TORA Le Mans Interview part 2 up

PART 1:
Hello TORA, this is Bradley Wingard reporting to you from a cool morning here in Le Mans for the second round of the 2013 TEC as the first of the garage doors are rolling up in pit lane as teams and driver prepare for practice and qualifying in the lead up to none other than the 24 hours of Le Mans. Over the next week I intend to bring you as many thoughts from the other drivers leading up to this gruelling race.

The more I walk down pit lane the more I fall in love with this race, and first activity from the garage seems to be HR Allied Forces captain Flyin Mikey J. Mikey, just quickly, what are your expectations for the race? The jaguar you have chosen has been said to have good top speed? Do you think this will aid you in your fight for top spot?

A: Well mate, last year we had a rather unexpected 6th place finish as a rookie team in the TORA 24 hours of LeMans, and as you have stated, this year we have the higher top speed in the Castrol HR Allied Forces Jaguar, so who knows where we could end up come next Sunday.
Hi to my family at home.
As for the top spot of the podium, all I can say is that there are some stellar line-ups of star drivers throughout the grid, so I'd be happy just seeing the podium at the end of the long day.

Further down pit lane is one of the LMP1 cars, what a stunning paint it has, it has to be no other than the F4H Red Sonia car driven by four of F4H’s finest. Chrisupra, you were one of the driver who piloted the big brother of this year’s car to victory last year, do you think you can do it again?

A: Last year we drove the ARX-01a and got pushed all the way. This year we are in the 01b and putting down times quicker than the 01a. I'd have to say yes I do think we can do it again but we certainly won't have it easy by any means. We see 2-3 teams that will push us all the way but rest assured we won't let up. It's not the fastest car on the grid but the fastest car rarely ever wins these events. All we can do is worry about ourselves and focus on our own objectives. Hopefully the track dries up tonight and we can get back out tomorrow for some practise.

He went on to say
I'm headed up to the paddock for a pint with eh, what's his face, the Scot, drove the Audi and...ah yes McNish that's it. You fancy popping up? You won't write about this will you?

And what about you Dan (ATR DAN), a top 5 finish at Sebring in LMP1 is a very impressive fete, I’ve heard you’ve been having some troubles with the speed and oversteer of your Lola Aston, how serious is it and how do you think you’ll be able to overcome that race day?

A: To be honest, the issue with the oversteer is mainly in the slow speed corners. I've been working on the car to concentrate on rear end stability but it hasn't worked so it's just a case of reverting back to the old set-up and maybe try something else. As for the speed, I've been trying out a lower downforce set-up as it's obviously the way to go for Le Mans. And as some of the TORA veterans will know, I'm not exactly the best person in the world when it comes to creating car set-ups so it's a case of trial and error. But I'm certain that Virtual AMR will be in the best shape possible come race day. And hope another top 5 finish is possible just like Sebring earlier this year,

Final two garages for the day, I see a bee? No, it’s the Porsche of CRA Team 4, consisting of CRA LosingShark, CRA Erebus who both raced in the team for Sebring and new recruit, BalmierPie671. Balmier, I hear you are the artist behind this race’s paint? What was your inspiration?

A: I joined CRA in April and one of the first things I saw was a discussion about the logo of the club. I had an idea, presented it to the members and they liked it. I thought that it would be appropriate to market the club at this big prestigious event, so I made a design with a maximized logo on the sides of the car. With the right colouring it becomes recognizable and memorable. The bee effect was a bonus!

And being new to the team, how are you going getting to grips with the car and the demand of the circuit? What are you expecting to happen come race day driving with LosingShark and Erebus?

A: Well, I am not really known for my outright pace, I would even stretch it to admit that I’m somewhat slow. It took me a while to get the right feel for the car and I have to mention the fantastic set up work of my team mate tsaFooT that transformed the car for me. Since my pace is a few seconds off the best drivers, I hope to be consistent in the long run. If we all can achieve that, I’m convinced that will award us at the finish. But 24 hours is a long time, it’s gonna be a challenge!

And finally right next door is CRA Team 2, the Audi R18 with the recognisable and instinctive Coca Cola Zero paint on it. First man in the garage seems to be CRA Adder. Adder, you claimed second at this race last year under the a1x banner in the Acura 1b, you obviously want to replicate that results, or go one better, like all drivers, but what’s your plan come Saturday, you in are the second most dominating car at Le Mans over the last 50 years, do you think this will help?

