After 20 races, 9 titles, and 3 championships, there are plenty of memorable moments to relish when looking back at the 2022/23 season of IVRA. We’re going to look at some of them before the summer break gets into full swing.
The key moment of the GSI Endurance Series for this season was undoubtedly the addition of the BMW M V8 Hybrid. The all-new GTP class was added for the 12 Hours of Daytona, replacing the LMP2 class, and teams had barely two weeks to prepare for the longest race of the season to that point.
The lack of preparation showed too, with plenty of Safety Cars, and less than half of the field on the lead lap after 6 hours. However, one of those teams to finish up towards the front was champions Maniti Racing, who would gain 103 points on eventual runners-up Urano Esports, and since Maniti’s winning margin was only 76 points, it’s possible that this was the key turning point in the season.
There were far less season-defining moments in the two GT3 categories this season. Urano Esports in GT3 Pro, and Maniti Racing in GT3 won by sheer relentlessness, with the former winning the first 4 races in a row, and the latter winning 3 races in a season where they didn’t finish below 5th until the final round, which was a DNS because of illness.
This meant that the GSI Endurance Series and HyperX Clubsport Series had similar finales in many ways, with one title settled, another decided at the halfway mark of the finale, and the final one going down to the line. The top class, Cup, was the only to be settled at the penultimate round, with Asetek Simsports Visceral’s crowning moment at Barber.
The memorable moments here came in the second half of that race, when their other rivals, Impulse Racing and Maniti Racing, made contact in the final sector. They would both drop back, and with a further spin on the penultimate lap for Impulse Racing, the title was confirmed before the finale at Suzuka.
That finale did see championship drama, with Hugh Jass and HydroRace Geodesic Racing battling it out for the Sport title. However, the key moment in this race for the title came at Interlagos, where Hugh Jass lost 58 points to Geodesic.
On the final restart of that race, Hugh Jass stayed out on older tyres in an attempt to defend their lead in that race, but out of Turn 10, they were spun around. This dropped them down many places, and Geodesic went on to win the race, and while those lost points constitute slightly less than their eventual deficit, it could’ve been even closer for the McLaren team.
It would be hard to argue there was a real key moment in TCR. Highlighting Team Heusinkveld’s dominance is more than enough, as they won the first five races in a row, and showed themselves the team to beat in TCR once again, only adding to this last weekend by winning the iRacing 24 Hours of Nurburgring, too.
There was a lack of key moments for Sean Campbell in his championship winning IVRA GT Sprint Series season, as pure dominance was, once again, on show. He would win 6 races of the 8, and finish only 3rd in the other two, in one of the most dominant displays IVRA has seen for some time.
It wasn’t quite the same story in Division 2, as GermanSimRacing’s DNF at Daytona made things a little more interesting. However, a run of four wins in a row crowned them champions before they even had to take the start at the finale on Mount Panorama.
Division 3 saw a rollercoaster season, with the Top 3 in the championship all having a DNF throughout. In the end, the key would come right at the end of the season, with the final race at Bathurst.
Prestanda NOMAD took the pole position, and while they were battling through traffic from other classes, things were running smoothly. After the pitstop during the race, they did drop back to 2nd, but as they only needed a podium, this wasn’t a problem.
In the end, their speed in the final race was enough, and they would win the championship in a rather tense end to the campaign. It was certainly the most engaging of the 9 titles settled in 2022/23.
The IVRA season has had so much drama, and so many memorable moments. Over the next few months, the summer break will be in full swing, and preparations for next season will go ahead, before another great season of IVRA competition.