By Turner Schroll
With the sun setting on the IVRA season, what better venue for a high stakes battle than Interlagos! The Hyperion Racing guys, coming off their first iRacing Special Event win at the 12 hours of Sebring, had their sights on closing out the season on a high note.
With the battle for the final few places in the Top 10 in the championship standings, there sure was a lot still to play for. Sitting in P9 coming into the weekend, HydroRace Geodeic’s second car and Archer Brothers Racing were not far behind. Also KKrämer Racing only 10 championship points ahead and well within reach for P8.
The Hyperion Racing #454 would be piloted by Nathan Deering and Turner Schroll for the weekend. While hard at work in the setup department were Jeff Lund and Alex Caruso. Together these guys got the car working and feeling great putting them well in the mix during the early practice sessions throughout the week. Both drivers felt as if they had a car capable of bringing home the result required.
As the day finally approached, driver Nathan Deering led the team off during the 15 minute qualifying session. While not able to find the front of the grid pace the team decided to conclude the session with the car sitting in P16. This would not be a big setback for the team as they had already committed to their strategy for the race and knew there would be plenty of opportunities to move forward.
With nearly 55 cars on the starting grid, the anticipation was quickly rising to get underway. As the green flag waved the team immediately fell into a fuel saving mode to allow them to stretch the first stint and protect the car for later on. As predicted, a series of early cautions allowed the team to reset the fuel and tires under the Safety Car before getting back to the fast-paced action.
Shortly after the team would find itself dodging another major incident on the front straight. Contact was made between the WaveItaly GT4 and Team Huesinkveld LMP3 cars at a high rate of speed approaching T1. Nathan did all he could to avoid getting caught up and took evasive action to the right-hand side of the track. Unfortunately, catching a small piece of grass forced the driver to make moderate contact with the tire barrier in T1 causing roughly 5 minutes of repairs in the pit lane. This would end up sending the #454 3 laps down and to the very rear of the gt4 field.
The next few stints would be all about preserving the car and attempting to get their laps back through additional Full Course Yellows. Slowly this began to take shape. At the time of the driver change the team seemed to be on track to get 1 of their laps back. Driver Turner Schroll would take over and attempt to bring it back.
While battling a still damaged car, the team was able to take advantage of some timely cautions and found itself waved around for the final time. Having made it back to the lead lap it was now full push mode to recover some final positions of the day. The team would find itself just off strategy for fuel to the end and during the shuffle found itself as high as the top 10. Though shortly lived the #454 was in a thick battle for the remaining 20 minutes. The intense battle with RJD and XBD Emerald Racing would prove to be some of the most fun racing driver Turner Schroll experienced all season! The top 10 places not far up the track, but the car had been pushed to its limit and was not able to make up the gap.
While holding off a last corner move from XBD Emerald Racing, the #454 held strong during the drag race to the line. Holding onto P12 was a major accomplishment for the team and capped off one amazing recovery drive. This also allowed the team to pick up the required points to snag one more place in the championship for P8 in their first full season in IVRA Clubsport!
The perseverance and drive from the #454 Hyperion Racing Team is a true testament to the growth of the young team. In their celebratory 1 year anniversary week, they have cemented themselves as a true force to be reckoned with. And have proven themselves worthy of competing in the highest of events in sim racing against some of the best drivers in the world.
The entire Hyperion Racing Team wants to thank all of their members, sponsors, and followers for their support this year and in the future. They are all very pleased to have grown over the past year and are eagerly awaiting the start of the next competitive season. If you have interest in joining or partnering with Hyperion Racing please reach out to us.
Be on the lookout for the follow upcoming events from HYPERION RACING:
Teams POV:
Link to RaceSpotTV's stream: