Over the weekend of January 20th - 21st, NOMAD Sim Racing took part in the inaugural 2018 iRacing Daytona 24hr Endurance race. Three drivers took on the might of the Corvette Daytona Prototype racer around the 3.81 mile (6.13 km) circuit, which includes some of the original 70 degree banking.
Qualifying with a time of 1:36.7, this placed the NOMAD car in split three in 3rd position on the grid in the 55 car field.
From the off we experienced problems with connecting to the iRacing servers, Warm-up supposedly starting at 13:00. It wasn't until around 13:20 when Simon Underhill managed to get into the car. From then on it was iRacing server chaos, the majority of participants experiencing some sort of "Throughput error" and "Channel closed" message.
Eventually some stability crept in and Simon took the helm, 3 laps down due to the earlier connection issues which had put us in 44th overall.
By lap 6, Simon was in 31st position, starting to get into a bit of a groove, but with still a lot of connection issues where cars were literally disappearing off the track.
Lap 26 and it was time to pit from 21st position. Steady as she goes, it was fuel and tyres all around before heading off for stint number two.
Lap 54 and we were in 10th spot, a mighty drive to recover some of the earlier issues. Now was time to change drivers and give Barry Baird a chance. Fresh tyres and more fuel, Barry headed out to join the fight.
Lap 81 and Barry had managed to get the car to 5th, 2 laps down from the leaders. More fresh tyres and fuel and it was back out.
Lap 97 and connection problem re-arose. Tony Baird was luckily standing by and jumped into the car. This put NOMAD back down to 8th but there was still a long way to go.
Lap 125 and it was time for Tony to come in for a fresh set of boots. 76L of Fuel later, first gear selected, it was back out into 7th spot, still battling for at least a podium finish.
Lap 152 and it was back to Simon's turn to put in some seat time. Heading back out in 6th it was now time to turn up the wick.
Lap 179 and it was that time again, tyres and fuel required only this time, NOMAD came into the pits from 4th spot, one of the quickest cars on the track.
Lap 196 and the adrenaline was pumping. 3rd spot (Revolution Racing - #33) was right in front and the opportunity presented itself to get the overtake done on the back straight.
Unfortunately Lap 197, Car #33 decided to try a maneuver up the inside into turn one and the two cars collided sending us both out spinning. Fortunately Simon managed to keep it out of the barrier and drove off still in 3rd with Car #33 in hot pursuit.
Lap 198 and Team Revolution Racing (Car #33) again decide to play a dangerous game, forcing Simon off the road into turn 1. This sent our NOMAD car into a spin hitting the tyres on the pit lane exit. As a result, major damage had been taken and it was now a case of slowly driving back to the pits for a repair. Feeling sorry for himself, Simon handed the car back to Barry who returned to the track in 8th place, 3 laps down from the leaders.
Lap 252 and it was once again time to hand the car to Tony Baird to take over. Discussions were now taking place as to what the strategy should look like throughout the night, approaching quickly and only a few hours away.
Lap 307 and NOMAD were back in 5th position, time to hand the car back to Simon for the first of the triple night stints. Again, luck was not on our side as Simon incurred some more damage coming out of the pits due to a failed Brake Pedal. 2 more minutes of repair meant the leaders were cashing in. 4 Laps down and in 9th position, there was still plenty of time to finish in the top 5. It was all about consistency now and letting the others sleep before their triple stint.
80 laps later and one tired driver, it was again time to hand the seat to Barry Baird to start his two and a quarter hour stint, this proving challenging having the Oculus Rift attached for so long. Simon wished good luck and went for some rest to see the team in the early hours of the morning.
Then the connection problems re-appeared, Barry experiencing issues once again with the connection to the iRacing server. No matter how hard he tried to resolve the problem nothing could be done and on Lap 412 the car was retired.
We like to think of it as a "Real life racing mechanical failure" to be able to put it all into context. After so much hard work preparing for this event, it was issues beyond the teams control that led to the demise of our race.
Until next time.......