iRacing Season 5 Endurance - Silverstone Historic - Feb 27

[ginsters sponsored]

Another race another incident. Whoever is too blame, I don't care anymore.

Have fun.

[Mike Wrightson]

Hate the Vette round here, couldn't get it to handle, couldn't run consistent laps.

Reasonable grid spot, then clobbered by the T1 incident.  Had a long think about whether I had the enthusiasm to continue and decided to try.  Shouldn't have bothered.  No pace or consistency at all, then when I caught Martin after Bridge, I had the slowest and most stupid spin in the world right into his path

Really sorry Martin.  Mine was wrecked again, glad to be out of it.

[Ste Jones]

A race to forget at the end of a week to forget for me. My router decided to lockup just before qualy started, by the time I got that sorted and got back in I just tried too hard and couldn't do a representative time.

No idea what happened at Copse at the start but I got enough of a whack to need a reset. Decided just to go for broke then, I had nothing to lose by that point. Driving like that though was bound to end in disaster eventually and, sure enough, I clipped the grass into Stowe and that was all she wrote. Still, I suppose it was good practice for the official series this week!

[BorchersDK]

I really liked this track and car combo, and was looking forward to the race.
Got collected in the T1 mayhem, had to tow it, so now it was just damage control and try to collect as many points as possible. With some 15 laps to go, my mind wanderd of a little (was thinking when tonights Top Gear episode is airing), and lost it coming onto the hangar straight, cause got on the wrong side of the inside curb. Hit the wall hard, but didnt have it in me for another tow. Stupid focus burp.

Im really sad to see the entry level dropping for every race, be it Endurance or IndyCar. Is it because of the new iRacing season perhaps, sundays especially, cause that is where most of the high SOF races etc are?

[Adam Parle]

Yeah - I was dissapointed at the turnout too   I'll have to see what I can do to bring folk back in - kicking my teammates arses will help ... no Pops, Darren, Paul, Purds (plus the others).

My race was really enjoyable - and tense at the end!!

I got a clean start, although I got jumped by Martin and Robin.  After dropping back a bit I found a rhythm and got back on their tails - but we were very evenly paced so there wasn't really a sniff of a passing opportunity.

I got by Martin after he got caught up in an incident, and then I got on the tail of Robin, where I stayed until my stop.  Try as I might, i couldn't get enough of a run on him to look at a pass, so when I got the 5-to-go before the stop I put it in early, and hoped for a good outlap as I was expecting Robin to pit soon after.

Apparently Robin was having a "slightly" longer 1st stint than me ... and on the fresh rubber I was putting in good times and had a 15 second lead as he emerged.

However, my laptimes slowed down and Robin was reeling me in lap after lap.  I started getting some horrible understeer which led to a few nervous trips over the grass, and the gap closed ever faster.

The white flag was a welcome sight, with the gap having shrunk to 1.7 seconds, but an ugly line through Bridge had Robin all but alongside ... and a shocking couple of corners later he was!!  Thankfully I kept the car on the inside round the last bend, and managed to stay a whopping 0.2 seconds ahead.

I might not have had anyone in close attendance in the 2nd half .... but it still flew by, and what a finish!

Cheers Robin and Martin - really enjoyed the racing there.  Great fun.

[Gazza49er]

 :'( :'(  Cant believe i through that away!

With the mess at T1 behind i had every chance to just drive for the finnish as i had good pace, but a stupid little spin at maggots beckets left me in the middle of the track and i took a hit on the front, was still in 2nd but the car wanted to swap ends in the right handers and wouldnt turn into the lefts so was a real handful. Some how i was managing to keep simon at bay but he got me at the pitstop, i couldnt really fight back as the car was trying to chuck me off at every right turn.

Then eventually the ill handling got the better of me and i spun in the same place which let James through   again i couldnt really fight back so not a good one really.

Sorry to a Mustang i nudged at priory totally my fault.

Grats Ian Simon & James

[Reign Man]

Well,  I was the cause of the chaos at T1.  Sorry.  Got pushed wide onto the slippery strip of grasscrete, thought I managed to catch the slide;  I was wrong.  Effectively ended my race as well as three others.

One to forget.

[Simon Gymer]

That was one of the more bizarre races I've competed in. Well done Ian on the win.

I almost avoided the T1 troubles. I got the car slowed in time for two of the cars splitting either direction ahead and just as I thought I'd avoided everything to get going again, Mike's car appeared out of nowhere to which I again slammed on the anchors but ended up hitting his door. Dimitry did a good job behind me to stop too. By that time I had lost 20 seconds to the leaders and that was the difference in the end. Still, to finish 2nd when I was the 2nd slowest Vette can't be bad at all.

Have to say Silverstone was really hard racing with the Mustangs. I thought it was going to be easy cause it was so wide, but the Mustangs were having to use a lot of the track and some of them using a lot of the track really sideways (Dario! ) and with the entry speed to a lot of the corners being so fast it was almost impossible to judge whether you were going to get to the Mustang ages before the corner, at the corner or after the corner. But you had to make a decision a long way away from the corner and that made it incredibly hard.

