Happy new year everyone.
With 2011 now a thing of the past and C.O.G.S. championship over its time for a review of the year for Vermin Racing Team.
2011 saw Vermin Racing Team return to professional sim racing, it was late August when everything was rushed together to get a team going again. Running single events in Netkar lead to racing against Herman Hermansen, who became a VRT driver not long after and without him Vermin Racing Team would of just been one person. The car skin was thrown together using colours that would be different and stand out.
The frist official race VRT entered was Snetterton in the all round series and with just me making the race, I found myself finishing 3rd in both races and being alot more competitive than I ever expected after joining so late in the Radiator Springs season, Herman joined me for the next race at Zandvoort which saw me finish 2nd in both of those races with Herman getting some very good points for the team, however he never raced for Vermin Racing after that and decided to leave the team at the end of the year, Herman was a major building block for VRT and I wish him all the best for his sim racing, He is now running in C.O.G.S. with his own team Hermie GP. I was left to finish the season in the All round series on my own, getting promoted to the Class A after Zandvoort meant the racing was suddenly really close and competitive with alot of drivers. I managed to have a good solid race at Crema and an even better one at Monza racking up more points and another 2nd place at Monza, The autumn ring was a completely different story with major issues affecting the race I had good pace in both but because of how much "lag" there was at turn 1 each time the race started I was already 20-40 seconds behind at the start of the race... so finished the season on a bit of a downer in the All Series but still exceeded all my predictions for myself and the team by finishing 13th in the drivers and Vermin Racing getting 7th overall in the teams.
We also got our first KS2 driver who competed in 2 races, Vyacheslav Potapenko who proved to be an excellent addition to Vermin Racing and will compete for VRT next year as well. I did one race in the KS2 alongside Slava and although we didn't have a great race in terms of results, we were very close on track and times which was a lot of fun and I look forward to Slava and myself racing more in the KS2 champ next year.
Gustavo Silva signed on for us towards the end of 2011, he showed alot of skill and race craft and created C.O.G.S., which was basically the VRT racing league which was hugely successful and hopefully will provide a new racing driver to the Vermin team early this year. Things are being worked on currently but we will be working on getting the second C.O.G.S. driver finalised as well as the second season of C.O.G.S.
Decemeber saw the C.O.G.S. Christmas Cup start and it was very promising for us as a team, with myself getting 2nd on the grid and Gustavo getting 4th for the first race. we managed to bring home the cars in the same positions too. Monza was slighlty different, I had a throttle problem in the race which saw me only complete 10 laps and was my first retirement of the season in any race. Gustavo however performed brilliantly in qualifying to get 3rd on the grid and was into the lead of the race on the first lap until he made an error and went off which dropped him out of the running in what would of been a really good race. Gustavo couldnt make Donington so VRT drafted in Tudor Morris who was a very promising racer, unfortunately for him there was some contact between other cars in a couple of races, none of which were caused by him but they destroyed his race and put an end to his C.O.G.S. championship. I had a good race surprisingly after being quite off the pace in qualifying I managed to set the car up for the Race and grabbed 4th place after some brilliant battles throughout the race which put me under alot of pressure defending constantly. Gustavo returned for the final race of the season at Aviano and again we seemed a little off the pace, but again had good race pace, after an average start there was carnage at turn 1 in which I made contact with another driver because I had nowhere to go to avoid him which ruined the race a bit I was still able to finish 5th which meant I clinched 3rd in the C.O.G.S Drivers Championship, Gustavo had a very dissapointing race but still managed to finish and picked up 7th overall which put Vermin Racing 2nd in the Team championship.
We even managed to get a mention on the excellent show This week in Sim Racing, which was a very big boost to things.
All in all it has been a strong year especially when you take into account how young we are as a re-established team. Still no Race wins yet but hopefully 2012 will see that benchmark reached. With alot of things in the works for the team. On the prowl for some minor sponsorship, a potentially new driver coming (once everything is sorted) and also a new sim racing game on the horizion for the team to expand into. I can see a good future for us.
I will look back at 2011 as a starting block, this year is the first full season. Let's hope it is a good one.
Thank you to all the racers in tall the leagues and races and special thanks to my drivers!
