Grand Prix Rejects

Damon Cannon said last year that he didn't want to do another DITD after failing to qualify in 1996, so the seat is free to anyone who wants it.

OK, van Zwart is still interested and would like the drive

EDIT: Ignore please, I have a crappy memory.

Well, I didn't expect James Allen to win the Clausera! Wow!

His random alcoholic rambling was probably because of this

Volga Grand Prix line up to DITD
24.Lawrence Tucker
25.Yuuri Jougaseski

The Lukas wrote:Volga Grand Prix line up to DITD
24.Lawrence Tucker
25.Yuuri Jougaseski

Whoops. I knew I was forgetting something about Tucker when I posted him advertising for seats...

This wrote:For the Duel In The Desert, Ligier will use their most motivated (and cutest) driver: Megumi. We wish Valsattis the best (ending up third in every race, behind both Prost/Ligier cars, that is)

Oh dear! I approve of that.
And for the record, both Megumi and Takagi are dating each other. Fact.

McLaren will run Jorg Scrattenheim and James Davies in our two cars for the duel in the desert. In return, Rory will get the first test in the new car next year as compensation.

Williams and Minardi are the only teams who have not submitted their driver lineups for the Duel. If anyone get snubbed and wants to enter a guest as an independent entry, feel free. Also, is the Valsattis to Benetton move confirmed?

I thought Moreno and Spokes were confirmed for the race ages ago.

eurobrun wrote:I thought Moreno and Spokes were confirmed for the race ages ago.

Oh right, just Minardi then.

Geoff Grove will enter as an independent driver. He has sponsorship from Lucky Strike

Minardi havent even sorted their line-up for 1998 I don't think. Who wants the drive in DIND and who wants a drive for the 1998 season?

AdrianSutil wrote:Minardi havent even sorted their line-up for 1998 I don't think. Who wants the drive in DIND and who wants a drive for the 1998 season?

I think Grovey would, he submitted the entry just above

eurobrun wrote:

AdrianSutil wrote:Minardi havent even sorted their line-up for 1998 I don't think. Who wants the drive in DIND and who wants a drive for the 1998 season?

I think Grovey would, he submitted the entry just above

With Plinio Vida out of Gauthier's plans, he would like to drive for Minardi in 1998. Tracey Wyndham would like to compete in the DIND.

Geoff Grove and Tracey Wyndham will do DIND. Whiever finishes higher out of these two will partner Plinio Vida at Minardi for 1998. That's all my plans in one post

Tristan Jung and Sebastian Gazurek will take the final two guest driver spots.

tristan1117 wrote:Tristan Jung and Anton Kaliniczenko will take the final two guest driver spots.

But I already entered Kaliniczenko for Jordan.

Klon wrote:

tristan1117 wrote:Tristan Jung and Anton Kaliniczenko will take the final two guest driver spots.

But I already entered Kaliniczenko for Jordan.

Yeah, I just realized. I put Gauzrek up first, then changed it, then changed it back. Silly me.

The Duel in the Desert!





Poppy Whitechapel takes pole! Sure, pole means absolutely nothing in this race, but it is a great accomplishment. Kazuyoshi Hoshino was second. After that, the grid got a bit more conventional before as van Dycke, van de Zwart and Douglais all did pretty well. Tristan Jung qualified, Grove qualified, Voeckler qualified, Tucker qualified and Vida qualified. McFry, Ron Mignolet, Ben Fleet, Valsattis, Kaliniczenko, Allen and Fakkinen all failed to qualify.

Wow James, what happened there?
Also, Martin was a little rusty, so it was kinda expected, but Niko has qualified very well!

tristan1117 wrote:

Code: Select all

DNQ Tracey Wyndham (Minardi) - 1:27.129

Wyndham qualified.

Umm, OK then

Wow, that's a messed up grid!

9th?

The current double world champion only half a tenth above failing to qualify...

At least Voeckler made the show.

