Silver Bullet Memorial Racing League

Russia Recap

Posted on April 8, 2017 | Leave a comment

Sochi, Russia welcomed the SBMRL on March 17th as race #7 on the 9 race 2016-17 calendar. It was a brisk day with highs in the low 50’s, but that didn’t stop the fans from coming out. Here’s how the cars took to the grid:

P1 – Nero (Frank)
P2 – Ice (Jason)
P3 – Captain Slow (Jason)
P4 – The Stig (Jason)
P5 – Mater (Jason)
P6 – Jamonito del Verde (Geoff)
P7 – Danger Wheel (Ryan)
P8 – Launch Bornado (Frank)
P9 – Jaap Snellrijder (Frank)
P10 – Jaronimus Maximus (Geoff)

The race started cleanly, with Jamonito timing the lights perfectly for a fast start at the middle of the grid. He able to get ahead of Mater, causing the Red Bull driver to suffer minor body damage after getting sandwiched with Captain Slow. Nero and the Stig were the first into Turn 1, establishing the early hierarchy. By Turn 4, Nero had moved out front for an early advantage. The Stig and Captain Slow battled for 2nd place with a larger group following behind.

Nero out front

The early mover was Jaap, who caught up with the Scandinavian Blitz drivers by Turn 5, showing once again that Sochi’s track suits him just fine. By Turn 8 he would find himself up in 2nd place. It was here on the first lap that Ice, Mater, and Jamonito made their push to catch up, while Jaronimus, Danger Wheel, and Launch languished far behind.

As Nero rounded the final two corners, Mater made his move on the inside of The Stig in Turn 8. Unfortunately, he clipped his opponent and was sent into the barriers and out of the race. The Stig miraculously escaped any damage of his own, and was even able to keep up with his teammate.

Mater crashes out

Among the front runners, the key moment of the race to this point surrounded the pits. Nero dove for fresh tyres and minor repairs, while Jaap decided to press on with the car as is. Jamonito and Ice followed Nero in, but the Stig followed Jaap’s lead in skipping a tyre change. When all was said and done, Jaap found himself in the lead, with Nero in 2nd and the Stig in 3rd place.

Jaap edges ahead of Nero

Jaap established a small lead with smooth running through the first three corners on the second lap. Ice found speed aplenty down the pit straight and managed to catch up with Nero in a Cobalt battle for second. Jamonito kept pace with the Stig. Amongst those trailing, Captain Slow was once again living up to his name, allowing Danger Wheel by and finding Launch soon hot on his tail. Jaronimous, had a disastrous third sector of lap 1 and would never again challenge even a single car the rest of the way.

The second lap didn’t have near as much drama as the first lap. Jaap never put a wheel wrong through sector 2, and despite Nero and Ice doing their best to follow, they couldn’t capitalize on a mistake when no mistakes were being made. To their credit, the two drivers who’ve had the worst season to date proved why they were so formidable last season, pushing Jaap the whole way and keeping their challengers in the distance.

The leaders spread out

The battle of note, therefore, was for fourth position. Danger Wheel took advantage of mistakes by the Stig and Jamonito to catch up with them in Turn 3. He then passed them in Turn 4 as both were a bit slow on entry and he was able to scoot past them. This would’ve been the time that Captain Slow caught up with his teammate, but he too wasn’t able to find the right line at Turn 4.

The one moment where it looked like Nero or Ice might actually be able to catch up with Jaap was at Turn 9. Having completely worn out his tyres over the course of the two laps, Jaap had to be extremely cautious around the final two bends. Nero and Ice, on the other hand, were charging. Carefully navigating Turn 10, however, Jaap had just enough speed to cross the line ahead of Ice, who came from as far back as 8th on lap 1 to finish 2nd. Nero followed in 3rd.

Ice and Nero can’t quite catch Jaap

Danger Wheel drove a professional second lap to take an uneventful fourth place. The battle for 5th place came to a head in Turn 8, with Jamonito and the Stig getting there first, but Launch and Captain Slow hot on their heels. Navigating through debris left on the track earlier, Jamonito found his way to the front of the group. With plenty of life left in his tyres, he was free to push around the final bend, ultimately finishing closer to Danger Wheel than those he’d been fighting with.

Launch sneaks past the Stig

The final placement between the Scandinavian Blitz teammates and Launch came down to how hard they’d pushed earlier. The Stig had to take the slower, outside line to keep his car on the track, while Launch was able to sneak around him on the inside, and then bring it home down the straight.

