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Post by John "Badoer" King on Jun 18, 2017 20:48:45 GMT -5
Marco Mogren, Manuel Heuer, Vincent L'Herbier, Yannick Ongena, Kris Walker, David Zitterbart, Bronislav Robenek, Alistair Glen, Martin J. Smith, Joshua Stuart, Dustan Karschner, Michael "Instigator" Jeanes, Stephan Spantig, Gage Reisinger, Lubomir Moric, Craig Hobson, Andreas K Hansen, Alex Sheridan, @alexellis, Ashley Howell, Bart "Taki Inoue" Hendrikx, Braith Morrow, @brandonguarascia, Bryan "x4 contact " de Bruyn, Brett Kincaid, Brian Lamb, Changyoun Kim, Carl "Ricky" Jansson, Chris Hendrich, Christian Challiner, Christopher Emms, Dan Brunner, Daniel B Johnson, David "Eye in the Sky" Vieira, Denny Locke, Ernie "In the Draft" Ludwig, Elliot Meme, @forde3654eire, Gary Fishwick, Gabriel Roos, Gustavo Cianfarani, Jake Fox, James Flannery, Jan Brezina, Jason "Curby" Roy, Joel Hafner, Joe "Ironlung" Kirsch, John D Barry, John "Badoer" King, Jon "Pit Limiter" Medeiros, Joseph "1x" Burton-Harris, Joseph Cardamone, Joshua "Tire Destroyer" Mertz, Juha Hanhikorpi, Justin Faulkner, @linus, Marc Torres, Marco "AkArO" Abbate, Marcus R Taynton, Mark "WiFI" Dyall, Matt Newton, Mattias Magnusson, @neil, @xtr4log, Nic "nappy apocalypse" Sceats, Oliver "King of the Mountain", Patrik Runald, Robin " uhm Rosenwinch", Roman "Oogie" C., Paul Rogers, Sai "We're Outta Fuel" Andra, Scott Corbin, Stefan Overgaard, Stephan Spantig, Stephane Viens, Sven Cammaerts, Steve Gauthier, Taylor Burris, Tommy Vandergucht, Travis "Zombie" Mihm, Troy McGuire, Wade "Blind Spot" Hays, Zach HodgsonDuring the 2nd half of each year, we have a number of conflicts between series we run and this year is probably worse than before because we'll be entering the NEO series. Potentially, we can be competitive in all the series but we do need to be careful not to over commit to the series, particularly for the faster / experienced drivers. There's 4 series in particular that we need to plan carefully because all of them require a big commitment by the drivers. The series are NEO, GoT, DGFX & the BES Pro qualifying in season 4. At this stage, we know the schedule for NEO & DGFX and the cars for DGFX and BES Pro but the rest is assumptions. But, because we'll need to make the entries for some of the series soon, we need to make sure we have the right level of commitment from everyone we're going to put in the cars. So, I've created a spreadsheet which has all the drivers I'm assuming will be interested in at least one of the series and columns to fill in so you can show your preferences on the series and cars. I know that some of you have done it already in the threads for DGFX & Neo bit I think we need to have an overall view of this before we make any non-reversable decisions. Although I've tagged All BAM team members, not everyone is on the sheet, even some that might be interested in running in DGFX or BES qualifying. The lower ranked / slower / less experienced drivers in the team are more than welcome to join DGFX in an AM car or a support car in BES Qualifying but because the commitment wouldn't be so high and there's only 2 series involved, you can just respond on the specific threads for those series. But, if I've missed you out and you think you should be on the sheet, please just add a row with your details. How to fill in the sheet: 1) Add your iRacing ID & eMail address - we'll need those to register drivers for the series. 2) Fill in the "Series Preferences" column. So, if your 1st preference is GoT, 2nd is DGFX and you're not interested in the others, enter "GoT - DGFX" 3) For each series mentioned in your preferences, fill in your car preference for that series as numbers. So, 1 for your most preferred car, 2 for your 2nd choice etc. If you don't want to drive a car, just leave it out. Note that for NEO and GoT I'm assuming the some combination for HPD / GTE / GT3 and 911 will be used but we might need to revisit this at some point. Here's the link to the sheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1s-SHzo_8rmKyKBWgYnCLfeBy1Ia66FkV7Sw26a_j7VY/edit?usp=sharingA couple of specific notes for some of the new guys I've already been having discussions with: Andreas: Although I'm fine with whatever preference you have, my recommendation would be for you to run DGFX in the GTE with Marc/Mattias. They won the GT3 class in the Sprint series in DGFX with just the 2 of them in the car (plus me spotting) but Marc's wife is expecting right as the series is running so his availability is a bit unknown this time. The way they approached the series earlier in the year is exactly how you've been doing things so it would be a perfect fit to slot you into that car. Mads. Although DGFX is probably better for you from an experience point of view, I think we should just go with NEO as your 1st preference because of the schedule. But, we might need to rethink that when we see the overall picture
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Post by Samuel Harris on Jun 18, 2017 22:23:24 GMT -5
Done! What is NEO by the way, I may be interested in it.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2017 22:49:46 GMT -5
Done! What is NEO by the way, I may be interested in it. The highest rated and highly contested private league series. Its full of all the pro teams like Coanda, Mivano, all of the Core teams. Basically any pro team for the most part.
