Virgin GT NEWS

The new team of Virgin GT are set to enter the TGT series

Driver Y22 DJH has been succesful in the 2 touring car series he has entered, including winning a team champonship in the 2008 FTCC, and now decides to step up to the challenge of a GT car. He was planning on entering a sole privateer entry and was looking for many small sponsors to help him along the way. Then Virgin Media came in with a Lucrative deal to see them create a team around Y22.
'I've been looking for sponsors to help me out in making a late entry to the season and it was a very nice and welcome surprise that Virgin were very keen to give me full backing.' said Y22
'my main priorities are to get some experience under my belt and hopefully score well for the team'

Virgin GT are also not ruling out a second or third driver joining them, anyone who is interested should contact Y22

When asked about the car Y22 reported
'The make and model have been chosen, the team are waiting for the series decals to get here before a formal unveiling of the car and livery, but i am very happy during testing and am very looking forward to the first round'

*NEW CAR ANNOUNCED*

Virgin GT and Y22 DJH are pleased to announce their collaboration with Vauxhall who will be supplying them with this seasons car, the VX220 Turbo.
Unveiled today at Silverstone in all its new livery the car will definitely look the part
'I am very happy with this decision by the team' said Y22
'The car may have the highest power in the field but it sure is light and nimble, and is a joy to drive'
''And just look at it, the design team have done a great job decorating this car'
''I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming season and hope we can be right up there with the top teams and drivers'

Good lookin car mate as always. Glad to see you racing and hope to race with ya in the upcoming races mate.

NEWS FROM FIRST RACE MEETING
Reporting from Mugello

There was a bit of a mixed bag for Virgin GT this weekend at Mugello, Italy.
Y22 DJH was reporting good lap times from the practice sessions that him and the team had run, but when it cam to the hotlap qualifying he seemed to lose his focus, setting a time of 1.52.033, at least 1.5s slower than his practice laps
'I totally missed my braking point for the first bend and had to run it all the way round the outside.' said Y22
'Also on the chicane before the final bend i had a massive powerslide on the exit that definitely lost me a few tenths'
that qaulifying time put him in 14th position on the grid.
The sprint race saw the VX220 get an awesome start picking up 3 places at the first bend, there he managed to hold of the challenges of King Hill and BUTUZ right until the penultimate lap where a mistake made him run wide and lose two places on on bend. There he stayed in 13th till the finish.
Y22 did manage however to improve his grid position in the feature race upto 11th with a time of 55.845s.
'I knew the car had the pce round the short track, and if i didnt get into a squable with the ARTA boys maybe i could have been even faster'
To the feature race where, once again, the VX220 was very fast off the start making it up to 10th off the first two corners.
Then a battle with DMR Switch ensued for a good three or four laps, but finally the little vauxhall gave in to the huge power of the Panoz.
There Y22 stayed but he started to slip back into the clutches of AJZero this time. he did well to hold off the more powerful porsche for 5 or 6 laps, the gap getting bigger and smaller as both drivers pushed, Y22 to catch the pair of Selective Rogue and DMR Switch, and AJ to pass Y22.
But, suddenly, on lap 9 Y22 suffered complete engine failure and had to retire from the race.
'i was absolutely gutted, we could have been in for scoring some good points this weekend, but now this looks like it might have to be my throw away round.'
'The cars performance was encouraging, just the reliability we need to get right now'

So, after the first weekend Y22 sits 13th in the sprint standings, but only 22nd overall with Virgin GT sitting 13th in the Team standings

Also in other news, rumour has it that a new driver is coming into the team, more information coming soon ....

Nice report mate!

Check out our battles on the site!

great report and great driving! I need to do less of the Race Pro and more Forza

yer, i really want to watch the vids but my pc at work wont let me, so im going to have to go round my mums lol

Virgin GT Announce New Driver

Virgin GT are happy to announce the arrival of gen3ral ts0 to the team.
Hailing all the way from the USA, he caught the eye of the team scouts while club racing in his home country.

'The team are very pleased to be bringing fresh new blood into the championship' said the team rep
'while it may be a gamble as gen3ral hasnt really got any experience at this level, we are confident that he will compliment the team well, and manage to score some valuable championship points'

gen3ral will also be bringing in his own car, instead of sticking with vauxhall. He will be driving an BMW E46 M3
'obviously the team would have liked to all be working on the same car, but gen3ral wasn't really comfortable in the light and nimble VX220, so the decision was made for him to drive the BMW instead. The team are 100% behind this choice though and the testing times reported are well on pace.'

