1987 Fuji 1000km [March 17th]

Martin Audran wrote:

After an other contact, this time with a Porsche, he had to repair again.

That was with Teemu, and I really don't understand what happened there, he turned on me before braking at T1, and we collided at 325kmh/h Big shunt and another 2 laps lost in repairs.

I'm sorry Gui, I have no idea what happened there, but I'm sorry if it was my fault.

Not quite the race Mike and I were hoping for, but we did finish. That's two endurance races under my belt, no DNFs

I was happy to let Mike take the start since I've been having bad luck on lap one lately. He drove brilliantly and took our car all the way up to 5th place from 11th on the grid! Then came the first stop, which went flawlessly -- at first. As I exited the pits, I was surprised by how ungainly the car handled (despite practicing that morning), and I went on the grass for a sec. Gathered it back up, and saw that a series of cars were coming. Opted to let these cars by on the inside until I got myself sorted, then WHAM!!! Another Jag plowed into me, sending me into the barrier and knocking off the right front tire I chalk this one up as a racing accident. Mike says the other car had no way to avoid me. Sorry bout that

After a lengthy repair job, we were back in the race and the next several stints were relatively trouble-free. We climbed from 21st to 15th. Then Mike had a shock when his steering wheel stopped working. He had to unplug it and re-plug it in to get it working again. I was watching the drama unfold via rFactor Monitor and thought we were stuck behind a fence or something Fortunately, the rectangle began to move again, and I heaved a huge sigh of relief. As I took over for our final stint, we realized that two DNFs had occurred at the front, which promoted us to 13th -- two positions below our grid slot. Sorry to JP and Gui for the difficulties, discos and technical snafus are the worst way to go

Anyway, thanks to HSO for a great event. I look forward to the next endurance race!

Group C
When I got the invite from Richard I was very pleased to join him. I down loaded the mod and track and took the car out for a spin. Second thoughts, oh ya. I wondered if it was possible to handle this car. So much power with just the slightest pressure on the throttle. I am sure that Richard must have wonder if things were out of hand when I left the pit box after our swap. More on that later.
After a few days running the Kremer #11 I started to get control of the amazing horsepower and torque. I tried to come to an understanding of the physics of the 962C Porsche with Motec but problems prevented that route. I tried just to fiddle with it and again could not come to terms. I received some setups from fellow racers but only Tiago Malafaya of Joest Racing took the time to drive around with me and help me adapt to the setup and car at this very fast track. I went from 1:20 to 1:17 in about 10 laps.
I made a few changes to the setup and shared it with Richard. We finalized the setup to our satisfaction and both seemed to adapt to it and did similar lap times in practice. During the 2 qualifying sessions we trade fast laps and Richard put in the best one placing us 18th in the 24 car field with a 1:15:585.

Richard took the first two stints (103 laps) and dealt with the opening hazards of the first few laps. He was hit in the rear while going through the carousel on the first green flag lap but damage seemed to be minor as he put in some roaring fast race laps at times dipping down in the 1:16:xxxs. Then as with myself the cars spread out and it looked more like a competition between the driver and the car. Attrition was high in the first part of the race but most settled in and the laps flowed by until the next burst of DNF’s near the end when the front runners began to push for a better finish.

I got up early Sunday morning and setup all my tools for the race. Did a few practice laps and was ready to go. Richard started and I tried to follow the race on the monitor that was provided but it kept crashing so I was in the dark as to what was going on with his race. He contacted me on TS and told me was running with about 20 laps to go to our swap. I jumped in the car to do a few laps to warm up and was mortified to find that my controller file had become corrupted??? Unbelievable. When I pushed the RACE button I was looking at the rear wall. No, no, no, I was just frantic. I reloaded it but no luck, I rebooted then went to other controllers and replaced the file but still no joy. I knew Richard could do another stint but I so wanted to start. Finally minutes before the swap I found one that worked. I tried to sit still and collect myself but I was still flustered when I took control of the car.
All this and I wasn’t even out of the pit.
Out of the pits well that nearly never happen. When the message came up to GO I blipped the throttle and did a 360 out of the box and hit the wall. You don’t blip the throttle on cold tires in a 962C. Amazing it did not prove to be much of a hit regardless of the excitement. Needless to say I was very tense for the next 15 or 20 minutes but I realized it wasn’t going to get easier so I settled in to the pattern and decided to not push to hard and for most of my drive kept it in the 1:20:xxs and on the track. This proved to the right decision. I began to notice that I was being passed by the same cars time after time yet I held my position so I did not feel like pushing myself into trouble. I was never going to keep up with the fast guys. When I saw the checkered flag after 114 laps I was so engrossed in the race I kept asking Richard if it was really over.
My lasting impression of this race was tension. I don’t think anyone who has raced these cars will state anything different. That is the reason I feel such a big sense of satisfaction with our 9th place finished. I had a few close calls with some slides off track when my attention was diverted by some closing cars or dicey passes. I took one hit at turn 1 but it all ended well. Fun ya in a twisted sort of way.

