Round 1 - 1000 Km di Monza [Feb 12th]

Technical and not visual yes.

As I think about it, I'm not sure about the brakes.

If the first driver choose to repair everything, it should be fixed for good. But it doesn't work like that for the aero parts. I remember some enduro race I did, when the first driver lost around 15-20 kph in topspeed, the topspeed was restored after a driver swap. But as soon as the second driver hit something, he lost the 15-20 kph again, even if the damages were not as big as the first one.

I never had the case of a brake failure so I'm not sure though.

Results and points are up

Michael Drechsler wrote:

That evening ended earlier than anticipated (due to Juha's rFactor crashing), and the rest did not quite work out as planned before.

rFactor crashed before I did - that doesn't happen often.

Michael Drechsler wrote:

After that F1 1991 disaster last weekend, I got a big motivational boost yesterday by hauling the Ford onto the 3rd grid spot (an all time HSO high for me). I found a couple of things over the setup we initially worked out that made the car more benign through the chicanes, which I applied to our race setup, though not in its full extend.

And that's very good!

Michael Drechsler wrote:

I took a careful start, got very close to one of the Lancias on acceleration, but decided to play safe and did not pull it through. As a result, I had to trade my position to Arpad in the other Ford, but hey, still 999 km to go. In the following laps, Arpad could open a gap, while I had one of the Saubers following me closely. I lacked a bit the confidence in the opening stages, and that for a good reason. The race was not very old, when I lost the rear braking into the second chicane I had to let the whole Gr.C field and a bunch of Gr.5 cars through and lost about 20 seconds. It took me a while to get ahead of the Gr.5 cars and Juha, who was a bit struggeling in the Porsche 936C, from there, gaps were pretty much static. Lost another 10 seconds a while later with another error, moved on, but I already found myself in a not so nice race situation.

10 seconds... we lost by 0.148 seconds... WHERE'S THE STAKE!!!!!!!

Michael Drechsler wrote:

More time lost and the group Vincze/Coxon/Canola was getting more ground on me. And to add more insult to injury, I lost it once again in the second chicane. Trying to turn the car around, I made contact with the barrier and lost my front hood. F***! A change to our strategy was due and I pitted for repairs, new tires and enough fuel to finish my stretch of the race.

And how many seconds did THAT cost? Watch what you're saying next.

Michael Drechsler wrote:

Gambling a bit, I put the combination of soft tires on the front and medium on the rear, and drove the guts out of the thing for the next 25 laps or so. That tasted the car far better now, I had a far better balance than before and gained more confidence. I returned in 10th position and moved forward, quite some faster than the cars in front of me. Some incidents and pit stops quickly put me back into sixth position and still going strong, unfortunately the mediums on the rear didn't hold up that pressure. The left rear was already in the red when I had a first look on how the situation is, but the balance still allowed me to push further. The second to last lap before my scheduled pit stop, I started to feel the rear becoming a bit unstable and though it might be better to ease up a little. In that very moment, my rear just stepped out and I clipped the inside barrier of the first Lesmo. Another hood gone. Awesome. NOT!

I'm starting to think we could have won this by 5 laps?

Michael Drechsler wrote:

I limped back to the pits and handed the car over to Jason and that was the end of my day. I hope, they could still make up some of the distance I lost. Not my best day. In retrospect, I should have applied some more of the changes I made yesterday to make the car more stable, especially through the second chicane.

Now you tell me.

Michael Drechsler wrote:

And a word on the damage model of the mod: for my taste, the hoods fall of a bit easily. My second crash, where I spun into the inside barrier of Lesmo, that is one I don't see it unrealistic to loose a hood, but the first one was a slight head-on bump already on the brakes trying to turn the car around. Seriously? A bit very delicate... Not complaining, I shouldn't have spun in the first place, but just reporting an observation...

Yes, I told you to stay on track.

... but I'll still share a car with you for the next race!

Now when I picked the car, I was hoping the 936 would get us near the podium and the C100 was "back up". I then found a bloody quick driver, Jan, and my usual second man Michael.

