USGP This Weekend

 The final scheduled "One Off" of the year will be the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the America's this Sunday night. For several weeks the 1976 F1 machines have been racing in the RRL and some exciting racing has been taking place there. Some of those drivers will join the FRL for a truly exciting event ahead of the actual USGP taking place the following weekend.

 This One Off will be a 30 lap event. Lobby will open for practice around 8:00 PM for practice sessions. Qualifying will be a 15 minute session set to begin at 8:45 PM. The grid will be set afterward for the race. Join us for a fun evening of racing as we celebrate speed with some legendary cars on the most state of the art track in North America.

The Takeaway - Rio

In the weeks leading up to the Race of Australia, the general consensus was that Bathurst was going to be a brutal affair where drivers would be expected to take their lumps and then move on with the rest of the season. The race came and everyone was generally surprised at how well everything went. Sure there were some off’s and a few incidents, but there were no calls for “ban that track” or “never again” from anyone afterward. Everyone finished, breathed a sigh of relief, and looked forward to even better tracks ahead. Little did anyone realize the danger of Rio de Janeiro lying there like a landmine just waiting to be stepped on.  

Stepped on it was as the Race of Brazil was run this past Sunday night. Not a single car left the course without some sort of damage, be it cosmetic or mechanical. For those that did their level best to be careful, it was still a dice roll to see if you could escape unscathed. Who would benefit from the carnage?

The fact that a record number of cars turned out for the race meant that excitement was running high for the event. Unfortunately, it also meant that the chances and consequences for failure of any kind were just that much higher as well. For three drivers, finishing at the back would mean they would not earn any points for their efforts. For Allen Ruff, having had such a solid event previously at Yas Marina, finishing twelfth overall here would be a real blow for his campaign in the points. Tom Henderson has shown steady improvement through this series, and was even running near the front for most of the second heat. However, disaster seemed to be lurking around nearly every corner for him and the rookie finished eleventh for the night, certainly hurting his run in the rookie points race. The same could be said for Owen Henderson. He’s looking to become this series Sauber or Manor as he finishes the night in thirteenth overall and has yet to score a point in the series to date.

But, a bad night for a rookie driver is one thing, it is something else to be a driver in the Top 5 and experience crippling setbacks. Paul Maestri felt the frustration heavily in both heats from mistakes he made and by getting caught up in others as well. He drops from a tie for first place in the points, back to third in points with a fifth overall finish. However, he muscled through adversity and does benefit from a fast lap bonus point that helps keep Ethan Maestri at bay, four points behind him in the standings. If anyone deserves a ‘Spirit of the Race’ award though, it would be Travis Billingsley. Setbacks in the first heat held him to a fourth place finish, this would keep him from being able to pull ahead of Andrew Steppat in the points at this event - barring some disaster on Andrew’s part. However, a heat win or second place finish would keep him very close in the points race. So when things went sideways in the first lap of the second heat, any other driver might have given up, but not Travis. Despite getting hit and turned three times in the first lap, Travis was able to storm back from near catastrophe to take third place in the heat, securing a podium finish for a very tough event. This serves to keep him in the hunt for the championship, just 13 points behind series leader Andrew Steppat.

As badly as things went for those drivers, others had very good nights, despite difficulties. Carter Merkling and his #16 Chevy Cruze benefited from the numerous misfortunes of others and secured eighth place overall, good enough for 4 points, earning the most points of any of the R.B.R. drivers. Nicholas Hargrove did make a rather large mistake in the second heat that put a damper on his chances at a top 5 finish, but despite that error, still managed to finish seventh overall and the 6 points he earned helped to distance himself from the other rookies in the field. The ten point gap that has now opened in that points race makes him a very hard target to hit for the remainder of the series.

So what do we take away from Rio? Well, this was a much more difficult track than many anticipated. Despite accidents and mistakes, much was learned by all the drivers there. The result being that series veterans like Andrew and Ethan were able to make advances in points. But other front runners suffered setbacks that allowed them to make up that ground. While coming away from an event with a three-way tie for the front is exciting, finishing this event with 21 points separating the top four drivers means there is still a lot of intense action in the events to come. Also, when you look at the next six positions behind them, there are only 12 points separating all of those drivers!

There is still a whole lot of excitement to come as the series moves on to Europe with the Race of France being the next event on the calendar, October 23rd.  

Race of Brazil - Recap

 The intensity level was cranked up and temperatures ran hot in Rio...and for once, it wasn’t due to Zika. The FRL WTCC series paid a visit to the streets of Rio for the Race of Brazil. Qualifying on the previous Thursday may have been light, but a full complement of racers would turn out for the Sunday night event, setting a new participation record for the FRL with thirteen drivers on hand.

Trouble would start for two drivers before the green flag even waved as Allen Ruff and Carter Merkling - making his first appearance in the series here - both had pace lap incidents that led to their having to pit while the rest of the field lined up on the start grid. They would start from the pit lane once the race began. The green flag waved and a mostly clean start got the first heat underway. Round 2 winner Paul Maestri would suffer from a poor start and lost his P3 starting position very quickly. Further troubles would plague him as he would have to work forward from the rear of the field.

Andrew Steppat made the most of his 3rd straight Heat 1 pole position, leading from the start and maintaining P1 all the way to the finish. Travis Billingsley and Ethan Maestri would swap positions in the opening lap as Travis found it difficult to keep his #18 Summit Racing Volvo off the retaining wall. He would sort it out though, pulling up on Ethan’s bumper for several laps of tight racing before finally fading back and eventually getting turned around on the track, a turn which sent him to the pits. Bryan Dean would overcome some early sketchiness during the early laps and began running lap times comparable to his R.Z.M. teammate Ethan Maestri. Bryan would be there to capitalize on Travis’ misfortune and take over P3.

There was a lot of action and place swapping in the middle and back of the pack as some drivers struggled to keep their cars off the wall, and each other, in a mad scramble for position. Tony Tyree led a tight knot of four cars in the early going of the heat, but as he rounded the sweeper into the esses in the late stages of the course, he would clip the tire wall and spin hard, facing oncoming traffic that was immediately behind him. The resulting carnage damaged the Mercedes A-Class of Tom Henderson and #12 Matthew Smith and all but ended Paul Maestri’s charge toward a Top 5 as his #86 Audi was up-ended and wound-up on its top. Matthew would be the only one of the four drivers involved to be able to get to the pits and back in the hunt, finishing in P5 for the heat.

For the second heat the finishing order was reversed and Allen Ruff led the field around for the beginning of Heat 2. The drop of the green flag would see a real fireworks show kick-off as the jostling for position was immediate. A colorful group of 13 cars swept along the scenic coastline with bumping and passing taking place everywhere as the group worked to sort itself out. Turn 3 would cause trouble for a few drivers as there were several spins here. Ethan Maestri was nearly spun out of contention but was able to save the car and continue his charge through the grid right behind Andrew’s #001 BMW. As the rolling melee continued its inexorable push forward, the group topped the hill and swept into Turn 9 were Ethan would make his move around the outside of Andrew Steppat and Nicholas Hargrove. Pushing the Audi hard out of the turn and on the long run downhill, he would make the pass stick and set sail for the start finish line. Andrew would get collected by an incident and would have to push toward P1 from way back, and as it seems, too far back to catch Ethan as the #85 Razorback Motorsport Audi would win the heat. Travis and Paul would play cat-and-mouse further back, encountering heavy lap traffic throughout the heat. Eventually Travis would settle into P3, with Paul redeeming his Heat 1 performance and finishing P4. Carter Merkling would somewhat successfully navigate the carnage and would bring his #16 Chevy Cruise home in P5 - his first Top 5 finish in FRL series racing.

Allen Ruff started this heat from the front and would do very well, keeping the interaction with surrounding traffic to a minimum and coming in P6. While teammate Bryan Dean suffered some early setbacks and would have to settle for P8. Tony Tyree would set his fastest lap of the night in this heat, fully two seconds ahead of at least half the field, but on track incidents held him to a P9 finish. Drew Dilbeck was looking at having a pretty good night overall, but several incidents in this heat dropped him to P12. Also suffering from heavy damage incurred in this heat was Matthew Smith. He too looked to be having a stellar night, but was collected in several altercations that left his #12 A-Class heavily damaged and he had to exit the heat, posting a P13 finish.

Frustration levels were high at this event. While everyone assumed that passing would come at a premium and patience on the track would be in a driver’s best interest, it seemed the roughness of the circuit and narrow areas of the track was more than some could deal with. When approached by reporters who inquired about some heated radio exchanges during the race, driver Paul Maestri immediately began shaking his head and dismissed the media, turning and walking straight into his team hauler. The FRL issued a statement that it is any drivers prerogative to decline to make a comment after a race if that is their desire. Bryan Dean was similarly annoyed with some of the situations experienced on track but followed with “I’m certain we’ll be in the mix going forward. Anything can happen, from technical trouble to someone’s Volvo turning on them.”  

The drivers will get a couple of weeks to cool their heels as the series now heads over the Atlantic and into its European leg of the tour. Round 4 of the series will be the Race of France at  famed Le Mans for a night race on the Bugatti Circuit.

