The long wait for
Season 3 of the FRL is now over and the results of the 1.2 Hours of Sebring are
posted. With ten drivers taking to the track, the night promised to have a lot of
action and it delivered in spades. Let’s recap the event.
After setting the
field with a parade lap, the group lined up for the first segment of the race
in the A-class Lotus 2-Eleven’s. These cars are a handful even when racing by
oneself, but put nine other cars around you and things are bound to go
sideways. Sure enough, as the field took off from the line and sailed into the
first turn, Tony Tyree and Brandon Adkins renewed their rivalry with some inadvertent
bumping. Ricky Wilborn Jr. would have some trouble coming out of Turn 3 and
spun-out giving up the second spot to Ethan Maestri. The top four drivers would
immediately settle into position for the long haul without much change. Further
back in the field, drivers Carter and Gabriel Fast would have a long race
against each other, setting similar lap times and closing on each other while
navigating traffic. Tony would recover from his early setback and eventually
passed Ricky for the fifth spot as well as posting the fifth fastest lap time. Season
2’s Rookie Award winner, Ross Merkling, made the most of a squirrely setup on
his car, spinning several times, but bringing his Police livery Lotus in ahead
of Season 3 Rookie Award contender Jordan Gullett.
This race would be
all about Andrew Steppat as he showed the field why he’s a 2-time FRL champion.
He placed first and laid down a blistering 2:18.187 lap time, a full second
over 2nd place Ethan Maestri. Paul Maestri finished in third, Brandon Adkins in
fourth and Tony Tyree rounds out the top five.
After a brief intermission
and car change, the field got ready for the second segment in their AWD S-class
Outlaw setup cars. Where the Lotus’ came across as rather vanilla during the
race, the AWD’s were anything but and promise to give us some great action
throughout the season. Once more, into the first turn, cars were scattered
everywhere as all made a mad dash for the top spot. Paul Maestri, in his
lightning-fast-off-the-line RS200, came out of the turn with the lead followed
closely by MBR teammate Ethan Maestri. The rest of the field stayed fairly well
bunched as several jockeyed for multiple positions on the track. At the end of
the first lap, Paul would give the lead up to his faster teammate and take
position in second. Andrew Steppat navigated the field superbly and came out in
third. Now he would begin his assault on second place. The battle came to a
head around the 16 minute mark as Andrew, having just recently passed Paul, began
breaking into Turn 6. Andrew would setup wide allowing Paul an opportunity to
out-break him into the corner. Paul tried to capitalize but locked up and
headed into the grass. This upset his car, flinging him into a barrel roll and
permanently into third place.
This would setup what
would be the longest battle for the lead in FRL history to date. Ethan Maestri
pulled into the pit lane with 15 minutes to race. When he emerged from pit
lane, Andrew Steppat was just in front of him as they entered Turn 1. The two
drivers would run nose-to-tail for the next ten minutes with barely more than 2
car lengths between them. During this intense period of racing, both drivers
would set their best lap times. Ethan challenged for the lead on a couple of
exchanges, but could not complete a clean pass. The battle would end with an
unfortunate incident in Turn 6 as the lap car of Gabriel Fast would lose
control breaking into the corner and swept Andrew’s Audi off the track, giving
Ethan the lead.
Brandon Adkins,
despite fighting cockpit distraction all through the evening, would setup shop
in the fourth place position and refused to give any ground. Ricky Wilborn Jr.
would make several plays at moving toward 4th place and scored
several laps within hundredths of a second of Brandon, but eventually rolled
his Subaru and wouldn’t be able to push any farther forward. Tony Tyree
suffered a terrible collision with Ross Merkling in the opening laps and would
spend most of the race digging out of an early deficit. However, despite yet
another setback he would post the fourth fastest time on the track for this
segment, an impressive 2:16.532 in his Datsun 510.
Further back, Carter
and Gabriel, despite listing officially as teammates, would prove to be each
other’s greatest rival and promise to give us an interesting battle for the
Rookie of the Season Award. Carter would
win the battle for position, but Gabriel set a personal best 2:18.899, beating
Carter’s 2:20.803. Ross Merkling would fight an ill-handling Eagle Talon for
this segment and fell to Jordan Gullett’s much faster Ford Focus.
The first 1.2 Hours
of Sebring event by the FRL was a success. Having so many drivers turn out for
the event was really exciting. The action was great to watch and experience. So,
after this first event of the season, we have a tie at the top for points.
Ethan Maestri and Andrew Steppat both scored 72 points with Paul Maestri in
third with 52. Brandon Adkins makes a solid showing with 38 points in fourth
place. But that battle is only going to get more intense as Tony Tyree sits
just 6 points behind in fifth. Ricky Wilborn Jr., despite a long absence from
FRL racing, shows some prowess and takes the sixth position in points not far
behind Brandon and Tony. Carter Fast scores 2 more points than teammate Gabriel
Fast as they occupy the 7th and 8th positions overall.
Jordan Gullett and Ross Merkling switched positions in both classes and tie
themselves up for the 9th position overall.
The series moves on
to Mugello Autodromo for the FRL’s first run on the full Mugello circuit. We
look to see you all there next Forzday.
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