Round 2 of the Lionheart Speedway series in iRacing visited the lone start state for the Simrace247.com Texas 200.
Round 1 had produced a great event, but the show must go on for round 2, as the Lionheart Speedway Series visits Texas Motorspeedway for the simrace247.com 200 presented by Gomez Sim Industries.
Written by Darren B of simrace247.com
Qualifying Top 5
As usual, the qualifying session was underway and ready for the drivers to state their positions on the grid.
- # Goodman: 24.649
- #3 Wagner: +0.007
- #40 Herrick: +0.021
- #69 Malone: +0.021
- #64 Wood: +0.023
Race Start For Round 2 Of The Lionheart Speedway Series
Its that time again, as the driver’s lineup behind the pace. The sight of 40 cars lined up for the rolling start is something to behold, it looks incredible. Pace car peels off to pitlane and it’s go time. Goodman punches it and gets a great initial start, clean open first lap from the entire field. Wagner takes the lead and Wood moves up to P3 in the early stages. Lap 4 sees Carter’s car crabbing on the apron with damage, a heart in mouth moment for the other drivers as his car with low control slowly goes onto the race track as the field passes at full gas. This could have been a disaster.
Under Yellow In The Early Stages
Replay footage shows Godsoe making a move and Carter trying to squeeze the gap, Godsoe went for the pass, but Carter we think did not realize he was still there and reacted to move away or had minimal contact sending his car into the wall. as the yellow is out, some cars enter pit road to grab a splash of fuel and brim the tank. the pace car comes back into pit road at the end of lap 9 and we are back racing for the start of lap 10. Wagner continues to lead out front with Goodman and wood close by, big movers in the race so far who have climbed the ladder are Taylor and Hardin who have moved up 12 places from the starting positions sitting in P12 & p14.
The leading three cars have started to pull away, and we see some great battles going on throughout the pack, did we expect anything less from these great drivers? Forsythe, Hacker, Hassert and Dupre are fighting over 4th position with impressive driving and they look for any signs of weakness to make a move.
Team simrace247 driver Luis Gonzalez Nunez is having a great battle in P13 and in a big pack of drivers as they battle for 9th. Wagner continues to lead out front with the top 3 as they were, this is great racing. Lap 27 is called out as a group of drivers have technical issues as storms are up in some states of the U.S. This is a shame when this happens as we like to see all drivers being able to continue, we understand some of the drivers lost 4 laps due to the issue. Hassert is trying everything to maintain P5 as he is hounded by Dupre and Forsythe, the leading group of 4 is starting to break away.
Lap 40 top 10
- Wagner
- Malone
- Wood
- Goodman
- Hassert
- Dupre
- Forsythe
- Hacker
- Oster
- Nunez
We are seeing the leading 3 starting to duel more and starting to suss each other out, and then Wagner is first to blink as he enters pit road for his scheduled strategy. Here we go, the field starts to pour into pit road lap after lap, and the position board starts to shuffle up.
After the shuffle up on the pit stops, we see the field resume back to true race positions. Wagner planned it well as he has a 1 second lead over Malone and Wood as they dice for P2. Further back we a seeing a whole bunch of cars dueling for P7. Taylor, Goodman, Hardin, Nunez, Hacker, Showen and Oster are all amongst it, with only a second separating them all. This is amazing driving as we see the cars getting really close to each other at high speed.
Nunez is a different driver this season out on track, nothing phases or bothers him as he is thick in the battle. Back out front, Malone is all over the lead car of Wagner, with Wood having a front row seat in P3.
The Duel For The Lead On Lap 73
Malone takes the lead with a nice move, but Wagner is having none of it as they duel out front. Wood with the fresher tires in P3 is keeping back and just running with the lead two, maybe he is coming up with a plan. The battle for P7 is relentless as Nunez is spearheading the position and keeping the group on their toes, he is holding station with great driving. By lap 83 Wagner and Malone come into the pits and Wood takes the lead, will he stay out and stretch out the gap with clear air and no pressure with Hassert 2.5 seconds behind?
We start to see others dropping into pit road for the second pit stop cycle, Wood has stayed out and the pit lane fills up with drivers lap after lap. With 43 to go, Wood pits in and the Shuffle on the position board takes effect. After the stops, Wagner has taken the lead with Malone on his tailpipes, Wood is back up to P3 but 2 seconds behind. We think he may be saving fuel now and wanting to bring it home. With 25 to go, the race is ticking by quickly, this is the final run to the flag, albeit being under green. Taylor moves up to P3 with Dupre close by in 4th, Wood is in P5.
15 To Go And The Splash And Dash
Wagner pits in, with Malone following a few laps later, these are tense times. Has anyone got enough fuel to stay out and bring it to the end? 9 to go and a big crash bringing out the yellow, Charlie Teed makes an error and bounces back across the track after hitting the wall and collecting multiple cars including Goodman, that was a big crash. The pace car is out and the laps are rolling down, who has this favored? Wood is in P1, Forsythe, Sanders, Gibson and Showen round out the top 5. Pace car rolls in with 4 to go as they cross the line, it’s going to be full afterburners for a quick dash.
Wood checks up the field on restart by not going full throttle and letting off as disaster strikes causing absolute chaos behind. I would not want to be in the voice chat for that one as I bet absolute fury was being thrown around from the drivers involved. Even the commentators Justin Prince and Andrew Kinsella were left star struck.
Victory For The simrace247.com 200 In Texas
As the race sees the chequered flag under the pace car, Andrew Wood crosses the line in P1. Speaking in HyperX victory lane wood explains “The nerves got the better of me, with that final incident causing massive wrecks behind”. With his apology airing out to the others, you could tell by the tone in his voice, he was not happy and bothered with how it all turned out. He was not talking like he had won a race, but more concerned over the incident.
Post Race Official Statement From Lionheart
Jorge Anzaldo founder of Lionheart released an official statement to us at simrace247 “Wood has been given an Avoidable Contact penalty which gives an EOL for next race (Milwaukee) and also a -25 point penalty for the incident” The victory stands but will have points deducted.
ROUND 2 – Texas Motor Speedway
Finish | Team | Driver | Class | Start | Laps | Laps Led | Inc | Pts | Bonuses/Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #64-Synergy Motorsports Black |  Andrew Z Wood | DW12 | 5 | 134 | 26 | 0 | 37 | (+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents (-25) Rule 5.3 Incident affecting outcome of race |
| 2 | #9-Factory Backed Motorsports | Jacob Oster | DW12 | 12 | 134 | 0 | 0 | 56 | (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 3 | #40-4D Sim Racing | Jim Herrick | DW12 | 3 | 134 | 0 | 0 | 51 | (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 4 | #3-Dark Horse Racing | Matt Wagner | DW12 | 2 | 134 | 95 | 0 | 49 | (+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 5 | #28-Powerslide Motorsports | Joe Branch | DW12 | 19 | 134 | 0 | 0 | 46 | (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 6 | #59-Independent | Samuel Reiman | DW12 | 33 | 134 | 0 | 0 | 44 | (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 7 | #00-Synergy Motorsports Black | Mike Rigney | DW12 | 37 | 134 | 2 | 0 | 43 | (+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 8 | #10-Team RaceVerse Arctic |  Gavin Sanders | DW12 | 23 | 134 | 3 | 4 | 40 | (+1) Led a lap |
| 9 | #7-Independent | Ricky Hardin | DW12 | 26 | 134 | 0 | 0 | 38 | (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 10 | #05-Gibson Racing | Will Gibson | DW12 | 11 | 134 | 0 | 0 | 36 | (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
