Image by Jayson Fong, part of the #24ofLM24 project. You can replay his live stream on these arts here, while you can support him by buying all the prints of this project on his site!
Just when I thought that this year's Le Mans would be as crazy as last year, the craziness level went to the roof this year, cranked up to eleven, maybe twelve? Yes, we have the same LMP1 winning: Porsche, which is effectively its third hattrick since its return in 2014, and yes, Toyota failed Le Mans again, but outside that, there's plenty of crazy for this year's race that's worth talking about here.
The 83rd running of 24 Hours of Le Mans featured Porsche and Toyota fighting head-to-head for the outright victory in the LMP1 category (poor ByKolles though), with the abundant entry of LMP2 featuring Orecas and friends with Gibson engines for everyone in contention for the win, five works teams with attitude in the GTE Pro class were ready to give their all, and then we have the GTE Am class. Throughout the span of 24 hours, going from the broad daylight to the darkness of night time and day again, teams combined not only speed, but consistency, clean racing, teamwork, and of course reliability to succeed.
19th June 2016, 19:50 Jakarta Time. I was listening to Radio Le Mans by my smartphone in my relative's house moments after break fasting (it is Ramadan month as I post this) since fifty minutes before, while browsing Twitter. Prior to Toyota's strong performance, I kept crossing my fingers to make sure that there indeed is a second Japanese manufacturer winning 24 Hours of Le Mans after Mazda in 1991 with its Mazda 787B.
Suddenly, a plot twist happened as John Hindhaugh's voice became even louder just three minutes before the race ended: The #5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid driven by Kazuki Nakajima halted to a stop right at the start/finish straight, allowing Porsche to pass through and claimed its second consecutive Le Mans victory. Nobody saw that coming, and it was enough to break everyone's heart who longed for a different winner, which also included the whole crew of Toyota Team Gazoo team. Of course, the drivers were astounded in heartbreak, Anthony Davidson could only said "Heartbreaking", and the climax of it all was that the radio communication where Kazuki Nakajima wanted to cry after the car finished, which took longer than six minutes and unfortunately kicking them out from the official classification.
The Incredible Ford GT, in its LM GTE/GTLM form (Image: Road and Track)
The 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans marked a return for Ford with its new Ford GT car, competing in GTE Pro class of FIA World Endurance Championship and WeatherTech Sports Car Championship under the GTLM class as well. Throughout their venture in the two mentioned championships, Ford GT has experienced a lot prior to Le Mans, and this year they even tackled the big race by sending out FOUR, yes, FOUR cars in the GTE Pro category, all in the name of celebrating their 50 years of Ford in Le Mans.
For this year's recap, I decided to focus on one car which I already stated in the blog title, instead of the whole grid like last year. Consider that this is the "punishment" for having a tl;dr-ish recap of last year'srace, but don't worry, I will also highlight the other categories from the likes of LMP1, LMP2 and GTE Am. LMP1 is of course a hot affair between the trinity of Audi, Porsche, and Toyota as they are now competitive against each other while Rebellion and ByKolles tried to take down the trinity, while LMP2 and GTE Am also delivered a good chunk of battles.
One of the most recent posts in both Team [R]GARAGE's Facebook and Twitter is that it dropped lots of things. Klaus Mikaelson leading by miles? Not that. Me fighting for second place with Margo Roth Spiegelman? Not that too. Carrie Mathison against Cookie Lyon? Nah. Sora Choi and Katie Moore on the grid? Don't get me started on that. Claire Fraser limping last? Not even that. So what gives?
The essence of the post was not to merely drop the character names into the grid I was racing at that time which I might see one or two of you familiar with at least one of the twenty names shown on the bottom left corner of the screenshot. The real essence was I am making a bunch of random cars for Turbo Sliders lately, and since you can clearly spot two known cars already which are Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 which I finished a long time ago (you can download it here) and Audi R10 TDI which is still unreleased until now, combined the fact that I write many times about getting a mid-2000s Le Mans grid of all classes, the reasoning is set: Le Mans Series! This should help you guess out which three other cars are...
A last-minute thriller where Katsumasa Chiyo's Nissan GT-R GT3 tried to catch up with Shane Van Gisbergen's McLaren 650S GT3 made up what could be the best Bathurst 12 Hour race yet. (Image: Streaming screencap / NISMO)
The 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour has just ended, with a close victory by Tekno Autosports's McLaren 650S GT driven by Shane Van Gisbergen, marking the return of V8 Supercars drivers after their last year's absence due to the clashing V8SC Supertest. Katsumasa Chiyo, the last driver standing for Nissan Motorsports's GT-R GT3, pushed himself to the limits after leaving the last pit stop with 15 seconds of gap, eventually finishing it with a 1.27 second gap. Steven Kane's #10 Bentley completed the podium, while Laurens Vanthoor's #2 Phoenix Audi missed the chance unfortunately. Out of 37 started, only 19 remained till end, with numerous Full-Course Yellows took place.
Here's to yet another exciting year! (Image: Digital Trends)
So, this is the first post of 2016 in RENDY'S BLOG. Opening up a new chapter, I am continuing some of my existing WIPs and making new ones. However, there will be changes of how I will do them as in real life I will be focusing on my Internship phase in my college before finally going to the final phase of making a Final Paper and finally getting some job. The playing field is vast, but once you have a certain focus or two you can narrow down and find your best field.
As always, I'm focusing on Turbo Sliders WIPs, but I've got some space for my skinning projects considering that the array of models since the last post about skinning has grown a lot and the roster has become more and more interesting as time progresses.
Due to how TL;DR the last 24 Hours of Le Mans article was (combined), this part, which was originally to be featured in the last post, was spared. This though isn't without a reason: there isn't just one experiment on replicating a Le Mans race, not even two, three or four, but LOTS OF THEM! Yup, the spirit of Le Mans lives on in these events that we just can't even move on from the French classic, even in top down games. Yes, waiting for another 365 days and moving on is hard, even harder than moving on from a hard relationship and waiting for another season of Orange is The New Black to binge on, if you have Netflix that is.
