2023 Season 1 Round 11 Thunder Results
Dramatic Darlington sees Martin take the race win and the Series 1 Title
28 drivers suited up Wednesday night to tackle The Lady in Black, with Dyson claiming pole position ahead of Martin, with Jones and Williams rounding out row 2.
On the opening lap, Martin gets 2 Darlington Stripes and drops down the field to P9, leaving Dyson out front ahead of Jones and Carroll-Walden. Over the first few laps, the majority of drivers earned their own stripe.
Lap 11, and Carroll-Walden makes his move into the lead, getting by Dyson into T3, with Mckenzie working his way forward to be on Dyson’s bumper. After Carroll-Walden rubs the wall the following lap, Mckenzie sends it deep into T1 passing 2 cars and gaining the lead.
The first caution of the night came out on lap 24, with Smith getting into the back of Koch into turn 1. This sent the field to the lane for 4 brand new tyres and a full tank of fuel.
Mckenzie timed the restart perfectly, gaining over half a second on the opening lap over Dyson and Williams. All this came to nought for Mckenzie as just a few laps later the Internet Gods terminated his connection and dropped him from the server. This promoted Dyson back into the lead followed by Michelmore and Williams.
Lap 46, and the battle for second was heating up between Michelmore and Neale. The following lap, and entering turn 3 Neale gets into Michelmore, spinning the Mitch Motorsport driver and collecting several other drivers as they checked up trying to avoid the spinning #31.
With that crash affecting the top end of the field, the positions on the restart looked quite different. Dyson remained at front of the field, followed by Urquijo, Malone, Martin and Smith rounding out the top 5.
Returning to green flag running, drivers would settle into a long green run. Whilst drivers were making their moves through the field, it remained pretty clean. Working lap 61, and Martin put his foot down, firstly getting by Urquijo followed by Dyson for the lead a couple laps later on. At this point in the race, the top 7 cars were nose to tail. Dyson had a few walls rubs which continued his slide down the order.
By Lap 78, Dyson had refocused himself and moved his way forward and onto the bumper of Martin for the race lead. 10 laps later sees the turning point of the race, when Dyson gets into Martin exiting turn 2. Both cars make heavy contact with the inside wall and receiving a large amount of damage, but more importantly the race stayed green!
This elevated Malone into the lead, followed by Jones and Urquijo. Dyson needed to pit for repairs whilst Martin continued on despite missing most of the panels on the front of the car and having to manage overheating issues.
20 laps to go, and Malone and Jones had a 4 second lead over the field whilst Phelps and Smith battling hard for P3. Drivers were starting to struggle with old tyres, which made any move for position an extra challenge whilst overs were trying to conserve some fuel as it was looking to be close for some drivers to make it to the finish. Some drivers had looked after their tyres well though, with Raymond moving up into a 3-way battle for P3 with Phelps and Smith, and within a couple of laps Raymond had made it past both drivers and into P3.
5 to go and Jones sends it in hard into turn 3 in an attempt to take the lead from Malone, but the reduced banking on the low line unsettled the #11, making contact with the outside wall and dropping a fair way off the back of Malone, who now looked to be headed for his first ANZCAR victory.
The cat was set amongst the pigeons just a lap later with the caution flag flying after Carroll-Walden made contact with the turn 2 wall and having a minor spin. The majority of the field headed to the lane for fresh tyres except for Martin and Georgeson who gambled on having track position verses fresh tyres.
On the restart for a G-W-C finish, Martin and Georgeson got away a little slower than the rest of the field which backed up the field. Phelps spun up his tyres and fired himself hard into the outside wall, causing a caution and a wreck that collected several cars. Looking at the track lights, Jones looked to be in front of Martin at time the caution flew but the iRacing timing system called the victory to Martin ahead of a devastated Jones and Raymond rounding out the podium.
Race Summary:
114 Laps
4 Caution for 13 Laps
6 Leaders
10 Lead Changes
Results:
1st - #21 Jason Martin
2nd - #11 Ryan Jones
3rd - #83 Matthew Raymond
4th - #274 Luke Georgeson
5th - #09 Norman Clark
Stewards Summary:
Cautions:
Lap 24 - #007 Mark Smith
Lap 47 - #22 Barry Neale
Lap 108 - #35 Joshua Carroll-Walden (3rd strike – R.O.F. next week)
Lap 113 - #06 Ruben Phelps
Start Procedure Penalties:
Nil
Protests:
Nil
Other:
Nil
Series 1 Championship:
With 1 round to go, Martin has wrapped up the Series 1 Title, 62 points in front of Michelmore and Mckenzie in third a further 30 points adrift. Whilst the top 3 spots are all but set, there are battles throughout the field; Carroll-Walden currently holds 4th position but has 4 drivers within 15 points whilst in Bissett in 11th position and Doecke in 21st are covered by only 33 points. Ever point will be important, noting that there is also an overall 2023 Thunder Series championship to be crowned come the end of October.
Next week see Series 1 conclude at Mid Ohio, which also doubles as Round2 of the Road Course Title, currently being led by Mckenzie after his win earlier in the year at CotA.
Full race results: https://www.simracerhub.com/scoring/season_race.php...
Full driver standings: https://www.simracerhub.com/scoring/season_standings.php...
For full race replay and future Thunder Series broadcasts, please head to Performance E-Streaming on Facebook.
28 drivers suited up Wednesday night to tackle The Lady in Black, with Dyson claiming pole position ahead of Martin, with Jones and Williams rounding out row 2.
On the opening lap, Martin gets 2 Darlington Stripes and drops down the field to P9, leaving Dyson out front ahead of Jones and Carroll-Walden. Over the first few laps, the majority of drivers earned their own stripe.
Lap 11, and Carroll-Walden makes his move into the lead, getting by Dyson into T3, with Mckenzie working his way forward to be on Dyson’s bumper. After Carroll-Walden rubs the wall the following lap, Mckenzie sends it deep into T1 passing 2 cars and gaining the lead.
The first caution of the night came out on lap 24, with Smith getting into the back of Koch into turn 1. This sent the field to the lane for 4 brand new tyres and a full tank of fuel.
Mckenzie timed the restart perfectly, gaining over half a second on the opening lap over Dyson and Williams. All this came to nought for Mckenzie as just a few laps later the Internet Gods terminated his connection and dropped him from the server. This promoted Dyson back into the lead followed by Michelmore and Williams.
Lap 46, and the battle for second was heating up between Michelmore and Neale. The following lap, and entering turn 3 Neale gets into Michelmore, spinning the Mitch Motorsport driver and collecting several other drivers as they checked up trying to avoid the spinning #31.
With that crash affecting the top end of the field, the positions on the restart looked quite different. Dyson remained at front of the field, followed by Urquijo, Malone, Martin and Smith rounding out the top 5.
Returning to green flag running, drivers would settle into a long green run. Whilst drivers were making their moves through the field, it remained pretty clean. Working lap 61, and Martin put his foot down, firstly getting by Urquijo followed by Dyson for the lead a couple laps later on. At this point in the race, the top 7 cars were nose to tail. Dyson had a few walls rubs which continued his slide down the order.
By Lap 78, Dyson had refocused himself and moved his way forward and onto the bumper of Martin for the race lead. 10 laps later sees the turning point of the race, when Dyson gets into Martin exiting turn 2. Both cars make heavy contact with the inside wall and receiving a large amount of damage, but more importantly the race stayed green!
This elevated Malone into the lead, followed by Jones and Urquijo. Dyson needed to pit for repairs whilst Martin continued on despite missing most of the panels on the front of the car and having to manage overheating issues.
20 laps to go, and Malone and Jones had a 4 second lead over the field whilst Phelps and Smith battling hard for P3. Drivers were starting to struggle with old tyres, which made any move for position an extra challenge whilst overs were trying to conserve some fuel as it was looking to be close for some drivers to make it to the finish. Some drivers had looked after their tyres well though, with Raymond moving up into a 3-way battle for P3 with Phelps and Smith, and within a couple of laps Raymond had made it past both drivers and into P3.
5 to go and Jones sends it in hard into turn 3 in an attempt to take the lead from Malone, but the reduced banking on the low line unsettled the #11, making contact with the outside wall and dropping a fair way off the back of Malone, who now looked to be headed for his first ANZCAR victory.
The cat was set amongst the pigeons just a lap later with the caution flag flying after Carroll-Walden made contact with the turn 2 wall and having a minor spin. The majority of the field headed to the lane for fresh tyres except for Martin and Georgeson who gambled on having track position verses fresh tyres.
On the restart for a G-W-C finish, Martin and Georgeson got away a little slower than the rest of the field which backed up the field. Phelps spun up his tyres and fired himself hard into the outside wall, causing a caution and a wreck that collected several cars. Looking at the track lights, Jones looked to be in front of Martin at time the caution flew but the iRacing timing system called the victory to Martin ahead of a devastated Jones and Raymond rounding out the podium.
Race Summary:
114 Laps
4 Caution for 13 Laps
6 Leaders
10 Lead Changes
Results:
1st - #21 Jason Martin
2nd - #11 Ryan Jones
3rd - #83 Matthew Raymond
4th - #274 Luke Georgeson
5th - #09 Norman Clark
Stewards Summary:
Cautions:
Lap 24 - #007 Mark Smith
Lap 47 - #22 Barry Neale
Lap 108 - #35 Joshua Carroll-Walden (3rd strike – R.O.F. next week)
Lap 113 - #06 Ruben Phelps
Start Procedure Penalties:
Nil
Protests:
Nil
Other:
Nil
Series 1 Championship:
With 1 round to go, Martin has wrapped up the Series 1 Title, 62 points in front of Michelmore and Mckenzie in third a further 30 points adrift. Whilst the top 3 spots are all but set, there are battles throughout the field; Carroll-Walden currently holds 4th position but has 4 drivers within 15 points whilst in Bissett in 11th position and Doecke in 21st are covered by only 33 points. Ever point will be important, noting that there is also an overall 2023 Thunder Series championship to be crowned come the end of October.
Next week see Series 1 conclude at Mid Ohio, which also doubles as Round2 of the Road Course Title, currently being led by Mckenzie after his win earlier in the year at CotA.
Full race results: https://www.simracerhub.com/scoring/season_race.php...
Full driver standings: https://www.simracerhub.com/scoring/season_standings.php...
For full race replay and future Thunder Series broadcasts, please head to Performance E-Streaming on Facebook.
