GTP WRS-Online : Special IV - Laguna Mixed Class Enduro - Apr 29

[Gravitron]

Only had time so far for a couple shots:

Me studying TomBrady's bumper in a heavy braking zone (no contact!):

Me in the lead for once, my attempt at "symbolism":

Here's where Scott took the lead for good, after I bobbled in the Cork. There's a reason why you're blurry and I'm not.

Things like this are how I let Scott's lead grow to almost 40sec at the end.

 

[WRP001]

My first "official" 3D3 race win. Yee Ha.

Congratz to you Blair and Scott (mcfizzle) on your first "official" 3D3 win which means there is a little ceremony and tradition to uphold:



Know that both Wardez and I tried hard to make it a 4 for 4 sweep for the good ol' USA, but came up just a little short and let the home team (Laguna Seca) down for this event. I live only an hour away and had almost 100 friends and family in the stands cheering me on and they've managed to cheer me up.

 

[TheBook]

My race was kind of lonesome, because I wasn't able to keep up with Blair or Joe after the first couple laps (I stayed up there until about lap 5, then I went wide in one corner and decided that pushing that hard was a bad idea) but was able to pull away from Peter, Daniel, and Frank. I saw Daniel catching me during my second stint in my minimap (he was probably a second or so faster than me at that point), but he fell back some after my lap 36 pitstop.

I pitted every 18 laps, and took on 19 liters of fuel each time, which was enough to see me through to the end with about 10 liters left. I drew a bad pit stall, the very first one, which meant that I spent about 5 seconds on my first stop just sitting in my pit box dialing in my fuel level. After that, I was sure to be as quick as I could with the fuel option.

I had a few minor offs (mostly caused by me letting LMP cars through at the last corner instead of waiting until the start/finish straight), one very small spin at the same corner, and one huge off from spinning my wheels on the corner after the Corkscrew and sliding through the grass at over 100 MPH. It was a pretty clean race for me in that respect, and at no point did I make contact with another vehicle, LMP or GT. 👍

Overall, I was able to just run my own race; after the first couple laps, I settled down and ran consistent 1:26 laps until my tires started giving out. I ran 22 laps on the last stint, and my low fuel level meant that I could have gone much further had I needed to. Of course, I probably could have pushed really hard the last stint, and maybe caught Joe, but I figured it was better to play it safe. I was already on the podium, and that was good enough for me. (First WRS podium for me, in only my second race, I'll take it. ) Congratulations to Blair and Joe for rounding out the GT podium, and Scott, Lucas, and Paul for the LMP-B podium.

 

[EDK]

I'm really gutted I had to pull over.
My GF had some sort of 'major crisis' going on and was distracting me too much.
Sorry you were the victim of that distraction Kevin as I was on my way to pull over in the pits.

I lost about 10 seconds in the incident, and was a lap down to the next 2 in front of me at the end.

I was not sure what happened, thought maybe you just lost concentration, had wrecked, and had trouble recovering. When I was coming up on you, it looked like you were going one way, so I picked a side and hammered down, then you came back over in front of me, and it was too late to do anything about it.

Anyhow, will provide a more complete writeup later. I had a good race, and am just disappointed that the 2 guys I was most competitive with ended up having to finish early. It made it a lonely race for the last 40 minutes or so.

 

[WRP001]

Just checked something and had no idea this was Biffy's first "official" win in a 3D3 event. Way to go Jordan and you picked a good one in which to break the ice.

On with the ceremony for the guy who finished the most laps in the shortest amount of time across both rooms and classes. 👍



I still can't believe we ran these cars for over 100 laps at laguna!!!

 

[Twissy]

You should have a little podium animation / image of some description with the names of drivers along with the NA .. think that be quite funny

 

[yanaran]

Big congratulations Biffy! I was watching the two streams and had you picked for winner after the first two pit stops when you undercut the others. Stayed up the whole race, so only got 4hrs sleep before work but it was worth it, more fun than watching real life racing on the telly!

 

[Biffy]

Thanks guys, truly appreciate all the great comments 👍 I was very ecstatic when I won, have to admit, I did not think I would ever win in a million years here, because, well two things: The competition and the car. How the hell I managed that I don't know.. Also have to say I was more bothered about finishing 1.8 seconds ahead of Tim than getting my first WRSOE win, because that last stint was just beyond insane, really had to fight to keep the car on track! Anyway, will post something a lot more detailed probably tomorrow, just not got the time to write a full report atm.

