This was the longest endurance race I'd ever attempted at this point in my GT career, and boy was it a challenge! There were a few times in this race where I firmly believed I had bitten off more than I could chew, and it was a pulsating race from start to finish...it makes for good reading :)
Fuji 1000km
Date: 26th August 2007
Car Used: 1997 BMW Mclaren F1 GTR
After the convincing win at the Infineon Raceway, team FRT fancy slightly moer of a challenge. The Nissan R390GT1 has been set aside for a brief rest before it's assault on LeMans (coming soon...
), and so the team decided, at the upcoming Fuji 1000km, to do something big - to score a victory worth 200 A-spec points in an endurance event. Even more so, it would be on a completly stock car. Obviously we needed a special stock car for the job, and that car was the BMW Mclaren F1 GTR. IMO one of the most beautiful cars in GT4, it also excelled at acceleration (no pun intended) and handling, and even topspeed wasn't too much of a problem. Of course, having only 642hp meant it lacked the sheer grunt of the bigger machines, but FRT was confident that it would stand up to the bigger machines and face them down on the fast and treacherous Fuji Speedway. The oil had been changed that morning and R2 tires were strapped to the front and R1s on the rear, for an even wear rate. Nevertheless, as I strapped myself in and lined up on the grid I could feel a trickle of sweat from underneath the helmet - this was going to be a race like no other I'd had before.
The starting grid:
Nissan R92CP 1992
Nissan R89C 1989
Ford GT40 1969
Peugeot 905 1992
BMW V12 LMR 1999
BMW Mclaren F1 GTR 1997 (me)
Updates every hour.
1st hour.
I knew I had two things working in my favour on the start - the Ford GT40 slowing the BMW and Peugeot down initially and the Peugeot's terrible acceleration from 1st gear. With a gutsy late-breaking manuevere I dove into 3rd place, right behind Team Calsonic's duo of factory Nissans. I was determined not to let them get away, and via a late dive up the inside of the R89C at 90R (the tight left-hander at the bottom of the track) and a slipstreaming manuevere past the R92CP I had achieved my goal. But what a fight I had on my hands - the R92CP was much, MUCH faster than me all round. Regular punts and bumps meant he eventually bullied his way back by (with a lot of rude hand gestures from me
) but the cannon-fodder GT40 slowed him down in the final turn just enough for me to draft him and slip by at the first turn again. We had a right royal battle until lap 12 when him and his teammate the R89C slipped into the pits - this would hopefully be my ace card as my tires were only just turning yellow at this point at this point its a BMW 1-2 as the BMW V12 LMR takes 2nd - chalk one up for Vorsprung Durch Tenknick(probably spelt that wrong :P)! BMW pits lap 16, Peugeot lap 17 and me lap 18, being caught out by that stupid chicane at the start of the pit road. That probably explains why I end up 8 seconds down on the R92CP by the time I exit the pits 
sadly by only lap 21 he was up to at least 11 seconds - almost a second a lap quicker at least 
however, i suddenly realise he would have to pit again only 4 laps later - and then my ace card would REALLY begin to come into play and indeed it does, once again both the blue-white-and-red machines dove onto the pits at the end of lap 24. A brief spot of maths told me that by lap 36 (my next planned pitstop) they would have to pit AGAIN, which meant I would have pitted twice to their 3 times...would it be enough to conquer their enormous speed advantage? Well through lap 25 to 28 I actually gained some time on the R92CP, the gap back to him from me going from 17-18 seconds - obviously this was due to my tires being at their prime (a lovely deep green colour) and his tires being deep blue and cold. Whatever it was, an advantage was an advantage, and I aimed to use it as best I could. I also slipped by the GT40 for the second time too, hoping that he may be able to slow down the R92CP just a tiny bit perhaps?
Still the gap wasn't going down as lap 29 started, and then a thought entered my head - was he trying to save his tires for an extra lap or two? Turns out he wasn't, and despite the gap closing to under 10 seconds we both pit on lap 36 and I retain a comfortable lead. The first hour passes 1.10 into lap 44 with me leading the R92CP by about 6 seconds.