But the bright side is that 24 Hours of Le Mans is a race everyone wants to be engaged in, and a wide variety of media have facilitated such things, mainly video games since the days arcades were born. From the classic WEC Le Mans arcade game in the 1970s, to Sega's innovative gameplay of Le Mans 24 arcade game, and then swarming home consoles with titles such as Test Drive Le Mans (TWOversions) in the late 90s, Gran Turismo 4 within its infamous full-length Endurance Events hall race WITHOUT A MID-RACE SAVE in 2000s (but does have a day/night cycle in its sequels) and later Race Driver GRID where you are offered a chance to drive the event (which turns out to be 24 minutes long) at the end of every season. XBox-exclusive game Forza Motorsport apparently doesn't miss this chance in its recent installments also, and yes, I'm yet counting simulators like GTR2, rFactor and Project CARS (its "sim" status seems a little bit questionable somehow...) with user-made Circuit de la Sarthes and supporting endurance series mods. Outside of gaming scope, if you have quite a creative brain, you can have some artworks, GIFs or memes in the middle of the race, a series of "live artworks" of the race, or you can even have a stop motion Le Mans-style race.
As far as the video games scope is concerned, the 3D games (bar WEC Le Mans duh -_-) have all the joy and somehow not the top down games you all know, which translates to the 3Ds saying "you can't sit with us" to the top-downs, but is it so?
As the dawn came, one rule to come in mind is that even the worst runner of the race would never give up until the race finished. In this case, the #23 Nissan, as pictured, driven by Oliver Pla, Jann Mardenborough and Max Chilton was this. (Image: Club Nissan Elite)
Previously, the sixteen hours of 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans were filled by GTEs engulfed in flames, LMP2s spinning around, and certain LMP1s having too much problem. But at the same time, the battles within these different classes were all burning hard; you have a three-way bout between works efforts of Corvette, Aston Martin and Ferrari in the GTE-Pro category, then there were GTE-Am cars bopping their buns rear bumpers off for survival, LMP2 cars trying to stop KCMG's dominant run, and, of course, the cat-and-mouse duel between Audi and Porsche for the Le Mans wins this year, which will determine either Audi will continue its dominance or that Porsche broke its streak in its own home, avenging their last year's loss.
It has been one sleep and one breakfast for the past sixteen hours racing, now here goes the recap for the other eight which took place in a time where the moment was right: lunch.
The Sportscar battle of supremacy has come again! 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans has delivered some of the notable actions, which included crazy overtakes, some get togethers, and other kinds of miracles. This year marks the French classic's 83rd edition, and is the first time we see the absence of an innovative machine in the Garage 56 and Tom Kristensen. Also for this year, the crop of talents include the three NISMO GT-R LMs, SMP BR01s, Gibson 015Ss, Oreca 05s, and a Riley Viper as some of the new names, and for the drivers, we have quite a crop of F1 drivers, active and former, including Nico Hulkenberg, who drove the #19 Porsche 919 Hybrid alongside Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy. There were so many headliners for this year's race, which includes Audi's bid to strengthen its Le Mans dominance amidst Porsche's threatening FIA WEC performance, Toyota's awakening, and the eventual victor of both GTE categories, Pro and Am.
This post is my most special post for the past three years in writing this stuff. The first year was kind of trainwreck even though it was posted right after the race ended, and the second was really long overdue due to final test affairs despite the article being a proper recap. This year, unfortunately, was also long overdue due to finals, but fret not though, it's not a total trainwreck time-wise like the second though. Also, this doesn't hide the fact that this year is the first year I live and breathe Le Mans without watching it via cable as I lost my subscription to all sports channels, though in exchange I have Radio Le Mans, some live video streams, FIA WEC Official Live Timing, Motorsport.com's live text feed and of course Twitter so nothing is lost even though I have to face the fact that my internet doesn't stream live videos very well with lags a plenty. This is also the first time I spent ALMOST my whole life listening to RLM, either using my main internet or my smartphone internet, sans the net café visit where I spent the last 30 minutes of the race. And then I realized that my cable no longer has Eurosport so cue the Carrie Mathison cry face, NOT!
Due to how TL;DR this recap is, I split this into two parts: this part will cover the race start to the sixteenth hour, while the rest will be covered in part two, along with some "extra spice" at the end of the part 2 post.
While the work for my new site's look is still in progress, the new season of FIA World Endurance Championship has just kickstarted with the 6 Hours of Silverstone race with the #7 Audi driven by Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer won the race, but the six-hour race also did deliver its set of actions including the battle between the race-winning Audi and #18 Porsche mid-race. Tension rised in other classes too as position fights took place many times especially in the GTE classes. The downside however was the #77 GTE-Am Porsche to which I had to address as "Team Dempsey" for that matter as the team didn't seem to get their pace in the race. Technical-wise, John Hindhaugh pointed out that, in LMP1, the Audi tops the "twisties" (read: tight turns) while the Porsche aces the straights.
Sometime in the middle of the race I left the Twitter-verse for awhile for what I can call as "The Experiment". The experiment in question was replicating 6 Hours of Silverstone race in Turbo Sliders, using the new F1 Speed League mod featuring cars from FIA WEC, 24 Hours of Le Mans and European Le Mans, among others, which I showed on Twitter as the race was still going on. Of course, the track is also F1SL-made, and, you guess it, it is indeed F1SL's Silverstone I raced. Despite the execution, I have prepared the AI lines long before this experiment is started, but with only the AI lines, cars and track required to run the experiment, one question prevailed: Is it enough to replicate the said race?
Throughout March, I have been made busy with several activities that put my blogging activity here on hiatus, aside from college assignments and stuffs. The first one is Fandom March Madness which is the March Madness-style tournament with television and movie characters, exclusive on LiveJournal (note the "Steel Cage" in its name), and the second one is the Fall/Winter 2015 Fashion Week. Okay, so I can sense your questions why I had to take a look at such a very seemingly-unimportant thing that is fashion week, to the point that I sweated myself only to count how many shows a model has done, but all I know is that the March Madness atmosphere was there all along, not just merely because the last weeks of the Fashion Week coincide with FMM, with so many close races in every moment as exciting as Bathurst 12 Hour! If you will, you can check both actions of the FMM and Fashion Week on my LiveJournal blog!
