Silver Bullet Memorial Racing League

Russia Recap

Posted on April 22, 2016 | Leave a comment

Our April trip to the Russian resort city of Sochi marked the middle of three races in Europe to end the season. The weather was partly cloudy with temperatures in the upper 60’s and the track was dry.

At the front of the grid, Mater sat poised for his most important race of the season. Anything lower than 2nd place would automatically eliminate him from the driver’s championship. Behind him, the white cars of The Stig and Captain Slow waited for their chance to get back in the hunt, too. They each needed a 4th place or better showing. Ahead of them lay the long straight that led to turn 1, and the knowledge that higher speeds at this track meant the back of the grid would have time to close in fast. Here’s how the full grid looked:

P1 – Mater (Ryan)
P2 – The Stig (Jason)
P3 – Captain Slow (Jason)
P4 – Danger Wheel (Ryan)
P5 – Nero (Lonny)
P6 – Launch Bornado (Frank)
P7 – Ice (Lonny)
P8 – Jaap Snellrijder (Frank)

The lights went out and everyone began the rapid process of upshifting as fast as possible along the lengthy front straight. The Stig managed to edge past Mater and into a temporary lead, while Danger Wheel scooted past the reluctant Captain Slow. With Launch Bornado charging up the right side and Captain Slow dragging his feet on the left, Nero made his move up the middle. Unfortunately, his front wing suffered damage in the process, having barely even passed the starting line.

Mater recovered to take back the lead by turn 2 with Launch Bornado charging hard enough to join the pack chasing him. Nero took a more cautious line through the first two turns. His teammate, Ice, desperate to catch up with the leaders from a distant 7th, charged through the second turn. As he came around the outside of Nero, he misjudged their relative speed and Nero was sent off the track and out of the race.

Ice suffered minor front wing damage which would plague his efforts to catch up, as the Cobalt crew back in the pits rued the development. Mater hit turn 4 ahead of the others, but the racing was so tight that all 6 of the remaining cars were fighting through it at the same time.

The Stig was fastest on the inside line and flew past Mater in turn 5 with Jaap taking a similar tack. He and Mater would get the edge on the Stig through turn 6 and then were drag racing down the long back stretch out of turn 7. Further back, Launch and Captain Slow kept up with the Stig but Danger Wheel and Ice began to trail behind.

The only real developments over the third sector were a push from Danger Wheel all the way up to 3rd place and a belabored effort from Launch Bornado, who couldn’t find a rhythm through turn 8 and 9. Most drivers, having suffered some form of damage due to all the tight racing, opted for extended repairs. Jaap’s quick pit wasn’t quick enough to keep up with Mater on the front straight, and he began to pull away. Launch, having raced a cautious but clean first lap, decided to forgo the pits entirely.

Mater’s efforts to get away from Jaap came for naught after Jaap went full gangbusters through turns 2 and 3. Behind them, the rest of the field began to stratify. Danger Wheel held a comfortable 3rd place over Launch and Captain Slow. The Stig was struggling to keep up and Ice was almost a non-factor.

The second sector saw things start to shift around again. At first, Mater reestablished himself over Jaap through turn 5, but Jaap caught him again in turn 7 while carrying greater speed down the long straight. Behind them, Launch was mounting a charge, catching Danger Wheel in turn 5 and passing him in turn 7. Ice even caught up with the Stig, both of them beginning to threaten Captain Slow in 5th place. Jaap’s blazing path down the back stretch forced him to downshift hard into turn 8, giving Mater and Launch a chance to catch up.

Danger Wheel was being equally challenged by Captain Slow, who’d managed to shake the Stig and Ice. In the end, Jaap was able to pull away from Launch and Mater. Launch’s charge through lap 2 had left him needing to nurse his tires, and that was enough for Mater to take 2nd place. The battle for 4th turned out to be the most thrilling. Both Danger Wheel and Captain Slow came out of turn 10 onto the front straight in strong position, but Danger Wheel was just ahead. He floored it and barelled down the front straight in what appeared to be an insurmountable lead. However, Captain Slow followed inches behind, ultimately using the advantage of Danger Wheel’s slipstream to pull past him at just the last moment and cross the line in 4th.

