- 24,120
- Midlantic Area
- GTP_Duke
I took advantage of a small window of early-evening opportunity to knock off one of my last tasks on the approach to 100% in my first game. With the family enjoying a Brownie/Girl Scout hay ride (my wife too; she's a co-leader), I had the house to myself in a slot when I wasn't wasting precious sack time. I decided to head to Rome for the 2-hour enduro.
I knew from past reading that the TVR Griffith was likely to be the hot shoe, but that he would pit a lot. I didn't have much time for research, so I headed to the Ruf dealer and picked up a lemon-yellow 3400s, aka "Superboxster". On the way to the track I changed the oil and stopped off for T2 (just in case) and T4 tires (on the car).
The Griffith must have been under teardown, because he never cleared the tech shed. The other competitors and I gave him 3 or 4 chances, but he never showed. With daylight fading, we headed out to qualify for a quick field check. The first hot lap showed my Boxster to be about 0.3" slower than a well-sorted red Clio Sport, so the crew chief recommended we take the spot and sort out the pit strategy on the fly.
The opening laps showed the still-factory-tight Boxster to be well matched to the Clio. We diced back and forth over 3 long laps, before I was able to capture the lead for keeps with a clean pass under braking at the end of the back straight. Even then, the next three laps featured Clio headlights in my mirror. He pitted out from behind me at the end of lap 6, giving us the vital statistics the crew needed to set the schedule. Having passed the pit for lap 6, I stayed out one more circuit. The T4s had at least another lap in them, but the plan was to match the Clio's schedule in hopes of maintaining a close battle. I emerged from the pits at the start of lap 8, directly alongside the Clio. Again we diced for 3 laps or so, and again I had a small (but slightly bigger) margin when the 6th lap rolled around. This time I pitted about 1.mid" in front of him, though my tires were still good. That set the pace for the remaining 60-odd laps.
We proceeded to repeat this process every 6 laps, with the red Clio falling gradually behind at every pit as the Boxster's engine loosened up a little and began to get its head.
Now a break for a word from our sponsors!
I knew from past reading that the TVR Griffith was likely to be the hot shoe, but that he would pit a lot. I didn't have much time for research, so I headed to the Ruf dealer and picked up a lemon-yellow 3400s, aka "Superboxster". On the way to the track I changed the oil and stopped off for T2 (just in case) and T4 tires (on the car).
The Griffith must have been under teardown, because he never cleared the tech shed. The other competitors and I gave him 3 or 4 chances, but he never showed. With daylight fading, we headed out to qualify for a quick field check. The first hot lap showed my Boxster to be about 0.3" slower than a well-sorted red Clio Sport, so the crew chief recommended we take the spot and sort out the pit strategy on the fly.
The opening laps showed the still-factory-tight Boxster to be well matched to the Clio. We diced back and forth over 3 long laps, before I was able to capture the lead for keeps with a clean pass under braking at the end of the back straight. Even then, the next three laps featured Clio headlights in my mirror. He pitted out from behind me at the end of lap 6, giving us the vital statistics the crew needed to set the schedule. Having passed the pit for lap 6, I stayed out one more circuit. The T4s had at least another lap in them, but the plan was to match the Clio's schedule in hopes of maintaining a close battle. I emerged from the pits at the start of lap 8, directly alongside the Clio. Again we diced for 3 laps or so, and again I had a small (but slightly bigger) margin when the 6th lap rolled around. This time I pitted about 1.mid" in front of him, though my tires were still good. That set the pace for the remaining 60-odd laps.
We proceeded to repeat this process every 6 laps, with the red Clio falling gradually behind at every pit as the Boxster's engine loosened up a little and began to get its head.
Now a break for a word from our sponsors!
👍
