4th season is done and just like in AWS also in VERL we still have no returning champion. But let's take a look at some figures first. VERL 2018 had a total of 49 signups,which is an increase of 7 since last year and all time most. But only 32 actually took part in at least one round,which is 4 less than last year,but the quality has increased. There were 25 participants in 1st round (one less than VERL highest),which decreased through out the season to 13 in last round,averaging 17 per round - series historical highest season average,one more than last year. Overall racing was clean,only penalties were for pitlane misconducts.
If league still does not have a returning champion,this year it was at least a returning champion's nation - Botsi is the 2nd finnish champion after S.Litmanen in 1st year. Botsi took lead in standings after 2nd round,where he had 2 2nd place finishes in his stats,then he won both following rounds,which practically decided the fate of title - he didn't even need to attend final round to clinch the championship. 2nd in final standings is another finn - Unite from Genuine Racing,he won 2nd round,finished 3rd in another 2,but had 2 not so good results. The best non-finn is P.Butcher - the briton finished 3rd in 3 races and 5th in other one he attended,but could not make the season finale and had to give up chances for higher position.
The defending champion Y.Laprevotte this season attended only in first 2 rounds,finished 5th in both. The 2016 champion A.Wiśniewski also attended only in 2 rounds,qualified on pole position in both,but won only 1st of them,finished 2nd in other. The 2015 champion S.Litmanen signed up for series before 4th round,but never attended. There are another 3 drivers worth to mention - the estonian Kamikas set the fastest lap of the race in rounds 2 and 3,bit finished outside top5 until final round,which he won,becoming 4th different race winner of this season,the round win helped him to climb up to 4th place in final standings. Altsu qualified on pole position for 2 rounds,set fastest lap in another round,but was able to place as high as 2nd in final round as his only good result,just 9th in final standings. And there is another driver who set the fastest lap of the race - Adam from TC-R did it in final round,had also 2 top5 finishes in season,ending in 7th place in standings.
P.Butcher had practically no competition for Rookie of the Year award - he scored 49 points during the season,his closest rival and teammate Elmo just 4.
The battle for teams championship was a bit different due the actual champion not representing a team - TC Racing scored most points in 2 rounds despite not scoring a race win,the team collected a total of 6 top5 finishes and finished 17 points ahead of competition. 2nd in teams standings is Race Green Autosports,repeating it's success of 2015. With help of guest driver Dzidoris scored only 2 top5 finishes,but also scored most points in 2 rounds. Genuine Racing took 3rd position in teams standings thanks to sole performance of Unite.
After 3 championship seasons Finland successfully defended their title also in the 4th season,this time they needed only 4 rounds to do it. Finns scored 3 race wins,3 pole positions,2 fastest laps and 9 top5 finishes. 2nd best nation,which also locked in their position before final round was United Kingdom - their stats are identical with TC-R stats,as only their racers represented UK. Lithuania finished 3rd in Nations Cup standings,represented by 2 drivers in 1st round,but only one of them continued to race in other rounds - 3 4th place finishes in their stats.
Race Green Events thanks all competitors for joining it's hosted events and hopes everyone had their fun and found their competition or challenge - you're the ones who keep the leagues running. If we're looking towards future - RGE have no different plans currently,we will still keep up the RTFR and RTFR XL running till the bitter end and also the 8th season of our longest running league AWS is set to start in 1st sunday of next year. But before that in traditional 26th december - the return of x-mas madness This is Crashmaaas!!! And in late summer or early autumn V8 Racing League should start the 5th season if nothing drastically changes.
See you on track!