Story and Images by David Anderson
March 26th, 2023 – The 2nd race of the 2023 Champion Motorsports / Penguin R/C simulation Porsche Cup series saw the teams and drivers go across country from where they began in Daytona Beach to arrive at Laguna Seca for the second race of the season. This race would be one of two rounds in the eight race season which would operate separate from the iRacing Team Endurance Race schedule at corresponding tracks. Thirteen teams would make the trip to California and DJ Alessandrini would be the winner.
DJ would start from the rear after struggles in qualifying and would take the win, but not without controversy. A large incident on the first lap of the race that involved his car and others is still under post race review from the CMS stewards, however DJ was named the official winner after he would charge through the field to take over first place from Michael Parker seven laps into the race. Parker would put up the best fight he could but DJ had just a bit more speed and once he wsa able to make the move on Parker he would slowly pull away to a lead of just over five seconds for the win.
With DJ Alessandrini and Michael Parker first and second the podium was completed by series newcomer Joe Stiefel with a terrific run in the third step position. Joe used consistency and great racecraft to work his way through the field and show promise heading into the upcoming races.
With two races now completed in the eight race schedule Michael Parker is the early favorite for the Championship discussions. He currently holds an 11 point lead over Tristan Martz and Marc Johnson is 20 points behind in third position.
The next race in the series will go over seas to the Asia Pac region as the drivers and teams will race on April 23rd at Fuji. This race will be exactly one week prior to the iRacing Team Endurance Series event at the same track and start off a great week of racing in a new time zone. We look forward to seeing a large group of competitors at Fuji to resume this exciting season.
DJ takes the win at Laguna Seca (above)