Endurance Championship - R4: Road America - 20th May 2018 (3 Viewers)

[AndrexUK]

Came in to pit, and my car jumped into the empty box in front of the mechanics, and the mechanics dumped 80L into think air...
Not enough fuel to complete another lap...

Road America Pits.... not so good!

 

[1185323118]

Well, the game just decide to waste all the time that I spent on practicing. But sure the LMP Meme car will return for Le Mans

 

[UnstopaPaul]

Sorry for late arrival. Got my wires crossed on times.

• No food, straight into qualifying, decent quali with only 1 clear lap in 8th.
• Disastrous start as somehow I have hards on for the start of the race. 2nd half of the first stint is about 5secs per lap slower than everyone else. Completely thrown by everything and also driving like a fool
• 2nd stint and back on the correct tyres. Catching up at last, but stupidly bin it avoid a GT3 (my fault, a stupid miscalculation of speed). Suspension totalled, so another pit stop and another 1m30 behind
• The catchup begins again. Manage to unlap myself from 7th place, and stumble my way to 11th, I think through the misfortune of @Col_McCoy having to retired.

Rather a disaster, and definitely not how I wanted my first endurance race to go. Trying to look on the positives

1. I finished. Still no DNFs for UnstopaPaul \o/
2. I had no contact (that I'm aware of) with any other car for a 2 hour race. That seems to put me in a minority
3. My race pace was not actually terrible once I finally got into some rhythm.

Endurance races are hard FYI....

 

[Col_McCoy]

So from P9 to P5 in the first 3 corners was a nice start of the race....
Than at minute 50 in the video there is a major spin from somebody (doing some sort of Grosjean almost) with a lot of smoke and standing still in the middle of the track.. had to avoid and get suspension damage.
After that I was off sequence but still an ok pace, being P4 shortly before getting my 2nd pitstop. Unfortunately, tyres were changed to hard and after that, it was waiting for the temperatures to rise and get some grip back.
Than at 1u48m into the video, I have a crash with @ProjectPD. Have a look yourself and you'll see what happened to me... especially my steering wheel you see that my left rear is being tagged by you and I can't get out of it... than as soon as the car brakes loose from you it's send into a spin and I crash and take you with me... i have the feeling you could have left me a bit more space, but maybe you can show me your view or lag was involved.
Very sorry to @Bezerka who caugt up on me after the carroussell... there should have been white flags there informing you I was slow on track.. I had my hands full trying limp the car safely home and tried to get it fast through the carroussell and than move to the side of the road again... unfortunately a bit to fast with 100 rear damage and as soon as I had the car under the control you were already on my back deciding which way to go... i'm very sorry I wasn't more to the side of the road there yet

 

[GosuNoob]

 

[N1kmido]

No idea how I´ve got away with a victory today.

Quali lap was decent but I should´ve done better (like every qualifying). First 20 minutes were great fun, 3 way battle at the front and I was in the lead at some point. Unfortunately my setup didn´t work that well during the morning hours so I lost about ~10-15 seconds to the leading pair @Noooonotreally and @Feanor until the pitstop.

Strategy-wise I was on the edge if not over when not changing tires and refuel a minimum amount. Didn´t have an awful lot of practice so I had to calculate it mid race, I thought I had like a buffer of about 5L but ~8 minutes before the end I realised that perhaps I was missing 2L to finish the race.
At this point I was battling @Feanor for 1st place with @Noooonotreally only being 5 seconds behind. For me it was totally clear that I would finish 3rd with the amount of fuel saving I had to do. I still don´t really have a clue what exactly happened to everyone but it makes this tasting even sweeter adding to the fact that I haven´t won that many races at all in simracing so far.

Driving standards were pretty good, some lapping moments were rather scary but overall it was fine considering this track can be very tricky to pass slower cars. Also thanks to everyone who showed up today, having a full lobby was a much better experience than the last one with only 13 cars on track.

 

[Satchel_Charge]

Awesome battle we had @Puffpirat, good stuff. Wish I had some footage to post.

 

[Puffpirat]

That was an awesome fight I’m still shivering

Awesome battle we had @Puffpirat, good stuff. Wish I had some footage to post.

 

[Freak Superman]

Here my POV stream of the race.