Hour 2
Things go from bad to worse in this segment. The R92CP pits on lap 48, as predicted, and I make my next stop on lap 54. By this stage the R92CP is right behind me and is getting violent - under breaking for almost all corners comes a lazy punt or nudge from the blue-and-white machine. He pits again at lap 60, and once again he catches up and we have another tussle before I lead him out of the pits from lap 72. I manage to grab a 6-second lead on him on cold tires before he manages to slowly but surely reel me in. At lap 80 he is right behind me at the start finish line, and as we brake for turn 1 I expect a small nudge. But he doesn't brake at all. Despite me braking from the 3rd marker, he just drives into the back of me. Result? I wade through several tonnes of lovely gravel in turn 1 and he makes his getaway. To say I am livid at this point is an understatement - the air iin the cockpit is still blue from my tirade. By lap 81 he leads by 8 seconds and I am desperatly giving chase in a car which no matter what I do is still at least a second a lap slower than that bastard Nissan
Still, another pitstop coming up, maybe I can press home my advantage there. He does pit at lap 84, and my stop is about to follow in another 6 laps. Meanwhile, I am considering a possible switch to R3s on the front and R2s rear, it will mean I have to pit more often but it may well gain me valuble time on that R92CP...
2 hours is up 30 seconds into lap 88 with me leading by 20 seconds.
Hour 3
I decide to pit a lap early at lap 89, as I dont fancy doing another lap on trashed rubber, and I decide to put my softer tire plan into use...Lap 90, I am 10 seconds behind. By the time he makes his pitstop on lap 96, I am only 6 seconds behind when he enters the pits. Thats how much of a difference these new tires have made. My laptimes have gone from consistent 1:20s with odd 1:19s to consistent low 1:19s-high 1:18s, which is a lot closer to the pace of the R92CP. Hopefully I shall also be able to run longer on the tires than him...maybe I do still have a shot at this race after all
By the time lap 100 comes around, I am leading by 25-28 seconds, and have just set my fastest lap of the race (to my knowledge) at 1.18.169. A pattern begins to repeat itself - I lead by 25-28 seconds until my stop, whereupon the R92CP leads for about 4 laps at about 7-10 seconds before making his pitstop. 3 hours passes 58 seconds into lap 131 with me trailing the R92CP by 10.4 seconds. Man...still just under 100 laps to go...wonder how Im going to fare in the 24hours if Im lagging after 3? Also I swear the horsepower has begun to drop off, but theres no oil light on...
Hour 4
First event of the hour is R92CP pitting at the end of lap 131, and me following suit by lap 140. A few really bad mistakes on the in-lap mean that the Nissan is able to make up a 13-second lead on me after this stop. He then pits and by lap 146 I am leading him by 22.315 seconds. Ive realised by now that I'm definatly quicker than him when he is on cold/warming up tires, so I make sure my next few laps are blazing quick - lap 147 is a 1.17.955, my fastest yet
I have a good 38-second lead on the Nissan when I pit on lap 152, which should mean we're fairly close coming off of pit road...that's if you call 6.549 seconds close for the first time in the race I've lead him off of pitroad, which can only be a good thing, right? And what's more, my lead doesn't decrease but INCREASE before he pits on lap 156 - a sure sign that I'm beginning to learn this track well and my lead remains between 40 and 43 seconds till my next stop at lap 164. However, as I exit T1 i clip the grass on the left side and spin sideways, loosing time and bringing him up behind me. Time to go head-to-head again...however under braking for the first corner the car gets VERY unstable and ends up skidding right off the track, meaning I loose time on the R92CP. I'm also beginning to really get bored of the Hives song 'B is for Brutus' which IVe had on my jukebox for god knows how long and now just annoys the hell outta me whenever I hear it. Which due to the fact my jukebox on GT4 only has about 7 songs on it, is roughly every 15 minutes 
time for some more PC music methinks...Ash will do the job nicely. He pits on about lap 168, and I'm ready for another stop on about lap 176. 4 hours passes 50 seconds into lap 175 with me leading from the Nissan by about 30 seconds.
