u/Yokos2137

So, when Spa 6 hours event was announced, me and my teammate have decided to give it a go and try to compete in it. He had some experience from ACC on this track, so he is pretty good on this track and much faster than me. I was training whole week for race, and got to maybe not the best, but fairly consistent pace (we werent aiming for win or smth). But here are things started to get tricky. Unfortunetly I was able to go only on friday, last session, which was literally at 1am saturday (friday 23:00 UTC) for me (yeah, literally whole night). And I wasn't able to take much rest before race (literally all I've got was 1.5 hour of sleep). But it didn't stopped us. I've prepared for that and have got few energy drinks (probably overkill, since I've ended on drinking literally only one during race and one few hours after, because I haven't been able to go to sleep, this would kill my already a bit messed sleep schedule) and some light snacks.

So split has started, there wasn't that many registered cars, and We were in a bit higher rated lineup (B3 DR, S1 SR lineup rating), so we have ended in split 1 from 2. So we have got to quali. I've left this for my teammate since he was faster. Unfortunetly in this split, all we got was P22. I've got on my hands first two stints. We weren't starting from pit lane, but tbf, start was quite clean, in first few laps we have got some contacts, some hyperdonkeys, or BMW pit manuverimg on my nose, but it was fine, I wasn't pushing super hard and on the end of second stint, We were at around P14 with potential for P12 and even lower, because we have managed to already off-sync ourself from other drivers with longer stints. Next two stints also were completly fine with my teammate going into P9 without any major mistakes.

And then, fifth stint. I went into car for the second time, on new front tyres, and one stint old rear tyres. And this stint was total disaster. First of all, I forgot how bad is McLaren on cold front tyres and went a bit too fast from pit lane, went wide and... Red track limits. I've tried to do something quite not safe which was parking on track to not get penalty, or make it lower. I know, I know, unfortunetly, it was worth nothing. I've got DT penalty.

Then few laps into this stint after DT, higher wear on rear tyres was showing itself, in Blanchimont I went for too agressive line, and lost my rear. Cooked tyres, but I've managed to stop to not get big damage. But damage was done. I've got flat spots (which is even more deadly in GT3 than LMP due to pretty low overall grip) and lap later lost it again after clipping grass for no reason. Fortunetly this time without slamming into wall, just tyres, but thoose were trash at this point, after like 4 laps. Then few laps after that, probably biggest disaster and huge code brown. After geting through radilion and accelerating on kemmel straight, I've looked for a moment on clock on second monitor, stupid mistake, because when I've looked back I was clipping grass (again) with my left side and already starting to loose car again. Then wall on the opposite side.

But this wasn't end of the world. Sure, 100s pit stop isn't ideal, but we had so big pit stop advantage that it was completly possible for us to get around P10 finish. So I gave back car to my teammate with two stints left (literally perfectly two stints if we fuel save) we still had chances. First stint was good, we have saved our target, but on second one another disaster. My teammate game has crashed. I wasn't in my rig at this moment, so after realising what has happened, I've hopped into my rig and drove for last 40 minutes. I've still needed to fuel save a lot, so pushing wasn't an option. But I've did my best to at least get to the end. Unfortunetly, we have finished dead last, except one car that was one lap down. But at least we have finished (unlike 8 GT3s and 9 hypercars).

Do I regret supid decision of doing that one race? Even after loosing a lot of my Driver Rating and team DR, I'd say no, it was super fun to race and great preparation for 24 hours of Le Mans that will be in next month I guess. Sure, could be better, but no one is perfect and someone needs to make mistakes in order for others to win.

Super short TL;DR, always take good rest before race and always respect car, don't be too confident.

And if anyone has raced in this split, congrats on finishing, it was still great race.

Uploading this took around a hour, but it was worth it

I've made post about this race already, but this is another incident. Short context I was McLaren and I was one lap down after pit stop in early phase of race. On previous lap, I've managed to unlap myself from this Porsche (I was still faster, there was no contact etc.), that was driving on P13, when Mustang that was on P12 has braked a lot earlier to the corner. I wasn't close enaugh to make any move, so I've also braked earlier and Porsche did this. Does that look intentional, or they've just missed braking point and used me as way to get more rotation in that corner instead of going wide?