Category Archives: Race Recaps

Barcelona Recap

Posted on May 31, 2018 | Leave a comment

Sunny skies and a moderate temperatures welcomed the SBMRL to Barcelona for the final race of the 2017-18 season.  The Stig came into the race with two challengers to fight off for the driver championship, Whiplash and Launch Bornado, but a large enough lead that finishing close to both would result in him taking the title.  From the team stand point, all four teams entered the race within 12 points of each other, so the championship was truly up for grabs.

With so much at stake, the starting grid lined up as follows:

P1 – Captain Slow (Jason)
P2 – Stevie Wondertyres (Jason)
P3 – Sheila Dinkum (Frank)
P4 – Bubba McQueen (Barb)
P5 – Jaap Snellrijder (Frank)
P6 – Launch Bornado (Barb)
P7 – Whiplash (Frank)
P8 – The Stig (Jason)

As the lights went out, the field pulled away down the long approach to turn 1.  Captain Slow made good on his pole position by establishing himself as the race’s early leader.  Throughout the first sector, the rest of the field jockeyed back and forth, but the only significant movement was Stevie falling progressively further and further behind.  Notably, the Stig was not able to do much passing and stayed at the back of the pack.

The second sector saw the first aggressive forays toward the front.  The Force Ravenswood team of Launch and Bubba were joined by Jaap in their challenge of Captain Slow.  These four cars made up the lead pack, while Sprite Racing’s drivers and the Stig began to pull away from Sheila a bit.

Three cars wide in Campsa

Former teammates Jaap and Launch battled through Europcar and into the final corner of the track, New Holland.  Behind them, Captain Slow and Bubba were caught up by the Stig and Whiplash as the tightness of sector three condensed the field.  Sheila, meanwhile, did her best to not fall too far behind.

Jaap and Launch complete the final turn of lap 1

The early leader of the second lap was decided quickly.  While Jaap charged down the start-finish straight, Launch dove for the pits.  A quick change of tires meant that Launch was able to come out just ahead of the Stig, who had copied Jaap’s approach, but both were well back of the Regency Motors driver in the first sector.  They were joined in the trailing group by Whiplash, who was the only other driver to stay out on track.

Pack separation due to pitting

It doesn’t happen every race, but now and then the pits catch someone out.  Here in Barcelona, it was Bubba.  Bubba’s pit experience wasn’t the worst example the SBMRL has seen, and he actually held up the three cars behind him.  However, he did get passed by two cars who didn’t pit.  After running no lower than 4th in the first lap, he didn’t run that high again for the rest of the race.

Back at the front, Jaap drove cautiously enough through the first few corners to give those behind him reason to hope of catching him.  Launch had the best shot in sector two, but the Stig was also mounting a charge.  This part of the circuit is where Whiplash began to fade a bit and Captain Slow and Sheila started to real him in.  Stevie held an edge over Bubba in the battle for last place.

A bird’s eye view of lap 2’s second sector

With a moderate lead and just the third sector remaining in the season, Jaap did not disappoint.  He took each corner of the third sector with ease, and cruised home with the win.  In contrast, the battle for 2nd place was far from over.  While Launch and the Stig fought for supremacy, Captain Slow caught them both around the outside of Banc Sabadell.

Captain Slow passes Launch and the Stig

From as far back as he had come, this was a rather surprising turn of events.  Bubba and the Sprite Racing team had lost contact with Sheila in the battle for 5th place, but little was as close as the fight for second.  Around the final corner, Captain Slow, Launch, and the Stig came side-by-side.

The fight for 2nd place

From here, it was a drag race to the finish.  Captain Slow’s hard charge to catch up left him with a little less at the end, and it was Launch who managed to eke out a photo finish 2nd place over the Stig.  Bubba’s efforts to fight past Stevie and Whiplash were also for naught.  Whiplash proved superior in the final sector, while Stevie had just enough speed down the straight to relegate Bubba to last place.

Stevie and Bubba at the finish

Barcelona was one of the most evenly fought races in SBMRL history.  Jaap was the only driver not to race in 7th or 8th place at some point.  Every driver spent time in 2nd place, and 5 different cars held the lead.  In fact, 1st place was the only track position not held by 7 of the 8 cars at some point.

