2015 Rejects of LFS Round of Westhill - Final results
Standings$$$ statusHighlights video for the semifinal heats. Sadly, there was no way of salvaging the feature race replay (it would've been epic!), so there's no material available from that. The in-character reason is technical problems caused by the first ever HD broadcast by RMC. Also, because I couldn't verify anything from the replay, the following driver review utilize quite a bit of artistic freedom and are based on what I saw live while running the race.
Individual driver reviews for the final:Danny van RijkensDanny had all the luck you could possibly imagine. He avoided all of the first-lap scraps and emerged in third position by lap two. Then, two thirds into the race he took full advantage of Yamamura blocking Hamilton and got up to second place. Finally, just before the pitstops his team mate O'Heagan spun and sent some tyre obstacles from a chicane directly into the path of Torrente, who went wide as a result and lost the lead. The pit stop went perfectly for the South African and he was able to cruise into his and the team's first ever victory in RoLFS.
Jason HamiltonJason Hamilton was also quite lucky - remember, he was only in the race in the first place because his team paid his way in. He got a brilliant start and managed to avoid all the mess in the first lap, being second until some blocking by Yamamura put him down to third. However, the same incident which gave van Rijkens the lead also allowed Hamilton to overtake Torrente and remain in second position for the rest of the race.
Diego Álvarez TorrenteThe polesitter would've won the race easily if it wasn't for the incident with O'Heagan and the tyre obstacles. Neither Hamilton nor van Rijkens managed to consistently match his pace, so it was only down to bad luck that he didn't win today. Still, a third is a respectable result.
Martyn RietacherSpent most of his time chasing Nathan McKane in 6th position, before Yamamura blocked his own team mate which allowed both Rietacher and MacKane rise up by one position. After McKane was blocked by O'Heagan, he was able to take the fourth place which he held for the last couple of laps.
Brucie KibbutzDropped down a bit in the start, probably to avoid collisions, and spent most of his time in 5th position. He was then blocked by Yamamura and dropped to 7th, which soon turned to 6th when Yamamura took out Marcia. McKane's spin finally promoted him back to 5th, but he could've been one position higher if it weren't for his team mate's blocking.
Matthias ValsattisValsattis really crept into this position unnoticed. For most of the race he was mired in the midfield around the 10th position and didn't even once get mentioned in the commentary, but the late spins by drivers in front of him and most decisively the time penalties most of the other midfield drivers got suddenly promoted him to 6th in the end.
Nathan McKaneThe Scot showed that he has star potential by exploiting all the first-lap incidents to rise up to 5th after a disappointing qualifying. And there he remained for most of the race, before Kibbutz's incident with his team mate which allowed him to momentarily be in 4th. He also set the fastest lap of the race relatively late, when everyone thought his tyres would already be shot. However, on the lap after the pitstops he was blocked by O'Heagan, which dropped him 5th, and on the final lap he spun and dropped out of the top 6.
Marco BizzarriSpent a rather anonymous race in the midpack, raising from 14th to 8th purely thanks to others' misfortune. His 45 second time penalty for pitlane speeding was the only notable event in the whole race, along with punting off Alexandra Kustova for good.
Nobushige FukudaCould've fetched the last point, if it wasn't for a spin and then a 45 second time penalty for pitlane speeding. Otherwise just as anonymous as the rest of the midpack.
Alexandre DorvalDesperately tried to give Hydook its last hurrah, but eventually spun off while being in 7th and trying to overtake Rietacher. Spent the rest of the race in a similar way as the rest of the midpack: anonymous and getting a 45 second time penalty for pitlane speeding.
Renato BulkuAlmost a carbon copy of Fukuda - nearly on points, spun off at one point, got the time penalty for pitlane speeding. Anonymous otherwise.
Cave JohnsonLast year's champion took out Agyemang-Badu on the first lap and spent some time on gravel before recovering, after which he spent most of the race at the back of the pack, a nice overtake on Megumi in the hairpin being one of his few highlights. In the latter part of the race was one of the fastest cars on the track, but it was too late for him and a 45 second time penalty for pitlane speeding sealed the deal.