Reiko Megumi wrote:Well, I can push harder here. But I don't expect much from myself.

Meanwhile, the entire guys at Dome can do nothing but say that their F105B chassis prepared specifically for the race was getting "out of date", hence Vans' DNQ.

Wow, both my drivers within 2/10th of qualifying yet both failing to do so. How rejectful.

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:The current double world champion only half a tenth above failing to qualify...

At least Voeckler made the show.

Check Round 1, he actually DNQ'd there. Daniel Moreno is the most hilariously rejectful double World Champion of all time.

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:The current double world champion only half a tenth above failing to qualify...

At least Voeckler made the show.

Check Round 1, he actually DNQ'd there. Daniel Moreno is the most hilariously rejectful double World Champion of all time.

Except it involves a tampering conspriacy. (They say...)

FMecha wrote:

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:The current double world champion only half a tenth above failing to qualify...

At least Voeckler made the show.

Check Round 1, he actually DNQ'd there. Daniel Moreno is the most hilariously rejectful double World Champion of all time.

Except it involves a tampering conspriacy. (They say...)

I'm pretty sure Moreno is the only person who actually buys that.

^Some of the guys at Williams do believe in that.

The Duel in the Desert
Race



WHITECHAPEL WINS! WHITECHAPEL WINS! If you haven't guessed, Poppy Whitechapel won the race from pole in the most dramatic fashion possible by passing Kazuyoshi Hoshino on the last lap of the race! She made up 6.2 seconds on Hoshino in the last two laps to steal away a win from the ex-Arrows driver.

At the start, Hoshino got the jump on the Lola and opened up a small lead. Nurminen and van de Zwart got swamped at the start while Douglais and Baroncelli leaped up the field. At the back, the fast-starting double world champion forgot to brake for Turn 1 and slammed into Scrattenheim. Moreno was in turn hit by Christopherson and all were forced to pit with suspension damage. Whitechapel got back past Hoshino on Lap 9 and immediately began to build up an enormous lead. However, the Lola was eating up its tyres as Whitechapel set her blistering lap times. Andrew Spokes, O'Connell, Kickert and Davies squared off for old times' sake for third. In the midfield, a huge train of cars had built up behind Niko Nurminen in thirteenth. Jung, Dagnall, Voeckler, Megumi, Jougaseki and Geoff Grove all duked it out for position around Phoenix but no one could get past Nurminen for about ten laps. Then, disaster struck on Lap 23 when Gio van Dycke, running in eleventh, spun off. He tried to rejoin the track but he rammed straight into Nurminen, causing a huge accident. Jung, Dagnall, Voeckler, and Megumi all crashed head-on into each other. Geoff Grove was unable to avoid hitting Megumi and sustained heavy suspension damage. Daniel Moreno arrived at the accident and knocked off his front wing on Grove's Minardi, forcing Moreno back into the pits for a second time.

The chaos was not bothering Poppy Whitehchapel who continued to lead from Hoshino. However, her tyres were completely shot by Lap 43 and she headed into the pits for a quick stop. Hoshino also pitted, allowing Rick Douglais to take the lead after a storming drive from eleventh on the grid. Douglais and Whitechapel held a Lola 1-2 before Whitechapel passed her teammate on Lap 50. Douglais' tyres eventually gave out and he dropped down to sixth. Whitechapel was in the lead but her tyres were wearing even faster than before. The Lola team chose to bring Whitechapel in for a stop on Lap 63, essentially ending any hopes of a victory. Andrew Spokes assumed the lead but Hoshino quickly passed by and took a healthy advantage. Whitechapel landed behind Spokes and was held up for seven laps by Spokes' Williams. Meanwhile, Hoshino broke out an eighteen second lead by Lap 70, normally an insurmountable advantage. However, Whitechapel, on fresher tyres, finally got past Spokes and chased after Hoshino. But all seemed lost by Lap 79 as Hoshino was still six seconds up the road and Whitechapel was stuck behind Tom Douglas' Ferrari. But Laps 79 and 80 proved to be the greatest of Whitechapel's career as she cut six seconds, setting and resetting fastest lap. Her time Lap 80 was a full two seconds faster than Lawrence Tucker's next fastest lap time. Whitechapel also received help from Yuuri Jougaseki, who failed to provide any help to her countrymen by blocking Kazuyoshi Hoshino. On the last lap of the race, Whitechapel closed up to Hoshino's gear box and overtook him on the back straight, diving down the inside of Hoshino to take the lead! Whitechapel eventually won the race by just 0.48 seconds, but it was enough to win the prestigious Nabisco Trophy.

