Sim racing can have a great sense of community. A handful of OverTake members took this one step further – and competed in a 6-hour race at Mantorp Park together!
Sometimes, the ideas that seem craziest are the best to actually follow through with. Every year, a 6-hour race takes place at Sweden’s Mantorp Park, called ‘Landskampen’ – an on-track battle between Sweden and Norway using affordable cars. In 2024, two of them saw OverTake community members in the middle of it all.
And it was not even the first time they went racing in real life, either. The team of @Ole Marius Myrvold, @Roy Magnes, @Joakim Skalstad and Per M (who is not on OverTake) first took to the circuit in 2018 in a Ford Mondeo, which was replaced by an Opel Astra for the following event.
Originally, the rules stated that “after the race has finished, every car that participated had to be sent to the scrap yard. It was supposed to be the very last thing the car did”, explains Ole. Cars can also cost no more than €1,000 and have to adhere to a horsepower-to-weight-ratio limit – “everything else is free”, Ole continued.
Image: racingcircuits.info
They did, however, and it sparked an interest in it that made them come back yearly. For 2024, the group was even expanded – thanks to the Rally Club on OverTake, actually. That is where Alex Dahmen (@Alex2016) and Ole got in touch. “I started chatting with Ole, who is the organizer of the rally championship, and the championship was a blast. Even after it ended, we kind of stayed in contact and eventually ended up chatting quite a bit”, remembers Alex. “Not just about sim racing, but also about things happening in our real life.”
In those chats, Alex learned about the Landskampen event, and the low-budget nature of it fascinated him: “In Germany, we don’t really have grassroots motorsport, or at least none that I know of. Everything is run in a really professional manner, so that always seemed a bit out of reach to me."
“But the Landskampen event? Man, I was really hyped to follow the Norwegians through their races in 2022 and 2023”, Alex recalls. “Eventually, we also discussed possibilities on how I could join the event. A good bit of planning later, a close German friend of mine joined in as well.”
The 2024 Mantorp 6H Team: (from left to right) Alex Dahmen, Ole Marius Myrvold, Per M, Roy Magnes, Joakim Skalstad, Karo Ali.
The Aygo, meanwhile, had a crossover of the Norwegian and German flags painted on its roof to reflect the lineup of Alex and Karo Ali (who is also not on OverTake) as well as the car's Norwegian ownership - it is Joakim's, and he rented it to the Germans. And despite being low on power, picking up the Toyota was a great decision for the team, as it turned out.
Entered as Norman Gerway for its team name, the car ran without problems throughout the six hours. “We obviously lacked straight-line speed compared to the other cars, but that didn’t really matter all that much to us”, Alex states. “We were just there to fulfill our childhood dreams and properly take part in an actual car race.”
The little Aygo eventually finished 27th overall. What about the Astra, though? Unfortunately, it did not see the checkered flag – or even a full stint. “We had a feeling that maybe one wouldn’t last for six hours, but we thought it would be the Toyota that would give up, because it really isn’t made for doing six hours of racing”, Ole admits. Instead, the team’s trusty Opel was out of the race after just one lap, with its engine calling it quits. Ole them also hopped in the Aygo.
Preparation for this years race, meanwhile, hardly happened on the actual track – and with a bunch of sim racers in the cars, you can probably guess how they got around that. Ole, who regularly schedules rFactor 2 events in our Racing Club, had set up an rF2 race at Mantorp Park a week prior to Landskampen, for instance.
How helpful was the rig-based practice? Ole did make out a few differences to the sim side of things: “The track isn’t as flat as it feels in the game. And especially in the last corner, I tried to tell people to hit the curb on the apex on the inside. The problem was that in game, there was no curb.”
The Racing Club used Super Touring cars that were not exactly close to the actual cars entered by the team, but still proved to be helpful. “I decided to try and drive the Club event like I drive the track in real life – and somehow I won the race, so there is something that is correct in the sims”, laughs Ole - who does not hold a driving license, so the Mantorp event is the only time he is behind the wheel of a real car each year.
Alex also praises sim racing for being helpful: “In everything but g-forces, sim racing was great preparation for the event. I did quite a few laps in Assetto Corsa beforehand just to get the line in an FWD car down.” Coupled with the Racing Club event, “I could properly play with the weight transfer at the end, which felt really cool.”
Additionally, 15 years of multi-class racing experience in the rig also helped Alex, as he acknowledges: “The biggest help it provided was for traffic management. We were being lapped multiple times per lap, sometimes even per corner, but for pretty much all of our time, we managed to keep ourselves out of trouble. I do a lot of multi-class endurance racing in iRacing, which really helped with reading situations coming up in my mirror. I also was less scared of going three wide than I probably should have been.”
To see the OverTake community come together like this is truly special. We are rooting for the guys to have another crack at it in 2025! For Alex, it was a dream come true: “A very special shoutout to everybody who helped us for our journey, but especially Ole, Roy and Joakim, for making us feel most welcomed during our stay in Norway, the roadtrip to Sweden and the actual event in Mantorp. You guys enabled me to achieve a lifelong dream of mine, become a race car driver, and I cannot thank you enough for that.”
What do you think about the team’s Mantorp Park experience? Let us know in the comments below and read more about the event in the forum thread!
Sometimes, the ideas that seem craziest are the best to actually follow through with. Every year, a 6-hour race takes place at Sweden’s Mantorp Park, called ‘Landskampen’ – an on-track battle between Sweden and Norway using affordable cars. In 2024, two of them saw OverTake community members in the middle of it all.
And it was not even the first time they went racing in real life, either. The team of @Ole Marius Myrvold, @Roy Magnes, @Joakim Skalstad and Per M (who is not on OverTake) first took to the circuit in 2018 in a Ford Mondeo, which was replaced by an Opel Astra for the following event.
Originally, the rules stated that “after the race has finished, every car that participated had to be sent to the scrap yard. It was supposed to be the very last thing the car did”, explains Ole. Cars can also cost no more than €1,000 and have to adhere to a horsepower-to-weight-ratio limit – “everything else is free”, Ole continued.
Image: racingcircuits.info
An Idea Is Born At Rally Sweden
In short, the Landskampen event is a rather budget-friendly option if you want to go racing. Initially, the team started out as a group of friends who met up online for gaming and sim racing, but when Ole and Per moved to Drammen and closer to Roy and Joakim as a result, they started to hang out in real life more. Ole and Roy went to Rally Sweden, “and we spoke about it in Sweden, but we can’t actually remember how we came across this race at Mantorp.”They did, however, and it sparked an interest in it that made them come back yearly. For 2024, the group was even expanded – thanks to the Rally Club on OverTake, actually. That is where Alex Dahmen (@Alex2016) and Ole got in touch. “I started chatting with Ole, who is the organizer of the rally championship, and the championship was a blast. Even after it ended, we kind of stayed in contact and eventually ended up chatting quite a bit”, remembers Alex. “Not just about sim racing, but also about things happening in our real life.”
In those chats, Alex learned about the Landskampen event, and the low-budget nature of it fascinated him: “In Germany, we don’t really have grassroots motorsport, or at least none that I know of. Everything is run in a really professional manner, so that always seemed a bit out of reach to me."
“But the Landskampen event? Man, I was really hyped to follow the Norwegians through their races in 2022 and 2023”, Alex recalls. “Eventually, we also discussed possibilities on how I could join the event. A good bit of planning later, a close German friend of mine joined in as well.”
The 2024 Mantorp 6H Team: (from left to right) Alex Dahmen, Ole Marius Myrvold, Per M, Roy Magnes, Joakim Skalstad, Karo Ali.
