by Matthew Mitchell, Peachstate Region PCA
PCA Club class racing at Barber Motorsport Park
A New Track for PCA Sim Racing
PCA Sim Racing brought us more exciting races for the third event in Series 5 at Barber Motorsport Park.
Our Series 4 PCA Pro Class Champion, Michael Polasek took us for a quick hot lap and instruction around the track.
There was thrilling racing in all of the classes, here are the event highlights.
PCA Challenge Sponsored by Hagerty
The Hagerty sponsored Challenge class saw Matt Diolosa take the pole position from qualifying getting just under a 1:30 lap.
Eon Simon kept Diolosa honest most of the race, keeping him within a second.
The hairpin of turn three was a difficult corner causing several incidents. Diolosa fell victim to a spin with a few minutes left in the race where Simon was able to claim the first position and finish with the win.
Diolosa finished in the second position with Chris Ciborowski holding onto third for the entirety of the race.
PCA Challenge class winner at Barber, Eon Simon
PCA Sport Sponsored by LelandWest
Our Sport class sponsored by LelandWest had Earl Artz Jr getting pole position for the second time in a row, just ahead of Jensen Benet.
Benet was able to get a great start and take the lead after the second corner. Benet ran into some lap traffic accidents and slipped back to the sixth position with Gregory Samson taking over the lead.
After the pit stops and some difficult corners for the front of the pack, Gary Reiss took over the lead from Artz Jr. Reiss was our winner of the Z1 Dashboard software giveaway for the evening.
Reiss ran into some trouble on track and Samson was able to take over the lead with just a few minutes left in the race with Artz Jr hot on his tail.
They ran side-by-side in turns one and two where Artz Jr was able to complete the pass and win the race.
Samson finished second with Brian Granger rounding out the podium spots in third.
PCA Sport class winner at Barber, Earl Artz, Jr.
PCA Club Sponsored by Michelin
The Michelin sponsored Club class started with a run-through of the Z1 Dashboard Analyzer software comparing two laps around Barber Motorsport Park.
Z1 offers extremely detailed information about lap times, suspension settings, and just about everything else you can think of to optimize your setups and driving line.
For more information head to Z1Dashboard.com.
Rafael Amorim took the pole position after qualifying with a very fast 1:29.066 time.
Amorim was able to hold onto the top position until the pit stop taken with only a few minutes left in the race.
Second and third held a tight race with Stephen Chen and Adam Golightly battling until the pit stop as well.
After the stop, Golightly took the lead, with Amorim and Chin within a second of each other in second and third. Amorim was able to take back first place with the top three running nose-to-tail until the end of the race.
Amorim finished in first position with Golightly in second. Chen finished out in third after a great fight between the podium finishers.
PCA Club class winner at Barber, Rafael Amorim
PCA Pro Sponsored by Porsche
Porsche sponsored Pro class had Theodore Framhein qualifying first with a blistering 1:28.464. Our pro class is a very tight competition at the top of the field with the top 15 positions finishing qualifying within one second of each other.
A very exciting start of the race saw the top runners getting nearly 4 wide into the first corner and running into trouble right from the start.
Framhein and Lisner were able to escape the madness but did not get far away from the pack despite the incident.
The middle of the field was where most of the racing action was for this race between all these aggressive pro drivers.
The pit stop mixed things up after a very tight race for the podium spots.
Christopher Paiz came out on top after the stop with Lisner in second and Framhein following close behind. Paiz walked away with his first-class win and a great race with help from his special crew chief “Chip”. Lisner and Framhein took second and third respectively.
PCA Pro class winner at Barber, Chris Paiz
Thanks to Our Sponsors!
As always we’d like to thank our sponsors Hagerty, LelandWest, Michelin, and Porsche for helping us put on this excellent series for our Porsche Club of America Sim Racers.
Also, thanks to Z1Dashboard for supporting us on the data side and VirtualRacingSchool providing a baseline setups for our racers to use.
Join us Friday evenings at 7:00 PM Eastern to experience the excellent announcing by our Podium crew and the competitive driving from our Sim Racers.
Our next race is a special joint event at Road Atlanta with our PCA Club Racers running in real life with our Sim Racers.
Next, Road Atlanta!
Join us next week for another great event.
PCA Challenge Class
Race 4 at Road Atlanta – September 25
Broadcast starts at 6:55 PM Eastern
PCA Sport Class
Race 4 at Road Atlanta – September 25
Broadcast starts at 7:55 PM Eastern
PCA Club Class
Race 4 at Road Atlanta – September 25
Broadcast starts at 8:55 PM Eastern
PCA Pro Class
Race 4 at Road Atlanta – September 25
Broadcast starts at 9:55 PM Eastern