2023 Season 3 Round 4 Thunder Results
Thunder Series Review
Wednesday night and the Thunder Series headed to Kansas Speedway. Jason Martin would claim pole position ahead of Steven Williams, Barry Neale and Joshua Carroll-Walden.
Early trouble was avoided at the drop of the green when the was a big check-up on the bottom line, resulting in Lachlan Urquijo and Brad Fenly needing to take to the apron on approach to turn 1. Thankfully all drivers continued without damage.
Out front, Williams had taken the lead of the race ahead of Neale and Carroll-Walden, whilst Martin had slipped to fourth. Whilst the high line seemed to be the place to run early on, drivers in the mid pack were experimenting with different lines in the hope of moving forward whilst still looking after the RF tyre.
Lap 12, and Neale throws a slide job entering turn 3 on Williams, but he wasn’t able to hold it, washing up into the turn 4 wall and dropping back to fourth position. Running the high line constantly was starting to impact drivers, with several of them making contact with the wall on corner exit. Despite all of this, the racing stayed green until lap 29 when the first caution of the night flew.
Being close to one-thirds race distance, the field all headed to put lane for fuel and tyres. Williams would win the race off pit lane, ahead of Ryan Jones, Martin, Carroll-Walden and Jaie Schultz
The next green flag run saw the field stretch out, with most drivers content to play the long game after learning what the tyre drop off was like on the opening stint. Out front, and Williams had his DPR teammate Jones glued to his bumper, with the pair working together and building a gap over Schultz, Martin and Josh Michelmore.
Two-thirds race distance and the field heads to the lane again during the second caution period of the night. Drivers would now be able to get home with fuel and would still have another set of tyres, should there be a late caution. This time Jones would win the race off pit road, ahead of Martin, Williams, Karl Withey and Carroll-Walden.
Jones got a great start and had half a second on the field in just a couple of laps, whilst Martin again had trouble on the restart, dropping from second to fifth. Williams, despite dominating the first half of the race, looked to have lost some pace, and had fallen back to fourth.
Under 20 laps to go, and the final caution of the night flies with several drivers caught up in an incident on the back straight.
The majority of the field took this option to pit for fresh tyres for the run to the flag, except for Withey who stayed out in the hopes that his 17 lap old tyres still had some fight in them once they had cooled down. Behind Withey on the restart was Jones, Martin, Michelmore, Schultz and Williams.
Alas, the fresher tyres made easy work for the field to go past Withey through turns 1 and 2, whilst several drivers in the mid pack had a moment exiting turn 2, with the race staying green.
Jones held the lead over Martin and Michelmore, with these three building a gap over Williams, Schultz and the rest of the field. Jones looked comfortable out front, but as the laps ticked down, Martin ramped up the pressure. 3 laps to go and Martin throws it in deep into turn 3 but isn’t able to get the drive off, allowing Jones to maintain the lead.
Coming to the white flag and the two drivers were side by side across the stripe. Jones on the highline through turns 1 and 2 had enough momentum to edge ahead going down the back straight but Martin got a great run against the wall through 3 and 4. Coming to the line, Jones had to cover low on the apron to hold on to win by less than a tenth of a second to claim back-to-back victories.
Race Summary:
100 Laps
3 Cautions for 12 Laps
4 Leaders
5 Lead Changes
1st - #11 Ryan Jones
2nd - #21 Jason Martin
3rd - #31 Josh Michelmore
4th - #83 Matthew Raymond
5th - #98 Steven Williams
Stewards Summary:
Cautions:
Lap 29 - #22 Barry Neale
Lap 64 - #015 Brett Campbell (3rd strike – ROF next week)
Restarts:
Nil
Protests:
Nil
Other:
Lap 81 – unavoidable incident due to blown engine mid pack, with voice chat used to warn other drivers
Series 3 standings:
Josh Michelmore maintains this lead in the championship, now 4 points clear of Matthew Raymond, with Jaie Schultz a further 4 points behind. Next week sees the Thunder Series head to The World's Fastest Half-Mile at Bristol Motor Speedway, which also double as Round 5 of the Short Track Title.
2023 overall standings:
With his second place finish, Jason Martin gains and additional 2 points on Josh Michelmore in the year long standings, now out to 16 points, with Ruben Phelps, Matthew Raymond and Jaie Schultz within 13 points of each other in the battle for third.
Full race results and Series 3 standings at Sim Racer Hub: https://www.simracerhub.com/scoring/season_schedule.php...