Final Results

Driver	Start	Lap	Finish
Jaap Snellrijder (RM)	9	1	1
Ice (CO)	2	4	2
Nero (CO)	1	2	3
Danger Wheel (RB)	7	6	4
Jamonito del Verde (ORC)	6	5	5
Launch Bornado (RM)	8	8	6
The Stig (SB)	4	3	7
Captain Slow (SB)	3	7	8
Jaronimus Maximus (ORC)	10	9	9
Mater (RB)	5	10	10, dnf

Sochi marks the third time we’ve raced a track that we raced last year, and Jaap’s victory makes him the first driver to win twice on the same track. It’s also his second victory of the year, coming after a pair of disappointing 7th pace finishes since his win in Monaco. Coupled with Jaronimus’ worst race of the season, Jaap edges out his Osito Racing Company rival to move back into first place.

Ice’s 2nd place finish pulls him all the way from 9th up to 6th in the driver standings, while Nero gets out of the cellar for the first time since the first race of the season. Danger Wheel finshed 4th for the fourth time this year, which pushes him up to 3rd in the overall standings.

Intriguingly, the Sochi results have left us with a pair of ties in the driver standings. Launch and Jamonito are now tied for 4th place, just 3 points behind Danger Wheel, while Mater and the Stig are tied for 7th, just 4 points behind Ice.

At the team level, Cobalt’s 33 points are easily their best of the season, and second best ever. It puts them back ahead of Scandinavian Blitz. Regency Motors, meanwhile, takes back a slim lead over Osito Racing Company. Red Bull stays in 3rd.

Race Gallery

: Nero out front

: Mater crashes out

: Jaap edges ahead of Nero

: The leaders spread out

: Ice and Nero can’t quite catch Jaap

: Launch sneaks past the Stig

Russia Preview

Posted on March 10, 2017 | Leave a comment

Just like last year, our 7th race of the season will be held in Sochi, Russia. Located on the northeast edge of the Black Sea, the Formula 1 circuit runs through the 2014 Winter Olympic host city.

The track places the starting grid far back on the longest straight, which means that cars near the back of the grid will have plenty of time to gather up speed into turn 1. It’s therefore unlikely that those at the front will have any significant advantage from a speed standpoint. However, as we’ve seen at some of our other races this year, the presence of two additional cars in the field mean that the corner has a good chance of being blocked off, forcing those at the back to slow down just to avoid contact.

Turn 2 is a sweeping left hander that was the site of Ice knocking Nero out of the race a year ago. It can be taken at speed and may be a good spot for overtaking. What follows will then be a series of sharp, 90 degree corners in quick succession. This section is a key rhythm section of the track, and opens up on a back straight which is the only place other than the front straight to engage the higher gears.

The third sector is highlighted by the complicated turn 8, where cars will be forced to slow significantly after the back straight. Two more 90 degree right handers then spit the cars onto the tail end of the starting grid for the long pit straight. It’s worth noting that the entrance to pit lane immediately follows the final corner, meaning anyone carrying too much speed through there may not be able to enter the pits at all.

Last year’s race in Sochi was marked by the aforementioned elimination of Nero in turn 2, which was particularly significant given that it was his teammate Ice who caused the collision. Captian Slow also made his mark, slipstreaming past Danger Wheel at the final moment to snatch 4th place. The victor, was Jaap, who started 8th and last on the grid, making it the lowest grid position anyone came from to win last year. That has since been eclipsed twice, once by himself, and once by Jaronimus, both of whom won races after starting 9th this year.

Starting Grid

The results of Germany have caused a minor shuffling of the starting grid order for Russia, but one thing that hasn’t changed is that Nero will start on pole position. Despite his 3rd place finish, he hasn’t moved up out of the bottom of the standings, and will start his 5th consecutive race at the front. With Ice’s poor showing Cobalt locks out the front row.

Nero (CO)
Ice (CO)
Captain Slow (SB)
The Stig (SB)
Mater (RB)
Jamonito del Verde (ORC)
Danger Wheel (RB)
Launch Bornado (RM)
Jaap Snellrijder (RM)
Jaronimus Maximus (ORC)

Pit selection is reverse order of average starting grid position, which means that despite Osito Racing Company leading the team standings, they won’t get first choice of pits. Jamonito’s higher grid slot means that Regency Motors has a slightly worse average start position, so they’ll have the first choice.

Regency Motors
Osito Racing Company
Red Bull
Scandinavian Blitz
Cobalt

No driver has Sochi as their home race this year, so all will be on equal footing. The long approach to turn 1 means that starting position will be less important than it typically is. However, pit selection may be more important than normal given that the entrance to pit lane is right after turn 10.