Our snapper maged to get a sneak peak at gen3ral's car during a recent test at maple valley



so on to maple valley where both Y22 and gen3ral are looking to do well.

Nice car one again mate. Hope you do well at Maple Valley good luck.

“It’s an honor to be part of this sponsorship, and team” said gen3ral after some test laps at the Maple Valley circuit. "Not having much experience racing in this particular spec vehicles is definitely going to be a tall mountain to climb. A brand new car with a brand new driver is definitely going to produce some interesting results"

The rear wheel drive BMW was an interesting choice for a vehicle compared to the mid-engine Vauxhall of his teammate.

"it's a good looking car for sure, I got pretty consistent times today from it, but since it's a brand new car, we're always talking to the engineers finding out where we can scrape time and working out issues to find exactly the set up"

realizing the adversities he will face in the upcoming season, even so. gen3ral is confident he can bring some points to the virgin GT team.

"coming into the season 1 race in, with a brand new car...it's a little intimidating, and May 17th is definitely looming on the calender. But we're going to prepare and work hard and right now i'm 100% focused on getting points and helping the team"

The Virgin GT BMW M3:

A mixture of nerves and inexperience plagued the #88 all day at maple valley raceway

"First I gotta thank Virgin and the rest of the sponsors for building such a great race car. Hats off to them and thanks for the support. and big thanks to my teamate Y22, he had a great finish today and I know his shoulders must hurt from all the carrying he's been doing (laughs). But I wanted to come out strong and i'm happy with the result, I know I am quicker here and not doing so hot in qualli hurt my chances, tried to make a comeback by setting a fast time in the sprint race, but managed about a half second off my practice pace...which is frustrating for sure"

The new car blues continued in the feature race, where Ts0 got out to a quick start, but a big accident after turn 2 and the resulting safety car found him at the back of the grid. The one silver-lining moment that Ts0 can take away from all this is his race with slider. After the restart, Ts0 fell in behind slider and locked himself onto the back of the Vauxhalls bumper until late in the race when slider went wide off of turn one and Ts0 was able to make the pass

"Yeah, It's a hard track to overtake on. I didnt want to push my luck and take the both of us out, so I just kept close behind him and pressured him until he made a mistake"

Ts0 is looking forward to a better result in Two weeks at road atlanta.

"It's my home track, 2 hours away from my home in the states, so I know it well. Comfort level is important, and I never felt like I quite got the hang of Maple Valley, so to be back in a comfort zone, in a car I know a great deal better on a track that i'm very familiar with. Definitely looking forward to that"

The TORA GTC arrives at Road Atlanta on May 31st

got some pictures back from the photographer.

I know how frustrating it can be to have an off race. It was good racing with you, hope we race again!

filthy after a days testing...

A more impressive run at Road Atlanta for the Virgin GT team today. With team boss Y22 DJH taking 12th in the sprint and 13th in the feature, and new driver Gen3ral Ts0 taking 9th in the sprint race and 10th in feature, the young drivers were satisfied with todays result, but admitted that this is no time for celebration or even complacency.

“The sponsors really did a great job with the cars today. We had a strong result and are feeling much more competitive. However, we can't be happy with 10th and 14th, We need to be able to put ourselves in a position where we can make a run to win. But we've made great strides in the past few weeks developing the car, I feel like it's getting more and more competitive as the season progresses."

Y22 DJH felt frustrated with his car all day due to the lack of straight line speed, but still managed to hold his own despite his Vauxhall being underpowered

With the GTC traveling to Suzuka coming up in two weeks, the pressure is on to get the cars and personnel to Japan and find time to get comfortable with the track and get lots of testing and development in.

Tora GTC arrives at Suzuka on June 14th

quick word with ts0 after the race.

"I got the pit strategy wrong, I had too many off's, and I couldnt set consistent times on this track. We're focused on motegi"

if you had pitted one lap later your pit strategy would be fine i think everyone in our lobby had an off

yeah...my tires were completely trashed too. i'm surprised AJ didnt lap me.

Look on the bright side it may only be the half way stage. But there is still everything to play for.

i ran out of gas at the last chicane on the last lap.

i crossed the line doing about 6 mph...

gen3ral ts0 wrote:i ran out of gas at the last chicane on the last lap.

i crossed the line doing about 6 mph...

OUCH!

That was soooooo funny.

Crisis Nine wrote:That was soooooo funny.

funnier than "NOT NOW MOM" ?

Nothing will ever, EVEEERRRR be funnier than that.

i can just imagine the reaction to that.