Lebigre wins first Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series oval event in photo finish at Texas

Thursday’s third round of the 2023 Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series was a first of its kind, as some of the top open wheel road racers took on oval racing in the Dallara iR-01 at Texas Motor Speedway. Utilizing the new oval-centric package developed for the naturally aspirated, 3.0-liter V10 open-wheel racing machine, 25 drivers entered the evening with a chance to score a win like no other in series history.

For the second time this season, it was Florian Lebigre victorious, this time in a close battle with three other competitors all under a blanket at the checkers. The margin of victory was 0.017 seconds, the closest finish in series history, as the privateer was able to fend off Arnage Competition’s David Toth, BS+ Competition’s Jarl Teien and Wave Italy Racing Team’s Pablo Espes in a three-lap duel to the finish.

Michele Costantini (Apex Racing Team) finished in the fifth position after scoring the pole position and locking up the extra point for the fastest lap of the race. The Italian favorite to win the series, along with his American teammate Ben Fuller, were both in the conversation for the win, but a caution just after the one-quarter mark of the race split the field into two different strategies that would converge in the closing laps.

On the first-ever caution in series history, Costantini, Fuller, and nine more drivers opted to stay out, while the rest of the field decided to pit, fill up their fuel tanks and put on fresh, but cold, tires. The restart exaggerated this as the two packs would become separated almost immediately, with Costantini leading a pack of 10 cars on warmer tires and in a lighter car, which meant they had greater speeds still, as they pulled away from the second pack by more than five seconds.

As the second pack was still losing time, Teien keyed up the in-race communications and pled with the pack to let him through, as they would need to start utilizing a swapping method to start gaining back time. At this point, the pack had reheated their tires and the front pack was on the verge of pitting themselves, a fuel run on a full tank only good for just over half off the 100-lap race.

Teien passed Lebigre and the two would work out the kinks for the swap, eventually starting to close back in as the leaders finally began to pit. The entire field would still need to pit, but the drivers who didn’t under caution would be taking tires and filling up their tanks. That meant that for some time, they would be giving up their advantage gained from the restart.

As for the drivers who did pit during the caution, the winning strategy would be to not change tires and merely fill the car enough to make it to the end on gas. When the pits cycled, Lebigre, Teien, Toth, and Espes all managed to leapfrog ahead of Fuller, Costantini, and Stormforce Gaming competitor Daniel Sivi-Szabo.

With a slight tire advantage now, Fuller was starting to make some moves, but a second caution froze the field and the pursuit of the strategy. With only three laps to go on the restart, there wasn’t going to be a lot of time as it was to make the moves, but a poor restart had the top four pulling away to decide it amongst themselves.

Teien kept getting runs on Toth as Toth kept getting runs on Lebigre, but Lebigre put on his best defense in the final three laps to score the win at the line, the second of the season and of his career, moving him back into the lead of the championship after three events. Lebigre leads Costantini by seven points, the top 10 all still within a race in terms of points.

Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series Round 3 results at Texas Motor Speedway were as follows:

Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series points through Round 3 are as follows:

1. Florian Lebigre, 50
2. Michele Costantini, 43
3. David Toth, 37
4. Gaël Valero, 33
5. Marcos Núñez, 30
6. Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek, 29
7. Matt Emery, 28
8. Daniel Sivi-Szabo, 26
9. Jarl Teien, 25
10. Ben Fuller, 24

The next race in the open-wheel championship series and the road to $25,000 will take place on Thursday, October 5, as the fourth race in the season’s 10-race program takes the top talent back over to Europe for a date with the Silverstone Circuit. All of the action starts at 19:00 GMT (3PM ET) and will stream live across all of the 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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