Doodleco Takes Podium in Debut Race

First of all, Doodleco Motorsports would like to apologise for this very late review of the 1000km of Camino. Technical difficulties have prevented us from writing up a report before now. Better late than never though right?

Doodleco Motorsports made its debut appearance at the twisty mountain circuit of Camino in Spain as part of the 1000km V8 Supercars race, alongside the Clean Racers Association which provided Doodleco with a second driver for the weekend.

The first half of the race driven by Carl Ridge (FOOKPIG). Carl had to fight hard to stay in the fight but kept it together to complete his stint in 4th position. At the midway point Carl brought the car into the pits for a driver change, handing over to Steve Garfoot (Tango Wh1skey).

The leaders were starting to pull away from the Doodleco car at this point and so it became a battle to catch CRA Shell V-Power driver, Losing Shark. Losing Shark had a comfortable lead of around 8 miles however Shark was appeared to be having trouble and was driving about 5-10 sec/lap slower than Garfoot.

With just over an hour remaining in the race, the CRA Shell V-Power Ford was in sight but still a lap ahead. It was crucial to make the pass back onto the same lap quickly to remain within reach of a podium. As Garfoot got close it became clear that Shark was not going to leave a space and was blocking every attempt to pass. A few laps into the battle Garfoot got a great run out of Tag Heuer corner and went up the inside of Shark into the Stadium, clipping the grass on the apex to avoid a collision. Doodleco Motorsports was now within a lap of a podium but less than a lap later disaster struck as Steve lost control through The Chase and ran wide onto the grass giving back the position once again.

The fight kicked off for round two. Shark was defending hard while Garfoot took every possible chance to try and force the Ford into an error. More laps drifted away but a potential opportunity was developing. Watching Shark's line, it was noted that he always entered Spoon Bend early and drifted wide for the exit. As the two cars went into Spoon Bend, Garfoot kept out wide and threw the car into the corner to take the position on the inside but as Shark moved back left to take the next corner both cars were side by side. Contact was made, causing bodywork damage to both cars. Shark lost control and spun while Garfoot managed to slide out of the corner and carry on.

With 30mins wasted during the battle with Losing Shark, red mist set in and the Doodleco Motorsports team was praying for a miricle. Someone was listening to those prayers and in the closing stages of the race the leader retired with technical issues, promoting Doodleco into 3rd. As the new leader, Morphader, started his final lap, Losing Shark was less than half a mile ahead but time had run out.

Doodleco Motorsports went into the Camino 1000km with hopes of impressing but never expected to grab a podium position. This was a great race and we want to thank all who were involved.

"This race has given us a true taste of online racing and we know that we are not going to be challenging for wins just yet but there is hope. I believe this race is the start of something which could develop and eventually, the results will be there to support us. The team will now go back to HQ in the UK and look towards 2013 options, perhaps a full championship entry? Anything could happen!"

- S. Garfoot, Doodleco Motorsports, Team Manager/ Driver

Camino 1000km - Race Preparation

The 1000km of Camino Extreme starts at 10am this Saturday and Doodleco Motorsports has been working away to prep a car for the team's first race.

Two drivers are to be used, team manager Steve Garfoot (TangoWh1skey) and CRA driver Carl Ridge (FOOKPIG).



The car of choice is the Holden Commodore V8 Supercar.

The race weekend starts tonight, with the first qualification round. FOOKPIG has been nominated to qualify and will also be driving for the first half of the race. At the second stop, there will be a full service with driver change to allow Tango Wh1skey to complete the race.

Looking at the other cars in the field, the team knows that it is going to be a challenge but 1000km is a longs way. Realistically, we're aiming for a top five finish. A podium would be fantastic but our goal is to finish.

TORA Camino 1000km

Doodleco Motorsport has become partners with the CRA car club. With such a useful link in place, the team has put in a provisional entry to the Camino 1000km race at the end of October.

The race is to consist of V8 Supercars. Doodleco is now busy prepping a car for the event, paying special attention to the livery as well as driver performance as this will be the first time Doodleco will race under its own name, therefore initial impressions will be vital to the reputation of the team.

