FEC Laguna Seca Race Results

Podium finishers for the race at the beautiful Mazda Laguna Seca track were Andrew Steppat, Ethan Maestri, and Paul Maestri.  Congratulations.

Driver Finishing Order		Fastest Lap	Points		Team Points
P1	Andrew Steppat	1;30.383 (+3)	28*		Apex Racing	254
P2	Ethan Maestri	1;30.771 (+2)	20*		MBR	187
P3	Paul Maestri	1;32.603 (+1)	16*
P4	Tony Tyree	1;33.232	12
P5	Matthew Smith	1;34.122	10
P6	Danny McClain	1;39.860	8
P7	Nathan Turner	1;40.507 *	6
FEC Series Standings		Total Points			Race Wins
1	Andrew Steppat	186			Andrew Steppat	5
2	Ethan Maestri	139			Ethan Maestri	2
3	Travis Billingsley	108			Travis Billingsley	1
4	Bryan Dean	103
5	Tony Tyree	62
6	Matthew Smith	56
7	Paul Maestri	40
8	Danny McClain	37
9	Nicholas Hargrove	28
10	Allen Ruff	14
11	Nathan Turner	9
12	Chris Rader	5
13	Mike Webb	5
14	Ryan Mazzocco	4
15	Drew Dilbeck	-12
16	Owen Henderson	-20

Le Mans One-Off Results

 It was a robust field of 10 drivers participated in this years FRL running of the 24 Laps of Le Mans. After over an hour and a half of racing in day and night conditions it was Toyota that would grab the overall victory and P2 with Andrew Steppat managing a flawless race and bagging another One-Off victory overall. P2 in the Prototype class and overall goes to Travis Billingsley, also in a Toyota Hybrid race car. His race was not as flawless, but solid no less. He would come back from a forced spin early in the race to place third in the first of three stints and then grab P2 in the remaining two stints. Ethan Maestri had a very up and down race in his #3 Porsche 919, both he and Bryan Dean showed themselves to have the top spot in outright pace, but the fuel consumption game would keep them off the top of the podium. Ethan brings home P3 overall and in class for the German marque.

 In GTLM, Tony Tyree, after nearly 5 years of competition, claims his first victory in an FRL event. His #47 Corvette C7.R dominated the GT class, setting pace in all three stints. He also claims an impressive P4 overall in the event. Nicholas Hargrove made a valiant effort to keep pace with Tony in his C7.R but has to settle for P2 in class and finishing 6th overall. Matthew Smith made a manufacturer switch late in development and suffered a bit from the learning curve. He places P3 in class and P7 overall.

 Congratulations to both class winners and to all for taking on the challenge of sim endurance racing and participating in a fun event.

Prototype Class:    
P1 - Andrew Steppat -25 points
P2 - Travis Billingsley - 18 points
P3 - Ethan Maestri - 15 points
P4 - Bryan Dean - 10 points
P5 - Paul Maestri - 2 points

GTLM Class:
P1 - Tony Tyree - 12 points
P2 - Nicholas Hargrove - 8 points
P3 - Matthew Smith - 6 points
P4 - Danny McClain - 4 points
P5 - Allen Ruff - 1 points

Overall Finish:                                                
P1 - Andrew Steppat
P2 - Travis Billingsley
P3 - Ethan Maestri
P4 - Tony Tyree
P5 - Bryan Dean
P6 - Nicholas Hargrove
P7 - Matthew Smith
P8 - Danny McClain
P9 - Paul Maestri
P10 - Allen Ruff

One-Off Points:
P1 - Andrew Steppat - 125
P2 - Travis Billingsley - 77
P3 - Ethan Maestri - 63
P4 - Nicholas Hargrove - 54
P5 - Tony Tyree - 52
P6 - Matthew Smith - 35
P7 - Paul Maestri - 20
P8 - Drew Dilbeck - 16
P9 - Mike Webb - 12
P10 - Bryan Dean - 10
P11 - Allen Ruff - 7
P12 - Danny McClain - 6
P13 - Tim Adkins - 4
P14 - Owen Henderson - 4
P15 - Ryan Mazzocco - 1

VIR Recap

 The FEC arrives in the sunny and verdant hills of Virginia to race event #7 at Virginia International Raceway. The evening began with qualifying which, Andrew Steppat the eventual pole winner, would barely arrive in time for. Bryan Dean would suffer failure during qualifying and would have to start at the rear. Danny McClain suffered from a poor setup and left the track to sort out his setup.

