Ford v Ferrari SSD RCS64 2 hour Endurance Fuel Burn Parity

The first full tank test results are in with the majority of cars close with only a few laps of each other, however in a 520 lap race a difference of 4 laps per tank will mean at least 1 extra pit stop so a slight adjustment will be required, thanks for the tip off Minardi .

As for the ID 4 car it is the quickest to drive on track and gets the most laps per tank (I.e. less use of the trigger as the fuel tank gets lower), this could lead to at least a 2 pit stop advantage .

I think I will play with the power control for this car to reduce it's speed by say 5% to 10% at the fuller fuel tank levels, this should slow the car down to the level of the other cars (until the tank is lower) and this should see more fuller trigger use to burn fuel a bit quicker.

This is an interesting use of the RMS to try and achieve parity, based of course on car behaviour using a control driver (me ), I'm sure the results will be completely different once other drivers start driving the cars under race conditions, this of course is the FUN bit .

Oh well! more testing = more laps, such a shame , I now have a plan for tomorrow

OK the first 2 hour Endro race at Frog Hollow Raceway has been raced and won, and just like in the Movies Ford v Ferrari the b#@@%y Ford Won! (that is so painful for a Holden man like myself to have to write that ), anyway the good news is I managed a podium spot , the bad news is there was only 3 teams and my team finished 3rd , despite starting on Poll and running a close 2nd most of the night and I stuffed up a pit stop at lap 400 ish and lost track position and never got it back .

Race Format:

- Laps 520 to simulate 2 hours as RCS64 has a maximum Endurance Race glitch of 58 minutes, race actually took 1:52:13 so it was pretty close .

- Teams of 2 drivers, max laps per driver 280, min laps per driver 240, max laps per driver stint 60.

- Penalty of a 1 lap deduction from final result for each excessive lap infringement.

- Teams based on qualifying session where each driver runs 5 laps with both a Ford & Ferrari to post best times and Team One is 1st & 6th (my team ), Team Two is 2nd & 5th & Team Three is 4th & 5th (winners).

- One team member drove while the 2nd team member marshalled and acted as race engineer advising fuel, tyres, stint laps etc.

Lessons Learned:

- Don't adjust Fuel Tank size, whilst it can even up the number of fuel pit stops between slower & quicker cars the quicker car with the smaller tank has a faster re-fueling time so gets an advantage anyway.

- If a car is uncompetitively quicker than other cars just adjust the Power Control level at each stage to bring the car back to the pack and don't worry about never giving it 100% if it is just that quick (I didn't adjust the ID 4 GT40 car enough and the team with that car just figured out to run on a lower tank volume to blitz the field (less trigger use less fuel stops etc.).

- Back Up Cars are a must, my Team's car had a front axle mount snap off which is not a quick repair so the replacement car kept us in the race. Only 1 car killed in 2 hours of Digital racing is probably a fair outcome

- Next time we are thinking of having teams only marshal their own cars which will bring the Track Call function more into play and require Damage Repair pit stops, our race only had 2 Track Calls in 520 laps so Damage Repair was not an issue (Teams had 4 Damage Points each).

Technical Stuff:

- Pretty impressed with the robustness of SSD to run for 2 hours uninterrupted and have car chips, lane changes, RMS and cars (except for 1 casualty) to run so well especially on a track that is now 14 years old.

- Only issue is the race actually ended on lap 518 being 2 laps short, the 3rd placed car was actually the first to show on the RMS screen as Finished, the 2nd placed car was next and when the lead car crossed the S/F line the race ended. Not sure if this is a gremlin in RCS64 like the 58 minute Endurance Race maximum as we have never raced for this long before, no big deal just feedback knowing that RCS02 is next Gen .

Anyway the Race summary is listed below FYI showing that the ID 4 car GT40 No 60 had an average lap time 1 second faster which gave it the 39 lap win despite me trying to even these cars up, Oh well I will be much better prepared for our next Endro event and tonight's race was a barrel of FUN despite me finishing last ....oops I mean 3rd

Congratulations on your podium finish

Sounds very similar to our WHO 'Tourist Trophy' format - which is a blast. The first time we ran for 300-400 laps the race finished two laps early, but not the second. We had a track call / yellow flag in the first race, not in the second. Maybe that was it? Not a problem though.

We do find the longer races aren't necessarily close. The main factors seem to be the quality of driving, teamwork and luck with car issues. That can make the races dramatic, but not close. Our 45 minute GT races are usually closer. We don't adjust tank size or power levels to balance performance. The longer the race, the bigger tank size I set and the longer the settings for tyre change and refuel.

Our Wednesday night club car team races last an hour, but are split into three or four segments. At the end of each segment, cars are swapped, the segment winners swap with the last placed car, second with fifth etc. Along with seeded drivers to equalise teams, these races can be exceptionally close at the end of an hour's racing.