Road Of Endurance Series 5: Its Over 1000!!!

[RACECAR]

Its Over 1000!!!

Pre-Race​

Here I am, back in action and this time at another favorite track. This time, I would be in a more typical race situation, one that involved Super GT cars. Thanks to my connections with Nissan as well as a championship I won, I was put into one of their 5 potent GT-Rs entered for this race. We, along with a 350Z, would be against 4 NSXs from Honda, 1 Lexus and 1 old Supra. Was kinda nervious about the prospect of a huge factory drive like this on Suzuka of all places but excited too for the opportunity and I was going to savor every moment of it.

Start/Part 1​

There I came out of the final corner, looking ahead for the green. Everything was ready and go to go. As soon as the Green dropped, I was off. Caught between a GT-R and NSX, getting to the inside before turn 1 was a tight squeeze, was amazing I even pulled it off with no contact. I was in forth by turn two and two of the GT-Rs were battling for second while the green NSX in the lead was getting away. I couldn't get around in the esses with all the side by side action, but I managed to blow by both through degner curve and went straight after the NSX. Thankfully, the leader wasn't too far gone and was only tw ocar lenths away going into the Hairpin. With a swift launch out the corner, I was gaining on the right handed headign towards spoon with some drafting. The NSX blocked the inside so I took a very dangerous outside pass, putting the power down sooner then he did. With that excuted, I was able to begin putting a gap on him. I worked up a huge deficit by lap 8 and made the first pit stop. No fuel and only soft compound tires. Service done, I set off with another eight laps to pull through. Along the way at lap 15, I lapped one of the GT-Rs and as I was looking, I noticed it was already showing some early signs of racing struggle as its front was caved in. A lap later, I came in for the pits and once again, only tire service.

 

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Part 2
I peeled off, now on the medium compounds. For next 10 laps, I was pushing as much as I could to make the gap. There came lap 26, first stop with tire and fuel. Harder compounds were fitted and after a long fueling, I was off. Getting the tires to temp was massively difficult, felt like I was on ice for the first two laps. Finally got the grip for this stint and passing more lapped cars. Surprisingly, the overcast sky has stayed with no rain for much longer then I was expecting. I was still thinking in the back of my head when will it come. I come in on Lap 38, Full service again with Fuel and Tires. By then I had worked out the maximum distance on each compound and figured that if I could get these to last until lap 50, then we could easily continue with Mediums until 170. So for the next 12 laps of lapped traffic and struggling grip, I keep the car on the road and out of harm's way. Finally hit lap 50, ready for mediums and prepared to start the 10 lap stints and what looked like ffinally rain coming down. No pressure.

 

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Part 3
Its lap 51 and its back to 10 lap stints on the Medium Compounds for the reminder of the race until lap 170. No fuel was needed this time around as there was plenty to go for the next stop. Turns out once again, the rain was holding off and infact towards the end of this stint, the clouds were actually clearing it up. It was beginning to become a clear afternoon with the clouds heading to the east. I could rest easy now knowing we won't be need rain tires after all. Lap 60 was the next stop and it was back to full service and away I went. The next stint was now constantly dealing with traffic. One car in this corner, another here. Even had a close call with the team car. This would be the story of the next three 10 lap stints on mediums. Lap 100 would be the most important because it would reset the fuel strategy by going with a full tank.

 

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Part 4
It was on to lap 100 and the final run stint to the checkers began. Only 7 stints remain but only 6 Mediums also still remain. Obviously, that meant something had to be done on lap 170. Throughout these ten lap stints, more of the traffic has been making the race interesting. Also the clouds have seemingly returned, which again left abit uneasy about the weather. I continued to press on with lap 140 coming up, the final four stints were about to begin.

 

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Part 5/Finish
Lap 140, I come in. Tires & fuel for this stop. Back out I go and immediately, I almost made contact with the team Car. Thankfully, he had the presence of mind to let me by on fresher rubber. It was business as usual through this stint, with the occasional battle of lapped traffic. Lap 150 - 160, more of the same. Finally with three laps to go, I pitted for no fuel and switched to Softs. For the last two laps, the fuel meter was where some of my focus was going as I didn't take fuel for the last two stints. Thankfully it lasted and I was able to cruise to a victory with some to spare. I was relieved, all that paranoia at the weather, the closeness and unpredictability of the cars and then the fuel question.

Reflection
The race was only about 6 Hours, but a place as busy as Suzuka makes it seem like an eternity (Though nothing like what Tsukuba will do to me). So as I headed to the hotel and looked through, I was delighted to see the next race: a 4 Hour Enduro at the Nurburging. Immediately though, there was then the question of "What am I going to drive?" All the other races, I came prepared way ahead of race weekend. This however, I geniunely had no clue.