Green flag at VIR

 With front row set with another lock-out by Nissan, the green flag waved. Andrew led his 370Z nimbly through Turn 1 and set sail for another victory. Behind him, things immediately got dicey. Travis Billingsley, starting from third, downshifted too far into the hairpin of Turn 1 and got loose, washing up into Ethan Maestri and forcing him out of the throttle to recover. As the group was exiting the turn, Bryan Dean was forced to switch lanes quickly to get around Tony Tyree, but Ethan was still recovering his car and Bryan made contact with the stricken Nissan, punting it sideways. Tony and Bryan would make contact with each other as they cleared Ethan, but escaped serious damage. Allen Ruff would have no where to go as the #3 370Z spun around the track into his BMW's line. The two would end up in the grass and tire barrier of Turn 2.

 Ethan Maestri drifts toward Turn 2 and Mike Webb has a big moment out in the grass

 This would start a long cycle of big off's for a majority of the field. Heading into the south end of the track, Mike Webb would get his Aston Martin off into the grass at very high speed. He held onto it fairly well, but could not get slowed fast enough before contact with the barrier put him on his top.

 The field of nine cars settled into endurance mode as drivers struggled with the tight quarters and high speed undulating raceway. After the first round of pits, Andrew Steppat had a healthy lead over the field and looked to have an easy victory ahead. But, with about 17 laps to go, connection issues sidelined the points leader and he was forced from the track. This would change the complexion of the race for the top 3 drivers. Travis Billingsley was having a remarkable race. The stability of the Aston Martin was working in his favor. With Andrew behind the wall, the possibility of scoring Aston Martin's first victory of the season lay before him. Bryan Dean was finding the groove for this track about mid-way and now he felt he could close on the new leader. He would eventually do so, but still had a few close calls on the track which slowed his advance and a fuel thirsty Porsche would hamper his efforts as well. He would set a blistering fast la time, and eventually would close on Travis with three laps to go. However, a final fuel stop to reach the end would bring his hopes of a victory to naught. Travis Billingsely brings home his first win of this FEC season.

Andrew Steppat had things well in hand from race start

 Ethan Maestri would suffer several bad missteps on track but would recover well enough, finishing third. P4 would got to Tony Tyree who had an interesting back-and-forth race all evening with teammate Matthew Smith. Matthew would have one too many mistakes and would have to settle for P5.

Bryan Dean (Porsche 911) would make a hard charge up to Travis (Vantage) late in the race, but time and fuel worked against him

 With several regular drivers unable to make the race, the points series has now been further mixed up again. Tony Tyree currently sits in fifth place overall in the points. With the shakeup on the track at the front, Andrew Steppat still has a commanding lead overall, but a tight battle for P2-P4 is shaping up for Ethan, Tavis and Bryan respectively. The series heads fro the left coast for the 8th event of the FEC at Laguna Seca on June 25th.

FEC VIR Race Results

Congratulations to Travis Billingsley on his first race win of the FEC season, and to Bryan Dean and Ethan Maestri on podium finishes.

