Author: altusesports

The final race of the season took place at Circuit of The Americas and unfortunately it was a race to forget for the team. Simon “L8AP3X” Feigl qualified the Logitech G Ferrari in P17 and had a solid run early on running in P15 however was caught up in a racing incident with the PRT Blue car, which subsequently ruined both races. Simon continued on, and was caught up in two other incidents, one of which from being turned around just after passing a lapped runner. Things did calm down after 90 minutes and with the track temp soaring to 49.4 degrees for half the race, it was intense. Unfortunately for the incidents caused in the opening two hours left Zachary Hanlin the uneviable task of bringing home the car with very few incident points remaining. The job was mostly done, however with 5 laps to go he would be hit in the rear from another competitor, disqualifying us in the process but being classified P30 in the race.

The ASTRO Gaming Ferrari’s season had a race that close to summed up their season. Starting P22 on the grid, Marin Čolak had negotiated the opening chicane complex however with the traffic bunching up, he was unceremoniously smacked in the rear, turning him around being collected by some of the pack. He would recommence and catch the battling pack however when letting another car through, he was hit off the track before the braking area on the main straight and speared into the fence in a horrible crash.

The 2019 season has come to a close, and there’s been some highs and some lows. For the Logitech G squad of Andrew Kahl, Simone Maria Marcenò, Simon “L8AP3X” Feigl & Zachary Hanlin they finished in 9th Place in the Championship with their results being a 6th, 7th, 5th, 35th, 15th, 30th from the six races. A very solid season against the very best endurance teams in the world and will be returning to the World Championship in 2020.

For the ASTRO Gaming squad of Yannick Lapchin, Marin Čolak and Vedran Kralj, unfortunately their P35 finish in the standings means that they were unable to retain their place for the 2020 Championship and will return to qualifying. From the first round where a Top 10 was on track and they would have a disconnection, it would end up being an omen that would last with them throughout the season. Results of 24th, 20th, 41st, 21st, 42nd, 36th would sum up the season. A frustrating one, but they will return and fight back.

We’re proud to announce that we’ve entered the new NEO Endurance 24H Series Championship in the brand new TCR class.

As the reigning NEO Endurance GT Champions, we are hoping to adapt to the new Audi RS3 beast so we can once again challenge for the title on what is an exciting new ESeries in partnership with Creventic.

With this new entry, we are honoured to now have drivers competing in three major official ESeries:

– Gfinity Australia Supercars Eseries (Dayne Warren with Red Bull Holden Racing Team)

– Australian GT Online ESeries (Kenny Conomos, Nicholas Voon)

– NEO Endurance 24H Series ESeries (Drivers TBC)

iRacing Special Events is something we take pride in competing in at the team, and in the case of the Sprint Car there is only one on offer, and that is the Sprint Car Showdown at Knoxville.

2018 iRacing Sprint Car World Champion Tim Ryan would try to take this opportunity to get one back on key rival Alex Bergeron in what would go onto be a big battle in the feature race, with only one early caution. Tim would master the high line, making the move passed Bergeron’s Team ABR teammate Jason Nygard and extend his advantage nailing the high line lap after lap, ultimately taking a dominant win in the end.

For Tim, this was a bit of a redemption story and to win in this fashion is one to savour as our third iRacing Special Events win of the year as a team. It was a big weekend in racing for the team, and the good stories will keep coming.

The iRacing Virtual Racing School GT World Championship moved to Sebring for a 4 hour race running from dawn to late morning. Leading the charge was Simon “L8AP3X” Feigl and Zachary Hanlin in the Logitech G Ferrari, with both lead drivers Andrew Kahl and Simone Maria Marcenò unavailable. This duo haven’t raced together since the final round of the 2018 Championship and were up against it.

Simon did a solid job qualifying in 24th place in what was a typically very close qualifying session and got a great jump off the line gaining a few spots at the start, however would give those back when avoiding a spinning car through turn four. A few close shaves would occur in what was a frantic opening stint moving up into 18th place by the first stop.

The race would then settle down in what was an entertaining battle throughout with Apex Racing Team, Williams Esports, CoRe SimRacing and Coanda Simsport. Zac would take the car over for the final two stints and put together a very strong double stint, working the overcut fuel strategy to further move up to 15th place by the finish line.

For the ASTRO Gaming Ferrari, they went into the race with Yannick Lapchin showing a fantastic turn of speed, top 10 in practice and raring to go. The server however would have other ideas, not switching over to qualifying in an issue that affected our car, as well as two other cars. The delay in reconnecting would result in Yan not being able to set a time in qualifying and starting at the back of the field.

The racing in the mid-rear of the pack was overly aggressive, with lots of contact and cars being spun. Yan had gained several positions keeping a clean car until he entering the Le Mans sequence on lap one, a Vendaval Simracing car had been turned, leaving Yan with nowhere to go. The damage picked up was significant, and required repairs were extensive with the race ending a few laps later. A heartbreaking race for what was comfortably a top 10 car.

The championship now moves to the Circuit of The Americas in two weeks time where the Logitech G squad will try to retain their top 10 championship position with Feigl and Hanlin again at the wheel, and the ASTRO Gaming squad pushing hard for as high a position as possible to turn around a horror season into a Top 25 championship finish.

At the latter end of last week, the Gfinity Australia Supercars Eseries Draft was run, and our own Sam Blacklock was successful in qualifying through Stage 1 and making it into the three races that would determine the draft seedings for selection.

Race 1 at Lime Rock Park would prove to be quite difficult in the expert field, with Sam running in the mid pack throughout the race, ultimately finishing in 9th place.

Race 2 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca all looked to be great with Sam putting a fantastic defensive drive to contain Race 1 winner Madison Down, and come home in 3rd place, however due to a technical issue the whole race needed to be restarted. In the re-run Sam was positioned well however was taken out of the running by another car, leaving him well down the order. The sprint race format takes no prisoners and this incident would drop Sam to last placed of those still running.

Race 3 and it was a start at the back of the race. Sam was able to run a clean car and make a couple of passes however there would be heartbreak on the second lap when he was chopped up by another car while having a good run out of the Turn 5, accelerating down the long back straight. The contact would spear Sam into the fence and blow the engine in the process, ending his race and Eseries Draft campaign.

The team selection due this week, we have no expectations of Sam being selected for one of the final places left in the series. Despite our disappointment of that, Sam had a great time throughout the draft process and is looking forward to giving it a red hot go next time out.

The countdown is on until the ADAC SimRacing Expo at Nurburgring. We will be racing the ADAC Digital GT500 endurance team event in what is the biggest LAN event in iRacing with 24 of the best teams all competing head to head.

Yannick Lapchin, Simon Feigl and Alexander Adler Roth Lauritzen will be representing the team in this event.

Furthermore, the Porsche Sim Racing Trophy will also be run, which is the individual event. Marin Čolak will be representing Altus Esports having qualified very strongly inside the top 10, in the field of over 30 qualified drivers.