RD Le Mans Series Season 5 (rFactor 2)

[Frederic Schornstein]

Shall we do a race 2 with a reversed grid this weekend as I am already getting VWEC withdrawal symptoms

After Bahrain I would have said yes, but 12 hours at Losail were enough for me (around 4,5 hours in the car)

I hope we get some early infos regarding next season. We will (unofficial result) be second in the championship, so we are motivated to get 1 place better next year

 

[David O'Reilly]

Shall we do a race 2 with a reversed grid this weekend as I am already getting VWEC withdrawal symptoms

I know what you mean. I feel exhausted but as if I should be doing something. In the virtual world I had wheeled the Figjam Racing GTR GT1 # into the team garage and put a dust cover over it.

I took a look at the Figjam Racing FR 3.5 and thought "I had better lose a little weight, strenthen my neck muscles, put some hair colour in, buy a big watch, get some ear rings and have a facial if I want to fit in with the open wheeler youngsters" I also noticed that Figjam Racing and Formula Renault have the same initials, so my car will be the FR FR 3.5.

I dont want to wait months to race her# again but this weekend is a bit soon for me.

Maybe a couple/few 2 hour races? "Endurance Club Series" to drum up interest for next season.
In this way:
1 driver can do it at a pinch but 2 if desired.
Allow all VWEC cars to be used so a team of 4 can make 2 smaller teams.
Not so tiring and family wont miss us too much.
Evaluate tracks.
maybe even try another class of car?
We all have setups now so will be a bit easier.

 

[Marco Bijl]

I was just thinking about something with a 2 and a 4 in it . I just used the numbers a bit different then you did David

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

I was just thinking about something with a 2 and a 4 in it . I just used the numbers a bit different then you did David

2 hour races would be great with 1 to 3 cars per team (in the same class) with 1 driver swap.
Imagine we would have 2 cars per team with a field like in Bahrain, that would be a challange for the server with 60 cars, but I would love it.

 

[Christian Michel]

Nice Quali Lap Frederic, would have been close if i could have participated but sadly i couldn't take part in the race cause i needed and still need to recover from a surgery

Congratulations to the Winners.

I like the Idea of doing some 2 hours races, well in order to bridge the time for next Season where im surely back in Shape

 

[Andrew Ford]

Nice Quali Lap Frederic, would have been close if i could have participated but sadly i couldn't take part in the race cause i needed and still need to recover from a surgery

Congratulations to the Winners.

I like the Idea of doing some 2 hours races, well in order to bridge the time for next Season where im surely back in Shape

get well soon christian. i wondered where you were

 

[Marco Bijl]

I have to look into that. In principle, I should be able to supply the .xml result file, and with the offline result parser, you should be able to view all you want to.

Will look tonight, as I can't access the servers from this location.

I have a problem importing the results file. Loaders keep crashing. Need a bit more time. Did not forgot about it

 

[Yoeri Gijsen]

OFFICIAL RESULTS

 

[Yoeri Gijsen]

Finally... The Official Results of the VWEC 2013 12 Hours of Losail!

Click Here

 

[Yoeri Gijsen]

Congratulations to our champions!

The results are official. The winners of the Virtual World Endurance Championship are:

GT1 | Speden Spelit
GT2 | Project Resistance Racing
GT4 | SimRace Vereniging Nederland

The season summary can be found HERE.

 

[Yoeri Gijsen]

The first season of the series has ended. Time to look back and move forward.

In this thread we ask each willing driver to write down his views on the past season. Write as little or as much as you like. All feedback is welcome. We do ask you to keep it constructive. If you could formulate answers to the following three questions we'd be much obliged. Thanks in advance!

1) What did you like about this season? What worked well? What should we leave unchanged? Why?

2) What did you not like about this season? What area can we improve on? Why?

3) What suggestions or tips do you have for future season? Why those?

NOTE: this is not a discussion thread. Please do not respond to previous messages. Only post your views in answers to teh above questions.

 

[Richard Blokker]

First off all, thnx for organizing such an event! We love to drive endurance racing, and we are looking forward to the next one.

1) What did you like about this season? What worked well? What should we leave unchanged? Why?
Using rF2! It give's me alot more fun then rFactor 1, the physics are way better.
Edit:
Off course, i must give credits for the live timing. great work from that. Also with rejoin possibility.

2) What did you not like about this season? What area can we improve on? Why?
- Last call updates
- Problems HDR / Night
- Problems Plugins (race 1)
- Feeling kind of chaotic sometimes.
- Lack of communication (no servers online, no responses in that time??)

3) What suggestions or tips do you have for future season? Why those?
especially, make the organisation bigger! .
Spread the work among multiple people instead 1 of 2. Thereby you will increase production of work and decreause the amount stress

 

[Andrew Ford]

I'd like to second what Richard said. This was the first inspiring event in rfactor 2 that I have witnessed on RD. So many people enjoyed it.
1) What did you like about this season? What worked well? What should we leave unchanged? Why?

