Community Question | Have You Ever Run An Endurance Race?

[mantasisg]

I had a hour and a half race once in AC... Would be awesome to do few stints per 24h race in rF2 someday. But in general I think it is difficult due to time required. Also friends are required... And good internet connection... don't want to ruin others race because of loosing internet connection.

I think it would be awesome to do 24h endurance run one or two times per year, or twice as much 12H endurance run. But otherwise, rather do three-four 15-25minute races session few times per week.

 

[Serge.M]

A good few now ranging from 6 to 9 hours, all ACC. Really enjoy them as there’s soo much more to endurance racing then outright speed. Car setup that works for multiple drivers, reacting to incidents (your own), weather changes and fuel/tyre strategy.

Working as a team with others really adds another dimension to racing

 

[Dave Thayer]

I voted no also. I just dont have that length of time to sit down and do SIM racing. Plus wearing a VR headset for hours on end is not for me. SIM racing games are just fun entertainment for short periods of time.

 

[michael conger]

Endurance racing is my ****. Giving my safe driving style it suits me the best I’ve done two years of special events In iracing which consists of a few 24 hour races and now I’m tackling VEC in Rfactor2 to which are mostly six and eight hour races the one thing I have to say that I don’t like about endurance racing is always trying to find enough people that commit themselves to the team and are willing to show up and put the time in ,for me endurance is where it’s at the sprint races are fun but they really don’t fix my fix. And by the way if anyone is interested in 12 hour races in Rfactor 2 hit me up I have an open seat with no drivers only me(Sorry for the plug)

 

[cangrejin]

get home, and wait for the bathroom to be free

 

[vonMaier]

In reality, the real endurance is over 4 hours !!!

 

[Roy Magnes]

Yes, both in real life and in simracing
I have taken part in several seasons of the RDLMS, and a few other races online in rFactor and rFactor 2. I really LOVE these kind of events, and want to do more of them in the furute!

 

[Romandevison]

My max - Raceroom GT3 VLN-layout 2 hours.

 

[robt100]

Yep, absoloutely love them! Recently took part in a 12hrs of Bathurst in ACC. Then helped the same team out as race engineer/strategist/eye in the sky for their 24hrs of Spa enduro race. Currently also in an enduro series with 4hr races (Zolder this coming Saturday), then the finale is 8hrs of silverstone.

For those saying they dont have the time, most ACC enduros have 65min stint timers, so you can do 65mins, leave the race to the 2 or 3 other guys, come back again and do another 65mins 3 or 4 hrs after your last stint, should help your old bones (and weak bladders) concerns.

 

[BP]

Yup, but pretty much only in iRacing for a few years now...besides their regular bi-weekly 6 hour weekend multiclass races, I've done the Watkins Glen 6H, Daytona 24H and LeMans 24H...helps when you're on a racing team that's well organised getting all the logistics sorted.

It can be very fun (long battles for position, time changes, having to alter strategy) and very frustrating (crazy people on track, rage level on public chat turned up to 11, but that can always be muted)...lots of highs and lows but overall it's great. Kinda sad that I may have to miss the Daytona race this year, but I'm on call as a backup in case my schedule frees up (fingers crossed).

 

[Kurupt CDN]

Does spending endless hours trying to get the ffb in PC2 and vr in ACC to work properly count as an endurance race?

 

[daveclifton]

My first online race, in LFS in 2007, I completely forgot I would have to be involved for the entire race, and forgot to go to the toilet, forgot to turn off my phone and spent the entire hour bursting for a piss, with my phone ringing. This was after a full qualifying session the previous day too, no excuse.

It only occurred to me as I was on the grid that this was live and for real! So exciting though. There is no comparison to an online race.

Finished 13th out of 22, but loved it.

