- 842
- United Kingdom
- Philtaylor17
Thanks for the race. GG to the top three.
TPC GT3 Monthly Endurance Events Season 2 - Race 3 January 4th at Spa
- Thread starter Kermit_2142
- 75 comments
- 7,875 views
- 1,352
- Australia
- TPC_Fudsy
Thanks for hosting @Kermit_2142, I had fun. My apologies to @bloodyboyblue for the hip & shoulder at the end of lap 28. It was a little hard to judge your line with lag.
- 1,684
- United Kingdom
I think chaotic is the only way to summarise the race last night. Congrats to the preliminary top 3.
Personally I had found a lot of pace following @Philtaylor17 onboard lap but I torpedoed my race with a bad strategy call and not taking an easy pit stop under one of the late safety cars which left me very short on fuel and having to limp the car home. I had some fantastic racing on the way with a lot of you @GT5Apex @tyoungbl @GOTMAXPOWER @The_Tullster @AfraidRacer @MaxAttack to name a few.
Looking back I think there was a culmination of things which led to the spiral of safety cars. The track design heavily influenced crashes and subsequent damage with cars hitting the walls. As the race progressed it was becoming clear that because of the risk of safety cars track position was becoming more and more important leading to more desperation from drivers to get ahead creating a mini sprint race after each restart. I think there was a mixture of some complacency from regulars and lack of practice from the reserves for restarts which led to issues at the rear of the grid with large concertina effects. Then obviously the disconnects right at the end and lag thrown in for good measure.
Thanks for everyone’s best efforts even in frustrating circumstances, there sounded to be a lot of good racing in the party so I look forward to viewing some of that in the replay. As usual I will confirm the final result next weekend. I have recieved a few self reports of incidents already so thanks for the honesty from those people and any further reports can be sent to me by Thursday please. I will be looking over the restarts to see if any improvements can be made to the procedure going forward.
Cheers all and enjoy the rest of your weekend
Personally I had found a lot of pace following @Philtaylor17 onboard lap but I torpedoed my race with a bad strategy call and not taking an easy pit stop under one of the late safety cars which left me very short on fuel and having to limp the car home. I had some fantastic racing on the way with a lot of you @GT5Apex @tyoungbl @GOTMAXPOWER @The_Tullster @AfraidRacer @MaxAttack to name a few.
Looking back I think there was a culmination of things which led to the spiral of safety cars. The track design heavily influenced crashes and subsequent damage with cars hitting the walls. As the race progressed it was becoming clear that because of the risk of safety cars track position was becoming more and more important leading to more desperation from drivers to get ahead creating a mini sprint race after each restart. I think there was a mixture of some complacency from regulars and lack of practice from the reserves for restarts which led to issues at the rear of the grid with large concertina effects. Then obviously the disconnects right at the end and lag thrown in for good measure.
Thanks for everyone’s best efforts even in frustrating circumstances, there sounded to be a lot of good racing in the party so I look forward to viewing some of that in the replay. As usual I will confirm the final result next weekend. I have recieved a few self reports of incidents already so thanks for the honesty from those people and any further reports can be sent to me by Thursday please. I will be looking over the restarts to see if any improvements can be made to the procedure going forward.
Cheers all and enjoy the rest of your weekend
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- 1,492
- United States
- equus_ferrum
I think the hilliness of the track also might've led to issues with the restarts, with the s/f straight being after a downhill turn and gravity causing everyone to speed up before having to slow down to 75 mph again.I think chaotic is the only way to summarise the race last night. Congrats to the preliminary top 3.
Personally I had found a lot of pace following @Philtaylor17 onboard lap but I torpedoed my race with a bad strategy call and not taking an easy pit stop under one of the late safety cars which left me very short on fuel and having to limp the car home. I had some fantastic racing on the way with a lot of you @GT5Apex @tyoungbl @GOTMAXPOWER @The_Tullster @AfraidRacer @MaxAttack to name a few.
Looking back I think there was a culmination of things which led to the spiral of safety cars. The track design heavily influenced crashes and subsequent damage with cars hitting the walls. As the race progressed it was becoming clear that because of the risk of safety cars track position was becoming more and more important leading to more desperation from drivers to get ahead creating a mini sprint race after each restart. I think there was a mixture of some complacency from regulars and lack of practice from the reserves for restarts which led to issues at the rear of the grid with large concertina effects. Then obviously the disconnects right at the end and lag thrown in for good measure.
