A reminder - server will be password protected 1 hour before qualifying start to keep not knowing crowded server jumpers out of way,pass will be always the same: green
Pitting rules:
Race requires a minimum time spent in pitstall of 10 seconds. That can be done either with single pitstop or sum of multiple pitstops. Driver who has spent less time will receive penalty time added to his finish time,which will be calculated by tripling the missing time to complete neccesary minimum time and adding additional 5 seconds. Drivers failing to pit at all will receive 1 minute penalty added to finish time (10s*3 + additional 30s).
Some historic stats:
Last race won by: S1DUS*GáboR
Last UF1 race won by: S1DUS*GáboR (75th RTFR XL - AS Cadet)
Most UF1 race wins: S1DUS*Botsi - 3 wins (Finland - 3 wins)
Last South City race won by: [FM]ˆRex (93rd RTFR XL - FBM @ SO City Long Rev.)
Most South City race wins: S1DUS*Botsi - 5 wins (Finland - 8 wins)
Current rating leader: S1DUS*uNite (+13 points)
After a break of just over 1.5 years,the slowest LFS standard car made it's return to RTFR XL and that for the 7th time in event,putting the car in sole 2nd position in most used cars chart. The track however made it's debut - it's the 1st of all short South City configs to be used in this event and despite it's 2 kilometer lap length,it presented a challenge every lap as the downhill entry to the tricky chicane complicated things,especially if running in bunch.
This was one of the situations,where combo selector used his choice to be on top of the game in the race day. Gábor won the previous race and kept the performance practically unchallenged also in this one - even if the gap of 0.12s does not sound big for a qualifying lap,for the short lap it's still very decisive and Gábor scored his 14th RTFR XL pole position. During the first lap he saw closest rival right beside him,but eventually dropped him and kept his focus through all 73 laps he led to score his 12th RTFR XL race win,tying all time most,previously set by R.Kardol. Having more pole positions,the success of yesterday puts the hungarian on top of all time success ranking,where he added also the 13th fastest lap of the race to his stats,breaking into sole leading position in this chart,22nd top5 finish besides all this might sound as a small achievement. With 18 seconds gap to winner,best of the rest was previous success ranking leader R.Kardol,who still leads the most top5 finishes chart - his 2nd place finish yesterday was the 51st one of those. The late night driver from Singapore improved his both best results by a position in this race - Sean was 2nd in qualifying,but lost a position during the race to finish 3rd,scoring his 4th top5 finish. Current rating and standings leader Unite joined late in qualifying,setting rather low result in session,but rallied through field to challenge for 3rd position late in the race,but unsuccessfully and he had to settle for 4th place finish,which is his 30th top5 finish. The 5th place driver of the day was Thehemuli,who was in this position in both sessions - that's 4th top5 finish for him in this year,5th overall.
* FUN FACT OF THE MONTH :
No driver has been able to set more than 3 winning streaks in RTFR XL until this race - with 2nd win in row,Gábor started his 4th winning streak. In 4 weeks he has a chance to extend the current one to 3 wins,which would tie Botsi's record of most 3 or more race win streaks.
* CLOCK PITTER OF THE RACE :
There's no recorded situation where this honor was shared between 2 drivers - two finns had a pitstop time of 10.11 seconds,so Unite and Thehemuli are co-clock pitters in this race. Interestingly another finn managed a perfect 10.00,however just with a 2nd try (where he needed only 8.7 seconds to avoid penalty).
* FIELD RUSHER OF THE RACE :
With low performance in qualifying and 4th place finish,there are no doubts about field rusher this time - Unite had a gain of 12 positions between start and finish,while 2nd best progress was just 1/3 of his.
VOD at Youtube:
Both top2 finishers have selected combos for max allowed 2 times this year,so the selection was relayed to 3rd place finisher,who still has not submitted a valid selection,so we have to wait for info of season finale for a while. Next week normal RTFR will return with one of the slick tyre cars,full info about the race will be posted this weekend.