P24 in Le Mans Endurance Debut
The MAD Sim Racing Endurance Team made its debut, as road racing and the historic French circuit took over the team, and iRacing, all week last week. The team's first effort at a 24 hour endurance race has been planned for months, with contributions from every team member leading to an exciting Le Mans weekend on June 20-21.
The #92 Power Headset BMW M8 GTE experienced any problem imaginable over the course of 24 hours. Driver Tyler Beamon drove an opening triple stint, marred by drama immediately as last minute car setup problems led to a huge lack of wing in the car, causing the high speed corners of Le Mans such as the Porsche Curves and Terte Rouge to be near impossible to take at speed. The driver scrambled to make any in-car adjustment in the early minutes, and the team in the virtual paddock took to researching options, ultimately finding that per iRacing regulation once the race was underway, there were none. There was a fairly clean transition of drivers from Tyler Beamon, to Bradley Beamon, to Rob Gregoire, who led the BMW to its highest running position of P14. Mike Martino took over from Gregoire, and while adjusting to the extremely difficult setup through the Porsche Curves, an impatient Porsche running in 30th position to the team's 14/15th position, made hard contact with the MAD car, shoving it into the concrete wall before the pit entrance, and forcing up to 20 minutes in the garage. The car returned to the race severely under power, and short hours later the engine would fail for Bradley Beamon. After a 40 minute full engine replacement, the car was handed off to Australian driver Jimmy Thomas, who pulled some of the fastest laps of the day with a return to full power. Overnight in North America, Tyler Beamon remained awake to assist Thomas, while Gregoire, Martino, and B. Beamon slept for the final rounds. Mike Martino drove his triple stint at 5am EST, and handed the car off to MAD Sim Racing full-time driver Rob Gregoire to close out the event, finishing the full 24 hours in P24.
