Wopke Hoekstra is a Dutch sim-racer who currently drives for Kernow Sport in the Supercup. He previously drove as a guest driver in the 2010 Masters Series season.
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.
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)
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.
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† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 75% of the race distance.
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!
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Dutch
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