Right, now that the forums have returned, it's time for:
2015 Surfers SuperPrix - RaceWith 57 cars and a chicane for a first corner, it was expected that chaos would ensue, but apart from a few touches in the middle of the pack, everyone got through cleanly. It took until the turn 8 chicanes on the back straight for it all to go wrong. Rick Simpson, missed the first apex defending from Paul Travesen. Once a car goes wide, it's not a question of if they'll spin, but how many cars they'll hold up as a result. Simpson's spin caught out McAllister, Naufal and Torrente, but these three wound up off the track. Simpson didn't, right in the middle of the track. Shane Walsh hit him, but he had fast enough reflexes to slow down and neither suffered any damage. However, this slowed the pack right down, with lots of cars making minor contact. The worst of it was between the Porto Wines, when Soares, the last car into the melee, ran into the back of Mondlane, putting him into the fence and out of the race. It became worse fo Gulf just ahead, when Thomas Yorke hit Tyler Buckley causing him to spin and cause more chaos.
The end result was that the field was split in two, with Dan Greenlaw and co. miles ahead. This was a large benefit for Renato Bulku, who made a blinding start and managed to lead the first lap of the race, with a light fuel load, as he was on a 3-stopper. It didn't last long, with Eric Swerts passing Greenlaw into turn 3 and Bulku into 9 to take the lead of the race on lap 2.
That saw much less damage, although there were still a few problems, such as Matt Grove catching air at turn 1 after a botched overtaking move on Miguel Silva, while at the 5/6 chicane, Souto Maior understeered into the fence, fortunately taking no significant damage, while Victoria Desai locked up and cut the corner.
That was about it for calm, as at the first chicane the following lap, the third contender for the title lost it. Marko Jantscher, having been ruled out yesterday, tried to defend his position from Jordan Davies. It was mostly Davies' fault, as he launched the move from way too far back and Jantscher had no chance to see him. While Jantscher cut the corner and continued, Davies spun and stopped on track. Joel Melrose and Daniel Melville behind them got past safely, but Olafur Ragnar Hannesson didn't. This was because Davies had moved to try and turn around, but the marshalls told him the track was clear. End result, he moves forwards right as Hannesson comes around the corner and both lose front wings.
That wasn't it though. The sudden stop ahead forced Harmsky and Pacer to slow, and this time it was Roberto Dinella caught unawares, as he drove into the back of Pacer, destroying the Aeroracing's rear wing and his own front wing.
Up ahead, there were more consequences. Jantscher had lost ground to Melrose, and at turn 3 he went down the inside of the Austrian, but failed miserably. Jantscher went straight on into the fence, and out the race, while Melrose gave Melville a shot at the title when he slowed and gave him a free pass. The overall effect was the field became one again, except for the first few cars. However, it was split a bit when Taki almost spun at turn 8, while MacDrage did.
Lap 4 saw more contact, at turn 5 between Taki and Desai. The Kamaha had tried to go down the inside, but Taki moved across under brakes. Desai spun onto the track, while Taki cut turn 6. Most of the following cars get past without problems, except for Richard Hershall, who had locked his brakes into turn 5 and run wide, hitting Desai and sending them both for a trip down pit lane.
But that wasn't the end of it. The collision righted Desai, and the two of them set off down towards turn 8. The problem was that they still had much faster traffic going past, and caused massive problems at the chicane. Under braking, Desai swerved and forced Hendra Naufal and Tyler Buckley to take evasive action, sending the both spinning, as well as Desai. Takagi had to dodge Hershall, but did a good job at saving the spin, even if she hit Naufal anyway. McAllister also got caught up, also saved a spin, and didn't hit anyone. Further back, Matt Grove also spun, but on his own.
It kept going on lap 5, with Stan Frankham's decent race being ruined by contact with Lappalainen, his resulting spin dropping him way down the order. But the race changed a turn 8, when Eric Swerts spun out from the lead. He simply went in too quickly and lost control, nearly taking out Bulku and Greenlaw.
Lap 6 got worse for Jones Racing, with Dinella spinning at turn 8. It got worse for Davies too, who was collected by Dinella and hit by Pacer as well. It was the lap of the next retirement, in a similar fashion to Jantscher's end, when Peter Port put Calvin Brooks into the turn 3 fence. Scott Davidson met a similar end the following lap thanks to Lucarelli.
Roland Davidson had a scary moment when he botched a passing attempt on MacDrage at turn 1 on lap 7, launching himself onto two wheels and backing into the fence hard. He managed to continue, slowly and with no rear wing, back to the pits.
Things continued on the next lap, with Piscine and Silva spinning, almost taking Pykalisto out. Carsten Jancker ended his race in the fence at the exit of turn 11, simply understeering and not even bothering to save it.
The race started to calm down after that, apart from the more occasional spin at turn 8. By lap 11, the pit stops began. The field was mostly split between one and two, except for a few brave souls doing three. This probably explained Bulku's pace, despite having fallen back behind Greenlaw. Pykalisto, Silva, Peynirci and Dean Melville opened the cycle on lap 11, followed by Bulku, Frakham and Yorke. Before the cycle, it had been Greenlaw leading from Bulku and Melville, but the last two pitting meant Greenlaw, on a two-stopper, had a 16 second lead from Swerts.
Lamberigts and Reatherson were the next two retirements, with transmission problems and a puncture respectively, while Scalabroni had a minor stuff up at turn 8, hitting Wener and the wall but not breaking anything.
It stayed pretty much constant up front until Greenlaw came in for his first stop, looking like a two-stopper. Swerts stayed out, on a one-stopper, with a 9 second advantage. Then it was daylight back to where Melville and Bulku had come out, around Melrose and Souto Maior. Bulku got out in front of the JLD, Melville behind, and he spent most of the stint there.
Lap 20 saw another mistake from Scalabroni at turn 1, while there was another scary crash further behind, when Soares tried to Samelko. Like Davidson, he went up high on two wheels, but didn't drive it out of the fence, while Samelko lost a front wing.
More pitstops followed, including the one-stoppers and the second stops for the three-stoppers. Swerts, however, stayed out, going as long as possible. Lap 24 saw Jordan Davies in another incident. Greenlaw had lapped Lucarelli, and Davies tried to take advantage into turn 9. Lucarelli was unaware and moved across again, only to get sent into the fence, losing his front wing.
The following lap the championship was all but over on lap 25 when Daniel Melville, having stopped 8 laps earlier, came to a halt at turn 1 when a wheel worked itself loose. With Davies nowhere and Greenlaw running second, that was pretty much that.
The next lap, Davies did his best to change that though. He'd unlapped himself from Greenlaw and was doing his best to hold him up, but a spin at turn 8 meant he ruined that, and very nearly took Greenlaw out of the race. Fortunately for the American, he dodged it, while Davies spun into the fence and lost his front wing. While this went on, James Douglas parked at the 5/6 chicane with rear suspension problems.
By the late 20s, the two stoppers came in for the final time, along with the one stoppers who hadn't needed to stop yet, including Swerts, who pitted for the only time on lap 27, giving Greenlaw the lead. It didn't last long as Greenlaw stopped on lap 32, putting them on equal fuel loads and similar tyre life, with a 9 second advantage to Swerts.
Finally the three stoppers came in, along with Takuma Taki who had an electrical issue. Lap 34 saw contact at turn 8, with Joel Melrose losing control and collecting Cameron. The Prospec spun, while Melrose only just failed at keeping his car out of the fence, but after engaging reverse, both continued on their way. Torrente and Silva came together on the following lap at turn 1, with Torrente locking his brakes and driving into the Red Bull, sending himself into the air.
With less than 10 laps to go, Swerts held a 9 second lead over Greenlaw, which looked set to stay that way by the end. Then there was a large gap filled with lapped cars back to Travesen, followed by Bulku, Wener, Verbeeck and Piscine, all in tight formation. On lap 38, the 4 came to lap Roland Davidson. Bulku got through at turn 5/6, but he wasn't particularly kind to Wener, blocking her quite badly, then almost stopping to let the others through. Verbeeck drafted past Wener just after turn 8, while Piscine made a move at turn 9, costing her two positions.
Now in its final stages, the race had calmed down, with the only action from Wener trying to make back those spots, Dean Melville and Joe Harmsky fighting for top 15 spots, and Takuma Taki and Rick Simpson fighting in the midfield, a lap down. This battle ended on lap 40 when Simpson moved across to defend into turn 3, catching Taki out, who punted Simpson into the fence, ending a fairly miserable day for him.
The following lap the Melville/Harmsky battle ended with Harmsky in the wall at turn 1, when the Aussie launched a late dive. Harmsky left no room, and the ZimSport got air while Harmsky spun into the inside wall.
And that was it. Eric Swerts maintained the gap to take his first victory of the year (finally), by 9.4 seconds over Dan Greenlaw, who wrapped up the championship easily. Paul Travesen took a podium, a minute later, while Bulku took an impressive 4th for Nurminen, with a podium possibly being stolen by poor strategy. Behind it was the tightly packed Verbeeck, Piscine, Wener and Cameron, who had gained massive amounts of time in the final laps, with Souto Maior and Lappalainen rounding out the top 10, and the points. However, as Laura Wener was driving the third West Cliff, they did not score any points as a result, and thus with Melrose in 11th, JLD score a point.
