Round 3 of the FRL's tenth season of e-racing took place at Circuit de Spa Francorchamps Sunday night. With the beautiful Belgian hillside serving as a backdrop to an exciting race, and near record participation taking part, let's look at the highlights of the event.
With a 22 lap event scheduled and no qualifying for the grid the order was set at 8:45 with the green flag waving just before 9 pm. Two new drivers joined the FRL ranks for this race and started at the front of the reverse-ordered field of 12 drivers. Preston and Riley Liberatore, both running Ferrari F50's, led the group into Turn 1. Everyone patiently picked their way through the hairpin turn with only Tony Tyree getting bumped sideways a bit through the middle of the turn. Several drivers had to swing wide to the left, but the entire mob of cars came charging together for Eau Rouge.
Seth Jensen, in his #06 McLaren, was first to charge the hill but over-drove into the Raidillon and tagged the outside tire barrier, ending his run at the front and netting some left-front suspension and brake damage to boot. He would have to limp around to the pits for one of three stops in his race. Seth's misfortune led to Preston's good fortune as he inherited a wide open track from Seth and set to work widening the margin of his lead early on as the rest of the field gingerly picked their way through the Radillon and onto the Kemmel Straight.
Ghabe Stouffer had an excellent start to his race and quickly picked off the front runners to set himself up solidly in P2. This was a position he did not look likely to give up anytime soon, except that the server god's smited him by kicking him from the lobby. A fate he shared with two other drivers, Bryan Dean in the #808 Jaguar and Drew Dilbeck. Bryan was the first to drop, in the second lap of the 22 lap race, and Drew just moments later. The tenth place finish for Ghabe certainly puts a dent in what has been a stellar run for the young driver this season.
For the remaining 9 drivers the race would settle into an uneasy rhythm. Brandon Adkins, making his return in a Ferrari, would fall from a front row start back to P7, but would hold that spot through to the checkered flag. Paul Maestri came up through the field to net a P5 finish, but complained afterward that he just "couldn't find the rhythm" of the track to make an advance on the Top 4. Tony Tyree lagged toward the rear of the field at the start, but methodically made his way forward as the race developed, gaining P6 on the night.
Amongst the Top 4 it would end up being a nail-biter until the very last. Preston Liberatore in the #054 Ferrari would lead for most of the event. However, the trio of Andrew Steppat, Ethan Maestri and Travis Billingsley had been running in lock-step for most the race and, as Preston suffered several spins, caught the freshly minted rookie driver in the closing laps. At the end of lap 19, Andrew set up wide at the start/finish line to make an inside pass around Preston. But Ethan had a brilliant run through the final chicane, finding both momentum & space enough to shoot the gap between the two drivers as lap 20 began. Andrew would carry too much momentum into Turn 1 and slid up the track, Ethan out-braked the #001 and cut low to the inside, setting the car nicely for a pass to the lead. But a bump from behind would swing the tail heavy Porsche into the wall, causing suspension damage to the left rear and forcing Ethan to take yet another P4 finish. Travis benefited from the altercation, passing Preston and securing P2. He would try hard to challenge Andrew for the lead but the end of lap 22 came with the #001 McLaren taking its third straight victory.
The FRL moves south to France and the famed Le Mans circuit for a month long celebration of one of the greatest spectacles in racing history. First up is the 3-heat night race on the Bugatti circuit on September 13th!