It is estimated that the race will take over 6hrs so a two driver team will need to be put forward.

More details to follow soon.

Partnership Discussions

Doodleco Motorsports has initiated talks today which may lead to the expansion of the team. After creating a close connection with TORA team CRA over the past week, it is hoped that Doodleco Motorsports will be able to link with CRA to create, CRA Doodleco Motorsports.

The team made the decision to pursue this move to try and bring in the experience, ability and general knowledge that CRA currently holds.

Post Race Report - TORA Britcar 24hrs

This weekend was the first time a driver from Doodleco Motorsport has competed in a professional online race. Normally a new driver would be start off in the little leagues with short sprint races in club class cars but Tango Wh1skey (Gamer Tag) was given the chance to jump straight in with Team CRA Shell V-Power as they raced for 24hrs at Silverstone, the annual TORA Britcar 24hrs.

Team CRA Shell V-Power (left) lapping the CRA Red Bull car (right).

Q. How did the race go overall?
A. Generally it went pretty well. We sent our fastest driver out first who had a good scrap with the LMR Porsche but it became clear later on that we wouldn't be in the running for a win. As chance would have it a couple of cars dropped out, including the LMR Porsche which promoted us up the field a bit more but I would say our strength came from the fact that we had issues at all, allowing us to keep racking up the miles.



Q. Tell us about your stints in the car.
A. I was in the car twice during the race, the first stint being from 6pm to 10pm and the second from 10am to 12noon on the Sunday. As soon as I went out on track I found out how good the other drivers were, putting a considerable distance between them and me. After the first 10mins I found a rhythm that suited me and apart from when I encountered traffic from the clubman class I generally kept it steady. As night settled in I found a few difficulties which are common to endurance racing. At around 9.15pm I made a mistake at Stow which probably cost me around 15 or 20 seconds. Coming into the corner I lost focus and completely missed the braking point sending me straight on. A little later on the similar problem at Maggots when I simply forgot to brake, probably not a good idea when you look back at it! Apart from that the race of my race went well, slow but smooth.

Q. What are your thoughts about the result?
A. We finished 7th overall, probably could’ve had 6th but we were taken with a couple of hours to go, unfortunately during my final stint. I haven’t yet had a proper chat with the team but I’m pretty pleased by our performance.

Q. What about the other CRA cars?
A. We were running three cars this weekend, one in each class. I was driving the CRA Shell V-Power Jaguar XKR-GT in the TGT class. The PGT car was the CRA Koyo team, running in the Porsche Cayman. The Cayman managed to scramble 6th in class after a problem in the early stages forced them to lose the best part of 1hr 40mins. Our third car was the Ford Sierra, running in the Clubman class. Perhaps our best performance over the weekend with no issues and plenty of pace, the CRA Red Bull guys finished on the class podium in 3rd.

Q. Anything else?
A. That’s probably about it, I thoroughly enjoyed the race and pass on my congratulations to the overall winners at F4H as well as all those involved. Also a big thanks to those who made the event possible; TORA Staff, lobby hosts, commentators and of course CRA for giving me this opportunity.

Q. With the race over, what happens next?
A. Well the race finished around 20hrs ago, my arms are recovering so I guess it’s time to focus on the next race. Doodleco Motorsports will be looking at preparing an entry for the Nurburgring 8hrs in December so we better get to work!

TORA

Whilst further driver training has put Le Mans on hold, Doodleco Motorsports has become an official member of The Online Racing Association (TORA). Although the team is yet to enter a race, it is exporling options to prepare for the TORA Endurance championship in 2013. While the team starts working on a car, one of our drivers will be given the chance to join another team this weekend for the Britcar 24hrs at Silverstone. CRA Shell V-Power, who will be competing in a Jaguar XKR-GT, has put forward the offer of a seat after a problem occured causing one of their drivers to drop out for this race. Doodleco Motorsports is very excited about this turn of events as it will help build up future contacts as well as provide a great deal of experience which will go a long way to putting together a plan for the 2013 season. The TORA Britcar 24hrs will start at 1400 on Saturday 15th of September.