 

[Nakor]

Congrats and thanks for this race. Now I'll have a break with simracing until next Endurance Event. (exam..)
I'm very happy with P5 in GT class
Nice and fair fights in the beginning, but rest of the race was lonely and only mixed with LMPs passing by. I could have used my softs for the whole race as they lasted much longer than expected. But I didn't change the strategy so I had new softs for the last 35 minutes. And with I think more than 30secs to P4 it didn't matter.

 

[The Hunter]

What a race this was to debut in an RSR League race.

The nerves got the better of me during qualifying. I just couldn't string a clean lap together. It was either me pushing a bit too hard or GT3 traffic getting in the way at the worst possible places on track. Resulting in me starting 11th.

I was awake enough at the start to gain two positions in the first lap. In the opening laps it was clear that I was lacking pace on the straights because of the high downforce I was running. Lap 2 turn 3 I wanted to coast into the corner to make sure I didnt hit the car in front, but the car behind me missed his braking point and wiped me out. I luckily suffered no damage but as far as I could tell he did not wait for me to regain my position.

After that incident I just tried to settle into a rhythm and work my way forward. For it being my first race I didn't dare to take enough risk to tee up for an overtake so I knew early on that I had to rely on consistency to get anywhere. I did manage to gain multiple positions by waiting for others mistakes.

I managed to make my way up to P4 before taking my first pit in lap 22. I came back in track in P8. When the first round of pitstops were made I was in P5. Nothing interesting happens until I took my second pit in lap 43 from P3.

After the second round of pit stops I got myself up to 4th position with a 17 second gap to Fiskerton in 5th. Struggling with fatigue and traffic he managed to close the gap to about 3 seconds before lost composure and spun my car around in turn 6. I managed to bring the car home in 5th position which for me felt like victory.

I hope I didn't cause too many issues for the lower GT drivers with lapping them.

Here's my POV with comments from me, @Zenny and @Bezerka

 

[Satchel_Charge]

 

[GosuNoob]

Well... Time for a quick run down.

First and foremost, I forgot to turn on my stream before the race. I'm pretty pissed off about this not because of the stream, but because I started streaming simply for an easy and effective POV replay.

Qualifying honestly was pretty damn awful. I was consistently hitting either traffic, or running up against folks in my class that had just run off the corner before, and didn't want to yield their failed lap to me. This left me starting in P6 with a time around a 1:53.5ish I believe? I only got this time on my last lap starting with about 1 minute left in the stint, prior to this I was somewhere in 10th or 11th in class. If someone (Stu) wants to chase down my actual qualifying time... here it is since we're all done sandbagging now

The race started pretty terrible for me. Turn 1 was smooth but going into turn 2 a car lag teleported in front of me which caused me to full lock my brakes and run wide out of turn 2. This is where everyone got to wave at me as they drove on by lol. After that it was pretty good. Driving through traffic was amazing as always, and I was slicing through the field of LMP2's very well. Got caught up to P4/5 going into the kink, with two GT3's as well which made it very interesting. Just as I was watching cars getting involved in front of me, there was smoke right after the kink, and a Merc stopped dead in the middle of the track. I'm still amazed that we were basically 4-wide at that point, and somehow all 4 of us got past a car completely perpendicular to the track. Not sure what kind of luck that was or where we found it, but that was about as lucky as I've been in this game.


After that I ran in p3 and 4 for quite a long time. First stop went smoothly, second stop went smoothly, and I was actually saving more than enough fuel so after the first stop, I started pushing harder and harder. After my second pit stop, with about 20 minutes left, I was heavily distracted by both a car, and some communication through teamspeak, that led me to giving the car a little too much gas, and putting it into the wall right after turn 1. After limping the car around the track and taking a pit stop to repair damage, I found myself in P6 behind Fiskerton and The Hunter. They were both too far away to catch despite my pace (20-30 seconds), and behind me there was a fairly comfortable gap around 40 seconds.
From there I drove the saddest last 15 minutes of any race so far, resigned to 6th place. A couple of spins, a couple of off's, but nothing to where I was in danger of being caught by P7.


Really looking forward to the next one guys. Road America is probably my favorite track in the game since it completely suits my driving style of late apexing corners, so while I am disappointed in my finish, I think the race went fairly well.

BTW... I for one did not expect to be able to pass cars on the outside of the carousel, let alone that it would become the preferred place to pass. That was just amazing.

 

[AndrexUK]

Very disappointing night for me tbh
Had put in several 1 hour practice runs for the diffeernt stages of the race to figure out which tires to go for.

