Boost 1 was 6L or so, so I just multiplied 6 by how ever many laps we had left, and if I didn't have enough, I went to boost 5-7 for a lap or so until I could make it. Too bad I screwed that up and had 9L left at the end. I said over TS that I didn't think Panther would be able to save enough with 18 laps, but with only a couple left she blew by me and made me look like a chump.

You have a point there Alex. I think I'll start using the metric system instead of imperial ... it might make the calculations a bit easier on me (I am Canadian after all ).

All I know is that rfdynhud was telling me 1.3 gallons per lap at boost 1 (I use rfdynhud only when I practice). What confuses me now is that I just did a gallon to litre conversion and I ended up with 1.3 gals = 4.92 litres which is a lot less than your 6 litre prediction. I guess the 1 litre diff is a saftey buffer?

Well, this race was eventful and exciting.

First, and most importantly, a huge thanks to henny for finding an incredibly stable setup online and sharing it with us. I know that this setup made the rounds in the week before the race, and I hope many others were able to benefit from it, too.

Once I got a few practice races under my belt, I was on the server Friday night running my "program" and making final preparations. I ran a full stint on the normal racing line, then a full stint on the high line, and then a full stint on the low line. Then I went out in the draft for a full stint, and then I worked on my qualifying setup. I think that running my practice program was very helpful to keeping me prepared for Sunday's race. In addition, the tire pressure adjustments I made to the Q setup, in addition to some careful concentration, got me the pole for the race!

I knew I would almost certainly have to run the low line on the first lap, and even though I told myself to be careful, sure enough I kissed the curb in T3 or T4 and spun the car. I know I came up into the car on the outside and I hope that the contact didn't result in damage. I managed to keep my car almost off the inside wall and only tweaked the left rear corner slightly. On we went, with my car now in P5.

The next caution, a few laps later, was for a much bigger incident. Two cars were battling in front of me and they both started wiggling all over the track. In anticipation of trouble I lifted, and while I was slowing down the two cars in front of me crashed and (I think) I got hit from behind and went into the wall. Just one of those things that happens when cars run a few feet from each other at 225 mph. My front wing was torn off and my suspension became severely deranged. I struggled to get the car formed up in line and then pitted under caution for repairs. Unfortunately I had a 65-second repair to sit through, and even though I booked it exiting the pits, the track went green while I was in Turn 2.

So, I ran around for a while solo, over half a lap down to the leader, doing my best to minimize my laptimes while hoping for another caution so I could get caught up. The damage had taken its toll and instead of running mid-to-high 39s I now was turning laps of 40.5 and 40.6 almost a full second off of my clean race pace. The caution did come before I was caught, and around I went again to catch up.

Almost the entire field pitted this time under caution, and it was a mess in the pits. I tried to stay over on the right side of the fast lane longer than most because I knew my pit stall was past most of the other car's stalls. I kept going down pitlane, never saw the stall or my pitcrew, and eventually turned in near where I thought it would be. I stopped somewhere randomly, cursed to myself, and floored it again, without getting serviced. Thankfully the field went around again under caution and I had the opportunity to pull in this time and get service. Of course I came out at the back, but I considered myself lucky to be there without having gone a lap down.

At this point the race seemed to settle in where there were two groups. The group of 4 or 5 cars up front probably had little to no damage and could run fast. The remaining cars were in the second group - me, Teej, Earl, Dave Bradley, etc. We were slower for various reasons, and occasionally we ran together. More often we ran split up by a few seconds, everyone trying to manage their own race. Cautions kept us together for the most part.

One of the later cautions I was the car that Doug mentioned above, passing someone on their left on pit lane. I am aware that this is a huge no-no. However, the situation came and went before I could do anything about it. Since running on the right side of the fast lane had contributed to me missing my pit stall earlier in the race, I was cheating towards the middle and at this particualr moment had ducked to the left to take a look down the pitlane and see if I could see my crew. At this point the car on my right slowed dramatically, and before I could react I was alongside this car. I could have either tried to slow more than it was so that I could let it overtake me and I could get back on the right, or I could keep going and get clear. Assuming this car was preparing to turn in, I thought the best decision was to keep going at the speed limit and get the heck out of the way as fast as possible. I certainly didn't expect my car to be in that position and I hope I didn't cause anyone trouble, but things did not go how I anticipated and I was faced with a split-second decision.