Ice momentarily passed the Stig for 6th in turn 9, but the Stig went for broke through turn 10 to take 6th place.

Final Results

Driver	Start	Lap	Finish
Jaap Snellrijder (RM)	8	2	1
Mater (GT)	1	1	2
Launch Bornado (RM)	6	5	3
Captain Slow (SB)	3	4	4
Danger Wheel (GT)	4	3	5
The Stig (SB)	2	6	6
Ice (CO)	7	7	7
Nero (CO)	5	8, dnf	8, dnf

Outside of the Cobalt garages, one could reasonably argue that this was the most thrilling race of the season so far. There were numerous high speed passes and quite a bit of jockeying for position. The condensed racing through the first sector provided a number of thrilling moves, including Launch slipstreaming past Captain Slow into turn 5 on the second lap. Clearly, he learned something from that maneuver. His catching Danger Wheel at what was literally the last possible moment is one of the highlights of the year.

With his victory, Jaap Snellrijder has locked up the season championship. He’s the first driver to win multiple races and has matched Ice with 4 podiums on the year. Ice’s victory from 5th place in Germany has now been eclipsed by Jaap’s 8th place start as the farthest back anyone has started and won. Launch Bornado’s 3rd place finish ties Ice at 4 podiums and edges him one point ahead of Ice in the standings for 2nd place.

Mater got the 2nd place finish he needed to have any shot at the driver’s championship, but that was predicated on Jaap finishing 8th. The best he can do now is 2nd, which requires a lot of other things to go in his favor. Neither of the Scandinavian Blitz drivers have a shot at any of the top 3 spots. Danger Wheel and Mater are both closing the gap on Nero after his consecutive DNF’s, with just 4 points separating the three drivers heading into our final race of the season.

At the team level, Regency Motors scored 40 points, second only to Cobalt’s performance at Sebring. That now wraps up the team championship for them. The race for 2nd, however, is still open to anyone, including Scandinavian Blitz.

Race Gallery

Russia Preview

Posted on April 7, 2016 | Leave a comment

Our penultimate race of the season brings us to the Olympic city of Sochi. Having hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics, the Sochi Autodrom was first used for Formula 1 racing later that same year.

The starting grid is located at the beginning of what is easily the longest straight on the track, and the run up to the first corner will be done at high speeds. The straight is long enough that those at the back of the starting grid will have a chance to catch up with the front runners by hitting 5th gear. The problem will be that they’ll have to hit Turn 1 just right. Turn 1 is a short, sharp right hander that cars will have to hit in stride in order to set themselves up for the large, notable horseshoe turn.

The entire circuit is full of corners just like Turn 1. After the horseshoe, there is a series of five of these sharp corners in quick succession. None of these corners are conducive to staying in any particular gear. How each driver manages their journey through this section will be one of the keys to the race.

Coming out of Turn 7, the other long straight on the track will allow drivers to open it up again. Expect to see higher speeds entering the straight than exiting it, as it feeds into the only multi-stop turn on the track. Turn 8 is winding and slow, then gives way to a small straight section before running to the final two turns. The last two turns are more of what was seen earlier, sharp 90-degree bends that would challenge drivers at higher speeds. The difference here is that the slowdown from turn 8 will likely set up these two as nothing more than elementary since cars won’t be able to carry speed into them.

Overall, 8 of the 10 corners on the track are extremely short, meaning there will be a lot of opportunities for mistakes. Expect these sharp bends to cause separation in the field relatively early in the race, but it won’t be before a highly entertaining run up to Turn 1 happens. The other consequence will likely be heavy use of tires and braking. Anyone who can manage to run a mostly clean first lap may find themselves with the luxury of forgoing the pits and really gunning it down the front straight.

