Team Virtual Pirtek Racing At Knockhill & Penultimate Round Of The TORA British GT eSports Championship

After most of the CTech Motorsport / Virtual Pirtek Racing team had been at Knockhill as VIP’s courtesy of team sponsor Pirtek UK it was back to team practice as soon as the lads all arrived back at their homes across the UK. With the penultimate round of the TORA British GT eSports Championship fast approaching the team had little time to reminisce about their day at Knockhill taking in all the race action of the British Touring Cars. The team had only a matter of days to make final adjustments to tunes and strategies before they took to the track at Brands Hatch to compete in the penultimate round of the TORA British GT eSports Championship.
 
Sunday 20th August and with qualifying done and dusted the team all lined up on the grid at the brands Hatch GP layout. CTech Motorsport / VPR Team Principal and driver AnonCaliga sat on pole in the Lobby C starting grid for Virtual Pirtek Racing (Team One). Third on the grid was Ryanvxracing for VPR CTech Motorsport with ZX1 (Team Two). VPR’s OcR Brock occupied fifth on the grid whilst directly alongside was VPR’s Jayc1975 in sixth position on the rolling grid and on the row behind in seventh position was GMan555 for VPR CTech Motorsport with ZX1 (Team Two.)
 
Race one rolling start and the race gets underway and immediately VPR’s AnonCaliga begins to build up a lead on the pack behind who fight for position. AnonCaliga would continue to stay well ahead for the next nine laps until his front tyres began degrading sooner than expected causing him to under steer and take a minor trip across the grass just entering into Hawthorn Bend which gave the chasing pack just enough time to close the gap at which point AnonCaliga took his mandatory pit stop to renew tyres. Meanwhile VPR’s Jayc1975 complained several times about one particular driver from another team who continually rammed the rear of Jayc1975’s car seemingly in an attempt to try to spin the VPR Porsche off the circuit, however Jayc1975 being an established driver, than that of the driver behind, kept control of his number 210 Pirtek Porsche and carried on his race making up places easily before his mandatory pit stop. VPR’s Brock also had one or two bumps courtesy of another driver but being as they were minor didn’t affect his race and he was able to close a gap on VPR’s AnonCaliga struggling on fresh tyres after his pit stop yet team strategy would see the slower AnonCaliga move out of Brock’s way and allow Brock to gain position securing fourth by race finish.
Car 667 driven by GMan555 kept himself focused and apart from also suffering a minor coming together with another driver managed to secure himself eleventh position by the end of race one. AnonCaliga by race end took fifth position after making up positions after his pit stop and taking sixth closely behind was Ryanvxracing putting in one of his best performances for this round of TORA British GT, but also closing rapidly was Jayc1975 crossing the line in eighth position.
 
Race two, the final race of the evening, and grid positions would be the result of race one finishing positions. VPR’s Brock starting fourth, AnonCaliga fifth, Ryanvxracing sixth, Jayc1975 eighth and GMan555 on grid position eleven. The rolling start for race two was somewhat disarranged as all the rolling grid approached the Brands Hatch start finish line the pole car strangely decided to come to an almost full stop causing many cars to brake hard from the 80 MPH specified rolling grid pace to a sudden stand still at which point the pole car decided to begin moving, somewhat slowly, and the race got underway. VPR’s Brock showing decent pace kept in touch with the three cars ahead of him for the majority of the opening laps of the 21 lap race but the man on the move was VPR CTech Motorsport with ZX1 lead driver Ryanvxracing making up positions along the lobby until the first round of pit stops came into play. AnonCaliga was the first in the lobby to opt for an early stop due to his knowledge of his cars tyre degradation from race one. Upon re-joining the circuit AnonCaliga found himself down in ninth position but as the majority of cars ahead of him had not yet made the mandatory pit stop he planned on making up positions once they did stop and shortly after that indeed would be realised when the lead pack began darting into the pits for tyres and a splash of fuel. Ryanvxracing re-joined the circuit after his pit stop and again returned to making up positions, at one point Ryanvxracing closing fast on AnonCaliga almost made contact at Westfield Bend when AnonCaliga suddenly lost control of his Pirtek Porsche GT3 RSR veering right off onto the grass, luckily a near miss was as close as the two team mates came yet Ryanvxracing did however run off the circuit to avoid collision. Ryanvxracing would then go on to lead the race for several of the later closing laps before his lead would be lost seeing him drop back to his original race two starting position and then finally take second position by race end.
VPR’s Brock also had one of his best performances in the British GT series so far and took seventh by race end followed closely by team mate Jayc1975 in eighth position, GMan555 in tenth and AnonCaliga took a fourth position finish by race end.
 
Team Principal AnonCaliga added the following post-race: “I find it somewhat confusing that at least two of our guys weren’t put into lobby B with a chance at scoring some higher points, I really can’t grasp how TORA organise the lobbies especially when two GT4 cars set qualifying times a hell of a lot slower than certain other GT4 and GT3 drivers yet still end up racing in a lobby above, slower qualifying times yet scoring more points than drivers who are faster, makes absolutely no sense and it would be great if TORA or someone could clarify how that works exactly. I mean I get that lobbies need equal amounts of GT3 and GT4 machinery but surely the slower drivers go to a lower lobby.”
 
On team performance for this round AnonCaliga said: “Guys did a super job yet again. Few things we need to look at ahead of the final round of the season but all in all the guys really did great and the car, in my opinion, performed the best it has all season. We took a different approach at creating the tune for Brands Hatch and it was noticeable for at least two of our guys. With the recent server issues messing the car up from team practice to race day we had to really look at other directions of setting up the car to equalise the effects of whatever the server was doing to cars come race day and I think we have now got to grips with the issue, although it is unfortunate that only one final round remains of the championship and that round may also be the very last time VPR use FM6 as their chosen race platform due to the upcoming release of FM7 this October, therefore it would be nice to end the era of VPR racing on FM6 with a great result an on a high.”
 
With the collective points gained by team one’s two highest finishing drivers in the Brands Hatch round moves Virtual Pirtek Racing into third in the GT3 class team standings in the TORA British GT eSports Championship. Team two, VPR CTech Motorsport with ZX1 occupy thirteenth in the GT3 class standings.
 
SEASON FINALE DATE:  The TORA British GT eSports championship season finale will be held at Catalunya Circuit on Sunday 17th September. Check out the #CTechMotorsport #VirtualPirtekRacing British GT Season Finale Team Promo Video Below:

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