BMW 320 Gr5 @ Le Mans Sarthe 79 Enduro - Thu 29th July

[Stuart Thomson]

Servername: RD GTL Racing Club
Class: BMW 320 Gr5 mod
Track: Le Mans Sarthe 79 plus the required v1.1 fix
Start Time: 19.00 GMT
Prac & Quali: 60 min (unlimited laps) - we will forego prac & roll to a 60 min quali session @ 19.00GMT
Race: 26 laps

Note1: Click here to read the password and golden rules!
Note2: Default skins that come with the mod only
Note3: As this is a long race, at least one, probably multiple, pit stops will be required, so please check out Warren’s pitstop tutorial here: http://www.racedepartment.com/gt-legends/3302-gtl-pitstop-hints-tips.html

 

[Ross McGregor]

Sorry Ross, I thought that car looked more familiar than it should in Nige's first 320 event, my fault there.


Niceness, Nige :good:

It's alright, maybe a change would've been good for me since the orange bimmer has been more akin to a mobile chicane in the last couple of BMW events!

 

[Raf Nix]

sign me in please, if it's not too late, i'll try to join the server right now

 

[Stuart Thomson]

OK - I've rekicked the server with the correct length of practice, quali and race sessions.

We're all ready to go, plus it's on full automatic so I don't have to do anything.

GLA and see you in there

 

[Nigel Atkins]

the server keeps rebooting every few mins stu

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Odd - I'll restart it

 

[Stuart Thomson]

I'm in there now

 

[Stefan Beemsterboer]

can i join?

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

I never wanted to be the fastest in enduro but I always wanted to finish.... And I am very mad now - how is possible, when I lost my wheel, that in pit menu is option for repair it but after spending 120 second the wheel is still missing? OK, I said, it is only some bug because of other repairs, so I did another (2nd) laps without wheel, went into pits where I, for now, set only to repair suspension, again 120 sec of repairing and again the wheel was missing? no... with this I wasnt able to race anymore...

 

[Bob Miley]

Loved it!!!!!

More of a learning night and really tough on the old thumbs but it made me a convert.


See ya next Thursday night.

Cheers and congrats podium.

 

[Steven Palmer]

I never wanted to be the fastest in enduro but I always wanted to finish.... And I am very mad now - how is possible, when I lost my wheel, that in pit menu is option for repair it but after spending 120 second the wheel is still missing? OK, I said, it is only some bug because of other repairs, so I did another (2nd) laps without wheel, went into pits where I, for now, set only to repair suspension, again 120 sec of repairing and again the wheel was missing? no... with this I wasnt able to race anymore...

I don't think GTL put wheels back on......once they have gone they're gone


Great evening and some great driving, will write something more later

 

[Neil Gault]

Had some nice little fights tonight's and was very happy to finish 5th.

Lost a few places at the start as the slow starting Andreas Löffler moved to block me passing him on the inside which let 3 cars past on the outside :frown: so it was down to 9th very quickly. Thinking OK 9th is not too bad still a long way to go, and knowing how much time body damage can cost you hear both in the pits and on the straights i thought just avoid trouble and damage and it is not so bad. Had a laugh as Stu tried a couple of times to pass on the straight and failed :tongue: but he finally managed once he got a push from behind So things were looking fine, car was quick on the straight so it was looking good until i got tagged from behind at the end of the straight which spun me and i dropped to 14th with a slightly damaged car :frown:

Had a some scary moments myself as i often forgot to switch on auto clutch at the end of the straights and almost wrecked it a couple of times, but i made it back to the pits on lap 5 knowing it was the earliest stop i could make if there was a chance of 3 stopping, my first GTL pitstop went ok, got fuel and repairs but no tyres as i decided to see how things went before i thought about a change.

The rest of the race was much the same, make up a place here and there, crap yourself as you forget to switch on auto clutch, pray you are not going to hit the wall as you run wide at the end of the straight again (make note tyres are worn, brake sooner).

Last lap and we start in in 5th with 3.8 secs to Tudor in front, i knew i was closing him down but thought no way can i make up 3.8 secs and pass him in one lap but then he goes and does what I had been doing all night and he runs wide at the end of the straight so we exit side by side and i out dragged him :wink: and we are in 4th but exiting the slower corners my tyres could not find the grip and he got the better drive and took the place back. I could of retaken it as i grabbed the inside line going into the chicane but i thought why risk a crash at the end of what has been a good nights racing so i let him go and settled for 5th.

Thnx all for a good nights racing :doublethumb:

Here is a couple of funnies from the replay
first is some odd bales on the track & the second is a very determined Mr Kapal who i guess did not watch Top gear and learn how crap 3 wheeled cars were, this shot shows him as he drove all the way from the pits to the end of the straight with 3 wheels on his wagon, i have no idea how far he got or what he was doing but my guess is was looking for the wheel he lost the lap before :wink:

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Got to say, I only really threw up this enduro because I got a few requests for one. Enduros aren't really my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed this one, and even after my race ending accident, I'd done an hour and a half, and still really enjoyed it.

