2nd Place in Sports Car Open at Motegi

In what has been an uncharacteristically busy period where there’s been lots of racing going on, and some changes away from the track, in the midst was Round 2 of Sports Car Open.

Racing in the event was Yannick Lapchin and Tuomas Tähtelä, and having taking 2nd place in Round 1, they were looking to go one better. Yannick put the car P2 on the grid, before handing over to Tuomas for the first half of the race.

Despite missing the jump off the line, Tuomas would drop back to P4 early, however an altercation with the leading two cars meant that the leader dropped back and SIMRC who were running in P3 had to take avoiding action, and we benefitted by claiming the position back. From that point, Tuomas was able to settle into a strong rhythm, opting to stop at the same time as the leading Pure Racing Team car driven by Max Benecke.

Yannick would be handed back the car with a 15 second deficit from the lead, but a further 20 seconds back to P3. It was a tense time with the traffic affecting the whole field at various stages, and managing the traffic was very difficult to do whilst losing the least amount of time. Yan expertly managing the traffic, and despite one scary moment of miscommunication between an LMP2 car and us, Yan was able to manage the gap behind, and ever so slightly close on the leader. The gap difference was too great however, and we would find ourselves in a lonely spot, well ahead of P3 but also behind P1 by some margin.

After 2 rounds, we are sitting P2 in the championship behind leaders Pure Racing Team. The series now moves to an 8 Hour race at Sebring, where anything can happen at the bumpy circuit. We will continue to push for that P1 position, and aim to win as we exit Sunset bend.