In hunt of getting a good chance of the championship title, both cars took place at the starting line of this four hour endurance race on the Silverstone track, newly updated in iRacing to reflect the latest rendition of the track. The second to last race of the season and both cars in second place in the league table meant that all points were really valuable. Well, they always are, but in order to have a good chance on the title it meant that we needed to take points on the overall leaders.

The qualification round went fairly well, and the LMP1 car started in third place with Magnus Vallström behind the wheel. The GTE car, driven by Wilhelm Wiberg, started in second place in class. The first stints were rather uneventful, some collisions are always bound to happen with this many cars divided in four different classes, and a pace car went out on track after just 10 minutes of racing. However, this turned out to be the only pace car during the race, leading to all pit stops for fuel and tires being done during green flag.

Magnus and Wilhelm handed over the cars without too many scratches about halfway through the race, and Andreas Olsson (LMP1) and Jonas Bodin (GTE) took over the wheels. The GTE car was in the lead, but the different teams ran with slightly different fuel strategies so it wasn’t obvious by how much. The LMP1 car once again found itself chasing the PCDC Motorsports Argon entry, which is currently leading the championship.

With about half an hour to go, the LMP1 car was fairly comfortable in second position with not much chance of either losing to third place or gaining the first position, and they cruised home another second place. The GTE car, with a strategy including running the last set of tires for a bit longer than is typically recommended, unfortunately ended up spinning out and the battle for first place became a last lap fight for tenths of a second, even though the race went on for four hours. The Heusinkveld car with its newer tires drew the longest straw and our GTE car had to see itself losing the fight.

Unfortunately, even though both cars took a commendable second place, they both lost again to the leaders in each class. This means that the last race, 10 hours of Catalunya on the 1st of February, with its double points will be deciding for the championship, but it will also require an extraordinary effort from both cars - and some luck. Write down the date in your calendars already now, you don’t want to miss it!

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!

Time for race 2 in the DGFX Clubsport series! This race was scheduled just a few days after one of the four yearly major patches from iRacing. This time around, our car in the series, the Porsche GT3 Cup car got a major update on several parts, but most importantly the tire model. Jonas Bodin and Hampus Baaz, our two pilots for the race, spent the week practicing and tried to get accustomed to the new feeling of the car. Once Saturday came, it was the end of practice and time to get serious!

Jonas qualified the car in fifth place, and showed that the team was contending for a top position also in this race. The competitors are starting to get accustomed to the name - Hellracers. After some incidents in the start, where poor HughJass went off already in the first curve - new tire model, remember - Jonas picked up a few spots and things started to look promising. Third place, and it was time for the next pilot behind the wheel - Hampus!

Unfortunately, after only a handful of laps, the new tire model and car updates got the better of Hampus and he spun out, hitting the tire wall and causing some damage to the car. After the repairs, the car was a few laps down from the leaders and the rest of the race went towards learning about the new car updates in a race environment to be as well prepared as we can for the next race. We ended up in 13th place, but with a lot of new lessons learned.

In the end, Team Helimedia won the GT3 Cup class in a convincing manner with over a lap down to the next car, the Gold Racing Team with another good result. Congratulations to you guys, and see you in a month!

Another league has now had its first race of the season, the DGFX Clubsport series. It is a multi-class league featuring the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, the new-to-iRacing Audi RS3 LMS TCR car and the Mazda MX-5 Cup. It’s an endurance league with races ranging from 2.4 hours to 4 hours of length. Hellracers are competing with a 911 GT3 Cup car, to get some variation from our GTE and LMP1 races.

This first race took place at Okayama, one of the tracks that are included for free in the iRacing subscription. It’s a track that includes most of what you want in a track, some sweeping corners that you can take in higher speeds, a back-straight followed by a hair-pin inviting to overtakes, a technical section with low speed corners and some elevation changes to mix it up.

Hampus Baaz and Marcus Simonsson put on their Hellracers racing suits for the race, but had a rough start where they had issues during the qualification and had to start second to last (20th position in the GT3 Cup field). Their tempo deserved a better spot in the field, but sometimes things go wrong and you have to put your head down and make the best of it.

Not even three laps later, the Hellracers car was up to 11th place and the hunt for the top 10 had begun. Or top 5? Or what pace did they have? As this was the first race of the season, it was hard to get a feeling for how far this could go.

