Today we crown a fifth different SLR F2 champion in five seasons. SLR will have a brand new champion. We are at the season finale here in Abu Dhabi where Crispy2001 and SLR Darnell fight it out for one last time to be crowned champion of season 5. Crispy would go into this round with a twenty three point gap. One hand was already on the trophy with SLR Darnell having it all to do. Would it be nice and straight forward for Crispy? Remember this is Formula 2!
One Shot Quali! Ummm who expected this with the weather? Yes for qualifying at Abu Dhabi we had rain so this potentially could throw a few shocks for the grid. Not at the top though as Crispy yet again claims pole position! His fourteenth in Formula 2 but certainly his most important. UKBeastAssassin was second four tenths back then we saw a best qualifying of the season from the ART pair of SLR Southerner and SLR Bennett. SLR Darnell found himself down in eighth making his task ever so more difficult. Your best Evo qualifier for the last time was SLR Dodgy in ninth.
The Sprint! On reverse grid pole was MasonGammon with SLR Dodgy alongside him. In row two was SLR Darnell and SLR Semm on his Formula 2 return! Away we went it was drama everywhere for the first few corners! In turn one Dodgy is sent round, in turn three MasonGammon was also round and unbelievably between that Crispy has crashed and retired following contact with UKBeastAssassin! Massive for the championship and on top of all that SLR Darnell leads the race! But that was not our final twist! Few laps later on a VSC restart Darnell gets a drive through penalty! You couldn’t write this! Once taken it drops him out the points to eleventh. The HWA would start to make up ground until he spins whilst pushing to undo his hard work. Your front three just past the halfway stage was Raceroller, J Lee Menz and SLR Bennett. Menz would be fighting off Southerner to retain third for a few laps until the Carlin driver spun to allow the ART driver through who then charged for his teammate in SLR Bennett. With a few laps to go the front three were a far distance ahead of fourth where SLR Semm was having a very good drive keeping Menz at bay following his spin. We saw the ART duo fight it out in the last two laps where SLR Southerner prevails but up ahead on his final F2 round for now Raceroller wins his eighteenth Formula 2 race. Southerner takes second with SLR Bennett back on the podium after a long wait in third. SLR Semm nabs fourth ahead of J Lee Menz. Then we have our Evo drivers in SLR Marsh taking sixth and his first ever Evo win! Ads040 would score points yet again in seventh just beating SLR Dodgy who takes the last point. Despite SLR Darnell finishing out the points in tenth he still takes two points for fastest lap to take the title battle to the very last race for only the second time in divisions history!
The Feature! For one last time we are away! In the early stages we saw UKBeast fall with tyre wear issues, SLR Marsh, SLR Bennett and SLR Russell all having spins and amongst all that Darnell had made his way up to fourth trying to find a way past outgoing champion Raceroller. Crispy was in the lead but was being followed by the brother of his championship rival! By lap six Crispy had extended the lead but there was no time to relax for the DAMS driver because he saw the safety car come out! Everyone but Bennett opted to pit resulting in the ART driver leading the pack for the safety car restart. We resumed where the first couple of sectors it was a madness. The front five all within touching difference which must’ve been hell for Crispy knowing that Darnell had put himself into a decent position. SLR Bennett would spin after contact with Crispy trying to defend his position. There was tense battles all through the field! Semm yet again impressing was passing and defending from J Lee Menz whilst further down we had the Evo lads once again fighting it out. Back at the front with a couple of laps to go SLR Darnell has thrown it into the wall and is out!!!! IT IS DONE! Whilst pushing he made a mistake of his own to seal his fate! A lap later he does it in style! Crispy2001 is your feature winner and your SLR Formula 2 champion!!!! SLR Southerner would claim another second place making it his first ever F2 double podium scoring round with Raceroller on his farewell also finishing on the podium again in third. SLR Semm made it two fourth places finish to round off a brilliant reserve outing. UKBeast would end an unfortunate round in fifth but still pipping cousin OwenHowell who provisionally takes sixth. Merkz takes seventh also on his Formula 2 return where again we have our Evo drivers! Its a case of London buses for Marsh who takes the feature Evo win as well as his Sprint win from earlier in eighth. SLR Dodgy ends his season in the points in ninth and a fourth different Evo points scorer for the second week in a row! Baggiefan continues to show form of late in SLR to take the last remaining points position of the race and the season!
Crispy2001 is your SLR F2 Season five champion! He becomes our fifth different championship winner in five seasons and along with his two constructors championships now puts him alongside SLR Ham19 as the most decorated SLR F2 driver in history. A massive congratulations to Crispy and commiserations to SLR Darnell who would yet again miss out on another championship but was gracious in defeat. Congratulations also to II Division II for his constructors title as well as SLR Dodgy who took the Evo championship for the second and the last time before its big revamp next season.
With the season over it leaves me to thank everyone for putting on a show this season and to the people who made it happen. My fellow F2 Admins, stewards, commentators but most of all the drivers!
We see you next season with a new game, new tracks and perhaps maybe new drivers for where season six kicks off where we could have yet another new championship winner or will we have our first double time champion? Get me to Silverstone! As you f***ing were! MD x
Blogs Driver of the Round: SLR Marsh
QUALIFYING
1 CRISPY2001 2:02.281
2 UKBEASTASSASSIN
3 SLR SOUTHERNER
4 SLR BENNETT
5 RACEROLLER22
6 J LEE MENZ
7 ETE SEMM
8 SLR DARNELL
9 SLR DODGY
10 MASONGAMMON05
11 SHUTMEDAL
12 ADS040
13 BCFCJOSH1232752
14 OWENHOWELL36
15 BAGGIEFAN 1995
16 SLR MARSH
17 MERKZ47
18 SLR ALLEN
19 SLR RUSSELL
20 -
SPRINT
1 RACEROLLER22
2 SLR SOUTHERNER
3 SLR BENNETT
4 ETE SEMM
5 J LEE MENZ
6 SLR MARSH
7 ADS040
8 SLR DODGY
9 MERKZ47
10 SLR DARNELL 1:49.300
11 SHUTMEDAL
12 BCFCJOSH1232752
13 BAGGIEFAN 1995
14 UKBEASTASSASSIN
15 OWENHOWELL36
16 MASONGAMMON05 DNF
17 SLR ALLEN DNF
18 SLR RUSSELL DNF
19 CRISPY2001 DNF
20 -
FEATURE
1 CRISPY2001 1:48.946
2 SLR SOUTHERNER
3 RACEROLLER22
4 ETE SEMM
5 UKBEASTASSASSIN
6 OWENHOWELL36
7 MERKZ47
8 SLR MARSH
9 SLR DODGY
10 BAGGIEFAN 1995
11 SHUTMEDAL
12 SLR BENNETT
13 J LEE MENZ DNF
14 SLR DARNELL DNF
15 BCFCJOSH1232752 DNF
16 SLR ALLEN DNF
17 SLR RUSSELL DNF
18 ADS040 DNF
19 MASONGAMMON05 DNS
20 -
SLR Marsh vs OwenHowell36 Lap 1 - Feature
Verdict: NFA
Unfortunately it’s the case of one car breaking earlier than the other being 3 wide and then the poor contact system sends SLR Marsh into a spin.
SLR Marsh vs SLR Dodgy Lap 14 - Feature
Verdict: NFA
SLR Dodgy goes deep into the corner and then continues off track over the chicane. At the start of the corner Dodgy is over a tenth ahead when it all settles down Dodgy is around .2 and marsh is back into the slipstream + Dodgy picks up a 3 second time penalty for his troubles.
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