The F3A Gold series made its way to Imola for the penultimate round to the series, and Julian & Sam were fast from the outset and keeping it clean to take an excellent 1-2 finish. Julian now has a very strong championship lead with Sam shadowing 2nd place heading into the final round at Okayama next week.
The iRacing All-Star Invitational moved onto Barcelona for Round 2, with Luis Núñez returning after a positive opening round. Beau Albert was also making his debut in the series after a technical issue ruled him out of Round 1.
Beau and Luis made the change to Subaru for this round, with neither having spent a great deal of time with the car, however were able to learn a lot and put together a solid showing. Luis won his heat race with a race long battle with Kevin Ellis Jr from Apex Racing Team. The feature was a tougher one, with the opening lap melee catching Luis out a few times leaving him to settle for a 7th place finish.
For Beau it was a tough day at the office after qualifying, and leaving him in the dangerous mid pack which claimed a number of casualties. Nevertheless, we’ll fight on and bring on Round 3!
Coming off a disappointing round at Sebring and a return to action for Jordan Caruso, we were aiming a strong return at Oran Park with our trio of racers.
It got off to an excellent start with Jordan taking Pole Position for Race 1 and James starting P3 however a mistake for Jordan at T3 would open the door to Trans Tasman Racing‘s Madison Down who put on a strong run to take the win, with Jordan and James rounding out the podium and a very strong Race 1. Zac also qualified and finished inside the Top 20 which also was a great result.
In the longer feature race Jordan would take his third pole position of the season, with James close by in 4th place. The error from race 1 did not return and Jordan pieced together a faultless drive, taking the victory with a clear margin back to Hamstead behind. James would come home in 5th place with his strongest round since the season opener, and Zac 16th place finish would also provide his strongest round of the season.
With another round win in the bag, attention now turns to the next round at Road Atlanta on May 16th.
Friday Nights has turned into a racing extravaganza for the team, with the F3A Gold series running as well as the AOSC V8 Series as well (more on that later).
The emergence of the dynamic duo of Sam Blacklock and Julian Dunne has been stellar, regularly up the front and having a great battle with those contesting the series. The pair have each had their time on top of the podium, most recently with Blacklock taking the top step at Oulton Park, with Dunne coming home third for a double podium finish.
Sam now sits atop the standings in P1 with Julian close behind in P2. The nearest challenge comes from DBM x SE driver Kobi Williams who has had a great season to date also.
Roll on Round 8!
Anyone who says the Green Hell is tame is lying! We took our Audi R8 LMS to the fight in what is one of the most gruelling races in the world, and with sterling efforts from Cooper Webster, Beau Albert and Yannick Lapchin, we ended up classified in 7th place.
There were a number of dramas along the way as is often the case in these long races, however we are proud to have contested this race in what is our first end of race classification of note, after bowing out early in 2019. Plenty learned, and we look forward to racing on next time out!
Congratulations to Team Redline on the race win.
The eNASCAR Road to Pro Series moved to Talladega Superspeedway and our team had put together a very solid strategy to bring the Tour de France to Talladega with our six top split drivers. In what is usually a green flag fuel saver, we opted to pit our whole team early and go full tilt to the finish.
It was looking like the big brain move of the season with all our cars leading the pack with both a fuel and tyre advantage however it fell to nothing, when a bad caution came out neutralising the field. We had track position, however it became much more of a lottery than we would have liked.
It was a bruising finish, with bent fenders and a struggle to the line however we ended up with two cars in the Top 10 from Merch and Braden, Cosey picking up 12th in his first Top Split RTP race ahead of Ruckman, with Danson and Lopez hit hard with drama at the end and finishing down the order. Christian ran solo in split 2 and came home a solid 11th.
The talk of the event however was the Logitech G Altus Choo Choo Train. What a sight it was!
We sure love seeing our drivers turn a wheel in the real world, and so far it has been a great start to the racing year highlighted with:
Oscar Piastri winning his first ever FIA Formula 2 race
Cooper Webster winning his first ever S5000 race
Jak Crawford finished P3 in FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing
Tim Ryan heat race winner in SAWA Sprintcar Series
Keep it up fellas!
A very solid night in Road to Pro from all six of our drivers competing.
It was one that felt like it got away though with both Jordy and Merch in the top 3 before a costly mistake each dropped them back.
The Top 70 standings aren’t looking too shabby either. Lets keep pushing
Luke McKeown did an excellent job, by taking Pole Position in the opening round of the Creventic Endurance Series by VCO at Spa. Teammate Michael Neumeier got us off to an excellent start, and throughout the race we had an excellent tussle with Williams Esports for the majority of the race, with the two teams on their own out front and separated by no more than 6 seconds.
However with the ending in sight and less than two hours to go, disaster struck as a Porsche GT4 turned McKeown around at the bus stop, with a following GT4 piling straight into our stricken Lamborghini. The damage would be terminal and after an awesome race it was officially game over. Devastating stuff.
Nevertheless, it was an awesome display by Luke and Michael who showed a lot of what they can achieve. Our eyes have already turned to the next race.
Ahead of the Sim Grid x VCO World Cup, we are working behind the scenes with the defending champions GTWR team.
With our venture into one of Assetto Corsa Competizione’s most prestigious series we wanted to give ourselves the best chance to hit the ground running in what will be a massive challenge for us.
Led by Team Manager Giorgio Simonini, the GTWR team are at the pinnacle of competitive Assetto Corsa Competizione racing winning many championships and major races. This was highlighted again in last night’s qualifying by locking out the first three positions all in different cars, ahead of a world class field.
We are delighted to kick off this collaboration with GTWR, and to date their support has been immense. We are also delighted to have GTWR driver Walter Rotundo join our roster for this series in the #43 Altus Esports Bentley, joining Simone Maria Marcenò, Zachary Hanlin and Kenny Conomos.
Tomorrow is Round 1 – the Bathurst 12 Hour. It’s sure to be a great race!