Six Drivers, Two Cars For 2024
With six drivers on the roster, the team even expanded to a second car: A 68hp Toyota Aygo – the little 1-liter, three-cylinder machine was actually rally-prepared, and it would join the golden Astra. The Opel ran with the Norwegian flag on its roof – one of the few strictly-enforced rules at the event to see which country the car is running for – as it was to be piloted by Ole, Roy, Per and Joakim.The Aygo, meanwhile, had a crossover of the Norwegian and German flags painted on its roof to reflect the lineup of Alex and Karo Ali (who is also not on OverTake) as well as the car's Norwegian ownership - it is Joakim's, and he rented it to the Germans. And despite being low on power, picking up the Toyota was a great decision for the team, as it turned out.
Entered as Norman Gerway for its team name, the car ran without problems throughout the six hours. “We obviously lacked straight-line speed compared to the other cars, but that didn’t really matter all that much to us”, Alex states. “We were just there to fulfill our childhood dreams and properly take part in an actual car race.”
The little Aygo eventually finished 27th overall. What about the Astra, though? Unfortunately, it did not see the checkered flag – or even a full stint. “We had a feeling that maybe one wouldn’t last for six hours, but we thought it would be the Toyota that would give up, because it really isn’t made for doing six hours of racing”, Ole admits. Instead, the team’s trusty Opel was out of the race after just one lap, with its engine calling it quits. Ole them also hopped in the Aygo.
"Still over the moon with how it went"
Despite this, the team massively enjoyed the event. “We were and still are over the moon with how it went and we already had some chats about coming back next year to do it all over again, possibly with a faster car then”, says Alex.Preparation for this years race, meanwhile, hardly happened on the actual track – and with a bunch of sim racers in the cars, you can probably guess how they got around that. Ole, who regularly schedules rFactor 2 events in our Racing Club, had set up an rF2 race at Mantorp Park a week prior to Landskampen, for instance.
How helpful was the rig-based practice? Ole did make out a few differences to the sim side of things: “The track isn’t as flat as it feels in the game. And especially in the last corner, I tried to tell people to hit the curb on the apex on the inside. The problem was that in game, there was no curb.”
The Racing Club used Super Touring cars that were not exactly close to the actual cars entered by the team, but still proved to be helpful. “I decided to try and drive the Club event like I drive the track in real life – and somehow I won the race, so there is something that is correct in the sims”, laughs Ole - who does not hold a driving license, so the Mantorp event is the only time he is behind the wheel of a real car each year.
More Grip Than Expected
He continues: “I didn’t expect the car we had to have as much grip as it did. Also, compared to sim racing, you feel when you are on the limit very easily. People say that many sims are a bit to slippy because it’s supposed to be difficult – it didn’t feel that slippy in the real world.”Alex also praises sim racing for being helpful: “In everything but g-forces, sim racing was great preparation for the event. I did quite a few laps in Assetto Corsa beforehand just to get the line in an FWD car down.” Coupled with the Racing Club event, “I could properly play with the weight transfer at the end, which felt really cool.”
Additionally, 15 years of multi-class racing experience in the rig also helped Alex, as he acknowledges: “The biggest help it provided was for traffic management. We were being lapped multiple times per lap, sometimes even per corner, but for pretty much all of our time, we managed to keep ourselves out of trouble. I do a lot of multi-class endurance racing in iRacing, which really helped with reading situations coming up in my mirror. I also was less scared of going three wide than I probably should have been.”
To see the OverTake community come together like this is truly special. We are rooting for the guys to have another crack at it in 2025! For Alex, it was a dream come true: “A very special shoutout to everybody who helped us for our journey, but especially Ole, Roy and Joakim, for making us feel most welcomed during our stay in Norway, the roadtrip to Sweden and the actual event in Mantorp. You guys enabled me to achieve a lifelong dream of mine, become a race car driver, and I cannot thank you enough for that.”
Mantorp Park In Sim Racing
Meanwhile, if you want to have a go at Mantorp Park in sim racing as well, be sure to grab @_SJTracks’ version for rFactor 2 available in our download section! Alternatively, the circuit is available in RaceRoom (as well as Race07) as first-party content - or the original TOCA/DTM/V8 Supercars Race Driver, if you are looking for a more old-school experience.What do you think about the team’s Mantorp Park experience? Let us know in the comments below and read more about the event in the forum thread!
