http://www.orionraceteam.com/ News

2012-05-14 22:34:02

After a difficult race in the previous round of iRacing.com World Championship Grand Prix Series, The Orion Race Team showed strong performance at Road America. After having struggled most of the week Roland Ehnström showed excellent race day form with a very pleasing 2nd place finish. His day got to a good start already in qualifying where he secured a 7th position on the grid. Ilkka Haapala's qualifying was again difficult (14th), but the 1 stop strategy Orion chose for the race worked great and brought him a 4th place finish. After having miraculously survived flying and spinning cars during the start of the race, he soon found himself trailing Roland. The duo had to battle against lighter 2 stop strategy cars throughout the race, but survived the race unharmed and finished in strong positions.

Matthias Egger, Davy Decorps and Dion Vergers were all victims of on-track incidents and had to retire their vehicles early in the race.

After the race, Roland announced his plans to retire from simracing at the highest level at the end of the season. Fortunately Roland isn't stopping racing completely and we still have 10 races left in the season. Read more about the subject below.

Driver quotes:

Roland Ehnström (2nd):

Talk about unexpected results, the (i)Racing Gods really smiled at me this time! After the terrible time I had at Okayama, where I was miles off my normal pace and couldn't get a handle on the car, my motivation was at an all-time low. At Road America the car felt a little better, though, and especially so after the update to the car we had early this week, which fixed a lot of the problems I was suffering from at Okayama. But compared to some of my ultra-fast team-mates at Orion Race Team, my laptimes were still not looking overly impressive. Come race day I was in fact completely uninterested in racing, and had to force myself to drive a few more practice laps. I don't think I've ever been so disinterested in a race before, and it scared me quite a bit. This helped me solidify a decision I made early this season, which I will reveal below. But first some words about yesterday's race:

In qualifying my first effort was not a very good one, and I finally decided to abort the lap and try again. The next lap I was perhaps a little bit too cautious, but it was a solid lap not very far from my personal best in practice, and to my astonishment it was enough for position 6 on the grid. I was expecting to qualify in the 15-20 region, but apparently my pace wasn't that bad after all!

I had planned to go for a 1-stop strategy since I was expecting to qualify way down the grid, and decided to stick with this even though a 2-stopper might be slightly faster in theory. With a heavy car, I made a poor start from P6 on the grid, slipping the clutch way too much, and was going to lose position to Pablo López. But two seconds after the start I had a first-hand look at the incident between Luke McLean and Hugo Luís, which also took Martin Krönke out of the race. I lifted off as Hugo crashed into Martin, then made a quick decition and slipped past to the left. Luke was now getting back up to speed right in front of me, and I could see that his rear wing and rear suspension was broken as we approached Turn 1. So I lifted again and gave him a big cushion, which was no doubt a good decition, as he spun out of control at the exit of Turn 1 and went hard into the barriers to the right. Again I slipped by unharmed to the left, and was now suddenly in third position! On the back straight, however, Jake Stergios accelerated a lot faster than me and got up alongside. Having gained so many positions already, and knowing that I was on a 1-stop strategy, while Jake's acceleration suggested that he was on a 2-stopper, I let Jake take the position even though I had the inside line for the next corner. Later in the first lap I also opened the door wide open for Jeremy Bouteloup to slip by, as I really didn't want to risk anything with so many of the top cars already out of the race.

As things settled down, I found myself in fifth position, with Jake and Jeremy opening up a gap in front, and André Böttcher looking for a way past me. I wasn't sure if André was on a 1-stopper or a 2-stopper, and didn't have to fight too hard to stay in front of him, so in the end I held him up until lap 9, when he finally made a nice move to demote me to sixth. Next up were Fulvio Barozzini and Pablo López, who were batteling each other as they were both flying through the field, obviousely on 2-stop strategies. Fulvio soon powered up alongside me on the start/finish straight, and Pablo followed him by as Fulvio passed me in Turn 1.

So now I was in eight position, but I knew I was still in for a great result, as many drivers in front were definately on 2-stop strategies. On lap 13 I also gained one position back as Atze Kerkhof had a connection problem. By lap 15 the 2-stopping drivers started pitting, and three laps later I was running second, with my team-mate Ilkka Haapala a couple of seconds behind. Knowing Ilkka's speed from team testing, I was expecting him to close the gap in a hurry, but in fact I could hold it more or less stable until he pitted at the end of lap 24. I pitted the next lap, and came out in seventh position, now three seconds in front of Ilkka. Ten laps later all the 2-stopping drivers had completed their second stops, and I was back up into second place, with Ilkka now some seven seconds behind and crucially in front of Jake Stergios, who was the leading 2-stopper. With 11 laps to go Jake got past Ilkka, but I now had a 9-second gap to him, so even with his fresher tires I wasn't too worried that he would catch me. I was in "The Zone" now - from lap 32 to 44 I made 13 straight laps all between 1:36.6 and 1:36.8.

So in the end I took the checkered flag in second place, 21 seconds behind Greger Huttu (congratulations master!), but still 3 in front of Jake, to score my first ever iRacing World Championship podium finish... Amazing!!!

This incredible result makes it a great time to publicly announce the decition I made a while ago: At the end of this season, I will retire from sim racing at the elite level. I will definately keep racing (how could I ever stop?), just not at the World Championship level. I've been doing this for 15 years, since the very early days of the Internet, and I finally feel that I'm losing interest. It's just not as fun anymore, and I'm having a very difficult time finding motivation to practice for hours every week. So it's time to stop. Ten races remain in the World Championship series, and I intend to keep fighting to the end. But when it's over, it's over.

Roland's 2nd place finish came along with sad news for the simracing world.

Ilkka Haapala (4th):

Mixed day at Road America for my Jimm's Orion FW31. Qualifying was again difficult for me and I was way off the pace I should have been doing. I was still pretty confident for the race knowing we had good pace in our cars and strategy we chose looked good.

Starting from 14th on grid meant there was bound to be some mayhem ahead and quickly after the start that proved to be true. I got a decent launch and went to the middle lane and right after that I saw a My3id car in the air upside down. I somehow managed to get through that unharmed and after more trouble before T2, I found myself in 7th position! Things started to look very good already with my 1 stop strategy. Pablo López behind me looked very fast and it seemed he was on 2 stop strategy. We had a good battle for few laps, but he eventually got by me after my small mistake in T5 braking. In the process, Fulvio Barozzini divebombed from pretty far away into T8, but luckily I was paying enough attention and left him room. A bit too risky move to make there, even if in a hurry because of lighter car.

After the 2 stoppers eventually got by Roland we were now running 8th and 9th. I was slowly closing the gap and got pretty close right before my stop on lap 24. Roland stopped a lap later, but I was now over 3 seconds behind again. For some reason I was struggling to get back into rhytm with the heavy car while Roland was straight on it. Shortly after Aleksi who was on a 2 stopper caught me and I didn't want to make it too hard for him and didn't want to lose time fighting him either. So when he got a run on me into T1, I let him go. I could have done a better job with it and we got closer together than I was planning, but luckily we survived. A bit later Jake Stergios left pits right behind me after his second stop and I knew it would be close to impossible to keep him behind. He was closing the gap quickly and caught me into T1. I managed to hold him off for one corner but then it was over. Also didn't want to be overly aggressive as Jeremy Bouteloup behind him had just pitted and had fresh tires as well. Losing too much time with Jake could have cost me more positions in the end. After Jake's pass I was able to maintain good pace and in the end kept my position against Jeremy quite easily.

Very pleased with the end result from difficult starting position. Lost a bit too much time on my pitstop and first laps of second stint which put me too far back from Roland. A podium would have been in reach, but 4th place is a good finish.

Great drive once again from Greger. He made it look easy, maybe because it probably was! Stellar performance by Roland, his pace in the first laps of second stint was great. Grats to Jake as well for podium.

Big thanks to my sponsor Jimm's "Your toaster will never be the same"

Ilkka narrowly avoids a flying Brazilian, Hugo Luis

Dion Vergers (26th):

Very VERY disappointing.

Qual wasn't great but didn't put much effort in it, so was happy enough with that. Was really looking forward to the race as the car felt very comfy for me and very fast at the end of my runs. Had put in quite some time on my raceset and looking at my practice pace I would have been very competitive.

Race was over as soon as it started tho and got caught up in that mess. Tried to slow down and move but didn't help one bit since the track got closed down for me from both sides. Looking back there was a small gap at the right but finding that gap ain't easy, especially if 1 sec b4 that there were still 2 cars there.

Shame tho, round 6 and I feel I got to race 2 somewhat decent races so far, rest was just ended by contacts. And in the meantime I just slip back further and further in the championship. Tbh I expected a higher standard from the drivers then what we've seen so far. Too much stuff happening imo and that's just disappointing.

Cheers,
Dion....

Dion Vergers had nowhere to go as the start mayhem commenced.

Davy Decorp's race ended in an unavoidable accident in Turn 5

2012-05-04 20:21:00

David Sirois won his 5th consecutive ISRA-GTC Title, this time driving the Orion SimSport/Cube Control LMP car in a mix of Corvettes and Ford GTs. The French-Canadian driver, sometimes struggling with setups on High-Downforce configuration in the 15 races season long, showed great consistency with 13 top-5 finishes. With 7 poles and 4 wins, he won the championship with a 77 points lead over Bryan Carey, with Chris Damron Jr following in 3rd.

At the same time, David won the prestigious Z1 Sim Wheel CLEAN DRIVER AWARD! This prize is given to the driver who finishes the season with the most Clean-Bonus points. David raced 7 incident-free races. Matthew Voigt was following with 4 and John Cousland with 3. David wins an amazing Z1 Sim Wheel LCD Display!

Congratulations David!

