With about 30 minutes to go before official practice session timer was to begin Simon let me know that he had no internet and that it was likely he would not be able to host the server for the race. Simon has been hosting then races for the last few series and I have let my rF2 server go onto mothballs. It technically still hosts our old Teamspeak server (It is currently experiencing issues itself, but thats a discussion for another time) but has not been updated to most recent versions of the Server software, Enduracne pack, or LeMans track.

So without hesitation and great anxiety in my mind I set about to updating everything and getting all the kinks worked out as quickly as possible. After getting everything updated and putting up the server I ran into a problem with the Mod not loading properly. I realized that I never ran on the most recent version of LeMans and so the permissions on the server would not allow the Track to be available for the membership to connect. A few minutes later and with a new permissions file on the server I was back in business.

When I setup the new server I checked "fast rolling start" as the start variant instead of "rolling start". That was what caused the issue with the start. Sorry if I caused any heartache for you guys.

Ok. So we qualify and I did not have a good setup or any practice leading up to the race. I have a relatively good understanding of the track and felt that I should be able to at least not wreck anyone else out. I qualified in 6th place (Ahead of Tom so Ill take that).

On race start I figured out pretty quickly what had happened and was able to jump a few spots initially. It didnt last long and within a lap I was passed by Juan again. I then had a very good battle with Gerry as we swapped spots a few times. Ultimately though he had better consistency and slowly pulled away from me. After that point I was driving by myself, only coming into contact with other drivers as I began to lap the GTEs. I did get one penalty for speeding in the pit lane as I came in a bit too hot on the second stop and got a drive-through. Frankly though I dont think it would have mattered as Matt had a 70 some second lead on me at the end.

I finished last in the LMP division (at least of all the cars that made it to the end of the race) But I still had a great time. I was very surprised how quickly the race went, especially considering it was twice as long as our usual 45 minute races and required 2 pit stops. I am looking forward to hosting another event of this type in the future. We definitely should do this again. Maybe even host a series of mixed class again once we feel we have a adequate attendance week in and week out.

Congratulations to the winners of each division, Juan and Tom Kapusta, and I'll see you all on track.

Chad Brown