ELITE REVIEW: SAM DULLEDGE
The long awaited season 29 started in Buenos Aires with
the 72 lap Elite race being lead off the line by our reigning triple champion
Justinas Smysliajevas, with last year’s runner up Toygun Senler in 2nd.
Elite returnee Heidi Aareskoski started from 13th out of 39
starters, with Andreas Weilemann seemingly withdrawing from this year’s
championship without tyres.
Aleksey Odegov became the first Elite retirement this season, hitting the tyre wall on the first lap as Justinas powered away and kept the lead with Toygun just over 0.8 seconds behind. He kept this lead and was 2.5 seconds ahead by the end of lap 5. Heidi Aareskoski had moved up to 10th, whilst last year’s championship contender Wojech Uzikowski seemed to be struggling in 28th out of 38 runners.
Meanwhile, there was an interesting battle between Toygun, Atis Praudins and Aleksej Sutkin for 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively. However, by lap 16 it had become apparent that Atis’ tyres were worn and Toygun managed to pull out a safety gap, although he was still 7.5 seconds behind Justinas who had remained untroubled since the start.
Aleksey Odegov became the first Elite retirement this season, hitting the tyre wall on the first lap as Justinas powered away and kept the lead with Toygun just over 0.8 seconds behind. He kept this lead and was 2.5 seconds ahead by the end of lap 5. Heidi Aareskoski had moved up to 10th, whilst last year’s championship contender Wojech Uzikowski seemed to be struggling in 28th out of 38 runners.
Meanwhile, there was an interesting battle between Toygun, Atis Praudins and Aleksej Sutkin for 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively. However, by lap 16 it had become apparent that Atis’ tyres were worn and Toygun managed to pull out a safety gap, although he was still 7.5 seconds behind Justinas who had remained untroubled since the start.
On lap 18, Justinas pulled into the pits, leaving Toygun
to take the lead momentarily, Justinas dropping down to 8th. Toygun
maintained a steady lead of 2.7 seconds to Aleksej Sutkin until they both
pitted on lap 24. Justinas’ gap to Toygun had now grown to 9 seconds through
the pitstops, and Toygun didn’t seem to have the speed to close the gap down.
Justinas resumed the lead on lap 27 after Marek Marchewka pitted, with Toygun now closer to 10 seconds behind. On the outskirts of the points were Evaldas Ruseckas, Tomasz Kaminski (7th and 8th), Heidi Aareskoski and Nico Zou in 9th and 10th positions.
As the race neared halfway, Justinas had extended his lead to an impressive 14 seconds before pitting on lap 36, Toygun led Aleksej Sutkin and Atis Praudins 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively. Justinas’ 11 second pitstop meant he managed to come out in 4th place whilst Toygun kept the pack at a steady pace, maintaining his lead.
Heading towards lap 50, the retirements numbered 1 (Odegov on lap 1) with 38th place Sabadash now 7 minutes behind the leader (5 laps). Toygun and Sutkin had peeled off into the pits on lap 48 to let Mindaugas Sarocka take the lead narrowly ahead of Justinas before Mindaugas himself stopped on lap 49, Justinas’ lead on Toygun now almost 17 seconds and building fast. When Justinas came in for his 3rd and final stop on lap 54, a 12 second stop wasn’t enough to keep him ahead and he dropped to 12 seconds behind Toygun in his Martini, this gap was quickly being eroded by Justinas. This was clearly heading towards being a great fight for the lead of the Elite championship, just as the season 28 finale had shown us.
However, on lap 60, Toygun had problems slowing down for the corners in tim, leaving him to lose 3 seconds on lap 60 alone. On lap 63, Toygun was passed for the lead by none other than his closest championship rival Justinas, sliping down to 3rd on lap 65 after being overtaken by Aleksej Sutkin, who would take an impressive (if somewhat absent) 2nd place. Mindaugas Sarocka finished the all Lithuanian podium for round 1 of the season 29 Elite championship. Toygun managed to salvage 4th and obtain 5 points for his championship charge, but he will obviously have to look at his part wear and risks for round 2 if he is to try and obtain the elusive 4th title.
