Edoardo Leo scores second-career INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series win after leading every lap at Mid-Ohio

For the first time in INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series history, there’s a repeat winner on the board. Following the sixth race of the inaugural 2024 season, Team Redline’s Edoardo Leo found his way back to virtual victory lane, scoring the pole position and leading every lap at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Thursday night. Leo, the first-ever winner of the series in Week 1 at Indianapolis, played the tire strategies perfectly, winning over his teammate Diogo Pinto by more than two seconds by the checkered flag.

With the result, Leo moves back up into third in the championship, right in the middle of a Team Redline lockout of the top-five positions in the points. Leo sits behind Pinto and Gustavo Ariel and ahead of Cooper Webster—the former point leader who was unable to race at Mid-Ohio—and Sam Kuitert in fifth. With four races left, the Mid-Ohio win couldn’t have come at a better time, but Leo acknowledged that his struggles following his opening-round win have put him in a tricky spot with only one road race remaining on the calendar.

“It’s been a really difficult championship,” Leo said post-race. “It’s been nice bouncing back at the Indianapolis oval since that was the weakest track for us, so it was nice having a good result already at that track. We came here expecting to be at the top again, given that it’s a road course. It’s not going to be easy because there is only one left after this one, so we have to deal with that and maximize our points in the three ovals and see what happens. But yeah, everything went perfect and I’m happy right now because I’ve recovered nicely after a bit of a struggle in the last couple of races.”

The race itself started in chaos, with Leo grabbing the early advantage as the rest of the field exploded behind. Coanda Esports’ Jordan Caruso started second, but on the start, spun the tires, causing a chain reaction through the entire field. By the end of the first corner, nearly a dozen cars were damaged, a good chunk of those cars too broken to continue.

Apex Racing Team’s Luke McKeown was the first to hit the errant Caruso, which sent him into a spin into Caruso’s teammate, Elliott Vayron. In the left lane, Team Redline’s Florian Lebigre checked up, but Drago Racing’s Ricardo Rico didn’t, causing damage to both cars. Behind that, Apex Racing Academy’s Dan Amor also spun the tires in the same spot that Caruso did, thankfully avoiding further damage, but ultimately putting him behind the curve immediately. Powerslide Motorsports’ Jeff Drake flew in at the last moment and finished off the moving target that was the damaged McKeown.

With the broken car, Lebigre couldn’t make it through Turn 1, sliding into the sand pit as more cars piled in. Coanda Esports’ Michael Janney missed the initial incident by traversing the frontstretch grass, but when re-joining the track in Turn 1, got into Drago Racing’s Jose Soria, as Tamas Simon and Xavi Ros also followed into the pileup. Six cars ultimately retired from that start, including Caruso, Lebigre, and McKeown, their title hopes now in limbo with mostly oval racing left to go.

Things mellowed out after that, with Leo in complete control, starting the race on the Alternate, red-walled Firestone tires. The top-five out of the chaos all chose that same strategy, with the first on the Primary, black-walled Firestones sitting sixth—Gustavo Ariel. Coanda Esports’ Michael Romanidis escaped the fray in second place, and was the first to pit on the Alternate-first strategy on Lap 17.

Leo and Pinto didn’t blink, staying true to their strategy and pitting on Lap 22. The Alternate tires held up enough for the advantage to be minimal for Romanidis on the undercut, in fact, the Primary tires were so much less effective at the start of the run that Pinto managed to leap into second on the overcut, pitting with Leo. Meanwhile, Ariel was closing in on the flipped strategy, hoping to utilize the Alternate tires to the checkered flag.

Coming to 15 laps to go, Ariel utilized his Push-to-Pass to get by Romanidis for third, still five seconds behind the lead, but closing fast. With nine laps to go, Ariel had that gap cut in half, now stalking his teammate, Pinto, for the second spot.

It nearly came unraveled for Ariel, however, as with seven laps to go, his tires were cooked. Ariel slid into the first corner, nearly looping it into the beach, but somehow kept the car underneath him. With the tire advantage lost, Ariel went into preservation mode as Leo and Pinto both began to pull away.

Leo, on the same exact tires as Pinto, maintained the gap through the rest of the race, allowing him to lead every single lap as he took the checkers for the second time in 2024.

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series results from Race #6 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course are as follows:

INDYCAR ButtKicker iRacing Pro Series points after Race #6 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course are as follows:

1. Diogo C. Pinto, 187
2. Gustavo Ariel, 169
3. Edoardo Leo, 165
4. Cooper Webster, 159
5. Sam Kuitert, 151
6. Philip Kraus, 150
7. Robert Maleczka III, 133
8. Luke McKeown, 131
9. Michael Romanidis, 129
10. Peter Berryman, 125

Behind the Team Redline top-five lockout are two PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype contestants, Iowa winner Philip Kraus and Indianapolis oval winner Robert Maleczka III. With mostly ovals left, including the final two races of the season, this championship isn’t wrapped up just yet for Team Redline. Pinto, in particular, will need to maximize his oval points to have a shot at holding the championship lead until the end of the season. Thankfully for Pinto, he’s done just that at both Iowa and Indy, scoring top-10 finishes in every race so far this season.

Rounding out the Top 10 are McKeown, Romanidis, and another Apex Racing Team member, Peter Berryman. Those three in particular have shown promise at the ovals, with Romanidis picking up a second place at Indy last week. Both McKeown and Berryman have been top-five worthy drivers in both races, but have both had terrible luck in finishing in those spots, both running out of fuel at Iowa and wrecking at Indy. They too could still have a say in the outcome of the championship.

Next up on the schedule is the third oval race of the season at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. During the Qualifying Series season, Philip Kraus defeated Jason Brophy for the top split victory at WWT Raceway.

The broadcast for Gateway goes live at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 31st, on all 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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