SSZ: iRacing IMSA Open Series Update No.3

Hello, and welcome back to another edition of Steve’s SimRacing Zone! Today I’ll be updating my progress once again for the 2024 Season 4 IMSA Open Series Championship in the LMP2 class.

This week we headed to Spa Franchorchamp. This is not a track I am strong at, and with high participation this week, I was expecting to be in the 2nd split and fighting for everything I could muster.

My first race ended up in a tippy top split, but second last rated. I figured if I survived and had some lucky breaks I might be able to finish top 5. The qualifying session went really well. I PB’d all sectors and ended up 5th, 0.9s off of pole, but critically only 0.2s faster than 10th.

The race however, went pretty decent until the end (more on that later). I dropped a couple places on the first few corners but then a couple people ahead of me caused a massive crash that I avoided, which put me up to 5th. Another DNF ahead a lap later put me in 4th, which put me as the conductor of the midfield train.

I put up an epic (and squeaky clean) defense. I had 4th up until the penultimate lap, where I lost out on the run to Les Combes. Coming around Pouhon corner, I tried to find where the GTP leader was, as I was expecting to be lapped, which played into my fuel calculation. Unfortunately, they were too far behind and was not going to catch me by laps end.

I had half a lap of fuel deficit for the finish.

Instead of pitting and losing a bunch of time, I made the decision to pull over at the exit of the final corner, waited for the GTP leader to come around (which by that point was only 5s) and I crossed the line in 8th. I think I would have gotten 9th had I pitted.

This was unfortunate because of I had finished 5th, that would have bagged me 144 points, which would have been as much as my week 2 win at Fuji. Unfortunately this result was only 90 points. However, I felt like I might be able to get more points later in the week.

My next race the following night went well. I didn’t make top split, but was second ranked in the 2nd split. I qualified P2 by a .1s, but I messed my lap up minorly in a few spots so I had pace for pole.

I managed to get a really good start. The pole sitter didn’t go before the green flag so I jumped ahead of him on exit of the bus stop to start our race. I never looked back after that, comfortably winning by about 5s. However, it should have been around 10s – I got held up by a slow GTP who unlapped themselves off me just as we caught a gaggle of GT cars. They tip-toed around them, which held me up for an excruciating 5s on the lap.

The victory was good enough for 114pts, which is better than the 8th in top split the night before. Looking at my average lap, I would have finished 7th or 8th in top split, had I gotten in, which would have awarded less points, so I’m content with that finish.

That put me up to P11 overall and retaining P1 in division 2. I was thinking that was about all she wrote for me this week. I needed to take a break, as Spa was a frustrating affair for me. I didn’t know how to get faster, and it seemed to me like I didn’t know when to shift. The car with the current BoP doesn’t like the std gearing at this track. However, I knew there were points on the board left to claim.

So, I did another race on Saturday and overall it went well. Qualified 5th and finished 4th, but nearly had 3rd. I made a small mistake on the penultimate lap that put me too far back to get the draft into Les Combes. However, it was a high SoF so I got 144 points for the effort. This shot me up to 10th in overall standings and 1st in Division 2. The driver in P2 in division 2 has closed the gap to 20 points. So we’ll see how long I can hold on to the division lead!

This coming week the iRacing IMSA series races at Zolder with the alternative layout. Should be fun!

Here are my full season stats below (As of Oct/6/2024 8pm EST (end of Week 4 of 13):

Races Completed:	11
Pole Positions:	2
Class Wins:	4
Class Podiums:	6
Top 5 Finishes:	6
Championship Points:	577
Championship Position (All Divisions):	10th
Championship Position (Division #2):	1st

Here is the tracker for my counted results from each week (Pos / Points):

Week #	Split / Position Finished:	Points Awarded:
1	Split 2 / P1	137
2	Split 1 / P1	137
3	Split 1 / P2	159
4	Split 1 / P4	144
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

---

Thank You again for taking time out of your day to read this. If you liked it, feel free to drop a comment, like and share within your circles! If you are a user on WordPress, also feel free to subscribe to get updates first!