Tuomainen Takes Road America

The Thrustmaster Mustang Challenge marked its quarter-season mark this past week as the racers tried to navigate the 14-turn, 4.048-mile venue known as Road America located in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.  Over 500 sim racers made the virtual journey up to Wisconsin to see who could master the monster of course, but Finland’s Hannu Tuomainen earned the most championship points for the week.

Weekly High Strength of Field
While Tuomainen earned the most championship points for Week 3, Paulo Valente (Iberia) took home all the marbles in the week’s highest Strength of Field (SoF) event.  The previously mentioned Tuomainen finished in the second postion, 2.173s behind Valente.  Third was taken by George Kuyumji (DE-AT-CH) followed by Tamas Wagner (Central-Eastern Europe) and  Sascha Thomaszik (DE-AT-CH).

Brake lights flash as a baker's dozen worth of Mustangs slow for Turn Five.

Weekly Standings

The battle for the top spot was a very tight one throughout the week, but after all was said and done, Tuomainen came out on top by a single point.  Ryan Field (Massachusetts) and Scott Michaels (England) finished-off the week tied in the second position followed in fourth by Miguel A. Lopez (Iberia) with George Kuyumji (DE-AT-CH) rounding-out the top five.

Third place in the weekly standings Scott Michaels was kind enough to offer his perspective on the racing this week at Road America.  “It’s a great combo which offers plenty of passing opportunities,” he said,  “particularly in this car with long braking zones and it’s a tough car to get off the corners perfectly every time.”

Season Standings
With Dave Gelink absent from Road America, we have a new driver atop the season-long championship point standings: Field.   The Bay State sim racer is now the driver everyone is chasing, currently holding a 40 point lead over Tuomainen.  Maurice Dietzel (DE-AT-CH)  sits in the third position followed in fourth by Paulo Valente and Thomaszik.

“It’s a great combo which offers plenty of passing opportunities.” – Scott Michaels

Weekly Qualifying
David Malenovsky (Central-Eastern Europe), a relatively new member to iRacing, has been quick to pick up the Ford Mustang FR500S.  Malenovsky was the fastest sim racer in qualifying for the week as he turned in a time of 2:27.860.  Jason Lisner (Virginias) ended the week in the second position with a time of 2:27.911 ahead of  Field with Kenneth O’Keefe (Eastern Canada) and Giorgos Tzanetos (International) rounding-out the top five.

Central-Eastern Europe was well represented at Road America as Malenovsky topped the qualifying order.

Please check back next week as the Thrustmaster Mustang Challenge heads to Mimasaka, Okayama, Japana for some action at Okayama International Circuit.  As always, be sure to visit www.iracing.com to become part of the largest motorsports simulation community and www.thrustmaster.com for information on top-of-the-line equipment for both PC and console gaming.

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