Maestri Fends Off Steppat For Homestead Win

 The FRL FASCAR series stayed in Florida this week and setup camp at Homestead Speedway for the second race of the 2021 series. Eleven cars made their way to the South Florida track that saw quite a heated battle for top lap times during testing that occurred throughout the week leading up to the race itself. Four different drivers held the number 1 spot on the leaderboard at various times during the week. Blake Wild found the sweetest spot in his setup and laid down a blistering lap time of 29.580, a time that no one was able to rival for the rest of the week. 

 The starting grid was set based of finishing positions in the previous Daytona race. Andrew Steppat and Seth Jensen lined up on the front row to take the green flag with nine other drivers behind them. Most of lap one was pretty clean as everyone seemed to be doing their best to get a clean start. Ethan Maestri jumped ahead of Brandon early, but gave the position back to him when it was thought he had passed the #88 Ford before the start/finish line. Brandon would experience a bit of over-rotation in Turn 4, brushing the wall and doing a perfect slide into the pit area, dropping himself a lap down.

 Early indications looked like Seth Jensen and Andrew Steppat would carry their Daytona battle for first place straight into this event. But the #6 Ford eventually began to fall back as Travis Billingsley and Ethan Maestri began marching their Toyota's forward. Caution was declared on the track on several occasions as Seth Jensen, Preston Liberatore, Blake Wild and David Dodson found the outside walls and crossed wheels with others. 

 Much of the later half of the race was run under caution, which allowed pit cycles to remain pretty consistent. On the next to last restart after caution, Ethan Maestri was able to move between Andrew Steppat and Travis Billingsley just passed the start/finish line to sail the #3 Toyota into the lead, while the #1 and #18 settled their race. The last restart saw Ethan get a clean start and he was able to hold off a close race from Andrew Steppat to claim the victory. Paul Maestri, in the #7 MBR team car was able to just edge out Travis Billingsley to take third place. 

 Andrew Steppat emerges from the second race of the series with a 16 point lead over Ethan Maestri and Seth Jensen, who are tied for second in points with 76. Travis Billingsley slips to fourth behind them with 75 points. The points race will continue with the next event at Road America on  February 14th.

FASCAR Returns With Record Field At Daytona

 

 It was an historic day of racing for the FRL at Daytona Speedway this past Sunday. The race was to kick off the third season of FASCAR racing for the league. Interest and excitement for the series had been building over the entire offseason. But potential and reality are often two different things. In this case however, a potential record setting starting grid translated into a record breaking 14 car grid to qualify for and start the race.

14 cars take the green flag at the FRL's Daytona 200

 Seth Jensen in his #6 Ford set the pace in qualifying, putting up a lap time of 42.380, fully .039 faster than Andrew Steppat's 42.419. Blake Wild and Ethan Maestri tied for third fastest at 42.420 with the split time going to Blake's #9 car to round out the Top 3 starting positions.

 With starting orders set, the pace lap started and the excitement was palpable as 14 cars and a combined 10,080 hp came charging to the start finish line and the race got underway. There was an immediate scramble for position at the rear of the field as several cars danced around slower starting cars. Shuffled out toward the infield was Preston Liberatore's #54 Ford, but was not heavily damaged and was able to rejoin the track quickly. 

The #54 of Preston Liberatore loops into the infield at the start of the Daytona 200

 At the sharp end of the field, Seth Jensen kept to the low side of the track while Andrew moved alongside on the high side. Blake Wild and Ethan Maestri were similarly stacked beside each other down the backstretch and into Turn 3. Blake edged past Ethan and Ethan thought he was clear to pull down into Blake's wheel tracks, but Travis Billingsley had a fine run building behind Blake and Ethan's #3 Toyota simply did not fit in the rapidly closing hole. Ethan spun off Travis' front fender and went hard into the outside wall, nearly immobilizing his car with heavy damage to the engine and transmission. An early pit stop for repairs would put the #3 car a lap down early on.

 During the resulting caution period, several cars were damaged in light altercations and the #9 of Blake Wild was sadly lost due to connection issues, logging the first of three DNF's on the night. Once the green flag flew again, Seth and Andrew resumed running nose-to-tail at the front and began to build a widening gap between themselves and the rest of the field. Further back, Paul Maestri in the #7 Toyota and Tony Tyree in the #47 Chevy tried to link up to the front runners, but lost time passing the #86 of David Dodson and returning FRL veteran Ricky Wilborn Jr. in his #86 Toyota. Sadly, Ricky would have to park his Toyota around 3/4 of the way into the race. During the long green flag run to the checkered flag, Nicholas Hargrove in the #5 Toyota had internet problems and retired as well.

