Holgate
Wins Inauguaral IndyCar event at Homestead
by Donald Wayne Strout (02/29/2016)
Doyle and Goke pass Peters on last lap in site of checkered
flag as Peters runs out of fuel.
Fuel
and Pit Stop strategy almost determines the outcome…
The Inaugural Event
of the new 2016 iAdvance Motorsports Indy Elite Series (12 races—11 ovals and one
street course in Long Beach) ran at the Homestead-Miami oval on Sunday,
February 28, at 7PM EST. The Ricmotech
225 at Homestead is also the first leg of the Ricmotech Triple Crown which
includes the Indy 500 presented by Ricmotech REALGEAR on May 1, and the end of
season Ricmotech 400 at Pocono on August 14. Every
race will be broadcasted live on RacespotTV ( http://racespot.tv/ ) as well as iRacing Live. (http://www.iracing.com/live/ )
33 iRacing drivers
plus IndyCar pro Stefan Wilson took the green flag at Homestead. Polesitter,
Christopher Demeritt suffered a race ending computer failure and second row
starter, Bradley Walters took the early lead over Tim Holgate. For 20 laps, it
was Walters followed by Holgate, with Holgate’s Snake Pit Racing Team Member,
James McClure in P3. There would be 15 lead changes as the race progressed with
only 3 yellow flag cautions.
On lap 23,
Walters slid up the track and touched the wall exiting T4, giving Holgate the
opportunity to overtake after 2 laps of side to side racing. But Walters was able to recover and hold
P2. On lap 34, IndyCar oval star (Fixed)
Alabama native Jonathan Goke took over P3. On lap 70, Goke moved up to P2 with
Holgate holding his lead and Walters still close behind in P3.
Holgate takes lead on lap 23, passing Walters as he touches
wall in T4
Around this
time, Maryland driver, Tim Doyle started his remarkable and impressive run
through the field from P19 to P6 when the leaders began to pit for fuel and
tires around lap 107-110. Doyle emerged from the pits in P5 and soon passed
Walters, taking P4, behind iAdvance Motorsports sponsored Joe Branch who had
assumed P3 after pitting.
During this
wave of pitstops, clearly a few drivers adopted a “maverick” pitsop fuel
strategy. The leaders did not fill their tanks and began entering the pits
around lap 130, with 20 laps to go. Bradley Walter’s INTENSE Sim Racing Team
Member, Michael Peters had taken on a full fuel load during his pitstop on lap
110 and assumed the lead on lap 140, knowing that to finish he would have to
conserve fuel to stretch his run to a full 40 laps. Interestingly, Team RFC’s
Donald Strout and Dan Lee Ensch had adopted the same strategy. So, on lap 147,
it was Michael Peters in the lead with Strout following close behind in P2---both
hoping for a yellow flag as they were in running off the pace in order to
conserve the little fuel they had left.
It was not to
be as Holgate roared back into the lead with one lap to go, and Doyle, Goke and
Branch overtaking Peters on the last lap. Strout fell back to P7 as Ensch took
P6, The fuel conservation strategy of Peters, Strout and Ensch was victorious
over Flanagan, Walters, and McClure who rounded out the Top Ten, but had lost
out to the speed of Holgate, Doyle, Goke and Branch.
Robert Gorts
and Marco Brasil deserve mention for their laps leading the race. Clearly the
race lead was dominated by race winner Holgate, but Tim Doyle drove one
impressive hard charging race.
Finally, it
must be noted that both Walters and Peters performed well using the same
impressive INTENSE Sim Racing Team setup, with each using a completely
different fuel, pit and tire strategy. And, Branch and Peters, finishing P4 and
P5, have both clearly benefited from time on the iAdvance Motorsports simulator
and with valuable advice from the Series Sponsor, Darren Manning.
The series
moves next to Gateway on March 6, at 7PM EST. Race is sponsored by Peters
Motorsports.Designs http://petersmotorsports.com/
