Update: Taking over this thread for all things GT3 for the season, big Road Warrior events, Blancpain GT3 Endurance and Blancpain GT3 Sprint races.

BES Schedule Driver Availability

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Who's in for some endurance racing, now featuring driver swaps!

iRacing's 12 hours of Sebring

When:

Saturday, March 28 13:00 GMT (Saturday 9 AM est)

(iRacing note) *Note that we will not be adjusting times for daylight savings. GMT start time will always remain the same. You will need to convert to local time and allow for DST if your location observes it.

Who:

You have to have at least a Road D 4.0 license to participate.

I think a team could do fine with 3 drivers but 4 would probably work best.

Car details:

BMW Z4, Ruf Track, McLaren, GT3 GT40 & HPD

Open setups. No resets. Long repairs are now in the sim so you can recover from accidents that used to take you out of the race. You may be in the pits for 30 minutes though.

The Track:

Sebring International Raceway

Day configuration

It's a bumpy ride but there are a few long straights so you get to rest a bit each lap.

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We can use this thread to get together on creating a team or teams. I've done the older 2 hour version of this event in the Ford GT in the past so the newer GT3s should be a cakewalk compared to that. I've run the last season in the GT3 series in the BMW so I'd be most used to that but could be talked into the McLaren if that's someone's favorite. My dad will probably also be able to race but probably not long stints.

Also there's a GT3 team series for Season 2 now. So this would be a good chance for us to get teams started for that as well if you're game. Also I haven't done a driver swap race yet so I'm not sure how that works just yet.

I'd like to run in the RUF or Ford GT, if anyone wants to partner up in one of those. I'm in for Sebring and the GT3 races.

I did some practice last night. About 10-15 laps in each of the four GT3 cars. At Sebring I'd rate them highest to lowest on drivability as follows.

1. BMW Z4
2. McLaren
3. Ruf
10. Ford GT

Pretty close to a tie between the McLaren and the Porsche at second, but man I forgot how much of a beast it is to wrestle with the Ford GT. For a long endurance race I feel the Ford is asking to be in the pits watching repairs. Just thinking about ease of driving on trying to avoid mistakes really.

I was just on default weather but here were my times.

I crunched some numbers on what kind of times to target. I'm usually a 103% of the fastest time driver, give or take, so I've still got some work to do even in the BMW. My pole time listed here was from when Sebring was run in the 2014 season 4 GT3 series.

EDIT: Updated Sebring pole time.

I think I could probably handle one or two stints, as long as I don't have any unexpected schedule conflicts. I'm fine with any car but yeah the Ford is probably too tricky for 12 hours...

Let's see if next week's build changes anything, there's a solid chance they'll improve the Ford since most people agree that it's weaker than the others at the moment. I'd prefer the Ford, personally, because: I'm bored of the RUF and I can't afford to buy much content at the moment (like another GT3 car).

Let's see what happens next week. :)

Regarding the team series race times it is qualifying and races on Saturdays 14 GMT and Sundays 19 GMT. Which after the US time change will be 10:00 and 15:00 US eastern, I think. Eh I'll just check www.everytimezone.com on Sunday to be sure.

I had not watched this yet. This actually answers a lot of questions I had about how the team stuff works.

Yeah, Saturday races interfere with F1 qualifying which is a no-go for me. Sunday should work 90% of the time though, at least on my current schedule. We'll see what the next semester brings.

Yeah F1 is number one for me as well, so I guess I won't be able to do Saturdays either.

Only for a few races though, and qualifying will usually be over by the time our race starts. Looks like 7/10 races don't overlap with F1 anyway.

In any case, I wont be able to do the Sunday races; they're right in the middle of the afternoon for me.

@mouse: Well, the 14:00 GMT slot interferes with all of the Europe races, so it's not that much in the beginning but the whole summer basically. How long is a team season in iRacing? Is it like the NiS and runs the year, because of the longer races and such, or is it on the usual 12 Week schedule?

@iron1c: Runs on the 12 week schedule, though there's only 10 races this season. Only 3 races happen near an F1 qualifying session (Bahrain, Spain, Monaco), the rest happen during F1 off-weeks or non European races (China, Canada). Euro F1 qualifying will most likely end by the time the iRacing servers open.

In any case, if something comes up, we can skip races, it's not a big deal. Not like we're running for points. :) I probably cant race all 10 in any case.

Well, I'll do whatever ones don't conflict :)

@mouse: @khann: Yeah, the first 12 weeks should be good then and don't interfere with F1 much. After we switch daylight savings it should be even better, I think. Daylight savings is weird. I know the US already switched, but the rest still has to do that, if you switch at all.

Back to the topic of actual racing: I don't know how much races I can make yet, but it should be most of them. If we get two teams going (which would be great!) I'd strongly prefer to drive the BMW, maybe the McLaren. Ruf and Ford? Eh, not so much.

I looked into the team racing a bit more and found one team cannot field more than one car in a race. So each car in a race will need to be it's own team. So we might end up with different teams, ie GBeast, GB Racing Team & such if we have more than one car.

Regarding the team series, here is the full schedule and some math I put together:

Qual and Races Saturdays 14 GMT (10am US eastern) and Sundays 19 GMT (3pm US eastern)

I'm going to miss week 5 & 9. And I'm going to be Saturday only on week 4. I'd prefer Saturday & the BMW.

EDIT: Updated Sebring times as it seems everyone is a bit slower than the last time it was run in 2014 Season 4. Not sure if this will carry through to the rest of the season times yet or not as not everyone has a handle on the setup changes so far.

As I suspected they would, iRacing has done a big update on the Ford GT3:

Updates using the latest FIA Homologation Papers: engine parameters including torque curve and maximum RPM, gearbox and differential, brakes, suspension geometry, suspension spring rate ranges, and ride height ranges.

So, we'll see if it's nicer to drive now. Hopefully it is, because I want to race that car. Note: they haven't altered the other GT3 cars.

Hey guys, I created a simple SURVEY to help us organize teams.

Thanks for making the survey. Once we get a few responses you have access to all the responses to pair up people I'm guessing? We just need to pair people up in 2s for the weekly and 3 or 4s for the 12hr. I'm guessing 2 people would be fine for 3 hours that's probably 3+ stints so can probably short pit for 4 even stints. I'm just doing midnight math in my head so might not be completely accurate.

@datarez: How big are the fuel tanks? Don't they only run for about 40-45min?

I think the fuel tanks last for 60-70 mins so 2 stops for three stints makes sense, though yeah, actually doing a full hour solid would be tough and might mean weirdness for the "drive your fair share" rules. 3 stops for 4 stints would be great for a team of 2.

@khann: Here is my rough math from my Sebring notes.

Based on 2014 Season 4 Sebring 30 minute races there were 16 laps completed. BMW forum was showing 1.1 gallons / lap which was 18.5 gallons for the race. (This was based on people who where doing 1:58-59 lap times) BMW can hold 30.4 gallons. At 1.1 g/l this comes to 27.64 laps per tank. So 26-27 laps on a tank. At 2:02 lap pace that is 53-55 minutes per fuel stint.

12 hours = 720 minutes. At 2 minute lap times that comes to 360 laps. At 27 laps per tank that comes to 13.333 stops during the race not counting pit times.

@datarez: So it seems 50-60 minute stints will be the way to go for optimal pit strategy.

Just want to confirm that I won't be doing the Sebring 12hr. Sorry to flake out :(

Two weeks to the iRacing 12 hours of Sebring. To get people psyched for it, I give you this... My 2nd favorite moment in endurance racing that I've witnessed watching it live. The GT finish at the end of the 2007 12 Hours of Sebring. This battle happening after 12 hours was pretty amazing.

Added iRacing's new promo video to the main post. Also corrected the time I had listed for US eastern. It starts at 9AM eastern US time.

I'm having doubts about Sebring 12h. I might not want to race unless we get a few more people interested; only 3 guys as of now and only 1 can do the whole race. I don't know if I'd enjoy doing multiple long stints.

I'm in for this Saturday's race though (also Sebring), but... what car? The survey didn't help much. I suppose we could all go McLaren (I'd have to buy it this week).

I'm still in for both and will make it happen. :)

My thought for GT3: if we all go McLaren, we won't have to plan ahead for teams. We can focus on having one team per week (2-3 guys) and if we get enough able to race each Saturday (4+) we can separate into multiple teams just before the race. Going with one car makes it easy to practice and settle on a setup too.

I've got the McLaren in my iRacing cart. If you guys like the idea, let me know and I'll buy and start practicing.

I'm happy to drive the McLaren.

I like the Mclaren :)

I haven't tried the new McLaren but liked the old one, so sure. Sounds good. Doesn't suit my driving style as well but hey that's a challenge, right? Also I'll be occupied with the NiS race this Saturday but if it fits I might consider doing both in the same day.

Cool, looks like we have 5 for the season and 2 for the Sebring 12 hour event. Now we just need to pair up for the season based on cars and what day we'd like to race.

Also I updated the Sebring times in the table above. Looks like the fastest times are a bit slower. I did two races in the sprint series last night. It's some tight racing and hard to pass sometimes. My qualifying time was a 2:02.904 in the BMW.

I think that's the easy part. If we're all happy with the McLaren (and everyone seems to prefer Saturday), then it's all set! If you want to host one team (Team GBeast?) then I can host the other (I'll make a paint as well). If on some weekends we're a bit short, then we can simply fold into one team for that race. I know there's a few races I'll miss.

