Monday, August 11, 2008

FormulaSL season 2 Finale at Snowpeach

MAS/Archer captures 2nd straight Team and Driver titles
Crippy Oh hangs on by slim margin to win Driver championship

FormulaSL season 2 , completes its course after many dramatic and exciting moments over the course of the 12 race season . Controversy , heartbreak and close competition all found in the 11 races preceding the finale.

If it had been a rocky road to this point , the final race promised to not disapoint . After the smoke of 11 races cleared, Jafo Tendaze sat on the verge of a amazing comeback in a attempt to defend his FormulaSL title and win his 3rd straight RaceSL Driver/Rider title.

Crippy Oh was in 1st place by just 7 points , the score at 208 to 201. Week 3 Crippy fell to 2nd after Kandy Tommorow took a big win , but had retained 1st place since. Jafo sat willing, able and determined to spoil that streak in the final race.

Only 1 week seperated races 11 and 12, so Snowpeach saw a flurry of practicing and preparing all week long . Setups were fined tuned, tire and pitstop strategies tweaked , tested and reworked .

Drivers braved often pitifull SL lag to try to hone their driving lines , to commit the track to memory and repetition , knowing mistakes are made in a split second, drivers must practice for many hours to be prepared for as much of the unexpectated as possible.

The first drivers slide into their cockpits in preparation for their qualify laps , officialy starting the final event of the season . Annie Gufler captured her 5th straight pole position , I managed to turn the 2nd fastest lap , Jafo did not qualify as strongly as some might have thought , taking the 3rd spot by just .001 over Yuriko Nishi in 4th , with Dolli Dreamscape being 5th qualifier for the Group 1 race.

The 20 lap group 3 race was dominated by Racers Island driver Brave Ashbourne , Rattra Raymaker 2nd , upcoming new driver Molly Fitzgerald 3rd, and the Kells Dragon team finishing out the field and grabbing up the last points spots , grats to Xia and Ravena .

Group 2 is 25 laps long and determines who gets 6th spot for group 1. This time around Yum Divisadero didnt wait around to tangle with Neko Carter , dominating the race even after falling to 4th after pitstops , she cruised to the win . Neko 2nd and Suzy Cuddihy 3rd. Yum moves up to Group 1.

Group 1 race, 30 laps . I was able to jump in front of Annie and lead field to the first hairpin, but after about half the lap , Annie jumped ahead and i fell to 2nd . I was there for 3 laps till a incident sent me back to 5th place in one fell swoop . Danger Will Robinson , there was many outcomes that would give Jafo the points he needed . Jafo 2nd and me 5th was deffinately one of them .

Combos that Jafo needed to win were, 1st and me 3rd.... 2nd and me 4th ect... a very slim margin with the leagues point system . Lap 7 and I was able to get by a surging Dolli Dreamscape and Yuriko Nishi, back into 3rd. Lap 9 Jafo took the lead from Annie , i passed into 2nd place again , untill Annie sent me back to 3rd.

A collision lap 19 sent Jafo all the way back to 3rd, I was in 2nd again , untill Jafo got by me lap 26. For 11 laps during the race , if it had been the final lap , Jafo would have made a truly great comeback run , but for 19 laps , including the final lap , I was able to be in position to stave that off.

In the end Annie won her 3rd straight race, Jafo 2nd , myself 3rd, only losing 4 points to Jafo I finished the season with 224 points , Jafo 221. A very close finish between 2 good competitors who , I certainly can say for myself , truly admire the other as being a top racer across SL .

Neko Carter got 3rd place overall, being from Switzerland i think all can agree was quite a feat, including a win at PSU during the season, Ram Pharoah another European driver came in 4th and had a couple podiums, Annie Gufler 5th , Yuriko Nishi , who has been a great addition to the Archer family 6th . YumYum D. a very respectable 7th , considering her very limited time to prepare for each race , she did great including a podium finish at Mooz.

Started April 19th , 2008 at Mooz , lasting nearly 4 full months , FormulaSL season 2 has concluded, the league now turns towards the return of the venerated Superbike series with MotoSL season 4. Testing has begun, sign ups will be announced when ready http://racesl.com/





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