Formula SL , Round 6

The 6th round of the current FSL season brings us to the RD Motosports sim and the Wide track. Last raced on during MotoSL season 4. Its a fast wide open track , with the Formula cars this means danger, spins and crashes. Another full field for this one, as 27 show up for the challenge.

Annie Gufler showed a fast hand today , grabbing her 4th pole and eventualy 5th win of the season. Yuriko Nishi also using a supercharged setup finished on the lead lap after some trouble about mid race where she fell as low as

Yuriko started out well chasing Annie close and eventualy taking the lead on lap 7, but Annie regained the lead again lap 10 and ran away with this one , Yuriko was able to finish on the lead lap , currently in drivers points Yuriko is 2nd by 25 points , with overtaking Annie, atleast possible on paper still.

Remon Franizzi was also running a turbo charged package, but he was tested by a 8th place qualify and had to race the 35 lap B race before the 50 lap A race. He dominated the B race untill a tangle with traffic allowed Moto Ware to charge ahead on lap 19 and lead around for 6 laps before she had her own problems in traffic, Remon got by and took the win in the B race.

As far back as last place during the 50 lap A race, Remon stayed steady and patient and , breaking thru to 2nd place on lap 33 and finished strong in 3rd.

Myself qualified 3rd , and for most part had my usual fall back then tunnel vision racing with hopes of being able to move thru field some and finish as well as possible, i was somehow able to grab 4th overall on the day . I was as far back as 7th for a bit and got as high as 3rd, some handling troubles in the closing laps allowed a very close finish between myself , Caz Freschi and Moto.

Caz Freschi for the InDrive team has certainly made his home up in the A group race, and once again proved why with a good start , he chased Annie and Yuriko from 3rd. Staying strong Caz moved up to 2nd after Annie had troubles in early part of race, after the 1st pit stop Caz was still in 2nd , with Yuriko falling back to 3rd. But after the pit Caz' fortunes changed, he held onto 2nd for a bit , then falling back and finishing strong in 5th overall.

Motorato Ware had a long day this round, having to race 3 races totaling 110 laps. Qualifying 13th , Moto started the racing day behind the wheel in the C group , 25 laps , of which Moto led for all but 1 lap, at the very end Ashe Revnik of the strong rookie Midnight Lotus team passed her , but Moto got lead back and beat Ashe by less than 1 second.

Onto the B race, 35 laps , Moto had a bit more trouble this go , and was caught up in hard charging traffic early on , but bided her time , moving from 7th to 4th after one pile up and 4th to 2nd after another. Leading laps 19 thru 25 , Moto crashed out and fell back to 4th again , then 5th for the next , needing to get atleast 2nd to advance to the A group race, Moto stayed steady late in the race, moving to 4th then 3rd, a final lap spin by the other skilled Midnight Lotus rookie, Laney Recreant, gave Moto the slight chance she needed to get by and grab 2nd . Moto got 6th overall in the A race, again having problems early, but staying steady and moving up for a strong finish, less than a second out of 4th place.

Jafo Tendaze had a bit shakier day than im sure he would have liked to have, qualifying 6th , just making it in the A race. Jafo started strong running steady in 4th chasing the lead group of 3 closely . Jafo also had problems after 1st pit , falling back to 7th . Jafo got back to 4th after i needed a 3rd pitstop , but had some misfortunes in the final laps landing him 7th overall .

There were several other strong performances on the day , most notable being Ashe Revnik , who qualified way back in 20th and also like Moto raced in 3 races, for a total of 75 laps .
Ashe won the D race handly, start to finsih , with a closer race for 2nd being won by Racer Island's Brave Ashebourne. Ace Crabe in 3rd, Nella Bocarra 4th.

Ashe had to over come more adversity in the C race, where he fell back to 4th early on , but kept his eye on the prize, working his way to 2nd on lap 8, and was able to lead for a lap after Moto spun, Moto won but Ashe got 2nd and the advance to B group.

Saori Otsuka of Racer's Island, once again showed her skills in the C race, chasing Moto in 2nd for the first 7 laps of the race, but crashed big lap 8 falling back to 7th and eventualy finishing in 6th . Brave Ashebourne got up for 3rd, just beating Ramrods chief Ram Pharoah at the line , Ram 4th, Molly Fitzgerald finishing 5th just ahead of a late charging Saori.

Ashe did well in the B race , never further back then 3rd most of the race, was in 2nd a few laps , and even in the lead for a lap , but had a hard last part of race , eventualy finishing 4th , putting a commendable end to one of the better driving performances of the day.

The racers are off for a week but will return to race at the venerable PSU 1 track , thought lost at one time , but ressurected by Motorato Ware at her Hotspot sim. For me personally the word redemption first pops to mind, but mostly having bad luck at PSU 1 , makes me think again. It will be another good one .

A very nice video of this race and several other races this season, can be found at......
http://www.slodcast.com/