FYI, Teej, cars are most certainly allowed to overtake in the pitlane, even under caution. The race off of pitlane under caution is a very exciting moment in oval racing, as the order that the cars hit the pit-out line determines how they line up on track before the race goes green again. That it why it's important to practice pit entry, pit exit, an know how much clutch and/or throttle you need to quickly and safely get your car going from a standstill on cold tires.

As the race progressed the racing got cleaner and there were fewer cautions (this is the way things went in our 2009 race as well). Eventually everyone was forced into a green flag pitstop on lap 82 or 83 out of 100. I seemed to be making slightly better fuel mileage than some other cars. That may have been due to damage and may have been due to my fuel management (more on the latter below). Either way, I was very excited to see that I was pitting on lap 83 while the leaders pitted on 82. I thought that I could run full rich (boost 1) all the way until the end, while I though that the leaders would have to slow dramatically or be forced to pit.

With 10 laps to go I really thought things were going to go well. I use the rFDynHUD utility, and it tells you how many liters of gas you have in your tank (to a tenth of a liter instead of rFactor reporting only whole digits) and it tells you how much gas you used on the last lap (to a hundredth of a liter). While it's still hard to do math at 225 mph, this tool makes it much easier to figure things out at speed.

Unfortunately I had a mental miscalculation, thinking that when the lap counter ticked over to read "95/100", there were 5 laps left. There were actually 6 laps left because cars must complete lap 100 to finish the race. So, as I overtook two or three cars in the final laps as I ran full rich and they were conserving fuel, I thought I was golden. Then I realized that I wasn't going to make it (although I hadn't figured out why at the time) and started dropping the car into boost 7 (max fuel conservation) at the end of the long straights for the last two laps. Unfortunately most (if not all) of the cars I overtook while running flat out repassed me in the final two laps, but that's racing. I crossed the start/finish line (at the end of lap 100 :)) with 0.4L left in the tank. Whew! During the race I was hoping that we would stay green at the end, because I thought that I had enough fuel to run boost 1 to the checkered flag, and I knew that the leaders didn't. I now realize that the best possible outcome for me would involve gambling on a yellow right at the end, with me running boost 1 and overtaking some of the mid-pack, and then a yellow right before the end to save me from running dry.

Up front in the lead pack the strategy was going strong as well. They had one more lap of fuel to make than me, and the top two were slowing more than Mattias was. I the end he was able to run slightly faster and not run out of fuel, taking a great win. This race ended very much like last year's Indy 500 would have if Mike Conway and Ryan Hunter-Reay had not come together.

As for fuel management, I of course have increment and decrement boost buttons mapped. More importantly, for this race I mapped the TEMP BOOST control to the 3rd-gear position of my H-shifter. Every time a caution came out I slammed the gearshift into 3rd, instantly setting boost 7 and saving fuel immediately. The next thing I did was to shift into 6th gear. These two measures I think made me my extra lap before the green-flag pitstops and were very important for race strategy. I wish I didn't get caught up in the big wreck early, but I still had a lot of fun and found the race very enjoyable.

rFDynHUD told me I was burning anywhere from 4.70L per lap all the way up to 4.99L per lap. It seems the car burns more fuel as the tank empties and it gets lighter, allowing the engine to reach higher revs sooner. I certainly never saw anything close to 6L per lap.

Well anything less than 6L and I would have to pit, not an exact calculation.

Congrats to Matthias for what sounds like a very nice strategy win....haven't watched the replay yet, but I plan on doing so. Sounds like it's not always the fastest car that's going to win at Indy...kinda like what Dario did last year at Indy.

Sorry I had to miss the race, was looking forward to it....have a couple problems that's come up that prevented me from participating.....hopefully, I'll have them corrected before LeMans.