What a race!!!!!
Remco I cant wait for the next event. Sheer joy racing with you all guys.
When this thread opened GT Pro got filled in less than 5 hours. My prefered type of cars were filled and settled for GT Sport. I sometimes feel like I have a home here at RD by the amount of time I am logged in lol. Not sure where I was in those 5 hours. Luckily last minute dropouts saw me grab a seat in GT Pro. I had been practicing for the event in the GT Sport but also the GT Pro cars just in case
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Last year same time if you had told me the Vette was the car to be in I would have shrugged you of. This year though I have come to love this car. Aston Martin was my buddy last year but after a few engine blowouts I switched to the Vette. Good choice.
Practice
I had a race setup to be consistantly in the 23s/high 24s with 160l of fuel. Once the Vette was tamed down on turn exit I focused my attention to the superpole setup.
Qualy
I had no answer for the top 3 well done Joao, Yves, Dan. Qualied 4th
Race
Started on the left side(dirtier side in RL races), behind Yves who was 2nd. My comrades Joao and Dan got a slow start which made me take 2nd by turn 1 with Yves leading the pack. In those first few laps Yves was uncatchable while also I had a Viper in the hands of James (Great start from 6th to 3rd James) breathing down my neck. Still early days so with Yves starting to romp away I started to race my pace as opposed to catching Yves, would have killed my tyres fast.
7th lap watching Yves ahead and keeping an eye in my rear view mirror I saw black smoke roaring from the back of Yves's car. Sorry Yves. That gave me the lead. Joao earlier on locked his brakes leading to the uphill towards to the start finish line was 7th but slowly he started gaining positions and before I know it he was 2nd. We all know he is king of Endurance series
My rear tyres were working well problem was the fronts. Especially the front right. I started the race with 160L hoping to do a 1 stopper if it presented itself. Sadly the weather in Canada decided otherwise. 1 stopper was impossible as my fronts had passed the 50% mark. I had to switch my brains to maths again. It went something like this...
66/3 = 22 laps per stint, started with 160L
5*22= 110L per stint
Fuel left in the tank before 1st stop 63L
Adjust pit menu preset with fuel of 60L instead the 160L
Its not easy dividing, multiplying adjusting while racing at these speeds.
Made my pitstop at lap 22, Joao who was not far behind took the lead. I knew I would re take that position having pitted first but also I was only gonna take 60L instead of 110L saving me a few seconds. Pit went well but then......
Its a long pit here and just after the pit buildings there is a white line but further ahead is where the lights are for exit. During all the practice session I paid attention but in the adrenaline during the race is different. When I passed the white line I was like "hold on why aint you swtiching your pit limiter off". I pressed the button and started revving, just when I did that I remembered. Too late I was gonna get a stop n go anyway. So I put the car on speed limiter again and trotted to that exit. Got the warning to take my stop n go. I was fuming with that silly mistake.
On my outlap I saw Joao n Dan calling for a pitstop. If I pit at that lap for the penalty it would defeat me catching Joao and Dan. So I went for a qualy lap while they were pitting. Lighted the boards with PB from the sectors. Pitted for the penalty while Joao passed me. I was exiting the pits when Dan was making the first turn. I had taken 2nd but was eager on the 2nd turn and lost the car hitting the wall slightly. That mistake made me 5th. A lap later I was 2nd after mistakes from the cars ahead. Joao had a massive 14s advantage. I had to start pushing the car to its limit. I was risking alot especially with the tyres. But my thinking then was "let me catch Joao then just stay behind him". I eventually did but with a cost to the tyres and a bit of the engine.
This was a race to the end. Joao's pace was similar to mine I was catching him on the twisty bits while he has top speed on the straights. It was sort of like ding dong lol. A slight mistake at turn 2 by Joao saw me taking the lead, or it was a cunning plan to get me ahead of him so he can freighten me LOL. It sorta worked. I've come along way with this fear of leading the race. I managed to keep Joao behind me.
2nd Pistop was calling and I took it first. Actually I had to since my tyres were already at 40% front right. I adjust my pit menu setup to increase it to 116L. Enough to go to the end with just 1 lap worth of fuel left from my calculation. This strategy would come to haunt me later during the race though. Joao pitted 2 laps later I think. I re took 1st position and stayed there throughout that stint. However Joao had another plan up his sleeve. He was ganing on me. My eyes are looking left till now at the time spilts at the start finish line. One lap gap will be 4.8xx next lap its gone down to 4.3xx another lap back to 4.9xx. I was praying for Joao to be like "Hey lets call it a day and settle for 2nd". This was no longer an Endurance race.
2 Hours 30 Minutes of racing and still within 5 seconds between us. Crazy stuff. He wasnt gonna give the top step away. I made a mistake somewhere after lap 60 which made him even closer at only 1.5seconds behind me. That went down further to just 0.5xx seconds on the penultimate lap. Another lap he would have had me. My arms were screaming to let go of the wheel.
For 2 Hours 42 Minutes of racing 2nd place man Joao finished 0.104 seconds behind. Its a first at RD in an Endurance event.
Well done podium. Well done to Andreas for taking the GT Sport win category. Well done all. Great event.
Remco this is great. Track was brilliant and thank you very much for all the hard work put into this. RD I love you.