Just as City Liga's 15th season has finished there was a possibility to take part in a small championship, actually a cup with MRT. Now, notoriously I hate this little car for it's snappiness. However, there was one of my teammates on the server training for the first race of the season and I joined the training just for fun. I gave this little car from hell another chance and this time it surprised me rather positively. As we were racing on flat surface of autocross the car has lost it's ability to ever so often snap away from me into a terribly unsavable oversteer as the only bumps you could find were speed-bump type curbs which rather launch the car in the air.
So, there I was with a fun challenge ahead of me and immediately I was on pace, which surprised me quite nicely again, as most of the guys drove this car far more than me as this was their second season. Still, it was prove to be a proper challenge. I qualified 4rd on the grid 0.13 down on Koreny, Ulrich and Heinonen, but was promoted to 3rd on the grid as Koreny got a penalty for cutting the track and soon I was in 2nd when Heinonen spun out. I put on a strong chase to close in on Ulrich, but was never to catch him as my front left tire gave up on me and rather had to defend my 2nd place from Heinonen for second part of the race. Still, the result was pleasing for my first ever karting race.
For the second race, the lesson was clear. Improve the tires management. The qualifying didn't go too well this time, loosing pole position by 0.01 to Ulrich. But, the race start was extraordinary for me and I managed to get grips on the lead shortly in lap 2, still though I was immediately repassed as the cold tires cost me running little wide. This proved to be my only opportunity, as again tires got too hot, this time in last third of the race. And for the next round I was going to make sure they last the distance.
By now the success ballast system worked in my favor. 30kg vs 20kg, Ulrich vs me. But, he got the holds of fastest lap extra points, so this was a very difficult position for me. In round 3, his teammates Tanskanen and Karakus occupied the front row ahead of me. And Ulrich was down in 6th. It was going to be a thrilling race. As Karakus had more pace they swapped places early on and I as well managed to force Tanskanen into a mistake and get in the chase for the lead. This time the tires were spot on for me, which couldn't be said for Karakus and I cought up with him with 15 laps to go. However the track as always was insanely difficult for overtaking and after a number of laps there still was no chances. Join me for a thrilling ride as the race approached final 7 laps.
So it was my first victory of the season, however Ulrich still held the
points lead even with 4th place finish and weirdly enough, he had 5kgs
less ballast for the next race as well.
Nevertheless, I grabbed the pole position for race 4, ahead of Tanskanen, Ulrich and Terzić who joined the race as guest driver. After a good start Ulrich was soon on my tail for a race of attrition. 20 laps of intense racing, nose to tail is what followed. He never got a clear chance for a move and soon enough he got frustrated and careered into the barrens ending his race and virtually his own championship hunt when he retired few laps later.
For final race of the season, 6th gear members didn't show up after their head driver suffered a heavy crash and virtually lost any chance of the title. Still, we carried on with the race, where imol took some training, but wouldn't race. Surprisingly, I matched his pace with 40kgs extra ballast. It looked like an easy race for me after a pole position, but in last part of the race non-balasted season 1 champion and teammate Ahlers made return and used better tire situation in last laps of the race to take the victory.
This was an interesting journey into the unknown for me with a lot of good racing along the way to stay in my memories for a long time and I'm proud to say I'm the champion of a karting cup and I welcome anyone who can take on this extraordinary challenge.
This year I've took on a challenge with the league that's been around since S1 days. It's the league where I had my very first international league race. Of course I'm talking about The Original LFS League. To give you a glimpse of their history, just go to their Hall of Fame. You'll find n1lyn, RudiTurbo, as well as couple of old school cyber guys and even Piirste from f1rst all as champions, more recently Jarno won the last season which was dominated by single seaters for the first time in OLFSL history.
Back in '08 I had raced the first half of the season, but thanks to my unstable internet back then, I was unable to fight for championship, so I refocused on MoE instead. Hugo used to race back then as well, but was stopped in championship hunt with disconnects too. Speaking of some old legends, bawbag is still holding the record for most race wins, though he never won the season.
Anyway, let's move on to this season. Every year OLFSL staff comes up with something new. Named From tortoise to hare, this year it's a double races per event, starting of with UF1 and moving all the way up to GTR cars and even a single seater for season finale.
The league is always highly competitive, holding a number of grids. Long time LFSer, Romanian GTS Ady, top class OWRL F1 Russian racer rsg077 and a new name to me, Italian R4F Enkidu are proving to be my main competitors in bid for race wins and ultimately the title.
We have had six of ten events so far before this summer break, so let's recap some of the highlights.
I was lucky enough to take pole position in first two events posting PB's with UF1 and XFG from Ady as closes chaser. The races were pretty straightforward from pole to wins, interrupted with disconnect in 2nd race of UF1 event only. Funnily, JPeace was attending first two rounds as well, until disconnect in 2nd round left him too angry to continue his season. I took time off for for family obligations that weekend as round 3 went by. Franky defended TRR colors scoring 4th in points respectively. JHolmes attended qualifying for that round posting 3rd quickest time,
but never showed up for the race for unknown reasons to me. Enkidu took on a RWD charge winning both races from Ady.
Back on for round 4 and my very first event with RB4. rsg077, a man very well known from OWRL F1, who was already on pole position in LX4 event took his 2nd pole position of the season. I was close second on the grid. Tight fe1r track and good drive from rsg gave me no chances to challenge his lead, so we finished in same order we started. Next on, it was FXO and yet again rsg took a pole position, 3rd consecutive. But, this time with the long fe4 track I was sure of being able to challenge him. Join me onboard for highlight battle of the season.
The last round before summer brake finally gave me a chance of rwd taste. From pole to two wins, highly challenged from Enkidu, until he and rsg ren into each other throughout race two. My teammate Kasper had his OLFSL debut in this event, taking on impressive 4th and 3rd as race results and 2nd in points for that round.
I approached this summer brake with 65 and 111 points lead over Ady and Rsg when we drop one round out. It's a good place to be, however I have to keep on pushing. OLFSL's points system is unforgiving and I'll make sure to keep my concentration for remaining of the season.
The season turned in a straight battle between Schuhti and myself for the championship since the last report in these last four rounds of the season. I was as determined as I could ever have been to give it everything.
Round 7 was one of the most difficult races I have ever experienced. The combo itself was as immense as it gets. Fastest car of the season (FO8) on one the tightest and the longest tracks we have in LFS (fe4r). Just to give you the picture how hard it can be. You start from 2nd on the grid against your main rival. You have huge dirty air everywhere and you do not have a single passing opportunity unless the fellow slides off track in front and chances are much greater that you will. But, thankfully there were mandatory pitstops and there was hope. I was on about 3-4second gap before the stops, when Schuhti made one of his rare mistakes on his inlap and I got right onto his tail. Running five laps longer I easily exited the pits with comfortable margin to win the race and close the championship gap next to virtually nothing.
