RLR Abruzzi eSports is deep into the inaugural Apex Racing League iRacing Prototype Challenge and is getting set to take on the blue riband event of the season at Le Mans with a gang of four LMP1 Hybrids and seven LMP2 Pro entries (Friday 5 March).
The curtain rose at Silverstone Circuit in early February, and RLR’s eSports squad opened its account by taking the LMP1 Pro class pole with Lennart Rahrt and second place in the race with Ismail Yakubu.
Rahrt also set the pace in qualifying for Round 2 at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, but his Porsche 919 Hybrid was no match for the Audi R18 e-tron TDIs in race trim and the German sim star could only muster a third-place result.
However, there was redemption for RLR Abruzzi’s Rahrt in Round 3 at Road America, as he secured a third consecutive pole by a significant margin and was peerless in the race, taking a long-overdue victory as RLR’s all-Polish LMP2 Pro line-up came home in second, third, fourth and fifth in class.
Rahrt said: “We had some horrible luck in the first two races of the Apex Racing League Prototype Challenge, including technical difficulties and some incidents in traffic. Road America was a bit better, as the Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid worked perfectly for me in high-downforce trim. Still, we had an incident at the start, which took out two RLR Abruzzi eSports Audi R18 e-tron Quattros.
“For Le Mans, we have done a lot of practice to find the last few tenths in the cars and ourselves. The Audi and the Porsche seem to be evenly matched in terms of pace, although the Porsche has a small fuel advantage that might open up a few more strategic options. So far we have seen it´s about keeping the cars clean to fight for the overall victory. I believe we are well prepared for Le Mans and we should be able to put up a good fight for the podium places.”
