Monday, May 25, 2009

FormulaSL - Round 7

Round 7 found a little smaller field of 23 drivers attending , cause of the holliday weekend , this time at the PSU 1 track at Motorato Ware's Hotwire racetrack sim . Just check archives if you wanna know how i feel about my luck at this track hehe.

Annie Gufler took her 6th Pole and 6th win of the season , but this time just ahead of Jafo Tendaze looking for his first win of the season . Jafo was hunting Annie for the last 8 laps of the race, closing the gap in the last 3 , but Annie held on for the win . Jafo 2nd , and Laney Recreant with her 2nd podium of season coming in 3rd after advancing from the B group race and putting on a very nice performance in the A group race.

I got a rare glimpse at the front and led for a few laps before my old friend PSU 1 badluck paid me a visit , and i finished 4th overall . Silk Bamboo shared in some of my luck , there was plenty to go around , with a early lead at start of race, Silk looked strong to finish 3rd, but ran into troubles ending up in 5th .

One car i thought would finish higher was Racers Island's own Brave Ashbourne , i heard his engine buzzing close in my ear a few times over several laps , i think Brave was held up sometimes by my shaky driving at that point in race, but he drove much like a racer in RL would without charging thru at first chance no matter what , unfortunately Brave ran into some troubles and fell back before getting by me , finishing in 6th.

Caz Freschi and Yuriko Nishi rounded out the field also having races with heaping helpings of bad luck and technical difficulties. Annie Gufler now leads the points championship by a large margin , with Yuriko in 2nd and Jafo 3rd .

Other highlights of day started in D race , where Amber Raceway veteran Kelly Grumiaux had a good race, driving steady in 2nd place, looking like she would get the advance with Rattra Raymaker who led the whole race, but Kelly ran into trouble, and her own team mate Tracy Torok got by and finsihed 2nd .

C race might have been most chaotic of the day , with alot of collisions alot of off roading and mayhem . The story early in the race was Race island's Nella Bocarra, on a mission to score some points was in 2nd and even led for a bit in early laps of race before falling back , unfortunately finishing 8th after more troubles.

Around laps 5 and 6 the field settled down some , with returning veteran Yamaha Harley holding onto a steady lead, untill he pitted, Yamaha seemed to be in the pits forever before finally exiting in 5th place, Yamaha ended up finishing 3rd and a very good performance despite being rusty .

After the pits DYG driver Darko Revnik took over and led the rest of the 20 lap race, winning his first FSL group race, grats to DYG team they certainly have put in the practice in effort to improve steadily during this season.

The other story of C race was Shoshin racing's Ford Roffo, who has been qualifying well lately but unable to bring home the bacon in the main races, this time was different, Ford hovered around the top 4 all race , driving steady enough to grab 2nd and a pass to the B race.

B race was punctuated mostly by Caz Freschi running a tight race, leading nearly the entire thing , Motorato Ware gave chase early in the race, but contact with traffic put her in trouble around lap 10 . In the end Caz ran into enough problems to get 2nd behind Laney Recreant who filled the void when Moto fell back .

Final results were Laney 1st, Caz 2nd , Moto 3rd , Molly Fitzgerald 4th , and Indrive's Zaria Falconer 5th . Just 1 week till round #8 ...on the oval at Greg Drayman's Kokopelli Raceway . The FSL cars on the oval is always mayhem , and im sure this one wont disappoint.

Monday, May 11, 2009

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/

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

FormulaSL Round #5 in the Desert

This week we raced at Les White's brand new Desert track , a fast curvy track with fast times and lots of action. 28 drivers came out to brave the heat , with the Italian team in particuliar having a nice size cheering section, once everyone was descripted and ready, Race Director Yum Divesadero got the proceedings underway.

Annie Gufler grabber her 4th pole position , her AM Pro pit crew is honed to a knifes edge with the drivers championship already in sight , a 1 stop strategy scored her a 4th win of the season.
Racers Island Remon Franizzi finished 2nd after qualifying 3rd. Myself 3rd, after qualifying 6th,
Caz 4th, Jafo 5th, Yuriko 6th, Laney Recreant 7th and INDrive's Zaria Falconer 8th.

The A race was a bit of a wild one , lots of spinning and lead changes with Remon Franizzi and Caz freschi taking over the lead from Annie for several laps . At one point on lap 17, the top 5 cars were all very close to one another, at one point 5th place being 2.3 seconds behind the leader. Both Remon and Caz held the lead at this late point in the race, but in the end it was Annie's 1 stop strategy that go her the win, a very good race by everyone.

Yuriko qualified 7th overall and dominated the B race, leading wire to wire to advance, Zaria Falconer was strong in 2nd the whole way too . A closer battle for 3rd between Brave Ashbourne, Ashe Revnik and Ram Pharoah, with Brave getting 3rd in the end . Ram 4th and Molly Fitzgerald 5th .

The C race was all Ashe Revnik's... leading the whole race , with Ram grabbing 2nd for the advance . This race was another good one for places 3rd and down , with alot of good driving and passing, AM Pro boss Abacus Mimistrobell got 3rd and Racers Island's own Nella Bocarra 4th .

The D race looked like it was gonna Suzy Cuddihy and Rattra Raymaker easy for the advance to C, but Rattra fell back some and it was a race for 2nd , between Rattra , Abacus and Ace Crabe.
Ace fell out , but Abacus just barely beat Rattra to the line for the advance and the closest finish of the day .

Round 6th is in 1 week at Raver Bellow's own "Wide Track" in the RD Motorsports sim, we raced there last Bike season, but this is first visit in the cars , should be a fast close race.