We are back racing in Summit League Racing! The new season is here and we start with the opening round of SLR F2 season 5! New season, some new faces and perhaps the biggest change of all is the round format! This season we now see the Sprint being the first race held followed by the feature. For three rounds this season we will also have the triple header rounds where we have two Sprint races followed by the Feature! This season has reigning Champion Raceroller22 hoping to become the first double SLR F2 champion. However many will be eager to stop him and perhaps make it five different Champions in five seasons. SLR Dodgy is also your reigning Evo Class Champion hoping to make it number two but once again you will have a few drivers hoping to beat him to this seasons crown. Nevertheless lets get this season started!
One Shot Quali! Crispy2001 a man hoping will be able to bounce back better than before after missing out on the title last season claimed the first pole position of the season just beating his going to be championship rival once more Raceroller. Behind in row two was SLR Cech and SLR Darnell. SLR Dodgy would start where he left off in claiming highest qualified Evo Driver.
The Sprint! For the new Sprint format it is the top ten reversed so we saw SLR Southerner start on pole sharing the front row with MasonGammon. Row two just behind was SLR Dodgy and Division. For the first few laps it remained unchanged at the front however further back we saw our first retirement of the season in last seasons sensation J Lee Menz. We already saw great progress from UKBeastAssassin and Crispy following a cracking first lap from the pair. Coming towards the halfway stage SLR Southerner would start to pull away and stretch his lead whilst MasonGammon proved to be a difficult obstacle to pass. UKBeast would try and fail but laps later Crispy would try and succeed. The hunt for the race win for the DAMS driver was on. Whilst the gap for the lead was closing MasonGammon and UKBeast were still at it already giving us great content in the season opener. The Beast would eventually come out on top. Into turn one on the last lap Crispys pace proved too much for the long race leader Southerner to take the lead of the sprint which would then be the move to win him the season opener at Bahrain. To do it from tenth also it makes you think what can he do from pole? SLR Southerner would have to accept second and taking the last podium spot was UKBeastAssassin who just pipped Gammon as mentioned earlier. Reigning champion Raceroller settled for fifth to finish ahead of Division, Darnell and Cech who took the remaining points scoring positions. SLR Dodgy just missed out on points but still took the Evo Sprint win.
The Feature! Away we go once again where half of the grid opted for the alternative strategy by starting on the hards. Crispy, Cech, Darnell would show great early pace starting on the softer tyre but race leader Crispy as seen earlier in the sprint showed his electrifying pace once more to starting creating a gap to the drivers behind. Following the pit stop phase the lead the DAMS driver would now have is ten seconds! Division seemed to be a big winner from the alternative strategy finding himself in third but with a costly penalty to his name. Darnell would be a big loser following some clowning from his HWA pit crew and coming face to face with a N1GHT RANG3R. We were still not short of battles. Raceroller and Division were fighting for second, J Lee Menz and Southerner fighting for sixth and even for the final points scoring position we had Dodgy duelling with Monkey. Whilst all this happened Crispy just minded his own business to take a dominating feature race victory to do the double in Bahrain getting off to the perfect start in his quest for the title! Raceroller eventually crossed the line to finish second with UKBeast making it a double third place finishing round. Darnell finished fourth with Division falling to fifth after penalties but still finished ahead of Menz and Southerner. Dodgy took eighth and the Evo feature win getting off to a perfect start for his Evo championship. Monkey and Cech were you remaining points scoring finishers.
With the first round now out the way all the drivers will be eager to go again but first there is a two week break. When we return for round two we head to Portimao in Portugal where SLR F2 debuts the triple header round for the first ever time!
Blogs Driver of the Round: Crispy2001
QUALIFYING
1 CRISPY2001 1:37.527
2 RACEROLLER22
3 SLR CECH
4 SLR DARNELL
5 UKBEASTASSASSIN
6 J LEE MENZ
7 ll DIVISION ll
8 SLR DODGY
9 MASONGAMMON05
10 SLR SOUTHERNER
11 BIGBAG92
12 SLR BENNETT
13 SLR ALLEN
14 OWENHOWELL36
15 SLR CHARLIE1
16 N1GHT RANG3R 95
17 ll MONKEYY ll
18 BAGGIEFAN 1995
19 SLR MARSH
20 CHICKNROSERY
SPRINT
1 CRISPY2001 1:39.483
2 SLR SOUTHERNER
3 UKBEASTASSASSIN
4 MASONGAMMON05
5 RACEROLLER22
6 ll DIVISION ll
7 SLR DARNELL
8 SLR CECH
9 SLR DODGY
10 ll MONKEYY ll
11 SLR ALLEN
12 SLR CHARLIE1
13 SLR BENNETT
14 SLR MARSH
15 BIGBAG92
16 BAGGIEFAN 1995
17 CHICKNROSERY
18 N1GHT RANG3R 95
19 OWENHOWELL36
20 J LEE MENZ DNF
FEATURE
1 CRISPY2001
2 RACEROLLER22
3 UKBEASTASSASSIN 1:39.179
4 SLR DARNELL
5 ll DIVISION ll
6 J LEE MENZ
7 SLR SOUTHERNER
8 SLR DODGY
9 ll MONKEYY ll
10 SLR CECH
11 SLR CHARLIE1
12 SLR ALLEN
13 BIGBAG92
14 SLR MARSH
15 N1GHT RANG3R 95
16 BAGGIEFAN 1995
17 OWENHOWELL36
18 SLR BENNETT DNF
19 MASONGAMMON05 DNF
20 CHICKNROSERY DNF
SLR Darnell vs N1GHT RANG3R 95 Lap 10 - Feature
Verdict: Racing Incident
ReasonL We feel SLR Darnell was a bit optimistic in going for that move wanting to follow RaceRoller through. Therefore we feel it’ll be harsh to penalise N1GHT RANG3R 95 as we feel he isn’t fully to blame. However warning to N1GHT RANG3R 95 for lack of awareness in coming over to the right in the way he did with a car on the inside.
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