HSO SPA 1000km

Spa 1000km Report

My team mate Dan Gingras and I are surprised and very pleased with our climb throughout the race, actually we aimed for a steady lap time and to tell the truth the cars balance was not too bad. The car, the Porsche 962C Kemer # 11 same one Richard and I raced at Fuji came on after 3 laps and held on till the fuel was spent.

Daniel and I are next door neighbours and we shared his racing rig for the race. Dan has a Fanatec equipped multi-screen rig and it took me the first stint to come to grips with the new equipment. In fact I never really got used to it and I was 2 to 3 seconds slower a lap. I had a hard time getting the feel of the brakes as the were nothing like my G25. No real complaints other than my knees where sore from pushing so hard on the brake peddle. There was not enough spring tension and too much hydraulic pressure to get a smooth transition.

As we prepared to go to the grid to race our position kept changing as other cars appeared and disappeared from the server. In the end we where last, 17 of 17 entrants that finalized the grid. We managed to put in a good number of consistent lap times and kept the car on track. Apart from some odd technical issues with the race seat all was well. At lap 12 I had moved up to 10th. Around lap 20 going through Les Combes I pressed very hard on the brake and the seat lock released and I slide back to the end stop. My foot came off the peddle and I lost control hitting the wall. Well the damage was slight but the time spent repairing was the beginning of the cars decline and of our speed. Again it came unstuck and slid backwards on the rail when I hit the brake but I managed to control it the second time and only spun off. Dan also had a couple of minor incidents but for most of the race our lack of speed in the class 6 car was not enough to move forward. By the end our top speed dropped from 304 to 289 km/hr at Les Combes

The other neighbours must have wonder what was going on. When Dan headed for the pit I would rush out across the driveway and into his place to his basement. Running full sprint all the way to take my turn in the seat. That worked out fine and we did 3 stints each and after 5 hours we crossed the line in 6th place. We endured and I consider the result was a fine team achievement.

I want to thank Dan and congratulate him for his achievement as this was his first endurance race. I think he is hooked.

It is always a challenge driving the group C cars. In retrospect we should have changed cars as better ones became available when all the guys from CMS bailed leaving the Rothman cars open but we stuck with the Kremer. Next race we will try for a quicker one. I am sure I can speak for Dan and say we were pretty elated with our result.

Hope all is well with everyone and your future is full of great races.

Regards
Michael