Grey Prague Gives Some Drivers The Blah's

  The FRL's TCR Cup series rolled into eastern Europe and the mean, grey streets of Prague. These cobblestone streets would prove to be meaner for some than others. The grid was set and the lights went out on a mad scramble for position in the first heat. Travis Billingsley in the #18 RS 3 started slightly farther back than in previous races, and as such, was trying to take care of his car and pick his way forward. However, in Turn 1, Paul Maestri in the #7 put his fender against the #18's rear quarter and sent Travis into a looping spin. As the field of 9 cars cleared the stricken driver, Travis got underway again and started the process all over again. 

Physics were about to come violently into play here

 Up front, Ethan Maestri led the grid from the line, but by Turn 1, the #001 of Andrew Steppat made his move around the #3 car and set sail for another stage win. Behind them,  the middle of the field was full of drivers making moves both forward and backwards. Ghabe Stouffer's race started gingerly, but he demonstrated that he had a knowledge of the track that would allow him to move up the grid, which he looked like he was going to do. But then the connection bug bit the #2 driver once again and forced a DNF for the stage. Seth Jensen had a clean start and parked his #6 car squarely in P3. He would run there unchallenged until Travis Billingsley caught up to him on lap four. Travis patiently worked to find a line around the #6 until the end of lap 5 when Seth careened off the inside wall in the final turn, allowing the #18 to squeeze past and into third. The race would be tight for P2 & P3 as Travis closed the gap to the #3's rear bumper, but time ran out before he could make the pass. 

And...liftoff for the #7 Audi

 With the reverse grid set, Heat #2 started off toward Turn 1. But just before the first turn, Nicholas Hargrove, Seth Jensen, Tony Tyree and Paul Maestri would all four lock fenders and turn into the outside wall. Paul would end up with the worst of it by far. The sheer energy of the folding metal would force his Audi to bounce off the wall and into the air. Behind him, his MBR teammate Ethan would have nowhere to go and the #7 car spun headlong into the #3 car, damaging both badly. In Paul's case, the damage was catastrophic and he would be forced to withdraw from the race. Ethan and Nick Hargrove would both limp their damaged Audi's all the way around the 3 mile track to the pits. 

 For Travis and Andrew, they would manage to clear the tangle at the start cleanly and began moving up on the drastically reduced field of cars before them. Ghabe Stouffer started from the front and looked to open some space on the rest of the field, that was until Travis and Andrew caught him, relegating him to P3. Andrew would give a good chase, but in the end, Travis' #18 would not be denied a win. 

 On the night, Andrew takes the overall victory and another 50 point haul, extending his series lead to 15 over Travis. Several drivers tied their average positions, Ghabe Stouffer coming out the better with the fastest lap time of the group, followed by Seth Jensen, then Tony Tyree and Nicholas Hargrove. Blake Wild ran mid-filed at times in the event, but too often found the rock walls around the circuit did not agree with the sheet metal of the #9 Audi and pit stops would drop him back.

Prague - Full
Andrew Steppat	50
Travis Billingsley	45
Ethan Maestri	40
Ghabe Stouffer	35
Seth Jensen	30
Tony Tyree	28
Nicholas Hargrove	26
Paul Maestri	24
Blake Wild	22

 Series Points

DRIVER	Points
Andrew Steppat	150
Travis Billingsley	130
Ethan Maestri	125
Ghabe Stouffer	100
Tony Tyree	76
Paul Maestri	70
Blake Wild	66
Preston Liberatore	65
Seth Jensen	58
Nicholas Hargrove	50
David Dodson	26

Jekyll and Hyde Heats Lead To Steppat Win

  The FRL TCR Cup series made its first ever stop at Dubai with the second round of the series playing out on the twists and turns of the Mountain circuit in reverse. The grid for the first heat was set based on the final running order of the second heat at Suzuka. Andrew Steppat would start his Audi on the front row and from the time the green flag waved to the checkered flag, Andrew would lead the entire heat. This would seem to indicate a lack of action for the race, and for the most part, it was a somewhat quiet heat as they go in the FRL. But, the result at the front hardly tells the tale of what actually unfolded during this race. 

