Orion Race Team

6 Hours of Silverstone

July 21, 2008

Two hours of Silverstone, or so it was for the #66 Orion Aston Martin DBR9. Shawn Purdy and Chris Sommerfeld had high hopes going into the race, with successful practice tests showing a pace that was comparable to the best times seen in the race.

Shawn Purdy qualified the DBR9 3rd in GT, catching traffic on both flying laps. Starting the race, he fell back to 4th and getting ready to settle in when he clipped the back of Kevin Brents, which sent Purdy for a loop. Sitting on track to allow the field to go by unfortunately resulted in being T-boned, causing major damage to the car. Forced to pit, Purdy fell a lap down to the leaders after just 2 laps, and valiantly faught his way back through the field with a car sub-100%. Despite a damaged car, and what Purdy describes as just not driving good, he climbed into the top 10 in class with respectable lap times, his best being 1:42.248, before making his scheduled pit to hand the car off to Chris Sommerfeld.

All looked normal during the pitstop, with hopes the team could repair the car even more before sending Sommerfeld on his way, but unfortunatly as soon as Chris took over the car, the dreaded disco occured, and Sommerfeld had no throttle control and the car coasted to a hault ending the Orion Race Team's day. An unfortunate occurance on a day when championship rival and Orion's friend Wilfred Van Den Brink lead his team to victory, effectively wiping out Orion's comfortable lead in class. With both teams equal at 113 points, the next race will be pivotal before moving onto the season finale at the 24 Hrs of Le Mans. Talks are Frosty St Clair who did a fabulous job commentating the Silverstone 6 hours race, will be back in the drivers seat for the next race; stay tuned!

Nailing it down

June 10th, 2008

Fantastic job yet again for Ilkka Haapala, as he was the first to see the checkered flag in tonight's VMS race!
With three races to go, the championship ain't secured yet, but it's looking good!

He's back !

June 8th, 2008

Building on his past season crown, Ilkka Haapala is back at VMS, this time for an endurance BMW E21 challenge...
Needless to say, his results have been nothing short of astonishing, again! With 5 races completed since the beginning, Ilkka has had 5 pole positions, 4 victories and only one 2nd place !
The races aren't a breeze either, here is what Ilkka had to say of the last race that took place at the magnificent Rouen-les-Essarts track:
"I got pole so started in 10th position.. I couldn't gain many spots at the start so I had to pass a lot of cars later on. I managed to get to 2nd place, but then one driver had a brake lockup and rear ended me, sending me to a spin. I was 15 seconds back off the leader after that. I could make up for that gap later, and led after the second pitstops and went on to win"
Superb driving that gives Ilkka the lead in the championship, scoring 125 points, with 4 races to go. Next stop for the series tuesday 10th of June at Ruapuna Raceway.
Stay tuned!

MNRL Championship!

June 7, 2008

The Orion Race team had a great result this season at MNRL, winning the team championship. Chris Gennarelli and Ray Pulido brought home the championship after a very long season, with Chris leading the way finishing 2nd overall in drivers points. Ray had a misfortune early in the season with a disconnect, or else he very well could have raced for the championship in drivers points too. To add to that, Chris Sommerfeld, who races with the team in enduros and is a great friend of the team dominated the later part of the season to bring home the overall win! Congrats to Chris, Ray, and Chris on great seasons!

SSCA Sebring Victory!

June 7, 2008

Another SSCA race, another great drive by The Orion Race Team! Frosty St.Clair put the car on pole for the 3rd race in a row to barely beat out rival team SFH. St.Clair had an extra pit stop early that lost the team close to a full lap. But he stayed in the car to drive it back out in front for close to 4 hours. From there masterful drives from Chris Sommerfeld, and Mike Dubois put the car out of reach for 2nd place. With only 3 races left Orion hopes to bring home the gold in the championship, as the teams focus switches from race wins, to championship glory.

Sirois Champion Again!

May 9, 2008

David Sirois wins yet another championship at the Quebec Racing GPL League! Kaspar Kaynakli had enough money to run with the Ferrari, but at the last minute, he decided to run the BRM, the same car Sirois drove all year. Sirois started 2nd, Kaspar started 8th. David made a mistake early in the race and felt back to 8th, but Kaspa made a mistake later in the race and fell back behind Sirois. David went on to finish 4th with Kaspar 5th and David took home the championship trophy as he has done so many times. Congrats David!!

Late start, great finish!

April 25, 2008

With a late start in the GTR2 Quebec BMW Season, starting after the 4th race, David Sirois has charged up the leader board into a solid 3rd place in the championship. While it is not likey he will make up any more positions during the last race of the season next week, it is still a great finish to a season in which he got a late start in!

Sirois with a chance...

April 25, 2008

With only 1 race left to go, Sirois holds a narrow 2pt lead in the Quebec GPL Season over Kaspar Kaynakli. The last race will be tough, as David has chosen to drive the BRM all season, not a very fast car, and Kaynakli will be in the Ferrari. It all comes down to one race, winner takes all!

Orion gets stronger!

April 23, 2008

Orion is proud to welcome another new addition to the team in Chad McNeese. Chad's speed is possibly only surpassed by his race craft, and is known well for it. McNeese also really enjoys to help other drivers learn, become faster, and ultimately enjoy sim racing even more. Chad will no doubt be an awesome addition in the stable.

Sirois wins another!

April 1, 2008

David Sirois continues to show amazing pace in every sim he touches. A win last week in dominating fashion once again proved his talents in The Quebec Racing League. David got the pole, set fastest lap, and led every lap of the race to go on to win in dominating form. GTR2 Race Results