FRL Recap for September

The FRL Recap has been missing for several races. Let’s take a look back over the last couple of events.

After some lights-out good racing at the front at Nurburgring, the series and points battle moved across the pond to the U.S. for race number four at Infineon Raceway Park. Andrew Steppat was bringing with him a slight edge in the points and ASR was looking for an edge in the series. ASR would strike upon something in testing in the days prior to race time. The team would switch to the Mitsubishi GSR and would shatter all the previous records. MBR saw the change and scrambled to setup their own versions of the GSR. But come race time ASR with Andrew at the helm and already dominating the Lotus A-Class, would essentially write his name in indelible ink at the top of the leaderboard.

 Despite dominance in both classes though, Andrew did struggle a bit at Infineon. In the first heat he suffered from a hefty collision with Paul Maestri in turn two which caved in his engine bonnet and forced him to limp into a fourth place finish. Ethan capitalized on the event posting his first victory in the Lotus class. Tony Tyree also had a bit of a coming out party by posting second and third place finishes in heats one and two.

 The AWD class held some excitement as Ethan and Andrew would race close for most of the series. Ethan claimed one heat win, but Andrew claimed 2, giving him the position points and top lap time as well. Tony Tyree switched over to the Evo 8 and performed quite well, gaining a third place position in the series. Andrew pushes out to a comfortable lead after this event with Ethan in second. Paul rides alone in third, nearly 50 points ahead of Tony Tyree. Tony takes advantage of the missing Brandon Adkins and moves into fourth place in points. Gabe Fast, unchallenged by any of the other rookies, closes the gap on Brandon.

 The FRL moved from West Coast to East Coast with the fifth event at Maple Valley Raceway. The Lotus class went as expected with Andrew taking the top spot in both position and lap time. Ethan Maestri posted second in both catagories and Paul Maestri rounded out the top three.

 With ASR looking to put a stranglehold on first, Maestri Bros. Racing made the decision to switch from running Mitsubishi to Ferrari and push their manufacturer affinity closer to 50. This series went much the same as the Lotus class with Andrew out front, followed by Ethan. Paul would get into some trouble with his Dino and wound-up posting fourth, just behind Tony Tyree. Gabe Fast missed a heat due to power outage and posted sixth behind Ross Merkling.

 Next week FRL racing moves to the sprawling Road America race course for the 24 Laps of Road America presented by the FRL. This race will be a two part race running 12 laps in the Lotus 2-Eleven’s and then 12 laps in the AWD’s.