Daytona 24 Jan 21-23

I'm interested in this but doubt I'll participate, would have to buy the car and the track( Assuming not using the Legacy Daytona?). Not sure how long of stint I could do either.

Think long game. Let the aggressive guys go. Watch for dive bombs into T1 & the chicane...especially if you have LMP2s in your split. People are generally well behaved, but you always have L1T1 heros...and they don't typically make the 6hr mark. We usually double stint w/ 4-6 drivers per car. Looking forward to the endurance season to kick off. GBR should be out there w/ either a Porsche or Audi in GTD.

We started 20th, finished 10th and completed 758 laps. Our third driver fell through so I drove 240 laps with 25X (9.60 laps per point) and Rich drove 518 with 59X (8.78 laps per). For me, maybe 5 of those were wheel offs, I guess 4 for the two spins at Bus Stop, leaves 16 for other incidents. I gained 0.00 Safety Rating and +17 iRating. Coffey was paid +0.99 and +16. It looks like my best bet to climb to 4.99 will be a few clean 45 minute GT3 or GT4 races. I have accepted my current lack of speed and not at all worried about the iRating 

Coffey was tasked with qualifying and starting the race as he was quicker all week and the night before, especially after we switched from the Mercedes to the Audi as Coffey was struggling at T1 with the Merc.

I gave in because he was so adamant and I didn't have time to deal with it but for after buying and driving the Audi R8 for the first time, I was a little annoyed, feeling that we had traded making T1 easier for making T3 treacherous on cold tires and the third curb at Bus Stop deadly instead of digging deeper into setup to fix the Merc.

I knew all along that buying the Audi also meant painting it, which was another reason not to switch cars but once I had it, painting it meant that I was even more invested which formed a bond.

By race time, I'd been punished so many times by the curbing at Bus Stop that I had genuine phobia going, had to use third gear for most of the race when I was supposed to be using fourth but I didn't have the feel that I needed to steer through there accurately. It probably wasn't much different with the Mercedes but the AMG was much more stable and seemed to soak up the curb. The Mercedes' response to the curbing made it feel wider with a lower center of gravity. I spun the Audi there twice during the race but happily didn't hit anything.

Early in the race, I went out with a bent car having opted for only "required repairs", Coffey not responding on Teamspeak to my queries on how car the looks and I looped it at T5 to be collected by a car behind despite having slid almost completely clear of the racing surface. That was probably 2X for the loss of control and another 4X for the collision. That was my most costly mistake, had to pit again for even more substantial repairs, probably cost us 1-3 laps.

I think that there had to have been something else but the only other incident that I remember is getting caught in another's mistake at Bus Stop. The third curb sent his Lambo around and I got clipped, unable to avoid ,which redirected me into the outer wall of the banking. That was probably the biggest shunt that we had, 28 minutes for repairs IIRC.

I can only remember the one high speed off for Coffey which came right before my pit stop and T5 incident.

I started getting screen freezes on what was supposed to be the first half of my last double stint so I handed the car off to Rich early, fearing that my computer would lead to a big incident with only two hours left after we had worked our way up to P11 from P23.

Coffey and I ran an IMSA Endurance race @ Daytona the previous Sunday where we were happy to be in a split with only GT3 cars but during the 24, the prototypes were mostly a blessing that kept keep boredom at bay. I had a small number of awkward moments with LMPs, one stupidly unpredictable and slow and possibly one close call. Coffey did get together with one, I can't remember any more. 

I'd do this again next year but with 4 or 6 drivers. Having to be present for ~26 hours (07:30 registration, 08:00 official practice, 08:30 qualifying. 08:41 race start, finish 24 hours + 1 lap later) was much harder than the driving. I didn't know what to do with myself for one hour and even two was barely enough to get anything meaningful done while needing to have an ear out for my driver. About 20 hours in, I started laying down to rest my eyes and my brain with a timer set and team coms still audible. 

One stint (~50 minutes) went by quick and two wasn't all that much harder, benefiting from warm tires and brain, albeit more so at the start of stint 2; one stint became easy, albeit with minimal pressure for most of the race as the early problems lowered the goal to top half of the GT3 field and we were only once on the same lap as a competitor, largely safe from behind and no hope to catch whomever was ahead; speed didn't matter, only avoiding trouble did.

We did a mix of single, double and triple stints. Fuel every time we were in the pits for any reason, tires initially every stop and after damage, feels like we might have been able to go three stints on a set at night but we had never tested and there was more to be lost than gained from a poor gamble so we evolved to one set of tires for every two tanks of fuel.