Dealing with Endurances

[JohnBM01]

Ladies and Gentlemen, this topic is about endurance racing. This is not like the older topic on endurance racing, this is more about dealing with endurances. Here, I'm asking questions about driver fitness, staying competitive, trying to stay focused for the duration of the race, what happens after a long time of racing, and so forth. Endurances include the Rolex 24, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Petit Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Nurburgring, and my favorite race of the year, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. When you go endurance racing as these brave men and women do, what you play in a racing video game is nothing compared to being in long endurances. The Tokyo R246 endurance is nothing compared to racing without a PAUSE button, or for that matter, without your controller. And you only get one, maybe even a few more shots. Your car is NOT invincible (even if you're racing the Audi R8), and you have to try to stay together and even change drivers if you have to. Le Mans is coming up pretty soon, so let's talk about the SCIENCE and the PHYSICS of endurance racing. How endless driving takes a toll on the driver, the car, and things like that.

 

[Dorifto]

It's hard.

 

[pimp racer]

I think endurance racing is probably the best racing out.

 

[ND4SPD]

Its hard as hell so they've got to be the fittest drivers out there, Me personally I don't think I could ever pull one, just imagine the strain of pulling a 24 hour race, sure your not driving the whole race, but that doesn't mean you can sleep at all, you can probably get a few minutes of sleep between stints and thats all, heck even coffee can't bring me back to conciousness no matter how much I drink.

 

[JohnBM01]

I often rip on NASCAR, but coming up next weekend is the Coca-Cola 600. To me, this is NASCAR's equivalent of Le Mans, as it being the longest race of the year. You run around on one of my favorite ovals (maybe my favorite on the east coast), Charlotte, and compete endlessly without getting out of the car or making driver changes. To me, this slightly takes an oval racer outside of his/her element because you are tested to run something other than what you are normally accustomed to, and in this case, that means a longer race. It also tests your team's ability to stay strong. And as always, one mistake, and it can be a longer race than a long race already is.

Another thing is that your teammates need to be impressive as well and not tear up anything. During the late nighttime hours (when most channels switch off race coverage, which is a shame because there is still action to be had even when the afterhours hit), anything can happen. So, I never really thought about just what it takes to stay fit, stay endurant, and win (if not finish). Any other replies?

 

[JohnBM01]

Oh, and one more note about the NASCAR thing... think about the endurance oval racers have to race the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same day. And as I said earlier, Robby Gordon did maybe 1,000 miles in one day, but not 1,100. Why? It rained at Charlotte last year, so can the "Robby did 1,100 miles" crap, alright?

 

[Blake]

I think it would take an aweful lot to do an endurance, I bet those guys (and girls) would be very sore after a race like that. Even if you are doing a few 2 hours stints it's still alot of RACING to do. Sure you cna drive a car for two hours no problem but to actually RACE for 2 hours woiuld be very draining, but then having ot do i6 several times in a day would be quite difficult.

 

[Simon Tibbett]

I have done lots of kart endurance races, 4, 6 hours, 12, 24, etc. Anyone who races karts here knows they beat the crap out of you, now doing one hour stints over and over again starts to play with you. You have to be on top of things the whole times, I remember once I was racing at Lowes MS, and I actually started to forget what part of the track I was on.... Anyway, race car drivers at Le Mans, and all those great races get a big 👍 I go to Petit Le Mans every year and even though its a 10 hour race, I think it really depends on the track you run at, temperature, etc.

 

[Party for GT4]

I did a endurance race at the Three Sisters track in Kent last year, and we were doing a 12 hour race. However, my partner breaks his foot while trying to heel-toe in my old Kwaki kart with 2 and a half hours to go.

So I raced flat out until the end.

I'll have to try and find the photo of me collapsing on the podium. It was 30C all day!

 

[Simon Tibbett]

Hey,

How did you heel and toe on that thing????

Simon lol

 

[Party for GT4]

Well he was driving my Kawasaki KX125 motorcross bike engined kart using the original clutch linked to a pedal, so he put left foot on clutch, right toes pressed on brake. He swivelled his heel round and as he engaged the clutch, pressed the accelerator with his heel. However, his foot slid under the accelerator and caught. He tried to pull his foot up and broke his ankle as he did so. How he avoided crashing beats me.

 

[Simon Tibbett]

wow.....that is kind of cool with a clutch

 

[Party for GT4]

You don't always use it anyway because it isn't needed for upshifts. Damn frightening speed, until I fitted front brakes from a Rotax 400 kart.

Haven't got it anymore though, it cost so much to run!

 

[Party for GT4]

This was the corner:

 

[Darin]

Coke-Cola 600 = More turning left.


Endro racing is the best, esspecially since thats the only racing I go to. You get what you pay for. And $80 for 12 hours of racing at sebring is one hell of a deal.

 

[pimp racer]

Originally posted by Darin
Coke-Cola 600 = More turning left.


Endro racing is the best, esspecially since thats the only racing I go to. You get what you pay for. And $80 for 12 hours of racing at sebring is one hell of a deal.

Yeah but that much for nascar i would say no because nascar is just ridculious.(SP?)

 

[Firestarter75]

Personally I love marshalling endurance races as long as there are a decent amount of cars out there. The past few years we have started a few 1 1/2 hours enduro's at Road Atlanta with 60+ cars which made it exciting, as of late they have been run caution free. Petit LeMans is a fun race to work, I work all 4 days. The toughest part of Petit is towards the end when the sun drops and flagging becomes impossibles except for the yellow.... no blue, usually very little activity on the net but at the same time you can really listen to the cars.

 

[Simon Tibbett]

Petit Le Mans
Road Atlanta
I love all that I go to every race at RA.