Only a week after the Triple Crown started in Japan, the IndyVirtual circus arrived on the Queensland coast for the Surfers Paradise V-Prix. On pole position was Jochem van Snelheid, with Will Taylor alongside continuing his fine form from Japan. From the start, the Englishman got the jump on the Vroom driver, taking the lead into turn one. van Snelheid followed with Nick Addison and Hiroto Nakumaya in close proximity, ahead of defending champion Brock Kidd and Japan winner Kip Maxwell. The best start arguably came from Aron Einarsson, moving up from 10th to 7th in four corners, including an excellent move into turn 5 on Hugh Dwyer after getting a run onto the Esplanade straight.
Up until lap 14, the race was relatively clean – at which point Keith Boston spun his car at turn 5 while running in 12th place. Most of the field managed to avoid the American, but Dino Palma clipped him, deranging both car’s suspension. They both managed to limp around the remainder of the lap, meaning a safety car was avoided, but both pulled into the pitlane and never re-emerged. The first round of pitstops started shortly afterwards, with Maxwell and Einarsson the highest placed, pitting from 7th and 8th, coming back out in 15th and 16th respectively. Signature stacked the deck and banked on it staying dry despite the possible rain forecast, also pitting Stuart Harrison early on, with the American re-joining the circuit dead last. Taylor’s lead became more and more commanding as the time passed, pulling out about 3 tenths of a second per lap on van Snelheid, who was struggling with pace as his tyres continued to wear. Nakumaya first got past him into turn 11, while Addison followed suit a lap later before going on to overtake Nakumaya with an incredible move around the outside of turn 12, running side by side all the way down the pit straight before completing the move at the turn 1 chicane. Taylor pitted on lap 34 along with a few others, falling down to 7th position. As the race entered its second half, the complexion changed completely – the weather radar was now showing significant bands of rain advancing towards the circuit, and it was simply a matter of when it would start to fall. Ultimately it was lap 42 when the heavens opened and almost immediately there was chaos. Hugh Dwyer locked up and speared into Kiara Thunder putting both out of the race on the spot, resulting in a safety car that closed the pitlane. The field tiptoed around on slicks until the pits were reopened and then all dived in at once, resulting in the unusual scenario of the safety car lapping by itself. Those yet to pit refuelled and switched to rain tyres, while those who had already refuelled had to stop a second time, but only for the rains which limited the damage the sudden downpour caused to their race. Following the race off pit-road it was Nick Addison who emerged back in the lead ahead of Taylor, van Snelheid, Nakumaya and Brock Kidd. Alex Wright never re-joined them as his car stalled in the box and the team couldn’t get it to restart. The incident on track was cleared quickly, and the safety car peeled in after just 7 laps, leaving Addison to head the field and find the grip at racing speeds. With only 6 laps to go Addison’s lead was under major threat. Taylor was pushing hard with van Snelheid and Nakumaya breathing down his neck, and the Rodeo Racing driver seemed to decide attack was the best from of defence against his rivals behind. Into turn 5, he dived inside Addison but out braked himself, pushing both of them wide in the slippery conditions. This brought van Snelheid firmly into play with the 2 second gap now reduced to only 3 tenths of a second. The Dutchman continued to push, and in the slipstream he pulled alongside Taylor first, and then Addison. The Australian held the inside line for the first corner, but van Snelheid hung on around the outside, and in the wet conditions found more grip off-line giving him the lead in sensational fashion. Hiroto Nakumaya and Brock Kidd continued to push, ultimately leapfrogging both Addison and Taylor as well in the slipstream down the Esplanade into turn 5, at one point going 4 abreast in the wet conditions as nobody could quite work out where the most grip on the circuit was. Alexander McLaughlin became a late retirement when his engine expired with just two laps to go, ending what had looked set to be his first top ten finish of the season. Back up front after 72 laps, van Snelheid took a sensational victory by 3 seconds – a gap he’d opened in just five laps – ahead of Hiroto Nakumaya in a shock second with Brock Kidd, Nick Addison and Will Taylor rounding out the top five, the three of them split by just under a second over the line. See below for full race classification and championship standings:
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April 2018
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