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Napizia makes four stops do the work of six in Mexico

Season 47, Week 11, Division 1, Autódromo Sierra Madre

By Murray Ledger, Pitwall Times

Nicholai Bech Napizia won the Mexican round for Silver Cosmos by 18.559 seconds, and did it with four pit stops on a weekend when almost everyone around him needed six. Bilal Hallikäär finished second for the newly crowned constructors’ champions Renttu Racing, Edmund Potts took third for SGA Racing, and championship leader Evelien Pouillie was fourth, 0.308 seconds behind Potts.

The drama started before the lights went out. Fenninger Racing are back on the grid, which by itself is news, but only half of them made it to the start. H. Baron qualified 21st, then was not allowed to race because Baron had already driven in this week’s Under-18 race. Gustav-Adolf Adam of EquipeFlandre got as far as the grid, where it turned out the car did not have all the necessary parts fitted. The session was over before it started. Adam was later seen walking. Nobody, it seems, had mentioned that a car is mandatory, and the marshals were not going to let anyone onto the track without the proper equipment.

Napizia had taken pole with a 1:48.571, 0.069 seconds ahead of Ross Walrond, with Pouillie, Hallikäär and Potts all within 0.318 seconds. The pole lasted about one corner. Six cars went past at the start, and Napizia finished the opening lap sixth, behind Walrond, Pouillie, Hallikäär, Potts and Daniil Viirok.

The race was decided by strategy. The Renttu cars stopped six times, as did Walrond and Viirok. Napizia stopped on laps 13, 28, 43 and 58, running mediums until switching to softs for the final stint, and led 42 laps. On clean laps Napizia was not the fastest driver in the field: the Renttu pair, Walrond and Viirok were all about three tenths a lap quicker on average. Renttu’s crew was also faster, with stops of around three and a half seconds against roughly five for Silver Cosmos. None of that made up for two extra trips down Mexico’s long pit lane. Hallikäär and Pouillie even spent more time stationary over the race than Napizia did, 20.76 and 20.82 seconds against 18.51.

Potts ran the same four-stop plan and was the only driver who could stay close. Potts led on laps 58 and 59 while Napizia made the final stop, then pitted for softs on lap 60 and rejoined fourth. That left Potts 18.545 seconds behind, and with a late pass on Pouillie, third place. Hallikäär, who led twice during the stop cycles, came through to second.

Viirok was fifth for Andrea Moda Formula, ahead of Walrond, who lost about six seconds in the gravel on lap 57. Josef Høier made it a double points finish for Silver Cosmos in seventh, also on four stops. Ross Lane, Comin Farahvash Fashandi and Benito Adam Negrete completed the top ten. Fenninger’s remaining car, driven by Slade Aitchinson, finished fourteenth, a lap down, after two trips through the gravel. Ville-Veikko Sinivuori ran out of fuel on lap 12, and Bertil Frantsi, Glenn Cassuto, Gusztáv Babály and Adriano Rodrígues de Morais picked up blue-flag penalties.

Fenninger’s return brought a mix of relief and tension to the bottom of the table. Relief, because a team that had missed two rounds is racing again. Tension, because the teams below had been counting on Fenninger’s empty garage. PYKE, ninth and the first team in the relegation places, are still 16 points behind Fenninger with two rounds to go.

For Napizia it is the second win of the season, and the second in Silver Cosmos history. It also comes a week after both Silver Cosmos cars ran out of fuel in China. The 26-year-old Dane is in a third season with the team, after nineteen seasons with the Pykelets junior team, academy races included. Eight of those seasons were in the senior class, and Napizia won Division 3.1 in Season 44.

Renttu Racing had wrapped up the constructors’ title before Mexico. The drivers’ title is still open, if only just. Pouillie now has 147 points, 37 ahead of Potts with 50 left to race for. Napizia moves to third on 99. Silver Cosmos climb to third in the constructors’ standings, behind Renttu and SGA.

Two to go. Next stop is Thailand and the Autodrome Ratchaphruek: 59 laps of a balanced 4.987-kilometre circuit with a 565-metre longest straight and a medium-length pit lane. That should make extra stops cheaper than they were in Mexico. Whether that helps the six-stop teams or the four-stop ones, we will find out on race day.

Sun wins in Mexico as Pirate Panda’s winning run ends at two

Season 47, Week 11, Division 2.4, Autódromo Sierra Madre

By Murray Ledger, Pitwall Times

Liang-hsi Sun won the Mexican round for Tycoon R. INC. by 21.177 seconds after a race in which the lead changed hands 17 times, almost all of it through pit stops. Guntram Viktor finished second for Zeroforce F1 and Rochan Satyanarayana third for Leleux Racing, 0.352 seconds behind Viktor. Pirate Panda Race, winners of the last two rounds, came home fourth and fifth with Remo Tito and Linwood Jelley.

Qualifying was as tight as it gets. Satyanarayana took pole with a 1:50.309, Viktor was 0.012 seconds behind, and Jelley qualified third, 0.108 off. Sun was fourth and Tito fifth, which put the top five within 0.154 seconds. Oprando Premiani lost about fifteen seconds in the second sector and qualified sixteenth, last.

The opening lap shuffled everything. Jelley went off at high speed in the second sector, came close to the tyre barrier, lost about nine seconds and dropped to fourteenth. Sun made a smaller mistake on the same lap and went from fourth to eighth. Satyanarayana led the first five laps, and from there the lead passed between Satyanarayana, Viktor, Sun, Tito and Jeton Lustig depending on who had just stopped. Tito led on lap 9 and again on lap 40, both times during a round of stops.

Sun took control in the second half. He led laps 42 to 49, gave the lead back to Satyanarayana for one lap during his stop, and led from lap 51 to the flag. He switched to softs for the final stint on lap 60, and Tito, who ran second on laps 60 and 61, made his final stop two laps later and fell to fifth. Tito then passed Jelley on lap 67 for fourth, 5.851 seconds behind Satyanarayana. Jelley finished 1.436 seconds behind his teammate after driving from fourteenth back into the top five, and 7.287 seconds off the podium. On clean laps Sun and Satyanarayana were the quickest in the field, about half a second a lap faster on average than the Pirate Panda cars.

Andreas Clijsters finished sixth for Tycoon, Premiani recovered from the back of the grid to seventh, and Henry McIlvenny, Rubens Schivo and Lustig completed the points. All ten drivers in the points finished on the lead lap. Bobbo F1 were eleventh and twelfth, two laps down. Shigeru Oyama finished fourteenth, six laps down, after four tyre failures and two blue-flag penalties. Renau Álvarez Crespo picked up three blue-flag penalties on his way to thirteenth. Ignacio Alegre Arrizabalaga retired with suspension failure after 18 laps, and Lars Bredo Rydmark ran out of fuel after 23.

Viktor now has 163 points, 47 ahead of Sun on 116. Sun can only take the title by winning both remaining rounds while Viktor scores next to nothing. Tito, on 110, can no longer catch Viktor. In the constructors’ standings Zeroforce F1 lead with 217 points from Tycoon R. INC. on 186 and Pirate Panda Race on 175.

After the race, Murray Ledger spoke to Pirate Panda Race team principal Philip E.

Murray Ledger: Fourth and fifth, both cars in the points, both on the lead lap. After two wins in a row, how do you rate it?

Philip E.: Not the yellow of the egg. Good performance and a terrible start. Linwood goes into the first lap from third, sideways, nearly in the tyre wall, and comes out fourteenth. Fourteenth! I’m standing there thinking, what the fuck was that. And then he drives back through the whole field like nothing happened. So I don’t know if I hug him or I strangle him. Probably both.

Murray Ledger: He lost about nine seconds on that lap and finished a little over seven seconds off the podium. Is that the podium you gave away?

Philip E.: You can do the maths, I can do the maths, everybody can do the maths. Yes. But if you start counting every second you lost, you never stop counting, and you never go home. He drove a good race after that. The first lap was shit. Both are true.

Murray Ledger: Remo can no longer catch Viktor. Was the title a realistic target this season?

Philip E.: The pressure was high, but realistically the title is too far away after the weak start in the season. Which is not mandatorily a bad thing. The team has more homework before getting slaughtered in Div 1, so we will remain in Div 2.4 for another season. I’d rather be the guy who wins here than the guy who gets lapped there every Sunday and smiles for the camera.

Murray Ledger: On paper you’re 42 points behind Zeroforce with 86 still available. Isn’t “we’re not ready” just a polite way of saying you lost?

Philip E.: Of course we lost, look at the table, I’m not blind. But losing and being stupid are two different things. Going up before you’re ready, that’s stupid. Losing, that’s just Sunday.

Murray Ledger: Neither of your cars had a tyre failure today. What’s the problem with the tyres?

Philip E.: Tyres are a disaster. Almost six, in words: SIX, stops per driver. Some even SEVEN. Six, seven. (laughs) But seriously: when your pit crew is good, every stop you have to make is a stop where you gain. Six, seven stops, that’s an extra seven to nine seconds over a race. Is it a car race or a mechanics race? And the strategies for the remaining races extremely challenging. Don’t ask me for details, I’m not doing the homework for the others.

Murray Ledger: Two rounds left, and Tycoon are eleven points ahead of you in the constructors’ standings. What’s the plan?

Philip E.: Not much to lose, so we can experiment a little. If it goes wrong, you write about it. If it works, I tell you it was the plan all along.

Klöb wins from eleventh and takes the championship lead from his own teammate

Season 47, Week 11, Division 2.3, Autódromo Sierra Madre

By Murray Ledger, Pitwall Times

Serbian Engineering finished one-two again in Mexico, their seventh one-two in eight rounds. The order is what made it news. Albrecht Klöb started eleventh, won by 1:05.020 over teammate Kaupo Villard, and leaves Sierra Madre four points clear in the drivers’ standings. Damiano Chiantia finished third for Mustang Dark Horse R, 1:14.696 behind the winner.

Qualifying had suggested a quiet afternoon for Villard. He took pole with a 1:52.055, 0.820 seconds clear of Chiantia. Klöb set the fastest first and second sectors of the session, then lost about six and a half seconds in the third and ended up eleventh, 6.083 seconds off pole.

On race day the deficit lasted about as long as it took to reach the first stops. Klöb was fifth after the opening lap and second by lap 8. Villard led the first nine laps, Chiantia led two more during the first round of stops, and on lap 12 Klöb took the lead. He held it for the remaining 58 laps, including a spin on lap 15 that cost him about six seconds and changed nothing. He set the fastest lap of the race, a 1:54.066 on lap 13, and on clean laps he was roughly a second a lap quicker than Villard on average. Both Serbian cars stopped six times and finished on hard tyres, so on strategy there was nothing to choose between them.

Chiantia kept Mustang Dark Horse R on the podium, 9.676 seconds behind Villard. John Picknik was fourth for JVR Phoenix, 7.245 further back. Those four were the only drivers on the lead lap. Hari Girsh finished fifth, a lap down, after bending his suspension on a kerb on lap 7 and spinning on lap 44. Juan Pablo Vanegas Jiménez qualified third, then picked up debris damage on lap 8, went through the gravel on lap 13 and had a tyre explode on lap 18. He finished sixth, a lap down, which under the circumstances is not bad.

Sound of Speed took seventh and eighth with Hassan Khechini ahead of Ottokar Schöpflin, both three laps down. Fucho F1 took the last two points, Evaristo Meireles ninth and Vítor das Dores Oliveira tenth, four laps down. Between them, Khechini, Meireles, das Dores Oliveira and HHF Race’s Khemais Al-Fessi picked up four penalties for ignoring blue flags.

HHF Race had nothing to show for the afternoon. Al-Fessi lost tyres on laps 24, 38, 49 and 55 and ran out of fuel on the last of those. George Mackie had tyre failures on laps 35 and 46 and ran dry on lap 50. Neither car finished.

The championship is now a straight fight between the two Serbian Engineering drivers. Klöb has 169 points to Villard’s 165. Chiantia, on 112, can no longer catch Klöb with two rounds left. In the constructors’ standings the question is settled: Serbian Engineering have 334 points to Mustang Dark Horse R’s 195, a gap of 139 with only 86 still available.

Nava Castillo goes from last on the grid to a 77-second win in Mexico

Season 47, Week 11, Division 2.2, Autódromo Sierra Madre

By Murray Ledger, Pitwall Times

Eulalio Nava Castillo started the Mexican round from the back of the grid and finished it more than a lap ahead of most of the field. The Trackhouse Racing driver won by 1:17.166 over Norbert Kudra, with Willi Wulf third for Exasperace, 1:29.448 down. Nobody else finished on the lead lap.

The grid position came from an odd qualifying lap. Nava Castillo was quickest of anyone in the second and third sectors, 35.164 and 35.881, but lost about 6.5 seconds to the best first sector and ended up eighteenth, 6.133 seconds off pole. Ye Cheng took pole for Arrows Grand Prix International with a 1:49.926, 0.058 seconds ahead of teammate Kudra.

The deficit lasted one lap. Nava Castillo passed twelve cars on the opening lap and crossed the line sixth. Cheng led the early laps from Wulf, Alpár Kádas led for three laps while others stopped, and on lap 14 Nava Castillo went past Cheng to take the lead. Apart from lap 18, when his second stop briefly handed it back to Cheng, he led every lap from there to the flag, 55 in total.

Cheng was the only one who stayed close. On lap 17 the gap was 2.243 seconds. By lap 28 Cheng was still second, 12.658 behind, and on lap 29 his suspension failed. With the main threat gone, the lead grew past 50 seconds by lap 40 and past a minute by lap 60. On clean laps Nava Castillo was the fastest driver in the field, about three tenths a lap quicker than Wulf on average, and his five stops, almost all on mediums, kept him out of the pit lane more often than the Exasperace cars on eight.

Kudra brought Arrows some consolation in second after six stops. Wulf took third, 12.282 behind Kudra. RSA Racing were next, Afonso Azevedo fourth and Ottó Frey fifth, then Olivetti Corse with Kádas sixth and Mariano Schweizer seventh. All of them were a lap down.

Jean-Charles Brissault had the most eventful afternoon among the points scorers. He qualified sixth, was hit by Oscar Acerbi on the opening lap and dropped to last. The stewards took no further action, and Acerbi lost about 23 seconds himself. Brissault then put in the third-best clean-lap average of the race and, after three failed attempts on lap 67, passed Gombei Hanada on lap 68 for eighth. Jorge Everardo Pasos took the last point in tenth for Trackhouse.

The fuel calculations went badly wrong for two teams. Peter Hanson ran dry after eight laps, Ludvík Janda after twelve, and Owen Howlin, who had climbed from seventh on the grid to fourth at the start, after 23. That put both MacSalaatikko cars and one ATMI Racing car out of the race without a single mechanical failure between them. Deise finished thirteenth and fourteenth, four laps down. Otello Profeti collected three five-second penalties for ignoring blue flags, and Tokichiro Kusatsu one.

In the constructors’ standings Trackhouse Racing now have 222 points. Arrows on 148 and Exasperace on 145 are both more than 70 behind. With two rounds and a maximum of 86 points left, the title is not yet settled, but Trackhouse are close.

Fisch seals Division 2.1 title in Mexico, safety car only delays the inevitable

Season 47, Week 11, Division 2.1, Autódromo Sierra Madre

By Murray Ledger, Pitwall Times

Heinz Fisch needed a safety car to make Mexico interesting, and even that lasted three laps. The Slow Car McNoPace driver took pole by 1.043 seconds, led every lap that was not spent in the pit lane, watched a 28-second cushion vanish when the safety car came out on lap 30, and then rebuilt it into a winning margin of 1:11.100 over Mathew Geary. Ernest Theisen completed the podium for Dinger Zoomie Racing, 1:15.349 down. Only four cars finished on the lead lap.

The pole lap of 1:50.897 set the tone. Fisch started on mediums, stayed on mediums for four stints, switched to softs for the final run from lap 60 and set the fastest lap of the race on lap 61, a 1:52.737. Geary briefly led on laps 15 and 30, both times only while Fisch was in the pits. The second of those stops came on lap 30, roughly two minutes before Agoston Ágh’s final tyre explosion brought out the safety car. By the restart on lap 33 the gap to second place was 2.137 seconds. By the flag it was more than a minute.

Dinger Zoomie Racing went the other way on strategy. Geary and Theisen both stopped seven times, against four for Fisch, on a track with a long pit lane. On clean laps Fisch was roughly half a second a lap quicker than Geary on average, which accounts for part of the margin. The rest went into the pit lane.

The real race was for second, and it went to the final laps. On lap 65, 0.586 seconds covered Hisaki Shimaoka, Theisen and Geary. Over the next three laps the positions changed hands nine times, with a couple of small mistakes from Geary and Theisen added for good measure. Geary came out on top, Theisen took third on lap 68, and Shimaoka, who had held second for most of the closing stint, dropped to fourth, 7.381 seconds behind Theisen. From eighth on the grid, 3.458 seconds off his teammate’s pole time, that is still a decent afternoon. It just does not look like one with the car ahead of him winning by a minute.

Roberto Stori was best of the rest in fifth for Perder Corse GP, two laps down, after a tyre exploded on lap 17 and cost him two stops in two laps. Ramalingam Ahad climbed from eleventh to sixth for Arun Racing Team despite two trips into the gravel. Nenko Issajew survived a gearbox warning on lap 39 to finish seventh ahead of Moneytron teammate Alfonso Pintonello. Ser Cher Fernandez went from last on the grid to ninth, and Edoardo Marino, on a three-stop hard-tyre plan, took the final point in tenth.

Wolf GP had a weekend to forget. Ágh had a tyre fail on lap 10, another on lap 20, and on lap 30 the third ended his race and triggered the safety car. Tomas Bernardas Jelinskas lost tyres on laps 19 and 29, and on lap 49 a third failure put him into the tyre barrier. Both cars were classified as retired with tyre failure, a consistency the team could do without. Équipe Renault Elf did not finish either. Albert Augier picked up a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags on lap 46 and crashed out on lap 50. Didier Bleneau retired with a gearbox failure on lap 60.

With 175 points to Theisen’s 123 and two rounds left, Fisch can no longer be caught. It is his seventh win of the season; the only round without a Fisch win is Qatar, where he has no result. In the constructors’ standings Slow Car McNoPace lead Dinger Zoomie Racing by 44 points with 86 still available, so that one stays open for now. Behind them, Moneytron ACS and Perder Corse GP are tied on 108.

Renttu extend their record with a 21st constructors' title

By Murray Ledger, Pitwall Times

Season 47, Week 10, Division 1

Evelien Pouillie's win at Qinglong did more than extend a championship lead. With three races left, Renttu Racing have 244 points and SGA Racing in second have 106. A team can score at most 43 points per race, so there are only 129 left to win. That makes the Division 1 constructors' title Renttu's with a month of the season still to run.

It is the team's 21st constructors' title, and the 19th in Division 1. No team in Pitwall has won more, and Renttu extend their own record. The other two titles came in Division 3.3 and Division 2.1, before Renttu reached the top flight. They have been in Division 1 without a break since Season 16. The manager is the same as when the team was founded: Henri Kuivanen has run it since Season 10.

This season the title rarely looked like it would go anywhere else. Renttu had a car on the podium in each of the first seven races. They won four of them, all through Pouillie: in Qatar, Turkey, Russia and now China. The weakest weekend, in Italy, still brought third and ninth. Their 244 points are 81 per cent of the most a team could have scored over seven races, and the second car has been a steady contributor rather than a passenger. Alvaro José jr. Ferreira de Almeida took two podiums in the first three rounds and 48 points. Bilal Hallikäär has taken the second seat since then, with a third, two seconds and, at Qinglong, fifth.

It is also the second title in a row. Renttu won the constructors' championship last season as well, 332 points to 187. The drivers' title, however, went to Edmund Potts of SGA Racing, who won only one race all year. That leaves this season's drivers' championship as the more open question, at least on paper. Pouillie leads Potts by 40 points, 135 to 95, with 75 still available, so Potts would need near-perfect results and some help from Pouillie. Ross Walrond of Handbrake RD is third on 85.

Behind Renttu, the fight for second is wide open. SGA have 106, Handbrake RD 87, Andrea Moda Formula 81 and Silver Cosmos 78, who would have been closer still had both their cars not run out of fuel on the final lap at Qinglong.

Renttu remain the team to beat, and the list of teams that have managed it in recent years is short. The most recent was minardi in Season 42, who won both titles that year, 311 points to Renttu's 215. minardi are no longer in Division 1. Their manager Matteo is, now with Andrea Moda Formula, and he gives every impression of intending to stay.

The other name from Renttu's past is in a far worse state. Fenninger Racing were Renttu's great rival for years, and this season they have not finished a race since round 3. They have missed the last two races altogether and have 24 points. Whether the team can fight back after a season like this is a question that next year will answer, and more urgently, whether anyone at Fenninger is asking it.

Which leaves the obvious question: when does number 20 in Division 1 arrive? On this season's evidence, next year. But the rivals are not standing still. SGA, Handbrake RD and Silver Cosmos have each won a race this season, and three different teams beating Renttu on a Sunday is not the same as one team beating them over a season. What is missing is a team that can do it every week. Whether number 20 is a formality or a fight depends on whether anyone finds that consistency over the winter.

Murray Ledger is written with AI assistance. Figures are checked against the timing sheets, but mistakes remain possible and will be corrected

Addendum: On the same weekend, Toto Wolff drew level with Frank Williams on 17 Formula 1 world titles, nine constructors' and eight drivers'. Counted the same way, Henri Kuivanen stands at 42. That looks like a rout until you remember that Pitwall runs four seasons a year. Per season, Wolff still edges it, 1.21 titles to Renttu's 1.11. Renttu will have to stretch a little to catch Mercedes, but they are closer than the raw numbers suggest.

In this series, the Pitwall Times takes you back through the history of the Pitwall championship. Forty-seven seasons, and more stories than anyone can remember. Memory Lane will feature the teams that shaped the sport, the drivers who raced for them, and even a few of the team bosses behind the pit wall. Our guide is Heinz Brüller, who claims to have seen it all. We have not been able to prove otherwise.

By Heinz Brüller, Pitwall Times

Who still remembers? Who still remembers the silence? The first era had ended, and then came the years of waiting, years in which the old names lived on only in memories and paddock stories, years of longing for engines that would not start. And then, one Monday, a short statement from the organisers: the championship was back. Rebuilt from the ground up. Ladies and gentlemen, the lights were about to go out again.

Twelve teams lined up in Division 1. Twelve! They had chosen the top flight themselves, and what courage that took, because nobody knew who was fast and nobody knew who would still be standing at the end. There was Patrick Price’s JP Suave Racing, there was Adam Eggbeer’s Team Destroyers, there was Geoff Tate’s Automobiles Bugatti, there was Stephen Atyeo’s SGA Racing, and remember that last name, because we will come back to it. There was a team called Scarlett Johansson Please Racing, run by a certain Tim Prince, who is still here today, but that is another story. And there was FullThrottle, the team that entered and never came.

Week 3 of Season 1, a Sunday, nine in the morning, Lander Raceway. The first race of the new era, and who won it? An Austrian! Aron Rammer of Team Destroyers led 51 of the 53 laps as if he had been waiting years for exactly this moment, went through the gravel on lap 45, lost six seconds, and set the fastest lap of the race on the very last lap. It would remain Rammer’s only Division 1 victory, the only one, imagine that, the first win of a whole new era and then never again. Rammer turned 80 this year. Ask him about those first laps at Lander Raceway, and he will tell you, at length, and every time a little faster.

A week later, Merial Speedway, and the man of the hour was Ramon Aantjes. The Dutch driver won for Bugatti with a single pit stop while everyone else stopped twice, half a minute clear, a masterpiece! And after that? Second. Second again. And again. Six times that season the commentary box found the same words: “Disappointment can be seen on Ramon Aantjes face.” Six times! Aantjes’ time was yet to come, and maybe closer than anyone thought.

Timo Lucre won at Baend and again at Cheminiere, and the Destroyers looked like the team of the new era. At Baend, by the way, Vandana Sanjukta of PiNSU ran out of fuel and, according to the commentary, threw the steering wheel out of the cockpit. Motor racing in Season 1: everything was possible. At Upperwirth it was Yafeu Lartey, JP Suave’s second driver, who took the lead on lap 56, on the very lap that Tarvo Vagner, leading for thirty laps, made a mistake. 0.327 seconds ahead of, who else, Aantjes.

And Vagner? After four races the Estonian was third, 38 points behind Lucre. Who would have bet on Vagner then? Nobody. Then the rain came at Los Vuturs. Vagner spun on lap 4, lost six seconds, and still won by 27.6. The Bugatti of Aantjes ended up in pieces on lap 32, and Aantjes climbed out unhurt. The legend of Tarvo Vagner was born, and Vagner would find out soon enough how heavy a crown can be.

Lucre answered at Loniari. And then came Armakov, the great mystery of that first season. Team Destroyers, leading the constructors’ championship, simply did not appear. Neither car started. To this day the records do not say why, and if Adam Eggbeer remembers, he has not told us yet. Vagner led every single one of the 55 laps, and JP Suave, who had arrived 29 points behind, left Armakov eleven points ahead. The Destroyers, mind you, were far from finished. They would have their day. More than one.

Sinkei, again in the wet, again Vagner. Kazu Nanami of Pablo Cars had an accident there so violent that the commentator suggested lighting a candle that night. Nanami was fine. And so we came to the finale at Maneira, three drivers within six points: Vagner 153, Aantjes 148, Lucre 147. Can you imagine the tension? Emerico Acerbi of Polk High Racing certainly could not concentrate, a plastic bag had flown into the airbox.

Lucre led for 53 of the 67 laps. Lap after lap the title was within reach. And then, on lap 56, the mistake. Seven seconds gone. Vagner went past on that very lap, and at the flag the gap was 1.931 seconds. Had they crossed the line the other way round, Timo Lucre would have been champion by a single point. One point! That is motor racing, cruel and wonderful at the same time.

Tarvo Vagner was the first champion of the new era, with four wins from the last five races. And JP Suave Racing won the constructors’ title, the only Division 1 title that name has ever won. Patrick Price, by the way, is back in Division 1 this season. After a long sabbatical Price came back, and keeps coming back, Season 44, Season 45, and now again, with a JP Suave Racing that carries the old name but is not the old team. Twelve points in three seasons at the top. The grip, as they say in the paddock, has not quite been found yet.

And SGA Racing? Sixth in that first season, a quiet sixth, nobody noticed. Relegated after the second. And today, in Season 47? Division 1, runner-up in each of the last two seasons, the last of the twelve still standing at the front. Stephen Atyeo, ladies and gentlemen, takes the long view.

The others? Some never returned to Division 1 after that first winter. And some reappeared seasons later on the Division 3 entry list, without a team boss, without a single race, ghosts of Season 1 on a list nobody reads.

Twelve came. Two are still here. Some stories take their time.

Corrections and memories welcome.

By Murray Ledger, Pitwall Times

Season 47, Week 10, Division 3, Qinglong Circuit

The most eventful race of the week in Division 3 was in 3.9. Juwan Noel won it for Powder Puff Gurlz, 50.054 seconds ahead of team-mate Filip Wimmer, with Antonio Hill third for Nothing Car. Noel used every compound on offer: softs, mediums, intermediates, wets and, for the very last lap, hards.

