Driver Journal - #12 Rum Bum Racing Porsche

Huge news in the racing world. Rum Bum have entered the IMSA Porsche Cup sponsored by Realistic Racing. And instead of a real driver, they've hired a hack known as Hellisan to drive their car for them. That's the bad news. The good news is they have re-done the paint in an incredible all-black design that will surely catch the eye of racing fans and sell even more merchandise than ever before.

Team manager John Dangle noted he wasn't necessarily happy with the choice of driver.

"I am not on board," he stated curtly. Pressed for more, Dangle offered: "He hasn't raced in over a year. What do you want me to say? I think it was nepotism or something. I'm going to support him wherever I can but this is not a good call."

Hellisan, for one, is optimistic about his chances but says that early in the season the goal is consistency.

"Goal one is to not hit people. Goal two is to not hit people. And finally, goal 3 is to not collide with other cars.

"Aside from that, everything will be gravy. See you week one at Sebring."

The following info is provided by the Forza 4 official website:
Central Florida’s Sebring International Raceway hasn’t always been one of the premier endurance racing venues in the world—originally it was Hendricks Field, where young pilots learned to fly the B-17 Flying Fortress. A few years after the war, the first race was held at the old airfield, and soon after Sebring hosted the first event it would become world-famous for: the 12 Hours of Sebring, a demanding endurance race inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans. One of the reasons the race is considered so difficult is that part of the original concrete-slab runway—bumps, seams, and all—provides a brutish racing surface at Sunset Bend, a high-speed, large radius turn in between the Ullman Straight and the front straight where your suspension tuning will be severely tested. In its original configuration, it did not take long for Sebring to become the American venue of choice for European manufacturers to show off their latest creations—a tradition that continues to the present day, as top-flight prototype constructors like Audi and Peugeot often duel at Sebring to test their cars’ mettle before competing at Le Mans. However, Sebring has also been the scene for home-grown competitors to triumph; in 1953, an all-American Cunningham C4R took the checkered flag to become the first American car to win a WSC race—as a tribute, the corner after the Fangio straight is referred to as Cunningham. Another American victory occurred in 1966, when Shelby’s modifications to an experimental GT40 variant bested the stiff competition from Ferrari’s wickedly fast 330 P3, a preview of the 1-2-3 finish for GT40s later that year at Le Mans. Significant revisions in the late 1980s have allowed Sebring to be used year-round, separated from the airport that is adjacent to the course. The combinations of long straights, tight technical corners, and wide passing spots make racing challenging and exciting, as does the rough surface.


Practice and Tuning Notes

Sebring is one of the toughest tracks to tune for and also to drive. Coming off a long break, we started out in the 2:06 to low 2:07 range and after a few setup changes ran a mid 2:04 in practice. however, we weren't able to replicate that form for another few days as it seemed to be a one-off. Several tunes later we re-entered the 2:04 range but we feel as though we'd be happy with mid 2:05's in the race.

Race 1 Results and Notes (10 lap opener, order of qualifying)

Starting second in the field based on qualifying results, ran in second right through the race. Held up FMS Zilla quite a bit as we were "all over the shop" through the first 4-5 laps. Then started to get into at least a decent groove to cement second place finish behind Raceboy77.

Order of finish (best lap) Raceboy77 2:04.277 / Hellisan 2:05.073 / FMS Zilla 2:04.895 / dvsSublime 2:05.727 / luongo27 2:05.593 / Sniper919 2:06.129 / DelZaster 2:06.281 / s0ul harv3st 2:07.022


Keeping it together early in Race 1

Main Event - Race 2 Results and Notes (20 lap opener, reverse order of Race 1 Finish)

Started second to last. On the first corner two cars went wide, allowing our car and the #790 Momo (Raceboy77) to 5th and 6th place. On the second corner the #44 Patron clipped the nose of the #180 Castrol just so slightly, slowing down the front four cars slightly more than normal and the only way to go was wide. This allowed the freaking Momo car to slip through a little easier than initially intended. Kudos to FMS Zilla who avoided our car after we dodged the pack.