Thanks for everyone’s best efforts even in frustrating circumstances, there sounded to be a lot of good racing in the party so I look forward to viewing some of that in the replay. As usual I will confirm the final result next weekend. I have recieved a few self reports of incidents already so thanks for the honesty from those people and any further reports can be sent to me by Thursday please. I will be looking over the restarts to see if any improvements can be made to the procedure going forward.
Cheers all and enjoy the rest of your weekend
- 1,684
- United Kingdom
Round 2 results have been finalised, Congratulations to our podium @tyoungbl @AfraidRacer @GT5Apex great racing under trying conditions.
I have reviewed the race and can confirm we had 7 Safety Cars (must be a record) and the majority were caused by single car accidents through the fast esses with cars hitting the walls. Because of this I am considering changing Round 4 at Kyoto to a track with more run off.
A quick update on findings from viewing the safety car restarts and improvements we can try and make:
- The final sector at Maggiore and the downhill final corner made queuing and speed control more difficult than usual.
- We had a few reserves filling in this week who would’ve been unfamiliar compared to everyone else.
- SC's led by @Philtaylor17 were overall very good and Phil was the most consistent at sticking to the 75mph target. One thing I noticed was that when Phil went too fast he would brake to slow down and this braking would concertina the field.
- SC's led by me were generally a little too fast which tended to stretch the field. I would roll off the throttle to slow down which reduced the concertina affect compared to Phil and I would also restart the race a lot earlier meaning the field was less bunched into t1.
- SC's led by GMP the general speed was good other than the mistake of over slowing at t13. Playing chicken with the pit wall caused confusion both times which led to collisions and then cars being really bunched up into t1.
- The mid & rear of the pack would sometimes drop off and then massively speed up exaggerating the concertina affect.
Improvements we can try and make:
- SC leaders to prioritise being smooth when adjusting speeds, less use of brakes etc.
- SC leaders when restarting, have a plan for when you’re going to restart, hopefully this will help you be less reactive and deliver a smooth restart. (No more games of chicken please)
- Everyone else to do their best to minimise the concertina affect, if you find yourself dropping off the car ahead catch them up gently and be prepared for them to slow down unexpectedly.
Overall our restarts are very good and I think its easy to be over critical of ourselves in hindsight. The SC is always going to be a little bit on the wing it side of things and is not going to be perfect every time. Smooth and clean is all they need to be.
I will be confirming people’s availability for Spa next weekend. For anyone practicing over the holidays, Rain settings R05 & R06 are likely to be used.
Cheers all
I have reviewed the race and can confirm we had 7 Safety Cars (must be a record) and the majority were caused by single car accidents through the fast esses with cars hitting the walls. Because of this I am considering changing Round 4 at Kyoto to a track with more run off.
A quick update on findings from viewing the safety car restarts and improvements we can try and make:
- The final sector at Maggiore and the downhill final corner made queuing and speed control more difficult than usual.
- We had a few reserves filling in this week who would’ve been unfamiliar compared to everyone else.
- SC's led by @Philtaylor17 were overall very good and Phil was the most consistent at sticking to the 75mph target. One thing I noticed was that when Phil went too fast he would brake to slow down and this braking would concertina the field.
- SC's led by me were generally a little too fast which tended to stretch the field. I would roll off the throttle to slow down which reduced the concertina affect compared to Phil and I would also restart the race a lot earlier meaning the field was less bunched into t1.
- SC's led by GMP the general speed was good other than the mistake of over slowing at t13. Playing chicken with the pit wall caused confusion both times which led to collisions and then cars being really bunched up into t1.
- The mid & rear of the pack would sometimes drop off and then massively speed up exaggerating the concertina affect.
Improvements we can try and make:
- SC leaders to prioritise being smooth when adjusting speeds, less use of brakes etc.
- SC leaders when restarting, have a plan for when you’re going to restart, hopefully this will help you be less reactive and deliver a smooth restart. (No more games of chicken please)
- Everyone else to do their best to minimise the concertina affect, if you find yourself dropping off the car ahead catch them up gently and be prepared for them to slow down unexpectedly.
