IRACING 120 minutes of Sebring

Any of you fella's interested in running the Sebring 120 with me this weekend. I know dusty is going away to NZ. I know Rigby was keen to do the Daytona 2.4, but failed to rise in the morning.
What about Dave, Wayne? anyone? I'm planning on running the HPD at this stage.

Looks like the Sebring 120 is being run twice to accommodate us aussie's. No night owl activity after all

I have fack all running in this car, nor any setups. I think some practice is due. But I'm not gonna go ape with practice all week, and be completely over it come Sunday.
I'll be running this race for fun. I'll be happy to run a consistent race in the top split, with no error of my own. not looking to beat the world.

So how many of you es are committed to this?

Will definitely have a quick look at the Vette in my stable before I pop cash for the HPD.

ok, I'm gonna donate $5 to dave for the session hosting in our mazda league. should put it toward a HPD or Vette or GT.

I've just done about 3 hours setup work on this HPD, so I'm committed to that car.
Seems it's a tricky car to setup, from what I can gather, it's all about ride height and aero balance.
So far I have a good stable race setup.

iRacing.com 120 Minutes of Sebring

Event Date: Sunday, March 18th, 2012

Race Start Time For North & South America & Europe: US Server, Sunday 12:00 Noon US ET Boston. (16:00 GMT Sunday: 9:00AM Los Angeles, 2:00PM Sao Paulo, 4:00PM London, 5:00PM Paris, 6:00PM Cape Town, 8:00PM Moscow)

Race Start Time for Japan & Australia & New Zealand: US Server, Sunday 4:00 AM US ET Boston. (08:00 GMT Sunday: 4:00PM Perth, 5:00PM Tokyo, 7:00PM Sydney, 9:00PM Auckland)

Cars: HPD ARX-01c LMP2, Corvette C6R GT1, Ford GT GT2

Setup: Open setup. Each car will race in a separate class

Track: Sebring International Raceway International Configuration - Daytime

Practice Sessions: Open practice sessions will begin on Tuesday March 13th at 00:00 GMT and will remain open until the event starts

Qualifying: Open qualifying sessions will begin on Tuesday March 13th at 00:30 GMT and will remain open until the event start. The qualifying session will last for 20 minutes

Qualifying Process: Drivers will be divided into racing splits based on their qualifying time. They will be ordered onto the starting grid by qualifying time. Qualifying is not required, but is encouraged. If a driver does not post a qualifying time they will be placed behind all the drivers in their split who did post a qualifying time, then they will be ordered according to their iRating

Warm up: A (15) fifteen minute warm-up will precede each race, to allow extra time to join the session

Safety Rating & iRating: This event is an official session and official session rules apply. Safety Rating and iRating will be in effect

Gridding: Each class will be gridded at the start of the race by class. HPD's will grid ahead of Corvettes and be followed by Ford GTs

Tows, Resets, Pitstops, Yellow Flags: Getting towed back to the pits will take the normal time. All drivers will receive one quick repair once the racecar has been towed into the pit area. Damage repair will be on. Typical pit stop rules will be in effect. The race will begin with a rolling start. There will be no full course cautions, only local yellow flags

Race Length: 120 minutes (2 hours)

Field Size: Up to 43 racecars per split

Content Required: Sebring International Speedway and the racecar you plan to race

Awards: The top drivers in each split will be reported on the iRacing members. The top three drivers in each split will be given an award certificate

Drivers may race in either session or both

What's your opinion of the HPD, Beau (... or Dave, if you buy it)?

The C6R is very straightforward ... power delivery is easy (though the rear can spin up off the higher curbs) ... in fact my only complaint (if pushed for one) would be that it feels a bit dumbed-down ... and just a touch bland, maybe (!?)

Perhaps, though, with so little time to get comfy with a car/track, it is the best choice for me. After about 20 laps, my best with full fuel (mid-59) is 5 secs off pole pace, which is pretty much where I'm at these days ...

