DzidorisIII - receives a WARNING for avoidable contact with cq.arco in turn 1 of lap 3. Driver should not just like that change the raceline without being sure about the surroundings.
The totally different track type deffinitelly mixed up the field in AWS 2017 round 3 - but all the attending standings leaders were in top third of qualifying results. Unfortunatelly race turned out quite messy in earlier phase,as many went agressively through field just to be ahead,even if everyone should know that you can't hold the lead long without any help. At lap 18 of 67 both MTDZX drivers managed to break away from the messy pack with effective bumpdraft and never gave up the lead again,making a team only battle for win at final lap - the better one turned out to be UM21,who patiently sat behind his teammate during final lap and went for relatively easy slingshot overtake on final stretch. Loosing by just a length of car's bonnet,2nd place was taken by Arska. In later stages another team pair was able to break away from the remains of main pack - RGA drivers Rony and Falcon left Marex behind and the battle for 3rd was much closer,as the gap in finish was measurable only in few centimeters - Rony was able to get enough run on much better defending teammate to barely squeze by to get the remaining podium spot. UM21 and Falcon both set the fastest lap despite being in different groups at the point,both receive the bonus point for that.
Half of the season is complete and there are few less leaders,but - what could be done in first half,can be done also in 2nd half,so the championship is still wide open. With the win in previous round,UM21 now takes the lead in Drivers Championship,but he's ahead just on tie-breaker,as V.Laguckas has also 33 points under his belt. Marex trails by 6 points,Dzidoris by 9 points - these currently are the main favourites for the championship as rest are 15 points (max points for 1 driver in single round) or more behind,but we cannot rule rest of the drivers out yet,as we still have quite variating schedule ahead,which could give as one or two new contenders for the championship. Dzidoris is still the leader for the Rookie of the Year award,neither he or the absent P.Butcher did not add anything to their points count. Only one eligible S2 Challenge driver was present in previous round,but even he did not score any points,meaning the upgrade voucher is still up for grabs - Smart has scored 8 points,whoever can beat him during next 2 rounds,gets the prize! Meanwhile in FXR Master award standings V.Laguckas saw his 4 point lead being halved and will have tough time defending the award chances in the 5th round. But the race for the new Oval Trophy has started in previous round - standings order is of course as the first award's round finishing order,but the gaps are slightly altered due bonus points.
Being absent the Teams Championship leaders TC Racing have been dropped now to 3rd place - MTDZX scored massive 25 points with their double win and took the lead,currently having solid 14 points gap to LLM,one more to TC-R. Defending champions RGA finally got some points boost and now is 5th in standings,needing great performance to be able to defend the title. Nations Cup is still led by Lithuania,but their 25 points lead has been practically demolished,as Finland is now just 6 points behind,defending champions Latvia is 3rd with 16 points defficite.
After the fastest round AWS now will visit Westhill once again,this time probably for the most dangerous round. Narrow public roads,closely flashing trees and posts when racing at speeds reaching over 200 km/h,barely any room for errors - that's quite appropriate description of AWS round 4 - Westhill Street Cup,a brand new round,using service roads around Westhill's eastern part. Overheating tyres of RB4 probably will be one of the least worries for the racers - stay focused or you might leave the car bent into shape of letter C against one of the many trees...