Oh well, the grass was well mown after that race anyway, so that'll look nice for visitors.

[Robin Durrant]

The start was mayhem but lucky to avoid it all. Was running with the big dogs and slightly dropping back. Martin tried a lunge at Priory but to no avail. Adam was then on my hind until he pulled in.

A rarity then occurred as I found myself leading the class. I kinda liked that feeling a bit too much and was being hounded again by the big dogs. All 4 of us in a very close train. I was basically being a nuisance. I apologise for that guys.

I found the pits and had a lame stop. I came out cursing as Adam was 15 seconds ahead with about 18 laps to go. I faniced a challenge and didn't really have much to lose.

The time came down gently and it actually seemed possible. Then I could see Adam in the distance. I set my quickest lap during that time and to be fair it was an excellent run. Luckily (for Adam) Ian lapped us with 3 laps to go. But it wasn't over until the fat bloke sang. Unfortunately I was still behind when he did but it was bloomin close!

Well done winners and thanks Adam for hosting. You were my sole target in the 2nd half

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

A rarity then occurred as I found myself leading the class. I kinda liked that feeling a bit too much and was being hounded again by the big dogs. All 4 of us in a very close train. I was basically being a nuisance. I apologise for that guys.

Nonsense - I think I owe you a pint, that provided some real entertainment and was my only shot at catching Raimo.

Really pleased to finally pick up a podium after a monster day of endurance racing. Did the 7am Grand Am Premiere race and got a creditable 4th place in a very strong field in the Mustang. Dropped into the 13:00 race to see how the snake splits worked out; was running in a solid 3rd place with a distant shot at 2nd in the Mustangs when I got taken out by a DP with less than 20 minutes to go. To say I was unhappy doesn't even start to describe it.

I really didn't know how tonight's race would go after all that other racing so it was a big surprise to set the fastest practice time, even if Silverstone has always been a good place for me, ever since my UKGPL days. Some semblance of normality was restore with 3rd on the grid in qualifying, but that all went out the window with the turn 1 mêlée and I dropped two places. That gave me a good scrap with Robin for a couple of laps; sadly any fight with Ginsters was not to be after he was "Corvetted". That left me chasing Raimo and Dario, and to my surprise they weren't really getting away.

A spin from Dario put me up to second before the stops; I was using more fuel than expected, so I stopped at the end of lap 20, knowing that Dario had probably already made his stop - he certainly had, and I found myself alongside him as I exited the pits, but with cold tyres and on the outside for Maggots I had to yield.

The story wasn't over, though - with Robin doing a very long first stint, we soon found ourselves in a train of four cars; first Raimo and then Dario though there way by, and by the time I managed to do the same they'd made a little break. Robin pitted soon after and I concentrated on trying to catch and put pressure on Dario, who was looking like his tyres were already well past their best. I only really had one corner where I was much stronger, the fast kink at Vale, but I could at least sit on his tail and hope that somewhere he'd be too busy watching his mirror and make another mistake.

Sadly it wasn't to come, but I was pretty happy to finally nail a podium finish after over 5 hours in the Mustang.

Well done to Raimo on a flawless win.

[Raimo Piiksi]

A rarity then occurred as I found myself leading the class. I kinda liked that feeling a bit too much and was being hounded again by the big dogs. All 4 of us in a very close train. I was basically being a nuisance. I apologise for that guys.

Nonsense - I think I owe you a pint, that provided some real entertainment and was my only shot at catching Raimo.

Yeah that was epic fun guys....4 racers inside 2-3sec for 3-4 laps.

Had a great start, avoided the T1 incidents. It was a very close race. Think top 3 where inside 3-5sec for almost 40 laps. Sadly Ian got punted on lap 4 and was out of lead train. Then after Dario got a spin, I had the lead with Dave close behind still. Dario pitted then Dave, then I pitted and came out 1,5 sec in front of Dario who was 1,5 sec in front of Dave :-). Then we all catch Robin who now was leading the race. after 3-4 laps of insane close battle I manage to get a run on him and get by. Soon after Dario got by and Dave also after Robin went to pit. Darios tires started to end I think so I managed to inch slowly away and maintain a 5-10sec lead until end.

Very very fun racing and yes I send a pint to Robin also :-)

[Robin Durrant]

Then we all catch Robin who now was leading the race.

Can we all just take note of that?

And also all these pints

[Raimo Piiksi]

Then we all catch Robin who now was leading the race.

Can we all just take note of that?

And also all these pints

Yeah that was some intense hectic close sweating racing. And yes you kept the lead while all your mirrors where filled up with cars 

[Robin Durrant]

If anything, racing you guys cost me time, but it was damned good fun.

[DarioF]

I had no pace

As simple as that. I kept making mistakes, that destroyed the tyres and i got slower, making even more mistakes, killing the tyres more, on and on
That sure made for an interesting race thou. I don't think there is a corner where i didn't pick a 1x up!
Well done Raimo!