2023 Season 1 Round 6 Thunder Results
Wednesday night saw drivers contest the first road course of the 2023 Thunder Series, with 24 drivers heading to Texas and the Circuit of the Americas.
Jason Martin, who admits to struggling on road courses, claimed pole position by 0.07s over Joshua Carroll-Walden, with Jaie Schultz, Kye Turner and Andy Barber rounding out the top 5.
Carroll-Walden got a great start and led the field through the tricky Turn 1, with Schultz up to second and Martin settling into third. By the end of the opening lap, JCW had the lead out to over a second.
The first casualties of the race were Shaun Doecke and Tristan Yelland, spinning on the exit of turn 10, with Yelland continuing relatively unscathed whilst Doecke had heavy front-end damage.
Drivers started to settle into a rhythm, trying to look after their tyres as the race looked set to be a 1 stopper whilst also trying to limit their incident points on the tricky layout.
Aiden Schultz and Lachlan Urquijo came together at Turn 1 on lap 3, with an ever-closing gap leaving Urquijo facing the wrong way and dropping several spots in the process.
Turner started to charge forward, and soon was on the back of Carroll-Walden, with a 4-way battle for third between Jaie Schultz, Martin, Mckenzie and Barber. Turner made the move on Carroll-Walden into the final turn of Lap 4. Turner almost threw it away through the esses, pushing a little too hard to keep the lead but once onto the back straight he was able to gather his composure and start to build a gap.
Jaie Schultz was the first to roll the dice on strategy, coming into the pits for 4 tyres and a splash of fuel at the end of Lap 9. Around this time, Carroll-Walden started to struggle on his tyres, loosing second to Mckenzie and elected to pit for tyres the following lap and attempt an undercut on Mckenzie and Martin. This started a chain of drivers coming to the lane over the next couple of laps, with drivers weighing up having fresh tyres now over having fresher tyres than others towards the end of the race.
Whilst Ruben Phelps played the long game, all others had come in for service, leaving a 10-lap run to the finish. Turner and Carroll-Walden banged doors in the battle for the effective race lead, with Turner hanging on with Martin and Mckenzie all nose to tail.
With overheated rears, Turner started struggling and allowed Carroll-Walden into the lead with 8 laps to go. But this didn't last, as Mckenzie dived down the inside of both of Turner and Carroll-Walden into the Turn 11 hairpin to take the lead of the race. This intense battling was slowing this group of 4, allowing Josh Michelmore to start to close on this group whilst Phelps on fresh tyres, was coming quick and already up to P8.
After a hectic few laps, the leading 4 settled into a less intense pace and allowed some gaps to form as they gave their tyres a chance to cool off. With 4 laps to go, Mckenzie and Martin lead by over 3 seconds ahead of Carroll-Walden and Turner. Disaster struck for Turner, making contact with Carroll-Walden through the esses, going wide and receiving a black flag for exceeding incident points and dropping him out of contention.
The final lap, and contact occured between Martin and Mckenzie at turn 1, with Mckenzie having a half spin and Martin getting a black flag for exceeding incident points. undoing all that hard work. Whilst Mckenzie took the win, Phelps almost pulled off the unthinkable by coming home second, only 0.2s behind with those fresh tyres, and Carroll-Walden hanging on for third.
Race Summary:
24 Laps
0 Cautions for 0 Laps
4 leaders
5 Lead Changes
Results:
1st - #02 Darren Mckenzie
2nd - #06 Ruben Phelps
3rd - #35 Joshua Carroll-Walden
4th - #270 Jaie Schultz
5th - #31 Josh Michelmore
Stewards Summary:
Cautions:
Nil
Start Procedure Penalties:
Nil
Protests:
Lap 2 - #22 Barry Neale for failure to “hold the brake to stop the vehicle in a predictable manner” - Dismissed
Other:
Nil
Despite the late race penalty, Martin still maintains the lead in the standings, now just 5 points over Mckenzie, with Michelmore a further 2 points behind. Whilst the top 3 have a sizeable gap over the rest of the field, as we have seen at CotA, anything is possible and getting good points every week is important.
With the first road course of the year completed, Mckenzie also takes the lead in the Road Course title; 2 points ahead of Phelps and Carroll-Walden a further 2 points behind. with Round 2 to be held on the 2nd May at Mid Ohio,
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. This race is definitely worth a viewing!