Justinas set the fastest lap of the race on a 1:23.038 on lap 72, and Elite veteran won the accolade of fastest pitstop with a 10.079 on lap 49.
The final positions can be found here
Justinas resumed the lead on lap 27 after Marek Marchewka pitted, with Toygun now closer to 10 seconds behind. On the outskirts of the points were Evaldas Ruseckas, Tomasz Kaminski (7th and 8th), Heidi Aareskoski and Nico Zou in 9th and 10th positions.
As the race neared halfway, Justinas had extended his lead to an impressive 14 seconds before pitting on lap 36, Toygun led Aleksej Sutkin and Atis Praudins 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively. Justinas’ 11 second pitstop meant he managed to come out in 4th place whilst Toygun kept the pack at a steady pace, maintaining his lead.
Heading towards lap 50, the retirements numbered 1 (Odegov on lap 1) with 38th place Sabadash now 7 minutes behind the leader (5 laps). Toygun and Sutkin had peeled off into the pits on lap 48 to let Mindaugas Sarocka take the lead narrowly ahead of Justinas before Mindaugas himself stopped on lap 49, Justinas’ lead on Toygun now almost 17 seconds and building fast. When Justinas came in for his 3rd and final stop on lap 54, a 12 second stop wasn’t enough to keep him ahead and he dropped to 12 seconds behind Toygun in his Martini, this gap was quickly being eroded by Justinas. This was clearly heading towards being a great fight for the lead of the Elite championship, just as the season 28 finale had shown us.
However, on lap 60, Toygun had problems slowing down for the corners in tim, leaving him to lose 3 seconds on lap 60 alone. On lap 63, Toygun was passed for the lead by none other than his closest championship rival Justinas, sliping down to 3rd on lap 65 after being overtaken by Aleksej Sutkin, who would take an impressive (if somewhat absent) 2nd place. Mindaugas Sarocka finished the all Lithuanian podium for round 1 of the season 29 Elite championship. Toygun managed to salvage 4th and obtain 5 points for his championship charge, but he will obviously have to look at his part wear and risks for round 2 if he is to try and obtain the elusive 4th title.
Justinas set the fastest lap of the race on a 1:23.038 on lap 72, and Elite veteran won the accolade of fastest pitstop with a 10.079 on lap 49.
The final positions can be found here
Our calculations show that Justinas would not have been
able to close the gap that Toygun’s 2 stop had given him at lap 59 (1 lap
before Toygun’s smoke) at a rough pace of 0.4 per lap for 13 laps, giving
Toygun a 5 second lead at the chequered flag. Justinas later declined, saying “I don't feel that I deserved that win” and that
the next few races and the fight for the championship between the two triple
champs
“Should be a good (one)”Toygun revealed his expectations for the 'championship of a lifetime' in his quote,
I feel I need to win the dry races to have a chance against Justinas who will always be faster than me in rain.
Heidi Aareskoski finished over 2 minutes behind on her Elite return when so many expected her to dominate the field like she had done in her Master group in the previous season. Her 4 stop strategy left her with ‘low expectations’ but she isn’t disheartened, saying
“Everything went fine and the final result 16th place is pretty good, much better than expected.”This race saw Justinas pick up his 21st Elite win, putting him ahead of Christian Iorga in the all-time greats list and cementing himself into the top 10 best drivers in GPRO history. Only 3 of our current Elite crop have won more Elite races (Heidi on 23, Leandro on 33, and Toygun on 40)
Heidi Aareskoski finished over 2 minutes behind on her Elite return when so many expected her to dominate the field like she had done in her Master group in the previous season. Her 4 stop strategy left her with ‘low expectations’ but she isn’t disheartened, saying “Everything went fine and the final result 16th place is pretty good, much better than expected.”
