TWF1: The Fast and the slow.. of Fuji

Engine screaming, surging up towards the limiter, the bright yellow Renault looks completely at home down the main straight. Topping out at insane speeds it then squirms and struggles as the driver puts the anchors on for the hairpin. Fuji, with it's long straight saw the cars, most noteably Phil Carroll's Renault and Kat Scott's Ferrari, with powerfull engines stripping downforce for maximum speeds of well over 180mph by the braking point.

The Cosworth cars were lucky to hit 180 without effects of a tow but those cars would look so much more comfortable around the tight twists of the back end of this circuit that is full of contrast.

Pole went to one of those Cosworth's in the hands of Rouke, with Simon Baggett lining up second ahead of Timo and Leo Menegucci. Rouke made the best of the start with Timo jumping Baggett into second with Leo and Corrado keeping grid order.

Slightly further back, however, with a massive field of 26 cars the inevitable happened and someone touched. Bret had made an horrendous starting, skewing across the track then into T1 he locked up and slid into Costa. Langford and Marot were also involved although non of the car seemed to pick up much damage.

The field, however, was getting very congested now and into T1 Ivor made the same mistake and slid into the back of Fulvio, who was punted into the paths of Scott and Jones. Several other cars were lucky not to get involved the Jones ended up having to take a slightly scenic route as a result.

Two further incidents brightened up the first lap. Phil Carroll threw his car off the road avoiding Costa approaching the hairpin and Tallini managed to remodel his Ferrari towards the end of the lap. Tallini's car, minus a wheel, would retire at the end of the lap while the remaining cars streamed round to complete the lap.

John Wallace was the biggest improver in that lap running 8th from 18th on the grid between Bret and Miguel who were battling hard over 6th spot.

Up front the order looked fairly stable with Timo tracking Rouke. Leo, Simon and Corrado all holding station but on lap three Bret moved up to fifth. He worked his way past Bento when the latter spun under braking for the hairpin.

On Lap 6 Rouke lost the lead to Timo but that was far from the end of the battle and as the field approached lap 13 the action ramped up a level. The cause of the action was the removal, on the previous lap, of the 200m board causing drivers to brake too later for the corner.


Timo, Leo, Simon, Kat, John, Miguel, Corrado and others all missing their braking points to a greater or lesser extent.

Big losers caused by the missing board included John and Corrado, while Ivor probably took the biggest journey off road. At the end of Lap 16 therefore, Rouke was back in front from Timo, Leo , Simon and Bret. Fulvio was next up and starting to make good progress through the field while John Wallace was about to Retire.

He became the 5th retirement, before half distance, with Nigel, Kat, Shazy also joining Tallini in the Nill points column.

Up front it was clear Timo had the edge on pace, driving impressively quickly but Rouke had the lead and a battle Royale was developing. The lead swapped, and swapped again.. Rouke refusing to give up then on lap 23 Timo got it all right, drafting Rouke down the main straight Rouke went defensive. Off line he braked a touch early, Timo braver on the brakes swept round the outside the the race was his for the taking.

Take it he did, pulling steadily away to register an impressive win. Leo held onto third from Timo with Fulvio finishing an impressive fifth.

Overall an interesting race with a huge field that produced incident, excitement and resulted in the majority of the field taking at least one trip off the track.

Driver of the day? Well some good performances, Patrick Dobner started from the back and finished 11th so scores highly, Larry Thomas had a quiet race but one of his best to date. Fulvio also had a solid race while Timo was might impressive with Rouke being Tenacious throughout.

I think ultimately Timo deserves it, he lost the lead several times, never gave up and had a mighty impressive pace.

TWF1: Surfers Nightmare

For the next round of the TWF1 championship the field took a trip down under to the challenging 'Surfers Paradise' circuit in Australia. Very soon it would be obvious that this circuit was probably the hardest one on the entire schedule. A plethora of dangerous, chicanes and few simple corners meant that is was fairly guaranteed that accidents would be plentiful.

This proved to be the case as drivers struggled even in qualifying to get a legal, and clean, lap in. Several drivers being forced to record 'zero' times and start at the back of the field. This brought up some intruiging questions, not least of which was, "How would these quicker drivers cope forcing their way through the slower cars on a circuit with few chances to pass?".

