gogatrs Drives the 1000 km of Fuji!

[gogatrs]

Hello all. As many of you know, I am an avid fan of rFactor. For those of you that don't know much about rFactor, it is a PC racing sim. It is infinitely expandable through the creation of "mods." These are community made modifications for the game. People can model out tracks and cars and edit the physics files to be put into the game. Everything is free and legal (except the game, you need to pay for that), and you can drive nearly anything at whatever track you choose.

One of my favorite rFactor features is the ability to perform driver swaps online with other people. We will be using this feature in the coming race.

The race is 1000 km long beginning at 11:00 AM EDT (16:00 CET) and will last between 5 and 6 hours.

We will be driving the mighty Group C cars of the 1980s. Our team will be fielding not one, not two, but three 3.0 liter Porsche 962s.

We will be pitted against 15 other 2.9 liter Porsche 962s, 3 Jaguar XJR-8s, 3 Sauber-Mercedes C9s, and 1 Lancia-Ferrari LC2. The field will feature 25 cars in total.

Qualifying will be divided into 2 2-hour sessions. Q1 is going to be this Thursday at 4:00 PM EDT (21:00 CET). Q2 will take place at the same time on Saturday.

While Fuji has seen many layout changes in the past fifty years, we will be driving on a 1990 version of the track.

Map:

Live timing will be available for the race. However, it is offered through a small program called rFactorMonitor. Details on how to set it up can be found here.
I may either stream the race myself or have one of my teammates do it while I'm in the car. That's only a maybe though.

My name will show up as Thomas Roth. My teammates are Christopher Snow, Curtis Kenyon, and Darien Bailey.

I'm going to take the first two stints, and then hand the car over to one of my teammates for the final two and a half stints. Shortly after I get out, I'm going to hop in one of our other cars to take it to the finish.

More event info can be found here.

Now let us go get some Jaguars!

Some pics from testing earlier this month.

 

[ENTERSANDMAN13]

Good luck!

 

[magic_town]

That looks awesome good luck guys!

 

[Yukon]

That is cool. I didn't know you could do this type of thing on the PC.

Good luck to you and your team(s).

 

[gogatrs]

Q1 complete!

We ended the session in 2nd!
I qualified a second car in 7th and a teammate qualified the third car in 8th.
More detailed report to come tomorrow.
Two hours straight of extremely hard lapping in these cars is certainly not easy.
I'm exhausted.

 

[Earth]

Good grid positions so far. I hope you guys enjoy yourselves, I know you will.

 

[Techy]

Good luck fellas! 👍

 

[Mac K]

I probably should point out I most likely won't be racing on Sunday sadly Something came up at the last minute. This sucks as I've been putting in the practice and was pretty excited to race.. I'm trying to get out of it but it looks pretty unlikely at the moment..

 

[gogatrs]

Snowman and I were in the server and were the first ones out on track. I started out in the #19 car, Snowman in the #1.
I jumped ahead to an early lead with a 1:13.762. Snow hung around in the top 5 with a 1:14.010.
I backed out to switch to the #18 and Snowman went to pick up his nephew.
Came back and cranked out a 13.267. That put me in 3rd. Took a short brake and found no change in the positions. So I went out and was able to set a 1:12.841. Enough for second. About two tenths off the poll time, and my personal best. Third place set an early 1:12.996 and sat on it.
Q2 is tomorrow at the same time.
About 10 teams could not make qualifying today and will be there tomorrow.
Debating whether or not I'm going to drive tomorrow. I don't think I can improve much beyond what I did.

PROVISIONNAL STARTING GRID

1 - #1 Porsche 962 (Elooma - Toikka) - 1:12,646
2 - #18 Porsche 962 (Roth - Korince) - 1:12,841
3 - #7 Porsche 962 (Audran - Siebert - Campmajo) - 1:12,996
4 - #6 Jaguar XJR-8 (Sixou - le Pihive) - 1:13,577
5 - #86 Porsche 962 (Titz - Maaß - Rec) - 1:13,611
6 - #8 Porsche 962 (Audran - Siebert - Malafaya) - 1:13,682
7 - #19 Porsche 962 (Kenyon - Roth) - 1:13,724
8 - #1 Porsche 962 (Snow - Bailey) - 1:14,010
9 - #13 Lancia LC2 (Nilsson - Davis - Stenbeck) - 1:14,226
10 - #61 Sauber C9 (Larrad - Coxon - Nadeau) - 1:14,837
11 - #55 Porsche 962 (Keanie - Boffa) - 1:14,922
12 - #62 Sauber C9 (Larrad - Coxon - Nadeau) - 1:15,217
13 - #2 Porsche 962 (Kaszap - Serban) - 1:15,270
14 - #4 Jaguar XJR8 (White - Becnel) - 1:15,654
15 - #3 Porsche 962 (Bende - Holdampf) - 1:15,725
16 - #63 Sauber C9 (Bovy - Sabathé) - 1:15,764
17 - #11 Porsche 962 (Lopez - Lumiere) - 1:15,945
18 - #9 Porsche 962 (Acerclinth - Campmajo) - 1:16,017
19 - #16 Porsche 962 (Bousquet - Tagli - Sarrazins) - 1:16,400
20 - #10 Porsche 962 (Plaçais - Matthieu) - 1:16,512
21 - #11 Porsche 962 (Roberts - Labelle) - 1:16,823

The poll lap:

 

[Mac K]

A 1:12? Damn dude.

 

[DK]

Surely a 1'12 would be the pace of F1 cars of the same era?

 

[gogatrs]

A 1:12? Damn dude.

I think I MIGHT be able to find another tenth at the most. My time was 4 tenths faster than any other lap I had done before.

Surely a 1'12 would be the pace of F1 cars of the same era?

I know these cars ran 1:19s in qualifying for real. We can make a few adjustments to the set up that they couldn't make for real. We also don't have to worry about saving the engine or anything like that.

 

[Mac K]

Or you know.. Suddenly leaving the road and having a run in with a tree

 

[gogatrs]

Or you know.. Suddenly leaving the road and having a run in with a tree

I really wish there was a camera on Belloff's car when he did his lap around the Nordschleife in these cars. After driving these, I believe that is the single most fearless feat in the past century.

 

[DK]

I know these cars ran 1:19s in qualifying for real. We can make a few adjustments to the set up that they couldn't make for real. We also don't have to worry about saving the engine or anything like that.

Wow, you're 7 seconds faster than the real cars? I guess a 86-89 F1 car could manage this track in c.1'05, right?

 

[gogatrs]

Q2 will be viewable via rFactor Monitor. Two hour session starting in 1 hour.

Might be able to grab pole.

 

[gogatrs]

Post I created for my team's website.
I'll be taking the start in the #18 car at 10 AM EDT tomorrow!

Green flag is set to drop over Fuji tomorrow at 4:00 CET/11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT
We have three 3.0 liter Porsche 962Cs lined up with five drivers.

#1 Porsche AG (Rothmans) : Curtis Kenyon - Darien Bailey

#18 Porsche AG (Rothmans) : Thomas Roth - Christopher Snow

#19 Porsche AG (Rothmans) : Jay Dargert - Thomas Roth

The race will be between five and six hours long.
Live timing will be available through a small program called rFMonitor. You can find out how to set it up here.
Darien will be streaming the race from his car. You will see whatever he sees throughout the entire race! You can find his Twitch.TV channel here.

Qualifying is finished and the grid is set.
The official CMS cars are highlighted in red, cars with other CMS members are in blue.



We will be using the CMS TeamSpeak server to communicate, come join us!

Remember 10 AM EDT tomorrow! Come support your CMS brethren!

 

[Mac K]

Good, you found someone to fill my shoes 👍 Good luck tomorrow!

 

[gogatrs]

The grid.
My team's cars are highlighted in red.

STARTING GRID

1 - #1 Porsche 962C (Elomaa - Toikka) - 1:12,646
2 - #7 Porsche 962C (Audran - Siebert - Campmajo) - 1:12,672
3 - #18 Porsche 962C (Roth - Snow) - 1:12,841
4 - #15 Porsche 962C (Kieffer - Pras) - 1:13,140
5 - #55 Porsche 962C (Keanie - Boffa) - 1:13,405
6 - #86 Porsche 962C (Titz - Maaß - Rec) - 1:13,499
7 - #6 Jaguar XJR-8 (Sixou - le Pihive) - 1:13,577
8 - #8 Porsche 962C (Audran - Siebert - Malafaya) - 1:13,590
9 - #19 Porsche 962C (Dargert - Roth) - 1:13,724
10 - #13 Lancia LC2 (Nilsson - Davis - Stenbeck) - 1:13,826
11 - #4 Jaguar XJR-8 (White - Becnel) - 1:13,962
12 - #1 Porsche 962C (Kenyon - Bailey) - 1:14,010
13 - #10 Porsche 962C (Plaçais - Mathieu) -1:14,749
14 - #61 Sauber C9 (Larrad - Coxon - Nadeau) - 1:14,837
15 - #62 Sauber C9 (Larrad - Coxon - Nadeau) - 1:15,217
16 - #2 Porsche 962C (Kaszap - Serban) - 1:15,270
17 - #16 Porsche 962C (Bousquet - Tagli - Sarrazins) - 1:15,570
18 - #11 Porsche 962C (Roberts - Labelle) - 1:15,585
19 - #3 Porsche 962C (Bende - Holdampf) - 1:15,725
20 - #63 Sauber C9 (Bovy - Sabathé) - 1:15,764
21 - #11 Porsche 962C (Lopez - Lumiere) - 1:15,945
22 - #9 Porsche 962C (Acerclinth - Campmajo) - 1:15,983
23 - #81 Porsche 962C (Mountjoy - Borgdorff - Moore) - 1:16,091

 

[Watt2159]

Just checked out the website, this makes me want to try Rfactor even more, good luck! 👍
P.S. Only two XJR-8's in the lineup? Whaaaaaaaaat?