The cars were a lot less durable this year; ten drivers crashed out of the race. von Hegel, Vida, Christopherson and Walik all crashed on their own at Turn 1. Vida ran in the top ten and was well ahead of Grove for much of the race before his crash on Lap 62. Walik was also in the top ten when he crashed. The other six retirements were directly caused by Gio van Dycke, who earns a much-deserved Reject of the Race award. James Davies finished third, ahead of Baroncelli, Spokes (who faded away on old tyres), Douglais and Moreno. Moreno made an excellent comeback after his second unplanned stop and he used his newer tyres to full effect in the later stages of the race. Tucker was eighth and O'Connell was a disappointing ninth (he failed to pit for new tyres). Jougaseki did not get lapped, but her blocking maneuvers on Hoshino sparked an angry feud after the race in the post-race press conference. Douglas, van de Zwart, Kickert, Scrattenheim and da Silva were all anonymous. Geoff Grove drove well but he was caught up in the van Dycke fiasco and never recovered.

That's it for the season. After I post the season review and awards, I will be focusing on getting the Nations Cup off the ground, so the F1RGP2C will be on a brief hiatus (perhaps till mid-February). Feel free to post silly season stuff on this thread; I will make a new one for the 1998 season once the full grid for next year is confirmed.

My proposed (and slightly biased) ROTY podium

Speedline.com wrote:3rd: Deadbeat Teammates (Zimmer, Pech, Van Gottrop and Megumi)

Whether it was bad luck, inconsistency or just general lack of talent these drivers ended nowhere neat there teammates, especially in the overall standings. They all need to improve relative to the people on the other side of the garage. (If they still have a drive that is)

2nd: James Davies
This may seem strange to some but there is a reason. He didn't do badly this year but he was disappointing compared to his own high standards. All to often he made mistakes under pressure and as a result stopped him from being a serious title contender. He has the talent to be champion but his ego is getting in the way

1st: Robert Anderson

I don't even really need a reason for this. GTFO and never come back

Nurminen-train, bashed by Van Dycke. Okay...!

eurobrun wrote:2nd: James Davies
This may seem strange to some but there is a reason. He didn't do badly this year but he was disappointing compared to his own high standards. All to often he made mistakes under pressure and as a result stopped him from being a serious title contender. He has the talent to be champion but his ego is getting in the way

Mistakes? How are constant car failures mistakes? He could've won 7 races this year - only one of them was down to a mistake. And even with that, it would've been good enough to overhaul Moreno for the title. Plus, he's one of the only drivers never to have a penalty point attributed to him.

My own reject podium:

3rd: John Zimmer - A 2nd place finish in France was his lone podium this year. Thoroughly demolished by Spokes - is this really the same guy who seemed pretty much invincible in 1995?
2nd: McLaren-Mercedes - A very quick car which should've won at least one title. But the reliability was absolutely laughable.
1st: Robert Anderson - Well, this one's a given.

For the awards, how about nominating a surprise team of the year?

Yes, the reliability was terrible. But he failed to do anything much that matched the expectations of everyone, Davies was nowhere near winning 7 more races. He wasn't bad, he was just dissapointing itoo much. And besides I did say the list was a bit biased