 

[hasslemoff]

Another great event

Well done Scott, Blair, Jordan and Mark for the wins and to all who raced great racing 👍

I made to many mistakes in the race, but it still was a great race even though I was trying to chase down Scott and lucas all of the race.
After a mistake on lap 3 I had a good battle with Tombrady till about lap 9, In which I did give a little bump on turn 1 lap 7 sorry, had some nice close racing in that stint, but after tombrady made an error and I got past I tried to start eating into the lead that Lucas and scott had made, which was my downfall as more mistakes were made only minor ones but stopped me getting into any rhythm which was the case for the rest of the race and I kept seeing the gap increase due to a couple of offs.
It was a lonely LMP race for me but enjoyable due to coming up against the GTs and trying to keep the 787b on this track.

Had 2 incidents which involved other cars, 1st was with Tombrady when trying to lap him his back end came out a bit (left hander after T1) and I hit him which caused him to spin. A BIG SORRY.

2nd When passing a GT car (cant remeber who) they went into a slide (last right hander) I tryed to avoid him but I clipped his front end, which I think (hope) helped him to starighten up. Sorry

The replay never saved for me last night so I cant review anything and I cant remeber the laps of the incidents.

All in all it was an enjoyable race

 

[iGoFast]

Had an awesome time with this enduro! Really impressed with how clean everyone kept it for the whole 2.4 hours even with the multi-class format. Really great job guys!!

As for me, my race went pretty smoothly. No major muck ups. Made the same miscalcultion as Gooners (I think) and almost ran out of fuel, but caught it before it was too late and came in after 10 laps. Had to do 17 laps to finish out the race and almost ran out of gas again (ran out in parade lap), but nothing that hurt my total lap count. I know why we made the math error if you wanna know.

I seemed to light a fire under Pekkas *ss when I started to catch him, that guy REALLY doesn't like getting lapped! I think he even ended up pulling away from me a little, and catching up to Jon! Looked like they were having a pretty awesome battle for the rest of the race.

By far the battle of the day went to Tim and Jordan though. How you can race for that long and end up so close is beyond me. I was watching the leaderboard the whole race and could never figure out who would take the LMP win. Outstanding stuff, congrats Biffy.

Another amazing 3D3 race from everyone! Not sure i'll be around much for the next couple months as i'm commiting most of my free time to GT Academy. I'll pop in to say hello from time to time of course, and maybe run a race/tt or two. See you guys around, and good luck to all those who actually get to win something in the Academy!

 

[WRP001]

My race report...

The race really started Saturday night for me. I made a very structure plan for my race. Exactly how much fuel, exactly when to stop for each pit and exactly what to look for on track that would lead me to vary my strategy. Building in flexibility, but not allowing chaos, is the key to any good plan. And mine was good. The problem with a plan is everything might change during the race, but the problem with not having a plan is you can't possibly follow one if it doesn't exist. So plan, always plan.

OK, race morning I'm not feeling well at all. I'm on google chat with Gravitron across lounges telling him I'm not sure I can focus... My head is pounding, even my vision isn't that great. Am I really that old that having two beers the night before gives me a hang over? A large can of full sugar and caffeinated coke and two ibuprofen to the rescue and I'm back to 100%. Didn't have any Red Bull in stock, but that would have been better.

Anyway, as lead race steward there is no turning back and on with the duties. I think I got 5 laps of warmup in total and not one below 1'17. My thought was just don't ruin anyone else's race. But then the lights went on and the race started.

LMP Start

​

Off the line we were very orderly in the LMP field. Great job of Wardez setting up a clean start. By the way T-L was perfectly on the money. I asked him before the race to try and have the GT field just turning the final corner as we were accelerating to race pace. He did it *perfectly*... the guy is good... really good! Anyway, clean getaway in turn 1. Again with my intention to not cause any waves I got on the brakes early and easy. Maybe a bit to early and got a tap from behind sending me wide... within inches of the dirt on the outside of turn 1 which would have been disaster (maybe for both fields), but luck was with me and I held it on tarmac, and nobody dove inside me and I kept my 2nd spot. Wardez got a bit of a jump... maybe 1.5 seconds, but that was all the damage. To be honest, I didn't want to follow any closer. From my experience on Saturday the dirty air was terrible following another LMP. Much more risk in high speed corners and tire wear was worse so my desired gap was 1-2 seconds. I wasn't figuring Wardez to cooporate with my plan, but it did work out. For the first 9 race laps the gap varied from 1 to 2 seconds and never got smaller or larger. Behind me Biffy settled in at about the same gap behind me, but Wes and Gooners dropped back due to an incident on lap 1.

