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Race Green 400km of Westhill 2024 - information and discussions


The 5th edition of our yearly endurance challenge around Westhill's narrow support roads will see another attempt of distance extention - just like in year 2021 the event will be run over 400 kilometers of nominal distance. With average speed of around 100 kilometers per hour this means a 4 hours race,which can be done alone or in teams of up to 3 drivers. To increase chances for multidriver teams to be competitive,this year we will introduce adaptive mandatory pitstop length to compensate extra pitlane entry - this means there will be no disadvantage to make 2 or 3 pitstops against just a single pitstop strategy! That should help to motivate teams to enter with multi-driver lineup instead of underestimating race distance and run alone,which in many cases ends with retirement. Additionally we added a "Opel Manta rule" - that allows applications of less competitive cars for entries that want to tackle the challenge,but don't want to race the PL200W (TBO) class cars.

For this edition the track has been extended a lot - it received one smaller and one longer section to increase total lap length of 18.34 kilometers,coincidentally matching race lapcount of last year despite total distance increase - the race also this year will be 22 laps long,resulting in total distance of 403.5 kilometers. The longer new section features a bit narrower roads and we had to "cheat" some section connections with concrete,but the event spirit of challenging track does stay unchanged.

Another new addition this season is the 24 hours long qualifying session for this event - entries will have much more time to put themselves on grid,reducing attending time of race day. This will be possible thanks to our friends at New Dimension Racing,who will help with providing laptime tracking for qualifying and live admining during the race.



Timetable:
Saturday,18th May
15:30 UTC / 17:30 CET - start of 24 hours open track qualifying
Sunday,19th May
15:30 UTC / 17:30 CET - end of 24 hours open track qualifying (started laps can be completed)
16:00 UTC / 18:00 CET - race start for the 22 laps race
* the shown CET time is current (summer) time - if not residing in CET time zone,always refer to UTC for correct time zone convertion!


Qualifying:

During the 24 hours long session all the entries will be allowed to do as many laps as they wish and can,but only the fastest laptime of each entry will count. The session end time marks the point when entries may start a timed lap.

Race:
Race will feature an extended starting grid - cars will be placed on grid in rows seperated by 20 meters distance between them to lower the probability of early incidents. Every entry is expected to be familiar withthe track,pitlane entry,exit and driver change procedure for error free pitstops.

Mandatory pitstop:
Race requires mandatory minimum time to be spent in pitstall,which has different length depending on amount of pitstops done. This is done to compensate extra pitlane entries as some cars require more pitstops and multidriver teams may require more pitstops for driver swaps. A pitstop (driving under speed limit,braking for pitstall and accelerating from it) costs around 15 seconds without including pitwork - this time is used for minimum pitstop time calculations:
• 1 pitstop - 180 seconds (3 minutes)
• 2 pitstops - 165 seconds (2 minutes,45 seconds)
• 3 and more pitstops - 150 seconds (2 minutes,30 seconds)
Entry which has spent less time will receive penalty time added to his finish time,which will be calculated by doubling the missing time to complete neccesary minimum time and adding additional 10 seconds. Drivers failing to pit at all will receive 390 seconds penalty added to finish time (180s*2 + additional 30s).
* Entries running cars with challenger status are exempt from mandatory pitstop requirement!

Track and it's limits:
Due the low average width of the course it is important to point out about track limits - track is defined by paved surface (asphalt/tarmac/cobblestones) and 2 wheels have to be on it at all times! Drivers may not cut corners over grass and also may not run wide on grass when exiting turns with more than 2 wheels. If such event happens due a mistake,driver has to lift off throttle to make sure no advantage is gained. Fastest laps in both sessions will be checked for any violations while other drivers might be randomly checked during whole race. Best way to avoid any penalties is to stay fair!
There are serveral sections where leaving paved surface with all wheels is tolerated - glass patches which are marked with yellow and blue chalk arrows are a legal racing surface. All around the track there are posts on both inside and outside of turns - even if these have no legal use and they are just visual help to determine track limits,drivers still should avoid knocking them down.
With some help of community we named several turns and sections,which can also be used as orientation:


Cars and restrictions:
To level out performance of all available cars,an restriction table has been created - the used restriction method is voluntary air restriction in percents and added weight in kilograms. Each car has it's advantages and disadvantages,but overall deemed to have relatively equal performance after our limited testing.

Car setup limitations:

Slick tyres are not allowed!
Mods configs are not allowed to have rollcage,crashbars and lightbars - please select configs without these (illegal equipment)!