However, as much as I enjoy all these "March Madness" stuffs this month, I always remember that I still have this blog and that I still have a site to take care of, plus some contents for God-knows games I play. Looking back, all these activities cost me very much of my blogging activity as I spent my days updating things on Twitter and via Excel, especially those related to fashion week. As a result, my 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour blog post was really late, but it was also because I was at loss at what to post. Remember that I tried to write a Nissan-themed post in light of Nismo's Bathurst 12 Hour victory and its GT-R LM unveiling in the Superbowl, but at the last minute, I ditched it and go back to square one for the B12hr post. In the end, this post entails the updates I had throughout my AWOL due to the March Madness.
The hero car of this year's Bathurst 12 Hour (image: GT Academy on Twitter)
"Bathurst Delivers!" As endurance racing commentary regular slash my favorite commentator ever John Hindhaugh always said amidst the 12-hour endurance race at Mount Panorama Circuit. This year's crop gathered cars from different classes, with GT3 as, obviously, the highlight category though with a twist in a form of "Pro" and "Am" sub-categories with other category grids include Flat 6 cup cars, GT4s, production cars and invitationals. Even with the race itself clashed with V8 Supercars's super test at Sydney Motorsports Park, meaning that we didn't see Craig Lowndes, Shane Van Gisbergen and Rick Kelly, this year's race gave us top-flight GT drivers in return, including GT Academy graduates Florian Strauss and Wolfgang Reip and Blancpain GT Series champion Laurens Vanthoor, who turned out to be the next breed of the "mountain killer" after setting the fastest lap to an extent he brought Phoenix Racing "The Al" - The Allan Simonsen Memorial trophy awarded for the pole position in the qualifying.
Bathurst 12 Hour is anything but without a story, and this year's race once again proved why there's always a great story that lies in such a race. This post lists some of the author's choice memorable moments that has made you excited, nervous, cringe and delighted throughout the race's run.
(WARNING: This post contains lots of pics and GIFs. Not for the faint-hearted snails)
#2 Black Falcon SLS AMG piloted by Arab Abdulaziz Al Faisal, German
Hubert Haupt, Dutch Yelmer Buurman and English Oliver Webb that took
this year's outright victory in the 2015-running 24 Hours of Dubai. (Image: Autocar India)
Finally the first legitimate post of my blog in 2015! I know, it's technically the second post of 2015, I just put that for the sake of randomness. Randomness aside, though, the first wave of events have passed. You have the Dakar rally that has recently finished hours ago at the time of this post, and then there were award shows like People's Choice Awards and Golden Globe Awards, yet there also was the 2015 24 Hours of Dubai, the tenth running 24-hour race event involving grand tourers, touring cars and endurance specials, battling it out for class victory. The race was won by the #2 Black Falcon SLS AMG driven by Arab Abdulaziz Al Faisal, German Hubert Haupt, Dutch Yelmer Buurman and English Oliver Webb, with the team's other success is the 1-2 in the 997 class, with the lady luck weren't on last year's winner Stadler Motorsport's favor due to an accident that eventually ended their run with 61 laps of mileage.
Yet, the more I think about the Dubai 24-hour race, I felt that there's more to the competitors and cars than in the race alone. I mean, they almost had everything in screaming colors; fireworks? Check. Competitors with interesting traits? You can check this post. A Corvette? Check. A big number of starters? Check. Rather than posting the race recap since I didn't stay up for full 24 hours, following the good 'ol Rendy's Blog tradition, this post will be dedicated to some of the unique things present in this year's race.
Well, opening up the first October post is a Round-up that reports things that I'm up into and recaps things I have been into. So many happenings happen between the last post and this post. This post will underline yet new features implemented in the future version of Turbo Sliders as well as showcasing a new car of mine while writing something about implementing an all-new physics which doesn't involve an antislide value of 7. Also in this post is the recap of what I've been through in GR competitions I'm joining in. All that and a special bit of paragraphs following these topics. But first thing's first: the non top-down racing game-centered post...
Mind you, my real life has been brutal for the past weeks: college organization works, college life, and even some things that aren't meant to be done as I am unable to manage which stuff I have to work on first that I almost not give an update to this blog unlike past months where I used to post three to four posts a month. Granted, I've got my ammunition back, and the ammunition in question is of course my internet subscription. There have been lots of things for the past thirty days since the last blog post; Team [R]GARAGE being August's Team of the Month in GeneRally World Ranking, my return to MiniRacingOnline, and changes that I'd like to do for both my site and this blog.
Activity is very important, and being inactive is okay as long as you post a blog post explaining what happened that you missed your daily blogging antics or a social media post. Wonder why I said those things? Two words: GeneRally Sequel; for GeneRally 2 unfortunately, its progress is in an utter uncertainty, being less active on the social media and blog post, leaving most of its anticipated fans with question marks and speculations, even its last post explaining what happened to Kimmo, the car designer for the game, post Kickstarter failure didn't help that much, and not even its Twitter is update either. It is sad to see your highly-anticipated sequel of your favorite game lost its lights to keep its fans feel the hype, and hopefully they learn these mistakes to make its fans always certain on its progress.
11 to 15 June 2014, at the famed, legendary, Circuit de la Sarthe in France. 55 racers vying for the supremacy of Endurance racing, whose legacy dates back to 90 years and now has reached its 82nd year...
WELCOME TO THE 2014 LE MANS 24 HOURS, where this year has undergone one of the craziest yet the best Le Mans years ever, with the return of the legendary manufacturer Porsche in the LMP1 field, the star-studded appearances of F1 star Mark Webber, the doctor Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd Patrick Dempsey, the former footballer/soccer player Fabien Barthez, and the former Stig Ben Collins, plus the Garage 56 entry of NISMO - the ZEOD RC, the all-electric effort of NISMO's with Lucas Ordóñez, Wolfgang Reip, and Satoshi Motoyama, not to forget this year we had a young driver in a form of Matt McMurry, the 16 year-old American driving for Caterham Racing Zytek, one of LMP2's entries, and #79 Prospeed Competition Porsche forced to move to the GTE Pro category from its initial category of GTE Am due to Bret Curtis, its third driver, sustained a concussion after an accident during qualifying and was not cleared for the race. The team nominated Sebastien Crubilé as a replacement, but the ACO did not allow him to participate due to a lack of laps driven at night, leaving only Cooper MacNeil and Jeroen Bleekemolen as its drivers. The Le Mans race has never been complete with all the drama, all the trainwreck and all the effort put by both teams and stewards to make it yet another successful Le Mans year, although that most invited teams didn't take their entry invitations, like Muscle Milk Pickett Racing from the American Le Mans fame as one of the names.
