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On Friday evening (27th May) the penultimate round of the lengthy TORA Formula E championship got underway at Bernese Alps club circuit. With the Formula E championship already sewn up and awarded to another team, Virtual Pirtek Racing who missed the opening round at the start of the season were simply going through the motions to ensure they secured the second place overall in the Formula E team standings championship.
In qualifying for the race team principal and team driver AnonCaliga placed 9th on the starting grid after posting a qualifying time of 1:21.570 in lobby A. VPR’s Nutter placed his team car on the grid in 4th place for the lobby A race after posting a 1:19.342 qualification time, meanwhile Select Veepz put his VPR team car in 2nd place for the race start in lobby A with his qualifying time of 1:18.790. As the pack moved off to complete their single parade lap to organise the grid prior the race start it was immediately a disaster for AnonCaliga as one of the cars nearest him began lagging uncontrollably then repeatedly smashing into AnonCaliga’s car causing huge amounts of damage even before the race had got underway. As the parade lap finished and the cars rolled onto their respective slots on the grid again AnonCaliga suffered complete damage from the very same lagging car and due to this AnonCaliga took his car to the very rear of the grid as he knew there was no way he could move his car off the line in time avoiding the cars behind him from smashing into him once the race had got the green light. As expected the race was given the ‘Go’ signal and by the first corner of the opening lap AnonCaliga was already 800 feet behind the racing pack due to the damage he sustained from the lagging car on the warm up lap, AnonCaliga would be unable to pit for repairs until he had completed the first ten laps if he would stand any chance getting back in touch with the leading pack, pitting before the TORA mandatory schedule would have then certainly left him two laps or more down on the leaders. Lap ten and AnonCaliga pitted for his long awaited and much needed repairs but it was already obvious and inevitable that AnonCaliga would play no further team role in the race as he was already too far behind the other cars on track. Select Veepz and Nutter meanwhile raced fast and hard to ensure their points would see VPR take the second place overall in the team’s championship standings. It was Nutter however who played one of the best strategy plans of the season when an opposing team member said, with some sarcasm, that Nutter wouldn’t finish the race on the battery power he currently had in his VPR team car unless Nutter took another pit stop, but Nutter calmly announced to the lobby that he had clutched his car for the previous several laps whilst going down each hill, that announcement was met with a few faint gasps from certain other drivers as it meant Nutter would not need to make a final pit stop and he could quite easily coast his car across the finish line taking a truly well earned 3rd place on the race podium. VPR’s Select Veepz also took a superb race podium crossing the finish line in 2nd place which immediately awarded Virtual Pirtek Racing the much deserved 2nd place in the TORA Formula E team’s championship standings. Although Virtual Pirtek Racing missed the inaugural round of the TORA Formula E series it does suggest however that VPR would have taken the overall team standings championship had VPR not missed the opening round. Hopefully TORA announce a second season for this exciting electric racing series in the not to distant future. The final round of the TORA Formula E championship will be held on Friday June 17th at Yas Marina South circuit and will undoubtedly be a great finale race as it will be held in the dark of night. Thursday evening on the 26th May was round three of the classic touring car series hosted by TORA. The Touring Masters series saw the Long Beach east circuit as the backdrop for the three sprint races of the evening. Virtual Pirtek Racing’s Select Veepz having real life commitments was unable to make this round.
In qualifying it was VPR’s FAA xXNutterXx that got the best out of the teams BMW E30 M3 around the Long Beach circuit setting a qualifying time of 0:58.691 placing him 6th on the grid in lobby A. Team principal and driver AnonCaliga, not finding the grip around the circuit during qualifying, could only manage a best time of 1:00.192 placing him 3rd on the grid in lobby C for the first of three sprint races. Race Results Were As Follows: Race One, Nutter took 6th in lobby A scoring 68 points, AnonCaliga took 2nd in lobby C and 47 points. Race Two, Nutter took 7th in lobby A scoring 75 points, AnonCaliga in lobby C took 49 points with a 1st place finish finally breaking his race winning drought. Race Three, Nutter scored 72 points with his 3rd place finish in lobby A. The nights racing was rounded off with AnonCaliga taking another lobby C 2nd place finish and scoring a further 48 points toward the team’s points tally for the night. Round four of the Touring Masters series hosted by TORA gets going on Thursday June 2nd with the second feature endurance race of the season taking place at the technically demanding Bathurst circuit. On the evening of Tuesday 24th May the registered teams and competitors of the TORA CJWilson Racing Cayman Cup took to Mazda Laguna Seca for round three of the series.