LMP Turn 1

​

My plan was to pit after 11 hot laps (on lap 12), but as we approached the 12th lap we caught the back end of the GT field. Here's were the plan flexibility comes in. I let wardez continue -- surely to be slowed by worn tires and all that traffic to get through -- but I dove in the pits. Biffy followed and when Wardez cycled through his pit stop I had a nice 4 second gap. Gooners had the longest stints and had the lead at the time, but I knew he would come in shortly. I held the lead for the entire 2nd stint, but I believe this stint is what cost me the race. I got too easy and safe remembering my incidents on Saturday. Wardez had an incident giving me a little cushion which reinforced my safety first mentality, but I let Biffy catch up too much considering I was in clean air in little traffic. Also I was planning to run all 11 laps so figured I'd go easy on the tires. At the end of the stint from 4 seconds back Biffy short pitted me by 2. He ran 9 and I ran 11 laps. It was just enough for him. Four of the LMP cars basically met at the exit of pit road with gooners just a second behind.

Lap 23 -- Biffy, Wardez, WRP (exiting pits), w-g-e, gooners

​

Biffy passed by with Wardez on his tail side by side with me exiting the pits with Wes right behind. I was behind wardez in dirty air plus on cold tires and Biffy got away right there. Had I pitted one lap earlier and only done a 10 lap stint it would have worked out on my side. Wardez pitted after one lap, but Biffy had already built a 4.5 second lead in one lap.

From there out it was leap frog with Biffy. Biffy would have better pace early in runs and I would have better pace late in runs. He would pit first and I would get the lead. When I would pit I'd surrender the lead. A few times Wardez or Gooners would be out in front for a lap or two based on their longer stints, but as the race wore on it was clear the win was between Biffy and myself. I was hoping Biffy didn't plan out his strategy and he'd need one extra pit stop with all his shorter stints. I readjusted my claculations on the fly a couple times and decide to drop down to 10 lap stints right away after my first 11 lap stint. I also started to push a little more knowing I had one less lap to carry those tires. But through each cycle Biffy seemed to extend the lead a little bit more.

However, I had one ace up my sleave. Fuel strategy. I had mine calculated well so that I would not have to make any "long" stops to add fuel and that paid off during the driver change where Biffy did. I also took my pit pause at the very extreme end of the window very late. Initiating the stop at 1:27 which gave me a lot of clean track while other guys were in the pits for extended periods. I came out of the driver change up by 2.5 seconds and with equal tire condition. I had a 2.2 second lead about 4 laps later when I had my only crash of the day. I came up on Litchi in the final corner of lap 69 and passed him under braking going fairly deep to do so. I ended up clean to the outside with outside tires on the rumble and accelerated. My car turned a little to the inside and litchi was right on my inside quarter panel and the little twitch slowed me and caused him to contact me and I spun out into the inside wall and completey backward. Litchi waited for me even though the incident wasn't his fault. My 2.2 second lead turned into a 7.5 second deficit in an instant.

WRP Crash Lap 69 surrendering lead to Biffy

​

Biffy and I continued to play leap frog for the next 30 laps with Biffy extending the lead to 10 seconds with about 10 minutes and 7 laps to go. But I was able at this point to shorten my stints to 9 laps and match his pace in the middle of the runs and beat his pace at the end of runs so with only one stint remaining I figured I could make up a couple seconds on track. All I needed was one mistake from Biffy and he almost gave it to me -- twice. On lap 101 Biffy made some sort of mistake or hit traffic in a bad spot and I cut the lead in half to 4.6 seconds. Unfortunately I met up with Pekka approaching the corkskrew and got by him under breaking, but lost a full second to Biffy in that one sector. Lead back up to 5.6 seconds with one lap to go. I made up on a half second in the first couple sectors. THen made up over half a second in the corkskrew as Biffy started to lose the handle and I saw his triangle twitching around and I had a very good run through sector 3 and could see him midway in the final turn as I initiated my braking. My only hope was him messing up his exit to the final corner, but he took it easy adn got away safely and I ended up crossing the finish line 1.8 seconds behind. I'm pretty certain one more lap and I had him as his spins had pretty much shot his tires, but really I was pretty psyched to finish the race and have it be competitive the entire 2.4 hours.

