Sim Racers 4 Life - Lola T280 Season - Round 4 - Belgium

[deecee52]

Some thoughts on Spa and simracing..

The time at the track we will be racing is early 60's, judging by the condition of the tarmac that is really in a terrible state, economic situation in Europe still reflecting post WWII shortcomings.
Armco hadnt yet been added everywhere, this would be done in 1969 after a boycot of the Belgian Grand Prix by the drivers, especially after Jackie Stewart's crusade following his 1966 crash at Masta kink that sent his car in the outside basement of the farmhouse touching the kink at the outside of the corner.

After the boycot, Armco was added and by now the tarmac should have been smoothed out as the drivers were eager to stop racing in this most dangerous circuit and eventually they succeeded talking Spa off F1 calendar, last Belgian Grand Prix there, was the 1970 one.
From then on, only Endurance events continued, Spa 24 Hours for the European Touring Car Championship and Spa 1000 Kilometres for the World Championship for Makes, the Sports Cars.




It was at the 1972 1000 Kilometres that Lola 3L T280 raced at Spa driven by Larrousse/De Fierlant and she came 5th, 7 laps behind the winner Ferrari 312P(B) driven by Redman/Merzario.
Her best lap was 3:28:9 (while Redman/Merzario's Ferrari was 3:23:5 and Ickx/Regazzoni's Ferrari was 3:20:4)
For comparison, 1971 5L Porsches 917 were doing 3:16, 3:18, 3:19, 3:20.

So, to put things in perspective, Lola in real life, on a smooth tarmac lapped at 3:28, while Gorka is doing 3:18 on the minefield we are going to race (heck even I do sub 3:28s here).

Are we better drivers then from the racers at the time? :

LOL i dont think so , we know we are not going to die if we mess up so we all push our limits and beyond without worry , they rarely got a second chance at this circuit