rF2 1.5h WEC (LMP & GT3) @ Daytona Road Course - Friday 6th March 2015

[David O'Reilly]

Well that was great fun and very intense close racing.
My quali wasnt great for P11 but I gained some places in lap 1 and soon found myself in a tight group with @Andreas Oehrlich and @Joao Fernandes. Managed to inch by inch pull a tiny gap to Tal Segal.
I was pleased to be able to run with Andreas as he was very quick here in the Skippy (they were great here BTW). Then Andreas hit the invisible wall (which I felt once slightly lin practice) the BES 911 seems to find them. I felt really bad for him. So I was P2 in class and Joao and I were closing up for a good battle for the win. So I felt a bit better. The lead changed 5-6 times in a clean fight so it was excellent racing. By about lap 18 I had managed to find about only 1 sec gap but was leading the class! . Unfortunately an LMP looked like he was shaping up for a pass on the fast left hand turn in S1 and I surrendered the inside line, the GT3 didnt have the margin on grip to take that corner without access to the racing line and I had a big off. No damage and largely spinning on grass, but shortly afterwards another spin. Joao was a few seconds ahead so I figured my tyres were hurt and an early stop (lap 21-22) was my best bet.

To my delight after Joaos stop he rejoined just ahead of me and with my warm tyres I was able to make a pass in his out-lap. It was back to our earlier business.
However I made a few errors and Joao was through and away.

However that should have put me in P7 overall and P2 in class and I was P8
It was Tal. He hadn't stopped yet. What was he doing?
I found myself doing his fuel calcs on the long straights-he must be running out soon!
Even with 100 litres he has to!
I was not driving very well at this stage and lap times were off a bit, I couldnt really spot my entry into T1, just concentration I guess.

Finally with maybe 20 mins to go he stopped and I was through with about 9 sec buffer.
But...he was on fresh tyres and low fuel and mine were getting a bit ropey.
In a couple of laps it was 7 sec and I made a mistake and it was 4 sec.
It didnt look good, he was going to catch me and on this track if you have the pace passing aint hard. Full concentration was back!
Then Tal had an error and it was back out to 9 sec.
I held on and crossed the line P2 in class and P7 overall.

Thanks all for a great race. Only one slight mis understanding (and maybe it was me and I should have held my line) with an LMP and the rest of the time the lapping was well done by all.

These BES GT3s are in my list of must do cars and I looove the 911, best 911 in RF2 IMO.

Thanks to @Gijs van Elderen and @Daiman Patel for bringin us this great race.
Peace Out

 

[Pär Öqvist]

Congrats @Cosimo , @Stefan Woudenberg and @Joao Fernandes !

Fuel consumption was my strategy killer. Doing a 45min with 1 fuel tank wasn't possible with the LMP ARX 90L fuel tank (and the setup i had). So i had to do 2 stops.

I was a bit surprised to see Cosimo still driving after +40min...

- first stop: stalled the engine just 1 m before the red square.
- 2nd stop: 62 sec to change tires. i guess my pit crew was ...

Anyway the SCES LMP's are fun to drive. I don't why SimHQ don't want to release their cars in general public. I found a small link on their forum. It's gone now.
It would be good publicity for their league if they did.

BTW: @Daiman Patel , Nice consistency!

BTW: @PaulH : it's scary to be in that bullet too.

I can do 60 laps without any fuel saving whatsoever

As for the mod it´s public you can just go to simhqmotorsports and download it from the forum .

 

[Gijs van Elderen]

I can do 60 laps without any fuel saving whatsoever

As for the mod it´s public you can just go to simhqmotorsports and download it from the forum .

Ah! Found it on their download page...

It's a (lower) different version number. But i think it's best to go with their public release.
@Daiman Patel: i guess we need to do another LMP race to test them.

Maybe fuel consumption or tank was adjusted. I used +/-75%=67L to do 20 laps.

