Toronto, Canada, September 18 – As the cool morning fog rolled through the hills of Motegi on Saturday morning, we woke up to a dark track with the smell of tarmac fresh in the air following an enticing season opener in the Club Cup Series. With the brand new Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) making its debut, alongside the McLaren 570S’ addition to the Sport field, drivers were ready to get on track following a long summer break alongside familiar faces and opposition anew.
The race began incredibly well – and cleanly – throughout the field. Familiar teams largely comprised the front of the field in each class, as we saw the green flag fly with Alpinestars Geodesic Racing’s #62 leading the Cup class to the start, the #172 Vector by RSR at the front of the Sport class, and Impulse Racing #233 in the TCR class taking pole position.
The race would continue much like it started and be full of clean and hard racing, and as we approached the second window of pit stops the field remained fairly spread out with only a small handful of incidents coming through to IVRA Stewards.
As we approached the half-way mark of the race, Team Heusinkveld had chipped their way up the field and were running in second in the TCR Class. They still had their work cut out for them as Impulse Racing were in the clear out front with a 20 second lead, and with the type of racing that Motegi provides it could be very possible that we wouldn’t see a safety car come out. While they pushed to catch Impulse, they had to concurrently manage the leader’s sister car who were only 0.5s behind.
Meanwhile in the Sport class, Full Send Racing (FSR) x Project Alien were hounding Fiercely Forward for second place, with both cars trailing the leading Alpinestars Geodesic Racing car who had a healthy lead of roughly 18 seconds. The Geodesic car, which started third on the grid, had gained an early advantage and looked to stretch their lead between pilots Tristan Iglesias and Jon Boetefuer.
In the Cup class, teams had mostly spread out and were managing traffic well. On lap 71 TREQ eSports and W&S e-Motorsport were battling through Turns 3 & 4. While they exited Turn 4, it looked as though there may have been slight contact, and Jens Hartrampf in the #22 W&S e-Motorsport car went careening across the track into the armco. Unfortunately, the momentum of the impact pushed the car back onto track and there was nothing that Toni Reunenen of the #166 SIMMSA Esports GT4 car, running in 5th, could do – they would drive directly into Jens’ Porsche Cup car and both would come away with heavy damage.
During this period we were also within a pit window, and we saw cars from different classes making stops for driver changes, fuel, and possibly tyres. The #16 Impulse Racing car were one of the teams who came in while this window was occurring, but according to reports by team member Daniel Ferguson the team ran into a fueling glitch which put them down on the earlier work done by Brayden Werner. They would return to the track in third place only slightly behind Orion Race Team.
In the final third of the race, Alpinestars Geodesic Racing continued to build on their early race leads, with their #62 car leading the Cup Class by 55 seconds, and their #162 GT4 in front of FSR x Project Alien #185 by 21 seconds. In the Cup Class, an intra-class battle for 2nd began to develop with Foxed Gaming making an impressive run and catching the #79 Maniti Racing car. Maniti Racing driver Ruedi Knoepfel would dive into pits on lap 105 for what seemed like a full service strategy which put Waldemar Binder in for the remaining 41 laps. Binder would want to come out and set some fast times with Foxed Gaming on their radar, but would have to deal with inter-class traffic – both GT4s and TCRs. It appeared that they were on a different strategy and made a much shorter stop to rejoin the field in 3rd place ahead of Maniti who found themselves running in 7th. On lap 107 several other Cup cars would enter pits for service, which made the Top 5 running order Geodesic – Foxed Gaming – Fiercely Forward – Puresims Racing – Vulcan Sim Racing. Without a safety car during the race, strategies may be quite different and it would be interesting to see where these teams would end up during the final laps of the race.
In the TCR class, Team Heusinkveld continued their charge and were leading the race with less than 40 laps remaining. While they maintained a healthy 24 second lead, other perennial contenders FSR x Majors Garage, Impulse Racing, and Geodesic were joined by Project Dynamic in the top 8 all within fairly close margins. The GT4 class remained largely unchanged with steady gaps between all teams.
As we came across the line to complete the season opener, we did so without a single safety car being deployed – the first time this has ever happened in IVRA competition. And it truly was an incredible race to watch for racecraft and respect amongst competitors on track.
Alpinestars Geodesic Racing looked to make a statement today, leading the Cup Class across the line with a commanding lead in their #62 911 992. They would finish 58 seconds ahead of Puresims Racing #16, with Brayden Werner bringing their 911 home in second. This will be a race of “what ifs” to some degree for the team as a fueling glitch meant they lost a large amount of time in the pits, although it is possible that the margin may have been just too large to close in either case. Maniti Racing #79 round out the podium in the Cup Class – a team who is always in the fight for a position in the front. And while they celebrate on the podium, their sister caught fought hard to catch Orion Race Team – the two would get caught in traffic and sprint to the line with Orion only a half-a-car-length ahead of the #78 car at the line. In an impressive debut, Foxed Gaming finish ahead of Orion in 4th place in their first race in IVRA Competition.
Not only did Geodesic take the overall win, they would bring home their #162 Porsche 718 GT4 first in the Sport Class with a healthy 24 second margin over the #185 FSR x Project Alien car – although it must be said this is also a fantastic performance for the Full Send Team who make the leap from an all-TCR team to having a GT4 entry. Rounding out the podium are Fiercely Forward, with Michael Janney taking it across the line in their #134 contender. Despite a heavy – and unavoidable – collision early on, SIMMSA Esports would hold strong and finish the race in 4th position – certainly a moral victory for the team after early troubles. Rounding out the top 5, Geodesic bring their #164 sister car across the line to be the final car in the Sport Class on the lead lap.
In the TCR class, we saw several lead changes with strong contenders at the front throughout. Ultimately, it was Tim De Vries in his #233 Impulse Racing car who came away with the victory. This was likely the closest overall class, with teams on different strategies and taking varying degrees of contact throughout the race, as the #248 Team Heusinkveld car helmed by Marcel Tie was only 12 seconds behind the leader at the end, with the 3rd place car #258 FSR x Majors Garage only 3 seconds behind with Michael Polasek at the wheel. Their sister car, #285, would come home in 4th a mere 0.2s ahead of the #222 Impulse Racing car piloted by Chris T Shorter!
Overall, an incredible start to the season throughout the field with perennial contenders strutting their stuff and newcomers immediately showing that they’re teams that need to be paid attention to. Round 2 goes at Mid-Ohio for 400km on October 30!
Official race results can be found here: https://ivraleague.com/clubsport-series-700-km-of-motegi-results/
Detailed lap time data by Drivers can be found here: https://races.tfrlab.org/#/events/4492616a-ca4f-419f-a118-b2ccf0c3ad22
We would like to personally thank the marshal at Turn 3 for replacing the cones on corner entry on nearly every lap throughout the race. Your work and dedication is unparalleled.
Full Replay here: