The Lionheart Retro Series in iRacing is primed and ready for round 11 at New Hampshire. Carrying on with our grid walk feature, we get a great insight.
The Lionheart Retro Series in iRacing is ready for its next race at New Hampshire. But before the lights go out Justin Prince features his grid walk and build up to the big event. With in depth interviews from the drivers, analysis and more, tune in and check out this fantastic series with live coverage provide below.
The Lionheart Retro Series Presented by SimXperience will be getting to take its turn at the Magic Mile this week for the SimXperience 150 at New Hampshire Presented by Dewar’s Candy.
On August 5, the Lionheart Racing Series will be having its second trip to New Hampshire Motor Speedway this week.
Matt Taylor won the Lionheart Speedway Series Presented by The DMLC Racing Channel race at the track on August 2.
Mike Rasimas of GRAAFix LC Motorsports leads the series standings by eight points over Taylor entering the race.
“Being the points leader is a new feeling,” said Rasimas. “I was able to maintain the lead last race, but it’s going to be hard to hold on for the rest of the season. I’ve tried keeping my season goal of consistent finishes, but now that I’m the points leader it’s easy for me to overthink things and risk making more mistakes than usual. So I’m wrestling with a few different philosophical approaches going into this race.”
Paul Jenkins, who finished inside the top five in the Lionheart Speedway Series race, said not everything will translate from that event. The Lotus 79 has more powerful engine braking, meaning throttle management is a bit different. He expects the lines to be roughly the same.
“I feel pretty good about this one. New Hampshire is one of those places where things can change quickly and if I can stay out of trouble and the yellows fall right, I think I might find myself in a good spot here,” said Jenkins, who drives for Aero-X Racing. “Hopefully I can have a strong qualifying performance. Track position is everything here. If you can get in front and stay in the clean air, you can dominate.”
Avatar Auto Racing’s Aaron Morgan is feeling pretty confident for New Hampshire. He said it is a track he has had pace at over the past few years. Morgan feels last year, fuel consumption hurt him.
He said has been sick throughout the week, which has hurt his preparation because he uses a VR headset. Morgan has been focusing on rewatching last year’s race tape.
“The challenges to learning New Hampshire mainly come down to how it’s almost flat, but the way you can hold momentum is odd,” said Morgan. “Setting up passes is hard with the dirty air. You need to master the restarts to move through the field.”
All the drivers said passing will be difficult, but not impossible to do.
“You have to take advantage of others when they make a mistake or lose some momentum,” said Rasimas. “You have to be ready to adjust your line in each corner. Risk versus reward is a big factor here. Do you send it into Turn 1 and try to clear the other driver immediately? Or do you get alongside them and work them over for a few laps?”
Jenkins said the key to understanding New Hampshire is patience.
“The track is so wide it’s easy to try to send the car into the corners and find you have way too much energy to get the car to rotate,” said Jenkins. “It’s almost like a road course. You have to back the corners up and manage your tires. If you get too aggressive with the car you will heat the right front up and the car will quickly become unmanageable.”
Morgan’s expectations are to finish in the top five. He does want to go for the victory after being involved in an incident at Twin Ring Motegi. He said he will have to change his driving style a bit for this race to prevent being overcut.
“I’m still really going for this championship. I just really need to catch a break on some of these ovals if I want a chance at the title,” said Morgan. “I know I can do it, but I need some breaks I didn’t catch at Pocono, or Motegi. I’ve consistently had podium pace every race, but I’ve been caught up in wrecks from other drivers’ mistakes, or netcode that have hurt a lot in three of the last six races.”
For Jenkins, he expects the start of the race to be busy. He expects a lot of green flag racing.
“For me, it’s all going to come down to where I qualify,” said Jenkins. “I’m not terribly great at being fast in qualifying here, so if I end up in the back, I might have to fall back on creative strategy to make it towards the front.”
Rasimas said he thinks he’s done enough to feel confident in his understanding of how the car drives over the run. He has been working on making more aggressive passing moves and driving harder throughout a run.
“Qualifying is not my strong suit but I’m hoping to start near the front. I’d love for some long green runs to get the cars sorted out and get a nice long-game strategy going.”
Race coverage begins at 10:35 p.m. ET. Fans can watch the action live on RaceSpot TV and on tape delay on ESTV.
Live feed of the race provided here
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