The whirlwind start to 2021 in the FRL continued with the opening round of the TCR Spec series at the Suzuka East circuit this past Sunday night. 11 drivers, sporting very sharp and colorful liveries, took to the track in their Audi RS3 TCR race whips.
Qualifying would not go smoothly and a truncated qualifying session lead to an interesting grid start. For Heat 1, Andrew Steppat would start from pole and would run the heat unchallenged at the front from start to finish. Travis Billingsley would tail the multi-time champion and would turn in a solid P2 effort. Ethan Maestri suffered a poor qualifying effort and started in the P7 slot, but fought his way forward on a circuit that was difficult to pass on. He would end up in P3 at the checkered flag.
Heat 2 was a reverse grid start and this lead to some dicey but fun racing for most of the field. It would take several laps for Andrew to make his way forward to P1. Travis would find himself following Andrew toward the front, but missed his braking line in Turn 5, allowing Ethan Maestri to assume the P2 position. Travis would recover himself to finish P3.
For Paul Maestri Heat 2 would be an especially tough pill to swallow. In Heat 1, Paul was the unfortunate victim of an early move gone wrong as his car was turned and shunted into the wall along the front straight, fully damaging his drivetrain and leaving him stranded for the first 4 laps of the heat. This would put him at the head of the line in Heat 2, and early on, he looked to be capitalizing on the opportunity extending his lead by several seconds over the rest of the roiling field. Three-quarters of the way through the race, he was still in the lead and even if the #01 was able to reach his bumper there was every reason to believe that Paul could hold off a late pass. But disaster struck the #7, a wide run over the outside curb in Turn 1 upset the suspension on Paul's Audi and looped him into the tire barrier hard, forcing a pit stop and dropped him well down the field. Two laps later, another loop in the same spot would retire him from the race early.
For Ghabe Stouffer and Preston Liberatore, they would spend both heats hunting each other as their lap times were virtually the same lap after lap. Ghabe made the most of both heats, scoring P4 in each. Preston had a solid Top 5 finish on the night as well. Positions 6 through 9 was a war between "new blood" and "old guard" as Seth Jensen and David "Triple Dill" Dodson look to make a splash in the series. The race veteran's Tony Tyree and Nicholas Hargrove gave chase and fought tooth and nail both heats. For Seth, P6 would be his reward on the night in both heats. Dodson would do very well in Heat 1, scoring a P7. Hargrove was able to assert himself better in Heat 2, finishing P7. Tony Tyree would find his $47 Audi bruised at the end of both Heats, managing P9 on the night. Bringing up the rear, and still in his "fresh from the factory" stock paint was Blake Wild, who in his words, "had a great time" on his first trip to Suzuka.
The next round of the series takes us to Dubai, and another first time for the FRL as we race on the Mountain Circuit in Reverse on March 14th!
Result & Series Points
1. Andrew Steppat - 50
2. Travis Billingsley - 45
3. Ethan Maestri - 40
4. Ghabe Stouffer - 35
5. Preston Liberatore - 30
6. Seth Jensen - 28
7. David Dodson - 26
8. Nicholas Hargrove - 24
9. Tony Tyree - 22
10. Blake Wild - 20
11. Paul Maestri - 18
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