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What worked
- Guys putting pleasure before competition.
- The whole concept of a true endurance race.
- Teams created by the organizers to get teams of equal performance (or almost).
- Supplied cars of equal performance (or almost).
- Two tire compounds to choose from (that would be non applicable on a smooth track but was something to think about on our abrasive tracks... urethane were better but self-destructed faster).
- Letting each team choose its own driving/sleeping strategy, as long as every driver had driven the same number of minutes at the end of the day (not necessarily on every individual lane).
- A good spreadsheet to keep track of results during the race and also to keep track of driver changes.
- No track calls unless absolutely necessary and swift changes between heats, the schedule was followed all the way.
- Of course, food and drinks (including coffee!) available at all times in another room (if this room has a live retransmission of the race and a leaderboard as well, it's even better).
- A change of clothes and deodorant for everyone. A/C would have been nice at times.
- Spare cars ready to go, with some spare parts (crown gears, braids, etc.).

Lessons learned
- Marshall duties have to be enforced (at least one marshall must be provided by each team at all times).
- Teams of 4 drivers would have been better than teams of 3 drivers.
- For a true endurance event, there has to be the same number of teams as there are lanes (we were supposed to have 4 teams of 4 drivers each but we had to adjust (again!) at the last minute).
- We had sleeping rooms but they were too close to the track rooms and it was difficult to sleep (at least for me).
- Cars have to be durable, not just great to drive. Slot.It Porsches guide posts let us down in that department. SCX NASCARs were great when called to the rescue (as we had learned during the 12-hour race we did in the Spring).

Of course, having only one track to host the entire event is even more realistic and also eliminates the hassle of moving people and things between tracks in the middle of the event. For NEC 13, having two tracks would have been great. For a 18-hour endurance race, it was not ideal, even if the two-track format can be challenging and can bring some more strategy into the race. But Georges and I both wanted to host a part of the event (it was also easier to «sell» to our life partners!) this way.

For now, I really can't think of anything else. I'm sure my colleagues will chime in with their ideas.

Christian

I was thinking about the cost incurred to provide 8 or was it 10 Slot.its and at least 3 pr of tires for each, is there a car that could be used that is less expensive yet durable and you could possibly purchase a few more spares?

Again, SCX is the answer. Cars don't come cheaper (at least here in Canada), they're durable (we proved it at least twice since the beginning of the year) and it's possible to buy some spares. And the quality of SCX cars is always on the rise, now competing with the best out there.

When we did the 12-hour race in the Spring, we had 9 or 10 SCX NASCARs just in case. We had to replace only one of the original cars maybe 90 minutes from the end of the race (motor was slowing down). And the 4 cars that we used on Georges' track this past weekend were still perfectly fine after 9 whole hours on the track, running non-stop (and hard!). And I think one or two of those cars were used in the 12-hour race!!

Whoops, you just answered most of my questions. Did Select buy all the Slot.its or were they donated or subsidised? That's probably $40/car X 10, plus $5/pr of tires X 3 X 5 teams!! That's a good chunk of change.

The cars were bought mainly by Georges. We will get to keep them for our future races but it was a good chunk of change, as you say. We'll see about using them again for NEC 13 (take 2), after we reinforce the guide posts even more this time.

SCX helped by sponsoring the t-shirts and also gave some nice prizes for the drawing and the Défi Rallye SCX. And before the transformation to the endurance format, they had also agreed to participate financially for the refreshments and food. But because of the low turnout, I didn't follow through on this part of the "deal" with Dave.

Christian