By Donald Wayne Strout (4/11/2016)
"Tech" Street Circuit--Long Beach Grand Prix Layout
17 drivers took the Green Flag in the only road course scheduled as part ot the 2016 iAdvance Motorsports Indy Elite Series (12 races—11 ovals and one street course in Long Beach)
The race unfortunately was NOT broadcasted live on RacespotTV http://racespot.tv/ nor on iRacing Live. http://www.iracing.com/live/ as usual. However, here is a link to a youtube compilation of the highlights.
Wyatt Gooden took the pole with an impressive time of 1:07.925, almost 0.5 seconds a lap quicker than Tim Holgate in P2. Bradley Walters and T. J. Massick earned positions in the second row. (Massick had received the benefit of a bit of Wyatt Gooden coaching earlier in the week and was running the same Team RFC setup.) Repeating his legendary green flag launching skills, Holgate pulled ahead of Gooden at the start and led into T1 on the first lap.
Holgate leads the field into T1
Gooden followed close behind and on lap 2, rocketed out of T8 to overtake Holgate on the back straight. Gooden would never again be challenged and would dominate the rest of race.
Gooden passes Holgate on back straight, lap 2.
Back in the field there was a lot of action, as expected.
Massick spins in T8, blocking Joe Flanagan--both would continue.
Paul Jennings spins in front of Toni Helminen at T10 entry.
Canada's Andrew Kinsella definately wins the "Eager Beaver" Award for his duel with Dan Lee Ensch from lap 130 to the end. Kinsella made several mistakes but made impressive recoveries from each and continued to challenge the more conservative Dan Lee. Below one could say "One Man's Divebomb is anothers' Skillfully Executed Late Braking Overtake".
Andrew Kinsella and Dan Lee Ensch in T11, last lap.
Obviously there was room for only one car, but Dan Lee Ensch showed True Grit and masterful car control, holding off the more "eager" and considerably younger Kinsella. (Andrew---Ensch is sponsored by a Hockey Team!)
Classic Body Check
Classic Body Check
Andrew Kinsella and Dan Lee Ensch exit T11 in a drag race to the Checkered Flag---Ensch won the battle with a P7 finish.
Chopper view as Wyatt Gooden entering T11 on last lap, having lapped entire field (see P3 Walters just behind) except for Holgate who is only just ahead exiting T11 on his lap 39.
Bradley Walters, P3; Tim Miller, P4; Joe Branch, P5, Tim Doyle, P6, and Dan Lee Ensch, P7 all performed with distinction. Walters maintained his P3 position thru the entire race. The others moved up, finishing better than their qualifying position. This is a tough track that is not forgiving of mistakes. Congrats.
Background info: IAdvance Motorsports IndyCar Elite driver, and article Author, Donald Strout was diagnosed with Colon Cancer in March. Surgery scheduled for 3/30 would keep him from running Phoenix, but he had hoped to run Long Beach. So the week before surgery, Strout worked many hours on the Team RFC set for the Long Beach race. The goal was maximum forward rear tire grip coming out of T8 and T11 onto the straights without having too much understeer at speed exiting T9. (Strout is the Team Engineer "Crew Chief" for Team RFC: T J Massick, Henrique Ebbo, Tim Miller and Dan Less Ensch. Often Miller and Ensch build their own sets, but use the Strout developed Team RFC set as a base for comparison.) Strout was informed that Long Beach was too soon after such major surgery, but he was anxious to see "his car" compete. Strout contacted his friend and long term racing coach Wyatt Gooden and asked him to "run his setup" with only minor changes in the Long Beach race. Gooden took the Team RFC set, reduced tire pressures to 19 psi all around, stiffened the rear shocks a bit, and increased the differential clutch preload---and then took the car, and performed as reported above. His performance validated a competitive setup (with very little if any tire "falloff"--Wyatt was turning 1:09.xx the entire fuel stint.) but given that Gooden was able to go 2 seconds a lap faster than Strout with the same setup tells how important "talent" is to performance on the iRacing track. Gooden, with an iRating above 7000 has dominated in SM (2015 Champion) and FR 2.0 but has not had much seat time in the DW12.
Strout reports very optimistic results from surgery as it appears all of the cancer was removed and he is recovering "on schedule", He hopes to return to competition for the race at Indianapolis.
