spdo extend IGTC lead with podium finish

After a podium finish at the season-opening Blackwood race and a dominant victory at the Kyoto National event a month later, an eventful third round of the IGTC 2009 Season saw spdoRacing recover from a disconnection – which occurred while the team held a comfortable lead – to claim an exceptional second place finish at the Aston North circuit and extend their championship lead over F1RST Racing, while Sonicrealms Racing took their first ever victory in the IGTC.

It was a familiar story for spdoRacing in qualifying, as Teemu Hirvonen set the early pace but was ultimately unable to reach his potential during the session. Sonicrealms’ Rudy van Buren took pole, just one hundredth of a second ahead of My3id Gaming’s Dave Williams, with Hirvonen third for spdo.

Johannes Makela started the four-hour race for Sonicrealms, with Brazilian Hugo Luis in the cockpit for My3id and Heikki Jaakkola opening the assault for spdoRacing.

And when Luis crucially passed Makela into turn one, the pressure was on Jaakkola to find a way past the Swede before My3id’s Brazilian driver pulled out too large a gap.

As Luis quickly drove away from the front of Makela’s car, the high speed nature of the Aston North track meant that Jaakkola was struggling to get close enough to the back of the Swede to be able to mount an attack.

But as Luis appeared to be putting his team into an extremely strong position – with Jaakkola trapped behind Makela for the foreseeable future – the Brazilian inexplicably drove off the racetrack and into one of the circuit’s gravel traps. The My3id driver had suffered a technical problem with his hardware, sensationally putting the leaders out of the race just 15 minutes in – a result that likely ends the championship challenge for one of the competition’s leading teams just three rounds into the eight-round season.

This meant that the race for the win was likely to be between the FZ50 GTRs of Sonicrealms and spdoRacing, as the XR GTR – driven by F1RST Racing among others – is uncompetitive at the Aston North circuit.

With Jaakkola still unable to pass Makela it became increasingly important that the Finn got past before van Buren took to the cockpit of the Sonicrealms car.

And when Jaakkola was finally able to find a way past the Swede, 53 minutes into the race, the Finn drove away from Makela at a second a lap before the Sonicrealms driver made his first pit-stop just over an hour into the race.

With the spdoRacing car already holding a five second advantage over their rivals before the pit-stop, Jaakkola was able to drive one lap further than Makela before making the team’s first stop.

And when Hirvonen took to the cockpit, he held a seven second lead over Makela who had retained control of the Sonicrealms car.

For the next 25 minutes, Hirvonen comfortably extended the gap to Makela in second to around 15 seconds, with the Swede actually falling back towards F1RST’s Vincent Staal – who was doing an excellent job in the XR GTR.

However, as spdoRacing looked to be moving towards a second successive victory in the IGTC, Hirvonen suffered a disconnect from the server 90 minutes into the race, and midway through the lap.

Jaakkola joined the server to continue spdo’s race, but the team had lost over a lap, with Makela now leading and just three seconds away from the back of the spdoRacing car which was now almost a lap down.

IGTC’s safety car rules meant that it was crucial for the team to stay on the lead lap if possible. But with Jaakkola beginning his stint with a full tank of fuel, and with the leading Makela directly behind him on tyres in their peak condition and a much lighter fuel load, it would be hard to do so.

And five laps later Jaakkola had to allow the Swede to lap him. Any safety car appearance before Sonicrealms' next pit-stop – which was around 20 minutes away – would be disastrous for the spdo car.

Though spdo still looked capable of picking up a top-five or even a top-three finish with over half of the race remaining, the disconnection meant that their on-server lap-count was reset to zero. As a result, the team’s drivers would not have the benefit of blue flags when lapping other cars – effectively forcing Jaakkola and Hirvonen to race for position against drivers who would ordinarily be yielding to blue flags. And with Aston North being one of LFS’s most challenging circuits for overtaking, this often resulted in the team losing several seconds on a given lap in their pursuit of a top-five finish.

When Jaakkola caught Makela, the Finn didn’t have to wait long to return to the lead lap as the Swede immediately pitted. This meant that any subsequent safety car appearance would allow the spdo car to close back up to the leading cars.

And 20 minutes later the spdo car was back into the top-five as Jaakkola passed XFusion Racing Team’s Ari Haro, with one hour and 45 minutes still remaining in the race.

