After the low activity of the vacation month,september race brought once again over 20 drivers to RandomCar racing as the series start to heat up - after this round only the season finale is left. This week we were racing in Kyoto's non-standard configuration known under the name North,where from our side the straights were slightly extended adding hairpins on both ends of start/finish straight (flat out curve). A total of 17 different cars were represented making the field very variating.
8 rounds of the series brought 8 different winners from 7 different countries,this trend was bound to end at some point for sure,but besides the repeated winner,we have also the 1st winning streak of a driver - the winner of round 8 Thehemuli found himself on front of the field also in round 9,however this time he did not led the whole race,just the latest 4 laps after progressing through field from the 7th place on grid. He scored the 1st ever win for the rear wheel driven compact car Talot Suns Lomis. R.Kardol got drawn his winning car of round 7 MZG Sedan and set the sights on himself as potential 1st multiple winner of the league,but after leading 12 laps,he had to give up the lead to to charging finn,so all he could do is to defend the 2nd place finisher award,setting also the fastest lap of the race. Arska qualified first and scored the 1st ever pole position for himself,his team and also for the LFS's home grown XRT,but lost race lead already entering turn one,eventually losing another position to finish 3rd,scoring 2nd podium finish for himself and highest ever finishing position for XRT.
With a single round left ahead,the championship standings are as heated up as you can - the season finale with 1 hour race will score double points for finishing positions,so in theory the top10 drivers in standings are still eligible for drivers championship title,however the 56 points from a single round are possible from practically full grid. Realistically the title chances have 4 best drivers with another 2 being long range outsiders - Nosle has taken over the standings lead with his 5th place finish this week and his 7 points lead means that 2nd place finish or even a win in final round would grant him the title without the need to calculate points of competition. There are 2 drivers with 7 points gap to standings leader - R.Kardol,who is 2nd due tiebreaker over RD2,the absent V.Lagooga is 9 points off the lead. The winner of latest 2 rounds Thehemuli is the better of the 2 outsiders as he's with 20 points deficit.
Also teams championship is heated up - now just 2 points seperate the leaders S1dus from closest rivals RGA. B2R have lost even more ground and with 31 points gap their chances are still there,but rather unrealistic. In theory another 2 teams are eligible to win the title,however both finnish based teams will have to battle between each other for 4th position - Zafiralis is a single point ahead of WCL. With lower activity of lithuanian drivers,the country has now lost the lead in nations championship for the first time and are 17 points behind the new leader Finland - with the double points scoring round ahead Lithuania's chances are still good,but they need to overperform quite a lot. No other country has even theoretical chances for the title,so the intrigue for them is left only in battle for 3rd position,currently taken by driver's standings leader's country Luxembourg. Also manufacturers championship will be settled in final round - the early season dominator URC1 has scored only 22 points in last 4 rounds,so it's lead is just a slim 4 points over Tasl,Imprezzive is just another point apart. A total of 6 cars are still eligible for the award,however the FXO in 4th position with 26 points deficit is already quite an outsider.
The draw happened to spread out well for this round - just 5 of 26 cars were not drawn while FZ5 and XM-5 were the most popular getting just 3 drivers each. Imprezzive is still randomresult's favourite - it has been drawn 29 times this season,4 of those fell for T.Soini,who is the 1st and currently only driver to get same car for 4 rounds - will the final round make it 50%?
Season finale will be carried out in Westhill - for the 2nd race in row it will be a custom configuration carrying the word "North" in it (coincidentally selected by a driver from nordic country). It's a 6.16 kilometer course,partially running in Westhill's 2 backstraights and the connecting turns,before exiting the big racetrack for support roads section,which with it's high speed bends will stress drivers to the maximum. As announced,the season finale will be a 1 hour timed race without planned specific lapcount,however
results of 129th RTFR suggest it will be a 24 laps race unless someone is fast enough to break the 2:30 mark for majority of the race - the best time with unrestricted FXO was 2:29.64,while the cars in series are balanced around FXO with 14hp less power.