This race saw Justinas pick up his 21st Elite win, putting him ahead of Christian Iorga in the all-time greats list and cementing himself into the top 10 best drivers in GPRO history. Only 3 of our current Elite crop have won more Elite races (Heidi on 23, Leandro on 33, and Toygun on 40)
ROOKIE-265 REVIEW: FREDDIE HIGGS
Pre-season
So the new season is about to start , and rookie 265 should be an interesting group for season 29 with a three managers dropping from amateur into this group, managers such as; Marian Mindru,
Richard Aizlewood and Modestas Montvidas who had been in amateur for the past 7 seasons! Will these three managers re dominate rookie to get back into ameatuer or will they be staying down for a while? There is also John Peterson who is a veterean of GPRO as he has been a manager since season 10 and has been upto the pro tier. And with plenty of managers in this group who have been in at least amateur in the past 3 seasons, this group looks to have an interesting season
Qualifying
Qualifying has now closed and Rookie 265 have had a healthy 25 drivers qualify for the first race, and qualifying times were all rather close with the difference of only 7.546 seconds between Pole and last, and an extremely close difference betwwen pole and 3rd with only 0.504s! Marian Minduru has obviously decided to hit Rookie running by taking pole position on the first race, John Peterson show’s is knowledge of the track by getting on the front row, and missing out on pole by 0.138s
3rd goes to Serhiy Cherkasov. Richard Aizlewood and Modestas Montvidas not having a great qualifying, with Mondestas starting 20th and Richard starting 25th, but lets see how the race goes
Race
And their off! John Peterson’s driver had an awful start and dropped a huge 5 places to 7th Paul hrza had a brilliant start and jumps from 4th to 1st on the first lap, No accidents at the start as well 25 racers still in the race. Facu chavez also had a nice start by coming from 7th to 4th which set him up nicely for the next lap. Lap 2 saw Fau Chavez have another great lap moving up 3 more places brining him up to the races current leader, great start for Fau moving up 6 places in 2 laps, Lap 14 sees Fau chavez come out the pit and drop a massive 19 places to 20th, Marian Miduru took over as race leader. Lap 19 saw Marian comes out of the pit and drops 13 paces and ends up 16th Serhiy then took position as race leader, and after an awful start John Patterson regained his 2nd place.
Lap 25 was interesting as Serhiy, Attila kosztolni, Thomas Sheard and Nelson Cohen all head to the pits and they were all holding the positions 1-4. Lap 34 provided the first smoke on the track, it was coming from Arthur Martinello who span out just after leaving the pits, looks like he’ll be leaving early in this race. The race just isn’t being kind to john Patterson, he has to enter the pits with some suspension damage drops him to 15th already. Lap 55 saw the first retirements of the race, Arthurs brakes caught on fire and he had to retire from the race. Rober parassi driver’s brakes also failed him as he ended up in the tyre wall… woops! And then on lap 63 Andreas Furham’s brakes also caught fire and forced him to retire, and Facu Chavez’s car also caught smoke this lap. On the penultimate lap Serhiy had kept the lead for the past 14 laps but with Marian getting closer every lap, and was now only 3s behind could he keep the lead?
And the Checkered flags drops…. And Serhiy wins the first race of the season, with Marian taking second and only 2.9s behind and a strong 3rd goes to Pedro Bravo who started the grid in 11th, but I guess with 11 seasons in amateur he always had the potential of reaching there, John Peterson in the end had a relatively disastrous race finishing 21st dropping a massive 19 places, the biggest drop of the race. So in review of the race the Brakes clearly got given a battering on this track, with 3 drivers retiring from brake related incidents and 1 driver’s car smoking… Car maintence so early in the season in rookie, will this have an effect on the future results and managers money levels? We shall see
After the race I was able to speak to a few of the managers
Firstly I caught up with the race winner Serhiy cherkasov and when congratulated on his win he said
So the new season is about to start , and rookie 265 should be an interesting group for season 29 with a three managers dropping from amateur into this group, managers such as; Marian Mindru,
Richard Aizlewood and Modestas Montvidas who had been in amateur for the past 7 seasons! Will these three managers re dominate rookie to get back into ameatuer or will they be staying down for a while? There is also John Peterson who is a veterean of GPRO as he has been a manager since season 10 and has been upto the pro tier. And with plenty of managers in this group who have been in at least amateur in the past 3 seasons, this group looks to have an interesting season
Qualifying
Qualifying has now closed and Rookie 265 have had a healthy 25 drivers qualify for the first race, and qualifying times were all rather close with the difference of only 7.546 seconds between Pole and last, and an extremely close difference betwwen pole and 3rd with only 0.504s! Marian Minduru has obviously decided to hit Rookie running by taking pole position on the first race, John Peterson show’s is knowledge of the track by getting on the front row, and missing out on pole by 0.138s
3rd goes to Serhiy Cherkasov. Richard Aizlewood and Modestas Montvidas not having a great qualifying, with Mondestas starting 20th and Richard starting 25th, but lets see how the race goes
Race
And their off! John Peterson’s driver had an awful start and dropped a huge 5 places to 7th Paul hrza had a brilliant start and jumps from 4th to 1st on the first lap, No accidents at the start as well 25 racers still in the race. Facu chavez also had a nice start by coming from 7th to 4th which set him up nicely for the next lap. Lap 2 saw Fau Chavez have another great lap moving up 3 more places brining him up to the races current leader, great start for Fau moving up 6 places in 2 laps, Lap 14 sees Fau chavez come out the pit and drop a massive 19 places to 20th, Marian Miduru took over as race leader. Lap 19 saw Marian comes out of the pit and drops 13 paces and ends up 16th Serhiy then took position as race leader, and after an awful start John Patterson regained his 2nd place.
Lap 25 was interesting as Serhiy, Attila kosztolni, Thomas Sheard and Nelson Cohen all head to the pits and they were all holding the positions 1-4. Lap 34 provided the first smoke on the track, it was coming from Arthur Martinello who span out just after leaving the pits, looks like he’ll be leaving early in this race. The race just isn’t being kind to john Patterson, he has to enter the pits with some suspension damage drops him to 15th already. Lap 55 saw the first retirements of the race, Arthurs brakes caught on fire and he had to retire from the race. Rober parassi driver’s brakes also failed him as he ended up in the tyre wall… woops! And then on lap 63 Andreas Furham’s brakes also caught fire and forced him to retire, and Facu Chavez’s car also caught smoke this lap. On the penultimate lap Serhiy had kept the lead for the past 14 laps but with Marian getting closer every lap, and was now only 3s behind could he keep the lead?
And the Checkered flags drops…. And Serhiy wins the first race of the season, with Marian taking second and only 2.9s behind and a strong 3rd goes to Pedro Bravo who started the grid in 11th, but I guess with 11 seasons in amateur he always had the potential of reaching there, John Peterson in the end had a relatively disastrous race finishing 21st dropping a massive 19 places, the biggest drop of the race. So in review of the race the Brakes clearly got given a battering on this track, with 3 drivers retiring from brake related incidents and 1 driver’s car smoking… Car maintence so early in the season in rookie, will this have an effect on the future results and managers money levels? We shall see
After the race I was able to speak to a few of the managers
Firstly I caught up with the race winner Serhiy cherkasov and when congratulated on his win he said
Victory was for me unexpected, I definitely picked up race strategy and the amount of fuel.
Obviously I was intrigued on what his plans are for the rest of the season…
certainly it would be desirable to win further more. I already rode in the group of amateurs, I plan once again to force one's way through there.
At the end of our interview Serhiy finished with
I want to wish to all, to have pleasant races and good luck
Then I caught up with 3rd place Pedro Bravo, his thoughts on the race was
Well was very good , but was to perfect in the end , was very close of a disaster race , i finish with zero fuel in car , and one more lap would put me in pit
and he wants to aim for top 3 but realisticly doesn’t think he can make 1st
Well that’s All for race 1
cheers
Freddo
Well that’s All for race 1
cheers
Freddo
