Pinto Earns 2023 Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series Title, Splits Wins With Wheldon at Road America

Last year, Diogo Pinto earned one of the biggest prizes in sim racing when he took home the 2022 Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup championship in just his second year in the series. He leads the standings in that series through two rounds right now, but after Thursday night’s Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series finale at Road America, his year just got a whole lot busier.

Entering the night with a single-point advantage over Harley Haughton, Pinto beat Haughton to the checkered flag in the first of two races on the night, qualifying first and leading five out of the race’s seven laps on the way to the win. He also led the first four laps of the second race before Sebastian Wheldon got by him for good on Lap 5, and despite falling from second to seventh on the final lap, still had enough points in hand after Haughton suffered issues of his own to clinch the second championship in series history with 301 points to Haughton’s 288.

Both drivers will get to transfer their skills into the real world as part of this year’s prize package, with Pinto getting to run the full eight-event series that kicks off at Road Atlanta in April and Haughton earning a half-season drive. In the battle for third place, the final spot to offer a real-world drive, Brandon Hawkin came out on top of a closely fought three-way battle with Josh Thompson and Michael Janney, scoring 246 points to Thompson’s 244 and Janney’s 241.

To prepare for their real-world action, Pinto, Haughton, and Hawkin will each receive a 5 Day Competition Licensing Race School from Skip Barber Racing School, as well as coaching from the SBRS team. Thompson and Janney won’t walk away empty handed, though: they’ll each receive a 1 Day Racing School from SBRS, while the rest of the top 10 in points will receive an Intro to Racing program. Combining end of season and single-race prizes, the total prize pool for the 2023 Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series is valued at more than $500,000.

Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series race one results from Road America were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Driver

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts.

1119Diogo C. Pinto752:08.47735
243Harley Haughton7-1.45502:09.15232
352Matt J Caruana7-1.60612:08.02530
428Chris Lulham7-2.98902:08.09728
51014Sebastian Wheldon7-4.05402:08.78926
61218Brandon Hawkin7-4.24702:08.25625
71616Justin Adakonis7-4.31002:09.10824
889Matthew Zeis7-4.65502:08.48123
9611Michael A Romanidis7-4.73202:08.03022
10147Simone Passoni7-5.37802:08.73621
11111Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek7-7.92602:08.39420
121815Jeffrey Decker7-8.07602:08.78219
131510Matt Bussa7-8.92602:08.69418
141313Johannes Traupe7-8.93402:08.18917
151720Ross Banfield7-12.95202:09.64816
1674Michael Janney7-18.99202:10.45615
1796Josh Thompson7-19.27502:10.64914
1835Luke McKeown4-3 L12:08.50913

 

Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series race two results from Road America were as follows:

Fin.

St.

No.

Driver

Laps

Interval

Led

Best

Pts.

1514Sebastian Wheldon732:08.01135
2185Luke McKeown7-0.11802:07.74732
3911Michael A Romanidis7-1.84902:08.16130
448Chris Lulham7-1.88402:07.94428
5618Brandon Hawkin7-2.08002:07.83526
689Matthew Zeis7-2.48302:08.22325
7119Diogo C. Pinto7-2.50242:08.24724
81215Jeffrey Decker7-7.20002:08.34623
91520Ross Banfield7-7.36002:08.52722
101310Matt Bussa7-10.19102:08.69121
11176Josh Thompson7-12.54002:07.99220
1232Matt J Caruana7-24.66002:08.24919
13716Justin Adakonis7-35.47002:11.78418
14107Simone Passoni5-2 L02:08.62117
15111Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek5-2 L02:07.83016
1623Harley Haughton3-4 L02:18.18815
171413Johannes Traupe1-6 L014
18164Michael Janney0-7 L013

 

Final Skip Barber Formula iRacing Series points are as follows:

  1. Diogo Pinto, 301
  2. Harley Haughton, 288
  3. Brandon Hawkin, 246
  4. Josh Thompson, 244
  5. Michael Janney, 241
  6. Matt Caruana, 233
  7. Sebastian Wheldon, 231
  8. Michael Romanidis, 208
  9. Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek, 202
  10. Matthew Zeis, 193

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.