Season 2 - Race 6 / Fern Bay Black



How would it have been if M.Golombeck didn't turn his car on the roof during the first lap in the second chicane? It was the first race for the German in the DTM but unfortunately a very short one. With a 2:17:98 did he catch the pole position and had the best situation for the race.

The Mercury team managed right away to cut a gap between them and the rest of the field and battled for the win. From lap 9 on R.Mooney pushed as much as he could to overtake his teammate. After some close door on door fights and an outride through the "woods", R.Mooney closed again the little gap and finally passed him in lap 13.

Down the bridge to the next right corner he put himself in a better position so that he was a second earlier on the throttle and door on door they passed the closed pit area. R.Mooney was slightly ahead and passed first the chicane. With 8 seconds to G.Swan the win for this day was perfect.

On the third podium was the new German driver M.Schreiber followed by less than a second C.Roescher from 1STRacing. The
leader of the championship K.Kuklinski had major problems and was just able to do one lap during the qualification and had to start at the last position. The problems didn't stop, he had some spins on the track and finally he let his car in lap 5 into the pits.

All of this does not make the DTM less thrilling. Contrary! Mooney and Swan leading now with 30 point's close followed by Kuklinski (27) with 4 races to go. We are looking forward what the next week is bringing on Kyoto GP Long!

If you like to be a part of it then sign-up in the forum. You might not win the championship but you will gain a lot of fun and save the spot for the next season.

(Open driver positions available in the North American and European DTM)

The NA division grows more and more, slowly but constantly.
We like to welcome L. Kaczmarek (Mischief007) who is Polish but living in Canada. The SimFIA Team does wish you the best on the track!



These are the driver in the NA division:

23 G.Potter
28 L. Kaczmarek
31 W. Tschabold
36 K.Burns
54 A.Smithee
56 L.Baker - CoRe Racing
76 S.Green
79 A.Terrahe - 1ST Racing
88 M.Tomlin - EAGLE

The DTM European competitors were hosted in South City this week, racing at the short and narrow Classic circuit. Pre-race 8 DTM EU second place driver, R.Mooney (Mercury), was unable to participate in this event, and therefore his teammate, G.Swan, faced an opportunity to make a major step to his first championship win.

During the qualification, G.Swan made his intentions clear with a fast, 40.91 second lap, closely followed by his teammate, J.Pickard, with a 41.06. Third in qualifying was P.Gajdemski (4Ignition), with a 41.22.

Starts are always tricky in each race, especially in South City and DTM EU Race 8 would be no different. The first corner went surprisingly well, with the exception of a spin from N.Coelho (DSR), caused by T.H.Mann (Mercedes AMG). However, the following left-right chicane would become the key point for this race. J.Pickard entered the chicane too fast and wasn't able to break in time, resulting in contact with the wall. The car's following had no chance to brake or pass in time, resulting in a multi-car accident in the worst place possible.

"You are one lucky ba..... Kuklinski" said B.Kristiansen, "I was hoping I could get a bit closer in points to your 3rd place in the championship in this race, but oh no....". Indeed, K.Kuklinski (4Ignition) was the beneficiary of the chicane incident. He managed to pass Pickard's car only with slight contact on the side (left picture red-black-white car), something Kristiansen (white car) wasn't able to achieve.

Putting in a fantastic drive, G.Swan’s lead was never in danger for the remainder of the race. Only Kuklinski remained on the lead lap, with G.Swan knocking on the door at the end of the race. Kuklinski is now back in the title hunt with a slight chance to win the Championship.

G.Swan, with 50 points, now has a 11 point gap to Kuklinski (39) and one more to Mooney (38). With two races remaining, Swan is in great position to win the SimFIA DTM EU Championship, with Kuklinski and Mooney having all the pressure on their side. Winning at Blackwood is a must for both drivers to keep any chance for the Championship alive.

Race 8, third place finisher, C.Roescher (1ST), is improving his performance this year on each race, increasing his role in the Championship battle.

Join us next week at Blackwood to see how the Championship battle continues to unfold.

Drive carefully and take care!

Your DTM reporter,
tomylee.

Needing only a single point to clinch his first SimFIA DTM-North American Championship, L.Baker (CoRe) headed into round 8 at South City with tremendous optimism. With his closest competitor’s chances of winning the Championship on the line, L.Baker was sure to be pressured. Second place Championship competitor M.Tomlin (Eagles), Third place, A.Terrahe (1ST), and Fourth place M.Miller (CoRe) all had aspirations of keeping L.Baker behind them on track to prolong the Championship battle. M.Miller was able to place his CoRe Racing FXO GTR on the pole position with a very fast 41.04 lap. L.Baker was second with a 41.35, followed by A.Terrahe with a 41.60.