For more information about Z1 Sim Wheel display, visit http://www.z1simwheel.com

2012-04-18 18:56:43

The round 4 of iRacing World Championship Grand Prix Series turned into a thriller. Orion Race Team drivers Roland Ehnström, Jaroslav Honzik, Matthias Egger and Dion Vergers were part of an action packed race around the bumpy 1.75 mile track. Ilkka Haapala missed the round due to illness.

At the end of the 52 lap race Roland Ehnström scored a 7th place finish. His race was eventful in more ways than one, including avoiding a spinning car onto the grass narrowly avoiding the guardrails. Jaroslav Honzik and Matthias Egger finished 11th and 12th respectively while Dion Vergers suffered again from bad luck and had to retire his badly damaged FW31 car.

Driver quotes:

Roland Ehnström, 7th:

I had a fun and eventful race - not as planned and far from perfect.

Drove a pretty solid 1:28.6 on the first attempt in qualifying, and then improved to a 1:28.530 which put me 6th on the grid. I was contemplating going for a 1-stop strategy this time, but this fine qual result meant I decided to go for the 2-stopper.

I made a decent start and got by Blake Townend but lost position to André Böttcher. Was challenged by Ben Cornett in the first chicane and opened the door wide open, but he wisely backed out of it and I stayed in 6th position.

Was following André for some laps and noticed I had better traction out of the slow corners, so I felt I had a chance to make a move. Indeed I got up along side him three or four times in the next bunch of laps, but couldn't quite finish the move. At one point we went side-by-side for several turns while at the same time leaving lots of room for each other - very nice racing! I also had to keep an eye in the mirror, because our battle for 5th slowed us down considerably and allowed Blake to catch back up and start looking for ways to capitalize on any mistakes.

Finally things settled down as we neared the first pit stop, and I decided to back down and add a lot of fuel for the second stint, to perhaps be able to jump past André during the second round of pit stops. But then at the end of lap 17 André got a bit sideways in the final turn onto the start/finish straight, and I caught right back up to him again, and then in the super-fast-and-bumpy-as-hell Turn 1 André suddenly lost control completely and spun out right in front of me! I guess his rear tires were hot after the slide in the previous turn, and maybe I took some air off his rear wing by running close behind. Or maybe it was just one of those bumps... Anyway, at 260+ kph there was not much time to do anything to avoid contact with the sliding my3id car, but at least I managed to straighten the wheel out enough to only glance the right rear wheel with my front wing before going for a wild ride across the grass - which was almost as bumpy as the track itself (and had about the same amount of grip). I saw the armco barrier to the right rushing towards me and knew my race was over, but somehow I kept the car away from the barriers and got it back onto the racing surface without hitting anything solid. Phew!!!

So I came back to the track still in sixth position, now behind Blake who had slipped by as I was doing my rally cross stunt, but it was obvious that my car had some sort of damage - it just wouldn't turn properly and I was losing a lot of time... Ben closed up and got past me easily, then Jake Stergios demoted me to 8th and finally Jeremy Bouteloup got past as well before I decided it was time to pit and let the crew take a look at the car (even though I had fuel to stay out another couple of laps). My Orion Race Team pit crew did an excellent job changing the front wing, four tires and filling the tank in just over 10 seconds, and got me back out still just in front of Samuel Libeert, who had entered the pits less than a second behind me!

After the front wing change my car felt good again, and I could pull out a small gap to Samuel. Into this gap slotted Martin Krönke after his first pit stop, but he couldn't really challenge me for position. I was now running 9th, carrying a lot of fuel, but could slowly catch back up to Jeremy, only to watch him make a spectacular exit into the guard rails! This gifted me 8th, and gave me a clear track ahead. I pumped in some pretty fast laps, and gained a lot of time being able to stay out a number of extra laps before coming in for my second stop. In fact, near the end of this second stint, I noticed that I could go one more lap if I just saved a little fuel, but this economy mode slowed me down by half a second a lap in the final four or five laps of the stint, so I'm not sure I gained much after all.

Anyway, I finally pitted at the end of lap 42, with just 10 laps to go to the finish. At the pit exit I was in front of Blake, but his momentum carried him past me into the tight chicane, so I had to make a proper pass on the track to take 7th. I did so on lap 46, and then drove some very nice laps to close the 4-second gap to Jake down to less than 1 second before the finish. I gave it all I had and clocked a 1:28.9 on the final lap, but it wasn't quite enough, so I had to settle for 7th. Looking at the final results I guess I should have been 5th (yet again!) with a smoother race, but 7th is good points for the championship, so I am not complaining. I'm still 5th (where else?) in the championship standings, which is an excellent result after one quarter of the series.

Congratulations to Greger Huttu and all of Team Redline for another very impressive performance, and to Hugo Luis for keeping Greger honest!

Jaroslav Honzik, 11th:

Well, for start I must do a big apology to my team, because last 14days I had some terrible life. A lot of personal life issues, releationship, and so much work... I didn't help a bit with the setup and done about 30laps as practice. No excuses for that. I hope I will fix that all soon..

Qual
First lap was ok, slow but very safe about 29,2.
Second lap was a bit better but I did mistake in Middle sector and it was just about 28,9..
14th on the grid was not what i wanted but after that week it was more then good.

Race
Start was good, Two cars infront went both to the left and I was a lot faster going on the middle. I guess it was David who backed up a little bit and I expected the same from andrew (all other braked) but he was just there to the T1 very hard on inside and no brakes on so I very scary moved and left him space but I saw myself really dead for first time.
In T2-T3 I had some side by side action with him and passed him by outside.
On the T4 exit Samuel had some moment and he went right to the track (nothing he can do) and Petteri just somehow managed to avoid him, we both braked and went in very tight group to the Hairpin. But all survived.
Later in the race I realized that as I took a lot of fuel I am starting to be very slow in the middle/end of the stint.
I was passed by Martin and Andrew without any hard time, I mostly let them pass after my mistakes. Then I had some time with Pablo, I wanted to let him pass but there was just not a good time for it. I did mistake he slowed down or he did mistake and I had some gap. Finally I did small mistake and just let of the throttle to let him pass without any other fight and Was wondering what other guys have as strategy. To my surprise I pitted about 2-3laps later then Pablo and Andrew on the lap 24 and managed to make some gap there. My second stint was I guess a good on pace. Samuel was flying so no chance there but I was keeping some gap with cars behind.
For last pitstop I left pitlane with my teammate Matthias close to my rear wing but he was on 1stop strategy so my tyres were fresh.
I started to flying us both more far from Petteri. And to my surprise at the start of stint I was faster then Samuel and I closed the gap very quickly. No idea if he had damage or what. Sometime at the end he was faster then did mistake and I was faster. Once we were side by side after his half-spin but no chance to pass.
I was very on his tail on last lap but there was no simply any chance from him to pass him.
11th at the End very Happy after all that struggle last days!

Big thanks to my team for great job with the setup but I was just not able to get maximum from it. Thank you Max and Roland. Also thanks to my sponsors Czech GoPro and Czc.cz computer stuff seller !
Also congrats for Roland for great 7th (almost 5th hehe) and Matthias for 12th!
Big thanks to Pablo who helped a lot this week and sorry for holding you up after that!

Great race by Greger as usual and Hugo and Luke! I tipped it all right

Matthias Egger, 12th:

This was a very very difficult race for me. All over the week I was struggling just to finish a lap, every time I crashed my car into a wall or I was slow as hell. Fortunately the race showed me that I was not the only one with problems like that.
Qualifying went really bad, I was about 0,7s behind my best lap and started in 20th position. For this reason and knowing that I haven’t the capability to overtake this time, I choose to start with a 1 stop strategy and this was the right choice for me.

At the start I was careful to not being involved into some crashes, fortunately all went fine and I started to build up my pace, following Petteri. Lap by lap I closed the gap and I remained behind him until he pitted at 27th lap. I has fuel for another lap so I pushed as hard as I could and after my pitstop I managed to remain in front of him. With the full tank I was faster than Petteri and following my teammate Jaroslav I taked a nice gap that was very useful the last 6 laps. With low fuel my car was really bad, the speed in the fast corners was very slow and only the slow first part of Sebring helped me to make laps, fast enough to loose only some tenths. I closed the race with only 1 second in front of Petteri, that was blazing fast at the end.

My Orion Race Team Williams F1 was really good with the full tank, not so good the final laps of the stints, but well, mine was a great race from my point of view, really unexpected. I would say thanks to my team and in particular to Max that helped me a lot during the week. Thanks mate!

Dion Vergers, 30th:

Not doing myself any favors so far this season.

Bad qualify (again) , bad start, and a misunderstanding with Martti a few laps later = end of race.

Sry for that again Martti. Noticed you struggeling on the entry and curbs and figured u had a bf or some dmg and that you were staying wide to let Darren and me through. Once I committed myself to entry it was too late to react.

all in all not a great weekend (again)

Screenshot by Dylan Sharman

2012-04-04 20:33:06

Orion Race Team wants to welcome three new partners. Jimm's PC-Store, CZC.cz and GoPro Czech.

Jimm's PC-Store will be sponsoring Ilkka Haapala in the iRacing.com World Championship Grand Prix Series in 2012.

Jimm's is a Finnish PC, computer hardware and electronics online store established in 2001 and employs 38 people. "I've been a Jimm's customer for several years so having them help me in the 2012 iWCGPS campaign is a perfect fit" says Haapala. "Them being a Finnish company, just makes it extra special" the Finn continued.

Ilkka sporting his new Jimm's colors.

The Czech online store for computer hardware CZC.cz and the Czech reseller for GoPro will be joining Jaroslav Honzik in his efforts in the iRacing.com World Championship Grand Prix Series. "I've bought a lot of computer parts from CZC over the years and have always been 100% happy. GoPro is a very well known brand and I'm very excited to be working with them as well" said Honzik.

Jaroslav's new livery at Indianapolis.

