C.Guinez & T.Gibson secure TCR double podium for CoRe SimRacing!
The iRacing community kicks off the sim racing year 2022 – starting with the first official iRacing special event : The #RoarBeforeThe24 at Daytona International Speedway. CoRe SimRacing, who is in major preparations for the upcoming iRacing Daytona 24h endurance event next weekend, has shown a dominating line-up as well as qualifying performance at the virtual version of the most famous tri-oval at Daytona Beach, Florida. With GT4 pole sitter Maxim Ramsteijn and Pascal Stix in the Porsche Cayman, the TCR class has seen a massive CoRe front row lockout and five CoRe painted Hyundai Elantras with Carl Jansson, Thomas Gibson, Corentin Guinez, Kieran Harrison and Kimmo Suominen behind the wheel, overall.
Maxim : “I knew the pace we had in the GT4 car was good, but starting from pole with a lap that I felt like could have been better was a nice surprise. The race was super interesting with traffic and different fuel strategies being the main deciding factors in the end. I took a gamble to pit early for the final stop in the hope to avoid some traffic, but this backfired slightly. It ended up losing me time and with it, a chance for the podium. But still happy to take home 4th!“
Pascal : “My qualification was decent enough with two tenths off pole position time. It allowed me to settle at the back of the lead group to save me a lot of fuel. The first few rounds of lapped traffic went fine but I had a few small contacts which annoyingly resulted in three 4x’ incidents. I had to be careful for the rest of the race – and due to the first pitstop and traffic I lost the leading pack so I took less fuel at the following pitstop in order to get back. I settled with P6 after my last stop and gained one more position by using the traffic to my last advantage. Overall I am really happy with a Top-5 result as I think that was the best I could do due to the circumstances.“
Corentin : “Very happy to get my first ever win in the top split of an iRacing event! It was quite a tough and stressful race since I had to focus on the rest of the leading TCR pack and traffic. I tried to save some fuel behind Kieran but then after he get got crashed, I suddenly was leading the race trying to pull away. For the end of the race, I tried to stay cool and think through my best track position for the last rush to the finish line. I kept P2, went for a wider exit at the bus stop chicance and took the momentum and draft with me. That worked perfectly for P1 at the line!”
Kieran, who was in good charge for the TCR class lead, was sadly taken out by a contender in the first third of the race. The same happend to Kimmo, who was about to set himself for a possible promising Top-5 result. Nevertheless with the performance of their team mates on track and the force of CoRe SimRacing cars at Daytona, another fantastic double podium in TCR and Top-5 result now relies in the trophy room of the team.