Jes_971
Hardcore
I figured I'd post my journeys into soloing the Blancpain Endurance series and any other forays into the eye melting, brain cramping, and bladder testing world of endurance racing.
BES Rd. 4 Gilles Villeneuve (Montreal) 1-9-16 4 a.m. start
Finished - 33rd out of 38 cars entered
I figured three hours of what I guess you could call sleep would be sufficient to run a three hour endurance race. I mean, the ratio is 1-1, can't get much fairer than that right? Yeah, I think you know the answer to that one my young padawans. I started the race 34th on the grid. The start was crazy with a couple cars straight into the pits with repairs. My memory is a little vague at this point, sleep deprivation and all. I made it about ten laps before swapping out into a wall on turn 5 or 6. Fortunately, I was able to limp the car back into the pits for about 15 minutes in repairs. I tell myself to calm down and focus on clean and consistent laps. There is one thing to point out here. The race only had one split, a fast one, and guess who's not fast. I spent the next hour getting out of the way of the fast guys. This killed my lap times and I struggled mentally with it but I was determined to finish. I worked my way up as high as 29th and had an hour to go. Then it happened. The big one everyone talks about. The straight leading out of the hairpin is where I died. Noticing two battling cars catching me, I clear the hairpin and get going down the straight. I figure this is a safe opportunity to let these guys by so they can battle amongst themselves. I move to the right and slow my pace a little so they clear before the chicane. After watching the replay it was clearly a racing incident. Second car in battle, directly behind first, moves to the left attempting to pass. Lead car moves left and closes him off. All these actions perfectly hide me from view of the second car. When the second car counters back to the right, all of a sudden I appear. Theres was about a millisecond and then I was rear-ended. Meanwhile, a third car is blasting down the straight behind these two cars. As I'm still wrecking I slide back out onto the straight and get vaporized by the third car. All said and done there was more repair to be done than race left. So I went to bed and cried myself to sleep.:icon_cry2:
BES Rd. 4 Gilles Villeneuve (Montreal) 1-9-16 2 p.m. start
Finished - 14th out of 37 cars entered
Finally, I'm able to put together a decent finish. This race ended up being two splits with me being in the second. This was nice, I was running with racers that were of a similar pace. I was relieved I wouldn't have to spend the entire race running 1:48's due to dodging the fast guys. The first half hour went pretty well and without incident. I make my first scheduled pit stop on lap 13. Come out of the pits in 22nd and start to try and push again. About 5 or 6 corners out of the pit stop I tank slap into a wall. The hit was pretty light but the Ruf being the Ruf put me in the pit for the next 25 minutes. I was surprised that after I got back out onto the track I was only down to 24th. I had two hours left and told myself that there is alot that can happen in that time. I actually did have another little self-induced pit visit but it was only 5-6 minutes and luckily I didn't drop any positions. The rest of the race I stayed consistent and on the road to finish 14th. A finish that I was pleasantly surprised with. Tomorrow is the showdown at high noon for the last BES at Montreal this weekend. As I'm sure you guessed, I will be there. Hoping to keep it consistent and clean all race long. Till next time!:icon_cool:
BES Rd. 4 Gilles Villeneuve (Montreal) 1-9-16 4 a.m. start
Finished - 33rd out of 38 cars entered
I figured three hours of what I guess you could call sleep would be sufficient to run a three hour endurance race. I mean, the ratio is 1-1, can't get much fairer than that right? Yeah, I think you know the answer to that one my young padawans. I started the race 34th on the grid. The start was crazy with a couple cars straight into the pits with repairs. My memory is a little vague at this point, sleep deprivation and all. I made it about ten laps before swapping out into a wall on turn 5 or 6. Fortunately, I was able to limp the car back into the pits for about 15 minutes in repairs. I tell myself to calm down and focus on clean and consistent laps. There is one thing to point out here. The race only had one split, a fast one, and guess who's not fast. I spent the next hour getting out of the way of the fast guys. This killed my lap times and I struggled mentally with it but I was determined to finish. I worked my way up as high as 29th and had an hour to go. Then it happened. The big one everyone talks about. The straight leading out of the hairpin is where I died. Noticing two battling cars catching me, I clear the hairpin and get going down the straight. I figure this is a safe opportunity to let these guys by so they can battle amongst themselves. I move to the right and slow my pace a little so they clear before the chicane. After watching the replay it was clearly a racing incident. Second car in battle, directly behind first, moves to the left attempting to pass. Lead car moves left and closes him off. All these actions perfectly hide me from view of the second car. When the second car counters back to the right, all of a sudden I appear. Theres was about a millisecond and then I was rear-ended. Meanwhile, a third car is blasting down the straight behind these two cars. As I'm still wrecking I slide back out onto the straight and get vaporized by the third car. All said and done there was more repair to be done than race left. So I went to bed and cried myself to sleep.:icon_cry2:
BES Rd. 4 Gilles Villeneuve (Montreal) 1-9-16 2 p.m. start
Finished - 14th out of 37 cars entered
Finally, I'm able to put together a decent finish. This race ended up being two splits with me being in the second. This was nice, I was running with racers that were of a similar pace. I was relieved I wouldn't have to spend the entire race running 1:48's due to dodging the fast guys. The first half hour went pretty well and without incident. I make my first scheduled pit stop on lap 13. Come out of the pits in 22nd and start to try and push again. About 5 or 6 corners out of the pit stop I tank slap into a wall. The hit was pretty light but the Ruf being the Ruf put me in the pit for the next 25 minutes. I was surprised that after I got back out onto the track I was only down to 24th. I had two hours left and told myself that there is alot that can happen in that time. I actually did have another little self-induced pit visit but it was only 5-6 minutes and luckily I didn't drop any positions. The rest of the race I stayed consistent and on the road to finish 14th. A finish that I was pleasantly surprised with. Tomorrow is the showdown at high noon for the last BES at Montreal this weekend. As I'm sure you guessed, I will be there. Hoping to keep it consistent and clean all race long. Till next time!:icon_cool:
