So looks like we've got 5, more or less. So I was thinking I could go over to the Ford with @slowbird and then @iron1c, @khann & @sebw in the DP?

@datarez: I'm alright with that. Even if @sebw decides he's not up for it, that'd be 2 a team, which should be doable enough.

@khann: Especially if it's us two. Won't result in any bad decisions at all.

As usual, iRacing is true to form with their poor communication on this stuff. I am seeing talk on the Forums of 3 start times, but the Thread and PDF on the Endurance Events Sub-forum mention 4. And the "number of races" field for this even says 1 race only, so who knows what's going on. I presume you guys are sticking with the 13:00 GMT start if there are other races on. I may join up to the 0200 GMT one just for some practice beforehand, maybe push the limit a little and see what happens before jumping into a shared car. But if any of you want to join in and turn it into a weird quasi 24 hour with 3 hours of overlap that could be cool....

Any idea what a decent target pace is for the DP at this track, just want to see how far off I am from a reasonable pace. I was able to do a 1:57.5 with a 1:55.8 optimal after 6 or so "exploratory" laps.

I may join in on that, will have to work out how my sleep would fare with that.

No idea on pace, haven't turned a lap yet.

Patch notes for all the sports cars:

- This vehicle is now capable of flashing its headlights.

That's going to be interesting....

The Giant Bomb racing team had an entertaining 2016 iRacing 12 Hours of Sebring. We had @iron1c@khann and @sebw in the GBeast Daytona Prototype. Then @slowbird and myself (@datarez) in the Giant Bomb Ford GT GT3.

The start was a bit crazy and made the first 45 minutes feel like 3 hours. We were lucky enough to get our prototype and GT3 teams into the same event. Since the races are split bit iRating depending on how many teams and who enters, this was a bit of a calculated gamble to get it right. We ended up in the 5th split of 9 in a 42 car field. Our prototype team had qualified 13th of 19 prototypes. The GT3 team started 14th of 23 GT3 cars. As we were taking the green flag the prototype field slowed causing the GBeast prototype team to get some contact. Things stayed crazy for the GBeast team as they now had to move up through the GT3 field and got some more contact and damage. The Ford GT3 team took the no traffic this early in a 12 hour race approach and fell to the back of the GT3 field.

Eventually the Ford GT3 team fell victim to the difficult turn 1 and partially from new track conditions in iRacing. We believe while running wide in turn 1 slowbird got into the dirt and marbles and lost traction which caused him to slide into the wall. It was a short 15 minute repair but meant we were running a different race now.

iRacing now features a dynamic track with rubber buildup, dirt, debris and changing traction. You can see this is the screenshot above in turn 7, the hairpin. This was a common corner to cut so you can see the gravel that gets kicked up and the debris build-up on the left side when the track resumes just ahead.

The middle hours of the race were mostly just putting in laps. The damage we had on the Ford meant we were able to get any faster even though the rubber on the track meant the track was much faster. The GBeast prototype team was able to put in some very fast laps as the car body was mostly replaced every time they had to repair.

As it would turn out though, time zones got the better of GBeast. Battling little sleep and odd hours in their parts of the world the GBeast car found themselves in the pits for more repairs. Which turned into an impromptu nap time.

The GBeast team was saved though when Seb returned (at his scheduled time) to drive. BUT if it was all so simple. When he went to get into the car he found that the engine had blown. This was due to the car sitting on pit road for so long idling. Another 30 minute repair and he was back on the track.

The Ford GT3 team did have a small battle for 12th in class with the Japanese iRJA Ford GT team which was a fun battle and something to keep us motivated late in the race. The Giant Bomb Ford GT3 team ended the race in 13th in class and 26th overall though. The GBeast Daytona Prototype finished 15th in class and 31st overall.

Thanks to everyone involved! It was a fun race but we have a long break until the next big team event like this one. The iRacing Nurburgring 24 hours will be June 4th. I'm looking forward to it.

Sounds like an interesting race for you guys. We got in split 1 but managed to stay out of view in the racespot coverage for most of the race since we were coming from the bottom of the standings working our way up.

Was struggling a lot with the rubber build up on the track and lost a lot of speed towards the end. Still got 11th after starting 20th so it was a good result. Nürburgring is gonna be awesome. Will be my third N24, but my first in iRacing which will make it real interesting. :)

Updated the thread for Nurburgring 24. Looks like they're going to do that staggered start again with the expanded dates to now include June 3rd. Time to discuss what car we'd like to run. All would be fun for me. Hopefully we can fill 2 cars.

It's gonna be hard deciding on car. Our team seems to be very split on whether to do the GT3 thing as usual or try something new. :P

I will drive anything, but the Kia is the one I (and probably most people) have the least experience with and it's a handful on cold tires, very easy to get heat on the fronts and have a wildly unbalanced car with greasy rear tires. Same goes for the RUF, that thing will snap on you with no warning, it's manageable if you get used to it but it'll require more practice.

I vote for either the MX-5 or the Audi, less interesting to drive but much more likely to finish in my opinion. Also, i think we need at least 3 people per car, so 6 people if we're gonna do 2 cars (that said I did some 5 hours straight at Sebring and that was surprisingly ok, not great, but do-able)

Made some changes to the Sign Up Sheet. Didn't realize until the after I'd changed stuff on the Sebring sheet you were keeping old sheets, sorry about that :(

I vote the MX5.

Put the same availability as Daytona, that seemed to work OK. Though there is a chance I won't be able to do the race at all. Will know a bit closer to the time.

Too soon to know when/if I'll be able to run, but I definitely want to (very happy to see something different with the car selections). I'd most likely be there for the evening stints like I've done before, so a 3 driver team will be rough on 2 teammates of mine.

My car vote: MX5 > C-Spec > Kia > Literally any other car > GT3

I'm game for the MX-5. Thanks for updating the shet @sebw No worries about the old sebring sheet.

Cool we've actually also decided to go for the MX-5 (if nothing drastic happens :P ). Really looking forward to actually learning to use my h-box.. have just been sitting there. :D

i guess ill have to get to work on a GB mx5 paint scheme lol :p

@davyc412 unrelated, but I have your Miku paint on my Mustang and I snagged a victory with it yesterday. :D (I got lucky that the two fastest cars got wrecked by someone else, but...)

Gallery

Great job slowbird! :) How is your practice with the Mx5 coming along? I'm doing round 10:25 most of my laps in default weather. Still some time to find. My team mate is doing 10:20.

@slowbird:

nicccceeeeee. in my books a win is a win lol :)

an idea ive been playing with for a giant bomb mazda mx5

That looks really cool!

aw heck yeah! Now I wish we had 20 people so we could have 4 teams with different rollbar colors :D

@davyc412: That looks awesome.

@davyc412: Like they said ^ :D

So this is the VLN layout and not the 24 but here are my sector times to compare with the MX-5. I used this setup.

Same setup...optimal only, didn't have a clean lap :P

Still planning to do GT3 for the first VLN race, but haven't practiced it yet.

just did the 24 layout. 10:35 flat. lots of time still available for me to make up, especially on the GP circuit. i just bought it today, so not that familiar with it yet.

also, here are some GB liveries for the mazda. removed the names for this version, so it can more easily be used more easily be used without having to modify based on the teams.

This one has the 24h numberplates and should be therefore used with a decal layer:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r3fw6g52a1p3ijw/gb%20mazda%20nameless.TGA?dl=0

and this one should be used without a decal layer, and has the basic roundels.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3onga58t1tn7s51/gb%20mazda%20nameless%20no%20decal.TGA?dl=0

also working on an owdie of the same style.

@davyc412: Awesome. I applied it to my personal car too.

@datarez nice! :)

also, in case anyone was in want of a GB audi for the VLN:

just like the mazda, a version with 24h plates to be used with a decal layer:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33323145/gb%20audi%20copy.TGA

and a version with the default iracing plates to be used without a decal layer:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33323145/gb%20audi%20no%20decal%20copy.tga

@davyc412 Oh awesome, we're looking like we may actually end up running the Audi for the 24.

Well all learned something this weekend in the VLN race this weekend. @khann and I had it re-enforced "Don't touch the curbs." @iron1c found that he can do a 4 hour stint and @slowbird found that he could do a whole stint.

Also really things happen fast with the GT3, including the bad things so I'm going to do more practice in the MX-5.

