2.4 hours of Nordschleife

So who has ass cramps ??

I just pissed a gallon.

What a race!
Considering the car difference I was very pleased to be only 6.5 seconds off Sean in qual. I was STUNNED to be 2nd overall!!!
The race started well, I got a gap ahead of Ari and was putting some sort of pressure on Sean for the first lap of the GP circuit, although unfortunatley the warp meant I'd have had to have been really sure of a move if I was going to make one and he was way too fast for that, and when we got out onto the Nordschleife Sean stretched his legs. I kept him in sight, but when we got onto the straight the power of the 550 just took him off and I only ever saw him again at pitstops. I regulated a nice gap to Ari, but I had taken too soft tyres for the first stint so he kept it at 14 seconds or so until the first stop. I did much better in the second stint on harder tyres and stretched out ahead of whoever had taken over 2nd and had a 35 second lead at my 2nd stop. My outlap from that was shocking though, I managed a cartwheel coming onto the Nordshleife, and the damage from that elongated my braking, but I didn't notice until the hard braking for the final chicane so had a spin there too, lost 15 seconds in total. I got it together though and somehow held my dwindling concentration to hold 2nd to the finish :D

Fantastic race, what a classic. Grats to Sean on an amazing drive, and to Tristan on an equally impressive drive in nGT. Cya!

Well I would say "that was a blast" but for me it really wasn't.

Had my best 2 laps ever at this track to qual 3rd in nGT.

First stint started well although I had to dodge about 4 stationary cars lap 1. I had decided to take an easy pace since there really was only 1 way I was going to beat the guys ahead of me and it wasn't going to be with my pace.

Pulled out a nice comfy 30 second lead when I had my first real mistake in the Nurb section going off at Schumaker chicane and losing 25 seconds of my lead.

Towards the end of stint 1 my tires were real bad and I was struggling just to keep the car on track. Pitted one lap early and got fresh rubber and what I assumed would be enough fuel to finish.

Stint 2 I was really flying and feeling racy, first time ever at this track I have had any kind of confidence. That's about the time I realized I really had to stop for a pee break, something that has never happened before, I was so uncomforatble I started losing concentration. Then somewhere in sector 3 I caught a curb spun across the track and lost a splitter. Two more greeting with the wall trying to make my way back and finally I made my pit stall. Told the crew to repair the damage and give me some fresh rubber while I exited the car and ran to the porta potty.

Rejoined after losing 2 posititions and found myself 30 seconds behind the next car. Drove my rear tires off catching Roberto Massa only to lose the rear end when I caught him. Got stuck between the gaurd rails and had to do a 3 point turn during which Sam Michaels and Ari came through and for the life of me I dunno how they avoided me, sorry guys, I had no clue anyone was near me.

Back to 20 seconds down to Massa and charging again. Basically caught him on the penultamate lap and heading into the final lap T1 I clipped the curb and got stuck, lucky for me Tristan was right there behind me and his collision with my car got me loose, sorry Tristan.

Back at it 3-4 seconds down to Roberto and caught him about 1/3 into teh lap, then we suddenly came upton 11th place John Onofrey in his Viper with no headlights. Cars started dissapearing and reapearing and it got really scary. It was real tight but somehow Roberto and I got by John and resumed our battle. We were both all over the track with completely worn tires and trying to battle for position. Finally into one of the downhill righthanders, the very one I went off in the previous 2 laps Roberto went in too hot, drifted to the wall and I got an easy pass. With only the second banked turn and the final straight to go it was just a matter of keeping it clean.

Grats to Sean and Tristan for some amazing pace and their respective class victories.

Also grats to Scott and Sam with a great team effort, and to my teammate Krueger for a great 3rd place finish!

Grats Sean, Grats Tristan. Thats about all I have the energy for. Night all.

All i got to say is the Lister is one strong freakin car, How i finished the race god only knows lol, i think i hit every barrier (at least once) at some point in the race. Done most of my last stint with no lights and no front splitter. LOL i didnt enjoy any of it, best thing in the race was when sean lapped me for the second time on his last lap which meant i didnt have to do another lap at the end :p

Sorry to Brian Harrell

Congarts to all that finished.

Hats off to the winners Sean and Tristan :)

First, congratulations to ALL that ran. Super race, run by super people. Special congrats to Sean and my mate Tristan, of course.
I had little practice before today, so it was fitting that I should be fairly slow in my Maserati, but I wanted to get a top10 and be a participant. I qualied poorly: had some traffic in the downhill section after Karussell and my second lap I did not want to impede a couple of the (much) faster guys so I slowed down in the Nordscheleife to let them by.
I was going to take it easy in the first lap, unfortunately again in the downhill section I had contact and ended up in the barriers very hard. The car was undrivable (barely able to get it back to the pits and it took forever to get there from there)--I remembered about the emergency pit procedure but I could not remember if I had to do a drive through immediately after...fortunately Tim cleared the procedure for me over TS. Car was poop, and the driver was poop too now. I was way back and I hung in there for way too long. In the end I decided to quit before I ruined someone else's race.
I have only one hope, that we run here again (possibly with single seaters too....big grin) despite the aweful frame issues etc.

SALEEN IS AN ALCOHOLIC! STRATEGY WAS RUBBISH.

In qualify i had two good laps and crashed at the end of both laps, lol. Luckily there was 10½ minutes left, so i managed to squeeze a third one out and clinched 6th position on the grid.

Race, first few laps were great, all close, but i quickly saw the ferrari's had a far better pace. I tried my best and had to pit lap 5 already with 13-14 liters left of the 100 liter.

After that I was pretty much alone in a world of my own. No cars near me, just pacing. Second stint went well too and pitted for the third stint.

I was calculating during the second stint, and thought if i can pace 6 laps out of the third stint, I might not have to pit again to the finish flag. So i shortshifted the whole third stint and did laps of 8.30 to 8.40, so slow.. just to save fuel.

Because of the saving fuel I managed to squeeze 6 laps out, but omg! NO FINISH FLAG! the leaders passed a few minutes to go for another lap! So i still had to pit and my saving fuel to finish strategy became rubbish.

I pitted only fuel, and did the last lap on medium slick worn tyres of last stint, 7 laps on them. The grip level was terrible and i really tried to keep position 8, but the car would not turn or grip well and slide all over. Then i slided off half way the lap and got stuck in the railing for 25 seconds LOL! Thought oh no, now I might not even finish. So funny.

Luckily i got it out, and besides having no grip left and not seeing much in the DARK! I got to the finish in position 9. It was the best I could do with the saleen, it wasn't the best car choice. I practiced with the Lambo for nords, but it consumed even more fuel, so before the race i switched to saleen and it was a bad choice too.

Thanks for the race all! See you on the next one. Congrats to Sean and Tristan for winning GT and NGT and of course ALL FINISHERS in this crazy long race.

Quite the challenge this one was. Didn't stand up to it very well. And really disappointed running out of fuel with one turn left. Showing that I did not know the Offline AI Sim Race does fuel differently. But all and all fun race. Funny how we weren't going drive in dark. But it turns out we did 2 in the dark, interesting experience.

Grats to all that did well.

Kevin

Wanted to puke after seeing the times Sean, Ari, and Scott were running. There were a few others that were lightning fast. I just had nothing after lap 1. Put myself into the wall hard and just gradually got worse. Then got a few black flags for bad pit entry and screwed myself.

Grats to Sean and Tristan. You guys were great! Scott and Sam also. You guys were just awesome today.