Hello Ladies and Gentleman! (btw. excuse me if im writing some crap...drunk right now a little bit )
First of all...
Congratulations to Cyber Racing for the winning of the championship!
Second of all...
Thank you to the admins for organizing this amzing season!
Third of all
Thank you Mika Radmer from Gamer-FM for this whole broadcasting this season. And i hope u guys enjoyed me doing co-commentaries the second half of the season =)
Fourth of all...
Thank you to everybody who raced along with us during the whole season!!!11
now lets get a little deeper into this...
We the Zwarte Wind Racing team were looking forward to this season since the public 24h race held by the german community on Kyoto GP Long back there in May 2006.
I personaly wasnt a ZWR Member at this point. I was driving for the Fragmaster Community team at that time...but as ZWR is part of that community...weve already worked together and prepared for the 24h race (FM was also participating in the 24h race) and just a few weeks later i joined ZWR since FM developed into a different directory but thats some other topic now
Right as i joined ZWR we talked about other Endurance Leagues where we also participating in quite a few...so we already had quite good endurance experience in LFS. So we realy looked forward to the MoE and maybe get the opportunity to join the Series. We also raced in the 4h MoE welcome patch T race on as north...
I think in July or somewhere around that there was a news by the MoE admins that a new season will start around september...and that was kinda the "green signal" for us...we started practicing hard to improve ourselves with GTR endurance races we did internal with the team...developed setups
for several tracks for the FXR (!) car.
Then in late august the application rounds started for ZeH Masters of Endurance Season 2...and also the support series LFS GT was announced.
We immediately sent our application in (im sure we were the first one lol) and were hoping that we get invited. We didnt even mind if we didnt get invited, then we would have joined the LFS GT and prove that we are up for the MoE which is by far the best season with the highest racing standard out there.
So we applied with the FXR car...and many questions followed us through the season why the heck we chose that car!? Well to point that out...we had internal discussions going on what car we should go for...we all had the most experience with the FXR car but of course we thought about the FZR as it is just the fastest of the GTR cars out there...
We came to the point of thinking hey...screw this...this is an endurance season..we need a car we feel most comfortable (as we didnt aim for podium positions anyways) in longer races...e.g. when u get into the gravel or your car is highly damaged...you can always get that crappy FXR out of the gravel and bring it back to the pits without pressing shift+s!
A few days later there was the post on the forums that we got invited...being the only FXR car though which was a depressing moment for us...but hey wtf?! We just raced it...we didnt change our car like others did we just kept on doing it...we picked the car and we race it no matter what!
So after many many practice sessions...practice races we were fully prepared for our first MoE race. The 12 hours of Kyoto GP Long...
12h Kyoto GP Long
We had a good lineup before the race...being Reintjan Hoting, Brandon Warren and me, Theo Laas.
And the race started out also very nice...we immediately got a few positions up in the early stages of the race but like in every race there was a "bad moment"...our 3rd driver Brandon Warren didnt show up oO we informed the admins because of the 45% rule and already sent our very own Owen Atkin to get his lazy ass up and practice & prepare for 2 stints!
Luckily just a few laps before Owen had to step into the car..Brandon Warren got online in our Ventrilo...the electricity cut off in his area since there was a storm warning...so after all of the bad luck in this race...we finished in 13th position...which wasnt bad at all when we look back now!
The day after the race Brandon showed us a video he found on youtube about a tornado that was actualy just a few hundred meters away from his house on race day...which caused the power cut...(he lives in americas tornado valley..)
6h of Aston Grand Touring
yeah...we came to the second race in aston grand touring...except from once again the fact that weve been missing a driver...the race went pretty well! Our driver Ben Gossler who lives in the state of washington (usa) got up @ 3 or 4am in the morning to do the race start for us....
well yea we finished the race 15th out of 17th...which was already kinda a bad result luckily in this race there were 3 FXR's...Scirocco Players, Prodrive and we...
6h of Westhill
The next move went to the 6hours race of westhill...it was realy realy hard for us there to develop a decent setup. We had massive tyre problems before the race and luckily we got that sorted 1 day before the race.
Now the bad thing in this race was the fact that the FXR is such an underpowered car...such a highspeed course needs loads of power which the FXR just doesnt have! And "luckily" we were the only FXR team now in the MoE because Prodrive switched teh cars to FZR...
Yea...we got last....17th out of 17th...wasnt realy funny and the bad thing about this whole thing was the fact that there was just no way to get a better result...weve been fighting so damn hard...but theres just no way to be better with a car that just doesnt have the power....
24h of Aston Grand Prix
Hm'kay...24hours driving behind overpowered cars...that was my one and only thought before the race But **** we still kept on practicing...racing etc. and hoped to get at least a chance in the 24h race.
Of course the race went pretty bad for us coz there was just no power in that FXR to get a decent race result
As i was waiting for my nightshift stint together with owen atkin i kinda got bored and took the opportunity to join Mika in his broadcast! So yea that was my first time on the stream getting interviewed by mika and trying (!) to help him as a co-commentator (i hope u enjoyed it )...after a loong 24h race for us we once again finished 17th out of 17th...
