- 10,544
- Columbia, MD.
- Parnelli_Bones
Okay, racing fans, here's my second endurance race in GT4: the Laguna Seca 200 Miles! In GT2 and GT3, all the cars in this race were full-racing machines with sponsorship and downforce, and personally i'm glad in GT4 they've now just included road cars. 👍 I'd rather have a bit of the sliding and skittishness road-cars provide so i applaud PD here.
In the past, the Ai was made up of solely JGTC machines in GT2. In GT3, Polyphony Digital added American cars like the Oreca Viper and Corvette C5R and Europeans like the Mercedes DTM. But now, all the cars (with the exception of the Korean Protomotors Spirra 4.6) are now American steel, which in my opinion kinda sucks that there isn't more variety, but American cars on an American track seem more appropriate at least than just JGTC's for instance.
My driver? Again, Dirk "Meth Hed" Bryant. A bit of history now.
He's been one of my longest-term drivers in GT; actually he's been with me since GT1 (yes, i have other drivers 
). Dirk grew up in Daytona, Florida and moved to Bakersfield, California when he was old enough to drive. As a kid, he was highly interested in NASCAR drivers and his father was actually a funny-car driver in the NHRA. He therefore never finished High School. He's the sort of fellow you sometimes see on the TV show COPS! You know....they bust into a trailer-park, and he's the sort who never seems shocked in the least to see an entire TV crew along as he's carted off to jail. His hair's a mullet (of course). Chews Red Man tobacco (of course).
After moving to Bakersfield, he originally wanted to join a pit crew, but got sidetracked into heavy drugs *insert dramatic music here*. By the time he was 20, his black 1988 Nissan 240 SX had been confiscated by law after his meth lab blew up.
After spending some time in jail, Dirk vowed to get back to his original goal: racing! He married his introverted mouse of a girlfriend Sara, and was one of the first to enter an all-new racing league simply called the Gran Turismo or GT.
GT was started by a rich multi-millionaire, mafia dude named Ignatius Malachai Rychasheet (I.M. Rychasheet)
. The goal of GT: a forum of race-series that would allow ordinary real-life drivers who had little background in actual racing a chance to shine on a series of tracks. Each race would typically feature just a few cars (a maximum of 6) therefore sponsorship money could easily be paid out to the drivers & crew and I.M. would make mad profits! 
Some tracks (like a small SCCA venue in western Pennsylvania called Autumn Ring) were bought by IM Rychasheet. Other races would be leased and scheduled on actual city streets closed off during the night (like a confusing area of exits and bypasses that lead to and from Route 5 in Vancouver, BC).
Dirk "Meth Hed" Bryant was one of the very first drivers to enter the GT league, he was able to buy his black 1988 Nissan 240 SX (aka Silvia Q's) that the police confiscated a year earlier, and quickly rose to being a millionaire 4x over before his GT1 contract was finished. 👍 As he drove a Dodge Viper GTS in the prestigious GT Cup races he felt his true calling--almost a religious experience. Eventually, Dirk would equate the "rush" he felt during racing to a direct communication with the man upstairs himself, and became a televangelist at a local Cable TV network when he wasn't racing. yeah, his show kinda sucked!
I mean, a combination religious/car show? 
During this time, it was discovered by an investigative reporter at Hard Sloppy as Dirk's star was rising that he was a former methamphetimine addict; hence, his fans started calling him "Meth Hed" even tho it had been well over a year since he touched the stuff.
Anyways, enough history....let's get to the race!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dirk is a bit of a stereotype so far as cars go. He's one for hte maxum: "no replacement for displacement" and tends to go mostly for American cars...the bigger the engine, the better. So for this race, a desert gold 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 caught his eye.
View attachment 63178
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
The main problem with this dinosaur was weight of course. Even with all 3 weight reductions, the Chevelle still weighed slightly above 3,200 pounds! Sure, some of the Ai cars also weigh this much, but their suspensions & brakes are more modern; their tires are also wider and in general last longer. So Dirk had to make his heavy car last on R1 super-hard racing tires instead of the softer R2's the other cars were riding.
Again he used a stock tranny but with a twin-clutch. The flywheel and driveshaft, however, were stock. The Chevelle has that typical muscle-car tendency to turn lots of torque into lots of wheelspin, so Dirk's crew had to make the 4-speed shift fast, but not deliver too much too fast to those rear tires 💡.
i'll post the settings later
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So this race wasnt' quite as exciting as the Grand Valley 300 KM...there was no lingering question about who would win like there was at the GV 300...it was either me or the silver Dodge Viper SRT-10 being driven by vicious NASCAR driver Trey Dinpaynt.
