In Thursday night’s first race of the Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series event at Road Atlanta, Diogo Pinto became the third different winner in three rounds to kick off the 2023 campaign. In the second, he became the first driver to do it all over again.
Pinto, who is also in the process of defending last year’s Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup championship, shadowed polesitter Matt Caruana for most of the first race, only making the winning move in thrilling fashion on the final lap of the 12-lap dash. Oscar Mangan and William Chadwick would complete the podium in that race as Caruana faded to fourth after going off track. In the second race, Caruana would claw his way back up into the lead on Lap 8, but Pinto would once again make the decisive move on the final lap to take the victory over Caruana and Josh Thompson. The combined margin of victory across both races was less than half a second.
The dual victory also enabled Pinto take over the championship lead, giving him an 11-point advantage over Lime Rock 1 race winner Harley Haughton. Haughton qualified ninth for the first Road Atlanta race before fighting his way up to fifth place, but he could only manage to gain one more spot in the second round. Nonetheless, Pinto and Haughton are the only drivers to have managed four top-five finishes in the first four races of the 10-round, five-event campaign.
Behind them, Thompson, Caruana, Lime Rock polesitter Michael Janney, and Brandon Hawkin are separated by just five points in the battle for third. With only the top three drivers earning seat time in the real-world Skip Barber Formula Race Series later this year, those margins can make all the difference in determining which sim racers get to adapt their iRacing Formula iR-04 skills to a real-world racecar.
Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series race one results from Road Atlanta were as follows:
Fin. | St. | No. | Driver | Laps | Interval | Led | Best | Pts. |
| 1 | 2 | 13 | Diogo C. Pinto | 12 | 2 | 1:20.530 | 35 | |
| 2 | 5 | 8 | Oscar Mangan | 12 | -0.172 | 0 | 1:20.440 | 32 |
| 3 | 4 | 20 | William Chadwick | 12 | -0.317 | 0 | 1:20.434 | 30 |
| 4 | 1 | 7 | Matt J Caruana | 12 | -0.471 | 10 | 1:20.606 | 28 |
| 5 | 9 | 4 | Harley Haughton | 12 | -1.975 | 0 | 1:20.442 | 26 |
| 6 | 6 | 2 | Josh Thompson | 12 | -4.558 | 0 | 1:20.349 | 25 |
| 7 | 3 | 15 | Jakub Maciejewski | 12 | -6.593 | 0 | 1:20.704 | 24 |
| 8 | 17 | 9 | Leo Brown | 12 | -10.243 | 0 | 1:20.392 | 23 |
| 9 | 20 | 14 | Michael A Romanidis | 12 | -11.747 | 0 | 1:20.625 | 22 |
| 10 | 8 | 6 | Michael Janney | 12 | -14.696 | 0 | 1:20.956 | 21 |
| 11 | 7 | 12 | Brandon Hawkin | 12 | -14.947 | 0 | 1:20.346 | 20 |
| 12 | 18 | 18 | Jack G Harrison | 12 | -15.553 | 0 | 1:20.888 | 19 |
| 13 | 10 | 19 | Matthew Zeis | 12 | -26.067 | 0 | 1:20.987 | 18 |
| 14 | 19 | 17 | Matt M Adams | 9 | -3 L | 0 | 1:20.808 | 17 |
| 15 | 13 | 3 | Josh Poulain | 7 | -5 L | 0 | 1:20.086 | 16 |
| 16 | 15 | 11 | Jordan Johnson5 | 1 | -11 L | 0 | 15 | |
| 17 | 14 | 16 | Simone Passoni | 1 | -11 L | 0 | 14 | |
| 18 | 11 | 10 | Alessandro De tullio | 1 | -11 L | 0 | 13 | |
| 19 | 12 | 5 | Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek | 0 | -12 L | 0 | 12 | |
| 20 | 16 | 1 | Ryan Micallef | 0 | -12 L | 0 | 11 |
Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series race two results from Road Atlanta were as follows:
Fin. | St. | No. | Driver | Laps | Interval | Led | Best | Pts. |
| 1 | 1 | 13 | Diogo C. Pinto | 12 | 8 | 1:20.383 | 35 | |
| 2 | 4 | 7 | Matt J Caruana | 12 | -0.296 | 4 | 1:19.948 | 32 |
| 3 | 6 | 2 | Josh Thompson | 12 | -0.769 | 0 | 1:20.252 | 30 |
| 4 | 5 | 4 | Harley Haughton | 12 | -4.427 | 0 | 1:20.423 | 28 |
| 5 | 11 | 12 | Brandon Hawkin | 12 | -5.018 | 0 | 1:20.285 | 26 |
| 6 | 10 | 6 | Michael Janney | 12 | -6.026 | 0 | 1:20.241 | 25 |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | Leo Brown | 12 | -6.126 | 0 | 1:20.161 | 24 |
| 8 | 9 | 14 | Michael A Romanidis | 12 | -6.262 | 0 | 1:20.452 | 23 |
| 9 | 19 | 5 | Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek | 12 | -7.098 | 0 | 1:20.535 | 22 |
| 10 | 14 | 17 | Matt M Adams | 12 | -9.784 | 0 | 1:20.596 | 21 |
| 11 | 15 | 3 | Josh Poulain | 12 | -9.871 | 0 | 1:20.412 | 20 |
| 12 | 17 | 16 | Simone Passoni | 12 | -10.742 | 0 | 1:20.583 | 19 |
| 13 | 13 | 19 | Matthew Zeis | 12 | -16.642 | 0 | 1:20.663 | 18 |
| 14 | 12 | 18 | Jack G Harrison | 12 | -19.312 | 0 | 1:20.410 | 17 |
| 15 | 16 | 11 | Jordan Johnson5 | 12 | -26.121 | 0 | 1:20.611 | 16 |
| 16 | 2 | 8 | Oscar Mangan | 10 | -2 L | 0 | 1:20.320 | 15 |
| 17 | 3 | 20 | William Chadwick | 9 | -3 L | 0 | 1:20.384 | 14 |
| 18 | 18 | 10 | Alessandro De tullio | 6 | -6 L | 0 | 1:20.456 | 13 |
| 19 | 7 | 15 | Jakub Maciejewski | 1 | -11 L | 0 | 12 | |
| 20 | 20 | 1 | Ryan Micallef | 1 | -11 L | 0 | 11 |
Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series points through two events are as follows:
- Diogo Pinto, 132
- Harley Haughton, 121
- Josh Thompson, 104
- Matt Caruana, 101
- Michael Janney, 100
- Brandon Hawkin, 99
- Oscar Mangan, 82
- William Chadwick, 81
- Josh Poulain, 77
- Jordan Johnson, 76
Qualifying for next week’s Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series race from Circuit of the Americas begins today, while registration is open now for the following race at VIRginia International Raceway. All broadcasts will begin at 8PM ET across iRacing social media channels. To sign up to compete, click here.
For more information on the Skip Barber Racing School, visit www.skipbarber.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.
