The 2005 WOSEC 24H of Le Mans was won by the #13 SFH car, with the #15 taking second place. Both Saubers, troubled by gearbox problems, had a solid run and survived the night without major incidents to take two out of the three podium places.

Brent Curtis reports for the WOSEC website (offline):
The World Online Sportscar Endurance Championship is a series like few others. W.O.S.E.C. features races of no less than 6 hours once a month using Redline Development’s GTP mod for Nascar 2003. There is a minimum of 2 drivers per car so driver changes are a necessity, in fact a set number of changes are mandated before each event which gives drivers and teams a chance to plan driver schedules and strategies. There is a team championship as well as an individual car championship at stake. W.O.S.E.C.’s 2005 calendar had competitors from all over the world driving for the championship in five 6 hour races, an 8 hour event at Silverstone and a 12 hour race at Sebring. The season wrapped up with a non-points event – The 24 Hours of Le Mans – a continuous 24 hour mega-event that took place on November 26th and 27th. The race saw 34 cars fill the grid and featured 138 drivers from 25 countries competing for the win.

The month leading up to the race was a busy one for everyone involved. Many of the teams had participated in W.O.S.E.C.’s regular season but the race was also opened up to one-time teams hoping for a chance to win this incredible race. Testing took place throughout November giving teams a chance to become familiar with one another. No matter what time of day you logged on to the server there always seemed to be 5-6 cars on track, sometimes many more than that.

The start of the race was a big concern so practice starts were held. No one wanted a mistake in the opening minutes to end their 24 hour experience. W.O.S.E.C. President Gareth Hughes (some will know him as “Valleysboy”) enlisted the help of Sam Simpson (an experienced race official in real life) to moderate the race. Drivers knew he would be watching and handing out penalties during the race should someone make an ill-advised move. It appears that Sam enjoyed his endurance experience, “I feel I should thank all of the teams and drivers for this race as it was a joy to watch and officiate at, I was not expecting to be so entertained, or respected, by so many different people.” Sam continued, “Any decisions I made, penalties handed out etc., were met with calm in general. I must also say that the differences between real life responses from Drivers and/or Sim Racers differs a whole lot, in (real life) I have had teams rant and rave for days over decisions, whereas the response from you guys…was at least one of polite discussion where acceptance usually followed very quickly.” Sam’s efforts did not go unnoticed either. The following statement regarding Race Control by a spokesman for the SFH team echoed other team’s sentiments in the paddock after the race, “On behalf of the whole Simracing for Holland team I want to give big thanks to Race Control. It was a tremendous task to monitor 24 hours of racing and you did it very well. Incidents were reviewed quickly and fairly. Thanks.” Sim Racing For Holland (winners of 5 of the 7 W.O.S.E.C. regular season races which led them to the 2005 car and team Championships) had brought 4 Saubers to the starting grid and qualified three of them in the top five. Certainly the SFH entries had to be considered a huge threat to win THE BIG ONE.

So after all the preparation it was finally race day. In the weeks leading up to the event the general feeling amongst teams was just to get to the finish line after 24 hours…the final placing of your car would take care of itself. Tom Goodall drove the #555 drivers Emporium Sauber to the pole with a time of 3:28.215….
 

Qualifying

Here are the rest of the qualifying results:

 

Race

The field would do one formation lap and then the race would be underway. The NRTV broadcast was flooded with spectators and co-drivers anticipating the drama that would begin in just a few minutes. As the pace lap began and the 34 car field made its way down Mulsanne there came a report of smoke…the drama had started early. Early reports indicated that it was one of the Sim Racing For Holland cars and that turned out to be true. The SFH #14 Sauber driven by Paul Westers – qualified P11 – began dropping to the back of the pack. Paul’s post-race comments…“On formation lap (the car) blew up…that was a bummer. I was in 2nd gear and in formation when suddenly the car slowed down and the spotter said there was a big problem with the engine. Once back in the pit there was a lot of smoke and no revs.” Unfortunately, that would not be the only early problem for the SFH team. Marcel Wiegers, driving #16, reported that he had a gearbox problem and had lost 2nd gear. One SFH car retires and a major problem for another…the race hadn’t even started. What would happen once the green actually came out? What seemed to be an endless formation lap around the famous 8.6 mile circuit was almost complete…the race was about to begin.

