Today we are proud to compete in a charity race for little Anna, a girl from France who has a very rare disease. Of course a result will be nice, but more than that is that we are among other fellow competitors who are all here supporting her plight as we all aim for her health, to raise funds to support her recovery.

We’ve created a special edition livery to commemorate the event, and will race with the pink in her honour. Many thanks to Yannick Lapchin and Zachary Hanlin for steering the car for this great cause.

Please be sure to visit the website to donate

www.24hoursforanna.com

In what has been an uncharacteristically busy period where there’s been lots of racing going on, and some changes away from the track, in the midst was Round 2 of Sports Car Open.

Racing in the event was Yannick Lapchin and Tuomas Tähtelä, and having taking 2nd place in Round 1, they were looking to go one better. Yannick put the car P2 on the grid, before handing over to Tuomas for the first half of the race.

Despite missing the jump off the line, Tuomas would drop back to P4 early, however an altercation with the leading two cars meant that the leader dropped back and SIMRC who were running in P3 had to take avoiding action, and we benefitted by claiming the position back. From that point, Tuomas was able to settle into a strong rhythm, opting to stop at the same time as the leading Pure Racing Team car driven by Max Benecke.

Yannick would be handed back the car with a 15 second deficit from the lead, but a further 20 seconds back to P3. It was a tense time with the traffic affecting the whole field at various stages, and managing the traffic was very difficult to do whilst losing the least amount of time. Yan expertly managing the traffic, and despite one scary moment of miscommunication between an LMP2 car and us, Yan was able to manage the gap behind, and ever so slightly close on the leader. The gap difference was too great however, and we would find ourselves in a lonely spot, well ahead of P3 but also behind P1 by some margin.

After 2 rounds, we are sitting P2 in the championship behind leaders Pure Racing Team. The series now moves to an 8 Hour race at Sebring, where anything can happen at the bumpy circuit. We will continue to push for that P1 position, and aim to win as we exit Sunset bend.

We are proud to welcome to the team one of Australia’s best talents on iRacing, Josh Anderson. His talents within the top level of Sim Racing have been very clear to see this year, especially within the iRacing GT Endurance World Championship run this year, where he often starred and made a name of himself within the Top 10s, even taking a front row start in Imola in what was his rookie season and ultimately finishing the season in the Top 10 in the championship.

The Porsche Cup Car is a favourite of Josh’s and is a big focus for the team moving forward, and his raw talent in that car is excellent. Josh also made great strides this year in the V8 Supercar to be one of the main contenders for an Eseries seat, only to narrowly miss out through the draft. With the new cars due to touch down soon, we are all very excited to jump in and learn what we can from them so that we can compete against the very best in Supercars.

Lastly, Josh is also a real world racer currently racing in the Aussie Racing Cars series, sitting 3rd in the Championship heading into the final round at Newcastle. You can follow his racing page at Josh Anderson Racing. His real world experience and Sim Racing experience make him a valuable asset for the team.

We’re very excited to announce his arrival, as our plans for 2020 can be revealed.

Representing the Red Bull Holden Racing Team in the Gfinity Australia Supercars Eseries was our Dayne Warren, he was able to achieve a fantastic result for himself and RBHRT, by finishing the season in a very strong 3rd place in the series.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United duo of Joshua Rogers and Jarrad Filsell were too good in the end, however round to round it was regularly Dayne getting stuck into them and ruffling their feathers as best as he could.

In the end it was not enough, however knowing the challenge of who he was up against, we are very proud of his achievements and accomplishments. The ESeries is over for now, but we’re hoping for even bigger and better things in future, in what has been a very successful series for all of the drivers and Supercars.

Congratulations once again, and thank you to Red Bull Holden Racing Team, Red Bull and Holden for supporting Dayne throughout the whole Eseries. It has been an honour!

It is with a heavy heart that we must announce some changes within the team. We bid farewell to three very strong drivers and those who we have known more as brothers.

Firstly Simone Maria Marcenò… Mamma Mia, has decided to do what he is very motivated to do, and that is to create his own small Sim Racing team. It’s a journey not too dissimilar to our humble beginnings also, and whilst losing Simone as a driver and teammate, we retain him as a very close friend and wish him all the best in the future.

We also bid farewell to Marin Čolak and Vedran Kralj, the dynamic duo who were two of our earliest European based drivers, and were able to achieve some fantastic things with the team. A direction change from within the team however has brought about this change, and we do wish Marin and Vedran well in the future.

Stay tuned for some further announcements surrounding our team roster, with our first new driver to be announced tomorrow!

Any ideas who it could be?

With the change in NEO Endurance from WEC to 24H Series, one of the great benefits of that was the new TCR class being included in a multi-class series for the first time on iRacing. Having been P2 in Pre Qualifying ahead of the series, we were feeling positive of a good showing.

During qualifying, we would not get the most out of our package and start P10 on the grid in what was a tight field. Our sector splits would have indicated a front row start had we optimised the session, so confidence was still there despite the low grid position.

