A week before the real 24 Heures du Mans, the Majors Series hosted their own international Le Mans 24 event on the iRacing platform A mix of classes, LMP1, LMP2 and GTE cars, were available to choose from, and there were over 600 team entries!
The hosted races were split up into groups of cars from each class, these races called splits were determined by Pre-Qualifying. A week before the event each driver from each team had to set a time, and the top three times were averaged to determine the team’s pace. Each driver had one attempt to set a lap time, or they could purchase more attempts with the proceeds going to charity. The organisers raised over $1,400 for the Sunflower of Peace Foundation.
Our car choice was of course the Porsche RSR! Behind the wheel of the 11.Tenths machine was Paul and Charlie Stout, Oliver Carwardine and Johnny Elia. We set a Pre-Q time of 3:50.5, which put us in the 7th split with an average of 2.5K iRating in the GTE field alone.
Race Day
The day started with a driver’s briefing with over 1400 drivers tuning in. A grid photo followed this before we headed out on track for Hyper Pole, which determined our start position for the split. The track temp was 47 degrees C, which caught us out a bit, and qualified us 14th in class.
Johnny Elia started the race and gained a few positions but clipped the gravel out of the Ford chicane, spun the car and had to wait to recover, this dropped us back to 16th. Unlike a few drivers ahead, we didn’t change tyres, which put us back into the mix. A solid stint from Charlie, who kept it very clean and consistent. Oliver started his drive at 4 pm on the dot. A few mistakes from other drivers in front pushed us up the order to 12th with the class leaders two and half minutes up the road. With 21 hours to go, it was Pauls turn to jump in the car.
More places were gained in the pitstops from saving on tyres, and we moved up to 11th. Paul kept it clean bar a small mistake which brought the gap down to the team behind to 3 seconds. We did have slight damage to the side, but the car still felt good. Johnny Elia was back in, and no tyres were taken, which put us up to P9, but unfortunately, a big hit from an LMP2 knocked our steering out, which counted for 6 minutes of repairs in the pits and put us down to 14th with 13th 2 minutes up the road.
Another clean stint from Charlie on used tyres. Oliver followed with the same tyres as we went into the sunset. We gained a minute up the road to 13th. Paul took the wheel at 9 o’clock on the same tyres again! Making them 42 laps old! Some damage to car No.53. We gained back 13th place with 12th only 36 seconds up the road.
All the drivers completed a total of 2 stints. The next challenge awaited us as we headed into the darkness – double stints from each driver until the morning, the first being Charlie. We were 12th at this point with the car in front’s gap back up to 1 minute. A fast double stint by Charlie closed the gap to 11th to 30 seconds.
A quick stint from Oliver in the darkness before bed, followed by a quick double stint for Elia, who pushed the 11.Tenths machine up to 8th place with 7th just 18 seconds ahead. A sporadic disconnect makes Johnny hit the Michelin wall in the Porsche Curves. With front end wing damage the car was losing time on the straights, the decision was to take the 7+ minutes repair as we’ve only ticked past the 12-hour mark, we dropped back to 10th at this point.
Just front tyres for Paul in the night, 27 laps completed by him. Oliver took over and started his double on a fresh set of tyres. A small mistake in the Ford chicane cost us a minute in the pits, but the car is still going strong. The team regained time to the teams ahead from the time lost after hitting the wall. A second double stint from Charlie. 6 hours to go, and we were 8th with 7th 1 lap ahead.
Johnny had further computer troubles, so he boxed early for a driver swap to be safe. Paul jumped in the car and took a new set of fronts. A big hit in the wall for car No.22 promoted us to 7th place. Just rear tyres for Charlie as he goes out for another stint. Major internet issues for Oliver, which has stopped his running for the day, so Johnny is back in for double, but the problems continued for him as he brushed the wall on his out lap and was also hit by the class leader recovering from a spin. 10 Minutes of repairs were required, which dropped us back to 9th.
Paul was back in the car while Elia continues to investigate his computer issues. Finally, Johnny got back in and had no issues. We capitalised on two places, but more drama unfolded as an LMP1 tagged the back of Elia just before the end of his stint. A quick entry to the pits and only 1 minute of repairs.
A steady few stints by Johnny and Paul towards the end. Just a splash and dash for one lap’s worth of fuel was required to finish. Despite all of the repairs and computer/internet issues. The two Stouts, Paul and Charlie, accomplished 98 laps each, Johnny Elia 91 and Oliver 69. Three hundred fifty-four completed laps over the course of the 24 hours and just 42 incident points.
The 11.Tenths Porsche RSR finished 7th in class and 31st overall! A great effort by the team.
