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- FLK_255
Circuit de la Sarthe 24hr I - 2nd attempt
With some free time ahead I think it is time for another 24 hours race in A-spec. Taking my recently bought Black Mazda 787B Race Car '91 to Le Sarthe I 24hr this gave me 106 A-spec points without doing an oil change. I performed a chassis refresh and bought some R1 & R2 tyres along with giving the car a wash. I reduced my previous ballast of 200 kg to 88Kg which still kept the A-spec points at 200 against the same line up, which is displayed below.
Grid Line Up:
Nissan R92CP Race Car '92
Nissan R89C Race Car '89
Sauber Mercedes C 9 Race Car'89
Toyota GT-ONE Race Car (TS020) '99
Mazda 787B Race Car '91
Black Mazda 787B Race Car '91 (Me)
The Sauber looks to be the main challenger after it's pace in my 1st attempt and perhaps the other 787B. I'll do as much as I can this weekend but due to work I'll only do an hour a day in the week. Working with computers all day I can't see myself wanting to spend loads of time in front of my ps2 each night. Should take me two weeks tops to do.
Race Report
Hour 1
As I entered the first corner I could really feel the improvement with 112kg taken off the car. I passed the 787B after exiting the first chicane and then past the GT-ONE as I exited the Esses after the sweeping right. By the 1st turn on the Mulsanne straight (L'Arche Chicane) I was second after passing both the R89C and the Sauber C9. I kept pace with the leading R92CP but was passed by the Sauber after Virage de Mulsanne but managed to retake the place by Indianapolis. Already this was looking much better!
By lap 2 I was all over the back of the R92CP after getting some breathing space from the Sauber which had hounded me all the way up to the start finish straight after exchanging positions ahead of Indianapolis. As I hit the braking zone for L'Arche Chicane I had taken the lead of the race and began to slowly pull away from the R92CP. A 3 second gap remained between us until lap 4 when the Sauber C9 passed the R92CP at La Florandiere Chicane and I had to push it as the Sauber C9 was now right on pace. I had a moment at Mulsanne and lost my 3 second gap. I managed to hold off the C9 and R92CP until the Porsche Curves where I found the R92CP on my inside coming into a left hander, oh dear. Well yes you probably guessed kids! I was predictably barged off the track by the AI and thus fell back to third, luckily I didn't spin out and managed to get back on track quickly. By the start line I had clawed my way back to the Sauber C9 now in second and managed to pass it in the braking zone at Tertre Rouge forcing the C9 to go wide, after that I got a slipstream off the R92CP and passed it as we approached L'Arche Chicane.
Again I was passed in the lead up to the Porsche Curves by the R92CP and fell further back after going slightly wide at the exit onto the start/finish straight. By L'Arche Chicane I had moved back up to 1st being notably quicker than the AI through the first series of chicanes leading up to the Mulsanne straight. I kept ahead of the R92CP for the rest of the lap although it did get close at one stage through the Porsche Curves where I seemed to be struggling. I had a 1.4 second lead as I crossed the line to start lap 7.
At the end of Lap 7 both the R92CP and C9 pitted while I opted to risk another lap, my rears were still a dull yellow and I didn't need to refuel for a while yet. I exited the pits on lap 9 ahead of both the R92CP and the Sauber C9 with the R89C and the other 787B much closer to the leading pack than I first thought. Two laps later the Sauber was breaking away from the R92CP and close the gap to me down to around 2-3 seconds. As I finished lap 11 I upped the pace setting my fastest lap so far on lap 13. The Sauber pitted at the end of lap 14 some 6 seconds behind me. On lap 16 as I came out of the pits the other 787B had passed me and was in the lead by about 10 seconds and the Sauber was comfortably over 14 seconds behind me.
At the end of the first hour I was over 12 seconds ahead of the second placed Sauber C9 with 18 laps done.
Hour 2
The gap between myself and the Sauber stabilised to around 13-14 seconds for the next few laps. The Sauber pitted on lap 21 along with both Nissans. I pitted the following lap to take on fuel and tyres. This time around I came out in the 1st place and now had some good distance from the Sauber C9.
By lap 26 I was over 24 seconds ahead of the Sauber and as I came through the Esses I lapped the GT-ONE for what surely was the first time during the race. I was getting quite comfortable now with the car and the track for the while everything seemed to be going smoothly. I made my fourth pitstop at the end of lap 29 with the gap still around 24-25 seconds with the Sauber pitting the lap before.
I finished hour 2 as I exited La Florandiere Chicane mid-lap 34 with the Sauber C9 now 29 seconds behind me. My lap times were consistantly hitting around 3'29.000 allowing me to maintain a stable gap over the last 5 laps to the Sauber.
Hour 3
I pitted on lap 36 coming out 39 seconds ahead of the Sauber C9. The hour looked to be uneventful, I would be wrong. The Sauber driver must have woken up or something as his pace picked up and mine began to drop. For the next 8 laps the gap went from 39 seconds to just 20 seconds, not helped by a spin out at Indianapolis which I was able to recover from fairly easily. By the end of the hour having got the gap to 29 seconds I was still having to set 3'29s just to keep the gap from reducing. At the end of the third hour I lapped the GT-ONE for the second time as it came out of the pits. With my next pitstop due on lap 52 hopefully in the next hour I'd be able to push the gap out further.
Hour 4
By Lap 52 I was catching the trailing R89C down the Mulsanne straight and lapped it before La Florandiere Chicane, I then pitted at the end of the lap coming out 36 seconds ahead of the Sauber C9. Coming out the Esses that lap I spun out which cost me about 6 seconds. By the end of lap 54 I had caught the GT-ONE that had unlapped itself in my pitstop passing it after Tertre Rouge.
The Sauber pitted at the end of lap 56 some 28 seconds behind, at least while the Sauber was on cold tyres I'd have a good chance to put some distance between us before my next stop. I pulled out a few seconds and set a fastest lap on lap 58 only to lose it all on my in lap (lap 60) by running wide at Tertre Rouge and then having a silly spin at Indianapolis. At least when I came out of the pits on lap 61 I was over 34 seconds ahead of the Sauber C9.
The Sauber pitted again at the end of lap 63 after closing the gap slightly to 32 seconds. I had a slight coming together with the R89C at Mulsanne Corner but I didn't care as the AI came off worse.
As I started lap 68 I would need stop again at the end, I'd made good time in this stint pushing out 10 seconds over the Sauber C9 putting me in a stronger position.Hour 5
After pitting at the end of lap 68 I found myself 49.7 seconds ahead of the Sauber C9. I was running 1 lap more than the Sauber so I would have a time advantage therefore winning this race now looked very likely. On lap 70 the Sauber pitted again coming out around 1 minute 23 seconds behind me.
The gap remain until my next stop on lap 76 where the Sauber had fallen back to 58 seconds behind me, to be honest now that the Sauber seems to be off pace nothing much is happening at the moment. On lap 78 I met the GT-ONe to lap it for a third time after negotiating Mulsanne Corner only to end up in a spin in the Porsche Curves allowing the GT-ONE to unlap itself though I repassed the GT-ONE before lap 79 started. The Sauber also pitted before starting lap 78. Not much happened before my final pitstop of this hour on lap 84, the gap between me and Sauber C9 stayed pretty much the same allowing me to drop off the pace a little.
Hour 6
On my outlap the Sauber pitted dropping back to 1'35 behind. I met the R92CP on lap 88 and lapped it for the first time in the race. I'm not too sure where the 787B is at the moment, it must be ahead though as unless I've lapped it the pits I can't see how it could be 4th at the moment, hmmm.
Seems like the Sauber has dropped its pace as it's steadily dropping back now. After my pitstop on lap 92 the C9 was over 1'50 behind. I've also decided that the 787B is 3rd and not the R92CP. Almost one quarter of the way now, only another 18 odd hours to go! I pitted on lap 100 about 1'42 ahead of the Sauber as the end of the hour approached.
Hour 7
The Sauber took ten seconds out of my lead for the next 4 laps as I struggled to find pace. As I started Lap 106 I lapped the GT-ONE down the start/finish straight putting it 4 laps behind. I made my next stop on lap 108. I drop more time in the next laps spinning out at Indianapolis twice and also in the Porsche Curves. Despite this I still managed to hold onto a healthy lead. As lap 118 approached hour 6 ended.
Hour 8
A pretty uneventful hour where I kept on pace with the Sauber C9. Pitting on laps 124 and 132 I lost some time spinning in the pitlane after tagging the grass while braking. Luckily the pit AI didn't have much trouble getting my car out of the gravel pit and into the pits. The hour ended without any more trouble on lap 134 as the Sauber completed lap 133 it pitted 1'28.398 behind me.
Hour 9
By the end of the hour I was 1'52 ahead of the Sauber C9. I pitted on laps 140 & 148 and despite two spin offs midway through the hour I seemed to be progressing well so far. I'm starting to wonder how badly the chassis will turn out once it goes. I expect to pit more often but with the Sauber comfortably behind me it shouldn't cause much trouble. I hope.
Hour 10
Power cut, ********.
Current Standings:
Current Lap: 151
1st: Black Mazda 787B Race Car '91 (Me) Time: 9:00'07.300
2nd: Sauber Mercedes C9 Race Car'89 Time: - 1'52.141
3rd: Mazda 787B Race Car '91 Time: -2'24.000*
4th: Nissan R92CP Race Car '92 Time: -1 Lap
5th: Nissan R89C Race Car '89 Time: -2 Lap
6th: Toyota GT-ONE Race Car (TS020) '99 Time: -5 Laps
Time marked by * denote my best guess based on map overlay position.
Best Lap: 3'27.422 (Lap 75)
Pitstop (laps): 19 (8,15,22,29,36,44,52,60,68,76,84,92,100,108,116,124,132,140,148)
A-Spec Points: 200
FLK keep at it! Seems as though you've got this in the bag already. 👍 Get ready for that chassis wobble to come back around hour 14! 
I haven't been able to get near to my fastest lap either since setting it. Could be a close one 
When I retry this I'll run more ballast and see if I can get a much closer race against this lineup. Just need to reduce my pace by about 2-3 seconds.
