Petit Le Mans Virtual 2024
10.19.2024
With nearly 8,000 drivers registered for the 2024 Petit Le Mans Virtual, the Simcade team claims P2 in Split #2 GT3 class. Drivers from around the world competed in a 10-hour multiclass IMSA showdown with the GTP, LMP2, and GT3 classes sharing the same narrow track. Weather played a factor as the circuit was wet to begin practice, qualifying, and affecting the first hour of racing. The Simcade team qualified P4, but fell back to 7th while taking avoiding action. The race went into the night where as the field began to thin out, fuel and pit stop strategies would begin to take shape.
Through the majority of the race, the primary strategy was one word: Survive. Most teams elected to skip fuel saving strategies due to the relentless bombardment of overtaking GTP and LMP2 prototype classes. There were rarely moments to breath as nearly 50 cars all tried to share the same narrow track of Road Atlanta's 2.54mi road course. As the race began to come to its final stints, each team had to make decisions on how best to approach fuel saving. The GT3 cars were averaging 41-44 lap stints. The final stop would be for approximately 10 laps of fuel. Simcade made the bold decision to sacrifice raw pace and held out their final stint for 49 laps, entirely eliminating the final pit stop. This drastic shift in strategy would bring an additional 6 laps, requiring a 13.6% increase in fuel savings. This drastic shift in fuel saving would only be rewarded if pace could be maintained, but maintained it was. Sacrificing 0.6s per lap, the Simcade team brought home P2, 10 seconds in front of Walk Racing in P3. The massive fuel saving strategy enabled not just a longer stint, but also protected the tires longer, offering more grip late into the night as the temperatures continued to fall. For comparison, the longest stint achieved by any other GT3 team was 45 laps. Simcade was able to save an additional 4 laps more than the largest save by its competitors while only sacrificing 0.6s/lap, enabling Simcade to bypass the final pit stop and save 39 seconds over P3 behind.
For reference, 49 laps of fuel saving at 0.6s/lap loss is 29.4s. P3 lost 39s making their final pit stop, and the finish between P2 and P3 was separated by 10s. Had Simcade chose to attack and pit, the math says it'd have been a fight to the finish in the last laps. The wild fuel saving strategy overtook the competition and enabled a safe P2 while demonstrating the importance of protecting your equipment, and honing the skill of saving fuel while staying fast. Stay tuned for in-store seminars on how to fuel save effectively!
DNA Motorsports would go on to win the GTP class, followed by TuPai Racing Team in second, and SOELPEC Precious Racing in 3rd.
In GT3, DCW Racing took the win, followed by Simcade and Walk Racing Federation taking 3rd.
