Blue Flag Racing

Welcome to the new era of endurance racing at Blue Flag Racing


Event: The Six Hours of Road America
Mod: Endurance Series 1.0 click to download
Track: Elkhart Lake v2.0 click to download
Event Start: 11:30 GMT (13:30 CET) All times are GMT. Click here to convert to your time zone

* 11:30 - 12:00: Warm-up all cars
* 12:00 - 12:55: Free Practice 1 (P1, P2, GT1 & GT2)
* 12:55 - 13:00: Server reboot
* 13:00 - 13:55: Free Practice 2 (P1, P2, GT1 & GT2)
* 13:55 - 14:15: Qualification GT1 & GT2
* 14:15 - 14:20: GT cars return to the pit
* 14:20 - 14:40: Qualification P1 & P2
* 14:40 - 14:45: Protypes return to the pit
* 14:45 - 15:00: Warm-up all cars
* 15:00 - 21:00: Race (6 hours)

Start procedure: manual formation lap (see article 5.6 of the League Regulations)
Weather forecast: Dry
Server password: will be announced to the team owners

BFR are entered in the GT2 and P2 categories. Prior to the event we will need to get together and run through the 'passenger swap' process for any drivers who have not yet experienced this with rFactor.

what date / day of the week is this?

Saturday October 17. (see http://blueflagracing.freeforums.org/blue-flag-racing-events-calendar-t865.html for BFR events calendar!)

sounds good

Just wanted to ask the endurance team a question. Lee Morris (FSR WC Driver) is asking all teams if he can be a reserve driver (or get a drive) for round 1 of the RDLMS. Lee has somehow managed to miss the whole buildup to the RDLMS and is without a ride for round 1. What would be your feelings about allowing Lee to join the driver line-up in either our GT2 or LMP entry?



Background: On Sunday Lee must have spent around 2-3 hours giving me hints, tips, feedback and advice on driving prior to the Fuji RDLMS Racing Club event. Lee also sent me his quali and race setup to try and did ride alongs and demonstration laps to try and help me unlock that extra time (apparantly most of the time for me to gain is in my lines). I am therefore quite sure that Lee would also provide help, feedback and advice during our prep for round 1. His tips gave me a few things to think about and an insight into where those alien seconds can be found .

This isn't recruitment, as Lee races for Ash Racing in FSR and is contracted/sponsored. This would be a guest drive (I am also sure he will get snapped up or enter his own team for Round 2).

Let me know your thoughts.

From what I have seen he's an "almost" alien, was about 2-2.5s faster than me on Fuji or ... .
As he seems very friendly and helped you a lot yesterday I in first place expect you to share and I don't mind if he join for a guest drive. Also depends on how many we are and so on... But I think this demands a quick answer. Think we can learn some more from him.

Setups. The track/driving tips were pretty much what we/you already know. But it was probably the insight to his lines around Fuji and where/when he would brake, accelorate etc (:D). Also - his preference for car setup is one that is on the edge (unstable) as this is faster (something we all know) and his approach to practice is to hotlap with low fuel (as he then finds out what the limits of the car are. He admitted that he gets criticised for this but stands by the fact that it means he understands where the limits of his car are. I could hear his wheel working in the background whilst he lapped and he is busy at the wheel (Senna-like busy); none of your Jenson Button smoothness .

He also gave some insights to what goes on behind the scenes in an FSR team (like the fact they have a team of engineers that work on setup and strategy etc.). Based on the time involved and the schedule of the FSR races he said that the drivers do not have the time to work on setups etc. Instead - they will be provided a setup by the engineers and will test/race that. They do a lot of testing (as we would have guessed). Ash Racing apparently put in somewhere in the region of 5,500 laps of testing prior to the race at Spa. Now - I thought we put in a lot of testing miles, but that is ridiculous .

He also said he is more than happy to help anyone (something he posted in the infamous Long Beach thread). So I am sure he would be more than happy to help you as well if you just send him a PM.

One thing that was funny. He said that I was pretty quick already (bless him) and that he looks for my times when he comes on the RDLMS server as a sort of benchmark. We were talking and then you (Mikael) put in a 1.28 in your P1. His immediate response (mid sentence) was 'wow, that Larsson's quick!' .

He was also shocked to discover that I considered him famous (FSR fame) and then let me know that they had something like 130K indiividiual IP viewers for their Monaco round of FSR. He then shocked the hell out of me when he said how much some of the drivers get paid to race and what sort of sponsorship packages they have (seriously need to become an alien and get a job in sim-racing ).

I had a good long chat with by this time known Petter Kaasa when we met at VGP. And I don't understand it but I know the top drivers in the FSR teams are sponsored. And if "engineers" puts in that amount of laps just to provide the drivers with setups, then it's not that amazing anymore how the aliens become aliens
Who wants to be our engineer?
Nice to hear even though it felt as an impossible mission this time too to get a FAST lap like him And I was almost 2 sec slower than him

^BUMP^
Does anyone else have feedback on the 'should we invite Lee to join BFR as a guest driver' question? I would rather have peoples feedback prior to giving him an answer - as this is all about the teams entry into the event.

sounds great, i really have developped a very nonchalant view of our strange lil' hobby here, why not get a whiff of the profesional in our forum, he in turn might get a whiff of the utterly amateurish if he runs across my way, now THAT might be an eye - opener for him (and for me) I only fear it might lead to us taking things too seriously. If we just take things as they come, I'm fine

That would concern me as well. I'll make it clear that for us the ultimate goal is to have fun with the event - full stop. We'll then see what his response is. I'll also give him a get out of jail free card, saying he is free to take up another offer, if another team more focused on winning the event, with super fast drivers, offers him a seat as well.

I wish this were the case - but it wouldn't explain why they are still 2 seconds faster if any other race (STC, RD etc.). The setups would only help them in FSR. They still need to have the natural ability to lap at that pace in the first place . For instance. I used Lee's setup for Fuji, instead of my own, and it made me 1.5 seconds slower than my own setup (I struggled to keep control of the car with his setup). It is that ability to control the car on the edge that makes them aliens - unfortunately.

Now - if we could develop those kind of reflexes .

lol, same here if I try one of Kristofer's sets, for about four turns you realize just what it is that makes the faster guy able to control this situation and then you lose it, which hurts double because you get a glimpse of what is possible, but never get there