TWFC Kyalami

The TWFC season opened with a near full grids at the classic old Kyalami Circuit. A favorite back in the GPL days that this mod mimic's it promised a challenging and exciting pair of races.

While both mods that the rFactor side of the Legends League runs are Formula 1 mods, the formats are very different. TWF1 runs a single race format with a handicapping system. TWFC has no handicapping system and runs a twin race format.

27 cars took the start for this, the opening round of the championship. On Pole was Jef Vannijlen only 0.1s ahead of Christopher Snow and Simon Baggett. The entire grid was covered by 3.5s with Gary Taylor and Larry Thomas filling the last row of the grid.

Interestingly whereas in GPL Lotus is usually the most common make, the fact the cars in this mod are balanced with similar weight and handling and the same engines means the balance has shifted. Eleven of the cars on the grid were the gorgeus AAR Eagles with Coopers being the next most popular with seven on the grid.

From the start Jef lept into the lead while behind Snow was under pressure from Simons Baggett.. so close were they into Turn one that they touched but no damage was apparant.

Behind however chaos reigned as Huarte got into the back of West. Baz was forced off the track while the knock on effect caused several drivers, including Costa, Scott and Shazy to lose places.

Kat had made another startling start slicing through the field and despite the places lost in T1 still finished the lap 3 places to the good. Three more were gained on the next lap as drivers struggled to stay on track.

Both Leaders were amongst those have an off leaving Baggett and Mario to battle in the lead while newcomer Deutsch settled into third ahead of Nigel.

Other drivers to lose places on lap two were the trio of Huarte, who had somehow come out of Turn 1 without losing a place, Antionio Wojahn who retired and Shazy Ahmed.

Up front as the field approached half distance Jef was starting to recover from his off while the lead pair continued to battle with Deutsch just behind.

Then on the stroke of half Distance Bagget spun, a second spin a few laps later dropped the erstwhile leader to a disapointing 11th.

By now the field was starting to thin, with Eric Fulgum, Larry Thomas, Benoit Hocq all parked up, the latter two after a huge startline accident after Hocq clipped the verge on the exit of the last turn.

Jef continued his recovery up front and on lap 11 retook the leader after a superb recovery. A lap later Deutsch was delayed allowing the consistent runs from Nigel Metcalf and Christopher Snow to benefit and round out the podium.

Jef made a better fist of the start of the feature race taking the lead cleanly before snow slipped past on lap 2. Baggett didn't match his first race start and dropped back to fourth behind a hard charging Nigel Metcalf.

Overall the start was more orderly than the first race but, after another startling start, Kat Scott did fall to last after two opening lap spins. Hocq also made a poor start and ultimately retired on lap 4 after dropping to the tail of the field.

Unlike his first race, Jef's second race went down hill from about half distance. Early on he had enjoyed a spirited battle with Snow and Metcalf but a mistake on lap 13 dropped him to 7th and he was unable to recover.

The leaders had settled at this stage and Snow was able to lead to the finish ahead of Nigel and Simon for a superb win. Mario also settled into a good finish, coming home 4th after a comfortable run, while John Wallace had a disapointing finish to his weekend after an off dropped him from fifth to 15th.

Wallace benefit from late race spins by Tallinig and Fulvio to pick up two places but must have been disapointed.

In the first race, Jef undoubtadly put in the race of the event, but in the second it wasn't so clear. Shazy Ahmed probably deserves it though after a super first lap put him up to 18th from last on the grid. I dropped a few places on lap four but recovered well and finished an excellent 15th overall.