Race report: RM endurance series, Round 2
La Sarthe
This is my experience of it:
Qualifying was in the wet, I had been qualifying on inters, which seemed fine for that, but in the actual race there was much heavier rain from the start. People were going off everywhere, by staying clean I was in 3rd by the end of Muisaine Straight with 4th miles back. I knew I had to pit though and get full rain tires.
Once back out, still holding 3rd place, I was actually gaining on 1st place, by only a few seconds a lap, which wasn't going to be enough. That's sort of how it remained for the next few laps, the weather never improved. I just had to hope for 1st or 2nd place to have a problem. So for the first half of the race it was: JoeOftheFire leading; swervesauce 2nd; Me 3rd; Fleaver 4th
It got darker, heavier rain started. At high speed when you got on the brakes there was a real twitchiness to the car, you really needed to be on your game.
Joe and Swerve both had to pit for damage, on different laps from memory. So I lead for a little under a lap, Joe caught me by the end of it, I had made a mess of the Porshe Esses, so I let Joe go by. Which means I didn't get a recorded lap being in the lead
. I then had an issue on the 1st Chicane of the Muisaine str and got a time penalty so Joe was able to drive away.
I thought I was getting wear on my rain tires, car felt lousy and tires were getting close to 1/2 worn ( is that where rain tires lose quality - I don't know, drys suffer around then ) so I figured I'd pit at the end of lap 10, which would split the race in 2 equal parts, so I did that. Pulled out behind Fleaver so I was in 4th.
After the pit-stop I really noticed the drop in light. I hadn't done much practice in the dark, so I didn't know how little light there is in places. I had an off at Club corner, there is very little light there.
I was following Fleaver for a number of laps. I could see his lights up ahead, he did start to pull away from me, so credit to him.
Near the end, on one lap it seemed like the rain got super heavy, both me and Fleaver went off the track, I ended up spinning and causing damage to the car. I choose to leave the car as it was as I was only 7 or so seconds a lap slower than regular (wheel damage not engine). But with the spin and now with a poor handling car I was left nursing it to the finish and knowing my only chance of gaining a spot was if someone else up ahead had a big problem.
With about 3 laps to go I did get past Fleaver once at Club corner, I rounded the corner to find him going very slow, he pulled aside and let me go by 👍 I figured he was damaged and limping, but no, he stuck with me and didn't need to pit. I had my handling issues, I was wobbling all over the road, so I let him go by at Muisaine chicane 1 as my wobbling was likely to get us both crashed.
Shortly after letting him past I did crash and damaged the car which made it drive a little better, but I'd lost more time and any chance of getting past Fleaver again was gone. I just nursed the car home.
Final standings ( un-official )
JoeOftheFire
Swervesauce
Fleaver
Mick_C_1080
Rich77
P_O_P_E
There were more lower placings, sorry I forgot who was where.
I think that was it. Another dark rainy race, a big test of ability.
And a big congrats to Joe for bringing it home over a minute ahead of anyone else.
Had damage for the last 3 laps too, which didn't help.
