Miguel Gomes overcomes wall contact to finish 13th – Gordon Barnes finishes 15th after a late pass, Yevgen Sokolovskiy in top 20
Like the opener at Homestead-Miami, the three Marko Stipp Motorsport drivers finished the last road course race of the eNASCAR International iRacing Series in the top 20. Miguel Gomes overcame a wall brush after a three-way battle with teammate Gordon Barnes and EuroNASCAR compatriot Vladimiros Tziortzis and finished inside the top 15.
Gordon Barnes edged out Tziortzis in the newly-named Le Mans Chicance for 15th place on the final lap with a damaged front end. Yevgen Sokolovskiy repeated his best result of the season in 17th place.
Early crash costs better position
Qualifying did not run as planned for Gomes. Because he failed to set a valid time, the Portuguese started from 21st place and thus five places behind Barnes. But already on the fourth lap, both Marko Stipp Motorsport drivers were to fight a three-way battle with Tziortzis.
Gomes hit the track barrier and initially lost ground. He reached the top 15 at half-time and caught up with the #69 of Giorgio Maggi (EuroNASCAR) by the end of the race. „13th place was decent after the accident and starting 21st,“ said Gomes, summing up Daytona.
Barnes overcomes damage in finale
For Barnes, who also had to contend with damage, maintaining the top 15 initially seemed unfeasible. Due to the aerodynamic disadvantage on his #148 Camaro, he had to let Davide Dallara (EuroNASCAR) and even Tzirotzis pass.
But the Brit came back in the decisive last lap against the Cypriot. Heading towards the newly named Le Mans Chicane (formerly Bus Stop), Barnes moved up the position and crossed the finish line as 15th for the second time after Homestead-Miami. Also it makes his third top 15 finish result in the span of four eNASCAR races of 2022.
„That was not a good race, unfortunately. I made small mistakes and lost plenty of speed on the straights due to the impact with the barrier,“ Barnes explained his mixed Daytona visit.
From 22nd place, Sokolovskiy had already moved up to 18th place on the first lap. The top 20 finish was no longer out of reach for the Ukrainian, who repeated his Homestead-Miami result with position 17.
With images from eNASCAR International iRacing Series (iRacing)
4 Februar 2022, Alessandro Righi