Yes, Donkey Bop Racing Has Star Quality Oval Drivers Too!
Donkey Bop driver Zachery Robinson scores 2 podium finishes in three attempts in the 2021 iRacing Indy 500
“I love Indianapolis! You guys don’t understand it! The fans, you give me energy,”
Castroneves said, after winning the 2021 Indy 500
May 25, 2021
(Indianapolis, Indiana) – Donkey Bop driver Zachery Robinson was thinking the same thing. The real world Indycar series is loaded with young, fast drivers who are scoring wins and podiums at an unprecedented rate this season. Donkey Bop Racing has its own young star driver, Zachery Robinson (oval IR 3199). Robinson had a truly epic week in the iRacing Indy 500, going two for three on podium finishes in the fixed and open races. It’s hard enough just to get to the finish line in the Indy 500, but two podiums in three attempts is quite simply, amazing. His racing line for his two podiums in this years’ 500 was as follows:
- Fixed set up Indy 500 Started on pole, finished P3 (SOF 2557)
- Open set up Indy 500 Started P20, finished P2 (SOF 2780)
“It’s the Indy 500. You have to be laser focused the entire time to even finish the race, let alone get a good result,” Robinson commented after the Fixed set up Indy 500. “There will be crashes all around you. Dirty air was a huge factor. I was running 6 front 1 rear on the ARB when in clean air. Then decreasing the stiffness of the front ARB when in dirty air, then decreased the jacker as the car started to oversteer.”
When asked how he felt crossing the finish line, Robinson said, “Mostly relieved. I have competed in the Indy 500 on iRacing since 2017 and had only finished the race on my first attempt and never on the lead lap. Every year something seems to go wrong, either an unlucky incident or personal error. It was just so great that none of that happened and I was able to score a podium.”
When interviewed after his podium finish in the Open 500, Robinson commented “Because we had the freedom of adjusting the setup, the open race had a bit more action. The cars were able to rotate more in the center of the corners, especially in traffic. This led to the trailing car having a greater chance of overtaking the leading car. To manage the aero push, I started dragging the brake in traffic like I saw some real-world drivers doing. I tried to slipstream to save fuel when I could.”
The other Donkey Bop Oval drivers also acquitted themselves very well.
Jerry Foehrkolb (Oval IR 2313) had a great P4 lead lap finish in the Fixed 500. Jeff Porras (Oval IR 1850) had a podium P3 finish. Larry Krupp (Oval IR 1356) and Chet Barkin (Oval IR 1319) had top 5 finishes. Kris Thompson (Oval IR 1816) and Ken Soszka (Oval IR 1666) both had multiple finishes in the top half of the field in the fixed and open versions of the iRacing Indy 500.
Although Donkey Bop is known primarily as a very strong endurance racing team with a large stable of international drivers, the oval racing “department” in iRacing is just as impressive.