The Orion Race Team is actively seeking new partners to sponsor our drivers Roland Ehnström, Matthias Egger and Dion Vergers in the iRacing.com World Championship Grand Prix Series. If your company is interested in an exciting new way of promotion, please feel free to contact us here

2012-04-01 20:25:26

The Orion Race Team continues to show great form as the iRacing.com World Championship Grand Prix Series traveled to Indianapolis for round 3. In qualifying, Roland Ehnström secured an excellent third position on the grid having Jaroslav Honzik line up his GoPro sponsored vehicle right next to him in fourth. Further down the grid, Matthias Egger started 10th and Ilkka Haapala 11th after another difficult qualifying. Dion Verger's day proved to be filled with bad luck after starting from the 22nd spot.

Jaroslav Honzik and Roland Ehnström survived the tight first corner after the start.

After first lap problems, Jaroslav was on fire for the entire race. Taking back the positions lost on first lap, he slotted into a solid third place which he held comfortably till the end. Roland's race was more action packed but he drove a very good top 5 finish after holding off Team Redline's Ben Cornett. Ilkka Haapala was caught in traffic most of the race after the difficult starting position and finally brought his Jimm's PC-Store sponsored car home in 9th. Matthias Egger drove another solid finish and scored ever so important points with his 10th place finish. After a first lap incident with Team Redline's Dom Duhan, Dion Vergers had to navigate the Indianapolis Road Course with badly mangled car finally finishing in 25th.

A podium finish by Jaroslav and another top-5 from Roland Ehnström is a great result for the team and drivers are already looking forward to Sebring race in two weeks time, hoping to keep up the good form. After first three races of the season Jaroslav, Roland and Matthias are all in top 6 in the championship standings. Scoring his second win of the season at Indianapolis, Greger Huttu of Team Redline sits comfortably in the top position.

Driver quotes:

Jaroslav Honzik, 3rd:

First of all I would like to thanks to my Orion Race Team for great help with the setup for Indy. At the beggining of the week I have been a bit struggeling with Setup and my Drive around the track. But few modifications from Max and Roland and Me at final helped me a lot. And of course thanks to my sponsors Czech Gopro (www.gohd.cz) and Czc.cz Pc store (www.czc.cz).

This time and maybe for first time I worked very hard to get all things right, also helped me a lot that I had forced vacation from work so I had time to practice I knew race setup will be important so I worked very hard there and Max came out with awesome modifications of Roland's setup and I did few changes to fits me better as well.

Qual:
As usual I was a bit nervous but to my surprise when I saw only 31 drivers entered the qualy I thought well what ever in worse I be last on grid. So first try was a bit risky to take T1 but I get the slow down.
Second lap was quite ok but I did some mistakes and lap was a little for sure to make some "middle" time but to me surprise I did 1tenth off my optimal and in that part of qualy I was on second place! Which was awesome and in end of the qual I stand still on 4th place on grid which is amazing results for me!

Race
Well, as usual I had a little more fuel and longer first gear so I was really worried about screwing up the start with whole field behind.
But My start to be honest went great, even better then Greger which was good feel. To turn 1 I was coming behind Greger but I didn't want to screw up so I braked very carefully because I had Roland and Samuel on my left. To my surprise Atze went hard into the middle of our 3wide cars pack and made it 4! Forced me to go very inside and almost cut Turn 1 to leave him space it was very close. I almost close my eyes to see that crash. Unfortunately only Atze suffer from that risk and had little contact with Roland who was leaving space to Samuel on left and Right for me and Atze crashed with André.

After Turn 1 I stood behind Samuel on great 4th place and was right behind his tail. But with a little mistake I run a little off in the exit of last corner and as from practice I didn't wanted to make a spin I simply went straight and lost only two places to Roland and Ben. As seen Psrtv broadcast lot of guys spin there so I was kinda happy how well I handle that.

After that mistake I was right behind Ben and I felt a much faster so on next lap I tried to draft pass him and we both gentlemen left each other tons of places (I was like omg aussie 2metres Is Not Good enough!!! ).
Then very quick I was catching Roland to my surprise and after few laps he did mistake and get slow down in T1 and leaved my back my 4th place. Then because of stable laps and of course thanks to draft I was catching Samuel. First laps I just wanted to stay behind him because I was not sure if I am faster or not and I didn't want to hold us.
After few laps I started feeling my good concentration and went closer to Samuel and lucky for him he did same thing as Roland and had to slow down after Turn 1 (I had myself a lot of mistakes in Turn 1 so I wanted to avoid that in the race).
So I had the 3rd place from him and right after I was making our distance a little bigger but not too much but ok for no draft.
I pit on end of 40lap I guess or 41 which was pretty late but very good to avoid beeing slow down by other cars.

I left pitlane on 3rd place with almost 8-9seconds gap between me and Roland and 5-6s to Hugo on 2nd place! Roland been hold by other cars because he pit too early and to my surprise Samuel crashed in the pitlane.
Very surprising was to see where the hell came Luke from on lap 46 About 10seconds behind me on 4th place. At start of stint I was very scary because Luke is hard alien to him to get close to me and steal my 3rd place but after few laps I knew that only mistake would take my place because our pace was very close.
At the start of stint I thought I can get closer to Hugo but as Perez in Malaysia I didn't wanted to lose great points and Podium! So I was still very close on lap times with Hugo but still not raced on maximum to avoid any possible mistake with lappers or myself.

All worked pretty good to me, at end of stint I get closer to Hugo for about 3,5-4s which was good feel.
I must say I never been so concentrated in virtual car, I felt like robot Very good stable laps and I did only one mistake on Lap one.
So after great race I seen finish on 3rd place. Which was amazing feeling for me in this very hard championship. I didn't even think to be finishing in Top10 before the season!
I had to did some donuts before I entered the pitlane hope some people seen it.

I am very very happy with the results I must say that good work pay off and I am so happy with it.
Sadly for future races time for practice will be very small but I hope to keep at least for top10 results.

Thanks to whole Orion Race Team for great support and help and others for great racing! Thanks to Ilkka for let me steal his livery Jimm's PC store and make it work also for my GoPro/Czc.cz Car which looks great and works perfect!

Big Congrats to Greger who did amazing pace as always and Hugo for superb 2nd place! Of Course perfect job for other Orion drivers Roland for 5th place Ilkka 9th and Matthias 10th!

Championship standings are very nice at this moment. 4 Orions on Top 10. 3drivers in top 6 and me on 3rd place is amazing feeling But I don't think I can hold this place for very long. Summer is dead end to me

See you next round!

Jaroslav Honzik's strong form continues as he finishes 3rd at Indianapolis.

Roland Ehnström, 5th:

Great qualifying, tough race, surprising result!

Got a high 1:04.3 already on my first qualifying lap and was satisfied with this. Then drove a relaxed second lap and clocked a 1:04.312 which amazingly was good enough for THIRD on the grid and just a tenth off pole! This was very surprising as I wasn't all that confident in my raw pace this week. Seems we have found a very good base setup at Orion this season, way better than last season for sure (I qualified P7 for the Pro Series race at this track back in November).

Starting from third on the grid I made a pretty poor start, let the clutch up a bit too much and bogged down pretty badly. Was also scared a bit by Greger Huttu moving across my nose on the run down towards turn 1 and lifted off for a moment. This allowed my team-mate Jaroslav Honzik to get up alongside me on the inside and Samuel Libeert on the outside of me as we turned in to the narrowing first chicane. I was in the middle and played it as safe as I could, letting them both through. Still felt a small wobble in the car in the middle of the chicane and couldn't for the life of me understand what that came from. Looking at the replay after the race I see that we were actually FOUR wide going into the chicane, as Atze Kerkhof also tried to squeeze in between me and Jaroslav. The wobble I felt was Atze's left front wheel touching my right rear. I didn't realise how lucky I was until I saw this replay - four wide into this bend is supposed to end in tears for everyone involved!

But I survived, and was now running fifth, behind Hugo Luis, Greger, Samuel and Jaroslav. At the end of the first lap Jaroslav had a moment in the turn leading out onto the long straight, and I slipped by to take fourth position. I then tried my best to stay within a second of Samuel to get into his slipstream at the end of each lap. This worked well until I made a small mistake in the first chicane on lap 6, which handed fourth place back to Jaroslav. So now I was trying to hang on to Jaroslav's slipstream instead, while hoping to draw clear of Ben Cornett behind. This worked pretty well, and after 10-15 laps a gap started to open up back to Ben.

On lap 21 Samuel cut the first chicane and had to slow down to avoid a black flag, which let Jaroslav up to third place and me back up to fourth. For the rest of the first stint Samuel was following me but never got close enough to pass. I wasn't able to hang on to Jaroslav's pace, though, and also knowing that he had slightly more fuel than me, I gave up any hopes I had on a possible podium finish.

I pitted at the end of lap 38, which was earlier than most, and came out in an awkward position just ahead of drivers who hadn't yet pitted and therefore had 90 kg lighter cars. I was passed twice in the outlap and lost a lot of time. Samuel pitted the lap after, but had an issue in the pits and still came out behind me despite my slow out lap. Before the pit stop I had pulled out a 6-second lead on Ben, but he pitted two laps later and now came out of the pits as I was approaching turn 1, while I was also putting another driver a lap down. Things got pretty close as we were three-wide on the approch, but all did well to avoid collision and I stayed ahead of Ben.