Full race replay provided by Performance E-Streaming - https://youtube.com/@performancee-streaming9170
Wednesday night and the Thunder Series headed to Kansas Speedway. Jason Martin would claim pole position ahead of Steven Williams, Barry Neale and Joshua Carroll-Walden.
Early trouble was avoided at the drop of the green when the was a big check-up on the bottom line, resulting in Lachlan Urquijo and Brad Fenly needing to take to the apron on approach to turn 1. Thankfully all drivers continued without damage.
Out front, Williams had taken the lead of the race ahead of Neale and Carroll-Walden, whilst Martin had slipped to fourth. Whilst the high line seemed to be the place to run early on, drivers in the mid pack were experimenting with different lines in the hope of moving forward whilst still looking after the RF tyre.
Lap 12, and Neale throws a slide job entering turn 3 on Williams, but he wasn’t able to hold it, washing up into the turn 4 wall and dropping back to fourth position. Running the high line constantly was starting to impact drivers, with several of them making contact with the wall on corner exit. Despite all of this, the racing stayed green until lap 29 when the first caution of the night flew.
Being close to one-thirds race distance, the field all headed to put lane for fuel and tyres. Williams would win the race off pit lane, ahead of Ryan Jones, Martin, Carroll-Walden and Jaie Schultz
The next green flag run saw the field stretch out, with most drivers content to play the long game after learning what the tyre drop off was like on the opening stint. Out front, and Williams had his DPR teammate Jones glued to his bumper, with the pair working together and building a gap over Schultz, Martin and Josh Michelmore.
Two-thirds race distance and the field heads to the lane again during the second caution period of the night. Drivers would now be able to get home with fuel and would still have another set of tyres, should there be a late caution. This time Jones would win the race off pit road, ahead of Martin, Williams, Karl Withey and Carroll-Walden.
Jones got a great start and had half a second on the field in just a couple of laps, whilst Martin again had trouble on the restart, dropping from second to fifth. Williams, despite dominating the first half of the race, looked to have lost some pace, and had fallen back to fourth.
Under 20 laps to go, and the final caution of the night flies with several drivers caught up in an incident on the back straight.
The majority of the field took this option to pit for fresh tyres for the run to the flag, except for Withey who stayed out in the hopes that his 17 lap old tyres still had some fight in them once they had cooled down. Behind Withey on the restart was Jones, Martin, Michelmore, Schultz and Williams.
Alas, the fresher tyres made easy work for the field to go past Withey through turns 1 and 2, whilst several drivers in the mid pack had a moment exiting turn 2, with the race staying green.
Jones held the lead over Martin and Michelmore, with these three building a gap over Williams, Schultz and the rest of the field. Jones looked comfortable out front, but as the laps ticked down, Martin ramped up the pressure. 3 laps to go and Martin throws it in deep into turn 3 but isn’t able to get the drive off, allowing Jones to maintain the lead.
Coming to the white flag and the two drivers were side by side across the stripe. Jones on the highline through turns 1 and 2 had enough momentum to edge ahead going down the back straight but Martin got a great run against the wall through 3 and 4. Coming to the line, Jones had to cover low on the apron to hold on to win by less than a tenth of a second to claim back-to-back victories.
Race Summary:
100 Laps
3 Cautions for 12 Laps
4 Leaders
5 Lead Changes
1st - #11 Ryan Jones
2nd - #21 Jason Martin
3rd - #31 Josh Michelmore
4th - #83 Matthew Raymond
5th - #98 Steven Williams
Stewards Summary:
Cautions:
Lap 29 - #22 Barry Neale
Lap 64 - #015 Brett Campbell (3rd strike – ROF next week)
Restarts:
Nil
Protests:
Nil
Other:
Lap 81 – unavoidable incident due to blown engine mid pack, with voice chat used to warn other drivers
Series 3 standings:
Josh Michelmore maintains this lead in the championship, now 4 points clear of Matthew Raymond, with Jaie Schultz a further 4 points behind. Next week sees the Thunder Series head to The World's Fastest Half-Mile at Bristol Motor Speedway, which also double as Round 5 of the Short Track Title.
2023 overall standings:
With his second place finish, Jason Martin gains and additional 2 points on Josh Michelmore in the year long standings, now out to 16 points, with Ruben Phelps, Matthew Raymond and Jaie Schultz within 13 points of each other in the battle for third.
Full race results and Series 3 standings at Sim Racer Hub: https://www.simracerhub.com/scoring/season_schedule.php...
Full race replay provided by Performance E-Streaming - https://youtube.com/@performancee-streaming9170