Round 8 and we head of to South City for third and the last time, this time in ultimately fastest cars with the roof, GTR's obviously. As predicted Schuhti goes for the easier choice with FXR whilst I'm in one of my favorites, FZR with my second pole position of the year by a 0.6sec margin on so5r track. The things are looking great as passing was never easy on South City, pole is an excellent place to be at. Naturally FXR had a far better launch of the line and Schuhti was lined up with me into the t1, nonetheless I was on the inside, however he decides that he doesn't want to go long way around and as the cars rub each other and we're both sent into a spin. Schuhti saves it easily with 4wd drift and on contrast I'm stuck in 15th, fighting my way back up to final spot of the podium by the end of the race. The accident was deemed as racing incident eventhough Schuhti said himself that he regrets the move and there I am stuck with a huge points gap in championship with two rounds to go.
Round 9. This time we're heading off to a final Aston race and a final open wheelers race in little MRT. Notoriously, I hate this car. I just hate it's snappiness with all my guts. I have no idea how on Earth I produced the best qualifying performance of the season back then, posting a PB in process to be denied of pole by a hundred of a second. Schuhti amazingly took it in the last corner of last qualifying lap, after loosing the entire session and entire lap until that point, by a single hundreth of a second. Alright, no big deal, it's quite easy to pass in MRT. But my gearing is not the best off the line and I'm down to 3rd and then I got cought up by the happy tail and down to 4th even. I pull myself together quickly and get up the inside, but to my big surprise the car just snaps over the curb as I took the line only slightly different to what I usually do and I'm all the way down the grid again. I fought back so many times, spinning the much hated car few more times in process before I finally retired from the race. Schuhti had won the championship now officially, but he had won it in T1 of Round 8 already anyway.
Round 10, the final race of the season. No pressure, just a race and possible victory to vindicate myself from all the trouble and bad luck that season had thrown at me. Beautiful race track (ky2r) in combination with TBO cars was always going to be enjoyable. Again, Schuhti goes for an easier choice with FXO, as I take XRT for pure pleasure of driving even though at first tests it seamed that FXO was faster with restrictions in place. However I found enough pace in process and with Schuhti's rubbish lap in superpole I was easily on pole by a 0.4sec margin. Hart in mouth moment came at the end of lap 1 when buggy curb trew me into the wall out of the last corner, brushing it only just and defending place from Patrick who was soon overtaken by Schuhti after his FXO start and it was a straight fight from then on, between me and the champion. Race of attrition, of great struggle with tires for both of us. The gap was constant on 1-2sec as the pace was virtually the same until the bad luck interfered again. Evil gods of internet decided that my season wasn't going to end on a high and I was out of the race with DNF as a result of internet disconnect. Maybe it's better that way, leaving me hungry for the next season.
Looking back at it now I can easily see so many missed opportunities. For example, if I had figured out to overclock my CPU before Round 2 perhaps I wouldn't have finished the race in 4th from pole position. Or, perhaps if I knew how bad luck can be vicious I would have trained harder for Round 6 and finished the race on podium instead on the roof. The two dropout rounds had me way too relaxed or way too aggressive at times. Many more points could have come out of race two in Round 1 if I hadn't risked that start so much. Having any of these done better I might have been in a completely different situation in Round 9 and most likely I wouldn't have to had pushed the car so madly back then.
There is another way to look at it as well. There were three race victories. Flawless races, even though I started those outside the pole position. All in all, I'm fairly happy with my rookie season in City Liga. I'm thrilled with
great new rivalry, the lovely community and determined to improve on
mistakes for the next season.
Schuhti is no longer underdog, he's a deserved champion in my eyes. Not only that the luck was on his side thru this season, he made fewer mistakes and I congratulate him for taking the title in his 10th season. A result worth admiring.
I've had an amazing fun in past three months racing around LFS without a team support discovering all sorts of cars and tracks through City Liga and some other leagues and public servers, however I couldn't race in team events, even though doors to 3id have been open to race as a guest driver at any time I believe it just wouldn't be right, nor for myself or for them, as there is just a single team league out there requiring two drivers only.
We all known of top six finishers in round one of GT2 World Championship and thru the years I've developed quite a strong rivalry with them. Interestingly, non of their drivers took the challenge to race with City Liga when they opened doors to international drivers and I missed some of that action, even though it can be a little bit too intense at times.
So after the peak with My3id Gaming last year winning 24hours of Aston GP in MoE and GT2 World Series title, I'm joining a fairly unknown team, Team Rock Racing in search of a new challenge. They've recruited Tommy Osgtaard a couple of months ago, who was eager to team-up for GT2 World Series. A good bloke I know for a while. He seems to like the GT2 class very much and I believe that we can achieve a podium throughout the season and maybe even fight for an odd victory at some point.
As I'm very familiar with GT2 cars and since Tommy is quite good at setting them up and the races are month apart, there is still a lot of time left on my hands to race City Liga and all other sorts of events that I enjoy with the rest of my new team mates, since Tommy might be busy doing real life racing to do those as well.
Other than these obvious reasons, Team Rock Racing has been very successful at attracting sponsors and as they successfully run their own league for years now it just gives me a good confidence in leadership of the team.
With seven rounds of 15th City Liga's season behind us I've got to known the competition a lot better than before round one. I've barely ever had a chance to race any of these chaps, so I had no idea what to expect. But thru trainings and the races I've got to see ups and downs of some of them.
Pärschke - Man that shines on odd occasions
He wasn't tipped as a favorite before season by City Liga. Nonetheless, he stepped onto the podium twice thru the course of seven rounds. He usually qualifies in the midfield, but that doesn't stop him to make his way up the grid by the end of the race. His first podium finish was in round 5 when we raced on streets of South City Long reversed in UFR. The qualifying once again didn't go too well for him as he started lowly 13th. But he shone in race passing one competitor after another to finish 3rd and take his first podium of the season. Pärschke would repeat his best result in last round on infamous Fern Bay Black rev with FO8. He went for a strategic move to qualify on less fuel in order to get himself out of the midfield to 4th on the grid. After ziomm crashed out in front of him he was already into 3rd by the end of lap one from where he would take his second podium of the season.
It seams that the most difficult combos suit his style rather than a specific type of car.
Patrick - Double champion missing a spark this year
It just seams like the qualifying isn't going his way this year. In round 1 from 17th on the grid in he wouldn't score many points in FOX around South City Classic. As he also doesn't like fwd very much, not many points came out of demo combo in round 2 for him and then he missed an UFR race. But he showed a glimpse of brilliance in round 2. From 10th on the grid he worked it out all the way up to 3rd passing one opponent after another. We saw him on the podium again in round 6. This time he started from 6th lunching himself into 4th on the opening lap, but after a spin few laps later he was back all the way down to 10th. Once again he would just turn it on and pass his competitors on a near impossible passing combo to finish on final step of the podium. Will he find his old magic as the season closes, we're yet to see.
Basti - Fierce fighter
His only podium finish came in round 5. He fought hard with Paddi and myself, but after we both retired he took an easy second to score his only podium of the season. I had a rare occasion to fight him on track in round 2 after I had dropped some places with FPS drop on start and from that experience I can tell you this man goes to the limit. Inch perfect whilst side by side at 200km/h and even making slight contact is as hairy as it gets, but not to crash himself or anyone else. After the race he said "Can't do that fight with everyone, but I know it was possible to do with you." Perhaps the man is right. He had couple of race incidents in other rounds. However, they were more of result of bad luck than anything else.