The race started dry. Around lap 25 the front-runners switched to intermediates, and from lap 29 to full wets. Wimmer went back to intermediates on lap 49, which turned out to be too early. He lost between ten and fifteen seconds a lap at first and briefly dropped behind Hill, until the track had dried enough for the tyres to work. Noel stayed on wets until lap 55. Then he made his seventh stop and went out on hards for the final lap, which he completed in 2:04.579. Wimmer, on intermediates, needed 2:15.059. The stop cost Noel more time than the hards gave back, but with a lead of more than a minute he could afford it. He led 48 of the 56 laps, every lap from lap 17 onwards.

The rest of the 3.9 field mostly struggled with tyre wear. Diego Palacios, Rumian Stoitschewa, Léon Madrelle and Juan Antonio Rebora all had tyres explode, Palacios twice. Asim Utpal’s race ended in the tyre barrier on lap 14 after a burst. Clifford John Kidd finished fourth for Nothing Car, a lap down.

Powder Puff Gurlz have done this before, a long time ago. In Season 1 the team, then managed by Lee Palmer, raced in Division 2.2. It scored a single point in the first six races, then took a podium in Italy and won the last three in Russia, Japan and Brazil, finishing fourth in the constructors’ standings on 129 points. The Division 2.2 title that year went to Superfly GP, run by Philip E., today team boss at Pirate Panda Race. Superfly won it with two wins and twelve podiums, ahead of RSC Anderlecht, who had won four races. After that the team’s form faded: 82 points in Season 2, none in Season 3, and Division 3 from Season 4 onwards. After Season 7 the team is missing from the records until Season 44. Now entered as Hotwheels motors Powder Puff Gurlz - MecTec, the team took its first win since Season 1 at Qinglong.

Division 3.6 had the closest finish of the week, anywhere. M. Ihonen won for Tiny Trackhouse by 0.063 seconds from S. Colle of Dinky Dingers. F. Johnston was third, 3.780 seconds behind the winner, and G. Sanchis fourth, 9.661 seconds back. The first four were separated by less than ten seconds after 56 laps.

Division 3.1 was nearly as close. R. Lee won for Renttu Juniors by 1.421 seconds from M. Brando, with Brando’s Margiotto Racing team-mate F. Xiu third, 1.685 seconds behind Lee. W. Strobl was fourth in the second Renttu Juniors car, 6.622 seconds off the win.

Division 3.2 ran in heavy rain on a flooded track. J. Maciejowski won for BTMI Racing, 30.095 seconds clear of R. Ribeiro do Seixo of SGA Juniors, with D. Traikow third in the second BTMI car. Only those three finished on the lead lap. M. Farhan of Detalpha Racing Team did not stop once, stayed out on softs in the rain, and retired with tyre failure after seven laps.

In Division 3.3, K. Abic and A. Sujeet gave Osella Engineering a one-two, 37.132 seconds apart. Only two other cars reached the finish, both four laps down. Six of the twelve starters retired with tyre failures, and both Mezza Pinta cars ran out of fuel on lap 10.

Y. Lachkar won Division 3.4 for Opel racing, a lap clear of D. Gamerdinger of Chili jam, after stopping only three times. Lachkar spent most of the race on hards, while his rivals stopped five or six times. In Division 3.5, G. Dokkum won for Climate Masters N.V. by two laps from M. de Lima of Emirates Tekkers, with F. Triantafyllidis third.

Across Divisions 3.1 to 3.6, fifteen retirements were listed as tyre failures. Division 3 can be a hard school.

Murray Ledger is written with AI assistance. Figures are checked against the timing sheets, but mistakes remain possible and will be corrected.

Pouillie holds off Walrond as Silver Cosmos run dry on the final lap

By Murray Ledger, Pitwall Times

Season 47, Week 10, Division 1, Qinglong Circuit, race 7 of 10

Evelien Pouillie won a wet Qinglong round from pole, 2.683 seconds ahead of Ross Walrond. Daniil Viirok took third for Andrea Moda Formula, 7.647 seconds behind the winner. He only got the podium on the last lap: until then the place belonged to Nicholai Bech Napizia, who had come through from twentieth on the grid. On lap 56 Napizia’s Silver Cosmos ran out of fuel, and team-mate Josef Høier’s car stopped in the same lap for the same reason.

Qualifying was damp, with the front-runners on intermediates. Pouillie took pole with a 1:57.050, 0.418 seconds clear of Edmund Potts. Viirok was third, 0.012 seconds behind Potts, with Walrond fourth and Bilal Hallikäär fifth. Napizia lost more than 13 seconds to the pole time in sector one alone and started twentieth.

By Sunday the track was fully wet, and every driver started on wets. The race was close at the front, and the lead changed hands during each round of pit stops. Potts led laps 10 to 13 and 21 to 25. He stopped only three times, running 14-lap stints, while Pouillie stopped four times. Viirok led twice, for six laps in total, on a five-stop strategy. Pouillie led the other 41 laps, including every lap from lap 46 to the flag, and also set the fastest lap of the race, a 2:15.743.

Walrond kept the pressure on in the final stint, cutting the gap from 4.3 seconds on lap 46 to 2.7 at the flag. That was not enough to pass, but it was Handbrake RD’s best result of the season. Potts finished fourth, 24.865 seconds down, after losing time with a mistake on lap 39.

Napizia’s race was the best in the field until it ended in the gravel-free silence of an empty tank. He was fourteenth after lap 1 and eighth after lap 2. From lap 28 he spent most of the race in the top five, and his average lap time was within three hundredths of a second of the winner’s. On lap 55 he was third, 8.5 seconds behind Pouillie and 0.4 seconds ahead of Viirok. Silver Cosmos had brought both cars in for their final stop on lap 44, with twelve laps to go. Renttu Racing and Handbrake RD stopped on the same lap and their cars reached the finish. Neither Silver Cosmos car did. The two cars were running third and seventh, worth 21 points between them, and they scored none.

