Altered TCR Schedule Opens At Suzuka East

 The whirlwind start to 2021 in the FRL continued with the opening round of the TCR Spec series at the Suzuka East circuit this past Sunday night. 11 drivers, sporting very sharp and colorful liveries, took to the track in their Audi RS3 TCR race whips. 

A promising start for the #7 MBR car would end in tragedy

 Qualifying would not go smoothly and a truncated qualifying session lead to an interesting grid start. For Heat 1, Andrew Steppat would start from pole and would run the heat unchallenged at the front from start to finish. Travis Billingsley would tail the multi-time champion and would turn in a solid P2 effort. Ethan Maestri suffered a poor qualifying effort and started in the P7 slot, but fought his way forward on a circuit that was difficult to pass on. He would end up in P3 at the checkered flag. 

 Heat 2 was a reverse grid start and this lead to some dicey but fun racing for most of the field. It would take several laps for Andrew to make his way forward to P1. Travis would find himself following Andrew toward the front, but missed his braking line in Turn 5, allowing Ethan Maestri to assume the P2 position. Travis would recover himself to finish P3. 

Ghabe Stouffer and Preston Liberatore battled in both events

 For Paul Maestri Heat 2 would be an especially tough pill to swallow. In Heat 1, Paul was the unfortunate victim of an early move gone wrong as his car was turned and shunted into the wall along the front straight, fully damaging his drivetrain and leaving him stranded for the first 4 laps of the heat. This would put him at the head of the line in Heat 2, and early on, he looked to be capitalizing on the opportunity extending his lead by several seconds over the rest of the roiling field. Three-quarters of the way through the race, he was still in the lead and even if the #01 was able to reach his bumper there was every reason to believe that Paul could hold off a late pass. But disaster struck the #7, a wide run over the outside curb in Turn 1 upset the suspension on Paul's Audi and looped him into the tire barrier hard, forcing a pit stop and dropped him well down the field. Two laps later, another loop in the same spot would retire him from the race early. 

The #18 of Travis Billingsley gives up the race line, and position

 For Ghabe Stouffer and Preston Liberatore, they would spend both heats hunting each other as their lap times were virtually the same lap after lap. Ghabe made the most of both heats, scoring P4 in each. Preston had a solid Top 5 finish on the night as well. Positions 6 through 9 was a war between "new blood" and "old guard" as Seth Jensen and David "Triple Dill" Dodson look to make a splash in the series. The race veteran's Tony Tyree and Nicholas Hargrove gave chase and fought tooth and nail both heats. For Seth, P6 would be his reward on the night in both heats. Dodson would do very well in Heat 1, scoring a P7. Hargrove was able to assert himself better in Heat 2, finishing P7. Tony Tyree would find his $47 Audi bruised at the end of both Heats, managing P9 on the night. Bringing up the rear, and still in his "fresh from the factory" stock paint was Blake Wild, who in his words, "had a great time" on his first trip to Suzuka. 

 The next round of the series takes us to Dubai, and another first time for the FRL as we race on the Mountain Circuit in Reverse on March 14th!  

Result & Series Points

1. Andrew Steppat - 50

2. Travis Billingsley - 45

3. Ethan Maestri - 40

4. Ghabe Stouffer - 35

5. Preston Liberatore - 30

6. Seth Jensen - 28

7. David Dodson - 26

8. Nicholas Hargrove - 24

9. Tony Tyree - 22

10. Blake Wild - 20

11. Paul Maestri - 18

Steppat Wins At Road America

  The FRL FASCAR series arrives in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin for the series first ever race on the Road America East Circuit. The 2.14 mile, four turn circuit looks like an oval but drives like a road track. It certainly caught more than a few drivers unawares as the 45 lap event unfolded. 

Eleven drivers take the green flag on the Road America East circuit

 The green flag would fly over a somewhat disorganized start, which would open some doors early for some big moves. Preston Liberatore had done his homework and his #54 Ford was ready to go and he quickly ascended the order, placing himself all the way up into second place by the close of the third lap. Ethan Maestri and Ghabe Stouffer would have an early battle in the beginning laps, the #2 Ford & #3 Toyota's would soon be joined by the #18 Toyota driven by Travis Billingsley. The three would train around the course for several laps until Ethan bobbled in Turn's 3 & 4, allowing Ghabe and Travis to sneak by. 

