Round 24: 24 Hours Of Spa-Francorchamps

  • Thread starter AJ
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Chaotic 24hs that just went,

Would like to thank the team mates of mine at EE even though we were beaten around with the issues we were still around at the end for a finish.

like to thank @beau231 for the set up/ help late during the week really wish I had done some more practise.

Great effort to the winners of both classes :yuck:
 
I had a big crash at the very end, hate myself for that one! :ouch:
Was also running a car with 20 less bhp for my first stint:ouch:
All in all, I messed up, but thanks to great teammates, I believe we secured the win with the smallest margin possible:P

Thanks all for great racing, and TNR for an exhausting fight!:cheers:
 
First off congratulations to all the teams that fought hard all race long this was a tough one.

Congratulations to @dgriffin28 @sprintr64 @TRL_Andromeda @RacingLine & @cameronburner. You guys raced us hard for 24 straight hours including that awesome 40+ min battle between @DaBomb330 & @RacingLine. Sprinter and griffin, you guys definitely deserve this after having a tough year, you guys stayed determined throughout the year trying to get a good results and finally pulled it off at the season finale. 👍👍👍

I would like to thank my teammates @123yokomo @DaBomb330 @TNR_KING_FILO & @TNR_5zigen Thank you for dealing with me all season lol. Celebrate your championship lads you have earned it.

And finally I would like to thank @AJ and his stewards that helped all year. Thank you to all the GT3 teams for the great battles all year. Can't wait to do it all over again next season. :cheers:
 
We may not have come out of this weekends event with the championship but it was well faught by all four of my drivers this weekend @StigsTC, @GTP Ziggy, @Storm_SP17, and @dangerzone641. I couldn't of asked for anything more from any of them. They drove their hearts out especially DZ driving 12 out of 24 hours. I do however wanna congratulate @mustafur, and RoOZ on winning the GT300 Championship. Especially coming into the series late in the season. I can't wait for next season to start back up. With that I'll see you all at Ascari.

@AJ When can we expect official results to be up?
 
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You know when you've poured your soul into a race when you have 2 power naps and are still dog-turd tired with 3 hours before you usually go to sleep.

Honestly, 6.5 hours of racing in a 24 hour period was very tough to endure mentally, and if I wasn't a DS3 guy, it would most likely be one of the most physically demanding thing I've done as well. Big thanks to @swiftsmith for giving me a spot on the Swift Autosport team and allowing me a spot for the Spa 24, it was a real honour to be given a chance to race and I walk away from the race confident in my own ability but determined to improve in any way I can.

The trials and tribulations, not just of our team but for all involved in the race, are testament to how sometimes... you just can't predict what will happen and you just have to have guys with you that can not only put in solid drives, but guys there orchestrating things on the fly when the race starts to swing away from you or to counter anything that might've hampered the race. In 24 hours, the importance of being utterly prepared and being utterly focussed on the team ethos and pulling together really hit home... And the other thing as well.... GO TO THE BITTER END!

I saw and was being told that guys were having meltdowns and whatnot, but I tell you now, NONE OF MY TEAM MATES and I mean NONE of them did what some of the other teams had done. We had a target, and we stuck with it. Even after the black flag, even after the penalties, even after I lost 45 minutes of stint pics due to the DC when I was 25 seconds away from pitting, and even after DZ's black screen glitch with 90 minutes to go. We stayed strong mentally, we had everything thrown at us, effectively ran with three drivers for 24 hours, but from a driving perspective we just hung in there and plugged... sadly it's a race of "what if's" for us, and not the driver error kind either, but at least we safely say we went out fighting.

@StigsTC, @dangerzone641 and @GTP Ziggy... It was an honour boys, a real honour.

Congratulations to the Champions in every category, to DRR and Ventador for their wins today, bad luck to the Endurance Experience guys for their own race of "what if's" that could have seen them also right up there to make that final lunge for the GT300 Championship as scintillating as it could have possibly have been!!
 
RACE RESULTS

- Race Control Notices

- Provisional Classification
- Provisional Classification by Driver
- Provisional Classification by Driver Fastest Lap
- Stint Analysis by Team

NOTES

By far the best race of the season from a Race Control point of view. No hourly updates were missed and we were completely on top of the event from flag to flag. I had an early build of NERDS 1.3 ready by mid last week and decided to go for it and use it for the race. It payed off. Input was much quicker, and I encountered only one small bug early on in the race which was easy fixed, the same cannot be said of 1.2.

From the racing side I think this one was up there too. Some of the action on the Kemmel Straight was textbook. Penalties and Warnings were minimal, and zero post race. Yes we had our first mass disco for over six months, but it came at an opportune time, only 20 mins after an hourly update, so lap credit was minimal, and in touching range of final DCs. We could have been a little shorter under Red but I decided to keep us there to allow those final DCs before we got going again.
 
