Paul Jeffrey
Premium
The second round of the 2017 RaceDepartment Le Mans Series by Vesaro begins tomorrow, who's hot, who's not and what's been happening since Interlargos? We find out below...
The Thrustmaster Six Hours of Silverstone begins tomorrow afternoon and optimism is high amongst the 40 car strong grid of drivers for a competitive race in Northamptonshire, despite the best of British summertime casting a menacing cloud over the home of the British Grand Prix.
With potentially mixed weather conditions predicted for tomorrows race anything could happen on the 5.891 km Silverstone Grand Prix circuit during the upcoming six solid hours of racing awaiting the teams and drivers of RDLMS by Vesaro.
Thousands of kilometres testing have taken place during the four week gap since our opening event of the season, and already the pace looks evenly matched between the established big hitters in the league. With some impressive times recorded by many of the cars in the field it remains to be seen at this stage who holds the competitive advantage ahead of the green flag drop on Saturday.
We have a number of teams and drivers based firmly in the United Kingdom, and with the home pride burning brightly ahead of the track action tomorrow we have a word with the TXL Racing team about the preparations undertaken for this their only "home" race of the season.
"During our race pace test, we are feeling positive" said team driver and RD staffie Joseph Wright. "however our times will remain behind white sheets until race day".
Run by prominent RaceDepartment community member Andrew Ford, team TXL Racing are looking forward to challenging for a podium position at Silverstone and clawing back much needed points in the fight for championship honours come the end of the season.
"Steve Le Gallez and myself will remain in the garage this weekend relaying all of the important information to the drivers" added Wright, whilst confirming a new name will be joining the driving strength of the striking green Corvette. "Joakim Stensæs will be joining the team’s garage for this round with a potential spot opening up for Le Mans".
With Silverstone presenting a much different proposition than the previous round at Interlargos, and the ever present threat of rain hanging over the teams throughout the event, Wright and TXL Racing are looking to maintain a proven strategy throughout the race and seem unconcerned about the potential for increased tyre wear on the fast and sweeping Formula One circuit:
"At Interlagos, the team ran medium tyres across all of the stints, which seemed to work well at that circuit" commented Wright. "We will be following the same plan at Silverstone, yet, with some sneaky driving, we may get away with only two tyres being changed every other stop. Tyre wear in itself is not worrying any of the drivers. Ford and Greenall are looking promising in their tyre wear and race pace tests, with Stensæs also testing the car around the circuit, producing promising results. During these stints, fuel economy will not be an issue, as we will most likely be pitting each hour, which will lead to a five stop race, which I believe most teams will be aiming for during the race.
With a mixed driving team of both youth and experience, TXL are under no illusions that they have a lot to learn in one of the toughest endurance leagues in sim racing, and those lessons could well prove to be invaluable for the race ahead:
"After Interlagos, TXL Racing have learnt a few different things to focus on at Silverstone. Prototypes created some issues for us at Interlagos, but with a number of long straights, we are hoping to stay out of the way of faster cars. We have also learnt about pushing a little too hard, as I showed during Interlagos after chasing fellow staff member, Ole Marius Myrvold" was the conclusion from Wright, and with a relatively short race of just six hours it will be critical for both GT and Prototype class cars to remain free of trouble during the race and maximise their rivals misfortune to take advantage of whatever opportunities await during the race.
With hundreds of kilometres testing behind them, it was left to Wright to sum up the hopes and aspirations of the team ahead of the green flag tomorrow at 1pm.
"Overall, TXL Racing are feeling positive heading into Silverstone, with strong pace, fast one off laps and two very strong drivers, we feel like a podium position is well in our grasps. Silverstone will be yet another learning curve before the big one, the 24 hours of Le Mans. TXL Racing looking to take as much data and information as they can from Silverstone and take six drivers to the line in the line-up. The #103 Green Machine is a car on the charge this weekend".
Sim racing is awesome people, and with a grid packed to the rafters with some incredible talent, a simply stunning simulation software in the form of rFactor 2, one of the best tracks in motorsport in the home of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the outstanding Enduracers mod and professionally run league administration and broadcasting, the Thrustmaster Six Hours of Silverstone should be a cracking event and well worth a watch when the broadcast goes live just before 1pm GMT.
So get yourself caught up on the championship standings HERE, have a look at the cars and stars due to form the grid come race day by checking out the spotter guides below, and remind yourself of the timings for the broadcast ahead of the race itself. We think this will be epic so sit back, relax, and enjoy sim racing at it's very best.....
Good luck everyone, make us all proud!
Round Two, the Thrustmaster Six Hours of Silverstone will be live and exclusive Saturday 13th May on our Twitch and YouTube channels from 12:50 GMT. The Session timetable can be seen below:
Session Timetable
- 10:55 | Race server reboot
- 11:00 | Official practice & Briefing (no duplicate cars allowed from this point on)
- 11:40 | GT qualifying (30 minutes)
- 12:10 | Qualifying switch-over (5 minutes)
- 12:15 | Prototype qualifying (30 minutes)
- 12:45 | Warm-up
- 13:00 | Race start [Saturday 13th May] (in-game: 13:00 / 1PM)
- 19:00 | Race ends [Saturday 13th May] (in-game: 19:00 / 7PM)
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