STARTING GRID

Mater starts a 3rd consecutive race in pole position, but he’s closed the gap to the white liveried Scandinavian Blitz drivers. Both Captain Slow and The Stig sit at 61 points on the year, but the Stig starts at P2 after finishing behind his teammate the last time out. Danger Wheel follows next. Despite crashing out early, Nero only drops down to 4th in the standings, which puts him at 5th on the grid. Launch Bornado maintains an extremely small lead for 3rd place. Ice’s runaway victory saw him jump all the way to 2nd in the standings, leaving him to start 7th. Jaap gets a 6th consecutive race from the back of the pack after another strong race in Germany.

Mater (GT)
The Stig (SB)
Captain Slow (SB)
Danger Wheel (GT)
Nero(CO)
Launch Bornado (RM)
Ice(CO)
Jaap Snellrijder (RM)

Pit selection is simply the reverse order of average start position. Since the Green Team and Scandinavian Blitz have the same average start position, the tie is broken by reverse order of team standings. The Green Team has moved up to 3rd, so Scandinavian Blitz gets preference.

Regency Motors
Cobalt
Scandinavian Blitz
Green Team

The STretch Run

With Sochi being the second to last race of the year, there isn’t much time left for drivers at the bottom of the standings to catch up. Mathematically speaking, everyone still has a shot at the driver’s championship, however it’s a bit more challenging for some than others. Mater needs to finish no lower than 2^nd in each of the final races to have any shot at winning the driver’s championship. Captain Slow and the Stig are in equally precarious positions, needing at least a 4th place finish in both races.

It should be noted that Danger Wheel, currently 5th in the standings, is actually closer to 4th than 6th. The largest points gap between drivers is 8 points between Ice (2nd) and Launch Bornado (3rd). Launch has recently come under some criticism for failing to maintain the success from earlier in the year, although it should be noted that has come while staying high up in the standings.

Probably the biggest question is whether or not anyone can catch Jaap, who has been immune to just about any sort of trouble for most of the season. Surely he has to have a bad race at some point.

Cobalt have won each of the last two races in runaway fashion, but no driver has won twice yet. Mater and Launch are the two drivers without a victory. If Mater does manage to earn what is now essentially a required win, he’ll maintain his streak of having never finished in the same spot twice. He’s finished everywhere but 1st and 3rd.

Germany Recap

Posted on March 17, 2016 | Leave a comment

Our March race brought us to the forested Rhine valley to race the Hockenheimring. There were a few stories to watch for in the race, including the Green Team taking up the front row of the starting grid and in desperate need of a strong showing to get back in the championship race. At the back of the grid, Cobalt’s Nero had closed the gap in the drivers’ championship to just 4 points, the smallest of the season.

However, the biggest news of the race was the surprise announcement prior to the race that all teams were now boasting new cars with new paint schemes. The new cars look more like real Formula 1 cars and boast liveries painted to mimic them. Here then, is an image of the starting grid with the liveries identified:

P1 – Mater (Ryan) – 2010 Lotus (Green w/ Yellow)
P2 – Danger Wheel (Ryan) – 2011 Caterham (Green w/ white stripes on nose)
P3 – The Stig* (Jason) – 2016 Williams Martini (White w/ black rear wing)
P4 – Captain Slow* (Jason) – 2016 Williams Martini (White w/ white rear wing)
P5 – Ice (Lonny) – 2015 Red Bull (Blue w/ purple rear wing)
P6 – Launch Bornado (Frank) – 2016 Ferrari (Red w/ white engine cover)
P7 – Nero (Lonny) – 2016 Red Bull (Blue w/ blue rear wing)
P8 – Jaap Snellrijder (Frank) – 2015 Ferrari (Red w/ white rear wing)

*Note that The Stig and Captain Slow actually should have been switched on the grid. The race stewards got this wrong, but it didn’t ultimately matter and there was nothing that could be done after the race started.

As the lights went out and the race commenced, Ice became the first car of the season to get a quick start off the line, splitting the Scandinavian Blitz drivers right out of the gate and getting the jump on Captain Slow. As everyone moved through the first corner, the cars remained tightly bunched, allowing Ice to move all the way up to 2nd place in nearly no time at all.

