Edoardo Leo, Team Redline dominate INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series opener at Indianapolis Road

September 20th, 2024 by

Edoardo Leo picked up exactly where he left off, winning the opening round of the INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course on Thursday night.

Leo, the winner of the Qualifying Series race at the same place last month, took the pole and ran the perfect strategy, winning by over five seconds over Team Redline teammate Florian Lebigre and scoring max points at 54 in the 37-lap feature at the Indy Road Course. Team Redline swept the top-five positions, with Sam Kuitert, Gustavo Ariel, and Diogo Pinto rounding out the order.

“I just had to repeat what I did in the Qualifying Series,” Leo said post-race. “It worked out super well. The pole was really close with Sam (Kuitert), so I got pretty lucky with that… I had a plan that was pretty clear, to stay with Peter (Berryman) as much as possible as he was starting on the softs. I got his tow, and got him back in the next half of the stint, and just did my race from there.” 

Leo led 26 laps, including the first couple from the pole position. Leo and 25 others in the 32-car field opted for the Primary black-walled tires on the start. Many of the Apex Racing Team entries, including Peter Berryman and Luke McKeown, started out on the virtual Alternate red-walled Firestones.

The Alternates were fast early, as Berryman managed to steal the lead on the fourth lap of the 37-lap contest. It didn’t take long, however, for the tires to swap, as the Primary tires became optimal after about 10 laps. On Lap 12, Leo took back control and set sail into what would become the perfect strategy.

With Push-to-Pass enabled for road races as well, Leo managed to get out to a huge gap over the rest of the field before the first round of pit stops. McKeown was the first to pit, from the third position, to take the Alternate tires off and get on the Primary tires for the rest of the night. Berryman followed suit the next time by, but it wouldn’t be until Lap 20 that Leo and others on the Primary tires decided to pit.

Leo made it back into the lead a few laps later, on Lap 23, and never looked back. The battle became heated for second, as Kuitert held it, but Lebigre wanted it. As for the Apex drivers, the used Primary compound just couldn’t keep up with the fresher Alternates through most of the run. It did finally swap, but it was too late, and the best McKeown could do was finish in sixth.

Williams Esports’ Sota Muto gained the most spots, finishing 16th after starting in 31st. Nexxus Esports’ Luis Núñez set the fastest lap, but it was after being involved in a first lap crash with Philip Kraus, Elliot Vayron, José Soria, and Michael Janney as the field took the green flag. Núñez had the least amount of damage from the stack up and finished the best of the group in 28th, two laps down.

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series results from Race #1 at Indy Road are as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Driver

Laps

Interval

Led

Manufacturer

Pts.
1 1 17 Edoardo Leo 37 0.000 26 Honda 54
2 3 02 Florian A Lebigre 37 -5.244 1 Honda 41
3 2 14 Sam Kuitert 37 -8.121 0 Honda 35
4 5 21 Gustavo Ariel 37 -8.376 0 Honda 32
5 8 44 Diogo C. Pinto 37 -8.693 0 Honda 30
6 7 96 Luke McKeown 37 -8.769 0 Chevrolet 28
7 9 51 Ricardo Rico 37 -10.376 0 Chevrolet 26
8 4 8 David Toth 37 -11.679 0 Chevrolet 24
9 6 50 Peter Berryman 37 -11.804 8 Chevrolet 23
10 16 66 Michele Costantini 37 -13.549 2 Honda 21
11 10 57 Tamas Simon 37 -15.000 0 Honda 19
12 12 37 Cooper Webster 37 -17.842 0 Honda 18
13 15 53 Michael Romanidis 37 -18.404 0 Honda 17
14 22 12 Jordan Caruso 37 -19.644 0 Honda 16
15 13 24 Jaden Munoz 37 -21.022 0 Chevrolet 15
16 31 68 Sota Muto 37 -22.880 0 Chevrolet 14
17 11 41 Dan Amor 37 -24.000 0 Chevrolet 13
18 20 16 Jacob Oster 37 -32.530 0 Honda 12
19 27 93 Joshua Chin 37 -36.501 0 Chevrolet 11
20 25 52 Kevin Birrell 37 -36.825 0 Chevrolet 10
21 32 91 Robert Maleczka III 37 -38.169 0 Chevrolet 9
22 18 29 Adam Crane 37 -38.652 0 Chevrolet 8
23 14 04 Xavi Ros 37 -42.121 0 Honda 7
24 26 86 Jussi Kataja 37 -45.197 0 Honda 6
25 28 75 Jeff Drake 37 -47.206 0 Chevrolet 5
26 29 10 Brendan Lichtenberg 37 -1:08.251 0 Honda 5
27 30 88 Jason Brophy 37 -1:09.676 0 Chevrolet 5
28 17 4 Luis Núñez 35 -2L 0 Honda 5
29 24 99 Philip Kraus 31 -6L 0 Chevrolet 5
30 21 25 José I. Soria 5 DNF 0 Chevrolet 5
31 19 23 Michael Janney 1 DNF 0 Honda 5
32 23 19 Elliott Vayron 0 DNF 0 Honda 5

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series points after Race #1 at Indy Road are as follows:

  1. Edoardo Leo, 54
  2. Florian A Lebigre, 41
  3. Sam Kuitert, 35
  4. Gustavo Ariel, 32
  5. Diogo C. Pinto, 30
  6. Luke McKeown, 28
  7. Ricardo Rico, 26
  8. David Toth, 24
  9. Peter Berryman, 23
  10. Michele Costantini, 21

As a reminder, there is a fan vote happening until the start of next week’s race to determine which track goes on the schedule for the ninth race of the season.

 

Next up for the IR-18 gladiators is a trip to the west coast, with the first and only street circuit of the season, Long Beach. Luke McKeown was the victor in the Qualifying Series’ top split race over the summer.

The broadcast goes live at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday night on the iRacing social channels and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES YouTube channel and website.

For more information on the INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series, visit www.iracing.com/indycar-esports/. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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