Racers Island Stock series Race #2

Hi everyone! Hopefully as a first official post article, this goes well :)

The second round of the Racers Island pro-stock series was held at the Sunrise track, a wide track that gives ample room to everyone to use different lines and attempt passes with each other. The qualification yielded close times, with Mystic Upshaw taking a second consecutive pole position. Behind her, four racers followed with a qualification time only 0.026 second of each other, which would bode well for an exciting race. Yuriko Nishi, despite a good fourth place in qualification, had to drop off the event due to technical problems. As such, the total number of drivers dropped from 11 to 10, which prompted the race director to make only one race and include everyone in it.

Starting grid

Here is the starting grid:

P 1. Mystic Upshaw 7.081

P 2. David Wetherby, 7.149, -0.068

P 3. Eddie Mathieson, 7.171, -0.090

P 4. Kurt Upshaw, 7.175, -0.094

P 5. Doll Kabuki, 7.208, -0.127

P 6. Shaft Laval, 7.251, -0.170

P 7. miller Tomcat, 7.290, -0.209

P 8. Nella Boccara, 7.308, -0.227

P 9. hippie51 OHare, 7.435, -0.354

P 10. Rabe9110 Resident, 7.436, -0.355

As can be expected from a race with that many people with different experience backgrounds on a fast oval track, a lot of close racing happened during the race as well as a large amount of contacts, or incidents, between racers. After the start of the race, Wetherby and Mystic managed to escape the start of the race unharmed and battled for the lead back and forth. Boccara, with her vast racing experience, managed a great start which brought her from eigth to fourth, fighting with Mathieson for third place. Kurt Upshaw, on the hand, felt the heavy traffic which resulted him to move to the last position on the fourth lap. Albeit being last during a race is never something that is wanted, it is by no means a reason to give up, especially on a track with a lot of racers close to each other, where opportunities to pass through other racers battling each other and getting into accidents abound.

Close racing

As laps moved on, Kabuki started her comeback: After falling to sixth place on the second lap, she gradually came back and managed to pass Mystic for the second place on the 22nd lap. Mystic, who had previously a great and close battle with Wetherby, had slowly lost ground on him after having some problems dealing with traffic. Starting on lap 31st, and for several laps, a great 3-way battle for the lead happened between Mystic, Wetherby and Kabuki: The three drivers were so close that, on lap 32, they passed the gate together only 0.198 second apart! This battle couldn't last forever and Mystic was the first to drop from it, falling to third place to be closely chased by Mathieson who was gaining ground on the leaders who were battling each other. There remained the battle between Kabuki and Wetherby

and Kabuki emerged as the victor on lap 36, after Wetherby became involved in an accident which dropped him as far as fourth position.

Doll and Mystic fighting each other

Can a race really be over so early in these conditions, considering that there were 100 laps? Of course not! Mystic, still looking for her first win of her season, made a charge against Kabuki starting on the 47th lap. Both drivers fiercely battled each other and through the traffic, exchanging positions and a bit of paint along the way. This battle lasted for 10 laps, at which point Kabuki steadily gained ground in front of Mystic who struggled to pass through traffic as easily as Kabuki. Behind these two, racers still had a shot at the third march on the podium. Mathieson kept that spot until lap 51, where he entered into a fight of it with Wetherby. Mathieson shrugged Wetherby off and managed to help himself to gain a good lead on the third place after Wetherby was yet again involved in a different incident, which this time moved him down to the fifth position, behind Kurt Upshaw, who saw his podium hopes become higher. Our leaders kept their respective positions until lap 79 when Wetherby, who worked hard to gain lost ground, managed to pass Kurt.

Doll, doing her victory dance in front of Mystic and David

These positions, at the time, seemed to hold until the end... but anything can happen in a nick of time! Mathieson, who held firmly on the last podium spot, saw himself get involved in a big accident on lap 90 which unfortunately made him lose almost a full lap! That was enough to allow Wetherby, who kept steady, to overtake Mathieson who found himself back down to fourth place. With a few laps left to go, nothing major happened and the racers ended in their respective positions.

While a ten racers race is uncommon at Racers Island, it is nevertheless a great opportunity to test oneself in the midst of traffic on a fast paced track. Everyone will certainly benefit from the experience, even more so for rookies Rabe9110 Resident and Hippie51 OHare, who respectively finished ninth and tenth. While it may be hard to be thrown into such a setting on a first race, races are not won on the first day and any experience gained is a step toward becoming a great racer and challenge for the top positions. Never let a race to waste, always learn something new from mistakes and events within races! On this, compete hard and never stop learning, racers!