Race of Italy - Recap Part Deux

The reversed grid order lines up for Heat 2 at Monza

With the servers running smoothly on Monday night, the FRL continued its Race of Italy at Monza. Some of Sunday night’s Heat 1 participants were unable to make it for the delayed second heat. But one driver, Owen Henderson, who missed Sunday night’s race was able to join in the second on Monday.

Drew Dilbeck would take the green flag from the front and held the lead through the first chicane. Down the stretch to the second chicane, Drew would be passed by a hard-charging Andrew Steppat. After a frustrating first heat, he benefitted from race start shenanigans off the line and got ahead of the crowd early. After a flying pass around Drew into the second chicane he would settle into a commanding lead for most of the heat.

Travis Billingsley would get a clean start as well and followed Andrew into P2 early on. He would steadily lose ground to Andrew, but would keep pace ahead of Ethan Maestri. Ethan would have to swerve hard off the line to avoid crashing into a stationary Nicholas Hargrove. He and Bryan Dean looked to be locked into an early battle, but Bryan would swing wide into Turn 6 and crash into Drew Dilbeck. Drew had slid off track and was trying to gingerly merge back into traffic. Bryan would suffer heavy damage here, even spinning a second time before eventually limping to an early pitstop.   

Paul Maestri, who finished strong in the first heat, would start from the rear of the field serving a self-induced penalty for blocking in Heat 1. He would  suffer from discomfort during this race and would not be able to advance on the leaders as he had before, eventually winding up in P6.

Nicholas Hargrove and Tony Tyree would have difficulty at various points of the race and would finish in P7 and P8 respectively. However, despite a P7 finish, Nicholas moves to extend his lead over rookie rival Matthew Smith, who was unable to make the second heat.

The race of the evening was between Ethan Maestri and Travis Billingsley. Ethan’s Audi was able to tail the #18 Volvo for 11 laps. Travis would bobble a corner and Ethan would close, then Ethan would slide out a bit and Travis would extend his lead. But the two cars seemed to have a tether with about a 1000 ft. limit between them. Neither driver seemed able to separate or close much from the other. That was until Ethan’s #85 S3 needed to stop for fuel. This allowed Travis some breathing room, and a few laps later, he inherited the lead when Andrew’s #001 BMW had to stop as well. Travis would win Heat 2, posting a solid victory at Monza. Andrew would finish second in the heat and with an overall P2 as well. Ethan would benefit from Bryan’s unfortunate absence at the front, and would finish P3, with an overall 4th place finish.

The points races become even more interesting after this 6th event. With two more races left at Switzerland and Road America, the points lead is still up for grabs as Travis closes to just 5 points behind Andrew Steppat. Bryan gains a few points over Ethan with a P3 overall finish, but only 6 points separate 3rd from 4th. The rookie battle between Nicholas Hargrove and Matthew Smith is still undecided as well. The series heads over the Alps into Switzerland for the 7th event at the Alps Festival circuit.