This quick advance from Ice would’ve been the story of the race’s early going if not for what befell his teammate. As Ice followed Danger Wheel into the Bernie Ecclestone Kurve, the rest of the field found themselves vying for position on the approach to that corner. The Stig and Mater were leading the charge, with Captain Slow close behind them. This effectively closed off the preferred outside line entry for Nero, who recklessly tried to take excessive speed into the corner. In his efforts to cut them off, he instead found himself clipping them, resulting in a one way trip into the barriers and out of the race. Fortunately, neither the Stig nor Mater were thrown into the same situation, and both were able to continue on.

Unaffected by the chaos behind them, Ice and Danger Wheel continued on down the track’s longest straight, with Ice gaining the temporary advantage. The Stig and Mater battled it out for 3rd place behind them. At the back, the Regency Motors cars both passed Captain Slow, who was living up to his name. The rest of the second sector saw Danger Wheel get the upper hand on Ice, while Mater was caught by a hard charging Jaap Snellrijder. The Stig sat comfortably in 3rd place.

Launch Bornado suffered a damaged front wing after following Mater a little too closely into Mercedes Arena, but it appeared a gamble that paid off, as he was able to pass the green car shortly thereafter.

With the first lap drawing to a close, Danger Wheel and Ice both went for the pits, where Ice gained an advantage with a smoother pit transition. Behind them, Jaap and Launch had both pulled ahead of the Stig. Jaap opted for a quick pit, but Launch needed to repair his front wing. In the end, the Stig wasn’t able to take advantage. Mater and Captain Slow would round out the pack, with everyone eventually pitting.

Back at the front, Ice’s quick pit stop gave him a margin of error over Danger Wheel, who suddenly found Jaap and Launch pushing him for 2nd place. With some added speed, they both overtook him, and in short order, The Stig was on his tail, too.

The long straight into the Spitzkehre hairpin was where Jaap and Launch needed to make up some time to catch Ice, but it was not to be. The two couldn’t bring enough horses to bear, and Ice began to pull away. Launch, in 2nd, and Jaap behind him, similarly began to pull away from their challengers, too. Danger Wheel continued to fight off the Stig’s best efforts. In this case, it was the Stig who began to falter. Taking too much speed into Spitzkehre, Danger Wheel was able to pull away in the following straight. Worse yet for the Stig, Captain Slow and Mater had now caught up.

Ice casually navigated the third sector, easily securing his first victory and Cobalt’s second in as many races. It was an uneventful finish to a race that started out full of drama, and the racing behind him looked relatively uneventful as well. The red Regency Motors cars of Jaap and Launch looked like they were slotted in for 2nd and 3rd place. The Green Team of Danger Wheel and Mater, who had pulled ahead of the Scandinavian Blitz team, looked slotted in to their respective places. And, of course, Scandinavian Blitz trailed. Fortunately, the third sector made for some of the best racing of the day.

It was highlighted by Danger Wheel who, despite a relatively wide gap from Jaap and Launch, began to drive flawlessly. He found the perfect line through Mercedes Arena and caught up with Jaap at Mobil 1 Kurve. Captain Slow, was suddenly not so slow at all. He passed the Stig and caught Mater at Mercedes Arena.

Launch and Jaap both kept in front of Danger Wheel in the Sachs Kurve, but at this point, the gap was small enough that it would be more about who could find a better line and keep their speed up. Mater, meanwhile, had rebuffed the challenge from Captain Slow and was looking to join the fray in the fight for 2nd place.

Germany Lap 2 Sachs Kurve

As the three primary contenders headed into Sud Kurve, they were literally wheel-to-wheel. Jaap had a slight edge on Launch, who had a slight edge on Danger Wheel. Mater was a step behind them, but ready to pounce should anyone falter. The final word on the matter was one of tires. Danger Wheel’s tires were much fresher than either Jaap’s or Launches. As a result, Jaap had to take the outside line out of the corner and Launch stuck to the middle lane. Danger Wheel was able to get the jump on the inside and steal 2nd away from both of them. Jaap would finish 3rd with Launch close behind.

Danger Wheel was in no danger of losing 5th place and took it comfortably. The Stig, who struggled mightily over the last half lap, would follow Captain Slow for an extremely frustrating finish.