Some LRF action concluded Tiger Express Events‘ year, as the RACCAR series returned for its second season. Many of the drivers were different, but the format stayed the same: 8 races over 4 events, 3 on road courses, and one on an autocross course, using the 31% restricted Raceabout (RAC). The main change was in the administration of the league, after iCON Racing were in charge of the inaugural season.
Despite neither Fredrik Enersen (currently on an LFS-wide break) nor CoRe Racing deciding to defend their 2009 titles, standards were still high, with an average of 17 cars each round, and several MoE/IGTC drivers taking part.
Fern Bay Gold would play host to round 1, and Nikifor Dakovic; made sure he started the season on a high. The Bosnian driver managed to grab pole, the win and fastest lap in the sprint race, but missed the double hat trick due to a rare mistake: “I dropped the clutch just a fraction of a second before the green lights at the start of feature race, which earned me a drive-through penalty. I had a double job to do after clearing my penalty at the end of lap 3. After the race I found out that I wasn’t obligated to do the penalty inside of 3 laps.” After an epic climb from the back of the pack, Dakovic; nevertheless managed to finish 2nd with the fastest lap, a few seconds behind Tiger Express‘ Oskari Rinne.
Round 2 at Blackwood GP Reversed saw two entrants from Team Wales taking the victories: Isaac Price in sprint race, and Sebastian Hutchinson in feature race. Nevertheless, both were involved into controversy, especially Price who caused 2 incidents with championship leader Dakovic; in feature race, leading to a post-race drive-through penalty for him. Dakovic; would still manage to get 3rd, one place behind his closest rival at the championship, Oskari Rinne. The gap between those two would be 4 points as the season went into its second half.
But this wasn’t enough to worry the My3id driver, as he showed his full potential in the second half of the season, taking a clean sweep of all available honours in each race. Pole, two wins and two fastest laps in round 3 at the tricky DekoRing autocross layout were followed up by the same in the final round at South City Town Reversed, therefore clinching full points for the second half of the season. That was despite a four way battle for the lead in the final few laps of the final race, mid season entrant Michael Booth, and TEM’s Oskari Rinne and Yann Laprevotte all involved in ensuring Dakovic; wouldn’t take the championship without a fight.
Without any surprises, Nikifor Dakovic; became the second champion in RACCAR history with 89 points, composed of 5 wins, 8 podiums and 6 fastest laps out of 8 races. His main challenger Oskari Rinne (1 win, 7 podiums) took the runner-up spot 18 points behind. The closest battle was for the final podium spot, which looked to be heading the way of Deadline Team’s Giedrius Orla after four top 5 in the four first races. However a terrible second half of the campaign meant that Yann Laprevotte (3 podiums) and Lims Chebbi (1 podium) would both leapfrog him for 3rd and 4th, leaving the poor Lithuanian finishing the season in 5th.
Meanwhile, Tiger Express Motorsports (Rinne-Laprevotte-Chebbi) took the title after leading the championship from the beginning of the season. They amassed a 64 point advantage on single car entry My3id Gaming (Dakovic). Angel Power Racing (Dohnalik-Chynovsky-Kapal) claimed 3rd after consistent point scoring.
The final words go to Dakovic;: “Difficult tracks with reversed grids made it very interesting, especially the last race of the season. A big thanks for very professional admining goes to TEM guys and also congratulations for winning the teams title. I couldn’t beat three of you guys. ”
Thanks to Michael Booth for correcting the many mistakes.
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