Niko Smith Bags Win At Bathurst

  It was a meager two car field to open the Pacific Rim GT series in Automobilista 2, but their was some good action on track for the shortend 20 minute race at Bathurst. Ethan Maestri claimed the opening lap lead but the Audi driven by Niko Smith powered past by lap two. However, it took several laps before Niko finally got a handle on the chicane at the end of Conrad Straight. His repeated excursions off-track would repeatedly open the door for Ethan to take back the lead. But late in the race, Ethan would find the wall coming off the mountain and that would allow Niko to secure the lead and keep it for the win in this opening round. 

 The next round is in two weeks at Adelaide!

Series Points:

Niko Smith     - 30 points

Ethan Maestri - 25 points

"Pacific Rim" GT Series Kicks-off New Era in the FRL

 Welcome Drivers, to a new era in the FRL. With Turn 10 stepping away from the Forza Motorsport platform we have used for so long in the league, its time to move on in the FRL to a new platform for racing! 

 The league is excited to announce our newest racing series is going to be hosted in the Automobilista 2 program on PC. We hope many of you will be able to join in this exciting new racing series kicking off next month. Without further delay, here are the details of the next FRL events!

 Get ready for the "Pacific Rim" GT Series starting on March 15th! Race locations and dates as follws:

                                                                March 15th - Bathurst

                                                                March 29th - Adelaide

                                                                   April 12 - Suzuka

April 26th - Laguna Seca

                                                                                 

                                                                May 24th - Long Beach

                                                                           

                                                                      June 7th - Ibarra

 Races will begin at 8:30 P.M. Eastern, 7:30 Central. Sessions will begin with a 15 minute Qualifying session to set the grid followed by a 25 minute race. This should keep the event total around an hour from login to conclusion. 

 In race rules, track limits, flags and formation laps will be in effect. Scoring will use the USF2000 points table as follows:

P1: 30 points

P2: 25 points

P3: 22 points

P4: 19 points

P5: 17 points

P6: 15 points

P7: 14 points

P8: 13 points

P9: 12 points

P10: 10 points

This series will be using the GT4 Class in AMS2 as shown below:

Whichever car you use for race one will be the car you use for the entire season, so test and tune well! We look forward to seeing as many drivers as possible in this new and exciting chapter in the FRL.

                                                                                   

Round 4 Finishes With Tie At Top Spot

 Round 4 Concludes at Hockenheim - Short and the rivalry at the top continues. Andrew Steppat takes the top spot on the leaderboard and 25 points. This back-and-forth trading of P1's with Ghabe Stauffer sets up a monumental fight for the series win at Road Atlanta. 

Travis Billingsley takes P3 and climbs to within 1 point of Ethan Maestri. Niko Smith continues to hold down 3rd place overall. 

The series concludes this coming Sunday evening. Post your best time on the full Road Atlanta track before Sunday night!

Hockenheim - Short
Andrew Steppat	25
Ghabe Stauffer	18
Travis Billingsley	15
Niko Smith	12
Ethan Maestri	10
Series Totals
Ghabe Stauffer	86
Andrew Steppat	86
Niko Smith	57
Ethan Maestri	44
Travis Billingsley	43
Joey Lamothe	28
Seth Jensen	12
Preston Liberatore	10
Gabe Fast	5
Tony Tyree	2

Round 3 of Winter Rivals - Stauffer Moves Ahead In Points

  Round three at Grand Oak - Club circuit concludes with Ghabe Stauffer at the top of the chart and moves him ahead of Andrew Steppatt for sole control of the series in points. It was a lights-out battle at the top between Ghabe, Andrew and Niko Smith. In the end, Ghabe squeaked out a 58.394. Andrew followed in P2 with a 58.437 and P3 went to Niko with a 58.537. Travis Billingsley coaxed a 58.982 out of a Ford Mustang and Ethan Maestri brought up the rear of the field with a 59.659 in an AMC Javelin. 

 Round 4 is underway at Hockenheim Short!

