The fourth and penultimate round of the
Tiger Express Z30 Festival took place on the low-downforce
Aston Central Reversed(AS11R) configuration, with
GTRs. A simple but challenging track, requiring a good compormise between handling and speed. A nice field of 25 cars was present this time, sign of an healthy and steady turn-up rate.
After a difficult season start(6th in round 1, DNF in round 2),
Matias Pikkarainen(spdo Racing) came back stronger, and took a commanding win from pole.
Matias took
spdo Racing’s first victory in a
Tiger Express sanctionned event, since
TEM’s First Birthday event in August 2010. The Finnish driver won 6 seconds in front of
Joe Holmes(
ineX Racing), who had a great recovery drive after a spin dropping him to 7th, in the opening laps.
Teemu Iivonen(
ineX Racing) completes a 100% FZR podium.
The chasing group comes 20 seconds behind the winner, with
Phil Diaz(
ineX Racing) taking 4th in his
XRR, just in front of the leading bus of
Yann Laprevotte(
Tiger Express Motorsports), and
Simon Cattell’s FZR(
ineX Racing), after having a race long fight for 5th.
Reno Kööts(
spdo Racing) comes in 7th after a difficult race.
Jack Ward(
Team Vires),
David Jundt(
Tiger Express Motorsports), and
Angel Power Racing’s top-driver
Martin Kapal round up the top 10.
Alexis Georg(
French street Racers) is the last driver to finish in the lead lap, in 11th.
Round 2 winner
Dennis Lind ran out of fuel in the final lap, from 5th, which puts him out of the contention at the championship. He is nevertheless classified in 12th, just in front of
Philip Ellis, who had any chance for a good result ruined after a contact with
Lind early in the race.
Lind wasn’t the only Dane to run out of petrol. This also happened to
Ditlev Errebo(
DABAR Racing), breaking a great series of 4 top 10 in 4 races. The only other major retirement in this race was for round 3 double winner
Rudy van Buren(
ineX Racing), who crashed at turn 1 from 3rd.
With a great 2nd place,
Holmes extends his lead at the drivers’ championship. Only his team-mate
Teemu Iivonen can beat him anymore, but the Finnish driver must win the final round, and
Holmes be 4th or worse. Things are closer for the runner-up spot however, with
Iivonen,
Dennis Lind,
Simon Cattell and
Phil Diaz all grouped in 18 points.
At the teams’ championship,
ineX are now officially champions, after a dominating season: 3 wins and 10 podiums in 5 races. With
Pikkarainen’s win,
spdo Racing now looks safe in 2nd place. 3rd place is still at stake coming to the final round, with 18 points between
Tiger Express Motorsports in 3rd, and
Angel Power Racing in 4th.
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Results |
Standings [worst round not yet dropped] |
Penalties |
Pictures
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They said…
Joe Holmes(ineX Racing, Quali: 2nd, Race: 2nd): “
I was looking forward to this round as i really like the track. I made my own race and qualy setups and i managed to get p2 in qualy which was very good. In lap 2 i made a mistake going into turn 1 and nearly spun, i lost alot of time and alot of places. I managed to fight back and get back to p2 in the end, was a good result and very fun racing.”
Teemu Iivonen(ineX Racing, Quali: 5th, Race: 3rd): “
I enjoyed driving something “new” with the GTR’s, actually had to put down some testing-laps to get a setup that was well balanced. Not like on normal tracks where everyone already has the setups pretty much done. Shame about Dennis running out of fuel on the last lap, I haven’t had the time to check the championship results but I have a feeling it’s quite close up top.”
Simon Cattell(ineX Racing, Quali: 4th, Race: 6th): “
Hoped I could dedicate a few hours to practice for this race as the combo looked extremely enjoyable, but I ran out of time and could only turn up thirty minutes before the race, so was a little unprepared. The track is simple though, so didn’t take much preparation, had a reasonable qualifying lap to start 4th. Race was little messy, had contact on lap 1 which sent me to 15th, but worked my way back to 6th, it was a good race and I had a great fight with Yann for most of the race. It was enjoyable and I look forward to the next one.”
David Jundt(Tiger Express Motorsports, Quali: 19th, Race: 9th): "
Finally a Top Ten result. After a disappointing roll-over in R1, a disco in R2 and some average performances I get to finish a race with a good performance. I could have beaten Ward to 8th though, but he was so much quicker on the straights, I could resist for short time only. His try at the last fast turns was suicidal and unnecessary though, he could have easily outbraked me into T1. Nevertheless, a good battle and a nice result for the team. Only gutted that Karl had such a misfortune."
Martin Kapal(Angel Power Racing, Qual: DNQ[starting 25th], Race: 10th): “
I missed the qualifying because of a Kyoto 500 practice session, so I started from the back. I didn’t mind, because I expected some crashes in the first lap. Even though I didn’t practice much for this race, I was happy with my pace. I was scared of the pit entry but I was careful and managed to pit without a scratch. In the end, I finished in the top 10, which is great.”
Alexis Georg(French Street Racers, Quali: 13th, Race: 11th): “
What a good round for me! Great surprise of succeed to be on the mid-grid (13/25). I did a good start and was on the top 10 before 1st turn, but I got pushed by someone. I’ve managed to stay on track with a nice drift. And lose my progress on a racing incident with Reno Koots. Finally I fall to 19th place. Then I started a nice recovery. I was on my limits on most of laps, and I made some scares for myself. I liked the manner in which I came to pit lane with handbrake! Finally, I finished to a deserved 11th place, which make me happy by this climb of 8 places! Next round will be a real challenge, especially because it’s with FO8, a car that i’ve still to learn.“
Philip Ellis(ineX Racing, Quali: 7th, Race: 13th): “
can’t get any worse than that.”
Karl Raudsepp(Tiger Express Motorsports, Qual: 17th, Race: 23rd[DNF]): “
Felt quite strong before qualification, but failed doing a superpole. So started far from back. Start was great, rised some places. First 10 laps were quite good too, had nice FXR a.k.a grip and FZR a.k.a speed battle. My race ended in pits, messed it up myself...“