Dixon Holds Off Pack to Win Week 13 SRF Big Grid Race at the Glen

Jordan Dixon impressed everyone at Watkins Glen by holding off a seven-car pack for 20 laps on his way to claim a superb victory in the third Week 13 SpecRacer Ford race, sanctioned by the iGPFun League (http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/LeagueView.do?league=637).

The online race took place Sunday on the Glen’s Classic Boot configuration, where a full field of 42 cars showed up. Drafting battles were the story of the race right from the beginning, as Aday Coba Lopez and Jordan Dixon traded the lead lap-after-lap from the front row of the grid.

Despite their ongoing battle, the duo was still able to pull away from the drivers running fourth through to eighth, while Clarke Williams kept them in check from third position.

A large gap between the top eight and the rest of the field emerged on lap 6 when Richard Yalland attempted a pass on league organizer Luca Varani in The Boot for ninth place. The two cars spun and triggered an accident which collected six cars.

Fortunately for the field, that was the only major accident of the event, and 30 of the 42 starters were still running on the lead lap after the 20 laps were up.

By Lap Seven, the drivers running fourth through eighth had grouped up and ran the three leaders down, resulting in a pack made up of Aday Coba Lopez, Jordan Dixon, Clarke Williams, Luca Agretti, Kevin Vaughn, Dominic Brennan, Matthias Weiger and Trevor Mack.

Vaughn and Agretti were hindered early on by damage, while the rest attempted moves for the lead but could only ever displace Lopez and Dixon for a couple of corners at a time, before the drafting effect would result in a switchback.

In fact, the only driver besides Lopez and Vaughn to lead a lap was Dominic Brennan, but he lost a lot of time after overshooting the carousel on Lap 11. Four laps later and Clarke Williams would also overshoot the carousel…running straight into the wall in doing so.

On Lap 14, the Lopez/Dixon battle finally came to an end when Lopez’s battered car began to suffer down the backstretch. The eight-car pack up front had done a marvelous job at not taking each other out for the duration of the race, but they had come close on numerous occasions. Lopez finally seemed to have lost the handling, and joined Vaughn, Agretti and Williams at the back of the pack in a battered car.

With two laps to go, Weiger overshot turn 9 and spun, collecting Trevor Mack in a minor incident. This gave Brennan the opportunity to move back up into second place and have another shot at Dixon, but it was to no avail. Dixon took a fabulous and well-earned victory in his Week 13 SRF Big Grid debut.

Though the drivers produced some absolutely breathtaking racing, it will be the last time the race will take to Watkins Glen, given the pit stall limitation. However, no matter what the track, these gentlemen have certainly proven to us that they are capable of giving us truly professional driving and exciting sim-racing, no matter the circuit.

Race results: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=10740894

Full race broadcast by GSRC: https://www.youtube.com/embed/u-P9eVdspIE

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