The Lionheart Speedway Series in iRacing recently visited the Milwaukee Mile. Round 3 sees another high speed event in this great series.
Its that time again to get the high speed Lionheart Speedway Series iRacing into top gear for the Moza Racing Milwaukee 175. Here we have your full race report.
Written by Darren B of simrace247.com
Qualifying Top 5 On The Grid
- #8 Taylor: 21.552
- #31 Showen: +0.019
- #99 Goodman: +0.023
- #21 Hacker: +0.044
- #14 Nunez: +0.051
Time To Go racing For The Moza Racing Milwaukee 175
38 cars are ready for the green light as the pace car sets the tone before we are underway with 175 laps ahead of us, so far, the Speedway series has been electric and great viewing. It’s green flag and away we go!
Taylor sets the tone and bridges a small gap at the start, with the melee about to begin, Team simrace247 driver Nunez has a great start and with some great defending before moving up to P4. Hawkins and Rigney have a great start with Hacker dropping to 7th, clean laps with no incidents at the early stages. Lap 6 sees Taylor out front and starting to pull away from Goodman and Showen, with Nunez charging hard and starting to gain.
Mid pack sees huge groups of cars all in close contention as they try to assert themselves and fight for every piece of the track, great racing by all so far. as the drivers settle in to the groove, 16 laps have passed by super quick with some great pace, Taylor is nearly 2 seconds ahead and Goodman is starting to pull away a touch over Showen in third who will be looking over his shoulder as Nunez hunts him down.
Further down the pack, we are seeing two wide racing lap after lap with Musselman and Demaegd as they are fighting for P23, with Forsythe and Wood in close contention. Hassert and Anzaldo is closing in on the action and wants a piece of it, everywhere you look, great racing is going on from the series drivers.
Lapped Traffic Starts To Come Into Play
As the leading cars start to catch lapped cars, the clean air and track starts to hinder Taylor as he works his way pasted them allowing Goodman to close in by lap 32. Meanwhile, Nunez puts an amazing move on Showen and makes it stick, to move up to P3. Showen is not going to give it up easily and is pushing to retaliate, Nunez has got the hammer down and catching Goodman in P2, this is great stuff from our driver. Some early pit road entries are starting to come in from drivers further down the pack by lap 40. Taylor has worked his way through traffic really well and opened the gap up over goodman in P2. Nunez is flying with hot pace, opening up a gap back to Showen in P4 by two seconds and just half a second behind Goodman in P2.
Lap 51 Nunez Pits
Amongst many drivers, P3 driver Nunez is the first to pit out of the front runners, setting a great pace on his first stint, who else will blink to come in? The leaderboard shuffle starts to take effect with Taylor and Goodman boxing at the end of lap 51. Showen has gone into the wall as Gibson lights up the tires on the grass exiting pit lane, sending his car out of control into Showen. No yellow flag, for that, we remain under green flag racing! As the leaderboard resumes, Nunez has worked his way up to P2 after the pit stops with Taylor outfont.
Top 10 At Lap 60
- Taylor
- Nunez
- Goodman
- Hawkins
- Rigney
- Fowler
- Branch
- Hacker
- Jenkins
- Wagner
As we see the battle for twelfth raging, close encounters between lapped cars and the group of Hardin, Sanders and Malone see sidepod contact as the drivers work there way through. Upfront Taylor holds a lead of 1 second over Nunez who has clearly pulled away from goodman in P3.
Yellow Flag Lap 68
Wood makes slight contact with the back of Munoz on the banking on lap 68, sending Munoz into a spin and hard into the wall, nothing deliberate from either but a racing incident. Plenty of cars peel into the pitlane to grab fuel and tires, with Nunez, Rigney and Fowler staying out. At the end of lap 72 the pace car pulls in and we are under green flag racing once again……until lap 74 where Oster gets nudged in the sidepod by Goodman sending Oster into a spin and the wall bringing out the yellow once again. Green flag racing resumes on lap 79 as Nunez leads the field with Rigney and Taylor rounding out the top 3.
Hawkins and Branch are having a great tussle for P8 as they switch positions multiple times, Hacker has got a front row seat for this one and will take any advantage as the pair ahead duel. Nunez is back in the groove as he is nearly two seconds ahead of Rigney. Taylor has closed in on Rigney and makes the emove for P2 on lap 99.
The 100 Lap Marker
Nunez has a lead over Taylor in P2 by 3 seconds as we hit lap 100, so far this has been a great race by many in the entire pack with minimal mistakes made. the level of these drivers is really high, showing great professionalism. Nunez pits in from the lead at the end of lap 103, Taylor takes the lead. Fowler boxes at the end of lap 106, Rigney boxes at the end of lap 109. Goodman is up to P2 and behind Taylor by 7 tenths. Nunez is a lap down after his pit stop but is behind Goodman and Taylor on track, interesting viewing.
Lap 114 Brings Out The Yellow
Carter brings out the yellow flag as his car is sat facing the apron on lap 1114, replay footage shows a slight nudge from Anzaldo as Carter was going slower on the outside line, nothing deliberate on with intent. As the majority of the field comes into pit road under yellow, the pace car controls the tone of the race. By the end of lap 121 the pace car pulls in and we are pedal to the metal green flag racing once again!
