Another fine
RD endurance event, thanks everyone involved… :wink:
GT2 Race (430-997)
PracticeWill put practice here since a couple of “worth noticing” things regarding my race went on here…
Like most, 50 minutes before it was my first contact with an around 30ºC air temperature track condition.
- As such I had to do a few tweaks here & there, for instances the engine temperature one but importantly for the overall braking dynamic (balance), I forgot to change the brake vents for the new temperature… Result: in race, especially with the race temperature above the official practice one, my left brake disk was going to 600º at the hardest right hander braking, unbalancing the coast-braking setting I had in the car (the car would go to understeer heavily under hard braking in race).
- Right there in practice, I took some time to observe Marcin’s Ferrari in a few race-pace laps… I laughed … he was doing low 05 without going above the known lifetime rpm variable for the 430… I was like; we 997 goers are so “2nd spot” for this one… The Ferrari’s won’t blow!:eek:
QualifyAs usual, not that important, didn’t do a qualification setup, just took fuel out and let the rpm free… Was 10th (4th 997) but went to climb to 9th before the start due to Remco wheel problems.
RaceWell, well, on top of my soon to notice braking unbalance, I was dealt the unlucky card of a poor and slow engine. A 59% engine start not only means a smaller engine life (
not that important since this engine health was more than sufficient to finish the race without much precaution with my setup) but above all means a slower engine (
might not be slower than a 60’s% engine, but sure is than a 80’s-90’s% one); result?
The car was losing 2 or 3 km/h top right from the word go… as if the 997 needed some straight line speed reduction …
I’ve done sufficient whining for now… to the race
The plan was simple, with the engine health at 50’s% I decided to have a “relaxed” first stint just to see how the things go, later as usual “up the pace” in the mid and final stint.
1st StintFrom the start I noticed the top 3 Ferrari and
Andreas were out of my reach in normal conditions, I just didn’t have the pace… So unless someone “bought it” I was racing for 5th to 10th (
2nd to 3rd in our “special” 997 classification ).
Unable to do my usual 06 high race pace, but able do many low-mid 07 until late in the stint I kept around Hugo (my personal, self imposed race goal, 2nd in "997 cup"), Fernando (430) and not near (on track since they had different pit strategies) but “around” nevertheless, Dariusz & Morten (both 430).
2nd StintThe 2nd stint was the most entertaining but was also (for the good & bad) the one that definitely “shaped” my final race position.
Followed by
Fernando from a “safe” distance and following
Hugo who I knew had a quicker pace early in the stints (
fortunately he was “held” by Stefan for a time, thanks btw :wink
.
About lap 43, at time I was losing a tenth here a tenth there to
Hugo in 7th, while controlling a slide on the first turn my wheel left clamp came off… instant into the wall :frown:
There are days where the things just aren’t going to be.
Well it could be worst, luckily it is a rear engine car, if it was the 430, I’m not sure I would have survived the violence of the head-on impact…
Result; pit-stop for repairs at a time where I couldn’t avoid another late race pit stop, not only losing me time with the repairs but also totally nullifying my 2 pit-stop strategy (race-pace too slow for a 3 pit-stop strategy). The car with its new permanent dent in the middle of the front, as if a needed that, lost another 2 or 3 km/h top, as much as I pushed, I couldn’t go above 258-9 km/h (aerodynamic damage) :frown:
Anyway, from then on I kept "soldering" to a final “last place” in the starting “5th to 9th race pace goers” and brought it home while enjoying following the late race battles for 1st and 5th.
“
Moral of the story”:eek:
One or two years ago when we used this mod alone at Dijon in a 60 minutes event, it was observed that the mod cars had a higher top speed than the SimBin ones. It was also observed that the 430 made up the front of the grid and where quicker by about 1 sec than everyone else. In race all 3 quick 430 burned the engines (only 60 minutes, a single stint in our yesterday’s event).
Engine start health, engine decay, lifetime rpm vales where all things “alien” to many... some were (very) quick and relied on pure luck regarding finishing the race or not…
Nowadays, everyone is much more aware of the engine variables/handling and endurance racing.
It is nice that distant go the days when only 3 or 4 racers would finish a 3 hrs event and many would complain they didn’t understand “why the engine blow or that they weren’t doing nothing much…”.
Like I typed in this topic a week ago, with a decent engine at the start, the knowledge 430 virtual driver had everything going to its favor. The 997 has a good low-mid range that really helps it turn, but the 430 high-mid range power has no much, the 430 can reach higher speeds quicker even without going much up in the rpm scale. In other words, the top speed might be the same for both cars, but on a pure drag race between the 2, the 430 arrives there faster.
Regarding my race (
whining apart), it just wasn’t my day, even so, more importantly, I started, and I was there at the finish together with most of you
Big congratulations to the podium, Marcin (very quick, very balanced setup), Ralf and Jesper . A special congratulations to Andreas and Hugo for obvious reasons :wink: Thanks everyone who took part, especially to all those who stayed around until the finish, a very correct race behavior from every one.
A final thanks to Remco and RD.
