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This is our tribute to a great racer - Gil de Ferran sadly left us way too soon one month ago on December 29, to an outpour of tributes from the racing world on both sides of the Atlantic. Throughout his career, Gil managed to remain both liked and respected by all - a rare achievement in motorsports. During his career in America he became a favorite in an era full of favorites - humble, likeable, and yet still fiercely competitive when out on track. No-one could begrudge when the hard-earned success finally came his way with championship victories in 2000 & 2001. One of his most celebrated achievements as a driver was his closed course record at Fontana during qualifying for the 2000 500-mile race, in a performance that fully displayed his best attributes as a racing driver - incredibly precise, technically astute at setting up the car, working diligently alongside his team to get the best out of the machinery. It´s a performance from a by-gone era of motorsports - one in which drivers and teams could throw everything they could reach towards pushing the limit just a little further, The era is gone and sadly so are some of the men that made it be, but sim racing provides us a way to vividly remember them and to continue cherishing their achievements. This video reproduces that record run using the same Reynard 2Ki chassis used by de Ferran´s Penske team – a couple of warm-up laps followed by the real quick one coming close to Gil´s record-breaking mph ( km/h) lap. The video also demonstrates updated external sounds for the F-USAs, better representing the mighty V8 engines of the time which at this point were approaching 1000 HP, and which in light of Gil´s passing we felt compelled to fast-track development for - it is available with the release of AMS2 that came out just yesterday.