I loved the Bahrain race. The broadcast was pretty good with commentary. I liked how many people signed up, the live timing alongside the track map (which was really useful). The driving standards were generally very, very good - mainly the backmarkers. Also, responses to driver errors at Losail - dealt with really honestly. The server issues from round 1 were dealt with well due to the mods investigating over time. thumbs up
.
Keep same: Agreement for all teams - the TOLA to ensure teams actually COMMIT.
Live timing and some kind of track viewer to help inform teams.
Use well known tracks such as bahrain.
Maintain commitment to dealing fairly with race incidents and penalties to match crime.

2) What did you not like about this season? What area can we improve on? Why?
I still enjoyed Losail and I understand the mods are busy. However, round 3 was a major let down compared to round 2 at bahrain. THis event had so much potential to attract more users to rd and rfactor 2 but success was not built upon.Why?

A)There was next to no build up anywhere to advertise the final race - no articles hyping it up, no information about who, what, where ,when, why...
B) I have no idea why, in a 12 hour race, there was no commentary for the final race for such long periods. I have no idea what the issues are with ron squire tbh and have no allegiance to anyone..but i would rather him commentate for 12 hours than an eery silence with no info...especially as he was willing
C) When David O'Reilly came up with the idea for each team to post info about themselves to aid the live broadcast, our team spent a while putting together something useful. However, I didn't hear any reference to it in the commentary ..so why did we bother?
D)the losail track was actually a nice track and a nice test but it was too much work at too late notice. There was so much uncertainty about the lighting and hotspots as we didn't have the final version until about 1 day before the race.
E nearly forgot, the lighting in bahrain - the hdr profile which ruined our race. We understand this was part of the learning process but it was an obvious dislike.Sorry!
F) If we had a TOLA asking teams to promise to participate in all races, what happened to those that didn't? I understand people need to make driver changes due to life circumstances but surely if you enter 3 teams, it is your responsibility to have reserve drivers OR SEND SOMEBODY OUT. otherwise, what is the point in the TOLA? Here are the rules...you must obey..but if you don't, don't worry about it?lol Just saying...

3) What suggestions or tips do you have for future season? Why those?
In a nutshell....
*Better Info share well in advance between mods and teams.

*Introduce LMP1 cars if this is now possible (I understand they weren't available before)

*Use well known tracks or prepare weeks in advance.

*Increase staff - media team with reserves - commentators, reporters, advertisers and moderators to monitor server - keep training people up. Lose the attitude of, "Well we've asked the community but nobody replies" and change it to, "We're going to ask regular members individually and make them feel valued - to fulfill a role for us...however small." (being pro-active)

*Use timetables so that there are no last minute panics- duties covered if mods are away/ill etc

*hype, hype and more hype on RD,

*Ensure teams have reserve drivers - it should be their responsibility (remind them of the TOLA)

*Ask teams for basic info...only if it is going to be used in full or nearly full.

*HDR testing and agree with all teams - info on this for all who are new to the races

If this is to work and drivers, mods are putting so much time in, it really needs advertising and selling and then broadcasting with nice reviews afterwards. It's meant to be fun and it's only sim racing...but it's also a lot of time invested by all in a VWEC. We can't do half hearted. It has to be full steam ahead especially as so many are playing AC. This is one alternative that rfactor 2 offers which AC can't deal with so well.This probably sounds ruthless but its necessary AND AGAIN, I DO THINK THE MODS ARE AMAZING!

 

[Dennis]

1) What did you like about this season?

- staff resolved issues quickly during the race
- sessions started on time
- live track map and scoring info
- changing weather and daylight
- broadcast in race 2 (nonstop commentary, interviews, different camera angles)
- briefing without having to switch channels
- traction control

2) What did you not like about this season?
- "yellow cars" after a disconnect (resulted in dangerous situations because it's hard to guess their speed)
- bugs in the timing software (laps not being counted, track map starting to lag at the end of a race)
- no central place were the links to track map and timing are posted (or that place is well hidden^^)

3) What suggestions or tips do you have for future season?

- track map: assign colors by class (easier to navigate your driver through traffic)
- live timing: display current weather on track
- make use of global TS during the race (announce when the safety car is going to come in etc )
- if a lot of people should be complaining about TC: still allow it in lower classes
- prototypes would be nice

 

[Rui F. Martins]

1) What did you like about this season? What worked well? What should we leave unchanged? Why?

I really liked the use of a new platform, i was a bit skeptic about changing to rfactor2 but i think it was a good choice, it improved the experiene a lopt with the new tire model, weather and the dinamic racing line.
I also like the duration of the races and racing in the dark. The duration of the races was well spread with multiple durations, which is nice in my opinion

2) What did you not like about this season? What area can we improve on? Why?

it's not that i didnd't liked it but i liked it better in previous seasons, is the use of prototypes, this season was very nice with the selection of cars, but i think that the name sugested the use of prototypes, but i understand the decision, and it was a great season
Another point i would like to see "improved" could be the amount of rounds, i'm not saying that we should have 10 rounds, but i think that 1 or 2 more rounds would be nice, i think that a 4 or 5 rounds championship would be nice.

3) What suggestions or tips do you have for future season? Why those?

