Lionheart heads to the magic mile

​The gruelling end of season schedule continues for the Lionheart Series on Wednesday afternoon, as the
series breezes up to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Skidmark Motorsports 200. Skid Mark
Motorsports is a sim racing team that races in all disciplines within iRacing. While starting out racing in
endurance events the team expanded into different road racing leagues piloting NASCAR vehicles and
GT3 cars. In 2017 the team moved into open wheel racing and found a home in the Lionheart Indycar,
Retro and Challenge series.
Last time out at Iowa, chaos reigned supreme, and the championship contenders couldn’t decide who
was going to give it away first. It started lap one. After starting back to back in line in 15 th and 17 th
respectively, Adam Blocker and Andrew Kinsella went roaring into turn 1 nose to tail. By the exit of turn
two Blocker had made up 2 positions while Kinsella git the notorious Iowa bump and spun into the
infield. Fortunately he was able to get away unscathed, albeit back at the back of the field. An incident
between Pete Edwins and Scott Bolster in the same corner would slow the field for the first caution of
the night. After the green flag flew again, up at the front Dan Geren and polesitter Connor Harrington
swapping the position before Harrington eventually started to pull away.
Back in the championship battle, it was Blocker’s turn to blink. On the next set of stops, under yellow, a
lap car made a late decision to enter pit road. This caused a huge checkup in which a number of cars
including Blocker suffered damage. Blocker would require a rear wing replacement, sending him to the
back of the field. By this point Kinsella was just outside the top 10, having avoided the chaos on pit road.
On the next set of green flag stops, the pendulum would, however, swing back violently in Blocker’s
favour. Kinsella had worked his way up to 3 rd behind Harrington and Justin Weaver.
Kinsella and Harrington would pit first, then as Weaver attempted to make his stop, he misjudged the
rejoining car of Chris Stofer. The 2 made contact, sending the then leader of the race to the showers.
Kinsella was trapped behind the pace car due to some unfortunate timing and unique iRacing pace car
rules. Blocker, meanwhile was 1 of 5 cars still yet to pit. This handed Blocker an insurmountable 2 lap
advantage over Kinsella, who was down in 18 th place. Blocker restarted 3 rd and was quickly into 1 st and
checking out. As Blocker caught traffic, Kinsella was able to track him down and get one of his laps back
the hard way, however that was as close as he would get. A late caution and restart did little to change
the order at the top, with Blocker sealing the win on the last lap over a charging Michael Goodman.
Scott Johnson charged from 29 th starting spot to finish 3 rd , while Chris Lanini and Dan Geren finished 4 th
and 5 th , the later the first car 1 lap down. Kinsella rallied to finish 10 th , salvaging all he could from a race
he would rather forget.
Looking forward to New Hampshire, leaves little time for rest for these Lionheart drivers. New
Hampshire represents the 3 race in as many weeks for the tired drivers, and it is sure to be a tough one.
Much like Milwaukee earlier in the season, New Hampshire is a flat 1 mile oval with very little
forgiveness and an even more difficult passing proposition.
Last season has good memories for Kinsella, as he overtook the future 3-time champ Jake Wright around
the outside with only a handful of laps to go for the win. Similar to this season, Kinsella had just come off
an off race at Iowa, where he lost a win in the closing stages to Wright. This season Kinsella is hoping to
return the favour on Adam Blocker. With a 45 point deficit to overcome, he is going to need every point
he can get.

At the similarly configured Milwaukee Mile earlier in the season, it was not Kinsella, but Brian Yaczik
who dominated the race, leading all but 7 laps. Yaczik has since seen his championship aspirations
derailed to a certain extent (he now sits 5 th , 154 points back of the leader Blocker), however with a
double points race in the finally, he still cannot be entirely discounted.
Dan Geren is another who should not be discounted. The qualifying king of Lionheart has finally shaken
off his bad race luck of late, and has been strong for several races in a row now. This has put him 3 rd in
points, just 102 points back of Blocker. With how difficult passing could be, Geren’s qualifying prowess
may just be enough to see him into victory lane.
Dark horse favourites for the win include Joe Branch, Big Joe Hassert and Pierre Daigle. All 3 have been
strong on short tracks this season, and are looking for their first win.
From the rookies, Stephen Laarkamp, Justin Weaver, Connor Harrington have all been strong this
season. Laarkamp and Weaver have been trading the Rookie of the Year lead these last few races, with
Laarkamp currently 2 points ahead of Weaver. Harrington meanwhile has come in late, but already
earned 2 poles in 2 races, and if he can do it again, he might be able to out-Dan-Geren Dan Geren.
In the teams standings, No Name continued their off season, as the 3 time champs fell to 3 rd behind
Synergy Motorsports. Adrenaline remains way out in front.
Thune in to the iRacing Esports network presented by GSRC for all your Lionheart action. Catch the the
Skidmark Motorsports 200 this Wednesday at 10:35pm eastern.