Grand Oak - Club Points
Ghabe Stauffer	25
Andrew Steppat	18
Niko Smith	15
Travis Billingsley	12
Ethan Maestri	10
Series Totals
Ghabe Stauffer	68
Andrew Steppat	61
Niko Smith	45
Ethan Maestri	34
Travis Billingsley	28
Joey Lamothe	14
Seth Jensen	12
Preston Liberatore	10
Gabe Fast	5
Tony Tyree	2

Round 2 of Winter Rivals Completed

 Virginia International Raceway hosted the second round of the FRL's Winter Rivals Challenge series. Andrew Steppat set the bar early in his ZR-1 and never took his foot off the pedal, setting a 1:11.387 early on and then dropped that to a 1:11.274 by the time the board closed. Ghabe Stauffer made great strides after hitting and sitting on a 1:11.690 for most of the 2 week challenge. He made a late charge for Andrew, dropping his best time to 1:11.418. Niko Smith languished in the 1:12's for most of the 2 week session, but a late charge in his Ford Falcon netted him a 1:11.542 officially, though he did post a 1:11.29x after the leaderboard officially closed. He'll be one to challenge the top two going forward.

 With just a few days to go, Ethan Maestri and Travis Billingsley started a back-and-forth swap of P3 that saw them both drop their times into the 1:11.5xx's. Seth Jensen showed late in the session, posting the sole 1:12 on the board. Joey Lamothe scores a 1:13.188 in a land barge 69' Dodge Daytona. Gabe Fast posts a final official time of 1:19.226, improving from an initial time of 1:21.188!

 

 The festivities ended with two heats run by four participants. Technical difficulties scrubbed results from the first session, but a lively race developed in the second heat with Niko Smith taking the win over a close second by Travis Billingsley. The next track is Grand Oak Club and the board goes live on Monday, December 30th & runs until January 12th.

VIR - South Points
Andrew Steppat	25
Ghabe Stauffer	18
Niko Smith	15
Ethan Maestri	12
Travis Billingsley	10
Seth Jensen	8
Joey Lamothe	6
Gabe Fast	4
Series Totals
Ghabe Stauffer	43
Andrew Steppat	43
Niko Smith	30
Ethan Maestri	24
Travis Billingsley	16
Joey Lamothe	14
Seth Jensen	12
Preston Liberatore	10
Gabe Fast	5
Tony Tyree	2

Round 1 of Winter Rivals Challenge Complete

 Round one of the FRL Winter Rivals series has concluded. Ghabe Stauffer posts the top time of the leaderboard with a blistering 42.641 seconds, manhandling all 17.3 ft. of his 69' Dodge Charger, like a boss. Andrew Steppat makes a late showing, but secured P2 with an equally impressive 42.808 in a 69' Chevy Camaro. Niko Smith rounds out the podium, taking his 73' Holden across the line in 43.021 seconds. 

 The bulk of the field toiled in the 43's along with him. Positions 4-8 were only separated by 0.378 seconds! The two week challenge period was finished with a meet-up at the selected track, Maple Valley Short, for some 6-12 lap shootouts. Ghabe continued his domination of the field by winning all three heats. Seth Jensen was able to capitalize on some small mistakes by Ethan Maestri, taking his 73' Pontiac across the line in P2 in the main heat of 12 laps. The final heat of the night featured a barn-burner of a duel between Seth and Travis Billingsley, both crossing the line with less than .020 between them, Seth getting the better of Travis at the line. 

 The Challenge series moves on this week to Virginia International Raceway - South. This event will conclude on December 29th, another concluding meet-up is being planned to close-out this event as well. Points have been awarded and shown on the table below. 

Maple Valley Points
Ghabe Stauffer	25
Andrew Steppat	18
DrMibbz	15
Ethan Maestri	12
Preston Liberatore	10
Joey Lamothe	8
Travis Billingsley	6
Seth Jensen	4
Tony Tyree	2
Gabe Fast	1
Series Totals
Ghabe Stauffer	25
Andrew Steppat	18
DrMibbz	15
Ethan Maestri	12
Preston Liberatore	10
Joey Lamothe	8
Travis Billingsley	6
Seth Jensen	4
Tony Tyree	2
Gabe Fast	1

Forzday Racing League Winter Rival Challenge

 As we head into the winter months the racing will heat up on a variety of short tracks this season in some very hot cars! The FRL is pleased to announce the schedule and car class for this winters assortment off Rival Challenges.

