Almost podium in France for Inigo Iglesias
A perfect weekend the French one for SWM Racing and Inigo Iglesias, who finally expressed their full potential, so far held back by the bad luck and too much impetuosity of the Spaniard.
Since Friday, SMW Racing and Inigo have been fast and competitive, always remaining in the top 5 of the standings. Joel Romero and Indy Offer, on the other hand, had to work hard to adapt to such a technical circuit, working a lot on fine-tuning.
Saturday’s qualifying was adrenaline-pumping, with Inigo Igleasias who fought until the last second for pole position, with a really good time, but who for a few thousandths of a second had to settle for 5th position on the grid, mocked at the last minutes of the shift. Joel Romero and Indy Offer instead improved their time, finishing close to the top 30 in the standings.
The Saturday afternoon race was a succession of emotions. At the start of the traffic light, a group of about 16 drivers formed, who made the race pace, where every lap they exchanged positions with millimeter overtaking. With 6 laps to go, a group of 8 drivers, which also included Iglesias, broke away from the group, leading the race. From here on, whoever worked best with the set-up and race strategy could make the difference. The Spaniard was very conservative, thanks to the awareness that he had something more for the final, and in fact with three laps from the end Inigo moved to 5th position, but a crash of two opponents hampered him, making him lose contact with the first two, forcing him to settle for 6th place finish. An excellent result, too bad for a possible close to podium. Joel Romero and Indy Offer, on the other hand, closed the race firmly in the first 30 drivers, improving their racing pace and lowering their best time.
The Sunday race was meant to be a conquest of the podium, but the dynamics of the same and the too much heat pushed Inigo to a conservative approach, looking for points and a good final position to still collect those satisfactions that were missed for too many
appointments, also in this way trying to climb the world rankings. The heat and higher times on Saturday conditioned race 2, thus creating a unique group of about 20 riders who fought each other until the end.
Only in the final, two laps from the end, did the group of the leaders slightly stretch, giving the SMW Racing driver the possibility of taking a light breath, after a race that saw him protagonist of many battles with his rivals, between overtaking and counter-overtaking, which gave no respite to any participant, as in the good tradition of the 300 Supersport. At the checkered flag Inigo will pass 8th, collecting important points in the general classification, grabbing the 20th position in the general classification but with 7 zeros, due to falls due to too much impetuosity and due to contacts with other riders. Joel Romero and Indy Offer, on the other hand, were slowed down by the heat and the track becoming slippery, failing to improve their time and carry out a conservative race.
Next week SMW Racing will be on the Barcelona track, for a very unnerved triptych that will close the season: Barcelona Jerez and Portimao.
