Forzday Race Recap - 10/5 - Maple Valley

The action was intense, and at times even took to the
air. It was an intense, high octane evening of racing
this Forzday.

Vintage 4-bangers started the action at Maple Valley
this evening. The laps were bumped to ten for this
evening's heats due to the fast lap times on the track.
Andrew would set the bar for the night placing rst
in both position and lap times in the rst two heats.
Paul would set a blistering pace as well, nishing
second in both categories. There is no denying the
speed in the Lotus garage. Ethan would place third in
all three heats. The action was considerably less
bland from 4th place back. In Heat 1, Ricky was
running a splendid race, trading places with Ethan
for the rst four laps. Then while entering turn 3, his
BMW 2002 Turbo clipped the apex just right to send
him airborne. Brandon and Tony would take
advantage and nish 4 & 5 respectively. Heat 2 would
be even more eventful as Brandon would switch to
the roll-prone BMW as well. On lap 2, Brandon
entered turn 2 and clipped the apex in a move very
similar to the one that bit Ricky in the previous heat.
Unfortunately, the car would not correct itself and
spent the rest of the race obstructing the exit of turn
2 on its side. Brandon left the car and went to get
himself a sandwich. Turn 2 was not nished claiming
Beemers though. Earlier in the race, Ethan had
drifted too high out of turn 2 and had gotten into the
side of a loose Lotus driven by Paul, the resulting spin
put Ethan in last place. He would charge hard,
passing Tony and was reeling in Ricky, but was
running out of laps. Ricky entered turn 2 on lap 9 a
little high, clipped the apex and joined Brandon in
the turn 2 graveyard.

Andrew collected a solid Class victory here with 51
points scored. Paul placed second overall with 44,
Ethan took third with 40, Ricky, despite two
roll-overs, escaped with fourth place and 28 points.
Brandon and Tony would bring up the fth and sixth
positions with a close 26 and 25 points respectively.
On to Mazda MX-5 action. RoboStig Racing had a
distinct advantage coming into this event with a car
that was dialed-in to say the least. Stig was posting
blistering lap times all week, however, Andrew would
spoil the party for Paul, posting rst place nishes in
each heat. Paul was the lap time winner for the class
though, taking 2 of the 3 top spots in lap times. But
the second heat would keep Paul from dominating
the class as he would spin hard into the wall in turn 2,
leaving his bumper and rear n on the in eld grass.
He would nish in last place and post only the fourth
fastest lap time. Brandon would take advantage in
this second heat and climb his way to a third place
nish. Tony drove well and nabbed fourth.

The action was intense on this fast little speedway of
a track. The points race tightened as well. Andrew
recovers well after missing last week's event. He
would score a total of 107 points on the night. Paul
had a solid second place outing and narrows the gap
on Ethan's lead by 8 points. Tony was able to hang
onto his 4th position in the points, but lost ground to
both Ricky and Brandon, with only 3 points separat-
ing Tony and Ricky. The action continues next week
with a visit to the twists and turns of Tsukuba.
We'll see you there!