R.I.R. Nationwide @ Speed Park Raceway

(race of 8/11/12)
Co-author: Grosmanteau DeCuir

R.I.R. website
Speed Park Raceway in-world

While Camping World Trucks was a pretty messy race yesterday, Nationwides turned out to be a very exciting and spectacular one, especially with the leading positions being totally unpredictable until the very end. Only professionals raced and the qualifying times show it. The last position (11th) was under 1 second from the pole and there were no more than 0.1 seconds gap between most of the drivers. The race was promising to be very tight!

The drivers were eager to start and launch themselves toward the front of the pack. The green was given and it happened: one of the racers got delayed at the start, another one got stuck behind him, and that forced a red flag and a restart of the race, giving drivers time to re-think their start strategy. The second attempt yielded a large incident forcing yet another restart. Third time's a charm and the race started on a good foot!
On the first lap, Miku Hatsune managed to claw her way in front of Eagle Clawtooth and led the pack. However, it was unfortunate to JP Paneer as he battled through traffic but fell down from 2nd to 8th place after the initial lap. Miku managed to narrowly keep the lead in front of Eagle and JP but had to relinquish the lead when these two passed her on lap 14. The trio would remain close to each other, with JP briefly taking the lead until the first pitting window opened up. Meanwhile, battles were raging behind them as drivers frequently exchanged positions.

With so many cars on the track, doing a pit stop is even more hazardous. Miku learned this the hard way by being tangled between drivers entering and leaving the pit area and thus losing valuable seconds. JP managed to take the lead after the first pitstop from Eagle started to build up a lead on the drivers behind him.

While the first three drivers were seemingly on their own for a long time, the other drivers must not be forgotten! A surging Saphyre passed Miku for the third place on lap 28 and a ferocious battle ensued between these two drivers for several laps. As laps went on and tires wear could be seen on the cars, many drivers started facing issues keeping their cars off the walls. This led to several positions changing and a tightening of the first four positions. It was thus time for Pit stop #2 and JP was the first to execute himself, trying to secure a clean way within the pit area. Unfortunately, in his haste, JP triggered a speed limit penalty which forced him to do a stop and go (which consists of doing an additional pit stop without having the right to change tires or refuel), which he did on the following lap.

Following the second pit stop, Eagle took a large lead over Miku and Saphyre, who both encountered traffic in the pit area. While they may have lost time on Eagle, this advantaged neither of them toward each other and they resumed their battle upon exit of the pit area. JP, who had to serve his penalty, came back fourth, trailing Miku and Saphyre by a few seconds. By lap 50, Eagle had made himself a lead that allowed him to coast through victory. Miku and Saphyre, who were still battling for second place, noticed a third player in their battle: JP, by driving alone and cleanier than the two people in front, managed to get back and thus a three-way battle started. Two would get on the podium and one would be left out. The battle raged on, the drivers traded positions all the time until the end of the race. Eagle won the race, but it was Miku who managed to edge out JP and Saphyre respectly for the second place.

JP finished third, but would have had second place if it were not for his speed penalty. Let's this be a reminder for everyone, folks, respect the speed limits!

That is all for today! The next race will be held at Watkins Glen, a technical road circuit that will force the drivers to adapt to the sharp turns and possibly new pit strategies.

(K.T.: I'd like to say big thank you to Grosmanteau for the impressive job he's done (I know myself it's not an easiest one) and for freeing my hands pretty sensibly - yes, this article is mostly written by him, I made a few stylistic corrections. Very nicely done, in my opinion, and lets me finish the Sprint Cup article today faster. Thanks Grosmanteau!)


Number of laps: 80
Race length: 24 minutes

The grid:
Pole Position. Eagle Clawtooth  14.138
P 2. JP Paneer,  14.224, -0.086
P 3. Miku Hatsune (Doll Kabuki),  14.272, -0.134
P 4. 'ZZ Bottom' (foneco Zuzu),  14.316, -0.178
P 5. FFred Koolhoven,  14.517, -0.379
P 6. Saphyre Cyberstar,  14.581, -0.443
P 7. Broly Blackheart Sr. (Broly Yakubu),  14.601, -0.463
P 8. Vickster Freiin von Kühn (Vickster Kuhn),  14.668, -0.530
P 9. Snuffy Smith (Snufman),  14.721, -0.583
P 10. MidnightRambler Frostbite,  14.786, -0.648
P 11. ⓢ ⓦ ⓔ ⓔ ⓣ (SweetTooth Firehawk),  15.001, -0.863

Final Results:
1st. Eagle Clawtooth, 80 laps. Total Time : 1267.447
2nd. Miku Hatsune (Doll Kabuki), -1 laps.
3rd. JP Paneer, -1 laps.
4th. Saphyre Cyberstar, -1 laps.
5th. 'ZZ Bottom' (foneco Zuzu), -1 laps.
6th. FFred Koolhoven, -3 laps.
7th. Broly Blackheart Sr. (Broly Yakubu), -4 laps.
8th. Vickster Freiin von Kühn (Vickster Kuhn), -5 laps.
9th. MidnightRambler Frostbite, -6 laps.
10th. Snuffy Smith (Snufman), -7 laps.
11th. ⓢ ⓦ ⓔ ⓔ ⓣ (SweetTooth Firehawk), -8 laps.

Fastest race lap: Eagle Clawtooth, 14.134