- 3,506
- Essex
- CWM_StormPacer
Note that this was a B-Spec race I had completed in the Summer of 2011. I am aware that some glitches and updates have reformed the events that would now be expected to unfold in these races. It is very long, as you'll see, but I hope it details an exciting and, for me at the time, grueling 24 hours of racing and coaching.
24hrs of Le Mans, A Gran Turismo 5 B-Spec Story
The Hype and the Pre-Race Decisions:
After grinding my way through the not-so-tedious task of becoming level thirty five on B-Spec mode (the mode where you manage AI drivers as a Team Boss) on Gran Turismo 5, it was time for something I had been dreading for quite some time. I had just the final two 24-hr endurance races to overcome before I finally completed all of the B-Spec Events. Leading up to it was rather straight-forward, to be honest, helped by the fact that I could easily complete certain races in my sleep... literally. Tsukuba 9-hr endurance was roughly as long as the routine, waking up most mornings for a week or so to a Congratulations, you won! the moment I turned on my TV to check the results, or even to see if there was a bit of time left to make the win that much more convincing. To add, I would occasionally have the Nurburgring 4-hr endurance race going through the day, when I was utterly bored of my Playstation 3 and of playing anything on it at all.
But anyway...
I was level thirty five now, and whilst talking to my friend on Skype (who also has Gran Turismo 5) we were discussing our plans for the races ahead for ourselves and, more importantly, when we were going to do them. My friend decided this was going to be his day for completing a 24-Hr Endurance event. As a note, he had recently unlocked the event, having become the same level as I was on B-Spec the night before. It was a funny night, as he had been struggling profoundly on the NASCAR series. Evidently, I had gone through that event with surprisingly flying colours, even through the dreaded Grand Valley Speedway and Daytona Speedway Circuit. They have a notorious reputation of causing the AI-controlled (mostly) B-Spec Drivers to burn out the tyres, or become completely overwhelmed while trying to fight through the pack; a lot of the time, both.
Ive managed to veer from the topic again...
So, my friend had decided that he would take the event on the Wednesday afternoon, which given how another one of our friends would be back on his computer to play on the Playstation 3 later that night after work, was pretty ridiculous. Alas, my poor attempt at a plea was overlooked, but paved the way for me to decide that, since one of us had scuppered plans to lividly indulge in some online gaming, I may as well join the bandwagon and get the event out of the way myself. I was practically babysitting for that day anyway, and no other plans had been discussed, so I surmised that it was a good day to try it out. The only problem was what cars I would use...
I consulted my friend, who had already started before me, on what cars I was thinking of using for the event. I had recently purchased a Pescarolo C60 Hybride from the online dealership, and had completely upgraded it ready for use, but I had a number of cars that I could have used. He started the event the first time with a car that I strongly refused to use, the Red Bull X2010, because I was thinking that I would make it not just a race, but something of a challenge. Subsequently he halted his race and started anew, his next choice of Car was the Audi R10 Race Car. However, the car was not performing very well, and not content with the car being pushed constantly back through the field, he decided that it was not a good choice. Next he tried the Toyota Minolta 88C-V Race Car 89, but that too seemed to experience difficulties, despite his B-Spec Drivers being of a high level. In the end, he reverted back to the Red Bull, babysitting and previously mentioned car issues meant that his attention would not be on the race. This was something I could sympathise with so I did not say any more on the matter.
With his race going, I decided to quickly look at the cars I was contemplating over. I certainly did not want to use the Red Bull, which my friend had remarked with a hint of playful sarcasm and genuine light-heartedness. At my disposal, aside from the Pescarolo, I also had a Toyota Minolta. 1040bhp and 102kgfm of torque would have been perfect, as would have the 1047bhp/104kgfm torque of the C60 Hybride. I also had a race modified 880bhp Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1, Pagani Zonda R, and numerous Le Mans cars with well over 700bhp to choose. Of all those choices, I had a feeling that they would either struggle to keep up with the lightweight and powerful race cars on straights, or would lose out on the corners... some I even feared would lose out in both respects, a situation I did not want at all. Some of them would practically overwhelm the competition without my intervention, which was another scenario I did not want. Just then I had a brainwave... there was one more car that, in previous experience, I had used against cars of this calibre and won through. The difference here was that it may struggle, as I knew that while it was supreme on corners, it was not quite on the same level as race cars such as the Audi R8 when it came to raw power and speed. My final option, and eventual choice, was the Mazda Furai Concept Car 08.
Now it was on to the race... or at least the pre-race setup and outlook. The track was Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France. It was an eight mile long track with a decent amount of long straights and some ominously tricky corners. As it was, I was nervous, and that only intensified when I noticed the skyline was overcast, and rain was beating upon the tarmac. Nine of the vast amount of amazing Race Cars to ever bless the world included the likes of a Bentley Speed 8, Mercedes CLK GTR, Two variations of the Audi R8 race car as well as an Audi R10, a Toyota GT-One, two Pescarolos and a BMW McLaren F1. There were two more race cars, not nearly as powerful but still a hazard to overcome, including the Dodge Viper GTS-R and a Nissan R390 GT1. With the line-up and the track conditions for the start of the race, which I stress seems more like a war between machines than a race; I had to make some crucial setup choices for my drivers.
The Mazda Furai was fully upgraded, boasting 577bhp and supplying 47kgfm torque to the rear wheels of the 675kg concept racer. This meant that for its size and weight, the Furai was a piece of mechanical wizardry. Renewing the oil and rebuilding the engine, as well as giving the Furai a high revolution turbo produced the figured aforementioned. To tweak this car for Sarthe, it was essential that I adjusted the entire transmission settings to suit the areas of the track I knew the car would struggle on, as well as cater for the strengths without losing them too. Increasing the cars maximum speed to 217mph and slightly increasing front and rear downforce seemed like a good idea to me, and in order to cater even more to the circuit, I moved all six gear ratios individually so that they were geared towards top speed. I was fully aware that the cars power and weight meant that doing such changes would not make much of a difference to the acceleration, and that the speed would give it just enough of a run to compete with the more powerful cars when drafting; a tactic Ive used to great success once before. I was content with all other parts, aside from the LSDs sensitivity, which I had increased due to starting in the rain.
