Project CARS 2 1st Jul 2018 - Knights de la Sarthe (1 Viewer)

[drukqs]

had an absolute blast this evening i can only thank everyone for the race.

No problems at all with pitstops. I think some of you guys who have problems with changing tyres this occurs because you select recommended tyres instead of ALL on the pit strategy. Recommended DOES NOT change the tyres as i already learned the hard way.

Anyway about the race itself.

I didn't have the training i wished too as i had guests here at home until this morning so not a lot of training. Qualified P4.
Had a good start and by the end of Lap 1 i was on P2 behind wayfarer who seemed to fast for me.
@Elodyr was just behind me: my car was faster on the straights but slower on the Porsches. Overall he was slightly quicker but couldn't get past me as i was faster on the straights. After around 30m eventually he managed to have good run and i had a small slide after 2nd mulsanne chicane and he got past me decisively. Great fun m8!

After him it was @kobusnell who was around sometimes too close for my taste. But i think apart from one time we got side to side i was always on front.

When it started raining i saw wayfarer and Puff pitting so i decided to follow the leaders in LMP1 and LMP2 and also pit for wets. A mistake. I think i should have pitted 2/3 laps later as the track was still not wet. Kobusnell also pitted with me so no real dmg was done. I've managed to pull away from him during the rain, with about a 30sec lead. Meanwhile wayfarer retired so i was on P2 and i was thinking that was it. I had to pit for a new full tank and then 2 or 3 laps later i pitted just for dry tyres. If i had waited 2 or 3 laps for the wets before i would have saved a pit stop, but thats how endurance racing goes when you have to make your math and pit strategies while driving at 300Kmh.

When pitted for my final slicks stint, kobusnell did not and overtook me with 5-10sec lead. That got me a bit apprehensive but the track then definitely dried and i finally took my grip over the puddles specially at the end of the first mulsanne straight. I was able to easily regain my P2 and pull a gap on the last 15min where i coasted to a well deserved P2 on my class.

Overall, a few minor mistakes: 0 touches to other cars or walls and apart from a minor problem overtaking i believe @Sonic , who was distracted in the middle of track i just have to thank both the cars that overtook me and the cars i overtook .

Once again, thanks for the experience, really enjoyed it .

 

[benimi]

I have to admit, I wasn't well enough prepared for this race.

I haven't found the key to low downforce tracks still, and during practice I already found out that I sacraficed too much straight line speed for getting enough heat to my tires. And even that was only enough during the day, so during the night I didn't have enough cornering speed either. I was hoping I could make up something when the rain comes, but I was too far off that point.

If I didn't feel like I needed to do this race, after what happened in the 2.4h of Spa, I would have give my spot to someone who should have been able to prepare better.

Anyways, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed driving my baby again. And I had some interesting battles in the early stages of the race.
GGs to everybody who raced yesterday. I enjoyed it very much.
And, of course, thanks for organizing.

 

[AndrexUK]

Gutted I missed this one by a few mins
Was sure it was starting at 7:30, but my mistake

Had done a fair bit of practice too, but that's partly due to the number of Public races at LeMans recently...
I love it, so was really looking forward to it.
Was running the Aston (Looking to repeat the GT3 success), and was putting in 3:52s in race pace, so sounds like it would probably be up towards the front end.

Still concerned about that Livetrack.....

 

[fab. ICEMAN]

Then the second issue arised. It seems like LiveTrack is still not fully fixed as i was able to easily blast by Elodyr who probably already hat wets on his car on my old saggy slicks because on my side the track was still fully dry, probably 15 minutes after everybody else pitted i made decision to pit too, as the track was finally getting a bit damp and i didn't want to risk endangering myself or anyone else on my old slicks, but seems like i didn't calculate project Cars into my strategy and like the second stop the game refused again to change my tires, so i went out for one more lap, nearly dying on Mulsanne as it was already or finally (see it how you want) was really wet there, at the end of the lap i came again into the pits to see the tires not changed again, although all times tire change was selected. Then I knew it was time to leave the race as I couldn't and didn't want to continue like that.

Did you compare different screens from the time the track was wet? Don't get me wrong, but I think you should underline your assumptions with a bit more facts. Just because people pitted earlier than you doesn't mean the live track is broken. I also pitted very late for wets, as there is no problem to continue with slicks until you hear the 'wet sound'. And that is 4 or 5 laps after the rain set in.

