Nikrox stays on top and Monk makes a lucky break!

BY EDDIE EXHAUST
The VisionRacer RWSTCC celebrated rounds 5&6 last weekend at the infamous Suzuka Circuit in Japan. The usual suspects locked out the front of the field, but there were some suprises in store! Report by Eddie Exhaust



Qualifying:
Yet again F4H proved that they really are a cut above the rest when it comes to qualifying with another fantastic 1,2,3,5 performance to pretty much control the top 5 spots on the grid. This time the pole man was F4H EsdinioR, who put in a fantastic time of 1:22.076 a whole 0.25 of a second faster than team-mate F4H Nikrox who was himself 0.3 of a second faster than the 3rd placed F4H EuskoSati.

An impressive qualifiaction from TPR ChemicaL wedged him in between the F4H Blockade in 4th place to stop them locking out both of the front rows, although due to technical problems F4H Dany could only manage 3 laps before the timer ran out. With RWS 'old timers' RpM MardyJAM, gregtwo and AAA Mad Monk managing to push themselves up into the A final, with gregtwo just forcing out RoflMaiWafflez who AGAIN missed out on an A final slot by less than 0.1 of a second.

Qualifying Results:
1: F4H EsdinioR - 1:22.076
2: F4H Nikrox - 1:22.311
3: F4H EuskoSati - 1:22.619
4: TPR ChemicaL - 1:22.696
5: F4H Dany - 1:22.826
6: RpM MardyJAM - 1:22.869
7: AAA Mad Monk - 1:22.985
8: gregtwo - 1:23.907
9: RoflMaiWafflez - 1:23.961
10: IRidleyI - 1:24.041
11: Noss The Boss - 1:24.125
12: EXOR Detrick - 1:24.959
13: Oo Jabulani oO - 1:27.151
14: Knightrider2224 - 1:28.083
15: Jonny705 - 1:28.814

Race 1:

After a great superpole time it was F4H Nikrox who led the pack into turn 1 from pole position on the grid, closely followed by AAA Mad Monk who managed to jump up from 7th to 2nd on the grid in the superpole. F4H EuskoSati was 3rd, and very nearly managed to pass Mad Monk around the outside through turn 1.

The rest of the pack filtered through the tricky turn 1, safely, and by the time they got down to the hairpin EuskoSati had already had enough of Mad Monk throwing a HUGE lunge down the inside and cleanly taking 2nd place. This also left the door open for TPR ChemicaL to make a move through spoon due to Monk's bad exit, but as quickly as ChemicaL had passed Monk the move was then reversed as Monk used the Integra's speed to repass on the straight.

1 lap later and ChemicaL tried the same move through the second apex of spoon, and this time he squeezed Monk right to the outside on the exit so as not to allow Monk to be earlier on the gas, it worked perfectly and the position stuck.

Next on Monk's 'get-passed-by-before-the-end-of-the-race' list was star of qualifying F4H EsdinioR, contact between them after Monk ran wide at turn 1 left them both with damage but did not allow EsdinioR to pass, but in a perfectly mirrored move to ChemicaL's the pass attempt through spoon was enough. The bad exit for Monk left him within the grasp of MardyJAM who again threw one up the inside at spoon and left Monk in the dust and feeling very slow...

Unfortunately fellow Team Halfords driver gregtwo didn't have the pace to keep either, and his low grid slot meant he spent the race falling further behind the leaders. With greg so far behind only F4H Dany was left to cross off Monk's shopping list. Luckily Dany showed some originality in an otherwise boring race and passed Monk through turn 1, but even the move was a dissapointment as Monk outbraked himself and simply drove off the track.

That was basically the end of the action, the last 4 laps were quickly eaten up and F4H Nikrox came out on top to make it 3 wins from 5 races, an impressive record that sees him very much looking unstoppable at the top of the table, even when racing with a 10pi success ballast!

Race 1 Results
1: F4H Nikrox - 1:22.313
2: F4H EuskoSati
3: TPR ChemicaL
4: F4H Edsinior
5: RpM MardyJAM
6: F4H Dany
7: AAA Mad Monk
8: gregtwo
9: IRidleyI
10: EXOR Detrick
11: Noss The Boss
12: RoflMaiWafflez
13: Jonny705
14: Knightrider2224
15: Oo Jabulani oO

Race 2:
The reverse grid was bound to throw up some suprises, and the first was that the two Team Halfords cars weren't 7th and 8th by the first corner! Monk made a great start and managed to get clear of team-mate gregtwo who was being hotly pursued by everyone else! As they came out of turn 2 Monk had already made a break from the pack, and the rest of the field was desperately trying to get past gregtwo to try and get clear to attack the lead integra.

In fact they were trying so hard that as the pack came through spoon there was contact between F4H Dany and F4H EdsinioR resulting in the two of them, and also gregtwo who was collected in the incident losing their positions and dropping them back to 6th, 7th and 8th places. Eventually out from the smoke and carnage popped RpM MardyJAM, closely followed by F4H EuskoSati, TPR ChemicaL and F4H Nikrox.

The group followed each other around absolutely bumper to bumper for a number of laps, with each one being unable to make a move for fear of losing a place instead of gaining one, Eusko tried a daring move around the outside on the haoirpin to no avail, eventually something had to give and on lap 5 Eusko tried in final desperation frankly a move that was not really going to happen and stuck his nose up inside JAM's rear quarter thruough turn 2. This pushed JAM out of shape and cost him 2nd place, with ChemicaL also passing on the run down to the degners. More contact on the run down to spoon cost ChemicaL his place to F4H Nikrox who was able to sneak by them both.

For the rest of the race Eusko and Nikrox were left to both battle for 2nd place, and also given the task of catching up the gap of nearly 1,000ft which Monk had stretched out while the field was squabbling in the early stages of the race. Nikrox spent alot of time absolutely stuck to Eusko's rear bumper, but the gap was never close enough for Nikrox to be able to find a way past.

As the laps drew in Monk was just completely focused on keeping the car on the tarmac and pointing in the right direction. Eusko was only able to hustle his damaged civic around in laptimes of around 1:22.7's, and matched with Monk's consistent 1:22.9's the gap was just too far to catch, allowing Monk to take the race win with relative ease.

RpM MardyJAM was able to hold off ChemicaL for the remainder of the race, another consistent result for both of those drivers won't do their championship's any harm at all.

6th place was F4H EsdinioR, just to prove that lap speed isn't everything in a race situation. With team-mate F4H Dany scoring another solid yet dissapointing A final result with 7th place.

We won't mention gregtwo...

Race 2 Results
1: AAA Mad Monk
2: F4H EuskoSati
3: F4H Nikrox
4: TPR ChemicaL - 1:22.517
5: RpM MardyJAM
6: F4H EsdinioR
7: F4H Dany
8: gregtwo
9: Noss The Boss
10: RoflMaiWafflez
11: IRidleyI
12: EXOR Detrick
13: Knightrider2224
14: Oo Jabulani oO
15: Jonny705

Thanks again to VisionRacer for making this championship possible, if you want to take your Simulation Racing experience to the next level then head to their website at http://www.VisionRacer.com and discover what you are missing out on!

Rounds 7&8 are up at the Tsukuba circuit just down the road, we hope see you there!

Eddie Exhaust

Great read !

What a tank.