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!
