ASC S11 R11 Recap

11 Apr 2022
Autobahn Sportscar Challenge | Season 11 | Round 11
LMP2/GT3 Multiclass Event | Le Mans

Carter Kundinger with Satellite Racing Apollo took the checkered flag tonight in the Prototype Class with the Autobahn Sportscar Challenge 90-minute event at Le Mans ahead of Robert Tinsey and Luc Carbonneau. Ross Booth beat Ryan Robertson and Ryan Washeleski to the line in the GT Pro Class as Ryan Robertson took the win in the GT AM Class ahead of David Parry and Dale Green. “That was a really fun and stressful race”, Kundinger told us tonight after his win, “Really it was just traffic kind of that was really what decided who was in front and who was behind.”

Jeffrey Ooms led the field to the green starting off the evening at Le Mans for the Prototype Class drivers with Ross Booth leading the GT drivers. The field had a very clean start as the drivers in all classes single filed out quickly and settled in for the 90-minute event. Carter Kundinger and Joshua Wolf battled early over 3rd place with Kundinger able to hold onto the position, but the battling allowed Ooms to pull away ahead of the field. Nathan Jue, who was running in 2nd behind Ooms, pulled off the track and ended his own evening in the first 5 minutes of the race.

Several smaller incidents and close calls through the first 30 minutes shuffled the running order around, but Ooms continued to lead in the Prototypes ahead of Kundinger and Robert Tinsey. Booth and Robertson each started building gaps ahead of the rest of their respective classes in the GT Pro and GT AM. Ooms pulled into the pits on lap 9 and stayed in for an extended amount of time at over 1:10 repairing damage picked up while negotiating through GT3 traffic and dropping him far back in the running order and giving the lead to Kundinger with Tinsey staying close behind waiting for an opportunity to challenge for the lead.

As they approached the halfway point in the race, Robertson had over a 46 second lead over the rest of the GT AM Class with Dylan Parry and Matthew Gosch battling hard over 2nd place. Ross Booth led the GT Pro Class with a gap of over 16 seconds ahead of Washeleski. Tinsey took the Prototype lead away from Kundinger, but as Tinsey and Kundinger continued to battle over the lead Wolf and Lou Carbonneau were able to close up the gap to the leaders while battling amongst themselves over 3rd place.

Going into the final 30 minutes, Kundinger was able to retake the lead from Tinsey and Wolf lost 3rd place to Carbonneau, but all four drivers stayed within reach to take advantage of a potential mistake from their competitors. Both GT Pro and GT AM fields had become very spread out with multiple seconds between most drivers as Booth and Robertson continued to lead from far ahead. Ooms found himself back inside of the top 10 as the drivers completed their second pit cycle of the event.

Ooms continued his hard charge through the Prototype field with 20 minutes remaining from 7th place. Kundinger and Tinsey continued their fierce battle over the lead as the time counted down going into the final 5 laps. Tinsey slid wide going around a corner with 12 minutes remaining costing him any chance at taking the win from Kundinger and putting him under immediate pressure from Carbonneau and Wolf. Carbonneau overtook for 2nd quickly while Tinsey was trying to recover. With nearly a 7 second lead, Kundinger was able to relax and just maintain his pace to the finish. Carbonneau, Tinsey, and Wolf chased each other stacked close together single file.

Tinsey took 2nd place back from Carbonneau with 2 laps to go and Ooms climbed his way back into 5th and closed the gap to Wolf up to within 2.5 seconds. Seemingly in response to Ooms gaining, Carbonneau was aggressively pushing with Tinsey instead of attempting for an overtake and built up a gap ahead of Wolf around the final lap. Going through the final corners, Tinsey and Carbonneau fought hard over 2nd place with Tinsey able to hold the position in the end. Kundinger crossed the line 7 seconds ahead of Tinsey, Carbonneau, Wolf, and Ooms all tightly stacked together rounding out the top 5 finishers in the Prototypes.

Billy Smith continues to lead in the points standings in the Prototype Class with a total of 200 points and 21 points ahead of Carter Kundinger in 2nd. Ross Booth has a dominating lead in the GT3 Pro Class at 354 points. Ryan Washeleski sits in 2nd place 42 points behind. Ryan Robertson again goes unchallenged in the GT AM Class points standings with 243 points and a 77-point lead over Trent Brown in 2nd. Satellite Racing, consisting of Robert Tinsey, Ryan Washeleski, and Ryan Robertson, leads in the team standings with 258 points. The Autobahn Sportscar Challenge now heads over to Imola for the next round on April 25th with all of the fast-paced action broadcast live at 9:05PM EDT only on the Virtual Grip Network!