The Happy New Year Enduro - 2 Hours 30 minutes of BrnoPS4 

  • Thread starter Hun200kmh
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@Hun200kmh I am really sorry I did not finish the race. I had every intention even if it meant I was stone last after struggling back to the pits after an accident, but as the video clip shows, I made a mistake in hitting the tyres at the final corner (partly a bit of oversteer; partly a late change of mind to not pit as I realised I first needed to change to the wet tyre strategy on my ICM) which led to a lot of damage, which caused me to veer across the track and get directly into Zolon's way which caused even more damage and made the car more or less uncontrollable. I still wanted to limp back to the pits even though I had the whole lap to do, but got in the way of first @GTP_RPREGO and then Reaggee (and almost @IfAndOr) because I just couldn't control where the car was going. Before I ruined more people's races in trying to get back to the pits, I instead went directly back to get out of the way.

Sorry @Zolon32, @GTP_RPREGO, Raeggee and @Hun200kmh

 
I am exhausted ... destroyed the car TWICE existing corner 1 which meant limping for a full lap ... also twice ... followed by many minutes of repairs ... again twice!

Did most of the race between 7th and 8th, only got my end result (5th) due to a early call for wets that paid off. In the penultimate lap got to 6th (overtaking an AI Porsche that was struggling with slicks) and in the last lap I gained so much time on Napalm (also slicks?) that it made his 50 secs penalty work to may advantage!

I know this is a bit crazy but I do love these long races!

Here is @PANDACoff33 broadcast (with live commentary or so I'm told) in case you want to check it out. He told me that some technical difficulties meant he missed the start and first few laps.



Live commentary only starts close to the 7-minute mark but the best part is from 9 minutes onwards! ;)
 
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@half_sourly no worries fella, it would be no fun if everyone drove around at 80% to ensure that they never had a mishap (I instigate plenty). And once those mishaps happen the consequences are pretty unpredictable.

To be honest there were other matters that impacted my enjoyment of the event to a greater degree. The result of qualification triggered an unfortunate factor of my screwed up psychology, I became more or less incapable of driving, collided with Duarte at the end of the first lap and watched the field go blasting past.

Things went downhill from there. I spun a number of times whilst trying to climb back, and then the rain came. My (wet) tyres turned dark blue as soon as the track became damp, much colder than they had at any time in practice, which had included driving in a thunder storm at night in winter. I found I had about 5% of the grip I expected.

I handed over to my AI guy, who promptly drove into the barriers outside the first corner. When I came back to him some time later he had zero rear tyres, and a little bit at the front. I take it that these guys have an aversion to pitting. Indeed, they must have, because I told him to pit when he was about half way around the lap, and he then drove straight past the entrance. Yippee!

He did pit next lap. The repair, set to "all" took for ever, and as I drove down the pit lane I found, to my delight, that the suspension was totally... wrong. My wheel was 80 degrees to the left, there was a huge dead area at straight ahead, and the tyres screamed at the top of their voices when travelling in a straight line.

I pitted again for repairs, but the problem remained. I handed it back to Mr AI and went to join the Mrs.

Someone is going to get sacked.
 
Sounds like you had an eventful evening too @Zolon32 . I tested the handover to AI during free practice and it did not pit three laps in a row so I had to quit and re-enter. I mentioned it but you might not yet have joined.

What I've learned from these endurance events is that I am not skilled enough to deal with:
  • Damage on
  • Sharing the track with a slower second class
  • AI competitors, especially when they are driving those slower cars
 
Now I did drive around at about 80% all race. :scared:
It was a long race so I drove at a fairly steady pace saving the tyres the best I could and with the fuel mixture reduced to give me a little more range. I also avoided any damage - self inflicted damage anyway! I'd got a 3 pitstop plan and everything was generally going ok. I'd got up to 4th at one point behind the ZXs, which I didn't even try to catch! But best laid plans etcetera...

An AI Sauber collided with my rear fairly early on causing a bit of suspension damage. I managed to continue to my planned first stop though. Rain came, stop 1 - but with unexpected damage repairs. Driving okay in the wet until the tyres went really cold which became very skittish. So stop 2 to let the AI take over, they have reduced wet physics, and sure enough it was lapping faster. Stop 3 after the rain to swap back to driving and fit softs. Then during the long period a AI GTO drove me off track on the start finish line straight into a barrier. Luckily I ended up just in front of the pit entrance. I sat there fuming for a bit just as a cat turned up so I gave it some biscuits, calmed down and pitted - stop 4, heavy repairs! I then carried on until the first few drops of rain, stopped to fit wets and let the AI take over again - stop 5. The AI apparently thought it wasn't wet enough and stopped to swap back to softs the next lap! It then thought it was wet enough the very next lap and stopped again to put wets back on!! Stops 6 and 7. With all the stops and top ups I had nearly a full tank of fuel at the end of the race. 😵‍💫

All in all I enjoyed it but I do tend to loose concentration somewhat when I'm just lapping and not actually directly racing against anyone. Staring at a large screen constantly a metre away for that length of time also tires my eyes.