The Patron, driven by s0ul Harv3st, went wide heading toward the bridge after the first combination and wisely slowed in the grass, saving the field a gigantic pileup in my estimation as the bridge leaves no shoulder room off the track - a heady racing maneuver for sure. Luongo ran wide in the sweeping last corner and that allowed us to pull by momentarily, although we had to give the position back due to repeated struggles in that second lap.

Driving 5th place heading into the 3rd lap with a very tight pack up ahead, some racer's intuition kicked in after a year away that told us to stay the hell back for at least another lap, and we held up significantly heading into the hairpin. three drivers collided, two significantly, with Sublime getting the worst of it when Luongo overran the corner. We benefitted the most of any car as we were in position to pass three cars on the inside and pulled into third behind Del and RacerBoy. After Racerboy got by Del, we expected a multi-lap battle for a pass, but Del pitted early, robbing us of the only intrigue that might have been had at that point. It was a hot-lap to the finish behind Racerboy, with the thought in mind that after our lap 10 pit we needed to come out ahead of Del. We barely did that, and thus landed our 2nd place finish.

Order of finish (best lap) Raceboy77 2:04.129 / Hellisan 2:04.825 / Sniper 2:05.981 / DelZaster 2:05.939 / FMS Zilla 2:06.391 / luongo27 2:06.529 / s0ul harv3st 2:06.206 / THF dvsSublime 2:06.529


Taking advantage of a collision in Lap 3

Key Moment of the Race

Please forgive Hellisan for the deliberate mistake, it was written in the wee small hours this morning.

Dearchelseanut wrote:Please forgive Hellisan for the deliberate mistake, it was written in the wee small hours this morning.

I'm sure I don't know what you mean.

Thanks mate. I like this feature it's great

Great journal mate and congrats on your 2 2nd places sorry I robbed us of a battle but I didn't feel I was safe enough to deal with you in a battle last night as the car felt a little looser than it had before not the cars fault at all it was mine due to lack of running laps beforehand. In the first race to start with I couldn't below 2:07 for a few laps I don't think. This is not something that will happen next week sir LOL.

Whos rockin the my momo paint lol

LOL Raceboy

ok cool, hes quick I approve lol

LMAO I was gonna say if you can catch you can complain LMAO

Nice write up Hellisan! Nice racing.

DelZaster wrote:LMAO I was gonna say if you can catch you can complain LMAO

Its like I'm in that room when I'm not lol You see my sig lol

Great read Hellisan, looking forward to next week's!

And dome worry Cal, when it comes to the paint, you got the edge haha

you trying to confuse me I thought it looked a little like Silverstone LMAO

Kayotic Cal wrote:Whos rockin the my momo paint lol

that's hilarious, i got it from metal c6r lol. my bad dude.

raceboy77 wrote:

Kayotic Cal wrote:Whos rockin the my momo paint lol

that's hilarious, i got it from metal c6r lol. my bad dude.

No worries man, its not like I'm using mine for this series.

Nice job Helli. I new I almost got tangled with sublime in the hairpin accident but damn that was close. (I was the car in the rear view mirror).

sniper919 wrote:Nice job Helli. I new I almost got tangled with sublime in the hairpin accident but damn that was close. (I was the car in the rear view mirror).

Nice move by you. I was very impressed with the driving overall. I wanna see if I can track down and pass Zilla because I don't think so. I need to make sure he doesn't get in front of me, lmao

The old Helli's on the way back by the sound of it LOL.

your like a dawg with a bone syr

sniper919 wrote:Nice job Helli. I new I almost got tangled with sublime in the hairpin accident but damn that was close. (I was the car in the rear view mirror).

i got by sublime and i was worried going into the harpin in case he broke a tiny bit late lol and he did and i was hoping for no damage from the little bump and i was lucky enough not to get any!

raceboy77 wrote:

sniper919 wrote:Nice job Helli. I new I almost got tangled with sublime in the hairpin accident but damn that was close. (I was the car in the rear view mirror).

i got by sublime and i was worried going into the harpin in case he broke a tiny bit late lol and he did and i was hoping for no damage from the little bump and i was lucky enough not to get any!

