Lehikoinen, Scheuerle share race wins in season opener

3id J. Lehikoinen has grabbed the championship lead in the opening round of S2 Season 17. The FBM Trophy champion started of strong at SO Chicane Route rev with pole and a dominant win in the sprint race, but was shown he could expect opposition as Johannes Scheuerle took the win in the main race.

Lehikoinen lived up to expectations by winning pole. However, with almost the full field on server 1 within one second it promised to be a closely contested event. Scheuerle kept him honest in the sprint race but as he tried to get closer he got caught out by the infamous South City chicane. The crash forced him to retire and allowed Lehikoinen apeaceful drive to the finish line, over 10 seconds ahead of [SR] Tanakan and AroX. Scheuerle's crash meant he had to start from the back for the main race, but did not stop his will to win. The German driver went like a hot knife through butter and found himself in position to fight for the lead half-way through the race. Despite dropping back due to contact with [SR] bLb the first time he got close to P1, Scheurle got involved in a jaw dropping three way battle for the lead. J. Lehikoinen, S. Harju and Johannes Scheuerle went at it for multiple laps with finally a black car emerging in the lead; Scheuerle had it and he was not going to give it away.


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Despite only finishing second in the main race, Lehikoinen starts the season with the championship lead. Two consistent podium finishes from Tanakan brings him second place in the standings. Things can change quickly though and we wait to see what happens at round two of S2 Season 17 on 9 october at Kyoto Ring GP Long rev.

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Tanakan comes out on top of FOX phase

Without winning a single race [SR] Tanakan has taken the championship lead after the conclusion of the FOX races in S2 Season 17. At Kyoto GP Long rev, the races were won by Core.Forbin and ineX T.Iivonen, both drivers that missed the first round of the season.

In the sprint race, Forbin found himself in fourth place at the end of the first lap. Fighting for first position were T.Ivonen and JPeace as they touched in the oval section of the lap. JPeace was forced to retire as T.Ivonen dropped a couple of positions. The only driver standing in the way of victory for Forbin was Redline.BLOBO, but a unforced error by the latter driver handed the lead to Forbin.

Having been involved in a crash in the sprint race, T.Ivonen set out to make up for the lost points in the sprint race and quickly drove to the front in the main. BLOBO also recovered from his first race mistake by finishing second. However, both could not stop Tanakan whose consistent performance handed him the championship lead. He will try to retain that in the Formula BMW phase of the season, starting with the event at Aston Cadet on 23 October.

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Same drivers occupy podium after eventful AS Cadet sprint, main

JPeace, [SR] Tanakan and 3id J.Lehikoinen may have shared the podium in both races at round 3 of S2 Season 17, none of them finished the first race in the same position as the second. The start of the sprint race was clean.


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The 18 lap race at the short AS Cadet configuration looked to be an easy scalp for 3id J.Lehikoinen until lap 8. The Finnish driver went straight at the final corner for no apparent reason. As he later explained, his pc went back to Windows leaving him no control of the car. JPeace was handed the lead and went on to win the sprint race. Second place was handed to Arox, but first he was passed by Tanakan and then went off track, causing him to spin and drop down the field. By the end of the race Lehikoinen had fought back to third, limiting the damage of the software glitch.

With the top 8 reversed grid, things got a little tight at the start of the main race. Luckily the contact in the first two corners did not cause any driver to lose much time. TEM Y.Laprevotte was one of the few drivers using a R1 tyre strategy, This helped him at the start, but after 5 laps he started dropping from the lead. His strategy still brought him seventh place, better than his sprint race finish. 3id J.Lehikoinen performed his usual main race antics by storming to the front and then checking out. His pace was quick enough to lap everyone but the top 4. JPeace looked set for second place, but half way through the race he did a nice 720° spin losing the position to Tanakan. After a short fight, JPeace regained the position and the top three would stay as it was through the finish.

Lower down the field a sad incident occurred when Arox, after an incident with SCP Igor*Cisco, decided to take matters in his own hand, waited for Igor*Cisco and then rammed him off the track. Twice. The marshals have decided to ban Arox from all OWRL competitions for 9 months, until 1 August, 2011.

In the championship, Tanakan keeps his lead with his consistent podium finishes. However with the victory of J.Lehikoinen in the main race, things might look different once we incorporate the worst result loss. Lehikoinen has missed one event, meaning that the points he has now will be his total points tally. Tanakan has scored well in every race so far, so once his worst result (over a complete event) is dropped, he will have less points. The standings will reflect this from round 4 onwards. Round 4 takes place in 6 November at Fern Bay Green rev.

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Bˆmx>devis with his first OWRL win at Westhill

After drama in turn 2 and mistakes by the top drivers, devis used the chance to take his first victory in the S2 League ahead of championship leader 3id J.Lehikoinen and fζ S.Harju- title decision takes place at Aston Historic

After qualifying no one suspected this race could have a surprise result. 3id J.Lehikoinen got pole position ahead of BLOBO and Tanakan. Come the race start, the top three could only enjoy their positions in the front for the first two corners as all three were involved in race incidents. Harju was handed first position, with Devis on his tail.

Harju wasn't threatened for the lead but Devis' strategy of pitting later allowed him to put in faster laps as Harju was struggling on a full fuel load. After a quick pit stop, Devis kept the lead and went on to take his debut OWRL victory, an impressive feat to accomplish in the Formula V8. J. Lehikoinen fought back to take second place, increasing his championship lead over Tanakan. Going into the final round, S.Harju also has a mathematical chance to win the title, but is much more likely to battle for third with Y. Laprevotte at Aston Historic. See you there!

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3id J. Lehikoinen takes championship in rollercoaster ride

You could almost hear his race engineer scream on the radio: "These are the laps". Half way through the final race of the season his main rival Tanakan was running away with things at the front and J. Lehikoinen seemed to be fighting with his car. Having not led a lap despite starting from pole, the Finnish ace dropped back in the top five multiple times and only recovered slowly. As the cars in front of him pitted, his best chance to salvage the situation and make sure the championship would go his way was using his late pit stop strategy. And did he answer the bell! J. Lehikoinen drove fastest lap after fastest lap, ensuring that when he finally pitted he got out back in front with time to spare. 3id J. Lehikoinen won the drivers championship by taking his 5th win of the season. Tanakan took second in the standings in front of TEM/Y.Laprevotte.

The team championship looked to be a fight between Sonicrealms Racing and Flash Racing. SR competed with Tanakan and Pete. Both were to be found up front in the first part of the race, but a costly mistake by Pete made him drop down the order. Tanakan lost the final podium position in the final lap to SRT-Flip, but with only one of the Flash drivers making it to the finish SR retains the team championship. Bˆmx even overtook Flash racing for second in the final standings.

As this season has come to a conclusion, thanks to everyone who participated with clean racing. Be sure to keep checking www.owrl.de for the announcement of the MRT Cup, which will start right after Christmas.

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