Built a decent car, and on my first Qually outing, I put her 2nd on the grid, and that was Qually done.... stuck in the pits for the rest of it, till right at the end, and I didn't reach the line to start a flying lap again....
I don't understand why they even have this 'safe release' system going on - when cars are ghosted in the pit lane anyway...

Somehow managed to keep P2 on the grid (just).

Race start was ok, but I did tap the GT3 leading Merc as he braked very early, so held off to let him keep the position. (Sorry, but it was genuinely early braking..). Then ppl seamed to be very aggressive on the first couple of laps for a 2hr race. Some divebombing, and going up the inside, and essentially pushing me off track (@Feanor ).
This dropped me down to 4th, but I was fairly confident in catching back up to the front end again.

Then the fast right hand kink, that is in the previous video's...
REALLY???
2 LMP2's went on the inside of 2 GT3's on the entry - Have you guys not driven GT3's at Road America??? We have ONE line through there! You might be able to go side by side in LMP2s through there, but to take away the apex of a GT3 really messes our line big time!
And it was rather late to go for the pass as well. Sorry, but that was far too risky!!!
Then to add to this, there was a sideways AMG up ahead. How we all got through that, I have no idea!

I dropped the rear end on the final left hander, and tapped the wall to give 1 front aero damage, but nothing major.
Got back into things, and pilled in the laps.
Was catching everyone up ahead, and got back into 4th again.
There was still some rather opportunistic lapping by the LMP2 boys, again putting both cars at unnecessary risk (especially when the corner leads onto a long straight...

Was putting in some decent laps, and Was catching @N1kmido nicely. battle never happened because lapping cars kept on interrupting, but was hoping to jump him in the pit.

Managed to avoid being taken out, and went in to pit while running on an empty tank.
Came into the pit with 0.1, and about 10 yards before my box, the engine died - Managed to coast up to the pit crew though.
However my car jumped forward a pit box, and my crew started pumping 80L of fuel into thin air.
Stop finished, but it remained on 0.0L....

Game over

Can't say I really enjoyed the race that much. It felt a lot more about avoiding being hit than racing.
Spent almost as much time trying to predict what the LMP2's were going to do. And if I put my car on the inside to essentially stop them from firing up the inside, then they just went for an outside pass, and messed it up the same anyway...

Just because you CAN get passed, doesn't mean you SHOULD!
Maybe I need to be more aggressive and swerve side to side to make it clear I don't want an LMP to go for a pass?

 

[Col_McCoy]

I feel for you Andrex... and I'm afraid it's also the track layout of Road America that makes this behaviour more dangerous than on other tracks (more high downforce corners, high curbstones and small width of the track)

I'm not going to really defend the LMP2s here, I think I had a pretty solid race with little to no incidents when lapping... so instead of defending LMP2 I'm going to praise those GT3 cars I encountered that made it easier/clearer for me.... there are situations on track where giving up a tenth or 2 for the GT3 is safer for both of us... it's not about who looses more or most, it's about safe overtaking... BUT what should not be forgotten by the GT3, is that the LMP2 has the right to overtake as he is the faster car and you are being showed the blue flags.... so if this means the next lines are being comprimised, that means you had to back out of it on forehand.
I'm not talking about divebombs here btw, i'm speaking more about higher speed corners or accelerating out of low speed ones.

As for the kink you are talking about Andrex, it was very dangerous what happened there...... but I'm gonna defend the fact that, just because you cant go 2 by 2 through that corner, it shouldn't be the lmp2s responsibily SOLELY to not put his car next to an GT3 (actually a bit in front)... the overtake is done and both cars should no this is never working so both should have the responsibility to avoid this situation.
I'm watching a lot of real-life endurance racing and these situations happen everywhere.. fact ofcourse is they are pro's and know a bit more what they are doing.. but still, if it happens there it will happen with us. I do agreen with you Andrex that you can block a bit more if you think it's safe to do so... but you have to be early, cause as you said, blocking the inside but leaving the outside open for a valid overtake won't help that... and swerving could get dangerous if the car behind doesn't expect you to... but yeah, also GT3s blocking LMP2s happens a lot in real-life and is a valid way of saying, not this corner mate

 

[Puffpirat]

First of all thanks for letting me still join, I totally messed up the time, being alone with my son doesn't help but that shouldn't be an excuse. Then obviously Windows Update had to mess up my audio devices so I had no sound in TS.

