Submitted by Preston Liberatore
ROUND 1 WINNER Travis Billingsly
Sunday December 3rd was the start of the FRL's 12th Season! Grand Oak Raceway would host the first race of the season with a whopping 17 drivers on the lineup, so we saw action on nearly every lap! 1st lap was an interesting one as the drivers lined up for a formation lap that the FRL doesn’t see often.
As all racers sat on the grid the excitement in the air grew. With our Engines revving, the blood was pumping but the tires weren't moving. This caused an issue for turn one as several drivers would lose control of their Honda Civics because they reacted as if they were on ice! For some, this was a moment to strike, but for others, it would cause them to tumble. Tony Tyree in the #47 car would suffer the worst as he took on too much damage when colliding into the barrier than his car could manage. This in turn would retire Tony from race early where he would take last place. Trey Stover #128 could be heard over the team radio multiple times saying "My wheel has disconnected from the car!” This mechanical failure caused Trey to have to make an additional pit stop for the driver to reattach his wheel. However, this led to an exciting battle for 11th as the FIVE cars of Brandon Tretsvan #92, Trey Stover #128, Trent Daniels #15, Max Jordan #66, and Riley Liberatore #42 would fight for that position in the last lap of the race. This bumper to bumper action was hard fought but Max Jordan #66 would be the one to emerge victorious over the other rookie drivers by just 2 seconds. For the others it would be a photo finish as they crossed the line with .01 difference across the remaining 4 racers where the accrued penalties would be the overall deciding factor of the positions! Now we get to the points where Joey Lamothe #23 would score his first point in his first race of the FRL! Finishing above Joey was Aaron Vines #89 who put in an impressive fast lap of 1.19.4 during the race which was 1.5 seconds faster than his qualifying time! But being fast is just as important as strategy, and due to a miscalculation of fuel he would have to pit an extra time eating away his chances of overcoming his brother in the #22 car, Jonah Vines, who would take 8th in the race. We climb up the board a bit more and we had an interesting shake up from our qualifying results to race results! Matt Smith #12 would lose one position throughout the race to take home 7th. Due to the cold tires of Seth Jensen #6 in turn 1 of lap 1, he would catch a quick glimpse of the vehicles behind him as he slide out from 3rd place and would fight with the cars of Ghabe Stouffer #2, Matt Smith #12 and Paul Maestri #8 throughout the race. In a post race interview, Seth Jensen commented that he found himself searching for the wrong gear causing damage to his V-Tech Power Unit respectably earning him 6th place. Ghabe Stouffer had a consistent race pace where he would emerge victorious over the other drivers to grab him the same spot he qualified at in 4th place. Paul was later heard commenting on how clean all the racers drove Sunday evening and was extremely impressed by their sportsmanship and found a great amount of happiness in his 5th place standing. Andrew Steppat #001, the leagues most infamous driver, gave Preston Liberatore #54 a run for his money. For the first 5 laps these 2 drivers would fight tooth and nail staying within .2 seconds of each other as they saw the taillights of Travis Billingsly #18 grow dimmer as he grew his first place lead. After several back and forth action between the two, turn 1 would be the downfall for Andrew as he would struggle to maintain the pace in the first section losing out on 2nd to Preston by just shy of 5 seconds.
Grand Oak Raceway has been an exciting start to the FRL season and January 5th we will see these racers in Japan at Hakone Circuit for a 3 Heat Event!
Standings and points accrued:
P1 - Travis Billingsly - 25
P2 - Preston Liberatore - 18
P3 - Andrew Steppat - 15
P4 - Ghabe Stouffer - 12
P5 - Paul Maestri - 10
P6 - Seth Jensen - 8
P7 - Matt Smith - 6
P8 - Jonah Vines - 4
P9 - Aaron Vines - 2
P10 - Joey Lamothe - 1
P11 - Max Jordan
P12 - Trent Daniel
P13 - Trey Stover
P14 - Riley Liberatore
P15 - Brandon Tretsvan
P16 - Ace Wethan
P17 - Tony Tyree