The First few hours of Le Mans:
So with everything all adjusted to how I wanted it, I finally started the race. The car was placed into seventh by default, a great position to start... not that I had much of a choice. My first driver on the wet track was N.Vasilyev, a driver that I had created upon starting Gran Turismo 5. Vasilyev is by far one of my best drivers, competing and winning in every event in my B-Spec event from the very start. As of late, he has been on a poor form, yet continues to execute very fast laps times, and pull of some outstanding wins. As the race began, the Viper slipped into sixth after the Team Oreca R8, which blocked any routes to a quick overtake into the higher places, with a Bentley behind him in eighth. The sweeping left-right chicane at the first sector (known as the Dunlop Chicane) in the dry would almost certain play to the Furais cornering advantage; the problem was that this was not a dry track. The cars in front played havoc with Vasilyevs progress, and the Bentley pulled in ahead of the Furai and the Viper into sixth. As predicted, the long Mulsanne straights were proving a strain on the cars power, but the Furai was pulling off 214mph while in the slipstream of cars ahead of it. As the back half of the cars reached the end of the first long straight and into a chicane, it was a fight as to who would take which place at the end of it, and strangely it was the Viper that took 10th over the Pescarolo C60 Courage, while none of the other cars moved, despite being in the concentrated pack. On the next straight, however, the Viper had lost ground completely and slugged along in last place. At the front, The Audi R10 was losing places since starting in first place; placing fifth as the top six reached the tight right hander, the end section of Mulsanne, after the straights. The Bentley had impressively moved to fourth, with only the two R8s and the C60 Hybride ahead of it. By the end of lap one, the Mazda Furai had used the mass of corners towards the end of the circuit, the Porsche Curves and the Ford Chicanes, to break from the back of the pack and catch up towards the Audi R10, which had dropped into sixth behind the AMG Mercedes CLK. Even at this point, I was slightly impressed by the progress... despite racing for less than five minutes.
Throught the sweeping chicanes on laps two, the Mazda Furai took advantage of the R10s surprising lack of pace and moved swiftly into sixth, making up some ground on CLK through the chicanes situated on the massive Mulsanne straight. Tentatively through the tight corners at the end of sector five and the beginning of sector six, known as the Indianpolis Arnage, the Mazda Furai applied pressure on the Mercedes CLK, in an attempt to join the front pack now being led by the C60 Hybride. At the same sectors the Furai caught up to the CLK, it tried a pass up the inside the following lap, nearly holding fifth, but the Mercedes had the power and better line. However, this pass attempt put the Mazda right behind the CLKs slipstream, overtaking and pulling away from it in the Furais favourite part of the circuit. Now in fifth and with the pack essentially split after the first few laps, Vasilyev could focus on moving his way towards the leading pack, and on lap five had caught the Bentley. Through the straights and chicanes, a fight for fourth was brewing, with both cars swapping places a few times throughout the lap. However, the Bentley sped away on lap six, fighting for fourth place with the Oreca R8 in the process and leaving the Mazda Furai to play catch-up once again. However... that did not last long, as the Furai caught the pack which was seperated by less than four seconds by the start of lap seven. Furthermore, the Furai put himself between the Bentley and the third place Team Oreca Audi just before Mulsanne.
Alas, the four much more powerful race cars, boasting at least 750bhp each, left the Furai after the first chicane through Mulsanne. The silver Audi R8 led through the second part into the next chicane, but the plucky Mazda refused to be taken lightly and remained within striking distance of the Bentley Speed 8. By lap eight, the pace of the cars in front forced the Mazda to temporarily halt its charge.
It was only until the tenth lap of the race that the Mazda Furai, still driven by Vasilyev at this time, begun so see progress. The third and fourth placed cars went in for fuel and tyres as the Mazda caught up and was proving threatening, leaving the Audi and the Bentley to contend with the closing Mazda, still only fifteen or so seconds behind. Then, on lap twelve, the Speed 8 pitted, giving the Furai second place. Amazingly, on lap thirteen, the Audi decided it was time to stop, giving the Furai first place for the first time in this race. As you could probably tell I was ecstatic, having carefully relaying orders as well as some amazing driving from my driver despite his poor form going into the race. However, that lead did not last for long, because on lap 16 the Furai needed to pit for fuel and new rain tyres. This pit stop saw the Furai move into third place once more, behind the Audi in first and the Bentley in second. However, in the three laps that the Furai had stayed out for, it had gained a forty second lead, so upon emerging from the pit lane, there was only a slightly wider gap than the identical placing prior to the top three making their stops; 23 seconds.
One hour gone... another 23 more to follow....
With fresh driver R.Miyazaki vying to cut the distance between ourselves and the front runners, it was not long before we were catching the Bentley ahead of us. After the first lap out of the pits, and after looking over the other racers and their current status I became confident. At this point in the race, the Mazda Furai was being driven by a high-level driver on top form. To add, the car drove out on fresh rain tyres and a full tank of fuel, while most of the cars at this time either had yet to make a stop, or had been driving with their new drivers, tyres and fuel for a few laps. We were at a crucial advantage, as the tyres were holding up much better under the strain of the Furais battles with the more powerful cars due to the cars much lower weight and downforce compared to the other competitors. Despite being at an advantage, it was still most certainly a struggle to say the least. The straight line speed of the Bentley was extraordinary, but my adjustments to the car were helping keep on the Speed 8s rear wing for much of the fight, leapfrogging the Speed 8 several times a lap but not quite having the timing or the speed to make anything stick. Eventually, the fighting forced both cars up towards the Audi R8 leading the race, and a skirmish ensued. Thankfully, after a lot of time and a couple of cars in traffic, the Mazda Furai left the Bentley behind, and soon found Miyazaki found his way past the Audi R8 Race Car after it pitted for the second time. It was a good time to plant Miyazakis mindset into attack mode.
By lap 32, Miyazaki had widened the gap between himself and the Audi in second, fully utilising the time and space to put in consistently fast lap times and place the Furai a full minute and a half ahead, before it was time to give the car fresh tyres and yet more fuel. Now it was the turn of F.Thalberg, a new yet very high level driver also on top form. Thalbergs task was to lap as many cars as he could, to further put distance between the cars in second and third, after Miyazaki had put himself past a third of the pack lagging behind in the latter part of the field. However, the cars he had to pass were formidable, namely the seventh placed Mercedes CLK-LM and the C60 Hybride Pescarolo in fifth. Thalberg began his march through the field, the rain still pounding hard with no sign of surrendering, which was quite ironic for the location of the race. It took quite a while for the Furai to lap the CLK, largely due to the race car having superior power, but again the transmission tweaking had given the Furai a major lifeline. Crucial manoeuvres finally created a pass by the Furai that put him securely in front, and subsequently, Thalberg had passed the McLaren F1 one place ahead being held up in traffic. Now was time for the Pescarolo C60 Hybride.
But things were about to get a little crazy...
A few laps after the McLaren F1 GTR had been lapped; the Pescarolo was not far in front. With that in mind, I allowed Thalberg a chance to put the sound of the wind firmly behind the French Racing car. However, as the fight for overtaking and the intended lapping of the C60 Hybride entered a straight after two laps of fighting; distaster! Just before the Arnage at end of sector five, the Mazda Furai ended up slipstreaming too close to the C60 Hybride, weaving uncontrollably behind it before spinning out a total of four times, narrowly missing either side of the metal wall, spinning out again before the right-hander trying to regain control. As a result, the McLaren had caught up and not only that, but the car was due a pit stop just a few laps later, pushing the Furai back in its mission to expand the lead further. On lap 48, Thalberg pitted, and allowed Vasilyev to once again take the wheel, coming out of the pit lane behind the BMW McLaren it had previously lapped.