 

[Tom]

Not quite the same success for me as last year's race, but this was still a very enjoyable and challenging event. I was undecided between using the Ford or the Porsche, but I had limited setup and practice time due to some controller issues (which reappeared at 58:05 in my video below), so I went for the Porsche with a modified TT setup. This meant I didn't have much running the the wet beforehand, which also came back to bite me when the track started to dry out. Congrats to @Raigore for a faultless drive in GTE for the win, and thanks to @Taorminator and @steveg200 for the great fights early on. Here's my video:

Spoiler: Video Timestamps

23:20 - Qualifying pole lap.
39:15 - Race start. Great early battles for the lead with Steve & Tao.
58:05 - Engine dies, due to my wheel spazzing out and triggering the ignition button (as well as my recenter VR button, which is right next to it). It's a recurring intermittent issue with the PCB it appears Down to 5th.
1:01:50 - Overtake for 4th.
1:19:30 - Spin and lucky escape.
1:23:25 - Spin and crash at same place as last lap. I clearly didn't learn my lesson.
1:26:50 - Pitstop 1 - Unscheduled repairs and fuel, no tyre change. Down to 7th.
1:32:55 - Bollard to the FACE!
1:33:15 - Overtake for 6th.
1:44:10 - First signs on rain.
1:59:50 - Pitstop 2 - Fuel & rain tyres. Remain in 4th.
2:38:30 - Rear tyres suddenly give up in the Porsche curves, resulting in a very odd spin. I should have pitted that lap, but I thought some puddles were still too big. Big mistake, I spun again in the Dunlop Chicane. I then tip toed around the circuit back to the pits.
2:43:00 - Pit strategy faffery in the Porsche curves on dead tyres is not fun. Why not just have a "Fill fuel tank to end of race" button?
2:43:25 - Pitstop 3 - (Far too much) Fuel & soft tyres. For some reason I thought the fuel strategy menu meant 'How much fuel you will have after your stop' rather than 'Much much fuel will be added'. Lots of time lost but it didn't affect my position.
3:01:30 - Jesus incident between Manu & Feanor.
3:04:25 - Start of final (half) lap.

 

[drukqs]

@Battenberg that crewchief just doesnt shut up!

 

[m4nu]

3:01:30 - Jesus incident between Manu & Feanor.
3:04:25 - Start of final (half) lap

That moment @Feanor

 

[Taorminator]

I was waiting for that race so much! I had a lot of fun because it remained exciting the whole race especially with the rain. Great event once again thanks!

It was great to see how much I improved since last year Le Mans : I was doing 3:59-4:00's and this year 3:51's race pace during practice (couldn't do it during the event though I couldn't take the risk to make a mistake). I chose an oversteery setup with lowest downforce which was great for rotation in the slow corners and applying power quickly.

Quali : P2, I could only do one flying lap and no tow for me.

Race : the first laps were great and intense battling for the lead with @Battenberg and @steveg200 . It ended quickly when @Cornworld lost control and crashed into me. Lost contact to the leaders and aero damage greatly reduced my top speed for the rest of the stint. I decided to double stint my hard tyres (I had no trust in softs with my setup, they were prone to overheat and give up on you when you need them the most) which ended up safer but very slow during the night especially in the dry -> rain transition. Once the rain came it was hammer time again It was an exciting part of the race because I had to maintain good pace and save fuel at the same time to refuel when I would switch to softs again. It was tight but the timing was perfect sparing me another stop. It was then a sprint to the end! softs were good because I could cool them down using the remaining puddles, scary but turned out to be a better strategy than hards. Thanks to the overall strategy, consistency and no mistakes on my side I was able to close the gap in front and secure P2! Perfect race for @Raigore , you well deserved that one!

It was so great to have these things not going according to plan and having to deal with them in the heat of the moment. That's why I love Le Mans and endurance race in general

Also big thanks to the higher class drivers who were very safe while overtaking, I tried my best to leave you space and remain predictable as much as I could

 

[Thomas Sikora]

Oh Sorry, i missed this Event. Was in the Event calender in the wrong month

 

[Raigore]

My first win at RSR!

But most importantly I really enjoyed the race. I qualified in P4 as I didnt do much hotlapping or qualy testing before. I focused mostly on consistent lap times in practice and keeping the tyre temperatures and pressures in the right zone.

I knew I had to take it a easy on the first stint as I was struggling with overheating rear tyres in practice. So I was just following @steveg200 and the Porsches and tried to stay within striking distance. Somhow I made up about 10s with my pitstop ,maybe everyone else repaired engine damage, because I doubt that I could make up that much time by just going 1 lap longer.

Pretty lonely but still exiting race from that point on. Managed to keep the gap the same, pitted a bit later than everyone else when the rain started, think I gained a bit of time there aswell. But my plan actually was to reach the 1h mark so I could theoretically go to the end without pitting, in chase the track wont dry up fast enough.

I also pitted later for slicks than most of the other guys, thanks @t0daY for being my guinea pig btw , I was about to pit that lap but I second guessed it after seeing you struggle.

From there it was just a sprint to the finish line with a comfortable gap. It couldnt have gone any better to be honest. Finished the race without ever having a single % of damage (besides the engine), no contact to any car or wall.

God, I want to do a race like that again. Multiclass racing is just the best.

 

[m4nu]

Results posted

 

[drukqs]

fav race of the year, we should have more of this

 

[Hujkis]

fav race of the year, we should have more of this

Yes please

 

[AndrexUK]

Agree!!!
Should be a regular thing!