Thankfully, the start went very smoothly with no contact and only a minor spin (no damage) at the back of the pack. Tom Goodall would keep the #555 up front for the first 28 laps until an “electrical” problem would drop the dE Racing entry down a couple of laps. The #555 would lead another 5 laps as the race closed in on the 100 lap mark but would not be able to get to the front again. Team captain Tom Goodall recaps the dE effort, “Eight hours into the event, the 555 lost 2nd gear and then a lap later 1st gear also goes however Volker (Hackmann) continues to run steady lap times after getting used to only 3 gears. Eleven hours mark and Volker gets out and Rene (Albrecht) gets in to do a 3 hour stint thru the night but it would turn out to be longer than that. When Rene pits to do a scheduled driver change at the 14 hour mark, his replacement cannot get in the car so Rene has to continue for another couple of hours until the next driver change. I got back in with 8 hours to go and the dE crew in 6th place. I stayed in for 4 fuel runs and managed to work back up to 4th place but also managed to lose 3rd gear as well. For the last four hours, the dE #555 would have just 4th and 5th gears. Volker, John, James adjusted to driving with just 2 gears and brought the car home in 4th.”

Many teams would have their share of misfortune and there would be many retirements…as expected.

Scott Przybylski, driving the #97 PORRS WORX Jaguar, would be one of the early casualties on lap 10, he recalls “…missed the braking zone before the first chicane on the mulsanne straight, clipped the tire wall, car flipped over into the armco barrier, towed it back to pits, couldn’t be repaired.” Scuderia Bollesnegro (#27 Jaguar) would be forced to retire after a coming together with the #85 Vader Trophy Racing Jaguar after just 21 laps. Other teams to be retired after less than three hours included both the #20 and #21 Chilean Racing entries (on track incidents), the #83 Naja Motorsports Jaguar (Ignition) and OATAS in the #19 Sauber.

Vader Trophy Racing finished 2nd in team points during the 2005 W.O.S.E.C. season. VTR #84 had a win at the 8 hour Silverstone race in April and a couple of 2nd place finishes (12 Hours at Sebring and the 6 Hours of Daytona). With three cars entered at Le Mans, VTR was looking to contend for the victory. An incident before the 2 hour mark caused the retirement of VTR #86. Even though VTR #85 was able to continue after the contact with Scuderia Bollesnegro, the second VTR entry would be forced to retire 4 hours into the race as the pit crew refused to service the Jag. VTR’s final hope (#84) would last a good deal longer but not long enough. With 10 hours remaining, the Jaguar was showing signs of weakness as 2nd gear failed. Then with approximately 6 hours left, the engine gave up. VTR #84 would actually be the last car to retire from the race and would be classified in the 12th place position.

Many different problems can hamper your endurance experience and you really need to have some luck on your side to get good results in this type of racing. Luck would not be Lee Ward’s side as he jumped into the #17 Sauber of WR Racing during a scheduled driver change and, “…had major pedal problems, my clutch pedal was working backwards and then going into the chicane put the brakes on and got full throttle instead.” That would spell the end to the #17’s day. WR Racing had an excellent regular season finishing 5th overall in the team championship. In fact, the WR#18 car had 6 top ten finishes in a row including a 4th place at TunLanta in August. The streak would end at Le Mans as the #18 car would lose 2nd gear early, then some contact with a tire wall caused some engine damage. WR Racing’s final car would retire 10 hours into the race with a blown engine.

