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Michele Costantini scores three-wide, photo finish victory in INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series return to Indianapolis

Michele Costantini scores three-wide, photo finish victory in INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series return to Indianapolis

iRacing January 23, 2026 5:00 pm

The first oval experience in the 2026 INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series season turned out to be an instant classic on Thursday night. Taking on the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 33 of the best virtual IndyCar competitors lined up for 66 laps around the 2.5-mile venue.

Michele Costantini, the only driver representing Team VRS this season, scored the pole position and stayed in the conversation the entire way. In the final six laps, the lead changed hands multiple times. Across the yard of bricks the final time, it was Costantini in front, by just 0.019 seconds over Powerslide’s Alexander Russell and 0.027 seconds over the inaugural race victor, Team Hype’s Robert Maleczka III.

“I knew I didn’t have to be in the first two or three spots,” Costantini said about his run to the checkers post-race. “I just had the perfect run out of (Turn) 3. The race up ahead was great. I trust each and every single one of those guys that I was racing there on the last lap, to put on a great show, and we did, we did so cleanly as well. I’m super, super happy about this race.”

While many of Costantini’s successes in his iRacing career have been on the road side, those of which include multiple official iRacing World Championship Series wins on the road (in the Dallara Grand Prix Series), as well as having over a 9,000 iRating in both Formula racing and Sports Car racing licenses, his IndyCar Pro Series career now has a second oval win added to his résumé, this Indianapolis win now joining his maiden win back in the inaugural season at The Milwaukee Mile.

The victory boosts Costantini up to second in the standings after three weeks, the story of the season being a tumultuous one across the field with no driver yet to step up to take control of the championship. The opening round race winner, Team Redline’s Luke McKeown, maintains the points lead with his second top-10 finish of the season, but he could have been well out in front if not for an incident with Drago Racing’s Alx Spetz last week at Portland. With five races to go, the title is still wide open.

THE EVENT

Starting up front was important for most of the key players on Thursday night. The top-five qualifiers—Costantini, three of the Team Hype w/ Powerslide drivers, and Team Redline’s Cooper Webster—all finished inside the top-seven by race’s end. Eight of the top-10 starters also finished in the same area. As most of these Indianapolis races began, the field of 33 all spread out, single-file, saving fuel, except for the top-two of Costantini and Maleczka III, who kept the field at bay by performing the swap for the lead for the opening 17 laps.

The strategy shifted about halfway through the opening stint, when it was the two other Team Hype drivers in contention—Philip Kraus and Jacob Oster—both passing Costantini and Maleczka III to move into the top-two spots and do their own swaps for the second half of the run. This led to the lead quartet all pitting at the end of Lap 33, the exact halfway point of the race. After flawless execution, the four were back up in front, but they had a bit more company in the party for the second half to contend with.

The Powerslide Motorsports to the Team Hype w/Powerslide alliance made their presence felt in Act Two. Two drivers named Alexander—Russell and van de Sandt—were now in the mix, as well as Coanda Esports’ Elliott Vayron, one of the biggest movers of the race, up from the 15th starting spot. With about 25 laps to go, the field finally got tired of waiting and began to all condense, and that’s when the first caution of the race, and first caution of the season, flew for an incident around the mid-pack.

Over the next couple of green flag laps, the caution would once again fly, a total of three times all together, for incidents behind the top-eight. The second wreck of the night unfortunately involved last week’s winner, WSR Esports’ Jaden Munoz, who wound up on his roof after contact with both the wall and Team Redline’s Edoardo Leo.

A third caution involving a few more Team Redline machines and Bleu Mercure Esport’s Vasilios Beletsiotis set up for a final six lap dash to the finish, and all the remaining contenders still had plenty of tire left to dance.

Perhaps one of the most wild sequences in series history unfolded in the final six laps. Russell and van de Sandt led the charge, but soon Vayron was challenging for the top spot. Maleczka III woke up and chose to move to the lead, but so did Kraus. Costantini watched for a few laps before getting himself involved. Oster was trapped, and just couldn’t make a claim to put his car out front in the final laps.

It was choreography at its finest, with all drivers making aggressive moves, sometimes four-wide, all managing to stay off of one another, giving each other plenty of room to work with. Eventually, Vayron, Oster, and van de Sandt all fell just a little too far back. Webster managed to pick his way around all three of them, but it was too late for him as well. It would come down to the top-four, and it was Russell out front on the white flag lap.

Maleczka III ran second, Costantini was third. Kraus tried to find a hole to make it four-wide once again, but backed out and instead took third away from Costantini momentarily. Costantini fought back and moved back into third. Down the backstretch, Russell weaved ahead of Maleczka III. Costantini stayed back, building the run in third, and the field hit Turn 3. Through the corner, Maleczka III also got a run, and out of Turn 4, made the move high. Costantini was there with a head of steam and went low. At the line, Costantini had it.

RACE RESULTS FROM RACE NO. 3 | INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Fin.

St.

No.

Driver

Team

Manu.

Laps

Interval

Led

Pts.
1 1 66 Michele Costantini Team VRS Chevy 66 0.000 15 52
2 7 27 Alexander Russell [R] Powerslide Motorsports Chevy 66 -0.019 21 43
3 2 91 Robert Maleczka III Team Hype w/ PS Chevy 66 -0.027 5 36
4 3 19 Philip Kraus Team Hype w/ PS Chevy 66 -0.114 7 33
5 4 37 Cooper Webster Team Redline Honda 66 -0.212 0 30
6 15 9 Elliott Vayron Coanda Esports Honda 66 -0.277 2 29
7 5 16 Jacob Oster Team Hype w/ PS Chevy 66 -0.313 12 27
8 8 97 Alexander van de Sandt [R] Powerslide Motorsports Chevy 66 -0.325 2 25
9 9 96 Luke McKeown Team Redline Honda 66 -0.536 0 22
10 16 11 Pablo Espes [R] Williams F1 Team G.A. Honda 66 -0.618 0 20
11 21 1 Diogo Pinto Team Redline Honda 66 -0.677 0 19
12 18 77 Alessandro Bico [R] Williams F1 Team Gaming Honda 66 -0.782 2 19
13 13 25 Matteo Kuenzer [R] Williams F1 Team Gaming Honda 66 -0.859 0 17
14 24 2 Florian Lebigre Team Redline Honda 66 -1.114 0 16
15 23 12 Gustavo Ariel Team Redline Honda 66 -1.227 0 15
16 31 41 David Toth SZESE E-Sport Chevy 66 -1.270 0 14
17 30 57 Tamas Simon SZESE E-Sport Chevy 66 -1.321 0 13
18 14 43 Josh Thompson [R] Team Redline Honda 66 -1.388 0 12
19 29 53 Michael Romanidis Drago Racing Chevy 66 -1.518 0 11
20 28 2 Alx Spetz [R] Drago Racing Chevy 66 -1.977 0 10
21 32 15 Bálint Pálla [R] SZESE E-Sport Chevy 66 -2.016 0 9
22 25 28 Sam Kuitert Team Redline Honda 66 -2.210 0 8
23 27 50 Peter Berryman Drago Racing Chevy 66 -2.231 0 7
24 26 5 Nicolas Mateo [R] Drago Racing Chevy 66 -7.659 0 6
25 12 60 Esteban Rodriguez [R] Nexxus eSports Chevy 65 -1L 0 5
26 33 51 Ricardo Rico Drago Racing Chevy 65 -1L 0 5
27 17 7 Vasilios Beletsiotis [R] Bleu Mercure Esport Honda 56 -10L 0 5
28 19 99 Quami Scott [R] Nexxus eSports Chevy 55 -11L 0 5
29 11 23 Edoardo Leo Team Redline Honda 47 -19L 0 5
30 10 24 Jaden Munoz WSR Esports Honda 47 -19L 0 5
31 22 68 Sota Muto Williams F1 Team Gaming Honda 41 -25L 0 5
32 6 49 Dan Amor Coanda Esports Honda 41 -25L 0 5
33 20 74 Adam Blocker [R] Team Hype w/ PS Chevy 2 -64L 0 5

DRIVERS STANDINGS AFTER RACE NO. 3 | INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Pos.

No.

Driver

Team

Manu.

Pts.

Wins

T5’s

T10’s
1 96 Luke McKeown Team Redline Honda 90 1 1 2
2 66 Michele Costantini Team VRS Chevy -10 1 1 1
3 53 Michael Romanidis Drago Racing Chevy -14 0 1 2
4 19 Philip Kraus Team Hype w/ PS Chevy -19 0 2 2
5 27 Alexander Russell [R] Powerslide Motorsports Chevy -19 0 1 1
6 12 Gustavo Ariel Team Redline Honda -23 0 0 2
7 1 Diogo Pinto Team Redline Honda -26 0 1 1
8 24 Jaden Munoz WSR Esports Honda -27 1 1 1
9 77 Alessandro Bico [R] Williams F1 Team Gaming Honda -28 0 1 1
10 5 Nicolas Mateo [R] Drago Racing Chevy -31 0 1 2

With five races to go, Team Redline’s Luke McKeown still sits at the top following a ninth place effort at Indianapolis. Costantini jumps from outside the top-10 to second, just 10 points back as the series heads to Mugello in a week’s time.

Kraus, who wound up finishing in fourth, flirted with taking over the points lead should he have won it, but now sits in fourth in the points, 19 points back, with only two more oval races to shine on for the remainder of the season. He’s tied with an alliance member in Alexander Russell, now the highest placed rookie in the standings after three weeks. Jaden Munoz drops to eighth, just a point behind the defending series champion, Team Redline’s Diogo Pinto, who placed in 11th at Indy.