A: We have all the support of Audi and our sponsors,   especially after our fantastic result at Sebring. And yes, if we can keep the car out of trouble, we want to take a shot of winning it. The competition however is stronger than ever. Our line-up is maybe not the fastest, but we are 1 of the most consistent. Our lap times with the 4 of us (our line-up has been added by Insanity nl) are very close together. I am looking really forward to this.

That’s it for now folks, I’m off to get breakfast and a coffee while I watch the rest of the guys practice. Check in later this week after a few qualifying sessions for some more responses from teams such as XPR, XPLR, AAR, MGR, HR, M&M and BG in both classes.

PART 2:
Hello TORA, I’m back for the second instalment of this 4 part interview, and I;m reporting to you from a cool night here in Le Mans at the café right near the circuit.
I managed to catch up with Aston Martin GTE driver and recently crowned MSA TORA GT champion CQR D4N13L. Firstly D4N13L, congratulations on your championship, it must be a great senstation winning TORA’s Flagship series in a nail-biting last race?
A-  It's a great feeling to win the GT series, there was a lot of help and support from the rest of the team the whole way through the season. Especially from Christian Rose, who done an amazing job of keeping the Z4s of ONR, and the Lambos of the 2 CQR teams at bay for most of the season. We're hoping that we can keep the momentum going into the Le Mans 24hours.

And what about Le Mans? After a 12th in class finish at the first round at Sebring, what’s the strategy come race day?
A- Unfortunately the top speed of the Aston is a little bit lower than our rivals, so we just have to make sure we can maximize the car's acceleration by getting the best exit we can out of every corner. Also, keeping off the twinkies will be a must. But as long as we can be as consistent as possible and avoid getting into any incidents and bring the car home in one piece, I think we'll have a strong result here this weekend.
Hopefully we can have a strong result, it's been a difficult week for Aston Martin but I'm sure we can rise to the challenge.

Sitting right next to him to is The Voice of TORA, none other than Adrian Michael Rees. Firstly, Happy Birthday Adrian for the other day, I hope it was a good one.
A: It was the same day as Le Mans finished, I dont think I could have asked for anything else.

And what are you looking forward to the most coming from a spectators and commentators point of view, and how do you see the race playing out, who’s your tip for the podium over both classes?
A: I'm on the fence here, yes it's annoying, I'd like to throw the form book out of the window but The Fight For Her lot had these enduros down to a T last year, but anything could happen.

I must have stumbled on the table of TORA greats, its Richard Millard (Richy59) and Duncan Ray (SelectiveRogue). Gentleman, you are possibly two of the hardest working staff members at TORA, not taking anything away from other staff members at all, but it must be frustrating and tiring organising something of this magnitude?
Duncan: First of all I must say a Huge thanks to all staff and community members who help out with the media, planning and running this event, we are all working extremely hard behind the scenes to bring you our biggest endurance race ever, organising an event is hard work but we love what we do and we really want to put on a fantastic race for the wider community.
Richy: It's been a pretty hectic year that's for sure! After Le Mans last year and I think GT Season 9 we seem to have just gone from strength to strength, and the MotorsTV coverage this year has raised the bar so high for the quality that we continually need to achieve. I have to say Duncan and Jamie (BG Chucky 82) Anderson have been doing a hell of a lot of work regarding the admin over the last few months, and having the new Community Team back has really helped us out a lot and will do as we lead up to the Next Generation.

However, it must be very satisfying once it all falls into place, and everyone is enjoying the atmosphere that is Le Mans and once it’s all over and everyone is (hopefully) happy and excited with the results, it must be a good feeling?
Duncan: It is, myself and the rest are the staff are all sportscars fans at heart and to be able to live our dream of running cars at circuit de la sarthe virtually brings us closer to le mans each year. Le Mans is like no event on earth and we hope we bring some of the magic to the community. We do this for the community no one else and its thanks to them that we love what we do.
Richy: Well I'm certainly looking forward to Le Mans this weekend. We just finished our Live Q2 Session and we've moved over to the new Twitch channel which is completely new for us. It was a bit of an experiment tonight, but to see everyone turn up to watch Q2 and get involved whilst things ran relatively smoothly was a great feeling! I think this year's race is going to be one of the best events we have done, and the TEC for 2013 certainly has proven to be a challenge. I think you guys will love the Support Race Night and Pre-Race package we have planned and we will have Jake Sanson back in the Comms box for the race.

