Daniel Roeper finds victory lane at Sonoma

Roeper now has two wins in two races on the season!

Daniel Roeper leads 25 of 34 laps to find victory lane in the Lionheart IndyCar Series presented by Overdrive Graphics, Global SimRacing Channel Sonoma 75. iRacing Peak Series driver Allen Boes finished second, with Unacceptable Racing teammates Ricky Hardin, James Krahula and Tommy Rhyne rounding out the top 5.

Qualifying
With this being the series’ first stop at a road course, it also meant that drivers needed to adjust for a best of 4 lap qualifying effort. While the qualifying format may have been different, familiar names qualified up front, with Daniel Roeper taking the pole, Allen Boes qualifying second and Jake Wright, Austin Espitee, and James Krahula rounding out the top 5.

GSRC Sonoma 75
Before the race began, 7th place starter, and one of the pre-race favorites, Justin Laxton suffered a graphics card failure. He would end up completing four laps later in the race, before another graphics card failure ended his night in 28th position. 

Roeper was able to lead the field to the green, with Boes, following closely. As the field headed through the carousel for the first time, an incident occurred, ending the night for Joe Hassert, Carl Burk, Mark Nobert, and Michael Gray. 

The first lead change of the night occurred on lap 13 when Daniel Roeper pitted, which allowed Alan Boes to take over the lead. Roeper would take the lead back just four laps later when Boes would pit. 

At the midway point of the race, Daniel Roeper reassumed the lead by over 14 seconds over Allen Boes and Jake Wright.

On lap 23 Jake Wright would pass Allen Boes, setting up a battle of strategies, with Roeper and Wright working a two stop strategy, and Boes trying to run the race on one stop. 

Roeper would make his second stop of the night on lap 28, which would allow Jake Wright to assume the lead. Wright would relinquish his lead to Allen Boes with just four laps to go, when he would stop to make his second pit stop. 

In the closing laps of the race, Boes would struggle to pass lap traffic, which would allow Roeper to close a one second gap in just three corners. As Boes and Roeper cleared lap traffic, Roeper would stalk Boes, even making contact with three laps to go in the hairpin.

Roeper would pass Boes by outbreaking him in corner number 9 (the corkscrew) and would drive away on the white flag lap to win by one second over Allen Boes.

The race can be viewed here.        

Championship Standings
With four weeks complete, the current top 20 in points are now locked in each week and will not need to run in the Last Chance Qualifier. Championship points leader Jake Wright continues to lead in the points standings, but is just 8 points ahead of James Krahula. Daniel Roeper, who has only run in two races, currently sits third in points, 10 points back of Wright. Allen Boes and Rick Music round out the top 5. 

Other locked in drivers include: Austin Espitee, Jorge Anzaldo, Terry Matthiensen, Joe Hassert, Anthony Lurcock, Chris Lanini, Pierre Daigle, Korey Connor, Ricky Hardin, Ian Adams, Dan Geren, Justin Laxton, Tommy Rhyne, Ryan Lowe, and Michael Gray.

Next Race
The series heads to the Richmond International Raceway for the Chicago Fire Department Heroes 150. The race will be broadcast live on the Global SimRacing Channel at 10:40pm eastern time. 

For more information on the Lionheart IndyCar Series, you can visit their website at lionheartracingseries.com.