The most important lesson learned for me was: DX11 is causing huge problems for me. My game would occasionally (read: every lap) freeze for 10 seconds before continuing in the same spot (my car didn't move during those freezes!) and switching back to DX9 on a pit stop fixed this issue. So...if you're running the DX11 client make sure it actually works on the Nordschleife for you. Didn't have any problems during testing, but it was BAD during the race.

@iron1c:

i had screen blackouts constantly on dx11. apparently there is a glitch in using particles at anything other than low, so when i set them to low, it seemed to resolve the problem.

just did some practice, thought id turn it into fuel testing with the mx5. used this setup:

http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3471213.page#9758624

on a full tank of gas. ran for approx. 1 hour 45 minutes till i had to pit for fuel with approx. 0.5 laps of fuel left. worked out to be 10 laps total. so outlap, 8 laps, then inlap, with the following laptimes.

lap 0 - OUTLAP

lap 1 - 10:37.346

lap 2 - 10:36.262

lap 3 - 10:37.852

lap 4 - 10:34.799

lap 5 - 10:38.633

lap 6 - 10:36.288

lap 7 - 10:36.783

lap 8 - 10:36.442

lap 9 - 10:40.968 (INLAP)

Here's what I did on a fuel run in default weather in a hosted session. I did try a different setup. I took it from the notes in this youtube video. I'll go back and try a stint with that other setup later this week. Filling up and changing tires after this stint took 64 seconds.

I've been able to achieve 10:25~ on occasion but usually doing low 10:30s taking it fairly easy and generally not crashing, looking good.

Hello. I had intended to really learn the track and practice a bunch over the last month, but I was very lazy and didn't. Haven't raced since Daytona 24, I think (I was useless).

I would most definitely be really slow, or try to be not slow and destroy the car. Best go on without me. Thanks, @datarez, for giving me a shout on Twitter. I'll try to not be a lazy turd and do a team race at some point this year.

Good luck guys!

im slow as ass too lol. its all for fun. id be a liability in the audi though - theres no way id be able to pull off a clean stint (i havnet so far without being dangerously slow), so i might have to bow out of that, but im good for mx5

EDIT. did some laps in the audi. i think i would be able to do it, but i dont think i would be able to do laptimes under 8:30

@davyc412 I'm ashamed that I haven't even taken the time to properly learn the track, so I would most definitely have too much anxiety in the little Mazda not knowing if the next turn is left or right, while other faster cars are trying to get by. :P

You guys do most of the talking/planning on Discord these days? Not much forum/Twitter talk anymore.

@mouse yeah we save all our important chat for the Discord. Mixed in with our generic idiotic thoughts :P

I feel like it's worth giving this thread a bump to let people know in general that planning has begun for the next major event, the Watkins Glen 6 Hour Race. We might have more teams since it's a much shorter race, but still an effort to get through. If anyone is thinking of getting back into iRacing now's a decent time, new build and all. Just ping one of us for an invite to the Giant Bomb Racing Discord.

Indeed. liveries are also already in the works. A ruf is like 95 percent done, and a merc probably around 75%!

I think myself and @iron1c have m ore or less confirmed ourselves as a prototype team for the 6h.

new paints confirmed!

RUF (Generic iracing):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33323145/RUF%20-%20Giant%20Bomb%20Iracing%20Plate.TGA

slightly different than the preview. changed the number plate to a generic iracing one. number is arial normal (#000000, #f5f5f5, #f5f5f5)

RUF (IMSA GTD)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33323145/RUF%20-%20giant%20bomb%20imsa.tga

same as the preview. number is arial normal (#ffffff, #0073cf, #0073cf)

MERCEDES:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33323145/MERC%20-%20giant%20bomb.TGA

Gallery

i guess since watkins glen is coming up quickly, its about time we ask whos doing what so we can organize into teams. i know there is a prototype team thats already pretty much set, but was wondering who else is interested in other cars . personally id be down with either the ruf, bmw, or merc.

C7:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33323145/giant%20bomb%20c7.tga

Updated the first post for 6 Hours at the Glen this weekend. Sorry a bit late on the update. ;)

It was nice to see you in our split. We were Turn2Hiros. A not super serious bunch. I brought our unqualified car up to 4th. Then our next driver got taken out by a BMW on cold tires exiting the pits. And the driver after that flipped it.

Needless to say you guys beat us handily. Good job!