[GTR2] 24H GTWeb Automne 2011

[Mark J]

oh dear, looks like we finished 9th in GT1 and 11th in GT2    what happened in the latter stages to drop us down the order? Been out all day so couldnt check in.

Ah well, cracking event these GTW Enduros. Proper endurance racing feel to them. The only downside is you dont sometimes have anyone around you on track to race for position due to wherever the previous guy finished in his stint.

[Paul968]

Well, the result wasn't what I wanted but the session was certainly interesting! We got about 10 laps in the dry before the rain came, so I pitted for hard wets, which was a mistake. I couldn't get the temps up so pitted again for soft wets, and then it worked much better. After 15 good laps where I was making up time against a lot of the field, the rain eased and the tyres started to overheat. Lazlow and I were talking all the time on TS discussing strategy and I said that since the GT1 boys were up the front I would pit for slicks as an experiment to see if they would work. It was fairly clear soon after though that they did not! I tried to dissuade Jim from doing the same thing but he took the same option, only to find the tyres even worse than I had! I hung on for quite a while but in the end I pitted for hard wets on the front and inters on the back. They were much better and I was soon the quickest GT2. All through this period a good chunk of the GT2 field came to grief, and I was up to 6th on the road when I caught the 3rd place man who was a lap ahead. He didn't make it easy to pass him so I had to work hard for an opportunity, but by this time the track was treacherous. On the racing line it was ok, but offline it was like ice - let the tail hang out in a corner and you were sideways before you knew it. Run too deep into a corner and you were a passenger into the gravel trap. I had visited a few of these by then but so had most of the field I think! So, there was just under 30 mins left and I was following the 3rd place driver into the kink before Blanchimant. I knew it was tricky but in following him I strayed a fraction off line and the tail stepped out. I caught it but by the time it was straight I was half on the grass on the outside and so could not turn in to Blanchimant. The car then understeered into the barriers on the outside and the engine died - race over  

I was so disappointed to get so close to the end and with a good finish in sight only to bin it, but I have to say that conditions were very, very hard to cope with. I have never had to deal with such a big difference between the online and offline grip. It was a real challenge just to get round each lap, but that made the whole experience amazingly exciting. Despite the result, I had a blast and I'd take that sort of session any day. It was also good having Lazlow in the GT1 team to compare notes with and keep me entertained   Big thanks to Purdie too for sticking around after his stint and acting as spotter for me (in between the cuppas  ).

Like the other 24h races, I loved the whole event, not just the driving. Well done to everyone in both teams - 9th and 11th isn't at all bad considering the highly competitive field we were up against. Hats off to GTWeb who (as always) did a great job to lay it all on. Thanks also to spanner for running the teams and liaising with GTWeb.

So, can we race at the Ring next time?  

[Mark J]

Unlucky Paul...sounds eventful !

Yes big thanks to GTW once again for a brilliantly organised event and well done to Spanner for taking on the UKGTR team supervisory role, well done 

ooh, VLN 24 hours by chance?....be a lot of carnage too though unfortunately!  I'd like one of these proper enduros at 'the' enduro track of all, Le Mans  or failing that, Petit Le Mans.

[GTWeb24H]

Hi everybody,

GTWeb would like to thank all participants of the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. 370 pilots from 26 countries made ​​up the 70 teams that took part in an event that will set aside its share of surprises and suspense to the end.

We hope that the pilots had fun during their stints and the spectators enjoyed the show thanks to the Live Standings and Live Video.

See you soon 

[lazlow]

Great effort by everyone who took part at the weekend, having only 2 incidents between both teams was acheivement in its self...although the GT1 team would of gained a lap if we had had one
Still, with just over 2 laps covering 3rd to 9th you have to say it was an extremely competitive GT1 line up.
Looking forward to seeing what the GTWeb team have for us next time round.
Congrats to all!!!

[Truetom]

Yea, great effort from GTWeb for putting it all together.
My stint was eventful as well. Race started behind a safety car and it was all GT2s, so the start was quite ok, almost like the our rolling. Started damp, so I had meds all around. Gained two places in the first lap, then got spun in the third, losing 8 places. Then there was an accident and I hit a parked car, got some damage. Not too much, though I was losing half a sec per lap to my best lap. Weather was stable for the good part of my race. Soon after my first pit-stop it started to rain, slowly at first and the slicks were ok. Was good to have Paul on the line and he made good advice to take inters for the last part of the race. Would never take them by myself, don't know why but I never use them. They were ok here, though and all in all I think I gained 8 places from starting position. MJ took over then.
The event wasn't as successful for us than the last, true but I think the effort from us was just as high if not higher. The weather was much more devious for sure. So all in all I think we did ok and hope the next event will be a bit more forgiving. Nah, I don't think it will.
I'm sorry I couldn't take over RRs offer, or plea. Sorry man, I had a busy weekend and could not get anything else into my schedule. Man, I didn't even see your post / message until the next day and I didn't have the opportunity to say hi the whole morning.
We'll have to see if we still have enough willing drivers for the next event for two teams, eh?

Anyways, it was a pleasure and an honour to drive with you all in this event.


P.S. Time for language lesson: why is honour shown as a non-valid word and offer "honor" as a more appropriate? Thought it was honour, honor.    

