2014 GTP 24 HEURES DE SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS [3-12 OCT]

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Regardless what happens, that was brilliant. Great racing by all. Thank you to all who participated and to those who hosted and helped run the event. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

:)

Just had a thought.

With 30 minutes to go (based on provisional standings)

In GT3, we had 4 different teams, 4 different cars separated by less than a minute? After 23 hours of racing, strategy, driver changes. That's amazing.
 
STATEMENT ON THE END OF THE RACE

During the final stages of today's Race, the Lobby suffered a mass disconnect, reportedly due to game wide network disruption.

Therefore we are unable to call a result until we have looked at all the options open to us, in order to call the race in the fairest manor.

Such a decision should not be taken lightly and therefore should be taken after rest and emotional distance.

On behalf of the Event Officials I would like to thank everyone who took part in the event both on and off track, and all those who followed the race's progress on the broadcast.

Following internal discussion, and after consultation with the Team Mangers, will will update this thread in due course with a further announcement.


@AJ
Event Race Director
 
In accordance with the Sporting Regulations & Event Schedule, the Race has been called as ending under the Safety Car at 15:01 local time.
Congratulations to all who took part, on and off the track, and thank you to all those who followed their progress on the broadcast.
A full race report will be published in due course.

Provisional Race Results

Classification after Hour 24
Download - published 14/10/14

Contents:
Race Classification by Team
Race Classification by Driver
Fastest Lap by Team
Fastest Lap by Driver
Fastest Lap Sequence
Leader Sequence
Weather Report
Race Control Notices
Individual Team Sheets
 
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I can't open that on my tablet or phone for some reason, is it possible to please have just the final standings posted AJ?
 
While I accept the result as it is, based on the race being red flagged at the end, it was unfortunate how it happened and not what I wished at all, even if it resulted in BRR being in first place.

Based on the position of the cars before the disconnection, Made 4 Racing had 1st by a comfortable margin. Had the race run the last 15 minutes, and provided they didn't have a freak disconnect on their own, there was no way they were going to be beaten. They must be recognized for their performance and 'unofficial' first place. Especially considering, according to the official results, M4R hadn't led at all during the race, only when it mattered.

TNR also drove a great race. With a late penalty hampering their progress, they held the lead for periods during the race and put on a very fast pace throughout. Half way through the race I thought they were the favorites to win, and so nearly did with being 2nd place before the disconnect. Watching the stream, I don't think they had the pace to take on M4R in the dying stages of the race, but certainly a comfortable 2nd.

Avalerion Racing performed very well in a tricky car to master. Certainly looked to have the pace to win it, and a late penalty took them out of contention. Not a clear view on where Avalerion would have placed had the race gone to full length. As while they had caught us after a late (but planned) pitstop by Greasy, from the stream at least, it didn't look like the Audi had the pace to make a pass. Only being a few seconds behind, the driver was quicker, but only just, although on worse tires (8's on the front compared with new on Greasy's GTR) and unsure about Fuel to the end. Would have made a thrilling battle, and I was hoping and looking likely BRR was going to finish 3rd overall, we just don't know if the Audi had it in it to make the pass or if Greasy could hold on. Unofficially, I'd give Avalerion and BRR 3rd equal :D

Old Rosie Racing, I can't comment on you sorry, I don't think I saw your car once in either of my stints and the stream I did watch I didn't see your car either! Congratulations on finishing a very tough race not far from the podium at the end.

Black Rose Racing, like Old Rosie, I didn't see much of you. Had a brilliant battle for a couple of laps with RCB929 in my 2nd stint. The GTR is a tough car to get working around Spa, and while the fastest laps show you had pace in it, consistently getting the pace out of the car is the tough part. Unfortunately coming last in GT3 category, I guess you had a few issues to fall that far off the pace in terms of laps lost. Frustrating when it's out of your control.

Congratulations to GT Cup teams. You weren't part of my race in terms of positions (obviously) so I didn't follow your race at all, and therefore can't really comment. But you all did well to drive a clean race and see it through to the end, which is an accomplishment on it's own, regardless the position you ended up in.

Also, as much as we can blame PD for their server dropout as I kept referring to it in my post. We can thank them for having servers handle a 23.75 hour race with 16 users and driver swaps with virtually no hitches the entire time.

Overall it was great to be a part of. Not how I intended or wanted to win a race. Bitter Rivals Racing will be back next year, we will be faster, and we will win it on pace, not on paper! :D

 
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Great job and congratulations to all. I became a big fan of M4R this race, with their ability to control a race from "behind," stay consistent, keep cool, and execute their strategies to a T. It was awesome to watch! All you guys were really good in battles as well, thanks for keeping us entertained for the better part of 24 hours.
 
Spot on Wardez, M4R have the goods there's no doubt about it. I believe Plux wasn't driving either, with him involved they're even harder to beat.
 
Hehe iwasere did a fantastic job stepping in where Adrian left and with the loss of Merlin at the 11th hour we changed our strategy for the better and learnt some new tricks on the way! All very handy for the future.

