Throughout RaceDepartment’s Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans, the battle for GT1 honours captured our imagination like no other class. rSeat.co.uk Racing Team claimed the closely fought GT1 honours, with Alexandre Amelot, Jonathan Dion, Baptiste Quesnaudon and Valentin Soleilhac piloting their Corvette C6.R to a stirring victory.
Amazingly, NoLimit Motorsport racked up the same number of laps as the winning entry; however they were pipped at the post for GT1bragging rights. The podium was fulfilled by the ever-consistent SIMCO Hungarian Team, with Daniel Toth taking the chequered flag upon completing the team’s 339th lap. Drivers from the Roaring Pipes Maniacs and Simracing For Holland were kind enough to speak about their respective attempts at one of the most grueling events in sim racing.
Jimi Hughes – Roaring Pipes Maniacs (Finished 31st Overall, 11th in class)
How would you evaluate your team’s RaceDepartment Le Mans 24 Hour campaign?
In a word...Challenging! We had multiple incidents throughout the evening & night which cost us a lot of time. Early on, we looked to be in a battle for around P8, which would have been an improvement on qualifying. However, we didn't have luck on our side, which is a big part of 24 hour racing. Overall though, it was thoroughly enjoyable for me, both in terms of driving & the paddock atmosphere. It may have been my first endurance race, but it certainly will not be my last!
Did you personally make any really significant mistakes during any of your stints?
No big issues for me personally. In the end I got about 9 hours of seat time due to a few "safety swaps” and managed to only have 1 spin, albeit at about 130mph in the Porsche curves! I managed to slow the car enough to avoid hitting the wall, but it certainly woke me up in the small hours! Other than that, no big offs or damage.
Were you satisfied with your car’s setup in terms of tyre wear and speed?
The car was fantastic to drive. I was in a great team with Roaring Pipes Maniacs who put a lot of work into getting the car where it was. The tyres held up well and the car was well balanced during both day and night.
How many stints did you complete throughout the race? Which was the most difficult for you and why?
I drove a total of 5 stints, 3 hours at the start of the race, two 2 hour stints at dusk and dawn, and two 1 hour stints at the end. The toughest was the 4 - 6 GMT stint, as I made the mistake of going off 3 hours of sleep prior to getting in the car. Big error! Lesson learnt for next year. No sleep or a big gap between stints! No surprise that my one and only spin occurred during this stint.
As a GT Class driver, was it difficult to maintain spatial awareness of the faster prototype entries constantly passing you?
It was a new challenge for me as it was my first endurance race of this nature. I found that I coped well with the faster cars, I don't think I upset anyone, I said during the broadcast and I will repeat again, from where I was sitting, the driving standards were outstanding throughout this event. I know others had problems, but the Prototypes were very sensible around me, and the GT2 cars gave me enough space to pass with no dramas. There was a stage straight after the early morning safety car period for about 2 laps, which I can only describe as the best racing I have experienced in sim racing, with cars of all classes mixed together going 4 wide down the Mulsanne straight, passing left, right & centre. As far as I'm aware, it remained incident free. Very impressive given it was at dawn (video to come).
Sim-racers generally don’t experience high g-forces and painful bumps while driving, but did you find it physically difficult to complete long stints behind the wheel?
It was mentally draining for sure, and in the heat wave we are currently enjoying in the UK, it was very challenging during the day stints. The long stints weren't too bad in themselves, I found it helped me get into a good rhythm and stop clock watching or lap counting. That said; I definitely had a few aches and pains the day after having been at the wheel for 9 out of 24 hours.
Marcel Offermans, Rudy de Wit – Simracing For Holland (Finished 40th Overall, 12th in class)
How would you evaluate your team’s RaceDepartment Le Mans 24 Hour campaign?
Marcel:
Preparation in the GT1 Corvette went well. In the weeks prior to the event, based on setups from previous events, we were able to produce a setup that was quick, stable and adaptable to both day and night time driving. What did not go well was the race, where we had all kinds of technical difficulties which threw us too far back in the standings. We decided to take things easy, fix everything in the car and make sure we were there at the finish.
Rudy:
Preparations went a lot better than the previous event. We actually tested strategy compared to just learning to lap quickly. I was looking forward to a solid race for the GT1 team, but unfortunately the devilmonkey was still on our rear wing. Had a good time with the GT2 team that had done wonderfully well.
Did you find it physically difficult to complete long stints behind the wheel?
Marcel:
The hardest thing is to stay focused and completely "in the zone", because once you snap out of it, you usually have a hard time remembering where exactly you are on the track and run the risk of missing your breaking points. I did some stints at night, and that's always a difficult time, especially when it comes to judging the closing speeds of other cars.
Rudy:
Usually the longer the stint, the better my concentration gets. Although after 2 to 3 hours my bottom and throttle knee starts hurting a little bit. Perhaps it is something to do with age.
Were you satisfied with your car’s setup in terms of tyre wear and speed?
Marcel:
Probably the hardest time we had was getting temperature into the tires at night. We were able to double stint our tires at night, but in the end, I drove too little to make statements about the long-term daytime performance.
Rudy:
Yes, very satisfied on that end, except for maybe fuel consumption of the C6.R.
How hard was it to maintain concentration and continue to complete consistent and clean laps throughout the race?
Marcel:
Not harder than normal.
Rudy:
As the car was 'retired' before I was planning to go home, I had a good Ice Cream and stayed with family for dinner. I didn't end up running a lap.
How many stints did you complete throughout the race? Which was the most difficult for you and why?
Marcel:
Two at night time and one at daytime, which was a bit less than planned, but enough to get the adrenaline flowing!
Rudy:
Didn't do a stint unfortunately.
Stay tuned for the GT2 driver interview article to be published tomorrow. Also, be sure to check out our
race report,
LMP1, and
LMP2 interviews if you haven’t already!
