Racers Island - Stock Car Series - Round 10 @ Stock Car Oval

Racers Island Raceway blog

Racers Island Pro-Stock Car Series Results

Racers Island in-world (+TPer to all tracks)

(race of 7/15/12)

Despite the fact I've overslept the practice, the qualifying and the first race - Race C - I can claim in complete earnest that I gained way more than I expected. Sadly, no pictures from the Race C, I'm very sorry racers. Yuriko Nishi handed me a TP right before the Race B. Well, the stats about the Race C are available in the Racers Island blog, and I'm going to move to the Race B.

The grid was a first surprise for me:
P 5. Miku Hatsune (Doll Kabuki), 8.454, -0.082
P 6. Mystic Upshaw (Audion), 8.465, -0.093
P 7. miller Tomcat, 8.498, -0.126
P 8. Kert (Upshaw34), 8.508, -0.136
Race C P 1. Nella Boccara
Race C P 2. Wildrose Bijoux
- because I thought I'll never face a day Miku Hatsune participates in the Race B. Nishi cleared it up for me, turned out Hatsune had a laggy qualifying round, plus after race she also mentioned her keyboard was malfunctioning. Tough luck, happens... Therefore I didn't expect anything outstanding from her. But Hatsune wouldn't be Hatsune in that case!
The race was pretty plain. Despite lagging, Hatsune successfully held the 1st position, with Mystic Upshaw on 2nd and Nella Boccara (who improved her position to 3rd) close to her. At the 35th lap Hatsune and Mystic Upshaw traded positions, expanding their lead at the same time but staying close to each other. Then lapped racers got between them, and the gap expanded. Well, I always wanted to see Hatsune starting from the last place on the grid... didn't you? Yesterday, at the Race A, we've got this opportunity.

Even if the grid is only of 6 racers. Let's take a look at the order:

Pole Position. Yuriko Nishi 8.372
P 2. David Wetherby, 8.374, -0.002
P 3. Eddie Mathieson, 8.386, -0.014
P 4. Valo Emsbury, 8.440, -0.068
Race B P 1. Mystic Upshaw (Audion)
Race B P 2. Miku Hatsune (Doll Kabuki)
Nishi perfectly took advantage of the clear track ahead of her, Eddie Mathieson took the lead of the pack behind her pulling ahead. Hatsune was the only one who managed to get out of the pack that began the battle for the 4th place - and she was 3rd. But, due to the mentioned above lags, there was a grown gap between her and Mathieson.

Nishi - in an effort to lap
Wetherby and Hatsune

At the lap 17, Hatsune lagged so bad she speeded down and David Wetherby ran into her. That's straight both dropped behind and Valo Emsbury and Mystic Upshaw, who were 4th and 6th, moved up.
So, 2 battles have formed: for the 3rd place, between Emsbury and Upshaw, and for the 5th, between Hatsune and Wetherby. Nishi was far up ahead, with a 1,5 seconds gap between her and Mathieson.
Nishi had hit walls several times, so Mathieson got closer. At the 31th lap, he gained the lead. What was interesting, they were close to Hatsune and Wetherby, but couldn't lap them! 
Nishi stayed behind, very close to Mathieson at first, but eventually he has expanded the leading. The pack started to spread out, Upshaw was 3rd, Emsbury - 4th, Hatsune - 5th and Wetherby - 6th.

Upshaw - passed Nishi and
catches up with Mathieson

Lap 61 was quite unsuccessful for Mathieson, and Nishi got a chance to catch up with him, that she has used, meanwhile Upshaw has caught up with them after a row of very good laps. She took over the 2nd place at the 72th lap in the short battle with Nishi for it - her driving skill and lots of patience allowed her to use the very simple, but working strategy: doing laps without going crazy. That way, she managed to catch up with Mathieson and slip into the 1st place! But Mathieson and Nishi were too close, and while Mathieson was trying to regain it and Upshaw - to spare it (read as "were in a fight"), Nishi jumped onto the 1st place and promptly expanded the gap between her and others. The winner of the race has turned out to be obvious. What about the rest?
Mathieson won the battle and was 2nd, Upshaw dropped behind. But only till the 98th lap - Mathieson got into a battle with Emsbury and Hatsune, 2 other claimants upon the top 3 - Upshaw was pushing it to the limit. Lap 99 speaks for itself:

[19:16] Racers Island Stock Oval Gate shouts: Mystic Audion P 2 Lap 99,  8.607,  TBL  -1.263[19:16] Racers Island Stock Oval Gate shouts: Eddie Mathieson P 2 Lap 99,  8.367,  TBL  -1.240

And the last lap... I couldn't believe my eyes! Upshaw and Emsbury were determined to take the 2nd place from Mathieson, and the battle was so intensive that they forgot about Hatsune, the advantages taker - she passed them by without any struggle!!! Who could guess...

All the racers have admitted that was a great, intensive, competitive race yesterday. What about me, I say there's no 2 totally the same races exist, each race is one of a kind - that's basically why I analyse them here in the blog. But this one was absolutely unique and impossible to compare with other ones I've seen - competition in the truest sense of the word.
It was a HUGE pleasure to watch it, thank you very much racers! All the race stats are available in the Pro Stock Car blog, as always. I bet you've enjoyed it as much as I did, and I'll see some of you this Thursday and some of you - this Sunday. 
Have a great one, competitors :)