More importantly, was just how many drivers would finish, and would we get through the first chicane without incident. Amazingly the field did get through the chicane with minimal problems, there was some touching and newcomer Lima almost crashed after damaging Costa's McLaren.

The field also got through the second chicane with minimal problems but approaching T3 Hocq had a huge moment all on his own. Unfortunately Langford spun in sympathy and with a badly timed technical hitch there was chaos approaching the corner. Langford, Hocq, Scott, Marot and Blackmore all ended up with contact and damage to a lesser or greater extent.

By the end of the lap two of those drivers were in the pits for new rear wings, Scott having removed hers near the end in a mistake on her own. All drivers, however, managed to finish that first lap with some drivers making up noticeable places. John Wallace making rapid progress heading from the back of the grid towards top 10, Tallini, Leo Menegucci and Shazy Ahmed all picked their way through the early incidents to make good progress.

The first retirement happened on lap 3 when Eric after an incident with Tallini into T1. The latter losing a spot to Corrado who promptly retired on the next lap. Meanwhile up front Rouke was having to fend off.. of all things a Renault RS01. Mike Perray driving out of his skin was hanging on and pressurising he leader while Bret Metcalf looked secure in third ahead of Neto.

Of the next few laps the number of drivers walking back to the pits steadily increased. Bret and Neto dropping out while running third, Katier Dropping out just after followed by Costa. In fact Costa retired before Katier but after three pitstops she was well behind the McLaren driver.

The pitlane was almost as busy as the track Hocq pitting 4 times before 10 laps had been completed and by lap 17, there had been an incredible 25 pitstops. Considering a TWF1 car doesn't need to stop this shows the level of damage this tricky track was causing.

By this point, Perray, despite tweaking his steering was into the lead and steadily pulling away from Rouke. Rouke was under no pressure, however, 4 drivers dropped out of third place leaving Patrick Dobner to inherit the place. Dobner in turn was under no pressure as Corrado appeared to be struggling. Timo was catching him quickly but after a few laps running close with him Peltola became another retirement.

Up front Perray continued on his serene way but retirements continued behind him. The last car to retire was Leo Menegucci with 7 laps to go and he was classified 13. That meant that over half the field retired from this race where the challenge was presented very much by the track.

Perray, Rouke and Dobner were the best examples of 'To finish first, first you have to finish' as they rounded out an impressive podium

Driver of the day much go to the former, Perray dragging the reluctant RS01 teapot to a fantastic and well deserved win.

TWF1: Dust, Heat and Sun!!

Miller Motorsports Park was the next round in the TWF1 circus and for once is a modern circuit devoid of chicanes that blight Tilke designed monstrosities. Unfortunately that doesn't make it overly popular with several drivers vocal in their dislike of the flat circuit.

The dislike didn't stop one of the most action packed events in the season so far as drivers consistently struggled to be consistent with most of them having several incidents during the race.

In addition 10 drivers had to start from the pitlane following penalties at previous events, this effectively meant there was, at least initially, two races.

Simon Baggett proved most adept in qualifying trim, putting in a stupendous lap half a second better than anyone else. In fact it was noticeable that this track, with a 1m45s lap, seemed to be creating a very wide grid with a full 2 seconds covering the first 10 spots.

From the start Simon lept into the lead while Rouke, alongside on the grid, didn't make such a good start. Rouke said, "My start was err.......i did two races this week, all went fine but aparently from 3rd place you cannot see the lights. at least i didnt and i panicked, geared up two, shoulnd't have done that, slow off the line like a turtle on prozack. 6 or 7 cars passed me and i just made sure it remained safe appart from diving inbetween 2 cars in turn-whathisname, that was rather exiting."

That left Timo Peltola in second while Rouke finished the lap in fourth behind Patrick Dobner. Fairly swiftly gaps grew in the field, Simon pulling away from Timo after the latter briefly challenged into T1, with Rouke and Dobner also breaking clear of the cars behind.

Further back leader of the pitlane starters, Eric Fulghum, was rapidly closing in on the tail of the main pack. As he did so he dragged his team mate and Costa Gozadinos along with him.

He caught Mark Abbott very quickly and by Lap seven was also past the struggling Ferrari of Kat Scott.

Meanwhile Ivor had become the first retirement as his car got bogged down in gravel near the end of lap 4. Tallini also succumbed to similar problems on lap 5, both incidents probably as a result of not updating the track correctly.

The Eric/David/Costa train continue to make inroads and by lap 10 they are fast catching up with the McLaren of Shazy Ahmed.

Up front Bagget's progress looked serene, steadily leaving Peltola behind while Rouke showed no ability to close in on Second. The Main battle at this stage was a little further down the field as Rick Stratton found himself embroiled in a battle with Ralph Maiph and Dobner, the latter dropping back after a spin.

At the back of the field several cars were already lapped, both Renaults appeared to be a handful around the track and only one of the Ferrari drivers seemed to be at home with their car. The Ligiers, Mark Abbott, Larry Thomas and Phillipe Marot, also appeared to be struggling and getting lapped frequently.

On lap 16 Corrado and Shazy both succumbed to the charging Heavy Metal Racing lead train and by lap 27 they had reached Rick Stratton. The latter had dropped back and after a spin was behind Eric, then on lap 31 the final twist in this eventful race took place.

David Kadlcak, Rick and Costa hand an incident that left Costa in ninth while DK let Rick back into 10th as he was the instigator.

Simon Baggett came home for an excellent flag to flag win ahead of Timo and Rouke. All three had impressive consistancy of well under half a second.

What was slightly surprising, and perhaps an indicator of the incident packed race, was that Kat Scott, who admitted to a terrible race, was 12th most consistant.

The field now moves onto a completely different challenge in South America.

TWFC: Silverstone

Given a 1967 F1 cars love of sweeping fast corners, it's perhaps no surprise that the TWFC circus follows the blasts of Snetterton with the challenges of the Silverstone circuit.

In Qualifying Ronny Nunez put in an impressive time, narrowly failing to get into the 1m39's to get pole ahead of Deutsch and Nigel Metcalf. Several drivers found the going tough amongst them Ralph Maiph and Mark Abbot both found themselves somewhat further down the pack than they expected.

The pack was nice and clean round most of that first lap with just minor bumping off the start, until the leaders streamed through the challenging bridge corner.

Simon Baggett had been pressing the 3rd placed car of Metcalf but lost a little momentum through bridge corner. Snow following a little behind got the corner right and misjuding the car infronts speed clipped Baggetts rear tyre. The end result was a flip for the red eagle and first retirement of the race. (left).

Another loser on that opening lap was Mario who with a combination of a bad start and mistake on lap 1 was soon down to ninth from 5th on the Grid. By contrast Juan made a startling start and gained 10 places during that first lap.

The field now settled down, the top 19 all staying in position for the next two laps while returnee Steve Shelley started to move through the field.

Jos was the next driver to lose places, battling hard he couldn't keep three cars, including the lime green Wojahn pairing (right), behind him as he dropped to 10th.

Meanwhile Steve Shelley was continuing to gain places, reaching 18th. Up Front Nunez was was serene building a solid gap to those behind and when Deutsch had an incident on lap 5 Metcalf had a comfortable drive to finish second.

Snow recovered from the first lap bumps to finish 3rd ahead of Bret and Ralph. An impressive win for Nunez, but the question is, could he repeat that in the feature.

Within seconds of the start that was a resounding no as he jumped the start, but at least he didn't have the nightmare that Mario did. Rounding turn one the lime green car started to slide, Mario caught it but the car slapped the other way into the path of Paul Langford and Mitch Simon.

Baz, following just behind breifly found himself with a wall of spinning metal, but like a parting of the waves he was able to slip between the Ferrari and Lotus. (left)

Mario's spin, took him off track and Don Fleming, following Baz, just avoided the Ferrari but slid into the Lotus.

From that cars flew left right and center with nearly half the field actually spinning or being involved with a collision the field got very randomized. Below Don Fleming collides with Mitch while Palfreyman takes avoiding action in front of Baggett.

At the end of the first lap, after Nunez pitted for a drive through, Deutsch led from Snow and Jef Vannijlen. Antonio had also benefitted from his team mates spin and gained a lot of places, as did Steve Shelley.

All this jumbling of positions meant that early on there was a lot of battling. Simon Baggett being one who soon was making progress through the field. Up front, however, the lead 3 were embroiled in a frantic battle. Lap 2 Deutsch slid wide in T1 and although Snow almost followed him over the curbs (right) both Jos and Snow slipped through.