Hour 5.
Just 53 laps left...God, my bums hurting...this chair is probably the most uncomfortable thing ever to come out of Ikea, its horrible
Pit on lap 176 with about 52 laps to go....still another hour left...maybe I should have done the Nurburgring 4 hours before this one...more of a natural progression up perhaps? The Nissan flashes by 2.4 seconds ahead after the pitstop. I've done a bit of quick maths, and Ive sussed that if on my final pitstop, which should theoretically be at around 212, I change to R2s front/R1s rear, I should be able to go to the finish and defeat the Nissan in a battle of pitstops. Whilst pondering this idea however, I get a wheel on the grass onthe outside of the runup to 90R and end up looping the car round, handing the Nissan 4 extra seconds. He is pitting at the end of this lap anyway, so he hands me back the lead by 27 seconds. This goes up to 34 seconds before decreasing to 30 seconds on my inlap lap 188.
The pattern repeats itself again for the penultimate round of stops (mine at lap 200, his at 204) and its at this stage that I realise two things - one, how amazing the BMW Mclaren is, and two, that if I mess up the next pitstop, Im screwed. For the former, it struck just how amazing a car the Mclaren F1 GTR is, as here it is, nothing more than (in essence) a tarted-up road car in the hands of someone who is in no way any kind of master of racing, taking on and beating purpose-built race cars. But I couldn't worry about how good a car it is - for my strategy to work I had to put as much distance between myself and the Nissan as I could on my good tires, so I do just that - reeling off a series of consecutive 1:18 laps through lap 204 to 209. Laps 210-212 (my inlap) were both 1:19s. This is important as thanks to this I have built up a 40 second cushion, which means theoretically I should be able to get out of the pits still in the lead and have comfortable time to adjust to the car switching back to the harder compound tires...hopefully...
Thanks to my fast pre-stop laps I maintain a 10-second lead on the R92CP after the stop, but I knew for the final 15 laps I could not afford a single mistake, because already, just like he had when I had been running R2s/R1s earlier, the R92CP is chopping away at my lead - 10 seconds down to 7.4 by lap 215 alone. As predicted though, the R92CP pits at the end of lap 216. That should mean I am in the clear - but 12 laps left, and with the R92CP on fresh rubber, I'm not counting my chickens yet. The 5 hour mark passes somewhere around lap 220 - by this stage I wasn't really paying attention. By this stage the laps are simply ticking down...the Nissan is nowhere, he was 40 seconds behind after his stop, 30 seconds back now...my steering wheel (AKA my DS2) is coated in sweat, and a small flying insect is buzzing around just inside my windscreen (my small bedroom TV) - must have got in on the stop before last. I finally cross the start-finish line to begin the final lap, the split time monitor says the Nissan is 28 seconds behind - despite slashing 12 seconds out of my lead, I doubt it will be enough. And it isnt. Finally, after 5hours, 13minutes and 7 seconds, Team FRT win the Fuji 1000km!!
Final results:
1. Me
2. Nissan R92CP +25.8 seconds
3. BMW V12 LMR + 1 lap
4. Peugeot 905 +2 laps
5. Nissan R89C +2 laps
6. Ford GT40 +15 laps?
Easily the most thrilling race I've competed in so far. And my reward for all this? The magic 200 A-spec points, 750,000 prize money and a new, unraced version of my rival's car! All of this was done pretty much in one session, with 1 half-hour break after 1 hour, another after 2 hours and a further one at around lap 200 for dinner. Suffice to say my bum gets a rest, I get a cold drink and (hopefully) membership to club 200 and my magnificent BMW Mclaren F1 GTR (642hp at start, 612hp at the end) a good rest in the garage safe inthe knowledge that it will probably never, EVER get sold - I just love it too much!