Break Time is Over

Well, summer is drawing to a close and so it's time to get back to work. Over the holiday the team has been looking at a few possible directions to go down in the future. Potentially, the most interesting event that Doodleco has investigated is the annual 24hrs of Le Mans held on a Local Area Network (LAN) in Denmark. This race has seen a lot of interest as it simulates the full race and all of it's thrills including multi class online racing, live timing, race control, safety cars and a trophy at the end. Ultimatly, this is a key goal for the team and the single player version that we are currently working on is a taster of such action. At the same time, Doodleco is looking to expand into other racing series and we believe that this will be made possible on Forza 4 with the help of The Online Racing Association (TORA). TORA is an organising body for a number of online championships and special events such as MSA GT Championship, Touring Cars, Le Mans (featuring the 24hrs of Le Mans and the 12hrs of Sebring) and coming soon is the Britcar 24hrs at Silverstone. Both of these options will be a huge challenge as we are aware of the time and effort many current drivers have already put in. With this in mind, the team will start planning for such competition and is due to make a formal entry into one of these TORA events over the course of next year.

New Equipment and a Downgraded Car

After multiple team meetings there have been a number of interesting developments.

Firstly, the team will be using a brand new PC which should have the graphics power and memory to cope with 24hrs of racing. This also gives us the ability to use a larger TV screen which can be positioned directly in front of the driver.

Another decision, and one which may puzzle a lot of people. After putting in laps of 3min 30sec, the team has elected to try and reduce the performance of the car. This decision has been made following a practise session in which the Doodleco LMP2 Lola was beating LMP1 cars and with some setup work we wouldn't be far off from finishing on the overall podium.

For a real team, this would be a dream come true however it was discovered that the car being used by Doodleco is in fact set to LMP1 specification. This supports our decision to scrap the current data and start fresh by decreasing the performance of the car. The goal is to achieve a fastest lap no faster than 3:35, a time which is still too quick for an LMP2 but much better than potentially lapping 3:25 and winning the race.

Discussions on this topic bounced back and forth with a variety of ideas. The first was to leave the car alone and upgrade the team to LMP1, allowing us to go for the overall win. Another idea was to reformat the race completely and run LMP1 and 2 as a single LMP class. Finally though, it was decided that we wanted to keep things realistic by driving in LMP2 and our focus is to win the class before looking at a future in LMP1.

After all this, it's time to go back to the drawing board and test track.

Post Test Statement

Two weeks ago, the team's leading driver took part in two 3 hour long practise sessions.

We started the first session at 1400 and generally it was pretty smooth. Lap times were consistently around the 3:30 area and there was only a slight mistake caused by trying to run the tyres a little longer than was planned, all things which will ironed out ready for the race.

After the session we looked at the condition of the driver and conclude that he could easily complete a fourth hour.

To simulate the conditions of Le Mans, we waited 6 hours before starting the second session at 2100. Like before, we wanted to see how the driver performed during his second driver shift. The darkness was not really an issue and for the first half of the session everything was as smooth as before. After an hour and a half the driver started to report some level of fatigue, mainly mental. Concentration slipped slightly approaching two hours and a mistake was made at the Forza Chicane after the driver missed his braking point forcing him to quickly divert through the gaps in the tyre walls covering the main road.

After the 2 hour mark, the driver was starting to feel pain in his arms and general tiredness was setting in. Another error at Mulsanne damage the front of the car and repairs were required. Finally the session was completed and it was clear that our strategy of having a 4 hour stint through the middle of the night would be out of the question, at least for now.

The plan is now to correct some of the errors that were made, improve general fitness and practise three hour shifts until they become easy. Then, perhaps we may come back to the idea of having one driver in the car from midnight to 4am.

Pit Strategy Practice

This weekend is going to be busy. The team has started discussing strategy and the big question marks lie over tyre wear and driver fatigue. Testing shows that there is the chance to triple stint a set of tyres however there are problems with the rear set so more work will need to be done.

