Paul Jeffrey
Premium
In honour of the upcoming Le Mans 24 Hours RaceDepartment will be holding a full week of Le Mans club racing events in Assetto Corsa this June 10th - 17th.
From modern day World Endurance Championship style racing to the close quarter battles of GT3, historic racing and tin top touring cars, Le Mans Week at RaceDepartment will be catering to all tastes, skills and experiences with a single common denominator.. the mighty Circuit de la Sarthe!
Beginning with some of the most iconic racing prototypes ever to grace the tracks of the world, Saturday 10th June will see the unbelievable Mercedes C9 and Porsche 962C Long Tail doing battle for honours in a one hour mandatory pit stop race around the most iconic race track in the world. The Group C specification cars should provide a high octane opening night challenge for those with a taste for something old, fast and wayward around the 13.629 km track. For this event we will be using the chicane free variation of the circuit.
For our second stop of the Assetto Corsa Le Mans week we will be using the every popular GT3 class of cars around the 24 Hour layout of the French classic track. With a choice of over 10 different vehicles to race and closely packed grids of drivers, this 45 minute sprint race will be a severe test of racecraft and consistency as mistakes rarely go unpunished between those unforgiving steel Armco's.
Monday 12th June will see another nod towards days gone by, this time with our drivers taking up the challenge of the criminally underrated Ford Escort RS1600 in an action packed 30 minutes of near constant sideways action. H-pattern gearbox, plenty of power and no need to stop for fuel, this will be a simple race where drivers must push themselves and their cars to the absolute limits for half an hour of on the edge driving and slipstreaming action. Steel brakes, long straights and tight chicanes. Awesome.
Throwing something a bit different but still absolutely perfect for this type of track, our awesome racing club organisers will continue with the historic theme on Tuesday 13th June when the simply outstanding DTM car collection comes over the border to race in France. Technological masterpieces in the form of the simply gorgeous Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI, BMW M3 E30 and Mercedes Benz 190 Evo II will look to do battle for 40 minutes of non stop action during the race. With only 15 minutes of qualifying scheduled during the event, and with no need to pit for either fuel or tyres, this race around the chicane version of the circuit should be one of the closest fought events of the week so far.
Rookie Races will continue as usual on Wednesday with the recently introduced Audi Sport TT Cup car joining the rotation of vehicles in use during this rather special week of racing here in the Assetto Corsa Racing Club.
Although a bit shorter on top end speed than any of the previous races held so far, the TT Cup will undoubtedly transfer the clean and close racing seen in the regular club events over to Le Mans with ease. Outstanding under brakes and stable in racing conditions, the TT Cup cars and drivers are up for a real treat here at Le Mans on the 14th June. As is the case in recent Rookie Race events, we will be locking the setup of the cars to default values and just opening up the tyre compound and pressures, giving a little freedom to those who want to experiment with the basics of car setups and its effect on the way a race car behaves.
Sticking with German engineering but stepping up the pace a gear or two we will be taking out the mighty 2017 edition of the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup on Thursday June 15th. One of the best big boy toys released by Porsche for many a year, the 2017 911 will see 40 minutes of track action in a race that usually serves up some close and hard fighting right the way through the field. With high powered rear wheel driven racing cars and open setup development allowed, the 911 GT3 Cup car mixed in with a track that is simply perfect for hard racing is surely going to be a highlight of our very first Le Mans Week club racing special event.
Rounding out the working week will be our second racing club Rookies Race event, bringing back in to the action the exceptionally popular Mazda MX5 Cup race car. Another of the rookie friendly events contested by drivers of varying experience levels (but fantastic racing from all), the MX5's will be utilising the chicane version of the circuit in their regular 30 minute duration races. As with the TT Cup Rookies Race event, setups will remain fixed for this race however tyre pressures will be open to adjustments. #mightymazda just got that little bit hotter folks, so get signed up to this one fast or risk losing out on a spot!
To cap off what should be an incredible week of racing at Le Mans in our Assetto Corsa Racing Club, we will once again be taking out the perfect cars for this track, namely our multiclass WEC machines... One hour of racing, mandatory pit stop, two classes of car, six manufacturers and seven models of cars, the WEC style multiclass endurance race is the perfect way to finish what we expect is the perfect week of tributes to the greatest motor race on earth - the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Running between Saturday 10th to 17th June and using the excellent Assetto Corsa software, our first ever racing club tribute week to the iconic Le Mans racing spectacular looks all set to be a peach of a week. You will be able to find all of the events due to be held during the Le Mans festivities in our Assetto Corsa Racing Club forum one week prior to the event start. All you need to do is be a Premium member of RaceDepartment, put your name down for a place in the event, log in to TeamSpeak and turn up on time and have fun! Simples
How to Install the Mod.
The eagle eyed of you will have noticed something a little bit different about our racing during this week, that is the return of modded content into our club schedule. We will be using the simply fantastic Circuit de la Sarthe 24 hours of Lemans Version 1.2 by the extremely talented @Tiago Lima and a range of default and DLC Assetto Corsa car content.
If you feel in any way intimidated about the prospect of installing additional mod content in Assetto Corsa then fear not, it's easy! Check out this superb video by the brilliant @Shawn Jacobs who very kindly has produced a clear and concise guide on how to download and install community created content in Assetto Corsa.
Shaun, from us all at RaceDepartment, readers and staff alike, thank you mate for the superb job you have done with this, it really is appreciated man!
Of course if you need any further support then do feel very free to drop a message in the relevant race thread and we will all be happy to help pitching in and supporting you with getting everything up and running to the best of its ability.
We hope you guys enjoy the upcoming week of Le Mans racing in Assetto Corsa, please do spread the word amongst your fellow sim racing buddies and let us get each and every server filled up to capacity (or two full servers for each race would be even better...!) and lets celebrate Le Mans how it should be, in style, at speed and having fun!
Sim Racing is AWESOME people, and its even better at RaceDepartment
