28/08/2022
Wednesday August 24th, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Today 10 drivers took on the road course of the iconic track in Indianapolis in the 5th round out of 7 of the IRacing Nederland - IRNL Pro Mazda Fun cup. The car track combi is a great one as the long straits offer good overtaking opportunities for the drivers and in between there are some technical challenging corners.
Free practice resulted in Thomas Renders taking p1 with a 1.22.552 closely followed by Forenz Arabian at 0.114. Ricardo Michalewski took P3 at 0.525.
In qualification it was Michalewski who took pole with a 1.22.545 followed by Renders at only .076! Arabian was almost as close at 0.170! A very tight field it was for the rest of the drivers as well while the whole field was within about 2 seconds.
The 12 minute sprint race was as tight as qualifying! Joao Nascimento spun in T2 causing a break of 5 drivers; Michalewski, Renders, Arabian, Steinmetz and Gorissen. Gorissen made a minor mistake and lost contact. A special compliment to all the drivers behind Nascimento for avoiding him, as the incident could’ve taken 6 drivers The other four took the battle almost to the end with changing the order almost every lap. Renders took victory in the end before Michalewski and Arabian.
The feature race had a similar course and the same 5 managed to breakaway early. The pace of Michalewski and Renders was a bit faster than the other three and they broke away. The lead two took the battle all the way to the final corners where they had a minor touch. This caused Renders to have a little damage at his suspension and losing the lead battle and falling back to P3 as well. Michalewski took the victory in this great and fair battle over Arabian and Renders.
Next week the drivers head of to the second and final oval of the season at the in real life long gone USA international Speedway in Lakeland, Florida. Ovals always tend to mix up things a bit so it should be interesting to see what happens!