 Eventually, several trains of cars would form and breakup during pit stops, only to link up with others. Through it all, the Toyota's of Travis Billingsley, Paul Maestri and Ethan Maestri would form a train that would eventually push the #18 into third place. Ethan and Paul, both a lap down at this point, would have to settle for 6th and 7th place finishes respectively. Tony Tyree was able to keep the nose of his Chevy clean for most of the race and netted a fourth place finish. Brandon Adkins in his #88 Ford was able to round out the Top 5. The race and accolades however were held in reserve for Seth Jensen, who pretty well led from the race start all the way to the finish, and claimed victory at the Daytona 200. Andrew Steppat pushed him there, finishing close behind in second place. 

 The FASCAR series is now started, and with participation like what was seen today, an exciting series lies ahead. We now travel on to Homestead for 100 miles of racing on January 31st!

Many Pokemon were caught by the pace car driver during the long green flag racing

Results:

1. Seth Jensen - 50

2. Andrew Steppat - 45

3. Travis Billingsley - 40

4. Tony Tyree - 35

5. Brandon Adkins - 30

6. Paul Maestri - 28

7. Ethan Maestri - 26

8. Mikey Collins - 24

9. Ghabe Stouffer - 22

10. Preston Liberatore - 20

11. David Dodson - 18

12. Ricky Wilborn Jr. - 16

13. Nicholas Hargrove - 14

14. Blake Wild - 12

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! 

6th Annual Running of the FRL's Indy 200

  The 6th annual running of the FRL's Indy 200 will take place on Sunday, May 30th, 2021. Last year's event provided a nail-biting finish as Travis Billingsley went from third place to first place in the final lap of the event. He seeks to repeat in this years event, but a whole new cast of characters may be joining in this years race. Rules and details will be forthcoming. However, mark your calendars now and get ready for the fastest racing on the FRL schedule!

  

FRL Spring 2021 Series Announcment

 Coming off the heels of a fantastic season of racing in 2020, and with one announcement already done, the FRL is pleased to announce further plans for racing in 2021. Beginning in February the FRL will run a 7 event spec series throughout this spring. The car chosen for this series will be the 2018 Audi Sport RS3 LMS, available in Forza Motorsport 7. This staple of TCR series around the world is a fun and responsive race whip that should foment some great racing for the league. 

 Events will be held in two stages. There will be a single qualifying event to set the initial grid for the Bathurst race only. Afterwards, the starting grid for Heat 1 will be based on the previous event's finishing order. The grid for Heat 2 will be a reverse grid based on the finishing order of Heat 1. Finishing orders will be determined by taking an average of a driver's finishes in the two heats. Points will be awarded as in previous series (points based on the Indy Car Championship model). 

 Rules for car setup will be quite simple. At purchase, the car is rated at S-716, drivers will need to make one upgrade to the vehicle, the addition of race brakes will be mandatory. That's it, everything else about the car will be "as is". Tuning will be at the discretion of the driver. Use of general lobby tunes will not be allowed as the upgrade parts cannot be easily verified (use of a fellow FRL drivers tune will be allowed but may be subject to FRL scrutineering). 

 With race brakes added the final P.I. rating will be S-719. Wheel replacement for weight shaving or aesthetics will NOT be allowed. Also, for this series, we will be eliminating "manual w/clutch" shifting from these races. All drivers will be using manual (or automatic if desired). This is being done to bring the field to as close to spec as possible.

 We hope all FRL drivers will join in on this world encompassing TCR series, starting with a monster event at the famed Bathurst circuit on February 7th! 

 2021 Spring Series - TCR Spec: Audi Sport RS3 LMS

February 7th - Bathurst - 9 laps*

February 21st - Suzuka (West Alt Circuit) - 13 laps* 

March 14th - Dubai (Mtn. Circuit Reverse) - 11 laps*

March 21st - Prague Full - 10 laps*

April 4th - Alps (Club - Reverse) - 15 laps*

April 18th - Rio (Full Circuit Reverse) - 8 laps*

May 2nd - Sonoma (GP Circuit) - 12 laps*

*per heat

The Return of FASCAR

It has been almost three years since the FRL last sponsored a FASCAR race and almost four since the last series was concluded on the Forza 6 engines.