It should be said that some passes were done due to others making a mistake, the GT3 Cup is a brutal mistress which can and will bite you if you don’t treat it right. But once the field settled in, it was down to pure racing and planned overtakes in order to climb the ladder. Due to slightly different fuel strategies, Hampus had a few laps in the lead before handing over the car to Marcus. But after the dust settled in the pit stalls, Marcus was still in a top 10 position with about half of the race still left.

It was after the last pit stop that things got really interesting. Hellracers chose to not take new tires in the last pit stop while several other teams had to replace the tires since they ran on really old tires. This changed things up and Hellracers were suddenly in P3, with a real chance to finish on the podium. Marcus continued to push and kept things clean, which the second place didn’t manage causing them to spin out. P2! A few laps later, Marcus had caught up to the Helimedia Porsche and overtook them for the race lead, according to himself with a beautiful overtake. We choose to believe him.

Looking back in the field, the Gold Racing Team Porsche looked strong and had a good tempo and fresh tires. However, once their tires wore off the gap was pretty much constant and even though I think Marcus felt a tiny drop of sweat, he kept his cool and took the car over the finish line in first place! A remarkable performance by Marcus and Hampus to after a mishap in the qualification take the car from P20 to P1 over these 2.4 hours! Impressive!

Congratulations to the Gold Racing Team for a well fought race and a second place and to the Racekraft E-sports Slide car for their third place in the GT3 Cup field! Congratulations also to the Mivano Simracing Team for an impressive P1-P2 in the MX-5 class and to Alpinestars Geodesic Racing for the win in the very tight and competitive TCR class! See you all at Brands Hatch in December!

If you want to see the racing action yourself, take a look at the broadcast from iRacing eSports Network at this link.

For the third race of the DGFX season, we went to a slightly more unconventional track for multiclass racing. The Belle Isle track is a street track, taking place on the streets of the island in Detroit. Street track means a lot of walls around the track, often tight corners and a track surface that is not as smooth as the tracks usually are. The walls mean that any accident is often followed by more accidents, as the cars have nowhere to go and bounces back on track. The bumpy street surface is not something the LMP1 cars typically race on, as they are built for smooth tracks with very little ground clearance and aerodynamics that is dependent on that the car is close to the ground.

With all this in mind, it was with a mix of expectations, fear and respect that the two Hellracers cars took place on the grid. The main goal of the race was merely to keep the cars rolling without being involved in any major incident, and with that, we expected to get a good finish.

With some close calls along the way and some bad luck in the timing of safety cars (once again, the strategy becomes a crap-shoot since you don’t know when the next pace car will come out), we are proud of our results. The LMP1 car, this time handled by Andreas Olsson and Magnus Vallström ended up in an impressive second place. While the GTE car, with Wilhelm Wiberg and Victor Dravegård behind the wheel, with an unfortunate timing of the pace car leading to a late splash-and-dash stop, ending up in a fourth place. The third place was well within reach, but they managed their fuel better at the end of the race.

Both cars still maintain a second place in the league standings with half of the season left to race. A little more luck is needed with the pace car timing, but the pace is definitely in place. Now, we look forward to the next race, taking place at Laguna Seca in December.

Just one week after the Petit Le Mans, it was time for the second race of the season in the DGFX league. Moving from the narrow Watkins Glen to the much wider Circuit of the Americas (COTA) meant that a very different type of race was to be expected. The wide run-off zones of COTA makes it possible for a crashed car to limp back to the pits, or a tow zone, without disturbing the ongoing race, meaning that the need for pace car is very much reduced.

This was also the case, COTA offered a race with very few pace car laps and mostly open racing, which in the end is what all teams prefer. The wide track also offers a lot of overtaking opportunities for the faster classes with only a few places where it is hard to fit two cars next to each other (such as the esses).

With less involvement between the classes, it opens up for more racing within each class. In this race, there were some nice duels and some actual fighting for positions. However, as expected, when racing for six hours and with different fuel strategies, for long periods of time you are driving “by yourself” and focusing on managing traffic. The mix of it and the feeling of accomplishment when finishing is part of what makes endurance racing such a thrill.

This race was almost a perfect double by Hellracers, but after being involved in an incident, the LMP1 car piloted by Hampus Baaz and Magnus Vallström, had to settle with second place, starting from third. Still, a very respectable position in this field! Marcus Simonsson and Stellan Lindeberg managed to take Hellracers’ first win in DGFX in the GTE car, a really strong performance! They started from pole position, the second pole in a row, and kept their nerves.

On iRacing, a number of special events are arranged each year where teams, or solo racers, compete in endurance racing. These are official events, meaning that the normal split mechanisms are in place, and the races affects your iRating, a concept in iRacing to put racers with equal speed in races together.

