Boy, what can I say - this was a monster event that went on for almost 2.5 hours! Whew. I had a great race and had a lot of fun racing with very respectful and talented drivers. Thanks to everyone who participated and of course Eric for organizing such an event. It was awesome dude!
Pre-Practice
Well, I only had about 30 minutes of time to practice for this event a couple days before race day. I wanted to drive the Maserati or the Vette, but after trying the Maserati for 15 minutes and never getting better than a 2:19, I didn't figure I'd have enough time to prepare a setup and work with the car. Then I tried the Aston because everyone in the forum was saying how fast it was and how easy it was to drive, but I did not fare much better with it for the 15 minutes I tried it, and I don't like that crazy engine sound anyhow!
So, I decided I didn't have time to work on a setup for the vette (one of my favorite cars) and decided to take the Lambo since I had driven it in the A1 ring race the week before and had a setup that felt stable and "fast enough". Since I had no more time to prepare for the race, a stable Lambo setup is what I decided to go with - stable is always good for an endurance race anyhow.
Practice
Loaded up my A1 Lambo setup and made some tweaks to it for Spa. Just wanted to drive a bunch of laps so I could get a fuel calculation (L/lap) to figure out how much fuel I need. Since it's the Lambo, there was no way to do a 1 stopper for this race, so I figured out that I would need about 92 L of fuel in each stint with two stops. I also noticed that my pit road limiter would not work - that is, I couldn't activate it myself. I even double checked that auto pit was off as some had suggested in the forum, and it was (I always leave it off). So, I tried pitting, then realized that the game automatically turns on my rev limiter after I enter the pits (right at the pit entry lights). So, I figured out what my speed had to be at those lights based on the pit road limiter and burned it into my brain so I would not get dinged for speeding in the pits!
Qualifying (9th)
Qualifying was not as good as I'd hoped - I couldn't complain much about 9th place since I had little time to practice.
It's been a while since I raced at Spa, and I must admit it's never been one of my better tracks. I like it a lot, but I am not really fast there.
Warmup
I used the warmup (and the last few minutes of qual) to take the usual bathroom break, grab a drink and practice my standing starts. I find that if I do 3-5 standing starts as the last thing I do during warmup, it really helps me at the start of the race.
Race (3rd)
I had a great start to this race! Starting 9th, my Lambo put the power to the road very well and I entered Au Rouge 3 spots ahead in 6th! I was able to finish the first lap up 4 spots in 5th place after the black Lambo in front of me went wide before the bus stop.
After the first lap, I had Abdul on me like white on rice for a few laps. He was in an Aston and was clearly faster than me, but was very patient and waited many laps before passing. Thank you Abdul for being as patient as you were and not taking any unnecessary risks so early in this long race. Especially thanks when we were side by side entering the bus stop (not normally something I like to do), when you eased off to let us exit it in line. Great driving there!
Marcel - thanks for being careful! On lap 9, you had a big run on me coming out of Au Rouge, and unfortunately there were two cars practically stopped on the straight! I stayed as right as I could, knowing you were going to pass me on the left, and you managed to squeeze between me and another car on the left side of the road! It was close, but you made it - good job.
Yves - what happened on the front straight, when I went by, you were practically stopped - after I went by, you took off again. Weird.
I only had one incident with another car the whole race, and that was when I over-drove into the bus stop and came out a little slow - the car got a little sideways. Because of this, I was tapped gently by Abdul and the car went around into the grass. Fortunately, there were no drivers behind us and Abdul waited for me to retake the position. Very respectful driving and thanks for that. Besides, he probably knew that he could easily overtake me later, which he did anyway! That whole 3rd stint was basically me trying to stay in front of Abdul who was consistently gaining on me. He went from about 30 seconds behind after our last pit stop, to right on my tail within the last 10 laps of the race - what a pace you had Abdul - amazing driving.
That brought me home in 3rd place, which I am happy with, considering all that took place. It was very difficult to maintain concentration there at the end and thanks to Joao for not lapping me during the last few laps! At least I can say I finished on the lead lap. I'm sure you could have passed me if you wanted to, but I'm glad you didn't.
General
I only had one cut track warning during the event, and that was when I over-drove into the bus stop, and just couldn't exit properly - after that I had to be very careful not to get a penalty.
I was not happy with the chat that was going on during the race. I suppose for a 2.5 hour race it wasn't too bad, but there should have been NONE. On one occasion, I let myself look at the chat message and it caused me to go off slightly. Let's please keep the chat to NONE during a race guys - it's very distracting.
Lastly, there were a lot of lapped cars who were driving off the road! What's up with that? I can understand wanting to let cars by so you don't get too many blue flags and a penalty, but there were a lot of cars going into the sand and on the grass. I'm not sure if it was on purpose, or just mistakes made trying to stay off the line. Remember guys, it's the overtaking car's job to get by safely, you don't have to drive off the road! :skywalker:
Again, thanks to everyone who participated, and to Eric for organizing the event. It was a very fun race and I hope to participate in the next one. I will be on vacation during the next 3 Sundays, so have fun, and I'll see you when I get back in mid May.