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Post by John "Badoer" King on Jun 18, 2017 23:20:20 GMT -5
It's also super expensive to enter although wedo get a free entry forwinning GOT last year. But, we'll be super selective for this - probably only the guys that regularly race top split inthe iRacing events. DGFX & GOT betterfor you Sam.
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Post by Alex Sheridan on Jun 18, 2017 23:32:58 GMT -5
I would be very keen but realistically none of those series are at a great time for me, so I dont think I could make the commitment.
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Post by John "Badoer" King on Jun 19, 2017 0:15:53 GMT -5
I would be very keen but realistically none of those series are at a great time for me, so I dont think I could make the commitment. Understood Alex. I only included you for consistancy and just in case :-)
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Post by Christian Challiner on Jun 19, 2017 9:06:28 GMT -5
For those thinking about Pro this is my advice.
Firstly, are you sure? Like are you really, really sure this is what you want?
The reason this is number 1 is because you shouldn't underestimate the commitment it requires throughout both the qualifier and the series itself. The qualifier IS HELL. I've done both GT and NASCAR qualifying now and both times I've experienced the following:
1. It is very stressful, imagine taking all the guys you consider to be 'the best' or 'fastest' and put them all in the same race. Now imagine you have to beat all of them...consistently. That is a VERY difficult thing to do.
2. Now thinking about #1, consider that a guy who is used to running away in the lead or top 3/5 is suddenly P30, that is one hell of an adjustment that he will not like! He will be ultra aggressive in trying to get back to where he thinks he 'should' be.
That is a problem and that is what causes the wrecks, nobody gives an inch. You think people run you close now? You've seen nothing yet. I watched a car forcing another onto the grass for 20th place at Zolder because he didn't want to let him by, that's the kind of crap we're talking here. And that is for every position.
3. The wrecks, they are monumental and frequent as soon as you get outside the top 10, you need to bring your A game here, PROTECT THE CAR! This is no time for "take the high line Cole!" The car is everything. If you keep it clean your chances of a good result go up dramatically, just watch out of your front window, avoid what you can see and hope those behind do the same. DO NOT focus on what's behind you, that is out of your control, if you brake and the next car doesn't there's nothing you can do but you can minimise what you hit, always keep this in mind.
4. The intensity is at 110 to start the season, drops to about 90 at the midway point and rises straight to 200 for the final round, this is where the biggest gains and losses happen. It is imperative to keep the car clean in the final round and score big, others will crumble and open the door for you to make big gains, keep a level head and this will work in your favour.
5. Qualifying, qualifying, qualifying! THESE ARE NOT RACES YOU CAN GO FROM LAST TO 1ST! both times I ran I or we always struggled to qualify well, this makes the challenge much more difficult, in the BES races the distance from the front to rear of the field by the end of lap 1 can be as much as 30-40 seconds, you cannot make this up against the competition you're running against, the speed diffierence at this level simply does not exist.
the further from pole you start, the exponentially more difficult your race will be. You must work on quali, it is so much easier to maintain position than it is to gain positions, I cannot stress this enough.
edit: Oh and lastly, check your ego at the door, in order to make this work the best available two drivers on the day MUST drive the car to give you the best chance of success. This isn't the time for being nice and having it all squared up on drive time. The objective is to get THE TEAM a car in the pro series, it is NOT a single driver showcase.
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Post by Marc Torres on Jun 19, 2017 10:57:29 GMT -5
Great post Christian...most of that should be applied to every team endurance event/series. John "Badoer" King I just had a long conversation with my wife about the end of the year/beginning of 2018. I think it's best for me to step out of BES Pro since I have no way of knowing what level of commitment I would be able to offer and I probably won't know until the baby arrives. DGFX works because it's only 5 races and the last 2 are the only races scheduled after her due date. I will want to be involved so I can understand the process better for next year (I promise...no more kids after this one). But I will be able to fully commit to DGFX. The only thing that would keep me from making all 5 races is if my kid arrives on Nov 18 (Round 4). Otherwise I'll be at every race.
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Post by John "Badoer" King on Jun 19, 2017 19:54:57 GMT -5
I should probably have done this in the 1st place but here's some positioning of each series.
