Community Question | Have You Ever Run An Endurance Race?

  • Deleted member 963434

im planning to run full career in ACC wit 100% race lengths.
i already started but at 50% race length and i run one race 40 min then driver swap, then atoher 40 min and driver swap. i was so alive after races and pumped up wit adrenaline and it was just single player xD now im planing to start career from beginning and run 100% race lengths. but then i must find much time per day to accomplish it, mute phone, close room etc
 
I've never done a race with driver swaps that I'd remember. I don't have a team either or know anybody so I couldn't do one even if I wanted to. My impression as someone who watches but has never participated is that the endurance event in simracing is about racing for the first hour and then rest is just hotlapping in mostly very stable and consistent conditions. And most of it is just trying to hold on to your position while driving at 9/tenths. Which is another meh for me. I want to drive flatout. Squeeling tire is a happy tire. Tire saving is never enjoyable because it just means slowing down. Fuel saving.. actually sounds kind of fun technique to learn. More fun to do than to watch for sure.

Another thing is the amount of practice required. I don't like to practice a ton for events. I prefer to spend as much of my simracing time racing against other people on track. Be that srs races or just pickup racing. Which is why I maybe practice like 20 minutes before my usual srs race for example. Or whatever the amount time there is in the qualifying session before the race starts. Generally I think I need the same amount of practice as the race time is. At that point I can push and fight for position confidently while having done all my mistakes in practice. And know how the car develops during a stint. And I'd want to feel like I am getting the most out of myself... which means more practice. I don't want to be slow because I practiced too little.

So for me to be able to do an endurance event would require a lot of practice. 24 hour race is like 6-8 hours of driving per driver? So I'd need something like same amount of practice to be able to bring it home at acceptable pace. Of course most endurance events are not 24 hours so I'd guess it could be doable. But there is yet another thing... I don't really care about prototypes, lmp2s, lmp1s, group cs and gt cars. I don't think there are endurance races in simracing for anything else. So even if I was participating I'd be driving in a car type I don't often drive... which means more practice.

And doing an endurance race most likely means doing a league. Which is another no-no for me. Too much practice. The weirdest thing I've found is that people in leagues rarely want to drive together before the event. Which to me is crazy. You entered the league because you like the cars, like the tracks and like the racing and the drivers. But still you practice alone? I don't do leagues for that reason.

I don't have a rig either so anything longer than 1 hour in the car is getting somewhat uncomfortable. That being said I do prefer longer shorter races. Something like 20 minutes is too short. I think 30-40 is perfect for me. An hour tops. There is enough racing usually to keep me interested but after a 40 minute or 1 hours the cars have spread out too much. I've done some leagues races long time ago that were like 100 minutes or 2 hours long and half of the time the field just spreads out and everybody hotlaps alone.

All that being said I hope I get to do a 12 or 24 hour race some day. Can't dislike something if you have not tried it. If there is a bucket list for simracing then doing a 24 hour race is on that list. Even if it is on it mostly just because it exists.
 
I did my first enduro in 2016, the iRacing 24 Hours of Le Mans. I was not very experienced and while I was able to stay relatively clean for my first two stints I was relatively slow. In my third stint I was on the straight after Arnage and another car, being driven by a kid from our league-and four laps in arrears of us, tried passing me. He was an arrogant kid and as he made the pass he chopped off the front of my car, sending me into the wall and an hour long pit stop.

Due to my relative lack of skill, and that I did not like iRacing at that time, I stopped racing the enduros until 2020. Last year I raced in:

- Race for Relief 4 hour enduro at Phillip Island in an Audi. That was quite an experience as we were racing with many pro Supercar drivers and sim racers from Down Under. That race was broadcast live on Aussie TV and was one of the first e-races broadcast after the lock-down and postponement of the real racing seasons.

-Nurburgring 24 Hours. I was in a Porsche GT4 ( in Broadbent's race) and we were leading for much of the first part of the race. One of the reasons why I hesitated to race in prior races following the 2016 Le Mans is that I have a tendency to put cars into walls exiting turns. In this race I drove 70 laps of the circuit spinning once but keeping it off the wall. One of my co-drivers, who is steady, did put the car into the wall and that resulted in a 40 minute stay in the pits. We managed to re-gain the lead but another, better co-driver then put the car into the wall forcing us back to 3rd. In the last half-hour of the race that driver was in, finishing the race, when he decided to race a TCR car that was laps down from us. He spun in Adenaeur-Forst and we ended up finishing the race in fourth.

- 24 Hours of Le Mans. I put the car into the wall trying to give room to an LMP-1 as I exited the Ford Chicanes.

- 24 Hours of Spa. We were doing great until I lost it coming out of Eau-Rouge and got real intimate with a wall. This was after another driver had gotten into the wall a few hours before and despite our loss in time our car was still one of the fastest in our split. This was the first race where I was passing cars with ease, including the leading cars. Every stint, up until my spin, I was able to make up two or three laps on the lead cars. Despite the result ( I think we ended up 12th) that race was fun because we were one of the fastest, if not the fastest, cars in our split. We just gotta learn to avoid stupid mistakes.