We look forward to next week and Round 7 of Series 1 of the Thunder Series to be held at Richmond Raceway, which will also double as Round 1 of the Short Track Title.
Jason Martin, who admits to struggling on road courses, claimed pole position by 0.07s over Joshua Carroll-Walden, with Jaie Schultz, Kye Turner and Andy Barber rounding out the top 5.
Carroll-Walden got a great start and led the field through the tricky Turn 1, with Schultz up to second and Martin settling into third. By the end of the opening lap, JCW had the lead out to over a second.
The first casualties of the race were Shaun Doecke and Tristan Yelland, spinning on the exit of turn 10, with Yelland continuing relatively unscathed whilst Doecke had heavy front-end damage.
Drivers started to settle into a rhythm, trying to look after their tyres as the race looked set to be a 1 stopper whilst also trying to limit their incident points on the tricky layout.
Aiden Schultz and Lachlan Urquijo came together at Turn 1 on lap 3, with an ever-closing gap leaving Urquijo facing the wrong way and dropping several spots in the process.
Turner started to charge forward, and soon was on the back of Carroll-Walden, with a 4-way battle for third between Jaie Schultz, Martin, Mckenzie and Barber. Turner made the move on Carroll-Walden into the final turn of Lap 4. Turner almost threw it away through the esses, pushing a little too hard to keep the lead but once onto the back straight he was able to gather his composure and start to build a gap.
Jaie Schultz was the first to roll the dice on strategy, coming into the pits for 4 tyres and a splash of fuel at the end of Lap 9. Around this time, Carroll-Walden started to struggle on his tyres, loosing second to Mckenzie and elected to pit for tyres the following lap and attempt an undercut on Mckenzie and Martin. This started a chain of drivers coming to the lane over the next couple of laps, with drivers weighing up having fresh tyres now over having fresher tyres than others towards the end of the race.
Whilst Ruben Phelps played the long game, all others had come in for service, leaving a 10-lap run to the finish. Turner and Carroll-Walden banged doors in the battle for the effective race lead, with Turner hanging on with Martin and Mckenzie all nose to tail.
With overheated rears, Turner started struggling and allowed Carroll-Walden into the lead with 8 laps to go. But this didn't last, as Mckenzie dived down the inside of both of Turner and Carroll-Walden into the Turn 11 hairpin to take the lead of the race. This intense battling was slowing this group of 4, allowing Josh Michelmore to start to close on this group whilst Phelps on fresh tyres, was coming quick and already up to P8.
After a hectic few laps, the leading 4 settled into a less intense pace and allowed some gaps to form as they gave their tyres a chance to cool off. With 4 laps to go, Mckenzie and Martin lead by over 3 seconds ahead of Carroll-Walden and Turner. Disaster struck for Turner, making contact with Carroll-Walden through the esses, going wide and receiving a black flag for exceeding incident points and dropping him out of contention.
The final lap, and contact occured between Martin and Mckenzie at turn 1, with Mckenzie having a half spin and Martin getting a black flag for exceeding incident points. undoing all that hard work. Whilst Mckenzie took the win, Phelps almost pulled off the unthinkable by coming home second, only 0.2s behind with those fresh tyres, and Carroll-Walden hanging on for third.
Race Summary:
24 Laps
0 Cautions for 0 Laps
4 leaders
5 Lead Changes
Results:
1st - #02 Darren Mckenzie
2nd - #06 Ruben Phelps
3rd - #35 Joshua Carroll-Walden
4th - #270 Jaie Schultz
5th - #31 Josh Michelmore
Stewards Summary:
Cautions:
Nil
Start Procedure Penalties:
Nil
Protests:
Lap 2 - #22 Barry Neale for failure to “hold the brake to stop the vehicle in a predictable manner” - Dismissed
Other:
Nil
Despite the late race penalty, Martin still maintains the lead in the standings, now just 5 points over Mckenzie, with Michelmore a further 2 points behind. Whilst the top 3 have a sizeable gap over the rest of the field, as we have seen at CotA, anything is possible and getting good points every week is important.
With the first road course of the year completed, Mckenzie also takes the lead in the Road Course title; 2 points ahead of Phelps and Carroll-Walden a further 2 points behind. with Round 2 to be held on the 2nd May at Mid Ohio,
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. This race is definitely worth a viewing!
We look forward to next week and Round 7 of Series 1 of the Thunder Series to be held at Richmond Raceway, which will also double as Round 1 of the Short Track Title.
