WHO Digital GT Championship 2023 - Round 3
The race would run for 500 laps, estimated to take around 2 hours. Driver changes in the GT races can only take place during a 120-second pit window straddling 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 minutes - giving us six stints. Each team would share the stints out equally between their drivers. Refuelling and tyre change pits stops can take place at any time. The RCS64 weather forecast was a new one for us to strategise for - starting dry and sunny, some light drizzle to follow and then more sunshine. As always, tyre choice might be crucial...
Stint One - 20 minutes
Although the race started sunny, the clouds and drizzle soon arrived - but the track remained dry. Ryan had set the scoreboards on fire, clocking up a sensational 96 laps in the first 20 minutes, two more than Jean in the Slot Carazing Mercedes and four more than the Race Control Aston in third. The two Bentleys - driven by Jeremy and Ollie - were fourth and fifth, with the AST One Merc well adrift already, suffering from what would turn out to be an extremely frustrating digital chip glitch. Five of the teams remained on Hard tyres, Race Control trying out the Softs before the driver change - but reverting to Hards afterwards...
Stint Two - 40 minutes
The least experienced digital racer in the field took over the Smooth Operators Mercedes for the second stint. Tracy put in a steady drive, but inevitably lost some ground. Halfway through the stint, Terry had taken the Carazing car into a comfortable eight-lap lead over Matthew in the Ardingly Bentley. Isaac had the Aston right behind in third and Tracy was a close fourth. The track was now damp, yet all six cars remained on Hard tyres...
By the end of the stint, we had Carazing and Fundamentally Barley on Intermediates and AST One on Softs. The other three stuck with the Hards on a barely moist track. At the front, Carazing ended the stint just five laps up on Race Control after a strong drive by Isaac in the Aston. Ardingly Aces led a Bentley 3-4, with Rob having moved the Fundamentally Barley car up a place. Tracy had lost some ground, but had kept the Smooth Operators in the hunt, eight laps back from second place and just 13 from the lead. Dean had struggled valiantly with the glitchy AST One Merc in sixth...
Stint Three - 60 minutes
Team strategists were still scratching their heads as the first hour came to an end. The sun was out again and the barely damp track would soon start to dry. Intermediate tyres had proved a costly mistake - giving poor grip after wearing quickly. Soft tyres were definitely superior in terms of grip and - at this point - were proving durable. However, Hards weren't bad and would surely be the tyre of choice on a dry track surface...
Oliver was now driving the Carazing Merc and kept the lead to Jeremy's Bentley at a healthy seven laps at the one hour mark. Ash was six laps further back in the Race Control Aston, Mike taking the Fundamentally Barley Bentley to within five laps of the podium. Stephen had a good stint for the Smooth Operators, handing the Merc back to his mum on the same number of laps as the second Bentley - 18 laps off lead. Stephen's dad was the latest to suffer in the AST One Mercedes...
Stint Four - 80 minutes
The race was put beyond reasonable doubt in this fourth stint - Jean banging in a sold 86 laps and no-one else coming close to matching it. At 80 minutes, Carazing held a 16 lap lead over the Ardingly Aces. Race Control were third - Isaac with another strong drive - eight laps adrift of second. Ollie had brought Fundamentally Barley within just two laps of the podium positions and extended the gap back to Smooth Operators - now 15 laps. AST One were persevering with their troubled car...
Stint Five - 100 minutes
The last moisture in the track was all but burned off and teams kept going with their preferred choice of Softs or Hards. The latter would now last almost the whole 20 minutes, but a mid-way tyre stop was needed for Softs... although that did allow a partial refuel, rather than one long one. Both strategies had their pros and cons.
Terry put in an immense stint for Slot Carazing - a huge 92 laps - which stretched the lead to nearly 28. Jeremy had made a bit of a horlicks of a scheduled stop - pitting and sitting, but no fuel going in. That dropped them into the clutches of Fundamentally Barley - Rob having delivered an excellent 90 lap stint at just the right time. The two Bentleys were now just a lap apart going into the final driver change, the Race Control Aston not able to match their pace and was ten laps back. Stephen managed to hold ground for the Smooth Operators, but Ryan was left with a mountain to climb with probably only 10-15 minutes remaining - would he regret not giving the final short stint to a Bronze-rated driver?
Stint Six - 114 minutes
Mike got the job done in the final 14 minutes, grabbing second place for Fundamentally Barley - helped a little by late-race gear mesh issues for the Ardingly Aces Bentley. Matthew managed the issue - worse on the rarer left-hand corners - and comfortably kept ahead of Andy's Aston to clinch a well-deserved podium for the Silver-Silver crew. And two Bentleys on the podium! Ryan focussed mainly on grabbing fastest lap as consolation for a difficult evening. He did succeed, using the Soft tyres on the fully dry track to set a 10:743 second lap - 0:017 quicker than Carazing's best.
At the back, Alex battled on with the suspicion he and Dean had successfully diagnosed the car's problems ready for next time. However, they were over a hundred laps behind the triumphant Slot Carazing team of Oliver, Jean and Terry, now with back-to-back wins and an almost unassailable lead in the championship...
Here are the full results and stint stats...
Click to make the image bigger
Huge congratulations to our winners - and well done to all seventeen drivers who took part...
A very big thank you to everyone who came along last night, especially to the set-up crew, all those who stayed behind to pack away and to the race control team. We couldn't do it without you.
We are back for two digital events next month - a final round of the GT championship on Wednesday 16 August, plus a race & test event four days before on Saturday 12 August (more about that later).
And that points table...
So it's not mathematically over for Ryan and the Smooth Operators
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