Anyway thanks to Mario for organising the event. 👍
2 medium length races next time 😉
 
collided with Duarte at the end of the first lap and watched the field go blasting past.
I’m very sorry for this, I put my nose on the inside of the last turn as you were a bit wider and left some space on the inside, but then the god forsaken bump on that last turn made me widen my line just enough to lightly touch your rear right in the right way to turn you around. Also from what i saw, this caused mayhem behind and I’m sorry to everyone for causing this.

I couldn’t do a clean lap in qualy, ended up P4 way back from Zolon in P1 and a bit back from reagge and Ricardo in P2 and P3. I felt my time was misrepresentative of my pace, but still I thought my best would be somewhere close to or on par with reagge and Ricardo, what I definitely didn’t think would be possible was to keep up with Zolon.

With this in mind, my start of race strategy ended up being somewhat more agressive than usual, and would be to take advantage of the start’s close pack to make as much ground as possible, try to get the lead before everyone had the chance to settle and start driving away from me. From then on the plan was to make my car as wide as possible and pray for rain to arrive asap!

Start was good, put my elbows out and managed to be P2 after the first 2 or 3 corners and glued myself to Zolon’s gearbox, half expecting him to pull a gap at any point. It didn’t happen and when I saw the opening on the last turn, the accident happened…

From then on, my race was pretty uneventful and simultaneously intense! I penalized myself and waited for Zolon to go by before getting back on it, I know it didn’t make up for the crash but it would be even more unfair if I didn’t wait. After that I ran consistently and managed to get to P3 before the first round of pitstops. From then on got P2 due to a mistake from Flat Twelve and was in a continuous fight almost to the end against @tal in the rain, which ended up falling my way on account of a bit of luck with my strategy aligning almost perfectly with the weather forecast. On pace though, Tal was relentless, no way I could do anything about the gap on the rain!

Was great fun! Thanks everyone and thanks @Hun200kmh for making this happen!

Cheers 👍
 
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I’m very sorry for this
No worries Duarte, it was a racing incident. Only person to blame for my troubles on Saturday was me. It's a real pity, because there were plenty of people around I could have had a great battle with across the 150 minutes. Hey ho.

@Hun200kmh Thanks for organising, Mario. I hope that it's not too long before you put another together, and maybe I will be able to have an epic scrap with someone.
 
Hi all,
Splitting the race into the few different parts

1st part (dry) - On a Friday practice session I realized what's more important on the first few laps is just not to crash. So I took a very conservative stance, which eventually paid off when I saw the first 4 had a massive incident on last corner of first lap. Until the end of this part, myself and @Hun200kmh were in a constant battle for 1st, whistle seeing @Madbigdog approaching in the rearviewmirror

2nd part (wet) - Pitted for wet when the track was starting to become too slippery. I think it payed off, since @Madbigdog pitted 2 laps earlier and I was able to several sec advantage. @Hun200kmh started to lose some positions (maybe those 2 crashes on turn 1), and Duarte and I were having similar pace. As his tyres started to degrade earlier, on the end of this part I was able to gain some advantage.

3rd part (dry) - Unlike the wets, this time I might've pitted too soon, which meant I had to do 2 more pitstops until the end of the race (how was everyone else's strategy?). On the dry surface @Madbigdog's pace was much better than mine, and once he passed me, I just wasn't able to keep up. On the last pitstop, with 30mins to go, I decided to hand over to the AI, both because it was getting late, and also I couldn't battle for any position during that time.

Overall, I was happy with my performance on this race. It was unfortunate to see so many incidents/DNFs early on in the race, but I guess that mimics the real experience.

A few thoughts.

  • The AIs didn't give you any space, even when being lapped. Wondering if it's due to 100 aggression? But they definitely added a spice into the race, since you had to find the right place to overtake them (especially when they're in a group).
  • There seemed to be a big difference of pace between cars, especially in the rain.
  • I like the changes in weather condition, since it brings variety to a long race.
  • Would've preferred to have a 2h race, since it was starting to get quite late. I transferred the last 30 mins to the AI.

Thanks @Hun200kmh for organizing, @Madbigdog for win, and everyone who was able to join.
 
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