THE DAYTONA 2OO A FASCAR EVENT will be the opening race of the long-awaited 3^rd season.

The Daytona 200 will be an 80-lap event covering 200 miles of the famed tri-oval at Daytona International speedway, qualifying will take place Sunday January 24th at 8:30 p.m. Central Time with the race beginning shortly after. The following races grid orders will be taken from series points standing. All races will be rolling starts with the use of a pace car.

The cars for this series will be any of the 2017 NASCAR's found in Forza 7. Cars will be run as stock R833 PI no upgrades allowed. Tuning however, will be allowed.

Schedule is as follows:

January 24^th = DAYTONA 2OO (TRI OVAL) 80 LAPS

January 31^st = HOMESTEAD 100 (OVAL) 66 LAPS

February 14^th = 100 MILES of ROAD AMERICA (EAST CIRCUIT) 45 LAP Road course event

February 28^th = INDY 150 (OVAL) 60 LAPS

March 7^th = DAYTONA 250 (TRI OVAL NIGHT RACE) 100 LAPS 

Billingsley Wins Preston Ball Run - Steppat Earns 9th Crown

  The Catalunya GP circuit hosted the first annual "Preston Ball Run" as the last race of the year and the finale of the 10th season of FRL racing. Travis Billingsley got off to a tough start as he and Andrew Steppat got together during a frantic start to the race. No damage was suffered by either driver, but it set them back a pace. Preston Liberatore got off to a flying start at the front of the line and gapped much of the field of 10 cars early on. Paul Maestri got solid start in the mid-field and picked his way through the fray to set up in pursuit of the Liberatore's F50. Ethan Maestri, Brandon Adkins, and Seth Jensen would each take turns swapping paint and passing in the early going. Seth would suffer a couple of unfortunate "offs" but kept his head down and fought back to insure a P6 finish. Blake Wild makes his return to the circuit after a brief hiatus and while not running at the front, did show top level class in allowing the lead cars by in the late stages of the event. 

 For the first 8-10 laps, Ethan Maestri, Andrew Steppat and Travis Billingsley set about hunting down Paul and Preston at the sharp end of the field. By lap 10, Ethan was drafting off Preston's rear bumper and Andrew Steppat was closing on the two, but it was not to be for the #001 McLaren as he was booted from the server. Ethan dove hard into the hairpin at Turn 9 and bumped Preston, turning the stricken F50 side-ways. Ethan allowed the Ferrari to recover, which then allowed the #18 Ferrari to close in. The next lap would see Preston slide wide in Turn 2 and open the gap for the two pursuers to exploit. 

 The final ten laps would see a Herculean effort by both Ethan and Travis as they drove nose-to-tail and around each other, swapping the lead and negotiating traffic. Truly as tight a battle as any this season. In the end, Travis Billingsley drove his Ferrari F50 to victory lane. Ethan Maestri, a close second in the #3 Porsche 911. Preston Liberatore brings his Ferrari home in P3.

 Although it was a DNF for Andrew Steppat, his dominance in the league continues to amaze as he had already locked up the championship coming into the race. His 9th FRL title was presented to a non-existent crowd (due to Covid-19 protocols). Still, an impressive achievement, and one envied by most. Travis Billingsley closes out a solid season in P2 points, Ethan Maestri rounds out the Championship podium in P3. Paul Maestri and Tony Tyree finish out the Top 5 positions, respectively. Seth Jensen rightfully deserves the accolade of "Rookie of the Season" by virtue of being there from the start and completing the full schedule. Preston Liberatore showed himself ready to join the top tier drivers at the front of the field and looks to cinch a Rookie Driver title in the next series.   

Congratulations again to Andrew, and all that took part in a memorable Season 10 of the FRL!

  Series Points Final:

Andrew Steppat - 400

Travis Billingsley - 341

Ethan Maestri - 323

Paul Maestri - 267

Tony Tyree - 252

Preston Liberatore - 242

Seth Jensen - 238

Blake Wild - 120

Ghabe Stouffer - 112

Bryan Dean - 84

Brandon Adkins - 52

Nicholas Hargrove - 50

Riley Liberatore - 42

David Dodson - 22