With a new driver and fresh tyres, I took advantage of how the other drivers seem to cool down considerably when they are not put under any pressure, calling for Vasilyev to quickly perform a sublime overtake on the outside of a corner without much of a fight at all from the F1 GTR, and once again it was time for the Mazda to attack the Pescarolo. On lap 49, I managed to witness one of the most amazing fights between cars I had ever experienced. Vasilyev tried absolutely everything on the Pescarolo after catching it, but the fifth place cars resilience shone out, refusing to yield to the first place machine and allow the car to be lapped. At every straight, the C60 Hybride powered through the rain, leaving the slipstream open for the lightweight Mazda to keep tight behind, overtaking with the use of better cornering and slingshot from drafting. As this battle continued, I was in complete awe at the battle I was seeing. Even with the other cars, they would get to a point where enough was enough, and they would eventually let the tenacious 675kg machine through. However, the Pescarolo refused to budge, and eventually due to the race it was giving the Furai, took fourth place between laps 51 and 55. As the battle to lap the Pescarolo continued, both cars ended up stacked in traffic, but unfortunately it was the Mazda that drew the short straw. On lap 55, on the winding Porsche Curves before the Ford chicanes the Mazda lost control and spun out, not only letting the Pescarolo C60 Hybride go again, but also allowed the other cars it had lapped to stroll on through.
Night Racing, Calamity, and a few Surprises:
As dawn began to descend upon the city of Le Mans, night racing was fast approaching, and so what my time to sleep and leave my drivers to the task themselves. With the Mazda Furai in the lead after 6 hours of racing, the Audi R8 was still in second. The Bentley had been relatively quiet in third, with the Pescarolo C60 Hybride in fourth. Fifth was the Audi Playstation R8, and in sixth was the BMW McLaren F1 GTR. Seventh was occupied by the C60 Courage, whilst behind in eighth was the Toyota GT-One. Ninth was the AMG Mercedes CLK-LM. In tenth was the Audi R10, with the last two places going to the Nissan and Viper; eleventh and twelfth respectively. The racing at this period in time allowed me to go off and do some chores, have dinner and whatnot. The only problem was that with the lull in the action came a lull in my drivers as I left him to his own devices; a problem I feared would happen eventually, as I was going to be sleeping through a great deal of the race. It was at that point that I started to really panic about the race, having only lapped the second place R8 once by now.
As the light began to fade, the lights in the pit lane, the crowd stands, and numerous light on the track were starting to come on, I look at how wonderful the whole scene looked from the perspective I was seeing it from. It made me feel like I wanted to go to the Le Mans races at one point in my life, just to be able to say that I experienced everything in real life, and not just on a game. The crowning piece was the Ferris wheel in the background, turning slowly with the lights shining brightly. It stirred a feeling of gratitude, that Gran Turismo 5 went through the trouble of not only creating a brilliant race experience, but a brilliant replica of some of the worlds best features in all times of the day.
But back to the racing....
On lap 128, after two laps of battling, both the first place Mazda Furai and the second place Audi R8 Race Car place pit at the same time, with the Audi getting out first due to a greater volume of fuel needed to fill the Furais near-empty tank. The Furai managed to stay with the Audi, making passes numerous time but not quite able to shake the R8, or even stride away from it. Midway through lap 130, it looked as though the Audi would leave the Mazda completely, but Vasilyev narrowed the gap again on lap 131, but a slide onto the grass on the Porsche Curves before the line caused me to rethink challenging the Audi until later on. At first I wanted to see if I should allow my driver to stay behind the wing of the Audi, and let the sheer durability of the car outmatch the Audi over time. I then noticed that on lap 136, there was a significant number of back markers, and decided to chase the pack hoping to lose the Audi. On lap 138, Vasilyev found a way through and for a whole lap, kept the Audi at bay using the cars he had lapped. However, on lap 139, the Audi managed to find a way back, and passed the Furai leaving it to contend with the Audi Playstation Audi R8, laying in fifth. Remarkably, the second place Audi had to pit on lap 140, leaving the Mazda Furai to freely have another shot at the Audi Playstation R8, who had somehow picked up race pace and had powered away, only to pass it by as it pitted. The eleventh hour had literally begun.
After coming out of the pit lane, the Furai ended up in a lot of traffic, and back behind the Audi it had lapped. It was beginning to become a bit of a thorn in my side at this point, and the situation the Furai was in made it impossible to keep up. Thankfully the cars in front started pitting, which gave the Furai a lot of room to play catch up, and just after pitting on lap 144, things were going smoothly. Unfortunately, the moment I realised that the rain was fading I thought I had my advantage back... but sadly the situation showed my disadvantage. The moment I was thinking of going to bed for the night to let my drivers fight for themselves, my lack of forethought and planning for when the rain was due to die off destroyed my hopes. My driver at the time had come back in just a lap later, demanding intermediate tyres, which I allowed to gauge the situation, looking at what the other drivers were doing, or seeing if any had pitted already. I then refused another pit stop, which for the time being gained me a lap advantage, but soon I saw that I needed to pit, as all the cars were performing much faster laps in the fading wet. I decided racing soft tyres the next lap around, but for the entire lap the car slipped and lost valuable time.
By the time the car was using the right tyres for the conditions, the Furai had lost the two lap lead. What was more, the lead the Furai did have, about half a lap, around two minutes or so, was being eaten away by the pace of the Audi R8 Race Car. On Racing Medium tyres, the Mazdas lead was almost on the edge of extinction, but then a drastic move to Racing Soft tyres as the Audi pitted for fuel and tyres. Miraculously the switch paid off, and after only an hour the car was back to nearly two laps ahead of the Audi. Dawn had now arrived, and the daylight filled the circuit once more. I had to leave my drivers to their own devices and have some form of sleep. I waited until Vasilyev was ready to pit, guiding him through each and every corner with careful instructions, and watching for the moment when the car showed signs of being unable to keep up. Finally, on lap 189, I found that sign, leaving Miyazaki on his own to at least try to stay ahead of the pack. Needless to say... I was not feeling confident.
I remember being awoken by a knock on my door, and I quickly had to doing something before diving back into bed until my alarm finally coaxed me out of bed. I had managed roughly five hours of sleep since leaving the AI to control themselves. Daytime would have fully ascended upon Le Mans now, with less than five hours to go I was hoping that my drivers were not too far behind the pack to consider the win out of reach. As I turned on the TV to resume racing, I noticed I had just over four hours to go, and that my current driver, Vasilyev, needed to pit at some point but was fine to continue. However, they had a special surprise for me, as on that lap I noticed that their position was first place. First place; and they did it on their own. The AI controlled drivers had managed to pull it off; driving five hours without me controlling them, and not falling behind in the standings. Not only that, they successfully stayed ahead of the formidable Audi R8 whilst being only a lap or so ahead before I left them. When I checked how many seconds the Mazda was ahead, I was shocked to see that the Furai was eighty two seconds ahead with a pit stop to make. It was an important situation for the team, as I needed to put the Furai in at that moment, or risk losing the lead completely.
Without any other reason, I pitted the Furai on lap 272, only to realise while pitting that the Audi R8 machine was also going to pit that lap, despite having fresh fuel and tyres. It was almost too good to be true. I exited the pit lane on lap 272 with a small lead, but by lap 273, that lead was well over the two minute mark. Now with Miyazaki at the wheel, I made sure I applied the careful attack I gave with Vasilyev before I went to sleep for the night, overtaking many of the back markers which now had the BMW McLaren down in tenth place overall, dropping five places in the five hours I was away. With me back at the controls once more, lapping cars once again was the main aim, making sure that the lead was a convincing one. It was early morning, and I was hungry after a night of relatively good but very short sleep, so I was in no mood to fool around. I was beginning to notice that the Audi was pitting in every few laps, or rather, most of the race cars on the circuit were doing much the same. Their drivers were absolutely shattered, though I reckoned that mine would have been too if not for the idea of letting them run drained of their strength until the car needed to stop. I was not particularly interested in how they were making the race now; I was utterly satisfied with being ahead after all this time.
On lap 282, the cars soft compound tyres were needing a change and the fuel replenishing, so I pulled Miyazaki out of the car to allow Thalberg to race, and his aim again was to build upon the constant pitting of the opposition and better gripping tyres. The car was losing ground through the straight, high speed sections of the race track as always, but was taking advantage of the better cornering through the first and last sectors, where corners were plentiful. By lap 295, the Mazda Furai was two and a half laps ahead of second place coming up to the final two and a half hours, overtaking without any major issue aside from not finding the speed on straights. I was already looking ahead to the next 24hr endurance at this point, it was either that or constantly watch the clock and think of how much time I had left. In both conditions, and with careful management of the drivers, the Mazda Furai looked promising because Nurburgring was a very narrow and winding track, just perfect for the Furais handling capabilities and with only one seriously long and wide straight, running a top speed of 200 205 with gear ratios catered for acceleration was entirely plausible in theory.
Two hours left, Not Long Now:
Just before the twenty two hour mark, the Mazda Furai battled with the eleventh place Nissan R390 Race car, which thanks to the dry track, could compete around the track better. For the entire lap, Vasilyev was on rather worn racing soft tyres, and was struggling to keep cool and in control of the car. At the end of lap 302, Vasilyev spun out multiple times, skidding through the Ford chicanes after losing control competing with the R390. It was quite amusing, because the car slid back into contention with it as the Nissan rounded the corners, running side by side across the line. After two more laps of struggling for grip and not being able to outpace the Nissan, I ordered Vasilyev to sit back and pit on lap 306, letting Miyazaki take to the track. I was looking back in my mind at the best lap times set by the drivers in my team, and in the wet, just a few laps into the race, it was Vasilyev that posted the fastest wet lap time of the team with a 4:29.3. Once the track was dry, it was Vasilyev again that posted the fastest time of the team at this point, with a time of 3:41.419. I was starting to wonder whether it was due to him being a hot-headed racer, a complete opposite of the cool and collected Miyazaki, with the all-rounder Thalberg striking a perfect balance between the two extremes. I found that I could change Vasilyevs race pace at the drop of a hat, whereas gradual changes would occur when trying to change Miyazakis pace. However, Miyazaki was much easier to manage in the traffic, given that his temperament was much cooler and was less sensitive to change. It was almost as if Miyazaki would focus only on putting the car around the track, blocking out the situation around him almost entirely. Thalberg struck a great balance, in the sense that during the quiet spells he would respond quickly to changes in the race pace I asked of him through certain sectors, while in traffic or under pressure he was able to respond well to requests to stay calm.
After twenty two and a half hours, I checked back at the race position of the other cars, and noticed that with first and second unchanged, there were numerous shuffles in position elsewhere. The Audi Playstation R8 had gotten into third position, with the Bentley Speed 8 in fourth. The Pescarolo C60 Hybride had fallen back into fifth with the C60 Courage behind in sixth. The Toyota GT-One had taken seventh ahead of the CLK-LM, now in eighth. Ninth and tenth were occupied by the Audi R10 TDI and the BMW McLaren F1 GTR respectively, with the Nissan R390 GT1 in eleventh and the Dodge Viper GTS-R in last place. The Mazda Furai was romping home now, three and a half laps in front of second, third and fourth. The Hybride was behind by almost six laps, the Courage behind by ten. The Toyota lagged eleven laps behind, while the AMG Mercedes and the R10 were twelve laps behind. Fourteen laps behind was the McLaren, while the Nissan and Dodge Viper trailed behind some seventeen and twenty five laps behind. Coming up to the twenty three hour mark, I felt happy with the progress, having worried about the race since the very start. Nothing eventful was happening now, so I decided to leave the drivers to it on lap 317 and get a shower and some fresh clothes on. I even decided I would do some washing while I was at it too. With Thalberg now in the race, I uttered something silently.
Just bring her home, lads... nice and easy does it...
There were only forty five minutes remaining as I returned from having a shower and new set of clothes, I noticed that Thalberg had gone another lap ahead. It seemed like every other lap, the other cars were pitting for no viable reason at all. I was not sure whether this was a glitch in the game, or just a case of the drivers reeling from the rain incident hours earlier after being pitted so many times in quick intervals for new tyres in the changing conditions from wet to dry. It was certainly true that every driver that pitted was low of strength, and was replaced by another weak driver. It seemed as though the other teams pit strategy was to pit in once their drivers had reach 10% strength, but over time the fact that only three drivers participated in the Le Mans began to show. It was definitely a good idea that I allowed my drivers to carry on long after they were completely exhausted, because my drivers were always fresh when I needed them. There was twenty minutes remaining now, and the win was as good as ours. Vasilyev was passing drivers by without much effort needed, only now and again was I intervening to keep the pace up or to check to see how the pit stops were panning out for the other teams.
It had taken what had seemed like an eternity, but last lap of the race for the Furai had come along. 335 laps of racing, and all I could pray for was that I did not experience an electrical powercut, or for someone who had quite recent gotten quite impatient over something trivial to not cut the power to the house in one way or another. The twenty four hours on the clock ad finished, all that was left to do was to complete the lap that my driver had started. Vasilyev came across the second place Audi during the lap, and I figured it would be great to see if the Furai could pass it just once more. However, the Audi had taken off into the distance, much to my embarrassment, but pitted as the Mazda took the checkered flag. Finally, the race had finished, and the Mazda Furai had finally completed the massive task put in front of it. This victory was Vasilyevs 131st win, Miyazakis 24th and Thalbergs 10th. Through the rain at the start and having to fight every last sector of the way around the track, coming across difficulties and problems galore, even the odd slide or four... I had never truly expected to win the race. I had never done anything of this scale before, and had never seen as many fantastic laps of racing as I had in this one. In all honesty, there was no section in which that Japanese machine did not fight for its place, and lost as many of those battles as it won. Overall, it was the pre-planning that went into tuning the Furai, the selection of drivers, and the effort made by me to keep the drivers racing to their fullest and kept pushing the limits of the car; with possibly a little help from oddities happening in the latter half of the race. It was far from a perfect or easy victory, but it truly was...