 

[Nick Hill]

Like a lot of other people have mentioned, my free time is also at a premium (wife, kids, job, other non gaming hobbies, etc), but I was able to clear my schedule for a Petit LeMans 10 hr on iRacing this year. Just me and one other guy - someone I know in real life, which I think enhanced the fun factor. We did a lot of testing and a bit of strategizing but both of us were of the "let's just finish" mindset, which made it more fun than stressful.

We drove an LMP2 and, for reasons I don't understand, were placed in an LMP2 only split. That was probably the only bummer of the race because I was looking forward to the multiclass aspect and had even dedicated a fair amount of testing time to running multiclass practice sessions and sprint races to figure out the best overtake spots, etc.

The race itself was a lot of fun. I spun pretty badly on my very first stint and we ended up with something like 16 minutes of repairs. I felt terrible, but my buddy was cool about it and helped me diagnose what might have happened (even though at least part of the real answer was "nerves"). It turned out to be a blessing in disguise thought because over the next ~8hrs we steadily climbed the charts as other teams made goofs and we stayed clean. It was really rewarding to hand the car off in a higher position than I took it over in!

We had a chance for a really impressive (given our opening hours disaster) finish, but in our closing stint, in the pitch black someone spun in front of my buddy at possibly the worst place on the track and we had a massive collision that resulted in another long repair session. It was a major bummer because my buddy was really in the zone, clicking off blazing laps and really chewing up positions. Still, we managed to finish in our qualy position - after two decent sized wrecks, I was very happy with that!

I'm thinking/hoping we'll do it again next Oct...of course, if you asked my buddy for his impressions of endurance racing, he might say "I think they could be fun, but choose your teammates carefully - I got stuck doing a 10 hr race with a terrible driver and it SUCKED!"

 

[BillyBobSenna]

Sounds like a lot of fun, just doesn’t fit into my family life.

 

[daveclifton]

When I was single and living on my own, I would be all on for an endurance race. Three kids now, the most racing I get is about 20 minutes a night.

I still love it, but use a controller now for convenience. I wish developers would give a tiny bit of effort to make controllers that bit easier to use.

 

[Mitja Bonca]

My longest race was 1x20min race at Spa, simply amazing. Will never forget it.

 

[Slapped]

I love endurance racing! But does our community?

By endurance racing, I mean an event over 4 hours in racing time - either as a solo driver, or part of a larger driving team. Personally I think 4 hours is a sprint, but hey, we have to put a limit on the article somewhere, don't we?

The question of the day today is... have you ever raced in an endurance event online before, and what did you make of the experience?

(again, in this case we are calling anything over 4 hours 'Endurance').

Goooooooooooooooo.....

Man, our ideas about endurance racing a totally different. Any race that requires pit stops for tyres and/or fuel (not just because the rules say you have to pit), or is longer than 60 minutes in length is an endurance race in my book. By that definition then, IMO, F1 is an endurance championship, not least because whenever I watch it I feel like I'm having to endure it.

The idea of doing an endurance race sounds great, but I'm also old and wise enough to realise that after an hour I'll be like that kid in the backseat of a car on a long journey - "Are we there yet?".

 

[Kevin Troschinski]

I can imagine the endurance fascination, but its nothing for me. Prefer alway quick races (15-20min). Maybe thats one of the reasons i can`t get warm with ACC.

Longest thing was back in rFactor 1 online league times, a Formula 1 League woth 100% distance. Every time after maybe 3/4 of the distance it was no more fun at all. Just stress and waiting till its finally over. I was done every time.

 

[davehenrie]

The Bullrun 1000 run by the USPits back in the last century. We used modded Nascar 3-5 cars and were accomplishing driver swaps by teammates sharing the exact same driver file, one driver pitted, and disconnected, the 2nd driver would then log on and the server would assume it was the original driver re-connecting. Considering the league began as an email-multiplayer system(running the races offline and then emailing in your times) Those first few online events were really mega!

 

[MrBraindown]

I did a full 24hr Le Mans completely solo...... This was using the game 'Le Mans' on the PS1, you could save when you went into the pits, so I did an hour here and an hour there, it took me about a month in real time.