Max - Man of consistency
The double podium finish came for him early on in round 1. In first race he was denied of victory by Daniel when they finished in same order they started the race. In second race, with reversed grid race, he made a good progress early on, but by that time he got up to 2nd, Paddi was already way into the distance. 7th, 4th and 8th in rounds two to four was a good bag of points for him. After he missed round 5 bad luck struck him in round 6 when the connection issues put him off the good course to another podium finish as he was in 3rd at the time. And in last round his LFS must have minimized as he went head on into the wall to damage and damaged his car badly later to retire from the race. I hope he turns his luck around in remaining of the season.
Paddi - The Charger out of title chase
Man who came short of the title in last season went onto a great start taking victory in race two of opening round of this season. He used my fps drop very well in round two to take another victory and the championship lead. Not lacking anything in fwd cars either he nipping it on pole position in round 3, but finishing only 3rd after a lovely battle in opening laps with Schuhti and myself. As he missed the fourth round of the season he would have just another dropout left, which unfortunately for him came straight in the next round when his wheel failed him from another podium finish. The wheel wasn't repaired in time for next round and he's out of the title chase. It's a great shame as we had some great close racing together. I'd love to see him come back doing some more races just for fun.
Daniel - The FOX specialist
He took his only victory of the season right at the very beginning. From pole to race victory in round one. He had a good battle with Paddi in opening laps of round two, but was outpaced to race victory. Round 3 showed us that he might not like fwd cars very much when he took only 9th on the grid. Nonetheless, he took good points from 5th place. This was later to be confirmed when he missed round 5 of the season. In round four I had a rare chance to have a battle with him. He nipped it onto his second pole of the season and took yet another podium finishing second once again. RAC and it's snappiness did him no favors, so he managed 4th only in round 6. However, he was still very much in the title chase before round 7 when an odd mistake in qualifying saw him last on the grid. Once he repeated the mistake he was out of the race, scoring his second dropout. With 66 points deficit he is still in the game, but it's going to be very difficult for him.
Schuhti - The underdog
Two time championship runner-up didn't go onto the best start to the season. Scoring medicare points in round one and missing round 2, he would have to show a very strong outing in remaining of the season. He took his first podium finish in round 3 with second place and continued with third in the next round. Around South City on what seamed to be his favorite combo of the season he took flag to victory race from his first pole position in UFR. His smooth style was very suitable to RAC when he nipped it onto pole position once again, but this time only by a 0.01sec and he took his second straight victory sustaining all the pressure to take the championship lead. The smoothness worked well for him in FO8 as well, outqualifying me by a margin of 0.02sec this time. After being leapfrogged in the race he kept his cool and took good points with second. With marginal lead of 2 points there's a long way to his championship. Interestingly, he likes to do most of his practice offline.
It's quite remarkable how much things can change in just two rounds. Two straight wins can launch you from quite a big gap into the championship lead or the other way around, couple of bad results can loose you one.
Round 5, UFR and South City Long rev. The combo received no love from anyone but Schuhti. This car has seen a lot more interesting tracks and whilst this track is great fun in some other cars, it was devastating in this one. Barely noone trained enough and I myself not much either. Schuhti took an easy win with clearly lot of training and pace advantage to get back in title chase. Paddi ren into troubles with wheel which put him out of league for now and Daniel didn't race the given round. So midway thru the race all alone in 2nd place the boredom started to set in and I relaxed too much only to end up in the first wall and on the roof. At the time I didn't think it would be too much trouble, until I realized how bad were two opening rounds for me. So I dropped to 3rd in standings behind Daniel and Schuhti at that point.
That really fired me off to give my best in next round and so I did, but I lacked luck this time. The grid was set by tracker again and in the very last minutes Schuhti took pole position away by disappointing 0.01sec. I'd give it best in 3 lap sprint race that determined the final grid, but it only made me realize that my thoughts were right before when I thought that RAC doesn't pick draft unless the guy in front slides out of the corner. Not even on a track with straights of the sort ky32 has. And there I am then sitting for an entire hour behind him trying to find a way, force a mistake, anything, but all to vain as he just sits on the apex every time I come close making sure he doesn't make the slightest mistake on the way out. Therefor Schuhti takes on the lead in championship and I'm the chaser now with only a 14 points to haunt down. Daniel had a relatively poor round as Patrick beat him to 3rd place.
The decision and the goal now is to win the next two rounds and not only regain the championship lead, but to make a vital gap, preferably over 30 points to closes chaser, before we head to closing stages of the championship. This is especially important since the next two combos are Schuhti's weaknesses. Both high-speed, wing helped, slick driven machines on tracks where overtaking won't be even as close as possible as in RAC was where qualifying will be everything and with proper qualifying.
Our only visit to Westhill this season was to have one good long LX6 race. The car that demands ultimate patience and the track that demands ultimate patience made for a very intriguing combo. Amazingly Paddi, myself, Patrick, Phil, Daniel and Schuhti were all squeezed in only 0.11sec in prequal with top 4 beating the previous world record.
Two sessions of 7min quali promissed to shuffle the grid for sure. In first 7 min session top 7 that made it thru to second quali session were myself, Schuhti, Phil, Pärschke, Daniel, Basti and Patrick. Quite a bit different from the prequal results you might say. Importantly Paddi skipped this race due to personal obligations of his, but he can always count on two worst round dropouts. Quali 1 results
Second quali session saw again a different formation and this time it was for the final positions on the grid in following order Daniel, myself in second, Patrick, Schuhti, Phil, Parschke and Basti. I myself had to abort my first flying lap and made one small mistake in second run, nevertheless it's always good to start the race on the front row. 37 lap here promised plenty of time to work my way back as I had over an hour to race for it. Quali 2 results
The race was hugely intense and I don't want to spoil it for you. Instead check out my so far longest video of the longest battle of the season.
A lot of the guys also had a fantastic battles all thru the field. Race stream replay<-- very worth checking out.
I'm pleasantly surprised by Daniel and Paddi thru these four opening rounds. Both extremely quick racers no doubt there, but what really amazes me is their race craft. The way they deal with pressure and the gentleman clean racing is always very welcome.
Championship standings
Admins have calculated one round dropout already to make things look even more equalas quite a few racers missed a round already.
I'm proud to announce that these two victories have ensured current lead in the championship standings. However Daniel and Paddi are still extremely close and for sure I'll keep on pushing. For next round we're going back to South City. This time on the longer layout than we've been at round 1 and with a FWD car to make sure the race is completely different to round one, admins made it a 90min long which is the longest distance of the season at that point and I'm very positive that Schuhti is going to put a strong race in his beloved FWD car.
I've decided to retire from the GT1 Challenge. I find it near impossible to give 100% of myself on the City Liga race and then go out the next day in what is possibly the most difficult class of cars and do exactly the same again. This has lead to many unwanted mistakes and personally it started to affect my private life a little bit too much. I wish everyone in there plenty of good races.
