Mid Season Review - Season 2 2025

6 weeks – 6 starts – 547 laps – 128 incidents – 33.8 average start – 26.6 average finish – 59 field – 3880 teams registered in the league. Top 5.8% (That includes one drop week, when the team did a 12hr race at Sebring) (21 incidents per race) (4 laps per incident)

A Season of Gradual but Assured Improvements

It’s almost the halfway point in the season 2 of iRacing’s GT3 Endurance Series and the Orange Army Sim Racing Team are continuing to steadily advance through the overall league rankings. With seven from the twelve races already completed, the team now sits at position 227 out of 3880, placing it in the top 6% of the total teams entered. While this doesn’t tell the complete story and there are a lot of elements to factor into that position, it does reflect the increasing commitment and discipline of the team. If the team continue to progress at this rate, the ambitious target of finishing in the top 150 teams, should be achievable.

Taking season one as a rookie season for the expanded team, season 2 shows the team adapting its approach to the weekly races, maturing, and developing. While the results on track may only hint at a slight improvement over last season, it’s the overall performance of the team that truly reflects the advances that the team has made.

The routines are now in place; the weekly meetings, team practices, experimenting and tweaking setups, and the general race preparation. All of which is contributing to a calmer, controlled, and more mature approach to each of the events.

The opening race of the season was held at the Red Bull Ring, although the team missed this race, opting instead to enter the 12hrs of Sebring instead. This was followed by Watkins Glen in week two, a race that caught out all drivers across all of the heats. Although the race was due to start in the day, when the drivers lined up for the start, all were stunned to find that it was dark. It was something that none had expected, and the resulting start was calamitous, even at the highest skill levels. Despite being caught up, to various degrees, in the pandemonium, both Orange Army Teams continued to race, and finished when many others failed or quit. A testament to the attitude and determination of the drivers.

A couple of weeks later, at Mugello, one of the teams, through a series of events, found themselves a few incidents points aways from being disqualified. Again, displaying the change of attitude, the team pulled off an almost incident-free double-stint, and brought the car home for a respectable finish.

And, most recently, at the Circuit of the Americas, a supposedly dry race, turned into a deluge, again, catching all of the teams off-guard. And again, demonstrating the growing competence and confidence of the drivers, Orange Army were able to bring the car over the line with the minimum of incidents, in the wet. Literally and figuratively, have weathered whatever storms the events have thrown at them, and completed each and every race.

Endurance racing is not about all-out pace, it’s about consistency and control, and the Orange Army Sim team, have adopted this mentality. The drives are becoming calmer, more assured and with less unforced errors. Despite whatever circumstances the teams find themselves in, they have consistently put a car out each week, and consistently finished each race in the top third of the field. The growth in confidence is reflected in a growth in ambition, with the team already considering diversifying into LMP2 racing, and attempting other series in the iRacing schedule.

It’s not only on track where the Orange Army Team are looking to improve. In the background, the drivers are working on the their skills and licenses, developing and improving their rigs, and finally, improving the livestream that broadcasts each race.

However, there are still races to complete in the current season. The remaining events will test the teams further and see the drivers visit some classic circuits including Imola, Monza, a rainy Le Mans, and the ultimate test coming at the end of season with the 24hrs of the Nürburgring.