... my greatest ever triumph on Gran Turismo 5.
24hrs of Le Mans, A Gran Turismo 5 B-Spec Story
The Hype and the Pre-Race Decisions:
After grinding my way through the not-so-tedious task of becoming level thirty five on B-Spec mode (the mode where you manage AI drivers as a Team Boss) on Gran Turismo 5, it was time for something I had been dreading for quite some time. I had just the final two 24-hr endurance races to overcome before I finally completed all of the B-Spec Events. Leading up to it was rather straight-forward, to be honest, helped by the fact that I could easily complete certain races in my sleep... literally. Tsukuba 9-hr endurance was roughly as long as the routine, waking up most mornings for a week or so to a Congratulations, you won! the moment I turned on my TV to check the results, or even to see if there was a bit of time left to make the win that much more convincing. To add, I would occasionally have the Nurburgring 4-hr endurance race going through the day, when I was utterly bored of my Playstation 3 and of playing anything on it at all.
But anyway...
I was level thirty five now, and whilst talking to my friend on Skype (who also has Gran Turismo 5) we were discussing our plans for the races ahead for ourselves and, more importantly, when we were going to do them. My friend decided this was going to be his day for completing a 24-Hr Endurance event. As a note, he had recently unlocked the event, having become the same level as I was on B-Spec the night before. It was a funny night, as he had been struggling profoundly on the NASCAR series. Evidently, I had gone through that event with surprisingly flying colours, even through the dreaded Grand Valley Speedway and Daytona Speedway Circuit. They have a notorious reputation of causing the AI-controlled (mostly) B-Spec Drivers to burn out the tyres, or become completely overwhelmed while trying to fight through the pack; a lot of the time, both.
Ive managed to veer from the topic again...
So, my friend had decided that he would take the event on the Wednesday afternoon, which given how another one of our friends would be back on his computer to play on the Playstation 3 later that night after work, was pretty ridiculous. Alas, my poor attempt at a plea was overlooked, but paved the way for me to decide that, since one of us had scuppered plans to lividly indulge in some online gaming, I may as well join the bandwagon and get the event out of the way myself. I was practically babysitting for that day anyway, and no other plans had been discussed, so I surmised that it was a good day to try it out. The only problem was what cars I would use...
I consulted my friend, who had already started before me, on what cars I was thinking of using for the event. I had recently purchased a Pescarolo C60 Hybride from the online dealership, and had completely upgraded it ready for use, but I had a number of cars that I could have used. He started the event the first time with a car that I strongly refused to use, the Red Bull X2010, because I was thinking that I would make it not just a race, but something of a challenge. Subsequently he halted his race and started anew, his next choice of Car was the Audi R10 Race Car. However, the car was not performing very well, and not content with the car being pushed constantly back through the field, he decided that it was not a good choice. Next he tried the Toyota Minolta 88C-V Race Car 89, but that too seemed to experience difficulties, despite his B-Spec Drivers being of a high level. In the end, he reverted back to the Red Bull, babysitting and previously mentioned car issues meant that his attention would not be on the race. This was something I could sympathise with so I did not say any more on the matter.
With his race going, I decided to quickly look at the cars I was contemplating over. I certainly did not want to use the Red Bull, which my friend had remarked with a hint of playful sarcasm and genuine light-heartedness. At my disposal, aside from the Pescarolo, I also had a Toyota Minolta. 1040bhp and 102kgfm of torque would have been perfect, as would have the 1047bhp/104kgfm torque of the C60 Hybride. I also had a race modified 880bhp Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1, Pagani Zonda R, and numerous Le Mans cars with well over 700bhp to choose. Of all those choices, I had a feeling that they would either struggle to keep up with the lightweight and powerful race cars on straights, or would lose out on the corners... some I even feared would lose out in both respects, a situation I did not want at all. Some of them would practically overwhelm the competition without my intervention, which was another scenario I did not want. Just then I had a brainwave... there was one more car that, in previous experience, I had used against cars of this calibre and won through. The difference here was that it may struggle, as I knew that while it was supreme on corners, it was not quite on the same level as race cars such as the Audi R8 when it came to raw power and speed. My final option, and eventual choice, was the Mazda Furai Concept Car 08.
Now it was on to the race... or at least the pre-race setup and outlook. The track was Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France. It was an eight mile long track with a decent amount of long straights and some ominously tricky corners. As it was, I was nervous, and that only intensified when I noticed the skyline was overcast, and rain was beating upon the tarmac. Nine of the vast amount of amazing Race Cars to ever bless the world included the likes of a Bentley Speed 8, Mercedes CLK GTR, Two variations of the Audi R8 race car as well as an Audi R10, a Toyota GT-One, two Pescarolos and a BMW McLaren F1. There were two more race cars, not nearly as powerful but still a hazard to overcome, including the Dodge Viper GTS-R and a Nissan R390 GT1. With the line-up and the track conditions for the start of the race, which I stress seems more like a war between machines than a race; I had to make some crucial setup choices for my drivers.
The Mazda Furai was fully upgraded, boasting 577bhp and supplying 47kgfm torque to the rear wheels of the 675kg concept racer. This meant that for its size and weight, the Furai was a piece of mechanical wizardry. Renewing the oil and rebuilding the engine, as well as giving the Furai a high revolution turbo produced the figured aforementioned. To tweak this car for Sarthe, it was essential that I adjusted the entire transmission settings to suit the areas of the track I knew the car would struggle on, as well as cater for the strengths without losing them too. Increasing the cars maximum speed to 217mph and slightly increasing front and rear downforce seemed like a good idea to me, and in order to cater even more to the circuit, I moved all six gear ratios individually so that they were geared towards top speed. I was fully aware that the cars power and weight meant that doing such changes would not make much of a difference to the acceleration, and that the speed would give it just enough of a run to compete with the more powerful cars when drafting; a tactic Ive used to great success once before. I was content with all other parts, aside from the LSDs sensitivity, which I had increased due to starting in the rain.
The First few hours of Le Mans:
So with everything all adjusted to how I wanted it, I finally started the race. The car was placed into seventh by default, a great position to start... not that I had much of a choice. My first driver on the wet track was N.Vasilyev, a driver that I had created upon starting Gran Turismo 5. Vasilyev is by far one of my best drivers, competing and winning in every event in my B-Spec event from the very start. As of late, he has been on a poor form, yet continues to execute very fast laps times, and pull of some outstanding wins. As the race began, the Viper slipped into sixth after the Team Oreca R8, which blocked any routes to a quick overtake into the higher places, with a Bentley behind him in eighth. The sweeping left-right chicane at the first sector (known as the Dunlop Chicane) in the dry would almost certain play to the Furais cornering advantage; the problem was that this was not a dry track. The cars in front played havoc with Vasilyevs progress, and the Bentley pulled in ahead of the Furai and the Viper into sixth. As predicted, the long Mulsanne straights were proving a strain on the cars power, but the Furai was pulling off 214mph while in the slipstream of cars ahead of it. As the back half of the cars reached the end of the first long straight and into a chicane, it was a fight as to who would take which place at the end of it, and strangely it was the Viper that took 10th over the Pescarolo C60 Courage, while none of the other cars moved, despite being in the concentrated pack. On the next straight, however, the Viper had lost ground completely and slugged along in last place. At the front, The Audi R10 was losing places since starting in first place; placing fifth as the top six reached the tight right hander, the end section of Mulsanne, after the straights. The Bentley had impressively moved to fourth, with only the two R8s and the C60 Hybride ahead of it. By the end of lap one, the Mazda Furai had used the mass of corners towards the end of the circuit, the Porsche Curves and the Ford Chicanes, to break from the back of the pack and catch up towards the Audi R10, which had dropped into sixth behind the AMG Mercedes CLK. Even at this point, I was slightly impressed by the progress... despite racing for less than five minutes.
