Championships Tighten After May Las Vegas
Sprint and Endurance Season Rounds.
Perisset, Thievin winners in sprint series. Hynes and Premat team up for endurance win.
LAS VEGAS, May 25 – The EXR Racing Series returned home to the EXR Road Course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Rounds 5 and 6 of the Sprint Series and Round 4 of the Endurance Series. With Sprint Series title leader Henry Morse sitting out this weekend, there were sure to be new faces atop the podium since Morse has won all four previous rounds. Instead, David Perisset and Romain Thievin drove to victories on each day. The win for Perisset followed by a second place finish on Sunday was enough to vault him into the Sprint Series Championship lead by 16 points over Morse. Over in the Endurance Series Championship, Bill Hynes and Alexandre Premat’s second win of the season tightens the title battle with Christopher Hill who maintains a slim 11-point lead.
The weekend opened with the first Sprint Series race that saw pro driver Premat jump out into an early lead to act as the carrot for the field. He was soon joined by Thievin in the lead, and by lap 3 the order had settled into Perisset in third place followed by Christopher Roche, Hynes completing the top 5.
On lap 8, Premat and Thievin peeled off for the pit lane leaving Perisset in the lead with four laps to go. The running order to the finish was settled on lap 10 when Mike Halverson passed J.J. Bell, and then Dave Roberts on the final lap.
At the finish, it was Perisset taking the win ahead of Roche, Hynes, Halverson, Roberts, Bell and Rod Fuller.
Round 6 of the Sprint Series took place on Friday evening. As in the first race, Premat acted as the carrot until mid-distance. When he pitted, Perisset held the lead until Thievin made the pass to take up first place. Roche was ensconced in third place, while behind, Hynes and Halverson battled for fourth place.
After 18 laps, Thievin held the lead to take the win, with Perisset and Roche completing the podium placing. Hynes held onto fourth place ahead of Halverson in fifth place. Roberts and Fuller rounded out the field to in sixth and seventh places.
On Saturday, the fourth endurance round started in the evening for a scheduled two hours of racing. Six driver pairings took the start with four new amateur drivers making their debuts, including lady-driver, Ines Taittenger coming over from the French V de V endurance series.
During the first stint, several drivers spun as the battle to find an early running order proved to be intense. By the start of the second stint, Hynes and Roche emerged in the battle for the lead. Their battle ended prematurely when Roche also fell victim to a spin.
When it came time to close out the third stint Premat held a 31-second advantage over Hill which bled into the fourth stint. As the second hour drew to a close, the leaders had completed 83 laps with Hynes and Premat earning the win by 13-seconds over Roche and Hill. Halverson and Perisset came home a lap down to take the final podium spot.
Next stop for both the EXR Racing Sprint and Endurance Series is Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on June 23-25.
Cleo Premat, Director of Communication |