In very hot weather, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca welcomed teams and race fans to Round 3 of the 2022 VSCA SportsCar Championship on Saturday.
For the first time this season, the field was taking on a Sprint Cup race, at a two-hour 40 minute race distance – just a fraction of the season opener 24 Hours of Daytona or last month’s 12 Hours of Sebring.
Earning the VSCA Grid Pole for the event – the team’s first ever – Fischer Motorsport USA and the No. 14 Dallara team with driver Niclas Pedersen led the starter field to the green flag. The Danish driver’s lap time of 1:12.604 could not be beat by any of the P2 prototype competitors in GRID Pole Qualifying.
In GT3, it was the No. 13 Meguiars Porsche 911 GT3 R of FR13DA Sports Group with driver Chris van de Nesse earning their first pole position of the season with a lap of 1:20.496, beating out the competition by almost four tenths of a second.
After at times rather tumultuous practice sessions during the week leading up to the race, spectators and officials expected a wild, crash-filled race.
The fears were affirmed as the race was interrupted several times by full course yellows neutralizing the race following several incidents.
Already on lap one, trouble unfolded in turn four as the No. 104 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo of Dutch SimRacing Team driver Boris Schmidt was losing control. The No. 95 Mercedes AMG GT3 of Pist’n Broke Racing and driver Nolan Hodgson scrapped Schmidt’s car, which broke the suspension on Hodgson’s car, making it nearly impossible to control.
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| The race-leading No. 10 Race4CAT Motorsport Dallara P217 was handed a 20-second post-race penalty for this car contact on lap 78, effectively costing the team the win at Laguna Seca. |
This in turn led to Alex Hermida in the No. 77 Porsche of Shamrock SimRacing coming up from behind and making contact with Hodgson’s car as the incident snow balled into a bigger one, sending several cars into pit lane for early repair stops.
The first full course yellow was issued by race control on lap seven. Race4CAT Motorsport and the No. 10 Dallara by then had taken the lead already.
In total five caution periods interrupted the race and more than one hour of the race was run under yellow flag conditions.
Following the final full course yellow of the race, the race restarted with just about twenty minutes remaining.
Treavor Vavrosky in the No. 43 Dallara P2 prototype led the field into turn one, looking to give his team its first victory, Race4CAT Motorsport with Alex Rourera in the No. 10 Dallara P217 closely behind.
Vavrosky was able to defend the lead for one full lap, but going into turn two the following lap, Rourera made a daring move to the inside of the Torque Freak Racing machine and took the lead.
Cameron Barker, driver of the No. 79 Dallara P217 of Champion Motorsports followed through, dropping Torque Freak Racing to third place.
Nils Hundehege in the No. 7 Dallara P217 of Element SimRacing took the final restart and drove all the way up to third position by the time he took the checkered flag.
In GT3, Jonathan Dance was able to defend the lead in the No. 6 Porsche of Torque Freak Racing and pulled away a little bit from Nicholas Sceats in the No. 67 Kinetic Racing Porsche right behind.
In the closing laps, several cars made contact with each other and some drivers made aggressive moves, ending up in a new record-high twenty post-race penalties issued by race control.
The probably most dramatic moment in the closing stages of the race occurred on lap 78, when Alex Rourera in the race-leading No. 10 Race4CAT Motorsport Dallara P217 dove to the inside of Sebring’s GT3 race winner, the No. 27 BMW of Twenty7 Motorsports and the two cars made contact.
The incident resulted in a twenty second post-race penalty against the No. 10 car, costing them the win and even though they took the checkered flag in first place, it was the No. 7 Dallara P217 entry of Element SimRacing being rewarded with official victory in the Monterey Sports Car Challenge, followed by the Race4CAT Motorsports’ sister car and Sebring winner No. 11 Dallara P217 and Daytona winner No. 747 Dallara P217 of Lone Wolf Motorsports.
In victory lane, a visibly exhausted but excited Nils Hundehege said:
“Yeah, this race was crazy. To be honest, we didn't look forward to this race, as we don't like the track that much with these cars. But overall, it was really fun!”
“After the final caution, we were in P11, with about twenty minutes to go. We knew it would all come down to traffic management and staying out of trouble in these final laps. We accomplished that and it really paid off, because we climbed the standings one place after another. On the final lap I took P4 and with only a few corners to go the 51 (sic: World of SimRacing) in front of us, who was in P3, was too aggressive and made a mistake.”
“Of course, getting the win after checkered flag (sic: due to post-race penalties vs. the #10 and #79 cars) isn't what we race for; we want to win on the track. But hopefully we can show this in a future championship round.”, explained Hundehege.
Regarding the P2 class championship battle, Hundehege added:
“I'm totally happy with Jan's and my performance in the race. We showed that we are here to finish on top of the championship standings, and that is our goal for the rest of the season, too.”
Torque Freak Racing confirms championship form in GT3
The No. 6 Porsche of Torque Freak Racing held on to the race lead following the final restart of the race and went on to take the checkered flag in GT3 class, giving the team its long-awaited first series victory. The win also underlines Torque Freak Racing’s quest for the championship as they continue to lead the championship points by twenty over second-place finishers, the No. 67 Porsche of Kinetic Racing.
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| GT3 championship front-runners, the No. 6 Torque Freak Racing Porsche won the race at Laguna Seca, while the No. 67 Porsche of Kinetic Racing was second |
Flying under the radar, as is typical for the team in so many races, Neil Middleton said in victory lane:
“We always aim for a good consistent pace and a nice stable consistent setup. We won today, using the same technique we always do - drive a consistent decent pace, use heads up driving to stay out of trouble and try to strategize as much as we can.”, explained Middleton.
“I messed up in Qualifying, not getting a single good lap in or losing them to traffic, so we were on the back foot to start off with. After the first couple of laps we essentially just held position lapping behind the lead group until an FCY meant we were able to potentially get away with a one stop strategy.”
“As it happens, that played out and it put us at the front on decent tires, and with decent pace. Staying out of trouble definitely gave us a significant advantage over the other teams, as it did at Daytona.”
Torque Freak Racing came into Laguna Seca as GT3 championship leaders with Kinetic Racing in second. Now, after winning the race with Kinetic Racing in second place, Middleton is not quite ready yet to narrow the championship battle down to just the No. 6 and No. 67 Porsche.
“There is probably ten teams that have the potential (sic: to win the GT3 championship). We see the 13 car (FR13DA Sports Group) as the fastest over a single lap right now, but I think the 67 is the strongest contender due to their consistency - they drive a very similar way to us, heads down and just getting on with it.”, says Middleton.
“Points-wise, we ideally would have liked a better Sebring result, to give us a bit more of a championship lead. We just need to keep aiming for the podium in each round and see what plays out.”
The No. 95 Lamborghini of FASTR eSports came in third place, while the No. 13 Meguiars Porsche of FR13DA Sports Group and No. 91 BMW of SimRacing Grid rounded out the top-five.
The Monterey Sports Car Challenge featured a total of ten lead changes among six different leading cars.
The VSCA SportsCar Championship now travels to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for Round 4 and the unofficial 2022 mid-season point on May 21st. The race will be the first to be broadcast live on Apex Racing TV, as announced by VSCA.
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