To quote myself from the CMS form and my first impression after the race,
”This was a very tough race in a car that felt like it was just waiting to snap your butt off. It took a 1 hour walk after the race to burn off the excess adrenaline (my wife bundled me up and dragged me out the door in -11C temperature to cool me down an seemed to actually listen to my rambling account of the last 5 hours. I like her.). We started in 18th and Richard handed over the car in 8th (a very fine accomplishment). I was just so pleased to finish and amazed we held on to a top 10 finish. I have a great deal of respect for the guys that drove these cars in the real world.”

Endurance racing Rules

Its great reading the race reports, it looks like I am not the only one with a warm feeling looking back on this race.

Paul Nadeau wrote:

After knocking the rear wing off and the repairs it took to get everything fixed I was surprised to learn that the car went sideways when applying the brakes Starting the last lap I just barely touched them going into T1 and the car took off into the inside guardrail and was junk!

Could it have been a brake failure that caused both crashes? A good result with 5th for Carl & co. nonetheless. Well done to Joest for running so competitively and to Jason and Mike for making the finish.

bonsoir
comme disait philippe dans son post un imprevue est arrive donc j ai pris le volant au bout de 11 tour,se fut un peu la panique a bord mais on a gerer la chose,sinon superbe ambiance sur la piste fairplay été au rendez vous on a fait une belle remonté avec mes coequipier philippe et gilles qui a assuré comme un chef pour sa premiere endurances chez hso,dommage les abandons .met c est se qui fait le charme de c est course,pas de retour serveur possible"comme en vrai'.
bravo a tous et surtout au podium,et au finisseurs aussi.
un grand merci a philippe et gilles pour se bon moment que l on a passer sur la piste et la bonne ambience TS.
a bientot j espere pour un autre evenement de se type,merci

Ludovic Tagli wrote:

dommage les abandons .met c est se qui fait le charme de c est course,pas de retour serveur possible"comme en vrai'.

Oui je trouve aussi ça mieux que toutes ces endurances où au final il est impossible d'abandonner.

Merci HSO pour cette belle course, félicitations à tous et au podium. Une course bien sympa comme on aime, un mod difficile mais super prenant et ce finish limite de nuit très joli avec ces belles mécaniques .Nous n'avons pas eu beaucoup de temps pour préparer cette course et le setup mais le résultat est là Malgré l'arrêt prématuré au 11èm tour non prévu de Philippe nous sommes remonté tout doucement de la fin de grille pour finir 7e. Aucun pb de relais cette fois tout à bien fonctionné. Aucune casse sur la voiture toute l'équipe a bien assuré :lol!:Merci Ludo et Philippe. J'étais pas très chaud pour la faire mais j'en ferai une autre avec grand plaisir.A+ pour la prochaine

Yesterday's race was very short, first of all I would like to apologize to my fellow Didac my fault as it was unable to make even a "Stin", as was relataros step.


The output is presented numerous as there were 24 cars on the track, if I remember correctly hung out at No. 21-I press-type output was launched, we turn out heating and .....! two vehicles pass us so we fall to 23, "no matter that is very long," multiple incidents make us climb positions, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, overtaking in the braking rushed straight final .. .. 17, the rate was 18 upper middle but fell by 17.9, the race is stabilized and we rolling like clockwork until problems begin-I graphics for screen-once, twice, three "Didac have I can not continue to go well "hastily began the change maneuver, but at the time of the car Didac up on the screen is frozen and I have to be the one to go back to court, I go back loaded with 100 l. hard tires, and on lap 3 of my new "stin" with the pressure that I bent and my problems are, in the curve to the finish line I make a decision, I will be back, blow against valllas of protection with the result missed two wheels, so the race.