I waited for the official results to post;
To the Swift Autosport guys,
I'm incredibly apologetic and sorry for seriously hindering your effort at a championship with some of the most ridiculously timed poor internet in my part of the world.
I have no doubt that without my interference you'd have been in a position to battle not only for the title but for the overall win, and am greatly annoyed I couldn't undo or fix what I had done. Regardless you guys did a great job to fight back and were on the brink of a major come from behind effort but it sadly wasn't to be.
I love the 24 hour races, but this season they've not quite loved me back as I'd hoped this season.
 
StigsTC
I waited for the official results to post;
To the Swift Autosport guys,
I'm incredibly apologetic and sorry for seriously hindering your effort at a championship with some of the most ridiculously timed poor internet in my part of the world.
I have no doubt that without my interference you'd have been in a position to battle not only for the title but for the overall win, and am greatly annoyed I couldn't undo or fix what I had done. Regardless you guys did a great job to fight back and were on the brink of a major come from behind effort but it sadly wasn't to be.
I love the 24 hour races, but this season they've not quite loved me back as I'd hoped this season.
Click to expand...
As I told you all weekend from the time the issue happened. It's alright not a big deal. Yeah it sucks it cost us the championship but we put 200% into this weekends race. Especially under the circumstances. So I'm happy with the results and don't wanna hear another word about the issue.
 
Congratulations to DRR for their first win!! I'm absolutely stoked for you guys. RaceOnOz for taking out the championship with their amazing drives since implement.
The GT3 class was amazing to watch on the stream and around me on track, the highest level of drivers and a huge congratulations to the podium there :).

I want to hugely hugely thank @xChris93_ and @Nail-27 for joining us at ORA Racing Team on such short notice, without you guys @GT_Vette and I wouldn't have made it to the grid. All of you drove amazing considering our late changes etc and kept us up there and in definite touch of P2 at one stage.
Unfortunately I'm sure it was down to my disconnect losing those precious laps to the podium, a 40min stint reduced to 12 compo'd laps, (Agro was maxed on stint and no one else was available to jump in at the time, I'm surprised it was missed for a little on the stream lol) then followed by a lobby disconnect not far after lol. That's online racing but (especially in Australia lol) and by no means were the only ones with a few problems.
BUT we finished and can add this to our list guys, it was a great feat.
(And a great consolation prize for @xChris93_ for taking the fastest lap in GT300 :P, bit of inside team competition between Agro and Chris at the end lol)

I managed to watch most of the race and there wasn't one period where there was no commentary. Yet again all the GTPES race control and commentary crew have put on an amazing show. There's so many to name now, you all know who you are. Thank you to every single person who is a part of this, it's what makes it so amazing :).
 
Well, I just can't believe it. That race was something else, by far the most dramatic of all the races I've participated in. To come away with the championship is truly amazing.

The race started off well with a good start and I raced off to roughly a 20 seconds lead. Once @TNR_KING_FILO passed @Storm_SP17 he began to reel me in as the track gradually got colder. I knew our car struggled in the cold so I had to push hard. I certainly struggled for confidence as I found @skywalker's rig to be very uncomfortable and tiring.

Eventually after some bad luck with blue flags and some searing pace from Filo, he was on my tail, and we engaged in a superb battle for about 15 mins. We were nose to tail for several laps before a bad run out of the Bus Stop saw Filo go up the inside of me into La Source. However my very low downforce setup enabled me to repass down the Kemmel Straight. Having re watched the my stint on stream, it was a shame that the fight for the GT300 lead was missed. Easily the best battle I've had in this series.

I handed over to S54VED from the lead. He couldn't come to grips with the G27 so he struggled big time for pace and consistency. Worse still, he was heading into the night hours with the car losing gradually. To make matters worse, once Filo handed over to @sk8er913, he came out in front, so we lost the lead. 10mins later, we suffered a disconnection which ultimately proved the difference between the two cars. Without it, we may have been on the same lap at the end.

I hopped back in whilst @HP continued to snore, for an all night stint. The car didn't feel anywhere near as fast as it felt at the start. The good news was it was a stint largely free of incident, save from being trapped behind OZ after his pit stop with DZ right behind me. Heading into Stavelot we made contact, resulting in a half spin and losing about 10 seconds. The stint was a struggle, the only real highlight was passing @Famine around the outside of La Source. I heard about your knee popping, I hope you're alright mate.

I handed over to @warrior2167 bathed in sweat and cramping, I was in all sorts. This marked an unfortunate start in mistakes made by the team. Ready to collapse on the floor, I had forgotten to type DC. Warrior was flawless as usual, and brought us back in the game. After a nap in a Macca's car park, I returned to S54VED's house for his final stint, this time using his Fanatec wheel. He did a fantastic job, and kept us with a sniff of the win. His only hiccup was falling off when letting some GT3's through, and getting a warning for the subsequent rejoin.

