I have been racing for several years with the North American Grand Prix League driving their various mods for SimBin's GTR2. The racing is good-natured with a great group of guys of all skill levels. It is clean and well-organized. I prefer to race in the Saturday leagues using the ALMS Mod. There are also Monday and Thursday leagues racing GT1 and GT2 cars. Have a look if you are interested.
Saturday was our opening endurance race at the Sebring Circuit for Season 10. The remaining races will be 75 minutes in length, with the traditional season finale endurance race at Road Atlanta.
Here is my race report from Saturday, 3rd March, 2012.
150 minutes of racing was decided by 6/10ths of a second!
North American Grand Prix
Saturday American Le Mans Series LMP1 Season 10 Opener
Sebring Circuit 2 1/2 hour Endurance Race
Aston Martin Racing
#007 Lola DBR1-2
Starting 8th on a grid of 21 racers, our objectives for Sebring in the #007 Lola DBR1-2 were to run a clean, damage-free race using a well thought out but flexible race strategy and score solid points with a top-5 finish. All in all we had three driver error laps out of 83 laps completed, at a loss of 25 seconds lap time. That's a 3.6% error lap rate and 0.00274 lost lap time rate. The first driver error was unforced on Lap 5, occurring when I turned in short at the Hairpin Turn 7 and upset the car over the apex curb into a spin. The second error happened when I locked the rear wheels braking too hard for the pit entrance. The third error happened on Lap 48 immediately following an overtake of lapped traffic exiting Turn 10. My tighter line exiting Ten took me over bumps that broke traction in the rear, causing throttle-on oversteer into a spin.
The 2 1/2 hour endurance race was challenging and rewarding. Challenging in that most of the race was driven at night, and rewarding in that I bonded with my race engineer by learning to trust his race planning, detailed fuel calculations, and pit strategy. Last week's 30 minute Qualifying race was a primer for the in depth calculations required for Saturday's 150 minute endurance race plan, and we validated our planning methodology to the exact lap with an error of 1.31 liters per 592.1 liters total fuel burn. That's an accuracy of 0.2%
The race unfolded with Nabil as my nearest threat. I kept an alert eye on the 8-second gap back to him, and Nabil held the interval steady from Lap 30 through Lap 51. We were out of sequence on pit stops, with Nabil squeezing one or two more laps out of each tank of fuel in his Acura.
Nabil's extended stop on Lap 55 for fuel and damage repair cost him about 25 seconds, and he recovered about 35 seconds behind me. Another incident on Lap 61 opened that gap to 48 seconds, where it hovered up to Lap 76 when traffic management lapping a difficult John and yielding to Olav and Michael reduced that gap to 44 seconds.
I was getting better fuel mileage than planned, but I had to squeeze every last half-second out of my last pit stop to avoid getting passed in the pits and losing 6th place to Nabil. Furiously calculating to the nearest liter while maintaining race pace with overtaking traffic was no mean feat. I took on 4 laps of fuel, no tires, standing still in my pit box an agonizing 18 seconds.
Starting Lap 79 I emerged from my fuel-only final pit stop 4 seconds ahead of Nabil. I had marginal fuel with cold, worn tires that had 5 more laps of wear on them than Nabil's tires. I struggled with lack of rear grip into and out of corners. Nabil smelled blood.
The race leader, Thiago, was overtaking our battle, preparing to lap Nabil and me, and it came down to traffic management. On Lap 80 Nabil managed an excellent, clean, textbook yield to Thiago with minimal loss of time approaching the final turn, and it was my turn to match it half a lap later. Thiago closed on me into the Tower Turn 13 but our acceleration out of Thirteen was evenly matched. I eased back momentarily on the throttle to give him some overtaking closure. Thiago glided by me trouble-free into Bishop Bend Turn 14. Post-race review of MoTec verified my loss of lap time at only 8/10ths of a second. Nabil and I were tied at 1 - 1 for Traffic Management, with Nabil closing.
Lap 81. Nabil nailed Turn 1 and the Turn 3-4-5 complex to close right up to my rear wing:
He sensed an almost certain passing opportunity down the long run into the Turn 7 Hairpin. Out of Turn 5 Nabil opened the throttle as early as he dared, but the wake from my car dirtied the airflow over his, and that miniscule disturbance to downforce was just enough to spin up his rear wheels into an oversteer moment. Nabil skillfully gathered it up with a deft application of countersteer, and I was gifted with one second's gap worth of breathing room:
Lap 82 could be the final lap. It started the same as Lap 81, only this time Nabil got it right exiting Turn 5. Slightly higher top speed barely saved me down the straight into Turn 7; Nabil could not close enough to attempt an overtake. Turn 10 saw Nabil slightly wide of the apex while I set about driving the lap of my life. "Back to basics," I reminded myself as I kissed every remaining apex and exit curb.
As I'm closing to lap Jack entering the long back straight, I check the time and the fuel. 20 seconds of race time left and my remaining fuel was too close to call for one more lap. Thiago, the race leader, was but 2 seconds ahead, in front of Jack. Nabil was 1.4 seconds behind. If Thiago crosses the line before time expires that will extend the race one more lap for Nabil to steal my 6th place.
I short-shift to 6th gear. Jack yields tight to the inside of Turn 17, and I shave it as close as I dare, leaving just enough gap between us for two layers of racing paint but no clear coat:
Nabil takes a wide line through 17 and closes within 9/10ths. The race leader, Thiago slows one hundred meters before the finish line to allow race time to expire, thereby avoiding driving an additional lap. With Nabil right behind me I can not relent. 3 laps down, I overtake Thiago by one car-length before the finish line, forcing me to drive an additional lap to the finish but with 1 liter less than required race pace fuel. This is how it looked:
Nabil was a mere 5 car-lengths behind Thiago, only 6/10ths of a second short of earning another lap. That additional lap could have been enough for Nabil to pass me while I was forced to massively short-shift to the finish line.
Night racing with reduced visibility, stopping six times for 5 sets of tires and 493.41 liters of fuel. After 150 minutes, 9000 seconds of race time, my race result was determined by 5 car lengths and 1 liter of fuel.
It was an honor to race with you gentlemen. Nabil, thank you, sir, for an epic battle.
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