Behind the top four, Hallikäär finished fifth in the second Renttu car. Ross Lane climbed from eleventh to sixth for Arun Roughneck Racing Team. A. Rodrígues de Morais, Quinten Van Lancker, Comin Farahvash Fashandi and Benito Adam Negrete took the remaining points. Gusztáv Babály had a rough afternoon. He collided heavily with Sriram Joshi on the first lap and got a ten-second penalty for it, then crashed out on lap 39 after going off the track without slowing down. He was unhurt. Joshi also ran out of fuel, on lap 53.

Fenninger Racing were missing again, for the second race running. The season had started well enough, with fifth and sixth places in Qatar. In round 2 both cars retired with gearbox failures, which led Philip E. to point out that gearboxes do need changing every now and then. Round 3 brought seventh place for Eulalio Nava Castillo and sixteenth for Linwood Jelley, still the team’s last finish. By round 4 Nava Castillo had left, and Jelley ran out of fuel. In round 5 both cars ran out of fuel. Fenninger skipped testing in week 8 and have not started a race since. This week Ludvik Janda and Slade Aitchinson turned some laps in testing, which at least counts as a sign of life

Pouillie now has 135 points, 40 ahead of Potts on 95. Walrond moves up to third on 85, with Napizia on 74 and Viirok on 73. There are 75 points still available, so the title is not decided. Renttu Racing lead the constructors’ table on 244, with SGA Racing second on 106. Handbrake RD move up to third on 87, ahead of Andrea Moda Formula on 81. Silver Cosmos drop from third to fifth on 78, one lap short of the finish.

Murray Ledger is written with AI assistance. Figures are checked against the timing sheets, but mistakes remain possible and will be corrected.
Correction: An earlier version stated that Fenninger Racing had not started a race since round 3. The team started rounds 4 and 5 but did not finish either; round 3 was its last finish

By Murray Ledger, Pitwall Times

Season 47, Week 10, Division 2.3, Qinglong Circuit, race 7 of 10

Albrecht Klöb won at Qinglong, 25.129 seconds ahead of team-mate Kaupo Villard, giving Serbian Engineering a one-two. Mustang Dark Horse Racing were third and fourth with Damiano Chiantia, 36.048 seconds back, and J. Vanegas Jiménez. Vanegas Jiménez was making his first start for the team, having replaced Kenneth Roy Hewitt in the line-up. Only those four cars and John Picknik in fifth finished on the lead lap.

Qualifying was damp, with the front-runners on intermediates. Klöb took pole with a 1:59.340, 0.187 seconds clear of Chiantia, with Villard third and Vanegas Jiménez fourth. The race was dry and sunny. Klöb lost three places on the first lap, and Chiantia led the field away, ahead of Vanegas Jiménez and Villard.

The two teams ran different strategies. Mustang started on softs and stopped four times, with stints of twelve laps from the first stop onwards. Serbian Engineering started on mediums, stopped every ten laps and fitted softs for the last six. The extra stop did them no harm, because the pace gap was large: Klöb averaged 1:56.53 and Villard 1:56.85, while Chiantia averaged 1:57.68 and Vanegas Jiménez 1:57.88. That is close to a second a lap.

The lead changed hands repeatedly during the pit stops, until Klöb took it for good on lap 31. At that point the race was still between the Serbian Engineering drivers. Villard had been within two seconds of his team-mate before he stood for 15.22 seconds at his stop on lap 30, more than twice his usual time. The timing sheet does not say why. He had been into the gravel four laps earlier. After lap 30 the gap was twelve seconds, and Villard never got back within reach.

HHF Race did not get far. Khemais Al-Fessi’s rear wing came loose on lap 11 and sent him hard into the tyre barrier. Four laps later George Mackie ran out of fuel, after 14 laps on his starting set of hards and without a single stop. Ottokar Schöpflin finished eighth for Sound of Speed despite a suspension that, according to the race highlights, had started to bend from lap 31 onwards.

That slow stop matters more in the championship than in the race result. Villard came to Qinglong ten points ahead of Klöb and leaves only three points clear, 147 to 144. Chiantia is third on 97, fifty points behind with 75 still available. Mathematically he is still in the fight, but in practice the title is between the two Serbian Engineering drivers. In the constructors’ table Serbian Engineering have 291 points to Mustang’s 172. JVR Phoenix move past Sound of Speed into third, 96 to 89.

Murray Ledger is written with AI assistance. Figures are checked against the timing sheets, but mistakes remain possible and will be corrected.

By Murray Ledger, Pitwall Times

Season 47, Week 10, Division 2.2, Qinglong Circuit, race 7 of 10

Eulalio Nava Castillo started last and won, 48.995 seconds ahead of Norbert Kudra. Mariano Schweizer was another 2.703 seconds back in third for Olivetti Corse, and Jorge Everardo Pasos completed a good day for Trackhouse Racing in fourth. Ye Cheng started from pole and ran out of fuel on lap 54 while running fourth.

Qualifying was dry and close at the front. Cheng took pole with a 1:51.154, Kudra was 0.025 seconds slower, and Willi Wulf was third, 0.085 off. That gave Arrows Grand Prix International the front row by 25 thousandths of a second. Nava Castillo set the fastest first sector of the session, a 44.604, and then lost more than ten seconds to Cheng in sector two alone. He started eighteenth.

