A solid debut for the team on iRacing, as we crossed the line at Road Atlanta in 5th place after 10 hours of challenging racing.
Massimiliano was on the car for qualifying, setting a 1:09.7 lap time. With polesitter setting a 1:09.1, this meant we started the race from 15th in class after what was a very close qualifying session – with 15 cars in 6 tenths.
This set us to start formation lap from the right line. Sadly, polesitter had a shocking start and all the right line got blocked because of that. After lap 1 we lost 1 position, but some crashes and some overtakes from Massimiliano got us into 12th place, with top 10 being very close.
Start was good and we actually made it into the top 10, until a mistake under braking put our car into the wall and set us back for a 1:20 repair stop. We got going again after almost 20 laps with severe damage, but we were back in 16th.
Some other mistakes happened, this time with no damage. After 2 hours, it was time to swap drivers and Vincent joined the car, leaving the pitlane in 13th place.
Vincent’s stint was very consistent, with good laptimes and with no issues at all. He was able to recover some of the lost time, and got back into the top 10 rather quickly.
A very solid drive from the German, who also completed a 2h stint before swapping again. We rejoined the race in 8th place.
After the swap, Massimiliano started a 3h stint which saw him having way less issues. There was a little scare with a spin in sector 1 at some point, but overall it was a decent stint. Due to some crashes, we were able to jump to 6th with 3 hours to go.
Vincent then stepped in again for his second stint, and he was able to show blistering pace and amazing consistency. Choice to go for triple stints was the correct call, as we were able to overtake 5th and get a spot in the top 5, which we kept as we crossed the finish line.
It was a completely new experience for the team, but we are happy with the outcome. Valuable experience and data has been collected, and we had fun, which is the most important thing.