A Lap later Deutsch had made it back in front but he wasn't allowed to rest by Snow who put him under pressure for the next few laps.

Antonio looked secure in fourth but Nigel made a mistake on lap 11 and looked like he'd lost his shot at a good finish. A stunning recovery, including several laps of battling with Baggett, and a last lap pass on the Lime Green car saw him finish an impressive fourth.

At the end of 22 laps of intense battling Snow recorded an impressive win after passing the Cooper for the lead on lap 15, with Jef in 3rd.

Despite the first lap carnage, amazingly 23 cars finished on the lead lap and both of the retirements were not due to accidents or incidents.

TWF1 Green Hell (Attempt 2)

Seems it's not just the track that's Hell after my first report got comprehensively eaten by blogger.. so here we go..

Green Hell report, attempt 2!!

The TWF1 moved on to the twisting turning and highly challenging circuit known by the appropriate nickname of 'The Green Hell", but more accurately the Nordschliefe. This legendary circuit hosted the 4th round of the championship, but the question is, who would come out on top and who would succumb to the challenge.

Out on top, thanks in part to a tow, in qualifying was the McLaren of championship leader, Rouke, but within in a minute of the start he was down to third behind the impressive Mike Perray and rapid Timo.

A minute later, however, Rouke was out and Timo delayed after the latter made a small mistake and unfortunately clipped Rouke. Rouke lost control as a result, hit two barriers hard and retired on the spot, Timo was damaged and had to pit at the end of the lap.

Rouke wasn't the only one in for an early bath as both Ivor and Paul retired following a collision also involving Eric who dragged his damaged car round most of the lap to the pits. Eric had spun early in the lap and Paul was unable to avoid the car that finished broadside on across the track.

That left Perray pulling out a comfortable lead in the gripless RS01 ahead of Simon Baggett and Patrick Dobner. Meanwhile Shazy and John Wallace were battling hard with the former taking 3 laps before he broke from from Ahmed as he faded down the order towards the end of the race.

Wallace wouldn't see the checkers, however, as a technical hitch made him retirement number 10 and the first retirement to actually score points.

So Perray led from Baggett who swapped places a couple of times with Dobner, the fading Shazy and charging Timo.

Peltola was driving absolutely on the limit, and frequently beyond the limit, as he strived to gain a fastest lap. His determination was rewarded with fourth place but at the cost of a car that probably won't race again such was the damage to it.

Further back Corrado was having a steady race, putting in consistant laps and benefitting from others mistakes he was soon in a lonely fifth place.

Suddenly, however, the race came alive. Perray went off, damaging the suspension and immediately the two behind started hacking into his lead. Lap after lap the pair behind strived to close down the leader who was driving with courage and determination.

He would finally cross the line after 8 intense lap, of which 4 were spent with an ill handling car, for a might impressive win. Simon Baggett was unable to quite take the place after might impressive run to second ahead of Dobner.

Peltola finished a solid 4th ahead of Corrado and Ralph Maiph who had a quiet race to sixth place. Further back several cars finished but had to make pitstops, most notable was Mark Abbott who pitted a total of three times to fix damage.

Overall the Green Hell lived up to it's reputation as half the field retired but Mike certainly deserved a highly impressive win.

TWF1: Brno Report

A healthy field of 29 cars lined up for the second round of the season and McLarens proved to be the car to have with two M29's locking out the front row. Costa just pipping race one winner, Rouke, to pole with the impressive Eric lining up third.

Rouke made the better start and soon took the lead with Costa lining up behind and the pair soon building up a little cushion ahead of John Wallace and Fulghum who was soon under pressure from Patrick Dobner.

Further back Nigel Metcalf was holding 6th after leaping 4 places off the grid, while returning driver, Rob Swindells, Kat Scott, Paul Langford and Sal Tallini all also made up a good number of places off the start, the result of this was battles all the way down the field.

Initially Kuhl put pressure on Scott, the two going through several corners side by side, before the yellow Ferrari prevailed. Kuhl would soon drop back from what soon became a pair of Ferrari's running a few seconds apart as Scott started to chase Tallini while Corrado put pressure on the former.