Round 2 of GT1 Challenge has seen us move to my favorite track. Pole position with the margin of 0.62sec on Aston North was always going to mean I'd be of for a lonely race if I managed to stay ahead on the start and that's exactly how it started off. Krasi went thru from P5 to P2 in first few corners and was the main rival. Joni hasn't even showed up, as I've heard he's busy with iRacing. So, I started building the gap and managing my tires as there was nothing else to do, until we reached in about 15 minutes before end of the race. I cought up with some backmarkers and just a small lapse of concentration has seen me follow them thru corckscrew into a disaster catching the inside tires which sent me off to outside tires and into a spin. This kind of mistake hasn't happened to me in years. Nevertheless a 13 second gap ensured I'd still stay in the lead. Few laps later I went in for my mandatory pit stop. I wouldn't think the flatspots from spin were all that bad, so I stayed with the same tires and that's what the real mistake was. Two laps to the end, the tire that suffers the most, rear right, and the tire that cought the most flatspots in the spin punctured. Another pit stop and I'm down to disappointing 8th.
We've seen Krasi puncture the same tire in last corner to practically hand victory to Piotr from Conquest. Paul from evo went thru to complete the podium.
It's very unfortunate that race ended the way it did for me, but I'm happy to see the pace. Perhaps it won't be this way in every race, as I can't put this amount of time in every race, due to City Liga and closeness of that championship, but when I happen to have the same situation I'm sure I'll come on top of it.
Interestingly, I'm equal 3rd in championship, just like in City Liga. We're off to South City Long rev for next round, just a day after extremely difficult City Liga round on Westhill with LX6. Krasi is currently leading the championship, but 14kg of extra ballast might be quite a handicap for him. So, that will be quite interesting to see how it plays out.
Round 3 of City Liga's 15th season has seen us move well known demo combo on Blackwood for a 44 lap race with XFG. In a 15 minute quali session the whole grid of 20 cars was squeezed inside 0.59sec amazingly. The traffic was quite big on this short track and I managed to have only two clean laps which was enough for 4th on the grid, behind Paddi, the current series leader who took his first pole position of the season, Schuhti in second who was extremely strong in this car and the always quick Maurizio. Qualifying results
For this round we had low wind which came into play in early laps of the race of course. I made a good start and got ahead of Maurizio early on, sending myself into the chase of front two who remained in same formation. The battle that followed was deferentially highlight of the week and the current season as well. Take an onboard ride with me on lap two thru the deciding battle for the lead.
After this it was all about pushing to stay ahead of Schuhti to keep my title hopes wide open. Paddi had a silent drive to round up the podium. Max drove a good race to 4th and Daniel as well to 5th, respectively. Race results
Paddi still leads the championship with two wins ahead of Daniel with one race victory, who had very good opening races and I'm equal third with Max now. The championship is still wide open for the next round at Westhill with always challenging LX6. Current championship standings
Opening round of GT1 Challenge by GenR
Genuine Racing has made the championship many of us were looking for, for years. The classic GT1, 1 hour races, for single driver. We haven't had anything like this since 07/08 and good old eTM days. The races are held every Tuesday for next seven weeks, which means there isn't really a lot of time to practice and this is a good thing. Most of us know the tracks well enough from endu championships and there is enough time to get the setup ready for a single driver in the car. I'd have to say it's a bit tougher on me as I'm currently racing City Liga as well, which is on every second Monday and for the first round it turns out I was on the same track, day after day. You'd think it's easier then switching tracks, but I tell you, the speed difference between XFG and FZR is so big that they have nothing in common. The qualifying was during the weekend and I managed to put myself in very good 2nd on the grid. But, I tell you I was quite exhausted from City Liga race, as the pressure was immense to stay ahead of Schuhti.
I had a lot of luck on the start of the race, when Joni had a poor reacting to Green flag from pole position, which sent me straight into the lead. Joni was staying close, until he made a huge mistake just few laps into the race, exiting the chicane way too fast, which sent him into the tires and into the wall ultimately. He was able to continue the race, but the time damage was huge for him.
At the same time Dennis made quite a charge thru the field. Climbing up all the way from 11th, right in-behind me. He had a lot of luck at the start though, sticking it to P5 by turn one, which left him with fast paced cars in front only. He was following me closely for about seven laps, before one of Conquest backmarkers went straight thru the tires in the chicane, trowing them everywhere and giving Dennis finally the opportunity to attack as I had to avoid all of that first. We had a good dice for the lead, battling thru for five laps in which we had changed the positions more than severall times, passing and repassing each other. At some point I thought that it might be better to let him thru as it seamd like he was very pace that day. But then again Krasi was right there and maybe he could interfere in such way that would give me ever so important edge to pull away.
Unfortunately he interfered in such way to trow me out of the race.
After that I went immediately for my mandatory pitstop and had a calm 20ish laps before I cought up with Mr. Mocanu. I shared setups with him before the race and same wing level wasn't of any help now. I was stuck for about 10 laps, before he finally made a mistake allowing me thru into 6th after everyone cycled their pits thru. Congratulations to Dennis on a good drive and hope to see you attending more than one round thru the season. Race results
DT penalty dropped Krasi to 5th. Joni had another spin later in the race and managed 7th only. We've all seen our share of bad luck, leaving the championship wide open for round 2 at one of my favorite tracks, Aston North, next week. Current points standings
Well, as you could see the track was extremely challenging. With two weeks to spare we had plenty of time exploring every little bit of it and by the end of practice there were three of us standing out. Patrick, Paddi and myself. The rest were slightly off pace. I remember Patrick saying that he hasn't done this much practice for a race in a very long time. Seems like some boundaries were pushed. I had a lot of fun chasing those faster and faster times with you guys.
We had a two shot qualifying in a 15 minute session and I set the pole position time on my first run. Paddi and Patrick were slightly off. I spectated their second run and when I saw that my first City Liga pole position was secured, I used my 2nd shot to get up to speed with race setup. Paddi was 2nd on the grid and Patick only 10th.
Unfortunately for me, my computer completely screwed the things for me. The FPS dropped down under 20ish with the whole grid packed together and with my oversteery race setup, which was necessary to make tires last the distance, I didn't dare to push the exits. It was really weird and frustrating, because the day before we did a test race with nearly a full grid and things were ok. So, I suddenly found myself all the way down in 6th with decent gaps between each driver and half a race to go. The despair was only emotion I could feel. Instead of fighting for victory I would have a hard time even getting on the podium, with no fault of my own. Of course I would be quicker than the drivers ahead of me, but I could never push too much because of the risky track and the tires which just lasted the race. I'd manage to climb up to 4th only. I collect more points than in Round 1 though, but it's still very disappointing after starting from pole position. Paddi won the race easily and took the lead of championship with Daniel and Patrick completing the podium.
Next couple of races are on standard LFS tracks and I'll be looking to keep my title hopes alive.
Also I'm planning on making a little video with voice commentary of my own from a fight with Basti, this weekend or the next week, when I should have a bit more free time.