NEO (and BES Pro qualifying) is very, very tough. Basically it's the people that run in the top splits of iRacing events so we'll only enter cars/drivers that are at that kind of level. It's also expensive and although that's not really a problem, we don't want to enter cars just for the sake of it. We've never raced Neo before (apart from the Le Mans event earlier this year we got an entry for by winning the C Spec class in GoT) because weprobably wouldn't have been that competitive. But, the strength and depth of the team has improved dramatically in the last year.
GoT is a high quality series as well but not quite so intimidating. We can be a little bit more relaxed about entries for this and we've done pretty well in recent seasons, winning C Spec and running in the top 5 in GT3 regularly. But, it's a long way from entry level so only our top 20-25 drivers should think about this one.
DGFX is our "entry-level" series. It's still pretty competitive but last season we were probably the strongest team overall in the series - we won GT3, were 2nd in the C Spec and our second GT3 would have won the new AM category if it had existed. So, this is where the less experienced / slower guys should go We will enter at least one strong GTE because Marc/Mattias want to defend their championship (the GTE's are replacing the GT3s).
We'll probably need to select the cars/drivers for DGFX 1st so we need to make sure that the low/mid range guys in the team get drives in this if they want. The higher level guys will for sure get drives in GoT or NEO.
But, irrespective of the series or the level you're at, all the series need a very high level of commitment from the drivers. We need to build sets for them and do a LOT of testing. One of the reasons Marc/Mattias won DGFX last season was because they (and the drivers in the 2nd GT3) ran more practice laps than anyone else. My message to the series directors and car captains will be very clear - if drivers don't do the practice laps and test the sets, they don't drive in the race.
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Post by Marc Torres on Jun 19, 2017 20:42:46 GMT -5
Anyone looking to do DGFX could you please fill out the series preference sheet ASAP. I'd like to get the entries submitted soon since we have 2 automatic entries and RC has already asked for submissions. Thanks!
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Post by Ernie "In the Draft" Ludwig on Jun 20, 2017 8:15:40 GMT -5
I'm not on the preference sheet
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Post by John "Badoer" King on Jun 20, 2017 8:28:34 GMT -5
I'm not on the preference sheet It's cool Ernie - I've only put the guys on the sheet that might end up with a conflict -you're in DGFX for sure :-)
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Post by Jan Brezina on Jun 20, 2017 8:36:31 GMT -5
damn dont see FR20 as preference
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Post by John "Badoer" King on Jun 20, 2017 8:58:03 GMT -5
damn dont see FR20 as preference We're talking real cars, not toys
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Post by Carl "Ricky" Jansson on Jun 20, 2017 8:59:29 GMT -5
damn dont see FR20 as preference We're talking real cars, not toys filled in my sheet
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Post by Jan Brezina on Jun 20, 2017 9:01:27 GMT -5
damn dont see FR20 as preference We're talking real cars, not toys asshole are you from sugar that need tintop protection from rain ?
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Post by John "Badoer" King on Jun 20, 2017 20:17:19 GMT -5
OK, I think things are starting to get clear. So, I've added a second sheet to the file which shows a DRAFT of where I think we're going. This gives us 4 cars in DGFX - the GTE Pro car for Marc/Mattias plus 2 x GTE Am cars and a HPD AM (I think - we need to see the details of the rules before we know for sure). Each car has got 3 confirmed drivers plus potentially 1 extra so I think we're in good shape. Marc Torres will get a detailed conversation going with all the drivers involved shortly. For NEO, we'll have 3 cars - an HPD for Sai/Joseph/Alex plus 2 Ferrari for the GoT winning crew last year plus one more. Tommy has offered to lead the "2nd" car (thanks Tommy!) to help the less experienced people so Stefan replaces Tommy in #66. Sven will lead #66, Sai will lead the HPD. We'll start conversations about those cars asap. It looks like we won't have enough resources to enter GoT but we'll see when we get the details - and some of the missing people fill in the sheet. For BES Pro qualifying, we'll have one very strong car. Hopefully we'll enter others as well but these will mainly be for support & gaining experience. I stress this is a DRAFT plan so subject to change and I'm happy to take feedback / comments / suggestions. A couple of specifics: Gustavo Cianfarani - I suspect that NEO will be too tough for your level of experience in these car and generally in endurance racing so I haven't put your name against a car. But, happy to discuss this - or maybe add you to #67 so you can be involved but possibly only as a reserve. Carl "Ricky" Jansson - we can't enter any more cars in DGFX so I think it's better if you focus completely on BES. But, I'd be happy to add you to #67 in NEO if you think you have enough time to do that as well.