Perhaps we'll make this a regular, every two months thing. There are quite a few good enduro style tracks out there, and GTL has some great cars (both mod & default) that I think will scale nicely for these sort of events.

 

[Tudor Morris]

Great race last night. Enduros can be very dull, but in this one I always had someone to chase/be chased by. Definitely in my top 5 for enjoyment.

The opening lap was a little frenetic and I decided to take the long view rather than have an incident early on. Drafting down Mulsanne was great fun, with the house brick aero of the beemer making passes very difficult.

I was able to do 7 lap stints which after my first stint left me in third. There was no way I was going to catch the ETs up front (sorry not familiar with names yet) who seemed to be in a race of their own. All was going well until lap 12/13 when I made 2 horrible mistakes at each end of Mulsanne losing me 30 or 40 secs and taking damage which I carried for the remainder of race.

Now in 4th I made my last stop at the end of lap 21, but in my panic to get out quickly I slightly underfilled. I was being closed down fast by Neil and was trying to save fuel but maintain corner speed. As Neil said, on the last lap I got it wrong at the end of Mulsanne and he passed me. We drove side by side down the back straight, but he had the inside line through Indianapolis. I held back and decided on a do or die blast out of Arnage and was able to get better traction and pass. As I approached the chicane complex the car gave a splutter and cut out completely just as I crossed the line. Perfect strategy

Congrats to the pody and all who organised/took part.

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

Hey hey hey Neil, thanks for notice, I still have nice feelings from the race - I should got metal for my 3 wheels trip, because I didnt hurt anyone and finish 2 laps with them, and there is an answer why - I was trying to fix it, because I though that in pit they will be able to make it - they didnt, so, after 2nd try I shut it down, because of safety driving

and that straw over there was my job - I wasnt trying to be in your way, just wanted to add some chicane on the track

 

[Neil Gault]

Perhaps we'll make this a regular, every two months thing. There are quite a few good enduro style tracks out there, and GTL has some great cars (both mod & default) that I think will scale nicely for these sort of events.

I certainly hope so as here are some great old tracks out there, Rouen & Sachsenring 1967 are two that spring to mind and one i also fancy trying is the 67 version of Spa

 

[Stuart Thomson]

If anyone (especially those who participated last night) has any ideas about possible future enduro events, post them up - keep them in here for now.

And - just because it's a long race doesn't mean we have to necessarily use particularly powerful, or even modern, cars or particularly long tracks. There are some great candidates in all classes of car, and track layouts to suit all vehicles.

As long as we match the car to the track properly, there's no reason why we shouldn't have some cracking events.

The only thing to bear in mind is that the 320 is light on it's feet, it's tyres are especially durable, and LeMans isn't actually that hard on the tyres.

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

I dont know, how is there working Nurburgring? (not GP, not Nordschleife) is there even some? I mean it is another tricky and traditional track for enduro, but it is just idea which I have from the other games, I dont know how it can works in GTL

 

[Carlos Diaz]

I was looking forward to this, but my night ended early when I locked up the brakes and slid nose first into the wall killing the motor. Oh well, at least I got to practice making pitstops which I wasn't very comfortable with before. I'm just glad I didn't take anyone out in the process.

EDIT: Where are my manners? I forgot to thank Thommo for putting together such an awesome event which finished the series with a bang. These cars are a lot of fun to drive on the edge, you never know when you are going to push a bit too far and get bitten. They always keep you on your toes.

 

[Bob Hutchins]

Well, that was a great end to a series that was imo one of the best. The cars were just awesome and the track choices were outstanding.

For this last event I hoped to go out with a good result. In quali I posted my best time although those up the sharp end of the grid were alien like but what the heck this if just for fun which in these cars comes in huge bundles. After the start all clean away and off down the Mulsanne straight and all going well. Following Ross very closely and through the hairpin at the end. Now heading towards Indianapolis and over shoot my braking, what a clutts. Now on the back foot and manage to spin on the next lap at the Mulsanne hairpin & on the third lap spin again but this time in the Ford chicanes, 3 times in as many laps. Now on my own near the back I just tried to string some clean laps together, which I did, and headed for my first of many pitstops. After meeting others that had their issues and having a few more spins 2 hours later I crossed the line in a lonely 8th. At least I managed to finish and brought a nice tidy car back.

This was a great event on one of the most awesome of tracks you can race on. I had a ball even though I messed up in the begining but as we drivers say, sh*t happens.

Thanks Stu for bringing this great mod to the GTL club and for setting up a brilliant finale. Thanks to all the guys that raced this mod over the series and grts to all the many winners & podium finishers. WD to Ralf for crossing the line first in this epic enduro and for those who got on the podium at Le Mans. Also not forgetting all those that raced tonight, thanks guys for a memorable race.

 

[Bob Hutchins]

Perhaps we'll make this a regular, every two months thing. There are quite a few good enduro style tracks out there, and GTL has some great cars (both mod & default) that I think will scale nicely for these sort of events.

OK Stu, will start to make a list but one, apart from what Neil wrote, is Rattlesnake & Limerock Mnt. Ok that's 2 but both great tracks.