Biffy wins by 1.8 seconds over WRP

​

Really fun and great race Biffy. I think your shorter stints were better, but I think my fuel strategy evened that out. It came down to me making one costly mistake (of 10 seconds) and you minimizing your mistakes somehow. Looking at the replay of that final lap or 3 I don't know how you didn't completely wipe out. Gooners claims it's much easier to recover from spins with the DS3, but the rest of the race is so much more challenging with the controller that it is absolutely amazing you controlled this "Class C" car on this track for 103 laps -- and in none of those laps could you nap with a big and safe lead. Awesome driving!

 

[EDK]

I haven't had a chance to make pics yet, but here is my race from my recollection.

Going in, I had decided on 12 lap stints. I got black screened after the second support race Saturday, so I was not able to use the data from that race to set strategy. I went from memory and did the best I could to make it all work. In the Saturday race, I intentionally did a 1 stop with the idea being to gather the data.

I was doing well early in the race, mixing it up with the front runners. I got past all except jtv by my second stop. At that point, came the first of my mistakes. The computer did not take over right away as I came around the corner into the pits. I hit the gas again in an effort to get it to take, and the screen came up with tires and fuel, so I ended up selecting a full tank.

That meant I had 3 stints on heavy fuel that I would not have otherwise had, and it really disconnected me from the other drivers until well after my driver change pit stop. I had no idea where I stood.

During that stint, I had an incident with Speedy that he mentioned earlier in the thread. I saw what I thought was crash recovery up ahead of me on track as I came out of turn 6. I thought he was staying track right, so I tried going around on the left at race speed, but there was not enough room and I crashed into him. Ultimately, that left me with some temporary damage, and I lost about 10 seconds to my pace.

Between the fuel mistake and that incident, I had some issues with staying mentally focused, was not on the same pace as I had been, and made a few minor mistakes such as braking miss going into turn 1, the final turn, and a bobble coming out of 6 on the way up the hill.

After my short pit stops showned me where I was on cycle, I came out ahead of Litchi, Speedy had already stopped, but I was behind jtv and MadMax, with no real idea of the gap.

My 12 lap stints were lasting about 20 minutes each, and was coming up on needing to pit with 30 minutes to go. I stretched that stint to 13 laps and the end of my fuel, and came in with about 30 minutes left, and I thought I would need to go 18 laps in my last stint, which I fortunately knew I could from the support race.

I went ahead and put in 2 extra liters, which turned out to be a good thing, as I finished the race out and ran out halfway around the parade lap.

It seems that 13 lap stints would have optimized my strategy more effectively, but I'm not sure anything would have changed in terms of position.

Had fun again driving on track with all the LMP traffic, and had some nice battle with the other GT cars before my strategy mistake resulted in me running my race in clear air a half lap away from them.

Thanks again to Tim for his solid organization, and I can't wait for the next one. Maybe I'll finally be able to talk him into the old cars.

 

[WRP001]

Thanks again to Tim for his solid organization, and I can't wait for the next one. Maybe I'll finally be able to talk him into the old cars.

You have influence... after all I think you were the first to suggest the 787b back in February when we were planning the first enduro at Spa. It only took me 2 months to listen. So projecting out at that rate we'll be running your classic old cars sometime in late summer. Of course, maybe not.

PS> Here is the LiveStats leaderboard video condensing the race into about 15 minutes for those of you that want to do some analysis.

 

[mcfizzle]

I apologize in advance for the massive photo dump.

GT Class at start of race.

GT Class first turn.

LMP Class at start of race.

LMP first turn.

GT Class turn 4 lap 1.

GTP_otxjo

GTP_MilleRSVR

GTP_ty00123

GTP_RacingWorld

GTP_lapi

GTP_AspecBob

 

[mcfizzle]

Third race of the weekend where I slid off turn 5 on the first or second lap of the race/ GTP_Hasslemoff follows me.

