Steppat Back On Top At "Green Hell"

  The turbidity of the series is becoming far less opaque with just 2 races left, but with an event like the Nurburgring, some things are bound to get stirred up. 

 The racing at the start of the six lap, 100 mile event on the "Green Hell" started off with a bang, several in fact, in the opening corners of the first lap. Seth Jensen got his McLaren off the line well and screamed into an early lead, only to get banged into by a dive-bombing Paul Maestri in the #7 Porsche 911. His overshoot into the chicane at Turn 1 muddied the water plenty, but Preston Liberatore in the #054 Ferrari lead the group out of the chicane and hurtled on to Turn #3. Here, Seth got a bumper into the #054 F50 and jettisoned the hard-charging rookie into the grass. Seth's comeuppance came moments later as he overcooked the approach into Dunlop-Kehre, swinging wide into the grass and allowing the field to pass. As the group of 8 cars snaked onto the opening segment of the Nurburgring, Ethan Maestri pulled alongside Travis Billingsley, but the two ran out of room quickly and both smacked the retaining wall. Ethan got the worse end of the exchange, being inexplicably stuck to the wall. He was able to throw the car in reverse and extract himself, but many seconds behind the pack.

 For Nicholas Hargrove, a strong start to his race would soon come to an end as he would drift into the grass at high speed and loop his #5 F50, losing touch with the main group of racers. But the biggest butcher's bill would not be paid by Hargrove this night. Tony Tyree would share the check with Travis as he drifted his Porsche into the grass and into a tire wall that would utterly maul his 911 and place it directly in the path of the #18 Ferrari driven by Travis. Travis would be able to maintain some semblance of speed for the remaining 14 miles or so before getting into the pits. For Tony, his night was effectively ended as he had to limp the #47 car all the way around the "Green Hell" at barely more than the pace of a retirement home walker. 

 For Paul Maestri, the race went reasonably well. Despite blowing his line in Turn 1 at the race start, he held the lead during the opening lap for some time. Late in lap one he would lose the lead to Andrew's #001 McLaren. During lap 2 he would drop a spot to Preston Liberatore. Lap 3 would find him battling teammate Ethan Maestri for P3. Ethan would make the pass and Paul would eventually find the finish line in P5 behind a fortunate Travis Billingsley in P4.

 With a podium finish, Ethan was able to close the points gap slightly, but still leaves a tall order to fill if he wants to take 2nd in the series from Travis. The real question is: will rookie Preston Liberatore be able to push past series veterans Tony Tyree and Paul Maestri to take a Top 5 place in the standings. We will find out at the series finale at Catalunya, on December 13th!