Thanks for reading all! Hope to see you soon (after a days rest) at La Sarthe!
Fuji 1000km
Date: 26th August 2007
Car Used: 1997 BMW Mclaren F1 GTR
After the convincing win at the Infineon Raceway, team FRT fancy slightly moer of a challenge. The Nissan R390GT1 has been set aside for a brief rest before it's assault on LeMans (coming soon...
), and so the team decided, at the upcoming Fuji 1000km, to do something big - to score a victory worth 200 A-spec points in an endurance event. Even more so, it would be on a completly stock car. Obviously we needed a special stock car for the job, and that car was the BMW Mclaren F1 GTR. IMO one of the most beautiful cars in GT4, it also excelled at acceleration (no pun intended) and handling, and even topspeed wasn't too much of a problem. Of course, having only 642hp meant it lacked the sheer grunt of the bigger machines, but FRT was confident that it would stand up to the bigger machines and face them down on the fast and treacherous Fuji Speedway. The oil had been changed that morning and R2 tires were strapped to the front and R1s on the rear, for an even wear rate. Nevertheless, as I strapped myself in and lined up on the grid I could feel a trickle of sweat from underneath the helmet - this was going to be a race like no other I'd had before.The starting grid:
Nissan R92CP 1992
Nissan R89C 1989
Ford GT40 1969
Peugeot 905 1992
BMW V12 LMR 1999
BMW Mclaren F1 GTR 1997 (me)
Updates every hour.
1st hour.
I knew I had two things working in my favour on the start - the Ford GT40 slowing the BMW and Peugeot down initially and the Peugeot's terrible acceleration from 1st gear. With a gutsy late-breaking manuevere I dove into 3rd place, right behind Team Calsonic's duo of factory Nissans. I was determined not to let them get away, and via a late dive up the inside of the R89C at 90R (the tight left-hander at the bottom of the track) and a slipstreaming manuevere past the R92CP I had achieved my goal. But what a fight I had on my hands - the R92CP was much, MUCH faster than me all round. Regular punts and bumps meant he eventually bullied his way back by (with a lot of rude hand gestures from me
) but the cannon-fodder GT40 slowed him down in the final turn just enough for me to draft him and slip by at the first turn again. We had a right royal battle until lap 12 when him and his teammate the R89C slipped into the pits - this would hopefully be my ace card as my tires were only just turning yellow at this point at this point its a BMW 1-2 as the BMW V12 LMR takes 2nd - chalk one up for Vorsprung Durch Tenknick(probably spelt that wrong :P)! BMW pits lap 16, Peugeot lap 17 and me lap 18, being caught out by that stupid chicane at the start of the pit road. That probably explains why I end up 8 seconds down on the R92CP by the time I exit the pits sadly by only lap 21 he was up to at least 11 seconds - almost a second a lap quicker at least however, i suddenly realise he would have to pit again only 4 laps later - and then my ace card would REALLY begin to come into play and indeed it does, once again both the blue-white-and-red machines dove onto the pits at the end of lap 24. A brief spot of maths told me that by lap 36 (my next planned pitstop) they would have to pit AGAIN, which meant I would have pitted twice to their 3 times...would it be enough to conquer their enormous speed advantage? Well through lap 25 to 28 I actually gained some time on the R92CP, the gap back to him from me going from 17-18 seconds - obviously this was due to my tires being at their prime (a lovely deep green colour) and his tires being deep blue and cold. Whatever it was, an advantage was an advantage, and I aimed to use it as best I could. I also slipped by the GT40 for the second time too, hoping that he may be able to slow down the R92CP just a tiny bit perhaps?Still the gap wasn't going down as lap 29 started, and then a thought entered my head - was he trying to save his tires for an extra lap or two? Turns out he wasn't, and despite the gap closing to under 10 seconds we both pit on lap 36 and I retain a comfortable lead. The first hour passes 1.10 into lap 44 with me leading the R92CP by about 6 seconds.