I was surprised when I saw how quick the C100 finally turned out to be, and with Michael getting it into a fantastic third place on the grid, he was going to start it. Meanwhile I'd assume the role of one of the Martin brothers in the 936, drive it for 52 laps and make space for our Bob Wollek - Jan, who'd give the car to the other Martin - Michael.

I made a really poor start in the 936. And I mean REALLY poor, I couldn't get it off the line in the warm up lap. I then drove it too cautiously, even rFactor decided it didn't like my temp so it stopped. So much for the fast car. All hope went to the the C100. After Michael had made clear the C stood for Crash, Jason took over.

Jason made lots of funny noises on Teamspeak, reported more offs. When the stake's finished with Michael, it's his turn!

So I took over with the words "it's turning right on the straight and it doesn't brake." Thankfully it did work when I got it.

I was only "just" (2 laps...) behind the Weber 935 and the WR, so I set about catching them. I overtook everyone on track, even the leader, unlapped myself from everyone and gradually caught the WR, the 935 and found myself in second place.

Then came the big moment. The leading Lancia had 4 laps to go and I had 6 litres. Great, I wasn't going to make it. So, the pitstop: 6 litres extra to get home? Or 40 to reach the finish if the Lancias blows up? In any case it was going to be second place: if I took 40 litres with 4 laps to go I'd drop too far behind the 935, if I took 6 litres I'd still fall behind the 935, so I went for 40 litres if the Lancia dropped out.

The car's filled up, I hit the ignition, start button... nothing... nothing... nothing??!?? NOOOO!!! I frantically hit the start and ignition and it finally came back to life. I was 20 seconds ahead of the 935 when I got in, I was 1m40 down when I got out. Turned out our first place was Gone in 60 Seconds. Prepare the stake for my engineer who wired that start button.

6 laps to go, 935 1m40 in front, I went for it! I came closer... a lot closer... I got under his bumper, but the 935 had more puff than the C100 so I missed out on victory by 0.148.

Now I could give 35 reasons why we didn't win, but who cares. I'm ecstatic with second place, and I wouldn't have had it without my teammates. Thanks for the race guys, it was great.

And Michael and Jason, you're always welcome as my teammates. Jan too if you still want to share a car with slow guy like me.

Juha Bos wrote:

10 seconds... we lost by 0.148 seconds... WHERE'S THE STAKE!!!!!!!

My employee is a catholic organisation. I'll ask for the appropriate treatment tomorrow. I hope to get away with a confession and saying a couple of rosaries...

We sure gotta make some considerations for the next rounds. Computers not sorted out. Setups not sorted out. Short notice driver changes. Regular drivers not sorted out as well. I was actually thinking about completely bailing out last weekend, in such a slump was my motivation. The biggest surprise for me was the Ford holding up, as the DFL was known for shaking everything to smithereens in a 10 metre radius...

Well done, though, both of you!

Thanks! You weren't too bad yourself.

Our organisation wasn't great, but we got a result.

It's a bit strange to finish 4th but get the points for third.


But I'll take it with a teary eye as if we had swapped after the trouble with our brakes intensified, we might have made it out of the pits still in second place, which would have been P1 in the end.

But that's all ifs and buts. If I hadn't pushed the car early on, if we had tried to swap back earlier, if here and there and everywhere. Who knows, maybe witchcraft wouldn't have happened if we tried earlier.

After Jonatan's second off that finally cost the car some minor parts(you know, front end and left front tyre, just a flesh wound!) aswell as about just 1 brake disc working(which led to the off-track excursion(s), it looked like we might fall short of seeing the finish line(and POINTS!).

He got it back to the pits for a nice&quick stop of 750s, putting the attempts to park on the right square aside.

We were about to just sit there watching, but I suggested to at least swap, which nearly failed when I appared to lose connection on our first attempt. Luckily, Jonatan somehow stayed in control and drove out of the pits to try again next lap.

Take #2 and I finally took the car back, and hooray, it had working brakes!

