Holgate becomes a Three Time Winner of the Indy 500
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| Tim Holgate--Three Time Indy500 Winner |
The first Indy 500 of the new 2016 iAdvance Motorsports Indy Elite Series (12 races—11 ovals and one street course in Long Beach) ran on Sunday, May 1, at 7PM EST. The Indy 500 presented by Real Gear is the second leg of the Ricmotech Triple Crown which includes the Ricmotech 225 at Homestead on February 28, and the end of season Ricmotech 400 at Pocono on August 14. The race was broadcasted live on RacespotTV ( http://racespot.tv/ ) and can be see at http://iracing.com. (See link below.)
32 drivers took the green flag on a cool 73 degree F, overcast day. Celebrity drivers included Darren Manning (former IndyCar driver in "real life") and Shelby Blackstock (Indy Lites driver for Andretti Autosport).
Young Christopher Demeritt applied his "wizardry" and earned the Pole Position time of 38.530 seconds. Marco Brasil was close behind with a time of 38.557. Tim Holgate earned P3 with a 38.610, and Brasil's team-mate Diederik Kinds was in P4 with a 38.611.
With a cool track and good grip, the field stayed tight thru the first lap. As the second third of the field entered T2 on the second lap, one driver missed the apex a bit, causing the car next to him to take evasive action, going high and just kissing the wall. Cars immediately behind moved low to avoid contact. As the then bunched up field approached T3, Donald Strout on the inside lifted slightly as Niles Anders moved down to the apex in front of him. Shelby Blackstock's car then tapped Strout in the right rear with Blackstock's resulting spin generating mayhem behind and the first yellow flag. Six cars, including Blackstock were damaged beyond repair.
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| Turn 2 incident sets up a Turn 3 mayhem--Note car high and against wall |
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| Second third of field, now bunched up races toward T3 |
Darren Manning survived the T3 incident, having moved up through the field several spots. But, as can be the case when racing on the internet sometimes, Manning had internet connection issues on the restart and had to retire from the event.
The race was dominated by three drivers: Tim Holgate, Christopher Demeritt, and New England's Austin Espitee. Holgate led 109 laps, Demeritt led 61, and Espitee led 30 laps of the 200 lap event. Always close behind and in contention were California's Christian Steele and former Indy 500 Winner, Joe Branch. But only Holgate, Demeritt and Espitee appeared to have the speed to lead---others able to keep up only by using the draft.
The choice of downforce (with resulting drag) to gain more of a "margin of safety and control" versus speed is always an important part of racing strategy. One could see cars "teaming up" to draft and gain additional speed, running nose to tail in order to reduce drag and turn laps in the 39.xx range. But, Holgate, Demeritt and Espitee had optimized their downforce/drag and with a few others in the "lead pack" were able to simply pull away.
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| Using draft for more speed. McClure, Heeter, Strout and Kinds (P7-10) trying to catch the lead pack |
The consequences of going too far, removing too much downforce were serious and evident with some "surprise" spins.
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| Michael Peters does a "Danny Sullivan" 360 degree spin in T1 on lap 188. Diederik Kinds takes evasive action. |
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| Niles Anders spins in T4 on lap 199--hits inside wall--slides across track narrowly missing Peters and Jennings. Anders would slide out to outside wall and continue to the finish line scraping the wall to finish P9. |
Without a doubt, one of the most impressive drives was by Ohio driver, Ryan Heeter. Heeter started way back from P25 and by lap 50 had moved up to P9, and by lap 100 to P8. He finished in P7, behind verteran Joe Flanagan (P5) and Holgate's team-mate James McClure (P6). Heeter's fastest lap was a 39.300, third fastest in the race, bested only by Holgate's 39.266 and Demeritt's impressive 39.152. (Heeter's performance moves him up 5 positions to 8th in the Series so far.)
The finish was exiting--almost a photo finish. Holgate wins by only inches over a 500 mile race!
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| Holgate noses out Demeritt at Checkered Flag |
Holgate leads the series in points after six races. He is followed by Joe Branch, Joe Flanagan, Tim Doyle and Dan Lee Ensch. Completing the Top Ten in Series Standings to date, from 6th to 10th so far is: Christopher Demeritt (only 3 races), Tim Miller, Ryan Heeter, Michael Peters and Paul Jennings.
The series moves next to New Hampshire for the Chicago's Pizza 150, at 7PM EST on Sunday May 8. Watch live on RacespotTV http://racespot.tv/ Or, watch later at https://www.youtube.com/user/iRacingTV/videos
Race Results--Click Here
YouTube Video