Thank you for this event and congratulations

Richard Roberts wrote:

Could it have been a brake failure that caused both crashes?

When I spun off the first time it was under braking but I went off to the left. I didn't notice any brake "pull" just brain fart!


The second one something was definately not repaired at the pit stop and it went immediately to the right.......Just wish I could "reset" back before it all went wrong.....

When can we expect an announcement for the next race?

Oh not very soon, in the second semester I think. Those kind of races need to stay "special"

I truly hope that it is TCL that will be used that time, all credit to this mod, it is very very very good, but nothing I know can beat the TCL Mod

alors apres enquete c etait qui ce type qui est rentré chez toi JF ?

Not a brillant race for Jaguar #5 to say the least, lack of training and strategy showed really bad

It was fun to race from the same location though, as Frank was at my place (that's why it was my profile throughout the all race, but I wasn't driving the all way )

I had a pretty good start, from 24th to 12th in just one lap without being overaggressive I reckon. Then I made a few mistakes and was back down the order, but had some fun laps with JF, Carl, and some Porsches Sorry to the Dyson Porsche driver who I accidently hit with a few laps in. Eventually, I was settling into a rythm when I lost it in the last corner () on lap 23. Had to pit, and the 4 stops strategy was already badly screwed . Then I had a great 75 laps stint with one stop in the middle, climbing back from 20th to 9th place. I handed the car over to Frank on lap 100, and he had a decent beginning of a stint considering he had had practically no training and it was the first he ever raced with my wheel setup. He ended up slamming the car pretty hard into a wall though, then another time, so I hopped back in the car because he was losing patience, and then came darkness and it was really difficult for a short-sighted bastard like me to keep it steady. As a matter of fact I couldn't because I ended up in the wall again , and Frank was back in the cockpit with some 60 laps to go. he crashed twice again, and we couldn't keep our car in the top 10, eventually even losing 11th place to Teemu in the penultimate lap Kuddos to Frank anyway who kept it together despite a very bent car.

We can reasonably have regrets, because we lost some 10 laps in the pits (at some point there was Richard on our pit stall, that was two more laps before he left us the spot ) and our pace was good when we weren't crashing. Lack of training is the obvious reason for this rout, since we had had no more than 10 laps of it, both of us combined

Thanks for this great event though, I hope we can achieve a much better showing next time, endurance racing is really great when you get it right Grats to the guys at Joest (I've race enduros with a few of them ) for their supreme pace
, to some great newcomers teams, and to all finishers and drivers entered, hope everyone had fun

Greg Goissen wrote:

alors apres enquete c etait qui ce type qui est rentré chez toi JF ?

Je me permets de répondre en son nom: Un mec est effectivement rentré chez lui, apparemment complètement bourré...il s'était gourré d'appart, il devait aller chez un voisin .Mais le temps de comprendre, il a un peu "erré" dans la pièce, dans le dos de Jieffe..... qui gueulait comme un âne pour essaye de comprendre ce qui se tramait dans son dos...Je pense que Jieffe a distingué une forme qui bougeait près de lui, mais sans y croire vraiment quoi...c'est pour ça qu'il gueulait" ya qqun????, qui est là???"
Moi de mon côté je pensais juste que sa porte s'était ouverte toute seule, genre mal fermée, un peu de vent qui l'aurait ouverte, mais non...y'avait bien un type à quelques mètres de lui. S'il repasse par ce sujet, il vous racontera tout ça mieux que moi qui l'ai vécu en direct mais à 1200 bornes...
Bref, il a quand même fait deux ou trois tours comme ça avant de s'arrêter et d'aller voir de visu.

Après moi j'ai eu mes problèmes de volant bloqué à gauche et adios la course...c'était pas notre jour.....

Hallucinant l'histoire de JF

Ouaip, hallucinant , je préfère encore être tombé dans l'espace sidéral à bord de ma Leyton House !

hé bien voilà, Hervé a pas mal résumé:
un type est entré quelques secondes chez moi pendant mon premier relais (qui s'était idéalement passé jusque là), j'ai pas vu sa tête mais en me tordant le cou j'ai bien vraiment vu un quidam à l'air hagard dans mon salon... non, non, j'ai pas déliré

apparemment c'était simplement un ami alcoolisé de mon voisin fêtard qui s'est trompé de porte en cherchant la sortie de l'immeuble... (il devait être dans un bel état, ce qui m'a été confirmé par le voisin fêtard)
je ne suis même pas sûr que lui m'a vu, je pense que non...

après coup ça semble plausible... mais sur le coup, j'ai vraiment bien flippé, drôle de sensation

et impossible de quitter l'ordi entre 2 virages... le temps que je rentre aux stands pour passer le volant à Hervé, le type était déjà parti dans la rue, mais j'avoue que je comprends pas pourquoi il n'a pas répondu quand j'ai crié après lui... il a autant flippé que moi peut-être

donc voilà, j'ai pas tout compris mais il semble que c'était inoffensif et accidentel (et finalement assez burlesque aussi)

dommage d'avoir gâché notre course pour ça, mais de toute manière avec les problèmes de volant de Hervé, on pouvait pas aller bien loin... ce sera pour la prochaine

tout va bien en conclusion, sauf qu'on n'a pas eu notre "top 10" à Fuji
merci d'avoir pris des nouvelles

Antoine de Mautor wrote:

because we lost some 10 laps in the pits (at some point there was Richard on our pit stall, that was two more laps before he left us the spot )

Yeah wierd that? Was a couple of time's we tried to do a driver change but you was in the pits, So we couldn't

Richard Coxon wrote:

Antoine de Mautor wrote:

because we lost some 10 laps in the pits (at some point there was Richard on our pit stall, that was two more laps before he left us the spot )

Yeah wierd that? Was a couple of time's we tried to do a driver change but you was in the pits, So we couldn't

Really unluncky for both of our teams

Antoine de Mautor wrote:

Richard Coxon wrote:

Antoine de Mautor wrote:

because we lost some 10 laps in the pits (at some point there was Richard on our pit stall, that was two more laps before he left us the spot )

Yeah wierd that? Was a couple of time's we tried to do a driver change but you was in the pits, So we couldn't

Really unluncky for both of our teams

I Call it a cock up by the circuit owners

Thomas Roth*** carried the water for us the last week (Darien Bailey before him), and I'm sorry (mostly for Thomas) that we finished fourth, as it could well have been third or second.

He handed the #18 car over to me at about the 600 km mark running second. Things were ok for the first ten laps or so, and I clearly had the car warmed up on the medium tires...until I sailed off into the end-barrier in T3 (on the left). I tore (what I think was) the left front wheel clean off. Restarted and limped back around to the pits for something like three minutes of repairs.*

[* Porsche builds good cars, as, somehow, I managed NOT to tear even ONE of the suspension mounting points off the tub during my shunt....**]

[** "uh...huh. But, then...this is only sim-racing, Mr. Snow....]

......anyway....I got going again in fifth or sixth and, with the aid of everyone else from CMS/Rothmans and their calculators on TS, we decided I should run a mid boost fuel strategy. It eventually led to me handing the car back to Thomas during the final few minutes.......at which point I threw him yet another curve when I forgot to exit the car as co-driver first before logging off the server: Because I screwed THAT up too, his game minimized and he crashed, dropping us back two spots again while he went into the pits for repairs.

As it turned out, we gained one spot back (due almost exclusively to Thomas's excellent driving)...and finished fourth. Well done to him for this. He earned almost all of it single-handed.

Had he been paired with a co-driver of equal talent, it could--and probably should--have finished second at least. But it is what it is, and was what it was on Sunday. So I suppose we are happy enough with it.

Well done too to our other fellow Rothmans guys...and to the rest of the CMS drivers in the other cars.

---

[*** Or...to put it another way: "Roth (of team Rothmans)...was the MAN!!!"]

Thanks to all the folks at HSO for hosting us...and this event.