Oh I would have thought you would get a little damage for sure from that tap. I think if Sublime hadn't hit you first, thus slowing him up a bit, then the hit he received from Luongo wouldn't have been as hard. I was worried you did that 1:04.1xx with bad damage to the car, lmao. I think I have a bad habit of downshifting and breaking loose coming into the tough turns, that is what is really slowing me down compared to an elite driver such as yourself, I need to practice and get good at downshifting differently based on the corner. Was that ever an issue for you? How did you learn that aspect of it? Any advice would be helpful.

i honestly don't check up on what i'm doing very often. i know this car does looooooveee to slide out under braking though and when you let off the gas...sometimes i just pump the gas a little to keep it in check or just try and brake as straight as possible.

The following info is provided by the Forza 4 official website:
Built in 1958 on the west coast of Florida, Sunset Peninsula Raceway is not as well-known as the newer tracks it has inspired but it still retains a large and loyal fanbase. The track and its various circuit layouts make for a comprehensive test of driver skill, setup acumen, and automotive power. All-out horsepower is tested to its max at Sunset Peninsula’s 2.44-mile tri-oval, while the 2.78-mile full circuit combines the oval with the extremely technical (and utterly flat) infield sections, where the even slight mistakes in driver judgment can end your race.


Practice and Tuning Notes

We didn't have a great week of preparation. We missed some tricks to getting fast laps and showed our lack of knowledge of the track. Just because you hate a track doesn't give you an excuse not to at least know everything you can about it. We had to really work hard just to get in lobby 1, and once there, we didn't think it would go very well.

As far as tuning goes, we threw our hands in the air several times, but kept coming back to it. We finalized a good, safe tune five minutes before the race that eventually got a 1:28.1xx on a bad lap in hot lap after the race.... But couldn't drive that fast in either race due to damage and bad driving.

Race 1 Results and Notes (15 lap opener, order of qualifying)

Starting 8th, we took advantage of a few errors early in the race to move up a couple of spots. On Lap 4 I made an unfortunate error in judgement as I went off the track and after letting sniper by knew I had a hole... Then hesitated, then went anyway. This totally screwed Luongo and Vdub who were behind me. Luongo hit the brakes as hard as he could to avoid me, and Vdub hit him in the back, all my fault. I will always stay off the track as long as is necessary without being stupid, and in this case it was an error in judgement not a purposeful "save my position" type of thing. Sorry about that guys. Racing with Sniper and Rowdy throughout most of the race, I managed to pass those two on the back straight after Rowdy went a little wide and Sniper broke late into the hairpin at the end of the back straight. I then made another pass later and was attempting to cruise home in second place. After two laps of pure silence Sniper had to speak up to communicate with Rowdy and is scared the bejesus out of me. Piihb, who was running a great race with a damaged car, made a brave passing maneuver to get by and take that second, with our car landing 3rd for the race. A happy result given our starting psot.

Main Event - Race 2 Results and Notes (30 lap, reverse order of Race 1 Finish)

Started eight and was feeling good about things based on race one. However, I made a horrible mistake into the infield hairpin, hitting Zilla with what seemed like a tapper, but gave me about 50% aero damage. I don't know if it hurt Zilla, didn't look like it in the replay. however, our speed as well as turn-in were gone, and that was the race. We received a series of lucky breaks to finish 6th, such as two drivers totaling their cars and another lagging out, and Boostbeef making a mistake late in the race to let us by. Not bloody impressive. We will take it though. This week was all about survival in the points standings.

Congrats to Vdub for the race win, and Sniper for a fantastic result in 2nd.

Order of finish (best lap) VDub 1:28.157 / Sniper 1:28.833 / Luongo 1:28.474 / Rowdy 1:28.694 / DR PIIHB 1:28.873 / Hellisan 1:29.084 / Boostbeef 1:29.084 / Raceboy77 1:30.811 / RoscoepCOTRAIN 1:29.864 / FMS Zilla DNF (Lagout)

Good read helli, racing was pretty competitive. I'm really looking forward to Nurburgring GP.

Really cool journal Helli awesome that you even get the fastest laps etc etc.

Very impressive sir