This season of racing will proceed as follows:

December 1-15 - Maple Valley Short

December 16-29 - Virginia International Raceway - South

January 5-19 - Grand Oak Club

January 19-February 2 - Hockenheim Short

February 3-16 - Road Atlanta

This seasons cars we'll be racing will be from the exciting Vintage Muscle Class. Each of these cars will be eligible to tune up to, but not to exceed, B-600. Open tuning, so prep your favorite muscle car however you wish (again, not over B600)! Below is the full list of eligible cars:

Points will be awarded and a top 3 podium will be announced based on points at the end of the season. We hope to see another great turnout similar to the GT Rival Challenge over this past summer.

FRL Announces "The Race For the Chase For the Cup For the Thing" Rivals Challenge - Summer 24'

 

 Starting July 4th, a new challenge is issued for all FRL drivers to spend some time further developing their GT skills in the Rivals section of Forza Motorsport. This summer, three tracks have been selected for drivers to focus on to see what further development can be made for an upcoming GT series that is in the works. 

 So, now is the chance to post your best time in your favorite GT (make sure it is within the desired regulations first) whip. Or, if you don't like that time, maybe try a different GT and beat your own leaderboard score. At the end of each tracks featured month, the Leaderboards will be posted here and top drivers can crow about it to others on Discord! It's all for fun and for a good cause as it is helping out the BoP boffins in race control. Watkins Glen is first up, go to it drivers! 

Offical announcement with regulations and schedule below:

Libertore Liberates a Victory At Le Mans

 

 It's summertime and the off season in the FRL is at its peak with a one-off running of a motorsports classic. The FRL staged this endurance event on the famed race course at Le Mans in a powerful lineup of GT3 race whips. The disappointment of the previous week's delay of the actual running of the race was long forgotten as nine drivers turned up for this Friday night event. 

 Due to the length of the race, a random grid was selected for expediency and at 8:45 PM Eastern, the green flag was dropped. The start off the line was skittish for some and Turn 1 would be a bit of a bumper-fest for a few, but the field soon stretched its legs on Mulsanne and the fastest cars were quickly to the sharp end of the field. 

 The #18 AMG Mercedes of Travis Billingsley & #62 Ferrari driven by Joey Lamothe would lead from the start, through Dunlop and onto Mulsanne. However, Lamothe's car was setup for shorter stints and much faster steeds quickly relegated him to P6. Travis would lead the first lap, but was soon caught up by the #001 Corvette driven by Andrew Steppat. The #001 would lead for a time before an incident damaged his drivetrain and sent him backwards in the field. The #54 Aston Martin Vantage, wheeled by Preston Liberatore would assume P1 and never look back, enduring the 24 laps and 1.75 hours of the event to take the win. Travis Billingsley secured a P2 podium spot and takes the "Soundtrack of the Night" award by bringing a lovely V8 note to the party. Seth Jensen brings home a personal best P3 and should be thanked for organizing a great one-off event for the league. 

 The off-season continues and the next event in the league is still 'TBD'. 

Results:

P1 - Preston Libertore - Aston Martin

P2 - Travis Billingsley - AMG

P3 - Seth Jenson - AMG

P4 - Gabe Stouffer - Ferrari

P5 - Andrew Steppat - Corvette

P6 - Joey Lamothe - Ferrari

P7 - Ethan Maestri - Porsche

P8 - Paul Maestri - Porsche

P9 - Brandon Tretsven - Porsche

ROUND 2 - FRL Season 12: Technical Difficulties and the Return of the 3

 

Ghabe Stouffer #2

The FRL takes to the grid for the second time this season! Despite it being the second race of the season, the race was full of firsts! Hakone is a brand new host to the FRL and what a beautiful track it was. It was also the seasons first night race and first Heat Series on the calendar! It has been a month since the FRL's last event so this gave the racers plenty of time to relax or extra time to run simulations. Who would come out the most prepared? After a few technical issues resulting in a delayed start, we found out.