Helio HernandezPerhaps the unluckiest driver of today got a brilliant start and was 5th by the first corner, but it all came to nothing in the next one as he was part of the four-car collision between him, Yamamura, Megumi and O'Heagan. It took him long to rejoin the track, and his race was lost during the first lap. A late collision with Marcia only added insult to injury.
Marcos MarciaGot off to a good start and was 8th after a few laps with a nice overtake on Hannesson. Rose to 7th with Dorval's spin, which turned into 6th after Kibbutz's incident. However, he was in that position for only a few hundred meters before tangling with the lapped Yamamura, which took him very long to recover from. When he eventually did rejoin the track, he got right in front of Hernandez and the collision was unavoidable. After that he just limped to th finish, having lost a potential points finish.
Connor O'HeaganThe luck o' the Irish was certainly not with him in this race, as he was one of the victims of the first-lap pileup and then spent the rest of the race at the back of the field. He was involved in four more incidents, first by tangling with Kustova for what seemed terminal suspension damage to the Russian. Then both Kustova and Yamamura rejoined the track right in front of him, with both occasions sending him spinning and suffering major damage. And finally his spin and collision with the tyre obstacles indirectly allowed his team mate to take the lead and eventually win the race.
Ólafur Ragnar HannessonYet another driver who spent his day anonymously in the midfield, before burning out his clutch on the pitlane while apparently trying to create a detour
through Kibbutz. Became the only mechanical retirement of the race.
Akira YamamuraThe last driver to be classified in the race could've been the Reject of the Race on any other day. First, it took him ages to get back on the track after the first-lap pileup. Then, he was took out by Kustova and suffered heavy damage, but stubbornly refused to pit for repairs. By being about four seconds slower per lap than anyone else, he became a very effective roadblock which caused many position changes, especially in the points positions (as can be seen in the above reviews). After costing his team mate some positions, he proceeded to ruin Marcia's chances of scoring points, before rejoining the track right in front of O'Heagan, causing another collision.
Marcel Agyemang-BaduThe Ghanaian's race was over after just three corners, when he went wide and veered right in the path of Johnson who tangled his rear wheel, sending the MasterCard Lancia into the air before landing upside down.
Yui MegumiThe fourth driver whose race was ruined during the first lap was initially very anonymous, Johnson overtaking her being the only time she got a mention. With a damaged car she had little else to do than to just keep the car on track - no racing with others was possible, but on the other hand she wasn't too slow to be lapped by the leaders. However, when she made her compulsory pit stop, everything went wrong. She entered the pits way too fast, and as she was already so far behind, the penalty was a stop-and-go unlike the others who who got time penalties. I'm not sure what she was thinking, but she kept racking stop-and-go penalties every time she entered the pits to complete her previous one. Eventually she ran out of time and couldn't complete the penalties in time, resulting in an automatic disqualification.
Alexandra KustovaOh, where would I start with her... well she did initially drive well, being 12th after the first lap. But after a collision with O'Heagan, which caused terminal damage to her rear right suspension, something snapped in her head and instead of retiring she desperately triesd to get back on the track, eventually succeeding in doing so. As she tried to limp back to the pits she caused numerous dangerous situations with her slow car, and the stewards adviced her to retire by the time she reached the pitlane. Instead, she left off immediately again, still with the smashed-up car. This eventually led to two high-speed collisions first with Yamamura and O'Heagan, both of which contributed to numerous other incidents later in the race. This reckless driving earns her the
REJECT OF THE RACE. Just look at which condition her car was in and she still tried to continue before finally being punted off by Bizzarri for good:
http://s1213.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... 1.jpg.htmlThe stewards are, obviously, very busy with all the incidents so the full penalty standings will have to wait until tomorrow. However, I can already confirm that
Alexandra Kustova is to be
banned for the next two rounds of the championship.
Ural Racing should therefore start looking for a replacement driver.
), but here's the starting grid:
Seems that everything has gone wrong lately...