And will we be seeing the TORA Le Mans Safety Car again?
Duncan: We will during the opening stint, Our New Audis are back
Richy: Oh yes, has to be a staple for Le Mans. You may have caught a glimpse of it in Q2 as it was present on track, so expect to see it lead the A lobby cars around the first lap once again.

Can I just give a shout out to team M&M Racing, even although we're doing a lot of the organising and admin of the race we still have a car to drive and are certainly going to be giving it our all to defend our GTE crown from last year!

On the way to the bar, I managed to bump into the XPR boys, Stephen (Roadrunner), Rob (Soundwave) and Louis (Gillard) how are you guys going to be attacking this race? Outright pace for 24 hours, or cool, calm, collective and consistently clean for 22, and then lead footing it to the end?

Soundwave said: Well, the XPR guys have been hard at work getting the cars ready and i don't plan on ruining it early. The Viper, however, is very easy to be fast in while staying consistent and we have a lot of time to make up. Which is all i can tell you, we are ready and we are bringing the fight to them.

Gillard concluded in saying:  Well having attempted to do this in both fashions you can't just do one or the other... well you can just both have their faults. Personally when I'm in the car I'm going to be pushing as hard as I possibly can but if there's someone that is faster than me there's no point in fighting them. But If I'm faster, I may cruise behind them until i get in the pit window. Lapped traffic you have to have faith in them to not go crazy around them or they may just hit you not knowing how to react. So keeping it clean while pushing as hard as we can and run our own race. If all goes well, we'll be up high on the leader board.

Next man on the interview schedule is TORA Media man and Marc VDS team leader, Stan ‘daman’ Stulpa. Stan, we all saw your Le Mans teaser video, you never fail to produce great work, how much time goes into something of that perfection?
A: That video took about two-three days of planning, with two-three days of recording and a day of editing. So you could say a whole week. However I wouldn't say it's "perfect". My favourite part is the opening section with the scenery, but as soon as it gets to the cars it agitates me... Guys like us can't use all the fancy angles T10 use, so we can't get exactly what we want or had in mind. T10 use developer software to rig and record cars and program a camera to move around them. I can only use what T10 gave us in the replay angles.

And how do you think you will be performing come race day in the Aston Martin and Ford GT? How will you be running the race, being the length it is?
A: To be honest I have no idea, anything can happen. Last year we (Nurbracer) came 4th in class, something I had never expected. Then at Silverstone we did poorly. This year, Sebring gave new hope to the Marc VDS teams, so there's a chance we can clinch a podium so long as we keep it hard and steady. But then again, I have to hand it to them; the other teams here are very quick. So let the best man win!

That’s it for now folks, Check in later this week after a few qualifying sessions for some more responses from teams such as XPLR, AAR, MGR, HR, M&M and BG in both classes.

part 1 is up

Good stuff Erebus

Nice work!

Wicked read Brad......nice work, looking forward to the ones to follow !!

This is really good, trying to think of how I can get it on the site and part of the build up...

Thanks for including me in this... even my Scott Pruett impersonation between paragraphs.

Nice Job !

Nice Job

Excellent!!!

Nice work buddy!

Very impressive write up mate. Can't wait for the next installment

Brilliant Brad builds the excitement up another notch, Looking forward to pt 2

part 2 is not far from being posted, just waiting on XPR Roadrunner, Stan and Adrian

Nicely constructed article!

PART 2 IS UP

Awesome, love the work !

Great job mate !!

Loved it, Great article and brilliant insight from all who participated

Nice read, looking forward to the other parts!

inboxes are being sent out to people who are being interviewed for the last one, sorry to anyone who was not interviewed, difficult to ask 51 teams and 140+ racers, will get around to everyone at some point throughout the year, and sorry it took so long, been pretty busy this week, but all are done just waiting on replied

sent out half, will send out the other half later

hows it coming along ?

getting there,
school has started again, so doing as much as i can
sorry it's taking so long :s

I dont mind the wait, i know it is a lot of hard work, if you want any help, i can assist, give me the list of questions, and gamer tags and i can see what i can do and pass over the info for you if you need the assistance ?