Throught the sweeping chicanes on laps two, the Mazda Furai took advantage of the R10s surprising lack of pace and moved swiftly into sixth, making up some ground on CLK through the chicanes situated on the massive Mulsanne straight. Tentatively through the tight corners at the end of sector five and the beginning of sector six, known as the Indianpolis Arnage, the Mazda Furai applied pressure on the Mercedes CLK, in an attempt to join the front pack now being led by the C60 Hybride. At the same sectors the Furai caught up to the CLK, it tried a pass up the inside the following lap, nearly holding fifth, but the Mercedes had the power and better line. However, this pass attempt put the Mazda right behind the CLKs slipstream, overtaking and pulling away from it in the Furais favourite part of the circuit. Now in fifth and with the pack essentially split after the first few laps, Vasilyev could focus on moving his way towards the leading pack, and on lap five had caught the Bentley. Through the straights and chicanes, a fight for fourth was brewing, with both cars swapping places a few times throughout the lap. However, the Bentley sped away on lap six, fighting for fourth place with the Oreca R8 in the process and leaving the Mazda Furai to play catch-up once again. However... that did not last long, as the Furai caught the pack which was seperated by less than four seconds by the start of lap seven. Furthermore, the Furai put himself between the Bentley and the third place Team Oreca Audi just before Mulsanne.
Alas, the four much more powerful race cars, boasting at least 750bhp each, left the Furai after the first chicane through Mulsanne. The silver Audi R8 led through the second part into the next chicane, but the plucky Mazda refused to be taken lightly and remained within striking distance of the Bentley Speed 8. By lap eight, the pace of the cars in front forced the Mazda to temporarily halt its charge.
It was only until the tenth lap of the race that the Mazda Furai, still driven by Vasilyev at this time, begun so see progress. The third and fourth placed cars went in for fuel and tyres as the Mazda caught up and was proving threatening, leaving the Audi and the Bentley to contend with the closing Mazda, still only fifteen or so seconds behind. Then, on lap twelve, the Speed 8 pitted, giving the Furai second place. Amazingly, on lap thirteen, the Audi decided it was time to stop, giving the Furai first place for the first time in this race. As you could probably tell I was ecstatic, having carefully relaying orders as well as some amazing driving from my driver despite his poor form going into the race. However, that lead did not last for long, because on lap 16 the Furai needed to pit for fuel and new rain tyres. This pit stop saw the Furai move into third place once more, behind the Audi in first and the Bentley in second. However, in the three laps that the Furai had stayed out for, it had gained a forty second lead, so upon emerging from the pit lane, there was only a slightly wider gap than the identical placing prior to the top three making their stops; 23 seconds.
One hour gone... another 23 more to follow....
With fresh driver R.Miyazaki vying to cut the distance between ourselves and the front runners, it was not long before we were catching the Bentley ahead of us. After the first lap out of the pits, and after looking over the other racers and their current status I became confident. At this point in the race, the Mazda Furai was being driven by a high-level driver on top form. To add, the car drove out on fresh rain tyres and a full tank of fuel, while most of the cars at this time either had yet to make a stop, or had been driving with their new drivers, tyres and fuel for a few laps. We were at a crucial advantage, as the tyres were holding up much better under the strain of the Furais battles with the more powerful cars due to the cars much lower weight and downforce compared to the other competitors. Despite being at an advantage, it was still most certainly a struggle to say the least. The straight line speed of the Bentley was extraordinary, but my adjustments to the car were helping keep on the Speed 8s rear wing for much of the fight, leapfrogging the Speed 8 several times a lap but not quite having the timing or the speed to make anything stick. Eventually, the fighting forced both cars up towards the Audi R8 leading the race, and a skirmish ensued. Thankfully, after a lot of time and a couple of cars in traffic, the Mazda Furai left the Bentley behind, and soon found Miyazaki found his way past the Audi R8 Race Car after it pitted for the second time. It was a good time to plant Miyazakis mindset into attack mode.
By lap 32, Miyazaki had widened the gap between himself and the Audi in second, fully utilising the time and space to put in consistently fast lap times and place the Furai a full minute and a half ahead, before it was time to give the car fresh tyres and yet more fuel. Now it was the turn of F.Thalberg, a new yet very high level driver also on top form. Thalbergs task was to lap as many cars as he could, to further put distance between the cars in second and third, after Miyazaki had put himself past a third of the pack lagging behind in the latter part of the field. However, the cars he had to pass were formidable, namely the seventh placed Mercedes CLK-LM and the C60 Hybride Pescarolo in fifth. Thalberg began his march through the field, the rain still pounding hard with no sign of surrendering, which was quite ironic for the location of the race. It took quite a while for the Furai to lap the CLK, largely due to the race car having superior power, but again the transmission tweaking had given the Furai a major lifeline. Crucial manoeuvres finally created a pass by the Furai that put him securely in front, and subsequently, Thalberg had passed the McLaren F1 one place ahead being held up in traffic. Now was time for the Pescarolo C60 Hybride.
But things were about to get a little crazy...
A few laps after the McLaren F1 GTR had been lapped; the Pescarolo was not far in front. With that in mind, I allowed Thalberg a chance to put the sound of the wind firmly behind the French Racing car. However, as the fight for overtaking and the intended lapping of the C60 Hybride entered a straight after two laps of fighting; distaster! Just before the Arnage at end of sector five, the Mazda Furai ended up slipstreaming too close to the C60 Hybride, weaving uncontrollably behind it before spinning out a total of four times, narrowly missing either side of the metal wall, spinning out again before the right-hander trying to regain control. As a result, the McLaren had caught up and not only that, but the car was due a pit stop just a few laps later, pushing the Furai back in its mission to expand the lead further. On lap 48, Thalberg pitted, and allowed Vasilyev to once again take the wheel, coming out of the pit lane behind the BMW McLaren it had previously lapped.
