One Year of Hellracers

Posted on June 11, 2020

One year ago, the team Hellracers officially started after a few weeks of recruiting and preparation. We managed to bring some of the top sim-racing talent in Sweden together into one team and we aimed to drive together, improve together and have some fun together. Even though it is important to set up goals and achieve things, it’s not worth as much if we don’t have fun on the way there. We strongly believe that expanding a team too fast will create subgroups and the overall team feeling might get lost, which is why we have expanded quite slowly and found drivers who we think fit the team both with their skill level but also that will be part of the group and strengthen the team feeling.

So what have we done during this last year? We have found a great sponsor in Tershine, a Swedish company that has everything you need to keep your (IRL) car in good shape. We have raced in official races, although the amount of races per week is very varied within the team and typically on the lower side. Endurance racing and leagues have mostly been the name of the game and we have participated and got good results in a number of leagues, such as DGFX Endurance (2nd place in both GTE class and LMP1 class), DGFX Clubsport (2nd place in Sport class) as well as the Swedish iRacing League (1st place in both GTE and GT3 class) and the Scandinavian Club League (1st place). We qualified three cars to the Race of Vikings, an event where the Nordic countries competed against each other, and our three cars all scored points to secure a second place for Team Sweden.

The results and our vibrant paint schemes have definitely made others start to recognize the Hellracers and it is awesome to see that the name is starting to spread. We have made a point in not only being recognized for the results but that we are respectful and fair on the track, and we believe that it pays off in the long run. Rather get second place and keep the respect of the competitors than going all in and destroying other peoples races to get that first spot. In real life racing, things might be different, but we are doing this to have fun above everything else.

Our planned team get-together during the DTM race at the Swedish Anderstorp track this year was unfortunately cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic so our first time meeting all in person will have to be postponed. However, doing all our racing online means that a few of us meet almost every night on Discord and train a few laps together, race together, talk beer or motorsport together or just hang out and plan the next upgrade to the rig. It’s a great balance of fun and serious racing, and we hope to continue in that spirit moving forward.

Soon, the qualifications start for this upcoming season with leagues such as SCO, IVRA (previously DGFX), NEO Endurance, etc. We also have ongoing leagues, for example iRacing Endurance Series and BMW 120, where we usually get one or two cars on the grid. So we intend to keep on racing, keep on improving and above all - keep having fun!

SCO - 6 hours of the Glen

Posted on May 31, 2020

Since we don’t have any ongoing leagues or too many commitments, when SCO invited teams to their 6 hours of the Glen it sounded like a great event to get some serious racing. We joined with two GTE cars and since the Ford GT GTE at the moment is hard to beat in endurance, we chose it as our car for the event.

SCO is one of the most competitive leagues on iRacing and even though this was a one-off event, it was a high strength of field in both classes (LMP2 and GTE). Watkins Glen is also typically a track which most drivers know well, and the qualification round showed that it was indeed true. One tenth of a second in qualifying meant 3-4 spots up or down in the starting position, that is how tight it was. We managed to squeeze both cars into the top 15, which was ok in this sort of playing field.

At the end of the first stint, it became clear that the tyres were really worn out and both cars spun out, dropping back in the field. The car driven by Wilhelm (and Philip, although he never got the chance to drive…) was taken out by an unfortunate overtaking attempt by another GTE and Wilhelm had to retire just over an hour into the event. However, the car driven by Niklas and Stellan continued on, and they made their way up in the field due to a steady good pace while a lot of other cars had issues with staying on the track in one piece.

End result after 6 hours of racing was an honoring P10, which we are quite proud of given the competitors. It wasn’t the best of our races, making the tenth place even more impressive, and we got another receipt that our GTE drivers are a force to be reckoned with.

iRacing Endurance Series Race 1 - Suzuka

Posted on April 18, 2020

Time for a new series! iRacing has introduced a new endurance series, spanning over half a year with four races at some of the biggest circuits on iRacing. Each race consists of 12 hours of multiclass battle where an entirely new combination of cars are being put together on the track at the same time. While the GTE and the GT3 class often find themselves together on the same track, they have never in an official event had the company of the Audi TCR car and the Porsche Cayman GT4 car at the same time. This combination turned out to be a lot of fun, but together with the already quite challenging Suzuka track the hefty amount of traffic became a surprisingly hard task.

We had two GTE cars starting this race, both Porsche 911 RSR which is a great choice for the many sweeping curves of Suzuka. Although we had quite a bit of training on both the car and the track, it’s always a different scenario when it comes to race day and all the cars that let you through nice and easy on the practice sessions suddenly have something to race for and won’t let any class pass quite as easily.

With one car starting on pole and getting a few seconds up after the first laps, we had a good feeling from the start. But things were about to change…

This turned out to be probably the worst overall race for Hellracers so far, with too many spins to talk about and collisions with other cars and mistakes from almost all drivers over the 12 hours. That one of our cars managed to secure a third position is quite remarkable, and can probably at least partially be explained by the fact that our competitors struggled with this combination as well.

With bruised egos and bruised cars (both cars had the iRacing-typical bent carbon fibre wing) we still managed to bring the cars to the finish line and that felt like an achievement by itself. We intend to continue in this series over all four races, but next time (Silverstone in June) we hope to be able to not only bring the cars to the finish line but also do it in style.

DGFX Clubsport series Race 6 - Season finale at Interlagos

Posted on April 4, 2020

It all came down to this - a small lead in the championship but the guys in second place, Helimedia, had proven before that they had a really high pace when they wanted to. 4 hours at Interlagos would decide which team ended up as overall winners in the DGFX Clubsport series, and we put Jonas and Marcus as pilots of our 911 Cup car. No one in the team really drives the 911 Cup in any other series, so it’s always a few days of just getting up to speed again in the car before each race. However, Interlagos is a track that is fairly common in official series so it was more getting used to the car on an already known track.

P3 after qualification with our main competitors Helimedia in pole was an ok starting position for the race. Qualification is always important, but over 4 hours, so many things happen so one spot here and there is usually not as crucial as it is in shorter races.

Before half time, our car had unfortunately spun out no less than two times, increasing the challenge to compete for the championship since at the same time, the Helimedia car was having a great race in the front of the pack. It has been an unfortunate trend of lately, that our usually very stable drivers have spun out of all sorts of races. Something to keep on working on, for sure.

Our guys made an impressive come back and actually passed most of the field during the second half of the race, but the top two cars were not possible to reach and we had to settle for a P3 spot in the race and another second place in the championship.

This is now our third time ending up in second place in a championship that stretches over several months, and once again - even though it is an achievement to be proud over, as drivers you still want that first spot. Both the DGFX Endurance series and their Clubsport series have given us a lot of excitement and fun racing, and that is really what it is about. The result can be seen as secondary, but it is always more fun to have a great race AND end up in first position. We almost completed both, but the second place tastes less bitter when you had a lot of fun on the way there.

Thanks DGFX for this time, we’ll see each other again for sure! And once again, congratulations to Helimedia for their victory!

iRacing special event - 12 hours of Sebring International Raceway

Posted on March 14, 2020

Time for another of iRacing’s special events, these are endurance races spread out over the year where the normal iRacing safety rating and irating are in effect and are basically treated as a normal iRacing race when it comes to splits, rules, etc. Splits is iRacing’s way to make sure that everyone races someone on their skill level, where your irating is used to divide all the registered teams into splits, where each split drives their own race, independent of the other races that are ongoing at the same time. A special event of this type typically draws a couple of thousand racers and since all cannot compete in the same race, they are divided so that each race has 50-60 racersteams. This year of 12h Sebring had around 1500 teams participating, and 27 splits in total.

As many others, this endurance race is a multi-class event, and we were racing in the class with the most fierce competition - the GTE class. The two other classes were the Daytona Prototype class and the GT3 class. Since no one in Hellracers has a really high irating (we are working on it!), this meant that we ended up in - the fairly low - split 6 and 7 with our three cars. However, due to the split system described above, you usually end up with competition around your own skill level.

With that background out of the way - how did it go? Well, our only car in split 7, a Porsche 911 RSR driven by Stellan Lindeberg and Niklas Hjelm, won their split with a good margin down to second place. Well done!

For our two cars in split 6, the second Porsche 911 RSR driven by Magnus Vallström and Philip Johansson had a good pace but did a mistake on one of their fuel stops costing them too much time to be able to compete for the win and they ended up in a not-too-shabby P4. This split also had a Ford GT GTE driven by Andreas Olsson, Marcus Simonsson and Hampus Baaz which had a tough day at the office and were involved in a few too many things to be hopeful for a podium finish. However, they pulled through and managed a P7 in the end, which was great work considering the incidents along the way.