None of the drivers have ever raced for longer than 3hrs and only one has raced in the dark for a considerable amount of time. Initial thoughts are to try and keep two of the drivers in as much daylight as possible. One driver will be in the car leading up to midnight, from there the plan is to use the most experienced driver for 4 stints.

Because this is unknown territory, a non-stop test session will be run on Saturday for 3hrs. From there the team can look at the option for a 4th hour with a single driver. This test will prove useful at gathering data for different pit strategies and hopefully give us a better insight to how long a driver can stay out on track without making a mistake.

Suspension Problems

Since we started testing we have been getting considerable vibrations and a lot of shaking, especially at high speed. The team has now been able to identify the problem as a programming glitch. This has been fixed and although there is still some vibration the driver cannot notice it.

This has been a big step forward as it enables us to use stiffer suspension settings without the car becoming unstable. As a result, the car has been lowered and speed has increased.

Next steps, fine tune the dampers and start looking at gear ratios to help boost the car's straight line speed.

Data Analysis

Team engineer has been looking over the data collect at our latest test. We're still getting a suspension problem so will have to play around a little more to smooth out the dampers.

Tire wear appears to be very low whilst our lat g-force easily exceeds 3g without any significant changes in pressure/temperature. This indeicates we have plenty of grip through the faster corners and should be able to reduce the wing angle and increase straight line speed and acceleration.

Gear ratios are poor. The car does not achieve its top revs in 6th gear which needs to be looked at. The plan is to lower the rev limit slightly and alter the lower gears to give us more time in 4th, 5th and 6th. Hopefully this will send us in the right direction.

Initial Test Results

After establishing that the only way to fix the PC problems was to use a laptop for the race, testing finally started out on track.

Over two hours was spent on suspension setup due to a major issue with the car becoming unstable over the bumpy areas of the track. This has been reduced as much as possible and the car is drivable. After putting in a few laps around 3:47 to 3:50, it was clear that the gears needed some work.

We got the car to accelerate smoother and reach a top speed of 184mph. This dropped the times down to 3:43 which is right in the middle of the other LMP2s.

Finally we did some work on the handling and tested the tires and fuel over a full race stint. From this we got our time down even further and finished the day with a best lap of 3:40.905. Tire wear is great with a hard compound and should easily keep us on track for two stints, saving valuable time in the pits. Fuel is ok but could be better, we can achieve 9 laps on a single tank but with some fine tuning we might gain an extra lap.

Overall this testing has been very helpful. We now have a base setup for the car and there is plenty to look at ready for our first full race.

Initial Testing

After a full day of testing on Saturday, the Doodleco team have made a number of steps towards the final goal of completing the full 24hrs.

First thoughts were to enter an LMP1 Audi R15 however comparing them to the Peugeot 908s we quickly realised how far off the pace we were. Trying out the Peugeot was certainly fun, but due the lack of experience from one of our drivers the decision was made to look at LMP2 cars.


After some time trying out different cars, we worked out that we were all best suited to the Lola Judd B12/80. Work then began on practicing and perfecting our laps. Unfortunately more practice is needed from the newer drivers and another test way will have to be arranged.

A great deal of information was gained during the day. The default car setup was far too slow and major changes are planned for the gear ratios, wing angles and ride height. This will increase the top speed of the car and help improve lap times.

As well as our own car, we started working on setting up the software. A list of competitors is now underway and we're hoping to have the race fully working very soon. Several problems have occured which are being looked at, mainly involving the performance of the computer. We have so far had to limit the size of the grid to 35 cars which is the minimum we want to race with. Further changes have taken things down hill though with the PC crashing at every available moment. We hope to fix this but we have a backup of everything on a laptop which works fine. This may have to be a compromise.

Overall then, things have got off to a rocky but productive start.

In the Beginning

Doodleco Motorsport News is all about enjoying motorsport. As such, the admins have created its own virtual race team. Using representations of real circuits around the world and a host of different cars the team aims to give you an insight into how we enjoy ourselves when we're not trackside.

Currently, the team is working on producing a virtual Le Mans 24hrs. This blog will update readers on team news as well as providing a general look at racing video games and gaming technology.