Winton is a tight and technical track with one of the slowest average speeds on the calendar. Qualifying is imperative and passing will be at a premium so it will be full elbows out warfare when cars take to the track for Round 2. To find out what it takes to be succesful here we spoke to Blake Worboys from WK&P SimSports.
1 - Overtaking
Passing at Winton is very hard with how narrow the track is and how short the straights are making track position king. To be able to complete a clean pass great drive off the preceding corner to along side the car you are trying to pass is critical. If only a small overlap is achieved the defending car will be able to hold position around the outside and keep the spot. Qualifying well will be a critical part of a successful race. Watch out for people also trying to undercut in the pits to get track position.
2 - Car Setup
A well-balanced setup that is able to handle the flowing nature of the track but also the start stop aspects will be key. Having a car that flows well through the faster sections of the track will help maintain gaps to cars behind but in turn one that stops well, rotates through the corner and accelerates well off the tight middle sector of the track will help pull a gap to the preceding car and close the gap and attack those in front.
3 - Technique
Driving flow will be very important to be consistent at Winton. With the short straights between some corners and others where corners are linked it is easy to make a mistake, get out of the flow of the track and loose valuable time. Once you run wide at one corner is hurts your entry to the next costing you time.
4 - Pit Entry
The pit entry at Winton is very narrow and easy to get wrong. The pit entry leaves very little room for error. As you make your way into pit entry you realize how narrow the run into the pits is. If you lock a brake into the first turn of the entry the tire barrier sneaks up on you very quick and you could have a face full of tire. The small chicane can also lead to an off track is cut to fine which may dig into those valuable incident points.
5 - Pit Exit
The pit exit is one that has seen some major incident in the real world V8’s and is sure to cause some drama in the sim as well. With the blend line of the exit finishing in the braking zone of turn 1 it compromises the run of the car exiting the pits in the turn 1 and 2 chicane which if timed correctly can give an opportunity to an opponent who is already at race pace to make a move into turn 3.
If a car exits the pits, side by side with an opponent already up to speed on the track, turn 1 can go one of two ways.
The two cars come together sending them both through the chicane or spinning. Or they give each other enough room to battle on side by side into turn 3, more times than not is results in contact.