The track, compared to the last year, also underwent circuit changes post Allan Simonsen's death. ACO announced improvements to several sections of the circuit, most prominently Tertre Rouge's reprofile and additions of new barriers and new tire walls at its exit. This year also sees the "Code 60" dubbed as the Slow Zone where, like Code 60, requires car to run at no more than 60 kmh (37 mph) speed in a certain zone(s), this also means that GPS systems are installed on every car and so does the onboard marshalling system that simultaneously warns all drivers of the slow zones' locations. Finally, what was in Dubai 24 Hours race is finally implemented in the blue-riband endurance racing event...
#WelcomeChallenges; Audi doing burnouts at Porsche's base, where
welcomed Porsche's return to the 24-hour race with its video montage
found here.
Porsche returned to Le Mans with its 919 Hybrid LMP1 car and vowed to
spell the end to Audi's winning streak. You may also check out another
of its "Welcome Challenges" video here.
The 2014 Le Mans race may have been over, but that doesn't mean the race loses its charm since the race's finish. This post recaps both qualifying and race sessions due to... well, their sensational series of events. Also, be warned that this is a recap on TL;DR level...
QUALIFYING TRAINWRECKS
The biggest Ouch! in Le Mans history; #1 Audi crashed in the Porsche Curve, destroying the car in process
Early in the session, the #1 Audi of Belgian Loïc Duval spun and became airborne in the Porsche Curve, impacting catch fencing above the barriers and destroying the car. But credits were given to someone who made the car so safe to even sustain such accident, Duval was able to walk out of his car with only scratches and injuries, but this also meant that Duval was excused from his #1 Audi drive and was replaced by Marc Gené, the Spaniard who were to drive the #38 Jota Sport Zytek before being called up to replace him, which Jota replaced him with the Brit Oliver Turvey in return.
Also in the Porsche Curves, the late-night Wednesday qualifying was where Regina Mills put her curse to one of the GTE Am Aston Martin entries driven by Fernando Rees*, in which he crashed in the said section and not only forced the session to be ended half an hour earlier than expected in favor of the reparation of barriers but also forced the entry's withdrawal from the race due to damage. More crashes abound in the Thursday qualifying with James Calado's AF Corse crashed in the (unsurprisingly, once again) Porsche Curves, the #1 Audi's spin-off in Indianapolis, Bret Curtis's #79 Prospeed Porsche's spin-off at the Dunlop entrance in which he was knocked unconscious, and Frankie Montecalvo's 8 Star Ferrari's spin into the Porsche's gravel
* = While we know that putting a Once Upon A Time reference in Le Mans a good idea for a witty humor in a recap, the serious side is that Fernando Rees really was crashed on his own and that Grey's Anatomy is the only fandom to reach the Sarthe circuit. Even better fandoms like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Harry Potter and Hunger Games "cannot into Le Mans". But if they were to enter Le Mans... Ah forget it.
AFTER THE TRAINWRECK, CAME THE LIGHT
Toyota Slayed; Toyota TS040 finally managed to get pole once again after
fifteen years. Driven by Kazuki Nakajima in qualifying, it set 3:21.789
fastest. (image: Ausmotive)
Although the qualifying sessions were full of massive trainwrecks that triggered red flags and slow zones to play, the third session's expansion proved to give chances and even advantages to most, if not all, teams. Fifteen minutes into the session Nakajima set a new fastest time of 3:21.789 and would hold the top of the time charts to take Toyota's first pole position at Le Mans since 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, even being the first Japanese to take the pole of the 24-hour race. Porsche's entries both tail Toyota's entries by one position, while all of the Audis were unfortunate after scoring positions 5th to 7th, and Rebellion Racing's LMP1-L entries completed the LMP1 grid.
The debuting chassis Ligier JS P2 also proved to be a success in the qualifying, with Thiriet by TDS Racing entry claimed the 10th place, tailed by #38 Jota (using Zytek chassis) and #35 G-Drive by OAK Racing (a.k.a the GT Academy guys - Jann Mardenborough, Mark Shulzhitskiy and Alex Brundle) by seconds. GTE categories also saw both AF Corse entries taking pole in both their Pro and Am ventures, with #73 Corvette and #94 Aston Martin tailing the Pro car and two Aston Martins tailing the Am car way behind within six positions. The Dempsey team qualified seventh in the GTE Am category and 41st overall out of 54 cars (not counting the withdrawn #99 Aston Martin and the ZEOD RC).
Electric Energy; ZEOD RC (Zero Emission On-Demand Race Car) of Nissan
winding down the Mulsanne. It finally set a fastest time of 3:50.185 out
of three qualifying sessions after an endless wave of woes and was
driven by Lucas Ordóñez, Wolfgang Reip and Satoshi Motoyama. (Image: Build Race Party)
Also note that the ZEOD RC has also completed its full-electric lap of Sarthe and also reached the 300 kmh (186 mph) barrier down the Mulsanne, despite the earlier problems that suffered it. NISMO's determination to make this Ridge Racer-ish car run the race's full distance made it clear that ZEOD RC had what it takes to make another set of all-electric laps at the Sarthe. Video available here.
THE RACE
Flag of Honor; Fernando Alonso took the honor of waving the French flag.
The French flag itself is Le Mans 24 Hours's language of "boogity,
boogity, boogity!" (Image credit visible)
The race started with F1 driver Fernando Alonso taking the honor of waving the French flag, and with the Toyota LMP getting the holeshot out of all LMPs, and Audi and Porsche battled just behind the Toyota. Unfortunately after five laps of racing, ZEOD RC, the Garage 56 entry of this year must walk out from the race after suffering a transmission failure. I rooted them to stay longer in a race but unfortunately the car that's driven by Satoshi Motoyama, Lucas Ordonez and Wolfgang Reip (the latter actually took the wheel) with a big prospect of being the all-electric racer had to end its run... AARGH!