Race of Brazil - Results

Heat 1 Results			Heat 2 Results
Driver:	Fastest Lap (Bonus):		Driver:	Fastest Lap (Bonus):		Team Points:
Andrew Steppat	2:14.217 (+3)		Ethan Maestri	2:16.002 (+2)		Apex Racing	117
Ethan Maestri	2:16.700		Andrew Steppat	2:14.361		Razorback Motorsport	76
Bryan Dean	2:16.948		Travis Billingsley	2:18.322		Rocket Boys Racing	25
Travis Billingsley	2:24.015		Paul Maestri	2:16.241 (+1)
Matthew Smith	2:22.354		Carter Merkling	2:25.239*
Drew Dilbeck	2:24.388		Allen Ruff	2:20.801		Privateer Points:
Owen Henderson	2:23.672*		Nicholas Hargrove	2:33.040		Paul Maestri	47
Tony Tyree	2:22.340		Bryan Dean	2:16.828		Daniel Fleischman	19
Paul Maestri	2:18.972		Tony Tyree	2:21.032		Nicholas Hargrove	14
Nicholas Hargrove	2:22.625		Tom Henderson	2:22.929*		Matthew Smith	4
Tom Henderson	2:23.297*		Owen Henderson	2:24.083*
Carter Merkling	2:26.024*		Drew Dilbeck	2:37.809*
Allen Ruff	2:24.066*		Matthew Smith	5:16.012*
* = lap infraction (dirty)						Rookie Points:
						Nicholas Hargrove	14
						Matthew Smith	4
						Tom Henderson	2
Points Totals:			Series Points Overall:			Owen Henderson	0
Driver:	Points:		Driver:	Points:
Andrew Steppat	28		Andrew Steppat	65		Heat Wins:
Ethan Maestri	20		Travis Billingsley	52		Ethan Maestri	2
Travis Billingsley	15		Paul Maestri	48		Andrew Steppat	2
Bryan Dean	12		Ethan Maestri	44		Paul Maestri	1
Paul Maestri	11		Bryan Dean	22		Travis Billingsley	1
Tony Tyree	8		Drew Dilbeck	21
Nicholas Hargrove	6		Daniel Fleischman	19
Carter Merkling	4		Tony Tyree	16
Matthew Smith	2		Nicholas Hargrove	14
Drew Dilbeck	1		Allen Ruff	10
Owen Henderson	0		Matthew Smith	4
Allen Ruff	0		Carter Merkling	4
Tom Henderson	0		Tom Henderson	2
			Owen Henderson	0

Laps Per Heat On Remaining Races

 There have been a couple of schedules posted that has led to some conflict and confusion in the number of laps run in each heat for the different events. This schedule of the remaining events should be consulted for number of laps per event going forward.

Race of Brazil -  12 Lap Heat
Race of France - 16 Lap Heat
Race of Germany - 5 Lap Event
Race of Italy - 16 Lap Heat
Race of Switzerland - 18 Lap Heat
Race of America - 12 Lap Heat

Race of Brazil - Qualifying Results

 Seven drivers showed for their qualifying effort ahead of the Race of Brazil this coming Sunday, October 9th. Action was abundant for the 15 minute qualifying session as cold tires early on led to several spins. As the tires warmed and times began to be laid down, drivers began taking more chances which led to further carnage. Ethan Maestri was running a good lap when he clipped an apex a little too tightly in Turn 11 and bounced His #85 Audi off the opposite wall, sending him to the pits for repairs. Tony Tyree would clip the wall a few laps later, sending him in for damage control as well.

 On the night, Andrew Steppat takes his third straight WTCC pole into Sunday's event. Travis Billingsley turned in a very fast 2:15 to take the second starting spot. Paul Maestri narrowly makes it into the Top 3 for the starting grid, finishing .300 ahead of Ethan Maestri.

 We await the green flag for Heat 1 of the Race of Brazil and the third event in the FRL's WTCC series.

Andrew Steppat	2:14.337
Travis Billiingsley	2:15.718
Paul Maestri	2:16.017
Ethan Maestri	2:16.308
Tony Tyree	2:22.524
Nicholas Hargrove	2:27.524
Bryan Dean	2:19.977*
* - Lap infraction (dirty)

Race of Brazil Qualifying Tonight!

 Qualifying for the Race of Brazil on the mean streets of Rio de Janiero will be held tonight. Practice lobby will open at 8:30PM. Ten minute practice rounds will run until 9:00 PM. Then the grid will line-up for for a 15 minute qualifying session.

 Sunday night will see the Race of Brazil. Lobby at 8:30PM with practice sessions run until 9:00 PM when the grid will line-up for Heat 1.