SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Feature: The SimHQ 2.4 Hours of Le Mans

One thing I didn't relish about this race was its length. If I have a primary weakness in sim racing, it’s maintaining my concentration. Eventually, I start doing stupid things like wondering if I should change my braking points or turn-in technique on such and such corner. Or wondering what the wife is fixing for dinner. Big mistake. And sure enough, it happened during the race. Well, I can tell you this — don't do pit stop calculations in the Porsche Curves! – "Chunx"

We started out our afternoon with a lengthy practice session, basically an open track where everyone could get into the groove and feel out the track and their cars. The more experienced racers among us probably used this time to the greatest advantage as I would later learn. For my part, I was still learning the track and trying to find areas to pick up seconds. Even well into the race I was still learning and adjusting. A rookie like me can easily find areas that can save whole seconds while an expert racer such as "Chunx" is already so good that a big gain for him can be measured in fractions of seconds. Over the course of a 2.4 hour race, however, the all consuming goal isn’t necessarily speed, but rather consistent good performance. Concentration, boredom, distraction, and fatigue were the main factors that affected performance.

After the practice session we started a 30 minute qualifying session which would determine our starting positions on the starting grid. I used this time to try to knock out consistent laps concentrating on not making major mistakes. My fastest qualifying lap was a paltry 4:09 but I would find that throughout the race the 4:05 to 4:25 laps would be where I would make my home. Compared with our fastest racer, a 3:46.4 lap posted by "Chunx", you can see I wouldn’t even be close to competitive for the overall win. Despite not being a contender for the overall win, I can say the racing in the middle of the pack held plenty of excitement.

The starting grid in our qualifying order:

Team Orange – "Chunx"
Team CompUSA – Jens
Team Viagra – Dave
Team Red Bull – "guod"
Team Valvoline – "20mm"
Team NEC – "BeachAV8R"

The other 7 cars on the starting grid were AI controlled.

On the grid.

Prior to starting the race, "guod" made the very wise comment “if you need to go to the bathroom, now would be the time”. Wiser words have never been spoken. It was also a good time to advise wives, girlfriends, kids, and pets that you would need approximately two and a half hours of “alone” time to avoid distractions. Occasionally, throughout the race, TeamSpeak would pick up a comment or two directed at non-racers: “One more hour!!” or “Pizza will be fine!” Finding a comfortable racing position was also of paramount consideration. I will admit that I was much more comfortable sitting in my chair racing for 2.4 hours than I was sitting in the theater watching the Lord of the Rings for a similar length of time. In a perfect world I would have had my girlfriend standing by in a bikini to hand me chilled water bottles and hors d’oeuvres, but she decided to escape the madness and go to the pool with a parting “good luck”.

With all of the racers settled in on the start grid I could feel the anticipation building. I knew from my brief online racing experience that "Chunx", Jens, and Dave would accelerate and be dots within the first minute of racing. When the green lights illuminated there was a brief but hilarious exchange as "20mm" was promptly rear-ended by the AI car behind him. We discussed a possible re-start, but concluded that there was no-harm, no-foul on such a long race as this.

Waiting for the start, I felt like a race horse chomping at the bit. Then, green lights! I mashed the accelerator to the floor, but... OH NO! Dave, the car in front of me, had not moved! (I later found out it had to do with a cheap chair collapse). Just as quickly as I had hit the throttle, now I was on the brakes, and I stopped, almost in time, bumping the rear of Dave's car. Then... WHUMPHH! I got rear-ended so hard by the AI car behind me, I got pushed completely side-ways. So there I was, with the race barely begun, the nose of my car pointing directly at the pits. Oh my God, I thought, only 2.4 more hours of this to go! – "20mm"

I screwed myself at the beginning of the race because a few moments before the race my high dollar, made in China, chair broke underneath me and so I was racing to get a folding chair setup with a pillow. I just got back in the chair when the lights went green but in my haste I shifted to 2nd which caused my car to check up which caused whoever was behind me to rear-end me.– Dave

Go! Go! Go!

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