Azz Tech Racing Leauge - Round 1

Race Report - Maciej Sztachelski

We had a decent qualifying session, with me managing to secure P6 on the grid. Going into the race, we made the decision to run a dry setup, even though conditions were a bit tricky. At the start, things immediately kicked off — after just one lap, the leader spun at Raidillon, which promoted us up into P2. Not long after, we were overtaken by the BMW Vulkan, but then the leading Corvette had to dive into the pits as they were only fueled for qualifying.

Roughly twenty minutes in, the BMW ahead of us crashed right in front, which handed us the race lead. Unfortunately, during the first round of pit stops, we lost the lead due to some really unfortunate Full Course Yellow (FCY) timing. Luckily, Johannes put in a fantastic stint afterwards and managed to regain P1 for us. For the next three hours, we stayed in control — despite having a couple of minor spins, we built and maintained a comfortable lead of nearly two minutes.

With about two and a half hours to go, the rain finally stopped. We planned to just add 20 liters of fuel, but a bug in the game refilled the tank completely. At first, it felt like a big setback, but fortune was on our side. The Corvette behind us made a huge strategic error, choosing wets instead of slicks under FCY conditions. Just a couple of laps later, another FCY was announced, which gave us the perfect window to switch to dry tires.

From that point on, the race was firmly in our hands. We were leading by a full lap ahead of P2, and from there it was all about bringing the car home safely. In the end, we not only secured the victory but also managed to set the fastest lap of the race on the very last lap — the perfect way to close out an incredible effort from the whole team.