What does it take to be a front running team?

Hi,
I was just sitting on my sofa after hours of work with my team. And I thinking of the days of SRO ALMS, LMS. And comparing them to CMS LMS . their a big difference between the two! CMS is more like club racing and SRO professional. After SRO stopped :( .. I went CMS. I went from a mid - bottom half of field runner in SRO to front runner in CMS. ok my driving, set ups and understanding became a lot better when SRO stopped. Think I would have been able to get top 5s with the pace I had in CMS. but I know it's still Not good enough for wins or top 3 maybe. I'm giving it my all , putting in hours testing, set ups seem to be good! Have a good team around me now. But yet I'm still missing them few tenths!
Ok iv raced top LMP2 racers in CMS LMS ( Ricardo Avezdo , Paublo Martins ) and went as quick as them in Fuji. Bang on their times in race! And in mid Ohio I put it on pole by 1 second which would have given me 3rd in SRO ALMS. I qualified a whole 1.5 seconds quicker than I did 3 months before ( I raced there before and done a 1.10.5 ).
But anyway. I feel I'm at the top of my game.. But still don't know how to keep with the top boys? Ok I'm still lacking experience as iv only raced in leagues on rFactor since... Feb, or when ever RD24 of Nurgbergring was.
But being a Karting champion ( I'd give my website but this won't let me. Just google shane burke racing and look for .webs.com one ) so I'm always setting my standards very high.
Any advice would be appreciated :)

Lol! We are not a top team ;) but we have set some good lap times in various races and have won races at CMS as well in the GT class. For race pace I think Marcel in the Porsche could be within a second of any alien.

Interesting question.

There are some special drivers Flex from Black road racing Wilfred Van der Brink, with them it is not just the setup because their teammates cant beat them. There are differences between rfactor and real life [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The top teams do have good setups though (for enduracers) I tried one of Wilfreds at Le mans after the race and we could see Ryan Ferrey had quite a different setup to us during the last race at EIIC.

Van Der Brink is unreal. Raced him before and he's not human. His head works at a 100000mph! Unreal . Would love for him to do a race for us one day. Doubt that'll happen haha

Ya I used to race at CMS. done 2.4 nurg and was winning by 1 minute on last lap! Computer failed -_- ... finished 2nd somehow. Won my first LMP2 race at CMS. should have won 2 more but got taken out.

Well first, one has to discard the idea that endurance racing is about hot lapping. It's not. It's about consistency. Doing one lap after another like in a treadmill, as quick as the last lap (think of racing against your own ghost) is key. Gaining the needed speed to be competitive should be done before the race through practice practice and practice and by trying to master one corner after the other. Well, everybody is different but my goal is to go as smooth as possible around the track, only giving as much input (steering, throttle, brakes) to the car as needed. It's important that you're able to drive your average lap with "closed eyes". The better you master the track the better you can focus yourself on to the important sectors/corners and adjust the car towards these key elements. When somebody tells you that the setup is not important, than he is lying. You need a good setup and the last tenths to become competitive.

But you're the carting pro, and reality can't be compared to a simulator.

Here are two videos which can give you an idea of my driving style around Road Atlanta and Classic Le Mans at an early stage.

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I'm a very consistent driver ! Just need to find few more tenths to be quicker and I could be consistent with them times.
Thanks for all the tips and help.
I'll hopefully take this advice to Nurgbergring 24 hours :D that's if my computer works -_-