A Thrilling Week on iRacing (Pt. 1: QRT @ Spa)

Kabort Motorsport
Jul 9, 2023
5 min read

Prologue Good morning and welcome to a lesser-spotted morning blog.

I'll admit, I used to love the QRT League.

After switching to GT3's - I lost a little bit of love for the series - nothing personal, just I was less competitive in the GT3 class due to the GT3 class being significantly more popular than the GT4 class.

The first two races of the "season" were tough.

R1: Okayama (13/06/2023)

Q: 9th (In Class)

R: 10th

R2: Laguna Seca (20/06/2023)

DNE Due to Cancelled Flight

Race 3 was at Charlotte Roval - which bought a bit of chaos - and I had an incredibly good finish starting 4th and finishing 5th (in class) out of a field of 9 cars.

Following on from Charlotte it was Spa - and what a treat Spa provided...

Round 4: Spa Francorchamps (4/07/2023)

Commentator and good friend of mine Joe Bradley once said that "Spa was my secret weapon - and I always seemed to perform better at Spa than any other circuit.

and over the years, it seemed that applied strictly to Skip Barbers...until today.

I qualified in a rather unspectacular 7th/12th in class.

(One driver didn't show up)

The Race

In all honesty, I had a pretty poor start - using the endurance start-line (heading into Eau Rouge) - three drivers ahead tried to go three wide into Eau Rouge...

This, unsurprisingly, didn't work. Two of the three being wiped out - and me getting a slow-down penalty as I cut radillion to avoid the accident - dropping me to second to last - before last overtook me later on in the lap.

It wasn't all bad as another driver (ahead) crashed at Blanchimont - promoting me to 11th - If the race continued in this fashion - there was the possibility of a Top 10 finish - but I'd have to play my cards right.

The carnage continued - at the end of the next lap, the GT3 leader pitted - seemingly for fuel (forgot to refuel after qualifying) - P4 (in class) pulling over and also returning to the pits - I was now in 7th in class and 8th overall.

The bizarre unpopularity of the LMDH continued at Spa - this time only 2 LMDH's attending the race.

It was also the second race in a row that I'd be the only one representing Italy (or indeed Ferrari) - 8/12 GT3's were Porsche's, with only myself (Ferrari), two BMW's and a Mercedes spoiling the Porsche Parade.

Other than the second LMDH overtaking me again (after pitting at the end of Lap 1), I had a pretty lonely race - the drivers ahead all had much more pace than I did - and I was just consistently putting in laps.

Finally, on Lap 7, my patience paid off as P4 (in class) crashed heavily at Blanchimont. I was promoted to 6th in class.

I was in a difficult place - Brady ahead was being left behind by the pack ahead - and lap by lap I was catching him - but I knew I needed to start fuel-saving at some point.

On Lap 10, I started to lift-and-coast at the end of straights (still keeping up with Brady) - the very same lap as I started this, Brady made the tiniest mistake - braking on the kerb on entry to Pouhon - I've done it before - and it's like braking on black ice - the rear just snaps out - and at those speeds - it's all about damage limitation.

Sadly, for Brady, after initially saving the slide, he'd over correct and slide into the barrier causing significant damage.

With the car behind 50 seconds behind - I could save SIGNIFICANT fuel - the next car ahead was consistently faster - so I wasn't bothered about catching him.

On saying that, I needn't be worried about him anyway, as on entering the Kemmel straight, he'd stray a little wide onto the grass - on trying to get back on track, the car would pitch to the right and heavily into the barrier.

With Van Bakel now out of the picture - I was now in 4th position.

I didn't know this at the time, but the second of the LMDH's just suffered a (real life) brake failure - him being two laps ahead (him: Lap 21, Me: Lap 19) - it would take two laps for me to collect his overall position.

Just a lap before the pit-window opened, the GT3 leader crashed heavily at Blanchimont - somehow being able to limp his car back to the pit-lane and use fast-repair.

I was now up to 3rd.

On Lap 21, the new leader (and third leader of this race!) dived into the pit-lane for his splash and dash pitstop - I was now in 2nd.

That left just me and Dahlgren (GT3 Leader) to pit - a battle of the tanks if you will - eventually, Dahlgren pit at the end of Lap 24 (3 laps after the pit-stop opened) - but I kept on going...

I was now in 2nd overall.

I eventually pitted at the end of Lap 27 - after a single lap in the lead (Lap 26) - with Andrews (P2) recovered and now 6 seconds behind me, I knew that a win was out of the occasion - especially with less than 30 minutes remaining.

P3 was also going to be a near-impossible task as he was only 17 seconds behind me and had already entered Eau Rouge before I had even reached my pit-crew.

P4 was a further 4 seconds behind him - 21 seconds as I entered the pit-lane - he too flew past.

I'd come out in 4th - as I crossed the line to start lap 28, I was 57 seconds off P3 - I was absolutely chuffed with 4th - and it would beat my highest finish of the season - but I think it's as high as I'm going to get.

In even more incredible news - Storey would take a last-lap win as Andrews would spin at Bruxelles on the penultimate lap after picking up significant damage in a crash at the top of Radillion - losing two positions.

I'd eventually finish over a minute behind Dahlgren and exactly a minute behind Andrews.

The finishing order was:

LMDH

1st - Pope (Cadillac LMDH) - Wild Things (44 L)

DNF - Kun Szabo - Wild Things (20 L)

GT3

1st - Storey (Porsche 911 GT3 R) - Privateer (39 L)

2nd - Dahlgren (Porsche 911 GT3 R) - Aspire Racing Team (39 L)

3rd - Andrews (Porsche 911 GT3 R) - Aspire Racing Team (39 L)

4th - Truswell (Ferrari 488 GT3) - Kabort Motorsport (39 L)

5th - Van Bakel (Porsche 911 GT3 R) - Aspire Racing Team (38 L)

DNF - Pink (Porsche 911 GT3 R) - Aspire Racing Team (L 22)