He was eighth by the end of the first lap. The race highlights list nine successful overtakes for him on that lap. He passed Ottó Frey on lap 2, Pasos and Jean-Charles Brissault on lap 5, and Cheng on lap 7. Through the first round of pit stops he spent one lap in the lead on lap 8, took it back on lap 12, and lost it only briefly when he stopped on lap 18. From lap 20 he led every lap to the flag, 44 laps in total. His average race pace was 1:53.44, which was 0.8 seconds a lap faster than Kudra’s.

He also lost very little time in the pits. Nava Castillo stood for between 3.33 and 4.44 seconds per stop, and still ran stints of 12 and 13 laps after his second stop. The Olivetti drivers showed the same pattern: Schweizer stood for under four seconds before 11-lap stints. Arrows, RSA Racing and Exasperace needed between six and seven and a half seconds for stints of the same length or shorter. The timing sheet does not explain the difference. Over four stops it was worth roughly ten seconds, which matters but is only a small part of a 49-second win.

Cheng’s race fell apart in the final stint. Arrows brought him in for his last stop on lap 40, with 16 laps to go, four laps earlier than Kudra. On lap 54 he stopped on track with an empty tank, three laps from the end and about 56 seconds behind the leader in fourth place. He is classified sixteenth. Kudra stopped on lap 44, made it to the end and took second.

Wulf’s race went wrong earlier. He was running third early on, went into the gravel on lap 13, and two laps later a blistered tyre failed. He finished twelfth, a lap down after six stops. Frey lost around 13 seconds on lap 21 in a gravel trap with a stalling engine and finished seventh. Gombei Hanada climbed from thirteenth on the grid to sixth. Alpár Kádas, Afonso Azevedo and Peter Hanson took the last points.

In the championship Kudra now has 118 points, 27 ahead of Wulf on 91. Nava Castillo is third on 75 after two wins and a third, all in the last three rounds. With 75 points still available, the title is open. Trackhouse extend their lead in the constructors’ table to 196. Arrows move past Exasperace into second, 130 to 126.

Murray Ledger is written with AI assistance. Figures are checked against the timing sheets, but mistakes remain possible and will be corrected.

By Murray Ledger, Pitwall Times

Season 47, Week 10, Division 2.1, Qinglong Circuit, race 7 of 10

Heinz Fisch won a flooded Qinglong round from pole, 45.379 seconds ahead of Ernest Theisen. Mathew Geary was another 6.221 seconds back in third, which gave Dinger Zoomie Racing both remaining podium places. Edoardo Marino was fourth, 2:09.768 down and the last car on the lead lap. Fourteen cars qualified and nine were classified. Fisch’s team-mate Hisaki Shimaoka was not among them: he was running second when he crashed on lap 22.

Qualifying was dry. Fisch took pole with a 1:52.683, 0.941 seconds clear of Geary, with Agoston Ágh third. By Sunday it was raining, and everyone except one driver started on wets. Fisch set the fastest lap of the race on lap 2, a 2:16.471. By mid-race the leaders were lapping at around 2:32, and by the final laps the track was officially flooded.

Shimaoka made the best start, from seventh to third on lap 1. Theisen went from eighth to fifth. Ágh, fourth after the opening lap, crashed out on lap 5. Two cars never really took part. Ser Cher Fernandez’s Arun Racing Team car did not have all its parts fitted and was out before the end of the first lap. His team-mate Ramalingam Ahad started on slicks and lapped more than a minute slower than the leaders. On lap 11 a blistered tyre failed, Ahad came into the pits, and he retired there because there were no tyres of the requested type left.

The strategies split sharply. Fisch and Marino stopped three times, every 14 laps. The two Dinger cars stopped five times, roughly every ten laps. Fisch’s stops were not quick, between 7.75 and 9.27 seconds, while the Dingers stood for between 4.99 and 6.02. Fisch still had more pace, and by lap 22 he led Theisen by 46 seconds.

Shimaoka’s crash on lap 22 then brought out the safety car, and the lead was gone. The safety car came in on lap 25 just as Ermanno Capuzzi crashed his Perder Corse car, so it went straight back out again. Fisch made his second stop under the safety car on lap 28, where a stuck wheel kept him stationary for 9.27 seconds. He rejoined third, behind Theisen and Geary. Theisen led three laps and Geary one, but those were the only laps Fisch did not lead. Racing resumed on lap 29, Fisch passed both Dinger cars over the next three laps, and he led again from lap 31.

From there it was one fewer stop and more pace. Fisch made one more stop and the Dingers made two, and between stops he was around one and a half to two seconds a lap quicker. Over the last 26 laps that added up to the same 45 seconds the safety car had taken away. Geary spun on lap 55 and lost second place to Theisen, which decided the order on the podium but nothing else.

Moneytron ACS took fifth and sixth with Nenko Issajew ahead of Alfonso Pintonello, both a lap down. Tomas Bernardas Jelinskas was seventh for Wolf GP despite a busy afternoon: a 14-second spin on lap 22, plus five smaller mistakes. Didier Bleneau and Albert Augier brought both Équipe Renault Elf cars home in eighth and ninth, two laps down.

Fisch now leads the championship with 150 points, 42 ahead of Theisen on 108. Geary has 99 and Shimaoka 97. There are 75 points still available, so the title is not mathematically decided, but the margin is large. In the constructors’ table Slow Car McNoPace have 247 to Dinger Zoomie Racing’s 207. Behind them, Moneytron move past Perder Corse into third, 98 points to 97.

Murray Ledger is written with AI assistance. Figures are checked against the timing sheets, but mistakes remain possible and will be corrected.