VPR team owner and driver AnonCaliga set a 1:34.926 in qualifying to place him 9th on the grid in lobby C for the race. Select Veepz placed 9th on the grid in lobby A for the race after setting a qualifying time of 1:32.968. Nutter also qualified for lobby A with a qualification time of 1:32.703 placing him 10th and one spot behind his team mate Veepz. Race results for Virtual Pirtek Racing were as follows: AnonCaliga took 9th in lobby C. Nutter crossed the finish line in lobby A to take 9th and Veepz took 7th place in lobby A. The next meeting for this series is round 4 which takes place at Watkins Glen on Tuesday June 7th at 2am (UK) 9pm (EST). Virtual Pirtek Racing will show their support for LAPS4MD (Laps for Muscular Dystrophy) by displaying the charities logo on the roof of the team’s trio of Porsche Cayman’s in Tuesday evenings round three of the CJWilson Cayman Cup hosted by TORA.
CTech Motorsport/Virtual Pirtek Racing team proprietor AnonCaliga had this to say earlier last week; “The team plan to run the LAPS4MD logo on the roof of the three team cars for the rest of the CJWilson Cayman Cup sim race season starting with round 3 on the night of Tuesday May 24th when we race at Laguna Seca. We hope that being the first virtual team to lend our support for this super organisation that other sim racers and teams will do likewise and place the LAPS4MD logo on their virtual cars to help raise awareness of this cruel muscle wasting disease and highlight the work that LAPS4MD do to also raise awareness of the disease by working closely with real world racing drivers and teams who already display the logo on their race cars. I mean it doesn’t cost anything to display the LAPS4MD logo on your virtual race car but by doing so you help raise awareness and possibly may just help change lives.” The Virtual Pirtek Racing team will be on the virtual track this coming Tuesday evening at 9pm (EST) 2am (UK) for the third round of the exciting single make sim race championship hosted by TORA and sponsored by real world race outfit CJWilson Racing. CTech Motorsport on Wednesday 18th May took to the track at Nurburgring, suitably nicknamed the Green Hell, for the final race of the TORA Ginetta Spec Cup Championship.
CTech Motorsport entered only two cars into this series both racing under the CTech Motorsport banner due to the championship being held on ProjectCars and the absence of an in-game livery editor meant that the normal main team livery of Pirtek couldn’t be applied and thus pointless running under the Virtual Pirtek Racing team name. Select Veepz missed the opening round of the Ginetta Spec Cup series but nonetheless he took the top spot in the overall driver’s championship standings and Nutter took 7th overall in the driver’s standings. The two driver’s points together awarded CTech Motorsport 2nd overall in the end of series TORA Ginetta Spec Cup team standings following on from a previous success just days before when VPR took the championship team title in the final round of the TORA Base Performance Simulators Production GT series. On Sunday May 15th the Virtual Pirtek Racing trio along with their BMW M4 Coupe’s took to the twisty turns and few long straights of Circuit of the Americas for what would be the season finale of the exciting TORA Base Performance Simulators Production GT series.
The final round of the series had gone down to the wire with either VPR or MVG able to take the overall teams championship. Qualifying got underway and team proprietor and driver AnonCaliga placed a quali time of 2:18.854 placing him 17th on the grid in lobby A. VPR’s Nutter was next up with a quali time of 2:14.781 placing him 5th on the grid in lobby A and topping off the internal team quali times was Veepz who placed 4th in lobby A with a qualifying time of 2:14.114. Circuit of the Americas was notably not a preferred circuit that favoured the VPR BMW M4 Coupe’s but the VPR team and drivers were well aware of this going into race one which meant that if the two top drivers could just stay ahead of the MVG drivers then VPR would be set to take the championship. Race one got underway and apart from the expected bumps and bangs from the usual suspects the race itself was pretty much non entertaining until later on in the race whilst leading Veepz lagged out of the race sending a devastating blow to the VPR crew as the maths hadn’t taken into consideration that Veepz’s old lag issues would come back to haunt him, as AnonCaliga wasn’t in a position toward mid to back of the field to prop up the team points all hopes for the teams championship now lay with Nutter who was still well ahead of the two top scoring MVG drivers. By end of race one AnonCaliga crossed the line back where he had started in 17th place taking 109 points for the team, Veepz failing to complete race one being ranked on the live timing as a DNF did still manage a 107 point score for the team for the majority of race distance that he had put in before the inevitable lag issue raised its head. Meanwhile it was VPR’s Nutter that scored the majority points for the team in race one finishing 6th, one place back from his starting position, scoring the VPR team a much needed 120 points for the championship tally. After a little break for refreshments the Lobby A grid took to their virtual cars for the final time in the TORA PGT series for what would be the deciding race, would Virtual Pirtek Racing claim their first ever championship win as a team or would MVG snatch the title rendering VPR runners up? After the mandatory parade lap the cars made their way from the final turn at COTA on the start finish