Tip
With 2011 now a thing of the past and C.O.G.S. championship over its time for a review of the year for Vermin Racing Team.
2011 saw Vermin Racing Team return to professional sim racing, it was late August when everything was rushed together to get a team going again. Running single events in Netkar lead to racing against Herman Hermansen, who became a VRT driver not long after and without him Vermin Racing Team would of just been one person. The car skin was thrown together using colours that would be different and stand out.
The frist official race VRT entered was Snetterton in the all round series and with just me making the race, I found myself finishing 3rd in both races and being alot more competitive than I ever expected after joining so late in the Radiator Springs season, Herman joined me for the next race at Zandvoort which saw me finish 2nd in both of those races with Herman getting some very good points for the team, however he never raced for Vermin Racing after that and decided to leave the team at the end of the year, Herman was a major building block for VRT and I wish him all the best for his sim racing, He is now running in C.O.G.S. with his own team Hermie GP. I was left to finish the season in the All round series on my own, getting promoted to the Class A after Zandvoort meant the racing was suddenly really close and competitive with alot of drivers. I managed to have a good solid race at Crema and an even better one at Monza racking up more points and another 2nd place at Monza, The autumn ring was a completely different story with major issues affecting the race I had good pace in both but because of how much "lag" there was at turn 1 each time the race started I was already 20-40 seconds behind at the start of the race... so finished the season on a bit of a downer in the All Series but still exceeded all my predictions for myself and the team by finishing 13th in the drivers and Vermin Racing getting 7th overall in the teams.
We also got our first KS2 driver who competed in 2 races, Vyacheslav Potapenko who proved to be an excellent addition to Vermin Racing and will compete for VRT next year as well. I did one race in the KS2 alongside Slava and although we didn't have a great race in terms of results, we were very close on track and times which was a lot of fun and I look forward to Slava and myself racing more in the KS2 champ next year.
Gustavo Silva signed on for us towards the end of 2011, he showed alot of skill and race craft and created C.O.G.S., which was basically the VRT racing league which was hugely successful and hopefully will provide a new racing driver to the Vermin team early this year. Things are being worked on currently but we will be working on getting the second C.O.G.S. driver finalised as well as the second season of C.O.G.S.
Decemeber saw the C.O.G.S. Christmas Cup start and it was very promising for us as a team, with myself getting 2nd on the grid and Gustavo getting 4th for the first race. we managed to bring home the cars in the same positions too. Monza was slighlty different, I had a throttle problem in the race which saw me only complete 10 laps and was my first retirement of the season in any race. Gustavo however performed brilliantly in qualifying to get 3rd on the grid and was into the lead of the race on the first lap until he made an error and went off which dropped him out of the running in what would of been a really good race. Gustavo couldnt make Donington so VRT drafted in Tudor Morris who was a very promising racer, unfortunately for him there was some contact between other cars in a couple of races, none of which were caused by him but they destroyed his race and put an end to his C.O.G.S. championship. I had a good race surprisingly after being quite off the pace in qualifying I managed to set the car up for the Race and grabbed 4th place after some brilliant battles throughout the race which put me under alot of pressure defending constantly. Gustavo returned for the final race of the season at Aviano and again we seemed a little off the pace, but again had good race pace, after an average start there was carnage at turn 1 in which I made contact with another driver because I had nowhere to go to avoid him which ruined the race a bit I was still able to finish 5th which meant I clinched 3rd in the C.O.G.S Drivers Championship, Gustavo had a very dissapointing race but still managed to finish and picked up 7th overall which put Vermin Racing 2nd in the Team championship.
We even managed to get a mention on the excellent show This week in Sim Racing, which was a very big boost to things.
All in all it has been a strong year especially when you take into account how young we are as a re-established team. Still no Race wins yet but hopefully 2012 will see that benchmark reached. With alot of things in the works for the team. On the prowl for some minor sponsorship, a potentially new driver coming (once everything is sorted) and also a new sim racing game on the horizion for the team to expand into. I can see a good future for us.
I will look back at 2011 as a starting block, this year is the first full season. Let's hope it is a good one.
Thank you to all the racers in tall the leagues and races and special thanks to my drivers!
Tip