With a new driver and fresh tyres, I took advantage of how the other drivers seem to cool down considerably when they are not put under any pressure, calling for Vasilyev to quickly perform a sublime overtake on the outside of a corner without much of a fight at all from the F1 GTR, and once again it was time for the Mazda to attack the Pescarolo. On lap 49, I managed to witness one of the most amazing fights between cars I had ever experienced. Vasilyev tried absolutely everything on the Pescarolo after catching it, but the fifth place cars resilience shone out, refusing to yield to the first place machine and allow the car to be lapped. At every straight, the C60 Hybride powered through the rain, leaving the slipstream open for the lightweight Mazda to keep tight behind, overtaking with the use of better cornering and slingshot from drafting. As this battle continued, I was in complete awe at the battle I was seeing. Even with the other cars, they would get to a point where enough was enough, and they would eventually let the tenacious 675kg machine through. However, the Pescarolo refused to budge, and eventually due to the race it was giving the Furai, took fourth place between laps 51 and 55. As the battle to lap the Pescarolo continued, both cars ended up stacked in traffic, but unfortunately it was the Mazda that drew the short straw. On lap 55, on the winding Porsche Curves before the Ford chicanes the Mazda lost control and spun out, not only letting the Pescarolo C60 Hybride go again, but also allowed the other cars it had lapped to stroll on through.
Night Racing, Calamity, and a few Surprises:
As dawn began to descend upon the city of Le Mans, night racing was fast approaching, and so what my time to sleep and leave my drivers to the task themselves. With the Mazda Furai in the lead after 6 hours of racing, the Audi R8 was still in second. The Bentley had been relatively quiet in third, with the Pescarolo C60 Hybride in fourth. Fifth was the Audi Playstation R8, and in sixth was the BMW McLaren F1 GTR. Seventh was occupied by the C60 Courage, whilst behind in eighth was the Toyota GT-One. Ninth was the AMG Mercedes CLK-LM. In tenth was the Audi R10, with the last two places going to the Nissan and Viper; eleventh and twelfth respectively. The racing at this period in time allowed me to go off and do some chores, have dinner and whatnot. The only problem was that with the lull in the action came a lull in my drivers as I left him to his own devices; a problem I feared would happen eventually, as I was going to be sleeping through a great deal of the race. It was at that point that I started to really panic about the race, having only lapped the second place R8 once by now.
As the light began to fade, the lights in the pit lane, the crowd stands, and numerous light on the track were starting to come on, I look at how wonderful the whole scene looked from the perspective I was seeing it from. It made me feel like I wanted to go to the Le Mans races at one point in my life, just to be able to say that I experienced everything in real life, and not just on a game. The crowning piece was the Ferris wheel in the background, turning slowly with the lights shining brightly. It stirred a feeling of gratitude, that Gran Turismo 5 went through the trouble of not only creating a brilliant race experience, but a brilliant replica of some of the worlds best features in all times of the day.
But back to the racing....
On lap 128, after two laps of battling, both the first place Mazda Furai and the second place Audi R8 Race Car place pit at the same time, with the Audi getting out first due to a greater volume of fuel needed to fill the Furais near-empty tank. The Furai managed to stay with the Audi, making passes numerous time but not quite able to shake the R8, or even stride away from it. Midway through lap 130, it looked as though the Audi would leave the Mazda completely, but Vasilyev narrowed the gap again on lap 131, but a slide onto the grass on the Porsche Curves before the line caused me to rethink challenging the Audi until later on. At first I wanted to see if I should allow my driver to stay behind the wing of the Audi, and let the sheer durability of the car outmatch the Audi over time. I then noticed that on lap 136, there was a significant number of back markers, and decided to chase the pack hoping to lose the Audi. On lap 138, Vasilyev found a way through and for a whole lap, kept the Audi at bay using the cars he had lapped. However, on lap 139, the Audi managed to find a way back, and passed the Furai leaving it to contend with the Audi Playstation Audi R8, laying in fifth. Remarkably, the second place Audi had to pit on lap 140, leaving the Mazda Furai to freely have another shot at the Audi Playstation R8, who had somehow picked up race pace and had powered away, only to pass it by as it pitted. The eleventh hour had literally begun.
After coming out of the pit lane, the Furai ended up in a lot of traffic, and back behind the Audi it had lapped. It was beginning to become a bit of a thorn in my side at this point, and the situation the Furai was in made it impossible to keep up. Thankfully the cars in front started pitting, which gave the Furai a lot of room to play catch up, and just after pitting on lap 144, things were going smoothly. Unfortunately, the moment I realised that the rain was fading I thought I had my advantage back... but sadly the situation showed my disadvantage. The moment I was thinking of going to bed for the night to let my drivers fight for themselves, my lack of forethought and planning for when the rain was due to die off destroyed my hopes. My driver at the time had come back in just a lap later, demanding intermediate tyres, which I allowed to gauge the situation, looking at what the other drivers were doing, or seeing if any had pitted already. I then refused another pit stop, which for the time being gained me a lap advantage, but soon I saw that I needed to pit, as all the cars were performing much faster laps in the fading wet. I decided racing soft tyres the next lap around, but for the entire lap the car slipped and lost valuable time.
By the time the car was using the right tyres for the conditions, the Furai had lost the two lap lead. What was more, the lead the Furai did have, about half a lap, around two minutes or so, was being eaten away by the pace of the Audi R8 Race Car. On Racing Medium tyres, the Mazdas lead was almost on the edge of extinction, but then a drastic move to Racing Soft tyres as the Audi pitted for fuel and tyres. Miraculously the switch paid off, and after only an hour the car was back to nearly two laps ahead of the Audi. Dawn had now arrived, and the daylight filled the circuit once more. I had to leave my drivers to their own devices and have some form of sleep. I waited until Vasilyev was ready to pit, guiding him through each and every corner with careful instructions, and watching for the moment when the car showed signs of being unable to keep up. Finally, on lap 189, I found that sign, leaving Miyazaki on his own to at least try to stay ahead of the pack. Needless to say... I was not feeling confident.
I remember being awoken by a knock on my door, and I quickly had to doing something before diving back into bed until my alarm finally coaxed me out of bed. I had managed roughly five hours of sleep since leaving the AI to control themselves. Daytime would have fully ascended upon Le Mans now, with less than five hours to go I was hoping that my drivers were not too far behind the pack to consider the win out of reach. As I turned on the TV to resume racing, I noticed I had just over four hours to go, and that my current driver, Vasilyev, needed to pit at some point but was fine to continue. However, they had a special surprise for me, as on that lap I noticed that their position was first place. First place; and they did it on their own. The AI controlled drivers had managed to pull it off; driving five hours without me controlling them, and not falling behind in the standings. Not only that, they successfully stayed ahead of the formidable Audi R8 whilst being only a lap or so ahead before I left them. When I checked how many seconds the Mazda was ahead, I was shocked to see that the Furai was eighty two seconds ahead with a pit stop to make. It was an important situation for the team, as I needed to put the Furai in at that moment, or risk losing the lead completely.
