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Austin Recap

Posted on November 11, 2017 | Leave a comment

The second round of the 2017-18 SBMRL season took place at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The day was warm, but overcast, allowing for optimal racing conditions. After being the only car not to finish at the season opener in Portland, Launch Bornado sat on pole.

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

Segmentation in the first two corners

The drag race up the hill to Turn 1 saw the Launch and Stevie Wondertyres battle it out while Captain Slow stuck with them. Sheila Dinkum and The Stig were the two to fall behind the middle pack, with Jaap making a strong push from last on the grid.

As the pack approached the back straight, Stevie had the inside line on Launch, with Captain Slow right on their tails. However, it was Launch who was able to carry the necessary speed needed into Turn 6. Behind the front runners, Whiplash was also on a charge, catching his teammate and Captain Slow down the stretch.

Out of the back straight

Captain Slow then suffered minor body damage as Bubba McQueen charged recklessly from behind. Jaap and Sheila had also caught up to the group, leaving the Stig in a very lonely last place.

Launch coolly handled all that the 3rd sector had to throw at him, and after a clean lap, the race leader skipped the pits to seemingly cement the win with a whole lap to go. The Sprite Racing duo pitted from 2nd and 3rd, but Sheila caught them up after following Launch’s tactic of not pitting. Bubba, Jaap, and the Captain all pitted, with Captain Slow falling all the way to 7th in the exchange.

The first sector of the second lap saw Whiplash, Stevie, and Sheila push in an effort to catch up with Launch, but nothing they did could catch the Force Ravenswood driver in the absence of any mistakes. The winding, slow nature of Turn 3 gave the illusion of closeness to the proceedings, but there really wasn’t anything the rest of the pack could do.

Launch leaves a bit of his car on the track…

Again down the back straight they charged, and again Launch found speed to burn. With less than half a lap to go, Launch gave it everything, causing some engine damage in the process of slowing down for Turn 7.

Whiplash and Sheila got a leg up on Stevie at Turn 6. The trailing pack, now comprised of Bubba, Captain Slow, and Jaap, all took the aggressive approach to the back straight. Jaap carried too much speed through Turn 6, but it was Bubba who hit some debris on the track that was the first casualty of the race. A short while later, Jaap’s tires gave out he joined Bubba as a spectator for the remainder of the the final lap.

… which teammate Bubba broke his suspension on

At the back of the field, the Stig was certainly enjoying the fate of his rivals. Despite being far behind the rest of the field, the various shenanigans in the third sector meant that he would be able to move up a few spots simply by finishing. When Stevie spun out in Turn 8, he even had a glimmer of hope to finish ahead of another finisher, but that hope was short lived.

Back at the front, Launch easily secured the victory in what was simply the cleanest race run. Sheila and Whiplash battled it out for 2nd place, with Sheila able to carry extra speed around the final corner to get the edge in that pairing. By the time the checkered flag waved, they were really the only two cars with any question left to be answered. Captain Slow, who had the most up-and-down race of anyone, came in 4th.

Final Results

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

Launch becomes the 6th driver to win from pole, recording his 3rd victory in his last 4 races, dating back to last season. Sheila has a second consecutive race of charging from 7th to 2nd, and is the only driver in SBMRL history to score a podium in all their races. Granted, it’s just two races, but that now has her leading the driver standings. Whiplash scores his first podium in his second race.

At the other end off the spectrum, Bubba’s DNF means that Force Ravenswood is 2 for 2 in terms of having a car crash out of a race. They have 2 podiums and 2 DNF’s in 2 races. Jaap’s DNF means that he now has 3 DNF’s in his last 4 races. He and Launch are mirror images, either winning or crashing out in each of those contests.

At the team level, no team got much of a leg up on anyone in Austin, with all four teams finishing in the top 4 cars. Force Ravenswood picked up a few more points than Regency Motors, but not enough to take over the team lead. Sprite Racing has now eked out a narrow, 1 point lead over Scandinavian Blitz.

Race Gallery

(Note that Captain Slow and the Stig are swapped in the first 3 photos. We fixed that as soon as we caught it!)

: Segmentation in the first two corners

: Out of the back straight

: Launch leaves a bit of his car on the track…

: … which teammate Bubba broke his suspension on

Austin Preview

Posted on October 11, 2017 | Leave a comment

Our second race of the 2017-18 season takes us to Austin, Texas to race Circuit of the Americas. It’s the third time in as many seasons that we’ll race COTA, and coincides with the 2017 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix weekend.

Austin

Circuit of the Americas is a tricky, counter-clockwise circuit that isn’t easy to get right. The uphill slope of Turn 1 makes for a bit of a blind approach at speed followed by a moderate bend for Turn 2.

Turns 3 and 4 will compress the field and provide for passing opportunities. The exit of Turn 4 is key to a fast lap as it sets up Turn 5 and the track’s long back straight. Infamously, Turn 4 was the spot where the Stig was cut off by Ice in last year’s race, effectively ending any hopes he had of scoring decent points.

The long back straight will tempt the speed demons to floor it through Turn 6, but there isn’t much room for error with Turn 7 following closely. The saving grace here is that Turn 7 is much more forgiving than it first appears, so carrying a little speed into it isn’t terrible.