There were lots of teams getting their first endurance racing experience. The AtlasF1 Legends #9 got off to a great start as Nathan Wald qualified the Jaguar in P7 and ran strongly for the first two fuel runs. Ben Fischer took over and he reported some damage when he entered the car but had no problems during his initial fuel stint. On his first fuel stop, the crew apparently repaired the damage and he got back on the track thinking everything was okay. “Somewhat 2 or so laps later, the car just went quiet in ‘Virage du Tetre Rouge’. The valve broke…”, he later explained. The Atlas F1 entry had made it almost 3 hours but no further. Meanwhile, the ESCORS endurance team lasted six hours until a blown engine right before the Ford chicanes ended their day.
First-timers Northstar Racing (#24 Sauber) had Darin Gangi start the race with a 3 hour stint. He lost 4th gear late in the run then passed off to Brendan Kaczmarek for the next 2 fuel stints. Northstar’s second driver change had Joseph Mudrak in the cockpit. Following Joseph’s stint, team captain Kaczmarek was ready to jump back in the car however significant damage had been done to the left front (reason unknown at this point) and only 1st and 2nd gears were working. Kaczmarek headed back on track to turn some laps but was forced to retire a short time later with gearbox failure. Kaczmarek later said, “It’s a shame too, we were 4th at one point.”
There were other newcomers too. Team ADC (#67) had an impressive showing (P14 result) as captain Bernd Nowak led his group through 15 hours of competition before an engine failure. MaMi Racing (#5) and MRCGT (#8) both chose Saubers for the event and both teams kept it on the tarmac for 24 hours. It certainly is a great achievement to keep running for the entire race…MaMi placed P10 after starting at the back of the pack and Canadian based MRCGT finished P8 after a P22 qualification.

TPTCC Regulars are an established W.O.S.E.C. team and had entered a pair of Saubers to run Le Mans. The TPTCC crew finished the team championship in 4th place for the season which had the #41 Sauber score six top ten results, including a pair of top five finishes. The other TPTCC car, #40, ran a limited schedule but did manage a season high 8th place at Watkins Glen in September. Drama for the team before the race even started as a couple of drivers had to pull out of the event at the last minute, but things got sorted out and both cars were able to start. Trevor Mack started the race in the #40 car (he qualified P10 but decided to start at the back of the field) and team boss Art McEwen recalls, “Trevor got out after 2 and half hours with the car in 3rd place, even though he wasn’t willing to push it too hard and Fulvio Policardi stepped in and the Italian veteran kept the car in the top 5 for most of his triple stint, babying the car the whole way, then minutes before he was due in for fuel…disaster struck. The Mercedes blew a header at the end of the Mulsanne, towing it back to the pits was a forlorn hope and car 40 retired.”
There would be better news for the #41. McEwen was originally scheduled to drive the 40 car but that was now out of the question and since he was already suited up, it was decided that he would take the next drive in the 41 car. “The stint was slightly eventful as I got tagged by #5 in the 2nd Mulsanne chicane as we were both being lapped by one of the leaders, I put it down to extenuating circumstances, no damage done” he recalled. “Later I missed my turn-in mark in the Porsche curves and nudged the armco with the front, no damage was reported but I worried for the rest of the shift that I’d somehow damaged the motor.” As the night progressed Asgeir Nesoen, Mike Cornelison, Ralph Kemmerer and Jeff Goldner took turns were at the wheel and worked their way up into the top ten. With roughly four hours to go McEwen got another chance at the controls, “The car was solidly in 9th with 3-4 laps in hand between 8th and 10th and still running perfect. However, P10 got a bit impetuous attempting to get one of those laps back and pushed me into the Ford Armco….. but the pit crew were able to replace the damaged bodywork at my fuel stop. With just under 2 hours to go I passed the car over to Joe to bring it home and even that stint wasn’t without some drama, one of the SFH cars turned him around in the mulsanne chicane and we worried about the engine temp for a couple of laps.” TPTCC weathered a lot of adversity but persevered and finished in 9th place.

There was even some hot-seating taking place and while this is perfectly legitimate, those participants still had to perform their driver changes in the same manner as everyone else. SBRCMOTORS Jon Callaghan made the drive (probably not in a Jaguar) to Gareth Hughes’ house before actually hitting the tarmac of Le Mans in the #4 SBRC Jaguar. The teammates settled in for what they hoped would be a long day and night. Hughes qualified the car P15 and would stay in for the first couple of fuel runs. Callaghan then took over and things seemed to be going well until disaster after 51 laps…Hughes recalls, “Jon was 4 laps away from coming into pit…when the engine died. We waited for tow, took a few minutes, informed by pit crew that we were finished.” The sister car to the #4 had a little more lengthy appearance in the race. Wouter de Bruijn qualified and drove the first couple of stints and maintained position close to the top ten. Over the next few hours the #2 Jag would drop back as far as P19 during driver changes. By the 12 hour mark, all drivers had driven at least one stint and de Bruijn was next up and he maintained position just inside the top ten. Hans Brauer got in the car for his second go-round but unfortunately an electrical malfunction caused the Jag to go screaming into a barrier at high speed. That would be the end for the SBRCMOTORS team after close to 16 hours of racing and SBRC #2 would end up classified in P13.