 

[gogatrs]

I lied. Race starts in 1 hour.

Silly daylight savings time.

 

[Kitten]

I lied. Race starts in 1 hour.

Silly daylight savings time.

Best to luck. . Im jealous that im not in this.

 

[gogatrs]

Ended with a car in 4th, 10th, and a DNF.

More detailed report this week.

 

[gogatrs]

Here's the full report I did for my team's website.



Although the race lasted much shorter than we expected, it seemed to be even longer than Sachsenring was. Maybe it was because I drove for 3 hours straight, and then got in the car again at the very end. Don't believe for an instant that I didn't enjoy every second of it though.

The start was interesting to say the least. Luckily the car I started (the #18) was the only one of our cars that didn't make it through turn one safely.
I had a run going down the front straight for the first time. Got by second place. I broke a little early for turn one, not knowing what to expect. To my surprise, the pole sitter didn't brake for turn one at all and instead went straight off. I was on the outside, and immediately upon turning in, I found myself facing the wrong direction having had a tap in the rear. Watching 20 Group C cars coming straight towards you is not the most peaceful of feelings.

I quickly spun myself back around and began my charge from 22nd place.
Within two laps, I was up to 15th place. Watch the opening laps from my car in this video (thanks Darien!)...



I soon found myself in second place where I stayed for the rest of the stint plus the next stints and a half with the gap to first neither increasing nor decreasing.

Meanwhile, the opening stints did not go quite as smoothly for the #1 car. Curtis had contact with another car (not his fault) and was forced to pit for damage repairs. Botching that car's three stop strategy. A few laps later, the final corner bit him as it had bitten many other drivers. The damage was terminal and ended the race for the #1 car.

Jay was doing phenomenally in the #19, running mid pack after only having found out about the mod, race, and track two nights before.

Since Darien was now left without a car, Snowman went to working on a new strategy that would get Darien a chance to drive. What he decided that it would be best to keep me in the #18 as long as the fuel and 150 lap per driver in a car limit allowed and have Jay drive up to the half way point of the race. When driving time is up, Jay and I would both get out and Darien and Snowman would replace us respectively. And this is essentially how it went.

Jay drove rock solid right up until it was time for him to come in, when Darien came out he drove equally as consistently. I diced a bit for second place with another Porsche, a Lancia, and a Sauber and eventually came out on top when I brought the car in to the pits for what was supposed to be the final time for me from second place. I lapped third place in the penultimate corner just as I came into the pits. Mind games for the win!

Driver swaps went smoothly for both cars, Snowman and Darien both set out in the #18 and #19 respectively.

Darien's consistent and hard lapping made a top-10 finish look likely. After some excellent strategy calls from Curtis, a few nice passes, and few mistakes, the #19 car finished 10th. An excellent result considering the facts that Darien's original strategy in the #1 car was to save fuel, the #19's strategy required him to push, and that Jay had only started driving the mod 36 hours before the race.

The second half the race did not go nearly as well for the #18 car. In fact, the second half of the race was a complete nightmare.

Snowman took the wheel around the 130 lap mark. In a relatively conservative mode, he was in 3rd place. A podium finish looked likely.

And then disaster struck. On about lap 160, Chris lost the car going into turn 3. He came out of the kitty litter with only three wheels. He pit and filled up the tanks while he repaired damage. After some strategy discussion over TeamSpeak, we decided that it was best that Chris continue driving until around the 200 lap mark. He had to stretch the fuel a little bit, but we got away with it. I got in the car and drove out of the pits in 5th place. Then, all of a sudden, rFactor minimized. I quickly returned to the right tab only to find myself without a wheel. Pitted AGAIN, took on no fuel, and cranked up da boost. After coming out in 6th. I was able to battle my way past 5th place. I unlapped myself once from 3rd and 4th... While they were battling for position [Insert troll face here]. It was unlikely I'd be able to get any higher up the rankings until disaster struck for the 4th place car when a micro-freeze put them into the wall. I took back the position and celebrated by putting my car into the wall on the final lap. I limped around the track to a 4th place finish.

With all things considered, I'd say the race was a success. We learned a lot and came out of the race ready for the next one. 12 Hours of Paris is in two weeks. We'll be ready.

Everybody thank Darien for the pics!