Page 21 - 2021CalSpeedMagazineAug

Round 8 - Aug 15
Day 2 of the Classico Grand Prix weekend starts off with the IronMan Series, with round eight of the ten round championship taking to the shortest, but toughest of all the
CalSpeed circuits. Of course, we’re talking about Classico, and a stacked field of not only the top 22 of 25 in the overall standings, but also hot shoes coming in just as a one-off run...
Title contender Michael Hazlewood would lead the field away for the once-around the clock contest, but unlike what we have seen from many prior pole-sitters, he maintained control of the front. Not for 1 lap, or ten; but almost 60. Right from the onset it was consistent, quick laps from the series ace, albeit not enough to break out on his own. He would be joined by Andres Prieto nearly from the get-go, the Colombian working up from 5th in the early going to link up with the leader, the pair edging out about 2 seconds over third. And at that time third was Sam Hunt, who had linked up with Ayrton Demoss to get up to 4th, and then peeled off to lead the duo after an early bump drafting board.
The move was the right one for Hunt, who immediately picked up a couple tenths and started making inroads on the lead pair. Those inroads were thousandths at a time, and sometimes went back the other way, but it was clear early on that the three drivers were very close. After about 10 laps Hunt had shaved about half a second off the gap, but still sat about 2 seconds back at the quarter-distance mark.
The turning point would come about ten laps later, as traffic would bust up the lead duo, costing Prieto enough time to eventually lose the draft of Hazlewood, slipping back to eventually link up with Hunt himself, about 1 second astern at that point. The Prieto/Hunt pairing would be that little extra need for both of them though, with Hunt going purple and Prieto cutting his best lap of the race one circuit later. This saw them catch back up to Hazlewood within another ten or so laps, With Seth Willits included in the group via an early-stop strategy. With 20 minutes to go Willits was moved to the back of the lead trio -now nose to tail- and they would stay that way until about one lap past the 10-minute board.
Sam Hunt would blink first; after dutifully pushing most of the race, he would make his first of two stops on lap 56, and like he did with Demoss earlier, would immediately find a little extra. That became apparent when Prieto came in for his first run down pit lane on lap 59, and it was an advantage to Hunt by about .6 tenths. When Hazlewood exited from his first pit stop, it was our first lead change of the day, again, about a half second advantage to Hunt. That advantage would not erode with his second stop, and it would be win #2 on the season for Hunt, with coming out on top of a battle with Prieto for 2nd, the pair separated across the line by just .031 seconds at the checkers...