Pass for the lead Lap 10. GTP_Gravitron(left) GTP_mcfizzle(right) and GTP_ty00123

Lap 16 turn 1 GTP_Gravitron leading GTP_mcfizzle, lead changed in pits.

GTP_Gravitron leading GTP_mcfizzle. GT Class leader and winner GTP_MilleRSVR.

Lap 42 GTP_mcfizzle leading GTP_Gravitron through turn 2.

GTP_mcfizzle and GTP_ty00123.

Lap 48 GTP_mcfizzle is leader but trails GTP_Gravitron and GTP_ty00123. Gravitron exited pits after drivers change in front of mcfizzle. A position he held until mcfizzle pitted for his drivers change.

Lap 49 GTP_MilleRSVR with GTP_Gravitron and GTP_mcfizzle. I locked the brakes and under slid into Gravitron causing a light tap. Gravitron kept his position.

Lap 55 GTP_Gravitron lapping GTP_HugoSTIGlitz

Lap 64 GTP_mcfizzle passing GTP_HugoSTIGlitz with race leader GTP_Gravitron further ahead.

Lap 66 Race winning pass. GTP_Gravitron slides off allowing GTP_mcfizzle to take the lead.

Lap 76 GTP_mcfizzle and GTP_MilleRSVR.

Lap 87 GTP_Gravitron, GTP_ty00123, GTP_MilleRSVR and GTP_oxtjo.

Lap 88 LMP with GTP_AspecBob, GTP_ty00123, and GTP_MilleRSVR.

 

[MilleRSVR]

Great pictures Scott!! 👍

 

[Gravitron]

Yeah, awesome pics, Scott!

I doubt anyone else will post our "podium" shots, since you had to wait like 10min from the final available fast-forward point, so here are some that I grabbed:

GT Podium: Ty, Joe, and Blair Blair should have been in the center!

Combined Corkscrew podium shots

End of lap 72, the closest I got to GTP_mcfizzle before he started stretching his lead to the end!

 

[AspecBob]

First let me say thanks to Tim for another great organization, Blair for his early tune, MOTORTRENDmitch from the GTP driving school for getting me better acquainted with Laguna Seca (his short lesson alone helped me reduce my average lap time by almost 2 seconds!), Kevin for his tune and some excellent advice during practice and Lucas for making sure everything went smoothly in room B.

Tim, I'm happy to report that Blair stayed in the damn pits as instructed by Lucas at the beginning.

Lap 2 I went wide in turns 3 and 4, then had the first of my major offs (had 3 or 4 during the whole race) at turn 6 (dirty air from Frank's derriere? -- a copy/paste from the support race), lost about 15 seconds right there. My garage was first or second in the pit lane and did not give me much time to react and I hit ok right away on my second pit stop, which meant filling the tank completely

I messed up my last pit stop big time, went in way too fast, got a "run-through penalty"... watching the replay, I saw I was making up from 4 to 6 seconds a lap on Frank at times during my last stint, but he was too far ahead, and like he said, he didn't have any offs which paid off in the end. Nice, solid run mate!

Adding up all that lost time here and there and subtracting it from my time would put me right between Scott and Lucas (hmmm... let me check those numbers again...)

There you go, not a real race report, I would have had to watch the whole replay for that and didn't really feel like it But I did have a lot of fun even though I made all those mistakes.

Congratulations Scott and Blair for your fantastic runs to victory and to all others for making it to the end. 👍

ps: I might have a few pictures later

pps: 500th post

 

[Biffy]

Okay, well let me start off by saying that my first wins seem to come from the toughest races; First proper GTP win in Aderrrm's Spa Enduro, and first 3D3 win in this enduro Didn't think I stood a chance in this, but here I am, and I can't express how great a feeling it was to beat Tim to the line by 1.8 seconds.. I knew how much he wanted to win, and he was brilliant throughout the race, but I really wanted it too. So, before I go on into a long, endless block of writing, I'd like to extend a mighty thanks to the WRS admins for making this such an enjoyable and realistic experience, I really can't wait to see what you guys have planned for the future 👍

Anyway, here I go (warning, no pictures - I'm too lazy ) I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

I had a nervy start, braked a little late and ended up going into Wes, who then went into Tim (sorry about that little chain reaction guys ), instantly giving Eddie a little cushion. Wes got a little slidey in the following corners, allowing me to slip past, take 3rd, and latch onto Tim's draft. From there, me, Tim, and Eddie maintained a few seconds of gap from each other, up until around lap 10. I figured my tire wear would naturally be worse than those two, and I ended up having to do 10/11-lap stints. I wasn't going to win on pit strategy, and I didn't expect to have good race pace, but sometime around the 2nd stint, I just found my rhythm with the car. Lap 23, on my third stint though, was probably the most pivotal moment of the race for me. Using Eddie's draft, I went for the overtake at T1, just as Tim was about to exit the pitroad. This put him behind Eddie, and gave me the space to pull away, which was exactly what I did.

