Saunders stomps the field for Retro win at Barber

Sometimes in auto racing, a driver is so good, nothing can stop him, and words don’t describe the perfection of his performance.

Alex Saunders had one of those nights Thursday. The Lionheart Retro Series presented by HPP Simulation rookie ran a flawless race, losing the lead only during the lone pit cycle and lapping all but the podium en route to his fifth win of the season in the Plasma-Tracks Grand Prix of Barber.

“I was really hoping to keep Adam (Blocker) from leading any laps, but he got great mileage,” Saunders said. “Barber is a really tough track to begin with...I know I struggled a little with the setup later in the stint...Adam is real fast, it’s fun racing with him, looking forward to Michigan next time out.”

Saunders closed the gap on runner-up Adam Blocker in the points, down to 53 despite missing the season opener.

Blocker led two laps when Saunders hit pit road, but relinquished the lead after stopping himself.

The second-year driver finished 7.9 seconds behind Saunders.

“Kinda disappointed a little bit, I think I could’ve done better in qualifying and I matched Alex in the second stint,” Blocker said. “I just didn’t put it all together.”

Brian Yaczik cruised to a third place finish, narrowly avoiding being lapped by Saunders himself.

“I passed Dustin Wardlow and I outbreaked Jake Wright, that’s probably the highlight of my career right there,” Yaczik said. “We had a decent effort tonight. I never really got comfortable with the car in testing, so it was one of those situations where you take the hand that you’re dealt and we made no mistakes and came home third, I’ll take that.”

Dustin Wardlow beat teammate Jason Galvin to round out the top five, and Travis Jegerlehner came home sixth, helping Raven Motorsports extend its points lead over Adrenaline Motorsports in the team standings.

A light field of 20 cars tok the green, with 16 finishing.

The Lionheart Retro Series presented by HPP Simulation takes some time off for the annual Lionheart Meetup at the Iowa IndyCar event.

The Retro Series returns to the track on July 12 at Michigan International Speedway for the HPP Simulation 200. That race can be seen live on the Global SimRacing Channel at 10:35 p.m. EST.

For more information on the Lionheart Retro Series presented by HPP Simulation, visit www.LionheartRacingSeries.com. ​