{"id":2847,"date":"2019-10-16T17:00:18","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T00:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/?p=2847"},"modified":"2019-10-16T16:03:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T23:03:57","slug":"austin-preview-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/2019\/10\/16\/austin-preview-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The SBMRL&#8217;s October race will take place at the now traditional venue of Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"679\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-1024x679.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-1024x679.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-800x531.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Austin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The track was purpose built for Formula 1 in 2010, and played host to its first Grand Prix in 2012.  The SBMRL has raced there every season, and we have yet to see a repeat victor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">COTA&#8217;s starting grid faces uphill into a blind left hander for Turn 1 followed by a quick right hander.  Both turns are fairly easy to get right.  It&#8217;s the next two corners that will start to trip people up.  The esses through turns 3 and 4 aren&#8217;t necessarily challenging in and of themselves, but the combination is tricky to get right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best place to make a move on someone ahead is through the second sector.  Coming out of Turn 4 with speed to hit the Turn 5 hairpin right and fly down the back straight can really give a car an edge.  The end of that straight is quite abrupt, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turn 6 is a very quick left before immediately moving into the winding Turn 7.  The rest of the third sector is a series of short quick bends with small straights between them.  Getting a feel for these corners is harder than it looks.  In contrast to the second sector&#8217;s long straights, these corners are where laps go to die.  Getting the third sector wrong is as detrimental as getting the second sector right is helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Starting Grid<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With one race in the books, the starting grid for Austin is the reverse order of Japan&#8217;s finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Stig (SB)<\/li><li>Luigi (SM)<\/li><li>Rask Sjofar (SB)<\/li><li>Delilah Whipplefilter (FR)<\/li><li>Jaap Snellrijder (RM)<\/li><li>Launch Bornado (FR)<\/li><li>Whiplash (RM)<\/li><li>Mario (SM)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pit selection is always in the order of the team standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Switch Motorsports<\/li><li>Regency Motors<\/li><li>Force Ravenswood<\/li><li>Scandinavian Blitz<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Austin will be Whiplash&#8217;s home race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Track History<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In four different visits to Austin, 4 different drivers have won.  Three of those drivers will be on the grid this year, Jaap, Launch, and the Stig, who won last year&#8217;s race.  Interestingly, Whiplash is the only other driver on the current grid to have scored a podium, with a 3rd place finish two years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other two drivers who&#8217;ve raced at COTA are Rask and Delilah.  Neither of them fared will last year, with Delilah being knocked out very early and Rask coming in last among those who finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/results\/tracks\/?sbmrl_track=113\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SBMRL @ Circuit of the Americas<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The SBMRL&#8217;s October race will take place at the now traditional venue of Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX. The track was purpose built for Formula 1 in 2010, and played host to its first Grand Prix in 2012. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/2019\/10\/16\/austin-preview-4\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,23],"class_list":["post-2847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-race-previews","tag-austin","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2849,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions\/2849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhinopeel.com\/sbmrl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}