The Track was Kyoto Long GP, a Suzuka like track in shape of an "8". This was our first really endurance race, so we were a bit curious about everything. We worked on our sets, set up the TeamSpeak server which is hosted also by VTX and thought we were ready until we saw the times of the other teams in qualify. But again, this was our first endurance race so we expected some difficulties with setting the set up right for the race, so we were more focussed on that than a qualy set.We finished the qualification on 12th place which is a good result for us.

Once the race was started, our first driver, Jan, tried to stay away from all trouble, but couldn't avoid crashing into another car that just had an accident before him. Luckily the car had no serious damage, so he continued as few places back. Our plan was to go for the maximum possible stint length, which meant 28 laps, and 56 laps before a driver change which was a bit more than 2 hours before a change.
And with the time we passed some other Teams and went straight into the Top 10, with our not so fast, but very stable and consistent set, and stayed outside the pits when others had to.

But then the nightmare began… a disconnection from the server, a few laps before the first pit stop for Charles, our 2nd driver! He quickly joined the server again to do the other 28 laps, but we already lost some places and lost our lap advantage for the first stop. When we were back we thought that it couldn't go worse, but we were wrong there… another disconnection, this time for Jan, and another one for Charles again after the takeover. And that wasn't the end; we still had 6 hours to drive…

Our next driver was Basem, who just got his microphone a few hours before the race start, everything worked well, but the he had bug which only allowed him to set fuel to 60% on the pit stop. And if this wasn't enough he did a small driving mistake and got some suspension to the car. After Basem, our 4th driver, David went on track, far back in the grid, 16th place. And for the first time since the trouble started we were able to have a race till the end, which meant a bit less than the last 2 hours of the race. Fortunately our last pit stop was about 55 mins before the end, so that we could drive as hard as possible till the end.

And what an end it was…
David closed up to Team Shock.fx who were driving the XRR and had a great fight for the 15th position for several laps. At this time we also had the live stream showing our fight, so we entertained the masses for about 30 minutes with some great racing. About 20 minutes before the end David, who was still behind Shock.fx, had an accident in the last sector of the track, right after the exit from the oval section. But the fight wasn't over as Shock.fx had to pit just in the same lap! We quickly looked a the remaining time and saw that we had enough fuel and tires left till then end, so we quickly advised David only to repair the damage. So it came the we came on the track again less than a second behind Shock.fx who really did some great racing, but finally we passed them and finished 15th.

This time we went to Aston Grand Touring a new track from the last bigger patch. Again this time we were more focussed on our race track, but also managed to make it last 26 laps (100% fuel) with the R2 tires, which also meant that it was faster, had more grip and was closer to the qualification setup.

To make it short we finished the qualification on 7th place, which we liked as lot as our goal was to improve our performance and finish top 10.
So the first step to our goal was made, and he had some hope that this race would be a bit better for us then the last race, in terms of disconnections and other trouble. Again we were wrong, but let's start at the beginning.

The start went itself went good, but due some lack of PC-Power (less than 12 fps at some corners) we Jan decided to stay cool and just bring the car safe around the track. After the field settled a bit we started to get our race speed and quickly gained some positions, and stay on 7th place till lap 20 and then, you can already guess it, we had another disconnection from the server. So we did the driver change some laps earlier and Charles joined the race. Everything went well for him and he tried to push as hard as he could so fight back to the top ten. Until we got a drive through penalty for talking, as Charles had the TS button too close to the F-Keys and pushed both 2 times. After his stint Jan took over again and while he took over the car he felt that something was a bit wrong. To be clear he was sitting on the wrong side of the car! Although we practiced a lot during before the race we never noticed that one of our drivers was using RHD instead of LHD. It took some laps and a spin till Jan was used to this and trying again to close the gap to the top 10. Then it was Basems turn and he also had some trouble with the wrong side, but a part from that everything went ok.

After than Charles had his 2nd stint and what do you guess? Disconnection at the end of his stint. But as he was already close to his pit stop Basem took over and was on the right side of the car. But we weren't finished yet, still one hour to drive. And the inevitable happened, trouble on Basems PC! His frame rate messed up several times so he had two spins on the end of sector 3 / the beginning of sector 4 and finally his pc had a blue screen of death and decided to quit the race. Jan, who luckily still had his wheel in front of him joined the server and wanted to finish the race just somehow, but was again disconnected and time out again after rejoining.

At this point, we decided to finish as quick as possible and went mentally already to the next race which will be Westhill International.

Kyoto and Aston proved some intense training amoung the drivers, especially Jan but both oppurtunities proved to be spoilers with hardware failures. From reasonably competitive and rewarding results during practice these could not be matched during the races with our problems sadly. All drivers have had inconsistant and unpredictable problems leading to disconnections and unsatisfactory results in the race. Apart from the dissapointment during the races, fun was had during the races while it could be had. Better luck is expected in the next races where we can show T7R's true potential.

My personal view on the races: we did great! I think we had great courage and enthusiasm going into the races, but few technical problems caused us time, and laps, otherwise we'd be near the top 5.
Looking back at the last 2 races, I think we've learned a lot about working together, and on how to improve as a team. Communication between our drivers was crucial during these races and I think we did great on that, but lacked the consistency shown by other teams. All is to change within the coming weeks, so get ready for MOE race 3 :)

I thought it was awsome, racing as fast as I could whilst trying not to exceed the limits of the car (and my skill) and end up crashing. With voices coming over he team radio telling me who to let past and who was direct opponant. It felt more like real racing than any other league I have been in before and I felt more part of a team than ever before.
When I had a great close fight with another racer in the final stages of the 1st 12 hr race and crashed in last sector, then limping into pits saw he was in pits also with excited voices on the radio "you can catch him Dave" it made me push even harder to make the pass and when I eventually overtook him, well it just felt great and I could hear Jan and Charles (mabe Basem too i forget) cheering and congratulating me over the radio. I will never forget that moment I felt very proud for the team and myself.