NOMAD Sim Racing - iRacing 2019 Daytona 24 Hours
Date 19th - 20th January
NOMAD entered 4 teams this year, with 4 different cars. Here’s each team telling their story of both disappointments and achievements
Team Blue - Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype
Tony Baird
Barry Baird
Niklas Hjelm
Time for the first race of the 2019 Special Event series, Daytona 24hrs. NOMAD Blue Team, in the Daytona Prototype (DP), managed to enter in to Split 3. Tony qualified and managed a very respectable 4th considering the high entrants within that server split.
Then the mayhem started. As we gridded, it became apparent there were issues with the server resulting in blinking cars. Niklas was starting the race for us and had the mammoth task of trying to drive without hitting anyone. Once iRacing server issues started to calm, we found we were running 10th until another DP server effected car hit and spun us out.
Over the next few hours Niklas and Tony started to climb back up the order to 3rd when we then got hit by a GTE car, turning the car and putting us on our roof. This resulted in a 3 min repair taking the tow in to consideration. Barry took over for his first stint, our car lying now in 7th place over, 3 mins behind the leader and nearly 2 laps down.
The recovery drive started through the night hours, getting our heads down and not experiencing many incidents and we managed to get back on the lead lap through sheer determination. That was until closely being taken out again, by the same GTE driver that rolled the car previously. It soon became apparent that the possibility of a race win was in sight.
All 3 drivers drove with consistency and speed and as daytime approached, we were 1 min behind. The car was handed over to Tony for the last 3.5hrs, 25 seconds behind the leader. It was only in Tony’s last stint that we had caught up and passed for lead, pulling away to finish the race 40s ahead of 2nd place. It was a fantastic achievement from all 3 drivers and a great start for NOMAD Sim Racing and Team Blue’s season.
Team Green - Porsche 911 RSR
Jason Dilworth
Simon Underhill
Calum Wright
After Jason qualified in Pole Position in GTE class for NOMAD Green Team, he knuckled down to try and keep top spot. For a brief few laps, we dropped to 3rd but the double stint and excellent pit stops meant that once Simon got in for his first double stint, we were ahead once more. Simon completed his double stint with no issues, and as his double stint finished, it was the turn of Jason once more to try and take advantage of the lead that we had pulled..
As the sun set and the track was getting colder, Jason managed to put the teams fastest lap of the whole 24hrs in at the end of his double stint. The car was still in the lead and had a healthy gap to second and third position. Night fell and we continued double stinting the tyre, the car feeling really good at this point with the cooler Air and Track temperatures.
Around half distance and it was Calum’s turn to take the wheel. This would be a very big experience building for Calum as he had not done may endurance races previously but was looking forward to the challenge. Because of this, there were a couple of spins that the car had into turn 1, Calum’s most disliked part of the track. This put us circa 50 secs behind 1st place. It was at this point we decide to try and triple stint to get some of the deficit back. And sure enough after Simon’s Triple and Jason’s triple stints, we were back in 1st, some 30secs ahead.
The daylight arrived and so does the sleepy, weary drivers. So much so, on lap 635, a back marker drove wide off the track into turn 1 and decided to cut across into the side of our Porsche, instantly damaging the car enough to strip us of top speed, resulting in becoming a second down per lap. This 50secs lead would now become depleted fairly quickly. At this point it was a major head scratching period on what was the best strategy to adopt for damage limitation. In the end, between Calum and Jason, the car came home in 2nd position, not bad for the first race since NOMAD put some structure into its teams. Onwards and upwards and we will get that elusive win!
Team Red - Ferrari 488 GTE
Mattijs Van Delden
Roberte Edward
Benoit Dumas
A difficult 24 Hours of Daytona race this year for NOMAD Sim Racing Red Team. Benoit Dumas managed to put the Ferrari 488 GTE 11th on the grid with an excellent 1:41.892 lap time in Qualifying. He continued the teams challenge by starting the race, staying out of trouble for the first hour. Unfortunately, we then had an issue with a DP, which caused contact with the wall, and 3 minutes of repair time. Not much of an issue for a race like this, so we continued with Benoit finishing his stint, and Mattijs took over.
Only a few laps in, severe connection issues caused a spin due to a hit in the rear end followed by a disconnect from the server. Mattijs managed to reconnect again, but the car was damaged, down on speed, and slower than the GT3 class. Mattijs tried for another hour running in 15th place, but ultimately the team decided to withdraw due to Server, Car and Team commitment issues.
Team Black - Mercedes AMG GT3
Ben Empson
Ryan Walker
Alex Purkis
Simon Jacobsen
The first event for the new NOMAD Black Team and Simon Jacobsen qualified P8 in the GT3 class with the Mercedes AMG. Within the first 2 hours of the race, we were running P3 in class and everything looked strong with what we had achieved so far.
However, all the drama started in hour 4 when the car got hit from behind, resulting in damage to the rear right suspension. Whilst trying to manage the situation back to the pits, and resorting from getting a tow back, the car crashed in to the wall, adding to the forthcoming repairs needed to rejoin the race. Due to the 1 hour repair required, the team took the difficult decision to retire the car and focus their efforts on the remaining 3 teams with their support.