The AWS journey around the world continues - after the stop in Japan,next destination is the other non-english raceway of LFS. Fern Bay of Jamaica has it's own unique track type and is the other one of 2 raceways offering standard rallycross tracks,which will be used in this year's Jamaican Trophy. If the course is well known,the car isn't - the RS1 Kenji is a hatchback based on a street legal version of a WRC car,a brand new addition to All-wheel-drive Winter Series. 380 horsepower will torture the hybrid tyres to glowing,so drivers will have to find best compromise between pace and durability for a good result.

Exactly a half of the season is complete,that means whatever was possible during 1st half is also possible during 2nd. With 6 points gap between championship leaders nothing has been decided yet,however now it's time to raise the performance and push the decisions in own direction. This round will also be 2nd of 3 Cross Challenge rounds,leading these standings after oncoming round will hugely increase the chance to receive this award.

Round info:
Track: Fern Bay Rallycross
Laps: 33 (67km)
Car: RS1K
Previous winners : LLM.V. Laguckas (2022 & 2019 / RB4 / Road course), S1DUS*R.Kardol (2021 / RB4), DzidorisIII (2018 / RB4), [WCL] A.Valta (2016 / FXR), CoRe A.Laipnieks (2015 / RB4), RGˆMatiss (2014 / RB4), CoRe T.Lähteenmäki (2013 / RB4), spdoreno (2012 / RB4)


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AWD Winter Series

AWS 2023 signups thread
Race Green Discord

Server is now passworded and password has been sent to all entrants via PM.

If someone hasn't received it due some mistake,please give a notification!

Signups are still open and new entries will receive PM at some point during sunday/monday.

Qualifying:


Race:


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Deadline for protests - tuesday,21:00 UTC

ANTTI VALTA wins the spectacular Jamaica Rallycross of the AWS Championship 2023!! 🔥🔥
After a difficult start of the race, the AWS Superstar managed to comeback into the lead of the race of poleman RG Dzidoris, than fly away solo for a dominating victory. 🤛
21 sec behind finished the two ZFRL drivers, Motimoukari in P2, ahead of team-mate and championship runner-up Thehemuli. 👍

Poleman Dzidoris struggled with tyre management in the last part of the races, finishing P4 ahead of South.

* PENALTIES :
[MRc] TimDC - recieves a 20 seconds penalty added to his finish time for pit exit line violation on 2 occasions.

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2 weeks after the fastest AWS race it was time for the "hottest" - it was known right from the start that the 380 horsepower RS1 Kenji will be heavier on the tyres than every other car raced in this league,so keeping balance between pace and consistancy was the main challenge of this. 2 drivers even sacrificed their performance on gravel parts of this track for tyre durability by selecting road super tyres instead the "logical" choice - hybrids. One of them won the race.

Unnoticed A.Valta opted for different tyres - even if he had slightly better run to 1st turn from front row outside position,he could not complete the pass and due compromised grip on gravel parts lost quite few positions in 1st lap. Then he started his comeback regaining position after position to even take over race lead just before half distance of the race to lead remaining 17 laps. With this the championship leader scored his 3rd win of the season - as much as he did in his championship season in 2016. The podium was completed by 2 other finns,both from team Zafiralis - surprisingly the better one was not the 2nd place of series,but his teammate Motimoukari,who started from low 8th position,Thehemuli finished 3rd,just like he started. Dzidoris scored his 8th pole position in AWS,but could not keep up pace after leading 1st 16 laps,but fastest lap of the race was snatched by recently dethroned MRc RX champion TimDC.

If series leader wins,then it's clear that his lead grows - after the unsuccessful oval race,A.Valta regrew his standings lead to 11 points over Thehemuli,even if theoretically a total of 11 drivers are still eligible for drivers champion title,it's highly doubtful anyone besides Thehemuli can endanger A.Valta's chances for 2nd title. There is however a tight race for last overall podium position - Lorenzo,Michal and Rony are seperated by just a single point with 3 rounds to go.

Not a single rookie driver took part in this round,therefor there is no change in race for this award - except driver with backwards spelled name lost his last attendance bonus point and is now 11 points behind Happyd.

With the 2 podium finishes Zafiralis scored most points between all teams in this round and by that they cut their gap to table lead by 8 points - they're now 17 points behind RGA. MRc lost their 2nd position in table and retook 3rd position with 26 points gap to lead. Finland did not score any bonus points in this round,but with 1-2 finish that does not really matter - even if a total of 4 nations are still eligible for the title,there are barely any doubts about Finland taking it for the 2nd year in row. Czechia is still 2nd,currently 64 points behind leaders,the 5-time champions Lithuania is 3rd,37 points behind 2nd place.

This is the 2nd short break between rounds - already next week round 6 of the season will take place. Even if the Westhill Street Cup was introduced just in 2017,it has become a traditional part of the series - an RB4 race on Westhill's support roads,each year in different course. This year it's the well known Tunnels configuration,original of it was known already from the first test patches of the rebuilt Westhill environment.