Round of Japan - Race 1ProspecIt seemed that the Prospecs were glued to the Jones cars all race, as Greenlaw and Swerts spent 11 laps passing each other on the straight, while a bit further away Cameron tried to hold off Dinella. In the end, Greenlaw passed Swerts within metres of the line to take second thanks to a bit of help from Jordan Davies, while Cameron and Dinella completed the race in equal time, and eventually it was figured out that Cameron had
just edged out Dinella, probably by the coat of paint on his front wing.
AeroracingSouto Maior fought with Melville all race long, and managed to get away with a few to go. Until his gearbox seized on the final lap and he had to park. Pacer was quiet all race, eventually losing out to Brown by a tiny margin.
JonesSammy Jones will not be a happy man, after seeing Swerts denied two more points by a very late pass from Greenlaw (granted, not helped by Davies) and Dinella mere millimetres from passing Cameron. Still, both cars scored, something which Sammy probably didn't see happening after Adelaide...
West CliffPeter Port would have been drive of the race if he'd found three seconds, although he's still up there. In fact, start of the year goes to him right now, as he simply blasted down the inside of almost everyone at turn 1, and never looked back. The problem came from West Cliff's strategy - while most teams decided to get everyone home without stopping, West Cliff didn't give Port enough fuel to get home, forcing him into the pits one lap from home, from an easy race lead. There may have been something else in it though - the main beneficiary was a certain Jordan Davies, who'd been running second at the time and would take the race win. Port wound up 10th, which should have been 9th had his electrics not packed up short of the line and cost him momentum on Travesen, but he was well ahead of Piscine and didn't lose any spots.
TakagiNot a good day out at the team's home race, with Takagi retiring with a flat tyre and Hendra Naufal the last classified finisher after spinning on his own on the final lap.
OctanNot much to say about Octan, Lamberigts having one of her "can't be bothered" races while Bainomugisha was one of the ones that pitted. And still beat his teammate by two seconds.
Porto WineMondlane took a top 20, Soares' race ended with a throttle issue on lap 8. 'Bout it, really.
KingfisherMartin van der Maeyede's brilliant qualifying was ruined when his engine blew on lap 2, forcing him to a halt on the main straight. On the plus side for the team, he wasn't the only Holden to go boom that lap. Davidson never recovered from his poor qualifying though, and spent the day trundling around the back of the field, not helped by being pitted by the team. He wound up a few metres short of passing both Kamahas at the death in a brilliant three-wide finish though.
ZombieKartShane Walsh's race was ruined when he spun on his own early, added to a pit stop for fuel. However, fresh tyres saw him take fastest lap. Hershall was quieter than usual, eventually winding up 25th.
Parma CorseHannesson was on track for more points before his gearbox broke on the run down to turn 1 at the start of the final lap, and he did not look pleased when he got out of the car. Lucarelli did an average job, but consistently struggled for straight line speed, which cost him places.
ZimSportRyan Zimmer parked right behind van der Maeyede with an engine failure, thus making John Zimmer very unhappy. So, the usual then. Melville at least benefitted from JLD's strategy and the inability for Aeroracing to build reliable cars, taking fourth and thus not losing too much ground to Greenlaw in the championship.
FusionPoor Jantscher. Every one of his rivals scored points, but he was out fairly early with suspension problems. He's on the back foot a bit now. Mazzacane had a quiet race on his debut with Fusion, but wasn't too far from the points at the end.
Gulf JCWBuckley's engine went up in smoke on lap 6, while Davidson simply didn't have the power to pass anyone on the straight, and so only made ground due to other's misfortunes.
Best In The WorldBITW saw both cars pit, but only one was expected. McAllister was not too far off the Melville/Souto Maior battle, before he came in with low fuel. Verbeek had already stopped a few laps before with a throttle problem and that seemed to take away his confidence, as he fell right off the pace afterwards.
Good CallPiscine was fairly quick, but the only time Good Call were seen all day was when Yorke went onto two wheels after Desai reversed into him after a spin, which cost him dearly.
Linton-SolindahlThe LSMs have been a bit unreliable recently, so the team will be happy to see Reatherson and Travesen have clean races, Reatherson bringing home a couple of points.
DofascoIt says a lot about the race ability of Jan Maylander when Samelko had a pit stop for fuel and still came within 2 hundredths of a second from beating him. It was fun to watch the Dofascos drag down the straight though.
Red BullTaki retired from average position with a throttle problem, unable to pit to fix it. Hamilton did a good job though to finish 13th.
HydookThe only thing of note Hydook did was bringing Ristic in on lap 6, the first stop of the race. Both cars were very anonymous.
JLDThe world looked like it was going to end in the first half of the race, as Joel Melrose seemed to be faster than the cars behind him on merit! Until two things happened - Port getting into clean air and JLD bringing him in for fuel. He still picked up a point, which is probably more than what he would have gotten if he hadn't been on low fuel. Brown was a good example of JLD's lack of pace, gaining only a few spots.
KamahaVictoria Desai was the only driver to pick up penalty points this race, after a spin on lap 3 at turn 6. She simply went in too quick and lost the back end of her car trying to recover. This wasn't the stupid bit though - that was when she reversed right into the path of Thomas Yorke, who did his best to avoid her but just couldn't quite get away. Nurmester's decent race was ruined when a wheel worked itself loose on lap 8, the resulting pit stop leading to an actually quite interesting battle between the two and Scott Davidson, Nurmester eventually coming out on top.
ShonanA very anonymous race for Shonan, with Harmsky inside the top 20 and Sokolov just outside it.
ResultsCode: Select all
Pos Driver Team Time/Retired Gap
1 Jordan Davies West Cliff 17:01.725 11 LAPS
2 Dan Greenlaw Prospec 17:02.060 + 0.335
3 Eric Swerts Jones 17:02.105 + 0.380
4 Daniel Melville ZimSport 17:09.896 + 8.171
5 Nathanael Cameron Prospec 17:11.474 + 9.749
6 Roberto Dinella Jones 17:11.474 + 9.749
7 Quentin Reatherson Linton-Solindahl 17:12.357 + 10.632
8 Joel Melrose JLD 17:12.452 + 10.697
9 Paul Travesen Linton-Solindahl 17:14.978 + 13.253
10 Peter Port West Cliff 17:15.082 + 13.357
11 Franc Piscine Good Call 17:17.879 + 16.154
Code: Select all
12 Thiago Mazzacane Fusion 17:21.245 + 19.520
13 Dale Hamilton Red Bull 17:21.951 + 20.226
14 Judd McAllister BITWM 17:22.082 + 20.357
15 Stephanie Brown JLD 17:29.079 + 28.354
16 Gary Pacer Aeroracing 17:29.092 + 28.367
17 Joe Harmsky Shonan 17:34.631 + 32.906
18 Kevin Bainomugisha Octan 17:40.030 + 38.305
19 Samora Mondlane Porto Wine 17:40.144 + 38.419
20 Dorien Lamberigts Octan 17:41.991 + 40.266
21 Alessandro Lucarelli Parma Corse 17:43.714 + 41.989
22 Yuri Sokolov Shonan 17:44.791 + 43.066
23 Thomas Yorke Good Call 17:46.141 + 44.416
24 Carsten Jancker Hydook 17:46.611 + 44.886
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25 Richard Hershall ZombieKart 17:49.618 + 47.893
26 Roland Davidson Gulf JCW 17:50.930 + 49.205
27 Branko Ristic Hydook 17:51.298 + 49.573
28 Nick Nurmester Kamaha 17:53.967 + 52.242
29 Victoria Desai Kamaha 17:53.970 + 52.245
30 Scott Davidson Kingfisher 17:53.984 + 52.259
31 Jef Verbeeck BITWM 17:55.990 + 54.265
32 Shane Walsh ZombieKart 17:56.641 + 54.916
33 Jan Maylander Dofasco 18:06.833 + 1:05.108
34 Cezary Samelko Dofasco 18:06.847 + 1:05.122
35 Hendra Naufal Takagi 18:10.887 + 1:09.162
36* Raul Souto Maior Aeroracing Transmission (L11) +1 LAP
37* Olafur Ragnar Hannesson Parma Corse Transmission (L11) +1 LAP
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38* Tetsuya Takagi Takagi Puncture (L10) +2 LAPS
DNF Joao Antonio Soares Porto Wine Throttle (L8)
DNF Tyler Buckley Gulf JCW Engine (L6)
DNF Marko Jantscher Fusion Suspension (L5)
DNF Takuma Taki Red Bull Throttle (L5)
DNF Martin van der Maeyede Kingfisher Engine (L2)
DNF Ryan Zimmer ZimSport Engine (L2)
Fastest lap: Shane Walsh (1:30.856)
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