The Tiger Express Z30 Festival is a league created in late April 2011, aiming to propose some racing on some of the new tracks opened by the brand new Z30 patch, in a fair, fun, but nevertheless formal athmosphere. A wide selection of cars will be used in the inaugural season, from the STDs to the FO8.
The league already looks to be a success, after only 2 rounds completed out of 5. An average of 30.5 cars took the start in the two first races of the season. Furthermore, standards have been extremely high at the top of the field. Every single driver and team nominated in the 2010 LFS driver and LFS team of the year award have taken in at least one race so far, except Marius Golombeck. However, most of the race and qualifying sessions have been dominated by ineX Racing and spdo Racing so far.
Round 1 has been dominated by Joe Holmes(ineX Racing). The English teenager drove his XFG perfectly on the Fern Bay Classic Reversed(FE25R) layout, and took a commanding hat-trick, without ever being worried by his rivals. Egon Liibeon(spdo Racing) takes 2nd place, despite losing track in the traffic after making his compulsary pitstop earlier than his opponents. Sonicrealms Racing's recent recruit Tommy Ostgaard takes 3rd after a brilliant climb from 14th on the grid. ineX Racing's Simon Cattell and Isaac Price round up the top 5 after a brilliant scrap in the last few laps. Only 21 drivers saw the finish, but this is mainly due to Fern Bay's high kerbs and dangerous barriers, which ruined many drivers' hopes, including second place starter Reno Kööts'(spdo Racing).
Round 2 took place on the very tricky Aston Cup layout(AS24, a combination of AS1 and AS2), with the FOX. spdo Racing's Matias Pikkarainen was on pole. However, 3rd and 2nd place starter, real life 2010 Formula Ford World Champion Dennis Lind(Dennis Inc.) and FOX specialist Teemu Iivonen(ineX Racing) passed him at lap 1. The order stayed the same up front, until Iivonen passed his Danish rival for the lead at lap 10. Lind then stayed no more than 2 second from the lead, and made a concrete attack at 4 laps to go. Iivonen looked to be able to hold on, but he then span and almost rolled at the AS1 turn 1, letting Lind take an impressive victory. Behind him come an ineX train in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, all less than 6 seconds from the winner. 2009, 2010 and 2011 Kyoto 250 winner Phil Diaz comes in 2nd, having started only 11th. Then poor Iivonen comes 3rd, in front of championship leader Joe Holmes and fastest lap setter Robin Friskopps. "Best of the rest" is 2010 iTCC champion Karolis Kliaudaitis, finishing in 6th more than 26 seconds behind, having beaten Jack Sedgewick for less than a tenth.
At the drivers' championship, ineX Racing's Joe Holmes keeps the lead with 83 points. Then comes spdo Racing's Egon Liibeon with 58, and Phil Diaz(ineX Racing) with 57. 3 drivers are tieing for 4th with 50 points: round 2 winner Dennis Lind, Karolis Kliaudaitis, and the very surprising Jack Sedgewick(Fred Loves Pie). Everything remains open however, with the worst result being dropped for everyone at the end of the season.
The situation is a lot clearer at the teams' championship, with ineX Racing and spdo Racing topping the sheet with 148 and 101 points each. The battle for the 3rd podium slot is a lot closer, with Angel Power Racing, Tiger Express Motorsports, Dennis Inc., Sonicrealms Racing, My3id Gaming and Fred Loves Pie all grouped in 13 points.
Drivers quotes: http://www.tigerexpress.net/2011/05/27/z30-festival-inex-racings-joe-holmes-leads-after-2-rounds/
Standings and Results | Round 1 Pictures | Round 2 Pictures