Driver Finishing Order		Fastest Lap	Points		Team Points
P1	Travis Billingsley	1;54.773	25		Apex Racing	232
P2	Bryan Dean	1;52.986 (+3)	21*		MBR	151
P3	Ethan Maestri	1;54.109 (+1)	16*
P4	Tony Tyree	1;58.755	12
P5	Matthew Smith	1;57.224	10
P6	Allen Ruff	2;01.390	8
P7	Danny McClain	2;04.321	6
P8	Mike Webb	2;08.833	4
P9	Andrew Steppat	1;53.129 (+2)	4*
FEC Series Standings		Total Points			Race Wins
1	Andrew Steppat	158			Andrew Steppat	4
2	Ethan Maestri	119			Ethan Maestri	2
3	Travis Billingsley	108			Travis Billingsley	1
4	Bryan Dean	103
5	Tony Tyree	50
6	Matthew Smith	46
7	Danny McClain	29
8	Nicholas Hargrove	28
9	Paul Maestri	24
10	Allen Ruff	14
11	Chris Rader	5
12	Mike Webb	5
13	Ryan Mazzocco	4
14	Nathan Turner	3
15	Drew Dilbeck	-12
16	Owen Henderson	-20

VIR This Weekend, Le Mans Waits In The Wings

 It is a busy week in the FRL coming up. This Sunday night beginning at 8:45 PM, qualifying for the FEC's race at Virginia International Raceway will begin. This 36 lap event promises to test the skill and concentration of every driver that takes the track. This notches the pressure up for all involved in the heated points race that continues to stay in flux as the races wind down in this championship season.

 Also this coming week, the FRL returns to Le Mans for multi-class racing on the Circuit La Sarthe! Friday nights 3-stage event promises to throw the book at FRL drivers with a challenge in both multiple class racing in a variety of conditions. Several drivers have already registered for the event. Here is the registered list so far.

Prototype Class:
#001 Andrew Steppat - 2014 Toyota Hybrid
#18 Travis Billingsley - 2014 Toyota Hybrid
#3 Ethan Maestri - 2014 Porsche 919

GTLM Class:
#5 Nicholas Hargrove - 2014 Corvette C7.R
#47 Tony Tyree - 2014 Corvette C7.R
#27 Mike Webb - 2014 Corvette C7.R
#xx Carter Merkling - 2014 Corvette C7.R

 Get ready for one of the most exciting races of this One-Off season! The show gets set to start with qualifying at 8:45 PM Friday night!

Le Mans Press Releases For The Week

Travis Billingsley and Apex Racing released this about their #18 Toyota prototype entry for Le Man:

"I was very pleased to receive an invitation from the Weathertech team to drive for them in the upcoming LeMans race. As a sponsor of my efforts in the FRL season currently in progress, getting to work with them while driving their Toyota Prototype entry at LeMans will be a highlight of his race season. I will be heading to France directly after my race at VIR in the Weathertech Aston Martin. I am very much looking forward to working with the team during that iconic race."

From Option 13 Racing, Ethan Maestri had this to say for his ride in the #3 Porsche 919:

"We are extremely pleased that Porsche North America and Spyder decided to hop over the pond with us and sponsor the Porsche 919 for this iconic one-off race. We've only run a couple of FRL events so far, we finished second in a Porsche prototype at Daytona so we have a bit of single car experience but we are still new as a team. The Toyota's certainly appear to have the pace and stability to excel at the front of the field. We'll continue to dig and get our car right so we can contend and, with a little good fortune, we hope to race at the front and make this as exciting an event as possible."

1.4 Hours of Le Mans One-Off Information & New One-Off Announcement

Timing and scoring for next Friday's (6/16/2017) running of the One-Off 1.4 Hours of Le Mans will be FRL standard with 6 laps being run for the first segment, 12 laps for the night segment and 6 laps for the final segment in daytime or rain conditions depending on the weather roll. 

 For Prototype Class cars, R-998 is the max P.I. rating with open tuning.

Eligible cars: 2014 Audi R-18, 2014 Porsche 919 (DLC), 2014 Toyota Hybrid (DLC)

 For GTLM cars, R-865 is the max P.I. rating with open tuning as well.

Eligible cars: 2014 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, 2016 Ford GT (Le Mans), 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 2014 Ferrari 458 GT car (#62 Risi)

Please note that the deadline for registering your entry is 6/9/17. 

We are also pleased to announce another One-Off Challenge for this summer. Autocross comes to the FRL this summer as we get to break out the old WTCC cars from season 6 of the FRL. 

