RPM enters three teams into the RD Le Mans Series

The RPM team has signed up three teams for the upcoming third round of the RD Le Mans Series, where the worlds best simracers fight it out on the track for long hours endurance racing.

RPM #1 under the lead of Hannu Karesola will drive a LMP1 Euskadi (2008) and will try to get on the podium in the premier class of the series. RPM #2 with Christopher Aponte as captain of the GT1 will stick to the default car choice of our team: The 2008 Corvette. The third team that drove in the LMP2 class first broke their contract with Mazda and has now bought a privateer car formerly used by the Spyker Squadron.

Click here to learn more about the RDLMS

Roaring Pipes Maniacs on the RDHGP podium

The teams Hall of Fame is growing after another overall podium finish of the team. In RD Historic Grand Prix, a GT Legends league of RaceDepartment.com Jari Vinnari and Peter Duivelaar managed to finish second and third overall behind league winner Peter Gog from Hungary.

The Renault Alpine of Jari Vinnari was very consistent throughout the season while the brutal Shelby GT of Peter scored a victory in Italy on the Imola circuit. Unfortunately both drivers had to miss one round of the championship otherwise the boys would have been able to give Peter Gog a hard time for the victory.

Team RPM wants to congratulate Peter Gog with his second overall GTL championship and hopes to field some competative drivers in the next season again. Special thanks goes out to Stuart Thomson for the fantastic organisation of the league.

Click here for the overall results & standings

Two new members complete the team line up

Since this week Team RPM has two new members. Ingemar Petersson from Sweden and Peter Duivelaar from The Netherlands.

Ingemar is an experienced all-round driver, active in various racing sims. Peter is a young gun that has shown already his great potential of winning races at RaceDepartment.com leagues.

Welcome guys!

RPM leads STC into the Final 200m

With the Championship dwindling down to the last round at Mo I Rana (Artic Raceway) RPM has held firm in the challenge from the GMT DHR team.  Both teams have suffered technical problems at Donington GP GMTs home race, but it all came out reasonably even all things considered.

Donington GP GT Pro/Sport

This track brought out some fierce battles and some brave performances.  The GT sport crown was taken by STC regular Tim Hogendoorn in the BVM Spyker, with a dominant performance.  This is were the RPM team had suffered an unexpected disconnection on Rami Kaukola’s car, thus leaving Kevin Ascher to take the car home.  He did so in fine form placing the RPM Sunred in a solid 8th place finish.  GMT DHR would also suffer a mechanical failure on Jack Keithely’s car, a blown engine saw the Marcos limp to a stop.  With this race GMT took a narrow lead in the Champioship going into the GT Pro race next week.

For the GT Pro race we saw relative newcomer Marcin Skrzypczak, A1 Ring GT Sport debut, and first time STC participant Niklas Vesterinen.  Marcin would produce a pole worthy qualifying lap and Niklas would place a very respectable 5th place on his first time out.  From the start Marcin kept the lead safe and would go on to secure his first win of the STC in 2 starts.  More importantly Niklas would come from behind and bring the second RPM Koenigsegg in 3rd place.  This would see the RPM team take the lead back in the Championship from GMT DHRacing going into the penultimate round at Team GG’s Dijon Prenois GP

Dijon Prenois GP GT Pro/Sport

 Here we saw teams taking a more serious approach to the Championship as it dwindled down to just a handful of races.  There were more calculated risks being taken, that is to say the top runners would run very clinical races and no quarter was given.  We start with GT Sport where GMT DHR would show just how serious they are by locking out the first row with their Marcos.  The RPM drivers were not to be out done, Rami Kaukola and Jari Vinari would place 5th and 6th respectively.  Seeing as how the qualification session wasn’t a complete success the RPM drivers set out to improve their positions in the race.

Rami would benefit early on from problems in the front running pack with Mike Simian succumbing to technical problems yet again.  Then would finish up a tremendous race effort with a thrilling battle with David Garcia in the TBR Corvette which ended with the TBR driver finally giving in to the pressure of Rami and thus a 2nd place finish for the RPMer.  Jari Vinari would follow suit in what would be a solid drive to 5th position.  Jari fared tremendously well in the opening stages of the race with mounting pressure from David’s Corvette which seemed to be on a rampage the whole race.

The GT Pro race would bring the worst weather of the season with the cars having to race in heavy rain conditions. The Dijon GP would be a very tough venue for these sort of conditions as the track would prove very slick and oily. However despite the conditions the RPM cars of Rami Kaukola and Cristian Haba would lock out the front row for the third time this season.  The Koenigsegg’s were the only cars able to dip into the 1:21sec lap times.

After a tentative start by the nr2 car of Cristian Haba saw the RPMers finish lap 1 in 1st and 4th position.  Things would get worse for Cristian and he would drop position to 6th.  The pace setting nr1 car of Rami Kaukola would remain in front of hard charging BVM pilot Tim Hogendoorn and V-WTCC Champion Roland Ehnstrom and manage to create a gap.  GMT DHR driver Vincent Staal would prove that his pace in the week’s previous race was not coincidental, would take the lead from Rami just before the pit stop window.  By this time Roland had made his pit stop with only changing tires, as his C6R started with a belly full of fuel.  This would catapult him into first position leapfrogging Vincent in the meantime.  However a rare altercation with a back marker had Roland make an unexpected stop to repair damage to his car, he would continue the race and set the fastest lap by a few thousands of a second from Vincent.  Rami had an uneventful pitstop which once again is totally the opposite from Cristian.  Cristian Haba’s Koenigsegg would receive a drive through penalty for a malfunction with the pit speed limiter thus pushing him further down the field.