With that fixed qualy was a bit compromised as I first needed to get my heart rate down and settle in. I only got one clear lap but that was about half a second down on my optimum, but 4th wasn't too bad considering the circumstances.

The start was meh, PD bogged down and we got swarmed by the following cars. Braking for T1 I realized I'm an idiot because I forgot to turn my brake balance back to the front after heating my brakes in the formation lap. The rear came loose and I could just about keep the car from spinning but ran wide and lost a few positions.

Great battle with @Col_McCoy started. I once had to make an unintentional dive to the inside because he got held up by a GT car but we swapped positions and were on it again. Then another incident with a GT ended this battle.

@AndrexUK it was also around this time I made this mistake. I apologized instantly but please let me explain. I know as a GT you only have one line, but I thought I would get you both before the kink. When I realized I only get you but not Zenny I tried to back out over the curb. The car bottomed out, I lost all steering and was a passenger. Was shit. Glad we all survived it unscathed. Oddly every time I met @Zenny it was at this turn, obviously I didn't make this mistake again and waited, even though this corner alone is a 1.5s loss as LMP2 car.

Anyway with the race starting to settle in a bit, the fog came and my strategy started working. I started on softs even though the hards were nearly a second quicker at race start, but I knew they would struggle with the cooler track temps with fog. Towards the end of the stint I started catching up to the front runners. During the first stop I took only fuel and could jump @Satchel_Charge and nearly got @SBart_uk too. Sadly this was the only time it really got close between us

The second stint was just lapping, seeing stu escape and keeping a constant gap to satchel. For the last stint it was hards again and finally the car I wanted all race. Towards the end of the stint I really struggled and this great battle with satchel began. So intense, with 5 laps to go, managing traffic, keeping the car ahead, wow, just wow

Congrats stu, great pace, untouchable this time!

 

[Darksi]

In all honesty I had no problems last night with lapping LMPs or with anyone else, there was a couple of times i was racing to regain laps back (after making a mistake early on in the race) my thought was hey its a long race i can make back and just dug in and got on with it. I soon figured with my setup i had to avoid the kerbs completely, and the couple of times i did spin, it was from hitting a curb, apart from the last corner where i got tapped off by an overzealous LMP2, but hey i didn't lose any more places because of it, just made it tricky to re catch the time. All in all i did hear a few bumps and bruises going around, but luckily these didn't affect me. Looking forward to the next race and hopefully a better result.

 

[AndrexUK]

it shouldn't be the lmp2s responsibily SOLELY to not put his car next to an GT3 (actually a bit in front)

How do I stop an LMP2 going for a crazy pass through that corner?
I shouldn't have to brake 50ft before the corner just to let some nutter though. (sorry, that's not dig at @Puffpirat, that was a one off - but just in general!)

Perhaps I wrongly assumed ppl wouldn't by crazy enough to enter that 2 wide (even if a little ahead at the time, the racing line is compromised).

Sorry, but this is really down to LMP2's not being patient enough, and just going for it, because they can still take the corner from the inside line. There is plenty of passing places at Road Murica. There is 3 decent straights (one after the kink has plenty of time to get past without any issue - but seams some would rather risk 2 cars, than wait 1 second... )

 

[Col_McCoy]

I agree with you mate... and I'm very sorry that it happened to you... but the only thing I want to say with it, that it happens because the LMP2 can do it.
I'm definetely not defending when an LMP2 does it, but as you can see from Puffi's post as well... there are these situations where you think you can 'easily' make it and than suddenly it happens different but you already committed to put the car along the inside of one of the cars.
I think the tragic thing is that, sometimes there's not much to do about it, except be aware it might happen. Ofcourse a big problem we have, is that our testing is being done alone or maybe with a friend in the same car. Not with the multi-class status and therefor people get caught out.
We, who raced WEC S3 AOR, are lucky that we already gathered some more experience on the track with the same multi-class situation and therefor were better prepared than others

 

[Tom]

I think the tragic thing is that, sometimes there's not much to do about it, except be aware it might happen.

Pretty much this, It's the nature of the multi-class beast. It would be far too boring if every lapping car was predictable and safe - the challenge is in reacting to these hairy moments. Traffic management goes both ways, good GT drivers can adjust and manipulate their lines to minimise time lost when being passed, gaining time on those who are overly compliant or aggressively defensive. Andrex did pretty well there, sadly not much more Zenny could do.