Lionheart Speedway Series iRacing Opener Miami 200 Report

The Lionheart Speedway Series in iRacing recently visited Homestead Miami. Here is the full race report.

The Lionheart Speedway Series in iRacing has kicked off with the opening event, the Buttkicker Miami 200 presented by Moza Racing had an action packed race.

Written by Darren B of simrace247.com

Qualifying

The fast paced qualifying session was first up as 41 drivers took to the track to establish their starting position for the race.

1. #3 Wagner: 24.992
2. #99 Goodman: +0.022
3. #05 Gibson: +0.022
4. #82 Demaegd: +0.025
5. #20 Fowler: +0.025

Race Start For The Speedway Series 2022 Opener

As the entire field lined up behind the pace car, the 2022 speedway season was ready to do battle at high speed. Justin Prince and Andrew Kinsella are in the RacespotTV commentary booth and ready. The calm before the storm was in the air, pace car peels of into pit road and the full grid unleashed full gas. Wagner bolted and the pack reacted with Goodman keeping tabs on the exhaust pipe of the pole starting car, a clean race start by all as the green flag dropped with no incidents throughout the pack.

Hassert had made a good leap up to P4, with Demaegd dropping to P7. 6 laps have clicked by and the pack is keeping it tidy. Wagner is starting to pull away with a gap of 1 second over Goodman at the sharp end with Gibson, Fowler and Hassert rounding out the top 5.  By lap 11 the battle for 5th place is hotting up as Hassert, Taylor, Demaegd and Jenkins enters close quarter battles with a small gap in time between them. Wagner is commanding the lead and creating a gap of 1.5 seconds over Goodman.

25 laps click by and we are seeing great racing throughout the entire field, these really are some great drivers that are dueling in the pack with great professionalism. This race is really flying by as 30 laps have passed and we see the current top 10 by this stage.

Top 10 At Lap 32

1. Wagner
2. Goodman
3. Gibson
4. Taylor
5. Hassert
6. Degroot
7. Fowler
8. Jenkins
9. Demaegd
10. Gibson

Yellow Flag Incident On Lap 34

As we see the stricken car of Mike Gibson in the pit box, replay evidence shows Gibson’s car had contact with Showen sending it into the wall hard at T1.No other cars were caught up in the incident and all behind the crash managed to get through unscathed. This mixed up the strategies a bit as we start to see cars coming into the pitlane for fuel and tires under yellow. With the pack bunched up behind the pace car, we are ready to go green again for the start of lap 38. Wagner got the perfect restart and pulling away fast, these are tense times as the pack is bunched up and drivers get feisty.

Oster has made up a lot of ground in the race by making up 19 positions from his starting position and currently sitting P9 on lap 42. simrace247.com driver Luis Gonzalez Nunez is making good pace and sitting in P17 from a starting position of P21.

Lap 45 brings out the second yellow flag of the race as Sanders appears to get a small side tap from Hacker, and hits the wall with Ryan king having nowhere to go and hitting the spinning car of Sanders. Green flag racing resumes on lap 48 with Wagner and Taylor bolting. Lionheart Series founder Jorge Anzaldo is working his way up in the pack in P15 and looking good with Showen and Hawkins on either side.

Oster is making great progress in P5 after starting in 28th position with Fowler getting rather close to the backend of his car after a slight draft contact. Back out at the front Wagner, Taylor and Hassert are maintaining the front positions.

The Halfway Point Top 10

1. Wagner
2. Taylor
3. Hassert
4. Goodman
5. Fowler
6. Oster
7. Degroot
8. Jenkins
9. Wood
10. Hacker

We have seen a commanding performance by Wagner as he has led every lap, bar 1, and great driving by many in this race. By lap 76 we have only seen 3 people retire from the race being Sanders, King and Gibson. Lap 78 shows drivers including Wagner starting to come into the pits, with the strategy starting to come into effect.

These are tense times as cars start to peel out of pit lane and begin to come up to speed with those already out on track fully up to speed. Forsythe, Malone and Wood take the front positions as the pack switches up with the pit stops going on.

Huge Crash On Lap 89

Lap 89 sees absolute carnage with at least 10 cars getting caught up in the incident at turn 2. Fowler on fresh tires gets caught up with Hysong as Fowler is faster with those new boots and tags the back of Hysong’s car as he tries to go around him. What happened next was a huge knock on effect of high speed cars having nowhere to go and mass impacts everywhere. Lap 94 sees the racing back underway, with Forsythe leading and Malone ready to take the lead by lap 96. Big battles going on for the lead as Hardin steps up. By lap 100, Reiman taps the wall getting to high with Taylor and Rigney getting caught up in the action. The majority of the pack comes into the pits under yellow taking on fuel and tires.

30 Laps To Go

With the pace car setting the tone under yellow, we are getting close to how the fury will be unleashed for a quick sprint to the finish. Lap 105 and we are green again for racing, Hardin leads the pack with Forsythe and Malone hunting the leader. Forsythe makes his move for the lead and takes it, Hardin is doing everything to keep Malone behind him, but Malone has other plans and takes P2.

Luis Gonzalez Nunez is looking good and sitting just outside the top 10 with great pace in the car. A few positions up ahead and the gloves are starting to come off as Wagner goes three wide with Jasper and Gibson and makes a great save from a slight side tap with Jasper.

20 to go and the yellow flag is out, as Shorttries to avoid the backend of Carter’s car, sending him into the wall. 15 to go and we are back under green flag racing with another immediate yellow flag. Wagner, Carter and Hacker bring out the pace car. The final 10 laps to the finish line start as another yellow comes out, these are tense times so close to the finish. Moll, Gibson and Jasper are involved in a collision.

Under the pace car and with 7 to go, Forsythe is still out front, with Malone and Hardin rounding out the top 3. The final 5 laps were under green flag racing, this was going to be a quick fire shootout, who was going to gamble and go for it?

Victory For Craig Forsythe

After a great race and strategy, Craig Forsythe has won the Buttkicker Miami 200 presented by Moza Racing. Speaking in HyperX victory lane Forsythe goes on to mention ” I cant believe how lucky I got” signaling that yellow flags played into his favor and how it “Changed everything for the rest of the race”. Summing up how the race was, “it was thrilling” and well deserved.

Finish	Team	Driver	Class	Start	Laps	Laps Led	Inc	Pts	Bonuses/Penalties
1	#72-4D Sim Racing	Craig Forsythe	DW12	25	134	42	0	62	(+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents
2	#34-Independent	Trevor Malone	DW12	30	134	1	0	57	(+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents
3	#82-RaceVerse Arctic	Dakota DeMaegd	DW12	4	134	0	0	51	(+1) 0 or less Incidents
4	#11-Transcendent Motorsports	Joe Hassert	DW12	6	134	0	1	47
5	#50-Independent	Gabriel Wood	DW12	9	134	1	0	47	(+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents
6	#7-Independent	Ricky Hardin	DW12	24	134	9	0	45	(+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents
7	#14-Team SimRace247	Luis Gonzalez Nunez	DW12	21	134	0	0	42	(+1) 0 or less Incidents
8	#28-Powerslide Motorsports	Joe Branch	DW12	11	134	0	0	40	(+1) 0 or less Incidents
9	#35-Transcendent Motorsports	Paul Jenkins	DW12	8	134	0	0	38	(+1) 0 or less Incidents
10	#99-Powerslide Motorsports	Michael Goodman	DW12	2	134	0	4	35