Toronto, CA – January 27, 2021 – As we bring in the new year, we also mark the halfway point for all IVRA Series. With drivers returning to the grids refreshed after a short winter break, we’ve seen stellar racing in each series; the GT Sprint Series were the first to kick things off at Zandvoort, followed by ClubSport and Club Cup at Spa, and most recently the Endurance Series at Mid Ohio.
In the brand new GT Sprint Series, the grid returned to action at Zandvoort for their first round of 2021, following intense action at Silverstone, Donington, and Daytona. While a few rough patches were expected in a new series, it seems that these have been ironed out as we returned to a tight track at Zandvoort and saw potentially the best racing of the season so far in the GT Sprint Series. Front runners RSR Esport by G-Performance, MAG-Performance Sim Racing Team, and Team Heusinkveld continue their charge for the Championship with Top 5 finishes in Race 1 and all finishing in the Top 3 in the reverse grid Race 2. While it was a great round for the #56 RSR Esport by G-Performance, their sister car #55 endured massive heartbreak as connectivity issues cut each of their races short at Zandvoort while they were looking to be in a strong position for a win in each race. Despite this setback, they are still in relative striking distance for an overall top 3 finish and there is no doubt they’ll be back strong for the next round.
With two rounds remaining, the series heads next to Road Atlanta before its final race of the season at Mosport. Both of these historic tracks should provide more of the intense action we’ve come to know the GT Sprint Series for, and we’re very much looking forward to seeing how this Championship shakes out.
For the first round of 2021, the ClubSport and Club Cup Series were off to Belgium and the historic Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. With mid-race points available, this was a big round for the halfway point of the season as strategy can come into play for Championship standings throughout the entire race. Further, new regulation changes were heavily debated as the regular CPI limit would remain excluded for a second race following this initial change at Barber Motorsport Park. While Barber did not provide many areas for track-limit abuse, Spa was a completely different story with wide-open runoff areas throughout the track. Race Control did outline specific areas which would be monitored, and that warnings would be given out before penalties were issued for exceeding track limits. These limits would prove not to be a changing point for many teams or the championship outlook as teams adapted well to the limits and heeded warnings from Race Control, with very few teams receiving penalties for exceeding track limits. At the end of the four hours, we ended up with a close Championship in all classes: the top two teams in the Cup class, Hugh Jass and Fiercely Forward, are separated by only 7 points; places 2-5 in Sport have a difference of merely 10 points; in TCR Team Heusinkveld has jumped out to a 64-point lead with very close competition behind.
In very stark contrast, the Club Cup races would have no limits on incidents or track limits and the drivers drew heavy inspiration from Indy Car in their lines – similar to what we saw at COTA. This provided extremely entertaining racing and close battles throughout the race! In race one there was a massive group jump-start, leading to a handful of post race penalties. Despite this, both races proceeded very well with more of the great action we’ve come to know the Club Cup Series for. The overall Championship is still quite close and with four races left anything could happen!
For the fourth race of the season in the Endurance Series, we headed to Mid-Ohio in what would prove to be a gruelling test of mental acuity and fatigue for all teams and drivers on a tight, winding, and rolling sportscar circuit. While we have seen these cars on other close-knit circuits such as the previous round at Barber Motorsports Park, Mid-Ohio posed a different challenge to each class given the track’s structure. Traffic was constant and unrelenting for the drivers, and would prove to have major impacts on driver fatigue later in the race. Early on, the race started incredibly well with fantastic traffic management and interaction. The first safety car of the day would shake up the field heavily as several cars in the LMP2 class exited a closed pit lane which resulted in end of line penalties on the restart. Such a drastic change in running order could eventually lead to large shake ups in the championship standings. As the race progressed, driver fatigue crept in and we saw driver errors occurring more frequently – a consequence of the high demands of the track and the competition between teams. With only 30 minutes remaining, a final safety car was brought out and Alpinestars Geodesic Racing played the perfect hand to take full advantage; with a car stranded on track they immediately made the call to pit, predicting a safety car being called. They barely made it in time, as the safety car was called mere seconds after entering pit lane. This would propel them to the front and to the race win, giving them the overall lead in the Championship standings in LMP PRO. They still have their work cut out for them, as both Team RSO and DeltaSport U4K are within 46 points of the leaders. In the LMP AM class, the top 7 cars are separated by only 47 points! The GTE PRO class is also close, with the leaders ahead by 45 points but the top 5 all within striking distance of the podium. In the GTE AM category the top 3 cars are also only separated by 24 points. With three more rounds to go everything is still up for grabs in a highly competitive field!