Cars list:

Original LFS cars:
• FXO - 5%
• FZ5 - 21%
• RAC - 27%
• RB4 - 5%
• XRT - 0%

Mods:
8JFZ SUPERCELESTRAL - 8%
ACOSTA STARLIN - 32%
BZ30 ROADSTER - 0%
CZR LUXURY SEDAN - 10%
DORITO-FC7 D - 23%
EM30 - 0%
ESPRESSO D - 0%
FRAUD WHEELER E2 - 16%
FZ70 4GTS - 41%
GE20 - 34%
GM_SST_TONNARI - 8%
GT-V34 - 10%
IMPREZZIVE B2 - 25%
MZG SEDAN - 18%
PIRAN FIREFLY 200 - 12%
SALIVA15 - 0%
UF1 1200GTS - 0%
URC1 - 50% + 130kg
VSI-V2000 - 0%
XF COUPE TURBO - 9%
XF TURBO 5 - 3%
XR GT K SWAP - 0%

Cars with challenger status:
CHORUS ATTENDANZE XT-Z 4R - estimated 1.8min off pace
FX ELECTRIC - 17% - estimated 3.9 laps range (recharge ~5.4s per 1%)
• XFG - estimated 1min off pace
• XRG - estimated 1min off pace

It is advised to test several cars before signing up to decide the best car for your or your team's performance! Cars have different handling characteristics,some might be slightly less competitive. Cars list and their full specifications data can be found in RG400KW2024 spreadsheet.
Some cars still have WIP status.
It is possible to apply other cars from public mods list,please check this post below for link to car applications thread.
Drivers are responsible to use correct restriction during pre-event practice! Server will have the restrictions enforced in the last week of practice and during official event sessions via PiranMoto Car Limiter insim app.
DISCLAIMER: Race Green Events is not affiliated to any of these user created cars! This means that organization of this event cannot affect existance and quality of these cars. We monitor any updates and check for their effect on cars performance to decide if any alteration of restriction is needed.

Other info:
Blue flag behaviour - due long lap very rarely such occasion might happen. Even if the usual Race Green Events' rule of "you may not block lapping car's passing manouvre" is used also here,it is advised to try not to stay ahead of lapping car and let by in safe location before lapping pass is needed. Lapping cars still have to be very patient,wait for safe opportunity to lap and not force a pass in narrow turns.

Basic racing rules - we'll use as always basic rules of clean racing and judge incidents with common sense. It is advised to avoid any contacts in any situation to ensure clean and fair racing.

Rejoins - in case of time out,rolled or undrivable car it is permitted to rejoin the race. To ensure better visibility of race positions,the rejoined entry will receive back the completed laps as soon as possible - race administration will check the replay during race. If the timeout or telepit has happened before reaching 1st split of a lap,one lap will be deducted to avoid possible misuse!

Postrace action - after the distance has been completed,3 highest finishing cars are asked to take a place on a podium for post race media,located between tribunes on the left side of Tribunes backstraight (check track map above). After top3 have taken their positions and photos are made,all other competitors also may join the area besides podium for further photo sessions.

Chatting - is limited during the race session. Allowed are short communications like appologies,thanking for letting by or between drivers of same entry when deciding when to pit and make driver swap,allthough it is encouraged to use external voice chat application (Discord,Teamspeak,phone call or whatever suits best). Race Green Events can offer a private voice channel in it's discord server if needed.
Unneccesary conversations will receive warning first and if not stopped - entry will receive drive-through penalty.
Not competing observers may not use chat at all!

Skins - specific car skins are not required in this race,allthough it is highly suggested to have a skin that displays entry number on car's side. Feel free to use event's official full logo on your skins! Also skins must fullfill lfsworld skin upload requirements and drivers may not use skins they don't have rights to use - like private skins of others or other teamskins.

Name format - entry number (may not be colored black or dark blue) required in front of your registered name,number and name must be seperated by a space.

Event server - server is online,is set in practice mode and has an Airio for laptime tracking (due hexadecimal code,most mods laptimes cannot be shown on simple !top table). Airio can spectate connections with very high and unstable ping for safety reasons (stable connections even from Australia should not be affected). Server will be open for public use until race weekend. For private practice feel free to use the attached layout.
Server link (click2join): Race Green Events

Event will be held using the latest stable version of LFS (currently 0.7E),compatible older versions and compatible test patches are tolerated.

All information here can be changed,if so,notification will be posted about changes.

Signups:
To sign up for this event,please visit Signups thread! Signed-up drivers will receive server information and password at least 24h before round start (planned in friday evening European time in weekend before event) via PM on this forum! Make sure you have enabled PM receiving!

Car applications:
It is possible to apply other cars besides the cars in the current list,however these applications will be closed 1 weeks before the event as testing will be required. For car applications requirements and rules,please visit Car applications thread!
Attached images
RG400kmWesthill2024-web.png
RG400kmWesthill2024.png
Westschleife2024.png
Attached files
WE1Y_RGE Westschleife 2024.lyt - 19.4 KB - 121 views
Can we go with any car ?
3 cars with challenger status have been added for entries that would like to participate,but don't want to deal with rather high pace of PL200W class cars.
Selected are both LFS GTI class cars and the only eligible staff pick mod.