[purdie]

P.S. Time for language lesson: why is honour shown as a non-valid word and offer "honor" as a more appropriate? Thought it was honour, honor.    

think thats UK and US spelling... like colour / color respectively

[purdie]

Getting up at 4.30am made it feel real enough (and was out on Sat night but didn't drink much  ) and concentrating for 3hrs certainly takes it out of you (never mind 2 stints Dan  )

Enjoyed my stint and believe I was generally on race pace relative to the conditions most of time  
Started under safety car and the 1st hour was almost a sprint race with the traffic which made it fun and then the remaining hours it rained and then dried out before the end. Great fun. Sign me up for next time! (*cough* Le Mans )

Just as much fun was spotting during Paul's stint - with the information available from the website your a virtual engineer! and as always good banter on the TS  



Big thanks to GTWeb for amazing organization and getting the clunky old net code of GTR2 to actually appear slick   huge amounts of hours in preparation and administrative matters but it was worth it!

Thanks to Spanner too as liason officer and whip-cracker   and Lazlow for great looking cars   

[spanner]

Bit annoyed with it all the last session and my laptimes Listening to Paul and Lazlow finishing off the previuos stint told me that when it rained it wasnt going to dry at all so the final stint was going to be mainly wet so decided to tweak my setup to be a bit more balanced in the wet, increased the rear wing, increased front caster and increased fast-bump on the rear just try and equalise the wear and help with traction.

However the first few laps were shockingly slow for some reason and had try quite hard to get the times out. How are people able to bang out quick laps straight away Interesting looking at the stats on their site giving peoples laps and every laptime.

Unfortuneatly the rain never came In fact the temps never varied at all Looks like someone forgot to set the weather on the server :'(

Few incidents though as someone tried to go round the outside at radion and got distracted on TS and hit the car infront into la source. It was only the last stint with new tyres and low fuel i could enjoy it!

Few points
Shame no real multiclass running
Incident penalties not severe enough, you lost out by running sometimes.
Brilliant event tho

Me? All i do is moan at you all

[JonM_uk]

I thought 9th and 11th places were pretty good tbh. I know we could have done better but so could lots of other teams.
 As much as I hated the weather at the time it really did make it interesting. The success or failure of a certain session could be changed by making the right or wrong choice of tyres. I had a look at my session and the last stint I started off on soft/inters and was quicker than others for the 1st 10-15 mins so it looked for all the world the right choice but the track just dried out enough when the rain stopped for those on full slicks to prosper and me to go backward. That's what made the track/weather combo so great, and like Paul said, so exciting. It was far more interesting than Sakhir, even if the result wasn't as good.
 I agree that the punishments did not fit the crime with regard to lost laps. If they awarded the same laps as the slowest driver in class they would be worse off than quitting! Maybe it's fair enough for a CTD,disco or somebody destroying your car, but when most of the penalties were self inflicted by losing control it does seem like a reward not a punishment.
I think the thing I liked overall about the event was the competition, having to push 100% just to keep level or even to stop falling too far behind. Anyway time to stop writing and say a big thanks to
Spanner for the organising
Lazlow for the cars
GTWEB for hosting a great and well run event
and all you lads for putting in a great effort in your 3 hour sessions

[ginsters sponsored]

The session started really well for me. Seemed to be on the pace, very hard to gauge who I was actually racing, and getting faster through first hour. Then was struck by terrible fps stutters just before my pit, this caused me a couple of offs and some damage to front. Decided not to fix damage in stop as you can normally drive through that but the car suffered terrible understeer through hour two and I was some 3/4 seconds slower. Very frustrated, I decided to fix car on final stop but its didn't change the handling at all In all honesty the last sessions were painful and I would have quite if not for the rather ace team element.

Thanks to the GTWeb gents for putting on another great show And all you gents for adding to the fun. Whens the next?

[H@L9000]

Truly epic event once again.

I had started with good clear space on the track and was just settling in to a good flow when an issue occurred with the servers and the session stopped after only a few laps. The server was set for a restart with 2 hours and 15 mins left on the clock. We had to qualify for track position while waiting for the race to get under way again. I qualified mid pack. We did a formation lap but, still I was with several cars going through the first few corners with battles kicking off all around me. I unfortunately lost control accelerating out of T4 and span the car. I ended up facing the wrong way on the track with not too much space for the other cars to pass. One of the passing cars did unfortunately hit me and I took some heavy damage. It was not the other drivers fault, he simply could not avoid me. I believe that the driver that hit me did actually wait for me in the pits, Pink Racing team I think it was. That was very sporting. He did not have to do it though as it was a racing incident and more my fault for being backwards in the middle of the track as far as I am concerned. Still it was very kind and shows the level of sportsmanship as well as skill on display during the event.

I was not able to maintain a good pace as the temperatures dropped, I think it got down to about 5C ambient by the end of the session. I should have done more cold running in practise. The pace of the other cars was immense and I slowly began to fall back further and further from the leaders.

It was a shame that I lost out and I caused our team to drop back a bit after the excellent job done by the people driving the car before me. Sorry team and sorry for the spin as well.

I had fun and was very happy to take part in this event once again.

Thanks GTWeb. Great job. Thanks all drivers and well done.

I am looking forward to the next one. rFactor 2 maybe? (if it ever comes out ) They currently plan to include driver changes and being able to reconnect to a server after a disco.