A further four laps later Luke McLean finally made his stop after a very long first stint, and came out of the pits between me and Ben. "Where the did he come from?!", I thought, and didn't even try to hold position. Luke passed me easily within a lap and set off into the distance, demoting me back to fifth position. But ironically Luke's presense ahead of me helped me defend position from his team-mate Ben, as I was helped by Luke's slipstream for quite a few laps to stay one second ahead of Ben. Behind Ben I saw that David Williams was close, and Jake Stergios wasn't far behind him either. So there was no room for error, or I'd slip down to eight position in an instant, which would have been disappointing considering from where I started. So I got my head down and basicly drove 30 qualifying laps in a row to get to the end of the race with Ben still that one second behind. I'm proud that I made no mistakes while pushing this hard for so many laps, and finally finished the race in an excellent fifth position!

So I finished fifth, just like at Zandvoort two weeks ago. And I was in fifth position at Watkins Glen at the time of the crash with Emil. And I am now sitting fifth in the championship. Is there a trend developing here? Congratulations to Greger for winning this round of the great championship battle with Hugo, and also MASSIVE congratulations to Jaroslav for a very well-deserved podium finish! For us as a team this was another great result, as Orion Race Team had four cars in the top-10 at the finish, and now also have three drivers in the top-6 in the championship standings!

Roland Ehnström holds off Ben Cornett and David Williams for a 5th place finish.

Ilkka Haapala, 9th:

Same story, different race. Failed horribly in qualifying and it's really starting to hurt my season. 11th on the grid meant a tough race, but was till feeling good about my race pace.

Took it very easy on the start, probably a bit too easy, and lost a couple of positions in T1/2 which I had already gained in the run down to first corner. Things settled down quickly and I was following Jake with Luke behind me. Few laps into the race Jake made a move on Matthias and I almost was close enough to try something as well. Had to back down a bit out of Turn 4 which allowed Luke to sneak by into Turn6. From there on I really didn't even have a chance to pass Luke and was just following cars around waiting for pitstops as passing proved to be very difficult with so many cars close together.

Pitted on lap 41 and ran out of fuel just before I stopped in my box. After everyone had made their stops, I was behind Matthias again, who let me go without a fight. Started to catch Jake again who was 3 or so seconds ahead and finally just caught him before the end. Was too late to try anything and had to settle for 9th position.

The Jimm's PC-Store Orion FW31 was plenty fast today, but the qualifying effort hurt me too much. Spent the whole first stint behind cars so I wasn't able to keep up the pace that I would have needed. Not the result I was looking for, but hopefully I can improve at Sebring.

Big congrats to Jaroslav for his podium finish! Definitely deserved after all the hard work he's done. Great run by Roland as well and an awesome qualifying. Very happy to see two Orion cars with a top-5 finish! And of course, congrats to Greger and Hugo, impressive as ever.

Ilkka Haapala chasing down Jake Stergios in the closing laps.

Matthias Egger, 10th:

Finally a good race for me at Indy, i take a revenge over last year when my race suddenly finished because i was taken out by an error of David Williams in Turn 1 (sorry for remember that David ).

Qualifying went really well, i made almost my best laps, so starting in 10th was really good to help to avoid troubles in T1.

Infact i had no problem to mantain mine position and thanks to the crash of Atze, i gained 1 spot. I try to remain in the slipstream of David for the first laps, but was impossible because behind me Jake Stergios was very fast on the straight, so i try to resist, but it taked to much risk, and i decided to let him pass. For another 20 lap i managed to remain in front of Luke that passed me in T1. Another time i decided to not risk anything, because i would finish this race at all cost to gain some points. The pit went really well and gained a lot of seconds over the guys behind me. When Ilkka comed into my slipstream i let him pass, because not also he was clearly faster, but i wouldn't loose time in a battle when there was almost 25 laps to the finish. From there i relaxed myself to cross the line in 10th position. Last year i was a little ahead, but with this field a 10th place is like a victory for me.

My Orion Williams F1, was really good this time, compared to Zandvoort and i hope that at Sebring we can continue this awesome result. Our Team, was very strong and also Dion has the time to make a lot better ì, he had no luck at all this time.

Thanks to my team, for the brilliant work on the car!!!

Matthias Egger scored important points with his 10th place finish.

2012-03-23 11:26:03

This result is such a great relief after the utter disappointment in the season opener at Watkins Glen, where I was running fifth as I crashed out of the race in an unfortunate accident with my compatriot Emil Spindel. After that race I couldn't get myself to drive a single lap for a week, until I finally got on with it and slowly started to work on a Zandvoort setup. This soon became almost an obsession in the days leading up to the race - every time I sat down to do a quick 45-minute test session, I ended up driving for more than two hours!

For this reason, I was very nervous at the start of the qualifying session - I didn't want all these practice hours to go to waste! On my first qualifying attempt I made a good first turn, but then I buckled under the pressure and missed the apex by a mile in turn 2 and lost half a second. I aborted the attempt, stopped and tried to gather my thoughts before trying one more time... This second try definately wasn't the best lap I've driven in my life, but thankfully I managed to get round without making any major mistakes, and clocked a 1:10.278 which put ninth on the grid. Phew!

From the left side of the fifth row (I never understood why pole is on the outside at Zandvoort!), I made perhaps the best start in my iRacing career. Within yards I shot by Martti Pietilä who started right in front of me, and also powered past Jake Stergios who had started from fifth position. In turn one I was side-by-side with Samuel Libeert, who had also made a rocket start from eight on the grid, and I played it safe and gave him a lot of room and slotted in behind him, into what was in effect sixth position as Ben Cornett (who should have started from P6) missed the start due to a connection problem.

My first few laps were tentative. I drove well within the capabilities of the car, making absolutely sure I did not throw this great start away with a stupid mistake, not caring too much about trying to hang on to the pace of Samuel. I also wasn't overly concerned about having Jake on my tail, because passing is very difficult on this track anyway, and I know Jake as an intelligent driver who will not risk a crazy move to gain position early in the race.

After some laps I started to gain confidence and could push a little harder, although my laptimes were still consistently a few tenths slower than in my race simulations in practice. To my relief the gap back to Jake opened up to over one second, so I could concentrate on my own driving and didn't need to keep an eye in the mirror. Meanwhile the gap to Samuel in front grew to three seconds and more, but this didn't concern me much, as I was already in a better position than I could have hoped for.

Before the first pit stop Jake closed the gap to me again, and then pitted one lap ahead of me (I pitted at the end of lap 29). This later stop should play to my advantage, so I could make a safe stop and come out still one second in front. In the second stint Jake seemed faster and more determined to find a way past, and he got close a few times in turn one, but I could keep ahead without having to compromise my own driving.

On lap 41 Samuel had a big off and lost a lot of time, allowing me and Jake to pass him. So now I was up to fifth position! Jake again made his second pit stop one lap ahead of me, and this time I came out two seconds in front after my second stop at the end of lap 52. This gap opened up to three and then four seconds in the early laps of the final stint, and I now started to feel that my top-5 finish was safe. On lap 67 there was a small scare, however, as I had to almost come to a full stop to avoid my team-mate Dion Vergers who was batteling hard with Darren Marsh for 17th position a lap down. This allowed Jake to close the gap to just over a second again, but there were only four laps to go, and he never got into a position to try anything.

So I finished the race fifth, absolutely thrilled and most of all very, very relieved. My season is saved.

Congratulations to Hugo Luis for a blinding drive, beating the whole Redline team to take the win is very impressive! And congratulations to Luke McLean for the great pole position and second place, Greger Huttu for the solid podium finish and a commanding championship lead, and to Atze Kerkhof for fourth position in his "home" Grand Prix. I'm honored to be "best of the rest" behind this lot!

Congratulations also to my team-mates at Orion Race Team, who all finished the race - we scored 5th, 7th, 8th, 14th and 19th in this race, in a great show of speed and consistency. Let's see if this is enough to attract a sponsor or two (hint!).

2012-03-23 11:23:55

Another horrible qualifying for me. Was doing good laptimes consistently prior to qualifying, but just couldn't deliver when it mattered. No excuse, just bad form.

Was very worried about getting through first lap unharmed, but everyone was being very careful and it turned out ok. As expected after a bad qualifying, was stuck behind slower cars on the first stint. There really isn't anything you can do about it unless the other guy makes a mistake. Pitted together with Jeremy on lap 29 and I took just a bit less fuel I guess and we left pits side by side. Jeremy was very polite and left good amount of room so I was able to get by.

From there on, it was actually a pretty lonely race for me as Stergios and Ehnström were already too far ahead for me to really have a chance. Wasn't really catching them at all, a tenth here and there if that, but it wasn't enough. So I decided to just try to mind the gap behind to my other teammate Jaroslav and avoid any mistakes.

After starting from 16th, 7th place is nice and the points are more than welcome. More importantly, Roland showed we have a good pace which is promising. I just need to sort my qualifying effort somehow.

Congrats to Hugo, Luke and Greger. Great pace as always.

Big thanks to all of Orion Race Team!

2012-03-23 11:21:07

First of all thanks to my Team for Great help with the setup, especially to Roland and Max and of course thanks to my sponsors GoPro cz(www.gohd.cz) and CZC.cz (www.czc.cz).

I gave a lot to the testing but I wasn't much happy with my times. My pb was down to 10,2xx but I knew that all my time I lost in S4 but couldn't do it better there.

Qual:
As usual came just from work and very tired but energized with RedBull and Tequilla shot.
On first qualy lap I was very easy didn't want to mess up and did like 10,7xx lap. Was bad but better then nothing.
Second lap was a bit better but in chicken (I like you Fernando hehe) I didn't want to get slow down or offtrack so was very easy and did 10,5xx lap which was ok because I qualified but far at 17th place (if i did 1tenth better I could have been 5places in front).

Race:
Started side by side with Ilkka and little worried about longer first gear as I had at watkins glen (on watkins a lost a lots of places on grid) but this time i did all right and hold my place. In T1 I passed choose outside line and passed Kronke there. Maybe if i was a bit more agressive i could pass Ilkka as well but we all know F1 netcode so I kept my position.
Before Chicken I braked a little later then Ilkka and went to inside but was too scary to don't mess up with my teammate even if he left me a lot of space... I really don't like to pass with this Ntm as its much faster then Otm.
I settled on position behind Ilkka and on third lap there was Martti who did mistake but he didn't let us pass. Lucky for me and Ilkka he did mistake lap later and we went throught.
Later in first part of the stint I did little mistake on the exit to the last corner and Martin passed me but few laps later he did mistake too so I passed back and pushed very hard on the end of the stint (I had a little more fuel then cars infront).
I pitted one lap later then guys infront and it managed to me to pass David and be really close to Jeremy and Ilkka.
Ilkka went away very soon but Jeremy some how struggled with the car and did mistake in Chicken So I passed him and went my own laps. Ilkka slowly went away and I was gaining on cars behind me.
After last pitstop I was 3secs behind Ilkka but sometimes I had been a little slowed down by lappers and sometimes he was and I finished on great 8th place behind him with very safe distance to 9th.

Race was great to me I am happy my strategy worked perfect and also my pace was good so I was able to pass some guys infront.

Big grats to the Hugo with Champions pace and to the podium rest.
Also Roland did perfect job with 5th place and Ilkka with 7th

With very interest looking forward for Indianapolis GP because I don't like much the track with Otm so I am interest with NTM.

Thanks for all support from team and my partners.

My race start onboard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCub4_YzmJA&feature=player_embedded

2012-03-23 11:17:41

Conventional wisdom has it that races are not won on the first corner, only lost. Evidently Hugo Luis has never heard of conventional wisdom. Round Two of the 2012 iRacing.com Grand Prix Series World Championship at Circuit Park Zandvoort saw the defending champion make a blinder of a start to grab the lead from pole-sitter Luke McLean into Turn One (aka Tarzanbocht). From there, Luis motored into the distance, leading all but a handful of laps during the pit stop shuffles in an emphatic rebound from a disappointing result in the opening act in his title defense at Watkins Glen.

Read More in the article by David Phillips and inracingnews. http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/iracing-news/unconventional-wisdom

2012-03-06 13:05:47

First race of iWCSRR Season at Watkins Glen Ended 50/50 to Our members.
After Great qualifing on 8th place, Roland Ehnstrom ended his race in tears from 6th place on the exit of the first corner in the first part of the race, when he was involved in a crash with Emil Spindel.
Sadly on Lap one Ilkka Haapala was taken out by another opponent while he was avoiding crash in front of him.

The colours of the Orion Race Team were brought up by Jaroslav Honzik and Matthias Egger, that with two very different races, finished in 8th and 9th position, collecting important points for the Championship.
Behind them, in 14th position, Dion Vergers, that with his solid race, demonstrated another time his qualities. Unfortunately Dion could been placed much more infront but he was suffering damage to his car after lag crash with Pablo Lopez in the middle of the race.

Orion Race Team Drivers showed great pace on the first race of the season! Looking forward for next round at Zandvoort GP Race track. Live on psrtv.com or iracing.com on 17th of March.

2012-02-28 11:41:25

On saturday 3rd March 22GMT Our Team drivers will compete against other 45 World Championship Drivers on the first round of the season at Watkins Glen Classic Boot track.
Hold your fingers to our Orion Race Team World Championship Drivers - Ilkka Haapala, Dion Vergers, Matthias Egger, Roland Ehnstrom and Jaroslav Honzik.
All Races this season will be live-coverage on www.psrtv.com

2011-12-13 01:18:31

Edit: Link to video fixed!
As the final step before the world driver's championship, the iRacing pro series' results decide who will make it - and who will not. Everyone wants a spot no matter what. The races are tough and the pace is insane. And many of this season's Pro Series drivers will without a doubt shake the world championship standings next year. Orion Race Team driver Roland Ehnström and his stunning Perfect Pedal Williams FW31 car is one of them, and here is a season update, after six races.

The first one was at the mythical Spa Francorchamps race track. After a great qualifying lap and subsequently starting 3rd on the grid, Roland eventually found himself in between two cars heading towards La Source or getting 0x contact while avoiding incidents at speed... it was hot! But staying focused and as cautious as a race driver can be paid off. After some passing and the unfolding of the different race strategies, Roland saw himself finishing in second position. Exhausted, but happy. You can see the PSRTV broadcast HERE (you can right click/save as).

After that strong season start, the second race at Okayama proved to be more challenging and showed the strenght of the field. A difficult race preparation, some mistakes on his qualifying laps and Roland found himself 15th on the grid. Ouch. The race itself was chaotic and Roland's car didn't get spared. 24th after pitting for repairs, and half a minute behind the 23rd, everything was yet to be done! And with a 3 stops strategy, if he wanted to get some positions back, Roland had to pass most of the cars not once, but twice! After a tremendous comeback, a 12th position finish was enough to stay in sight of qualifying for the world championship.

- Mayhem at Zandvoort

The third race at Indianapolis proved to be eventful as well. Starting from P7, Roland's 1 stop strategy allowed once again for a lot of mix ups with drivers on different fuel loads. For his first time on this track, the Orion driver did well finishing in 6th position, with a total race time that would have equaled a 5th position finish in the previous world championship race. As mentionned by his teammates Ilkka Haapala and Dion Vergers, that kind of result was just perfect for the goal of this series. Next stop, Silvertsone.

The least favorite track of Roland. His pace was competitive but with a strong aero push following other cars, it proved difficult to translate that pace into a good result because of an average starting position. A couple of trips off the race track (including a 360 degrees spin at 200Kph..woosh ) and some battles later, Roland had to settle for an 8th place finish. Not too bad! And with a fastest lap 1 tenth shy off the best lap only. And precious points in the bag.

With a less than perfect qualification lap, Roland started the Philip Island race on the 4th row. Now, at this point it should be noted that he drove the whole season with a cast on his left wrist. That was the first race without and it didn't feel good at all. Nevertheless, Roland had pace for a podium finish here. The race was eventful as Roland had once to get his car out of the race track to avoid collision with a less that sporty competitor. Losing some positions, Roland eventually fought his way back up to 6th. Unhappy about this result and concerned about his wrist, the pro season took a not so pleasant turn. But, guess what. "I don't like being a quitter". These are Roland's words after these events. At this point however, his spot in next year's iRacing world Championship were practically assured. So congratulations, champ! And off to the 6th race of the season we are!

Final race of this season update, Zandvoort is yet another high downforce track. Prior to the race, Roland wasn't too happy about his setup, especially for qualifying. But an 8th place on the grid wasn't too bad, only 3 tenths off pole position. After a minor incident and spending a couple of laps making sure his car was alright, Roland went on a charge, with a heavier fuel load than everyone else. Out of the pits he went side by side with Samuel Libeert but couldn't secure the position and had to slot back in 6th position. But he was able to pressure Samuel and get alongside on the straight, with an assertive move around the outside into turn one, securing the 5th position. Then closing the gap to third and fourth, he eventually got that fourth position when Atze Kerkhof, the season leader, had to pit for a splash of fuel.

- Ehnström passing Libeert at Zandvoort

And on to the rest of this exciting season! And congratulations again to Roland, for his performances as well as securing his spot for next year's iRacing world championship. Oh and did you know, that Roland is also competing in the Oval Pro series? Well, check our twitter page for all Orion race team stuff!

2011-12-03 13:03:51

The season opening race was set to be at Spa, with a mixed field of LMPs, Ford GTs and Corvettes, for what would be a 2 hours enduro. Not minding what others appeared to be doing setup wise, David Sirois went a different way, which he felt was best. With limited practice time, he aimed for a stable setup and felt everything was looking good!

"I don't remember the last time I drove a car that is so 'alive'. I love it!"

Qualifications went very good, as David recalls: "I could push the car hard and do about whatever I wanted it to do." He went on to secure pole position.

The race however was another story, as not only race pace but also pit strategies came into play. Hard to tell who was going to be ahead at the end! With 15 minutes to go, and after his 3rd pit-stop, David saw himself 10 seconds behind Marc Payne who went with a 2 stops pit strategy. Or so it looked like! "I closed the gap down to 3s with 5 minutes to go but he finally had to pit a 3rd time. So I cruised to the win for the last 2 laps."

Phew! Needless to say, we're all very glad to see David put his Orion SimSport / Cube Control car at the front! And so the 2012 ISRA GTC season 6 begins... Congratulations David!

2011-06-08 02:18:03

Obviously it is ever sim-racers dream to get behind the wheel of a real race car to see what would happen. Maybe get your shot at the big time. Go on from that one chance to become a big racing star and live in Monaco or wherever your dreams may take you. Norbi Kiss, is making the most of his shot.

Read all about it here!

2011-05-19 12:17:02

David Sirois was back to his winning ways on Monday in the ISRA when the GTC visited Laguna Seca. David started from pole and led 31 of the 40 laps to take his first victory of Season 4. Sir David looks to again defend his crown as the series heads to Mid-Ohio next Monday night!

2011-04-27 12:24:41

David Sirois has done it, AGAIN! 3 seasons in the ISRA, and 3 Championships! This season using iRacing's Late Model on road courses, King Sir-wah' actually got off to a bit of a slow start. But after figuring out how to use the transmission properly (not shift too high in the revs) David went on to yet another Championship! In 9 starts he had 6 wins, and 4 poles on his way to 39 pt victory over 2nd place Eric Palacio, and 3rd place Colin MacLean.

You can check out the standings or more about ISRA by clicking here. Here is some of what David had to say after another great season:

This has been a great season but it was not easy. Eric and Colin kept the pressure on all season long. Also, I had some problems getting up to speed in the first few races. I finally realised - at SPA, the 4th race of the season - that it was loosing time shifting at 7500 rpm! Since then, I shift at 7000 rpm and no longer feel that everyone else has more power
than me.

2011-04-07 12:34:59

For many serious sim-racers, this guy needs little to no introduction. He has accomplished what every single sim-racer alive, at some point, has dreamed about. Using his sim-racing talents as a platform to get a ride in a real race car! And now, he is joining one of the most well known sim-racing teams around today and The Orion Race Team could not be more proud!

Please help us in welcoming sim-racing legend Norbi Kiss! Norbi is making the transition from LFS to iRacing and he has wasted no time at all in making his presence felt! After joining iRacing in January, Norbi already has one Championship to his credit taking Season 1B of NVIDEA's Championship in the Spec Piñata's (Spec Miata). Kiss will take home a brand spanking new monitor and a pair of NVIDEA's 3D glasses for the Championship!

For more of this story, please check out the write up on InRacingNews's website. Also check out more of Norbi's incredible story of going from sim-racer, to real life badass on his very own site, NorbiKiss.com! Everyone on The Orion Race Team could not be more excited about Norbi being here, and absolutely know he has a bright future both in sim-racing, as well as real world racing. Check back soon for more info on Kiss, both sim and real life, soon!

2011-03-22 12:53:58

The Orion Race Team's own Roland Ehnström has partnered with one of the best pedal upgrade companies in sim-racing today, The Perfect Pedal! With a real racing background, including helping to sponsor the APR Audi S4, driven by Josh Hurley and Gary Gibson, in Grand-Am's Continental Tire Challenge Series, you can bet that this upgrade for your G25/27 pedals will be as close as you will ever get to a real-life braking experience!

The current Class-A Championship points leader is looking forward to showing off his results with the pedal upgrade, especially since Roland has real life racing experience. Taken right from The Perfect Pedal's website, here is a little bit more information on the upgrade:

"When you push on the Perfect Pedal, it compresses a hydraulic cylinder that is attached to a pressure sensor. This sensor's electronic output goes into our proprietary circuit board, which translates the signal into a form that is compatible with your computer hardware. You have complete adjustment of the total force needed to stop and also how much the pedal travels. This is all done without changing the pedal pressure/braking force relationship. We believe the result is the most realistic simulator brake pedal at any price. You will, too!"

Perfect Pedals are in stock and ship same-day worldwide! Order yours today and give yourself a real brake! perfectpedal.com

2011-03-15 11:06:40

Half way through S1 in 2011 and Roland Ehnström leads the way in the Championship! With 5 wins already this season he is way ahead of his actual goal of qualifying for the 2011 Pro Series. To do that, he would only need to finish in the top 12 of any of 3 seasons. Right now that is obviously not looking like a problem for the Swede! At the close of week 6 Ehnström has a 42pt lead to his next competitor in 2nd for the overall Championship. Check back for more updates soon on Roland's progress!

2011-02-08 11:09:30

Last night was the season opener for the 2011 ISRA GTC Series and David Sirois picked up where he left off as defending Champion! Sirois took the pole in the series new late model car by .2 over fellow competitor Eric Palacio. David went on to run a clean strong race as we have all come to expect from the Champ on his way to a cushy 25 second victory! You can get more information on the race or series by going to their home page.

2011-02-04 11:11:45

The Orion Race Team is proud to announce we have entered in to agreements with three of the industry's leading companies in new and innovative products and design. Read below for more details!

SimSport
Orion partners once again with with the industry leader in providing performance, realistic pedals and complete turn-key racing rigs! SimSport goes that extra mile by getting to know the driver and what cars they drive in real life. With a real racing background, and ties to the SpeedSource Grand-Am team, SimSport will adjust and setup your custom pedals and/or sim rig to feel just like your real life race car! The Orion Race Team will carry SimSport's colors throughout the 2011 Season, including iRacing's DWC. Watch this February as Team SimSport/Orion drivers Ilkka Haapala and Dion Vergers take to the track to once again battle the best sim racers on the planet! Check out their full line of products here!

SimBoot
SimBoot and Orion have teamed up to bring you something special in 2011. SimBoot will be supporting Shawn Purdy and João Vaz on their quest to become World Champions in 2011. And what a better way to do it than in custom made SimBoots to give you comfort, and confidence at the wheel of a simulated race car! Make sure you check out their site today and stay tuned for more special announcements by SimBoot!

Cube Controls
The Orion Race Team is proud to welcome its newest sponsor, Cube Controls! If you ever wanted to have a wheel that looks like it came straight out of a real race car, Cube is the place to get it! If you ever wished your wheel had more buttons, Cube is the only place you will ever need visit. With the cleanest and most effective aftermarket wheel replacements on the market, Cube Controls will make sure you never miss another apex. Be sure to stop by here to check out some of these awesome wheels!

2011-01-25 11:17:00

Sir Sirois does it again! David Sirois becomes ISRA's Season 2 Champion by winning 6 out of the series 9 events. Here is what some of what David had to say about another championship season;

'Before the begining of the season, I didnt know what to expect and I hated (and still hate) the V8. I knew that consistency was the key and I decided to be very cautious in traffic. After the first race and having tire wear issues, I completely changed my racing approach. I focused on tire wear management in the early stages of the race, especially under braking. Thank you everyone on the team for the advice you gave me at the begining of the season, helping me to understand this car'!

You can check out more results and find out more about this league by clicking here! And check back soon for some of David's championship winning setups!

2010-12-22 11:18:29

David Sirois and Brian McDaniel each take another win this week in their respected leagues. David took another win in ISRA GTC Division. The win extends Sirois' Championship lead and gives him his 4th win in just 6 races. David is starting to feel a little more confident as the season progresses: 'Things are looking good for the championship. But it is not over yet...' - David Sirois

Brian McDaniel had company for his effort last night in MX-5 Super Series. Not just on the track, but Brian had a friend in from out of town for the holidays that didn't allow McDaniel to practice until shortly before the actual race. But in the end it didn't matter as he went on to win in front of his fans for his 3rd win in 3 races that he has attended this season. Chris Sommerfeld came up with another strong showing in his still relatively new iRacing career with a P2 starting position, and a podium finish after some early trouble dropped him way down in the field. Chris came up just short of another 2nd after his charge back up through the pack. Mike Taylor again had some rough getting punted on the start and never could recover.

2010-12-13 11:23:22

The Orion Race Team continues to load up before 2011 with it's latest addition of heavy hitters, João Vaz! João is extremely well known for his pace, dating back to leagues such as VRW and Sim-Challenge where he both raced and teamed with now current teammates, Max Dell'Orco and Roland Ehnström.

Most recently Vaz won the iRacing 2010 Season 1 IndyCar Series Championship with the Dallara Indy Car. Racing on his own and winning a Championship of that magnitude speaks volumes about both João's talent, and setup abilities. He will undoubtedly prove to be invaluable in the upcoming 2011 iDWC in both results, and input into the team. Vaz has the pace and abilities to challenge for wins and podiums in any league he races in, so look for big results from this man in 2011!

2010-11-29 11:46:15

David Sirois may be retired from the DWC despite finishing in the top 10 of the 2010 season. But he is far from retired from Sim Racing and impressive league racing. After winning the 2nd and 3rd races in ISRA he now holds the overall lead in the Championship as well.

Here is some of what David had to say about his latest race;

"Road Atlanta was tough because of traffic. I decided to go easy on tires, but maybe I was too easy. Kevin (Savoie) stayed behind me all race long though I was not pushing to create a gap. But here is what happened in the final 2 laps" - David Sirois

Last two lap battle

2010-11-01 11:47:52

It doesn't get much better than this! Bruno Marques has been a legend in Sim Racing and especially rFactor for many years now. When the 3-time FSR World Champion had decided to leave FSR and go iRacing, it didn't take long for The Orion Race Team to pick him up. The rFactor speed demon has decided to focus mainly on iRacing now, and look to make the Pro Series in 2011, and then the DWC in 2012. Bruno also looks to help himself and other Orion teammates to challenge for the DWC title, and he has the speed to do it.

Marques has already been cranking out laps in iRacing with the newly released Williams F1 and turning very impressive lap times. Among the fastest in the sim in fact, and he is just getting started. Bruno's work ethic and willingness to learn are second to none and will prove invaluable to Orion. Together Orion and Marques look to bring many more championship wins, as well as helping to pass on the knowledge to others with setups and replays so stay tuned! Paired with teammates Dell'Orco, McDaniel, Ehnström, and others, Orion will have quite possibly the strongest team in the 2011 iRacing Pro Series!

2010-10-28 11:49:15

It's not easy to win a championship. It's even harder if you are a 'rookie'. Roland Ehnström may be a rookie to iRacing, but he proved he has more than enough experience and skill to win championships. That's right, we said championships, as in more than one.

Roland won two of them in his first seasons at iRacing, on his way to prep for the 2011 iRacing Pro Series. He took the V8 Supercar Series winning an amazing 14 races out of 14 starts and 13 poles. But he didn't stop there and also won the Skip Barber Series over iRacing veteran Frank Hermann. Here is some of what Roland had to say about his latest accomplishments;

On the V8 Supercar Series
"To race the V8 Supercar in my rookie season was an easy choice, given that it's pretty close to the GT cars I have raced over the past five years. I joined the series in week 2, and got up to speed immediately, winning in my first start. I went on to stay unbeaten throughout the season, but that's not saying it was easy. I had several close races with drivers like Vail Riches, Mitchell McLeod, Elias Varis and others, but always managed to stay in front to the end. I'm very proud of my season, which was far closer to perfection than I could ever dream of the first time I tested this beast of a car!"

On the Skip Barber Series
"Needless to say I am absolutely thrilled, this was absolutely not a championship I expected to win when I joined iRacing in week 13 last season (end of July). This has been immense amounts of fun and a fantastic experience."

