A 29th-placed finish and a 13th – Phil Kraus’ results so far in the IndyCar Buttkicker iRacing Pro Series have been a little uninspiring. But cometh the ovals, cometh the driver, as the Private Label Team Hype competitor won the third round, a race that ended under caution.
Following the road courses at Indianapolis and Long Beach, Team Redline had been dominant. Easing to a one-through-five result in the opener, followed by a dominant performance for real-world open-wheeler star Cooper Webster in the second.
That all changed as the competition visited its first oval of the year for 147 laps around Iowa Speedway.
Team Hype’s other leading light Robert Maleczka placed his car on pole position, just 0.031s ahead of Redline’s Diogo C. Pinto with Gustavo Ariel and Apex Racing Team’s perennial challenger Luke McKeown in third and fourth respectively.
Meanwhile, Long Beach victor Webster was down in 13th, with the eventual race winner a lowly 17th on the grid.
Kraus made diligent progress through the field in the early stages, moving to 13th position by the 13th lap, and then pitting under the first safety car.
This was caused by Coanda Esports’ Michele Costantini colliding with Kevin Birrell following earlier contact with the wall which damaged his vehicle.
Up front, Dan Amor, McKeown, Peter Berryman and Webster all stayed out, electing to try and make the full race saving fuel and tyres.
Amor’s lead wouldn’t last long, however – catching backmarkers, the runner-up in last season’s Motorsport UK FF1600 Cup competition span why trying to lap a rival, collecting the hapless Constantini and damaging both cars.
McKeown now leading after the second safety. But it was Maleczka who vaulted up to fourth with others pitting, and Kraus was now on the fringes of the top 10.
The was soon seventh with 40 laps remaining. Sitting behind a battling Jacob Oster and Jose Soria, the two held each other up, and that netted a top-five placing for the eventual race winner.
With Maleczka now up in second, mere moments later, Kraus nipped by Webster for fourth and then, with 27 to go, an easy pass on Berryman meant he claimed third behind his team-mate.
The two Team Hype drivers worked together, allowing Kraus to challenge McKeown for the lead.
When he reached the leader, the two were fighting both themselves and lapped traffic. On numerous occasions they narrowly avoided drama.
It was all academic though, as the Apex Racing Team driver pitted with just five laps left, handing the win to the 25-year-old. Webster claimed fourth to extend his championship lead.
“We’ve had a lot of experience running this setup at Iowa, we know it’s pretty good on the long-runs, so a lot of the first 20-30 laps I run was just biding our time and saving fuel,” said Kraus.
“It ended up working really well for us, as it ended up that they [Apex] couldn’t make it on fuel.”
2024 IndyCar Buttkicker iRacing Pro Series Round 3 results
- Phil Kraus – Private Label Team Hype – 147 laps
- Robert Maleczka – Private Label Team Hype +0.324
- Brandon Traino – Apex Racing Team +3.276
- Cooper Webster – Team Redline +4.447
- Jacob Oster – Team I5G +4.935
- Diogo C. Pinto – Team Redline +6.969
- Elliott Vayron – Coanda Esports +7.406
- Gustavo Ariel – Team Redline +8.385
- Tamas Simon – Tamas Setups +10.123
- Florian Lebigre – Team Redline +12.538
2024 IndyCar Buttkicker iRacing Pro Series standings after Round 3
- Cooper Webster – Team Redline – 104 points
- Diogo C. Pinto – Team Redline – 93 points
- Gustavo Ariel – Team Redline – 86 points
- Florian Lebigre – Team Redline – 81 points
- Edoardo Leo – Team Redline – 78 points
- Phil Kraus – Private Label Team Hype – 73 points
- Sam Kuitert – Team Redline – 71 points
- Peter Berryman – Apex Racing Team – 69 points
- Luke McKeown – Apex Racing Team – 68 points
- Robert Maleczka – Private Label Team Hype – 73 points
