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Lionheart IndyCar Series iRacing Long Beach Race Report

Lionheart IndyCar Series iRacing

The Lionheart IndyCar Series in iRacing recently visited Long Beach. This technical and challenging track pushed the drivers to the edge.

Its that time again, round 2 of the Lionheart Indycar Series in iRacing takes to the track at Long Beach. Here we have the full race report from this challenging circuit. If there was ever a track that you love or fear, Long Beach has got you covered.

Written by Darren B of simrace247.com

As usual, the qualifying session is underway before the race. Ladies and Gentlemen the 2022 HyperX Grand Prix of Long Beach is ready.

Qualifying Top 5 On The Grid

  1. #56 Adriano Pinheiroo: 1:07.301
  2. #19 Kraus: +0.072
  3. #1 Blocker: +0.113
  4. #96 Van De Sandt
  5. #8 Taylor: +0.269

Its Race Time For The HyperX Grand Prix of Long Beach

42 cars lined up behind the pace car of the technical and challenging Long Beach circuit, as the pace car pulled in they rounded the final hairpin and it was go time, full gas, green light its on! Pinheiroo leads the field into turn one single file order through the fountain section, so far, so good, a clean start by everyone in the pack. Kraus goes for the move on Pinheiroo under heavy braking on the back straight and makes the move to take P1.

Lionheart IndyCar Series iRacing

Blocker sends it up the inside at the final hairpin and passes Pinheiroo, who may have sent it a bit wide or knew Blocker was going to send it, nice move. Harrington capitalizes on the slow exit by Pinheiroo and passes him just before the start of lap 2. The race has a great atmosphere with many of the drivers having their sleeves rolled up and on the money.

Lap 3 sees separate incidents as Jenkins hits the tire wall at turn 1 and collects Branch who had nowhere to go. Joshua Chin also fell victim to another incident as he was going into T1 with Benci going for the gap, a tough one to call on who was at fault if any. Van De Sandt moves up to P4 after passing Pinheiroo, Kraus still leads over Blocker with Harrington in keeping the pressure on.

Blocker is looking good, Kraus is trying to break him, but he is having none of it, great driving from both as they suss each other out. Through the pack, we are seeing great driving as clusters of cars are having their own battles.

Riggs is next to be punished by the circuit as his car is facing the wrong way at T9, replay footage shows he lost the backend mid corner sending him into the wall. The field is being stretched out, its early days on lap 11, strategy will always come into play. Harrington and Van De Sandt are in their own battle for P3, where the latter looks quicker but choosing wisely to make a move.

Lap 16

Kraus is driving well up front and starting to get some air between Blocker, a couple of moments spotted as Blocker’s car is sliding a little more than the car in the lead.  Team simrace247 driver Nunez is the first to come into pitlane for a scheduled stop and is in need of a wing change. Pinheiroo is closing in on Van De Sandt and Harrington for the battle for P3. By lap 21 we start to see drivers come in for scheduled pit stops, Harrington is the first of the front runners to come in, as Kraus is next in on lap 22, Blocker and Pinheiroo stay out. Many other drivers start to come in on lap 23 and the leader board shuffle is in full effect.

Lionheart IndyCar Series iRacing

Van De Sandt gets the upper hand over Harrington, as Blocker pits in at the end of lap 23, Pinheiroo is still out on track in the lead. The overcut by blocker brings him out ahead of former race leader Kraus as they Duel going into the fountain section, great driving gentlemen as that could have ended the race for both. Kraus with his tires up to temp has the advantage and regains the position, to take P2 with Pinheiroo still out front and in need of a pit stop soon, the gap….its 26 seconds.

Lionheart IndyCar Series iRacing

Lap 24

Van De Sandt is tumbling down the leaderboard, he is in the pitlane. Replay footage shows he lost the back end coming onto the back straight at T8 sending his car hard into the wall nose first. With everything going on Pinheiroo has pitted and sits in P4. This is a great race, Blocker on colder tires is keeping pace with Kraus up front. Kraus is using every inch of the track, as he kisses the wall with the side walls of his tires, Blocker is pilling on the pressure and turning it up to 11.

Pinheiroo goes for the send on Harrington at the final hairpin with a straight line block, but realises it could be disastrous and halts his car, Harrington keeps out of trouble by seeing it. Was it a send or a brake lock up? The fight up front with Kraus and Blocker is relentless, Kraus is being hounded every lap and keeping his cool.

Top 10 On Lap 36

  1. Kraus
  2. Blocker
  3. Harrington
  4. Pinheiroo
  5. Taylor
  6. Benci
  7. Calisto
  8. Morris
  9. O’Brien
  10. Sandman

The battle for sixth place is hotting up as Benci, Calisto and Morris are fighting for every part of the track. Kraus starts to carve his way through lapped traffic and puts a car between him and Blocker at T1. Disaster could have struck as a car was slowing off line at turn 4, Hacker was trying to keep out of the way and getting involved with the front runners as Blocker narrowly avoids when making the move on the lapped car.

Lionheart IndyCar Series iRacing

O’Brien has a damaged car at T8 with massive front left damage, was it an error or was he pushed, replay footage shows him losing his car on entry sending him hard into the tire wall. Meanwhile, Kraus pits in lap 43, whilst Blocker stays out, but is being held up by cars that need to be lapped.

Disaster For Kraus After Pitting

Whilst Blocker was probably getting hot under the collar by getting caught up with lapped cars before coming into the pits, Kraus cannot brake properly on cold tires, thats going straight and luckily no contact or damage, its all happening. Blocker is in a cluster of cars leaving pit road, but they make way for him. Kraus is nowhere to be seen as Blocker exits pit road. Whilst all of that was going on Calisto slams the wall, Pinheiroo loses the backend exiting the final hairpin, Long Beach is living up to its name.

Blocker must be sensing victory, with less than 20 to go, Kraus is 7 seconds behind with Pinheiroo out front, but out of sync and then pits in. Blocker stamps his authority with a great laptime.

Further back in the pack, a battle is going on with Graaf and Bomersbach for P13, Graaf has been biting at the heels for quite sometime, trying to find a way through. Hitting the Push to Pass on the start/finish straight after a great exit from the final hairpin, Graaf gets the move done. A heart in the mouth moment as Graaf skims the wall as he tries to break away, he got lucky with that one.

Tensions are rising as Showen and Van De Sandt make contact at the final hairpin, Showen appeared to rejoin after letting faster cars through, and Van De Sandt had no where to go, both cars continue but the damage must be present on the cars. The race for Graaf comes to an abrupt halt as he loses control and hits the wall, Lanini gets damage as well in a separate incident as he clips the wall, Long Beach punishes you so hard.

Blocker is commanding this race with Kraus 10 seconds behind with 7 to go, time to bring it home and play it cool to the flag. I’m sure this would have gone down to the wire if Kraus did not have that issue with the cold tires. either way, it has been an exceptional race by them both, with the slightest of errors between them. Harrington is holding P3 with Pinheiroo 4 seconds back and Taylor in P5. Benci and Morris are not giving up for the fight for P6 as they dueling, and get rather close as they try to dominate the track. Pinheiroo was doing so well until he lost it in T1 hitting the wall hard with 3 to go. Van De Sandt made contact with the back of Nunez down the back straight causing damage to the front wing of the Van De Sandt car.

Victory

Adam Blocker has won the HyperX Grand Prix of Long Beach in impressive style, what a performance! Talking in Hyperx victory lane Blocker goes on to mention ” Me and Kraus were racing each other hard, with us being evenly matched, with some areas where I was faster”. Once Kraus had made that small mistake after pitting, Blocker goes on to say ” I didn’t want to slow down too much as I needed to keep good pace and momentum”. Not only that, Blocker made a point of how the lapped cars “moved out of the way” and made a professional point on the class of drivers in this series.

ROUND 2 – Long Beach Street Circuit

Finish

Team

Driver

Class

Start

Laps

Laps Led

Inc

Pts

Bonuses/Penalties

1#1-Powerslide Adrenaline
 Adam Blocker
IR-1836422062
(+1) Led a lap
(+1) 0 or less Incidents
2#19-PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype
 Philip Kraus
IR-1826438057
(+1) Led a lap
(+1) 0 or less Incidents
3#44-PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype
 Connor Harrington
IR-186640051
(+1) 0 or less Incidents
4#8-Mad Werx Motorsports
 Matt Taylor
IR-185640048
(+1) 0 or less Incidents
5#29-Team RaceVerse
 Caleb Benci
IR-189640845
6#64-Alkentech NHR
 Isaac Morris
IR-1812640643
7#68-Thumbs Up, Cancer Down LPM
 Mike Rasimas
IR-1816-10441
8#15-Synergy Motorsports Black
 James Brant
IR-1818-10040
(+1) 0 or less Incidents
9#5-Synergy Motorsports Silver
 Brian Beard
IR-1813-10038
(+1) 0 or less Incidents
10#12-Synergy Motorsports Black
 Adam Frazier
IR-1817-10435

 

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Darren Buckner

Darren Buckner

Darren became a member of Simrace247 in January 2021 and has been a valuable addition to the platform ever since. He began his journey as an Editor and has progressed to the position of Editor in Chief, owing to his unwavering commitment and hard work. With his profound interest in motorsport and gaming, Darren is passionate about sharing news and exceptional content with like-minded people worldwide.View Author posts