There is no greater challenge in racing than the 24 hour race, and believe it or not they happen in sim racing too in addition to shorter endurance races lasting several hours with driver swaps.


Unlike sprint racing where the race is decided on the track, endurance races are won before the event has even started, it's all in the preperation. All sucessful endurance teams will have spent considerable time planning and preparing for a big race.


Victory is in the details, a smart game plan, and preperation. I know, i've won two endurance championships and competed at the karting version of Le Mans, if there is one area of racing where I actually do have credentials it is in endurance!



Yeah I said 'competed' at Le Mans not won. The worst way to have a rewarding endurance race experience is to go in ad hoc. If you are going to compete in a major race that requires significant investment of your time and effort then don't do it casually. If you're going to take part in a major endurance race - take it seriously.


Be prepared to make sacrifices, your in a >>TEAM<< now, and if you do not pull your weight then the team fails. We've all heard the expression that a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, well if your driving at 2am and crash the car because you didnt prepare properly then weeks or months of planning has just gone to waste.



I once made the mistake of picking up the wrong radio, thinking I was talking to the weigh bridge & fuelling crew from the pit garage I started talking about stuff to the driver - in the fatigued confusion that followed the driver lost several seconds on the track causing him to loose valuable track position, a lost second soon became several laps of duelling for track position.


It's the same in sim racing, be sure your communication is organised with two clear communication channels. One for nattering and one for the driver, have a member of your team - which i'll call the watcher for reasons we'll get too soon - sit in with the driver. If the watcher needs to speak to the driver use the spectator tool that lets you see where abouts on the track the driver is, have agreed parts of the circuit where the watcher is allowed to talk to the driver.


Feed your driver information about the race, help them to understand their strategic race position and in so doing keep them alert. Help remind the driver that they are not alone, that it is a team effort, and that the team is right with them watching the race. You dont need to do this often, just enough to keep the driver in the right mindset.



Sometimes things go wrong, I remember in the early hours of Le Mans watching my team kart go off track over the far side of the circuit and something had broken on the kart and the driver could not ressume. Before the driver was even on the radio a trolley team had been despatched and where already running out of the paddock to go and retrieve the kart, just incase it could not resume. In this case saving as much as 30 seconds of track time and decision making.


Always be prepared to act on a moments notice with a plan B. The job of the watcher is to spot the moment when it happens and order that plan B into effect. Typically the Watcher is the reserve driver, it's important to always have a driver ready to go. I remember two races where our driver in the kart stopped to be sick at the trackside, and several more where the kart had crashed, had to pit, and was not the right person to have in the kart when it went back on circuit. We always had the next driver suited and booted and ready to go because sometimes you need to change driver unexpectedly, in our case putting on helmets takes time but for a sim racer this means sitting at the server connect screen ready to click join and with your screen saver and power saving disabled.



Back to my woefull Le Mans story, we had engine sabotage prior to the race and where down roughly 5% on engine power at the start. The team captain was the driver and made the decision to fix the engines - this was a mistake. He should have radiod the pit and asked the Watcher just how much time he was loosing, changing two engines on an endurance kart isnt a fast process especially with the long pit lane at Le Mans and the weigh bridge rules in effect at that race adding over a minute to each stop.
Mathematically it was better to do the change at the next pit stop.


We completed a total of four engine changes in the first 45 minutes as it turned out our spares had been sabotaged too! If the captain had allowed the watcher to evaluate the situation and time taken to prepare adequately for the repair then the spares would have been inspected prior to the stop. We didnt know about the sabotage then, but when your waiting to do an engine change the first thing you do is check the engine your about to put in!


The driver should >>NEVER<< be the decision maker, even if they are the team captain. It is the watchers job to analyse the information and make a call, they have more information. So if you take damage out on the track radio your pits, let them look at your sector times and make the call.



When your watcher needs to go to the bathroom or wants to make a cup of coffee they must get another member of the team to replace them. If your going to be uncontactable for more than a few seconds then your letting the team down, always have a watcher, always be ready to act, months of planning shouldn't be thrown away because of a bathroom break.



In endurance racing it doesnt really matter what position you are in, what matters is that the vehicle is on track, moving, and clocking up laps. The team that wins in a 24 hour race is the team that handles it's problems the best. No team ever completed a day long race without incurring a problem at some point, sure some problems are worse than others that's the luck of the draw part but the challenge to the teams is how to minimise the time lost when problems strike. Dealing with a problem quickly and efficiently is the singular difference between a podium finish, and coming last. You will incurr a problem at some point in your race - be ready for it.



Your race position at the start will shape the pattern of the early part of the race for you, if you are in the second half of the field then you're going to be lapped at some point, track position does play it's part in the opening hour of the race before things settle down into a constant stream. Maximising your position in the race order during the first hour can save you 1 or 2 laps. Having said that you cant win the race in the first hour, so what should you do - how hard should you push?


