Choosing The Track

We initially set out to race our 24hr race at Le Mans as this of course is the most iconic endurance race in the world. There are lots of variations of the Le Mans circuit available in the mod community of rFactor and we headed out to rFactorcentral.com to find the best track variation that would suit our needs. Here was our criteria for a satisfactory 24 hours experience:

• Must be at the Le Mans circuit.
• Must be driven for 24 hours with no driving aids turned on.
• Two drivers only. Myself and Mr. Dave, a colleague and fellow rFactor'er.

We looked at quite a few examples and found that a common problem was that a lot of the circuits were designed for only up to 20-30 cars on the start grid and pit lane. A typical 24 hours endurance race would have around 50 cars so the tracks that did not allow this many cars simply would not do.

We eventually landed on a classic circuit mod from the 70's. It was a very polished example and it also catered for 50+ pits and grid so we began work on testing this circuit with a classic Le Mans mod with 60's & 70's cars to drive. This was a dream come true. Racing at Le Mans in the 70's for 24 hours with period cars to drive. Perfect! Just as our dream was realised, it was also smashed shortly after.

We had numerous problems with the 70's circuit and the classic mod. First of all, the circuit surface was very slippery and so it was very hard to drive without any assists on (we wanted no assists!) It became apparent that the creators had strived to make the circuit surface authentically slippery for old tarmac. Couple this with our classic endurance mod's cross-ply tyres, old suspension and little downforce in those days and we had a really bad situation. We struggled to complete a lap without making terrible spins. A great shame.

We were then unable to find a suitable Le Mans track that had good, realistic grip and the amount of garages we required. We turned to Spa, Francorchamps but again, we struggled to find a good example that had the numbers of pits garages. We then found a track that neither of us had driven on before but it ticked most of the boxes we were after. Very well made, It was made by some guys that are now employees of ISI, the maker of rFactor. It was pretty, it was very detailed both in scenery and track layout. It had bumps, banked corners and demanding chicanes. The grip was good also, with a much more realistic feel to it. So this is the track we are going to use for our 24 hour race. Not as ideal as we had hoped for but a great circuit none the less.

http://www.rfactor.net for ISI's official rFactor website

http://www.rfactorcentral.com/detail.cfm?ID=Thermalito for the Thermalito circuit

http://enduracers.com/homepage.html for the EnduRacers Mod