A different kind of 24 hour race

[Bramzel]

I know this might belong in the Virtual Racers corner, but I still wanted to put it here as it's a actual 24 hour race where people race against eachother, and which can be followed live at the website.

Together with 4 friends we're running a league using GTR2. After our LeMans visit last year the idea popped up to do that with a videogame as well. If you don't have the money to do real racing, why not make fake racing as real as possible?

So after a couple of months of organizing we made it: Our first real 24 hour race. It'll be a event at Simworld, which is like an arcadehall but then with simulators. At the moment we've got people for about 9 of the 20 simulators, with more people coming.

Below you can read the pressrelease one of my friends wrote in English.

A one-of-a-kind event
In cooperation with title sponsor Sitecom and with Simworld Almere, DigitalRacing.nl presents a 24 hour race on the famous Spa Francorchamps track on march 3rd and 4th 2007. We’ll be using Simbin’s acclaimed racesimulation, GTR2. Forget about races that take 75, 90, or even 120 minutes: this will prove to be the true challenge! 1440 minutes, over 600 laps, 30 pitstops, real driver changes, dynamic realtime day-night transitions, and compromised car setups that have to suit you and your teammates.

The Race
For the race we will be using Simbin’s acclaimed racesimulation pc game, GTR2. The track will be the famous and challenging track of Spa-Francorchamps. This is the track where every year the official ‘real’ FIA GT 24 hours of Spa will be held. Teams can enter the Sitecom 24 hours as a team. Three or four drivers can be entered per team. The car that are eligible are the GT1’s from the game. We will be using our own carset, which means every team has to design its own livery.

Sitecom
Sitecom, one of the market leaders for computer connectivity products, is the title sponsor for this unique event. DigitalRacing.nl is more than happy to have this Dutch, Rotterdam based company, as its partner for this challenging event.

Simworld
The venue for this event will be Simworld in Almere (Netherlands). Simworld offers 20 high performance simulators. Through the low seat positioning and the high sides, the feeling of a real cockpit is generated. This feeling is being enhanced by the fantastic sound system and the good quality monitors.

DigitalRacing.nl
DigitalRacing has been around since Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix series. Nowadays DigitalRacing.nl focuses on the racegamer who is looking for realism and is in search for challenges. We organize on line championships for games like GTR2, RACE and GT Legends.

For more information go to: http://www.digital24h.nl/

BTW, though I work for Simbin this project is not related to Simbin other than using one of it's games. It's non-commercial (no profit will be made, we're just looking to cover our costs) and you could call it a hobby-gone-wild

PS: If there are any virtual racers here who would like to join us with a team, have a look at the website. We're open for racers from other countries as well

[Satorian]

I'm tempted. 230 km isn't that far away.

Now I just need a ride.

[Bentley03]

Sounds very interesting, Bramzel, it's a great idea!

The thread definitely belongs in the Virtual Racers section of the forum. But I agree, this is the domain of 24 hour race fans. As a compromise, I'm happy to leave the thread here for 24 hours () before moving it to Virtual Racers (although if Adam, Paul or Tim think it should be moved immediately, that's what will happen!).

Good luck!

[The Badger]

I just got GTR2 and the download fro Le Mans track ..... its brilliant !!!

Love to do the race but , no time !!!

[MikeHoyer]

I'd like to do something like this one day, but no time, and I'm not very good at racing sims. 24 minutes is about my limit!

The only thing that I think could be an issue is if you damage the car or have some sort of mechanical dramas. I don't think major repairs are simulated (or are they...?), so if you have an off and damage the suspension on the first lap, it's damaged for the duration. Whereas in real life you'd spend some time in the pits, get it repaired and go out in a well handling car again.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by MikeHoyer

........and I'm not very good at racing sims.

You're too modest, Mike. Rumour has it that your 'sim' skills recently put a Le Mans champion to shame!

[MikeHoyer]

Oh that's true. But that was three laps on a playstation, GTR2 for 24 hours he might have the edge...

[Bramzel]

Originally Posted by MikeHoyer

The only thing that I think could be an issue is if you damage the car or have some sort of mechanical dramas. I don't think major repairs are simulated (or are they...?), so if you have an off and damage the suspension on the first lap, it's damaged for the duration. Whereas in real life you'd spend some time in the pits, get it repaired and go out in a well handling car again.

We will probably set the damagelevel a bit lower, so car can hit the wall a bit harder without getting too much damage. We know it takes away the realism a bit, but we want to avoid people crashing out too early. Suspension damage is possible, and it can be fixed during a lenghty pitstop. The same goes for bodydamage. Mechanical failures we're putting off probably for the sake of the funfactor: in real life its a important factor but here we find the fun-for-money factor a bit more important. After all for us untrained pc-racers driving that long is difficult enough already!

[Start_16]

I was under the impression GTR2 has a 512 lap limit?

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Be sure to get some video footage of it, including driver changes!

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by Start_16

I was under the impression GTR2 has a 512 lap limit?

512 laps or 24 hours AFAIK. But I don't play (note that regarding racing simulations the word "drive" should only be used for LFS) GTR2 that much, so it's probably wrong LOL.