From here, it was just constant short stints, where I would pull away from Tim at the start, and he would gain a little time at the end of my stint. Then came the driver change. For some reason, I thought it would be quicker to put all my fuel in at once This probably lost me at least 30 seconds of time, and suddenly I was under quite a lot of pressure. Eddie was somewhere in the mix, Mohit was getting dangerously close with a great pit strategy, and Tim took the lead thanks to my foolishness. I thought I'd pretty much thrown it away, but I was also quite excited, with so many possibilities of a winner at such a late stage.

But I was handed a lifeline when Tim span at the last turn. Gooners also took the lead at one point and I started getting worried about him too, but that turned to relief when I saw him trundling round the track at 50mph That just left it to me and Tim. I tried to extend my lead like I did in the first half of the race, but I couldn't do it to the same extent. From some on-the-go calculations, I figured that if I continued as I was, with no mistakes I would be able to hold the lead up until the finish line. Then came the last stint, and Eddie directly in front of me. In the last few laps, I caught up to him, but trying to lap him was impossible - I couldn't drop back either, otherwise Tim would catch up.. so I had to endure the draft. And what a challenge it was. I was sliding at most corners, which culminated in me going off after the corkscrew. Thankfully, Eddie finally let me through and I was back in free air again, but on the last lap I had another scare. I was trying to lap a GT car, and I went straight off again - I knew I had to get back on track fast and get to the finish line asap. Luckily, I managed to do it with 1.8 seconds spare! Such an intense end to the race, and it showed just how close things were in the LMP class. There was just never a dull moment.

I was so pleased with this performance, I managed to make it work with a car that just isn't meant to be driven with a DS3 - something my thumbs would certainly agree with All round great performance from the field anyway. Congrats to T-L on his GT victory, and a well done to everyone who finished the race, especially the LMP guys who kept it brilliant throughout 👍

Thanks for the race guys, definitely my best yet

 

[AspecBob]

Better late than never, here are some pics from the race.


6 GTs


Me about to pass 2 LMPs


One of those rare times I had Frank in my field of vision


Three green men: me, Ty and Blair (not necessarily all on the same lap -- in fact, the actual order is exactly the reverse of what it looks like!)

I think this last picture was taken only seconds after the last one in Scott's last post above.

 

[Gravitron]

I love your captions, Daniel , and the pics are quite stunning as well. 👍

 

[WRP001]

I love your captions, Daniel , and the pics are quite stunning as well. 👍

Daniel has definitely turned up the comedic volume as of late. He's pretty good too. But it's well known that Canadian's are a funny lot. Funny looking that is. Ba da boom!

 

[Gravitron]

Uh-oh, you just started intracontinental incontinence, Tim.

Hey, when's the next combo going up?! What's the hold-up?! Itchy mouse finger is yearning to click "Register Here" now! you know I'm kidding

 

[Hydro]

Daniel has definitely turned up the comedic volume as of late. He's pretty good too. But it's well known that Canadian's are a funny lot. Funny looking that is. Ba da boom!

Eh!!!!!! Screw you guys, I'm going home.

Uh-oh, you just started intracontinental incontinence, Tim.

Hey, when's the next combo going up?! What's the hold-up?! Itchy mouse finger is yearning to click "Register Here" now! you know I'm kidding

So you're the "whiner"?

 

[Gravitron]

Yes, ma'am, I am.

 

[WRP001]

Next weeks race is up boys: GTP WRS-Online : Event 35 : In the Mood for Some Italian - May 9

Sorry for the delay!

 

[jtv90069]

Great race reports everyone, sorry it has taken so long but now it's my turn


GT Start

At the start of the second support race I pushed hard, made some mistakes and dropped to last. This time I wanted to take it a bit easier and hold my position and save my tires. I was almost successful but for a small error on lap 1 which dropped me behind Speedy into 4th.