Round 2 of 15th City Liga's season features the longest track of the season. An 8 kilometer long, wide, sportscar track with plently of elevation changes, challenging corners and overtaking possibilities is a very different venue from tight South City Classic, as we're about to see. There are two highly interesting chicanes, which almost narrow down as the one from Round 1, when you get into them and a lot of very fast corners which tend to be very though of front left tire. The car we're using for this round is XR3. It's a XR GTR, with 35% intake restriction which leaves us with 303hp. But don't let it fool you, it's every bit challenging to drive as it's 490hp big brother. The less horsepower reduces XRR's ugly turbo lag and also gives us opportunity to use R2 tires. R2 being a softer compound makes things only more difficult as it heats much faster than R3 and is much colder in the end than R3 as well. The tire goes thru the whole cycle in 25 lap, the race distance, and can only barely last to finish the race.
The track opens with a 1.3km long start/finish straight, followed by one of the trickiest complex of corners on the track, if not the in whole of LFS. Many of us know this corner from various races, including 24h race from a year ago on AS historic rev. The difference is most of us didn't run XRR back then. As you already may know, this car likes to flip and T1/T2/T3 complex chicane with it's high curbs doesn't make things any easier. So, in order to go thru smoothly you have to take a good cut thru T3, just before the apex, where the curb will launch all four wheels of the ground momentarily.
There's a short uphill straight after the chicane with two little sweepers and what you really want to do is just carry the speed all the way thru. T4 is a very cambered left hairpin, followed by a kilometer long straight to finish off sector one. The straight itself goes downhill with two little kinks and then a very steep uphill with another kink. You deferentially want to get the speed out of that corner, as it gives great overtaking possibilities. If you get T4 right, you can get a massive toe down here.
T5 is a very, very long right bend, the fastest corner on track in fact. We're taking it full speed, which is around 230km/h into it, just drop down to 5th thru the middle and touching the inside curb, flick the car to the left for T6 using all of the curb, stay thru the middle for good early entry for T7 and T8, which is also taken flatout. It's a very fun part of the track with all the elevation changes and only when you reach T8, you're dropping just under 200km/h.
The rest of sector two is filled with elevation changes as well. We continue with left T9 and then a sharp downhill left T10 corner, which then goes uphill into a very tricky T11/12. It's tricky because it's at the end of the hill and it's competently blind. T11 is a small left corner where we brake for T12 which is a fast right corner. As we've already had couple of very fast right corners front left tire tends to heat very much in this one. We're continuing with a short straight into a mid-speed downhill left bend which leads onto the 1.25km long straight to finish sector two. This is the best overtaking opportunity on the track together with s/f straight. There's T14 in middle of it, but maybe only in FZ5 you need to lift there. After T14 there's a steep uphill and if you get in the toe before it, you can have full car in front for T15, something like Turkey's track with DRS.
Sector three opens with insanely quick right corner, the last of those that overload FL tire, where you just dab the brakes, get it back to 5th and you're already looking into T16/17, but you can't see it. The track drops so bad that it's completely blind. You could say it's a fast version of Laguna Seca's Corkscrew. It's taken almost flatout. You just touch the brakes and lift a bit before you're back on power over all of the bumps watching to stay right on the curb, to have clean tires for T18.
T18 is the first in sequence of three hairpins. Approaching speed is the biggest of all the hairpins here and it's the only place where we change down three gears. Mid corner is very bumpy, but there's a nice curb on the exit waiting for you. With this hairpin we finish sector three. T19 is very nice hairpin where the track opens on the exit, so a lot of speed can be taken out and T20 is a tricky hairpin on braking as the track rises a bit thru the middle and the rear end gets slightly unstable, so it's very important to keep the rear at bay there for the lap time and for close battles as well.
From what we have seen so far the competition is fierce. Patrick, CLs bet for champion is showing some great pace around here. It's no wonder really as he's done a 24h of MoE with their XR2 car around Aston and posted the best time for their team. Paddi is expected to be very strong as well. FOX specialists Daniel, Maurizio, Max, Chris and Markus should be very ok with this car too, as it resembles FOX a lot by the cornering and top speeds. But it's heavier, it has a roof though and that makes it feel a lot more like XRT, my favorite car. The restriction has removed the turbo lag and the car can be really pushed to the limits now in it's sports-car version.
One lap quali saw a huge variation in starting grid, compared to prequal times. FOX specialist, WR holder and prequal winner Maurizio qualified only 4th. It was three Germans who are already very experienced with this historic City Liga combo who outqualified him. Daniel took pole position with blistering time of 41.07, followed by Max and Markus. In fifth was Maurizio's teammate Max and in sixth Chris. I qualified solid 7th in front of two Polaks, Dzaban and Piotr. 10th on the grid was Paddi, who is also a specialist for this car, with rather disappointing qualifying for him. City Liga's no1 championship favorite, Patrick, qualified only 17th.
The main race was always going to be very difficult and my targets were to move up a spot or two, if possible more in case any of the drivers DNFs. However, my goals were struck right at the beggining in the infamous chicane when Max ren a bit wide in front of me and I was destined to make contact with him in that incredibly tight corner. Unfortunately he was spun out and I was down to 13th.
I had a lot of action recovering from there, passing Patrick, Dzaban, Jan-Ole, Schuhti, Piotr and Paddi all the way up to 6th.
Daniel had an easy job to victory from pole position as overtaking is extremely difficult on this tight track. Max followed his footsteps to second and Maurizio managed to climb up to final step of the podium after Markus experienced some problems in late stages of the race. Markus himself finished solid 5th, in front of Chris.
As only 16 of 24 drivers finished the first race, we saw top 8 being reversed for second race. So I was in a great position now, 3rd on the grid. Piotr was on pole position and I knew I passed him once, I could pass him again. But second was Paddi, a FOX specialist and from there he would very likely have a strong race, meaning if I don't pass him in first few laps I probably won't at all. So, my targets suddenly risen to a very risky position and I wanted victory. I would make a huge risk thru the chicane on the first lap to try and make a great run out of it, but I wasn't such luck. I clipped the wall very slightly, which trew me into the other wall and then Chris and Markus didn't have a choice but to run into me, spinning me out all the way down to 18th. The risk didn't pay, off but with a 10 round season and a two of the worst rounds being dropped out and this round already being kindof disaster with 6th in race 1, risks were necessary. Good recovery was impossible in second race when couple of laps later I ren into a freak accident between BasTi and KiLl3r fighting viciously over 15th and there was nothing I could really do to avoid it. With a limpy car I finished in poor 13th, as this tough track has taken a toll on a lot of drivers who didn't see the finish line. Results - Race 2
Paddi went off to take race victory after Piotr made a crucial mistake. Max drove a brilliant race to another second and Markus completed the all round German podium in front of Maurizio and Daniel.
The big winners are obviously championship underdogs who favor this car, Daniel, Max, Markus, Maurizio and Paddi. Ziomm, Patrick, Schuhti, Italian Max and myself will look to forget this round and focus on upcoming GTR challenge in two weeks time.
After somewhat over three years I'm splitting parts with My3id Gaming again. I say again, because we've come to mutual understanding it's the best for both of us, just as it was back in 08. I've had a great time with the team and I wish them a lot of good luck in future.