Well the trick is in qualifying, you want to maximise your position with the best qualifying position possible. Your not aiming to make up 3 places into T1, 3 places is nothing at the start of a 24 hour race. Gain those 3 places in qualifying by having a qualifying driver, running the fuel tight, in sim racing terms this means having a hotlap setup. 0.1 seconds can literally translate to several lost laps in the opening hour, so treat qualifying as a race in itself.



Everybody is fresh, the race is hopefully going well and you are at least in touch with your target, the whole team watches the car with interest. >>WRONG<<. At least one of your drivers should be resting, you've got to get through the night and soon you wont care about being 2 seconds behind driver X, you'll often be the only car on your lap by the end of the race.


Loosing time in battles isnt really worth doing, there's a different kind of race craft at this stage of the race. You get less switchbacks, less resistance from other cars when battling, if you are faster they'll let past any good move. Make use of this to make up positions in the opening hour, a little risk here will shape the outcome of your race and if you are going to crash out you may aswell do it in the first hour. Your captains decision on this should be final, but that's what I do.



By the evening you invariably know whether you are on for a good result or not, organisation is the key here. Team members will start popping off for food and rest - have a rota and make sure all members check in with the watcher so that you know who is where and you always have enough people on hand.



Now fatigue is starting to set in, your body clock is awry, you've got 2 tired drivers, 1 off sleeping, and 1 fresh for the night phase. Bill and Bob have argued over a conflicting opinion on the fastest way to change a wheel nut, and your driver is out on their lonesome. There's such a long way to go and there's an air of exhaustion in the pits. Well, that air of exhaustion is filling the driver up too. Keep your active team focused by analysing the race and passing off irrellevent decisions to them, like when to stop, even though you know that the only time you ever stop is when fuel demands it. Participation in the running of the team is a valuable tool to keeping everybody focused, if they've got something to do they aren't sitting nervously regretting the fact there is still 14 hours to go.


I've seen many teams start to loose their cool at this point in the race, with tempers already on edge the last thing you need is the driver going off, if you are the watcher don't forget to keep talking to the driver, the race is in a funny phase right now, your in your own race just trying to knock out lap after lap without really duelling with anyone. If you come up on another car they just let you by, if another car comes up on you you tend to do the same. There's no real challenge other than the fact that's it is dark, you cant see much, the concentration needed is extreme, your tired, and there's another 12 hours to go.


Remember you are a team, follow your rest rota, keep everyone involved, stay focused.



Now things are a bit easier as the finish is in sight, you've got a few fresh people back in and only another 3 full grand prix distances to go. For gawd sake dont put somebody in the car who hasnt had breakfast. Cattering is an important part of endurance racing - see my how to on diet for some tips there.


It's easy to loose sight of the fact that by any other standards there are several full race distances still to run because you can 'see' the end of the race. Try to keep things in perspective, there's a long way to go yet. Stick to the rota, stick to the game plan.



At some point you are going to have to work out just how much time you loose running hard tyres compared to how much time you loose in the pits. This is a vital part of the strategy, make sure you understand all the implications of your tyre strategy choice. Make sure that each driver is aware of their own performance difference on each set of tyres and how much time is lost changing them. Time how long it takes to enter the pit lane, stop (for 0 seconds, a touch and go) and exit back up to full race speed. You need to know exactly how much time is added onto your stationary time in order to make decisions later in the race.



I wont enter a league race without practicing the pit lane, yet it never ceases to amaze me how many sim racers dont think twice about how much time they loose here. My kart team drilled in driver changes regularly and compared to some teams we gained as much as half a lap in a single pit stop. Make sure you are not giving time away by not knowing how to maximise your pit lane performance, otherwise over 24 hours you may aswell gift wrap 10 laps and give them to the other teams.



Do not let your fastest driver have free reign over the setup. Just because they want to go all ego and show how fast they are, they often have a multiple-personality over it in wanting to be the fastest in the team and at the same time expecting everyone to drive the car setup for them.


Several times i've had to race with a vehicle that has too much oversteer for me because somebody put an I into Team. The net gain for Mr Ego might have been a second or so over the stint, the net loss for me maybe as much as half a minute off my potential. Find a neutral setup that the whole team can drive, make sure all your drivers are confident with the setup, a lack of confidence could result in an accident, and a single accident can loose you the race.


Don't be shy to sack a driver from the team because they want you to drive like them, likewise if you have a team large enough dont necessarily group them into A and B teams on performance alone, look at driving styles - some drivers may work better together than others.

Great read - all these new HowTo's need to be stickied and/or added to the wiki.

Very good guide, Becky. I would also add that it is utterly important to keep things as simple as possible:

a) If chatting means a penalty - remove all chat binds before the race. So easy yet some people still manage to squeeze a smiley and get a DT. FFS!!

b) Worst case scenario. You got the penalty and you have to do a drive through. Well dont do it ASAP, wait until you're going to get lapped or get into traffic so at least you get the (possible) benefit of a clear track when you get out of the pits.

Those two spring to mind, but Im sure there are heaps of tricks.

Quote from BurnOut69 :

Those two spring to mind, but Im sure there are heaps of tricks.

There's dirty tricks too:

Like qualifying without ballast in and having a deliberate break down that requires trolly recovery, thus circumnavigating the weigh bridge.

As I mentioned in my article my team had engine sabotage where we'd left the kart in the garage overnight and somebody had overfilled our engines with oil, we'd been second fastest in a straight line on the qualifying day.

One big scandal one year was teams hammering their exhaust baffles into pieces to give less resistance of the gases at the outlet. Some teams employ authorised service dealers so engines can be resealed as if new to hide tinkerings in the works.

I've seen wheel nut guns get relocated under jackets by rival teams just prior to pitstops, circuit refuellers bribed to take a longer time on rival karts, transponders tampered with, and one that really narked me was a team doing work on their kart where granted a special exemption in the [time costly] weigh bridge whilst we where not purely because the clerks daughter knew the other team.

There's all sorts of original ideas for taking every advantage that you can, I remember when my brother was doing a sprint race at a new circuit he saught advise from the works team on tyre pressures, bearing in mind we where semi-works ourselves, he was given numbers well out of a sensible range but chose to go with the advise of the works team. A later inquest would have that driver reprimanded as it was bad for the factory, but it just goes to show how competetive motor sports can be ... even only at club and national level.

Well yeah lol I was thinking about MoE, IGTC and alike more than real life.

You cant really compare chat binds with engine sabotage, at least until S2 Beta

Sounds like you've seen all kinds of dirty stuff on karting, though

Quote from Becky Rose :

There's dirty tricks too:

Like qualifying without ballast in and having a deliberate break down that requires trolly recovery, thus circumnavigating the weigh bridge.

As I mentioned in my article my team had engine sabotage where we'd left the kart in the garage overnight and somebody had overfilled our engines with oil, we'd been second fastest in a straight line on the qualifying day.

One big scandal one year was teams hammering their exhaust baffles into pieces to give less resistance of the gases at the outlet. Some teams employ authorised service dealers so engines can be resealed as if new to hide tinkerings in the works.

I've seen wheel nut guns get relocated under jackets by rival teams just prior to pitstops, circuit refuellers bribed to take a longer time on rival karts, transponders tampered with, and one that really narked me was a team doing work on their kart where granted a special exemption in the [time costly] weigh bridge whilst we where not purely because the clerks daughter knew the other team.

There's all sorts of original ideas for taking every advantage that you can, I remember when my brother was doing a sprint race at a new circuit he saught advise from the works team on tyre pressures, bearing in mind we where semi-works ourselves, he was given numbers well out of a sensible range but chose to go with the advise of the works team. A later inquest would have that driver reprimanded as it was bad for the factory, but it just goes to show how competetive motor sports can be ... even only at club and national level.

Well, as I said before on this forum, racing IS war. All is fair in love and war i.e. winning is all that counts. If you're not 1st, you're dead. If you don't assume that your rivals are going to screw you over with the most underhanded methods known (and unknown) to humanity, you're an idiot.

Glad to see that you're no naive fool, Becky.

Quote from BurnOut69 :

Sounds like you've seen all kinds of dirty stuff on karting, though

Well I myself havent been too bad, I had a black flag once for overtaking under yellow which annoyed me a bit because the yellow was out for me and I was repassing a car that took me when I was almost back up to full racing speed, so neither should it have still been out and I had not technically passed a yellow flag - but there's little point arguing by the time it's waved.

I got orange dotted twice, once for the silencer coming off: I really didnt need the orange dot for that as it hurt my ears so much I was coming in anyway. Once also in post race stewarding being underweight because lead ballast had fallen off in an accident, the clerk had to give a penalty which cost me a championship placing and even the benefactors of that admitted it was pretty tough luck.

Bribing the refuelling crew was me once, well kinda, i've seen cash moving about but i'm cheap and brought them ice creams and was just generally nice to them.

My exhaust baffles broke naturally, just not on the engines they where attached too , and the qualifying ballast idea did come from me but I never had the inclination to do it myself, but the guys I was with decided to.

Quote from xaotik :

Great read - all these new HowTo's need to be stickied and/or added to the wiki.

+1

These are beginning to resemble the "Four-Wheel Drift" driving guide booklet that was packaged with the original GPL cd

Defo think these should be complied and added/linked to/from the LFS Manual page in Wiki. Or maybe even added to LFS itself as a pdf along with a pdf of the game manual ?

If I do enough of them maybe it could be included as a driving guide, but there are aspects of racing where the advise is best given by somebody better at it than me.

Quote from Becky Rose :

If I do enough of them maybe it could be included as a driving guide, but there are aspects of racing where the advise is best given by somebody better at it than me.

Becky being coy ? surely not

Erm perhaps you have a point, but there are other real world racers in here with a wide variety of experience, so i guess you could gleam quite a lot of info from them. Only if you have the time of course, but i might be worth the effort. And i havn't read many complaints about this series of threads you've made so far.

As mentioned above, that "Four-Wheel Drift" booklet that came with the original GPL is a riveting read and adds an extra special little element to the overall game experience. It would be nice to have something similar for LFS