U guys cant imagine how it felt for us racers (!!!) to drive behind others for 24hours and u just CANT get better...u sit there drive...put the pedal to the metal but u just cant get faster...i took a few weeks off racing in LFS since that was realy ****ed up for me personaly...
yea after a few days i got back to racing again especialy some other little events to get the feeling again of being compatative....and it worked out!
6h of Blackwood GP
Looking at the WR of the GTR cars before the Blackwood race gave us some hope to be a little more compatative this time than ever before! After knewing that we started practicing as hard as we practiced before the first race! The problem once again this race was the fact that the FXR is a tyre eating biatch! but we once again got that a little sorted the day before the race During the first 2 stints of the race it was the first time we could battle versus other cars...we had a very hard but nice and fair fight with team n!Faculty (XRR) and managed to finish the race in 14th position
6h of Kyoto National
There we go...last race of the season...this time lookin at the track felt like a punch in the face...
Ky National realy is an awesome track to race on...but not with an FXR vs. FZR+XRR the long oval straights were too long for the FXR to be compatative...the FXR is 10kph slower on the oval than the XRR and FZR...that was realy depressing this race...the race went sooo bad for us once again...but yeah...we picked the FXR so we lived with it In this race...every driver of our team had a disconnect aswel this time...
after my first 2 stints i joined Mika to do co-commentating again with him.
unluckily all of the disconnects through our stint calculations and strategies over...Reintjan Hoiting after suffering a disconnect had to go to work with only doing like 1,5 stints...as we planned 2,5 for him so there were still 3 hours left and Marco Hoekstra and me planned that ill just take over the car in the last stint...but unfortunately while we did a small break on Gamer-FM Marco suffered a disconnect so i had to jump into the car immediately while still having opened loads of programs in the background...yea...the break on Gamer-FM was over and since i didnt have time to tell Mika before and was still on teamspeak with him (and ventrilo with the team) i kinda did co-commentating while racing on the track which was quite funny
yeah well we finished 16th out of 16th...and that all thanks to that loooong oval straight
so in the final season standings we should be ranked 16th overall now...but hey guys...we are the best FXR team in the season and not to mention after all of the problems we have a 100% start finish
And i hope u guys also enjoyed driving with us as i think we were always a fair team and always found a nice place to let u guys overlap us
It was definately an amazing season for us...and i'd also like to thank my whole team for that long season
Lets see what a future season brings us...definately looking forward to it and i hope we get invited to race along with u guys again next season.
Thats about it...i think i bored u enough when u read this whole thing That just came out of my drunk head right now...so yea...
Cya all in Season 3 hopefully =)
greetz ZWR|T.Laas
First of all...
Congratulations to Cyber Racing for the winning of the championship!
Second of all...
Thank you to the admins for organizing this amzing season!
Third of all
Thank you Mika Radmer from Gamer-FM for this whole broadcasting this season. And i hope u guys enjoyed me doing co-commentaries the second half of the season =)
Fourth of all...
Thank you to everybody who raced along with us during the whole season!!!11
now lets get a little deeper into this...
We the Zwarte Wind Racing team were looking forward to this season since the public 24h race held by the german community on Kyoto GP Long back there in May 2006.
I personaly wasnt a ZWR Member at this point. I was driving for the Fragmaster Community team at that time...but as ZWR is part of that community...weve already worked together and prepared for the 24h race (FM was also participating in the 24h race) and just a few weeks later i joined ZWR since FM developed into a different directory but thats some other topic now
Right as i joined ZWR we talked about other Endurance Leagues where we also participating in quite a few...so we already had quite good endurance experience in LFS. So we realy looked forward to the MoE and maybe get the opportunity to join the Series. We also raced in the 4h MoE welcome patch T race on as north...
I think in July or somewhere around that there was a news by the MoE admins that a new season will start around september...and that was kinda the "green signal" for us...we started practicing hard to improve ourselves with GTR endurance races we did internal with the team...developed setups
for several tracks for the FXR (!) car.
Then in late august the application rounds started for ZeH Masters of Endurance Season 2...and also the support series LFS GT was announced.
We immediately sent our application in (im sure we were the first one lol) and were hoping that we get invited. We didnt even mind if we didnt get invited, then we would have joined the LFS GT and prove that we are up for the MoE which is by far the best season with the highest racing standard out there.
So we applied with the FXR car...and many questions followed us through the season why the heck we chose that car!? Well to point that out...we had internal discussions going on what car we should go for...we all had the most experience with the FXR car but of course we thought about the FZR as it is just the fastest of the GTR cars out there...
We came to the point of thinking hey...screw this...this is an endurance season..we need a car we feel most comfortable (as we didnt aim for podium positions anyways) in longer races...e.g. when u get into the gravel or your car is highly damaged...you can always get that crappy FXR out of the gravel and bring it back to the pits without pressing shift+s!
A few days later there was the post on the forums that we got invited...being the only FXR car though which was a depressing moment for us...but hey wtf?! We just raced it...we didnt change our car like others did we just kept on doing it...we picked the car and we race it no matter what!
So after many many practice sessions...practice races we were fully prepared for our first MoE race. The 12 hours of Kyoto GP Long...