@mustafur was in next, and he suffered an odd glitch that saw him racing with a default setup, despite having just fine tuned it before entering the lobby. Losing several seconds per lap, he came in to change setup, but forgot about the GA rule, so suddenly we were on 3 warnings. He recovered to set some very fast laps and caught DZ. Sadly into Les Combes both tripped over each other and contact was made and we soon received 2 penalties. I must say though, I was not impressed by comments claiming my driver had crashed into DZ deliberately when clearly it was a racing incident. The idea that we'd do that when fighting for a championship beggars belief. From Mus' point of view, he tried to avoid DZ who had broken early, but by avoiding him he ended up colliding with the rear quarter.

After an unfortunate incident with Tanky, we were forced to get warrior back in early for a mammoth 4 hour stint. At this stage I was perplexed on our position, seeing we were suddenly so far back, stress levels were at their maximum. Warrior went in with the aim to go as fast as possible, and he did it with aplomb. Following an incident with Sk8er at Les Combes, Warrior had to pit for damage, but amazingly the timing was perfect, the red flag was flown shortly after the pit stop.

Keeping Warrior in would have been mistake as he had just 10 mins left once we went green, so Mus was drafted back in. The pace was insane, but DZ held the advantage and pulled
away. The championship looked to be slipping away until the stint photos were processed in an update to show we were ahead. The pressure was off and Mus just had to bring the car home. DZ's extreme pace meant he could still claw back the deficit, but sadly the black screen glitch put paid to that. I'm know you are heartbroken mate, you drove like a true champion. A performance that will be in everyone's mind when teams look for a driver next season. :)

Congratulations to Venator Racing on the overall win, and TNR Nismo on the Team's title, the things you guys could do in that GTR were unbelievable. As a driver in the GHH GTR, I take my hat off to you. Big props to Dragon Razor Racing on the GT300 win, the race went swimmingly for you guys and it was a well deserved victory. I'm sure you would have joined us in the fight for the title had you been in the first few rounds.

Commiserations to Swift Autosport and Endurance Experience, it was a tough battle for the ages, and I hope to battle hard once again with you guys in a class next season.

The euphoria of seeing Mustafur take the chequered flag to become drivers champion and to secure the championship for RaceOnOz was something I haven't felt in a long time. The race was a rollercoaster of emotion, and brought out the best in driving skills. It was a race we put blood sweat and tears into, all our hard work had payed off.

With this in mind, I'd like to pay tribute to everyone who drove for ROOZ in GT300 this season, Mustafur, Warrior, S54VED, @TDZdave, @pykey4 and @Konnor, you guys are absolute legends.

Thank you to all our rivals who pushed us hard all season long, HP for giving me my first run in the series in Daytona and helping me get into commentary, the Green Hell Heathens, FILO and @cameronburner for joining ROOZ for TCN-1 and LMP3 and finally, @AJ and the stewards who make this magic possible. What a year it has been.

Cheers, Jono.
 
That was a crazy race, on my first stint I thought I had lost it for our team when I had some setup error and was lapping several seconds slower then normal, so I went for a setup change and found out it was stock so I quickly adjusted the DF levels and went out, forgetting about GA as I didn't actually know about it sadly.

The car needed much more DF in the dark and made the driving really difficult without it.

The rest of the stint went largely free of issues, but I did have some issues with DZ, the first time was when i got a warning for a last corner incident in which my car didn't touch his(atleast on my screen), and the second time was when i got a draft behind him down the kemmel straight and I broke way early because I knew I couldn't go for the pass but he broke earlier and I couldn't avoid collision, another frustrating penalty as its not possible to predict when a driver is going to brake earlier then normal for a corner and then attempt the corner as usual when your force to take evasive action.

Im not sure if lag was involved.


My second stint was redflag to the finish, and that went much better, despite some stupid collisions on my part, the first was again with DZ but under the safety car, lag was a big issue in this, as everyone was moving much faster then me so when I attempted to catch up everyone ahead had stopped, DZ attempted to avoid hitting them but I couldn't and ended up going straight into DZ.

After we both pitted it was a good even tussle for about 17 laps until i got involved in a GT3 and got some damage, this forced a stop and then when I got out I Lost it again a lap later and hit the wall big time having to pit a again right after, once all this mess was done, it was a straight forward race for me.

I made no errors till the end and was able to capitalise on others who got involved in bigger incidents which allowed me to finish the car 2nd and win the championship.

Very roller coaster race for us with a satisfying result overall happy after it.

Big thanks to @JonoStan96 @warrior2167 and @skywalker for all the hard work this race required.
 
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I would like to thank every member at swift autosport for giving me the opportunity to drive this race. It was a shame we couldn't of taken the fight to RooZ in the last stint with the black screen of ruining championship hopes and dreams. Now the race is behind us and we can't dwell on "what-ifs." We will look to the future and to 2016. It's been an absolute honor working with every member of Swift. I left it all out there for you guys and thank you for pushing me through the 11 hours of driving I did.

Congrats to RooZ for a well earned championship and a truly deserved win.

Also I'd like to congratulate the guys at DRR for what seemed like a flawless race (in GTPES standards ;) ). You guys had everything go your way.

This was truly my favorite race of the season because how close things were in the end.

What a way to end the 2016 season!

Thank you and good night (or day if your reading this in the daytime)
 
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