NEXT RACE: FIRST TIME ABROAD TO TAKE ON MUGELLO CIRCUIT

It’s another road course race trip for the fourth race of the 2026 INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series season. This one not only takes the 33-best virtual IndyCar competitors to a new venue, but also to the first racetrack outside the United States in this series’ history. Four drivers in the field—Alessandro Bico (Williams F1 Team Gaming), Matteo Kuenzer (Williams F1 Team Gaming), Edoardo Leo (Team Redline), and the most-recent race winner, Michele Costantini (Team VRS) will all have claim to this being a home race for them.

All of the action starts at 8:00 p.m. ET, and will be live on INDYCAR’s YouTube channel, as well as across all of iRacing’s social media channels.

For more information on the INDYCAR Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series, visit www.iracing.com/indycar-esports/.
For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.

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Assetto Corsa Rally – Monte Carlo Previews

Bsimracing RSS Feed January 22, 2026 5:57 pm

The post Assetto Corsa Rally – Monte Carlo Previews appeared first on Bsimracing.

Kunos Simulazioni, Supernova Games, and 505 Games are getting ready to release Update 0.3 for the early access version of Assetto Corsa Rally, and shared some amazing in-game preview screenshots of this winter rally fest.

The post Assetto Corsa Rally – Monte Carlo Previews appeared first on Bsimracing.

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2025 Wrapped: Thanks for Racing Along With Us

Simlab December 31, 2025 11:19 am by Jelena Kuzmanovic

Hi Everyone!

Richard here, CEO of Sim-Lab.

Let’s get right to the nitty-gritty. Black Friday was an incredible period for us, and honestly, the demand exceeded what we had anticipated. While that is something we are very grateful for, it also meant that we ran into challenges delivering all orders as quickly as we wanted. In particular, handbrakes and seats were affected by supply chain issues. We have been in direct contact with all affected customers, and we are doing everything we can to ease the situation and get products out as soon as possible. This is not the experience we want anyone to have, and we are continuously improving our processes to prevent issues like this in the future.

In November, we expanded our logistics operations to the United States and launched our new US website alongside it. This allows US-based customers to benefit from lower shipping costs and significantly faster delivery times. While the launch has been a success, stocking the warehouse has progressed more slowly than expected due to production pressure in the EU. We expect this to be fully resolved in the first quarter of 2026, with a fully stocked US warehouse and full product availability.

Looking ahead, we are genuinely excited about what’s coming next. Not only because we are close to launching our Direct Drive wheelbase, which we believe will be a serious contender for the best wheelbase of 2026 and a true challenge to the status quo. We are also completing the circle with our product lineup, enabling a fully integrated Sim-Lab cockpit to enjoy our favorite hobby from A to Z.

This year also marked our 10th anniversary, and we are stronger than ever as we enter what we believe will be a defining year. Alongside the TorqueSync™ Direct Drive Wheelbase, which will enter its pre-order phase around the end of January or beginning of February, several other products are now in their final development phase. One of these is a GT-style focused steering wheel, offered in three different versions to suit varying levels of functionality. We’re also developing a licensed product that will truly stand out and raise the bar for replica-level realism. More on that project very soon. Furthermore, 2025 marked the beginning of our partnership with Cosworth. These absolute legends in motorsport will bring us a real competitive edge in upcoming products, not all of which we have announced yet, aside from the Mk3 steering wheel.
Back to the Direct Drive wheelbase. We are very much looking forward to sharing the technical details and design philosophy behind it with the sim racing community. For now, it is mostly heads-down work to ensure we meet our planned launch timeline by the end of Q1 2026. The wheelbase introduces new technologies and is built around an industrial-grade design philosophy, combined with a clean-sheet approach that allowed us to define our ideal wish list from the ground up. The result is a wheelbase fully optimized for high-end sim racing. And yes, it features USB Data-Passthrough.

Looking back, we had two great expos this year, one in Chicago and one in Dortmund. These events gave us the opportunity to speak face-to-face with many of you and to let everyone get hands-on with our products. We were especially excited to have the Direct Drive tested so extensively. While feedback was overwhelmingly positive, we identified a firmware issue afterward that reduced center feel. These things happen, and we were glad to catch and resolve them quickly once we returned to the office.

On a more personal note, I also managed to do some “research” on the real track, officially under the disguise of R&D. I competed in several races in the Westfield Cup, a Dutch amateur racing series featuring ultra-light, Lotus 7–style cars on semi-slicks. These cars are agile, unforgiving, and constantly reminding you who is in charge. The series races on iconic tracks such as Zandvoort, Assen, Zolder, and the Nürburgring, and it remains one of the best ways for me to stay connected to real-world driving and truly understand what real-life racing is all about, which ultimately feeds back into product design.

Thank you for being part of the Sim-Lab journey. We are heading into the new year with a clear vision, strong momentum, and more exciting announcements on the way.


Wishing you a happy New Year,

Richard
CEO, Sim-Lab
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