Monday, June 30, 2008

EMH Grand Prix at Mooz

Jafo Tendaze takes 3rd straight FormulaSL win

Saturday was race #8 of the FormulaSL season , taking place at Mooz on the classic layout, sponsored by Frageurs Hock and LUCA of EMH motors. This go around we had the smallest turn out so far of season with 20 drivers signing on to compete in the race.

Qualify round for me was even more nerve wracking than usual , with a thunderstorm starting to brew in my area, i could hear the thunder getting louder as i waited for my turn. I qualified in the last group of the day , and didnt run such a good round , i slipped on the grass my best lap , only good enough to get me 4th on the grid, with rookie sensation Annie Gufler grabbing the pole , Jafo 2nd , Ramesses 3rd, me 4th and Yuriko got 5th for 3rd straight 3 Archer cars in Group 1 race.

There were several good lower group races, with Just Catteneo shining above the rest , winning the Group 3 and Group 2 races to get into the A race. Brad Lytton won the Group 4 race decisively, but only managed 5th in the Group 3 race.

Group 1 race promised to be a good one , i just didnt know not for me. The light went green and the field was off, that is where my problems began , another car went wide heading into turn 1 sending me into wall and my hopes of a win with it .

I recovered and chased the field in 5th place, where i settled for a bit, closely chasing Just C. for 6 laps , with Yuriko in 3rd, Annie in 2nd and Jafo leading the field . Lap 7, Annie and Yuriko came together in the turn after pits , allowing me and Just to slip by , suddenly i was in 3rd, chasing Just who was in 2nd .

For 12 more laps i chased Just , who was intent on a huge day at the track . But the strain of racing 3 races was showing on him and his car and i was able to get by him into 2nd on lap 21.
Just's car completely stalled lap 25 and he could only manage 4th place.

For the rest of the race i ran mostly on clean track, 9 laps trying to gain ground on Jafo, i got up to minus 10.8 seconds distance but was too much , eventualy i dropped back more and Jafo won wire to wire for 3rd straight, i got my 3rd straight 2nd place, Annie got 3rd for her 1st podium in her 2nd FSL race. Just 4th , Ram 5th and Yuriko 6th after having a hard time during 2nd half of race.

Jafo narrows the gap on my lead, leaving me with 17 points ahead in the drivers championship, with 4 races remaining . Ram Pharoah is in 3rd, Neko Carter in 4th and Just Catteneo in 5th . Race #9 is in 2 weeks at the brand new canyon track . A new track that Les has built and set on the PSU sim , its a fast track and alot of drivers have been posting very fast times in early practice, its starting to look like this next race might have the closest qualify session of the season .

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