A Surprising Success At Silverstone: QRT's One-Off Race Review

I don't know how, but in late March (this year), I found myself in a race-organisation Discord called "SimGrid".

At the start of every week, SimGrid (or an admin) would announce that week's racing activity/leagues.

Ignoring activity from the other sims (RFactor, ACC, AMS2 etc.), I went straight to the iRacing section - and it just so happened that the only iRacing event that week was a 90-minute (1hr 30 min) multiclass (LMDH, LMP2, GT3) sprint race at Silverstone.

So, I jumped into the server, had a little practice and awaited race-day.

In the lead-up, I found out many of my competitors were under 2K iRating - but I was still apprehensive - in all the leagues I had competed in up to that point, I had always been rounding up the rear - despite pushing/trying like crazy.

Race-Day

Eventually race-day came - and in practice (and indeed qualifying) the inevitable happened - I was sent straight to the rear.

Practice

34th (Overall) | 15th/18th In Class 37 completed laps.

Qualifying

34th (Overall) | 14th/18th In Class

37 completed laps

The Race

In all honesty, I was a bit hesitant about the race - qualifying showed that I hadn't the pace to be in the mid-field - but all I could do was just see how I got on - I was 0.6 s off the driver ahead - so I wasn't TOO far behind.

Starting the second lap, a driver would use the slip-stream to pass me down the Wellington Straight - this initiating an absolutely enthralling battle for the next couple of laps laps.

As the race went on, our little battle was holding us both up slightly - and it wasn't long before there was a 5-car battle for 14th.

At the time, I thought this was going to be my finishing position - 14th with 4 others right on my tail...but the racing gods had other plans...

On Lap 4, the two BMW's (side by side) managed to nip by - I was P16 and needed a miracle.

Slowly - miracles started to happen - the Porsche in P13 spun out at Farm - this driver was meant to start behind me, but in fact crossed the line to start the race a few car-lengths ahead - a freebie...in the bag.

Not half a lap later I was treated to a sight of absolute chaos - three GT3's all pointing in all sorts of different directions - after losing touch with P15 - this was exactly what I needed

Out of this disaster, I picked up two positions - but more importantly - the slipstream of P13 - with P12 only a few car-lengths up the road. It wasn't all over quite yet!

In this instance, the BMW in the middle was heading through Brooklands when the rear of his car stepped out and put him into a lazy half-spin.

Whilst the driver behind was able to avoid contact, the Lambo (right) was shafted from behind by a Ferrari two cars behind the Lambo.

On rejoining the circuit, the BMW (middle) got T-Boned/collected by the BMW on the left.

In essence, what this meant was four severely damaged cars - two of which I passed at the scene, the other two almost certainly having aero damage - around Silverstone (a pretty fast track) costing huge amounts of time

The rest of Lap 5 was just as exciting as the start - former P15 going incredibly wide at Copse - earning himself a massive loss of momentum before the recovering P11 (BMW in shot) cut the exit of chapel - him having to serve a slow-down penalty on the hangar straight

What this eventually meant was that by the start of Lap 6, I was less than 2 seconds behind P10 (myself in 11th place!) from 14th - against some seriously strong competiton.

I could quite relax though - P12 was not hanging about and was all over my gearbox and was eventually released at Farm Curve.

My unintentional plan worked - the two BMW's fought hard over 10th - hindering their eventual escape - but it was a thrilling battle to watch.

Surprisingly, by the end of the lap, I was the one battling battling a BMW - an unfortunate bout of traffic meant that P10 (now P11) had a horrible run through Copse - and with a touch of slipstream down the hangar straight - I was all over him - although he eventually slipped away.

On Lap 8, another driver was bought into contention - a fellow Ferrari, who was up to that point in 10th (I had made it up to 13th) was spun at Brooklands by an LMP2 whom just miss-judged the closing speed between himself and P10 in GT3.

Whilst the Ferrari only lost one position - he lost a ton of time - and was now under pressure from the BMW in front of me - although P10 (now P11) was quickly back up to his normal, quicker pace.

I hadn't even reached Farm on the following lap before the next GT3 victim was wiped out.

Starting Lap 10, there was a rather tight battle for P5 between a BMW and Porsche.

To set the scene, heading into Farm, P5 and P6 are directly behind one another with three LMP2's behind to lap them.

Through Chapel, the BMW (P6) tries a move around the outside, but the Porsche ahead runs deep - before getting hit from behind by the BMW - this forcing the Porsche out wide.

The first LMP2 takes their opportunity to quickly get past before village - in reaction the BMW swerves left into the Porsche (still on the outside) - both touch, but survive - the second LMP2 passes on the exit of village.

