Qualifying I always set to the first weather slot. So, cloudy.
Qualifying I always set to the first weather slot. So, cloudy.
I didn't really expect to participate, and if I had I wouldn't have expected it to go anything like it did. Since LMP was the only class I tried in practice I decided to run there, and I would have preferred one of the Toyotas but since they were claimed fell back to the Porsche. Still a competitive car, just one I had a lot less seat time in and comparatively was slower in.
In qualifying I realized it had some diabolical characteristics in high speed offsets, and a couple suspension tweaks combined with reduced downforce made the car quite quick and easier to drive for the most part. However, since I had never run that setup in the rain I decided to go back to my default since that was a known quantitiy, but forgot that it didn't have the suspension correction in that tune. Spun in T4 and after that was generally a couple seconds off pace for the first few laps, but once settled passed a couple people who had the same problems I did and was running a fairly consistent gap to TJ.
Then the rain starts and I decide that I won't pit til TJ does. Given that he's like 30 seconds ahead this is a bit of a risk, but conditions generally don't change too quickly so I think it'll work out. It gets to the point where I was sure he would pit, but regardless I was going to given how tricky slicks had gotten. I doubled checked my strategy and then requested a stop before the Porsche curves. Now, before the race I set 4 pit strategies named: "wet tires and fuel", "wet tires no fuel", "slicks no fuel", and "slicks and fuel". None of this F1 "strategy 3" stuff, just simple naming. I set the default, given the estimated rain timing, to "wet tires and fuel". Go in for the stop, the guys are out there with tires and it starts with fuel and then I hear "Go Go Go!" from my engineer and I'm heading back out on my worn slicks. I hope I didn't verbalize the string of expletives in my head because there were a lot. I basically limp around the track checking my existing strategy (which was indeed set to "change tires: yes") and then trying to select my other wet tire pit strategy as I no longer need fuel and didn't trust my default one to actually do what its set to. The wrong tires, lack of shifting, and not using KERS cost me another 20 seconds until the chicane before the pits, where I promptly hydroplaned and lost another 20+ trying to get going again.
Now, going into the pits the first time in P2 I was one good hydroplane or GT Corvette shunt from being back in the race. Coming out on the same worn slicks I knew I was probably out of the race, but there was a ton of time left and anything could happen, especially in the wet. So, having renewed my pit strategy I go in again. My guys are out there with tires, it goes to overhead view, does repairs since I hit the wall after my hydroplane, and sends me back out on the same berkleying tires. And this is when I rage quit. Not my style, but if I can't get any pit strategy to actually change tires then there is no point. The first one made me angry, the second one put me over the edge. I hope everyone else had a decent race and could change tires because that was quite frustrating.
Frustrating. My pit crew did what I wanted when. I wanted it.
My only gripe is was Lake Mulsanne. I was planning to stay on wets as long as possible because of the lake. I ended up crashing in the Porsche curves with a 'backmarker' GTE AI car and lost the front bodywork and shattered my windshield. About 30 mins remaining at that point and I could just see Brad (P2) ahead of me when I wrecked after slowing reeling him in for a while. After the wreck, I pitted and went to hards. Then I think I proceeded to spin in the lake for the next 4 or 5 laps. 1st gear at 35 mph, wheel straight, spin. Closer to normal speed hoping for downforce to do its magic...spin and beaching out in the sand. No matter what I did the lake had my number. I was behind Argo one time and watched him just sail through. I copied his line....spin. Eventually Dean figured out to cut the corner by turning in where the bollards are. Success. By this time Instead of threatening to lap Brad, he was over a minute ahead of me on track. I decided to try to set a purple lap right at the end and had two spectacular crashes in the last 2 laps instead. Turns out those two crashes saved Air since the race was 39 laps instead of 40 and he had no fuel.
Fun race. We should do it again.... next year.
In reply to e30Matt :
Should have stayed in. It took me three stops to get on wets. My fault though as i was trying to select strategy while not running off the road. Not very good at it. This put me way at the back. It would have been nice to have someone to race with.
I got a really good qualifying lap but that did not translate into race pace.
I joined a bit late and ended up getting one timed lap in qualli. Lots of GTE AI traffic and not my best lap, but was ok with 3rd. Figured it didn't really matter in a race this long where I started. I was worried about Argo with that 3:22 lap though. I think I set laps faster than my qualifying lap on laps 2-5 in the race, eventually getting a 3:26 something on one lap (lap 4 I think). I went wide heading towards tetre rouge, which ended up being a good thing because Sauce went into the guard rail on the inside. Since I was scraping along the outside guardrail, it was easy to get by. Argo went deep into Indianapolis and I got by him on the way to arnage. After that it was relatively smooth sailing until the last 30 mins.
My recording of the race only caught the first 35 minutes. Brad, did you record it? I would post it but it's been so long I don't remember the steps.
I actually finished the race. Air and I had our usual crash. I finished ahead of the AI. Over all a successful race.