-Petite Le Mans. In this race we qualified first in our split but our opening driver (who qualified) spun in the esses on the first lap. He managed to recover without any damage and regain the lead. We were sailing until just prior to my first stint when the engine on the LMP-2 blew. I got in and, as at Spa, we were one of the fastest cars in the split and we kept making up laps and time. Until we blew the motor again. We came back out and, again, were the fastest car. When we passed the leader, while making up laps, he complained about us. Not that we were causing issues, but that we were blowing by him. Until we blew the motor again. We finished in 30th place.

We plan on bringing and four car effort to Daytona, with me and a couple of others in the LMP2.
 
I love the idea of this, but I have a few limitations:
  1. Lack of skill, but I am working on this. I just don't want to be a danger to others.
  2. Lack of time. I have several other things to do with my life so it is hard for me to personally justify this kind of time commitment. I know that my family would be OK with it once in a while, but there is a part of me that struggles with using time like this.
  3. Lack of friends. I realize that I just need to bite the bullet and do more online racing and this will fix itself.
I once did a 200-mile road running race. You do it as a team of 12 people and it's split up into 36 segments. It starts at 8:00 AM on a Friday and it finishes around 2:00 PM the next day. You train for it like you're doing a half-marathon. I think that gave me a taste of what an endurance event is like. And what I learned from that is it would be really fun if you really liked the people you did it with. I did it with people who were fine to be around, but we weren't really close and I could have taken or left it when I was done. I suspect it's similar with one of these events. It is quite gratifying to do it all as part of a team. (everything is awesome...)

I also realize that I'd have to train for one of these events. I just did 10 laps at Silverstone and I found my mind wandering during that short (25 minutes or so) race. All of this just emphasizes to me how impressive it is that these guys can jump in a car at 2:30 AM and still bang out fast laps, and this is especially impressive at the Nurburgring.

So, having written all that, I will look for an event. Maybe we could have a rookie enduro event? Or do it like the real series do and pair up Gold drivers with Silver and Bronze? No, I'm not offering to organize such a thing :)
 
24 Hr Nords (GTE) on IR
24 Hr Le Mans (GTE) on IR
24 Hr Spa (GT3) on IR

Done a couple of 6 hour races too.

Vogel Motorsports. We are still learning but got 6th in our Spa race last year once we learned that its getting through the race in one piece with half decent pace and minimal damage that gets results. So many go tare arsing off racing like its a sprint only to see them retire 6-12 hours in due to damage and penalties.

Its an amazing experience though once you get to the end.
 
4sipo1.jpg
 
I used to race endurance events on nacscar 2003 GTP mod.
I even manage to be on the podium at the spa francorchamps 12h with my team mates on the OATAS championship.

Endurance races with real drivers swap is the most fantastic thing in sim racing.

I dream i could enter a 24 race someday, especially at Le Mans. I could be ready to train an entire year for that if needed !!
 
I am practically an endurance simdriver (GT3 specially)... I have raced in several races of the kind. A little tiring especially physically but very beautiful and a challenge with oneself and others. Here is a short list:
2x 24h le Mans (GT3, GTE)
3x 12h Bathurst (GT3)
4x 24h Spa (GT3)
2x 12h Sebring (LMP2, GT3)
 
I used to race endurance events on nacscar 2003 GTP mod.
I even manage to be on the podium at the spa francorchamps 12h with my team mates on the OATAS championship.

Endurance races with real drivers swap is the most fantastic thing in sim racing.

I dream i could enter a 24 race someday, especially at Le Mans. I could be ready to train an entire year for that if needed !!
i GUEST drove at one of those events at Sebring. I was literally asked to fill in hours before the event so I was totally not prepared. I got mugged repeatedly in the middle portions of the track. The fast guys made no attempt to pass nicely but bulled through. We pitted dozens of extra times to repair damage. But we kept going and rose from dead last to a top ten finish mainly due to the muggers eventually giving up and quitting.
 
I think the longest sim-race I have done was a 2-hour race at the no-chicane Le Mans in AC.. driving the Porsche 917K! Man that car is so much fun to drive and at the same time always so close to crashing or breaking.

Never done a proper 6-12-24-hour but I plan on trying one in ACC after I get to know my car a bit more. I think endurance is less stressful than sprint racing. It's tiring, yes, but you know it's a long race and you can ease the pressure a bit.

For comparison, yesterday i did my first CP race in ACC, a 1-hour race at Zolder, and my brain was melting at the end of the race! An adrenaline/sweat-filled hour of fighting up to the finish line.
 
I voted no, but now I remembered that used to do it almost every weekend from 8 pm to 2 am. AC and dirt rally with bunch of friends and alcohol for added difficulty :]]
 

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