German based City liga has opened their doors to international drivers fully this year. They have been taking guest drivers all thru the years, but with new encouragement they've made this year, they've managed to gather tight competition from all over the world. I've always favoured this type of leagues. Great variety
of it all keeps the fun sky high. I guess it stayed with me from the old times and balkanian leagues. My old friends from Cro Team Racing are now also involved with this league and it will be great to see some old friends around. Germany itself has always had some of the best drivers and judging by the prequal results their involvement hasn't declined this year either with seven German drivers in top 15 in prequal. However the top two spots have been taken away from them by Italian Maurizio Naselli and myself. Amazingly top 27 drivers from prequal that was held on two combos which times are then combined, that will make the grid 1, are all inside one second from the leader.
City liga is an old type of the league, where you are taking on a new car with every next round. They've made an equal combination with three open wheeler and three GTR rounds rounded up with four road-car rounds to complete ten rounds. There isn't a certain part of the season where one type of cars is used in repetition, so we're going to see a great variety thru the season and there's also a possibility for a different car from your competitors in four rounds, where you can pick the car from given class of cars.
City tracks are historically dominant configurations used by City liga. Next to South City rounds there are Aston and Kyoto with one round less and ultimately Fern Bay and Blackwood with a round each.
Interestingly City liga doesn't have a regular format of the races. They're different from round to round with some rounds being split up into two sprint races, other lasting an hour and some are even as long as grand prix race. To top off the challenge for everyone the quali format isn't standardized either. More on that with every new round.
City Liga has given me nice intro and a high target in their pre season preview. I hope I'll be able to match it.
"Niki is one of the best league drivers in LfS. In many races and
leagues, he showed that he likes to win. He dominated the MoE 24h with
his team in January. If Niki takes CityLiga serious, he is a hot
aspirant for the title."
The first round is this upcoming Monday evening. We're kicking off with FOX on tight streets of South City's Classic layout and it's infamous chicane. One lap quali, two 44 lap sprint races and a reversed grid of top half of finishers for second race. Sounds like a sweet nightmare to me. I don't particluarly like quali format, the track, or the car. So my targets are going to be realistic for this round. Top 5 and I'm more than happy.
Good luck to everyone, I know I'll need it.
League will be broadcasted and I'm sure organization will post links on LFS Forum in time.
Also, you can always visit City Liga's website for more.
The championship is an old idea renewed by a new organization. mostly all done by Andris Pavars alone. The slowest class of cars called STD consists of XR GT and XF GTI.
XF GTI is a 115hp FWD road-car with the mass of only 940kg.
XR GT is slightly more power-full with140hp engine. It's a RWD road-car, but it's significantly heavier than XFG with it's mass of 1167kg. Both cars are reaching top speeds of about 190 km/h. Obviously XFG looks like an easier car to drive, however most of the drivers opted for the rwd machine including myself as well.
Organization has come up with an interesting format of races. Starting off with a 20minute hardcore qualifying, followed by a 15minute sprint race and a 30minute featuring race with top 8 finishers on reversed grid spots and a mandatory pit stop. To make things even more interesting they've decided to award the best with success ballast to prevent any kind of domination. It will be interesting to see how this works through the season.
I took a nonchalant approach to this championship without too much training as the cars are rather easy to drive. While most of the grid was trying to extract every last tenth out of the car with RHS driver position for this track.
Qualifying
Round 1 was held at Aston's North circuit with reversed layout. For the first time in a while I managed to brake my own PB in official quali session. I was expecting to qualify around 7th, but I found myself in much better position for start, 4th. Joe took pole-position and Joni was 8th.
Sprint race
I was off to a good start. Isaac who was starting right behind me, tried to make an early dive into the T1. The fight with him and Andres from Lanzerote Racing Team was raging all all the way thru the race. The battle was very enjoyable, even though I was defensive for most of the race. Enjoy video highlights from the race.
Featuring race
As the top 8 was reversed, Joni suddenly found himself in pole who finished calm sprint race in 8th.. He kept the lead for most of the race. Joe, who won sprint race without any problems, was making good progress right from the start. On the other hand I made a small mistake going out to the back straight and was immediately under attack from Reno. I tried to hold the outside line for stadium, but the car just slipped away from me, costing me 3 positions. It's a good lesson to get used to car with such a low grip rate, though. The race took a devastating way for me when Matti from Western Wolfs rammed into back off me on braking for T1 and send me into a nasty accident with J.Pecker. The car was undamaged, but I was all the way down to 19th. I recovered to 11th by the end of the race, mostly thru pitstops strategy and got promoted to 10th after Matti got post race penalty.
For the fifth year annually we started a new season with community awards for previous one. Polls were open for members of community to give their votes for their favorites in plenty of categories for a week. And just as any year about two to three hundred people gave contribution. That's about the amount of us who are very involved with LFS, mostly thru leagues, and therefor can give a good judgement. I'm going to go thru some of the categories real quick and share my views with you.
Team of the year The most prestigious award of all is the team of the year one. Naturally, since most of the events are team based and just as any year there is a group of people who standout from the rest. This year, that was us, My3id. After four years of commitment we've reached a new level. We won it with 26% edge to previous winners, ineX/LowLandLions. There were those who've pointed out our success in the thread, such as S.Stankevičius "My3id, 'cos they are just the best on the field right now.", K.Ivanov "They show motivation for race, they won gt2ws, simply best." or Cornys "Nice job 3id and congratz!." Very inspiring and for that we thank you guys. But there were those who tried to discredit us, in a rather childish way. Mostly members, ex-members or involved with LLL in some way who couldn't. I guess there are always going to be people who disagree, but I hope for some respect in future from them. After all, we're the first people you're going to meet on track.
Most sportsmanlike team
We're very proud to say that we've got a nomination in this category. We lost it out to Conquest Racing, by only 2%, but LLL didn't even get into the top six teams that got a nominee. The right attitude doesn't go around unnoticed.
Driver of the year
Three of my teammates got nominations among eight drivers for this I guess most prestigious personal award. I guess I haven't been standing out all that much last year with my effort more in the shades of the team. After an equal start from Tomek and Joe, Joe prevailed on top. Who showed his speed thru Apex Cup, GT2 World Series, IGTC, LX Championship and ultimately 24hours of Aston. Congrats Mate.
Hotlapper of the year
Joe won this award with a huge margin over everybody. He used his spare time wisely to beat arrechee, Matti and others. Personally, I like racing more. I like chasing that ultimate laptime myself as well, but that desire shows up when I've got an event on certain combo mostly.
Best league qualifier
I've got a nominee in this category. Seams like my reign of consecutive poles in Rony's events didn't go unnoticed, just as Tomek's GT2WS effort didn't go unnoticed either. He won the award with a bit of margin from myself and then Joe and Jarno. So we've got record four drivers of five nominees here. :)
Most improved driver
Tomek's got a nominee for most improved driver of past year, but he came off only third. Not much to say there. I've expected Joni in this one, but maybe it's too early, perhaps next year.
Most dedicated driver And a final category where I was nominated for an award. This category went a bit off board, where Indian's plucky driver Ragesh won. I remember his Nations world cup race where he went off so many times we thought he was trying to maw a lawn at commentary box. We joked how he managed not to flip his car for couple of hours when moments later he made it. He was then allowed to go back to race, only to pit on last lap and be disqualified for speeding in pits, which was rather hilarious after everything he went thru. Back then I said this deserves some kind of award and it turns out he got his award, as RLeb pointed out "Ragesh for sure. He's like a cockroach in a nuclear explosion. He just refuses to be eliminated haha."
