Thumbs up! Lemanek takes second Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series victory at Fuji

October 27th, 2023 by

It’s been a wild pair of races since Drago Racing’s Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek scored his first career Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series victory at Silverstone and claimed the point lead for the first time. But the constant through both events at Circuit Zandvoort and Belle Isle has been the consistency of the veteran, who maintained the lead entering the seventh race of the season on Thursday at another new venue, Fuji International Speedway.

There, Lemanek managed to cross the line first for the second time, providing a deadpan gaze into the camera as he took the checkers and a thumb raised in the air to show his excitement. The victory once again extends his points lead—now at 16 points over Arnage Competition’s David Toth, who finished second—with only three races remaining in the 2023 season.

25 drivers and their respective Dallara iR-01 machines were on the grid for the inaugural Fuji event. Taking the pole position was Stormforce Gaming’s Michael Janney, the only driver (besides his teammate Daniel Sivi-Szabo in fifth) opting for the soft tire strategy to start the event. Lemanek was alongside Janney in second, with two drivers in desperate need of a good finish, Apex Racing Team’s Michele Costantini and privateer Florian Lebigre, right behind in the second row.

Neither Costantini or Lebigre has been able to make it out of the opening laps in one piece in weeks, with the two collected in the same incident fighting up front at both Zandvoort and Belle Isle. The tradition continued as the two came together entering the hairpin of the first corner, with Costantini receiving the worse deal, but for once, both able to continue on. Lebigre would move up into second and Costantini still in the fight, albeit down outside the points.

Lemanek had pounced into the lead position ahead of Janney, who fell into the clutches of the rest of the pack with the soft tires giving up quickly. Lebigre opted to stay behind Lemanek through the entire first half, often having a run down the long front straightaway, but instead of taking it, he would back off and save fuel.

On the strategy to use medium tires first and hard tires to the finish, Lemanek pitted right around halfway, looking to undercut Lebigre and the rest of the field having already used loads of fuel in the lead. Apex Racing Team’s Ben Fuller was the leader of the hard to medium strategy, down in fifth, and also pitted the same lap.

Lebigre came down pit road the next time by, but he overcooked it into the entry and earned an unsafe pit entry penalty, taking him out of contention. Meanwhile, Fuller, now on cold medium tires, went wide in Coca-Cola Corner, clipping the rumble strips in a weird way that sent his car sideways and out of the race.

With a five-second lead, Lemanek just needed to bring it home in one piece. The battle for second place came down to the final moments as Toth battled with Veloce VEXT’s Matt Emery in a clean scrap, with Toth taking the place by 0.018 seconds. BS+ Competition’s Jarl Teien finished fourth, the first of the drivers on the hard to medium compound strategy.

Costantini recovered for fifth and a decent amount of points, but surely it could have been even more incredible of a day without the early contact. Lebigre did manage to score a point down in 15th despite the penalty, while the fastest lap was awarded to Zandvoort winner Edoardo Leo for VRS. Leo finished in 22nd, multiple laps down due to a massive shunt entering the chicane at Dunlop Corner that involved a ton of Altus-branded machinery as well as Stormforce Gaming’s Sivi-Szabo.

While Lemanek extends his lead for the fourth straight week, the driver in second has once again changed to Toth, who moves ahead of Teien by five points. VRS driver Marcos Núñez had a quiet day and came home in seventh, maintaining fourth in the championship, while Emery, the Jerez winner, climbed back into the top five following the podium finish.

Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series Round 7 results at Fuji International Speedway were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Driver

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts.
1 2 11 Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek 34 0.000 27 1:15.495 25
2 6 41 David Toth 34 -3.138 1 1:15.527 21
3 8 34 Matt Emery 34 -3.154 0 1:15.385 18
4 13 3 Jarl Teien 34 -6.792 0 1:15.615 15
5 3 66 Michele Costantini 34 -12.370 0 1:15.461 12
6 20 33 Gaël VALERO 34 -15.281 3 1:15.136 10
7 17 7 Marcos Núñez 34 -19.179 0 1:15.716 9
8 1 92 Michael Janney 34 -19.688 1 1:16.053 8
9 18 04 Xavi Ros 34 -23.996 0 1:15.463 7
10 15 9 Tamas Simon 34 -27.526 0 1:15.143 6
11 21 31 Jacob Reid4 34 -30.454 0 1:15.730 5
12 9 6 Manel Cubo Torres 34 -31.156 0 1:16.270 4
13 19 90 Jakob Behrens 34 -34.914 0 1:15.979 3
14 7 5 Pablo Espes 34 -37.557 0 1:16.441 2
15 4 2 Florian A Lebigre 34 -38.506 2 1:15.494 1
16 10 19 Kalen Chin 34 -39.046 0 1:16.134 0
17 22 13 Jeffrey Decker 34 -59.809 0 1:16.424 0
18 25 05 Jan Hoffmann 34 -1:12.065 0 1:16.457 0
19 24 03 Matteo Calestani 33 -1L 0 1:17.416 0
20 5 16 Daniel Sivi-Szabo 33 -1L 0 1:15.030 0
21 23 64 Charlie Sears 32 DNF 0 1:17.181 0
22 16 23 Edoardo Leo 23 -11L 0 1:14.952 1
23 12 55 Ben Fuller3 18 DNF 0 1:16.058 0
24 14 27 Simone Maria Marcenò 12 DNF 0 1:17.301 0
25 11 28 Carlos Fenollosa 5 DNF 0 1:16.711 0

Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series points through Round 7 are as follows:

  1. Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek, 108
  2. David Toth, 92
  3. Jarl Teien, 87
  4. Marcos Núñez, 72
  5. Matt Emery, 64
  6. Manel Cubo Torres, 57
  7. Gaël Valero, 52
  8. Pablo Espes, 51
  9. Edoardo Leo, 50
  10. Michele Costantini, 48

The Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series returns to Austria next week to take on the Red Bull Ring in the eighth race of the 2023 season. Two years ago, it was Peter Berryman who was victorious, a pivotal point in the title fight where Maarten van Loozenoord went from winning four straight races to barely collecting points, a difference maker in the final standings that saw Berryman hoist the championship trophy.

Red Bull Ring coverage starts on Thursday, November 2, at 19:00 GMT (3PM ET) and will 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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