http://www.spirit-of-vln.com

Ryan and I signed up for the "Spirit of VLN" endurance series on iRacing. It's a 10 race series held at the Nordschleife. Races are held at 3pm on the last Saturday of each month. There are five classes, but they're all filled up already except the Mustang, so we're going to run that.



Classes/cars:

• GT3-Cup : BMW Z4 GT3 - (FULL)
• Ruf-Cup : Ruf RT 12R C-Spec - (FULL)
• Kia-Cup : Kia Optima - (FULL)
• Mustang-Cup : Mustang FR 500 S - (OPEN)
• Mazda-Cup : Mazda MX-5 Cup - (FULL)

A maximum of 12 cars is allowed in each class (total number of 60 cars).

Schedule:

• Race #1: January, 30st 2016 - 4 hours (7pm GMT)
• Race #2: February, 27th 2016 - 4 hours (7pm GMT)
• Race #3: March, 26th 2016 - 4 hours (7pm GMT)
• Race #4: April, 30th 2016 - 4 hours (6pm GMT / DST)
• Race #5: May, 28st 2016 - 4 hours (6pm GMT / DST)
• Race #6: June, 25th 2016 - 6 hours (6pm GMT / DST)
• Race #7: August, 27th 2016 - 4 hours (6pm GMT / DST)
• Race #8: September, 24th 2016 - 4 hours (6pm GMT / DST)
• Race #9: October, 29th 2016 - 4 hours (6pm GMT / DST)
• Race #10: November, 26th 2016 - 4 hours (6pm GMT)

There will still be 4 open slots in the Mustang class. Would anyone be interested in running a sister team? Perhaps the "Regulars" and the "Irregulars". Or perhaps being a reserve driver for a team...

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

So this past Saturday Ryan & I participated in the first Spirit of VLN race since the release of the Nordschleife. We ran the 4h race under the team “Irregulars”.

Since we were late in registering for the series, the only class with available slots was the Mustang FR500S, so that’s what we ran. I’ve never actually raced the Mustang before so it was a new experience.

Since we were new to the car (and had little to no practice) we decided to not put in a qualifying time so that we’d be at the back of the Mustang field. According to the series rules, the grid was going to be split by classes, so we assumed we’d be placed at the back of the Mustang field but ahead of the much slower MX5 class.

Well, apparently iRacing grids all the non-qualifiers together at the back of the grid despite the grid being split by class. So we ended up being gridded in P47 in a 50 car field, with a mix of non-qualifying MX5’s, Kia’s, Ruf’s and BMW’s right in front of us. Ugh. Not what we wanted.

During the first stint we kept it calm, cool, and collected. Found ourselves in up into P23 overall after 1 hour of driving. Not bad for the second slowest class.

But we had a couple self-inflicted off course excursions during the two middle stints, which cost us about 30 minutes of combined repair time.

In the end we finished 6th in class. Probably could have potentially finished 3rd without our crashes. I’m sure as we get more familiarized with the car & track, we’ll improve a lot.

http://members.iracing.com/membersite/m ... d=15906457

Overall, we found it a fun series. Looking forward to the next race in a month’s time.

There are still a couple slots open in the Mustang class if anyone wants to join us in running this sereis.

http://www.spirit-of-vln.com/index.php/teams

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Well done. Was there much carnage the first lap with that mix of cars, especially at the back?

Haven't driven the Mustang in a while but it used to feel big and heavy. If I had more time and the series didn't spread over the summer...

Well, we gained 11 positions on the first lap. Some of that was due to attrition, some were from overtaking the slower class cars. I didn't notice an exceptional level of carnage on the first lap from where I was sitting.

Once the field spread out, there was not a lot traffic to deal with neither. Even with 50 cars, the track is so huge there is tons of space. And getting lapped is quite infrequent as compared to a normal length track. Too bad they can't grid 100 cars. That would have made it more interesting.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

It probably would have been better too if the engine didn't blow on the final lap...

It's only 2 hours per month (assuming you have a teammate).

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR