The Black Rebels can confirm that the 24 year old German ace Andreas Löffler joins the team. Löffler, one of the drivers of the now defunct Degan Simracing is not a totally new face to the team. The German drove several races for the Degan crew in the 2008 European Team Challenge (now called Simracing Team Challenge), a championship that TBR has finished 3rd the last two seasons. Löffler will add even more top speed to the team in their pursuit of winning the STC title among many more.

Welcome to the team Andreas!

The season finale of the Simracing Team Challenge Blue Cup 2009 was a real fight back from the team. The TBR guys left the race with their heads up high as they re-took the 3rd place they had earlier in the season and demoted FlatOut Club to 4th.

David Greco took the teams only victory this season and what a time to do so. He won, after starting 3rd, with 17 seconds over GMT-DHR driver Vincent Staal and with DMSv driver Fredrik Tackman in 3rd 26 seconds behnd Greco. Mikael Hellén who started the race in 14th fought his way up the feild as usuall and finished in a splendid 7th. This was enough to pass FlatOut as they only had Ralf Eiden in 5th. GMT-DHR claimed the championship after a season long battle with RPM.

Results
Standings

The team is already looking forward to the Black Cup that will start early fall. Of course the STC homepage will be filled with news and interview so there is plenty to follow in the off season.

“Last GT Sport race of the season was again Vincent Staals race as he would win his 3rd race in as many tries. The GMT-DHR driver held his pole position in the start and though he had company in the first part of the race he would go on to win with a healthy margin of 13 seconds.

Dragos Haba for RPM showed the same speed of his brother Cristian, who has won races previous this year, and fiished in 2nd to try and keep thier lead in the standings. But those 8 points would not last as 2nd GMT-DHR driver of the race, Panu Ronkainen finish 5th while his RPM counter part Ross Balfour got classified in 15th after not finishing. With this result GMT-DHR is now in the lead, 13 points ahead of RPM, with one race to go.

Mateusz Marcinkowski for FlatOut finished 3rd ahead of the Black Rebel David Greco. Peter Kull and his teammate Bkörn Elofsson put in another good result for DMSv as they finished 6th and 7th. Simon Walker for FlatOut Junior rounded up top 8.

The fight for 3rd also got alot tighter with this result as The Black Rebels re-passed BVM and gained on FlatOut so that is also a fight to watch where these three teams are seperated with only 17 points. FlatOut Junior is currently in 6th and the last place where you get to chose a home track for next season but they will have to watch out for both Team GG and Blue Flag Racing.”

Source: simracingteamchallenge.com

Race results
Standings

Round 5 of the teams champ was held at Zandvoort and the Club layout. Heavy rain made it difficult for the two participants shoiwng up; Mikael Hellén and Andreas Hultgren. Hellén got pole once again as he looked to increase his lead in the standings.

Hultgren got a better start and managed to squeze passt Hellén to take the lead. But that lead only lasted for just under a lap as he got a massive slide and let Hellén through. Later Hultgren got stuck on the kerb in turn 1 and lost a complete lap to Hellén who cruised to yet another victory.

Race 1
Position/Name/Laps/Time/Points

1. Mikael Hellén 20L 25:33.361 10p
2. Andreas Hultgren 19L +1 lap 6p

Same scenario happend in race 2 as Hultgren got the start but this time he only managed to hold it for one lap more as he made the exact same mistake as in race 1. But, this time he held in on the black stuf after that and when Hellén lost his front splitter Hultgren felt the taste of victory. But in his persuit of a potetional victory came to a holt as he spun and also lost the front splitter . Only 4 second seperated the both drivers over the line.

Race 2
Position/Name/Laps/Time/Points

1. Mikael Hellén 18L 25:56.917 10p
2. Andreas Hultgren 18L +0:04.072 6p

Standings after round 5

1. Mikael Hellén 86p 8w
2. Andreas Hultgren 47p
3. Wietse Visser 37p 2w
4. Mehmet Arlsan 10p
5. Clive Siggs 9p
6. Ben Buitendijk 6p
7. Xosé Estrada 1p

The team had a difficult time on the soking wet Dijon-Prenois as the GT Pro race got underway. Mehmet Arlsan and David García were the drivers of the day. Arslan finished in 11th after qualifying in 10th and García in 13th after sarting 12th. This result meant that the team dropped from 4th to 5th in the standings as Black Visor Motorsport got passed.

Race results
Standings

“Vincent Staal made it two out of two for GMT-DHR as he took his second win in as many races. Staal made his way up the order during the soking wet Dijon track after starting in 5th. But despite a 6th place for the second GMT-DHR Marcos, driven by Damian Dainhumain, RPM are still in the overall lead with 9 points. This after a great overall result by the two drivers, Rami Kaukola and Cristian Haba who finished 2nd and 4th respectivly.

Tim Hogendoorn finished in between the two RPM Koenigsegg’s as helped his Black Visor Motorsport team to pass The Black Rebels in the overall standings and is now in 4rth. 5th place went to the V-WTCC Champion and DMSv driver Roland Ehnström. But it could have been more from him but after an incident with a lapped car he had to settle for top 5.”

Source: simracingteamchallenge.com

The team could have had a really great result at Dijon-Prenios in the GT Sport class. Dave Nicol and David García qualyfied in 6th and 10th respectivly. But Nicols race ended before it started leaving García to fight as the lone Rebel. And what a fight he pulled of. Being in a battle for the first half of the race he pitted a bit earlier and got out in clear space and gained time and places and found him self fighting for 2nd in the end. Bur with one lap to go RPM driver Rami Kaukola passed him and some turns later García ran out of fuel. Dispapointing for the team but García got classified in 6th and he was in a good mood after the race despite the sad ending.

“The Team GG home race at Dijon-Prenois has finished as the GT Sports cars had a really intense race with close battles and a dominant winner.

Vincent Staal for GMT-DH Racing took the pole and and would take of into the distance as he won the race with a margin of one minute. But behind him there were battles everywhere. Rami Kaukola would eventually finish 2nd after a late battle with TBR driver David Garcia where the TBR driver ran out of fuel on the last lap.

3rd went to the second GMT-DHR driver of the day, Teo Bubicic. He was in 2nd during the first stint but after some problems he dropped back to 8th but fought his way back onto the podium. 4th went to Mike Wrightson (DHR Fanatec) and 5th to Jari Vinnari (RPM) after a never ending battle between them

In the standings it is even closer now then it was before the race between GMT-DHR and RPM as RPM now leads with 8 points, 352 in total”

Source: simracingteamchallenge.com

Race results
Standings

Mikael Hellén and Andreas Hultgren raced the GT Rpo event at Donington yesterday and the end result was good but could have been so much better. Hellén stept in the car just before qualifying, not the ideal way to prepare ther ace as there had been a mix up of who was going to drive. He started 13th with AHultgren right behind him.

At the beginning of the race the two Rebels was at the back of a big group of cars. Just as they were about to attack the cars infront Hultgren got a hit from behind going into Melbourne Loop and lost a lot of time. Both Drivers pitted early, lap 26 and 27, to try to gain some lost time. Hellén got a stop and go though as he ran to fast into the pits.

Then, with about 25 minutes to go, Hultgren got a message from his virus scannern that made the game minimize it self and he also lost time and 3 places in that moment. At the end the two drivers were together with Hultgren letting hellén pass to maybe be able to catch the car infront but on the last lap he ran out of fuel. Hultgren, with a huge gap to the guys behind, started to push his teammate and they both reached the line in 9th and 10th.

“Tough racing and a real teamwork of a finish. That’s some of the action from tonights GT Pro race at Donington Park.

Marcin Skrzypczak for RPM put his car on pole and would also win the race. Mike Simian of FlatOut was chasing from behind most of the race but suffered a disconnection and his race was over. Jack Keithley of GMT-DHR had the same problems after climbing into the top 5 after starting from the back. Instead, newcomers DMSv and it’s driver Torbjörn Lindau would take 2nd place ahead of the second RPM driver of the day, Niklas Veterinen.

The two Black Visor Motorsports Saleens would round up the top 5 with drivers Tim Hogendoorn and Ben Tusting behind the wheels.

As a sidenote The Black Rebels had somewhat of an unusual finish. Being in position nine and ten going into the last lap Mikael Hellén, the first of the two, ran out of fuel. With healthy margin behind them team mate Andreas Hultgren started to push him with half a lap to go. Both made it to the finish to score two top 10’s for their team.”

Source: simracingteamchallegne.com

Next week it is time to visit France and the Dijon track as the home GP for Team GG gets underway.

Round 4 of the team championship was held a few minutes ago as the circus headed to the rainy streets of Pau, France. Only 3 Rebels showed up including championship leader Mikael Hellén, Andreas Hultgren and Xosé Estrada.

Hellén once again put his car on Pole with a time of 1:31.345 but Hultgren would take the start and lead early one. Hellén followed close behind and when Hultgren spun on lap 3 and later lost his front wing due to contact to the wall Hellén could cruise to a comfortable victory. Estradas race ended early on lap 7 after hitting the wall.

Race 1
Position/Name/Laps/Time/Points

1. Mikael Hellén 18L 28:20.919 10p
2. Andreas Hultgren 18L +0:22.325 6p
—
3. Xosé Estrada 7L DNF

Race 2 would be somewhat chaotic. Due to some bug the server switched setups on the cars going from race 1 to race 2. Hultgren noticed this and quickly changed to his wet weather setup but it was to late for both Hellén and Estrada as the rain started to really poor down. Hellén and Estrada were of course forced to pit after lap one and left Hultgren in a lead of over one minute. But what he didn’t know was that he had equipped the qualifying setup with less fuel then waht he needed. He then had to pit just to realise that the FBMW car is not made for re-fueling which ended his race on lap 9 with an empty tank. Estradas race was as bad if not even worse then the first race and he ended it on lap 2. Hellén could once again cruise to yet another victory.

Race 2
Position/Name/Laps/Time/Points

1. Mikael Hellén 18L 30:29.247 10p
—
2. Andreas Hultgren 9L DNF
3. Xosé Estrada 2L DNF

Standings after round 4: Pau

1. Mikael Hellén 66p 6w
2. Wietse Visser 37p 2w
3. Andreas Hultgren 35p
4. Mehmet Arlsan 10p
5. Clive Siggs 9p
6. Ben Buitendijk 6p
7. Xosé Estrada 1p

The team had a really good race yesterday as the GT Sport class raced at Donington Park for round 4 of the Simracing Team Challenge. Mikael Hellén and Ben Buitendijk were the drivers representing the team this time.

Buitendijk started in 5th while Hellén started in 7th. The race was full of battles and in the end both Hellén and Buitedijk were in the fight for 4th. But they finished as they started exept for that they switched positions with eachothers. 5th and 7th means 34 healthy points to the table. The team is still in 4th but lost some ground to the teams infront despite the good result.

Race results
Standings

“One of the main topics going into round 4 of the STC was if the battle between the Roaring Pipes Maniacs and GMT-DH Racing would continue. From the get go it looked as that would indeed come true but the end result would be somewhat of an antclimax for the two championship contending teams.

Jack Keithley for GMT-DHR put his Marcos Marcorelly on pole ahead of RPM driver Rami Kaukola. But already on the warm up lap Kaukola would suffer from technical problems and leave the race before it even starte. Jack Keithley put up an early pace, only being matched by Black Visor driver Tim Hogendoorn. Hogendoorn managed to pass Keithley before the pitsops and was never really in danger of being passed again.

Then disaster struck the GMT-DHR team and Keithley as he would end the race before the flag waved due to a blown engine. The second GMT-DHR racer Reis Notemboom would eventually save some glory for the team as he finished 2nd after a race long battle with FlatOut driver Andrew Kisielewski.

4th place would go to the second FlatOut driver Tom Ilsbroux. Ilsbroux held of from Mikael Hellén (TBR), Gary Lennon (BVM) and Ben Buitendijk (TBR) for the second half of the race to score a splendid end result.”

Source: simracinteamchallenge.com

Next Thursday it is time for the GT Pro race at the same track and as it looks now Andreas Hultgren and Wietse Visser will be behind the wheels.

The GT Sport race that was scheduled to be held April 2nd was held yesterday. The race did not turn out in favour of the team as both Xavier Sampedro and Wietse Visser failed to finish due to technical problems. Sampedro and Visser started the race in 10th and 11th and were running well till the problems accured. The result means that the team lost 3rd place in the standings to FlatOut Club and are now on 157 points.

Race results
Standings

“The previously postponed GT Sport race at A1 Ring was held yeasterday. It was once again an eventfull race with alot of battles through out the field. The only place where there were no battles were for 1st. RPM driver Cristian Haba started from Pole and never looked back as he would bring yet another race win to the Dutch team.

Behind him however, there were battles through out top 10. Mike Simian (FlatOut) and Teo Bubicic (GMT-DHR) fought it out for second even on the last lap. Simian managed to hold on and take an important 2nd place finish for FlatOut in their attempt to close the gap to the top teams.

Fourth spot would go to Ludwig Ghidi of Team GG. The French driver had a sloild race in his Beemer and picked up several positions after losing a couple at the beginning of the race. Ben Tusting, Black Visor Motosport, rounded up the top 5 with his Spyker.

This means that RPM is still on top of the standings but GMT-DHR is only 9 points behind. FlatOut Club manages to pass The Black Rebels for 3rd as both Rebels faild to finish the race. And just as in the race Black Visor Motorsports rounds up the top 5.”

Source: simracingteamchallenge.com