Costantini breaks drought, wins in Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series return to Red Bull Ring

The only driver on the roster with a victory from the inaugural 2021 season, Apex Racing Team’s Michele Costantini entered the 2023 Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series as a championship favorite. The 2021 Qualifying Series champion’s sophomore season in the top-level Dallara iR-01 series has been anything but championship-worthy, but on Thursday—a bright spot on a bleak year—the Italian scored his second career victory and first in 2023 after a convincing performance in Austria.

In a more tame race than this season has often provided, Costantini was finally able to put a full event together. There have been multiple instances this season where Costantini and his teammate Ben Fuller have been the class of the field, but it hadn’t resulted in a victory until the eighth race of the season, a return trip to the Red Bull Ring.

Costantini started third, behind Stormforce Gaming’s Michael Janney and Altus Engineering’s Carlos Fenollosa. The opening stint was relatively clean, with a few moments of contact but nothing race-ending. Only Super’s Xavi Ros went for a loop before the first wave of pit stops, and the damage would eventually force him to retire just after halfway.

Up front, Janney’s strategy for soft compound tires to grab the pole went better than the previous week at Fuji, as he kept in the lead pack with Fenollosa, Wave Italy Racing Team’s Pablo Espes, and Costantini before peeling off to pit at Lap 14. The three other leaders, along with the majority of the field, all opted for medium compound tires to qualify and start the race with. As series rules mandate a compound change during the event, the question remained whether that compound would be the white-walled hard tires or the red-walled softs.

At Lap 19, just before halfway, those strategies began to take shape. Fenollosa pitted from the lead, taking hards. Espes followed a lap later, also putting on the hards and leapfrogging to the lead of the cycle. Costantini stayed out on his older mediums and was still faster than his two rivals on fresh hard tires, allowing him to build a gap before he pit on Lap 25. With the cycle complete at the conclusion of Lap 26, Costantini had a sizable lead of over three seconds back to Fenollosa.

Before too long, it became evident that the hard compound tires were not the right call as Fenollosa and Espes were swallowed up by the next group. Espes in particular saw his decision go from bad to worse as he was collected in an incident with Fuller on Lap 29. The contact took Fuller out and dropped Espes down to 13th.

Costantini was able to bring it home for the win with VRS driver Edoardo Leo scoring second and Drago Racing’s Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek rounding out the podium with a bonus point for the fastest lap on Lap 33.

Leo managed the runner-up after starting in ninth while Lemanek had to race up from the 14th starting position, turning what had the potential to be a bland day into a championship effort and extending his points lead for the fifth straight week.

The gap for Lemanek sits at 27 points, more than anyone can earn in a single race, over Arnage Competition’s David Toth, who finished eighth, and 31 points over BS+ Competition’s Jarl Teien, who came home in seventh. VRS driver Marcos Núñez, fourth in the championship, 43 points behind Lemanek, is the last driver mathematically eligible to still win the championship. Costantini, who jumps up to fifth, is 54 points behind Lemanek, a gap that cannot be overcome barring any penalties.

Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series Round 8 results at the Red Bull Ring were as follows:

Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series points through Round 8 are as follows:

1. Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek, 127
2. David Toth, 100
3. Jarl Teien, 96
4. Marcos Núñez, 84
5. Michele Costantini, 73
6. Manel Cubo Torres, 72
7. Edoardo Leo, 71
8. Matt Emery, 66
9. Gaël Valero, 57
10. Pablo Espes, 54

The penultimate round and final oval of the 2023 Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series is next week at The Tricky Triangle, Pocono Raceway. Pocono was on this year’s Qualifying Series schedule, and while nobody currently in the series won that in the top split event, Espes and Ros finished on the podium. Florian Lebigre won the other oval race at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this season.

Lemanek has a chance to clinch the championship if he can leave Pocono with the same points gap or better. However, there will be a lot of uncertainty, as the best open-wheel road racers are set to take on a venue that has been referred to as an oval that races like a road course. To watch how it unfolds, tune in on Thursday, November 2, at 19:00 GMT (2PM ET). The broadcast will be available to stream across all iRacing social media channels.

For more information on the Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series, visit www.iracing.com/irgp. For more information on Turn Racing, visit www.turnracing.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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