Hour 2
Things go from bad to worse in this segment. The R92CP pits on lap 48, as predicted, and I make my next stop on lap 54. By this stage the R92CP is right behind me and is getting violent - under breaking for almost all corners comes a lazy punt or nudge from the blue-and-white machine. He pits again at lap 60, and once again he catches up and we have another tussle before I lead him out of the pits from lap 72. I manage to grab a 6-second lead on him on cold tires before he manages to slowly but surely reel me in. At lap 80 he is right behind me at the start finish line, and as we brake for turn 1 I expect a small nudge. But he doesn't brake at all. Despite me braking from the 3rd marker, he just drives into the back of me. Result? I wade through several tonnes of lovely gravel in turn 1 and he makes his getaway. To say I am livid at this point is an understatement - the air iin the cockpit is still blue from my tirade. By lap 81 he leads by 8 seconds and I am desperatly giving chase in a car which no matter what I do is still at least a second a lap slower than that bastard Nissan
Still, another pitstop coming up, maybe I can press home my advantage there. He does pit at lap 84, and my stop is about to follow in another 6 laps. Meanwhile, I am considering a possible switch to R3s on the front and R2s rear, it will mean I have to pit more often but it may well gain me valuble time on that R92CP... 2 hours is up 30 seconds into lap 88 with me leading by 20 seconds.Hour 3
I decide to pit a lap early at lap 89, as I dont fancy doing another lap on trashed rubber, and I decide to put my softer tire plan into use...Lap 90, I am 10 seconds behind. By the time he makes his pitstop on lap 96, I am only 6 seconds behind when he enters the pits. Thats how much of a difference these new tires have made. My laptimes have gone from consistent 1:20s with odd 1:19s to consistent low 1:19s-high 1:18s, which is a lot closer to the pace of the R92CP. Hopefully I shall also be able to run longer on the tires than him...maybe I do still have a shot at this race after all
By the time lap 100 comes around, I am leading by 25-28 seconds, and have just set my fastest lap of the race (to my knowledge) at 1.18.169. A pattern begins to repeat itself - I lead by 25-28 seconds until my stop, whereupon the R92CP leads for about 4 laps at about 7-10 seconds before making his pitstop. 3 hours passes 58 seconds into lap 131 with me trailing the R92CP by 10.4 seconds. Man...still just under 100 laps to go...wonder how Im going to fare in the 24hours if Im lagging after 3? Also I swear the horsepower has begun to drop off, but theres no oil light on...Hour 4
First event of the hour is R92CP pitting at the end of lap 131, and me following suit by lap 140. A few really bad mistakes on the in-lap mean that the Nissan is able to make up a 13-second lead on me after this stop. He then pits and by lap 146 I am leading him by 22.315 seconds. Ive realised by now that I'm definatly quicker than him when he is on cold/warming up tires, so I make sure my next few laps are blazing quick - lap 147 is a 1.17.955, my fastest yet
I have a good 38-second lead on the Nissan when I pit on lap 152, which should mean we're fairly close coming off of pit road...that's if you call 6.549 seconds close for the first time in the race I've lead him off of pitroad, which can only be a good thing, right? And what's more, my lead doesn't decrease but INCREASE before he pits on lap 156 - a sure sign that I'm beginning to learn this track well and my lead remains between 40 and 43 seconds till my next stop at lap 164. However, as I exit T1 i clip the grass on the left side and spin sideways, loosing time and bringing him up behind me. Time to go head-to-head again...however under braking for the first corner the car gets VERY unstable and ends up skidding right off the track, meaning I loose time on the R92CP. I'm also beginning to really get bored of the Hives song 'B is for Brutus' which IVe had on my jukebox for god knows how long and now just annoys the hell outta me whenever I hear it. Which due to the fact my jukebox on GT4 only has about 7 songs on it, is roughly every 15 minutes time for some more PC music methinks...Ash will do the job nicely. He pits on about lap 168, and I'm ready for another stop on about lap 176. 4 hours passes 50 seconds into lap 175 with me leading from the Nissan by about 30 seconds.Hour 5.
