- 203
- UK
- FLK_255
Ran this in A-spec as I usually do. After spending the past two weekends doing the European 1000 Miles races I decided another long race was in order. I needed the cash and also the prize car to do the Pro GT World Champ. I used the MERCEDES-BENZ AMG CLK-GTR Race Car '98 with a stage 3 turbo and first spent several free runs getting rid of the awful oversteer which had plaged my attempts at the first race of the GT World Champ. After messing around with brake balance with no effect I found some changes to rear camber and toe out solved it though I was still having to be careful approaching the last chicane section.
First lap was spent behind the R92CP until I drafted it taking me into the lead down the main straight. By lap ten the rear tires were blindingly orange so I decided to pit as I'd get nowhere if they went red as the dreaded oversteer was returning! I had a thirteen second gap to 2nd place by now then realised I'd never pitted on this track, expecting a nice smooth run into the pits I was soon met by a sharp chicane sans contrete wall (note for future *cough*) by the time I'd got into the pits and changed to new R2 tires I came out 5th. To my relief the R92CP & R89C pitted next lap but the Audi R8 and another LMP stayed out, quickly realising I may be in trouble if I was pitting more than them I decided I'd have to use R1's despite the risk of bringing back the bad oversteer. It took seven laps behind the R8 to reclaim the lead as I passed it when it pitted, with my next pit window coming up and low fuel I pitted on lap 20. With the R1's I struggled as they gained heat making several mistakes, the R92CP was in front still by 15 seconds. Three laps later I began to pick up my pace and close in, I was quickly realising I might have a tough race on my hands, nice!
By lap 32 I was twenty one seconds ahead of the 2nd placed R92CP (after it had pitted) and the tires were still in good condition with the rears a light green-yellow and the fronts still green, the LMP cars were still behind the Nissan Rs which meant I might be able to switch back to R2's later on if they could keep ahead despite them pitting twice as much. I decided to wait until half distance to see if the LMP's pit strategy would put them and keep them ahead of the quicker Nissan Rs before making anymore changes to my own strategy.
Pitting on lap 39 and 18 seconds ahead of the Audi R8 I balls'ed up my pitstop hitting X and cancelling the fuel, nrgh!! I then found out that the R92CP was now fifteen odd seconds behind me after the R8 stopped on lap 42. I pitted on lap 44 with one red block of fuel left and came out to find the R92CP was 25 seconds ahead! He pitted on lap 47 coming out 3 seconds behind me, now the heat was definetely on! I realised that the R92CP was the threat and not the two LMP cars as I lapped one of them as if to just kick dirt in my face. I pushed really hard putting in high 1m17s and low 1m18s for the next twenty laps putting the R92CP out to a 13 second gap by lap 57.
Every 57 laps I'll add to this report as it could get quite long and I'll just record anything significant in between
Pitted lap 62 coming out 17.5 seconds ahead of the R92CP which pitted a lap earlier, I continued to push hard to my next pitstop window, the R92CP seemed now to be able to match my tire and fuel distance as well. After pitting again on lap 78 the R92CP was 21 seconds behind after pitting itself six laps earlier and also getting held up in traffic.
On lap 81 I stupidly tagged the grass braking for the first bend sending me across the gravel. The R92CP was now only three seconds behind me after rejoining the track, pedal to the metal! After running wide on lap 84 the R92CP was breathing down my neck, luckily it peeled off into the pits after saddling up in my slipstream, noticing earlier that the AI struggled after it's pitstops for the first few laps I knew I had to go for it!
By the time I stopped again on lap 110 the R92CP had pitted twice therefore I now a comfortable gap of just under 40 seconds, as I'd expected the longer stints I was doing paid off, the LMP cars must have been dawdling to allow the R92CP to stay ahead even though it was pitting twice as much as them. At the end of lap 121 the R92CP came out of the pits in front, the following lap I was ahead towing him down the main straight feeding him my dirty air, after I pitted at the end of lap 127 the R92CP was back on the same lap over 52 seconds behind me.
Lap 144. Shortly after pitting I was just under a minute ahead and decided to call it quits for the day, it was midnight and I had done 3hrs 15mins so far. My thumb tendons were killing me as well so I shall finish the last 2 hours off the next day
PS2 was still alive and kicking when I got back to it this morning much to my relief, good thing it doesn't make anywhere as near as much a noise like PC fans/hard drives do else I'd have had to have turned it off or take 2hrs of thumb pain finishing last night! Anyway back to the race
Nothing much happening now, the R92CP was over a lap behind with the gap slightly increasing. Managed to jump scrapping backmarkers during a pitstop which the R92CP got held up in for a couple of laps
Now into the end of the third hour with 173 laps done of 228 and probably have to pit in the next two laps as my rears are orange. Stayed pretty much ahead by one lap up to lap 221 where I caught and lapped the R92CP on my second lap out after pitting, with eight laps left I went back to R2's (Race Hards) and short fuelled enough to get to the end. Now just chasing my lap times I had an easy run to the finish line.