2010-10-18 11:50:33

iRacing hosted it's DWC Season Finale last Saturday at Mid-Ohio. Coming off a win at Phillip Island, Ilkka Haapala was looking for a boring, clean race to secure 3rd overall in the Championship. He got part of his wish, as he qualified 2nd and went on to pass Richard Towler on pit stops to hold him off for back to back wins to end the season! With the win TheFlyingFinn did secure the 3rd overall position in the championship and $1,000.00 USD for his efforts.

"Big congrats to Greger for dominating the whole season. Congrats to Richard for 2nd, amazing run throughout the year. We had some awesome races this season and hopefully that will continue next year.
Congrats to Shawn for 4th, Dion for 6th and David for 10th as well. Great run by Orion". - Ilkka Haapala

Another Orion Race Team driver, Shawn Purdy, finished on the podium yet again Saturday and finished an impressive 4th overall in the inaugural season for the DWC. Shawn had a strong season, missing 1 race due to connection troubles. Shawn may have had a shot at teammate Haapala if Ilkka had any troubles in the final few races. Shawn did all he could with a 2nd and 3rd to finish the season strong for Orion!

"Really 3rd was the best I could do anyway even under normal situation so the strategy of trying a 1 stop was worth at least an attempt, as I really had nothing to lose in this race. I had 4th in the championship wrapped up. Was only a matter of Ilkka finishing the race or not for a shot at 3rd. I had a lot of fun this season though. Grats to Finn on a killer win over Richard, and Dion for his 1 stop and 4th place"! - Shawn Purdy

Dion Vergers also put in an impressive season finishing 6th overall! Dion was the model of consistency all season with countless top 10 finishes. His impressive race craft using a 1 stop strategy on Saturday gave him a 4th overall finish at Mid-Ohio. Vergers did a great job of holding off other drivers late in the race for his finish.

"I have to say I didn't expect getting the Orion SimSport Dallara home in 4th here today. And looking back at Q with the small differences and later Daniel and Ian exiting the pits just behind me, I have to say I got pretty lucky. I'll take lucky though". - Dion Vergers

And last but certainly not least, David Sirois. With 3 kids at home now and working a full time job, as well as trying to start his own company, David has little time to race these days. For most drivers competing in the DWC would be hard enough even doing it as a full time job. But David somehow managed to not only compete with all his real world distractions, but finish in the top 10! David is going to retire from the DWC after this season, and the team will dearly miss him. But he will still be competing at iRacing in other leagues. David's top 10 put 4 Orion race Team drivers in the top 10 at the end of the season. More than double what any other team accomplished. Great job David, you will be missed in the 2011 DWC!

"It was a great season for me but wasn't easy. I had some up's and down's. Lack of practice time made my pace wasn't always optimal. Thanks to Orion Race Team, Sim-Sport, Sim-Gear, SimBoot, and Buttkicker. Thanks also to my teammates Shawn, Ilkka and Dion who helped me with setups and advices all season long. Thanks to my wife Julie and my three young kids Donavan, Thierry and Esteban who did everything they could to allow me to join every races (I missed only one). I don't plan to race again with you next year. I think Im getting too old for (very) high level racing. I plan to race in some more relax and less competitive series so I can race more, practice less and still have a chance of a podium finish..." - David Sirois

2010-10-12 11:51:59

The Orion Race Team proudly welcomes Italian sensation Matthias Egger to the team! Matthias' speed is well known throughout sim racing, including some of the more prestigious Italian racing leagues. Now in iRacing, Matthias has his sights set on the 2011 Driver's World Championship. He will be racing along side fellow Orion members Ilkka Haapala, Shawn Purdy, Dion Vergers, and David Sirois to give Orion a serious 5 man team in 2011!

Matthias also enjoys making videos so look for some cool productions from him, as well as setup's and replays very soon!

2010-10-04 11:54:31

The Orion Race Team took it's first win in iRacing's DWC This past Saturday with Ilkka Haapala leading the way over 2nd place teammate Shawn Purdy. Ilkka grabbed the pole with Purdy 2nd, and after a tight start they slowly drove away from the field to take 1st and 2nd at Phillip Island! Teammate Dion Vergers suffered some trouble late in the race when it was looking like he could potentially had a shot to make it an Orion 1-2-3. David Sirois did a good job to overcome a bad qualifying position to finish 12th, and continues his charge up the overall standings now in 9th place overall.

The Flying Finn had this to say after the race; "After second pitstops Shawn went off in T2 and that allowed me to just take it easy from there on and bring the car home. Was a very close race and it's very easy to make small mistakes that end up costing a lot of time on this track. Luckily I was able to run a pretty clean race with no mistakes".

With one race left, Haapala looks good to hang on to 3rd overall in the championship. If Towler misses the race (which has been rumored he may) The Finn has a good shot at 2nd overall, if he has a clean race. If Haapala has trouble, teammate Shawn Purdy could capitalize and move up to 3rd. Dion Vergers slipped a bit in the standings to 7th overall, while Sirois moved up to 9th, giving The Orion Race Team 4 drivers in the top 10! Tune in two weeks from now to psrtv.com to watch the final race!

2010-09-27 11:55:54

The Orion Race Team is very proud to announce it's latest addition to the team, Roland Ehnström! Roland has been well known as one of the world's best sim racers all the way back to the early 90's. Roland has competed at the top level in sims such as Grand Prix Legends, NASCAR 4, 2002 & 2003, F1 2002, GTR, GT Legends, rFactor, GTR2, Race 07, GTR Evolution and now iRacing starting in July of 2010.

Next year Roland's focus will be on iRacing's Pro Series, and using that to transfer into the 2012 DWC. Ehnström is a force to be reckoned with and will surely battle for the overall Championship in iRacing's Pro Series for Orion along his road to the DWC in 2012. Roland will continue to collaborate with DMSv in smaller series to help his fellow companions, but will be racing for Orion in iRacing's Pro Series, DWC, and special events.

'It isn't everyday we add someone with the talent Roland has. Anyone who has won 10,000 Euros and a Chevrolet HHR in real life, obviously has some serious skills. We look forward to working with Roland to make not only the team better, but to help Roland win many more races, and battle for the Championships in both the Pro Series and DWC'. - said team manager Frosty St.Clair

2010-09-20 11:57:28

Ilkka Haapala, Shawn Purdy, Dion Vegers, and David Sirois continue to make their presence known in iRacing's Driver's World Championship Series! Coming down to the wire with only 3 races left, Haapala and Purdy were sitting 3rd and 4th respectively going into Watkins Glen on Saturday. With Richard Towler's 2 race suspension, Ilkka has an outside shot of grabbing 2nd overall in the championship. Purdy had a very outside shot at 2nd as well, but a good chance at 3rd overall, if teammate Haapala has any issues.

Purdy showed he was not going to go quietly and put in a very solid qualifying effort only missing Huttu's pole lap by 0.014. He went on to grab 2nd in the race, keeping solid pressure on Huttu the entire race. It was a strong performance for Shawn who showed he is far from giving up.

"Not an overly exciting race for me as I didn't really do much except run alone on the track, but very happy with my pace here. And a great Result for Orion with 3 cars in the top 5". - Purdy

Haapala did what he had to do after losing a spot on the start, and the draft of Huttu and Purdy, he got back up to 3rd and hung on until the end of the race. The Flying Finn needs solid finishes from here on out to nail down 3rd, or a possible 2nd.

"A quiet race was just what the doctor ordered so I'm happy with 3rd place". - Haapala

Dion Vergers also continued his amazing pace as of late charging to a solid 4th place finish giving Orion a 2-3-4 finish! Dion is now currently sitting 7th overall. And speaking of top 10's, David Sirois continues his consistency in the DWC and has now climbed all the way up to 9th overall! Both drivers are looking to try and improve those positions before seasons end. And lastly Watkins saw the return of Peter Read, as he ran his first DWC race of the season. Peter's pace was as expected, impressive. It looked like he was on his way to a potential top 5 before some grass reached out and bit his car, sending it spinning off the track into the barrier.

2010-08-09 11:58:57

Ilkka Haapala put in a strong run Saturday finishing 2nd to try and crawl his way into the 3rd overall spot in iRacing's Driver's World Championship. The final podium spot will pay out $3,000.00 in cash, so the battle won't be an easy one. Especially since Haapala does not have any more races he can drop for the remainder of the season. Ilkka is battling it out with Ben Cornett from Team Redline, and after Ilkka's performance on Saturday, the two are now level in the championship. It should be an exciting rest of the season between Haapala and Cornet for that final podium spot.

Here is some of what Ilkka had to say after his performance on Saturday:

"Ben leapfrogged us both in the pits, but couple of later he lost his momentum approaching a lapped car and I was able to sneak by. We had an awesome battle from there on, most fun I've had all season. All three of us did a good job holding our lines and was thinking to myself during the race that this must look nice in the broadcast. Those two and three wide moments are what road racing is all about, great stuff. After second pitstops it was just Richard and myself as Ben had a slower stop. Was happy I managed to hold on to second position and first podium of the season feels nice".

2010-07-26 12:00:19

For the second season in a row, Chris Sommerfeld has claimed all three championships in the MNRL's MIRL Cart Factor series. Chris was able to control the race at the famed Suzuka circuit, taking a 45 second victory to clinch the Road Course championship, as well as the Overall championship. Sommerfeld then went on to claim the Oval Championship the next week at California with a 3rd place finish (0.120 sec behind).

2010-07-15 12:01:32

What a weekend for racing! Not only in real life with the 24 hours du Le mans, but also in the sim world as well. We start off with Chris Sommerfeld's charge for another MNRL Championship as he dominated the race at Montreal last week. Chris took the pole, the fastest lap, and the win for a clean sweep! The win extends his overall points lead in the series to 83pts over 2nd place as that series reaches the half way point.