As i said before the amount of rounds could be increased and i hink that it would be nice if the length of some races was determined by distance and not by time, for example we could have a 8 hour race, a 12 hour race, 2 500km races and a 1500km race, something along those lines, in order to increase the variety of the races.




One thing that i would like to sugest (this coud be too much work to be done) is to do 2 endurance championships during the year. One being the VWEC with the gt cars (gt2 and gt1) and (when and if there are avaible mods) with prototypes, in one half of the year (for example from March to June) and another with only gt cars like the Blancpain endurance series, using the gt4, gt3 and maybe the gt2 cars and run this championship in another time of the year, for example from Septembet to December. I'm not sure if this last sugestion is possible due to the amount of work it would require from the admins, which also have their own life and can't spend their entire life setting this up, this was just something that crossed my mind.

 

[Christian Michel]

1) What did you like about this season? What worked well? What should we leave unchanged? Why?

I just competed in the first 2 Races so i can just talk about my experience of these 2. The Racing as it was very good, close but fair fights.
The Livetiming was nice and the Trackmap in Bahrain was cool as well. Nice to follow your Mates while they drive.

The timetable worked pretty well at the second race which is quite good. The first Race was horrible in this way.

2) What did you not like about this season? What area can we improve on? Why?

In my Opinion you guys should maybe think about reducing the Field to just two categories and maybe a driver limit per car (maybe 3).
I mean some Teams had 6 Drivers up there for a 6 hours race...im not saying that this is bad but if there would be a driver limit we could get much more cars in, which results in more competition which everyone is looking for i think. In the Bahrain race there were just 6-8 cars per Group, which are effectively the only cars you're racing against. If there would be two categories with 12 cars it would be much more fun.

3) What suggestions or tips do you have for future season? Why those?

The big Problem in my Opionion of 12 Hour races is, if there is someone in the Team - if youre 3 guys for example, that can't take part its very hard to drive 12 hours. So for me personally 6 or 8 Hours would be more than ok. Especially when you think about a driver limit to get more cars in the field. 6 Hours for 2 guys is quite easy to handle and you get a lot of cars.

Dont take tracks we drove this Season. - Got this often in other Leagues...there are so many tracks...just pick new ones
Maybe Lemans, Silverstone or so..

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

I pretty much agree with everything said so far, so only one or two things for section 3 from my side:

3) What suggestions or tips do you have for future season? Why those?

The broadcast was mentioned earlier. In Bahrain it was very good with full time coverage, but one thing that can be improved is the focus on the on track battles.
I don't know how the camera work is done, but as I watched some parts back it was often the case, that there were close and good fights on track and the camera and commentators were following only following lonely cars which is not that interesting..
I know that this style happens in some TV coverage as well, but I would prefer to focus on the close battles on track and mentioning who is gaining on whom and so on and so forth. It just adds more excitement to the commentary and to be honest if I watch a Simracing event I am there for the excitement.
Maybe we can get some kind of replays like in FSR. There were a lot of overtakes and battles in the races, but most of them were not shown in the broadcast which is a shame, because that is the essence of racing.

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

1) What did you like about this season? What worked well? What should we leave unchanged? Why?

I just competed in the first 2 Races so i can just talk about my experience of these 2. The Racing as it was very good, close but fair fights.
The Livetiming was nice and the Trackmap in Bahrain was cool as well. Nice to follow your Mates while they drive.

The timetable worked pretty well at the second race which is quite good. The first Race was horrible in this way.

2) What did you not like about this season? What area can we improve on? Why?

In my Opinion you guys should maybe think about reducing the Field to just two categories and maybe a driver limit per car (maybe 3).
I mean some Teams had 6 Drivers up there for a 6 hours race...im not saying that this is bad but if there would be a driver limit we could get much more cars in, which results in more competition which everyone is looking for i think. In the Bahrain race there were just 6-8 cars per Group, which are effectively the only cars you're racing against. If there would be two categories with 12 cars it would be much more fun.

3) What suggestions or tips do you have for future season? Why those?

The big Problem in my Opionion of 12 Hour races is, if there is someone in the Team - if youre 3 guys for example, that can't take part its very hard to drive 12 hours. So for me personally 6 or 8 Hours would be more than ok. Especially when you think about a driver limit to get more cars in the field. 6 Hours for 2 guys is quite easy to handle and you get a lot of cars.

Dont take tracks we drove this Season. - Got this often in other Leagues...there are so many tracks...just pick new ones
Maybe Lemans, Silverstone or so..

Just a quick note to that. We got one or two new members to our team. So we thought about splitting into two teams for 2014 at least for the 6 to 8 hour events, so everyone can get enough track time.
So I kind of like the idea, that you are only allowed to take maybe 3 drivers for 6 to 8 hour event. If a team has 4 drivers they can sign up two teams like Audi or Toyota who run 2 or 3 cars, so you maximize the chances for your team and in case a driver drops out you can reduce back to one team.

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

After a nice but short 2013 season. I can't wait to get back into the cars.

Is their any plan when the next season will start?
I am not asking for a certain date, but will it be more around February, March or April to Mai?!

 

[Rui F. Martins]

i can't wait for the next season, the last one was really nice