When the lights went green, it was a drag race to turn one to see who would get the advantage heading to the first trip through the make-or-break chicane. L.Baker made a move to the inside and upon turn one exit, M.Miller went wide, making contact with the wall. Overheating tires and damage on M.Miller’s car, let L.Baker stretch his lead to several seconds in the first 10 laps of the race, and a full lap by the end of the race.

A.Terrahe also touched the wall several times, including a chicane incident that collected M.Tomlin & S.Green. That incident left A.Terrahe 1.5 laps behind L.Baker after his first pit stop. Upon entering the pit lane for his first pit stop, M.Miller, running second at the time, misjudged his pit entry up and unfortunately, flipped his car out of the pit lane. Two broken shocks and an additional lap to get back to the pits sent M.Miller back in the field, handing A.Terrahe second position in the final race standings. Upon cycling through the pit stops, and the top three drivers (Baker, Terrahe, and Miller) settled into grooves and cruised home, with Championship leader L.Baker winning the race, gaining the necessary points to clinch the title.

Lee Baker after the race:
"I must say that I am proud to have captured this championship for myself and CoRe Racing. I want to thank M.Tomlin, A.Terrahe, B.Gossler, M.Miller, and S.Green for some great racing battles in this season's DTM NA series."

There are still two races remaining in the SimFIA DTM North American Championship with second and third in the standings still to be contested. M.Tomlin (33 pts) and A.Terrahe (32) are the closest to fill the runner-up spot. Miller (26) and Green (22) are a little further back, but are still in the running for a podium Championship finish.

SimFIA congratulates L.Baker (Banshee) on his first DTM Championship!

G.Swan (Mercury) sealed his first SimFIA DTM EU Championship at Blackwood GP with a 10 point win. His closest challengers, R.Mooney (Mercury) and K.Kulkinski (4Ignition), were unable to apply enough pressure to prevent Swan from clinching the title. With G.Swan placing his machine on the point with a 1:07.79, Mooney, having difficulty keeping pace with his teammate during the pre-race, started from the 4th position with a 1:08:31. C.Roescher (1ST) started 2nd with a 1:08.02. Although, J.Pickard (Mercury) qualified 3rd with a 1:08.10, he was forced to start at the rear of the field after some technical difficulties.

Kulkinski made a huge error using his teammate’s pit stop strategy, resulting in a 3rd pit stop for fuel and costing him 4th place. With G.Swan coming away victorious, it would prove to be a costly mistake, as Kulkinski lost enough points to be eliminated from the championship battle. Mooney, fighting his way up to second, drove an impressive race after his second pit stop to close the gap on Swan. Unable to do during the pre-race, he drove very quick times in almost every lap, even topping Swans qualifying time with a race-best, 1:07:71. J.Pickard recovered very nicely from his last starting position to finish 4th, handing Mercury Racing the 3 of the top-4 spots!

With G.Swan running away with the title, Mooney and Kulkinski clinched at least spots 2 and 3 in the championship. Separated by only 4 points, the battle for the runner-up position in the championship comes down to the last race in the season finale at South City Town next week.

Mercury Racing drivers have now won the last two SimFIA DTM EU Championships, with G.Swan in Season 2, and R.Mooney in Season 1. With an early look at next season, can anyone steal the crown away from Mercury? Stay tuned for next week’s action to see if anyone can get a head start on Season 3 with a win over the Mercury drivers at South City Town!

SimFIA congratulates G.Swan from Mercury Racing, for winning the DTM EU Championship!

Two years of Mercury dominance over the DTM-EU ended this season as M.Kowalski (BlackMan) from Cyber-Racing took control with his first DTM championship. Both R.Mooney (Bawbag) from Mercury and M.Kowalski drove the XRR in the first season that featured the XRR with the traditional DTM racecar, the FXR. The championship fight was tight throughout the season with Mooney winning 4 races and Kowalski winning 3 out of the 10. In his post-season interview, M.Kowalski stated “SimFIA DTM was my first completed individual international league ever. I checked XRR because i had experience from another leagues with it. First races were easy to win, I always used R2 without changing them. I had nice fights with R.Mooney and of course some mistakes in the races. The league overall has a very good organization, everything is on time and of course I want to thank for great fun!”

C.Roescher (Kaspur) from 1St-Racing delivered a very constant performance with the FXR, coming in second position ahead of R.Mooney in third. Roescher's comments on the season: “It has been a nice season and I'm very pleased with my overall 2nd position in my third season in the DTM championship. I've had some great battles on the track and the additional XRR class this season made it quite interesting (and tough). Being on the podium as the only FXR driver with (deserved winner) Kowalski and Mooney made this a nice season.”

M.Kierse (TysCaargh) finished in fourth place with very consistent performances, closely followed (2 points) by R.Blauwhoff (ChristijaNL), who joined the season at race 4.

The expected start of season 4 will be around August and will feature some new rules to make the league more interesting and realistic.

The SimFIA DTM Officials congratulates M.Kowalski on his championship, and a big Thank-You to all the participants.

For more information on the DTM series, please visit http://www.simfia.com