Final Results

Driver Start Lap Finish
Jaap Snellrijder (RM) 5 1 1
Launch Bornado (FR) 6 2 2
The Stig (SB) 8 3 3
Captain Slow (SB) 1 7 4
Sheila Dinkum (RM) 3 6 5
Whiplash (SR) 7 4 6
Stevie Wondertyres (SR) 2 8 7
Bubba McQueen (FR) 4 5 8

Jaap records his 3rd victory of the season, bouncing back from a last place finish in Shanghai.  It’s his SBMRL leading 7th victory overall.  Launch’s 2nd place finish is his 4th podium in the last 5 races and 5th overall for the season.  That ties the Stig for most on the year after the Stig rounded out the rostrum in 3rd place.

Championship Results

The Stig’s 3rd place finish was more than enough to maintain his lead in the driver standings, taking home his first ever championship.  We’ve now had 3 different drivers win the title, with Jaap and Launch winning the previous two.

Jaap’s victory was just enough to edge past Launch for 2nd place by a paltry 2 points.  At the other end of the standings, Captain Slow came into the race needing to outscore Stevie by 8 points to get out of the cellar.  Instead, his 4th place finish was only worth 6 more than Stevie’s 7th place, leaving him in last.

Much was made over the team standings coming into the race, as only 12 points separated all 4 teams.  Force Ravenswood, sitting 7 points up on Scandinavian Blitz was in the best position, but that margin was so small that anything was possible.  With the top three teams all represented on the podium, the team championship was ultimately decided by how the cars finished lower down.  Ultimately, Sheila finishing in 5th and Bubba finishing last resulted in a 4 point championship edge for Regency Motors over Force Ravenswood.  Scandinavian Blitz saw their cars finish in 3rd and 4th place.  That scored them a sizeable haul of points, but not quite enough to finish any higher than 3rd.  Still, at only 2 points behind Force Ravenswood and 6 back of the title, they have nothing to hang their heads about.

Driver Champion: The Stig
Team Champion: Regency Motors

Race Gallery

Leave a comment

Posted in Race Recaps

Tagged ,

Shanghai Recap

Posted on May 26, 2018 | Leave a comment

A beautiful day in Shanghai welcomed the SBMRL for race 8 of 2017-18 season.  With just two races to go, the event in China presented the possibility for one of the front runners to give themselves a leg up on the rest of the field.  The drivers lined up as follows:

P1 – Captain Slow (Jason)
P2 – Stevie Wondertyres (Jason)
P3 – Whiplash (Frank)
P4 – Bubba McQueen (Barb)
P5 – Sheila Dinkum (Frank)
P6 – Jaap Snellrijder (Frank)
P7 – Launch Bornado (Barb)
P8 – The Stig (Jason)

A clean start saw the field jockeying for position into the long, winding turn 1.  The top four on the grid lead the way into turn 2, with Whiplash keeping ahead of Captain Slow and Bubba.  Stevie fell in line with Jaap and Launch, while the Stig and Sheila took their place at the rear.

Whiplash out front early on

Throughout the second sector, Whiplash and Captain Slow battled for supremacy at the front.  Bubba hung back in a lonely third place, while the rest of the field struggled to keep up.  Stevie was able to hold onto the fourth position until the long, winding turn 5, where the Stig was able to get past him.

Whiplash was the first through the hairpin coming off the long back straight.  He proceeded cleanly through the final corner and into the pits.  Captain Slow also had no trouble with this section, but behind them, much of the rest of the field was not so lucky.  Bubba couldn’t handle the hairpin at all, carrying too much speed and spinning out as a result.  Having seen that in front of him, the Stig had the opposite problem, failing to keep up enough speed.

The tricky final two corners

The one car that navigated the mess smoothly was Jaap’s.  He watched Captain Slow and the Stig dive for the pits and decided that would be his opportunity to jump them.  Unfortunately for him, the Scandinavian Blitz pit crew was up to the task, and they had both red cars back on the track right alongside him.

The leaders take to lap 2

By the end of the first sector, Jaap had once again fallen behind both Scandinavian Blitz cars, but neither of them were yet able to catch up with Whiplash.  Bubba’s misfortunes at the end of the first lap had dropped him all the way to battle with his teammate Launch Bornado, who was having a race to forget.  Only Sheila was doing worse.

