R.I.R. Challenge Cars @ Michigan Speedway

R.I.R. website
Michigan Speedway in-world

(race of 8/24/12)

Moving back to ovals and their close results!
Michigan Speedway, a D-shaped oval track, gives you an ability to choose between 2 possible ways of setting up your car: either you go faster and make your car less mobile, or you choose the manoeuvrability and sacrifice the speed. Both will be good, but in a different way. You choose!

Certainly, it works for non-pro races also - if there are racers who can't compete with those who are higher level, it doesn't mean that they cannot compete with each other! Qualifying times were very close, so it was showing that a hot challenge was to be expected.

Too hot, indeed... The race has been restarted 3 times. First time, one of the racers clicked the wrong button in the gate dialog box by accident, for the other two - well-known critical accidents caused by usual piling up after the start. Still doubt those guys and girls don't have the rush the professionals do have? Let's move to the race itself!

Kev Kiranov and SweetTooth Firehawk were the ones who successfully went through the traffic and got into a battle for the 1st position, but after a couple of laps MidnightRambler Frostbite took Firehawk's place, so it turned into a battle between Kiranov and Frostbite - and what a battle indeed! However, it ended when Kiranov crashed himself at the 10th lap and got lost in the traffic. The difference between the 1st and the 2nd positions was 5 seconds, so Frostbite became an obvious leader of the race. What was going on behind him?

Behind him, there was a mess. 5 (!) drivers were eager to fill up the 2nd position, and the most successful one in that was still Kiranov, who furiously defended it making others (including himself) lose seconds constantly. Firehawk seemed to be decided to fight till the end and kept up with Kiranov perfectly. JP Paneer was going a bit behind them waiting for the moment to slip through, and Garth Moonites with Clifford Market were catching up with them. Market fell behind by the 20th lap, but others kept on going close.

The leader of the pack has been revealed too - JP Paneer made it to the 2nd position and promptly expanded the lead, thanks to the dynamic battle behind him still going on. As the battle for the positions raged, the racers were falling more and more behind Paneer and, of course, Frostbite. Moonites and Kiranov kept on fighting for the 3rd position - there was no wild traffic, but that didn't prevent them from trading positions at turns. Kiranov, however, after a few failed laps dropped behind, giving it up to Moonites.

When the wild traffic appeared, any other changes seemed to be impossible. However... Paneer lost a few seconds on the 39th lap, which allowed Moonites to catch up and challenge him for the 2nd place! He took this chance, and it paid off - the traffic got Paneer at the 42nd lap, giving Moonites an opportunity to pull ahead. The difference between them was only growing up, as the traffic between them only increased - so, that was the order they have finished in!

After what I've seen at that race, especially in the middle, I can only say that those who skip non-pro races in favor of pro races... well, maybe they don't make a big mistake, but really, while you never know what kind of competition you will witness at the upcoming event, you always know that it's going to be spectacular. I myself had a lot of fun watching all those intensive battles that occurred yesterday - so I wish everyone to compete as hard as those drivers did!


The grid:

Pole Position. JP Paneer  14.559
P 2. Garth Moonites,  14.647, -0.088
P 3. Aangel Cortes,  14.938, -0.379
P 4. ⓢ ⓦ ⓔ ⓔ ⓣ (SweetTooth Firehawk),  15.051, -0.492
P 5. Kev Kiranov,  15.052, -0.493
P 6. BanningBairde,  15.114, -0.555
P 7. MidnightRambler Frostbite,  15.138, -0.579
P 8. Clifford Market,  15.292, -0.733
P 9. Soubi Corith,  15.518, -0.959
P 10. unknown Kanya,  16.189, -1.629


Final Results:
1st. MidnightRambler Frostbite, 50 laps. Total Time : 770.650
2nd. Garth Moonites, -12.776 seconds.
3rd. JP Paneer, -1 laps.
4th. ⓢ ⓦ ⓔ ⓔ ⓣ (SweetTooth Firehawk), -1 laps.
5th. Soubi Corith, -1 laps.
6th. Aangel Cortes, -1 laps.
7th. BanningBairde, -1 laps.
8th. Clifford Market, -2 laps.
9th. Kev Kiranov, -2 laps.
10th. unknown Kanya, -4 laps.

Fastest race lap: Garth Moonites, 14.359