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eSENIORS GT3 INTERVIEW WIITH

ALESSANDRO DIAMANTE

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Please introduce yourself, tell us about you (age, nationality, profession) and how you became a simracer

 

Hello friends, my name is Alessandro Diamante, I am 51 years old and I am Italian; to be precise, I'm Sicilian and I live in Syracuse. I am a geologist and I work in the field of environmental remediation of soil and groundwater for the petrochemical industry. I have always been passionate about racing cars but I have never raced in motorsport competitions. As a teenager I satisfied my passion through racing video games, starting with Pitstop for the Commodore 64 home PC. Then, I devoted myself to university studies and work and only more recently, after marriage and two children, I started to get interested to simracing (Project CARS, Assetto Corsa and now Assetto Corsa Competizione).

 

How long have you played ACC ?

 

Until August 2020 I was playing with Project CARS 2 and then, despite some initial difficulties of adaptation, I decided to dedicate myself to Assetto Corsa Competizione which I think is much more realistic and satisfying.

 

How was it racing in the Eseniors Championship ?

 

Participating in the Eseniors championship was a lot of fun especially because I settled in very well, thanks to all the simracers, and you can breathe a good atmosphere of healthy competition.

 

 

How many hours did you spend preparing yourself for a Race, and why is it important  ?

 

I don't have much free time to prepare for a race. Considering that I don't play ACC every day, I think I don't exceed 6 or 8 hours a week. If I don't know a track, I also prepare myself by watching the video guides available on youtube. Preparation is important to regain confidence with the track and fine-tune the car according to the environmental conditions.

 

What kind of equipment do you use (wheel, pedals, PC, screen, etc) ?

 

I own a T300 steering wheel and a T-LCM pedal set both from Thrustmaster. Then I have a desktop PC with decent features (AMD Ryzen 5 2600x, RTX 2080 super, 500 GB ssd and 1000 GB HDD, 16 GB DDR4 RAM) and a 29-inch ultrawide single monitor.

 

Do you buy setups or do you setup your car alone ?

 

I have always studied how to change the setup to try to improve the car and make it more suited to my driving style (everything I read about the setup I have reported on my blog, making it available to all simracers). Lately I also wanted to try some setups available on the web but I must say that I have not had great advantages; the setup is something personal and therefore, if I have to be honest, I recommend that you learn how to modify the car setup yourself.

 

 

What makes you faster than the rest?

 

I don't think I'm faster than the others; rather, sometimes I am particularly inspired and I can express myself at my best, other times I cannot find the right concentration and I make mistakes.

 

 

What is you favorite car and why ?

 

I like many cars, some are sports cars like the Ferrari 288 GTO from 1984 or the F430, others are normal cars of the past with a particular design like the Citroen DS 'shark' or the Fiat 600 Multipla from the 1960s. If the question is about the cars available on ACC, my favorite is the Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO.

 

 

What is you favorite circuit (s) and why ?

 

My favorite track is Spa Francorchamps because it is difficult, hard and does not forgive mistakes, especially the section that leads from Eau Rouge to Blanchimont; practically it is the thesis for the real pilots.

 

Who are your childhood racing heroes ?

 

I got really passionate about Formula 1 thanks to Gilles Villeneuve, he was my hero.

I must say that growing up I also deeply admired Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, but Gilles is like first love: he never forgets.

 

 

What is the best advice you would to give to a simracer ?

 

Put passion into it, never give up even when the results are not good and try to enjoy even the duels that are not for the leading positions of the race.

 

 

Are you satisfied with the Eseniors organization, and do you have suggestions to help bring a higher level of competition ?

 

Yes, I am extremely satisfied and, from personal experience (I have also organized championships), I must say that I would not have been able to do better.

 

And finally, the most important question...how many speeding tickets have you accumulated to date ?

 

Hahaha …fortunately, none. I am extremely cautious when driving my real car.

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eSENIORS GT3 INTERVIEW WIITH

CARLO VANBRABANT

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Please introduce yourself, tell us about you (age, nationality, profession) and how you became a simracer

 

I am Carlo Vanbrabant, born in Genk, Belgium on January 26 1968, married no children, except for our two border collies (sisters) Penny and Fiona.