Without any other reason, I pitted the Furai on lap 272, only to realise while pitting that the Audi R8 machine was also going to pit that lap, despite having fresh fuel and tyres. It was almost too good to be true. I exited the pit lane on lap 272 with a small lead, but by lap 273, that lead was well over the two minute mark. Now with Miyazaki at the wheel, I made sure I applied the careful attack I gave with Vasilyev before I went to sleep for the night, overtaking many of the back markers which now had the BMW McLaren down in tenth place overall, dropping five places in the five hours I was away. With me back at the controls once more, lapping cars once again was the main aim, making sure that the lead was a convincing one. It was early morning, and I was hungry after a night of relatively good but very short sleep, so I was in no mood to fool around. I was beginning to notice that the Audi was pitting in every few laps, or rather, most of the race cars on the circuit were doing much the same. Their drivers were absolutely shattered, though I reckoned that mine would have been too if not for the idea of letting them run drained of their strength until the car needed to stop. I was not particularly interested in how they were making the race now; I was utterly satisfied with being ahead after all this time.
On lap 282, the cars soft compound tyres were needing a change and the fuel replenishing, so I pulled Miyazaki out of the car to allow Thalberg to race, and his aim again was to build upon the constant pitting of the opposition and better gripping tyres. The car was losing ground through the straight, high speed sections of the race track as always, but was taking advantage of the better cornering through the first and last sectors, where corners were plentiful. By lap 295, the Mazda Furai was two and a half laps ahead of second place coming up to the final two and a half hours, overtaking without any major issue aside from not finding the speed on straights. I was already looking ahead to the next 24hr endurance at this point, it was either that or constantly watch the clock and think of how much time I had left. In both conditions, and with careful management of the drivers, the Mazda Furai looked promising because Nurburgring was a very narrow and winding track, just perfect for the Furais handling capabilities and with only one seriously long and wide straight, running a top speed of 200 205 with gear ratios catered for acceleration was entirely plausible in theory.
Two hours left, Not Long Now:
Just before the twenty two hour mark, the Mazda Furai battled with the eleventh place Nissan R390 Race car, which thanks to the dry track, could compete around the track better. For the entire lap, Vasilyev was on rather worn racing soft tyres, and was struggling to keep cool and in control of the car. At the end of lap 302, Vasilyev spun out multiple times, skidding through the Ford chicanes after losing control competing with the R390. It was quite amusing, because the car slid back into contention with it as the Nissan rounded the corners, running side by side across the line. After two more laps of struggling for grip and not being able to outpace the Nissan, I ordered Vasilyev to sit back and pit on lap 306, letting Miyazaki take to the track. I was looking back in my mind at the best lap times set by the drivers in my team, and in the wet, just a few laps into the race, it was Vasilyev that posted the fastest wet lap time of the team with a 4:29.3. Once the track was dry, it was Vasilyev again that posted the fastest time of the team at this point, with a time of 3:41.419. I was starting to wonder whether it was due to him being a hot-headed racer, a complete opposite of the cool and collected Miyazaki, with the all-rounder Thalberg striking a perfect balance between the two extremes. I found that I could change Vasilyevs race pace at the drop of a hat, whereas gradual changes would occur when trying to change Miyazakis pace. However, Miyazaki was much easier to manage in the traffic, given that his temperament was much cooler and was less sensitive to change. It was almost as if Miyazaki would focus only on putting the car around the track, blocking out the situation around him almost entirely. Thalberg struck a great balance, in the sense that during the quiet spells he would respond quickly to changes in the race pace I asked of him through certain sectors, while in traffic or under pressure he was able to respond well to requests to stay calm.
After twenty two and a half hours, I checked back at the race position of the other cars, and noticed that with first and second unchanged, there were numerous shuffles in position elsewhere. The Audi Playstation R8 had gotten into third position, with the Bentley Speed 8 in fourth. The Pescarolo C60 Hybride had fallen back into fifth with the C60 Courage behind in sixth. The Toyota GT-One had taken seventh ahead of the CLK-LM, now in eighth. Ninth and tenth were occupied by the Audi R10 TDI and the BMW McLaren F1 GTR respectively, with the Nissan R390 GT1 in eleventh and the Dodge Viper GTS-R in last place. The Mazda Furai was romping home now, three and a half laps in front of second, third and fourth. The Hybride was behind by almost six laps, the Courage behind by ten. The Toyota lagged eleven laps behind, while the AMG Mercedes and the R10 were twelve laps behind. Fourteen laps behind was the McLaren, while the Nissan and Dodge Viper trailed behind some seventeen and twenty five laps behind. Coming up to the twenty three hour mark, I felt happy with the progress, having worried about the race since the very start. Nothing eventful was happening now, so I decided to leave the drivers to it on lap 317 and get a shower and some fresh clothes on. I even decided I would do some washing while I was at it too. With Thalberg now in the race, I uttered something silently.
Just bring her home, lads... nice and easy does it...
There were only forty five minutes remaining as I returned from having a shower and new set of clothes, I noticed that Thalberg had gone another lap ahead. It seemed like every other lap, the other cars were pitting for no viable reason at all. I was not sure whether this was a glitch in the game, or just a case of the drivers reeling from the rain incident hours earlier after being pitted so many times in quick intervals for new tyres in the changing conditions from wet to dry. It was certainly true that every driver that pitted was low of strength, and was replaced by another weak driver. It seemed as though the other teams pit strategy was to pit in once their drivers had reach 10% strength, but over time the fact that only three drivers participated in the Le Mans began to show. It was definitely a good idea that I allowed my drivers to carry on long after they were completely exhausted, because my drivers were always fresh when I needed them. There was twenty minutes remaining now, and the win was as good as ours. Vasilyev was passing drivers by without much effort needed, only now and again was I intervening to keep the pace up or to check to see how the pit stops were panning out for the other teams.
It had taken what had seemed like an eternity, but last lap of the race for the Furai had come along. 335 laps of racing, and all I could pray for was that I did not experience an electrical powercut, or for someone who had quite recent gotten quite impatient over something trivial to not cut the power to the house in one way or another. The twenty four hours on the clock ad finished, all that was left to do was to complete the lap that my driver had started. Vasilyev came across the second place Audi during the lap, and I figured it would be great to see if the Furai could pass it just once more. However, the Audi had taken off into the distance, much to my embarrassment, but pitted as the Mazda took the checkered flag. Finally, the race had finished, and the Mazda Furai had finally completed the massive task put in front of it. This victory was Vasilyevs 131st win, Miyazakis 24th and Thalbergs 10th. Through the rain at the start and having to fight every last sector of the way around the track, coming across difficulties and problems galore, even the odd slide or four... I had never truly expected to win the race. I had never done anything of this scale before, and had never seen as many fantastic laps of racing as I had in this one. In all honesty, there was no section in which that Japanese machine did not fight for its place, and lost as many of those battles as it won. Overall, it was the pre-planning that went into tuning the Furai, the selection of drivers, and the effort made by me to keep the drivers racing to their fullest and kept pushing the limits of the car; with possibly a little help from oddities happening in the latter half of the race. It was far from a perfect or easy victory, but it truly was...
... my greatest ever triumph on Gran Turismo 5.