Disaster On The Restart
The front tire of Jenkins hits the yellow line on the apron on the restart, sending his car into a spin with multiple cars piling into a huge crash. Nunez and Fowler gets caught up in it as they try to avoid the melee with nowhere to go. As team owner of Team simrace247, “I have been mightily impressed with Nunez”. Meanwhile, the pace car is back controlling the race. The saga continues even under the pace car as Hardin hits the wall under caution, as he did a downshift spinning his car. pace car pulls in at the end of lap 126 and we are ready to go racing again. Taylor leads and Hawkins sweeps by Goodman to take P2, Branch and Wagner round out the top 5.
Top 10 At Lap 135
- Taylor
- Hawkins
- Goodman
- Branch
- Wagner
- Hacker
- Malone
- Sanders
- Reiman
- Rigney
Wood has got the afterburners on as he passes Rigney for P10, as Demaegd has been climbing up the leaderboard to P12. Nunez is sitting P16 after pitting and getting the car fixed up after getting caught up in the huge crash earlier, his recovery drive is on! Taylor and Hawkins are bridging the gap to Goodman, but Hawkins is in the dirty air from Taylor’s car just half a second behind.
Wood continues to push up the leaderboard as he is now sitting in P7 with great pace, but Malone fights back wood makes the move and makes it stick, P7. Make that P6, wow Wood is on a real charge, Hacker passes Malone for P7, great racing. Wood passes Wagner for P5, all eyes need to be on him, Malone passes Wagner. Wood starts to pressure Branch with 18 to go as they battle for P4, I hope someone is on the phone telling the leaders that Wood is coming. Wood makes the move on Branch with 15 to go, as he eyes a move on Goodman for P3. Goodman puts a big block move on Wood, checking him up and allowing Branch back into play to apply pressure.
Wood, cool as ever feels no pressure and passes goodman for P3, Goodman drops to P7, with Malone and Wagner passing him, it’s all happening. Taylor is still out front with Hawkins two seconds behind. Wood is reeling in Hawkins big time with 9 to go, wood sends it and takes P2, can he hunt down Taylor, 7 to go, pedal to the metal, who wants it with Taylor leading by 1.5 seconds? 4 to go, gap down to 1.1 seconds, is the push just out of reach?
Victory At The Moza Racing Milwaukee 175
Matt Taylor has taken victory at the Moza Racing Milwaukee 175, speaking in HyperX victory lane ” The car was starting to splutter as I crossed the line” indicating that the car was running on fumes and timing his run to perfection. Taylor goes on to mention ” I keep doing what i was doing and hoping i would make it, with my only focus on bringing it home”. What a race from many.
ROUND 3 – The Milwaukee Mile
Finish | Team | Driver | Class | Start | Laps | Interval | Laps Led | Inc | Pts | Bonuses/Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #8-Team RaceVerse Sunset |  Matt Taylor | DW12 | 1 | 175 | – | 134 | 0 | 63 | (+1) Start on overall pole (+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 2 | #64-Synergy Motorsports Black | Andrew Z Wood | DW12 | 36 | 175 | -0.293 | 4 | 4 | 56 | (+1) Led a lap |
| 3 | #28-Powerslide Motorsports | Joe Branch | DW12 | 10 | 175 | -3.052 | 2 | 0 | 52 | (+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 4 | #3-Dark Horse Racing | Matt Wagner | DW12 | 19 | 175 | -3.355 | 0 | 0 | 48 | (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 5 | #25-Transcendent Motorsports | Vern Hawkins III | DW12 | 7 | 175 | -4.680 | 0 | 0 | 46 | (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 6 | #82-RaceVerse Arctic | Dakota DeMaegd | DW12 | 24 | 175 | -5.601 | 0 | 0 | 44 | (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 7 | #99-Powerslide Motorsports | Michael Goodman | DW12 | 3 | 175 | -5.930 | 0 | 4 | 41 | |
| 8 | #54-Factory Backed Motorsports | AJ Mussleman | DW12 | 30 | 175 | -6.331 | 0 | 0 | 40 | (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
| 9 | #14-Team SimRace247 |  Luis Gonzalez Nunez | DW12 | 5 | 175 | -6.690 | 34 | 4 | 38 | (+1) Led a lap |
| 10 | #69-Independent | Trevor Malone | DW12 | 20 | 175 | -8.945 | 0 | 0 | 36 | (+1) 0 or less Incidents |
Championship Standings
Pos | Chg | Driver | Driver Type | Team | Pts | To Ldr | To Nxt | Wins | Top 5 | Top 10 | Bns | Pty | Inc | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Joe Branch | Veteran | #28-Powerslide Motorsports | 138 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2 | -1 | Trevor Malone | Veteran | #69-Independent | 128 | -10 | -10 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| 3 | 3 | Matt Wagner | Veteran | #3-Dark Horse Racing | 121 | -17 | -7 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 4 | |
| 4 | 11 | Andrew Z Wood | Rookie | #64-Synergy Motorsports Black | 117 | -21 | -4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 25 | 12 | |
| 5 | 0 | Samuel Reiman | Rookie | #59-Independent | 112 | -26 | -5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 8 | |
| 6 | 4 | Dakota DeMaegd | Rookie | #82-RaceVerse Arctic | 111 | -27 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | |
| 7 | 0 | Luis Gonzalez Nunez | Veteran | #14-Team SimRace247 | 111 | -27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | |
| 8 | -4 | Craig Forsythe | Veteran | #72-4D Sim Racing | 109 | -29 | -2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | |
| 9 | 16 | Matt Taylor | Veteran | #8-Team RaceVerse Sunset | 108 | -30 | -1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 8 | |
| 10 | -7 | Ricky Hardin | Veteran | #7-Independent | 105 | -33 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 6 | |
