Photo by Nathan Deering
By Turner Schroll
Post-Race Report: Round 5 VIR
Coming off a cold month of January the Hyperion Racing #454 boys were eagerly awaiting their shot at redemption coming off the team’s worst outing yet in the GSI IVRA Clubsport Championship. Last time out at Indianapolis was one to forget for the young and aspiring team. With all the hours of preparation and setup building that went into the effort, the resulting DNF left more than a sour taste in the team’s mouth. This was all the more motivation going into this week's 700km of Virginia International Raceway (VIR), some of the driver’s favorite and also the home track of a number of Hyperion drivers.
As the month’s preparation kicked off, it was all hands on deck to develop a new starting point for further data collection for the engineering department. This effort was aided by our energizing sponsors at Rogue Energy and Northwinds Coffee Co. Ultimately the team selected drivers Floyd Kerr and Jeff Lund to pilot the #454 around the rolling hills of this picturesque scene for the penultimate round of the IVRA Clubsport season. This left Nathan Deering and Turner Schroll to man the strategy and spotting responsibilities for the weekend.
With only a few variations on the team’s setup compared to prior events, the drivers got to work and began to get more comfortable than possibly ever before. The drivers also worked together to develop a schedule for the best possible outcome. This meant that Jeff Lund would both qualify and start the race while focusing on fuel saving for the opening stints. Leaving Floyd Kerr to be responsible for the final stints of the race, and given the “green light” to push until the end showing the raw pace that Hyperion Racing #454 had unlocked over the past few weeks.
Jeff woke up on another level and was P2 in the warmup session prior to the race, setting a blistering 1:51.9. Some of the fastest pace we had seen from anyone in the field all week. As the temperatures began to rise and the qualifying session began the times started to fall more in line with what had been expected. However, on the out lap of the Gt4 Qualifying Session Jeff was turned into and spun around by the #486 Wave Italy Mercedes AMG. This incident forced Jeff and the #454 to pit and reset/refuel the car for another attempt, while also putting the car out by itself with no drafting partner for the remainder of the session. Jeff did what he could but with a limited amount of fuel and no draft he was only able to qualify the car into the 15th position to start the race. This was not a major setback for the team that already had their fuel-saving strategy planned out, and also qualified ahead of their target team Hugh Jass #437.
The scenes to start the race must have been something of legends, as 50+ cars took to the grid in what was, in this writer’s opinion “one of the most beautiful sights” he’d ever seen! The massive formation lap was only a slight indication of what was to come over the next 4 hours of hard racing.
As the green flag dropped and the 4 classes took off for a grueling battle, what was easily predicted as turn 1 chaos only slightly ensued. With a Gt4 going off with a little help of a fellow competitor the field checked-up causing another competitor to slightly make contact with the #454 Hyperion Racing Mercedes AMG in the rear causing mostly cosmetic damage. Jeff did a great job staying out of anything further and fell into line to get to work on the fuel saving strategy the team had outlined for him. This proved to be crucial as Huge Jass pulled to the right out of line on the back stretch on lap 2 to save even more fuel, thus sending them to the back of the field where the team seemed to lay and wait for their chance to move up though the field.
Not 10 laps in and the first, yet “short” Full Course Yellow (FCY) of the day came. The team used this opportunity to continue to save even more fuel during the opening stint. As the race resumed, on lap 15 the 2nd FCY, this time a “long”, was issued as a mixing LMP3 crushed a lapping TCR as they began their way up through the esses.
Mirroring Hugh Jass the #454 decided to come in on lap 17 for a full service stop. On the ensuing green flag run #486 Wave Italy and #411 Rusty Spatulas decided to get together coming out of Hog Pin and the final corner and end each other's day in the grass on the front stretch.
Jeff came into the pits on race lap 50 and handed the car over to Floyd who came out of the pits in P12 with a full approval to push until the end, less than 2.5 hours later. This would allow the #454 to shuffle up as high as P2 during the pit cycle. Coming out on the subsequent pitstop, Floyd was able to undercut the #445 Echelon Simsport Mercedes AMG by over 6 seconds, aided by major contact from a lunging LMP3 on the #445.
With less than 1.5 hours remaining, and only one more scheduled stop, the #454 found itself in P6 and battling closely with the #492 Boutsen VDS by Undercut. However what was a great spectacle was ended by an unfortunate netcode incident of over a foot. Nonetheless apologies from both teams were exchanged and cordially moved on with mutual respect. Later in the stint Floyd would find himself in P4, and the leaders in class #444 Fiercely Forward were issued an untimely 60 second stop and hold penalty for a pit lane infringement. Thus ultimately ending their attempt at an easy victory.
As #491 Sabelt and #457Impulse Racing had yet to pit for the final time, the battle was heating up between Hyperion Racing and #450 RJD. As last to pit decided to finally come in, Hyperion would move up to P4 until RJD went a bit wide into Oak Tree Corner giving the final podium position to the hungry Hyperion Racing team. The battle would continue and ultimately the position would switch hands once more as the Aston Martin of RJD was hooked up all over the track.
As the final few laps would prove to be unrelenting stress upon both the #454 and the #450. RJD would find itself going a bit hot into Oak Tree and making contact with the Wave Italy TCR car with only 2 laps to go. Though Hyperion Racing were not able to get around, and ultimately crossed the line in P4, they knew a penalty would be in store for RJD. As this alone was a team best result, as expected a 10 second penalty was in fact handed down post race to RJD, thus giving the #454 Hyperion Racing their first ever IVRA podium for a P3!
The team was more than elated at the result. Their hard work and efforts have truly begun to pay off. At only a year in, they have shown they can compete both in the top splits but also the top leagues in the iRacing arena.
Everyone at Hyperion Racing want to thank our sponsors Rogue Energy, Northwinds Coffee Co., Redwolf Jersey Works for all their support and amazing products they supply to keep us looking and driving at the top of our game!
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