So I went out, careful at first to see if the brakes did really work, then started to speed up(I nearly managed to beat my PB on one lap).

The relief in the Welter garage was big when the P82 finished the race as the last running car in 4th. Afterwards, party time commenced

"The story of the little team that nearly could"

I'll give ourselves the award "fighter of the race" for the will to survive it and see the finish line

Jason White wrote:

Results and points are up

Sorry for question Jason but, whera I can find it in forum?

Thank's in advance

Enrico Fumagalli

http://historicsimracing.org/en/resultatscourse/1335



Well considering all the issues they had, congrats to Jason, Juha & Michael for putting the mighty C100 so close to winning

Only three cars finished??!!

Maybe we should rename the Series LMS 1982

Not Le Mans Series, but Last Man Standing...

Michael Drechsler wrote:

Maybe we should rename the Series LMS 1982

Not Le Mans Series, but Last Man Standing...

Yeah, and hope HE does not show up!

Three, that's one less than Ontario, and six less than Kyalami (but one was disqualified).

And there's this:
Kyalami: Michael and me 3rd, Jan Titz 4th
Ontario: Michael and me 4th, Jan Titz 3rd
Monza: Michael and me 2nd, Jan Titz 1st

It can't be coincidence can it? I can't speak for Jan, but despite our apparent lack of efficiency yesterday, we always have a plan, we don't drive like it's a BTCC race, and there are no rushed decisions if something goes wrong. It could have been a big mess up when Michael had to pit earlier because the damage, but he adapted the strategy, and so did Jason.

OK, it took some luck, but to finish first (or second, or third, or whatever), you still have to cross the finish line.

Given I wasn't very motivated after Imola, it wasn't before wednesday I reluctantly started testing, and it wasn't before the thursday qualifying I realized there was something possible. Guess we're gonna be sorted better for Silverstone then. Though I expect the competition to up the ante, too

WOW - what a race

Had a nice start and a very good pace at the beginning, could even battle some Group C cars.
I have to say, i was very surprised of Yves being able to match my speed, only 16 seconds behind me at the time of the first pit stops.
Then Jan took over and was driving a little bit slower (1.52 instead of 1:50), but next surprise was, we lost the lead to Yves, who had a much faster pit stop.
Nearly at the end Jan already complained about the brakes, and after a crash i took over for a double-stint.

I tried so save brakes as much as possible, and found a good mix, but i've been almost one lap behind Yves, when i hit the right Tyres at the end of the first chicane and almost flipped my car over.

When Jan came back in TS, i told him, that i had a problem with my right mirror. "What do you mean" he asked. I said: "yeah mirror got broken, because the car was laying on it"



Damage was no problem, had big luck at this moment. Only problem i had was burning eyes from annoying hay fever....

After Yves engine burning we got P1 in our class back, and i even could overtake Jason, so a Podium finish was possible.

At the end with Jan taking over the car to complete his 52 Laps we calculated enough fuel to finish, because we've been 7 Laps down at this moment.

in the last hour i could not believe my eyes.  
James lost his car after a great and solid race, with great headlight communication  
Jonathan suffering from massive brake problems losing his 2nd place
And finally Mick crashing out with brake problems with only three laps to go - way too cruel

So we inherited 1st place overall, now with the problem that we have to do 7 Laps more than planned, resulting in another fuel stop.
At the stop Jan overshoot our pit spot, losing precious seconds of hour lead - and impossible waiting time to get those damn 15L into the fuel tank...
Three laps to go, Jan shouted, "fu**, the brakes are going down", temps about 770 degrees Celsius

But with our topspeed advantage he somehow managed to get this thing happen, winning with unthinkable short gap after 5.5 hours

I'm very grateful for this victory out of nowhere, but i'm not a "Audi-Mechanic from Le Mans", so i know we just had more luck this time - the victory should have been for Mick and David

A little bit sad, of only 3 teams scoring points - i think a 70% rule would have been better

There we go, my recording is now finally on YouTube.