... but if there are glowing endorsements for the HPD, I might stll consider a change, if only to have a laugh with you two monkeys

The HPD is actually the easiest of them to drive. Plus, it is not fun getting lapped by impatient HPD drivers. The HPD should be easier to pick up on, because it is most similar to the star mazda, compared to the vette.

Rats ..! Why couldn't it be -house ..? Now I have to give it some thought ...

Good luck guys I might spec some of the race now the Sunday league is on break.

Looks like I'll be the only one from rooz contending this race, or at least the only one "seriously" contending. I've spent hours testing, building race and Q setups, devising a pit strategy, all for myself it seems. I was hoping to share my findings, and maybe some success with fellow rooz members.

No worries dave, I won the race in the end. Pretty stoked with that. Drove the full 2 hours with no mistakes. got a little tied up in other people . but caused no accidents. stoked

Thanks Dave,

I am tremendously pleased with my efforts this week.

At the start of the week, the learning curve was like Mt Everest! f'en steep. I had never really driven this HPD much, let alone race the thing. I didn't have much of an idea how to set up the thing either. There was no setups shared on the forums, and next to no advise for how to set it up. I had to work this out the hard way. So I devised a solid race setup, then moved on to a Q setup. At this stage, the best hot lap I could manage was 1.6 seconds off the pace. WTF I'm thinking, I'm not that slow am I. I knew it had to be setup. So back to the drawing board there.

Saturday morning I got into a Q session, posted a PB lap of 1:45.8. But I knew I could go about .4 faster.
So I waited until saturday evening to try again, but by this time, the euro's and yanks were thick around the traps. I couldn't get an aussie hosted Q session, And I couldn't get anywhere close to my PB. I was stressin a bit, because these splits were determined by Q lap, not IRating.
Got up early Sunday morning to try another q session. Same thing, Yank server, 300 plus ping, no grip. Ahh well. 45.8 will have to do.

Started out of p4 for the race. I was surprised at that. The plan was to get away clean, and settle into a rythm, and just wait for the Euro's slip up. Got off to a clean start, losing one position, dropping back to 5th, out of caution really. I took that position back with a rather risky move into turn two, a couple of laps later.
Only to lose the position again a lap or so later. back to 5th. This guy was desperate to get away, weaving down the straights trying to lose me from his tow.Meanwhile, the leaders are pulling away a little. This went on until we came around to lap the GT's for the first time. Lapping the GT's, really bunches up the grid again I noticed. Before we knew it, the top 5 were covered by about 5 seconds again. There were some sketchy moment lapping the back markers. Some of the GT drivers were very unpredictable, but most were good. One or two were very aggressive too. I was the first of the top 5 to pit. On lap 16. The others didn't pit until a few laps later. They had me worried, I thought I may be on the wrong strategy. After the grid unfolded after the first round of stops, I wound up in 3rd. And then a few laps later, My spotter has me in 2nd, then a few laps more, and the leader makes a mistake that I was able to capitalise on, taking the lead. I controlled the race from the front from here on, only dropping down the order when I would pit. Had a few very very near misses in the middles stints, with a few of the back markers losing the plot as the race grew longer.
I had to push hard in the 3rd and 4th stint though. I found myself with the p2 car only 2 seconds behind me after I completed a stop, and I wasn't completely sure if he had to stop again or not. So I was pushing hard at this stage.
In the end, I won by a healthy margin. I don't think to many of these iRacer were able top hold their together for the full 2 hours.

Brilliant, Beau ... simply brilliant ... and the only other thing I'd say, is that I'm not the slightest bit surprised

Well done, fella

Cheers Chris.

You ready for the Road Atlanta round this w/e?

There's the dominant Beau i'm used to. Hope you'll have time for me when I get myself together and get iRacing. I can't avoid all the buzz for much longer.

Haha Miki, Dunno about dominant.

If you're looking for a nice challenge, get into iRacing. GT is awesome, but I think you'll like iRacing more