CS

Christopher Snow wrote:

Restarted and limped back around to the pits for something like three minutes of repairs.*

[* Porsche builds good cars, as, somehow, I managed NOT to tear even ONE of the suspension mounting points off the tub during my shunt....**]

[** "uh...huh. But, then...this is only sim-racing, Mr. Snow....]

CS

, nice report, things dont always go smoothly in racing, congratulations on finishing nonetheless team Rothmans.

My here's the write up I did for the guys at CMS:

Although the race lasted much shorter than we expected, it seemed to be even longer than Sachsenring was. Maybe it was because I drove for 3 hours straight, and then got in the car again at the very end. Don't believe for an instant that I didn't enjoy every second of it though.

The start was interesting to say the least. Luckily the car I started (the #18) was the only one of our cars that didn't make it through turn one safely.
I had a run going down the front straight for the first time. Got by second place. I broke a little early for turn one, not knowing what to expect. To my surprise, the pole sitter didn't brake for turn one at all and instead went straight off. I was on the outside, and immediately upon turning in, I found myself facing the wrong direction having had a tap in the rear. Watching 20 Group C cars coming straight towards you is not the most peaceful of feelings.

I quickly spun myself back around and began my charge from 22nd place.
Within two laps, I was up to 15th place. Watch the opening laps from my car in this video (thanks Darien!)...



I soon found myself in second place where I stayed for the rest of the stint plus the next stints and a half with the gap to first neither increasing nor decreasing.

Meanwhile, the opening stints did not go quite as smoothly for the #1 car. Curtis had contact with another car (not his fault) and was forced to pit for damage repairs. Botching that car's three stop strategy. A few laps later, the final corner bit him as it had bitten many other drivers. The damage was terminal and ended the race for the #1 car.

Jay was doing phenomenally in the #19, running mid pack after only having found out about the mod, race, and track two nights before.

Since Darien was now left without a car, Snowman went to working on a new strategy that would get Darien a chance to drive. What he decided that it would be best to keep me in the #18 as long as the fuel and 150 lap per driver in a car limit allowed and have Jay drive up to the half way point of the race. When driving time is up, Jay and I would both get out and Darien and Snowman would replace us respectively. And this is essentially how it went.

Jay drove rock solid right up until it was time for him to come in, when Darien came out he drove equally as consistently. I diced a bit for second place with another Porsche, a Lancia, and a Sauber and eventually came out on top when I brought the car in to the pits for what was supposed to be the final time for me from second place. I lapped third place in the penultimate corner just as I came into the pits. Mind games for the win!

Driver swaps went smoothly for both cars, Snowman and Darien both set out in the #18 and #19 respectively.

Darien's consistent and hard lapping made a top-10 finish look likely. After some excellent strategy calls from Curtis, a few nice passes, and few mistakes, the #19 car finished 10th. An excellent result considering the facts that Darien's original strategy in the #1 car was to save fuel, the #19's strategy required him to push, and that Jay had only started driving the mod 36 hours before the race.

The second half the race did not go nearly as well for the #18 car. In fact, the second half of the race was a complete nightmare.

Snowman took the wheel around the 130 lap mark. In a relatively conservative mode, he was in 3rd place. A podium finish looked likely.

And then disaster struck. On about lap 160, Chris lost the car going into turn 3. He came out of the kitty litter with only three wheels. He pit and filled up the tanks while he repaired damage. After some strategy discussion over TeamSpeak, we decided that it was best that Chris continue driving until around the 200 lap mark. He had to stretch the fuel a little bit, but we got away with it. I got in the car and drove out of the pits in 5th place. Then, all of a sudden, rFactor minimized. I quickly returned to the right tab only to find myself without a wheel. Pitted AGAIN, took on no fuel, and cranked up da boost. After coming out in 6th. I was able to battle my way past 5th place. I unlapped myself once from 3rd and 4th... While they were battling for position [Insert troll face here]. It was unlikely I'd be able to get any higher up the rankings until disaster struck for the 4th place car when a micro-freeze put them into the wall. I took back the position and celebrated by putting my car into the wall on the final lap. I limped around the track to a 4th place finish.

With all things considered, I'd say the race was a success. We learned a lot and came out of the race ready for the next one. 12 Hours of Paris is in two weeks. We'll be ready.

Everybody thank Darien for the pics!