One of these special events is the 10 hours of Road Atlanta, which offers a multiclass experience similar to the iRacing IMSA series, meaning the Daytona Prototype, the GTE class and two GT3 cars. Hellracers had two GTE cars on the starting line, one Ferrari GTE driven by Jonas Bodin, Wilhelm Wiberg and Stellan Lindeberg and a Ford GT GTE driven by Marcus Simonsson, Hampus Baaz and Andreas Olsson.

The Ford showed great pace already in qualifying, starting in the third position. The Ferrari had a tougher time to set a time and started 9th. Once the race was underway though, the Ferrari with Jonas Bodin behind the wheel showed a good pace and was determined to climb in the field. Two incidents later, with one leading to the car being crumbled beyond recognition, it was decided to park the car and take the DNF. No shadow on Jonas, who wasn’t at fault for any of the incidents, but rather at the wrong place at the wrong time.

For the Ford crew, the race continued. With one car out of the race and a free Saturday for the rest of the team, the Discord chat became a hangout during the race with a lively chat. This made Andreas Olsson thrive, and he put in his best laps when the chat was as most lively. While others, such as Marcus Simonsson, had to ask for a slightly less active chat to keep his concentration.

When the darkness fell over Road Atlanta, it was clear that a great final position was within reach, and the Ford roared over the finish line as third in class. Yet another show of strength by the Hellracers.

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One of the first goals we set out for as a team was to qualify at least one car for the DGFX Endurance series. It’s a multiclass endurance series with a season that stretches over roughly six months with one race a month and as one of, if not the, biggest amateur leagues in iRacing, it attracts a lot of teams. While the pro teams often look towards leagues as NEO or SCO, there is still a lot of fiercely competitive teams running in the DGFX.

With that in mind, we were over the moon when we didn’t only qualify one, but two, cars for the series. One Porsche 919 LMP1 car, which won it’s qualifying race, and one Ferrari 488 GTE car.

The first race of the season took place at Watkins Glen, a popular but fairly narrow track which is often raced on the iRacing service. It’s popularity makes it a highly competitive track with a lot of teams having a quick pace, and it’s limited width makes it quite challenging for multiclass racing.

As always in a new season, it is hard to know what to expect with regard to speed versus the competition. There are some official practice sessions before the race where some teams participate, but it isn’t until the qualifying begins that you know where you actually stand in the field. Qualifying the GTE car was Wilhelm Wiberg and I think he was as pleasantly surprised as the rest of the team when he set a commanding pole position, a few tenths before the second GTE car. Magnus Vallström drove the LMP1 in qualifying and came away with a respectable 4th place, putting the car in the second row of the start.

Worth mentioning at this point is that the DGFX league uses a mechanism not often used in iRacing. Whenever there is a crash on the track and the car can’t make it safely to the pits, a pace car is called out and the field is gathered behind the pace car until the track is clear again. This is common in oval racing, but is rarely used on road tracks.

Well, the race was not even two laps old when the first pace car was called out. And that became a pattern for a long time, we lost count of the amount of pace cars during the race. Which in turn meant that all tactics went out the window. Now, you want to pit to take fuel and tires during the pace laps because you lose the least amount of time compared to your competitors. But what do you do when the pace car is called out and you have half a tank of fuel left? Do you stop and fill up, but risk losing some valuable track positions? Do you keep out on track, risking having to fuel up during green flag, losing even more time compared to your competition? These questions were asked not just once or twice, but a lot of times.

After about two hours of racing, Wilhelm Wiberg handed the GTE car over to Stellan Lindeberg while still in a top 3 position (it’s hard to know the actual standings when all cars doesn’t run the same fuel strategy). Stellan started off with a great pace, showing that we were still in contention to win the race. Unfortunately, he had technical problems, leaving us out of any real chance to end in a top five position. We ended 9th, which was a disappointment considering our real pace, but we had shown the other teams that Hellracers were not just in the league to participate, but to win!

The LMP1 car was taken to the finish line by Hampus Baaz, putting in a great effort with a really high pace. With a new season, it’s sometimes hard to remember all the rules, and Magnus had broken one of them leading to a stop and go penalty. But even with that served, Hampus and Magnus managed to take third place in the LMP1 field, showing off great pace and traffic management.

Overall, we were happy with the realization that we are in the league as two real contenders, both the LMP1 and the GTE car showed a pace that is top three material. Looking forward to the next one!