Forzday Racing League: ASR Dominates At Road Atlanta 125

The anticipation ahead of the running of the Road Atlanta 125 was palpable Sunday night. After a day of incredible racing around the world, the drivers of the FRL began to assemble for a race that would certainly clarify who would be in contention for a championship points position, and who would not.

With seven drivers setting off at the start, Turn 1 was not anticipated to be much of a trouble spot, however, with the MBR Porsche’s getting their signature fast start, the field bunched heading into the turn and things got dicey. Ethan Maestri and Bryan Dean touched and this upset the #81 DBR9, which caused further trouble for Andrew Steppat’s C7.R and Paul Maestri in the #86 911. Bryan ended up with the worst damage and had to bring it in early for repairs, setting him back for the rest of the race.

At the front, Ethan worked hard to set a strong pace but simply could not offset the power of the #001 Corvette or the #18 Z4. He would be passed by both by the time lap 10 rolled around. Once past the #2 car, Andrew set sail in what would become a nearly 1 minute lead over second place by the time the last lap concluded.

Although Travis was able to execute a clean pass at the end of the backstretch, Ethan doggedly held to his bumper for several laps. When Travis got the BMW a little wide in Turn 5, Ethan charged in to take P2 once more. After another lap to reset, Travis was able to power down the backstretch again and re-take the position. During this pitched battle for P2, Paul Maestri was beginning to creep into the picture, looming in the rear view mirrors of both the P2 competitors. After Travis was able to make his P2 pass stick and put some distance on the #2 car, he would settle into a nice rhythm, laying down the second fastest lap of the race behind the ASR car. However, lap traffic would prove to be the rookie’s undoing. While maneuvering to stay clear of Bryan’s Aston Martin, Travis would tag the tire wall in Turn 3 hard, effectively ending his fight for a podium spot.

Contention for second looked as though it was going to be a close one for the MBR drivers of Paul and Ethan Maestri. But the battle was averted when Ethan dropped a tire off into the grass, upsetting his 911 and allowing his brother to squeeze by to take P2. Ethan would close in on Paul in the closing laps, but time ran out on Ethan’s chance at P2, and his hopes of a championship receded further into the shadows as well.

There was clean racing all over the track, even at the back of the field. Chris Dilbeck in the Rocket Boys Racing #9 Porsche proved to be a true “Gentlemen Driver”, yielding the track to race leaders and still finishing in 6^th position. Tony Tyree in the #47 Aperature Labs Bentley would struggle with setup on this track and finished in P7, several seconds off the pace. Bryan Dean had a car with the pace to run at the front, but the early lap troubles, and other struggles, kept him back in P5. Once again, Travis Billingsley makes his presence at the front apparent, but is unable to string together a solid run from flag-to-flag. He finishes the 125 in P4.

In the points race, Andrew’s domination here results in a 13 point swing, lifting him 12 points over Ethan heading into the final event at Hockenheim. Bryan fades a bit in P3 and is now just 21 points ahead of Paul Maestri. Paul’s solid P2 spot and third fastest lap time netted him a season best 26 points, lifting him to 128 points, 10 ahead of Travis Billingsley.

Results

Position:	Driver:	Points:	Lap Time:	Lap Points:	Total:
1	Andrew Steppat	25	1:19.193	10	35
2	Paul Maestri	18	1:20.326	8	26
3	Ethan Maestri	15	1:20.397	7	22
4	Travis Billigsley	12	1:19.652	9	21
5	Bryan Dean	10	1:21.175	6	16
6	Chris Dilbeck	8	1:22.576	5	13
7	Tony Tyree	6	1:24.148	4	10

Position:	Driver:	Points:
1	Andrew Steppat	208
2	Ethan Maestri	196
3	Bryan Dean	149
4	Paul Maestri	128
5	Travis Billingsley	118
6	Tony Tyree	61
7	Allen Ruff	49
8	Chris Rader	34
9	Daniel Fleischman	30
10	Andy Capshaw	23
11	Mikey Collins	23
12	Chris Dilbeck	17
13	Carter Merkling	11
14	Drew Dilbeck	10
15	Matthew Smith	3