The remainder of the 3rd sector of the track is the part where drivers can become complacent. The trio of short corners that finish the track aren’t particularly intimidating, but they are spaced in such a way as to catch drivers between gear choices. Can you shift up to fly through the straights and slow down enough for the corners? Or is it better to try to get maximum effort out of a lower gear? Those choices can be complicated by any driver who has been hard on their tires through the rest of the lap. For evidence, one need only look at Nero’s race last year, where he came into the third sector in 2nd place and finished in 7th.

Starting Grid

With one race in the books, the starting grid for Austin will simply be the reverse order of finish last time out in Portland.

Launch Bornado (FR)
Stevie Wondertyres (SR)
Captain Slow (SB)
Whiplash (SR)
The Stig (SB)
Bubba McQueen (FR)
Sheila Dinkum (RM)
Jaap Snellrijder (RM)

As is league policy, pit selection will be in order of team standings, with ties broken by reverse order of average starting position. That leaves the following:

Regency Motors
Scandinavian Blitz
Force Ravenswood
Sprite Racing

Austin will be Bubba McQueen’s home race.

Track History

Among current drivers, only Jaap has finished higher than 6th at Austin. He won in 2015 and finished 5th last year. Mater holds the record for points at Austin after winning last year’s race and finished 2nd the year before. It has never been a good track for Scandinavian Blitz, with Captain Slow and The Stig having the fewest point totals of all SBMRL drivers.

Perhaps most notably from last year’s race, Osito Racing Company proved that they would not be a pushover in their rookie season. They scored a double podium finish that bodes well for Sprite Racing, who now have a race under their belts and will be looking to emulate ORC’s Austin success.

SBMRL @ Circuit of the Americas

Portland Recap

Posted on September 28, 2017 | Leave a comment

A beautiful day in Portland saw the SBMRL take to the track for the first race of the 2017-18 season. As reported, Launch Bornado has joined a new team this year, Force Ravenswood. Launch is joined by rookie teammate Bubba McQueen. Sheila Dinkum, another rookie, joins Jaap Snellrijder at Regency Motors to take Launch’s place. Force Ravenswood will drive in white Force India livery. Sprite Racing also joins the league for their first race.

With the slate wiped clean, every car has an equal chance for the championship this year. As a result, qualifying was done by roll of the dice, leaving the cars to lineup in the following order.

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

There was drama from the get-go, with last year’s champion Launch stalling when the lights went out. That dropped Launch down the field quite a ways, but the truth of the matter was that everyone became tightly bunched in Turn 1 anyway. This was illustrated by the fact that three different cars suffered minor body damage as the cars struggled through the tight chicane.

Congestion in Turn 1

Turn 2 saw more of the same, with the Stig and Launch each being involved in minor collisions. For the Stig, however, the gambit was worth it, as he pulled even with Jaap at the front of the field. The big news, however, was the retirement of Launch in Turn 5. With the pace being pushed by the frontrunners, Launch’s engine wasn’t up to the task and he was out of the race before even completing the first lap.

Launch is passed by the field

The third sector saw Jaap and the Stig jockey back and forth for the lead with the remaining cars going what they could to keep up. Whiplash, Bubba, and Sheila formed the middle pack with Stevie Wondertyres and Captain Slow pulling up the rear. As the cars rounded the final corner, Jaap flew past the pits in an effort to shed himself of the Stig. The Stig went for fresh tires and a new front wing, giving Jaap that leg up that he was hoping for.

The rest of the field all pitted, with Sheila leading the way in and Stevie Wondertyres pulling up the rear. While Jaap ran off in the distance, the Stig stumbled through the first few corners, giving Bubba and Sheila hope of catching him for 2nd place. Stevie Wondertyres also began to make a move on the other drivers, but he couldn’t find the first line in Turn 4, ending that aspiration.

The Stig leads the field through Turn 3

With a hard charge down the back straight, Bubba and Sheila began to put some real pressure on the Stig. The result was the Stig going into the final turn at much too high of a speed for a proper exit. Having the freshest tires allowed Sheila to get the edge up on the others and provide Regency Motors with the team’s first ever 1-2 finish.

Shiela charges toward the finish line

The Stig’s inability to carry speed from the final corner onto the start-finish straight meant that Bubba was able to come home in 3rd place for a podium in his first race. Whiplash followed closely, with Captain Slow and Stevie Wondertyres rounding out the field.

Final Results

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

Jaap records his SBMRL best 5th victory and starts the season off extremely well. The rest of the podium is filled by newcomers Sheila and Bubba. The Stig’s 4th place finish is his best season opening performance, and hopefully a promising sign for the rest of the year. Captain Slow, on the other hand, can’t be too thrilled with a wasted pole position.

Regency Motors gets a huge leg up on the season with a 1-2 to start the year. Surprisingly, 1-2 has been accomplished 4 times in SBMRL history and never by the same team twice. Perhaps even more notable, it’s a more common combination than 1-anything else, with 1-8 being done 3 times. Scandinavian Blitz would have liked more given their start positions, but can’t be too disappointed with 2nd place in the team standings. Sprite Racing had a race to forget, but it’s worth remembering that Osito Racing Company had a similar first race experience last season and was extremely strong the rest of the year.