Much of the post-race chat focused on how difficult it was to keep…um, well…focused. Combine the long straights with the fatigue factor of an endurance race and mistakes can happen. By the midway point of the race, Canadian based Team FMB 33 remained in the hunt. In fact, the #33 Sauber had led a couple laps early in the event but that would soon come to a screeching halt. A team representative tells the story, “Even though we had lost 3rd and 5th gears fairly early, we were still hanging in there. Our driver had a lapse in concentration….and missed the braking point into the Michelin chicane, clouted the un-movable tire barrier head on resulting in terminal engine damage.” Team FMB finished P15. One of the three Russian teams entered in the event, ruGTP ET #25 had a similar experience, “I just lost two gears and was slightly lost.” That problem did not have the same devastating result as the FMB incident but electrical problems and gear failures also hampered Konstantin Smolkin and his crew. “…(electrical) problems of one of our pilots send us 7 laps back from leader. After all, we lost 3rd gear. And on lap 143-146 – 2nd gear. Our car was like a Chaparral 2D with two gears only working …Finally, we retune gearbox for safe switching from 1st to 4th, but… engine was hardly impressed by our experiments with gearbox and decide to die due a piston failure.” ruGTP ET would be classified P17 at the end of the day. One of the other Russian entries would be the only Mazda in the field…36 team. ‘Steady as she goes’ seemed to be the motto for these guys. Team Leader Alexander Epifanov led his crew to a very strong finish as the #36 was able to climb all the way from a P25 starting spot and complete the 24 hours, finally being classified P11 when all was said and done. The final Russian entry xUSSR would also go quietly about business. Even after a less than spectacular qualifying run (P20) Sergey Frolov, Alex Solianin and Dmitry Lukanov were always lurking in the shadows. The trio was not able to actually get to the front and lead a little but they were always right there ready to capitalize on the smallest mistake. They drove their way towards the front making up places and eventually ending up on the podium. A great achievement –P3- considering xUSSR entered the race with just 3 drivers while most of the teams went with at least four pilots. Race moderator Sam Simpson recognized their efforts following the race, “I must commend xUSSR’s team for third place….the most spectacular piece of head down, arse up, go for it 110% driving between about 7:15am gmt to after 8am dragged them up to third and took a lap back from the leaders while being chased hard by VTR 1 (#84), was absolutely beautiful to see…you made my morning.”

The early part of the 2005 season was quite successful for the experienced Team Comet with a P3 at Silverstone in April and a victory at the Spa night race in May. However, bad luck followed them around in the second half of the season hampering their success. This team battled through many problems at Le Mans including those of an electrical nature, gearbox trouble and team communications going down at one point. One of the most impressive performances of the race came from Comet driver Daniel Gomez. At one point he was forced to drive a SIX HOUR STINT. Comet captain Damian Baldi gave kudos after the race, “The ironman prize to Daniel Gomez.” Teammate Danilo Petricca agreed, “I have to congratulate my teammate Daniel for doing such an awesome job during the whole night after the problems Damian had. The ‘class of the field’ prize goes to you for driving real great for sooooo long.” Other drivers recognized his efforts as well including Esben Tipple of VTR, “I’d also like to congratulate Daniel Gomez of Comet Racing, who effectively had a 6-hour long stint due to some sort of power cut for the other driver.” That extraordinary effort paid off as Team Comet was able to complete the 24 hours and finish in 6th place.

Swedish based Team XFR #66 sat out qualification and started from near the back of the pack. Captain Bertil Holmberg’s team made up significant ground during the opening hours of the event, climbing up to P4 after just three and a half hours. By the midway point, the XFR Sauber would run P9. In the second half of the race XFR had some good battles with Team Comet #79 and #8 MRCGT with the cars swapping positions several times. The last couple of hours had XFR driver Goran Andreevski and Comet’s Damian Baldi go head to head directly for position. That fight didn’t end until the ckeckered flag as the two teams finished just a couple of minutes apart… Comet in P6 and XFR in P7.

Amongst all of the Saubers and Jaguars, an unusual site had appeared on the starting grid…a Toyota!! Team SimRacing Magazine featuring Erwin & Ronnie (the Zeemering brothers), Dion Vergers and Remco Hitman would drive the only Toyota in the field. The #38 seemed to be in the middle of the action often as at least two times they were forced to pit when a car in front had lost an engine. That really makes a mess of a windscreen. Despite a couple of journeys into the kitty litter, some minor damage on near misses and some hardware problems, the quartet of drivers would maintain a good pace and remain in contention throughout the race. So the first 23 hours of the race came and went with SimRacing still in the hunt. Then as the race was entering the final hour…Trouble on Mulsanne!!!!! Ronnie recalls, “We got rammed into the barrier (before Playstation).” The MRCGT #8 apparently missed its braking point and had gotten into the back of the #38. There were very some tense moments as the ailing Toyota was towed to the pits. Could the crew work its magic and get the SimRacing guys back on track or would the day be over so close to the end? The car sat stationary in the pits for 12 minutes. Then Ronnie gave everyone an update, “Our engine is running, not smooth but is running.” The lengthy pit stop was completed and the Toyota headed back on track, certainly not 100% but running nonetheless as Ronnie gave another update on the situation, “300 kmh top speed…we almost died here.” The ‘yota’ held together for the final hour and the SimRacing Magazine team came home P5.

Sim Racing For Holland had early troubles with two of their cars. The #14 blew up on the formation lap and the #16 had gearbox problems throughout the race and finally an electrical issue forced the car to the sidelines. The two remaining Saubers more than made up for those other problems though.
The SFH sister cars would be on the point for all but 35 laps. Aalt Bischoff Tulleken, Robin Verdegaal, De Wit Ruud, Marcel Wiegers in the #13 would lead 174 laps. The #15 with Andras Kiraly, Marcel Offermans, Kimmo Eggers would show the way for 179 circuits. These two cars would set an amazing pace and get away from the rest of the field but never lose touch with each other. In total, the race would see an amazing 39 lead changes among 4 cars with 34 of those changes were between the 2 lead SFH cars. As the end of the race was in sight and SFH running P1-P2, there was little doubt that an SFH Sauber would be on the top step of the podium. The big question was which car would it be? The final pass for the lead would take place during a driver change just 12 laps from the finish of the race. The outcome was still in doubt right to the very end with both cars still on the same lap. De Wit Ruud (#13) sounds like he enjoyed himself, “The race was brilliant, a great battle with the #15…all the time within the same lap and for 24 hours long…stunning stuff leaving no room for ‘taking it easy’. I enjoyed both of my stints! Biggest scare was when I went off in the Porsche curves at 160mph…luckily there was a lot of kitty litter.” The #13 was able to hold off the #15 to take the win at the W.O.S.E.C. 24 Hours of Le Mans. When the dust settled, the margin of victory was astonishingly close after 24 hours…just 16.67 seconds. Robin Verdegaal was behind the wheel of the #13 as it crossed the finish line. He had participated in the 24 hour race a year ago when it was run using a different N2003 mod, “Last year the fun was over after a pole start and six hours of racing. This year I came to Le Mans with low expectations, but lots of testing under the belt. We got rewarded with an unbelievably close race – the gap to SFH #15 was never more than two minutes – and in the end even the win!”

There is no doubt that this event was a huge success. Many of the first-time teams enjoyed the W.O.S.E.C. experience so much that they have signed up to run the 2006 regular season which is slated to begin January 7th at Norisring. The ’06 regular season looks very promising with 10 events on the schedule which will include three 12 hour races. Of course, the year will wrap up with a non-points event at Le Mans once again.

Congratulations to the participants of the 24 Hours of Le Mans for a very exciting event. Also, many thanks go out to league president Gareth Hughes for his endless efforts and Sam Simpson of Race Control for a job well done.
 

Results

* indicates dnf

 

Team lineups: