already quite miss it a bit since 3 years ago. But, this year, Bernie Ecclestone's main business field seems to be more promising. Beside the success of Indonesian driver entering F1, there are countless drama on this season, included what happened this very day.

Starting with duo Mercs getting out of the race, I do feel that this series, F1 will show another great show to us, audience. My prejudice got stronger after knowing the fact that 4 drivers were still fighting for 1st position, until the last stint of the race. To be honest, it's a rare race, especially for nowadays F1.

Daniel Riccardo did had chance to get the 3rd podium, if only Vettel did not block his way. The Spaniard got a little bad luck with left rear tyre puncture, forcing him to do another stop. Fortunately, he defended his position until checkered flag was waved.

Superb race was shown by Jos Verstappen's son, Max Verstappen. The dutchman took the advantage of Mercs early withdrawal. Kimi Raikkonen couldn't even get close than 0.3 seconds to him. The junior's spirit did want to say that he must continue the racing spirit from his father.

I think, no other words should be spoken beside "BIG CONGRATULATION, MAX VERSTAPPEN". He made many great records today, not only winning since the first time he changed his uniform, but also for the youngest series winners record. I also hope that this year's F1 can get more and more interesting.

ps: This meme, I believe, will spread out like virus :p (credit to Racevoltius)

(translated: 18 years old, I won F1 race. What did you do during your 18 years old?)

I smell domination in GT500 (source Supergt.net)

Honestly!

I did miss Round 2 of Super GT championship. It was due to the fact that the race was held today, on WEDNESDAY! At first I was confused how can a race be held on weekdays. Then I find out that this is the week of Golden Week, when most Japanese get one full week holidays. There are many kinds of commemoration from April 29th-May 5th, like The Emperor's Birthday and Children's day.

I like the concept that JAF held one of Super GT series during a festive time. It's quite similar with English Premiere League's Boxing Day, which is always held on December 26th. No wonder my friend some hours ago posted his visit in Fuji Speedway.

Anyway, congrats to Nissan team. It seemed you enjoy your GT 500 and 300 victories in Toyota's cage.

Pardon for my randomness. Maybe some of you thinks the same way haha!

Anyway, I'd like to add one more tab called "Racing Glossary". I want to spread more info about basic rules of racing like flag rules, refueling, etc.

Hello petrolhead all over the world!

People say, if you can't make it into racing, just try racing sim. It doesn't need to be Nissan Academy level, though. As long as you have decent racing wheel and supportive system and game, you can feel what is it like to be a racer. That's at least what I felt some days ago, together with my friends.

Saturday night April 23rd 2016, around 9pm. I visited my friend, Cep Goldia who shares the same interest about motorsport. Together with some other friends, we did many things, mainly related to motorsport things. I was so excited because for the first time I got opportunity to talk about sport that I favored since almost 13 years ago. It was quite far from my current living area, around 1 hour trip by bike. For that reason I decided to camped at his house ^_^.

My main reason camped at Cep's house was to try Logitech DFGT, a perfect steering wheel for you to feel the sensation of racing/ driving. Before starting the game (I played rfactor on that picture), it is needed to configure the wheel, using Logitech's controller driver. By not doing so, rfactor couldn't recognize that wheel. There was no preset also in the setting, so that you need to install the driver first.

I tried some racing mods such as Formula E, FIA GT3 2010, and also F1 2016. For a newbie in racing sim like me, it was quite exhausting to master the control. It was also added the fact that I can't drive real car. Nevertheless, I kept trying and finally I could do it better even though there were still some spins, understeers, and oversteers. Shifting stick felt too small for me, so I used two small buttons behind the wheel to emulate paddle shifts. Not as comfy as Logitech G29 though, but I felt it quite enjoyable.

I also tried this wheel on Gran Turismo 6 on Cep's PS3 system. It took me only 2 laps to master it. After that I realized that different sims come with different treatment. There was almost no spin or oversteer when I played the latest installment of Polyphony Digital. I think I might save myself some money to purchase this racing wheel in the near future :p

That's it my little experience with Logitech DFGT Steering Wheel. Once again guys, if you do want to feel the sensation of racing, yet no time to concentrate yourself into professional racing, you should just buy this wheel. Last time I checked it was under IDR 2 million (USD 200) for the secondhand condition. Rather than risking yourself by doing illegal racing as well, go grab this wheel!

This Saturday marks the beginning of Paris series of Formula E. Entitled Visa Paris ePrix, 18 drivers will fight on Les Invalides complex, a beautiful landmark inherited from Louis XIV. One unique thing that I notice from this track is that the pitlane is separated quite far from Start-Finish line. It reminds me of some track configuration in the world like Nordschlife in German.

Another great News is that Michel Vaillant will make his debut in Formula E! Doesn't ring any bell? Michel Vaillant is iconic French comic character racing in many kinds of disciplines. Of course it is just a supporting campaign done by the marketing team. Nevertheless, I am quite surprised to find out that this iconic character is involved in Formula E as a part of Visa Paris ePrix promotion, It's such a creative way to attract younger audiences. Check out the full story here

Here they are news flash about the upcoming Visa Paris ePrix that will run Saturday, April 23rd 2016. Subscribe here to watch the entire session.

