Limey! That was a lot of cars for such a small track.
In the absence of recaps for the Watkins Glen and now Lime Rock race events. It's way past time to take stock of where we are at in this current Forzday Endurance Championship season. Several developments have taken place in the series over the past several races which has changed the look of the points series.
You wouldn't think so just by looking at the top of the points leaderboard though. Five races into a nine race season and the top of the list looks exactly as one would expect. With only a minor bump in the dominance of Steppat Racing (a second place finish at Sebring), Andrew Steppat has reeled off 3 straight wins coupled with fantastic lap times to extend himself to a 51 point lead over second place. Even with the "Internet Nebraska" factor in play on a couple of races, he still looks to close out this season with another championship.
But, look down the list and things are not exactly status quo. Despite good finishes at Circuit Of the Americas and Lime Rock, Paul Maestri is still suffering the effects of the manufacturer switch and finds himself a ways down from a top 5 position in the points standings. This has had the effect of creating a mad scramble inside the Apex garage for 5th position in points. Tony Tyree has had consistently good finishes so far and currently occupies a spot in the Top 5, but what would the standings look like had his team mates Matthew Smith and Nicholas Hargrove not had their troubles? Matthew's DNF at Watkins Glen came as he was running a phenominal race in P5. Nick had been a consistent finisher as well, until his streak came to an end with his DNF at Lime Rock last week.
Missing from the mix of Top 10 contenders is Drew Dilbeck. He and Owen Henderson are still in the negative point range after switching with MBR to the 370Z's. One would hope to see these two on the track again soon, if only to post positive points in the series.
But even that has become a taller order than in times past. Three new drivers have joined in the FEC action this season. This has ballooned the usual 10-11 car fields to 12 and potentially more, making it just that much more difficult to finish in points paying positions. Danny McClain finds himself in a choice position inside the Top 10, and is showing signs of making improvement in his abilities on the track. Ryan Mazzocco scored 2 points in his first FRL event and finds himself ahead of other FRL veterans at the moment. Mike Webb joined the FRL for the first time at Lime Rock and came away with a point as well, something that not many true rookies in the FRL can claim.
All of this gives one a little perspective as we head into the latter half of the FEC season. There are a lot of points still out there. For some, this could be their chance to break into the Top 5 in a championship season for the first time. For others, they have a chance at 2nd place of the first time in a series...2nd is the new 1st by the way, because in the end, we all know we can't catch the silver/yellow bullet.
Its a short week for us drivers as we head to Road America for 37 laps of fun this coming Sunday, May 21st.
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