More first hour drama follows as the #8 Toyota driven by Nicolas Lapierre spun out at the Mulsanne chicane exit and later #14 Porsche that unexpectedly slowed down because its pit lane speed limiter switched on unexpectedly and Neel Jani, the driver at that time, had issues in trying to turn it off. The second hour of the race saw raining conditions and that some cars pitted in for tire changes. Unfortunately in Mulsanne section things went awry for #3 Audi, #8 Toyota and the GTE Am AF Corse Ferrari driven by Sam Bird as they were involved in a crash with the Toyota aquaplaning under braking. Beforehand, the rain also caught the victim in a form of hydroplaned KCMG Oreca which battled against the Jota Zytek as it bumped the tire barriers in the first Mulsanne chicane. Fortunately in the LMP1 accident, the Toyota was still alive while it was all goodbye for the Audi and the GTE Am AF Corse as they were the next retirees of the race.
First hours in a picture; Above is Neel Jani, Swiss driver of #14
Porsche putting his WTF face due to its pit lane speed limiter switched
on,
below is the KCMG Oreca 03 spinning out, costing it its stay on the
race after the car crashed beforehand.
Shortly after the green, the rain returned and more chaos ensued, this time for Murphy Prototypes and Greaves Motorsport where both collected one another while spinning as they exit Tertre Rouge, bringing the Safety Car once more. As the rain tapered off and racing resumed once more, the remaining Toyota and pursuing Porsches were now on different pit stop sequences, allowing Timo Bernhard and later Brendon Hartley to briefly take the overall race lead before #7 Toyota took the lead for the remainder of the race. From this point on, the battle ensued in certain categories where Audi and Porsche fought for position in LMP1 and Porsche and Corvette in GTE Pro class. As the sun set, the former Red Bull F1 team star Mark Webber had his hand dirty hours later to drive the #20 Porsche, with Toyota continuing the lead and two Audis tailing.
The LMP2 battle was also spiced up with Race Performance and Signatech Alpine fighting for category lead before joined by the #35 OAK Racing Ligier which drivers consist of GT Academy graduates Jann Mardenborough and Mark Shulzhitskiy plus Mark Brundle at the fourth hour, following the retirement of KCMG Oreca, and the competition in GTE Pro was no different with four different makers fighting for the lead that was up for grabs. Yet again, the #14 Porsche LMP1 was cursed by Regina Mills experienced fuel pressure problems and went to the garage before going back to the race.
One of the perks of driving in any 24-hour races, especially Le Mans 24
Hours, is that you race in the midnight where there's less to none
lightning at certain parts of the track, greatly requiring your focus.
A variety of things happen during the night, like how #7 Toyota extending its category lead over its adversaries Audi and Porsche, how #35 Ligier took its lead after battling Race Performance and Signatech, how the GTE Pro fight for the lead was played out with #51 AF Corse, #97 Gulf Aston Martin and #74 Works Corvette playing cat and mouse with each other until the Corvette suffered problems that the cat and mouse game was left with AF Corse and Gulf Aston Martin playing, and how two GTE Am Aston Martins extend their lead, except that the #98 had its power steering failed and had to give its lead to the #95 that was behind it. Sadly for Team Dempsey, their spinning tires when exiting the pits granted them nothing but penalty that costed them their race, to which the black Porsche somehow not sponsored by Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital ( :v ) had to drop to seventh.
#7 Toyota had a comfortable lead for approximately nine hours, until its wiring loom melted and lost drive after Arnage before it went for a full stop alongside the barriers. At that time, the pit crew also lost contact to the car and, there you go, Regina Mills mechanical failures brought the game-changer, and #2 was the new leader at the time the Toyota retired. Yet, the leader also suffered a problem in which its turbocharger was failed and had to be replaced on the pit garage, causing them to drop to third, but Audi still took the lead, this time the #1 car did, with #20 Porsche tailing behind a lap. The #74 Corvette also had to abandon its "cat and mouse" game between GTE Pro top placers #51 AF Corse and #97 Aston Martin due to the failed alternator belt, and that it costed the car three laps and later the Aston Martin with power steering failures, ending the "cat and mouse" victory to the GTE Pro AF Corse and allowed them to put on their trollface expression to both and the #92 Porsche which enjoyed the second place in the class.
As the daylight came, #72 GTE Am entry of SMP Racing crashed in the Porsche Curves, damaging the barriers in process and forced not only the entry's retirement but also a lengthy yellow flag, which included safety cars and a safety zone rule as the barriers underwent reparations post-crash, with more woes to LMP1 where the #1 Audi forced to perform its lengthy second turbocharger replacement, giving the lead to the #20 Porsche in process, and, in LMP2, both Ligiers from OAK Racing (GT Academy guys :D) and Thiriet by TDS Racing were forced to perform repairs of their engine, brake, and suspension respectively (the former had two mentioned parts repaired). Team Dempsey also gave its all to maintain its sixth place in class from the JMW Ferrari.
#58 GTE Am Sofrev ASP Ferrari stuck in the gravel of Ford Chicane after
spinning out. The car is driven by three Frenchmen Anthony Pons, Soheil
Ayari, and Fabien Barthez. The last name mentioned is France soccer
national team's goalkeeper who puts his interest to motorsports and
joined the ranks of "star" drivers like former F1 racer Mark Webber in
Porsche LMP1, former The Stig Ben Collins in GTE Am Krohn Ferrari and
"Dr. McDreamy" Patrick Dempsey in GTE Am Dempsey-Proton Porsche.
#20 Porsche's overall lead didn't last for long as it suffered from a broken anti-roll bar and was forced to the garage, with the #14 also forced to go to the garage after it suffered mechanical failures, abruptly ending Porsche's Le Mans run even though that the #20 car did drove the final lap. This meant #2 Audi's lead, followed by #1 Audi and the last Toyota standing; the #8 Toyota. The sole LMP1-L entry of Rebellion Racing snuggled to fourth, with the #12 being the remaining Lola-Toyota-powered Rebellion. Thiriet Ligier and Jota Zytek were also met head-on and eventually met the LMP2 leader G-Drive/OAK Racing/GT Academy (whatever you see fit -_-) Ligier, making it a three-way battle of Harry Tincknell, Tristan Gommendy, and Alex Brundle. Was it just me or I felt that the battle was a... sandwich, driver-wise?