(image: motorsportretro.com)

During late 70's, there was a racing class division that might be remembered because of its unique body kit. The class was Group 5. If you haven't felt familiar with this class, just google Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM) championship which applied Group 5 specification cars. There were some generations of Group 5 classification. In this article, I will just focus on the latest generation, the special production class.

This generation first introduced in 1976, allowing some mass production cars to be modified following FIA regulations. Some parts like bonnet, roof, and doors however, were banned from being modified. Some cars used aero kits shaped like a box, even though some cars stayed on being curvy. Some machines raced in DRM championship were like Ford Capri Turbo, BMW M1, Lancia Beta, and Toyota Celica. Beside DRM, Group 5 class was also run in some other championships, mainly based in US and Japan.

US Based Group 5: GTX

(image: www.sportscardigest.com)

In United States, Group 5 racing championship was run under International Motor Sports Association, an organization sanctioning many kinds of State's motorsport series. One of the sanctioned series was IMSA GT Championship. This championship ran two different type of cars in each series, including mass production cars which in 1977 used Group 5 look like rules. This similar category was named GTX. Corvette Greenwood GTX, if I may say, could be categorized as the legendary car of this class.

Japan Based Group 5: Silhouette

(image: www.banovsky.com)

Same things also occured in Japan. In the land of Sunrise, Group 5 racing was run under Japanese Automobile Federation. There were several races that applied this class, such as All Japan Sports Prototype Championship and Super Silhouette. Nissan became star of the class by running Nisssan Skyline and Bluebird Silhouette. The Silhouette term means more or less the same with US's GTX. It tried to standardized Group 5 Class sanctioned by FIA. Unlike modified cars from Europe or US's , Japanese Silhouette cars tends to shaped like box, with huge spoiler and front bumper. This kinds of style rose the bosozoku phenomena in Japan.

So here it is a short article about Group 5 racing series. Its unique body kit might become your interest to watch. There are several videos on youtube which records about past races, if you get more interested.

When global warming is the issue, there are always some groups trying to solve the crisis. One of them is FIA. Together with Julius Bar (Private Bank from Switzerland), FIA holds a racing championship that makes you less worry about environment issue, entitled FIA Formula E. However, this championship is not only about racing championship that uses electric cars running across famous cities around the world. Aside go-green campaign, FIA Formula E also asks you to participate actively. Here they are some reasons why I call Formula E as a championship designated for millenials.

1. Boost the Drivers!

In each Formula E races, an extra speed boost will be given to the top three drivers most favorable by fans. Voting for favorite drivers will be open usually D-5 before the race begins (starting from this year, Formula E event will be held in Saturday, with Practice session in the morning, race time in the afternoon, local time). You can vote in many ways, starting from using hashtag of the drivers and send them via your own Instagram and Twitter. Or, you can download the app to make your vote more fun (as well as add more knowledge about Formula E itself :p).

2. Watch Directly from Youtube

It can't be denied that Youtube already becomes parts of people's life, including millenials. More people watch youtube to find their latest singer's videoclips instead of tuning on their TV. Formula E takes chance of this phenomena by airing the races live via youtube. You can also enjoy practice and qualifying sessions via the same link. It's not a new things, because some racing championships already did it since 2010s, like FIA GT1 and Bathrust 12 Hours. So wherever you are, it is still very possible to enjoy the fights of electric cars buzzing around the city. (as long as you have decent internet connection though :p). Ah, did I mention you can re-watch past races? Seems you get more interested. I got it, just subscribe here :)

3. Driver's Activities

Beside racing, there are also more things we can enjoy from the youtube channel, such as driver's insight, even sim racing battle between drivers! Those fun activities do surely worth to be spread and enjoyed by millenials. Even though some contents are a bit awkward, like drone vs FE race, but I think this approach can be developed much better in the future. Remember that most millenials tends to love easy-to-digest contents that can be spread quickly.

4. Snapchat Available!

Talking about easy-to-digest content, Snapchat becomes a hot trend recently. Formula E certainly doesn't want to miss this fact by launching its official FIAFormulaE Snapchat account. Honestly, I do not know how to use and make fun of this application. But from what I can get, it is quite fun to share your daily life via short video or picture via snapchat. There is a preview in the Formula E youtube, displaying some contents of the account. So, for you Snapchat users (whether you are millenials or not :p) you might wants to follow the account.

Yeah, those four reasons are some reasons why Formula E might attract younger audiences. We know that racing might be difficult to understand by some people (me myself sometimes find it quite difficult to understand pitstop strategy :p). But with such approach, more millenials people will be attracted, first by Formula E, then by many other races.

(Defending champion from Super GT Championship; Motul Autech Nismo)

Hi petrolhead all over the world!

Through this blog I will write my excitement in motorsport, especially in Super GT, Formula E, and many others non F1 and Moto GP racing championship. Yap, since there have been so many blog that write about those main races, I think I should try to write another championships which actually might excite you as well! Since it will be a blog, do not expect to get any latest informations about upcoming races. You can find them on motorsport.com or crash.net :)

So, that was my short introduction. Hope you enjoy it!

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