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Post by Gustavo Cianfarani on Jun 20, 2017 21:05:42 GMT -5
OK, I think things are starting to get clear. So, I've added a second sheet to the file which shows a DRAFT of where I think we're going. This gives us 4 cars in DGFX - the GTE Pro car for Marc/Mattias plus 2 x GTE Am cars and a HPD AM (I think - we need to see the details of the rules before we know for sure). Each car has got 3 confirmed drivers plus potentially 1 extra so I think we're in good shape. Marc Torres will get a detailed conversation going with all the drivers involved shortly. For NEO, we'll have 3 cars - an HPD for Sai/Joseph/Alex plus 2 Ferrari for the GoT winning crew last year plus one more. Tommy has offered to lead the "2nd" car (thanks Tommy!) to help the less experienced people so Stefan replaces Tommy in #66. Sven will lead #66, Sai will lead the HPD. We'll start conversations about those cars asap. It looks like we won't have enough resources to enter GoT but we'll see when we get the details - and some of the missing people fill in the sheet. For BES Pro qualifying, we'll have one very strong car. Hopefully we'll enter others as well but these will mainly be for support & gaining experience. I stress this is a DRAFT plan so subject to change and I'm happy to take feedback / comments / suggestions. A couple of specifics: Gustavo Cianfarani - I suspect that NEO will be too tough for your level of experience in these car and generally in endurance racing so I haven't put your name against a car. But, happy to discuss this - or maybe add you to #67 so you can be involved but possibly only as a reserve. Carl "Ricky" Jansson - we can't enter any more cars in DGFX so I think it's better if you focus completely on BES. But, I'd be happy to add you to #67 in NEO if you think you have enough time to do that as well. No problem John. Only choose NEO because of the date (Sundays) that are better for me. As I have classes until the end of the year better not to be involved right now. Maybe in the future we can find some series that match with my schedule.
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Post by John "Badoer" King on Jun 25, 2017 1:03:07 GMT -5
To simplify things, GoT have announced that there'll NOT be a GES series this year.
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Post by Marco "AkArO" Abbate on Jun 25, 2017 7:43:37 GMT -5
For those thinking about Pro this is my advice. Firstly, are you sure? Like are you really, really sure this is what you want?The reason this is number 1 is because you shouldn't underestimate the commitment it requires throughout both the qualifier and the series itself. The qualifier IS HELL. I've done both GT and NASCAR qualifying now and both times I've experienced the following: 1. It is very stressful, imagine taking all the guys you consider to be 'the best' or 'fastest' and put them all in the same race. Now imagine you have to beat all of them...consistently. That is a VERY difficult thing to do. 2. Now thinking about #1, consider that a guy who is used to running away in the lead or top 3/5 is suddenly P30, that is one hell of an adjustment that he will not like! He will be ultra aggressive in trying to get back to where he thinks he 'should' be. That is a problem and that is what causes the wrecks, nobody gives an inch. You think people run you close now? You've seen nothing yet. I watched a car forcing another onto the grass for 20th place at Zolder because he didn't want to let him by, that's the kind of crap we're talking here. And that is for every position. 3. The wrecks, they are monumental and frequent as soon as you get outside the top 10, you need to bring your A game here, PROTECT THE CAR! This is no time for "take the high line Cole!" The car is everything. If you keep it clean your chances of a good result go up dramatically, just watch out of your front window, avoid what you can see and hope those behind do the same. DO NOT focus on what's behind you, that is out of your control, if you brake and the next car doesn't there's nothing you can do but you can minimise what you hit, always keep this in mind. 4. The intensity is at 110 to start the season, drops to about 90 at the midway point and rises straight to 200 for the final round, this is where the biggest gains and losses happen. It is imperative to keep the car clean in the final round and score big, others will crumble and open the door for you to make big gains, keep a level head and this will work in your favour. 5. Qualifying, qualifying, qualifying! THESE ARE NOT RACES YOU CAN GO FROM LAST TO 1ST! both times I ran I or we always struggled to qualify well, this makes the challenge much more difficult, in the BES races the distance from the front to rear of the field by the end of lap 1 can be as much as 30-40 seconds, you cannot make this up against the competition you're running against, the speed diffierence at this level simply does not exist. the further from pole you start, the exponentially more difficult your race will be. You must work on quali, it is so much easier to maintain position than it is to gain positions, I cannot stress this enough. edit: Oh and lastly, check your ego at the door, in order to make this work the best available two drivers on the day MUST drive the car to give you the best chance of success. This isn't the time for being nice and having it all squared up on drive time. The objective is to get THE TEAM a car in the pro series, it is NOT a single driver showcase. I confirm everything, PRO qualification is really difficult and above all the choice of the car is very important. You have to choose the most performing car
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