By the time the GT Academy Ligier slowed down, the sandwich broke and two cars behind it taken its place, with Thiriet leading the LMP2 and the #35 underwent engine repairs, drawing themselves out of the contention. The top two LMP2 cars finally changed their drivers for the final time, which can be described in the following ToQGer fashion:
"JOTA SPORT, HARRY TINCKNELL NORIKAETE OLIVIER TURVEY!" "THIRIET BY TDS RACING, TRISTAN GOMMENDY NORIKAETE LUDOVIC BADEY!"
Say what you want, but the battle in the LMP2 has taken lots of attention, with profits on popcorns, sodas, and other snacks around the world increasing just to see the battle between the Zytek and the Ligier, two of which are powered by Nissan. Finally, Zytek has made the Ligier hand down the lead and Olivier Turvey took the class lead in the closing minutes of the race.
THE FINISH
Sweet Victory; Audi started the race behind Toyotas and got overtaken by Porsche due to its in-race woes, yet they managed to take their victory once again (Image: Motor Authority)
And after a series of hot mess qualifying session dramas and the grueling battle in the 24-hour race, Audi has once again taken the victory of the 82nd edition of the race. Swiss Marcel Fässler, German André Lotterer, and Frenchman Benoît Tréluyer has claimed their victory with its teammate, the #1 Audi of Dane Tom Kristensen, Spaniard Marc Gené and Brazillian Lucas di Grassi tailing behind albeit its three-lap gap to the lead, and the last Toyota standing of Brit Anthony Davidson, Swiss Sébastien Buemi and Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre being LMP1 podium's cherry topping in third.
Face of the Rebellion; Rebellion ran the 24-hour race without any problems compared to LMP1-H cars (Image: Rebellion Racing's official site)
Rebellion Racing's #12 guaranteed fourth, while even though that they are the sole LMP1-L entry due to Lotus's exit, Rebellion's attrition-free clean race made them this far and is deserved to be saluted. I just wish that there were more LMP1-L entries this year because having just Rebellion Racing's Rebellion R-One seemed like that LMP1-L isn't enough. The other Rebellion, the #13, retired after 73 laps. The only underlying question now is "was the #13's retirement another case of '#13 car always have bad luck' or not?"
True Victor; Jota Sports ran a tight race against Thiriet by TDS Racing and G-Drive by OAK Racing throughout the race, fighting for LMP2 lead (Image: Dailysportscar.com)
The LMP2 is won by Jota Sport's Zytek driven by Brits Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and Olivier Turvey with Thiriet by TDS Racing's Ligier of Frenchmen Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey and Tristan Gommendy in second, and completing the class's podium is Signatech Alpine of Frenchmen Paul-Loup Chatin and Nelson Panciatici plus Brit Oliver Webb. Three different chassi, one engine dominance: Nissan. It's sad to see the GT Academy guys ended their Le Mans story in fifth due to the last-hour attritions, including the tire puncture, but having these guys racing, even leading the whole night is a bless. I demand a victorious revenge next year in LMP1 with a rotation of these three drivers plus Lucas Lucas Ordóñez and Wolfgang Reip knowing that Nissan will be there with its LMP1 attire next year, but even with that bombshell, the bottom line doesn't change: LMP2 finishers 1-5 are powered by Nissan, ha! :D
Winning it was Red; #51 AF Corse, at the hands of Gianmaria Bruni, won the GTE Pro class after a midnight game of "cat and mouse" with Corvette, Aston Martin, and Porsche. (Image: Timezone Forums)
In GTE Pro class, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari that took the race's pole position in class won the race all thanks to the solid teamwork of Italians Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella and Finn Toni Vilander with the remaining two places filled by #73 Corvette of Jan Magnussen, Antonio García and Jordan Taylor and #92 Team Manthey Porsche of Marco Holzer, Frédéric Makowiecki and Richard Lietz. Despite this ending, the cat-and-mouse game of the three plus the Aston Martin that went overnight was breathtaking, and this kind of game lived up the midnight of La Sarthe. The Corvette C7.R race car is also the one to be also saluted for its great results.
Dedicated Victory; #95 Aston Martin won the GTE Am class with its all-Dane lineup of Heinemeier Hansson, Poulsen and Thiim, all dedicated to the late Allan Simonsen (Image: Aston Martin's official site)
Finally in the GTE Am class, the All-Dane #95 Aston Martin Racing car driven by David Heinemeier Hansson, Kristian Poulsen, and Nicki Thiim took the well-deserved victory dedicated to the late Allan Simonsen, with the #88 Porsche of Christian Ried, Klaus Bachler and Khalid Al Qubaisi, and the #61 AF Corse Ferrari of Luis Perez Companc, Marco Cioci and Mirko Venturi completed the podium. If only Team Dempsey didn't get a penalty, they would likely be in the podium finish, but nevertheless they have done a great job, even though their finish isn't better than last year's fourth place.
Overall, this year's Le Mans race has been declared one of the most interesting years yet, with the return of the legend, the infinite number of trainwrecks, and the battle for positions in all categories. With the new era of Le Mans, I hope that the next year's race will have more drama, especially with Lotus finished its T129 LMP1-L car that denied this year's race due to development and Nissan announced its LMP1 competitor for next year.
I would also apologize for the maximum lateness of this post to the end of this year's Le Mans. My college life has been brutal to the point that I couldn't succeed at making an application for one of the modules. Well, better late than never, right? In the end, I'd like to conclude this post with a "Thank you" video from Audi, honoring its LMP1 competitors...
This is yet another Endurance event I live streamed. Even though I missed almost 45% of the race length, knowing that the race started at 2am my time (GMT +7), I still get the fact that I followed the race from the fifth / sixth hour approximate to the end. I have to say that Bathurst 12 Hour have fulfilled its promise of epic racing action at the renowned circuit Down Under Mount Panorama, notoriously known for its elevations and turns. GT3 cars, touring cars, and modified cars, even three Abarth 500s raced around the clock at this circuit while they tried to survive all the difficulties, whether if it's from the track, from the rivals, or from their own teams.
