Racers Island Raceway blog(race of 7/29/12)
The last round of the season - it's a crime to skip it! That's why, right after the Sprint Cup racing at RIR, I rushed at Racers Island, where the practice was almost over, and only Valo Emsbury was still doing laps - others were chilling at the gallery and the track. Eddie Mathieson has requested practice times though, at it showed that most of them are pretty equal in their driving skill.
To be true, it all depended on how racers handle the traffic. As you all know, it might cause difficulties during making efforts to catch up with your opponent if there are several cars between you and him, you simlpy might lose some speed nuzzling at them.Also, there was another distracting moment during the race A... But let's begin with the qualifying round.
Mystic Upshaw did a great job during her qualifying round, and everybody was sure she's going to have the pole postion - but that was before Miku Hatsune did 0.004 seconds greater job. Also, some racers were just literally equal:
[18:20] Racers Island Sunset Oval Gate shouts: P 3. Valo Emsbury, 8.111, -0.046
[18:20] Racers Island Sunset Oval Gate shouts: P 4. Andrea Von Brokenhymen, 8.111, -0.046
and
[18:29] Racers Island Sunset Oval Gate shouts: P 7. Yuriko Nishi, 8.156, -0.091
[18:29] Racers Island Sunset Oval Gate shouts: P 8. miller Tomcat, 8.156, -0.091
, what, as you know very well, is pretty frequent at Racers Island. But today was a special day, and before I move to the race, let's have a look at the table after 11th race, the one I coudn't manage to attend - just to see who's winning by points. So, Hatsune (Doll Kabuki) got 1st position by points, and basically didn't matter what position would it be yesterday, same with Emsbury, who's got 2nd. 3rd place was more interesting - Mathieson and Mystic Upshaw (Audion) have a difference in only 1 point, and that meant they both stood a chance to be in a Top 3. Who got it? Let's find out! If you did already, let's find out how!
There was a vote: 3 races 4-6-6 or 2 races 6-8. Of course, to my delight, almost everybody voted for 2 races!
The grid for the Race B was:P 7. #69 Yuriko Nishi, 8.156, -0.091
P 8. #2 miller Tomcat, 8.156, -0.091
P 9. #3 Cole Bishop (loadcoil), 8.201, -0.136
P 10. #427 Nella Boccara, 8.245, -0.180
P 11. #34 Kert (Upshaw34), 8.330, -0.265
P 12. #2 1/2 Harleybeth28 Amoufhaz, 8.445, -0.380.
As usual, first laps were the most crusial for racers. Nishi, of course, pulled ahead through the clean track, Tomcat got the second place at first, but gave it up to Boccara after a 3 laps battle. The rest - Bishop, Kert and Amoufhaz - have obtained the 4th, 5th and 6th positions as follows.From the beginning and till the 60th lap, they maintained their positions and weren't going to let anyone else to take them, but at the 60th lap... it certainly wasn't Boccara's day, she got into an accident and dropped down to the 5th position. So Tomcat got the 2nd. And that was an order they've finished the race in, so Nishi and Tomcat moved up to continue the competition, to the race A.
And the Race A grid was formed by:
P 2. #54 Mystic Upshaw (Audion), 8.069, -0.004
P 3. #92 Valo Emsbury, 8.111, -0.046
P 4. #75 Andrea Von Brokenhymen, 8.111, -0.046
P 5. #88 David Wetherby, 8.135, -0.070
P 6. #00 Eddie Mathieson, 8.153, -0.088
Race B P 7. #69 Yuriko Nishi, 8.156, -0.091
Race B P 8. #3 miller Tomcat, 8.156, -0.091
- and I can claim that was the hottest race of the season!
There was an accident right after the start - Upshaw's finger slipped onto S (breaks) and she ended up in the wall, and Von Brokenhymen bumped into her, so they got lapped at the very first lap. Hatsune left the pile behind, Mathieson managed to get out of it very soon too. Basically, they've spreaded out at the 1st lap, but the fun was just about to begin!Von Brokenhymen stayed between Mathieson and Hatsune not letting Mathieson to have a battle for the 1st place. Mathieson began losing his time, and Emsbury, after catching up with him, battled him for the 2nd place. Apparently Mathieson and Emsbury have a pretty equal driving skill, so that battle was very intensive.
And, as two competitive souls, none of them would give up easily - so it was a long one too. They were trading positions at each lap, increasing the gap and decreasing it again... it needs to be seen!Mathieson got lucky - at the lap 20, when he was ahead, lapped Tomcat and then lapped Von Brokenhymen got between him and Emsbury, it caused a hard time for Emsbury to get any chance to catch up, and Mathieson began getting closer to Hatsune. His patience paid off - after 18 laps, at 38th one, Hatsune lost a few seconds in a little accident, and Mathieson got dangerously close. The battle became unavoidable. But there still was traffic between them, and it took Mathieson a dozen more laps to have it done. Halfway there!
Mathieson began diong longer laps though and still couldn't manage to catch up with Hatsune. So he just kept on going behind her, only 1.5 seconds down. But another little accident Hatsune got into turned into another intensive battle between her and Mathieson - it was 70th laps!
Eddie was leading during the battle, but Hatsune stayed right behind him not letting him relax for a moment. On the lap 90 he still was 1st. Last laps, way more crusial than 1st...Lap 94. DING DING!!! Spammer's message in the group chat caught racers all by surprise. And apparently, distracted them too! Mathieson made a small mistake that costed him half a second - and the 1st place. Then another - minus 3 second and giving up his position to Valo. Moreover, there was no opportunity for a battle, due to 2 other cars between them.
In this order, the race has complete.That was a very astonishing end of the Stock Car series. It showed the competitors pushing it to the limit, making a great last perfomance, like a final chord that is responcible for the last impression the listener has of the composition he just had listened - and the racers made this chord sound loud and rich.
I'm looking forward for the next season after 2 or 3 weeks break, according to what Mathieson said. And I thank each of the racers for the delight I had watching and writing articles about the races. Keep yourselves in shape for the next one, racers!
Another announcement is new kind of races - Battle Cars, that are pretty simular to Mario Carts, with different boosts randomly appearing for racers to pick up. The first race is tomorrow, on Tuesday - come over, it promises to be fun! And a good chance to have a healthy break off the series races.All the stats for this race are available in the Pro-Stock Car Series Results blog (all the links are in the head of this post). Feel free to have a look at them!
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