Anticipating trouble leads to trouble for the #3 in Turn 4

 Further afield Seth Jenson would start near the front, but his ill mannered #06 Ford would prove to be a handful and he would soon find himself sliding back down the order. He would eventually settle and hold the sixth position. Behind him, most of the remaining drivers would encounter multiple issues ranging from collision to poor handling race cars. Paul Maestri, in the #7 Toyota would lose the back end of his Alienware sponsored Camry and shoved his nose into the tire wall just outside the pit entry lane, this would set off a continuing series of unfortunate circumstances for the duration of his race. Despite the setbacks, he would still manage to climb from dead last up to seventh place by the time the race concluded. Similar stories would unfold for Nicholas Hargrove, Tony Tyree, Blake Wild and Brandon Adkins as each struggled to man-handle their racing machines around the undulating and tricky circuit.

The #7 Toyota spins out of Turn 4 and greets the tire wall

 At the front though, Andrew Steppat started well, continued well and was finally able to get the FASCAR monkey off his back by scoring his first FASCAR series win. Preston Liberatore owned second place from early on as well. Ghabe Stouffer made a triumphant return to form by eventually distancing himself from a great battle with Travis Billingsley and secured third place. 

 The series advances to its fourth round to take place at the Indianapolis oval on February 28th. 

Results and Points Standings

DRIVER	Points
Andrew Steppat	140
Travis Billingsley	110
Ethan Maestri	106
Seth Jensen	104
Paul Maestri	94
Preston Liberatore	87
Tony Tyree	85
Brandon Adkins	66
Blake Wild	62
Nicholas Hargrove	62
Ghabe Stouffer	62
David Dodson	38
Mikey Collins	24
Ricky Wilborn Jr.	16
Road America East
Andrew Steppat	50
Preston Liberatore	45
Ghabe Stouffer	40
Travis Bilingsley	35
Ethan Maestri	30
Seth Jensen	28
Paul Maestri	26
Nicholas Hargrove	24
Tony Tyree	22
Blake Wild	20
Brandon Adkins	18

TCR Delay and FASCAR Points Standings

  The opening race for the TCR Cup series has been moved to Monday February 8th at 8:45 PM. Qualifying will begin at 8:45 PM with the grid set and green flag around 9 PM. We hope to see all FRL drivers to kick off this spec series at the Bathurst Circuit.

 With the off week before Road America on February 14th, here are the current points standings after two races.

DRIVER	Points
Andrew Steppat	90
Ethan Maestri	76
Seth Jensen	76
Travis Billingsley	75
Paul Maestri	68
Tony Tyree	63
Brandon Adkins	48
Preston Liberatore	42
Blake Wild	42
Nicholas Hargrove	38
David Dodson	38
Mikey Collins	24
Ghabe Stouffer	22
Ricky Wilborn Jr.	16

 

Maestri Fends Off Steppat For Homestead Win

 The FRL FASCAR series stayed in Florida this week and setup camp at Homestead Speedway for the second race of the 2021 series. Eleven cars made their way to the South Florida track that saw quite a heated battle for top lap times during testing that occurred throughout the week leading up to the race itself. Four different drivers held the number 1 spot on the leaderboard at various times during the week. Blake Wild found the sweetest spot in his setup and laid down a blistering lap time of 29.580, a time that no one was able to rival for the rest of the week. 

 The starting grid was set based of finishing positions in the previous Daytona race. Andrew Steppat and Seth Jensen lined up on the front row to take the green flag with nine other drivers behind them. Most of lap one was pretty clean as everyone seemed to be doing their best to get a clean start. Ethan Maestri jumped ahead of Brandon early, but gave the position back to him when it was thought he had passed the #88 Ford before the start/finish line. Brandon would experience a bit of over-rotation in Turn 4, brushing the wall and doing a perfect slide into the pit area, dropping himself a lap down.

 Early indications looked like Seth Jensen and Andrew Steppat would carry their Daytona battle for first place straight into this event. But the #6 Ford eventually began to fall back as Travis Billingsley and Ethan Maestri began marching their Toyota's forward. Caution was declared on the track on several occasions as Seth Jensen, Preston Liberatore, Blake Wild and David Dodson found the outside walls and crossed wheels with others. 

 Much of the later half of the race was run under caution, which allowed pit cycles to remain pretty consistent. On the next to last restart after caution, Ethan Maestri was able to move between Andrew Steppat and Travis Billingsley just passed the start/finish line to sail the #3 Toyota into the lead, while the #1 and #18 settled their race. The last restart saw Ethan get a clean start and he was able to hold off a close race from Andrew Steppat to claim the victory. Paul Maestri, in the #7 MBR team car was able to just edge out Travis Billingsley to take third place. 

 Andrew Steppat emerges from the second race of the series with a 16 point lead over Ethan Maestri and Seth Jensen, who are tied for second in points with 76. Travis Billingsley slips to fourth behind them with 75 points. The points race will continue with the next event at Road America on  February 14th.