Lap 1: Dirk immediately almost loses it in the sand! He braked a bit late. Luckily, he didnt' brake too late...only the right-side tires slipped off-track. But it was a huge, early embarrasment for this otherwise accomplished driver..
Lap 2: He manages to catch up to 5th place Jorgen Agettyt, a Finnish driver piloting a black Viper GTS who is coming out of turn 3 about to simultaneously pass the Pontiac GTO driven by former American carpenter Carven A. Cabnet
So there was a short-lived 3-way battle under the Yokohama tire area.
Lap 3: the Callaway Corvette led by several seconds, while the SRT-10 Viper was putting pressure on cosmetologist Miss Teryus, driving a somewhat used green Chevy Camaro SS. Dirk managed to pass the Viper GTS between turns 3 and 4.
Lap 4: Passed Viper SRT-10 down the straight.
Lap 6: Dirk passes Camaro SS into turn 4...not an easy place to get by, but since he knew he would be making additional pitstops during this race, his goal was to get in front as fast as possible.
Lap 9: Finally pass the leading Callaway Corvette C12 driven by Lou Pigliotti. Lou has some current experience racing in other leagues such as the ESPN Speed World Challenge. Unfortunately, the Callaway just was not going to be able to keep up with the leaders....odd since it has the power and the parts necessary.
Lap 12: by now Dirk had a 6 second lead on the 2nd place Callaway, but his tires were overheating faster than any other car's.
He drives an extra lap anyways, getting sideways a couple times out of the famous Andretti Hairpin!
Lap 13: Pit stop #1!!! He got all new R1 tires but did not refuel. As he left the pits, Dirk was now in 5th place! But this wouldn't last of course since..between laps 16 to 20 the rest of the field made thier stops.
Laps 20-75: By now, there was so much spread between the ai it was ridiculous. This was apparently not going to be as close a race as i thought it would be despite the fact that 4 of hte Ai cars have similar power-to-weight ratios...nope, it would either be Dirk's Chevelle or the Viper SRT-10. Hence, the title of this thread "Laguna Sucka".
Despite this, the race was not exactly boring. I could not let Bert (Dirk's B-spec class driver) take over, as Bert simply wasn't as qualified, so Dirk did all 90 laps himself.
Towards the end of the 200 Miles, things got heated! Basically, before i started this race i did not get an oil change. Why not? Because i didn't want to lose any power. The race as i predicted was a close match. The first time i did the LS200, i did get an oil change. The result being=i lost almost 30 hp in vital horsepower. During a close-match such as i prefer, this means i eventulaly could not keep up with the leaders! Anyways, i made my last pitstop on lap 77. As i left the pits, i now had to kill 13 laps! Fortunately, the Viper SRT-10 also had one more pitstop, but i knew that in those last 3 laps his tires would be much better than mine.
Still, i had been quicker overall than the Viper thooughout the race, and i had no major spin-outs or slides into the sand. I did get off-course here and there, but managed to navigate back to the track with a few seconds lost overall, which means after the Viper SRT-10 got out of the pits, he was ahead of me by several seconds, but his tires were still cold!
I realized 2 things:
1. I could catch the Viper if i hurried! My tires weren't exactly warmed up either, but i noticed Trey Dinpaynt had a habit (like other Ai drivers) of driving a bit cautiously while his tires were cold.
2. We would both eventually hit traffic! Miss Tyrus's Camaro was up ahead. Another thing i notice about Ai drivers here at Laguna 200 is they have a real problem getting by other cars when they encounter them.
==All I HAD TO DO WAS GET AHEAD OF THE VIPER, GET AHEAD OF THE CAMARO, AND THE RACE WAS MINE!==
Which happened. I caught and passed Trey's Viper in the next couple laps. As his tires warmed, he began equalling my times which scared me but luckily i also caught and passed that Camaro.
Lap 85-90: As i looked in my rearview mirror, The Camaro SS got smaller and smaller 👍 I could eventually see the SRT-10 catch and get bottle-necked by the Camaro
which is good cuz by now my tires were yellow-going-on-orange and that Viper would have ordinarlly MURDERED me by at least lap 88! On the very last lap, Trey got by Miss Tyrius, but by then it was too late!!!! I had won the Laguna Sucka 200 Miles!!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
1. 1970 Chevy Chevelle SS 454 --Dirk "Meth Hed" Bryant (USA)
2. 2003 Dodge Viper SRT-10 --Trey Dinpaynt (USA)
3. 1999 Dodge Viper GTS --Jorgen Agettyt (Fin)
4. Callaway Corvette C12 --Lou Pigliotti (USA)
5. 2001 Chevy Camaro SS --Miss Tyrius (USA)
6. 2003 Pontiac GTO --Carven A. Cabnet (USA)
...sorry i can't seem to get more pics up.
i have several saved but could only get that one to work.
