3 Hours of Spa

Made a pass on George for the lead after 2 or 3 laps then opened up a gap, I was being very careful passing traffic and everyone was being very courteous. The track dried out a bit and my tyres got hot and Sam started to close the gap on me, but I still had around 10 seconds when I went into the pits on lap 24, the long stint meant I could probably manage a 2 stop which I thought I'd have to do to compete with Sam later on. On the inlap it started to rain again and I was watching it on my windscreen wondering what compound to pick as I went down pit road. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw my pit stall and I had already almost overshot it. I panicked and turned straight towards it but entered at a stupid angle and they would not start the pit-stop work no matter what I did. I had already stretched the fuel to the limit, I had less than 2 litres left but the only way I could continue was if I made it round another lap. I tried but it was futile, I ran out before Blanchimont, I was so pissed off.
Hope the rest of you had a good race.

20 minutes to go ran wide and head first into the barrier, finishing the race, which was a bit of a waste of 2.5 hours but there we go :-]

Horrible conditions to drive in, well done to all finishers.

Darren, that's just brutal. We feel horrible for you, but I'm not gonna lie we appreciate the position and we are giggling just a bit as we read it.

That was like 3 hours of manual labor. First stint was fairly uneventful. I had a lazy loop and that was about ti as far as trouble. We then decided to go with mediums as it seemed to be drying up. BAD BAD BAD decision. I think we can just be happy to survive that inside the top 10 and move on.

Great race folks. See you at the next one.

Sean and Matt

Truly, that race was worse than last years - hell on earth!

I qualified an amazing 2nd in nGT in the damp session, but come race start it was wet and nearly dark, and with so many cars in close proximity I struggled with slow down (all settings on minimum). So I just drove to survive for the early part of the race as I slowly went backwards. Slow down returned on a few more occasions but generally was OK after around 30 minutes had gone by.

Then that lap where the rain stopped. My frame rate picked up immediately and I had Dennis behind me. My rear Hard wets immediately reached 112 degrees and so I decided to pit for Medium dry's. Trundling down pitlane it started to rain again!

Went off a couple of times trying to get back around, and indeed pitted for Hard wets. Then it stopped raining again!!! AARRRGGGHHH! Lesson learned - don't panic!

I ended up on Inters at one point, then changed to Hard wets when they were useless (no heat in either of them as conditions turned to flooding (AP - aqua planing - in XD). Had messed up my fuel refill, so at the last stop I made I topped her up and decided to try out Soft Wets. Clearly the right choice, I ate into the gap ahead to teammate Chris Galloway, and drove on into the pitch black rain sodden night, at least a lap down on all the others but keeping their pace!! Passed the info on to David Brown and Chris, and they seemed to benefit.

Mid race I had a slight tap up the rear from Claudio as I braked too early (way too early, in the fading light) and so glad he didn't do a drive through - my fault. A few laps later Claudio spun and in rejoining I came around the corner and couldn't avoid him. Lost both headlights and crawled back for an extra pitstop. Had a similar thing early on when George lost it on the opposite side of La Source hairpin and couldn't avoid him - losing one headlight.

But 6th overall and I reached the end. Congrats to ALL who took part in such trying conditions. I bet Tim and Todd are laughing their heads off - sadistic b......s!!!

LOL - to top it off last two laps conditions turned to wet rather than flooding and had to manage soft wets burning up very quickly. Well done podiums. I've got brain ache!!!

EDIT - now that race info is available, I see I did 5 pitstops in total! 3 too many (I reacted too quickly to changing situations). Never mind. Did 26 laps on soft wets at the end, pretty proud of that stint. Forgot to thank the GT guys for being very patient throughout the whole race. Didn't have a single problem with them.

Bloody hell that was tough.

Got 6th in Qualy which I was happy with.

Come the race I put on Hard wets and hoped for the best. It was the right choice and the car felt sure footed in the opening laps of the race. Was Sure Allen would motor past me in the opening laps but I was surprised to see I was able to stay ahead. Moved up a place as Sam went off but it wasn't long before he re passed me.

Come the lottery of the first pitstop I was around 10 seconds off Petr of me and 10 seconds ahead of Allen behind. I was able to stay out for quite some time and by the time I had to pit the weather had stopped playing games and decided to rain again so I took another set of hard wets. This flew me up the leader board as most gambled on it drying up in there stop I think.

