3rd Place of the 2018 iRacing Sebring 12hr
NOMAD Sim Racing Team White, having qualified 2nd on the grid for this years iRacing 12 hours of Sebring were in a good position to follow on from our success at Bathurst. Tony Baird started to the race and had a great battle with pole position. Positions changed over the course of the first stint. With Tony carrying on for the following 2 stints it was a continuous battle for first. Both ourselves teams were able to take turns pulling gaps, but pulled back together often while dealing with traffic. It made for an exciting start to the race.
After two and a half hours of racing we managed to pit in first place and it was time to hand over to Collin Stark. Collin did a splendid job as the same battle ensured. This time Collin was able to start pulling a gap and give us a bit of breathing space. Collin was extremely consistent throughout and by the time he came to the end of his triple stint we had a 15 sec gap to second place.
It was now time for Barry Baird to carry on trying to make further progress. Unfortunately due to a few close moments with backmarkers the second place team were able to close right back up and at around the 7hr mark there could be no more than a few seconds between us. We were unable to hold on to first place and by the time Barry came in after his stints we were 20 seconds behind.
Time for Tony to get back behind the wheel which didn't go quite to plan. 6 laps into his stint there was a coming together with a car coming out of the pits which caused damage to the car. The damage meant we were around 1 second per lap slower for the rest of the stint. Things got worse when we came into the pits: we had the imaginary bonnet changed which cost as a further 2 mins in the pits. This then dropped us down to 4 place and over the remaining hours Tony and Collin were able to bring the car home in 3rd place.
NOMAD Sim Racing Team Black in their Corvette Daytona Prototype started 3rd in split 4. Simon Underhill took the wheel to put the car into first place within the first lap. With a flawless drive, Team Black held top spot right through until lap 77.
Now it was time to change drivers, and it would be the turn of Jason Dilworth to fill the seat. Unfortunately, due to iRacing server technical issues, the simulator didn't allow Jason to get in the car without quitting iRacing first. This dropped Team Black down to 11th spot, -1 Lap down from the leader but there was still all to play for.
Lap 126 and we were back to 7th position, it was Simons turn to jump back into the car. A further 11 Laps in and we were back to 5th spot but still -1 Lap adrift the leaders. But that was soon to change as Simon caught and overtook 1st position on Lap 162 to get the lap back. The team could smell another podium at least, and focused on consistency for the rest of the race.
Lap 179 and it was time to hand over the car from 4th place back to Jason for his next stint and within 6 Laps Jason got the car to the bottom step of the podium in 3rd. Lap 209 and NOMAD Sim Racing Team Black was back in 2nd spot, there was another NOMAD win on the cards.
Lap 216 and disaster struck. A lapse of concentration around the final bend unfortunately resulted in damage to the car, enough to warrant a pit stop repair of circa 8 mins. Highly disappointed, Jason stepped out and passed the car back to Simon. It wasn't long after that Jason had a family emergency and had to step away from the race leaving Simon to finish off the 5 hours remaining.
Luckily Bart Daelman was around to help out and on lap 294 of 358, Simon stepped out for some much needed rest and handed the car to Bart to finish the race 6 Laps down in 7th position.
Considering the damage sustained earlier, a Top 10 finish was well received.
As for the NOMAD Sim Racing Ferrari 488 GTE, well due to misunderstanding of iRacing requirements, the car didn't register in time and therefore could not compete.