Page 9 - 2021CalSpeedMagazineSept

Round #9 of the 2021 IronMan Series would not just be the penultimate round of the championship, it would also be the second 2-hour event of the year. Drivers had the choice to either run it Solo, or team up with a partner for the twice around the clock
test, with the field split 16/8 team vs solo this time around. As it also is the penultimate round, points were at the front of mind for several drivers, and when the checkers finally fell, there would indeed be some shuffling at the top...
Looking to bounce back from a tough event on Classico, Classico Counterclockwise ace Ayrton Demoss would lead the field away for the start of the 2-Hour race, but the challenge to the lead would happen immediately. Carl Zhu would make the move right away to lead lap one, but then Demoss would fire back right away, moving up to the top spot on lap two. Two laps later though, Zhu would fire back, but his lead would b short-live; 2-Hour Ace Alyssa Yauney had had enough of the back and forth at the front and instead went to the point. The infighting would continue behind her, with Demoss and then Zhu both shuffling back, while Andres Prieto and Kiron Chakraborty worked their way up and were able to lock in behind Yauney. This would allow that trio to pull away a bit, with Alyssa leading the way for 17 circuits before Prieto took his shot at the top, holding on to the top spot for 8 laps of his own.
During that period of time the chasing second group led by Diego Morales and including title contender Paulo Franca, and Sean Fite, and at about quarter distance it was Franca making his bid for the bonus points. Sean Fite would also score a few laps at the point, but Prieto would again be the one leading the stretch up to the pits opening for kart and driver swaps at the 50-minute mark.
Pit lane is a busy one during the final 10 or so minutes of the first hour, as not only do drivers start to come in to make their swaps, but many -especially the front runners- leave their two required pit stops until that point, as they try and hold on to clean air and the chance for lead lap bonus points. Of the leaders, the first to blink would be Franca, having fell off the back of the lead group, knocking out both of his stops inside of three laps. Next would leading Prieto, with Yauney, then Fite following suit in consecutive laps. The strategy would differ on the second stop, with the former leader electing an immediate second trip down pit lane, while the two challengers became the new leaders, and stayed out nearly to halfway. The advantage would initially fall to Yauney between the two, but when the second stop was made, it became clear that an alternate strategy may have been the better choice.
Enter two different teams; Diego Morales and Sam Hunt. Both had been a part of the aforementioned chasing pack early on, but instead of sticky with the ‘get to the front’ game plan, both would pit; Hunt from 8th on lap 21, and Morales from 3rd on lap 27. Fast forward to the halfway point and the 2nd stops cycling through, and it was Sam Hunt leading over Morales, and the former leaders sitting third and 4th, Alyssa and Sean respectively. As the kart and driver changes took place over the next few laps, the only change in the leaderboard was who was behind the wheel, with Michael Hazlewood taking over for Hun, Andrew Wood for Morales, Diego Alvarado for Yauney, and Bill Krieg for Fite.
That would also be the last lead change of the day, as Hazlewood would lead the next 50 consecutive laps, not even losing the lead during the pit stops, cruising on to not only his second win, but 4th podium of the year. And with leading the most laps, he would reclaim the point lead he had lost early on in the season, carrying the championship to the final round in October. For his part, Andrew Wood had a relatively smooth 50 or so minutes behind the wheel, bring things home in second, and will look to carry that momentum into the Machismo 12 Hour in November.
Behind the lead two drivers would be where the only change in the lineup would come, with Bill Kreig circumventing the deficit to Diego Alvarado slowly but surely over his own 50-minute stint. It was 6 seconds when he was handed the keys so-to-speak, but just before the next set of pit stops came about twenty laps later, he was right on the back bump of his quarry. The battle would be settled in the pits however, as Alvarado blinked first, and when Kreig exited the pits just one lap later, he would have completed the leapfrog. From there it was all Bill Kreig, sealing the deal on the strategy move by stretching out the advantage by a couple tenths per lap, bringing home a third place, and the second piece of hardware in a row for the team at the event.