09-10 June, 2007
OATAS 24 Heures du Mans

Ok, the countdown is on, less than a week before the biggest race of the enduro season!

As of now, there are 30 cars entered over the GTP and Lights classes (the lights class is for Mazda and Toyota teams who are not capable of lapping faster than a specified 'breakout time' for each track). R4R has entered two cars, both Mazdas, one in the Lights class and one in the GTP class. The GTP class car (named Mazdaspeed R4R), with Brendan Kaczmarek and myself as drivers, is the only non-Sauber in the GTP field, so we are really up against it! We expect to be as much as 6-7 seconds off the pace, but we are aiming to finish the race without a single incident (excluding spins), and we think if we can make it to the 15 hour mark with no damage, we will be in good shape to make up some places and perhaps get a podium finish!
The Lights class car (named Momo R4R) is made up of Sam Michaels, Joe Mudrak, and Sandeep Banerjee. Unfortunatley, Nick Johnston was scheduled to drive but has had to pull out at the last minute, leaving us with a gap in our schedule. If anyone here at R2P would like to do this event, contact me and I'll see if I can fit you in!.
We expect Momo R4R to be challenging for the win in the Lights class, but it will be a tough fight, as you would expect for a 24 hour race, and a lot of luck will be involved.

For more info on the race and the series, visit OATAS.net

07/06/07

With only 2 more days until the race, the competition is really heating up, with teams dropping in and out of online unofficial practice all day. As expected, VTR and OATAS are looking like the hot favorites, both bosting alien drivers setting amazing 3:21s. A few weeks ago, a 3:23 would have been considered a fast lap, such is the pace of improvement as these two top teams push eachother harder than ever.
Other teams making regular appearances in practice are locals JPS France 68 & 69, who have been in the 3:27s, and CTR, in the 3:28s, as well as VTR3, who are in the 3:26 area. These are likely to be a couple of the teams R4R will be contending with, but with a topspeed almost 20mph above that of the Mazda, its going to be tough to keep the pace without getting held up in the corners, particularly in those opening hours. RC Motorsports and Team Ringrace are slightly off the pace, with most of their drivers back in the 3:34s and above. Even for a Lights team, they have work to do.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Nick Johnston has decided he can do some of the race, and he will be running two of his originally planned three stints, just enough for the #104 car to make it by! The Momo R4R drivers have been setting a pace of around the 3:33 mark, which is a solid pace and should put them in contention for the Lights win, should all go well. Mazdaspeed R4R is going from strength to strength, with drivers Michaels and Kaczmarek pushing eachother as hard as VTR vs OATAS!!! Kaczmarek was the first to break into the 3:28s, but Michaels today matched the fastest Mazda time ever seen at the La Sarthe circuit, with a 3:27.8. They may be 6 seconds off the ultimate GTP pace, but with only two drivers of equal ability and consistency, it only takes the top teams to have a few mishaps, and its all to play for.
Its going to be a heck of a race!

9/06/07

Well, Unfortunatley, after just 3 hours, Mazdaspeed R4R is out. I put in a good first stint that even landed our heavily underpowered Mazda into the lead for 2 laps. I handed over to Brendan, who did 20 good laps, before flipping in the Playstation chicane (a nasty bug with the GTP physics where sometimes the car has too much tyre grip and stupidly just flips over). That barrel rolled the car into the wall and retirement, a massive massive disapointment.
Momo R4R is still running strong, Joe Mudrak put together a great stint, and now Sam Michaels is at the wheel. The car is currently 4th overall and 1st in Lights as we head into the 6th hour. Hopefully they can make it to the end and win the Lights class to save R4R some of the glory I can't help feeling we deserved with the Mazdaspeed car.

10/06/07

I woke up this morning to find that the Momo R4R car had suffered a random engine failure shortly after I left last night, so both cars were out before 6 hours. A real shame, because when I look at the results, I see that if we had had a clean race, we could have both been in the top 5 overall, with a good shot of a 1-2, and Momo R4R would definatley have won the Lights class. A massive shame, but thats racing.

Final Results:

Until next time, I'll leave with some images of the action from this increadible race.

By Scott Michaels

By Esben Tipple:

By Joe Mudrak: