ILMS: Daytona

Great ... running in 9th overall (in LMP-2) halfway the race and banggggg .... connection lost. The neighbours heared me. :-(

Wow, what a major dispointment! With 10 minutes left, I was running 4th and holding my position. I flashed my lights for someone who let me past. I must have left my headlights off as I was DQ for running without my headlights. I couldn't tell they were off as the part of the track I was on was so well lit.

I have a couple of appologies. First the Dennis Cummings we came together on the banking and it was totally an accident. I was trying to hold my line but there was contact. If it was my fault I totally appologize. Second appology goes to Kevin Kernodle we came together in the infield, you didn't see I was on the inside of you as you crossed over. Sorry for the contact.

Last is to Kevin my teammate for blowing a good points position. We'll get them next time.

Sitting in a comfortable 3rd in class with 10 minutes to go I lose my brakes....end of story.

Well, I made the best I could of that.

I need to work on pitstops. I changed tyres on all but 1 of my stops by accident and fueled up when i didnt need to.

It was going great until just after my first stop when I spun and lost my spoiler. That put me down the field. I then pitted and changed tyres again (wtf?) and then trotted off for another 20laps.

The next stop came I did the same, didnt mean to change tyres but remembered just as i stopped in my pit box. :(

12mins left and i needed to stop again so I set up my pit stop just over the laps before my stop. That went great, apart from i forgot to engage my speed limiter so that got me a stop and go.

Came in for that and lost control entering the pits and lost my front end. fixed that but put more bloody fuel in! ffs.

then 3mins from the end i spun and really killed my suspension but i was able to chug round to the finish.

Really enjoyed the race, I felt I had some good pace. It's just a pity I suck at pitstops.

Grats to all the winners and podiums!!

Download the Daytona RC replay here.

First, i would like to appologize to all in L1 at bus stop chicane, i guess i was still asleep, had a rough and short night(last party of xmas with friend who were at disney for vacation), all theses guys are great driver to have avoided me... well, made all sorts of mistakes on my own, first one cost me about 4.5 minutes to limp back to pit, second as much, so decided to put medium compound as the soft were fading faster than i tought, it was like on ice!!! and then, banged myself at t1, had a bent wheel ahd i was struggling to keep it straight, banged it on the other side, which, to my surprise, kind of cancelled the effect of pulling to the left :), but i lost about 15kph at end of long straight, so i was just happy to finish, didn t want a dnf on this one cause i knew i could still get a descent result... and to my teamate Garret, i wish i could have had more time to practice his stable set-up(which i should have used), but sure will use it for next race :)

GRATS to all podium!!! hard job to keep them on tarmac!!!

A lot is bound to happen in a 2h race but I didn't anticipate a terrible 1st lap...

During the formation lap I decided to turn up the brightness on my monitor to help in the dark. It was a good idea until I couldn't get the monitor menu screen to go away and it was right in the middle of my screen!! When the race got under way it was too dangerous and I had to pull over to sort it out. I lost half a dozen places for that faux pas.

Then at T1 Ken Jagger and I both ran wide. He spun in front of me, leaving nowhere for me to go and I got cornered in the tyres but there was only light contact. All was okay. As I tried reversing out of the jam however, Brad Davidson had lost it and piled straight into me. That smashed me into the tyres and wrecked the front of my car, needing plenty of time in the pits to repair. After qualifying 4th I rejoined in 31st at the start of lap 3! I was not very happy at that point.

A consistent drive saw me climb back to my ultimate finish of 5th in class. Along the way, about 1h30min, I had a tangle with Ken Jagger/Rob Melchione (Edited: can't remember who now). I caught him quickly and I hoped to unlap myself from him. Sorry Ken/Rob (whoever it was), when you lost the rear in front of me at T7, I couldn't avoid you and I tapped you round. I served a drive through for that.

Congrats to the front guys and all the finishers.

Great race everyone, for the most part everyone was really predictable and ran well.

Qualifying went well I was scared though because on my 28.8 lap a P2 stopped at entry to bus-stop and I had to cut to not hit. Luckily the next lap I got through clean and got a great pull from George Pol coming through nascar 3-4 for just a little bit quicker time.

Race start I knew Jan would be running close and close we were. I probably led for 6-7 laps? Then he passed coming down to T1 from there on we were never more than 1.2secs away from each other. Alot of the time around .5-.7 away. First stops came and he pit 2 laps earlier than me. Came out of the pits with 18 sec lead don't know if he changed tires or spun?

From there just tried to conserve fuel shifting around 7700 and be very careful with GT1's and P2's. I had to follow GT1's through the chicane alot which hurt lap times but it was so much safer than trying to beat them to the bus-stop. Had my occasional 12-18fps for 15secs or so but overall it ran a little bit better than 2.4 for me.

Did anyone try the LM tires??? I should have tested more at night my front ran way too low of heat which just made the car push all race. Running about 10deg C too cold on RF and 15 on the LF.

Congrats Tristan, Paul, and all podiums. Cya at Indy!

God only knows how I got 2nd, this track and mod combo seems to hate me for some reason.

Happy with getting 2nd in Qual and with Paul only a couple of cars in front I hoped I would be able to stay with him, yeah what ever!!.

Going into the bus stop chicane for the first time pretty much killed the race for me (3rd time in a row I've been spun on the first lap in ILMS). Turned in and I saw a black flash in my mirror. Steered away from the apex to give who ever it was room, only for them to go on the grass, understeer back on to the track then run into to me sending me flying into the air and backwards into the tyres. I'd understand if it was a one lap sprint, but it was a 2 hour race. Hanging back a bit on the opening lap isn't going to kill the race for you (don't want to sound harsh, it's just annoying when you put a lot of laps in just to get punted in the first turn).

Got going again before the GT1's got past, but with the right hand side of the car pretty buggerd I knew it was going to be a long 2 hours. Car was around 2 seconds slower per lap now but it was still drivable.

Caught up to some guys and started moving up a little bit, but then I caught Ken J and I was getting held up quite abit but there was nothing I could do. I'd be in his dirty air in the infield but then he'd leave me in his LMP1 on the straights. Then I'd catch him in the infield again then he'd leave me on the straights etc, etc. Didn't really matter though as at the exit of T7 a couple of LMP cars where lapping a GT1. Unfortunatly the Gt1 spun right in my path so I could do nothing to avoid it. I hit it square on which ripped off my front bodywork.

Limped round to the pits to get it sorted and I'm pretty sure this put me a lap down with in the first 20 mins or so. Gutted I was lol.

Anyway just kinda got on with it the best I could and with other guys running into to trouble I managed to finish in 2nd, which I had no Idea about seeing as Rfactor doesn't give you the classes in the LCD screen.

So all in all bloody happy that Daytona is done with with these cars, and I hope I get a better break at the next one.

Grats ryan, Paul and Tris and all the guys who finished.

Cya at the next one.

I had a great Qual run, and ended up in the middle of the P1's. On lap 1 I had to avoid contact woth Rob Melchoine and lost my front wing. I stopped and replaced it and then had to make my way back through the field. I had a lot of fun racing, cya at next track.

Paul.