Lemanek adds name to winners list with Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series victory at Silverstone
The fourth race of the 2023 Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series got back to the series' roots up in England with a return to normalcy in the third road course race of the year. 25 of the top drivers in the Dallara iR-01 ranks were on the grid for 27 laps around Silverstone Circuit on Thursday (October 5). For the third time this season, a new winner and points leader emerged.
Drago Racing's Przemysław Marek Lemanek scored his first career victory in the series at Silverstone. With strategies all over the map once again, Lemanek's proved to be the right one as he held off a late charge from VRS competitor Marcos Núñez and BS+ Competition's Jarl Teien in the closing laps.
Starting on the outside of the front row alongside Edoardo Leo (VRS), Lemanek was in the fight the entire evening. Leo, on the soft compound tires, was able to lead early, but the draft effects kept the medium compound users of Lemanek, Apex Racing Team's Ben Fuller and Michele Costantini, Altus Engineering's Carlos Fenollosa, Arnage Competition's David Toth and the points leader and two-time winner on the season Florian Lebigre all in the fight.
Meanwhile in the back of the pack, Núñez and Teien were a part of a group that opted to start on the hard compound tires, playing the long game strategy, hoping that a softer compound later would play into their hands.
The soft tires were fast, providing Leo with the fastest lap of the race and an extra point, but they did not last as long as hoped. On the eighth lap, the tires began to visibly cord, resulting in multiple spins from the Italian. This left the medium tires to race amongst themselves with some drivers on the hards biding their time behind.
At the start of the 11th lap, Lemanek pitted from second place, running in between Fenollosa and Fuller at that time. Fuller reacted the next time by and Fenollosa came in a lap further than that. The undercut worked wonders for Lemanek, distancing himself from the rest of the pack as they fought for what looked to be second place for the rest of the race.
On Lap 16, the other strategy looking to overcut decided to stop, with Núñez, Teien and Veloce VEXT's Tamas Simon all staying with the other pack. Simon, however, found trouble a few laps later when he was involved in an incident with Lebigre in a massive check-up heading into Becketts and further contact with Drago Racing's Jakub Maciejewski heading through Chapel, ending all three driver's chances.
While Lemanek was gone, both Núñez and Teien were cutting through the field like butter. Not only did Ben Fuller have older tires, but he also had the slower hard compound tires bolted on, allowing for him to be overtaken for both second and third.
Lemanek had enough of a gap, and enough help from the field fighting with Núñez and Teien, that he was able to coast it in on the final lap to win for the first time in 14 career starts. His previous best finish coming into the season was a fourth at Monza in 2021. Lemanek has since bested that twice, with a podium finish of third at Jerez last month and now here with the victory.
Through four races, Lemanek now leads the way with 54 points, only by a total of three over Núñez, who moves into second. The ever consistent David Toth sits in third now, only five points behind Lemanek. Teien moves up into fourth after back-to-back podium finishes as Lebigre falls to fifth following his early retirement at Silverstone.
The Top 10 are all still within a race of each other, which means it is still anyone's championship to win with nobody yet establishing themselves as an overall favorite.
Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series Round 4 results at Silverstone Circuit were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
No. |
Driver |
Laps |
Interval |
Led |
Best |
Pts. |
|
1 |
2 |
11 |
Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek |
27 |
0.000 |
16 |
1:28.145 |
25 |
|
2 |
15 |
7 |
Marcos Núñez |
27 |
-1.789 |
3 |
1:28.295 |
21 |
|
3 |
24 |
3 |
Jarl Teien |
27 |
-2.239 |
0 |
1:28.582 |
18 |
|
4 |
3 |
55 |
Ben Fuller3 |
27 |
-5.902 |
1 |
1:28.170 |
15 |
|
5 |
5 |
41 |
David Toth |
27 |
-8.999 |
0 |
1:28.590 |
12 |
|
6 |
11 |
6 |
Manel Cubo Torres |
27 |
-9.257 |
0 |
1:28.562 |
10 |
|
7 |
4 |
28 |
Carlos Fenollosa |
27 |
-11.514 |
4 |
1:28.680 |
9 |
|
8 |
10 |
34 |
Matt Emery |
27 |
-13.865 |
0 |
1:28.639 |
8 |
|
9 |
9 |
92 |
Michael Janney |
27 |
-13.984 |
0 |
1:28.667 |
7 |
|
10 |
13 |
16 |
Daniel Sivi-Szabo |
27 |
-14.105 |
0 |
1:28.886 |
6 |
|
11 |
6 |
27 |
Simone Maria Marcenò |
27 |
-14.355 |
0 |
1:28.502 |
5 |
|
12 |
18 |
04 |
Xavi Ros |
27 |
-21.021 |
0 |
1:28.231 |
4 |
|
13 |
8 |
66 |
Michele Costantini |
27 |
-22.734 |
0 |
1:28.269 |
3 |
|
14 |
19 |
31 |
Jacob Reid4 |
27 |
-26.511 |
0 |
1:28.812 |
2 |
|
15 |
16 |
90 |
Jakob Behrens |
27 |
-45.577 |
0 |
1:28.567 |
1 |
|
16 |
20 |
03 |
Matteo Calestani |
27 |
-53.444 |
0 |
1:29.462 |
0 |
|
17 |
22 |
13 |
Jeffrey Decker |
27 |
-57.727 |
0 |
1:30.438 |
0 |
|
18 |
25 |
64 |
Charlie Sears |
27 |
-1:02.010 |
0 |
1:30.165 |
0 |
|
19 |
23 |
05 |
Jan Hoffmann |
27 |
-1:11.328 |
0 |
1:30.075 |
0 |
|
20 |
12 |
33 |
Gaël VALERO |
26 |
-1L |
0 |
1:28.682 |
0 |
|
21 |
7 |
2 |
Florian A Lebigre |
25 |
-2L |
0 |
1:28.220 |
0 |
|
22 |
21 |
9 |
Tamas Simon |
21 |
DNF |
1 |
1:28.410 |
0 |
|
23 |
17 |
29 |
Jakub Maciejewski |
21 |
-6L |
0 |
1:28.293 |
0 |
|
24 |
1 |
23 |
Edoardo Leo |
14 |
-13L |
2 |
1:27.627 |
1 |
|
25 |
14 |
5 |
Pablo Espes |
1 |
DNF |
0 |
--------- |
0 |
Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series points through Round 4 are as follows:
- Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek, 54
- Marcos Núñez, 51
- David Toth, 49
- Jarl Teien, 43
- Florian Lebigre, 40
- Ben Fuller, 39
- Matt Emery, 36
- Michele Costantini, 36
- Gaël Valero, 33
- Daniel Sivi-Szabo, 32
The next stop for the Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series is the newly-rescanned Circuit Zandvoort, added in during the 2023 Season 4 build. All of the action takes place on Thursday, October 12, at 19:00 GMT (3PM ET) and will stream live across all of the iRacing social media channels.
For more information on the Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series, visit www.iracing.com/irgp. For more information on Turn Racing, visit www.turnracing.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.
Post written by Justin Melillo at iRacing
