rasimas leads every lap, wins inaugural lrs race at silverstone

By Justin Prince
 
Mike Rasimas has dominated at iRacing’s virtual Silverstone Circuit to win his second race of the Lionheart Retro Series Presented by SimXperience season.
 
The GRAAFix LC Motorsports driver led all 29 laps of the GRAAFix Grand Prix of Silverstone Presented by SimSnap Photography on Oct. 28 by more than two seconds.
 
Matt Taylor, Aaron Morgan, David Rodriguez and Ryan Otis rounded out the top five.
 
It was Rasimas’s first victory in the series since July 8, when he beat Taylor at Sonoma.
 
“I can’t believe it,” said Rasimas from HyperX Victory Lane. “That was a really hard race … I haven’t been the fastest all week, so I was excited to lead every lap, start on pole and have the fastest lap. It feels pretty crazy.”
 
After starting from the pole, Rasimas quickly built up a small lead over David Sirois, Morgan, Taylor and Michael O’Brien. It was not a comfortable situation for Rasimas though. He was getting close to not making his scheduled pit stop window.
 
“I had to save fuel as the leader to make it 15 laps. I had to let off the throttle and I had the whole train behind me. I knew if one of them got by me, the rest of them would have too,” said Rasimas. “I had to really focus to get through that first stint.”
 
Behind them, attrition remained minimal.
 
On Lap 4, Isaac Snider spun his car while going through Club. Snider had clipped one of the sausage curbs, causing his car to jump off the ground. He then spun out in the run-off area at the exit of the corner. Snider went from being in seventh place to 16th.
 
Then, Nick DeGroot decided to park his Factory Backed car at the end of Lap 7. He had lost the draft of the cars in front within the first few laps of the event.
 
A lap later, Snider got into trouble again. DJ. Clark lost control of his car entering Luffield. As Clark was locking his brakes, Snider started to slide through the same corner. After Clark had come to a full stop outside the racing line, Snider tried to turn to the left of Clark’s car. Clark then backed up into the path of Snider, destroying Snider’s car on impact.
 
Snider went on to bring his car to the paddock and finished in 19th place. Clark only made it three more laps before parking his Lotus 79 to finish in 18th.
 
All the leaders came into the pit lane for fuel on Lap 15. None of the drivers changed positions coming in and out of pit road. However, Sirois sped while exiting his pit box by more than 10 MPH, forcing him back to his box for a 40-second stop and go penalty. Sriois went on to finish in 10th place.
 
Meanwhile, Rasimas started to push hard to expand his gap over the rest of the pack. He said with the second stint being a lap shorter, he could push without having to be concerned about saving fuel.
 
Mistakes started to build up behind him.
 
On Lap 17, Morgan was given a slowdown penalty after cutting the inside curbing going through the apex of Chapel. Morgan let Taylor go by in the process while going down the Hangar Straight. Taylor went on to pull away from Morgan by nine seconds by the end of the race.
 
Then with two laps to go, O’Brien tried to make a pass for the final step on the podium. O’Brien attempted to get to the right side of Morgan through Stowe, but was forced to check up. Rodriguez took the opportunity to dive to the left of O’Brien entering Vale. As Rodriguez hugged the inside line, O’Brien attempted to pinch him through the corner apex. Rodriguez then pushed up the track on corner exit into the left rear tire of O’Brien. O’Brien was sent spinning sideways into the run-off area. He went on to finish in sixth place.
 
The next race for the Lionheart Retro Series Presented by SimXperience will be the HyperX Grand Prix of Long Beach on Nov. 11. Coverage will begin at 10:35 p.m. ET on RaceSpot TV and can be watched on tape delay on ESTV.