Sunday August 3rd, Round #11 of 12 FormulaSL season #2. This week we headed back to the newest track on the circuit , the canyon track at PSU .18 drivers qued up after a hour delay due to unforseen circumstances, attendance had slimmed some since the start of the season where we had 25 strong each race, but even 18 is a impressive number for a a SL racing event.
Annie Gufler grabbed her 4th straight pole position , with Archer's own Yuriko Nishi 2nd, Silk Bamboo putting in a great qualify for 3rd, Jafo 4th , and Caz Freschi 5th for the Group 1 race.
I ran cold in the round and only managed to get 7th in qualify , landing me in Group 2 for 3rd time this season . Group 4 proved practice pays as rookie driver Molly Fitzgerald ran a strong race winning wire to wire and advancing on to the Group 3 race.
Molly again ran strong early in race before her car was lost in a bad wreck, Yum Divesadero ran this one wire to wire for a deserved win, strong performances from Brave Ashbourne who got 2nd and Dolli Dreamscape who got 3rd.
On to the Group 2 race, basicly my championship bid this season is riding on this race, and i was able to find a zone and run as strong as i could , leading the 25 lap race wire to wire , giving me the 6th spot in the Group 1 race i needed badly.
Neko Carter beat YumYum at the finish line by .01 seconds to grab 2nd , Yum 3rd, Sulla Looming, who was able to make her first FSL race, after so much promise in the pre-season had been ended by new RL work schedule, finished 4th ( or 9th overall) in her FSL debut, FOX Tammas 5th and Suzy Cudihy 6th .
Group 1 race , sitting in the back of the pack, 2 Archer cars in front of me , Jafo directly and Yuriko 2 rows up . The first major turn on this track is a hard left thru a enclosed tunnel , so as the lights went out i held back some letting the pack thru , but searching for a hole , lap 2 i found a little one , jumping ahead of Caz into 5th , but a slip and he was by me and again i was trailing the field in 6th .
5 laps passed i chased 5th place Caz and 4th place Silk as close as i could , but there was no mistakes to exploit , by lap 6 Annie led the field , with Yuriko in 2nd , and Jafo 3rd.
Finaly lap 7 Caz blinked and slipped a bit on the dirt and i was by him into 5th . Lap 12 Silk finaly had a bad moment giving me the chance to jump into 4th , the rest of the field had remained the same before the 1st pit stop, Annie , Yuriko then Jafo.
Laps 14 and 15 the field makes their pits , Yuriko's pit crew make both crucial tire and fueling mistakes costing her a deserved spot on the podium, but it was a mistake that allowed me to get by before she recovered, and sneak into 3rd place. Jafo led for 1 lap as Annie pitted , but his car stalled hard, although i dont remember passing him , next thing i know , lap 17 of 30 and im in 2nd place.
Lap after lap im suprised everytime i see it say my name in 2nd place, i never saw Annie's gate spam , but next thing i know , after a couple mediocre laps , lap 23 and i see Jafo's gate spam in 3rd just 2 seconds behind me . Twice Jafo surged within passing distance on laps 24 and lap 28, but twice he fell back .
Annie took her 2nd straight win , Crippy 2nd, Jafo 3rd, Yuriko 4th, just off podium for 3rd time . Caz got 5th in his first Group 1 appearance and Silk Bamboo 6th .
2nd place in this race to Jafo's 3rd gives me +4 points , bringing the duel for the League championship down to the last race of the season with the points score at Crippy 208 , Jafo 201. Anything can happen in FSL so no one will be counting any chickens till the cork pops on the final race of this season.
Its the time of season for the next round of MotoSL . Les White's brand new superbikes are just about ready . Rider and team registrations will begin September 1st. Currently we are running a Pre-season to test the bikes and tracks, and to let new riders join and get acclamated.