Taken by surprise by the slow exit of the GT3's the third darts to the outside trying to overtake both (or just the Porsche) on the outside grass on the exit of village, but spins up the rear wheels and careens out of control in front of the Porsche - taking the GT3 with him. Both take significant damage.

Starting Lap 11, I had made it to the Top 10 - now I just had to keep it that way.

From here, fortunately, the race quietened down a bit - I had comfortable gaps in front and behind and just focussed on putting in the laps.

By Lap 14, I had caught the driver ahead - and for the next few laps had an enjoyable little tussle with him (granted, Lap 15 & 16 were spent catching him again)

As they always say "all good things must come to an end", and unfortunately my old fighting buddy would go deep into the second part of Farm - allowing me to slip through and unfortunately wouldn't be able to match my pace from there - especially with frequent traffic to contend with.

Whilst fun - my fighting allowed the next car ahead P7 - who started the race in 3rd - to slip away - starting lap 21, there was roughly 15-second gap separating us, with P9 a further 4 seconds behind me.

With a comfortable gap both behind and in front, I could take a quick breather before the chaotic pit-stop window would open in less than 10 laps.

With a clear track around me - I posted my fastest lap on lap 25 (2:01.562) before coming into the pits 5 laps later for my one and only stop - just half an hour remained.

As I came into the pits, I was 5th - but I knew that I'd lose these as others had already pitted

Upon emerging, there was just 30 minutes left - a 15-lap sprint to the end. Once the pit-cycle had sorted itself, I was in 31st - or about 12th(ish) overall.

Starting the next lap, there was a 8 - 9 second gap between me and the driver ahead - and his lap-times were faster than mine.

I could only do one thing - and that was keep doing laps - and just hope for the best.

And the best came - but not in the way I was expecting it! On Lap 34 and Lao 35 - I gained two positions - I had no idea from where, but I wasn't going to question it - a Top 10 was back in the cards!

But then the big surprise came. With just 18 minutes left to go, the safety car was called out after there was a strange prototype (LMP2 & LMDH) pile-up at farm.

This was just what I needed - and seeing absolutely anarchy in both the F1 and F2 races during a late safety car, I knew this was anyone's to win.

Granted, the incident that the Safety car came out for had cleared even before the Safety Car driver turned his lights on - but it was definitely what the race needed.

This could not have come out at a better time (some say it was planned!) - had the safety car came out any later - there was a chance some wouldn't make it to the end of the safety car queue!

There were 40 starters - of these, every single one had to line up behind the safety car/safety car queue AFTER the safety car had picked up the leader. Every second that ticked by was a second closer to the end of the race - and every second that passed under safety car, was time not spent flat out racing.

Whilst the safety car didn't pick up the leader, the leader slowed down to let the safety car past to lead the pack away.

The mix of the Safety Car travelling excessively slowly (to get everyone to line up) and mix of the only instruction being "catch the car in front" left cars rounding blind corners at racing speed before being faced with half a dozen or more cars doing 40mph.

Hey. Just like the F1 eh?

With less than 10 minutes to go (4 - 6 laps) and with the entire pack in a nice orderly line* the safety car pulled into the pits for what was going to be an absolutely mad sprint to the finish with gaps of less than a second up and down the grid.

GREEN! And it's go go go! After letting the two LMDH's behind me past.. I was sort of left in the dust as more prototypes streamed past me - but I was 8th and in good spirits.

All things considered, despite many going 2 and 3 wide - it was an incredibly clean and civilised start...well, for the first lap at least.

The LMP2 taking the "alternate" line attempted to go three wide with two other GT3's through turn 2 went wide and didn't quite nail the re-join.

A BMW then got caught up in a nasty sandwich between the re-joining LMP2 and a fellow LMP2 looking to make their way through the GT3 pack.

Excruciatingly, this BMW was spun exactly into the line I was taking through farm and I made contact with the spun-out car. Whilst I made a position on the BMW, I lost another as a competitor behind me passed me as I was having my difficulties.

Following...this it was a pretty calm drive home - the next car ahead being almost 10 seconds up the road.

I was on-course to finish 8th, but a competitor behind me got a mega run into the final few corners , sent it up the inside and got the job done - although I fought until the very end.

In the end I finished 9th/18th - from 14th with little to no pace, I think that was one of my strongest drives I've ever had - especially considering the skill-level of my competitors following.

I had the second lowest iRating of the grid that day - and still managed to secure a Top 10 (GT3 Class iRatings)

Following the race, I immediately signed up for their Tuesday series (league). After Round 1 I was 6th in the GT4 Class Championship - but after a tough day out at Silverstone, it's very likely I've slipped down the order.