lionheart indycar stars take their turn in the spotlight for 5th annual all star event

​Last week it was the Retro Series presented by Buttkicker, who got to have their fun in the hot sun at Charlotte Motorspeedway. This week however it is the foundation of Lionheart visiting the Rock. The Lionheart Indycar Series presented by First Medical Equipment, takes their turn in the spotlight just a little ways up the road from Charlotte, as the IndyCar All-Star Race presented by Von Hanson’s visits Rockingham Speedway.

For those who have not seen a late 90’s NASCAR Race from the venue, Rockingham Speedway is a high banked short track with 22 and 25 degrees of banking in turns 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 respectively. In a stockcar, this combination produced some fantastic finishes. In IndyCar, it means that despite being only just over 1 mile in length, the drivers of the IR will scarcely be below 190 mph during the lap!

The IndyCar All-Star Race will function in the same way as the Retro race. The festivities consist of 3 races; the 148 lap main event, a 50 lap transfer race and a 50 lap shoot-out.

In order to qualify directly for the main event, you must have; finished in the top 10 in points, been a race or pole winner in 2018, been named rookie of the year or driver of the year in 2018, been the cleanest driver in 2018, or previously won an all-star race or a championship. 23 drivers are locked into the main event. The remaining 3 spots will be filled with the podium from transfer race, which will kick off Thursday‘s broadcast. These final 3 drivers will bring the all-star main event up to 26 drivers.

The field for the transfer race will be made up of the top 3 from the shootout, which takes place the night before, as well as anyone 11th-20th in points not already locked in through other criteria, and any race sponsors for the 2019 season.

The shoot-out will take place the day before the main all-star races, and is for everyone not eligible for the transfer race or main event, and will not be broadcast.

Unique for the IndyCar race is that, if the drivers manage to keep it clean, 2 competition cautions will be thrown at random. If there is a caution before that yellow, however, then that negates the competition caution.

Unlike the Retro race, the IndyCar race will feature all the familiar players from last year coming back for the battle, headlined by the trio of Dan Geren, Andrew Kinsella and newly crowned champion Adam Blocker.

Other big names locked in include Justin Weaver, Michael Gooodman, Brian Yaczik, Joe Branch, Jason Galvin, Chris Stofer, and real-world driver Sage Karam.

Fighting to get through to the transfer race will be the likes of Samuel Reiman, Tyler Graaf, Scotty Johnson, and league founder Jorge Anzaldo.

 New-comers Brian Carey, John G Hill and Damon Martinez will be mixing it up with familiar names such as Joe Flanagan, Isaiah Dupre and Jason Robarge in the shoot-out Tuesday night.

Due in part to the tradition of picking non-traditional tracks for the all-star event, this event has picked up some unusual winners over the years. In season 5 it was Ian Adams taking the crown at Daytona, while last season it was Pierre Daigle scoring his first and only Lionheart Series victory at the track too tough tame; Darlington Motor Speedway.
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With nothing but pride at stake, this should be a fascinating display of speed, and it is likely that the winner of this race will be the driver that survives the longest. Will that driver be a first time winner like last season, or will one of the stars from last season get the new campaign off to the right start?
 
Tune in Wednesday, February 28th to find out what happens as the Lionheart Series celebrates it’s new season in style. The transfer race kicks things off at 10:35pm eastern only on the iRacing eSports Network presented by GSRC, followed immediately by the main event.