This past Sunday, the FRL’s off-season came to an end in spectacular fashion as 12 FRL drivers took the start for the longest race in FRL history! The Forzday Endurance Championship began it’s 2017 season with a 40 lap event at the Daytona Sports Car Circuit.
A fifteen minute qualifying session ended up looking like a mirror image of the Rivals leaderboard as Andrew Steppat put his Nissan Z on the Pole with Bryan Dean parking his 911 next to him in row 1. As the green flag began the endurance event, the action heated up quickly as the field headed into Turn 1. Paul Maestri came in a little too hot into the corner, having started from P5, and bumped into the P3 car of Travis Billingsley. Travis’ Aston Martin Vantage suffered no ill effects, but Paul would need to pit to correct damage incurred in the altercation. Chris Rader would have an even more eventful ‘uh-oh’ moment and sent his Porsche 911 careening off the track flipping several times and incurring heavy damage.
Both drivers would catch a huge break as track timing and scoring issues brought out the caution flag and forced an early restart. The restart would prove to be quite a bit more tame and the field immediately began to set into the long 37 laps that remained in the event. Defending champion Andrew Steppat would have an early off coming into Turn 1 that would allow the close following Porsche of Bryan Dean to take the lead away early. Andrew would recover and maintain P2 just ahead of Travis Billingsley. Several laps later, Andrew’s Nissan would close on the #808 911 of Bryan’s and make an attempt to pass for the lead. There was some confusion on Bryan’s part and he moved down the track, touching Andrew’s car at 180 mph coming up toward the Start/Finish line. Bryan’s 911 would wiggle a bit but was able to roll on, Andrew was able to save his Nissan from spinning up into the wall, still some light contact removed his side-view mirror from a useful position.
Further back, a fairly intense battle was playing out for Paul Maestri, Drew Dilbeck and Tony Tyree in P’s 6-8. Drew Dilbeck would encounter some trouble in the Bus Stop chicane and would settle back into P8. However Paul and Tony would run nose-to-tail for a few laps more. Finally, as the two were setting up to exit the International Horseshoe, Tony would dive the #47 Apex Racing Aston Martin a little too deep into the corner, allowing enough room for Paul to power the #86 MBR Vantage around Tony’s inside and out onto the straight away, taking P6.
Nicholas Hargrove would have a very good qualifying effort, starting in 7th position and making his way up to P5 early on. But eventually he gave ground to Paul and brought the #5 Gasmonkey Vantage to a P7 finish. Owen Henderson made his debut in the #24 MBR Xbox One sponsored Aston Martin, and ran very well until developing a connection problem and was retired from the race. Tony Tyree would put up a hard fight for much of this event, but several lapses in concentration led to some fairly big off’s on the track. Drew Dilbeck was able to regain his position over Tony and eventually teammates Nick Hargrove and Matthew Smith were able to pass as well. Tony would finish in P9. Nate Turner and Chris Rader were able to return to the FRL for this event as well. While not at the sharp end of the field they did run all 40 laps and were the very definition of gentlemen drivers on the track. They were not the cause of any accidents, nor did they challenge leaders as they approached.
In all it was a fun race night for all. Andrew Steppat takes the win at Daytona and an early lead in the points.Bryan Dean posts a very respectable second place here. Travis Billingsley held down P3 nicely. We head down to central Florida and Sebring International Raceway for next month’s event.
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