I had wondered why the RSRs were in Endurance Kings, obviously they are built for it but are they competitive with the LMPs? My questions were answered as soon as I unlocked the ten lap races and it was easy to cruise past any RSR in my Porsche 919.
As an experiement and to mix it up a bit I thought I would race an RSR in the final ten lap race. I chose my favourite of the two - the 2014. It is fully cash upgraded, no gold:
Before racing I was not expecting a win, especially with the top speed differences. The LMPs will kill me on the straights but would I have an advantage on the Esses?
Start of the race I went with my usual setup for an LMP:
Chase view, low brake, no other assists. Auto accelerate, manual brake.
I managed to get up to 7th by the first straight by keeping out of trouble and then had some fortune in that a couple of cars ahead of me collided.
By lap two I had smashed the Esses and took another car, now into 6th!
This, however did not last. I lost places down to 11th over the next couple of laps.
From laps 4 to 9 I was involved in a chase with JKR (who was in an Au
di LMP). Unfortunately I didn't get a screenshot but was trying to drive carefully!
The whole race I was racing solidly, with only 4 minor offs (never all 4 wheels) and consistent times.
JKR and I exhanged places every lap which I was surprised with. I had to be careful approaching Indianapolis every time to make sure he didn't clip me. We went from me being 200 yards ahead to him about 100 yards ahead during a lap. After 5 laps he eventually was too far ahead to catch. There was one last surprise - I lapped another RSR!
So a great battle and fun race and my results are here.
For a comparison this morning I ran the same race with my Porsche 919. I forgot to turn off the traciton control though after trying the Daytona challenge this morning. Still a good comparison - see last screenshot.