R.I.R. Sprint Cup @ Martinsville Speedway

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


(race of 8/5/12)

In sports competition, even the smallest mistakes might cost a lot - I mean not only motorsports, but any kind of competition. If your opponent is stronger that you, even just a little bit, expect him to overtake your position. But, if it happened, what would you do?
Also, here's some additional information Grosmanteau DeCuir generously shared with me. There are 2 different types of car setting racers use - one allows to reach the higher speed faster, and therefore requires the use of the brakes; another lets you not to slow down, but you sacrifise a bit of your speed. Usually tracks have one optimal settings to go with, and Martinsville Speedway is an unique track - both setting can work well.
Grosmanteau DeCuir totally failed his qualifying round. As he admitted, he never went that slow in practice, so he knew he definitely won't have one of the 1st positions on the grid. Well, he wasn't the worst one either... but something definitely should have been expected.
Well, first laps are the most important - every racer knows that. If you avoided being piled up, you take one of the first positions. Badguy Boozehound and ZZ managed to do that, the rest remained a pile through 3 first laps - then spreaded out with Clawtooth on 3rd, Cyberstar on 4th, Koolhoven on 5th and DeCuir on 6th. In 10 laps Clawtooth traded positions with ZZ, and the order remained till the first pitstop...
DeCuir had to make it early (at the 22th lap) due to the damage he got through these laps - that put him into the risk of the necessity to make a long run in the future, but he took it. That dropped him 3 laps down (when he was 1 lap down), but he began gaining positions when others began to make their pitstops, as it always happened. Basically, it all depended on how Top 3 will make theirs...
After pitting, Clawtooth and Boozehound traded places - Boozehound barely jumped onto the track right in front of DeCuir, who, from now on, had the 3rd position, and, obviously, that called for a challenge. About half a lap behind them,  Cyberstar was winning 4th position over ZZ, but latter just kept on going for it... until the traffic separated them.
The battle between Boozehound and DeCuir was too intensive to end soon, and the lack of traffic let DeCuir to keep up with Boozehound. But after the 45th lap, the traffic has found a way, and DeCuir began dropping down. 4 laps after, he had to make the 2nd pitstop, before others. And, due to Boozehound did long pitstops, he movet up to the 2nd place (Clawtooth is apparently very, very skilled in making pitstops), being 1 lap down though. Boozehould was 3rd with 2 laps down, with Cyberstar behing him. ZZ was 5th and 3 laps down.
3rd piststop turned into a chance for Cyberstar, who, despite the fact Boozehound got back at the track 3rd (when she remained 4th after her pitstop), got an opportunity to fight Boozehound for the 3rd position, what, of course, she did, and the battle remained till the end of the race. Luckily for himself, Boozehound kept the 3rd position during the last laps, what helped him finish 3rd.

That was definitely an interesting race - as many of them at R.I.R., certainly, spectacular in its own way. Grosmanteau DeCuir has showed an amazing skill of taking opportunities, Eagle Clawtooth left me wonder why so many positive changes happen after him pitting, the last battle between badguy Boozehound and Saphyre Cyberstar - everything spiced it up perfectly. Great job racers! Keep on competing!



Pole Position. badguy Boozehound  12.202
P 2. Sharon Densmith,  12.291, -0.089
P 3. 'ZZ Bottom' (foneco Zuzu),  12.398, -0.196
P 4. Eagle Clawtooth,  12.539, -0.337
P 5. Grosmanteau DeCuir,  12.555, -0.353
P 6. Saphyre Cyberstar,  12.578, -0.376
P 7. FFred Koolhoven,  12.602, -0.400
P 8. Broly Blackheart Sr. (Broly Yakubu),  12.623, -0.421
P 9. MidnightRambler Frostbite,  13.224, -1.022


Final Results:
1st. Eagle Clawtooth, 110 laps. Total Time : 1509.801
2nd. Grosmanteau DeCuir, -1 laps.
3rd. badguy Boozehound, -5 laps.
4th. Saphyre Cyberstar, -5 laps.
5th. FFred Koolhoven, -6 laps.
6th. 'ZZ Bottom' (foneco Zuzu), -6 laps.
7th. Broly Blackheart Sr. (Broly Yakubu), -7 laps.
8th. MidnightRambler Frostbite, -16 laps.
9th. Sharon Densmith, -65 laps. (retired)


Fastest race lap: badguy Boozehound, 12.228
Fastest race lap of the race session: badguy Boozehound, 12.202 (qualifying round)