This year is memorable due to one of the facts that Nissan returned to the round-the-clock Bathurst racing for a long time thanks to its Nismo Global Athlete program, pitting their GT-R to the track. However, the real immortalization of this season is the fact that Maranello Motorsport's Ferrari 458 Italia with Il Bello Rosso sponsorship on it won by a small margin against HTP Mercedes Benz SLS AMG. Thanks to Craig Lowndes's driving skills, they have secured their first ever win in this endurance race not only for themselves and their own team, but also for the late Allan Simonsen, who drove for this very team before he past away at Le Mans.
However, while you're seeing this post, you might be wonder what I will do in this post... Some of you might say "Oh, he's gonna recap everything bla bla bla", or even "Ah, he's going to teach us new things unique to this event...". Wrong and wrong, as you know that this post about this year's Bathurst 12 Hour isn't about the recap of things or even a thing unique to this race as this is just an ordinary event. Except... Yup! It's not an ordinary event because not only is this race being held at a special place close to every Australian (and world) petrolhead's heart, but also have this year's running of Bathurst 12 Hour a series of great moments that, well, you will cringe when you find out you're missing everything out!
Here are my top moments of this year's Bathurst 12 Hour. So, what's in store then? (in no chronological order)
Just within minutes of racing, a Lamborghini was attacked by a Kangaroo that it broke the car. The number 23 car competing in the A class (one of the GT3 classes) must painfully retire the race despite they only managed to run two laps... Sad that I couldn't see the roo that attacked the car though or it wasn't televised at all... I guess Ripper Roo may have done this... SCREW YOU RIPPER ROO!!111!!1111!
"TROLOLOLOLOLOL MY Roo fellows have crashed a Lamborghini BWAHAHAHAHA They were all screwed and you can see the driver's face HUEHUEHUEHUE They just ran two laps in the 12-hour event..." -Translation of the above laughter, kind of :v
NISSAN - A RETURNEE WITH A BAD LUCK
How to ruin Nissan's return in Bathurst 12 Hour, especially when they have Nismo Global Athlete in its pocket?
1)Crash Spin a McLaren Ferrari
2) Make other drivers go bananas (read: trying to avoid the crashed car) 3) Dust everything up so everyone can't see what's going on
Note that no Tinkerbell is involved during the making of this dust... :v
MERC'S AERODYNAMIC GONE WRONG
This was how HTP's SLS AMG's "active aero" gone wrong. No, seriously, it tried to joke on the Mountain Straight and... it kinda succeed. Not bad :)
ROMANCE OF THREE MAKERS - MERCEDES. MCLAREN, and FERRARI
A three-way fight somewhere in the race's midpoint provided a great spectacle from fans. The fight for position in the A Class has never been this exciting, even in any of the Endurance events held elsewhere! At the race's early hours, V8 Supercars Australia superstar Shane Van Gisbergen headed up against DTM star Bernd Schneider and former F1 racer and now endurance racing extraordinaire Mika Salo. This three-way fight made up an exciting, close and tight, race no endurance racing event has matched, even lasted at the last hours albeit it's a different team's Merc.
BAD LUCK EREBUS
Sadly the event favorite #1 Erebus Motorsports's Mercedes must suffer a long reparation of their brakes, costing them the fight for the top place against McLaren and Ferrari which they should've done if only it didn't happen. Fortunately, HTP subbed in for Mercedes in the three-way romance, but that IS HTP not Erebus :v
However, they didn't lose the race empty-handed as they had Allan Simonsen trophy as their consolation prize for scoring a pole in the event's qualifying session. Better luck next time, though.
MEANWHILE IN ANOTHER DIMENSION...
McLaren and Ferrari... Where we saw this fight before? It sounded familiar...
BEHOLD! IT'S THE MARANELLOWNMOWER!
How you turn a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 into a lawnmower in seconds? Lowndes knows how. And you know that it's epic when you realize Lowndes and Maranello has "OWNING" in their names. ;)
Order this lawnmower now and you will also get all the perks this car has, and also its drivers who will come right to your door! Call 1-800-123456789 NOW! :v
LEAVINGTHEBOARDINPITSITIS SYNDROME
Apparently Maranello's victory wasn't that clean; a mistake involving a pitboard costed them a drive through, even though it didn't affect their position. However, this infected one of the Audi entries too. Pro tip: Don't put a pit board on the driver's left side when pitting, especially if someone's gaining behind...
DAYTONA COUPE THAT HAD ITS BATHURST MOMENTS
Daytona Coupe wasn't an exemption from the round-the-clock race event. It's quite a car and was competitive in its class. One moment had it crashed in the qualifying session, but granted the mechanics spent hours for getting the car to its competitive shape once more. Kudos to the car that I knew from Gran Turismo 2 with different livery!
LOWNDES BEING MASSAGED
Well...
THE CLOSE RACE TO THE FINISH!
If Lowndes weren't that great, then HTP could easily take Maranello's victory. The run was an All-out one from the moment the green flag waved after the race was under safety car minutes before the race ends. It was definitely an all-out game, but Maranello could maintain their first place and finish the race without a scratch! Congrats Maranello! :D
HELL YEAH MARANELLO!
And those are the underlined moments that made up this year's Bathurst 12 Hour! It was an endurance event packed with endless fights that lasted long, on-track and pit lane dramas, as well as a variety of cars from GT3 to Daytona Sports Coupe and small-but-powerful Abarths. What a way to waste your 2 GB's worth of your internet quota in 12 hours, from the dawn to the afternoon! This event is definitely to die for, either you'd like to see it in person or live stream it in your home! The Live Streams were flawless by the way...
Special thanks to all organizers of Bathurst 12 Hour and its competitors for making it a moment not to be missed by every racing fan all over the world, including me! Will definitely return next year as a live streamer, but if my economy allows me I would definitely like to attend the event in person!
~[R]
EDIT: The mkalty.org picture has its anti-hotlink nag screen activated so I have to replace with another one. :v
Endurance racing has never been so exciting. Imagine witnessing a race under the night lights, with Grand Touring cars speeding down the environment at 250 kmh+, overlapping each other, testing each driver's skills under the dark skies while making sure that they drive through the night with their cars free of scratches and technical failures. The race starts from the bright skies in the afternoon, then continues as the sun gradually sets and night comes, and as the sun goes up the next day the race to the finish line is near. That is if it's a 24-hours endurance, with easy mentions such as Daytona 24 Hours, Le Mans 24 Hours, Nurburgring 24 Hours, and Dubai 24 Hours.