 Andrew may have lead the race heading into the carousel of Turn 1, but he nearly lost the car in a spin charging into the turn on cold tires. Immediately behind him, Ethan Maestri began to check-up and soon found his car yawing left toward calamity as well. However, both drivers were able to collect themselves and maintain position. Behind them, a solid race was quickly unfolding. After a dismal start to the season at Suzuka, Paul Maestri found himself at the back of the line and had to set about picking his way forward past Blake Wild and Tony Tyree during the opening lap. Soon he found himself sticking his nose into a battle between Preston Liberatore and Ghabe Stouffer, a battle that seemed to be just an extension of what began at Suzuka. Paul moved past Ghabe, then a lap later, around Preston and distanced himself from the struggle for P5. That struggle became a true battle as Ghabe and Preston rubbed fenders, walls, doors and anything else around them as they traded position and paint. 

 In the end, Andrew Steppat would win the heat, but had to fend off a monster effort by Travis Billingsley, who stubbornly dogged the #001 for nearly nine laps. MBR would score a solid 3-4 finish, Ghabe Stouffer would finally pass Preston and make it stick, taking this particular battle for P5. Tony Tyree, despite a miserable handling car, finished ahead of Blake Wild in P7.

 The grid was then reversed and mayhem was unleashed in Heat 2. This heat would exhibit a far more "wild" personality than the first one. From the start, drivers became combatants as cars careened off each other in a mad scramble for position. This free-for-all was only exacerbated by the front running cars trying to quickly come up through the field. The resultant bad result of such frenetic racing was soon realized as Travis and Andrew got together exiting the carousel turn at "Hotel" and tagged the wall. Andrew tried to yield the position to Travis, but the #18 Audi was too badly damaged in the exchange and had to pit, ending Travis' hope of a dominating performance in the desert and he would wind up finishing P4 in this heat. 

 Ethan Maestri had a clean start for Heat 2 and was hoping to settle in around P3 before the two front runners came together. With the carnage of their wreck quickly receding in his rear-view, the #3 Audi driver set about trying to get around Preston Liberatore and creating a large enough gap to perhaps score a heat win over the inevitable charge that would no doubt come from Andrew Steppat. Sure enough, in the late stages of the race, the #001 Audi picked its way into second and set about closing the 11 second gap all the way down to two seconds. However, despite a very close shave with Tony Tyree on lap 10, Ethan Maestri crossed the line in P1. 

 The series moves on to Prague for two more action packed heats of racing on Sunday, March 21st.

Results:

Dubai Mtn. - R
Andrew Steppat	50
Ethan Maestri	45
Travis Bilingsley	40
Preston Liberatore	35
Ghabe Stouffer	30
Paul Maestri	28
Tony Tyree	26
Blake Wild	24

DRIVER	Points
Andrew Steppat	100
Travis Billingsley	85
Ethan Maestri	85
Ghabe Stouffer	65
Preston Liberatore	65
Tony Tyree	48
Paul Maestri	46
Blake Wild	44
Seth Jensen	28
David Dodson	26
Nicholas Hargrove	24

Jensen Repeats Daytona Feat Under the Lights

  It was a stunning night for racing at the Daytona International Speedway for the fifth and final round of the FRL's FASCAR series. Having already secured another championship win, Andrew Steppat started from pole in this race and set a blistering pace early. Fresh off his win at Indianapolis, the #3 Toyota driven by Ethan Maestri held the outside line adjacent Andrew's #01 Chevy, but eventually fell into line behind Steppat. Seth Jensen quickly wheeled his #06 Ford into third place and soon found himself in the lead.

 Further back, Nicholas Hargrove in his #5 Toyota, Ghabe Stouffer in the #2 Chevy and Blake Wild in the #9 Chevy all struggled to keep pace with the Top 5 cars. Travis Billingsley started well in the #18 Toyota, but got shuffled out of line by Seth Jenson and lost touch with the lead pack of cars. He would fall back to Paul Maestri in the #7 Toyota where they would link up in a draft and hoped to make ground toward the leaders. They would soon be joined by Ethan in the #3 and together they would try to draft forward, but the horsepower of the front two cars was too much to overcome. 

 While there were no caution flags for any of the 100 laps of the race, there was certainly some drama for racers brushing the wall and having trouble getting out of the pit lane. In the end, Seth Jensen stick flicked his way to victory, once again being pushed along by Andrew Steppet. In a late push, Travis Billingsley got around Paul Maestri to secure P3 on the night. 