Overall our restarts are very good and I think its easy to be over critical of ourselves in hindsight. The SC is always going to be a little bit on the wing it side of things and is not going to be perfect every time. Smooth and clean is all they need to be.
I will be confirming people’s availability for Spa next weekend. For anyone practicing over the holidays, Rain settings R05 & R06 are likely to be used.
Cheers all
- 842
- United Kingdom
- Philtaylor17
I'll try and make sure any speed corrections next time are done much smoother and more gradually. And start restarts with more of a gap to T1.Round 2 results have been finalised, Congratulations to our podium @tyoungbl @AfraidRacer @GT5Apex great racing under trying conditions.
I have reviewed the race and can confirm we had 7 Safety Cars (must be a record) and the majority were caused by single car accidents through the fast esses with cars hitting the walls. Because of this I am considering changing Round 4 at Kyoto to a track with more run off.
A quick update on findings from viewing the safety car restarts and improvements we can try and make:
- The final sector at Maggiore and the downhill final corner made queuing and speed control more difficult than usual.
- We had a few reserves filling in this week who would’ve been unfamiliar compared to everyone else.
- SC's led by @Philtaylor17 were overall very good and Phil was the most consistent at sticking to the 75mph target. One thing I noticed was that when Phil went too fast he would brake to slow down and this braking would concertina the field.
- SC's led by me were generally a little too fast which tended to stretch the field. I would roll off the throttle to slow down which reduced the concertina affect compared to Phil and I would also restart the race a lot earlier meaning the field was less bunched into t1.
- SC's led by GMP the general speed was good other than the mistake of over slowing at t13. Playing chicken with the pit wall caused confusion both times which led to collisions and then cars being really bunched up into t1.
- The mid & rear of the pack would sometimes drop off and then massively speed up exaggerating the concertina affect.
Improvements we can try and make:
- SC leaders to prioritise being smooth when adjusting speeds, less use of brakes etc.
- SC leaders when restarting, have a plan for when you’re going to restart, hopefully this will help you be less reactive and deliver a smooth restart. (No more games of chicken please)
- Everyone else to do their best to minimise the concertina affect, if you find yourself dropping off the car ahead catch them up gently and be prepared for them to slow down unexpectedly.
Overall our restarts are very good and I think its easy to be over critical of ourselves in hindsight. The SC is always going to be a little bit on the wing it side of things and is not going to be perfect every time. Smooth and clean is all they need to be.
I will be confirming people’s availability for Spa next weekend. For anyone practicing over the holidays, Rain settings R05 & R06 are likely to be used.
Cheers all
- 1,684
- United Kingdom
Thanks for the entry Rafa. I have added your entry to the reserves list and will contact you if there is a space available. (Usually a week before the next scheduled race).
Driver Roster Update
I’ve had a little tidy up of the driver roster in post #2. We’ve had 2 full time slots open up which have been filled by DesertPenguin & @GT5Apex.
1 of those spots became available as I made the decision to remove @bloodyboyblue from the driver roster due to the lag issues we have had in the first 2 races. I’d like to thank @bloodyboyblue for his ongoing cooperation around this issue and recognise him for his racing etiquette and the extra effort I’ve seen from the replays that he’s tried to mitigate the lag issues. This has also been echoed by fellow racers of the series and I’d like to thank those who have tried their best when racing around him too.
Hopefully things will improve in the future and we can try again
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- 5,669
- Ulricehamn
Request a change of car, want to try MR this year as well.
Please put me in the 650S
Please put me in the 650S
- 1,684
- United Kingdom
Spa Driver Roster & Starting Grid
Pre Race Notice
Hi all, I hope everyone is looking forward to the race. The lobby will open about 20 minutes early and the race will start at 10pm uk time (no qualifying) , which is just over 3 hours from now. The euro guys will be finishing after 1am for this one, so please be as punctual as you can.