Result:
1st: Mercedes-Benz AMG CLK-GTR Race Car '98 (5:09'45.484)
2nd: Nissan R92CP Race Car '98 (-2 Laps)
3rd: Playstation Pescarolo C60 Race Car '04
4th: Audi R8 Race Car '01
5th: Nissan R89C Race Car '89
6th: Chevrolet Corvette CR5 (C5) '00 (-16 Laps)
Best Lap Time: 1'15.000 (Lap 222)
Total Race Time: 5:09'45.484
A-Spec Points: 72
Winning the R92CP as the prize car should allow me to have a better go at the GT World Champ though I might try the CLK-GTR again that I used in this after solving the oversteer
First lap was spent behind the R92CP until I drafted it taking me into the lead down the main straight. By lap ten the rear tires were blindingly orange so I decided to pit as I'd get nowhere if they went red as the dreaded oversteer was returning! I had a thirteen second gap to 2nd place by now then realised I'd never pitted on this track, expecting a nice smooth run into the pits I was soon met by a sharp chicane sans contrete wall (note for future *cough*) by the time I'd got into the pits and changed to new R2 tires I came out 5th. To my relief the R92CP & R89C pitted next lap but the Audi R8 and another LMP stayed out, quickly realising I may be in trouble if I was pitting more than them I decided I'd have to use R1's despite the risk of bringing back the bad oversteer. It took seven laps behind the R8 to reclaim the lead as I passed it when it pitted, with my next pit window coming up and low fuel I pitted on lap 20. With the R1's I struggled as they gained heat making several mistakes, the R92CP was in front still by 15 seconds. Three laps later I began to pick up my pace and close in, I was quickly realising I might have a tough race on my hands, nice!
By lap 32 I was twenty one seconds ahead of the 2nd placed R92CP (after it had pitted) and the tires were still in good condition with the rears a light green-yellow and the fronts still green, the LMP cars were still behind the Nissan Rs which meant I might be able to switch back to R2's later on if they could keep ahead despite them pitting twice as much. I decided to wait until half distance to see if the LMP's pit strategy would put them and keep them ahead of the quicker Nissan Rs before making anymore changes to my own strategy.
Pitting on lap 39 and 18 seconds ahead of the Audi R8 I balls'ed up my pitstop hitting X and cancelling the fuel, nrgh!! I then found out that the R92CP was now fifteen odd seconds behind me after the R8 stopped on lap 42. I pitted on lap 44 with one red block of fuel left and came out to find the R92CP was 25 seconds ahead! He pitted on lap 47 coming out 3 seconds behind me, now the heat was definetely on! I realised that the R92CP was the threat and not the two LMP cars as I lapped one of them as if to just kick dirt in my face. I pushed really hard putting in high 1m17s and low 1m18s for the next twenty laps putting the R92CP out to a 13 second gap by lap 57.
Every 57 laps I'll add to this report as it could get quite long and I'll just record anything significant in between
Pitted lap 62 coming out 17.5 seconds ahead of the R92CP which pitted a lap earlier, I continued to push hard to my next pitstop window, the R92CP seemed now to be able to match my tire and fuel distance as well. After pitting again on lap 78 the R92CP was 21 seconds behind after pitting itself six laps earlier and also getting held up in traffic.
On lap 81 I stupidly tagged the grass braking for the first bend sending me across the gravel. The R92CP was now only three seconds behind me after rejoining the track, pedal to the metal! After running wide on lap 84 the R92CP was breathing down my neck, luckily it peeled off into the pits after saddling up in my slipstream, noticing earlier that the AI struggled after it's pitstops for the first few laps I knew I had to go for it!
By the time I stopped again on lap 110 the R92CP had pitted twice therefore I now a comfortable gap of just under 40 seconds, as I'd expected the longer stints I was doing paid off, the LMP cars must have been dawdling to allow the R92CP to stay ahead even though it was pitting twice as much as them. At the end of lap 121 the R92CP came out of the pits in front, the following lap I was ahead towing him down the main straight feeding him my dirty air, after I pitted at the end of lap 127 the R92CP was back on the same lap over 52 seconds behind me.
Lap 144. Shortly after pitting I was just under a minute ahead and decided to call it quits for the day, it was midnight and I had done 3hrs 15mins so far. My thumb tendons were killing me as well so I shall finish the last 2 hours off the next day
PS2 was still alive and kicking when I got back to it this morning much to my relief, good thing it doesn't make anywhere as near as much a noise like PC fans/hard drives do else I'd have had to have turned it off or take 2hrs of thumb pain finishing last night! Anyway back to the race
Nothing much happening now, the R92CP was over a lap behind with the gap slightly increasing. Managed to jump scrapping backmarkers during a pitstop which the R92CP got held up in for a couple of laps
Now into the end of the third hour with 173 laps done of 228 and probably have to pit in the next two laps as my rears are orange. Stayed pretty much ahead by one lap up to lap 221 where I caught and lapped the R92CP on my second lap out after pitting, with eight laps left I went back to R2's (Race Hards) and short fuelled enough to get to the end. Now just chasing my lap times I had an easy run to the finish line.Result:
1st: Mercedes-Benz AMG CLK-GTR Race Car '98 (5:09'45.484)
2nd: Nissan R92CP Race Car '98 (-2 Laps)
3rd: Playstation Pescarolo C60 Race Car '04
4th: Audi R8 Race Car '01
5th: Nissan R89C Race Car '89
6th: Chevrolet Corvette CR5 (C5) '00 (-16 Laps)
Best Lap Time: 1'15.000 (Lap 222)
Total Race Time: 5:09'45.484
A-Spec Points: 72
Winning the R92CP as the prize car should allow me to have a better go at the GT World Champ though I might try the CLK-GTR again that I used in this after solving the oversteer
