Racing official races within iRacing is quite demanding on preparation. After the successful 2010 Season 4 and 2011 Season 1 Grand AM championships SFH racer Ruud had only 2 planned events for the spring and summer, the iRacing Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. For the fall Ruud chosen to run 2 private league series during S3, the Escors Endurance Series and the Simracing.NL NL.iRacing Mustang Cup.
NL.iRacing Mustang Cup
In NL.iRacing Ruud ended up dominating the lap charts from the drop of the flag in the Mustang Cup. Ruud won every event he entered in the SFH livery equipped Mustang. The series had a nice schedule featuring Barber Motorsports Park, Infinion, Road America and Laguna Seca were good venues to race. Unfortunately attendance seemed to drop a bit during the season. In the end Ruud claimed the inaugural iRacing championship at Simracing.NL, his first since 2005.
Escors Endurance Series
The Escors Endurance Series is a multiclass series featuring the HPD ARX-01c LPM2 car, the Corvette C6R GT1 and the Ford GT GT2. Races are 1 hour and 30 minute races held on 6 different locations. Initially Ruud signed up as an LMP2 driver, but discovered after finishing 2nd the first race that the LMP2 was not his preferred class. Kindly the series administrators agreed and allowed Ruud to wheel a Corvette C6R GT1 from round 3 onwards. Like in the Mustang Cup there was a prominent and dominant role for the SFH racecar from the get go. Ruud started with 2 solid wins on the old tire model C6R on Watkins Glen and Road America. Shortly before the Silverstone event there was the unexpected introduction of the new tire model. In the practice and qualifying leading up to the race the gap looked smaller then before, but nonetheless the SFH Corvette won the race with ease lapping the entire field as done at Road America. Coming into the season finale there were still 4 C6R runners who could claim the title. Early in practice it was obvious Ruud was once again the driver to beat. He claimed pole by a good 2.5 second margin and during the race again putting everyone a lap down. The win at Spa meant Ruud claimed a second championship in a single season.
What’s next
Whats Next? Ruud currently runs the Impala B COT on ovals wiz ze germanz in the iRacing Sim Series to work on his oval setup skills. The season consists a massive 18 races of which 8 are have been completed. Ruud currently is 3rd in points after missing race 1 and 8.