Octane Esports Racing

Enduring Imola

Another weekend, another race and we returned to Race meeting Portugal's World endurance championship for round 2 around the beautiful italian track of Imola. A challenging track counting 19 turns and quite some elevation changes across the track's 4.9 kilometers length. Practice gave us high hopes for this race, Skoro led the sheets with other octane members not too far behind.

Qualifying

So on friday evening we went onto qualifying, the 356 Porsche 911 GT3 piloted by Brian Maas took the track and managed to set a lap time of 1.43.583 which got him P11 for the start of the race.

Later on it was time for the Hypercars to take the stage and qualify for the 6 hour event. Our 45 Lamborghini took P8 with a 1.28.508 lap time, 4 places up was our 357 Cadillac in P4 with a 1.28.117. Lastly was the 358 Cadillac piloted by Fraser Hart to pole with a 1.27.481 lap time to close qualifying.

356's Racing Journey

Now the utmost important part, the race. I’ll start by going over our Gt’s race.

Starting 11th Brian Maas drove like the amazing driver he is to a podium paying position however when being comfortable in the position a hypercar came in and took him out thus costing quite a lot of positions. Sadly this became a running theme for our 2 GT drivers where the hypercars lapping them came too close to them or hit them costing them places and time. In the end they finished P10. Ben Beedle, the finishing driver gave insight to us after the race stating that hypercar drivers need to be more considerate towards GT3’s. (Statement changed to more daily language)

Pushing to the Finish: The #45 Hypercar

Onto our Hypercars, Sebastien drove the first 3 hours of the race in the 45 car, making up positions and keeping pace until he handed the car over to our new driver Bernat. He did very well for his first hypercar race with us, pushing until the end for positions, in the end he finished P7 which could be changed to a P6 due to penalties to the car ahead.

#357: Pushing through heartbreak

Our 357 car went from triumph to heartbreak, Matt Skoro started out with a masterful stint making it up to P2 after doing a masterful overtake into aqua minerale. He kept pace up very well getting close to P1 but he ended up staying on pace. After 2 hours it was time for Lorenzo to take the wheel of the car. The dutchman flew up into P1 after Zach lost a bit of time, a major issue arose due to Lorenzo’s internet cutting out forcing Arthur to hop into the car half an hour early. The issue put us in 8th so the following 2 and a half hours were full of pushing, after a while the car made up 3 positions and finished in P5 with Arthur almost getting a drive through on the final lap.

#358: Octane's first taste of the top step

Then to our winning car, Fraser Hart and Zachary Evans in the 358 Cadillac. Pole to victory for the pair, a race without trouble or incidents took them to the top step and thus also our first victory as a team. I asked Fraser how he felt about the race and he said: “This race was a statement for octane, not only for coming back after a bad race at daytona but also for Zach’s pace being new to league racing.”

The pair deserved the win and we congratulate them for it

Moving Forwards

The race was frustrating for some but others had fun and that's what matters most. We will be back for this championship in about a month's time for Spa for another 6 hour race where we will be aiming for a better result then we currently have, we hope to see you guys there.