Alexander Lauritzen would take the start, and get through the early laps safely and settle into a rhythm, getting passed a couple of cars within the first hour and staying within sight of the leading group. However within this stint we noticed a performance deficit as the front tyres degraded, and our excellent pace in the first 10 laps would drop off more than our competitors. This gave us reason for concern as the race would continue.

As initially feared, the issue was confirmed in the next stint with Tuomas Tähtelä at the wheel this time, also having the same problem, falling back from the pack during the stint.

The race itself would be one of high attrition, and ultimately our race pace was not where would have liked it to have been. We would finish the 6 hour race in P8, however lessons have been learned as to how we may approach the next round at Circuit of The Americas. No matter what the outcome, you always learn, and can always improve. We will come back stronger next time. 💪

What a race – 10 hours and split by only 7 seconds in the end! A huge drive by Tuomas Tähtelä and Yannick Lapchin to take the victory in what was a mammoth race long battle with the superstar Team Redline combination of Max Verstappen, Shane van Gisbergen and Rudy van Buren.

Tuomas did an excellent job to put the Ferrari P2 on the grid for the start, and after a tense opening with the sister Redline car and Pure Racing Team, the lead swapped several times with traffic playing its part. In that time, it allowed Verstappen to put through the stint of the race to take his Ford from P14 on the grid to P1 by the stint end. We ourselves were hit during hour 1, but thankfully there was minimal damage and only time was lost, but as this race would pan out time would be a valuable commodity.

We battled back into the P2 position as the track began to cool, and we took the bold step to change to double stinting tyres, and it was at the perfect moment to do so. Tuomas put in an amazing second stint on the tyres to lose only a few tenths a lap to the chasing Redline Orange car.

As the darkness bestowed the track, we were embroiled in a on track battle between Yan and Max with the two coming together in what looked like a 50/50 racing incident. The timing of our double stint was ideal, as we could go double-double-double to the finish of the race, and maximise our tyre strategy, despite being at a significant disadvantage on the fuel strategy Redline was running. Once the final stops had completed, we had more than 20 seconds back to Verstappen who was chasing hard. Tuomas did an excellent job of withstanding the pressure to manage the gap and take the victory, his first in iRacing Special Events, and his debut in these events with Altus Esports.

P2 in Qualifying, Fastest Lap & Race win! GG Yan and Tuomas! 🏆🏆

In the GT3 class, guest driver Josh Thompson qualified P7 on the grid and put in an excellent opening triple stint to steer into the third place. The race itself would end up being a bit of a lonely one for them, with a very big gap back to 4th place, and 2nd place being tantalizingly too far away to make a decent challenge. Zachary Hanlin and Josh did an excellent job to bring the car home in P3, and secure an amazing podium given that the pair only started working on the race two days ago. 🥉🥉

Furthermore this result equated in Zac achieving a podium finish in all four North American special events in 2019, taking victory at Daytona, 2nd places in Watkins Glen and Sebring, and 3rd place at Road Atlanta. One might think he likes the place! 🇺🇸

Congratulations to good friends Evolution Racing Team on taking the race win in the DP class, and to Vendaval Simracing on winning the GT3 class.

Roll on 2020!

The Porsche Esports Supercup season finale took place at the famous Autodromo Nazionale di Monza with the Top 4 in the championship having a mathematical chance of taking the overall victory. However we had our own races to race, and Tuomas Tähtelä would take to the track for Altus Esports for the second time, with Marin Čolak devastatingly breaking his arm yesterday in a freak accident and unable to race despite a super impressive week of testing. We hope for a quick recovery. 🤕

Tuomas’ round got off to an exceptional start, taking a personal best P3 in qualifying which would earn him P6 on the grid for the sprint race. It was a steady opening to the lap, however it all started to go off around the Lesmos where Tuomas narrowly escaped a huge multi-car crash, arguably the biggest of the series. From this point Tuomas had dropped back a bit, but was able to climb through to a P6 finish by the race end.

In the Feature race Tuomas got away strongly off the start, and was able to pass Apex Racing’s Fluke by the second chicane to take 5th position behind a fierce Top 4 battle. From there it was a long and intense race, despite no overtakes for almost 30 minutes. It would come down to the final lap and a long 8 car train from P1. Tuomas was very strong in 5th place however a slight error would compromise the run into Ascari that allowed Fluke through only to compromise him further for the run to Parabolica which saw him drop to P8.

Despite the dropped positions, and being by far the one with the least experience at this level going into the race, a double Top 10 was a fantastic result, earning Tuomas P17 in the Championship and a confirmed birth in the 2020 Porsche Esports Supercup. With his performances on a sharp improve in the latter half of the season, you can expect a strong year in 2020 with that experience under his belt and for that, we can not wait! 👊

Congratulations to Joshua Rogers and Coanda Simsport on the provisional championship win too! 🏆