STC: 45 Minutes Of Homestead Miami Review

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The rSeat 45 minutes of Homestead Miami, which took place on the 13th of June, was the sixth and final round of the SimRacing Teams Challenge Blue Cup for 2013.

The Homestead Miami road course, which played host to the final round of the season, included a combination of fast sweepers and tight hairpins which tested the limits of the McLaren MP4-12C. The STC opted to use the 3.7 kilometre Road Course B configuration, which included part of the banked oval as well as the infield section. Douglas Lundberg nabbed pole position for ineX Racing, which will not come as a surprise to anyone within the STC paddock after their incredible string of performances this season. Lundberg was joined on the front row by Roland Ehnstrom for Danielsson Motorsports Virtual, a much needed lift for the team that has come under increasing pressure in recent times for their runner-up position in the standings. Rounding out the top three in qualifying was Dave Gelink in the second ineX Racing entry.

Roland Ehnstrom made a dream start from second on the grid, jumping the ineX Racing McLaren of Douglas Lundberg. The Danielsson Motorsports Virtual pilot set about extending a gap to the swarming pack behind him, consisting of Ehnstrom, Gelink, and Pablo Lopez for Radicals Online. Ehnstrom never looked back for the remaining 45 minutes, putting in a tremendously composed performance to take the team’s second victory of the season. He crossed line just under six seconds ahead of Dave Gelink, who outshone his ineX Racing stable-mate in Douglas Lundberg. Lundberg rounded out podium in yet another top three finish for the Finland based team. Angelo Di Mella steered his Team GT McLaren to 4th having qualified 6th, narrowly ahead of Pawel Bienkowski for The Black Rebels, who rounded out the top 5.

[caption id="attachment_32028" align="alignleft" width="100"] 45 Minutes of Miami Results[/caption]

After a roller coaster 37 laps, Pablo Lopez recovered to finish 6th following an off-road excursion while fighting for second in the opening laps. Lopez crossed the line minutely ahead of ABRacing’s Joao Cardoso, who ended up 7th after losing 6th to the Radicals Online pilot on the final lap. Anthony Roselli guided the second Radicals Online entry to 8th in front of Mirko Salati for Team GT. Eduardo Ximenes completed the top 10 for Spain SimRacing Club. Throughout the 45 minutes, some great battles took place as drivers desperately fought for every championship-defining point. Stefan Coppens for Torque Freak Racing, Marco Buhin for Team Infalux and Simon Carr for Blue Flag Racing engaged in an exciting battle for mid-field supremacy. Coppens came out on top after finishing 18th, while Buhin and Carr ended up 20th and 23rd respectively. Another mid-field battle caught the eye of those viewing the race, with Peter Peic, Oscar Sahlin and Wim Stockmans fighting it out just outside the top 10. Wim Stockmans was the best finisher of the three car battle, piloting his Antwerp Racing Team McLaren to 16th ahead of Sahlin for The Black Rebels.

Douglas Lundberg, ineX Racing (Started 1st, Finished 3rd)

I'm dreadful at standing starts 9 times out of 10 in any car, and that was the case this time as well. Luckily only lost one position so was down to second and then made heaps of mistakes. Didn't get in to the rhythm that I wanted and as soon as Dave was close enough behind me, I let him go on the oval part. But the racing at this track was weird and it felt like me and Dave just got in the way of each other even if we tried to avoid that. I got passed Dave again and then I made a mistake so Dave got by again and then I made a mistake again and again. Still ended up 3rd somehow.

Risto Kappett, Flatout Racing (Started 11th, Finished 28th)

Got away from the start good but decided to just take position in the train, going very slowly and pretending like it wasn’t a race for the first few corners. Then for half of the race I just kept climbing from people spinning and did OK.
Finally settled down and saw Pablo climbing fast. At first I thought I would just let him go, but the train behind him was faster than me too so decided to try to hold out. Good battle with him for a few laps with side by side stuff and although he was hitting me a lot due to being faster it was ok.


Rhys Gardiner, Movie Go Racing (Qualified 16th, Finished 27th)

I started okay, but first lap troubles hit me again - coming out of turn 6/7. I couldn't help running wide and forcing a car onto the grass (apologies), but then one corner later what appeared to be another car in the same livery turned me around. So I had a bent car, and I'll keep it short by saying it was an absolute nightmare in the pits. I finally managed to get back out about 7 or 8 laps down on the field. Even then, as I circulated, I had to pull back in to the pits twice to alt-tab out and postpone a computer restart, which decided to rear its ugly head then of all times. I kept driving as briskly as I could, and trying my best to let lapping cars by safely. I picked up a few positions along the way thanks to a few drivers suffering misfortune and finished 27th in the end.

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As was confirmed following the penultimate round of the season, ineX Racing is your SimRacing Teams Challenge Blue Cup champion for 2013. The team has put in a stunning display throughout the six rounds, securing four wins and achieving podium finishes time after time. ineX Racing completed the season on 453 points, 117 ahead of a deserving Danielsson Motorsports Virtual outfit in second. The ever consistent Team GT closed out third in the standings, compiling just six more points than Radicals Online in fourth. Roaring Pipes Maniacs rounded out the top 5, with strong results at the Interlagos and Motegi rounds of the season. You can view the full standings at the completion of the 2013 Blue Cup here.

To conclude what we believe has been a very successful revitalization of the SimRacing Teams Challenge on iRacing, we’d like to thank:









. We also greatly appreciate the help of Glacier TV for facilitating the broadcast of the series to viewers around the world. The tireless work of Xose Estrada and David Garcia in co-ordinating the league cannot be underestimated, and we thank them greatly for their efforts. The behind the scenes work of the marshals Bram Hengeveld, Eckhart von Glan and Theo de Bruin must also be appreciated! Finally, we’d like to thank the STC community for putting on a great show and dedicating hours of practise for these events. See you all later in the year for the SimRacing Teams Challenge Black Cup!
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Great read great race great live coverage BUT slightly annoying how the camera often doesnt follow what the commentators are watching for a long time. A fight is going on which commentators are screaming about but main camera is watching someone else cruise :)
 

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