 Fifty points for the race winner would certainly snug things up in the points series. Seth found himself with a total haul of 182 points over the course of the series, edging him past the 2017 Fall Champion, Paul Maestri, into fourth overall in the points. Not a bad showing for a driver in only his second series in the FRL. Travis Billingsley, having never finished worse than fourth in any of the five races, claimed third overall in the series. Ethan Maestri, despite two victories in the season, come in second overall. Andrew Steppat claimed his first and only victory in FASCAR at Road America, but with a slew of second place finishes the rest of the series, took the points championship in an impressive way. 

 Attention in the FRL turns back to road racing and the TCR series which continues from Dubai on Sunday, March 14th.

DRIVER	Points
Andrew Steppat	230
Ethan Maestri	186
Travis Billingsley	185
Seth Jensen	182
Paul Maestri	169
Preston Liberatore	117
Ghabe Stouffer	114
Nicholas Hargrove	112
Tony Tyree	109
Blake Wild	86
Brandon Adkins	66
David Dodson	38
Mikey Collins	24
Ricky Wilborn Jr.	16
Daytona 250
Seth Jensen	50
Andrew Steppat	45
Travis Bilingsley	40
Paul Maestri	35
Ethan Maestri	30
Nicholas Hargrove	28
Ghabe Stouffer	26
Blake Wild	24

Indy 150 Result and Series Points

After 4 of the 5 FASCAR events, here are the series standings. 

DRIVER	Points
Andrew Steppat	185
Ethan Maestri	156
Travis Billingsley	145
Paul Maestri	134
Seth Jensen	132
Preston Liberatore	117
Tony Tyree	109
Ghabe Stouffer	88
Nicholas Hargrove	84
Brandon Adkins	66
Blake Wild	62
David Dodson	38
Mikey Collins	24
Ricky Wilborn Jr.	16
Indianapolis 200
Ethan Maestri	50
Andrew Steppat	45
Paul Maestri	40
Travis Bilingsley	35
Preston Liberatore	30
Seth Jensen	28
Ghabe Stouffer	26
Tony Tyree	24
Nicholas Hargrove	22

MBR Bracket's Steppat Racing In Indy 150

  The FRL's FASCAR series reaches it's penultimate round at the Indianapolis speedway for the Indy 150. The field of 9 drivers set out on a single pace lap to get the grid ready for green flag racing. As the green flag waved, all 9 cars charged through Turn 1 without much incident and 60 laps of racing commenced. 

 Andrew Steppat started from the pole and quickly secured the lead, followed closely by Ethan Maestri. Behind them, the contest for positions three through six would rage between Travis Billingsley, Preston Liberatore, Paul Maestri and Seth Jensen. Eventually the scrum would shuffle out the Ford's driven by Preston and Seth. The battle for third would settle into a cold war between the Toyota's of Travis and Paul, with Travis looking to have the better of it for most of the race. 

 Further back, Nicholas ran afoul of internet issues early on and would post and unfortunate DNF. Ghabe Stouffer would find himself trundling around in seventh, but having a better time of it than Tony Tyree, who was having all manner of trouble keeping his #47 Chevy pointed the right way on the circuit. 

 Up front, Ethan and Andrew would trade positions on 4 occasions early on, the last of those 4 lead changes would occur under scary circumstances as Ethan would lose the backend of the #3 Toyota and would spin into Turn 2, nearly clipping the inside wall. This setup Andrew for a long cruise out front with Travis being his nearest competition, some 8 seconds behind him. Travis would have some difficulty keeping himself out of trouble later in the race and got tangled with several cars to bring out the only caution of the race. After things got sorted, the green flag waved with 8 laps to go. Andrew Steppat, his sizable lead having been erased by the caution flag, found himself being harassed by Ethan Maestri. With 5 laps to go, Andrew would sail off into Turn 3 with Ethan Maestri close behind, taking the wind off his tail and causing him to wash up the track and into the wall. Ethan would inherit the lead and Travis would move into second place before Andrew would get collected and back up to speed.

 With just a couple laps to go and several seconds between cars, the final running order looked to be set. However, Travis would find himself pushing into Turn 1 and lost the grip in his #18 Toyota, causing him to wash up the track. This allowed Andrew to claim at least one lost position and even allowed Paul Maestri to advance into third place. The checkered flag flew with Ethan Maestri claiming his second win of the season, Andrew Steppat making the most of it in second and Paul Maestri getting his second podium of the series in third. 

 The final round goes back to Daytona to settle the series under the lights on March 7th.