Road Warriors Silverstone

Jens kicked-off the week in fine style with a lights to checkers win in HPD.

For Round Four of  iRacing.com’s Road Warrior Series we hop the pond and head to the quaint English village of Silverstone. The town’s 2,000 or so residents used to hear the thunder of mighty Rolls-Royce engines in the Vickers Wellington bombers. Now, nearly 70 years on, those roars have not ceased, but rather have been replaced by sound of virtual Corvettes, McLarens, and HPDs. Sit down and buckle up for the 60 minute Endurance Challenge from the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit.

The Saturday 1:00 GMT race kicked-off the weekend with a total of 33 starters. The race would run 38 laps within the hour allotted. This was just barely the third highest SOF tops split coming in at 3136.

The HPD field had 11 starters with some very familiar names, among them Jörn Jens who would start from the pole and claim victory. Rob Kodey took second place just nine seconds behind Jens and set fast lap with a time of 1:33.353. Daniel Benefield rounded-out the podium after improving one spot from his fourth place starting position. Ryan Terpstra and Michael Willard completed the top five.

The Corvettes saw Evan Allan take the win over the nine car field. Brendan McIntyre and Kyle Young claimed the final podium spots ahead of Clifton Cockrell and Ryan Cowley, while the fastest lap was set by Kevin Parrish who was credited with a seventh place finish.

The largest field was that of the McLaren MP4 GT3s, which produced a Bakers Dozen worth of entries. The podium was very close as the front runners’ average lap times were within tenths of each other. Charles Ng started second and passed pole-winner Andre Martins for the win, with the latter setting the fastest lap en route to the runner-up spot.  He was followed across the finish line by Wayne C Bourke, with Jeff Drake and David Buda completing the top five.

The McLaren class attracted a bumper crop of entries at Silverstone. Here Martins lead a trio of pursuers.

The Saturday 20:00 GMT race saw the highest SOF (4145) race of the weekend with 36 cars taking the start and going sim-racing for some big points.

It’s not exactly news that Tommaso Carlà is one of the fastest drivers on iRacing.  Once again he made that point clear in the 10 strong HPD field by starting from pole, leading every lap and setting the fastest lap by almost a second. Your first winner of the weekend, Jens, finished 12 seconds behind Carlà while Thomas O’Leary claimed the final podium spot after starting from fourth. Vit Salomon and Peter Ridley took the last two spots in the top five.

In the Corvettes Rens Broekman took the win from pole position and set the fast lap. Kimmo Suominen and Nick Thissen filled out the rest of the podium. Timo Verhoest and Marek Studnicka completed the top five.

Again the McLarens were the largest class with 17 entries. Julian Rodriguez Moreno absolutely left the competition behind, setting the fastest lap and finishing a lap ahead of second place. Aday Coba Lopez was that second place sim-racer and he finished ahead of Dirk Reinhard in third, while Julien Oligo and Teddy Tournois rounded-out the top five.

38 cars took the start in the Sunday 1:00 GMT race. Although this was the lowest rated top split Strength of Field (2481) but there was still plenty of action.

Zachery Hoobler led most of the race in his HPD ARX 01c and ultimately took the win from William Green, a distant second – as in a minute and a half behind. If the top two finishers were never in doubt, things really heated up in third as Mike D Morrow took the final podium spot by less than a second over John G. Hill, with Matthew Zimmerman completing the top five.

Allen leads Parrish in Corvettes.

Brett Stephens claimed victory in the largest Corvette field of the weekend totaling 13 C6.Rs.  Colton Landes finished second, the only other Corvette left on the lead lap. Billy Smith II took the last podium spot ahead of Allen Reeves and Jack Hinchman while Parrish again set the fastest lap of the race.

14 McLarens took the start of an online race that saw Greg Sammonds set fast lap and take the win. Kain Kugimiya and Andre Martins claimed the final podium spots, while Cameron Bernier and Rashad Craig rounded out the top five.

The final race of the weekend was the Sunday 12:00 GMT split, a race that saw 37 entries and some very fast laps by one particular Italian.

Yet again Carlà showed everyone in the HPD class he is the man to beat .  Starting from pole, he led every lap and claimed victory by nearly a full minute. O’Leary earned his second podium of the weekend ahead of Samuli Kumo with Nick Thissen and Nils Koch taking P4 and P5, respectively.

Christian Tanahatoe captured the final Corvette victory of the weekend over Richard Schouteren and Tim Wijen, with Francisco Esteve Albert and Thomas Aram finishing the top five.

Typically, the McLarens were the largest segment in the field with 17 entries. Julien Olgio took the win over the fast lap holder, Tim Classens. Florian Navarro claimed the last podium spot from Cesar Ibañez Tebar and Kain Kugimiya.

Next up on the Road Warriors calendar is the Indy GP featuring the Dallara IndyCar. See you at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on May 9th.

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