Images via Justin Melillo
In a championship battle that ended much like the most dramatic real-world battles of the 1980s and 90s, contact between the top two drivers in the inaugural Force Dynamics Dallara iRacing Grand Prix Championship helped to decide the title winner on Thursday at the Hungaroring. When all was said and done, it was Apex Racing Team’s Peter Berryman taking the championship and largest share of the $25,000 prize pool over R8G Esports’ Maarten van Loozenoord with his third win of the season.
With both drivers acting as podium mainstays throughout the season, the goal was simple: finish ahead of your title rival, and secure the championship. The gap between Berryman and van Loozenoord coming into the race was two points, and the top six finishers are all separated by two points or more at the end of any given race. Should they have tied, van Loozenoord would have held the tiebreaker with six wins to Berryman’s two coming in.
Both drivers would be surrounded by each other’s teammates for much of the race, but it was a move by Berryman after the final pit stops that helped to decide it. Struggling to make a pass and with van Loozenoord ahead of him, Berryman opted to make an undercut into the pits, although van Loozenoord would respond the next lap by following Yohann Harth, then the leader and Berryman’s teammate, down pit road as well. A few laps later, Berryman would have the opportunity to go for a pass on van Loozenoord into Turn 1; neither driver was willing to give up the track position, and when contact was made, van Loozenoord got the worst of it, spinning off and needing to recover.
Berryman would cycle into the lead shortly after when the remaining drivers on old tires pit, while van Loozenoord would eventually recover to third place. But by then, Berryman had put enough space on both Harth and van Loozenoord to lock up the victory and title.
Force Dynamics Dallara iRacing Grand Prix Championship results from the Hungaroring were as follows:
Fin. |
St. |
No. |
Driver |
Laps |
Interval |
Led |
Best |
Pts. |
| 1 | 6 | 50 | Peter Berryman | 50 | 10 | 1:18.566 | 25 | |
| 2 | 1 | 90 | Yohann Harth | 50 | -1.974 | 22 | 1:18.604 | 21 |
| 3 | 4 | 69 | Maarten van Loozenoord | 50 | -3.256 | 0 | 1:18.543 | 19 |
| 4 | 2 | 11 | Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek | 50 | -3.796 | 2 | 1:18.630 | 15 |
| 5 | 7 | 46 | Valentin Mandernach | 50 | -5.878 | 0 | 1:18.676 | 12 |
| 6 | 9 | 9 | Tamas Simon | 50 | -8.074 | 0 | 1:18.798 | 10 |
| 7 | 10 | 98 | Matteo Ugolotti | 50 | -11.689 | 0 | 1:18.791 | 9 |
| 8 | 5 | 8 | David Toth | 50 | -17.229 | 0 | 1:18.647 | 8 |
| 9 | 14 | 6 | Jarl Teien | 50 | -22.233 | 6 | 1:18.632 | 7 |
| 10 | 12 | 02 | Florian Lebigre | 50 | -25.067 | 10 | 1:19.402 | 6 |
| 11 | 3 | 66 | Michele Costantini | 50 | -28.083 | 0 | 1:18.649 | 5 |
| 12 | 21 | 86 | James J Pinsker | 50 | -41.970 | 0 | 1:20.048 | 4 |
| 13 | 13 | 09 | Andreas J Henkel | 50 | -53.671 | 0 | 1:20.046 | 3 |
| 14 | 17 | 32 | Jorge Marquinez | 50 | -1:08.649 | 0 | 1:20.558 | 2 |
| 15 | 22 | 7 | Gio Cortese | 50 | -1:41.506 | 0 | 1:20.238 | 1 |
| 16 | 16 | 21 | Alejandro del Campo | 49 | -1 L | 0 | 1:20.453 | 0 |
| 17 | 15 | 5 | Omar Baha | 20 | -30 L | 0 | 1:20.397 | 0 |
| 18 | 19 | 43 | Brian Lockwood | 9 | -41 L | 0 | 1:21.077 | 0 |
| 19 | 18 | 77 | Cédric BYLL | 8 | -42 L | 0 | 1:21.240 | 0 |
| 20 | 8 | 55 | Ben Fuller | 2 | -48 L | 0 | 0 | |
| 21 | 20 | 23 | Marcos Núñez | 1 | -49 L | 0 | 0 | |
| 22 | 11 | 28 | Sam Kuitert | 1 | -49 L | 0 | 0 |
Force Dynamics Dallara iRacing Grand Prix Championship final points are as follows:
- Peter Berryman, 197
- Maarten van Loozenoord, 189
- Yohann Harth, 166
- Michele Costantini, 108
- Ben Fuller, 103
- Matteo Ugolotti, 87
- David Toth, 87
- Tamas Simon, 79
- Valentin Mandernach, 69
- Florian Lebigre, 60
Click here for full driver standings.
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