Monza Mayhem with the TW Classics!!

Grant Riddall once again thrust his car onto pole by an impressive margin at Monza, however with the slipstreaming nature of the track, another pair of wins was far from definite.

Riddall led from the green but by lap 2 was down to fifth as his slipstream allowed 4 drivers to get past him, but almost as quickly he was into second. Jef and Rouke got together and last a lot of time allowing the champioship leader to retake second. 

Other collisions early on had caused other drivers to be delayed as the tight, close, racing caused frayed nerves and requires intense concentration. Ralph and Mitch were the big losers as they fell towards the tail of the field after incidents while Mark Abbott failed to so much as take the start.

While Grant was battling his way towards the lead again, Jos Swarthoff was sything through the field. By Lap 3 he had made up 10 places to fifth and found himself in close company with John Wallace.

Kenyon and Fulvio were two more drivers who faded after a good start while by Lap 4 Grant was back in the lead.

He held on for a solid win just over a second ahead of Fernando and Bret Metcalf.

The Sprint had proved to be short and sharp, but the feature was likely to be an epic race with 22 laps of drafting on the menu.

Grant soon found himself in a battle with Fernando from the start while Ronny made a demon start. Elsewhere Bret and John Wallace seemed to be playing musical cars as a hugely eratic driver by Benoit seemed to make both drivers go out of their way to be close to him. 

Benoit made their life hard for 3 laps before he crashed out while John would retire with technical failure a few laps later. 

That left the consistant Bret with a battle on his hands with Paul Langford and... a recovering Grant Riddall. Riddall had been forced to pit on lap 4 after an incident, dropping him to 14th but a solid display of drafting soon brought him up to Bret. 

Several cars had other incidents but by half distance only 4 drivers had retired, with two more pulling out a couple of laps later. That left 14 drivers battling their way round at speeds in excess of 200mph. 

Up Front Jef was looking secure until he lost a couple of places on lap 13 as 4 cars battled hard to dominate the race in a pack that steadily pulled away from the Bret/Riddall battle.

Jef retook the lead but Ralph wouldn't let him rest, the pair frequently swapping places as they pulled away into an intense battle. Jef eventually pulled up an impressive win narrowly from Ralph with Fernando pulling out a solid 3rd place.

Overall Monza proved to be a very different challenge which saw drivers having to co-operate to get the best out of it. Some drivers proved better at this than others and this contributed to the excitement.

TWF1 - Jerez Report

The inaugural TWF1, 1971, event kicked off at the twisting spanish Jerez track last weekend with a huge field of 30 cars. On pole, as with the TWFC last week, was the impressive Grant Riddall who stormed to a mighty pole position almost a second ahead of the lime green car of Mario Wojahn. Mike Perray proved he didn't need a turbo to be face in third ahead of Ronny Nunez and Rouke.

With such a large field the odds of a clean first lap were, probably, remote and cars were brushing wheels from the off with Nigel and Leo lucky not to combine into a huge accident.

Turn's one and two saw more incidents, shuffling up the pack, but the first major off didn't occur tilltowards the end of the lap when Leo got into Aymeric and spun falling to the back of the pack.

By the end of Lap 2, however, there was a huge mixup of cars at the back of the field with Mario, spun by Rouke, Paul Langford, Fernando - who didn't qualify - and Leo all having to mix it with the backmarkers.

The first of those to cause a noticeable holdup was Kat Scott, who while not entirely happy with her car was managing to be reasonably smooth, precise and consistant early on. She ultimately lost out to the three cars behind (below) but not before she'd gained some respect from them.

Both Mario and Fernando citing her in their reports, Mario said, "Honourable mention to Kat, who did an outstanding job defending her position! Well done mate excellent racing."

Mario, despite the delay, would soon be passing other drivers as he charged through the field. He would reach 11th by lap 11 when he pitted and was up to 8th 10 laps later. Paul Langford, the third driver in the train, was moving up the field equaly impressively. On a different fuel load to the lime green car he pitted on lap 18 when running 9th.

These three drivers were certainly showing some driving and racing skills and Deutsch was no exception as he nursed tyres, deciding to run non-stop, he would finish an impressive 11th losing 10th to Langford on the final lap with his tyres dead.

Meanwhile Perray had jumped into second place and held it impressively but was unable to hold onto the Flying Riddall. Once again the formed streaked into the lead with a mighty impressive pace. It's clear that these low grip monsters suit his driving style and it'll be interesting to see how he gets on with the grippier Ground effect 79's later in this two car season.

Retirements didn't start for a few laps but by lap 18, five drivers had failed to score points as their wrecked cars littered the race track.

The pitstops, which are optional this season but reccomended, soon proved to be scattered as drivers balanced their loads vs qualifying pace. As with F1 in 2009 parc Ferme is preventing drivers refueling. Although due to technical issues this was waived for this race, the stops seemed to imply most drivers went with what they had.

The first Scheduled stops seemed to be around lap 11 with the last being Kat and Bret on lap 25.

Drama didnt' stop throughout an action packed race as drivers charged through the field, collided, spun or made mistakes. The final driver who failed to see the checkered was the unfortunate Mark Abbott who, running 3 laps behind the Matra, caught Katier as she struggled on low fuel two laps from the end. Rouke accidently made contact with Abbott who was unfortunately forced to retire, but didn't lose points as a result.

Overall an entertaining and challenging opening race with a mighty impressive win by Riddall. He doesn't win driver of the day and I think it HAS to be split three ways. Deutsch and Langford for impressive 21 place climbs through the field and Mario for an equally impressive driver when recovering from his spin.

The field now moves to Imola, for a much faster and more flowing race track.

TWFC Round 1 - Sandy Madness

The much anticipated Autumn season of Legends League rFactor racing kicked off last weekend with a crash a bang and a wallop as a substantial field arrived at the Jarama race circuit.

Prior to the event the stewards issued stark warnings to drivers for using too much of the sandy extremes of the circuit, whether they are adhered to we will see but it's almost certain that some drivers will ultimately leave with less points than they believed.

The pole battle went down to the wire with Ronny Nunez narrowly shading Grant Riddall by a little over a tenth, the pair being over half a second quicker than Rouke and Jef Vannijlen.

With no pace lap employed in the rFactor series' this year, the field headed down to T1 for the first time with slightly colder tyres and much colder brakes than normal.

Ronny and Grant both got through T1 cleanly, with Grant taking the lead. Further back, however, Paul mistook his clutch for the brake and cannoned into Angelo, the pair losing several places in the ensuing moment through the gravel.

Over the course of the first lap the field spread out nicely with some minor bumping as drivers jossled for position. A minor off near the end of the lap cost Ronny two places and removed the most likely pressure from Grant.

The final action of the first lap took place on the exit of the last turn as the delayed Paul Langford, suffering with a damaged car, lost control - spun across the track and smashed into John Wallace. Wallace's car bounced into the pitlane so the damage done was comparatively light, he did a quick pitstop to repair and rejoined near the back of the field

Langford continued and in doing so his race turned into a near disaster. His car was ill handling and as a result he had several collisions, spins and incidents on his way to a struggling 15th place. 

24 cars started the race and, as is often the case some benefitted at the start, Salvatore Tallini was one such driver, leaping 11 places on the first lap to finish it in sixth. Sadly for him a poor race saw him fade to a disapointing 15th over all.

Mitch Simon also made up a good number of early laps, finding himself in 7th by lap five from 16th on the grid. He battle hard, had minimal problems to bring his car home solidly in 8th after Deutsch passed him a few laps from home during a recovery drive which dropped him to 12th on lap 2.

Riddall, aided by Ronny's first lap off, cruised to a comparatively easy win ahead of Ronny who recovered well to second. Jed and Rouke took the next two places ahead of Jos Swarthoff and defending champion Ralph Maiph.

Race two and Riddall made a similarly good start and once again Nunez was not given the chance to pressure him as again he had an incident on lap 1. This time, however, he wasn't at fault as Jef rear ended the Ferrari turning it around and causing Nunez to drop to 16th place.

Dale Ballwag made the best start, jumping to 10th from 16th on the grid but by lap 7 he was out as the field started to thin out. In a replica of the lap 1 accident, one of those drivers to retire was the frustrated Ronny who was collected when Deutsch lost it in the same way as Langford. Both retired on the spot on lap 10 signalling the end of a disapointing race for someone who obviously has the pace to challenge for the championship.

Further up Rouke soon worked his way into second but there was no way he could hold onto the race leader as Riddall streaked away for an impressive second win. Behind Jef and Jos were embroiled in one of several battles through the field, Vannijlen finally coming out on top with an impressive third place.

The biggest battle, however, centered around the race for 10th place. At times 5 or 6 cars were battling nose to tail, with some slightly desperate lines being taken as drivers including Angelo, David Pym, Ralph Maiph and John Wallace fought hard for places.

The final pass in this monumental battle fell to Wallace as he passed the fading Mitch Simon for 13th with just 5 laps to go.

Overall two intensely entertaining races kicked off what is likely to be an exciting season of racing.

Drive of the day must go to Grant Riddall for two immaculate drives, although in race one, Mitch Simon undoubtedly put in a better drive. Simon's race two wasn't quite so good so Riddall takes driver of the day by a whisker.