Just a few last minute reminders:
Remember its a very long race so save some energy for the end but mostly have fun and enjoy the event
Driver | Manufacturer | Race Number |
Chevy-Heavy | Renault | 3 |
TheSweeney_ | Honda | 96 |
HulkSmash420 | Corvette | 91 |
Resident,_Knievel | McLaren | 74 |
DarkSideNet | Lamborghini | 34 |
Stitch_17 | Ferrari | 46 |
TPC_Fudsy | Porsche | 27 |
DesertPenguin | Porsche | 911 |
The359 | Ferrari | 17 |
TPC_MaxAttack | Honda | 83 |
Sunshineonleith | Lexus | 93 |
GOTMAXPOWER | Audi | 6 |
Kermit_2142 | Renault | 100 |
azriel222 | BMW | 222 |
Spider-Racer-- | Mercedes | 87 |
equus_ferrum | Corvette | 77 |
Pre Race Notice
Hi all, I hope everyone is looking forward to the race. The lobby will open about 20 minutes early and the race will start at 10pm uk time (no qualifying) , which is just over 3 hours from now. The euro guys will be finishing after 1am for this one, so please be as punctual as you can.
Just a few last minute reminders:
- Don’t forget to double check your bop settings and give your cars a fresh oil change.
- Track limits are 2 wheels on the red/yellow curbing. Driving 4 wheels beyond track limits and will require a short lift to nullify any advantage gained.
- Please remember to obey flags and pit exit/entry lines.
- If we have rain, the pit lane may remain wet the entire race. Be aware of this if exiting the pits with slick tyres.
- If we have rain, curbs remain wet for a long time.
- If we have rain, beware when braking on the 'Dry' line in the wet, it is surprisingly slippery in places. (Adjusting brake bias can be helpful here).
- We are completing 1 formation lap for the race start and I would like to carry on with paired up starts. Please pair up before entering the final chicane and the leader can 'Go' at any point after the Finish Line.
- “Safety Cars tend to breed more Safety Cars” so for Safety Car restarts we will remain in single file and the leader can 'Go' at any point between the apex of the final corner and the Start Line/Gantry.
- There will be no qualifying and the race will be 2 hours long.
- If you need to take a comfort break during a pitstop, please do not start taking fuel and tyres as your car may end up leaving pitlane before you return.
Remember its a very long race so save some energy for the end but mostly have fun and enjoy the event
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- 1,684
- United Kingdom
Well Spa delivered a great race as usual with the 24hr cycle, thanks all for coming along and sticking around. It’s a shame we didn't get a little more rain but I particularly enjoyed racing in the dark this time, Eau Rouge was tense each time and the lighting really set a great atmosphere. I mostly ran a lonely race stuck between strategies having started on inters and I took a gamble at the end and switched back to Inters which didn't pay off but I had some great racing along the way with @Michelin Man @tyoungbl Penguin @The_Tullster to name a few.
Congrats to our preliminary top 3 who all ran a great race, as usual the deadline for any incident reports to be sent to me privately is Thursday and I will confirm the final result next weekend. I will also confirm the track and multipliers for the next round next weekend.
Congrats to our preliminary top 3 who all ran a great race, as usual the deadline for any incident reports to be sent to me privately is Thursday and I will confirm the final result next weekend. I will also confirm the track and multipliers for the next round next weekend.
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- 87
- Brazil
- Spider-PunkRacer
First of all, thanks for hosting @Kermit_2142 ! Fantastic job getting us all together in this series. I'm already looking forward to the next round.
Also, congratulations to the (preliminary) podium @Philtaylor17 , @GOTMAXPOWER and @The359 . Especially Phil, who was once again on another level. It's a tragedy that someone pushed you into testing the Ferrari.
Round 3 of the season was epic! After the Round 2 disconnect with a handful of minutes to the end, I admit I was a little disheartened. However, Spa got me back into it in no time. I practiced quite a bit (+300km) and was feeling good in the dry. My pace during the race wasn't as good as practice, but I'm happy to have had 2h of racing with no major mistakes and fairly consistent times. It was good to race almost the entire grid at some point too.
The highlight of this round for me happened before it even started. I nailed the starting in Mediums decision and that gave me 10+ positions at the start of a race, despite a little trouble in the end of the first lap. Getting that decision right brings a smile to my face, and I'll remember it for a while!
Here are some photos from various moments throughout the race.