The MIRL wasn't the only series to reach the half way point of the season, as iRacing's WDC was at the famed Laguna Seca Raceway on Saturday. All 4 Orion driver's had solid runs led by Shawn Purdy and a podium finish in 3rd! Ilkka Haapala finished in 4th, with Dion Vergers in 7th, and David Sirois charged up 7 spots to finish 18th after a rough qualifier.

Right before the WDC, was iRacing's first ever Grand Prix Masters event. As we reported earlier, Max Dell'Orco had led the pre-qual events coming into the race but broke his hand the week of the race. While it slowed Max down it didn't stop him from competing and despite having to use his left hand for both up, and downshifts, Max managed an impressive 4th place finish. Just as impressive young phenom Jeffrey Rietveld charged from 9th on the grid to finish up just ahead of Dell'Orco in the 3rd spot for a podium finish! The 3rd place finish awarded Jeffrey $100.00 in iRacing credits, which should keep him in either current tracks and cars for quite some time, or he could possibly trade them for a new pair of wooden driving shoes.

All around a solid week for the team!

2010-06-08 12:02:56

Orion Race Team's Peter Read has been dominating in a Aussie league called OMR. Peter is participating in the V8 Class, The DP Class, and part time in the Skip Barber series at OMR. In 11 starts, Peter has managed an impressive 10 wins and 10 poles. He is currently leading the DP Class, and had the lead in the V8 series until he was forced to miss the last start. Peter has been sharing many of his OMR setups in our forums, so make sure to go check them out so you can have Peter Read Speed!

2010-06-04 12:04:05

Team Orion's Max Dell'Orco has branched out to try his hand at nKPro. Max is competing in MTV's Abarth Challenge in which the top four drivers get a chance to go to race at Imola, to battle each other in a LAN event. Over 1,000 people registered and put in pre-qualifying times, with 52 drivers going through to the races. The races are broken up into 4 groups, with 4 tracks, and 2 races at each one.

Max just competed in his first 2 races and so far things are looking good for his chance to attend Imola. Max won both races in his group last weekend, and is feeling good about his chances to advance. You can check out a race re-cap video from one of the heat races Max won by clicking here. We will keep everyone updated on Max's progress for the next 3 events!

2010-06-01 12:05:15

After winning last seasons MIRL Championship, Chris Sommerfeld is once again looking like he could very well be a repeat champion. After 5 races (almost to the half-way point of the season) Chris has taken 3 wins and 2 poles. Coming off a oval race at Indy last week, which admittedly is not where he excels, Chris had a good start but a rough end. Here is some of what Chris had to say about the start of the race:

"Indy never goes well for me. Satisfied with 3rd on the grid and was able to lead Norm on the start and we put 2 seconds on the field right off the bat. Tucked up behind him and really just cruised and we pulled away till the first stop. Had a good stop but nearly didn't take advantage of it by bogging my exit from the pitstall, but got the lead."

Later, Chris sustained damage after brushing the wall due to slight contact with a fellow racer. Chris was able to nurse the car home in 6th, and was able to hang on to a 58pt advantage for the overall championship over Norm Graf who currently sits 2nd.

2010-02-03 12:07:41

First, there are the Daytona events: The iRacing event, where we qualified really well and had decent results with a 5th place from Peter Read in the top race, as well as a 2nd place finish from Chris Gennarelli in his split. This wasn't exactly what we were hoping for, though, especially after Shawn Purdy's incident, which effectively ruined his and the team's chances for a win.
Possibly the brightest spot of the event was that Orion Race Team prospect Jeffrey Rietveld finished an amazing 2nd place in the days top split. Jeffrey had a small amount of damage but still managed to bring home 2nd place, less that 20 seconds behind the overall winner.You will hear more about Jeffrey very soon...

But the story doesn't stop here. That weekend saw our partners over at Speed Source get the win in the actual 24H of Daytona in the GT class! We can't express how proud we are to be partnering with such an amazing team: congratulations guys! What an achievement.

And the fact that these people do care for simracing as a training tool, and do care to create a range of sophisticated simracing products with Sim-Sport, such as the Speedsource Pedals, is just amazing. We are proud to be part of this, and to be contributing to the development of these products (as explained by frosty in his pedal review).

And then, in exactly one week, will begin the first ever iRacing Drivers World Championship, starting with the Oval series. The team's focus is all on Dion Vergers, who will be carrying our colors for this promising series, which will be broadcast as well.

10 days later, on the 20th of this month, we will see the first race of the road DWC, featuring Barber Motorsports, which is a tricky track. With all the names involved, it already looks like this is going to be the most disputed race in simracing history. We will be there on the grid, and as always, we hope to have your support!

Stay tuned! - More news and updates on Twitter as usual.

2010-01-27 12:08:55

After being given last place points at the first race of the season (the league was full!), Orion Race Team's Ray Pulido stormed his way into the MNRL GTP SP championship in the best possible way. On his first race, although he got taken out at the start, he managed a strong run, getting a podium finish.

At Sandown, the latest race, Ray started from pole, and never looked back, to score his first victory this season. We're very happy to witness this strong season start obviously! Stay tuned, we'll keep you updated with news and more as the season unfolds, from twitter!

2010-01-20 12:10:01

Check out an extended review from the Speedsource pedals from Sim-Sport, by Frosty StClair:

"I have had a few people ask me about the Speed Source pedals I got from Sim-Sport, so I thought I would write up a review here for people to read if they choose.

First, I can say that the customer service I got here was amazing and continues to..." read more

2010-01-17 12:11:10

Here we are, only four weeks before the start of first ever iRacing World Drivers Championship (idwc).

The never ending Pro series (25 weeks straight) has taken its toll on most of the competing drivers. Motivation has dramatically fallen down as the season unfolded, due mainly to the very, very heavy schedule.

But now the Orion crew is starting to gear up for what is probably going to be the most important championship this year, and will undoubtedly be a stepping stone in the history of sim-racing. While the last weeks of the Pro series are still going to be decisive, it is now time to gather strength and prepare for another long, long series. The top 50 drivers from the Pro series will be racing each other in 18 races, which will be spread over 39 weeks, with only 2 drop weeks.

But few questions remain: iRacing still didn't confirm which car the road racers will be competing with, nor did release any tracks schedule. Will the points system remain as it is? We hope to see this answered shortly.

Update: Did iRacing hear us? The schedule has been announced, and the Dallara will be the car run.

On our side, we will do our best as always, to push the Orion colours to the front and share stories both from the track and from the pits all season long be it on this site, on our twitter or posting videos on our youtube channel. As always, we hope to have your support!

2010-01-09 12:12:25

We always strive for the best, do our best, and hope for the best. And sometimes, you get the best, too. And once again, Orion had its best year to date.

Judge for yourself: Win at major events such as the 24h du Mans AND the Simdy 500, fantastic iRacing seasons, several championships wins, new partnerships with awesome companies (SimBoot, Sim-Sport and Buttkicker, along with our long time friends Sim-Gear), new fantastic drivers, the creation of the Orion Racing School...and it's all been really fun! Hard work for sure, but what a pleasure.

We'd like to thank everyone involved for all of this: our racing drivers, our sponsors, and the fantastic community talents we've been interacting with, both on and off the track.

To make a long story short, here is the Orion Race Team 2009 story as well as our objectives for '10.

0000-00-00 00:00:00

A lot has happened since our last website update, including some major wins by Team Orion drivers. Max Dell'Orco took the 120 Minutes of Sebring by storm by winning the race over fellow countryman Dario Frattini. With an impressive win by close to a minute, Max had the following to say about his race;

"My Team Radio unfortunally didn’t assist me much on my second pit stop. In fact I finished the race with almost 30 liters of fuel too much, but my gap was good enough to luckily not worry about it. Happy also for Dario Frattini that did a good race finishing 2nd. The race, the car, and the track was really awesome. I really enjoyed racing for 2 hours there and I'm glad to race for this Team"!

Chris Sommerfeld has also been hard at work with rFactor and the MIRL Championship and despite a difficult start to the first half of the MIRL's season 12. An early last place finish, and a DNS put him down in the standings. In the second half of the season, Sommerfeld was able to claw his way back with 3 consecutive podiums, and later put a string of 3 straight wins to cap the season off. In the closing Road Course round at Long Beach, Sommerfeld was able to hold onto the lead after damaging his suspension and clinched both the Road Course and Overall championships. Sommerfeld went on to claim the Oval Championship in the final race at Indy.

Ilkka Haapala dominated most of the races he contended. In 9 race starts, he took a season high 6 poles and 5 victories. Despite missing the majority of the season, he still finished 9th overall, and 5th in the Road Course standings. With just 24 combined starts, the Orion Race Team was able to finish 3rd in the Team Championship, winning 9 of the 15 races they contended.

Team Orion drivers have also been posting some impressive results in iRacing's first ever iDWC. Shawn Purdy is right now leading the way for the Orion's with 2 top 5 (one 2nd place finish) finishes in 3 races. Shawn had some bad luck in one of the races that would put him higher in the standings than where he currently sits (5th overall) but it is still a very long season! Ilkka Haapala has also been putting in some impressive showings but missed the first race of the season, and got taken out in T1 of the third race. Still, Ilkka has managed one top 5 and two top 10's, and sits 13th overall with only two races. Other drivers David Sirois and Dion Vergers have also posted impressive top 10 finishes this season as all 4 active Orion drivers sit inside the top 15.

And last but certainly not least, Orion gets stronger, faster, and younger with the addition of Jeffrey Rietveld. Awesome Jeff has only been racing for about 3 years, and is already one of the fastest drivers in the iRacing sim currently. Jeff posted an impressive 2nd overall at iRacing's first ever 2.4hrs of Daytona. Most impressive, is that Jeff is only 14 yrs old. Look for Jeff's setups and replays, and watch for more results from Jeff when the Pro Series starts, as he is aiming to do well in iRacing's second Pro Series Season.