[woodcote]

   

Our six gold drivers led their Pro-Am teams into a final double-points-scoring round. Although four teams - AIM-9, Gearzilla, Laps in Concentration and Écurie Escargot - could mathematically win the title, in reality it would be which of Mike's AIM-9 and Oliver's Gearzilla finished ahead of the other after 1,000 laps of Suzuka.

A short 5 minute warm-up was followed by a two-minute Super Pole qualifying session - one driver per team and that driver would also complete the first 20-minute stint of the race. Qualifying ace Ollie had the AIM-9 Aston at the top of the timing charts from his first lap, with Simon driving the ASTCOM-One Aston in second. That looked to be it until Rob delivered a great lap with the Gearzilla Mercedes to jump from fifth to second, but a huge six tenths away from Ollie's scintillating pole lap...

   

That meant the two championship contenders started from the first row of the grid, the AIM-9 Aston of Ollie, Mike and Stephen leading off the field...

   

The RCS64 weather simulation is a feature of our GT Championship. Generating a random weather forecast with dice and the RCS64 program, we started with rain and a wet track, which would gradually dry through the four hours of the race - how dry and how quickly would be in the hands of the software. Faced with the challenge of long pit stops, teams would need to get their strategy correct or waste a minute in the pits for another change of tyres. Another challenge was success penalties of 120, 80 and 40 seconds for the top three from last time (Gearzilla, ASTCOM-One and Laps in Concentration) - to be taken in 40 second stop-go penalties after the first three driver change stops (i.e. during the first hour).

Hour One

The race started with one team making a costly error. Shift Happens! fitted Hard tyres and Dean struggled to control the 2Seas Motorsport Mercedes on the sopping wet track, his braking and acceleration hugely compromised. A pit stop for Wet tyres put the Mercedes to the back, seven laps off the lead after ten minutes. The opening stages had been incredibly close for the other five cars, Ollie gradually pulling away in the AIM-9 Aston. Two laps behind after ten minutes was Rob in Gearzilla Mercedes and Simon in the ASTCOM-One Aston. Ash had the Laps in Concentration Porsche in fourth, just ahead of the Écurie Escargot Aston with John at the wheel. Not having the fastest car out there, John was already in fuel conservation mode, seeing if a different strategy could upset those ahead.

At the first driver change - at 20 minutes - five teams chose to swap drivers, only Gearzilla going for a multiple stint option. Ollie handed over the leading Aston to Mike, having completed at huge 87 laps, two ahead of Rob in the Gearzilla Mercedes, with Simon another two laps back handing over to Kev for ASTCOM-One. Dean had driven hard to get the Shift Happens! Mercedes up to fourth - six laps off the lead - and handed the car over to Jeremy. Rob A took over the Écurie Escargot Aston and Ash handed the Porsche to Matthew in sixth place. The field was covered by eleven laps.

   

A half hour into the race and Mike had stretched the lead to four laps. Shift Happens! were now up to second place and the fuel-saving Escargot Aston up to third. A long scheduled stop had dropped Gearzilla to fourth, but Rob was sure to move back up as a full tank and new Wet tyres would last well into his third stint.

   

By the next driver change, the order at the top remained the same, Mike stretching his lead to seven laps. ASTCOM-One had gone off the back after a long pit stop, but as Mike handed the lead car over to Stephen and Alex took over the sixth-place Aston, sixteen laps covered the field.

As we headed towards the end of the first hour, it was still raining and the track was as wet as it could be. Everyone stuck to Wet tyres, which lasted for nearly 30 minutes, allowing some flexibility over refuelling strategy. Some teams let the tank run dry and refilled to 100%, others went for shorter top-ups to keep the 50-75% required for a 20-minute stint. Gearzilla and Laps in Concentration were heavy of fuel consumption, while Écurie Escargot deliberately saved fuel. Yet Andy matched Stephen's stint score of 77 laps to keep the Escargots in third place, putting a lap on Gearzilla (Rob B) and Shift Happens! (Daniel), but it was Alex who was the top driver with a big 81 laps to move ASTCOM-One back to fifth at the end of the first hour...

AIM-9 241 laps
Shift Happens! 233 laps (-8)
Écurie Escargot 231 laps (-10)
Gearzilla 230 laps (-11)
ASTCOM-One 229 laps (-12)
Laps in Concentration 225 laps (-16)