This wasn't the only intense battle, however, early on pressure was being put on drivers throughout the field. On Lap 5 Nigel succummed to Fulvio, then Leo worked his way past a few laps later. Just behind that pair Swindells and Rick Stratton were swapping places lap after lap then what might have been the inevitable happened, first Katier, trying to outbrake Corrado, ran into the back of Tallini.

In doing so Corrado and Mike Perray, power sliding his way round the track in his RS01, both got past; however only a few corners later the former lost it in a big way. Scott avoided the spinning car but Perray, who was looking for a way back past the Ferrari, had no-where to go and thumped the green car putting him out of the race.

Retirements were coming thick and fast. Mark Abbot crashed out, Sal Tallini lost it after apparantly pushing too hard just over a lap after his collsion with Katier, Kat herself also retired and by lap 21 9 drivers were out.

Up front, however, the battle was intensifying as Costa got back ahead on lap 11, he lead till Lap 17 before Rouke got back in front. Costa also lost out to John who was unable to truly challenge the new leader but was close enough to exploit any problems.

By Lap 19 the field was settling down with position changes being rare. Dobner and Fulghum were running close together with Leo in close attendance until the latter slipped back behind Fulvio who was steadily moved up the order.

Fulvio eventually moved into fourth after first Costa, on lap 24, then Eric on Lap 26 both dropped back. Fulghum only lost a couple of places but Costa's good drive ended with him losing an entire lap and limping home in 18th.

Rouke completed an impressive second win, just over 5s ahead of Wallace who did well holding off Dobner behind. Eric came in 5th ahead of Leo and Nigel.

Overall an exciting and excellent race with lots of close battling and some impressive drives, but I think driver of the event must be Rouke after a near faultless drive.

TWFC Spa Report

31 cars lined up for what promised to be an action packed pair of races at the slip streaming paradise of the 1967 Spa Franchorchamps circuit. Christopher Snow lined up a superb pole ahead of the equally impressive Ralph Maiph who had got his Cooper perfectly suited to this high speed circuit.

Due to the length of the circuit and risk of collisions off the start it was decided to do a rolling start with the race starting at Les Combes on lap one. Unfortunately several drivers misunderstood the instructions, others got away erratically and in seconds there was a huge pileup in exactly the same spot that David Coultard caused one in torrential rain.

Fulvio was the big loser, ending up having to start the sprint from the back of the field while Frenchman, Benoit Hocq seemed to completely ignore the instructions and by Les Combes was already up to 10th from 23rd. His race wouldn't last much longer as a spin at Masta Kink ended his race. By that time Larry Thomas, Jos Swarthoff were both out and Baz West also retired after contacting Hocq's stranded car.

That wasn't the end of the carnage, before the end of lap 2 10 cars were lying scattered around the track missing parts or stranded in the undergrowth.

Up front the carnage helped Snow build up a lead but behind Simon Baggett and Jef Vannijlen were both embroiled in a battle that saw them swap places on nearly every lap. Just behind them Ralph was trying to recover from a poor start but found himself embroiled in a ferocious battle with Deutsch and Mario.

Those who had managed to keep on the track in contact with other drivers seemingly enjoyed huge battles for position with drafting possible around much of the circuit.

Ultimately Snow won from Baggett and Jef. 13 drivers failed to finish of whom onto 2 completed enough laps to score points.

The feature race got away much more cleanly, although not totally clean, with four drivers failing to make two laps. By half distance a further 7 drivers had retired with no points but out front Ralph was making up for his race one disapointment.

Ralph, Mario and Snow were  enjoying a huge battle with the three of them swapping positions on every single lap before Snow retired on lap three. His retirement didnt' effect the lead two as the cars behind failed to put any pressure on the intense lead battle.

Deutsch held third but retired after only a couple of laps letting Nigel through but he was unable to close in on the lead battle. Behind Swarthoff moved into fourth, but retired letting Baggett into the position ahead of Martin Cooper.

For many of the drivers now it seemed survival was the important element but not for the lead two, the continued to swap places until on lap 11 of 13 Ralph finally got a bit of breathing room. He lead for the last two laps to register a well deserved win ahead of an excellent drive from Mario. 

Nigel Metcalf, Simon Baggett and Fulvio all managed solid drives to fill out the positions behind have a race meeting that many drivers would rather forget.