DGFX Race 4 - 6 hours of Laguna Seca
Hampus Baaz had to pack his virtual suitcase and leave his damaged GT3 Cup car in the UK, because it was once again time to take place behind the wheel of his favourite rocketship, the Hellracers LMP1 car, competing for the championship in the DGFX Endurance series. His companion for the day, Andreas Olsson, dusted off the spiderwebs from his rig and prepared for a hectic day at the track. For six hours, they were to run around the fairly short Laguna Seca track in intense traffic. It’s a short track, about 3600m, and the LMP1 car laps it in just over a minute, meaning that over 6 hours they were going to see the same corners just a few too many times to stay sane.
In Hellracers’ other entry in the league, the GTE car, sat Marcus Simonsson - our unofficial Laguna Seca expert - and Jonas Bodin, making his DGFX Endurance debut for Hellracers. Jonas, also just arriving after having spent the weekend before in the GT3 Cup car together with Hampus, had to readjust once again to a new car, since the Ferrari GTE has not been his typical weapon of choice in the GTE class. No problems as far as anyone could see - Jonas put in some respectable laps, and in the end, the pace was not what was going to set the fate for our GTE entry…
After a decent qualification, the LMP1 starting 4th and the GTE starting 6th, the name of the game was to stay in one piece and keep the cars unharmed from the immense amount of traffic. With such a short track and no less than four different classes, the number of overtakes is insane! Our plan seemed to work and midway through, both cars were running P1-P2 tempo with a good chance on a great result. Some were left behind due to our pace, some contenders fell out due to mistakes, others by getting stop&go penalties. However, our cars were unharmed and with no penalties and a good pace, we were all in all in a good place.
But, this was not our race to win, it would seem. Both cars got involved in accidents with about two hours to go, the other parties in the accidents getting punishments but that didn’t help with repairing the damage to our cars. Instead, the GTE car got stuck in the pits getting repairs while the LMP1 car could continue on track, however with a lowered top speed due to damage. In the end, we had to settle for a third place (LMP1) and a ninth place (GTE) which is not reflecting the true pace of the cars. However, it also is about keeping the car in one piece and you get severely punished when you fail to do that, no matter if it is in your hands or not.
With that said, two races to go where the last race gives double points means that we still are very much in contention for the championship title in both classes. We’ll start off 2020 with a 4 hour race at the (in iRacing) newly updated Silverstone track, see you there!