 You can access this event on your own by entering Rivals>Autocross>Global Touring Autocross (at Rio). Make certain you use an FRL spec car (Max P.I. rating of S-800 see link for eligible cars: http://forzdayraceseries.blogspot.com/2016/08/registration-deadline-approaches.html) and post your fastest lap around the autocross course. This is a relaxed event to challenge yourself with in the summer weeks ahead. Post your top lap time in the Google chat and challenge your rivals!

 This event will run from 6/6/17 until the end of 7/31/17. Once concluded, the rival leader board will be recorded and points will be awarded accordingly.

Andrew Steppat Wins 2nd Running of the Indy 200

 It was a slow start for the 2nd annual FRL Indy 200. Qualifying started later than planned, but Ethan Maestri was able to win pole position with a sub-38 second lap. He would take that front row position, with Nicholas Hargrove on the outside of row one, and head into Turn 1 for the lead of the opening laps of the race. Nicholas would fall in behind and the two would have a dominating run over the field of 10 cars for the first 30 laps or so.

"Pardon me, coming through." Andrew Steppat (middle) threads his way through traffic at Indy 

 As the final pit cycles were finishing up, Ethan Maestri found himself just ahead of Andrew Steppat. Andrew would fall in very close to Ethan as they headed off into Turn 1. As they turned in, Ethan's back wheels had no traction as the draft from Andrew's car removed the downforce off his spoiler. Ethan would end up hard into the wall and out of the lead. This would start a woeful series of laps for the former front runner. Nicholas Hargrove would inherit the lead and would build a huge gap over third place Andrew Steppat. The race continued to worsen for Ethan, he would spin a third time trying to avoid contact and would wind up hard into the wall just outside the pit entrance. His #3 Chevy was damaged so badly that he could not even move into the pit lane. Nicholas Hargrove would do the unthinkable at this point. Leading the race, he would pull down and help the stricken Ethan Maestri into the pits. After clearing the #3, he would promptly head back out onto the track perhaps not winning the stage, but certainly winning the respect of all those competing.

 The field would be re-racked for the final 30 laps with Andrew Steppat leading the field. As the race started, a series of incredible events would unfold that would eliminate nearly every car from contention except one, the #001 of Andrew Steppat would singularly clear the Turn 1 carnage created by Allen Ruff and would go on to complete the final 30 laps unchallenged.

Carnage in Turn's 1 and into 2. Nicholas Hargrove nearly cleared the spinning Allen Ruff...nearly.

As bad as Travis Billingsley and Tony Tyree were damaged in the Turn 1 & 2 carnage (foreground), Allen Ruff  (in air, background) endured the brunt of the accident

 Drivers Mike Webb and Ryan Mazzocco would find themselves in the catbird seat, picking their way through the wrecked field of cars that had started in front of them. They would run for a time in P4 & P5. Eventually Ryan would spin again and would drop behind Tim Adkins and Ethan Maestri. Mike Webb would suffer an ill handling car and would spin out of fourth place. Tim Adkins and Ethan Maestri would settle into a battle for fourth briefly. Ethan tried to make a move on the outside of Turn 1 and washed up into the wall, sending him into the pits and ending any chance for a race win. Tim ran well in P4 until he spun and started a cycle toward the back of the field. This allowed Tony Tyree and Travis Billingsley to creep back into the mid-pack. Danny McClain  had a fantastic start and a solid run through the first heat to finish in P2. However, he would get collected in the Turn 1 incident and would wind up in P8 on the night, just behind Tim Adkins. 

Ethan Maestri (Red #3) gets ready to make a pass on the #14 of Tim Adkins, a fateful move that would end his chances of a win for the night

 Mike Webb would be passed by Ethan Maestri in the late stages of the second heat but pulled off a feat by finishing ahead of FRL veteran in P4. Nicholas Hargrove recovered from the early carnage in the second heat to finish P2, well back from Andrew Steppat, who was able to cruise to an easy victory in this annual FRL event. He'll receive the Crystal Trophy for his efforts and taste the dairy product of his choice in celebration. Our next One-Off comes quickly with a multi-class event on the famed Le Mans circuit on June 14th.