Monday, November 3, 2008

MotoSL Season 4 - Round #4

Yuriko Nishi takes her 3rd win... 2008 Mooz Iron GP

Round 4 of the current MotoSL season saw another heavy turnout of 27 riders seeking to test their mettle on the "Iron" Layout at Mooz. Pre-Race benediction at the difficult chicane and we were under way, running the show today was our own Yum Divisdero , who did a wonderfull job.

Yuriko nailed her 2nd straight pole position .500 seconds ahead of the field , Annie Gufler qualified 2nd , Jafo Tendaze 3rd, and the ZT team twins Holden Saunders and Stang Voom landed in 4th and 5th . Leaving me in the lucky #6 , which is basicly pole position for the B race.

With Qualify set , we moved onto the group races, BBB racing team rider Johnnie Gears had pole for the D group race. Johnnie got the hole shot , but after a fall, lost the lead to his team boss Bikey Bekkers. Bikey drove a solid race and never relinquished the lead, although he had some pressure from Am Pro boss Abacus Mimistrobel. Bikey got the checkers and the advance to Group C, 2nd was Abacus followed by Whites Bikes rider Molly Fitzgerald.

Group C race was a steady ride by Bikesites.com rider Zari Gears , AM Pro rider TFox Tammas gave him a good chase but Zari never faultered , Racers Island team leader and vet MotoSL rider Raver Bellow was able to take 3rd. Zari moves on to Group B .

Group B race, with Crippy Oh on pole , Just Catteneo 2nd grid, Ram Pharoah 3rd on grid, Yamaha Harley 4th, Brave Ashbourne 5th and Zari Gears 6th . A strong field which made my little fingers tremble knowing I had to win to advance up to Group A .

Ram and Just were on my tail the whole race, sometimes coming closer sometimes further, I took it as easy as I could , but that meant I had no room for falls since my speed was too slow to gap the field much . I fell once when entering the chicane at the moment of a lag bubble, but was lucky enough to not lose the lead.

After chasing me a few laps , Just fell and Ram slid into 2nd and also gave me a good chase . I managed to keep the lead for the win and the advance, Rammses 2nd , Just 3rd, Zari came close to getting 4th , but had a few bad laps back to back allowing Yamaha to get 4th , Zari 5th and Brave 6th .

Group A race, and believe me at this point im happy just to not be watching this one from the bleachers. Yuriko got the hole shot she needed and ran hot out front with Annie Gufler giving her a close chase the whole race. Lap 9 and Annie got by Yuriko , but failed to capitalize on it and crashed same lap , giving Yuriko the position and the time to bring it home for her 3rd win in 4 races.

Now at the same time, on the other side of the track , far far away , was the rest of us flopping around like fishes trying to stake claim on the finishing positions that were left over . Being last i got to sit back and watch the others surge full bravado into the grinder...err i mean chicane at the race start. Holden im affraid , didnt make it thru to other side, he hit the grass on the right and slid thru grass and hit fence on the left , that was the last time i saw him till race was over.

Lap 2 and Stang slips letting me by him into 4th , right behind teamie and defending champ Jafo . Lap 3 Jafo goes down and im in 3rd . But that didnt last long at all, i failed to make most of it and fell myself , letting both Jafo and Stang by me , im back in 5th again.

The 3 of us fought it out lap after lap , swapping positions now and then , but also falling further and further behind the lead group of Yuriko and Annie . Jafo stumbled 2 laps in a row, laps 5 and 6 , first letting Stang by into 3rd, then allowing me to get thru to 4th .

For 5 laps Stang led us around , me in 4th , Jafo's engine buzzing in my ear in 5th...untill crucial lap 11. I had be holding Jafo off for 5 laps , but he finaly was able to hit the hairpin tighter and faster than me and got by , I watched as he screamed down the finish straight after Stang, who just had problems coming thru hairpin cause he was limping along accelerating still.

Stang and Jafo reached the chicane at the end of the straight around same time , Stang in first followed close by Jafo, i was prolly close to a second behind still coming down the straight , when a huge lag bubble hit the sim. Already commited to their turns into the chicane , Jafo and Stang tangled and flew into the grass and fence ,as i entered the chicane , the sim was still bogged with lag , going thru was like slow motion, but i made it thru .

As ive stated a few times in this post, its all about making most of your chances , this time i made it stick and held onto 3rd, with Stang still close behind untill he fell again. I crossed the line getting 3rd place , Jafo 4th, Stang 5th and Holden 6th.

Another successful round of MotoSL in the books , cheers to Yum for doing great job, much thanks as always to Les for making it all happen .

After 4 rounds Yuriko Nishi sits ready, willing and able to walk away with this one, with 88 points so far . Annie Gufler isnt ready to let that happen just yet , with Yuriko still in her sights at 74 points. Defending champion Jafo Tendaze is still trying to dial in his racing this season, win less with 63 points, Jafo always remains a threat to make winning look all so easy. Crippy 4th with 52, Holden 5th with 44 points.
Yuriko is looking strong , but any of the top 10 who strike it hot in the remaining rounds are a threat to place well this season . Location of next race to be edited in when i find out =p.

Also i would like to note..... if any racers reading this , have anything interesting to comment about your race from your perspective , please feel free to to leave a comment . Alot of stuff happens each race and how it unfolds can often be interesting .

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bah!!!!! Good racee!!! BAH!