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Race report #196 - Sat July 11th 2015 (LMPE/GT-E 1hr)

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 1:24 pm
by gordon
RACE REPORT #196 - July 11th 2015 (LMPE/GT-E 1hr)

After initially conceiving the idea of a special endurance event about a year ago which would reflect what happens in real endurance racing where both LMP and GT cars race together, FRC's inaugural LMP-E/GT-E one-hour endurance took place last Saturday. With a requirement of at least two drivers per car, we needed a minimum of twelve drivers for a full grid of six cars, three LMP and three GT. Unfortunately, only ten drivers turned up, reducing the grid to two LMP and three GT cars at the start of the race, despite there being more than six cars prepared specifically for the event present.

Before the race start, my LMP Audi R18 which missed qualifying because of a disconnected wire, was scratched despite being repaired since there was had no co-driver available capable of driving the rather difficult to handle car. Instead, Dion and I drove Luke's extra car, a Corvette in the GT-E class which Luke had finished putting together just before qualifying began.

Early into the race, the Steve/Keith Audi R8 GT suddenly stopped on track whilst running second in GT-E. As the race continued, Steve checked the car and announced a "terminal problem" - a broken wire connected to the installed F1 chip. At the head of the pack, the Luke B/Ramesh Cadillac was leading, closely followed by the Luke T/Alex Acura. Holding a competitive third overall and first in GT-E was the Jon/Marlon Porsche 911 GT1, with the Gordon/Dion Corvette running steadily at the back of the depleted field.

When Dion took over from me thirty minutes into the race, I headed to the the repair bench to look at the Steve/Keith retired Audi and was able to quickly re-solder the chip wire. Steve rejoined the race, albeit with an unsurmountable lap deficit to get back into contention. As the driver switching continued amongst the teams, the positions remained unchanged. At one point the Jon/Marlon Porsche appeared to have a hiccup, but this was quickly determined to be a misaligned braid and sorted out.

I have to mention that it was great to have my old friend and racing buddy O'Brie present for the whole race. Although he turned down an offer to drive, he marshalled and provided words of wisdom and some humour throughout the race. Hopefully we'll see him for some of our upcoming regular biweekly events in a driver/car owner capacity.

All in all, it was a successful running of a mixed-class endurance race, a first for FRC. At one hour's length and with a relatively early start, it was a fine evening of model car racing that did not go late into the night and we able to relax with a few beers, talking over the race for quite some time afterwards.

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Results

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Starting grid:
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Drivers concentrating during the race:
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Jonathan (Jon) looks on after Marlon took over their Porsche:
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Positions with 19 min 42 sec to go:
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O'Brie smiles as he focuses on marshalling duty:
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Final results:
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Congratulations to team Luke and Ramesh for first place in LMP-E as well as first overall and to Jon and Marlon for first in GT-E.

Next event's classes: Group C classes: Mini Challenge IROC - 6 races @ 20 laps, Rally Car - 3 five-lap stages per car, 1 car at a time (90 laps for 6 cars). As usual, don't forget to see the updated fastest times for the FRC classes to know what the benchmarks are for your cars, the updated class average qualifying times and the updated fastest times for 2015.

See you on the circuit...
Gordon

Re: Race report #196 - Sat July 11th 2015 (LMPE/GT-E 1hr)

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 2:22 pm
by ixwa
Hi all!

Looks like it was a stellar event despite the slightly depleted field. It was fun noting that Luke T./Alex's fastest lap was a full second quicker than the next fastest (only one in the 4's in Race and Quali), and was set in the last 19:42 of the race where they took 3 laps out of the leaders. Shoulda gone on full attack sooner fellas!
Best,
Ray
rrc

Re: Race report #196 - Sat July 11th 2015 (LMPE/GT-E 1hr)

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:10 pm
by gordon
Hi Ray,

My apologies on this late response. It's great hearing from you in the big USA. Since you had mentioned about my doing the live feed for this event I'd been meaning to respond, but I got busy with one thing or another and forgot all about it.

Yes, despite the low driver turnout, things went very well. The times were somewhat quicker than I'd hoped for, but it's hard to stop this once the class regulations have been set. With regards to your comment above, that 4.x lap time was actually the result of a piece of mis-marshaling when Luke's car was re-slotted some half a lap ahead of where he had come off the track. Unfortunately, because of this we don't have a true fastest lap for the Acura, but he did make up some time on the lead car, although Ramesh may have been cruising at 8-tenths by then.

Would love to have you at an FRC event this year. Let me know your plans when you know them!

Gordon

Re: Race report #196 - Sat July 11th 2015 (LMPE/GT-E 1hr)

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 3:23 pm
by RameshB
Hi guys i must start of by thanking Gordon for his drive to have this special type of endurance event, it really takes the love for slot car racing to have this type of passion, i was privileged to be part of this special event. The preparation of the cars was especially lots of fun , by not knowing how they would perform with the down force and weight factors in place , this changes things a lot. I felt the excitement building as Gordon would send out text reminders as the days and hours count down,well done, you did achieve that build up . All in all the south team did enjoy the event immensely , a special thanks to Obrie for his support and all who participated . I know Gordon did mention some of the competitor racing challenges , but i would like to specially appreciate Luke T for his effort in LMP car prep. we enjoyed the run keep up the good work.For me its no fun without a challenge.See you all soon bye Ram.

Re: Race report #196 - Sat July 11th 2015 (LMPE/GT-E 1hr)

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:03 pm
by steveaca
Really enjoyed the evening, even though my car had an early electrical problem and was out after just a few laps of racing. It was thankfully fixed by Gordon after his first driving stint and allowed Keith and myself approximately 25 minutes of close dicing with Luke's lovely Corvette, ably driven by Gordon and Dion. Luke also demonstrated his car preparation and driving prowess by the performance of his lovely and fast Acura LMP-E car. It was great to see O'Brie at FRC again but would be even better to see him as a driver !. The ol' talk after the race was good, helped along by a few beers.
Congrats to Ramesh and Luke B. on the LMP-E and Overall wins and to Jon/Marlon on their GT-E win.
Looking forward to the next event.

Re: Race report #196 - Sat July 11th 2015 (LMPE/GT-E 1hr)

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:00 am
by Luke
A personal account at this event during my part of the race:

When I took over driving the ACURA LMP car from Alex (about 28 mins. into the race) and him holding a 3rd. position on the leader board - I asked a highly ranked marshal (O'Brie) what was the split between second and third positions. I was well informed that it was 16 laps ..!

What the what ~ I told myself ... and from how good the ACURA LMP car was performing (speed and handling) and about 30 mins to go, I wasn't too interested how far ahead first place was ... All the same, I knew I could try and get back second spot from Jon in his GT car. It was a bit difficult but it was possible. Now, when Jon made a driver change with Marlon - I asked again what was the split and (as far as I could remember) it was less than the original 16 laps. Now, knowing Marlon for the type of excitable driver he is at times ... I was bent on getting into second position which is what I somehow ended up doing :!: 8-)

Looking at (computer screens) photos posted and the amount of laps between GT and LMP cars ...
  • 1. LMP position ...... Cadillac ............... 539 laps
    2. LMP position ...... Acura .................. 527 laps
    3. GT position ........ Porsche 911 ......... 507 laps

... means I took back a grand number of laps for the (Alex/Luke) team :| :roll:

In all - it was a strong & thorough fight on the Porsche plus trying to catch the Cadillac with the Acura holding second place position after 1 hour of exciting endurance racing ..!

Here's how teams finished off again ...
  • 1. Luke B. and Ramesh
    2. Alex and Luke
    3. N/A
    4. Jon and Marlon
    5. Gordon and Dion
    6. Steve and Keith A.
I truly believe if Gordon and because of conditions with his LMP car, was the first driver (Gordon/Luke Team) for the Acura LMP car, it would have been a much different and stronger combination trying to finish off in a first place position :D ;)

Luke