Skip Barber 2k World Cup – Philippe Leybaert Dominates at Lime Rock

October 5th, 2015 by

After kicking-off the new season with a visit to an oval last week, the Skip Barber 2k World Cup moved on to more familiar terrain Sunday. The race was contested a Lime Rock Park. The expected contenders for the championship did not fair well at the oval, so this was a week where they were all looking forward to regaining their accustomed places atop the order.   A strong field of 34 started, but defending champion Richard Avery did not participate for the second consecutive week. It is looking like he has chosen not to defend his title.

Standings, results and links to video replays can be found at http://2kworldcup.com/.

Qualifying:

Qualifying at Lime Rock is over in a flash. With the short lap the field is usually very tightly bunched and a small mistake can cost you a lot of places. Philippe Leybaert got off to a great start with a 58.193s on his first lap. He was followed by Clark Williams and Greg Seitz.  On the second lap, Leybaert improved his time and took pole position with a 58.129s. Williams and Seitz were not able to improve their times, but their initial laps were enough to keep them in second and third positions. They were followed in the top ten by Fahim Antoniades, Luis Quintela, Christopher Chrome, Tuan Tran, Aurelien Bonnet, Paul Grillo and Thibault Soubeyrand. The entire field was within 1.04 seconds of pole position.

Philippe Leybaert in pole position

Race

The whole field was able to get away to a clean start; however by the exit of Turn 2 there was a big accident in the back of the top 10. At the end of the first lap Antoniades went off into the wall and the lead pack was now down to nine sim racers before a big gap to the rest of the field.  Williams applied pressure on Leybaert through the first laps of the race but was unable to get past. Behind them Seitz, Quintela and Tran all maintained order through the first part of the race. However, by lap 15 Leybaert was pulling away from Williams and had just about broken the draft. Behind them, Seitz, Quintela and Tran started to battle amongst themselves and a gap opened to Williams and Leybaert. Following this group was another small gap had opened to a group containing, Grillo, Arjan deVreede, Chrome and Bonnet.

Philippe Leybaert lead the field through the first corner

Quintela was the first to pit at the end of lap 17. Seitz was next to pit at the end of lap 22, but a slow stop cost him a couple of seconds. During this period Leybaert had increased his lead to 3.5s and Williams had also gapped the other and had 2.3s to the next car. Behind them the rest of the group had come back together. Leybaert and almost all the rest of the leaders pitted on lap 25. Leybaert had a good stop and maintained his gap to Williams with Quintela coming through into third position followed by Grillo. Behind them was a gap to Bonnet and deVreede then another gap back to Seitz, Tran, Chrome and Frank Winter.

Crash on lap one

After the pitstops, Leybaert continued to pull away from everyone else and would go on to win in dominating fashion, finishing 11 seconds clear of the field. In his wake, Williams had been caught be the group behind and had a fantastic battle with Grillo for second and third places. Grillo made multiple attempts to go around the outside through Big Bend, but Williams defended perfectly and finished just ahead. Behind them deVreede had gapped Bonnet and came home comfortably in fourth. Bonnet was overtaken by Seitz and they finished in fifth and sixth, followed closely by Tran, Chrome and Quintela. Colin van Raam finished in tenth place after Winter fell back in the field.

Philippe Leybaert and Clarke Williams battle side-by-side.

Leybaert’s victory moves him to the lead of the championship and positions him well going forward.  Yann Laprevotte and Brian Doell are following in second and third. Other expected competitors have struggled early in the season and will have to make up ground moving forward.

Race Results:

Pos Name Location Delta Pts
1 Philippe Leybaert Texas 56
2 Clarke Williams UK and I -11.605 45
3 Paul F Grillo UK and I -11.665 42
4 Arjan de Vreede Benelux -12.221 39
5 Greg Seitz Northwest -14.692 39
6 Aurelien Bonnet New York -15.152 34
7 Tuan Tran Benelux -16.805 30
8 Christopher Crome Midwest -16.945 30
9 Luis Quintela Iberia -24.674 29
10 Collin van Raam Benelux -26.956 26
11 Mickael Lamoureux France -29.816 24
12 Barry Morrison UK and I -30.265 22
13 Chris McGowen Northwest -30.606 20
14 Yann Laprevotte France -30.765 19
15 Will Fisher West -33.771 12
16 Brooks Lyrette Canada -36.435 17
17 José Manuel Esteban Iberia -36.602 16
18 Duncan Coppedge Northwest -38.228 15
19 Juha Norolampi Finland -40.811 12
20 Peter Classon Scandinavia -40.912 9
21 Joonas Puhakka Finland -46.173 8
22 Paul Malokas Northwest -47.825 9
23 Brian Doell Canada -48.249 10
24 Rob Adams Canada -49.964 9
25 Edward Cavalier Texas -53.347 8
26 Thibault Soubeyrand UK and I -55.104 5
27 Frank Winter DE-AT-CH -57.824 6
28 Rich Jones UK and I -1 L 5
29 David Stefanini Italy -1 L 0
30 Ryan Devlin New England -12 L 3
31 Ricardo Faria Iberia -12 L 0
32 Fahim Antoniades UK and I -36 L 0
33 Matt Dafoe Canada -40 L 0
34 Mike McCormick Texas -40 L 0

 

Championship Standings:

Pos Name Points Points-1
1 Philippe Leybaert 64 56
2 Yann Laprevotte 69 50
3 Brian Doell 55 45
4 Clarke Williams 45 45
5 Paul F Grillo 42 42
6 Greg Seitz 52 39
7 Arjan de Vreede 49 39
8 Peter Cowan 39 39
9 Chris McGowen 58 38
10 Paul Malokas 46 37
11 Aurelien Bonnet 36 34
12 Neal Kemp 34 34
13 Karthik Pai 32 32
14 Tuan Tran 46 30
15 Christopher Crome 30 30
16 Martin Peck 30 30
17 Luis Quintela 29 29
18 Thibault Soubeyrand 33 28
19 Brooks Lyrette 43 26
20 Collin van Raam 50 26
21 Will Fisher 38 26
22 Mickael Lamoureux 24 24
23 Peter Classon 31 22
24 Barry Morrison 36 22
25 Ryan Devlin 22 19
26 Ricardo Faria 18 18
27 Rob Adams 26 17
28 José Manuel Esteban 16 16
29 David Stefanini 15 15
30 Duncan Coppedge 15 15

 

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