- 21
My Le Mans Hell
It was 7pm Saturday night, I thought Id go for a spin on the Circuit De La Sarthe II in my Nissan R92CP just for fun of course, I didnt know I was about to try and win a Bentley Speed 8.
When racing with the Nissan, I was pitting way too early and eventually lost the lead at around lap 20, I restart the game.
Second time I decide to do 30 laps A-Spec then just go to bed and let Schumacher the B-Spec driver take over till morning, it was midnight before I went to bed and I was 1 min 20 ahead of the Sauber Mercedes C9. I woke up to find I was 30 seconds BEHIND the Sauber and Michael was struggling to battle off a Toyota Minolta 88C-V.
That was it, I wasnt in the greatest of moods as you might expect, another restart, I decide to switch cars and buy a Playstation Pescarlo C60 04. Will it be 3rd time lucky perhaps?
I could sense it, I knew I was in for a chance this time with my Pescarlo, I had a few practice runs around the track, just getting used to the car and I felt confident enough to start Le Mans, for real.
I loved the car but I thought it needed more power, 591bhp wasnt enough for me.
I fitted in stage 3 and 4 turbo into my car and it gave it almost double the horsepower!
I decided to A-Spec the first 20-25 laps again as I didnt have any confidence in Michael because of how he let me down the night before.
I had 2nd place secured, I was about to challenge for 1st when I see my old car, the Nissan R92CP. As I expected I passed it easily and started pulling away from the field. 👍
I had around a 38 second lead when I made my 1st pit stop, around lap 7, when I came out of the pit, I knew it would be tight and I might not come out in the lead, I looked back to see a Mazda 787B! It seemed to have overtaken the Nissan and it must be going pretty quick as the Nissan was gradually catching up on me.
It must be pitting soon, I thought, yeah, right, it didnt pit for another 4 laps!
I couldnt believe it, I was about to pit again and the Mazda was just coming in for its 1st stop!
Eventually I got my regional lead back (1 min5) and let Michael take control.
Lap 66 and Michael had lapped everybody but the Mazda but he was 41,990 ft ahead. (3min 3sec ahead)
On lap 56 Michael punts off a Ford GT40 at the last turn to lap him for the 13th time.
Michael was killing the pack and lapped the Mazda and was now a lap ahead of most of the pack, for the first time I could see myself winning the race, but on lap 85 the Mazda was fighting back and Michael spun at the bottom hairpin and I didnt know if there was anything wrong with the car as I hadnt driven it in 60 laps or so.
What I did know was that I had driven much faster than Mr. Schumacher, he could only manage 216mph whereas I could get past 253!
I also noticed something weird with the cars, when the approached the bottom of the long straight, they would move to the right barrier and stick to it for 10 seconds or so, thankfully, that only happened once so often.
Michael seemed to have improved since the disaster the night before, his fastest lap was 3min 04.045 beating my 3min 08.756, talk about embarrassing!
On lap 129 the Nissan R92CP seemed to have got its own back for me dumping it and rammed me off the track at the bottom hairpin. Ok I thought, thats only 10 seconds or so wasted, who cares, little did I know that it would be longer than that.
Michael got out of the gravel easily last time when he spun off at the same turn, but he didnt this time, he started hitting the wall right deep inside the gravel, reversing, and hitting the wall again!
Michael couldnt get the Pescarlo out of the gravel and I retired from the race.
That really pd me off, I was expecting to have a nice Bently because I knew the race was in the bag, but poor Michael was hit off the track.
So baisically I was conned of a Bentley because of a glitch.
This was really a kick in the teeth, Id planned everything for this one race, tactics, when to pit etc etc.
I dont know if Ill ever do Le Mans again.
Comments and responses are welcome.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE - 1/06/05
I decided to let Michael do the Le Mans again but all by himself and on steady speed, and he won!
However, in the last 15 mins or so I got all nervous, and A-Spec'd the end.
I now have my beautiful Bentley Speed 8.
It was 7pm Saturday night, I thought Id go for a spin on the Circuit De La Sarthe II in my Nissan R92CP just for fun of course, I didnt know I was about to try and win a Bentley Speed 8.
When racing with the Nissan, I was pitting way too early and eventually lost the lead at around lap 20, I restart the game.
Second time I decide to do 30 laps A-Spec then just go to bed and let Schumacher the B-Spec driver take over till morning, it was midnight before I went to bed and I was 1 min 20 ahead of the Sauber Mercedes C9. I woke up to find I was 30 seconds BEHIND the Sauber and Michael was struggling to battle off a Toyota Minolta 88C-V.
That was it, I wasnt in the greatest of moods as you might expect, another restart, I decide to switch cars and buy a Playstation Pescarlo C60 04. Will it be 3rd time lucky perhaps?
I could sense it, I knew I was in for a chance this time with my Pescarlo, I had a few practice runs around the track, just getting used to the car and I felt confident enough to start Le Mans, for real.
I loved the car but I thought it needed more power, 591bhp wasnt enough for me.
I fitted in stage 3 and 4 turbo into my car and it gave it almost double the horsepower!
I decided to A-Spec the first 20-25 laps again as I didnt have any confidence in Michael because of how he let me down the night before.
I had 2nd place secured, I was about to challenge for 1st when I see my old car, the Nissan R92CP. As I expected I passed it easily and started pulling away from the field. 👍
I had around a 38 second lead when I made my 1st pit stop, around lap 7, when I came out of the pit, I knew it would be tight and I might not come out in the lead, I looked back to see a Mazda 787B! It seemed to have overtaken the Nissan and it must be going pretty quick as the Nissan was gradually catching up on me.
It must be pitting soon, I thought, yeah, right, it didnt pit for another 4 laps!
I couldnt believe it, I was about to pit again and the Mazda was just coming in for its 1st stop!
Eventually I got my regional lead back (1 min5) and let Michael take control.
Lap 66 and Michael had lapped everybody but the Mazda but he was 41,990 ft ahead. (3min 3sec ahead)
On lap 56 Michael punts off a Ford GT40 at the last turn to lap him for the 13th time.
Michael was killing the pack and lapped the Mazda and was now a lap ahead of most of the pack, for the first time I could see myself winning the race, but on lap 85 the Mazda was fighting back and Michael spun at the bottom hairpin and I didnt know if there was anything wrong with the car as I hadnt driven it in 60 laps or so.
What I did know was that I had driven much faster than Mr. Schumacher, he could only manage 216mph whereas I could get past 253!
I also noticed something weird with the cars, when the approached the bottom of the long straight, they would move to the right barrier and stick to it for 10 seconds or so, thankfully, that only happened once so often.
Michael seemed to have improved since the disaster the night before, his fastest lap was 3min 04.045 beating my 3min 08.756, talk about embarrassing!
On lap 129 the Nissan R92CP seemed to have got its own back for me dumping it and rammed me off the track at the bottom hairpin. Ok I thought, thats only 10 seconds or so wasted, who cares, little did I know that it would be longer than that.
Michael got out of the gravel easily last time when he spun off at the same turn, but he didnt this time, he started hitting the wall right deep inside the gravel, reversing, and hitting the wall again!
Michael couldnt get the Pescarlo out of the gravel and I retired from the race.
That really pd me off, I was expecting to have a nice Bently because I knew the race was in the bag, but poor Michael was hit off the track.
So baisically I was conned of a Bentley because of a glitch.
This was really a kick in the teeth, Id planned everything for this one race, tactics, when to pit etc etc.
I dont know if Ill ever do Le Mans again. Comments and responses are welcome.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE - 1/06/05
I decided to let Michael do the Le Mans again but all by himself and on steady speed, and he won!
However, in the last 15 mins or so I got all nervous, and A-Spec'd the end.
I now have my beautiful Bentley Speed 8.
