Like most people, our trips to the 24 feature a mixture of die hard fans and people just going for the laugh. We did our first trip in 2011, and to be honest for most of the race we didn't manage to follow the race that well. As a result, for a lot of the race we were just watching sweet cars go past, rather than watching sweet cars race.
Last year, we came up with a new shout:
Before the race, each team member picks 1 car in each category to support. Most were picked based on a combination of which car looked cool, or it's nationality, or the form in the CAguide. This meant that between the 5 of us, we could pretty much keep track of all of the class battles over 24 hours - which massively increased the involvement for the guys who are more casual supporters, and also reduced the pressure on the 2 of us who follow it more regularly. After all, if you're watching a car, you know the cars ahead and behind, and often their pistop strategy - 4-5 people can cover the whole race..
This year, we've also created a gambling / drinking game combo that so far looks to be a winner:
So, team puts in money for the event. The idea is that the winner takes all of the prize pot for each class - LMP1, LMP2, GTE Pro, GTE Am. If the monies split unevenly, then favor LMP1, then GTE Pro, then LMP2, then GTE Am.
Draw a grid with each team member having a row - columns are LMP1, LMP2, GTE Pro, GTE Am.
Next, draw up a karting heats style pick order (1) so that everyone has a first pick, a last pick, and 2 in the middle. There are thingies on the net that can do this, but if the idea takes off I can easily make crib sheets for teams sized 2 - 10 and chuck em up here.
Take turns based on straws in (1) to pick a car. For example player 1 might pick a GTE Am first (if they really like the 98 Aston), player 2 might pick a P1 Porsche, player 3 another etc etc. No duplicates This gives the guys who pick last in the straw poll a chance to get heir first pick in another category - we all know people gravitate to P1 / overall win - so the guy that picks last probably gets his first choice in another category..
Overall - the money game - whoever picks the winning car in each category gets that portion of the sweepstake. Pretty simple.
Next, the drinking game.. Over the full race, you have to keep track of your car. At each 2 hour time check, the following rules apply:
1 No-one likes a showoff. Whoever's car is leading their class at each 3 hour mark has to neck a warm french lager.
2 If you're winning multiple categories, then you can either chain pissy lager, or upgrade to 8.6 / Eau du Vie as required.
3 No-one likes a loser. If your car retires, take a punishment beer.
4 No skiving. If your car is in the pits, take a punishment beer.
An example of the draw order sheet for a 7 man team:
http://thumbsnap.com/s/Tb3CKx5u.png[/img]|http://thumbsnap.com/Tb3CKx5u]
|http://thumbsnap.com/Tb3CKx5uThis idea might of course fall flat - but certainly for us we wished we'd thought of it sooner. Every year we go back, we have more fun - and a lot of it is based on getting the guys who haven't been before /aren't as bothered more engaged with endurance racing and LM in general.
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