Page 9 - 2022CalSpeedMagazineJuly

Round 7 - July 23
Round #7 of the CalSpeed IronMan Series saw a return to the once-around-the-clock format, as well as every driver back to solo duties in place of the the 2-hour and team format from a
round prior. The track would be fairly similar to last month through, as the Nuotivo layout sees just a single corner different from June’s Sportivo circuit. That said, it would be a different face on the top step, as the seventh different winner in as many races would be the result...
Jacob Reis would lead the field away for the start of round #7, and while lap one would go to him, lap two would see an attack from Carl Zhu, who locked in his own bonus points for leading a lap. One lap is all either of the top two starters would lead however, as P4 man Doug Yauney would take over pace durties on lap three, circling at the front for a handful of laps. The next driver to throw their hat in the front running ring was young Emerson Thieman, making his way up from 8th to take over the top spot on lap 8. From there, only two drivers would be in the conversations, as Yauney and Thieman slowly pulled away from then-3rd place driver Max Demoss, their eventual commanding lead never coming under fire.
Much of the dominance came from the lack of infighting between the top two, as after a small bit of back and forth once ‘Emo’ took the lead, Doug settled in as the pusher, and the pair were able to make their stops without losing the lead. Those stops came late too, with both drivers waiting until after the ten-minute board to duck down pit lane; Yauney the first of the pair to do so on lap 46. Interestingly enough, he was the quicker of the two in pit lane, and looked like he had done enough to secure his first solo win, but then Thieman put in a flyer. After exiting the pits for the final time, the former long-time leader found himself 1.5 seconds astern from Yauney, and with only about 5 minutes to play. Thieman then put in some of his best laps of the race -including going purple- and caught Yauney on the final lap. The move would come in the final corner, making the move stick and beating Yauney in the drag race to the line to score his first ever Ironman victory by just .009 seconds...
The final step of the podium would have a few more players in it, with the aforementioned Max Demoss holding on to the spot through the opening 20 or so laps, until Jose da Silva entered the fray. Da Silva was the man to beat in that position for much of the race, battle with Ariel Rubio, the pair having worked up from 17th and 18th respectively. Once the final stops were completed however, it was Rubio coming out ahead, holding on to his advantage over Sam Hunt and Sean Fite who had nipped da Silva on an alternate strategy. For Rubio, it was his first piece of IronMan hardware, join the top two on the box for the first time.