If you really want the sim full experience, than you should participate in sim endurance racing with a team (of petrol head friends). Besides the driving, you have to think about tire management, fuel strategy, pit stop strategy, and many other things, just like in real life endurance racing. Being able to run a fast lap is of course important in motor sport, but being consistent and staying out of trouble is even more important in endurance racing. You know what they say: in order to finish first, you'll first have to finish.

Here is a check list of the first things that come to my mind:

PREPARATION

  • how does the car behave heavily loaded with fuel? How does it behave on medium and low fuel?
  • how does the car handle on cold tires? how long does it take for the tires to be on perfect grip level?
  • how does the car handling changes with changing ambient temperatures?
  • how many laps on average for how much fuel?
  • how much fuel to take on each stint? Watch out to include formation laps.
  • how many laps can you run before your tires are gone?
  • do you know the rule book? Start procedure? Fuel limit? Mandatory numbers of pit stops?
  • do you know when the race starts and finishes (temperature, lights)?
  • if part of the race is run in the dark: practice in the dark
  • check for alternative break markers, because in a 4h race many of the ones you are using could have been destroyed by crashing cars.
  • divide the work: who takes the first, second, third, ... last stint? who will do the quali? Who will be the spotters?

RACE

  • how much time does a pit stop take for new tires only?
  • how much time does a pit stop take when refueling?
  • how big is the window you need for a complete pit stop (pit entry + pit stop + pit exit)?
  • training the pit entry (worn tires!) and pit exit (cold tires!)
  • when prepping an overtake, know your opponent: safety rating? license class? (you'll need spotters to help you here)

SIM HARDWARE

  • do you need food or drinks during your stint?
  • do you need airco or a fan when it's hot?
  • make sure all is wired: ethernet, mouse, keyboard, headset
  • if using hardware on batteries: make sure they'll last till the end of the race
  • make sure no devices go on stand-by

SOFTWARE

  • make sure your race software is up to date
  • make sure your OS is up to date, and does not start updating or downloading during your race
  • switch off all annoying notifications during the race
  • switch all other heavy CPU, RAM or network usage applications (for instance cloud backups to Google Drive etc)

This list will probably get longer every endurance race I'm doing ;-)

Just let me know if I forgot some other important stuff to take into account.

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Photo credit: Quentin Kemmel