The brand new iRacing Endurance Series kicked off for the first time at the weekend, with the Suzuka 12 Hour. The IES is a four round multi-class endurance championship run by iRacing, featuring the GTE, GT3, GT4 and TCR cars.
We felt looking at the entries, and based on our past battles in the TCR with CoRe, that they were going to be our strongest opposition and that was most certainly true. The race got off to a great start after Jackson Souslin Harlow put in an great lap to go P2, narrowly missing out on pole position to CoRe SimRacing, but managed to take an early lead and stretch the advantage out before handing over to Alexander Lauritzen who would continue that trend into the fifth hour.
TCR debutant Zachary Hanlin was in a tricky situation having just starting driving the car this week, however had the might of CoRe breathing down his neck. He settled into a rhythm and did a great job of keeping the car safe and out of harms way, which was easier said than done with three faster classes moving around you.
At the next driver change, Alex would be back in the car and the 50x incident limit starting causing some concern and in the 7th hour, and unfortunately incident would cost the team a drivethrough penalty for exceeding the incident limit. We then also were caught out with a small crash in the 10th hour with a 4x Contact to then give another drive through.
Ultimately the incidents and drive through penalties were the downfall, and we would come home in 2nd Place behind CoRe who had a great race. Certainly a very solid start of the series, and we look forward to the next round in a few months.
