Month: April 2020

The most challenging race of the year. 24 Hours, around a 25km circuit, with almost no margin for error.

The Rev It Up Racing eSports Team entered a single Porsche Cayman GT4 into the 2020 24 Hours Nurburgring. Piloted by Nurburgring regulars Jeremiah Morton, Jackson Freer, Thomas Pendergrass & Keegan Sutton-Baker, the team set out with the aim of a clean race.

Morton kicked the race off with a clean double stint, handing the car on to Sutton-Baker. Unfortunately, Keegan would find the wall, costing 4-5 minutes of repairs in the pits.

With Pendergrass taking over, the team pressed on. Around the 8 hour mark of the race, Freer took to the seat for his first stint, in the dark of night. On just his third lap, the real devastation came. Trying to leave a gap for a faster GT3 car, Freer dropped the car into the grass, spinning into the path of an oncoming car. The damage would cost almost 30 minutes before the car was back on track.

Down in 10th position, the team persevered, and kept plugging away, with a real focus on avoiding any more incidents. As the hours clicked down, the positions kept coming. Eventually, Keegan Sutton-Baker was handed the car for the final stints, moving into 5th position with about 1 Hour remaining. He would hold on, to claim a brilliant Top 5 result for the team!

Round 2 of the Quarantine GT Series headed to Watkins Glen International on Monday night, for a 60 Minute race.

With 3 drivers in the field, the Rev It Up Racing eSports Team looked to build on an eventful opening round.

#25 Jackson Freer
Qualifed: 8th
Race: 3rd

After finishing in the Top 5 in Round 1, Freer was hopeful to continue that performance – and he managed so brilliantly! After qualifying in 8th, Jackson quickly worked his way up to 5th, where he would sit until the pit stop cycle. As the lead drivers pitted, Freer stayed out long, hoping to maximise the advantage given by his low fuel load. The strategy paid off, coming out of the pits in 2nd. He was eventually overtaken, and locked into a fierce battle for the podium in the closing stages. Martin Crisp (XRC Racing) would make a move on Freer with 2 laps to go, resulting in contact. Both drivers continued on, Freer coming out the luckier of the two parties, for a fantastic podium result.

#27 Sean Grimmond
Qualified: 20th
Race: 12th

Sean Grimmond drove another calm race, steadily moving his way from 20th on the grid, up to 12th by the end of the 60 Minute race. Avoiding dramas was once again paramount to Grimmond’s success, as he knocks on the door of a Top 10 finish.

#23 Jeremiah Morton
Qualified: 1st
Race: 13th

It was a day of what could have been for Jeremiah Morton. He stormed the field in qualifying to take Pole Position by 0.036, and was eager to have a competitive race after the disappointment of Round 1. But the hope was short lived, as he span coming to take the green flag, into the Pit Wall. It was a red faced moment that left Morton well off the back of the pack, forcing him to work the entire race to get back to 13th.

Round 3 heads to Road America on May 4th. Meanwhile, the team prepares for the 24 Hours Nurburgring this weekend.

A brand new endurance series began this weekend – the iRacing Endurance Series. Featuring GTE, GT3, GT4 & TCR cars, the series will head to 4 circuits across the year, each with a 12 Hour race.

For the opening round, the Rev It Up Racing eSports Team brought two cars for Suzuka for the 12 Hours of Suzuka.

Rev It Up Racing eSports Team A
Ferrari 488 GT3

The all-Australian lineup of Jeremiah Morton, Jackson Freer & Sam Doecke started on the third row of the grid in the GT3 class, with Freer qualifying in 5th. After quickly moving into 4th place, the race would come undone on just Lap 4. The 3rd placed car span in front of Freer, and, making a split second decision of which way to avoid the incident, Freer was collected by the spinning car, and set backwards into the barrier. The incident dropped him back to 15th place, with damage costing him a second or more per lap. After the first stint, the team took close to 3 minutes to repair the car to a competitive pace.

With 11 hours still remaining, and so many unknowns in the new series, the trio put their heads down and worked hard, slowly grinding their way from 15th, up into the Top 10, and eventually, in contention for a Top 5 finish in the closing hours.

A triple stint by Morton between hours 6 – 9 of the race closed the gap to 5th place, leaving Doecke & Freer to finish the job. A great end to the race saw Doecke hold a 15 second margin back to 6th, to come home with a Top 5 result!

Rev It Up Racing eSports Team B
Ferrari 488 GT3

Cedric Finsac (FRA), Thomas Pendergrass (USA) & Keegan Sutton-Baker (AUS), also hoped for a good start to the season. However, early dramas would also plague this car, with Finsac being hit hard by a lapped car in the opening stages.

Unfortunately, even after repairs and trying to get the car back on track, the incident would result in a DNF for the team, clocking just 54 laps in the race.

It was a dissappointing result for the team, but a situation that was completely out of their control.

Rev It Up Racing eSports Team A – GT3 – 5th
Rev It Up Racing eSports Team B – GT3 – 15th / DNF

The team now prepares for the 24 Hours Nurburgring, arguably the most challenging race of the entire year.

After a brutal Round 1, the Rev It Up Racing eSports Team prepared for the second race of the Nurburgring Endurance Championship.

Rev It Up Racing eSports Team A
Porsche Cayman GT4

A challenging opening stint for Jackson Freer found him pitting early for repairs, handing the car over to Keegan Sutton-Baker. Keegan drove another solid stint, before handing the car to Jeremiah Morton for the sprint to the finish. Morton also put in a solid stint, bringing the car home in 5th position after 4 hours of racing.

It was a good result for the team, having found more pace at the Nurburgring since the first event. The next time the car hits the Nurburgring will be for the grueling 24 Hour race, so the team are hoping for a good result1

Amongst all the uncertainty and craziness of the current world, a brand new iRacing series started – the Quarantine GT Series. Aimed at drivers from Australia & New Zealand, the GTE only series got underway on Monday, with a 60 Minute race at the world famous Spa-Francorchamps.

The Rev It Up Racing eSports Team fielded 4 Ferraris, with no real idea of how the race would play out.

#25 Jackson Freer
Qualifed: 6th
Race: 4th

Freer was sitting just outside the Top 10 for most of Qualifying, until his final flying lap, where he jumped to provisional 4th place, which would soon be relegated to 6th. Once the race got underway, Freer drove a calm race, sitting on the edge of the Top 5 for most of the race, and making most of the situations around him, to come home in P4, behind a 1-2-3 for Trick Esports.

#27 Sean Grimmond
Qualified: 19th
Race: 11th

Having been out of the seat for a few weeks, Grimmond adapted well to the Ferrari, Qualifying inside the top 20 (out of 44 cars). Another calm and smart drive saw Grimmond steadily move up the standings, narrowly missing out on a Top 10 finish. It’s a great start to the season campaign.

#23 Jeremiah Morton
Qualified: 4th
Race: 22nd

After a cracking Qualifying performance to put him on the second row of the grid, Morton’s hopes were high at the beginning of the 60 minute race. However his hopes would be short-lived; a Lap 4 accident taking him out of contention. Morton was side-by-side battling for the podium positions, when a lapped car forced him to move across. Contact was made with Scott Cislowski, sending Morton into the wall.

” I understand how it happened, and it wasn’t really anyone’s fault because I had to move over with the lapped car there,” explained a dejected Morton.

#66 Nicholas Crofton
Qualified: 14th
Race: 38th

Having qualified 14th, Crofton had a solid start, but his race would come to an abrupt end, following a major Lap 1 pileup. More than 5 cars were involved in the accident at the Blanchimont corner, and Crofton was out of the race before his day had really begun.

Round 2 heads to Watkins Glen on April 20th, where the boys look to build on some decent pace.

Perseverance was the name of the game at the opening round of the iRacing Nurburgring Endurance Championship on the weekend. The 4 Hour race was the first of 9 rounds this year, featuring 5 incredible classes of racing action. The Rev It Up Racing eSports Team entered three cars across two timeslots, and found some success, despite a challenging race.

Rev It Up Racing eSports Team A
Porsche Cayman GT4

The debut of GT4 at the Nurburgring this year has been highly anticipated, and the opening race lived up to the hype. Jackson Freer (AUS), Thomas Pendergrass (USA) & Keegan Sutton-Baker (AUS) piloted the Porsche GT4, but technical issues and on track dramas would plague the opening half of the race. Pendergrass had an incident with a TCR car on just the second lap, before a connection issue found him in the fence early. After handing the car over to Freer, the GT4 would be hit again, this time by a faster GT3 car misunderstanding the pace of the GT4. It seemed like the race from hell, but a solid stint from Sutton-Baker allowed the team to take advantage of some other teams’ misfortune, to come home an unlikely 6th.

“I still don’t know how we ended up P6,” explained Sutton-Baker, and Jackson Freer echoed his feelings, “Honestly after 2 hours I thought the race couldn’t get any worse… then we somehow ended up in 6th?”

Rev It Up Racing eSports Team B
Mazda MX5

Jeremiah Morton (AUS) was eager to start the season off on the right foot, but when his teammate had internet issues just before the race start, Morton was called to do the entire 4 hour race solo. He was up to the task, but technical issues would plague this car as well – as a broken brake pedal would cause Morton to be in the wall in the early stages of the race. After making an extra stop to repair the damage, Morton got back out on track and stormed through the field, to claim a fantastic 2nd position!

“It’s annoying,” Morton explained, “because we probably would have won the race if not for the pedal issue.”

Rev It Up Racing eSports Team C
Porsche Cayman GT4

Jack Godden (UK) was set to race the second timeslot, but after issues for his teammates he was required to do the race solo. Issues through the middle phase of the race caused a DNF for the second Rev It Up Racing eSports Team GT4.

Rev It Up Racing eSports Team A – GT4 – 6th
Rev It Up Racing eSports Team B – MX5 – 2nd
Rev It Up Racing eSports Team C – GT4 – 10th

The team now prepares for the second round of the championship, on Sunday April 12th.