In the past, the Ai was made up of solely JGTC machines in GT2. In GT3, Polyphony Digital added American cars like the Oreca Viper and Corvette C5R and Europeans like the Mercedes DTM. But now, all the cars (with the exception of the Korean Protomotors Spirra 4.6) are now American steel, which in my opinion kinda sucks that there isn't more variety, but American cars on an American track seem more appropriate at least than just JGTC's for instance.
My driver? Again, Dirk "Meth Hed" Bryant. A bit of history now.
He's been one of my longest-term drivers in GT; actually he's been with me since GT1 (yes, i have other drivers ). Dirk grew up in Daytona, Florida and moved to Bakersfield, California when he was old enough to drive. As a kid, he was highly interested in NASCAR drivers and his father was actually a funny-car driver in the NHRA. He therefore never finished High School. He's the sort of fellow you sometimes see on the TV show COPS! You know....they bust into a trailer-park, and he's the sort who never seems shocked in the least to see an entire TV crew along as he's carted off to jail. His hair's a mullet (of course). Chews Red Man tobacco (of course).After moving to Bakersfield, he originally wanted to join a pit crew, but got sidetracked into heavy drugs *insert dramatic music here*. By the time he was 20, his black 1988 Nissan 240 SX had been confiscated by law after his meth lab blew up.
After spending some time in jail, Dirk vowed to get back to his original goal: racing! He married his introverted mouse of a girlfriend Sara, and was one of the first to enter an all-new racing league simply called the Gran Turismo or GT. GT was started by a rich multi-millionaire, mafia dude named Ignatius Malachai Rychasheet (I.M. Rychasheet)
. The goal of GT: a forum of race-series that would allow ordinary real-life drivers who had little background in actual racing a chance to shine on a series of tracks. Each race would typically feature just a few cars (a maximum of 6) therefore sponsorship money could easily be paid out to the drivers & crew and I.M. would make mad profits! Some tracks (like a small SCCA venue in western Pennsylvania called Autumn Ring) were bought by IM Rychasheet. Other races would be leased and scheduled on actual city streets closed off during the night (like a confusing area of exits and bypasses that lead to and from Route 5 in Vancouver, BC). Dirk "Meth Hed" Bryant was one of the very first drivers to enter the GT league, he was able to buy his black 1988 Nissan 240 SX (aka Silvia Q's) that the police confiscated a year earlier, and quickly rose to being a millionaire 4x over before his GT1 contract was finished. 👍 As he drove a Dodge Viper GTS in the prestigious GT Cup races he felt his true calling--almost a religious experience. Eventually, Dirk would equate the "rush" he felt during racing to a direct communication with the man upstairs himself, and became a televangelist at a local Cable TV network when he wasn't racing. yeah, his show kinda sucked!
I mean, a combination religious/car show? During this time, it was discovered by an investigative reporter at Hard Sloppy as Dirk's star was rising that he was a former methamphetimine addict; hence, his fans started calling him "Meth Hed" even tho it had been well over a year since he touched the stuff.
Anyways, enough history....let's get to the race!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laguna Seca 200 Miles!
Dirk is a bit of a stereotype so far as cars go. He's one for hte maxum: "no replacement for displacement" and tends to go mostly for American cars...the bigger the engine, the better. So for this race, a desert gold 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 caught his eye.
View attachment 63178
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
Getting Ready
The main problem with this dinosaur was weight of course.
Even with all 3 weight reductions, the Chevelle still weighed slightly above 3,200 pounds! Sure, some of the Ai cars also weigh this much, but their suspensions & brakes are more modern; their tires are also wider and in general last longer. So Dirk had to make his heavy car last on R1 super-hard racing tires instead of the softer R2's the other cars were riding.Again he used a stock tranny but with a twin-clutch. The flywheel and driveshaft, however, were stock. The Chevelle has that typical muscle-car tendency to turn lots of torque into lots of wheelspin, so Dirk's crew had to make the 4-speed shift fast, but not deliver too much too fast to those rear tires 💡.
i'll post the settings later
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The RACE
So this race wasnt' quite as exciting as the Grand Valley 300 KM...there was no lingering question about who would win like there was at the GV 300...it was either me or the silver Dodge Viper SRT-10 being driven by vicious NASCAR driver Trey Dinpaynt.
Lap 1: Dirk immediately almost loses it in the sand! He braked a bit late. Luckily, he didnt' brake too late...only the right-side tires slipped off-track. But it was a huge, early embarrasment for this otherwise accomplished driver..
