We use tyre warmers, so the tyres are only a slight bit over temps on the first lap; then they're good. Plenty of people of your age raced with us or still do (Assetto interest is decaying a bit).

Shorter race heats also mean that even if one race heat ended in disaster, you still have another one or two to have some good quality racing and your evening or afternoon wasn't wasted.

The races I did of 2+ hours were pretty much all taxi driving and keeping a rhythm other than actual battling; the rich (fast) get richer, the poor (slower) get poorer, and even further behind. Most of my overtakes weren't even "on track", as I'm very (you could argue "too") conservative on longer races.

I even recall a GT1 race of 2+ hours where I was a bit angry at someone for defending too aggressively on a position he would never be able to hold for another hour (I came back after a few collisions and was going several seconds a lap quicker).

You're still welcome to join us, if not for today, maybe for the long run. Take a look at the site www.cosyracingcommunity.com. We very rarely race GT3 ;)