Nurburgring Recap

Posted on March 3, 2017 | Leave a comment

The Nurburgring in Germany welcomed the SBMRL for the 6th round of the 2016-17 season. Given the 9 race schedule for the season, this would be the final race of the middle third of the season. “Sector 2”, if you will. In short, the season was about to enter the stretch run so there was a lot at stake. Here’s how the starting grid looked:

P1 – Nero (Geoff)
P2 – The Stig (Jason)
P3 – Captain Slow (Jason)
P4 – Ice (Frank)
P5 – Mater (Jason)
P6 – Danger Wheel (Frank)
P7 – Launch Bornado (Frank)
P8 – Jamonito del Verde (Geoff)
P9 – Jaap Snellrijder (Frank)
P10 – Jaronimus Maximus (Geoff)

Nero got off the line quickly, reading the lights perfectly, but the Stig and Captain Slow were right there with him into the Castrol S. Jaronimus was the one driver from the back half of the grid to take advantage of the longer run up into the corner. He took the risk of carrying a bit of extra speed and it paid off with a few spots gained in the process, albeit only temporarily.

The Stig and Captain Slow at the front early

The rest of the first sector saw Ice, the Stig, and Captain Slow edge ahead of Danger Wheel and the rest of the field. Jaap worked himself up to mid pack. As the cars moved into sector two, the Stig and Captain Slow managed to keep Scandinavian Blitz out front. The big move came from Nero, who found his line through the corners perfectly, timing the RTL and BIT Kurves just right to slingshot himself into contention near the end of the lap.

A lot of jockeying for position was going on in the midfield. Jaap had fallen back and his teammate Launch Bornado was instead on the move. Danger Wheel and Ice continued to stay in the thick of things, while Jaronimus had worked his way back up the order as well. The one car that appeared to really be falling behind was Jamonito, who sadly looked completely lost.

Danger Wheel leads the chasing pack

First across the line for the start of lap 2 was the Stig. He’d had a clean run in the first lap and sailed on past the pits without stopping. Captain Slow did the same, but Nero and Jaronimus, now up to 4th, both pitted for fresh tyres and repairs. The rest of the field eventually followed them in, except for Jamonito whose interest lay more in catching up with someone… anyone!

The start of the second lap was where the Stig stretched out enough of a lead that it became clear no one was going to catch him. Nero and Captain Slow were left to fight over second place. Jaronimus and Ice were in the hunt behind them, but Ice couldn’t keep up and soon found himself watching Jaronimus get progressively smaller in the distance. Launch and Danger Wheel followed, with Jaap and Mater holding off Jamonito at the back.

The Stig takes charge on lap 2

For the front runners, things became clear again at the RTL Kurve. With the Stig well out in front, the very spot where Nero had made his move on the first lap proved to be his undoing on the second. This time, Captain Slow found the perfect line into the corner and Nero was unable to match it. The lead over Jaronimus was so great that there didn’t appear to be any chance of losing out on 3rd place, but Captain Slow now had the upper hand on 2nd.

Nero comes up short in battle with Captain Slow

For his part, Jaronimus did well enough to nearly catch Nero, but the fact is that his second lap was ultimately without any excitement. He wasn’t leading the race like the Stig, but he also didn’t really have any cars he was properly battling with for position. In the end, the top 4 were decided mid way through the second lap and there wasn’t anything beyond catastrophe that was going to alter that order. Given that he started last on the grid, Jaronimus wasn’t going to complain too much for a lack of drama.

That left the interest to lie with the challengers for 5th on down, and to understand how that developed it’s worth heading back to the first sector of the second lap. Danger Wheel, Ice, and Launch found themselves heading into the Dunlop hairpin in vain effort to catch Jaronimus, and this was where Jaap made his characteristic second lap charge. He flew recklessly into the corner with such speed that he nearly crashed into the back of Ice. Mater, taking things a bit more cautiously, conceded for the time being, with Jamonito heading off in the distance.

Jaap make his move at Dunlop Kehre

Jaap’s valor earned him 5th position heading into RTL Kurve, with Launch neck-and-neck and Danger Wheel following closely. Ice wasn’t quite as smooth, allowing Mater to haul him in. The previously cautious Red Bull driver saw RTL as his chance to imitate Nero’s lap 1 heroics, a feat which he accomplished with aplomb. That left both pairs of Red Bull and Regency Motors drivers in a four way scrum.

Launch was particularly slow in the BIT Kurve, allowing Jaap to eke by. Danger Wheel was caught off guard by the effort and nicked Launch along the way, causing damage to Launch’s car. The car with real speed, however, turned out to be Mater. He was able to slingshot around the outside of everyone.

Mater makes his move on the outside

Mater’s speed on the straight meant that he would be the first to reach the Veedol S, and from there he comfortably cruised home with 5th place. Danger Wheel got the edge on both yellow cars, leaving Jaap and Launch in a drag race between teammates for 7th. Jaap would come out just ahead, but it was the first time neither car has finished at least 5th. Ice, who had been in 5th place or better for the first half of the race came home a disappointing 9th. Jamonito, sauntered home well behind the others for the final spot.