Lap 2: He manages to catch up to 5th place Jorgen Agettyt, a Finnish driver piloting a black Viper GTS who is coming out of turn 3 about to simultaneously pass the Pontiac GTO driven by former American carpenter Carven A. Cabnet
So there was a short-lived 3-way battle under the Yokohama tire area.
Lap 3: the Callaway Corvette led by several seconds, while the SRT-10 Viper was putting pressure on cosmetologist Miss Teryus, driving a somewhat used green Chevy Camaro SS. Dirk managed to pass the Viper GTS between turns 3 and 4.
Lap 4: Passed Viper SRT-10 down the straight.
Lap 6: Dirk passes Camaro SS into turn 4...not an easy place to get by, but since he knew he would be making additional pitstops during this race, his goal was to get in front as fast as possible.
Lap 9: Finally pass the leading Callaway Corvette C12 driven by Lou Pigliotti. Lou has some current experience racing in other leagues such as the ESPN Speed World Challenge. Unfortunately, the Callaway just was not going to be able to keep up with the leaders....odd since it has the power and the parts necessary.
Lap 12: by now Dirk had a 6 second lead on the 2nd place Callaway, but his tires were overheating faster than any other car's.
He drives an extra lap anyways, getting sideways a couple times out of the famous Andretti Hairpin!Lap 13: Pit stop #1!!! He got all new R1 tires but did not refuel. As he left the pits, Dirk was now in 5th place!
But this wouldn't last of course since..between laps 16 to 20 the rest of the field made thier stops. Laps 20-75: By now, there was so much spread between the ai it was ridiculous. This was apparently not going to be as close a race as i thought it would be despite the fact that 4 of hte Ai cars have similar power-to-weight ratios...nope, it would either be Dirk's Chevelle or the Viper SRT-10.
Hence, the title of this thread "Laguna Sucka".Despite this, the race was not exactly boring. I could not let Bert (Dirk's B-spec class driver) take over, as Bert simply wasn't as qualified, so Dirk did all 90 laps himself.
Towards the end of the 200 Miles, things got heated!
Basically, before i started this race i did not get an oil change. Why not? Because i didn't want to lose any power. The race as i predicted was a close match. The first time i did the LS200, i did get an oil change. The result being=i lost almost 30 hp in vital horsepower. During a close-match such as i prefer, this means i eventulaly could not keep up with the leaders! Anyways, i made my last pitstop on lap 77. As i left the pits, i now had to kill 13 laps! Fortunately, the Viper SRT-10 also had one more pitstop, but i knew that in those last 3 laps his tires would be much better than mine.Still, i had been quicker overall than the Viper thooughout the race, and i had no major spin-outs or slides into the sand. I did get off-course here and there, but managed to navigate back to the track with a few seconds lost overall, which means after the Viper SRT-10 got out of the pits, he was ahead of me by several seconds, but his tires were still cold!
I realized 2 things:
1. I could catch the Viper if i hurried! My tires weren't exactly warmed up either, but i noticed Trey Dinpaynt had a habit (like other Ai drivers) of driving a bit cautiously while his tires were cold.
2. We would both eventually hit traffic! Miss Tyrus's Camaro was up ahead. Another thing i notice about Ai drivers here at Laguna 200 is they have a real problem getting by other cars when they encounter them.
==All I HAD TO DO WAS GET AHEAD OF THE VIPER, GET AHEAD OF THE CAMARO, AND THE RACE WAS MINE!==
Which happened. I caught and passed Trey's Viper in the next couple laps. As his tires warmed, he began equalling my times which scared me
but luckily i also caught and passed that Camaro. Lap 85-90: As i looked in my rearview mirror, The Camaro SS got smaller and smaller 👍 I could eventually see the SRT-10 catch and get bottle-necked by the Camaro
which is good cuz by now my tires were yellow-going-on-orange and that Viper would have ordinarlly MURDERED me by at least lap 88! On the very last lap, Trey got by Miss Tyrius, but by then it was too late!!!! I had won the Laguna Sucka 200 Miles!!!---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
The Winner's Circle
1. 1970 Chevy Chevelle SS 454 --Dirk "Meth Hed" Bryant (USA)
2. 2003 Dodge Viper SRT-10 --Trey Dinpaynt (USA)
3. 1999 Dodge Viper GTS --Jorgen Agettyt (Fin)
4. Callaway Corvette C12 --Lou Pigliotti (USA)
5. 2001 Chevy Camaro SS --Miss Tyrius (USA)
6. 2003 Pontiac GTO --Carven A. Cabnet (USA)
...sorry i can't seem to get more pics up.
i have several saved but could only get that one to work. 
As you can see, one of the pics in this thread worked...the other became a stupid link that doesn't go anywhere. 
If i could get into phtoshop, i could for sure make my pix bigger and more clear. 
