Difference between revisions of "Wopke Hoekstra"
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− | '''Wopke Hoekstra''' is a Dutch sim-racer | + | '''Wopke Hoekstra''' is a Dutch sim-racer in the [[GPVWC]]. He manages [[Hawkeye Racing]]'s Superleague outfit, and is also the team principal of [[CM-Tech Racing]]. |
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+ | He started his career as a guest driver in the [[2010 Masters Series season]] and has got a vast amount of experience in both Supercup and Formula Challenge. He has never managed to reach the top league of the Career Ladder. | ||
==Supercup 2011== | ==Supercup 2011== |
Latest revision as of 06:58, 26 January 2016
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Wopke Hoekstra is a Dutch sim-racer in the GPVWC. He manages Hawkeye Racing's Superleague outfit, and is also the team principal of CM-Tech Racing.
He started his career as a guest driver in the 2010 Masters Series season and has got a vast amount of experience in both Supercup and Formula Challenge. He has never managed to reach the top league of the Career Ladder.
Contents
Supercup 2011
With around 25% of the 2011 Supercup season gone, Wopke joined GPVWC for a second time, after driving in the Masters Series before. Not many people knew what to expect, but according to a few GPROC drivers, he had a good pace. Therefore it didn't take him long to find a seat at Kernow Sport. The first race on his schedule was the Austrian Grand Prix. The race was a horrible experience for him, as he qualified way off the pace, and had to drive half the race with a FPS rate of 4-6. Because of that reason, he decides to skip the French Grand Prix, but in Monaco he returned with a much better video card, though still finding himself at the back. As the season progressed there was a clear progress in Wopke's results too, despite him retiring from most races. Eventually the progress resulted in two 6th places in the final two races of the season.
Supercup 2012
Early into the season break, it was announced that Wopke had extended his contract at Kernow Sport. Even though there were some payment issues, everything was fine in the end, and thus he appeared at the starting grid for the Australian Grand Prix. As much as he hated the mod, he was extremely excited. This excitement didn't last long when a massive start accident caused him to retire after just one lap. Due to lack of time, he only raced 11/18 races, of which two races were for the Innervision team, after Wopke broke the contract with Kernow Sport due to a lack of time, which in the end wasn't a right decision. During the season he manages to grab two 10th places and thus 2 points.
After the 2012 season was completed, Wopke announced that he would step back from racing at least until the summer. He didn't keep this promise and got himself a seat in the Formula Challenge just less than a week ahead of the first race.
Formula Challenge 2012
With new regulations for the 2012 season stating that a driver can't be racing as a main driver in 2 leagues of the Career Ladder, Wopke had to search for a reserve seat, besides already having a main driver seat in the Supercup. He found one in the Formula Challenge tier, as he decided to drive for Velocity Racing. Having a main driver not showing up for most of the races, Hoekstra got a lot of opportunities to drive, driving the maximum allowed races as a reserve driver.
The season started in England, at the Brands Hatch Circuit. Showing some good pace in the practice sessions, Wopke was hoping to score some points at his Formula Challenge debut. Things went wrong when he made a stupid mistake and had to retire from the feature race. Returning for the sprint race though, he managed to drive a solid race and bring the Velocity Racing car home in 11th position.
After the opening rounds, they moved on to the Netherlands, where Wopke would drive his home Grand Prix. He was very keen to do well here, and managed to score a 14th position after a tough 1st race. The sprint race had the usual Top 15 reserved, and thus Wopke could start from 2nd position. He managed to keep up pretty well with people just behind the leaders, but a mistake cost him some time. He finished 7th in the end and was still very pleased with the result. As the season progressed, Wopke managed to gather some more points, with a best position of 5th at the Irish Grand Prix.
Formula Challenge 2013
Just before the season started, Wopke came back early from his 'retirement' as he loved the racing too much, and couldn't miss it for another few months. After putting a topic in the forums, he received a quick reply from Optimum SimRacing, and signed a deal with them. Wopke was very glad with the opportunity to drive for this great team, especially since he was afraid that most of the seat would be filled and he would be left behind with a "rubbish team".
