2021 In the FRL

 

 With a fairly short off-season quickly coming to a close, let us take a moment to reflect on this Lagrange Point between seasons and examine what has been and what is to come in the FRL. 2020, despite the pandemic and quite possibly because of it, has been a bit of a boon for the FRL. Though it did see the retirement of one of its most controversial drivers, the loss of Bryan Dean from the series has in no way diminished the level of competition and sheer driving enjoyment of the series. Even with the -1 on the driver list, the series has increased it's driver numbers by nearly 30%! We haven't seen an influx in the series like that since the league's founding.

 2020 did not kick off with an an FEC series, instead, an Indy Series leading up to the annual Indy 200 was quickly thrown together to help drivers pass the time in what was expected to be a short "lockdown". Weeks of isolating then looked to become months instead and it was decided that a longer Season 10 of racing would be a good idea. Travis Billingsley orchestrated a wonderful schedule and a stable of cars that were well balanced and delivered on the hope for close action. 

 As the pandemic continues to keep most of us close to home, filling the time with a sim racing series or two isn't as daunting as it might seem under 'normal' conditions. The return of FASCAR is a welcome bump to the schedule, and has the potential to garner one of the largest fields in FRL racing in quite some time! Combined with added features like a pace car and caution periods, the hope for close racing for all is well within reach. 

 Overlapping the FASCAR schedule will be the TCR Cup series utilizing the race ready Audi RS3 LMS. This series marks the return of spec racing in the FRL, which has not been seen in some time. The hope for this series is that it will help the FRL board to better calibrate the active drivers in the series for a possible multi-class series in the future. But, that would be a tall order to fill with only 8-10 drivers participating on average. The present is an exciting time for the FRL, and the future looks brighter still. We hope all drivers will make the most of the full schedule of racing to come!