This year in January, the round-the-clock endurance racing season kicks off with Dubai holding its 9th edition of its Dubai 24 Hours race, where Grand Tourers and Touring cars race together and try to be consistent and have their cars failure-free throughout one day. What makes it unique is that the series pits together GT cars owned by Pro and Amateur teams, with touring cars of varied specifications, and some road cars that are eligible to race there. This allows for a big number of racers in the race, even bigger than Le Mans that pits Le Mans Prototypes and GT cars does offer, which in this year's case is seventy seven. Yup, I'm not joking, 77. But I'm pretty sure I missed out some more participants that compete on the main race, but based on what I saw in a live timing site, it's 77. You know it's a real deal when there are more competitors than all the circuit's pit garage can hold :p
An SLS AMG GT3 car driving down Dubai, driving in one of the A6 classes. A6 cars are none other than FIA GT3-spec cars with the class
once again split into two subcategories of Pro and Pro-Amateur based on
the driver lineups. Image courtesy of Dubai 24 by Priocept.
I knew I've posted an article of last year's Le Mans race which was notorious for Allan Simonsen's death after just 14 minutes of race if you look at the endurance racing topic, but this time it's not a recap thingy as I learned two things that are new to me: Code 60, and refueling procedure that's unique to Dubai 24 Hours...
And I thought they were retiring from the race. It turned out they weren't and were refueling their cars... *headscratch*. Image courtesy supplied.
CODE 60 - What's that?
To simply put, Code 60 is a code where all drivers drive no faster than 60 kmh prior to the time the code is given. There's a set lap time for this case, which is 5 minutes and 29 seconds. So why there's a set lap time given prior to Code 60? The answer is if any driver sets a time faster than the mentioned time while Code 60 is still in effect, that driver will be given a penalty. It is a substitute to Safety Cars for this year's Dubai 24 Hours, and would be a potential alternative Safety Car method in the upcoming Le Mans race so to say.
"Creventic, the organisers of the Dubai 24 Hours, pioneered a method of neutralising their races in the event of an accident or other safety issue, without having to put a safety car on circuit. This is called “Code 60″, so named because it requires all cars on track to drive at 60km/h.
In the event of an accident or other scenario that requires marshalls or service vehicles to go on track, drivers will see purple Code 60 flags waved at all marshall posts. The Code 60 is also notified to the teams via the timing screens, and can be relayed to drivers via pit-to-car radios.
Once a Code 60 is activated, all cars must slow immediately to 60km/h from their current position and must not pass other cars. The Code 60 may last for less than a full lap, or might last for half an hour or more in the event of a large incident.
Since 60km/h is exactly 1 kilometre per minute, and the track length is 5.39 kilometres, a full Code 60 lap will take 5.39 minutes (5:24). Any cars posting a lap time under this during a Code 60 will receive a drive-through penalty.
How to Drive a Race Car Slowly
Driving a race car at a steady 60km/h is not as trivial as it sounds. Most race engines and transmissions are not the smoothest, or most efficient, at low RPM and low throttle. The top teams have special Code 60 engine maps to switch to, helping with this and reducing fuel consumption to a minimum during the Code 60 period.
The top teams will be aiming to drive each Code 60 lap at 59.9km/h. Expect to see some frustrated GT3 drivers intimidating other drivers into speeding up if they are “only” driving at 55 or 56km/h, as the cars are not allowed to pass during a Code 60 even if a car in front is driving below 60km/h.
Once a Code 60 period ends, cars are immediately free to accelerate flat out from their current position, which makes for some interesting drag racing. There is no coordinated restart at the start/finish line as there would be when a safety car pits. Drivers may struggle to maintain tyre temperature during a long Code 60, and cold tyres can lead to incidents on the restart.
Code 60 Refueling and Repair
The final consideration is refueling and car repair, both of which are allowed during a Code 60. Refuelling during a Code 60 costs about a lap to the rest of the field, compared to 2-3 laps during full race speed. So a huge advantage can be gained by doing a fuel stop under Code 60. But there’s a catch. All refueling at the Dubai 24 Hours is done at a central refueling station, not at the team garages. So this tactic can backfire if a car has to queue at the fuel station because too many other cars had the same idea and all the pumps are in use.
Teams can also use a Code 60 to perform repairs or scheduled maintenance on their cars with minimal loss of position. Many cars will need a full brake change (new discs and pads) at some point in the race, usually around the 12 hour mark, and this takes several minutes. So expect a flurry of mechanics activity and cars back in their garages if a Code 60 occurs during the night or early hours."
REFUELING METHOD
Also unique from other round-the-clock races, refueling is done on the pre-determined refueling station which resembles your everyday gas station where you refuel your car. Although for nine seasons this kind of refueling is no stranger if you follow the Dubai 24 Hours before I do, I thought it's interesting to show a different way of refueling in endurance races...
By no question this race has to be the most unique series with refueling procedure has its own place. I don't know if Nurburgring 24 Hours also do this because I haven't watched one but until I checked on Nurburgring 24 more, I can say that the refueling in Dubai is the most unique. It's like your run-of-the-mill gas station where everything is usual except the customers are race cars, grand tourers and touring cars, and refueling there is free of charge.
Glad that I caught the Dubai 24 Hours's Live Stream albeit I don't do it on frequently basis due to my limited quota (and the fact that I can't even bother to do big download antics from afternoon to 23:59 as I only have 1 GB there aside from the usual 11 GB from midnight to 11:59). While this is the first time I could catch an endurance race Indonesia cannot into (Indonesians are just into random twerks tbh -_-), I could learn new things that other endurance races don't.
Image courtesy of Dubai 24 Hours by Priocept (same link as the previous one)
Congratulations to the #20 Stadler Motorsport who managed to take their win after 603 laps throughout 24 hours, and please don't eat your heart out #2 Black Falcon Racing a.k.a the one with Jeroen Bleekemolen a.k.a the last year's victor, completing the podium behind ALL-INKL.com Munnich Motorsport isn't all bad ;)
And congratulations for all participants who survived this race albeit numerous reparations and most importantly teams that clinched their individual classes' podiums and win, especially GT Academy (yay Ordonez!) teams and Racing Divas (the Dutch all-girl racing team).
