Scott Andrews and Robby Foley kept virtual racing honors all in the same household on Sunday, finishing 1-2 in the IMSA iRacing Pro Series Preseason Invitational.
The one-hour race on the Daytona International Speedway road course featured a field of professional racers using one of iRacing’s newest virtual cars, the Dallara P217 Gibson LMP2 car, with identical chassis settings for all competitors.
Richard Heistand took the pole position, but Andrews soon took the lead and held it through the first round of pit stops. From there, varying fuel and tire strategies moved the field around, with Heistand returning to the lead following a later round of stops.
Heistand, however, spun with about 19 minutes remaining, surrendering the lead to Kenton Koch.
Opting to take fresh tires on his last stop when others didn’t, Andrews – driving for the eSports team of Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean – soon charged into the lead and drove away to the win by 7.498 seconds over Foley, who recovered from contact on Lap 1 to finish second in the Turner Motorsport entry.
Daniel Morad finished third for his first IMSA iRacing Pro Series podium result.
“Hats off to Scott, he did a great job,” said Foley. “We’re great friends and actually roommates, so we were discussing over the last couple days what we were going to do in the race, and it worked out.”
RESULTS: Preseason Invitational