rFactor 2 Round 6 Watkins Glen Endu - Sun Nov 15, 2020

Quick race report from me…

I did a few hours against the AI on 108% difficulty and also some laps on the server to get used to the conditions that had been set.

My default setup felt pretty good out of the box but I made some changes to remove some of the medium and high speed understeer with the Oreca 07. Lapping in the 36’s and 37’s so happy with how the car felt and looking forward to the race. I like to drive cars on the throttle and I think the Oreca suits me well.

Qualifying went almost to plan. Caught some GTE cars on both of my hot laps so I think I could have gone maybe 0.5 a second faster but that was it. Roman and Peter nailed it and I couldn’t equal those times.

Clean start, Peter and Roman started to pull away slowly and were battling pretty hard, Rob was hanging onto me too for the first part of the race as well.

Proud of the fact I was very consistent (almost always in the 36’s and 37’s), even in traffic and was sometimes gaining on those ahead when they caught groups of cars so I was happy with my race so far.

Our lap times were pretty equal and I could see that although I could gain a little here and there it wasn’t enough so I tried a different approach.

I could stay in the 36’s and 27’s on fuel mix 1, so I changed the engine mode and basically planned on saving maybe four or five seconds in the pits at each fuel stop, that would have put me near the front two towards the end.

….and then I suffered brain fade, lol. Coming into turn five I completely missed my braking point and grazed the wall, nothing too bad but at 100% damage it badly messed up the car so I crawled back to the pits. 155 seconds later, repairs done and a few laps down I just did what I did at Daytona, cranked the engine up to the max and drove flat out.

I think Peter had some moments himself which helped me up to 2nd, I guess Rob had major damage too from a bump somewhere as I saw him enter the pits but then leave the race.

So apart from that one mistake, I drove a pretty clean race and happy with a podium.

I was shattered though, and needed a shower! lol. Never would have thought marathon training would help with my sim racing endurance as well. Lol.

Many thanks to all the GTE drivers, I did screw up a few times under braking but tried my very best to be as clean as possible.

As far as I’m aware Roman drove a very clean race with no issues so well done to him and a well deserved championship, also congratulations to Johnny on the GTE title.

 

I am disappointed in myself. My laps during my 1st stint where very consistent so the Crew Chief told me and I had only to change the front tires at my first pit stop. On my out lap I nicely moved over for a P2 driver and lost the car when I tried to get back on the racing line. Cold tires just didn’t do the job as I hit the barrier. I guess I should have come in and fixed the damage as at times it was causing snap oversteer on right handers. Lost it again and hit the wall backwards and lost my engine.

The Glen is one of the better tracks so I was looking forward to the race. !00% damage was brutal but I like it set that way. Keeps you honest to yourself. I had a good scrap at the beginning of the race. There was a bit of paint traded but all was well.

I have finally decided on a spring arrangement on my TM, LCM pedals and the improvement in my braking is adding a bit more control and fun to racing.

Conrats to Johnny and Roman and all podium finishers.

Cheers

 

I'm wondering if maybe next time we split the difference and make it 90% damage? That way you can get away with some very light contact to the car without wrecking the steering, lol

I agree though, it does make you operate in such a way that you have to be less aggressive, and not to take unnecessary risks.

I think all of us did very well, to do a race of that length and make it to the end is a good achievement.

 

Hi Jos

I always recommend watching a few hours of IMSA races on YouTube. By simply observing how 3 classes of cars handle the traffic you can learn to be a bit more relaxed. Everybody says hold the racing line but that is not a golden rule as you will see. It takes timing getting always right, if that’s possible? Try driving a LMP2 against some GTE AI and you get to see what they see when approaching at GT car.

I sympathize about the 147 minutes. At times endurance is not dependent on the car.

Cheers

 

Some quick grabs from the replay file.....yes I did work on these in PS

 

I didn't realize this was the last race. I was ready for more. I enjoy these endurance races. Thank you John vd Geest for hosting these good times we all had . Congrats Roman Prikryl for the Championship . Well deserved.

I ran the Le Mans Packaged on every single track. It felt a little bit like cheating? I didn't like that their was two different aero packages to pick from for the same car. I know a few probably felt the Le Mans Package was a bit chaotic for some tracks. If you can handle the low downforce and work with the mechanical grip of the car/setup with the Le Mans Package, your going to be the faster car. Of course, this is what I think. The car was loose but much faster down the straights where I gained pretty much all my times.

First two races, I thought Barrett was going to run off with the championship but I somehow turned the tide around.

Anyways, thanks everyone for great racing. I'll see you guys on the track.

Cheers!!

 

No surprise to me, of course. You've always been 1-2 seconds up on me since the earliest R2P days.

I too have always regretted the LeMans vs. the Standard down-force selection compromise S397 built into the mod. i chose each event based on the track feel and the gear ratios and overall lap times v. the potential top speed sacrifice and how that may affect things. This was probably different for all cars, especially after the BOP adjustment, but i never felt comfortable with another car (it took a long while to get comfortable with the M8 again!), and the "sacrifice" never seemed that great relative to over-all lap time, so it is what it is and no regrets.

[i gather the real test of that choice might have been Mt. Tremblant, as i felt good about my chances on the Std package, but Johnny (on LeMans, he reveals) had some other issues that negated the down-force challenge.]

Love the long races. Even when the field is thin, there is still a strategy to work thru. Had a great first stint trying unsuccessfully to find a way past Jens and Jos. Just didn't have enough top end. MUCH FUN! At the first stop, after Jos dropped, i managed to pull a gap to Jens and was hyper aware of maintaining that the rest of the way.

That's what i call a fun race and a fun series.

~b