As with a majority of the season in Indycars, it was again another victory by Max Hamelink, but it was not an easy victory as strategy, fuel saving and some luck came into it.
Qualifying the top 10 were covered by less than second and the top 8 less than half. Triple Eight's Alex Cochrane and Max look set to be the cars to beat, Alex hit the wall after his first attempt at a lap and was forced to pit abandoning his run but still qualifying in 4th with his lap. The other Vermin driver, Richard Tippet managed a respectable 8th after initially struggling with pace at Indy in practice, but importantly in front of his closest championship points rival Tim Draper.
Max lead the train of cars as the safety car pulled out of the way and pulled a small gap over Andreas Schlider. Richard made a good start making it up to 5th and keeping a good distance ahead of Tim for around 20-25 laps, Tim slowly closing that gap would get past just before the pit stops, with Richard pitting the same time as Max, Alex and Tim. Richard jumped Tim at the stop, but soon realized why as his car was easily3 seconds a lap slower than anyone else after the stop due to not changing his tyres, totally ruining his strategy,
Max and Alex would begin a fuel management phase to eek out a risky two stop plan. With Andreas a serious threat for the win, running faster but lighter load to Max. Richard had stuck out around 10 laps on the old tyres losing nearly 30 seconds to Tim, made a very quick stop for tyres in a hope to stretch out his strategy to the end, running around 6th/7th. With massive fuel saving efforts Max and Alex are both lapping very slowly at this stage but when Andreas pits again and then hits the wall and has to come back in to fix damage, the threat is now from Dave Southword for Max, closing in over 2-3 seconds a lap towards the end. Alex then has a disconnect issue which loses him some time. Richard is now running faster on light fuel but is around 7 laps short on fuel so has to pit one last time for a quick splash of fuel. The recovering Andreas is given the advantage of blue flags to overtake Richard, who pulls off the racing line to let him through, yet Andreas slams into the rear of the Vermin car sending both flying and resetting Richard's car to the pit ruining any chance of catching anyone else.
Max was now worried as Dave closed the gap to 4 seconds on the last lap, with Max still having to fuel save to get across the line, he was able to just cross the finish line with 2 seconds over Dave and an empty tank of fuel... making it one of the hardest fought victories for him all season. A brilliant drive from Dave and Tim who just kept things clean and out of trouble are encouraging for Richard who was originally on similar pace and strategy until the tyre mix up, picking up 6th overall but unable to topple Tim in the championship battle for 3rd. Alex would end up 5th after his issues.
Congratulations to all who raced through out the whole season. Richard is now going back into a Hiatus from driving in any championships and back to test and development driving but pleased to finish the season just unlucky in a lot of races. Alex and Max have been brilliant performers for Triple Eight and Vermin Racing. Thank you to our drivers who had also raced on and off. Keira Harris, Lewis Kent, Karlis Skirmanis, Maxi Junger and Oscar Williams.
Here is to the next season what ever it will be.
Watch the race replay here:
Richard
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