 

In qualifying we saw a few noticeable call outs! To start was the youngest driver of the grid, Ghabe Stouffer #2, who took pole position in qualifying Sunday night... but unsurprisingly, multi-season champ  Andrew Steppat reclaimed his spot at the top during the final hours. Joey Lamothe #23 secured 3rd and also the highest of his Rookie season career. Another rookie who caught the eye of many was Ace Wethan #99 who also set a personal best of 6th. Now for the races! Heat 1 was an intense race to say the least. Ghabe and Andrew would fight each other for first but Ghabe proved victorious taking the first win of the night! Joey Lamonthe #23 didn't just perform well in qualifying but proved he can fight for his spot as he battled with Steppat and also Preston Liberatore #54 to take 3rd. Sunday we got to enjoy having a longtime familiar face rejoin the grid, Ethan Maestri #3, where he would fight for 7th against his brother, Paul Maestri #8. On the final lap, after exchanging positions throughout the heat, Ethan leaned a bit too hard on his brothers bumper, sending him into the wall. Travis Billingsly would fight for position but in his efforts to avoid contact, he hit a curb that removed all of his downforce, thus causing his car to spin hard into the wall. Fortunately, Travis didn't need medical attention but his car suffered drastically. He then pitted where his crew fixed the damage from the chaos. This resulted in a finish out of the points.  

 

Heat 2 had some shakeups! Preston Liberatore was slated to secure 3rd in a fight with Paul Maestri but due to fuel miscalculations, the car of #54 would begin to stutter and lose power around the hairpin but would maintain enough momentum to cross the line in 4th place. Ace Wethan #99 nabbed 5th again, setting himself up for a solid and consistent race from the rookie! Joey Lamothe #23 tumbled down the standings in this heat after an unforeseen collision with #99. Joey showed excellent poise to fight his way back up to 8th to salvage 4 points for the heat series. 

 

Heat 3 showed a strong and consistent race from all the drivers. Brandon Tretsvan #92 would attain a personal highest by finishing 10th! While not much happened in the standings, there was a 3 way battle for 3rd between Travis Billingsly #18, Preston Liberatore #54, and Joey Lamonthe #23. This battle went on for the final 3 laps of the race all the way up to the finish line! Preston Liberatore #54 made a pass to early in the last lap before the long straight where both Travis and Joey would make their pass on the #54 car. Joey sensed that Travis was playing nice that night and would stick his elbows out to keep Travis behind him up to the finish line! Travis Billingsly #18 did accumulate .70 seconds worth of penalties which was all the Preston Liberatore #54 would need to overtake Travis and secure 4th in the final heat. Paul Maestri, despite having car troubles during the heat, gained two spots after starting behind the field. 

We hope all can make it for the next round of FRL action in South Africa!

FINAL SERIES: Driver Points / Result Points 

P1 Ghabe Stouffer #2 75/25 

P2 Andrew Steppat #001 54/18 

P3 Preston Liberatore #54 36/15 

P4 Joey Lamothe #23 34/12 

P5 Paul Maestri #8 23/10 

P6 Ace Wethan #99 20/8 

P7 Travis Billingsly #18 18/6 

P8 Ethan Maestri #3 18/4 

P9 Matt Smith #12 14/2 

P10 Trent Daniel #15 9/1 

 

Season Standings: Driver Points 

P1 Ghabe Stouffer #2 - 37 

P2 Andrew Steppat #001 - 33 

P3 Preston Liberatore #54 - 33 

P4 Travis Billingsly #18 - 31 

P5 Paul Maestri #8 - 20 

P6 Joey Lamothe #23 - 13 

P7 Ace Wethan #99 -  8 

P7 Matt Smith #12 - 8 

P8 Seth Jensen #6 -  8 

P10 Ethan Maestri  #3 - 4 

P10 Jonah Vines #22 - 4 

P12 Aaron Vines #89 - 2 

P13 Trent Daniel #15 - 1

P14 David Dodson #86 - 0

ROUND 1 - FRL Season 12: Controlled Chaos

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