But on the following lap, as Jaakkola was about to attempt a pass on n!faculty’s Bjorn Schenke for fourth position, an incident between a number of backmarkers as the Finn attempted to lap them sent the spdo driver into the barrier at high speed.

The incident cost the Finn 15 seconds, while also forcing the team into an early pit-stop and damage repairs. Crucially, the incident meant that Hirvonen – who took over from Jaakkola during the pit-stop – was no longer on the lead lap as van Buren went past the spdo car while it sat in the pit-lane.

Hirvonen spent the next hour making his way back through the field, still without the help of LFS’s built-in blue flag support. And when he pitted with 40 minutes of the race remaining – the Finn now out of sync in terms of pit-stops – Hirvonen was in third position.

But as the spdo driver exited the pit-lane for the final time, he was back down to fourth – though now just 15 seconds behind German Felix Hillen in the n!faculty car.

And with the superior pace of the Finn in comparison to the n!faculty driver, a battle for third position seemed imminent before the race was over.

However, 12 minutes into his stint and with his tyres at the worst part of their heat cycle, Hirvonen was caught by van Buren in the leading Sonicrealms car. With the appearance of the safety car always a possibility, it was – as with Jaakkola earlier in the race – important for Hirvonen to try and stay ahead of van Buren until his tyre temperatures stabilised.

But Hirvonen wasn’t under pressure for long, as, with a little over 45 minutes remaining in the race, the safety car took to the track to allow the stricken car of Concept Racing driver Adam Pettigrew to be recovered.

Eventually, the safety car picked up leader Rudy van Buren of Sonicrealms, and Hirvonen was able to recover to the very end of the queue of cars behind the safety car. Directly ahead of the Finn was Hillen in third, while the second-placed Staal was around 15 cars further forward in the queue.

Following the green flag, a slide from Pettigrew exiting turn one held Hirvonen up, but an incident in turn three between a number of backmarkers allowed the Finn to close back to the rear of Hillen’s car.

An intriguing battle for third place commenced, with Hillen under pressure to pass backmarkers quickly in order to hold off the relentless Hirvonen.

And at the end of the green flag lap – with Hirvonen attempting to make a move on the German – both drivers were impeded by the lapped car of Alias Racing Team’s Jesper Valentin.

Just over two laps later, as Hillen attempted to lap Speed Core’s Andre Araujo into turn three, contact sent the German into a spin and Hirvonen capitalised – taking third position.

Despite complaints from the German team, it seems clear when reviewing the replay that Hillen was to blame for the incident.

Hirvonen was now just a few seconds back from Staal in second, and before long there were no backmarkers between the two – with Hillen also remaining in close company.

With seven minutes remaining in the race Hirvonen was right on Staal’s rear bumper. And when Hirvonen drew alongside the Dutchman into turn one, the F1RST driver made his intentions clear by forcefully defending from the Finn.

As he demonstrated at the MoE 6 hours of South City – where he drove #low-racing’s Markus Gunzelmann into the Armco at 240 kph – Staal is not afraid to use car-to-car contact to defend his position.

But Hirvonen wasn’t about to give up the fight, and just one lap later the Finn was again alongside Staal in sector one. This time, the Dutch driver defended against the spdo driver in turn two and, under pressure from Hillen behind, Hirvonen locked his rear wheels into turn three, nudging Staal into a small slide at the apex of the corner. Hirvonen controversially capitalised to take second position from the F1RST Racing driver.

However, just half a lap later Staal attempted to retake second position as, on the back straight, he pulled into Hirvonen’s slipstream and drew alongside the Finn leading up to the first chicane of sector four.

Inevitably with two such fierce competitors there was contact and, as a result, Hirvonen took to the grass to avoid a probable spin into the barrier. When he rejoined the track the Finn remained in second position, while Hillen took advantage of the confusion to move ahead of Staal into third position.

And as van Buren took the chequered flag to give Sonicrealms a somewhat fortuitous maiden IGTC victory – at least when one considers the bad luck effecting the My3id and spdo cars – spdoRacing finished in second place, extending their championship lead over second-placed F1RST Racing – who finished behind n!faculty in fourth position – to 25 points.

The fourth round of the IGTC 2008-2009 season takes place on Saturday, 23 May, and is staged at the XR GTR-friendly Westhill International Reverse circuit, where spdoRacing will be hoping to maintain their championship lead with a fourth successive podium finish.

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