Le Mans Drivers of the Day!

We survived another 24 Hours of Le Mans! Much thanks to all staff, marshals, and community members that helped us to keep things running smoothly (mostly). Now that we've all gotten a chance to sleep, let's take a look back at the race!

Did a driver among your team exceed your expectations?

Did somebody step in last minute and deliver the goods for you?

Did somebody manage to recover from a setback?

Did another team impress you?

Somebody in your lobby do something that earned your praise?

So this was my first TORA race; SFM Darkzer recruited me for the longest time to join TORA racing, and I didn't want to be that serious. Well, I had a great time. All the guys I raced with seemed like good dudes and chill. Anyway, couple shoutouts:

My biggest one has to go to AMS Jubba. I started from the pole for stint 11 and he tagged me into the braking zone for the second chicane. Frustrating, but Jubba was a dude about it. Owned it, apologized, and refused to stay in front of me until he could complete a sporting pass. I love that type of sportsmanship. Later on in the stint, he was fantastic about communicating concisely with me about oncoming LMP traffic and if he had a run on me. Overall, great racing with you my man, and no hard feelings!

Also, I've got to be a homer and give a shoutout to the entire SFM Corvette program. Both 96 and 98 cars for massively overachieving. I was on the 96 team and man, we nearly shocked everyone with a P5 GT finish. We had a disconnect in stint 12, but overall, from top to bottom, all four of us punched above our weight class. None of us may have been the fastest, but we were all fast enough and consistent. We got P11 after the disconnect, but having the ability to go for 5th was amazing guys!

Further to the 96 guys, nice job to TR Snowstorm and mackelroy45 for grabbing stint wins! But also to SFM Skyactiv and myself for being the guys to over come adversity and have recovery drives to keep the car in it. I was wrecked and shuffled to dead last in two stints, but clawed back to P3. And I had it easy. Sky had the P1 braking line glitch in his first stint and still put together a strong run, then had to have the misfortune of the disconnect. So Bravo Zulu team; great speed, great perseverance guys!

And to all other racers/teams, nice job to y'all. Remarkably clean for a 24 hour race and well done (even if we had massive delays)! Hope to race with some of y'all again soon!

Did a driver among your team exceed your expectations?

We entered 4 cars, with a total of 16 drivers. There were a few great drives I want to mention.

#24 - SFM Zai surprised a lot of people with the 10th quickest P1 time in qualifying, and he definitely delivered in the race. Driving 2 doubles and taking over stint 12 from me at the last moment, he ended up driving for 12 hours, also setting the highest stint distance for the team (not by much though!).

#27 - TM Touring was a driver we were friends with for the past few months, but we only asked him to race a few days before qualifying! Then he goes and does a triple! The SFM Vermillion car won 11 of 12 stints in C lobby, only losing one because of a disconnect. aceCaptain Slow swapped cars a few days before qualifying, and then proceeded to run within 2 miles of the #24 every stint. Good stuff!

#96 - XxT3rM1n80RxX (pronounced Terminator), and TR SnowStorm had never participated in a TORA event before, and both never put a foot wrong in their stints. Shoutout to the entire SFM Pegasus car on what should have been a top 5 run if not for a disconnect in stint 12.

#98 - kiwichris1709 earned several in-lobby comments for excellent driving in C lobby, and broke 200 miles in stint 10. I've really enjoyed watching him get faster and faster as we continue to race together. SFM Cowmaster also drove the spoiler off the C7.R using a wheel without pedal feedback.

Did somebody step in last minute and deliver the goods for you?

#24 - SIXTY6 AJAX switched from the Corvette to the Audi 1 day before qualifying since one of our drivers was unable to participate. With limited practice, Ajax kept us in contention in his 2 stints.

#98 - In a similar situation to the #24, hunty1981 joined the SFM Corvette and set the high distance for the car mid-race. Thanks again!

Did somebody manage to recover from a setback?

#24 - In stint 5, Ajax crashed at Tertre Rouge at the beginning of the stint, brought the car back around almost an entire lap completely broken, then kept digging and minimized the loss.

Did another team impress you?