 

[Pär Öqvist]

Fuel consumption depends on how you set up the car and when you gear. When I first tested I could also only do 28 laps

They have changed the shakey cam settings otherwise I couldn´t tell a difference

 

[Jason]

Sorry guys I completely forgot about this race! I've had a really hectic week and ended up going to the pub after work! Sorry

 

[Daiman Patel]

Well, well, well... what an interesting race this turned out to be! After qualifying, and at the beginning of the race, I was expecting my evening to be quite lonely and uneventful. When @Cosimo and @Gijs van Elderen sped off into the distance (your pace was unreal ) I decided to just go for consistency instead.

And then a miracle occurred - I passed Gijs following his slow stop and my decision to stay on the same tires (I don't know what Gijs did, but I certainly managed to gain quite a bit of time). It was at this point that I sensed a battle was emerging, but Gijs continued to catch me at a fair rate of knots, and passed me again. At first he pulled away, but eventually the gap stablised, and Gijs pitted. I knew this was my chance, so I gunned it. It was tense as Gijs exited the pits just ahead of me, now one lap down. With the blue flags waving he kindly let me past. At this point my pace was good, and I wanted to extend my stint for as long as possible - I didn't want to lose my momentum. However, with the car running low on fuel I knew that I'd have to pit soon.

Even with tire wear of ~50-60% the car felt pretty good. Nonetheless, I initially thought that for the sake of safety it would be best to put on a new pair of boots during my second and final stop. However, when I saw how tight it would be between me and Gijs after he'd made his final stop I decided maybe it would be best to take a gamble and stick with the same tires. But in the panic it all went wrong; I dived into the pits, Gijs gave a friendly flash of the lights to warn me that he's coming, and I had forgotten to change my strategy back. The tires were being changed. It was really touch and go. I was keeping a close eye on Gijs' track position on the monitor, so much so that I lost a couple of seconds not realising that I had been released. 42 second pit stop.

Gijs was now 19 seconds behind, and I could sense his determination to catch me. Thankfully my tire change was one of the best mistakes that I have ever made, and I too could put my foot down, even harder than before. With fresh rubber on my wheels I felt so much more confident. The gap toed and froed a little as we each made our way through traffic, but on the whole it was maintained. In the meantime I managed to unlap myself against Cosimo, and banged in a fastest first sector on lap 56. Gijs started to close in during the final few laps, but unfortunately for him it was too late. There was only one heart stopping moment, when I was "held-up" by @Joao Fernandes in his GT going around the bus stop. Neither of us could do anything - I just had to be patient, and wait for the exit to pull away. Gijs gained a good 7 seconds(ish), and the gap was now merely 8 seconds, but it was too late. My eyes were glued more to the monitor than the road to check whether or not Gijs had passed Cosimo. When I saw that he was still behind as they crossed the finish line it was such a relief. This still didn't stop me from idiotically flooring it on my final lap; in the moment I couldn't help myself - the excitement was unbearable.

This was up there with the mutli-class endurance event at Thruxton, and my VSC2 stints at Silverstone, as my best drives ever. I must admit that I got lucky - misfortunes for Gijs and the tire change mistake for me allowed me to attain 2nd. Nevertheless, Gijs did push me to my limits, and for once I didn't crumble and make (overly) stupid mistakes under pressure. All in all it was great fun - though this would have been the case even if it wasn't for my 2nd place!

@Pär Öqvist sorry you couldn't join us in time. Hopefully we'll see you next time! @Jim Brailsford thank you very much for the spotting - it was incredibly helpful! And thanks to all on TS for another eventful evening. See you all next time!

 

[Stefan Woudenberg]

Was great fun, too bad that shortly after the race start I was the only driver in my class. It was a lonely race, but had great fun driving my new car.
In qualy I managed to stay ahead of 1 LMP1 car which made me feel good. In race pace I was not quick enough to stay ahead of him as I had a spin which made the overtake easy for him.

Great fun on TS as ever. Thanks for the organisation guys! I had a great evening!