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he final 2-Hour IronMan event in the 2022 season took place this past weekend, taking to the Classico Counter Clockwise circuit for the second time this year. Heading in, the Summer Sub-championship was well up for grabs,
while the Overall championship was still in the hands of three drivers; albeit one had a significant advantage, with a chance to wrap things up one round early...
The field was split 11 to 7 with solo entries making up the bulk of the field, a 180 flip from the previous 2-Hour race back in June for round #6. Leading the field away would be former champ Sean Fite, taking on lead-off duties for he and long-time teammate Bill Krieg, while the south American duo of Diego Morales and Jose da Silva saw the former start off in P2. The two veterans at the front of the field played things ultra smart, electing to leave the battling for later, and work on building a gap from the drop of the green. The strategy worked to perfection, as Fite led for the first 14 laps before Morales took at turn for the next 15, that half hour of working together netting them a strong 15 second lead over the chasing trio of Alyssa Yauney, Evan Lawrence and Emerson Thieman, with point leader Chase Nickells just a few seconds further astern.
And speaking of the point leader, working up from 10th on the grid wasn’t the most daunting of starting positions -many other inverts see drivers around 20th- but the challenge was still there. He would eventually finish bridging the gap to the chasing trio, and by thew time the pit lane opened up for kart swaps at the 50-minute mark, he had replaced Thieman as the #3 driver in the train, the latter taking up the caboose a couple seconds off. Yauney would be the first to blink of the leaders, ducking into the pit lane on lap 49, followed by Lawrence on lap 50, with lap 51 seeing both the overall leader Sean Fite and Chase Nickells head down pit road. Diego Morales would get his first pit done from the lead on lap 52, while Fite, Chase, and Alyssa all elected to get stop #2 done on lap 52; crucially, Emerson Thieman would stay out until lap 53, inheriting the lead and scoring valuable bonus points for leading a lap.
Kart changes would be next on the docket, with all drivers required to do it between the 50 and 70 minute marks of the 120 minute contest; when the dust settled it was Jose da Silva in the lead and Bill Kreig in second, the pair taking over for Morales and Fite respectively. They were not nose to tail however, as a penalty from a blown stop box saw Kreig immediately have to serve a penalty, and then go to work at catching the leader. Behind them, it was again Yauney leading the way for the challengers, with Thieman a couple seconds back, and Nickells a further 5 seconds arears.
From there strategies differed considerably amongst the leaders, as they all searched for ways to gain on the drivers in front, aiming to lose the least amount of ground to traffic. Da Silva’s reign at the front would last 30 laps before being the first of the leaders to pit on lap 84, his lead having been cut in half by Kreig during that period of time. Further Back, Emerson Thieman emerged as the new P3 driver, with Alyssa Yauney slipping off his tail by a couple of seconds while having Chase Nickells in tow. From there Nickells would go to work, getting around Yauney for 4th, before reeling in Thieman for 3rd, before the pair got their third stops done on laps 95 and 96 respectively. From there it was slight nod to Nickells, as his stop was about a second quicker, and he was able to build on that to hold onto the spot for his third podium in a row.
Out front, strategy favored Bill Kreig, waiting until the final 10 minutes to get his two stops in, eventually leapfrogging Da Silva to steal back the win after cutting quick laps in a strong effort in the second half of the race. It would be the 3rd podium in a row for the Kreig/Fite pairing at this event, adding this win to the victory in 2020 and their P3 in 2021. For Da Silva and Morales it may have been settling for a P2, but for the latter, it actually puts him in position for potential season-ending hardware at the finale....
Round 9 - Sept 17
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