Was behind Sam now and I took the lead when he made a stop, which gave me around 20 seconds on him. I was pretty sure he was a stop ahead of me cause it looked like I'd have to take on a splash of fuel near the end. Still it was awesome to lead a Special event race for a while.

Half distance and it was pitch black plus my tyre temps dropped through the floor giving me very little grip. Sam slowly brought the gap down, and by the time it was time for my second stop he'd just about caught me. This stop I decided to give Soft wets a try, which again seemed to be the right choice.

I think Sam pitted a lap later and came out about 6 seconds ahead, which was the last that I saw of him really. I had a Lap on the Petr and by now it was obvious that I would need a splash of fuel to get me to the end. So I figured if I just pootled along and kept it on the track I should be good for 2nd even with my stop.

Everything went to plan and I even pulled away from 3rd after they had to stop again. Had a bit of a scare when I came up to lap Chris's Porsche. I was a couple of car lenths behind it when all of a sudden it froze. Pretty much shit myself there and then. Slammed on the brakes and turned right, and I juuuust missed it but it was bloody close.

5 mins to go and I made my splash and dash and rejoined in 2nd, but obviously miles behind Sam. So I just took my time and made doubly sure I made it to the end.

Proper happy to get 2nd, and I know a lot of it was down to luck in the first stop, but I'll take it. My best Special event result so far. Grats to Sam and Joco and the rest of the podiums. Thanks to all the lapped guys too, danced with a couple of NGT's but over all you all did a great job.

Looking forward to next special event :).

When will the replay and results be available.

What happened to George.

17 minutes to go and I was discoed. I am absolutely thoroughly pissed off. Anyone finishing that race deserved a merit badge and I was on for one!

2:43 feckin minute of hell, for nothing!

This was definitely an experience if anything else. I've never competed in a single-driver endurance race before, only multi-driver ones with little success. Usually the car was damaged or dead by the time I go to drive it.

It was a very odd beginning. I didn't get a qualifying lap in and started 3rd to last. Like most I went with Hard Wets and hoped for the best. It worked alright until my first stop which was of course short of my goal by 8 laps. The grip was starting to wear off as the track became a black river.

I went with the Soft Wets at the suggestion my now crew chief Joe Matinez, who was out after getting wrecked in the first hour. I had never pit in GTR2 before (this was my very first GTR2 race) and didn't realize I had to shut the car off manually. Luckily I found the key for it semi-quickly and didn't spend much time in the pits.

When the rain stopped my Soft Wets turned into soft crap after they reached 280F or so. Then of course a half-lap later the rain came back with avengeance. I pit again after the flood came and stuck with the Soft Wets which was the best choice.

After all that it was a pretty uneventful race. In the last minutes when Chris got disco'ed I cleared him by about 2cm because of the darkness. Definitely got me back on my toes.

I hope I didn't piss off any of the GT guys, I tried my best to get out of the way when it was safest. I think I hit one of the Lambos trying to avoid the car that was sitting on the track for what seemed like half of the race. Sorry about that.

Thanks for having me and thanks for the show.

Sam!!!

Way to go!!!!!!!

Great work Joco, as well :-)

Blown engine, but the worst part of my race is that my TV went kaboom!... 32" LG Less than 4 months and it broke... I could only see a few lines in between, went to pits, parked it on the entrance, got out of cockpit and switched the TV to a spare 30". Lost about 5 minutes, started charging back until I lost the engine, parked it again, left the car there with 1 hour or more 'till the end, went to the kitchen to eat something and with 20 mins. to go I heard from the living room..."You have heavy damage", checked the game and I was upside down... Either a lightning struck me or a fellow driver crashed into my parked car... I wanted a push to escape a DNF, but it was selfish to leave the car there in that position.

EDIT:
I'm sorry to George, Chris & Sam for leaving the car in a dangerous zone with the car parked almost sideways...Very silly and stupid move... My sincere apologies, I know it won't change the outcome of the race, but I hope you guys accept my apologies...

Was having serious back issues this morning, Not really on my game and so I flat crashed out.
But I stayed in the server to watch and I have to tell you all what a great bunch of drivers you all are. Well done to all who got to the end of that monster race.

I also want to say I am truly impressed with GTR2 and its physics and wow live weather. Simply said 'NEAT" !

I do hope the next one of these races we can have some daylight LOL.
Thanks R2P for a great event!