Race 5 Article is out explaining the action. We had high hopes but good news is we took the point lead over 1-2.
Kimmo King at Lime Rock; Mustangs Move to COTA
by Jeff Jacobs on June 6th, 2014
In a week of tight racing on Lime Rock Park’s narrow ribbon of pavement, Kimmo Suominen won the key Strength-Of-Field race to earn the top points in Week 5 of the iRacing.com Mustang Challenge. Despite starting from the second row as the fourth qualifier, Suominen wasted no time moving up to the rear bumper of Mike Wille who started on the pole. From there he waited for an opening, which came on Lap 6 with a slightly better run off the final turn and down the front straight.
Patrick Bieri leads the Saturday 00:15GMT grid into Turn 1 on his way to one of his two wins in Week 5 at Lime Rock Park.
Suominen pulled alongside as both cars entered Turn 1, door handle to door handle. Although it was nearly imperceptible on the video replay, somewhere mid-turn there was just enough contact at just the wrong moment, putting Wille into a slow but unsavable oversteer that left him facing the surprised remainder of the field that was blasting around the corner at him. It was an unfortunate and ironic twist of fate in comparison to Week 4 where the slightest bit of contact between the same two drivers ended with Suominen nose-first into the wall at Watkins Glen.
Mike Wille (#6) held off a charging Kimmo Suominen (#1) for five laps until the drivers found themselves door to door in Turn 1.
The win gave Suominen the highest total for Week 5 at 215 points, followed by Kester Baird and Todd Honczarenko on the podium. Before the week was finished, 234 sim-racers competed in at least one of the 37 official races at Lime Rock Park, producing 29 different winners. Kevin Ford took the most checkered flags home by winning four of the six races he entered. Top qualifier was Matt Bussa, whose 57.656 lap was a full tenth quicker than the next best time posted by defending Season 1 Champion Patrick Bieri.
Making his Mustang as “wide” as possible down the front straight at Lime Rock Park, Kevin Ford (#4) forces Todd Honczarenko (#2) to try to complete his pass with a tough entry into Turn 1.
Unfortunately for Wille, the lost points-opportunity in the SOF race cost him his position atop the overall points standings in Season 2. After leading for the prior two weeks, Wille now trails Jared Jewell by 10 points – hardly an insurmountable margin. Bieri was unable to repeat his high-point performances of prior weeks and remains third overall, just 24 points further back. Liam Hackwith continues to turn in solid races to remain in fourth, followed by Kevin Ford who is fighting hard for a Top 5 finish this season.
Liam Hackwith (#3) has turned in consistently solid finishes through the first five weeks of Season 2 to sit fourth overall in the standings.
Week 6 takes the Mustang racers to the newly released Circuit of the Americas. As the mid-point of the 12-week season, COTA should provide an exciting opportunity to see who is able to learn the new track without the prior-season setups and driver aids that exist on older iRacing.com tracks. All racers will be starting on a level playing field with everyone having to learn the nuances of this car at this track. Everyone will find a helpful track map, lap guide, links to videos from other iRacing series that have already run at COTA this season, and a lot of sharing between competitors in the Series Forum.
Kimmo King at Lime Rock; Mustangs Move to COTA
by Jeff Jacobs on June 6th, 2014
In a week of tight racing on Lime Rock Park’s narrow ribbon of pavement, Kimmo Suominen won the key Strength-Of-Field race to earn the top points in Week 5 of the iRacing.com Mustang Challenge. Despite starting from the second row as the fourth qualifier, Suominen wasted no time moving up to the rear bumper of Mike Wille who started on the pole. From there he waited for an opening, which came on Lap 6 with a slightly better run off the final turn and down the front straight.
Patrick Bieri leads the Saturday 00:15GMT grid into Turn 1 on his way to one of his two wins in Week 5 at Lime Rock Park.
Suominen pulled alongside as both cars entered Turn 1, door handle to door handle. Although it was nearly imperceptible on the video replay, somewhere mid-turn there was just enough contact at just the wrong moment, putting Wille into a slow but unsavable oversteer that left him facing the surprised remainder of the field that was blasting around the corner at him. It was an unfortunate and ironic twist of fate in comparison to Week 4 where the slightest bit of contact between the same two drivers ended with Suominen nose-first into the wall at Watkins Glen.
Mike Wille (#6) held off a charging Kimmo Suominen (#1) for five laps until the drivers found themselves door to door in Turn 1.
The win gave Suominen the highest total for Week 5 at 215 points, followed by Kester Baird and Todd Honczarenko on the podium. Before the week was finished, 234 sim-racers competed in at least one of the 37 official races at Lime Rock Park, producing 29 different winners. Kevin Ford took the most checkered flags home by winning four of the six races he entered. Top qualifier was Matt Bussa, whose 57.656 lap was a full tenth quicker than the next best time posted by defending Season 1 Champion Patrick Bieri.
Making his Mustang as “wide” as possible down the front straight at Lime Rock Park, Kevin Ford (#4) forces Todd Honczarenko (#2) to try to complete his pass with a tough entry into Turn 1.
Unfortunately for Wille, the lost points-opportunity in the SOF race cost him his position atop the overall points standings in Season 2. After leading for the prior two weeks, Wille now trails Jared Jewell by 10 points – hardly an insurmountable margin. Bieri was unable to repeat his high-point performances of prior weeks and remains third overall, just 24 points further back. Liam Hackwith continues to turn in solid races to remain in fourth, followed by Kevin Ford who is fighting hard for a Top 5 finish this season.
Liam Hackwith (#3) has turned in consistently solid finishes through the first five weeks of Season 2 to sit fourth overall in the standings.
Week 6 takes the Mustang racers to the newly released Circuit of the Americas. As the mid-point of the 12-week season, COTA should provide an exciting opportunity to see who is able to learn the new track without the prior-season setups and driver aids that exist on older iRacing.com tracks. All racers will be starting on a level playing field with everyone having to learn the nuances of this car at this track. Everyone will find a helpful track map, lap guide, links to videos from other iRacing series that have already run at COTA this season, and a lot of sharing between competitors in the Series Forum.