ResultsCode: Select all
Pos Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Pit
1 Eric Swerts Jones 1:14:33.981 45 LAPS 1
2 Dan Greenlaw Prospec 1:14:43.448 + 9.467 2
3 Paul Travesen Linton-Solindahl 1:15:40.873 + 1:06.892 2
4 Renato Bulku Nurminen 1:15:52.064 + 1:18.083 3
5 Jef Verbeeck BITWM 1:15:54.159 + 1:20.178 1
6 Franc Piscine Good Call 1:15:54.577 + 1:20.596 1
7 Laura Wener West Cliff 1:15:54.585 + 1:20.604 1
8 Nathanael Cameron Prospec 1:15:54.970 + 1:20.989 1
9 Raul Souto Maior Aeroracing 1:16:00.495 + 1:26.514 2
10 Jari Lappalainen Nurminen 1:16:01.309 + 1:27.328 2
11 Joel Melrose JLD 1:16:01.683 + 1:27.702 1
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12 Shane Walsh ZombieKart 1:16:01.802 + 1:27.821 2
13 Dean Melville ZimSport 1:16:09.304 + 1:35.323 3
14 Tommi Hamalainen Good Call 1:16:09.934 + 1:35.953 2
15 Nick Nurmester Kamaha 1:16:12.207 + 1:38.226 1
16 Bob Sampson Mazzacane 1:16:16.805 + 1:42.824 2
17 Tonu Pykalisto Parma Corse 1:16:20.595 + 1:47.614 3
18 Juan Manuel Scalabroni Mazzacane 1:16:29.350 + 1.55.369 2
19 Judd McAllister BITWM 1:16:31.154 + 1:57.173 1
20 George MacDrage Linton-Solindahl +1 LAP 2
21 Thiago Mazzacane Fusion +1 LAP 1
22 Stephanie Brown JLD +1 LAP 1
23 Diego Alvarez Torrente Nurminen +1 LAP 2
24 Matt Grove ZimSport +1 LAP 2
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25 Peter Port West Cliff +1 LAP 2
26 Dale Hamilton Red Bull +1 LAP 1
27 Thomas Yorke Good Call +1 LAP 3
28 Takuma Taki Red Bull +1 LAP 3
29 Victoria Desai Kamaha +1 LAP 3
30 Roberto Dinella Jones +1 LAP 2
31 Gary Pacer Aeroracing +1 LAP 2
32 Jordan Davies West Cliff +1 LAP 4
33 Kevin Bainomugisha Octan +1 LAP 1
34 Olafur Ragnar Hannesson Parma Corse +1 LAP 2
35 Alessandro Lucarelli Parma Corse +1 LAP 3
36 Tyler Buckley Gulf JCW +1 LAP 2
37 Tetsuya Takagi Takagi +1 LAP 1
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38 Colin Peynirci Hydook +1 LAP 3
39 Hendra Naufal Takagi +1 LAP 2
40 Richard Hershall ZombieKart +1 LAP 3
41 Miguel Silva Red Bull +1 LAP 3
42 Roland Davidson Gulf JCW +1 LAP 2
43 Stan Frankham Prospec +1 LAP 3
44 Roberto Zayas ZombieKart +1 LAP 1
45 Cezary Samelko Dofasco +2 LAPS 3
46* Joe Harmsky Shonan Accident (L41) +5 LAPS 1
47* Rick Simpson Gulf JCW Collision (L40) +6 LAPS 1
DNF James Douglas JLD Suspension (L26) 1
DNF Daniel Melville ZimSport Loose Wheel (L25) 1
DNF Joao Antonio Soares Porto Wine Collision (L20) 2
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DNF Quentin Reatherson Linton-Solindahl Puncture (L13) 0
DNF Dorien Lamberigts Octan Transmission (L11) 0
DNF Carsten Jancker Hydook Accident (L8) 0
DNF Scott Davidson Kingfisher Collision (L7) 0
DNF Calvin Brooks Kingfisher Collision (L6) 0
DNF Marko Jantscher Fusion Collision (L3) 0
DNF Samora Mondlane Porto Wine Collision (L1) 0
Fastest lap: Jordan Davies (1:37.196)
Final standings, stewards report and pictures will be coming when I get home from school.
R.I.P.
GM HOLDEN
1948-2017