Onto the opening rounds at the Australian Grand Prix, Wopke suffered some very difficult practice, as the game was crashing everytime. In the hope it would disappear, he would still compete in the race. After only setting 1 hotlap, which including an off-track excursion, he finished the qualifying session in 38th position. He did a great job in race 1, working his way through the field into 10th. Just like last season, the Top 15 would be reserved again, therefore allowing Wopke to start from 6th place. After some excellent passes Wopke found himself in 3rd, just behind his team mate. Sovik didn't make it too difficult for Wopke to pass him, and Wopke started to hunt down Tveit. Showing some good pace and putting Tveit under pressure was enough to force Tveit into a mistake and thus Wopke was handed the lead. Behind him, Nieminen and Gilmore were fighting over 2nd position, rather than catching up with him first. This allowed the gap to stay pretty much the same, although it was slowly shrinking. After 15 laps though, it was Wopke Hoekstra who finished the line in first position, scoring his maiden victory and also the maiden victory for Optimum SimRacing in GPVWC!
After missing the Malaysian Grand Prix, Wopke returned at the Red Bull Ring, but his race 1 ended after just a few meters. Race 2 he played safe and managed to bring the car home in 13th. At the Hungaroring, he was back upto the pace he had in Australia. He made a personal best in Qualifying, starting 19th. In the race is was going even faster and while most of the leaders pitted, Wopke continued. This meant he could bring the car home in 7th. In the 2nd race things got even better and for a short moment Wopke had victory in sight, but a mistake dropped him from 1 second to 6 seconds behind the leader with 2 laps to go, he didn't make another mistake and scored his second podium of the season. Later he was demoted to 4th because he went outside the track limits too often, something he apologizes for.
Hoekstra continued driving as well as he did before and scored some more good points finishes. Unluckily for him, he has to start from near the back or in the middle of the pack most of the time as his game crashes during qualifying very often. This also meant that he got caught up in some of the chaos at the start, losing front wings or being forced into retirement. Halfway through the season, he lost a lot of motivation due to the many crashes that happened. He didn't race a lot in the second half of the season.
Formula Challenge 2014
Hoekstra was back in Formula Challenge for the 2014 season, switching to the YTF1 team. He didn't start the season too well, crashing twice and thus failing to score points. The one race that stood out for him was the Canadian Grand Prix, where he was leading for quite a few laps in the second race. Sadly for him, Jundt managed to overtake him and he finished second. Besides that, it was a quiet season for him and not really one he wants to remember too much, even though he had a really good time at YTF1.
Formula Challenge 2015
For 2015, Hoekstra decided to do yet another season of FC. His plans for the season were clear: Drive as many races as possible and practice hard. He has signed for the Epic Racing team of Lee Davidson. Mike Schroten will be his team-mate.
Into round 1 of the season, Hoekstra was looking very good and took 11th in the qualifying session. In the race he managed to make up some more position with a few very good overtakes around the outside. He managed to finished 5th and 8th. The second round of the season took place at Bahrain, one of the circuit Hoekstra doesn't like at all. Despite that, he managed to take 11th in qualifying again and finished 8th and 5th in the races. These great results mean he is 6th in the standings after two rounds and has scored 38 points, only 3 points less than his total of last season!
Results
Supercup
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Team | Chassis | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | WDC | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2011 | Kernow Sport | SC-011 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Ret |
- |
Ret |
- |
17 |
Ret |
Ret |
- |
Ret |
DNS |
Ret |
Ret |
Ret |
6 |
6 |
26th | 10 |
2012 | Kernow Sport | SC-012 |
Ret |
14 |
- |
Ret |
10 |
- |
Ret |
10 |
Ret |
- |
- |
- |
Ret |
Ret |
- |
- |
13 |
Ret |
29th | 2 |
† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 75% of the race distance.
Formula Challenge
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Team | Chassis | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | WDC | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | Velocity Racing | FC-012 |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
FEA |
SPR |
26th | 58 | ||||||
2013 | Optimum SimRacing | FC-013 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
14th | 108 |
2014 | YTF1 | FC-014 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
29th | 41 | ||
2015 | Epic Racing | FC-015 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
5th | 95 |
† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 75% of the race distance.
World Sport Series
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | WDC | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | Woods Racing | Porsche 911 GT3 |
- |
Ret |
- |
12 |
Ret |
- |
30th | 4 | ||||||||||||||
2013 | Pulse Racing | Porsche 911 GT3 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
R1 |
R2 |
12th | 64 |
† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 75% of the race distance.