While Whiplash continued to drive with confidence, the Stig was doing his best to reel him in.  He nearly did so on the approach to Turn 5.  Whiplash was able to carry his line perfectly into the corner.  He then navigated the extreme curvature of the corner expertly, flying on the straight with momentum to pull away easily. The rest of the field all found themselves piling in tightly behind.

Turn 5 packs the field in

Captain Slow and the Stig were back in front of the also rans, with Stevie starting to feel some heat from the mess unfolding behind him.  Notably, Jaap’s second sector was abysmal, so despite the promising start to lap 2, he was in amongst the back of the field.  As the top 3 went through the final two corners, the others barreled down the straight to the hairpin.

Late stratification

Despite how close the front three were, Whiplash took the checkered flag for his first victory.  He actually held the lead since the middle of the first lap, but the Stig and Captain Slow both kept pressure on him all race.  In the end, Captain Slow was right behind him at the finish, with the Stig taking home 3rd place, giving Scandinavian Blitz their first double podium of the year.

The remaining five cars took to the hairpin with eyes set on taking advantage of a difficult section of track.  Bubba and Stevie had the line right on entry.  Launch, Jaap, and Sheila not so much.

The field in the hairpin

Bubba took the final corner with ease, salvaging 4th place after a difficult second lap.  Stevie had no trouble holding off the others for 5th.  On the other hand, Sheila’s deep dive down the inside ended in disaster.  After having spent most of the race far in arrears, this was perhaps Sheila’s best chance to gain some positions.  In the end, she spun out, losing any advantage she was trying to gain.  She was saved ever so slightly by the sheer incompetence of Jaap, who couldn’t cleanly find his way past his compromised teammate.

Final Results

Driver Start Lap Finish
Whiplash (SR) 3 1 1
Captain Slow (SB) 1 3 2
The Stig (SB) 8 4 3
Bubba McQueen (FR) 4 6 4
Stevie Wondertyres (SR) 2 5 5
Launch Bornado (FR) 7 7 6
Sheila Dinkum (RM) 5 8 7
Jaap Snellrijder (RM) 6 2 8

Not only does Whiplash get his first victory, but it’s the first time he’s even led a race.  With the tight driver standings, that vaults him up into second place.  In contrast, Captain Slow’s first podium of the year isn’t nearly enough to get him out of the cellar.  The Stig takes 3rd place for a strong finish after struggling in Australia.  Interestingly, it’s the first time he’s every finished 3rd.

From a team standpoint, Sprite Racing gets their first victory and strongest result of the year.  Scandinavian Blitz gets their first double podium finish of the year, and only one outside of the Nurburgring in Germany last season.  That race in Germany is also the only other time Regency Motors has a had a result as poor as this one, with neither car finishing higher than 7th.

Despite being in last place, Sprite Racing has now closed the gap to 12 points… not to 3rd place, but all the way to first!  The team standings have never been this tight in any season.  Scandinavian Blitz has leapfrogged Regency Motors for 2nd place, but Force Ravenswood still leads.  The 12 points separating all four teams in the team standings matches the 12 point separating between the Stig and Whiplash for 1st and 2nd in the driver standings.

Race Gallery

Leave a comment

Posted in Race Recaps

Tagged ,

Melbourne Recap

Posted on April 11, 2018 | Leave a comment

The SBMRL’s eastern tour turned south from India to Melbourne, Australia for the 7th race of the season.  As a new venue for the league, it was anyone’s guess as to how it was going to play out.  Despite a bit of upheaval in the standings in India, the starting grid looked exactly the same:

P1 – Captain Slow (Jason)
P2 – Stevie Wondertyres (Jason)
P3 – Jaap Snellrijder (Frank)
P4 – Launch Bornado (Barb)
P5 – Bubba McQueen (Barb)
P6 – Whiplash (Frank)
P7 – Sheila Dinkum (Frank)
P8 – The Stig (Jason)

It was clear from the get go that the drivers were anxious for this race, as both Jaap Snellrijder and The Stig got off to flying starts.  The Stig, who started from the back of the grid, was going to need to pull a number of tricks like this if he was going to win his 4th consecutive race after starting at the back of the grid.

The early part of the race, then was a lot of jockeying for position among two factions.  The front three on the grid were joined by Bubba, who managed to pip his teammate.  This left the other four drivers battling to catch up, with a driver from each team in each group.

