GPVWC ITC Post-Donnington Debrief with Elise Skinner

Photo Credit - Ben Willis

As the Donnington Park circuit went silent after the thrills and spills of the opening round of the GPVWC International Touring Cup. We sat down to talk with team owner Elise Skinner about her opinions on the ITC series and GPVWC as a whole, whilst also asking about how she felt both drivers performed during the weekend.

Firstly, it would be a smart idea to explain what exactly GPVWC is to our new readers who may be unaware of the series.

Grand Prix Virtual World Championship (or GPVWC for short) is a series run on rFactor 2 in which entails both a Career Ladder and an Independent series (of which in this case is ITC).

The series' Career Ladder bosts three tiers of which decrease in speed and driver experience whilst the Independent series can be a mix of anything and everything.

Idos, currently, are only in ITC but plan to enter the Career Ladder in the near future. So we will make a few posts about the GPVWC series in the future in preparation for our hopeful debut in 2018.

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After the round ended, we grabbed Elise from her post race debrief with Stein and E, to have a chat with us about the weekend and the series in general.

Elise. With how this weekend went for the Idos Motorsport team. Are you happy with how this debut went or do you think there was more that was obtainable from the event?

Well. Obviously i'm happy with how our debut went with us finishing every race with at least one car and with both guys showing the pace they have early on allowing me and the team to gauge where we will be aiming for throughout the rest of the season. With Stein, we were able to see his pace very early on as he was fighting up the front of the midfield pack and holding his own. With Donnington being a tight circuit with very few overtaking spots, i'm most certainly impressed with how Stein did in his races as he maximised the car to the best he could with the multiple issues he had throughout the event.

With Ed however, he wasn't able to showcase the pace he had as quickly as he would have liked. With contact in race one damaging the car to the point where it was seconds off the pace whilst just not being able to climb places throughout the event means we're looking onto Zolder to see what he can do. However, overall i'm happy with what Ed achieved over the weekend as it was more of a re-adjustment of a round as Ed has been away from GPVWC competition for a few years now. So to see him back in the seat with us here at Idos Motorsport with his chilled out approach is always a pleasure.

Throughout the event the races were filled with thrills and spills. How many of those thrills and spills came towards the team?

Well we had many thrills in the first race with Stein climbing from P18 to P9 at the exit of turn 1 as carnage ensued with cars spinning off, people darting left and right to avoid and then more, secondary, contact after on the rundown towards the old hairpin. Thankfully, both got through the initial accident but Ed got caught up with Geoffrey Fournier in the secondary collision meaning he sustained damage meaning he just brought the car home wherever he could.

Spills wise. Mainly the contact for Ed and then Stein dropping down the order because of small, rookie mistakes. In no way was i annoyed with Stein as he showed he had the pace to be up in the points the whole race. Just small errors, that i expect a rookie like him to make, sent him down the order. Then in Race 3 where Stein retired because of contact with another car who lagged into the front of his car on the apex of a corner sending him out of the race. Other than that, everything else was where i expected us to be. So i'm thankful that we made it through the weekend with decent results for our debut.

As the team is now packed up and heading off to Zolder for the second round of the season.

Do you feel like you can improve on Donnington and score some valuable Teams Championship points consistently?

Points? I absolutely believe it's possible for us to score a significant haul for us. Ed and Stein have shown in the sessions that they are capable of running inside the points so we just need to find the luck and to not be cursed by any commentators in the near future. Zolder isn't going to a track where the Ford is particularly strong for us so we just need to work on the setup and get as much track time as possible. However, anything is possible as we've seen from Donnington so i'm not exactly worried about it. I have full faith in my guys to drive the best they can each race.

Overall. What are your opinions on GPVWC as a whole? You said in an unofficial interview before that you had ideas about entering the Career Ladder with the Idos Motorsport team in 2018. Are you any closer to a decision now?

Oh most certainly. I have decided what i want to do with the team in regards to GPVWC and i am glad to say that we will certainly be attempting to enter Formula Challenge in 2018. I have little doubt that this isn't a possibility. Hopefully some of our current drivers we have had throughout the years are willing to make the upgrade to rFactor 2 and join GPVWC but if not, then we will look elsewhere for our drivers.

In regards to what my opinion is of GPVWC? I love it. The community is a very friendly place. The series management is always open to questions, requests and people to join the series as either a driver or part of the GPVWC team in any sector. All the commentators are approachable and even if they may curse you every so often, you'll find it easy to get along with them as long as you're a polite person.

Hopefully we find ourselves a nice little home here at GPVWC for the future and can enjoy it. I'm happy to be part of the GPVWC ITC series and hope both Ed and Stein are as well.