I lived in Belgium for 38 years, 7 years in the Netherlands, 7 years in Australia and now currently in the USA since 2012, my daily profession is Estimator for a steel stairs, rails and miscellaneous metals company in Dacono, Colorado, working from my home in Gold Beach, Oregon, about two minutes from the West Coast in USA, my hobbies are Mountain Biking, Motorcycle riding, watching all sorts of motorsports on two wheels or four, and obviously SIM Racing.

I always wanted to be a race car driver, but never found a sponsor crazy enough to sponsor me, ha-ha !

 

How long have you played ACC?

 

I have been playing ACC since they released the initial developer’s version, I bought it for $25.00 USD on Steam early access in 2018 I believe, the release was planned for the summer of that year.

It was kind of to help Kunos further develop the game and see how much interest there was from the public, the playability was great, graphics were terrible, but I was sold from the get-go, because it was a realistic driving experience and soon found out that the difficulty level bar was set high, it wasn’t just another arcade racing game.

 

How many hours did you spend preparing yourself for a Race, and why is it important?

 

On average I spend about 15-20 hours a week on practice and racing in ACC, reading/watching replays, track guides mostly from Unleashed Drivers.

It is a hobby, and you can spend as much time on a hobby as you want in my opinion.

 

Now, with three different classes to race in GT4, CUP car and GT3 it becomes a little harder setting up for all three classes, so I focus on GT3 more and learn the track that way, while for GT4 i typically take an aggressive setup, fuel up and go!

 

The Cup car is a different animal and needs time to setup correctly, the car is very lively, and to feel comfortable in the car, you need to spend time practicing finding a good balance both being quick and stay on the track, this car will take you for a spin in no time, it happened several times in a race.

Zandvoort was a perfect example, being in the lead extending that lead and spun around twice in the same race, which costed me the victory.

To me it is important to understand the car and it’s behavior, not only for qualification, but also do full 45-60 minute stints to see how the car is handling after all that time, consistency, fuel consumption, tire wear, etc.

The Cup is a nice class to drive, all equal cars and it really comes down to the skills of the driver having the car under control for an entire race. It separates the boys from the men (figure of speech)

 

What kind of equipment do you use (wheel, pedals, PC, screen, etc.)?

 

Recently I bought a hardcore gaming Lenovo Legion Y740-17 laptop, 9th gen I7 processor, with a RTX2060 8gig graphics card, 16gigs of RAM.

I use Rift-S VR goggles, Logitech Pro headphones, Thrustmaster T300 RS GT wheel with Thrustmaster T-LCM load cell pedal set, all bolted down in a recently bought open wheeler SIM Rig (still a work in progress since the cables need to be rerouted etc.)

No more using shoes to stop the office chair from rolling away when I am braking.

 

Do you buy setups or do you setup your car alone?

 

Oh my….the setups topic !! A bit of both to be honest

 

Since I was struggling on several tracks with the Porsche GT3 which is the hardest car to set up and make it fast, I bit the bullet and bought the entire Porsche GT3 setups from Coach Dave, just to see what the fuss was all about

Initially I thought I was making progress, but I started realizing that it wasn’t the setup that made the difference.

It’s an illusion to think that those setups make you think you’re unbeatable all of a sudden, sure there are some good pointers in the setup, but it doesn’t necessarily make you instantly faster.

 

I was spending more time tweaking the bought setups, and it struck me I could have started with a safe setup or aggressive and work my way forward.

The principal is the same, you want a fast car that handles well and can last an entire race and hopefully get on the podium or top five.

There is no shame in buying setups, the work is done for you by other sim drivers, if there is no time to figure it out yourself, fine go for it, but as I mentioned before it’s not some sort of voodoo that is going to make you the next sim version of Michael Schumacher.

 

What makes you faster than the rest?

 

I do not consider myself fast, in my opinion it’s all about track knowledge, finding the braking markers, entry speed into a turn, find the apex and on the throttle as soon as you can, tire temperatures play a big role, the traction control will sort you out it is there for a reason and in real GT3 the drivers use it too, it is a matter of not letting the TC (Traction Control) interfere too much though and limit the loss of acceleration on exit speed.

 

What is your favorite car and why?

 

Without a doubt, Porsche II GT3, it is the most difficult car in ACC in regards setup, handling, aero balance, but has the best acceleration and brakes, once you master to setup this car correctly it is the most rewarding car to drive.

For instance a Laguna Seca this race is a perfect example, I used a Coach Dave setup as a base and started tweaking toe front and rear, I wanted the car to rotate more, increased the preload on differential, increased tire pressure to correct setting and opened the ducts, reduced front splitter, lowered the front by 1mm lowered rear wing to an aero balance of 0.8, under fuel load for a 45 minute race the aero balance changes , another thing to keep in mind as the fuel level decreases the aero balance can become a factor in front end grip (fuel tank is in the front) and shared my setup with two other drivers, just to gauge the reaction, the results were mixed, but we (Jonathan Wood and myself) kept driving laps every evening on that circuit for at least an hour and we found time, lots of time and improvement during that week, result, #1 and #3 in Laguna Seca.

Then Lars Eklund gifted me a setup the 2 days before Race day, I tried it and was not immediately faster, but it worked really well after I got used to it, so I had another ace up the sleeve. On race day I used my own setup for Qualification with a time at 1.22.317 (the fastest I’ve been on that track) For the race I changed my mind in the last minute and used Lars’ setup which was a gamble but it worked brilliantly, very consistent with 21 laps in the 1.23’s

a race with 33 laps in 45 minutes and 1 liter of fuel left in the tank. It was a brilliant race!

 

What is your favorite circuit (s) and why?

 

Zolder… I was born near Zolder and lived there when I was a little kid in the late seventies, early eighties, the house we lived in was right near the track, close to the chicane where Gilles Villeneuve lost his life in 1982

Since the victory in Laguna Seca, Laguna and Zandvoort are my favorites of short circuits

Spa is another favorite track, the Belgian Ardennes circuit that is hard to master.

 

Who are your childhood racing heroes?

 

Many, every race car driver is some sort of a hero in my opinion, each in their particular way, having the ability of pushing the boundaries of a car, risking their life to become the best driver in the World.

If I had to pick one from my childhood, I would choose Niki Lauda, the massive accident that nearly killed him, didn’t stop him from racing, the determination to win was immense.

In later years I started watching WRC, drivers like Colin McRae, Richard Burns, Carlos Sainz, Sebastien Loeb and our Belgian WRC driver Thierry Neuville, driving a car fast on all sorts of surfaces is a gift that only very few people possess.

 

What is the best advice you would to give to a simracer?

 

#1 = Patience…..learn from mistakes made, pick a car that suits your driving style, start of with a forgiving car or front engine, start with a safe setup and learn tracks, do laps, lots of laps, not only hot laps, but 20 minute, 30 minute up to 60 minute stints (if you have the time) to understand the cars behavior and your capabilities to become consistent in braking and acceleration, trust me your lap times will eventually come down.

I am not a gifted driver, I learned through lots of trial and error and it is a good learning curve, it’s important to make the mistakes yourself and learn from them.

 

Are you satisfied with the eSeniors organization, and do you have suggestions to help bring a higher level of competition?

 

Very satisfied, without a doubt and I think I can say that for the entire group of members this is by far the most and greatest group of people and fellow drivers to spend your time with, At the beginning, I didn’t know what to expect, but soon found out that this was going to be a great group of people and drivers, several members expressed the same feeling and we all agreed on this statement.

The eSeniors Organization made Sim racing more enjoyable, and bring likeminded Sim drivers together from all over the world to have fun, the idea originated from two minds in Canada, and expanded to almost 300 people from all over the world, one word « Amazing !.

 

And finally, the most important question... how many speeding tickets have you accumulated to date?

 

I have been driving since 1985, Just 1 in Belgium, 1 in Australia, and 1 in the USA all in a car, none on a motorcycle

 

Thank you!

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