Best League Racer
And then there is a best league racer. In a way, same award as Driver of the year, but the results were very different. Joe wasn't even nominated in this one and on other hand we had Marius who completely moved to iRacing picking up many votes. spdo's Isaac won this award, even though he won zero titles last years choosing his strategy just to race few races here and there in every league where he can win. Not a very honorable thing if you ask me, but ok, that's his style. Jarno came off second with his reign of single seater titles with Tomek behind him.
So, as you can see. The community likes to play jokes sometimes and it shouldn't be any other way. We're here to have fun, after all.
There is nothing quite like a 24 hours race. You have Grand Prix races where strategy and raw pace is still very important, but it's a lot more about close racing. In a 24 hours race, close racing is just as important, as it will prove to be once again, but with wrong strategy you're eventually destined to loose out. Getting the setup to work for four drivers with four different driving styles is the biggest challenge. Ultimately, compromises have to be made for greater good.
The track
Aston Grand Prix with 8.8km is the longest track in LFS and it's a mix of really everything. Sector one consists of a highspeed corner and hairpin with two long straights in between.
Sector two is a twisty one. We start it off with a hairpin and a slow corner right after leading to a long straight, which is one of the best places for overtaking against turbo cars. Then you go into the twisty part, entering the stadium complex with a highspeed chicane, followed by a short straight and a mid-speed corner, up the hill to highspeed corner, down the hill and then again up in a long curved straight to the right, followed with a highspeed double left corner with a dip in the middle, down the hill to the fastest corner on track which is taken flatout and only then it comes a straight to relax a bit on start of sector three. It's so complex that I bet you got lost in there reading that.
So, the final sector starts with a straight which goes gently up the hill, followed by hairpin and after a short straight a midspeed chicane which is crucial for laptime as it leads to longest straight of all as we finish the lap.
The cars
First off we had to choose between three different cars. FXO GTR
490hp, turbocharged 4wd FXR, weighting 1100kg, with 627Nm of torque is always going to be strong around hairpins, but there isn't many of those around here. So with three huge straights this car was just not an option. As it turns out, noone opted for this choice. It's a lot better choice in championships as SuperGT. With races of hour and half this car is actually a favorite on half of the tracks there. Inexperienced teams mostly use it in IGTC as well, which consists of races of four hours in GT1 class.
XR GTR
490hp, turbocharged rwd XRR, weighting 1100kg with 627Nm of torque as well is completely opposite of FXR. Great car for fast corners and straights, but terrible for hairpins. It's very different from any other car in LFS and you need great deal of time to get used to it really. We've done some testing with it, but we just couldn't match the times we were supposed to be having, watching the pace from previous years. This car was favorite for win this year if driven on the limit for 24hours straight.
FZ50 GTR
And finally there is a 483hp, boxer engined rwd FZR weighting 1115kg with 497Nm of torque. Obviously it's a less powerful engine and top speed was destined to be slower than XRR's, but boxer engine puts the power down immediately to the road and this is just great for three hairpins, one mid speed corner and one chicane. Other four highspeed corners were going to be compromised a bit, but we were confidant that ultimately we were going to match XRR teams in those as well.
The strategy
Once we had decided on car choice, next step was tire strategy. LFS has three compounds of tires, from R2 to R4, R2 being the softest. Right away I have to tell you that noone ever uses R4 tires as you just can't put any heat to them. So as the FZR is rear engined car, much like Porsche 911, you're sometimes able to run R2 tires in front. With long straights here they had enough time to cool down a bit. We knew precisely how this strategy would work from SuperGT race done here and over the race distance it was going to be about one minute quicker, but with extra stop or two you were always going to be in traffic and most likely never have a chance to capitalize on this advantage, plus it's a lot more difficult to drive. So we opted for safer choice, R3's all round.
The racers
Then we had to figure out who was going to drive at which part of the race and just as the most teams do we have also opted to put our quickest racer to start the race. Tomek himself proposed to do straight four stints before handing the car over for nightstints. For remaining of the race, we were going to do double stints. Night-stints are just as critical as start of the race, if not more so. It's really where the race is won or lost. It affects the moral of team more than anything. It's horrible to wake up and find out that you're far away from the lead with something like 10 hours to go. So, of course we were always going to thrust this task to most dedicated and most experienced ones, like myself. I had teamed up with Joni, what we can call a rising star to do stints in between and keep the pace up. And ultimately we've left Jarno's stint just for Sunday morning, where the race is mostly decided and with a fresh driver we were always going to have an advantage. Tomek did stints in between with him and Joni was going to wake up and finish it off.
The race
Tomek made a perfect getaway and made a brilliant pass around the outside of T1 to grab the lead from Marc of spdo as the next corner was going to be inside for us. Simon of LLL didn't manage to put enough pressure on Marc to give us a chance to open the gap and soon enough Marc capitalized on XRRs advantage of about 20-30 liters of less fuel at first third of the stint. He pulled an easy pass on lap three on backstraight, even around the outside. Tomek fought back, passing him on the main straight, but Marc would regain the lead again around the outside into the first hairpin this time. As the fight was raging for more than two minutes, Simon was able to close in and sneak by Tomek, heading into the second hairpin.
Once the fuel leveled out Simon pulled a move on Marc and took the lead and as Tomek was stuck behind Marc for the rest of the stint, the situation allowed Simon to pull a 7sec lead.
After the first round of pit stops we exited just in front spdo, thanks to them pushing a lap too long and earning a puncture in second to last corner. With tires working a lot better for us against LLL's R2R3 strategy we started closing in the gap and then maintaining it on 5sec before LLL eventually stopped for tires and driver change. With an extra lap, we closed the gap by another second. spdo was the last to make a pitstop and they also changed the racer. With going significantly longer than us this time they managed to squeeze in between LLL and us. It didn't take long for Tomek to get past by Mihu and get back in the chase of Matti who was driving for LLL now.
At the end of 3rd stint Tomek closed in enough to to pull a stunning move on Matti around the outside into the first hairpin, allowing himself inside line for next hairpin and take the lead. At the same time our GT2 car, took the lead also. But, spdo leapfrogged us once again, however retaking the lead was not a problem at all as we had warm tires on their outlap and Tomek made an easy pass on mid-sector straight without any resistance from Mihu.Fourth round of pitstops saw a driver change for all of the top three teams.
Reno, who qualified spdo on pole, was taking over for spdo. Alen, the slowest of LLL's lineup for LLL and myself for 3id. The gap to spdo was three seconds after we all completed 4th round of pit stops. The gap to LLL increased to 4sec. It didn't take long before I cought up with spdo, but Reno proved to be a though nut to overtake with highly aggressive defensive driving. Perhaps spdo knew how risky he is in close racing and opted to hand the car over to him 4hours into the race in hope that he will be running in clean air. I myself had hoped for clean air stint as well and build some more gap to LLL, especially after I found out that they're handing the car over to their slowest driver. But the real task was to get passed by spdo first and only then build a 50sec gap as soon as possible to prevent them leapfrogging us.