The 24 points for me and Andrew, will make next season more interesting for Sauce since it will take him a few races to get the lead in the points.
I really enjoyed the race. Running the LMP cars made for some interesting encounters with the AI. I suddenly understood the complaints the real drivers have during the race.
The trick to Lake Mulsanne is to use KERS to pull you out of it. 2nd gear, about 10% throttle and KERS. Turn your highly advanced prototype car in to and electric FWD.
I didn’t have out right speed compared to Sauce, TJ and Argo. Air was slightly faster in qualifying so that was my race. Starting at the back, I let everyone go. I was surprised when I caught up to Air and Sauce going into the first chicane and promptly managed to out brake myself. After that I settled into a rhythm and started clicking off laps. I’m guessing my pit crew got tired of saying “you’re consistent, we just need a little more.. dig deep”. I think I heard that the entire first half of the race.
My strategy was dry > wet > wet > dry. So I had only 2 strategies setup. They worked without issue. The wet tires were fine in the dry conditions. They were a little hot, but coming from the rain they actually felt like they had more grip and handled the puddles well. I thought I had a mistake with strategy when I made my 2nd stop and Air jumped me. As it turned out he was just running a completely different strategy and when he cycled through I ended up a couple minutes ahead. I figured Argo had an issue since he was almost a full lap behind me. TJ nearly caught me, got within 2 seconds at Indianapolis and I guess he had a fight with the AI because I was suddenly back up by 10ish seconds. Towards the end of the race I caught up to Air and was expecting to race with him but I guess he was still hypermiling and I cruised by on KERS.
I spent the final 30 minutes trying to set fast laps and not make mistakes in the puddles. The puddles won 3 times. Once I got a little off line into Indianapolis and went straight off and had to reverse out, the other 2 were the puddles at the end of the Porsche curves and that caused me to side swipe the inside wall trying to not lose the car. Aside from those, I ran a relatively trouble free race.
I really like driving the Audi. It is well suited to my driving style. I’d be up for running them again in a multi-class series in the future.
Argo1 said:My recording of the race only caught the first 35 minutes. Brad, did you record it? I would post it but it's been so long I don't remember the steps.
No. It wouldn’t save.
I stream viewing the replay on Twitch and then export to YouTube. It’s a bit of a process but not terribly difficult.
I think the only way to have a video of the whole race would be to livestream it to Twitch then move it over to Youtube after. I'd like to be able to see my barrel rolls I did a couple laps from the end when I tangled with the wrong AI GTE car just after the Dunlop bridge. I think I rolled 8 times. Luckily I set up one of steering wheel buttons as a car reset button so I wasn't stuck upside down.
I entered the race with pretty much no plan, and in general, it worked out. The rain coincided almost perfectly with running low on fuel. The rain stopped almost perfectly with running low on fuel. The second stop was clearly a bit early though as I knew I was going to be very tight on fuel an hour out. I had about 60L and about 60 minutes left, so it was easy to track. Interestly enough, trying to drive to conserve fuel did not do much (I really needed to be able to adjust the fuel trim I guess).
After discovering that using the clutch would put the car in neutral and allow coasting, I could save a bit of fuel, but was way slower and Argo was slowly catching up (about a half lap behind). Fortunately the race ended just in time as I had .1 L of fuel left when the race ended! If I needed to get to the finish line (rather then time running out) I likely could have, but NO way I was making another lap.
Realistically, I am sure I could have stopped for a splash of fuel (I had a 20L fuel stop pit strategy already set for that purpose) and stayed ahead of Argo, but it was more interesting this way.
Oh, BTW, total brain fart on the pass on Dean. I was getting a bit bored and wanted to draft past him then give him a draft (far more effective in our old GT races), but clearly did not judge the pass very well and totally took us both out by turning right into him!
Something VERY strange about how those puddles stayed in place for what have must have been at least 6 hours of sunlight! Anyone know what the air temp was at that point?
I wonder if the live track stuff is real time regardless of the time acceleration. There was definitely a dry line continuing to form each lap.
Well, weeks later I figured out what happened with my pit stops. Apparently there is a sub-setting for how many tires you change: All, Front, Rear, or what is apparently the default of Recommended. If it's set to Recommended it only performs the tire change if your tires are worn or damaged, which is why my pit crew refused to change to the tires they had sitting there. Unfortunately I only figured this out after having to retire from yet another race where I couldn't get to wet tires but better late than never.
In reply to e30Matt :
Yes. I always set my pit strategy specifically for tires and then work the gas to match.
Never trust the computer.
So I had a wet, soft and hard tire strategy setup for the race. I set Wet as the default and world pick my next strategy as I was exiting the pits.
In reply to BradLTL :
I did the same, that wasn't the issue. The problem is that the Pit Strategy menu looks exactly the same between "Recommended" and "All": you have all 4 tires, compounds, and pressures listed, but with the "Recommended" setting if your tires aren't worn out it skips the tire portion of the stop. I thought I used the same base setup for all my strategies, but somehow both wet setups were on Recommended and both dry setups were on All.
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