T-L (on left) retaking lead from Litchi on lap 3

The first stint went as well as I had hoped and unlike Tim I had no plan in mind . Litchi out braked himself into the corkscrew on lap 8 handing me third and a lap later was back on Speedy's bumper. I moved into second on Lap 10 thanks to Speedy going a little wide at the kink, and I then had clear air for the first time in the race with T-L somewhere up ahead and out of sight(11.5 seconds ahead).
I had thought Speedy pitted after 13 laps but it was just a horror lap. I pitted after 14 Laps(and did so for the rest of the race) and was very briefly in first while T-L finished his pit


Speedy, Litchi, JTV and EDK on Lap 6

I exited in 3rd just ahead of Kev and carefully negotiated on cold tires for the first lap. Speedy pitted the lap after I did and I was back into 2nd. With a clear track and fresh warm tires I started to build a small gap back to EDK which was 3.5 seconds after 20 Laps. Coming out of the left hander following the Corkscrew on Lap 21 I found Wes recovering onto the track on the right side, I chose to go left to get around him and we almost came together. I touched the dirt and slid a little but still made the corner without losing much. With no more incidents and the gap to Kev back at 3.5 before he pitted on Lap 24 I was then all alone.


Sliding aroud Wes

After 30 Laps(46 min) and 2 pits each T-L was 30.1 seconds in front and Pekka was 3.2 seconds behind. I had expected Pekka to close up further but 4 laps later it was out to almost 5 seconds and he was pitting for a 3rd time the next lap. At 1 hour and 3 minutes I pitted and had my driver change (had too much coffee before the race ).


Biffy making the Kink even more interesting than usual(Lap 26)

I kept a decent pace for the next half hour while the driver changes were re-arranging the positions (T-L into 2nd overall for a bit) and nothing really happened. 50 laps in and the gap between myself and pekka was out to 23.6 seconds and I was getting confident of taking 2nd place . However With my tires getting old that gap started decreasing but was still quite healthy.

Back into 3rd behind Pekka just before the 90 minute mark with a pitstop and the back into 2nd 4 minutes later with another stop from MadMax who now had T-L a short distance behind and was really starting his charge. 13.8 seconds at 61 laps was soon down to 8.8 seconds at 64 and then 3.7 at 67 laps(wasn't so confident now ).


end of my 68th lap with Pekka and T-L closing fast

The picture below is how close it was when I entered the pit on lap 70. Pekka pitted the next lap but held onto 2nd with only 30 min remaining and T-L had jumped past us both whilst also pitting at the same time I did. It stayed close between us for the next stint but I was punishing my tires more than I had been, and after Pekka pitted again my times were roughly a second a lap slower than previously. I had hoped that with 20 minutes to go that I could catch up the difference my extra laps had made but looking back I should have followed and made my final pit then. It was not to be.



I caught back up some in the final laps but not enough and finished 6.6 seconds behind Pekka and was a lap and 25 seconds behind T-L.


Madmax, JTV and EDK post race

I had a great time and finished a lot better than I had ever thought possible. Thankyou to all the people involved through the qualifying, support races and the main event. To the 3d3 administrators your efforts are much appreciated 👍

 

[WRP001]

These race reports are awesome. 👍

JTV - I'm amazed how little I saw you on track over 2.4 hours. I think twice and all other lapping must have been done in pits or during the driver changes. We performed our driver changes at opposite ends of the window which probably had something to do with it.

On the other hand I felt like I saw Litchi on track a dozen times.

 

[jtv90069]

I think I remember seeing you pass three times Tim, but that does still leave another 4 that I can't recall and it quickly became just another 787 to be aware of .
There was only once later in the race that I had to do something a little different for you to pass and that was exiting turn 3 you passed on my right which was the only lmp to pass that early on the straight apart from that I think you caught me at easy to pass areas.

 

[Biffy]

JTV - I'm amazed how little I saw you on track over 2.4 hours. I think twice and all other lapping must have been done in pits or during the driver changes. We performed our driver changes at opposite ends of the window which probably had something to do with it.

On the other hand I felt like I saw Litchi on track a dozen times.

Couldn't agree more lol! Especially had enough of seeing Litchi when he almost took me off track