The battle with Reno was nervcracking, you can check action onboard in highlights video from my stints on bottom of the post. After I overtook him, he made a huge dive into where clearly wasn't enough room for two cars and damaged his own car in process. Thankfully my car was undamaged and I would make a dive myself later that lap in all frustrating to retake the lead.
All this allowed Alen to close in dramatically and he passed Reno relatively easy just corners later as Reno was suffering quite a bit on pace now. With loads of GT2 cars in my way I was just unable to build any gap, because I'd mostly catching them just before the corner whilst Alen was having more luck with passing them on following straights. Eventually I got so fed up with traffic that I made a mistake that could have cost us a race, but thankfully it didn't, it just cost us lead, briefly. I'd retake the lead later that lap and start building the gap now as we were having a lot less traffic. This would frustrate Alen so much that he'd make a critical error and make a huge setback for his team, dropping them to 7th. He would crash out Raptor Gaming, our main opponent in GT2 class, mainly because Marius was having a guest race for them. Raptor GT2 vs. LLL GT1 Crash 24h MoE
Within half an hour our race looked better than ever.
spdo decided to take the pitstop earlier this time, at the same time as we did this time and fix the damage, giving up on the extra laps. This would give us a 48second lead. Reno also would hand the car over to Marc and wouldn't race any more for the remaining of the event. But in 12 stints by running 2 laps longer, they were going to save a pitstop and we needed to keep the gap on about 50sec. I completely forgot about that they'll save a stop whilst in the car and just kept it as safe as possible. Marc pulled a stunning stint and cut our lead down by 22seconds as I was taking it easy, perhaps too easy. Only in final stages of the stint I was told to push. Marc was the only racer on the grid which had a matching pace of FZR's in closing stages of the stint with XRR and you gotta give him credit for that. Plus XRR was just having a shorter stop.
At the 6h30m mark, Joni was in for his first double stint. Fresh as ever he was able to push, but he was up against Marc who was doing his final stint of the day. Marc would cut our lead by another 15sec down to 11sec only.
For the rest of the night Rik and Egon would drive for spdo against Joni and myself. The fight would rage on all thru the night. Joni had a close call with traffic in closing laps of his second stint, when VRT driver suddenly lifted in a very unexpected place. Contact would result with poor Rodrigez in the wall.
Rik shortened our lead by only about 3sec, but in 2nd lap out of pits I had a close call with a GT2 car who spun it around and simply didn't look for oncoming cars before rejoining the track. Thankfully suspension damage was only minor and mostly it was visual. Of course we lost 11sec and the lead briefly.
It became obvious to us that they were saving time more in shorter pitstop than anywhere else. Nearly10sec alone from a shorter pit there. I was determined to improve my pace greatly in my next two stints. And so it was. Those two stints were 0.3sec a lap quicker on avg than my
first two stints, so it didn't take me long to catch up with Rik again. Once I cought up with him, he made a huge mistake in traffic and only luck saved him from damaging the car this time, in any case a gift from heavens for me.
Once again I was in the lead, with 5sec gap and determined to build on it in next two hours. After the pits gap remained the same. Only thing that was changed was spdo driver, it was Egon for the first time. Just before spdo's pitstop we saw Robendo suffer a disconnect from the server for LLL. Luckily for them it happened in sector 1, so they didn't loose more than a minute. It seams like the night just took a bit of beating on everyone there.
Egon used XRR's advantegy greatly and pulled a 5seconds lead after the next round of pitstops, however it wasn't long before Joni cought up with him and made a nice pass on mid-sector straight. It was our 6th overtake on the track against them. Next round of pitstops saw Rik again in the car, and again they were 5sec ahead of us, so Joni passed him making a nice switch-back into the first hairpin before handing the car over to me.
After Rik made his stop we were 8sec clear in the lead. But once we pitted he was ahead by about 5sec. In the final stint I would cut his lead down and make our final 8th pass on main straight and tucking back in ahead in full style making any counter attack impossible. As it was on the lap when they were pitting, they weren't going to regain it after the pitstops.. I'd do my fastest lap of the race in remaining laps and as we stayed out 9 laps longer I handed the car over to Jarno with 7sec gap to Egon.
It's morning. 9 hours to go, and it's matter of building the gap once again, as we had to make up for another, this time unplanned, extra stop as it will prove later. Fresh Jarno against Egon who was racing all night long saw us increase the gap to 17sec after 15th pitstop for us and 14th pitstop for spdo.
For next round of pitstops we saw Tomek against Mihu again, only this time Tomek was comfortably 29sec ahead. Tomek would go straight on attack and build the lead up to 56sec setting the quickest time of our race. Mihu handed the car over to Marc whilst Tomek did his last stint of the day. We experienced some drama, when Tomek's connection went ballistic forcing us to make a pitstop 5 laps earlier to avoid disconnect from the server.
Jarno was back in the car for his last two stints with a 20sec lead. This was only due to the fact that we pitted unplanned. It also means that we will now have to make another pitstop more than spdo, but it wasn't a problem... as we see we pitted earlier and were still back in the lead comfortably.
Marc reduced our gap down to 16sec after his 2nd stint of Sunday, but Jarno got it back up to 30sec once Mihu was in spdo's car, before handing it over to Joni who would race for remaining of 2hours and 30minutes and once again it was only a single stint for Mihu, before we saw Marc back again in the race, but with shorter stints now Joni was able to lap quite a bit quicker, improving his fastest lap by 0.6sec and pace by 0.5sec, so he would build the gap up to amazing 48sec before spdo's last pitstop.
For last stint spdo got Mihu back in the car. The gap was over minute and a half and our extra pit stop was more than safe. After the stop it was a 57sec lead and Joni kept it cool till the end of lap 534, even increasing the lead to 1minute and 3seconds without any risks taken to take our first 24hours victory in Masters of Endurance.
After the race, we've heard that Rik had damaged spdo's engine in his final stints... preventing this incredible fight going the wire. Truth be told, it was around time when they had lost their pit-stop advantage as well. But that's endurance racing and mistakes like that cost lot, a lot.
Our sister car build a 2 lap lead from 3rd hour when they took back the lead over to spdo GT2 who were lucky to see Raptor's car taken out at 5 hour mark. We also saw Raptor flipping their car on the last lap attempting defending 4th position, so they finished 6th eventually. LLL recovered to take the final step on the podium, only a lap down, in GT1 class respectively. The final step of GT2 podium goes to Synergy, who finished 4 laps down after putting some strong fights in first hours of the race.
Congratulations to podium finishers and everyone else who managed to finish this incredible event.
The experience of 24 hours race
It's pretty much the only time when the whole team comes together. There are these endurance events, but it's mostly two racers, unlike 24h race, where you really need four at least. And you can have two cars within the team, raising the involvement of everyone to another level. It's a lot of hard work, but it always pays off, no matter where you're racing, it's just such a joy, because you're doing it for hours and it still seams the race will never end, so all the hard work from practice pays off. You never know what will happen next despite all the planing and often you get surprises. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but surprises non the less. It's the biggest adventure you can find in sim racing and I strongly recommend it to everyone.