Early position battles

The first car to break away from the pack was Captain Slow, who flew through the second sector with ease.  There must have been some Scandinavian Blitz team discussions on how to race this part of the track, as the Stig found himself flying past the rest of the field and up in second place.  Launch Bornado also made a charge here, leaving Whiplash and Sheila as the two cars with the most work to do.

Captain Slow breaks free

The Ascari turn saw Stevie make a move, flying around the outside of Captain Slow and taking the lead.  He maintained that through the final turns of sector three, and with Captain Slow hot on his heels, dove for the pits.  The Captain, on the other hand, barreled on down the pit straight.  While Jaap and Launch pitted in front of him, the Stig followed his teammate in forgoing fresh tyres.  Unfortunately, this may not have been the best choice, as he was quickly passed by those coming out of pit lane.

With the first lap completed, Captain Slow soon found himself being hunted down by Stevie and Launch, who had used an excellent pit stop to recharge for another circuit.  The Stig’s gambit left him wanting, fighting for 4th place with Whiplash, Bubba, and Jaap.

Captain Slow, still in the lead on Lap 2

The Stig looked poised to pull another great second sector out of his tailpipe but the key moves were happening behind him.  Jaap and the Stig both managed to find speed through the Albert Road corner and carry that through into the Clark Chicane.  The cruising Captain Slow barely had a chance to see them go by.  Launch and Stevie, who had been fighting for 2nd place were suddenly fighting to stay out of 5th.

The Stig and Jaap just about to pass Captain Slow

Jaap continued his charge into the third sector, but the Stig wasn’t able to keep up.  At the same time, Captain Slow was transforming from potential race winner into, well, Captain Slow.  The Scandinavian Blitz drivers were then both passed by Stevie and Launch at Ascari, the same corner that Stevie had driven so beautifully on the first lap.  To make matters worse, a strong second sector from Whiplash had him making the same move.  Suddently, Captain Slow and the Stig were fighting each other for 5th place.  Tables turned.

Jaap going round the final corners with Stevie and Launch in pursuit

Jaap made good on his run through the second half of lap 2, winning comfortably.  Behind him, Stevie managed to carry enough speed through the final corner to beat out Launch.  The battle for fourth place, wasn’t as easily determined.  Whiplash had the edge coming out of Ascari but the Stig was pushing hard.  Captain Slow also made a run for it.  Coming out of Prost, all three cars were within a car length of each other.  In the same way that Stevie got the edge on Launch with greater speed out of the corner, Whiplash pulled away from both red cars to take 4th place.  Captain Slow had just enough to cross the line before the Stig.  At the back of the field, Sheila beat out Bubba, with neither driver proud of their accomplishments.

Final Results

Driver Start Lap Finish
Jaap Snellrijder (RM) 3 6 1
Stevie Wondertyres (SR) 2 3 2
Launch Bornado (FR) 4 4 3
Whiplash (SR) 6 5 4
Captain Slow (SB) 1 1 5
The Stig (SB) 8 2 6
Sheila Dinkum (RM) 7 8 7
Bubba McQueen (FR) 5 7 8

The Stig’s three race victory streak comes to an end, and it was a fine run.  So much so that he had moved into a tie with Jaap as the SBMRL’s career victory leader at 5.  Of course, that tie has now also been broken as Jaap won his 6th race, and second of the season.  Incidentally, he’s never won more than twice in a season, so the Stig still holds that record.

Stevie records his best finish to date, while Launch’s 3rd place finish makes it three consecutive podiums.  That gives Launch 13 career podiums, which is 4 better than Jaap, who sits in second place.

The Stig’s large lead in the driver standings has shrunk down to 10 points, although that is still a decent sized gap and a testament to how far ahead he was.  Behind him, former teammates Launch and Jaap sit just 1 point apart.  Sheila, Bubba, and Whiplash are all very close to each other.  Captain Slow, who is the only driver this season without a podium finish, lost further ground at the bottom.

From a team perspective, Regency Motors did just enough to make up the ground that Force Ravenswood stole from them in India, taking a narrow 1 point lead in the team standings.  Sprite Racing’s strong showing wasn’t, however, enough to get past Scandinavian Blitz, who will be looking to bounce back in Shanghai.

Race Gallery

Leave a comment

Posted in Race Recaps

Tagged ,