Entries running cars with challenger status are exempt from mandatory pitstop requirement!
As promotion for electric powered cars FXO ELECTRIC was added as challenger car - it's pace with full pace is on par with PL200W class,however it's range is quite low. Unfortunatelly LFS does not support regeneration for AWD cars yet and LFS mods list does not feature a well made competitive 2WD car.
Car applications period has ended and the CarLimiter app is running in server from now - that means you can join only with cars on event's list and with correct restrictor!
Server is now passworded and password has been sent to all entrants via PM.

If someone hasn't received it due some mistake,please give a notification!

Signups are still open and new entries will receive PM at some point during saturday/sunday.
The 24 hours long qualifying session has started. Live results can be seen in https://tracker.newdimensionracing.com/
All entries have to set a laptime during this session to qualify for the race!
Unofficial qualifying results:
Attached images
q.png
Official results


The 5th edition of the yearly Westhill endurance race had 2 increasements - the distance was increased to 400 kilometers for the 2nd time and the grid featured the biggest number of cars on it. From 27 signups 2 were never completed,1 withdrew,2 never arrived,but all remaining 22 qualified and also started the 22 laps race. There were entered 3 each 3-driver teams and 2-driver teams,however once again most entries were solo drivers,but from 16 of those only 9 actually completed full race distance. 11 different cars were entered,most popular for 2nd year in row was Piranmoto Firefly with 6 entries (twice as much as last year),followed by LFS's own RB4 with 4 entries,however 7 entries were running unique cars.



For the 3rd year in row the top running car is RB4,for the 2nd year in row it was driven by Born 2 Race team driver,however the driver itself was different this year - it's the lithuanian known using a single letter M for his name. He was the fastest in qualifying by over 1 second and led 19 of the 22 laps on his way to convincing race win,beating his own set lap record by 3.4 seconds during the race. M finished the race with over 1 minute big advantage and that despite drifting few turns during last lap as he was encouraged to do so by fans. This is a huge improvement compared to his only previous attendance of this event last year where he qualified 6th and completed just 5 of 22 laps to be scored 14th,which is last position between starters.

Another 2nd in row is 2nd place finishing team - YES motorsport repeated the performance of last year,but this time running FXO instead of other FWD car and having 3 different drivers to drive it. The team had deffinitelly a lot of experience and success in luggage - Trespasser was part of winning team in inaugural edition,Gábor was part of winning team in 2022 edition and their 3rd driver Lagooga was in runner up team last year. They led 3 laps due different pitstop strategy,but eventually had to concede and settle for 2nd place finish. During 4 previous runnings podium always featured 3 different cars (also in 2020,where only 3 cars were available),this year this tradition was broken - officially by 3rd place finisher Twin,who put 2nd RB4 on the podium. The defending winner just like last year run same car and did it alone,but this year got outrun by stronger competition as he finished 2 minutes 40 behind race winner.

For the first time in event's history the race was broadcasted live by SimBroadcasts.tv crew,giving the chance everyone outside event to see the action live with all the makes and breaks of the race. They put together a lot of effort setting up probably record amount of cameras for the 18km track and their commentating trio were around all 4 hours of race duration plus race recap. For those missing the livestream,here is the chance to rewatch the race on Youtube:


From 31 participating drivers,12 already had previous experience in this annual event - 4 of those in 3 or more runnings,however only 1 driver is now left being running on each edition as the other one was travelling at this time. With 3 previous winners this of course was the biggest gathering of those compared to previous editions,let's hope for at least 4 of them next year! Track extension coupled with longer mandatory pitstop length led to lower average speed compared to last year - winner's average speed was 100.04km/h,which is 3 less than last year.

Regarding future plans - there is one concept of possible extension of the track,extending it by estimated 1km,but that still has to be tested. Of course the 2 faster cars will have it's power cut once again to reduce their supremacy,motivating entrants to select more different cars,adjusting their balancing if needed - all of that will be started as always around january with 1st preperations of the 6th annual edition. Then we will check the situation of racing community to decide if it's ready for distance extention to 500km (another step towards wished 1000km),stay with 400km or go back to basics.

Race Green Events thanks all drivers for participation and guys behind the scenes for their input and efforts,especially J.Palmer from NDR for his administration and timing tools and Jam for his Carlimiter application. As always everyone is welcome to share their experience from the event,either in form of text,pictures or videos! Also (even if that rarely happens) - we're awaiting winner's speach!
Attached images
RG400kmW-podium.jpg
W1.jpg
W2.jpg
W3.jpg
W4.jpg
W5.jpg
W6.jpg
W7.jpg
When will be the next Westhill 400?
It's an annual race, next one is a while away in May 2025.

FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG