1000km Nurburgring race (GPL)

Magnus Thomé · 30 Dec 2002 17:16

30 Dec 2002 17:16

7 timmar på Ringen....

Men man kunde vara två förare och man hade krav på rast faktiskt!

http://forum.racesimcentral.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55675

Magnus Thomé · 30 Dec 2002 17:16

30 Dec 2002 17:16

I started from P4 on the grid and along with everyone else, made a decent start and motored safely down to T1. I was a little too complacent a few corners later and ran a little wide entering Hatzenbach. I was clipped (or I clipped someone?!) as I tried to edge back onto the track and spun. Loads of cars passed me and I fell to 10th. By the end of the lap I was up to 5th, but 30 seconds behind the front runners.

I fueled the car for exactly 6 laps. How exact? Well the fuel gauge started to drop as I came down the Dottinger Hohe! My plan was to run 6 lap, reset in pit lane for fuel, then run 5 laps and stop for a 10 minute break. I was afraid to stop after a 6 lap stint in case the car ran totally dry as I idled in pit lane!

My plan soon fell apart, as after about 8 laps my hard drive started whirring and the screen would momentarily freeze with the lats spiking very high. No idea why, but it very annoying and very worrying! I disco'd from a Ring full GP a few weeks ago with the same problem. I soldiered on, but I was horribly inconsistant. The easy going 8:10s that I ran early became mistake filled 8:20s. Needless to say I bent the car and pitted early.

With the extented pit breaks, I ended up in P2 at one stage. Brian was leading and I was catching him. As I approached Flugplatz I saw yellows and slowed slightly, but when I got over the jump, there was no car in sight. Then as I was coming up from Fuchsrohre I saw more yellows. I slowed again, but not enough and when I rounded the left hander before "the tree" I ran smack into the back of Brian's Ferrari stopped dead in the middle of the track! Sorry Brian!

I had that incident with Peter at Bergwerk, but apart from that all my offs were solo wrecks.

Toward the end of the race, my hard drive stopped it's incessant blinking and the screen freezes stopped, but my shoulders and wrists were really hurting I couldn't run full speed. You can't know how happy I was to see the chequered flag at the end!

Everyone I passed was super nice about letting me through, and I tried to return the favour when a faster car caught me.

Congratulation to everyone who attempted this madness! And a big, big thank you to Peter for organising and hosting this event.

Rene , Peter , Michiel and Steffen were outstanding. Hat's off to great drives by them all!! Michiel had pedal problems from about half distance, but he ran the full event, never giving up! 1000km at the Ring in a BRM! Wow!

Alan o

Magnus Thomé · 30 Dec 2002 17:17

30 Dec 2002 17:17

We did things a little differently. A buddy of mine, Brette Brooks, came over to my house and we ran a more traditional endurance race. I use a Momo and Brette uses an Act-Labs setup, so right away things were a little different. Brette normally drive a Lotus too, compared with my standard Ferrari, and that too was something to adapt to. We ended up with a compromise setup on the Ferrari, loaded with only 7 laps of fuel as we planned to switch drivers every hour or so.

Since I qualified the car I started, and we swapped off at 6-lap intervals, until we got a little bit off with a crash and reset at around the four hour mark. Planning the last couple of stints was a bit of a gamble as we didn't have a lot of fuel margin and it was rather difficult to tell how many laps we'd actdually be running. With the guys at the pointy end of the grid running laps in the 8:06-8:10 range compared to our 8:30s and 8:40s, we knew we were going to be lapped, but just how many times and who had taken how long a break we could not tell.

We finally came home two laps down in P6. It was much easier, of course, for us, since we only drove an hour at a time. (Wimps!) But seriously, it was great fun, and while I'm a certifiable (my wife claims the past tense) GPL craziac, I'm not so sure I could have made the 1000k on my own, even with the breaks.

PS as a software guy, I had to laugh at the problems with the replay and replay analyzer! It's a sure thing that the Papy guys never had a seven+ hour replay to test with !!!

Brian W