We are all working on our irating in order to be able to compete in the higher splits, where at least we think we belong. But until then, we will continue fighting in whatever split we end up in and try to win it. We are very happy with being able to start three competitive cars in this event, and not only that but also finishing all three cars in high positions.

DGFX Clubsport series Race 5 - Heavy traffic at Phillip Island

Posted on March 7, 2020

We have come to appreciate the tight racing that this series brings, the mix of good racing within the Porsche 911 Cup class and the heavy traffic with the MX-5s and the TCRs makes for exciting races where everything can - and will - happen. It was time for Andreas Olsson to drive his first stint in this series, and he had Hampus Baaz as his partner in crime.

The race tempo of our car was high, but a few too many mistakes were made along the way to be able to compete for the podium. The sweeping corners of Phillip Island are easy to overshoot when trying to push, especially combined with a lot of cars on the track. But since the pace was good, each mistake was followed by some quick laps and an overtake or two, and the distance to the podium cars didn’t escalate too much.

In the end, our car passed the finish line in fifth place, around 30 seconds after the winner. A decent result, but with fewer mistakes a better result was definitely within reach.

This made us the new class leader with only one race to go - the 4 hours at Interlagos in April. Could it be our first title as Hellracers?! Time to start practicing…

BMW Sim 120 Cup at Sebring International Raceway

Posted on March 1, 2020

No less than four Hellracers cars were on the starting line for this event, with a price pool of around $4000 and a chance to compete with the big boys. This series, sponsored by BMW, runs the BMW M8 GTE car in a really tight “short endurance” race where two drivers per car compete over two hours for the grand prize. Our cars in the first split had about the toughest competition found on the iRacing service and found themselves at 31st and 35th position in the end, while our cars in second split managed a better result, finishing in 2nd and 4th position.

This was our first endurance event with such a strong competition, and we will learn from this experience and come even better prepared for the next one, taking place at Nürburgring in May.

Welcome to our new member Philip Johansson!

Posted on February 16, 2020

A majority of the team already know Philip from battles in the Swedish iRacing League and now he finally joins our ranks. He’s a really quick GT driver who will strengthen our team in upcoming competitions.

DGFX Clubsport series Race 4 - Yet another race at Catalunya

Posted on February 15, 2020

What, Catalunya again?! Yes, unfortunately all series and leagues ended up at Catalunya over the span of just a couple of weeks but the Clubsport series should be the last start on that track for some time. So it was just to buckle up and focus on the mission - to bring Hellracers our second win in the Clubsport series. Since this was a 4 hour race, more points were on the line than the 2.4 hour races, so of course a win is even more valuable for the championship.

We put Hampus Baaz and Jonas Bodin on this important mission and they started out really well - Jonas put the car on pole and took off, leaving the competition behind. Given that the teams are on slightly different pit strategies, it’s not always easy to know which car is actually in the lead, but the Hellracers Porsche was mostly in P1 and the strategy seemed to work as intended.

Halfway through, Hampus took over the wheel and continued in the lead. It wasn’t until the race had about 30 minutes left it became really exciting when the Racekraft Esports entry caught up to Hampus and they started to fight for the race lead. All pit stops were done, so it was game on! Racekraft had just overtook Hampus when they got information from race control - Stop&Go penalty for an incident with another car. The Hellracers car once again took over the lead, and now with a comfortable cushion down to second place. With 15 minutes to go, it was just a matter of bringing the car home. The tires were worn, giving Hampus a bit of a challenge to do just that, but he kept his nerves and drove over the finish line with 15 seconds down to second place.

Mission accomplished - second victory in the Clubsport series keeping us in a good spot for the championship. Thanks to Racekraft Esports for the fight!

DGFX Endurance Championship Final Standings

Posted on February 6, 2020

The championship final standings are now official and the two Hellracers entries finished in second place overall in both classes. After the fuel mishap, the LMP1 car was never really close to fighting about the championship in the final race while the GTE car finished with the same amount of points as the winner, but with fewer victories. We are really happy and proud of the results, as it is our first league as a team and we didn’t think we would fight for the win. Thanks to DGFX for putting together a fun and professional league!