Earlier this month, February 12th, CTech Motorsport / Virtual Pirtek Racing competed in the first round of the TORA American Sports Car Championship Sprint Series at the technical street circuit of Long Beach. VPR’s Nutter, although registered for the series and qualified with a time of 1:20.191, did unfortunately miss the opening round due unavoidable circumstances but will return to the track for team duties ahead of round two of the TORA ASCC series.
 
With Nutter missing the opening round only VPR’s AnonCaliga and OcR Brock could now be possible points winners for the team. OcR Brock in his very first official race for team VPR also fell foul of some sort of TORA qualifying lobby host error, although Brock qualified with a time of 1:22.156 ahead of team mate AnonCaliga he then had to start back of the grid in the last lobby due to the TORA time keeper’s error. The team did file their concern’s with TORA about the error, an apology was promptly offered by TORA and was accepted by the team and the matter closed.  
 
As the race lobby was a mixed field of faster LMP cars alongside the GT cars the race was overall a textbook race with no major drama or incidents although some LMP drivers did complain about one or two GT drivers at the rear end of the lobby that apparently blocked the faster LMP cars when they tried to pass. VPR’s race remained straightforward although AnonCaliga had a race long battle with GriffusMaximus who was also using a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and that seen both drivers continually swap places through pit stop strategies and on track traffic which led to a “spectacular fun race with Griffus but fairly exhausting race” AnonCaliga later said before giving his thanks to Griffus for the clean battle in a post on the TORA forum.

Meanwhile OcR Brock in his first race for team CTech Motorsport / Virtual Pirtek Racing made a stellar job from a bad situation by racing his way from last on grid up through the pack of GT cars to finally cross the finish line taking 4th in class for the lobby. Team principal and team driver AnonCaliga later said “I’m very pleased with Brock’s first race for the team, he did himself and the team very proud indeed. Brock has fitted into the role and the team very quickly without any issues, in fact he gets on with the team so well and has fitted in so well that I regularly forget that he hasn’t always been a team member, he’s only been with us a matter of months yet we feel like he’s been here with us from day one, very pleased, we’re very pleased with him and his performance in tonight’s opening round of TORA ASCC.”
 
AnonCaliga didn’t do too badly for the team either as he crossed the finish line taking 1st in class in the lobby. Overall the first round of the ASCC series was a great event and although the team didn’t manage great amounts of points we are all still pleased to see both the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR’s of team VPR cross the finish line intact. With VPR’s Nutter missing in action however it was without doubt a major impact for the team as he was sorely missed as were the higher points he usually brings to the team.
 
The second round of the TORA ASCC Sprint Series will be held on Sunday March 26th with the long GP layout of Circuit of the Americas being the host to both LMP and GT class competitors.

Team CTech Motorsport / Virtual Pirtek Racing recently revealed they had built and registered three team cars to compete in the 2017 season of the upcoming TORA Touring Car championship which gets underway on March 7th at Brands Hatch Indy layout. The CTech Motorsport / Virtual Pirtek Racing team only managed to take part in the final round of last years TORA TCC season due to other race series commitments but this year plan to compete in the entire season. CTech Motorsport / Virtual Pirtek Racing obviously chose the BMW 125i M Sport as the base to build their three team cars and the livery choice as always would be the dominate branding of Pirtek who remain official sponsors for the CTech Motorsport virtual sim racing team since 2014.
 
With all three cars built and painted in the team’s main sponsor colours and branding it wasn’t long before testing got underway and where else would that start other than the host track of the seasons opening round, Brands Hatch. VPR decided to maximise the cars capability by deliberately testing in wet conditions, although no wet races are scheduled for the TORA TCC series. Also in dry weather testing the car performed quite well and didn’t need any major tuning adjustments as “the BMW 125i M Sport is pretty good out of the box” said team principal AnonCaliga during the teams second test session.
 
The team have continued testing and further team testing is scheduled for later this week ahead of the first round of the championship which begins on Tuesday, 7th March.

Team Virtual Pirtek Racing are at the technical street circuit of Long Beach at 8pm this evening for the opening round of the TORA American Sports Car Championship. The trio of VPR #PirtekPorsche will take to the grid with the 911 GT3 RSR’s dressed in their new blue chrome Pirtek sponsored liveries.
The teams newest sign up, OcR Brock, will also be taking part in this evenings two-hour GT race at Long Beach which is Brock’s first official outing for Virtual Pirtek Racing. The team have tested hard over the past weeks leading up to the main event and are hoping for some good results but most of all to see all three cars cross the finish line without too many in race issues.