straight for the rolling start. With Veepz recovered from his race one lag out he managed to return in the nick of time for race two but due to his previous race lag out Veepz would have to start back of the Lobby A grid as per the TORA race regulations. Nutter was the only VPR driver far enough toward the front of the pack to make any difference to the team standings whilst AnonCaliga was toward the back section of the pack three places ahead of Veepz. Due to the unpredictable lag out unfortunately suffered by Veepz in race one making him start race two and the back of the field the VPR team were immediately at a disadvantage and taking the championship win was now looking more impossible than probable. The call came across the driver’s headsets ‘Go, Go, Go!’ and race two, the final deciding race of the season had begun with a pack of GT cars hurling their way toward the upward climb of the start/finish straight and onto the slowest, first tight left hand bend of the COTA circuit. After the chaos of turn one and by the the time Twitch viewers, including the drivers had regained their normal breathing pattern Veepz had taken four cars ahead of him and was on a mission to get back up to the front of the pack in his natural habitat where he rightly belonged alongside team mate Nutter. Nutter, close to the number three position car gave chase and pressuring a car in front to make a minor mistake allowing Nutter to gain a position while Veepz continued to make progress through the mid field. AnonCaliga meanwhile notably stating that this particular track is his ‘worst and most disliked track’ had to nurse damaged steering and transmission damage after an overzealous charge by one driver attempting to pass Caliga caused a three car shunt sending Caliga into the pits early for repairs and ending his own charge for the remainder of the race, now it was done to both Nutter and Veepz to bring the championship home to the VPR virtual garage. The final lap approached and CTech Motorsport Twitch viewers including sponsors who tuned in for the final race all sat on the edge of their seats waiting to see if the VPR team had done enough to secure the championship win. First across the finish line was Nutter who took 4th and nailing 122 points to the team collection of season points, Veepz who made an amazing push from the very back of the field up through the pack crossed the finish line in 7th raising the question that had there been a few additional laps in the final race could he have taken a podium finish? Veepz brought home 119 points in the final race of the season and AnonCaliga who simply wanted the race to end brought up the rear in 18th place with 108 points for team VPR. First indications immediately after the race showed that Virtual Pirtek Racing, despite the race one lag out suffered by Veepz, had indeed taken the teams standings championship for the series but having no official tweet of confirmation or congratulations from series organiser TORA or series sponsor Base Performance Simulators to cement the win left the team unsure if they had done enough to take the overall season title. It was due to the VPR back of house media team and team driver Nutter that finally confirmed that Virtual Pirtek Racing had indeed won the first ever season of TORA’s Base Performance Simulators Production GT and lifted the team standings title which is the first full series championship to ever be won by VPR since changing from an independent to a team in the later part of 2015. Although no prizes were supplied by TORA on behalf of the series sponsors for the winners of the series or the overall championship winning team at the end of the season it does however allow bragging rights for those who won single races throughout the season and overall championship team winners, VPR. The final points total scored by VPR over the PGT season was 2764. In the individual drivers championship out of a total 59 drivers registered in the series and calculating the mandatory dropped round score, AnonCaliga took 15th overall with 1041 points for the season, Select Veepz took 7th overall in the individual drivers standings with 1157 total season points but it was VPR’s Nutter that took the win in the internal team rankings with 1177 total season points awarding him 5th overall in the TORA Base Performance Simulators Production GT drivers championship. The championship win couldn’t have come at a better time for Virtual Pirtek Racing as they had just agreed and announced another real world sponsorship deal with respected and globally known brand Autoglym just before the final round of the PGT series. On behalf of the VPR Media Team we welcome Autoglym and thank them for their interest into our virtual race team. As a final word, Stephen and Paul from the little known and notoriously quiet, back of house, VPR Media Team responsible for these write ups, team liveries and general running of most social media operations would like to say a huge congratulations to Virtual Pirtek Racing team drivers AnonCaliga, Select Veepz and Nutter on their first team championship win and look forward to many more championship wins together in the future, very well done lads and thank you! This evening the VPR team head out onto the virtual track at Circuit of the Americas for the season finale of the TORA Base Performance Simulators Production GT. The final round of the season has gone down to the wire between VPR and MVG, although VPR have lead the team standings for some time and still currently leading the championship, it is however mathematically possible for MVG to still clinch the title in this final round.