Just 53 laps left...God, my bums hurting...this chair is probably the most uncomfortable thing ever to come out of Ikea, its horrible
Pit on lap 176 with about 52 laps to go....still another hour left...maybe I should have done the Nurburgring 4 hours before this one...more of a natural progression up perhaps? The Nissan flashes by 2.4 seconds ahead after the pitstop. I've done a bit of quick maths, and Ive sussed that if on my final pitstop, which should theoretically be at around 212, I change to R2s front/R1s rear, I should be able to go to the finish and defeat the Nissan in a battle of pitstops. Whilst pondering this idea however, I get a wheel on the grass onthe outside of the runup to 90R and end up looping the car round, handing the Nissan 4 extra seconds. He is pitting at the end of this lap anyway, so he hands me back the lead by 27 seconds. This goes up to 34 seconds before decreasing to 30 seconds on my inlap lap 188.The pattern repeats itself again for the penultimate round of stops (mine at lap 200, his at 204) and its at this stage that I realise two things - one, how amazing the BMW Mclaren is, and two, that if I mess up the next pitstop, Im screwed. For the former, it struck just how amazing a car the Mclaren F1 GTR is, as here it is, nothing more than (in essence) a tarted-up road car in the hands of someone who is in no way any kind of master of racing, taking on and beating purpose-built race cars. But I couldn't worry about how good a car it is - for my strategy to work I had to put as much distance between myself and the Nissan as I could on my good tires, so I do just that - reeling off a series of consecutive 1:18 laps through lap 204 to 209. Laps 210-212 (my inlap) were both 1:19s. This is important as thanks to this I have built up a 40 second cushion, which means theoretically I should be able to get out of the pits still in the lead and have comfortable time to adjust to the car switching back to the harder compound tires...hopefully...
Thanks to my fast pre-stop laps I maintain a 10-second lead on the R92CP after the stop, but I knew for the final 15 laps I could not afford a single mistake, because already, just like he had when I had been running R2s/R1s earlier, the R92CP is chopping away at my lead - 10 seconds down to 7.4 by lap 215 alone. As predicted though, the R92CP pits at the end of lap 216. That should mean I am in the clear - but 12 laps left, and with the R92CP on fresh rubber, I'm not counting my chickens yet. The 5 hour mark passes somewhere around lap 220 - by this stage I wasn't really paying attention. By this stage the laps are simply ticking down...the Nissan is nowhere, he was 40 seconds behind after his stop, 30 seconds back now...my steering wheel (AKA my DS2) is coated in sweat, and a small flying insect is buzzing around just inside my windscreen (my small bedroom TV) - must have got in on the stop before last. I finally cross the start-finish line to begin the final lap, the split time monitor says the Nissan is 28 seconds behind - despite slashing 12 seconds out of my lead, I doubt it will be enough. And it isnt. Finally, after 5hours, 13minutes and 7 seconds, Team FRT win the Fuji 1000km!!
Final results:
1. Me
2. Nissan R92CP +25.8 seconds
3. BMW V12 LMR + 1 lap
4. Peugeot 905 +2 laps
5. Nissan R89C +2 laps
6. Ford GT40 +15 laps?
Easily the most thrilling race I've competed in so far. And my reward for all this? The magic 200 A-spec points, 750,000 prize money and a new, unraced version of my rival's car! All of this was done pretty much in one session, with 1 half-hour break after 1 hour, another after 2 hours and a further one at around lap 200 for dinner. Suffice to say my bum gets a rest, I get a cold drink and (hopefully) membership to club 200 and my magnificent BMW Mclaren F1 GTR (642hp at start, 612hp at the end) a good rest in the garage safe inthe knowledge that it will probably never, EVER get sold - I just love it too much!
Thanks for reading all! Hope to see you soon (after a days rest) at La Sarthe!
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