The NHRL 24 is undoubtedly becoming one of the most prestigious events on the community calendar. Like in 2018 and 2019, the 2020 edition would not disappoint. On a clear winter Florida day, most pundits expected lepage71, the two-time defending champion, to claim another overall event title. However, in the days leading up to the race, a game of uncertainty arose over who would fill the GT2 and GT3 car classes. As it turned out, nearly the entire field went with GT2, which led to the fastest contest up front in NHRL 24 history. In the end, Bandit and Grumpy drove to the winners circle, both piloting 911 Porsches to precision in GT2 and GT3 respectively. Similar to 2019, the event featured long green flag runs, except in this case there was not a single caution period. After capturing the pole, leading the opening several laps, and briefly losing the lead on lap 6, the door opened for good when Bandit pitted for fuel, and lepage unwisely went an extra lap and ran out on lap 7. The ensuing gap between them would narrow from 50 to 20 seconds but the die was cast. After a one-year hiatus, KartRacer63 returned to the '24 and finished in 3rd, impressively remaining on the lead lap. In 4th, one lap behind the podium trio, d3efan put up a solid effort in his inaugural appearance. Two laps down, BlackKnight finished 5th for the third consecutive season. In 6th overall, Grumpy was the lone GT3 pilot, yet he was also faster than several GT2 competitors, dispelling any notion his GT3 victory was some kind of ceremonial tap-in for par.
Learn more about NHRL here. |