Qualifying for the closing round begins at 8pm with the first of two races starting around 9pm. As many people already know, VPR have a close sponsorship agreement with Pirtek UK which has now been in place for almost two years and continues to this day. Although Pirtek is our main sponsor and shall remain so, today however VPR would like to announce and welcome our second official team sponsor, AutoGlym.
All the team at CTech Motorsport / Virtual Pirtek Racing, drivers and back of house team would like to extend our gratitude to AutoGlym and thank them immensely for their interest into the seriously competitive and fast growing world of virtual racing. VPR would like to thank AutoGlym for their support and sponsorship of the CTech Motorsport / Virtual Pirtek Racing team and exclusive rights for VPR to use the AutoGlym branding. Pirtek and AutoGlym will now feature together on all future VPR team race cars liveries. Last Friday evening (May 6th) all the teams and individual privateers and competitors taking part in the TORA Formula E series gathered at the short layout of the famous Watkins Glen circuit for the first race since the mid season break.
Qualifying got under way and times dramatically began to fall by each lap and by the end of the six lap qualifying session AnonCaliga posted a 1:14.587 best lap time placing him 11th in lobby A. Select Veepz posted a qualifying lap time of 1:12.168 granting him a front row for the race placing him 2nd on the grid and Nutter closely followed Veepz posting a best quali lap time of 1:12.581 awarding Nutter with 3rd position on the race starting grid. The race itself was the normal buzz of electric powered awesomeness and also wasn’t without its share of spills and thrills. Veepz held the 2nd position for the majority of the race until contact between his car and that of a back markers car forced Veepz to opt for an unscheduled pit stop for car repairs, once Veepz got back on track his 2nd position of the race had all but gone and as his pit strategy had now been ruined after the contact with a back marker Veepz would be seen pitting once again on the closing laps of the race for battery level replenishing, even with the unscheduled pit stops putting Veepz out of sync he did still manage to cross the finish line and clinch a well deserved 6th place and 95 points toward the team tally for this round. Meanwhile team principal AnonCaliga placed 10th and taking 91 points for the team, but by end of the race it was evident however that the night belonged to team driver Nutter who drove a faultless race and crossed the finish line in taking a very well deserved 2nd place and claiming most points of the night for VPR with 99 points potted for the team. Having missed the inaugural round of this series and making a climb up the teams’ championship to currently hold 2nd position overall in the TORA teams’ standings is indeed not something to be smirked at but it is probably impossible at this point for Virtual Pirtek Racing to win the top step in the team standings by the end of this series. Team principal AnonCaliga told the VPR Media Team last week: “Yea we missed the very first round of this series but to work our way up from bottom to be now sitting in second place overall is magnificent and I’m truly proud of the whole team and I will say this to anyone who may be secretly grinning and rubbing their hands together behind closed chat groups in great delight about their own team position within this series… imagine what VPR could have done had we taken part in the opening round, wow now that’s a worrying fact!” The next round of the TORA Formula E championship, which will be the penultimate round of this series, takes place on the little used but highly technical Bernese Alps Club Circuit layout on Friday May 27th at 20:00. Virtual Pirtek Racing were eager to dust off the team’s trio of electric powered Formula E cars after the lengthy mid season break and get on track last night for final team practice and some final tuning ahead of tonight’s round of the TORA Formula E Championship. The previous round held back in March at Long Beach was the last time the TORA Formula E cars seen light of day but all that will change tonight as we head into the sixth round of the eight round electric championship.
Watkins Glen is also the location for tonight’s round six of the championship. Action from Watkins Glen gets going at 8pm and is sure to bring twitch viewers watching live an entertaining race due to the long straights and the few and far between fast corners of the short format layout of the international track being used tonight. Virtual Pirtek Racing head into round six currently holding second place overall out of twelve teams within the TORA Formula E Team Championship standings even though VPR missed the opening round of the series and only signed to the series just a few days before round two. In the driver standings championship team principal AnonCaliga is currently placed 11th from the 66 drivers competing in the series. FAA xXNutterXx holds 8th place overall in the driver’s standings, meanwhile Select Veepz is just ahead currently sitting in 6th position overall. |
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