Geschrieben von 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 opting for the soft tire strategy to start the event. Lemanek was alongside 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 Daniel 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:
Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek, 108
David Toth, 92
Jarl Teien, 87
Marcos Núñez, 72
Matt Emery, 64
Manel Cubo Torres, 57
Gaël Valero, 52
Pablo Espes, 51
Edoardo Leo, 50
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.