LSEM Proto shocked us in the first few stints by being P2 or P3. Lawrence was beating A-lobby cars with ease. It was a shame they has a DNS.

Alien Nation GT was really fast in B lobby, I know our GT guys enjoyed racing them.

Somebody in your lobby do something that earned your praise?

The P1 drivers in A lobby were mostly very respectful on track in party. We had some crazy moments!

I enjoyed being a part of the race for the second time this year. Not that I didn't last year, but at least this year I wasn't doing 4:11s while ending up in A lobby....
I have to give it to all our 98 team. We were incredibly consistent all race, with only one DC coming from Kchrpm, who never DCs, ever. Even in qualifying, the three of us who qualified the car set times which put us next to each other in the order. Special thanks to Hunty1981 and Freheliaz for coming from outside the SFM stable for a play, and thanks to Dark for twisting my arm so hard that he snapped it off. I don't race with you lads cause of a perceived lack of speed, and timezones, but was glad he convinced me to.

The fact we kept the 98 so clean and consistent to end up 14th is pretty freaking sweet..

But we weren't even the highlight of the SFM teams. Vermilion were unfreakingstoppable with 11 Lobby wins on the way to 8th overall. I was in our team chat watching their reports during their pit stops agape at how well they were going.

Also, shoutout to our Pegasus guys for a strong as hell run, pity the DC wheel hit in the last stint. Also, shoutout to all the lobby hosts who had to deal with Terminators Gamertag. On behalf of all of SFM, sorry about that. And of course, our podium finishers. SFM Zai in particular. First enduro in the Audi, amazing stints man.

Also, shoutout to all the protos in C Lobby. None of you got in my way while passing, and I hope I never got in yours while being passed. And to you GT guys. That was banterific. Loved it, didn't quite get thatast year!

I'm really proud of the guys who drove the #19 to another win, it's no easy task to last the full 24 hours. So great to finally get another win in a TORA Endurance event, we've been robbed the last few times.

Also just a generic shoutout to those ForzaFC finalists who had essentially 4 days to prep for this race after focusing much of their time and effort on the Playoffs in Seattle. I've been there and it's a really difficult thing to do, to turn around and prepare for one of the most challenging races Forza has to offer.

I'm really proud of every driver in the 27 SFM Vermilion car as we all pushed hard and worked well together even when we had an issue with one of the drivers internet. However I want to give a big shout out to AceCaptain Slow for not letting his qualifying problems get the best of him and to push on and do 10 hours of the race which is an incredible amount of driving and to still win every stint in C lobby even with having to battle the equally fast TUS and LMP cars. To finish though congratulations for everyone for finishing even with the problems and bad luck some teams faced as it can be very demoralizing so I respect you all for it so I hope we can continue this respect and awesome racing into the future

I'd have to give a huge shout to Ax4x's Speed Dem0n 64

After the line glitch caught the car's team principal out in stint 3, the entry was parked. For three stints, the car do not even see the grid. Did that stop Speed Dem0n? Nope. He still wanted to race Lemans, and did. He ran 4 stints in total, tripling up stints 8, 9 and 10, then did stint 12. Had there not be the double rule for stints 11-12, he'd have run stint 11 as well.

His stints had some really good results, despite being completely out of contention. But his never surrender no quit attitude to me is the epitome of the spirit of Lemans.

Also special shout out to Sam (Solar) for going full send in Stint 1 against a stacked GT field, that's pretty impressive dude.

Flyin Mikey J wrote:I'd have to give a huge shout to Ax4x's Speed Dem0n 64

After the line glitch caught the car's team principal out in stint 3, the entry was parked. For three stints, the car do not even see the grid. Did that stop Speed Dem0n? Nope. He still wanted to race Lemans, and did. He ran 4 stints in total, tripling up stints 8, 9 and 10, then did stint 12. Had there not be the double rule for stints 11-12, he'd have run stint 11 as well.

His stints had some really good results, despite being completely out of contention. But his never surrender no quit attitude to me is the epitome of the spirit of Lemans.

Amen to that! Didn't realize that's what happened to the Ferrari. Always nice to see a driver push through and not give up.

Just wanna say it was a big Shame, for my Team to go from all the hard work in tuning testing, and putting us back on 1st after stint 8 just to lag out in stint 9 and 10 after that my motivation for the next 6 hrs of streaming was pretty much gone so i apologize i couldn't complete the full 24 hrs but i hope you enjoyed the stream none the less.

big shoutout to the AMS lads though loved battling you guys <3

I'm proud of all 4 SFM cars. Every member of my team did an outstanding job from qualifying all the way until the last stint of the race. We were able to punch WAY above our weight and deliver an outstanding competition all around to the fastest teams in Forza/TORA. The one who really got my attention was Kiwichris1709; he stepped up and brought the heat every stint he was a part of and really showed everyone what incredible driving he is capable of.

Although we had a DC for the last stint, I'm still happy with how we did. It was close the whole race and we were able to inch our way into P6 before that happened.

The #27 definitely charged back after some rough patches, as did the #98. It's a hard thing to do when people are so close in speed, but they managed to do it and gain places. It says volumes about the skill with these guys.

I was definitely impressed by the level of professionalism from a number of teams. I went up against HCR Colonel, MNR Hunta, StonyEdwin; all of which provided me with a great amount of banter and a damn good race.

All in all, for my first race with TORA, and my first competitive race in the better part of 12 years, it was fantastic. The setbacks will be setbacks, but the racing is what I will remember. I hope to be out there next year with SFM and deliver some good racing with everyone.

I also want to say thanks to SFM Darkzer for asking me to race. I would have helped these guys out either way, but asking me to drive for them reignited my fire for competition.

Just wanted to say I was very happy with each of the HCCR teams as they were mostly made up with drivers that have never done a single endurance event let alone a single multi-class TORA event well done to all of them.

I would like to give a shoutout to all the drivers in C Lobby Stint 6. Despite being an hour behind schedule due partly to triple stinters and mostly game issues the racing was fantastic. Katashi in particular was fun to race with.

Unfortunately not the way I wanted to send the Nissan off, but I can't change the past so it is what is. Huge shoutout to F4H Scottsin though, that battle in stint 1 was one of the best races I've had, and your comeback after the incident at Indianapolis was nothing short of spectacular. 12ft in it after nearly 2 hours of racing!

Did a driver among your team exceed your expectations?
Sterile although didn't exceed expectations as I know he's quick, adapted to GT cars very fast since he hasn't driven anything above A class in a long time. By his second stint he was running really quick pace and probably would have gotten the furthest distance but for a wreck on lap 1.

Did somebody step in last minute and deliver the goods for you?
not for us.

Did somebody manage to recover from a setback?
Apart from myself clawing the distance I lost by putting it in the wall in stint 1, no.

Did another team impress you?
HCR had really strong consistent pace and would most likely have taken the win but for the unfortunate DC.

Somebody in your lobby do something that earned your praise?
F4H REVS was extremely courteous when it came to overtaking GT cars. he was the post patient and caused the least trouble out of everyone I came across.

Did a driver among your team exceed your expectations?
Despite lagouts ruining our first half, everyone on the team did great. I myself exceeded my own expectations by winning my first 2 stints and coming from last to finish 4th in stint 5 by 43 feet.

Did somebody step in last minute and deliver the goods for you?
This goes with the next question.
Did somebody manage to recover from a setback?
AMR ACADEM1K dced at the start of stint 4, after already having done the same thing in stint 2. He literally rage quit, but AMR DIRTYDUBZ Contacted him when they had to restart the stint due to improper handicaps. He came back, and beasted the stint to i think a 3rd or 4th place.
Did another team impress you?
LSEM coming 3rd overall in GT. Thats mighty impressive considering some of their best drivers were in the prototype and not GT.
Somebody in your lobby do something that earned your praise?
EVR Matt212 and LSEM Lawerence had a great battle in stint 1, both caught me at tetre rouge and i gtfo to let them battle, even after matt ran into me earlier and damaged his car. DOR Forlornbear and TheyCallMeBubz for the fantastic racing during my stints as well.