Fast, Furious, Fake Iowa Speedway

Round 10 of the IndyCar Open Lite League was held on a cool afternoon at fun, furious, fake Iowa Speedway and our vApex guys had another fine virtual race!

Ricky Yeager literally drove hundreds of miles developing a setup that most used for both qualifying and the race… and it paid off.

During qualifying, Brad Walters got pole with a fast 16.293. Our guys took P6-11 with Dave leading the way with a turning a 16.500, followed closely by Mikey (15.506), Ricky (16.529), Andy (16.531), Kevin (16.546), and Rick (16.739). So, the 13-car field was ready for 100 dizzying laps around Iowa Speedway.

At the green flag, Brad decided to take his victory doughnuts in front of the field and went from first to worst, but the field avoided his over-zealousness and went into T1 with no reckless dive bombs and no wrecks! So, at the end of the L1, it was Dave P4, Ricky moved from P8 to P5, Kevin had a great start and moved from P10 to P6, Andy was P7, Mike P8, and Rick P9. It stayed about that way until pit stops.

After the first green-flag pit stops, Dave had move into P2, Ricky was in P4, Kevin P6, Mikey P7, Andy P8, and Rick got a speeding penalty leaving pit road and, for all intents and purposes, his night was over. Brad and Lucas’s nights were also over as they both retired on L35. On L47, Kevin had a big moment coming out of T2 and dropped to P10, but didn’t damage the car.

Following the 2nd pit stop (L76), Andy was P2, slightly out of pit-stop sequence, Mikey P3, Dave P7, Ricky P8, and Kevin P9, but a lap later Mikey also had a big moment out of T2, saved the car, but dropped to P7.

As the end approached, pressure mounted as the leaders raced nose to tail and side by side until Jeff Yeager (Ricky’s brother) got loose and dropped from P1 to P6; but, there was no contact and the furious racing continued. On L85, Andy finally pitted and dropped to P6, Dave moved up to P3, Mikey had worked his way back to P5, Ricky was P7, and Kevin was in P10.

The last incident also occurred with the leaders and again cost Jeff several positions, and benefited our guys. At the checkers, Dave got the last podium spot, while Mikey, Andy, and Ricky had all worked their way to sweep P4-6. Kevin and Rick, both off the lead lap, finished P10 and P11.

With the League headed to the final two races (Road America and Auto Club Speedway), Mikey continues to lead Dave by 34 points, Andy is 4th – that’s three vApex guys in the Top Five! Way to go guys…