Sunday,7th January
18:30 UTC / 19:30 CET / 20:30 EET
3 weeks holidays break and AWS is back for round 2 of the 2024 series. And back with big bang - with the most powerful car in it's 13 year history as the sedan based on late 80ies Trans Am series car features a inline 5-cylinder turbocharged engine that delivers 545 horsepower. But be warned - it has a lot of power,however it does not have as much downforce as one might expect from car this powerful! The 4 kilometer long Couth City's config has all the challenges the temporary urban course can offer - fast turns,tricky combinations and even a tight hairpin with downhill braking.
First drawings of the championship were drawn in the first round,but nothing is secured yet as 6 more rounds are up ahead. 2 previous AWS champions are in the top3 of standings,now it's time for all others to start challenge them!
Vincent Adultman is on inside and Sobis on outside through the 1st curve - car on inside slides a bit towards outside,car on outside turns a bit more sharply to inside,movement of both cars result in contact. No further action from administration side as this is deemed as racing incident,however knowing the nature of car,Sobis could had left more than car's width through the turn by taking wider line - note to future to learn from.
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Round 2 featured a car from a crazy era of car racing - where cars were getting powerful engines,but advanced aerodynamics were not developed yet,at least for saloon cars. This means drivers had to deal with turns by simple contact patch of their tyres with just a minor assistance of aero downforce. As always new car brings new challenges and drivers are able to deal with those differently - some found out on the hard way by being too uncautious that this car does not have the strongest suspension,resulting in plenty of damage repairs pitstops.
The 2022 season's 3rd best driver was on top of the game in this race - Fatal rejoined AWS after 1 season break,marking his return with his 1st ever AWS pole position by being the fastest in qualifying,just by 0.04 of a second however. The race was more convincing as the finn led every single lap to finish with over 20 seconds gap,scoring his 2nd AWS race win. Texas has been a rare guest in AWS,taking part in a single round in each of latest 3 seasons,this sunday he beat his previous best results in both sessions - starting from 2nd row,he advanced a position during the race to finish 2nd,which is 3 positions better than result of opening round of last season. 3rd step on the podium was taken by Arska,who did his 1st AWS race since round 2 of 2018 season - he also started from 2nd row and advanced a single position during the race,scoring his 4th top5 finish in AWS.
Best 2 drivers from opening round did not attend this sunday,while all 3 podium finishers joined the season for the 1st time,that mixxed up standings hardly,nullifying most of the advantage some got from round 1. Standings leader is now is the only podium finisher who has raced in both rounds - the 2019 AWS champion Sobis. He has 4 points gap over Rony and 5 over Fatal and Lorenzo - the top10 is covered by 10 points,where only multiple points gap is between leader and 2nd place. Defending champion A.Valta has still not signed up for this season,neglecting the chance to defend the title.
Best rookie from season opener did not attend,leaving his main rival the chance to take over lead in rookie standings - Stiefla now leads it with 4 points margin over S.Martin,RD2 dropped down to 3rd,but just 6 points away from lead.
The overwhelming performance of Team S1dus was not repeated in round 2 - their only driver scored just 7 points,still keeping the team in lead,however they're ahead only by tiebreaker as defending champions RGA have tied the score by scoring the most points in this round. WCL is 3rd with 11 points gap to both leaders. Only the nations cup has no changes - the only multidriver nation Finland is running away from the rest and leaves no doubts of being able to defend the title. 2nd best in table is Lithuania,which has 36 points gap to leaders,Latvia is 3rd another 4 points back (each nation accordingly represented only by drivers championship 1st place and 2nd place).
5 rounds are still left and with exception of nations cup,all championships are wide open now. The 3rd round has a potential to draw a new line in the series - it will be the 2nd cross challenge round,featuring the lightweight buggy in the most classic rallycross circuit of LFS - Blackwood Rallycross. Run in opposite direction as season opener last year,this will be a new challenge for AWS drivers,but some might still use the experience from last season,where top6 drivers finished in same order they started,newcomers however will need to learn the new car.