Over all a hard race for all companies involved considering the conditions, but a solid result from the RPM team which would see them gain a point on the GMT DHRacing team.  At the finish Rami placed 2nd and Cristian 4th.  An unlucky day considering the pace of the cars prior to the race, but such is racing.

Next race is at Mo I Rana GP in Italy with the possibility of a totally new driver line up for this season, stay tuned.

RPM Success at Vallelunga GT Pro and A1 Ring GT Sport

Vallelunga GT Pro

Having overcome the hurdle in the previous GT Sport race with the torrential rain the RPM team looked for a more enticing and more involved GT Pro race which would see the cars take to a dry track.  The change in weather came as a welcome change to the repertoire and it would ease the pressure on the drivers.  The previous rain race with the GT Sport cars was a bit of a nightmare with drivers having to stay 100% focused in order to produce results.  The preparation for this race was much easier on the uptake, and as well the Koenigsegg CCGT is a much more tame racing car when compared to the Sunred.  The drivers taking to the track were Kevin Ascher and Christopher Aponte, both having done numerous laps in preparation for a tough race with much more competition than the GT Sport race.

Having qualified 5th and 6th respectively, the RPM drivers set about to bring home a high points earnings from a tough race.  The competing GMT-DHR Team having placed slightly higher in the qualification posed the most threat (qualified with P1 and P3).  Both drivers stuck to the job and had relatively quiet races and brought home 4th and 6th for the team.  A very good outing for the drivers and good points to keep the team at the top of the points standings above rival GMT-DHR with the season coming to the half way margin.

A1 Ring GT Sport

Originally this race was supposed to be held much earlier in the season, but due to technical problems this was not possible and thus we come to April 30th for the ‘re-run’.  Again the weather for the race would prove to cooperate and make things easier for all people involved including providing a better spectacle for the viewers as well.  The drivers involved here were Cristian Haba and Marcin Skrzypczak who stormed to the front of the pack in fine fashion.  With the front row locked down the job seemed easier do as it no doubt is from such a strong position.  The race started off well with both drivers not conceeding positions and Cristian was able to move out and create a sizeable gap up at the front (20sec @ the pit stop).  This gap would only increase to 30 plus seconds before the race would end as no one could surmount an attack on P1.  Marcin would have a tougher time on his first outing in the STC Championship.  In the beginning of the race he was under tremendous pressure from the flat out driver of Mike Simian and Teo Bubicic.  A couple of scuffles here and there saw the RPM driver drop a few places.  After that Marcin got a good handle on proceedings and brought the car home to a solid 7th place finish to take good points from the venue and his first time out in RPM colors for the STC.

With a P1 and P7 finish RPM remains in the lead for the STC Blue Cup with GMT-DHR only 9 points behind with half the season already gone.  This seems to be a battle of consistency and perseverance up until now, and the RPM team has put in a sizable effort even more so then last season.  There are not many changes as we begin the second half of the season and there’s no let off in spirit or in determination.  Next we ferry over to Donnington Park for the GMT-DHR team’s home GP where the racing has always been phenomenal, let’s hope this year is no different.

RPM Divers Cristian and Rami thrive @ Vallelunga

    For the third round of the STC Blue Cup ‘09 the team took to Vallelunga GP in Italy.  The track is a very challenging one from the point of view of the car and the driver.  It’s a track that took many years to take its current shape.  In short, for a driver there’s very little time to rest as there are relatively short straights and very slow to mid and high speed turns that leave little time for taking a breath.  The car has to have lots of mechanical grip in the slow hairpins and as well a good foot print for the mid to high speed turns.  Add to this equation some good ol’fashioned Italian rain and you have a very challenging combination indeed, on man and machine.

    The RPM team this round consisted of Rami Kaukola and Cristian Haba, who took to the track with confidence having prepared extensively for this outing.  The result of which took the pole and second place on the grid leaving the rest of the teams playing catch up.

Front Row Locked Down

Leading into turn 3

    With nearly identical qualifying lap times (1:40.4 and 1:40.6) Cristian and Rami set out to bring the cars home for a possible one two finish, the first ever for the RPM team in this championship series.  Things started out very well, all things considered.  The RPM drivers knew they had to distance themselves from the competing GMT-DHR drivers and also be weary of TBR driver David Greco who put on some sizzling lap times in the warm up but due to technical difficulties he did not take part in the qualification.  

    The dram starter towards the end of the race.  Until then Rami and Cristian had little work to do but to keep the cars on track and have their pit teams on song.  This was all well and under control until late pressure from a hard charging David Greco put the squeeze on the RPM hit men and after leading the race for so long this was quite a wake up call.  Rami showed his true colors when dealing with the pressure from David in the only way he knows how, true fair and fast, giving the TBR ace only one opportunity which he took to take second place.  With the hard work done by Rami in order to secure 1st place Cristian was already some 7sec away from the duo when an unusual lock up at Campari set the leader into the sandbox.

Beach that way, Track the other way

    The gap between Greco and Haba had now dropped to just under 2sec and the mind games would now begin.  The didn’t give much confidence to Cristian, the SR21 struggles heavily under braking but having regained some of the concentration lost Cristian kept David honest about his intentions and proceeded to keep the gap at the same interval and finish the race, albeit a very hard one indeed.  In the end the team took some very deserved points with a 1st and 3rd finish from Cristian and Rami and distanced themselves from the other teams with this result for some much needed breathing room.  Congratulations to the drivers and the team for a superb performance.  Special thanks to Rami for being a pure class driver.