PGRL S4 R6 Recap

28 March 2023
Pretty Good Racing League | Season 4 | Round 6
Premier Series | Circuit of the Americas

The “It’ll Be Something Grand Prix” presented by Brian Yaczik at the Circuit of the Americas was the place to be for racing fans. Woody Mahan had the pole position, thanks to his win of the Mahan Industries “You Finished Last” pole award. However, Colton Salek managed to steal the lead from him on the first lap, leaving Mahan struggling. Unfortunately, Mahan got into a collision with Jordan Harnish and both drivers fell out of the top 20.

Meanwhile, Vincent Crow took the lead on the second lap and began to pull away from Jake Silvia, who was in second place. Scott Eckrich started in 19th place, but he was already up to 8th by the fifth lap, ahead of Cody Dempster. Jeff Ward, who started in 24th place, was running in 10th at that point.

Crow had stretched his lead to more than 7 seconds by the tenth lap of the race, with Mike Rasimas in second place. Eckrich had climbed up to fourth place and was quickly closing the gap to third. Silvia and Rasimas were fighting for second place, with neither driver able to gain a clear advantage. Eckrich was pressuring both drivers as he closed in on them on lap 12.

Ward came down pit road on lap 12 with a unique pit strategy, dropping back to 13th as he rejoined the track. Eckrich made quick work of Silvia and Rasimas, overtaking both drivers and clearing into second place, still more than 9 seconds behind Crow. Thomas George broke into the top 10 as the race approached its halfway point.

The battle between Silvia and Rasimas continued to intensify, with both drivers fiercely competing for the last podium spot. Drivers began cycling through their pit stops on lap 17, with the exception of Ward, who had come down five laps earlier. Crow was still in the lead as the second half of the race began, claiming the PGRL stage points. Crow and Eckrich came down pit road together at the beginning of lap 18, followed by Rasimas and Silvia. Eckrich caught up to Crow on lap 20 and began to overtake him for the lead soon after in turn 20.

Ward caught the battle between Silvia and Rasimas, and the three drivers were aggressively swapping positions, fighting over third place. Ward came down pit road again before lap 24, opting for a two-stop strategy and falling back to 10th place under pressure from Thomas George with 11 laps to go.

In the closing moments of the race, Eckrich was putting down the fastest laps of any driver and extended his lead to more than 18 seconds over Crow, taking the checkered flag. Silvia was able to take third place away from Rasimas in the end. Crow held onto the points lead, finishing 12 points ahead of Eckrich at the end of the night.

Eckrich was thrilled with his performance and commented, “I love these technical tracks; it makes it kind of fun in the driver’s hands. You know, just like get out here, see what you got, wheel it as hard as you can.” Next week, the drivers head to Richmond Raceway for the “Skitter Creek Motorsports Group 200” on April 4th, with the action brought to fans live at 8:50 PM ET only on the Virtual Grip Network!