Whilst I wasn't driving I was on the pitwall with the boys and helping on the strategy calls, shame it didn't rain could have really flexed the strategy muscles and tools we have up the sleeve. Looking forward to driving again soon though :D
 
Wardez
Great job and congratulations to all. I became a big fan of M4R this race, with their ability to control a race from "behind," stay consistent, keep cool, and execute their strategies to a T. It was awesome to watch! All you guys were really good in battles as well, thanks for keeping us entertained for the better part of 24 hours.
Click to expand...
Thanks. We figured out in pre-race testing it was faster to pit every 30 minutes due to the car being lighter due to lower fuel, we were on tyres with a better condition for longer, (over the 24 hours we would have better tyres for 8 hours compared to those who pitted every 45 minutes) which also resulted in being faster. We were also running maximum front aero because the SLS is understeer city on RH tyres, which cost us about 0.5 in sector 1 and about the same in sector 3, but through sector 2 it was mighty. I think it was the fact we had the aero which led to the great wheel-to-wheel battles we had, we could follow another car really closely only losing a small amount of performance, but ultimately we lacked top speed, which proved costly at both starts. Either way, regardless of that, we found the SLS to be off pace of the others by a few tenths per lap, so despite going like crazy we didn't really gain any time on track. We planned on each driver doing 4 hour stints a long time before the race, but it didn't occur to us how much time that would gain us throughout the race, and I think out driver strategy forced the hand of some other teams to do longer runs.

I started the race for us, and pitted 10 minutes early for my first stop (was looking at total time not track time), so for the remainder of my 4 hour stint I had to lengthen my stints by a lap or two to make up for the time. We were all talking on Skype, with the other drivers watching the stream, keeping me up to date on gaps, and traffic ahead etc. I then handed the car over to Mikey, who's PS3 froze upon entering the room, so he had to do a hard reset and re-join. This put us 3 laps down from the lead. Mike then had a solid stint, but like I experienced in my first stint, couldn't really gain anything on the other teams.

Mike then handed over to Scott, who put in a great performance to keep us in position as we reached the halfway point in the race. During Scott's stint I managed to get about 1.5 hours sleep before getting back in the car at 2am UK time. During the second stint, Mike was informing me of the gaps, same as before, but this time, we had managed to gain back 1 lap, so I decided to extend my 4 hours to 4.5 hours as I was our fastest driver. So 8.5 hours down for me, 16.5 for the team. I then handed over to Mike once again, who was able to make some more inroads on the leaders, partly helped by penalties and the likes, but still a great performance.

As Mike was just over halfway through his stint, we had a timing update which put us another lap closer to the leaders, and we made a joint decision to put me back in the car for the final stint in place of Scott. So I immediately went off and opened a lobby to further test the car. My weakest area was under braking, so I focused on improving that. There was only a minor change to the setup, but I felt a lot happier in the car.

But I said to the team, I'm not being on Skype for the final hours. I didn't want any distractions, just wanted to get my head down, bang the laps in, and hopefully work our way to the front. If we couldn't manage it, I know I gave it absolutely everything I had, and we would have been beaten fair and square, so gaps would have meant nothing anyway.

In my final stint I was lapping about 3/4 of a second faster than I was during my previous two stints, and my pace was more consistent. I was able to be in the 16's for every lap of the stint (traffic and mistake permitting), I took no prisoners through the GT Cup cars (sorry if some overtakes were aggressive - the red mist had descended), and although the battles were great, got frustrated in GT3 traffic holding me up at vital points in my stint.

I was keeping track of who I overtook, and who overtook me, and according to my maths I had reached the front, so I popped onto Skype during a pitstop to check, but according to the guys, I was only in 3rd. So I came out and kept pushing. It wasn't until 23:15 (ish) when I actually took the lead, and the team sent me a PSN message to inform me, but I kept pushing until my final pitstop, which luckily I maintained position. I knew the other guys had pitted before me, and were going to the end, the only car which I was unsure about was BRR, but luckily for me they pitted 5 minutes later.

I had come out of my stop just behind Aboe, and I was planning on sticking with him as we approached the end of the race to try and get a photo finish of the two SLS's, but the gap back to 2nd was too close for my liking so I pushed to get through.

I knew I had track position and better tyres than the other cars in contention, so I was driving fast, but tidy laps to bring the car home, leaving about half a second out there just incase I needed to push.

We then had the DC and the restart, which I knew would end badly for us, we had no straight-line speed, or pace on full tanks. I was lucky to have Greasy get lose going through Eau Rouge on the first lap, which put me back into the lead, but Pfeffer and PASM were gaining fast. I then took a little too much curb on exit of La Source, which cost me speed heading up to Kemmel, and then a repeat of the start, 3 wide into Les Combes. Once they were passed I knew that was it and I had absolutely nothing to fight back with, so didn't even try, I think I done the rest of the lap one handed. The SLS was definitely not built for a sprint, but boy was it a great car for the race. My fastest lap was only a 15.9, and I definitely couldn't have got it any lower during the race, so well done to those getting .7's and .8's!
 
I don't have a lot to say about the race. I had a great time. I can tell you that Misfits Motorsports will come back in 2015 better than ever.
 
POST EVENT UPDATE - 20 OCT

The Collector's Program has now been published, which contains the Final Results from the Race.

I can be downloaded as a PDF, or can be viewed inline.

Just click on one of the Program covers to start flicking through, or click the spoiler button to quickly select a page.




Again, thank you to everyone who took part on and off the track, and look forward to seeing you all at the next one.


AJ
Event Promotor & Race Director
 
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