CoRe With Another Season Opener Podium!
The Sports Car Open series launches its’ third season overall. The car selection is once again the high-tier content of iRacing including the LMP1 prototypes Audi R18 and Porsche 919, the HPD-ARX-01c as P2 and the common GTE range as the GT class. CoRe SimRacing aims to defend the title in the P2 division with Maxime Pauly, Pascal Stix, Sven Neumann and Santeri Kallunki. The CoRe GT squad consists of Janne Kiuru, Sindre Setsaas, Carl Jansson and Maik Paluch. The CoRe P2 team finished 2nd in class, the GT squad ended the race in 8th.
Pascal, who was responsible for the qualifying in the HPD class, was able to set a laptime for a provisional pole position – nevertheless it was P2 in the end as RevMatch Esport beat the time in the last minutes of the Q-run. Janne qualified the CoRe M8 GTE onto the 8th position of the grid. Pascal was able to overtake RevMatch Esport’s Maarten van Loozenoord in the early stages of the race, but could not defend against his strong pace mid-race. Janne started the double stint for the GT squad and fell down below the Top-10 soon after traffic kicked in and car contacts had to avoided. A drive-through penalty later on challenged Sindre to comebacks with battles.
Maxime meanwhile, who took over in the CoRe HPD, continued with caution. The CoRe P2 squad tried to keep damage off their car and with success. The final stages of the race were handled by Pascal afterwards, who could keep the gap to the leader in front, but not close it unfortunately. Despite not being able to challenge for the win, CoRe finished the season opener with a great podium in the HPD division by crossing the line in 2nd place. Sindre overtook few cars within the last 20 minutes after enough fuel was saved and ended the race within the Top-10 on a solid 8th position. The next round will be held at Motegi. The race broadcast can be found here.