[ELMS Race] 2016 ELMS Round 5: 4h of Spa-Francorchamps

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by Ephaeton

Speaking of fourth, @Mike Hedlund, when/if you catch up with this thread, how was your view on you collecting the #4?

Meanwhile, Hedman no match for Rojas, down another place.

GG: "vertically challenged Simon Dolan" - lol

Was the #4 the prototype I hit in the last chicane? If so, I left him plenty of room and went to the brakes early to make it easy for him to overtake me. He spun on turn-in and instead of doing what any reasonable driver would have done (let the car roll back off the racing surface onto the paved runoff and out of the way), he held the brakes the brakes and I hit him square in the side while trying to dive under him.

It ruined our race as it put a huge hole in the front of the car that killed front downforce and our top speed (drag). Even without that, we've had some sort of issue with our chassis ever since it was used at the last minute for the LM24 -- Wolf has consistently been 1-2+ seconds off whichever pro is driving the other chassis, and I think we can all agree that he's a pretty good driver (regardless of what you think of me.. :-)).

Anyway -- we still had a shot at a podium at the end, but the safety cars really ruined our strategy since Wolf was in the car for both (which meant he only had 3 green flag laps). We had to roll the dice and pit Marco at the last stop and not do tires to get him out ahead of the green Ferrari -- that was our only chance since they were going to be a lot faster no matter what. In the last 10 minutes or so Marco was a sitting duck as we were around 4 seconds a lap slower than the Ferrari (who had fresh tires and a fully functioning car).

Overall, racing a GTE car at Spa was one of the coolest things I've ever done, even if it was difficult to drive and I didn't do as good of a job as I should have. A bunch of the prototype drivers (but not all of them) were complete c*nts the entire weekend. GTE and LMP3 cars really do not mix well with their current performance windows, it's not enjoyable to be in a race with them.

In FP2 a P2 car tried to pass me into T5 and I left him room. He locked up all 4 wheels, went flying passed me and straight through T6. I stayed on-line and hardly lost any time and I came out of T6 on the racing line and he rejoined the track at full speed and chopped me. So I pushed him off the track going into T7. Two laps later I caught a P3 car and he started blocking me to keep from overtaking him. I hit him coming out La Source (on the exit!) as he tried to block me again. That's the first time I damaged the RSR -- both front corners and the nose in one session. But, some of the prototype drivers only understand it when they get hit. There's people driving in the series who have no business being on a race track, let alone in a "professional" series with the speed potentials these cars have.

Sorry for the vent. :-)

-mike

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

(regardless of what you think of me.. :-))

I have no specific opinion of you, I just think it's cool you're here and talking to us as no matter the speed, you are more knowledgeable than many of us WRT what's "really" going on.
Once you start pushing people out on your passes, let's revisit that stance

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

Sorry for the vent. :-)

NP - and thanks for the insight / reply.

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

Was the #4 the prototype I hit in the last chicane? If so, I left him plenty of room and went to the brakes early to make it easy for him to overtake me. He spun on turn-in and instead of doing what any reasonable driver would have done (let the car roll back off the racing surface onto the paved runoff and out of the way), he held the brakes the brakes and I hit him square in the side while trying to dive under him.

It ruined our race as it put a huge hole in the front of the car that killed front downforce and our top speed (drag). Even without that, we've had some sort of issue with our chassis ever since it was used at the last minute for the LM24 -- Wolf has consistently been 1-2+ seconds off whichever pro is driving the other chassis, and I think we can all agree that he's a pretty good driver (regardless of what you think of me.. :-)).

Anyway -- we still had a shot at a podium at the end, but the safety cars really ruined our strategy since Wolf was in the car for both (which meant he only had 3 green flag laps). We had to roll the dice and pit Marco at the last stop and not do tires to get him out ahead of the green Ferrari -- that was our only chance since they were going to be a lot faster no matter what. In the last 10 minutes or so Marco was a sitting duck as we were around 4 seconds a lap slower than the Ferrari (who had fresh tires and a fully functioning car).

Overall, racing a GTE car at Spa was one of the coolest things I've ever done, even if it was difficult to drive and I didn't do as good of a job as I should have. A bunch of the prototype drivers (but not all of them) were complete c*nts the entire weekend. GTE and LMP3 cars really do not mix well with their current performance windows, it's not enjoyable to be in a race with them.

In FP2 a P2 car tried to pass me into T5 and I left him room. He locked up all 4 wheels, went flying passed me and straight through T6. I stayed on-line and hardly lost any time and I came out of T6 on the racing line and he rejoined the track at full speed and chopped me. So I pushed him off the track going into T7. Two laps later I caught a P3 car and he started blocking me to keep from overtaking him. I hit him coming out La Source (on the exit!) as he tried to block me again. That's the first time I damaged the RSR -- both front corners and the nose in one session. But, some of the prototype drivers only understand it when they get hit. There's people driving in the series who have no business being on a race track, let alone in a "professional" series with the speed potentials these cars have.

Sorry for the vent. :-)

-mike

Hi mike, more than once I've read some post of yours. If I remember well, you have experienced driving both ferrari 458 and porsche 911 in your career. Both cars have most of their weight on the rear of the car, but what's the difference of driving feeling and handling between the two cars?

[Ephaeton]

I had asked the same myself (essentially?) after Mike's Paul Ricard Proton test, and this is what he answered back then
(oh and successfully foresaw the GT v LMP3 overlap nightmare he related to just right now again)