SimRacing Blog

On a whim; on a windy, rainy Saturday night, with nothing better to do, I decided to just fire up a default installation of GTR2 in Steam. I have a real soft spot for this old sim, one of the rare titles produced by the ISI “gMotor” engined simulators to be a fully fledged title focusing on one series. With AI that are somewhat sensible and a realistic championship based on the 2003/04 seasons of the FIA GT Championship.

Once I’d configured the game options as I like them, I realised the Ferrari and Porsche marques were not in the Steam version. A quick google search later and with some patches installed, I was good to go. After a few laps around Donington to check my controls, I setup a 2003 Championship, 100% distance, 100% AI and the Morgan Aero 8 car from that year’s British GT Championship and 24 Hours of Spa. Not really a car that fits in the FIA GT Championship classes but as I didn’t know this at the time, I carried on regardless…!

The first race of the season was at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, for 3 hours. I was going to hop straight into the race session and do the whole thing solo. Confident as I was in my abilities to compete without making too many mistakes, it would be a fun way to kill a Saturday evening.

I loaded the garage, configured my fuel to last 59 minutes, then clicked through the sessions to race. I figured the garage setup stint length estimator was inaccurate and that fuel would actually last longer.

Then the game took me through for a walk down the grid, to my lovely little Morgan Aero 8 at the very back (37th position). I was now in the cockpit at the start of the formation lap… and promptly stalled it. A quick engine re-fire and I off blasted down the long start/finish straight to catch back up to the field.

As we came through the last corner we were given the Green Flag! I floored it and immediately started overtaking the slower NGT class cars. I wasn’t sure how competitive I would be in the Morgan, so was relieved that I wasn’t the slowest car.

At the end of lap one, I had progressed from dead last (37th) all the way up to 25th! A fun opening lap. However, as my car was not really an NGT nor really a GT class car, I would find myself somewhere in between, in a kind of Sim Racing no-man’s-land.

Some of the quicker NGT cars did make a race of it before I found my rhythm in the opening laps. I had a good dice with a couple of Porsches and Ferraris as I was getting warmed up. It was by making a few minor errors (running wide, not using the correct gears in the slower corners) that kept them in play. I dropped back to 29th in this early phase of the race.

However I never lost touch with this gaggle of cars and as I found my rhythm and improved my consistency I reeled them back in and started to make up places. I was up to 23rd position at the end of the first hour and still had 13 liters of fuel to burn through before my pit stop. The garage had estimated 70L would last 59 minutes but in reality was going to last around 74 minutes. I didn’t know this at the time and I didn’t have the race time on screen anywhere. No hud, just my dashboard telling me fuel, gear, laptime & revs. I like to race with sparse information. Just concentrate on driving.

I pitted around 1h 10m into the race, from 22nd position. I had minor damage which I chose not to repair, fuelled for 70L more and also decided to double stint my medium compound tyres, so did not change them. I had a quick 32.4s pit stop and was back on my way. I rejoined the race 25th.

About 12 and a half minutes into my second stint, I came across a slow Viper in the middle of turn 3. He had just clobbered the back of a lapped Porsche and as I had another Porsche just in front of me I was unsighted and clobbered the back of the Viper. I spun but was able to continue.

Ten minutes later and my engineer comes over the radio to inform me that my tyres are worn. The car feels good so I carry on regardless. Then he warns me again not 5 minutes later. He warns me again 15 minutes later but at this point I’ve stopped listening to him. I am slower but the car feels good.

Finally after nearly an hour of stint 2, on my well worn medium tyres I spin as I come across a lapped Ferrari. I take the hint and immediately head for the pits to take on tyres and fuel.

I pit from 22nd and rejoin the race after a 45 second stop in 25th. A lap after exiting the pits and pushing hard on my new rubber, I run wide at turn 3 and spin. A Viper gives me a tap but no damage done and I keep going.

In the closing stages of the race, the final 50 minutes of racing I go from 25th to 16th! I pick up 24th when Derichebourg’s Ferrari dies.

A Ferrari then a Porsche make late race pitstops, so I pick up 17th. The replay file crashes before it gets to the end of the race, so I’m not entirely sure how I picked up 16th. But 16th was my final position.

A most excellent 3 hours of sim racing. Always a joy to be back in GTR2 and pretty happy with a solid result. Perhaps with a cleaner run I can do better; the next race is Magny Cours for another 3 hours.