And a special wallpaper to the race winner. Enjoy it, because I don't photograph Ferraris often.
Also, congratulations to the (preliminary) podium @Philtaylor17 , @GOTMAXPOWER and @The359 . Especially Phil, who was once again on another level. It's a tragedy that someone pushed you into testing the Ferrari.
Round 3 of the season was epic! After the Round 2 disconnect with a handful of minutes to the end, I admit I was a little disheartened. However, Spa got me back into it in no time. I practiced quite a bit (+300km) and was feeling good in the dry. My pace during the race wasn't as good as practice, but I'm happy to have had 2h of racing with no major mistakes and fairly consistent times. It was good to race almost the entire grid at some point too.
The highlight of this round for me happened before it even started. I nailed the starting in Mediums decision and that gave me 10+ positions at the start of a race, despite a little trouble in the end of the first lap. Getting that decision right brings a smile to my face, and I'll remember it for a while!
Here are some photos from various moments throughout the race.
And a special wallpaper to the race winner. Enjoy it, because I don't photograph Ferraris often.
- 842
- United Kingdom
- Philtaylor17
What a race. 24HR of Spa was really fun to take part in, so thanks a lot to @Kermit_2142 for all the effort going in to this series. Its giving all of us a chance to race these events which are different to pretty much everything else out there.
Congratulations to @GOTMAXPOWER and @The359 for the (provisional) podiums. GMP was particularly unlucky with how the SC took away a lot of the advantage from starting on mediums. It was really nice to get a Ferrari team podium though.
Everyone should get a mention really because for me, between the weather, thinking of strategy, racing in the dark, managing tyres and fuel, I think this was one of the much more challenging races out there, but particularly Kermit, @The_Tullster, Penguin and @Spider-Racer all had really strong races.
The results in this series don't always match how you drive, one moment of bad luck, or a gamble that didn't pay out can change everything, so it should be said that everyone who chose mediums to start with made an inspired call there.
Thanks again to @Spider-Racer for the nice wallpaper, must have gone through some level of pain to take that shot! Hope everyone had fun, see you at round 4.
Congratulations to @GOTMAXPOWER and @The359 for the (provisional) podiums. GMP was particularly unlucky with how the SC took away a lot of the advantage from starting on mediums. It was really nice to get a Ferrari team podium though.
Everyone should get a mention really because for me, between the weather, thinking of strategy, racing in the dark, managing tyres and fuel, I think this was one of the much more challenging races out there, but particularly Kermit, @The_Tullster, Penguin and @Spider-Racer all had really strong races.
The results in this series don't always match how you drive, one moment of bad luck, or a gamble that didn't pay out can change everything, so it should be said that everyone who chose mediums to start with made an inspired call there.
Thanks again to @Spider-Racer for the nice wallpaper, must have gone through some level of pain to take that shot! Hope everyone had fun, see you at round 4.
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- 7,096
- Birmingham, UK
- GOTMAXPOWER
That sounds foreboding 😬
And that 😱
I don't think that made any difference in the long run, I still lacked the pace and was burning more fuel than both of the Ferrari's so think I was on for P4, maybe P3 if I could catch @Kermit_2142 at the end. I figured it would be an absolute crash fest after lap 1 and what happened at Maggiore last month, to run 90 minutes under green flags was a really nice surprise. Even without any rain it was a fun race.
- 5,669
- Ulricehamn
"Go, Go, Go, Nooo"
- 1,684
- United Kingdom
You were bang on for a 3 stop until you came in 5 mins early for your 3rd stop.
I think if you could’ve made that work you might’ve been in the lead when @Philtaylor17 took his final stop. But then the safety car. It’s hard to know what’s best to do for strategy because the safety car can be so random and brutal. Whatever decision you make always feels like the wrong one at the time. It’s not until you can view the replay you can see the larger picture.
I was going very long having pitted early to get off the inters. I think I would’ve jumped you all at your final stops but I doubt it would’ve been enough to hold onto a top 5. The strategy variations were so wide it was hard to know who I was really racing with.
As frustrating as Maggiore was, it’s great that none of these races are ever the same. It’s never over until it’s over and anything can happen at any moment. I really enjoy that aspect of these races.
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