Sunset Peninsula: EnZo and PLOW Champion take the honours

BY EDDIE EXHAUST
After an extremely successful rounds 1&2 at Sedona Club everyone was looking forward to racing on the semi-street Sunset Peninsula Infield for some more fantastic action. Yet again some exceptional action was provided, and some great racing was on display for all to see including a new RWS event winner!



Qualifying:
For the second meeting in a row the qualifying in the mid-pack was closer than many drivers have seen before, with the 7th-17th placed drivers all within a second! However up at the front there were familiar faces once more as EMW EnZo took the pole by just under 0.5 of a second from nearest challenger PLOW Champion. EMW Apex bagged himself third place, but only just ahead of AAA Mad Monk who narrowly pipped gregtwo to the fourth spot.

Unlucky dog this week was EMW Elise 09; just 0.021 separated him and GXR KartingKid, unfortunately knocking Elise down into the B final. Redemption was in store for gregtwo - after a terrible qualifying session last week which put him right down in the D final, the Scot bounced back to the top room at Sunset. Further down the pecking order, Jonny705 failed to build on his B-Final appearance at Sedona last week, falling to the C-Final with a time over two seconds adrift of the front-runners.

In the bottom few finals, the grid orders echoed the results of Sedona - with limited changes from the opening rounds.

Qualifying Results:
1 : EMW EnZo - 1:23.886
2 : PLOW Champion - 1:24.377
3 : EMW Apex - 1:24.554
4 : AAA Mad Monk - 1:24.575
5 : gregtwo - 1:24.604
6 : EMW Checkpoint - 1:25.127
7 : EMW SIXX - 1:25.244
8 : GXR KartingKid - 1:25.302
9 : EMW Elise 09 - 1:25.323
10 : Ray J P 123 - 1:25.341
11 : RoflMaiWafflez - 1:25.368
12 : TER LiveNkickin - 1:25.489
13 : Timomies - 1:25.578
14 : Morne In Glory - 1:25.642
15 : VVV Haga - 1:25.807
16 : HLR rynogt4 - 1:25.907
17 : Jonny705 - 1:26.210
18 : WhyMustISigh - 1:26.451
19 : Webbers88 - 1:26.557
20 : DJP2816 - 1:26.942
21 : Fergosity - 1:27.173
22 : SamuraiSlider41 - 1:27.440
23 : SkySaviour12245 - 1:28.732
24 : TotaledChan - 1:29.259
25 : T Diamomd - 1:31.383
26 : Pebsi - 1:32.263
27 : ReVerrt - 1:33.657
28 : damortm - 1:35.538
29 : Aallustriel - 1:43.452
30 : Maddog1441 - 2:26.227

Race 1:
EMW EnZo got his customary fantastic start to lead the pack through the high-speed first turn and down to turn two, but his lead was short-lived as PLOW Champion attempted a virtuoso late-braking maneuver to take the first place position - and made it stick. The pair raced side-by side into through the opening section, but Champion lit up his rear-tyres and slid the back of the car out on the exit. As he came to bring it back into line the front tagged EnZo’s rear quarter, causing them both to spin. It was an unfortunate and untimely incident which hurled them down to seventh and eighth.

This left EMW Apex in control of the race, with gregtwo and EMW Checkpoint maintaining pressure, pushing for a way past. The train of cars pursued each other around until lap three, by which time gregtwo had finally made the pass stick on EMW Checkpoint and took the second place away from him. This move allowed the Scot huge in-roads on Apex's lead.

Back in the chasing pack and PLOW Champion manages to catch Mad Monk by lap four after his earlier collision with EnZo. Further bad luck struck as a lag-spike smashed both of them into GXR KartingKid’s Holden - rendering both of their races over.

Up at the front gregtwo manages to catch up Apex. After 4 laps he finally manages to pressure Apex into a mistake and pounces on the opportunity to take the lead as they come through the chicane and under the Dunlop bridge.

EMW EnZo is on a fantastic comeback and has already made it back up to 5th place, slowly he catches the damaged PLOW Champion and breezes past him on the straight into 4th position. Eventually PLOW Champion is forced to retire from his accident damage, on lap 7 his engine is severely overheating, so the team decided to bring him in to avoid further damage before race 2and maximize their time to repair the car fully.

The trouble is that although greg was able to catch Apex, he just can’t pull away!
Apex hounds greg, and it looks like the race is going to be stuck in a deadlock, but finally the rope tying the two breaks, and Apex brakes too late into the hairpin and crashes into the back of greg. Allowing EMW Checkpoint through into the lead, with EMW EnZo on a fantastic recovery drive passing them both into 2nd place.

This leaves EMW Checkpoint and a heavily damaged EMW EnZo to fight it out with 4 laps to go for the win. The gap is slowly whittled down by EnZo, but the laps are also reduced by Checkpoint. As they start the final lap it’s anybody’s game, and a mistake from Checkpoint through turn 1 allows EnZo right onto his tail. As they brake into the hairpin EnZo launches an incredible lunge down the inside and just does enough to get the car stopped in time for the corner. It works! And EnZo gets through into the lead of the race on the final lap!

With three corners to go and a big advantage on straight-line speed Checkpoint is still the favourite to win however, and glues himself to EnZo’s rear bumper all of the way until the final chicane. He brakes too late and loses momentum recovering in a last ditched effort to take the lead back. It’s not enough to take the lead and EMW EnZo goes all Jamie Whincup on us and wins R3, making him the winner of all of the first 3 races for Holden!

Race 1 Results:
1: EMW EnZo
2: EMW Checkpoint
3: gregtwo
4: EMW SIXX
5: EMW APEX
6: GXR KartingKid
7: AAA Mad Monk
8: PLOW Champion
9: RoflMaiWafflez
10: Ray J P 123
11: Morne in Glory
12: VVV Haga
13: Timomies
14: HLR rynogt4
15: EMW Elise 09
16: TER LiveNkickin
17: Jonny705
18: SamuraiSlider41
19: Fergosity
20: Webbers88
21: DJP2818
22: TotaledChan
23: EMWHipLimbeBoy7
24: Damortm
25: T Diamomd
26: pebsi
27: ReVerrt
28: Aallustriel
29: MADDOG1441
30: SkySaviour12245 - DNS
31: WhyMustISigh - DNS

Race 2:
The reverse grid was a gift from god to AAA Mad Monk, he converted his awful Round 3 result into pole and the early race lead in Round 4. GXR KartingKid got away well and took 2nd place out of turn 1, and it wasn’t long before the rest of the field had created a ‘trulli-train’ behind him.

EnZo has only managed one race without a first lap incident this season, and round 4 was no different. Passing gregtwo under the Dunlop bridge was a masterful move, but the switch-back by gregtwo just caught EnZo’s tail and sent them both wide into the gravel trap. Yet another come-back drive for EnZo was on the menu.

Monk made the most of his early lead and stretched his cushion out to over 6 seconds by the time the rest of the pack was able to start passing KartingKid. EMW Apex was the first to get through, but PLOW Champion took no time at all to pass both of them and start to literally slash into Monk’s lead.

Soon enough Champion was right up the back-side of Monk. It was a case of when Champion was finally going to snatch the lead of the race rather than if, and on lap 10 Monk finally made the mistake that allowed Champion through. But yet again Champion’s lead didn’t last more than a lap. As the drivers came onto the start-straight Champion dived into the pits to try and get some clear air and extend his advantage. Monk stayed out and pushed hard to try and get back infront.

In the mean-time EMW Checkpoint pitted from 4th place, just behind EMW Apex. When Apex pitted 3 laps later there was nothing separating them as he re-joined and braked into turn 1, but Apex just about did enough to stay infront. The only question was why had he now dropped to 4th place? This was because EMW EnZo had pitted on lap 7 and been absolutely flying on fresh tyres, he had managed to leap-frog both Apex and Checkpoint to put himself back onto the podium.

Back to the battle at the lead and with just a few laps to go Monk pits from 1st place. Champion comes flying through the final corner at nearly 180mph and Monk re-joins the track just ahead! Unexpectedly regaining the lead of the race.

With just 4 laps to go Champion manages to put enough pressure on Monk to make the race leader make a second mistake and lose his position. Champion looks like he’s got the race sewn up, but with just a single lap to go he runs wide at the hairpin allowing Monk to catch him again. In to the final chicane Monk tries what Checkpoint did in race 1, but is also unable to make it stick, the lost speed is too much and PLOW Champion becomes the first person to stop EnZo’s unbeatable streak!

Speaking of EnZo being stopped, a mechanical failiure on the last lap of the race meant he had to retire and could only take 7th place overall in the results.

Race 2 Results:
1: PLOW Champion
2: AAA Mad Monk
3: EMW APEX
4: EMW SIXX
5: EMW Checkpoint
6: gregtwo
7: EMW EnZo
8: GXR KartingKid
9: EMW Elise 09
10: Timomies
11: HLR rynogt4
12: VVV Haga
13: RoflmaiWafflez
14: Ray J P 123
15: Morne in Glory
16: DJP2816
17: SamuraiSlider41
18: Jonny705
19: Fergosity
20: Webbers88
21: EMWHipLimbeBoy7
22: TotaledChan
23: pebsi
24: T Diamomd
25: Aallustriel
26: MADDOG1441 - DNF
27: SkySaviour12245 - DNS
28: WhyMustISigh - DNS
29: TER LiveNkickin - DNS
30: Damortm - DNS
31: ReVerrt – DNS

What a fantastic second meeting Sunset Peninsula was! And with two of the most exciting tracks on the calendar lined up next I can imagine that both Motegi East and New York are going to be absolutely thrilling!

EMW EnZo still heads the championship tables, and Jonny705 leads the pro-am category! Let’s see if anyone can rival Team Havoline next week and stop them getting too far away in the teams standings too!

Thanks for reading,
Eddie Exhaust

wow haha, amazing again, *Race 1, greg was braking very early, i hit him twice haha, my bad though, i was braking asif i was hotlapping, not in traffic, good race, and great report, rep++ for The News Team haha <3

Well done George, fab one mate

Awesome report once again! Great effort well done

Great report from a-lobby but no mention from others.

I quess I just have to get to a-final next time

i agree with timo but i'll never make the A-final other than that great report

PLEASE can everyone run the official championship decals this week. I have promised the sponsors that everybody will be running the graphpak australia logo on their car and it is written in the rules that you must do this. For the first 2 rounds as not everyone had the correct car (which allows you to paint the windscreen banner). However now that the Ford has been gifted out to VIP's it's cheap on the A/H and if anyone needs credits to buy the correct car just ask me and i will gift one to you.

If you don't have the decals ASK ME FOR THEM! and FR me!

awesome report dude!

That last race was epic for me! Last to taking a win on the last few laps, once again sorry to enzo for the first race.!!!