Idos rF2 WEC debut ends with Veit's first win

Saturday was a busy day for the whole of the Idos Motorsport team with preparing for AOR F1, CFEG WSCC, VLMS, VEC and our rF2WEC debut.

With the other races being completed and CFEG WSCC underway the team then focused on rF2WEC with drivers Marc Veit and Lazaros Filippakos driving two separate cars for the 1 hour and 40 minute race around the tight and twisty Long beach street circuit. Lazaros piloting the #017 LMP1 Audi R18 whilst Marc was driving the #164 GTE Corvette C7.R aiming to finish as best as possible on debut.

With the cars only being officially signed up 24 hours prior to the end of the event the team was time limited to sort out a setup and practice for the race. The pressure was on to perform with only a few hours practice..

Qualifying: Qualifying got underway with all classes being on the track at the same time. This meant LMP1, LMP2 and GTE cars were all trying to fight for the coveted Pole Position in their respective classes whilst avoiding each other. This provided some interesting moments with the different classes trying to avoid each other going through some of the tightest corners of the circuit side by side with each other.

As the 20 minute timer ticked down Marc and Lazaros came across the line to finish their laps with both cars qualifying P3 in their classes. Both drivers feeling happy with their performances with such limited practice.

Race:

With the field rolling the LMP1 field got off to a clean start with Lazaros jumping up to P2 early on whilst Marc held station after being backed up by the Aston in front who then proceeded to jump the start of which Marc instantly mentioned on the radio.

Team boss Alex Skinner was present to keep an eye on new signing Lazaros Filippakos as he made his Idos Motorsport debut for the team in preparation for Season 11 of the Virtual Endurance Championship so was in contact with both drivers during the race with Kyran Parkin available for Fuel calculations and general strategy calculations. Alex and Kyran were also there assisting Bulldog Racing driver George Angeledis of whom Alex had become good friends with during the VLMS season but having been unable to contact from the Fuji round up until rF2WEC Long beach.

This meant that five seperate people were talking to each other whilst three of those were navigating the tight circuits whilst trying to avoid chaos.

A few laps into the race, the first of the caution periods came out with a four car accident on the front straight causing marc to take a moving chicane at 200kmh before slamming on the brakes to be slowed down in time for the caution. This can be found at 1 Hour 8 minutes and 51 seconds on Marc's PoV livestream (linked at the bottom of this post).

After the first caution period the field got under green again with Marc trying to make up positions where he could with Lazaros dropping off the back of the overall leader.

The time ticked down and with an hour and ten minutes to go the team were working out the fuel strategy for the #164 under the latest caution period that came out. The team called Marc to pit, however he was too late but pitted on the restart which then put him in prime position for the next caution period as he rejoined ahead of the second placed GTE car but in front of the overall leaders whilst the rest of the GTE leaders were behind meaning Marc effectively gained a lap on the entire field.

Losing two spots later on in the race due to other cars pitting later, Marc soon regained his lead after they pitted meaning he was comfortable out front so relaxed and set about saving fuel so that the team were sure they could make it to the end. Getting the car up to being six minutes safe on fuel, another caution came out due to Lazaros having a moment into the fountain of which cemented the safety on fuel. This meant Marc was free to push as much as he wished until yet another caution came out with a few minutes to go meaning it was a three lap dash to the finish in which Marc completed without incident to come home and claim his first Simracing win and his first win at Idos Motorsport during the team's rF2WEC debut. An almost fairy tale ending for the #164 squad.

Post race the GTE car was handed a penalty for not slowing down under the first yellow flag on Lap 3 of which the team took on the chin. This penalty being a post race time penalty of 55 seconds (the length of a DTP at the circuit) of which did not change the team's final finishing position as Second place received at least one penalty of the same severity.

A few days after the race Alex Skinner and Lazaros Filippakos were able to be contacted for responses with Marc, sadly, being too pre-occupied with VLMS practice for the following week.

Alex Skinner (Team Boss): "24 hours after we signed both cars up to this series we have a race victory and a 5th place under our belts... To also gift Marc his first win in Simracing just feels extra fantastic as he's come close before and has been fighting for good results since he joined the team at the start of VLMS.

The race in general was OK. We made a critical error in the race by failing to slow for local yellows but we've taken it on the chin and accepted the penalty and discussed with the relevant admins about how to continue. Lazaros having his race win hopes disappear so close to the end isn't what any of us wanted to see but we'll come back stronger at Mid Ohio and show we're not just a one trick pony.

The assistance of the admins and marshals was fantastic and i can't thank them enough for clarifying our queries and issues and after the event we succeeded in gaining clarification on a rule of which should prevent future penalties for the whole grid. It's a pleasure to be racing here and we hope we can continue to impress with our pace in not only the sprint events but also the endurance events later on throughout the season where we will debut our second drivers in their cars who will assist each other in finishing as high as possible.

We move onto Mid Ohio with our heads held high and hopes of more victories in reach. We just have to make sure we keep this consistency up."

Lazaros Filippakos (Driver - #017 LMP1): "Q was just superpole and got my fastest lap on my first lap, there others were just conflicted with gt. P3. Race started good with p4 almost killing me at t1. P2 got a freeze screen right in front of me. Held p2 for a while after multiple yellows. Then p1 pitted. Did a terrible mistake pitting mid race. Then all hell broke loose. Lost the rear at the fountain and was vertical. Also getting spun under yellow. In the end p5 even though i could get p1. Not bad with a few laps of practice."

With the 2.6 Hours of Mid Ohio being next up. Let's see what the team can achieve.

Relive the action On-Board with the #164 GTE car of Marc Veit: