Miguel Gomes finishes fourth in eNASCAR opener in Miami – Gordon Barnes and Yevgen Sokolovskiy in the top 20
For Marko Stipp Motorsport, the eNASCAR International iRacing Series opener at Homestead-Miami could not have started much better. Miguel Gomes raced to a fourth-place finish after showing a strong race and narrowly missing out on the podium. Meanwhile, Gordon Barnes came home in 15th place in the turbulent first race. Yevgen Sokolovskiy finished two positions behind Barnes, after recovering from an incident.
Gomes best EuroNASCAR driver
The Portuguese will hardly have anything to complain about in terms of his result. Gomes started from eleventh position, making deciding moves and climbing up to fourth place. With the result, he not only scored the first ever top five finish in SimRacing for Marko Stipp Motorsport, but he also beat his fellow EuroNASCAR drivers.
The father-to-be backed up his performance: „Since I have more experience on ovals than on road circuits, I expected a good race. […] In the end, I was determined to get third place, but I did not have enough tyres for that. Still, fourth place was very good.“
Barnes struggles with computer problems and tyres
While Gomes finished in the top five, Barnes struggled with his computer during the opening event. As the Briton reveals, there have been problems with the hardware. This made a considerable difference in such a crowded field, which he had to deal with.
The 2021 Club Challenge champion narrowly missed the pile-up on lap 27, but suffered tyre drop-off in the final ten laps, which cost him a good-looking result just at the edge of the top ten. The 48-year-old fell down the order to 15th place, making him “disappointed” as later stated. „Fifteenth place is not what I was aiming for, I think we could have done better than we did”, Barnes concluded the trip to Homestead-Miami.
Sokolovskiy lucky in the „Big One“
Like Barnes, Sokolovskiy – in the top 15 at the time – was one of the drivers around the pile-up on lap 27. The Ukrainian tried his best not to hit an opponent in the process, but hit NASCAR Pinty’s driver Jocelyn Fecteau under braking. Although the race went on after the first moment of shock for both of them.
The Legend Trophy runner-up had bad luck in his duel with Jake Cosio (NASCAR Peak Mexico Series). The opponent touched Sokolovskiy decisively on the rear, sending the experienced EuroNASCAR driver into a spin. Although a possible top-15 result was gone, he showed bite and came home in 17th place, rounding off the team’s turbulent opener.
With pictures from eNASCAR International iRacing Series (iRacing)
11 Januar 2022, Alessandro Righi