barber no match for blocker's dominance
Adam Blocker proved once again, he is the king of the roads. The Adrenaline Motorsports driver led the final 36 laps after an intense battle with NTT IndyCar Series driver Sage Karam, capturing the win by 52 seconds in the Minus 273 Grand Prix of Barber.
Blocker’s win was his series-leading fourth of 2019 to pace the Lionheart IndyCar Series presented by First Medical Equipment.
“It’s a technical track,” Blocker said. “That wasn’t the points day I had hoped for with Dan (Geren) finishing second, but I’ll definitely take the win!”
Blocker qualified on the pole but relinquished the lead to Karam on the opening lap.
After hounding Karam for the next 17 laps, the two made contact in the turns 8 and 9 sections. Karam saved it, but decided to hit pit lane and try to relieve pressure.
But a mistake on pit entrance changed the dynamic of the race, as Karam slid into the Armco barrier.
Blocker would pit two laps later and never look back.
“I was happy to wait for the pit cycle,” Blocker said. “I was planning on taking an extra lap and trying to jump him. I pressured him and jumped him and it worked out.”
Karam came out behind Dan Geren. After eventually working his way back into second, Karam would again make a mistake, spinning off track and retiring to 28th.
Geren settled into a comfortable second place, doing his best to keep pace in the championship battle.
“I was pretty thrilled,” Geren said. “I got pretty lucky, I hit the wall on pit in on the final pit stop but it was just a front wing replacement. It was still a great finish.”
Brian Yaczik surprised himself with a third place finish after qualifying ninth.
The Loud Pedal Motorsports captain held off the final four lead lap cars to capture a podium.
“I’m not sure how I got here,” Yaczik said. “I didn’t have top five speed and I wasn’t going to go up there and pass those guys. I just let other people make mistakes.”
Connor Harrington led Michael Goodman across to round out the top five, with Dustin Wardlow and Justin Weaver the final cars on the lead lap.
26 of the 35 starters finished the race.
Blocker now leads Geren by a dominant 202 points, although the three drop weeks factored into the standings have yet to be applied.
The Lionheart IndyCar Series presented by First Medical Equipment heads overseas for a maiden trip around the legendary Autodromo Nazionale Monza. The Plasma-Tracks Grand Prix of Monza is scheduled for Wednesday, August 21 at 10:35 p.m. EST and can be seen live on the iRacing eSports Network with Global SimRacing Channel producing the broadcast.
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