Awesome. I also made a GBeast McLaren over here.
(Also if someone could post a comment after mine, that'd be great. The forum won't let me post again. Apparently 3 posts in a row is the most it will let you do.)

I did some test laps with the McLaren. Takes some getting used to from the BMW, but it's fast enough if I can pull it together. Putting that trail throttle into it through the corner to save it from spinning is taking some work getting used to. I tried out the Fuel Buddy program. Seems neat. Looks like the 3 hour races can be done in 2 stops if we want to. I saw results from a full hosted 3 hour race at Road Atlanta and they had all done it with two stops as well. This was my fuel usage with shifting mostly right as the blue lights come on. I also did a streaming test. The laptop is sitting too low and the webcam camera is a bit blown out. Needs some white balance but I don't know if I can adjust that. We'll see.

@datarez said:

Are you able to adjust the exposure? That should do it. It'd make everything a bit darker, but the screens will be more visible.

I tried out the McLaren last night for the first time. Seems alright. Managed low 2:03s but I can go faster.

Race day tomorrow for the endurance series. What are you guys thinking for driver pairings and stint breakups? I'm ok doing a double. I've been practicing with this setup.

I know the car can run an hour, but I imagine tires are going to be hurting pretty bad by then. I'd like to see 4 stints, 2 per driver, at least for this first race. Or, for this first race if we have an even 4 drivers, we could just all do one stint?

I've been using the same setup, seems good to me. I think we should just get everyone to check in an hour before the race and then randomly choose teams of 2 with a team of 3 if we end up with an odd number. I definitely think we're more likely to make it to the end if we do it in four stints but with a team of 3 it makes sense to do it in just 2 stops and take it a bit easier to save tyres.

Sounds good. I'll be on my mumble server in the morning practicing if anyone is the chatting type. Server info is on the team discussion page in iRacing.

Not sure when "the morning" is for you, but I'll be doing some practise in a few hours, so I'll jump on the Mumble server and hang around if anyone wants to chat.

Just set up Mumble and everything, dunno when I'll be there, just put some more practice in. Yeah, this is going to be very interesting.

Was starting to get loose and a tiny twitch was all it took.

I was nervous it'd happen to me, because I had a lot of snap-spins while practicing. It's OK though, we had the fast repair and still managed a decent finish for our first race. Don't worry about it, because it won't be the only time one of our cars hits something!

I'll do the 12h next week. I don't know how much I'll be around; possibly the whole thing but something might come up and I'll have to leave during the later hours. I'll be here early to register the team and run a bit at the very least. This week I'll make some paints.

The next GT3 race is Suzuka (:D) and then after that is 4 tracks I don't own. If all you guys are in to do those races, I'll buy them.

Yeah I'll be around for some amount of the 12hr.... probably a lot of it. Also in for all the upcoming 3hr races. Think I'm missing a coupcouple of tracks as well.

Some fun car facts about the first race:

3 splits (33, 32 and 32 teams). We were in the middle split, which had the most McLarens (11). BMW won every race. This is what the car usage was like combined:

No one likes the Ford. :P @khann you want to drive it with me in one of these races?

@mouse: Yeah, it was bound to happen, but I would've preferred it later than sooner :D Just a bit mad that it mostly happened because of stuff I could've avoided.

Regarding the cars: I found it easier to get a good time in the McLaren, even a lap that felt relatively mediocre put a pretty decent time on the board but the car is pretty difficult to drive, compared to the BMW.The snap oversteer is the worst, while the BMW just casually slides around and is super easy to catch. So I'd still prefer to drive the BMW, just because I wouldn't have to worry about a thing during the race :D

Don't own the Ford and probably won't get it, because...of reasons. When they release a new, "proper" GT3 car that's not like the Ruf or Ford I'm on board!

@iron1c: We should definitely stick to the McLaren as our "default" car, but if anyone wants to race with a different car sometimes (Iro+datarez like the BMW, for example) then I don't see a problem with that!

Yeah, no reason for people not to drive the car they want to drive if there are enough of them to field a team.

@mouse: Oh, yeah the McLaren should definitely be "our car". I was more or less trying to come to the conclusion that McLaren = harder to drive than BMW, but ultimately more rewarding in speed and just the feeling of not having crashed it (which...didn't work out 100% this time :D )

I won't be around for the next three weeks, so no Sebring 12h, Suzuka or Zolder for me, but I'm back onboard for Road America and own all of the tracks going forward, though I'm not sure I want to drive Phillip Island ever again.

iRacing has a promotion: buy $20 in credits, get $5 free. So, nice timing since I need a few tracks. I'm going to buy Road America and Brands Hatch. That means I won't be racing Zolder or Silverstone.