12h Kyoto GP Long
We had a good lineup before the race...being Reintjan Hoting, Brandon Warren and me, Theo Laas.
And the race started out also very nice...we immediately got a few positions up in the early stages of the race but like in every race there was a "bad moment"...our 3rd driver Brandon Warren didnt show up oO we informed the admins because of the 45% rule and already sent our very own Owen Atkin to get his lazy ass up and practice & prepare for 2 stints!
Luckily just a few laps before Owen had to step into the car..Brandon Warren got online in our Ventrilo...the electricity cut off in his area since there was a storm warning...so after all of the bad luck in this race...we finished in 13th position...which wasnt bad at all when we look back now!
The day after the race Brandon showed us a video he found on youtube about a tornado that was actualy just a few hundred meters away from his house on race day...which caused the power cut...(he lives in americas tornado valley..)
6h of Aston Grand Touring
yeah...we came to the second race in aston grand touring...except from once again the fact that weve been missing a driver...the race went pretty well! Our driver Ben Gossler who lives in the state of washington (usa) got up @ 3 or 4am in the morning to do the race start for us....
well yea we finished the race 15th out of 17th...which was already kinda a bad result luckily in this race there were 3 FXR's...Scirocco Players, Prodrive and we...
6h of Westhill
The next move went to the 6hours race of westhill...it was realy realy hard for us there to develop a decent setup. We had massive tyre problems before the race and luckily we got that sorted 1 day before the race.
Now the bad thing in this race was the fact that the FXR is such an underpowered car...such a highspeed course needs loads of power which the FXR just doesnt have! And "luckily" we were the only FXR team now in the MoE because Prodrive switched teh cars to FZR...
Yea...we got last....17th out of 17th...wasnt realy funny and the bad thing about this whole thing was the fact that there was just no way to get a better result...weve been fighting so damn hard...but theres just no way to be better with a car that just doesnt have the power....
24h of Aston Grand Prix
Hm'kay...24hours driving behind overpowered cars...that was my one and only thought before the race But **** we still kept on practicing...racing etc. and hoped to get at least a chance in the 24h race.
Of course the race went pretty bad for us coz there was just no power in that FXR to get a decent race result
As i was waiting for my nightshift stint together with owen atkin i kinda got bored and took the opportunity to join Mika in his broadcast! So yea that was my first time on the stream getting interviewed by mika and trying (!) to help him as a co-commentator (i hope u enjoyed it )...after a loong 24h race for us we once again finished 17th out of 17th...
U guys cant imagine how it felt for us racers (!!!) to drive behind others for 24hours and u just CANT get better...u sit there drive...put the pedal to the metal but u just cant get faster...i took a few weeks off racing in LFS since that was realy ****ed up for me personaly...
yea after a few days i got back to racing again especialy some other little events to get the feeling again of being compatative....and it worked out!
6h of Blackwood GP
Looking at the WR of the GTR cars before the Blackwood race gave us some hope to be a little more compatative this time than ever before! After knewing that we started practicing as hard as we practiced before the first race! The problem once again this race was the fact that the FXR is a tyre eating biatch! but we once again got that a little sorted the day before the race During the first 2 stints of the race it was the first time we could battle versus other cars...we had a very hard but nice and fair fight with team n!Faculty (XRR) and managed to finish the race in 14th position
6h of Kyoto National
There we go...last race of the season...this time lookin at the track felt like a punch in the face...
Ky National realy is an awesome track to race on...but not with an FXR vs. FZR+XRR the long oval straights were too long for the FXR to be compatative...the FXR is 10kph slower on the oval than the XRR and FZR...that was realy depressing this race...the race went sooo bad for us once again...but yeah...we picked the FXR so we lived with it In this race...every driver of our team had a disconnect aswel this time...
after my first 2 stints i joined Mika to do co-commentating again with him.
unluckily all of the disconnects through our stint calculations and strategies over...Reintjan Hoiting after suffering a disconnect had to go to work with only doing like 1,5 stints...as we planned 2,5 for him so there were still 3 hours left and Marco Hoekstra and me planned that ill just take over the car in the last stint...but unfortunately while we did a small break on Gamer-FM Marco suffered a disconnect so i had to jump into the car immediately while still having opened loads of programs in the background...yea...the break on Gamer-FM was over and since i didnt have time to tell Mika before and was still on teamspeak with him (and ventrilo with the team) i kinda did co-commentating while racing on the track which was quite funny
yeah well we finished 16th out of 16th...and that all thanks to that loooong oval straight
so in the final season standings we should be ranked 16th overall now...but hey guys...we are the best FXR team in the season and not to mention after all of the problems we have a 100% start finish
And i hope u guys also enjoyed driving with us as i think we were always a fair team and always found a nice place to let u guys overlap us
It was definately an amazing season for us...and i'd also like to thank my whole team for that long season
Lets see what a future season brings us...definately looking forward to it and i hope we get invited to race along with u guys again next season.
Thats about it...i think i bored u enough when u read this whole thing That just came out of my drunk head right now...so yea...
Cya all in Season 3 hopefully =)
greetz ZWR|T.Laas