The IVRA GT Sprint Series powered by Heusinkveld has reached the halfway mark after a race at Belle Isle 10 days ago. And with IVRA racing taking an absence until mid February, we thought it was time to review what we have seen from the first four races.
Coming into the season, Maniti Racing were no doubt the team to beat. Throughout the 2021/22 season, in the previous race format, they swept up numerous race wins including taking a clean sweep at one third of the rounds that season.
And this season started like the last one left off, with the reigning champions taking a commanding victory at the opener in Germany. But the Nurburgring round didn’t turn out to be the indicator that many thought it would, as they retired from the next round at Imola, and have only picked up a total of 100 points from the next two rounds.
Picking up the initiative at Imola was Sean Campbell for Deltasport. Campbell found himself without a team after the demise of the RSR outfit, and made his debut for Deltasport during the IMSA Esports Michelin Global Championship in November.
That day he finished 14th but he’s been having much more success in IVRA, with three wins on the bounce. All of those wins came in remarkably different ways too, with a lights-to-flag win at Imola, a hard-fought four car battle to the line at Daytona and a Belle Isle win that required Campbell to stay out of trouble until he could roar to the front and take control of the race.
This has shown a tactical ability that will make him very difficult to beat this season, along with his undeniable speed. However, Tom Burns has been ultra impressive as well with three 2nd places to his name so far.
If anyone can challenge Campbell for the title this season, it’s the Team Fordzilla driver. He has the consistency, and despite a 52 point deficit at the halfway stage, he does have the pace to challenge too.
In Divisions 2 and 3, Prestanda NOMAD have both championship leads after four rounds. Division 2 sees our closest championship fight at this stage, as GermanSimRacing are only 23 points from the lead after their Belle Isle win.
The most impressive thing about Prestanda NOMAD’s Division 2 lead is the fact they’re still lacking that elusive race win. In fact, they only have two podiums so far, with 2nd at Daytona and 3rd at the Nurburgring.
By contrast, GermanSimRacing have already grabbed a win and have two 2nd places at the Nurburgring and Imola respectively. By purely looking at results, it would seem they are the stronger team but Prestanda NOMAD’s ability to finish strongly every single round may just make the Division 2 title fight a little more complicated than it appears on paper.
Division 3 sees our biggest gap between first and second in the championship at this stage, with Prestanda NOMAD holding 77 points over Element SimRacing.
The championship leaders are the only team in the division to have scored more than 50 points at every round, and similar to their Division 2 counterparts, consistency will be the key for them. They even have a race win to their name at Imola, so this title race is arguably the most stable heading into the second half of the season.
A small break of just over a month has come at the right time for some, and the wrong time for others. We will return to racing in the IVRA GT Sprint Series powered by Heusinkveld at Suzuka in just over a months’ time.