A Race in the Family

Christmas is gone and so is the current SRS season after the sixth and final week of the series with many good results for the 4Fun pilots, who also joined for the first time a race all together – a really weird one, to be honest. But going in order, let’s start the report by celebrating the astounding first 4Fun season of Matteo Venuti. After adding a new hard disk to the PC we can finally list his results of the week: three wins (Mazda 787B at MoSport, Mazda MX-5 at Zandvoort and Audi TT Cup at Spa), a second (Mazda MX-5), a third (Ginetta GT4 at Donington) and a fourth place (Lotus Evora at Brands Hatch), leading to a second (Lotus), a third (Ginetta) and three fourth overall places (Mazda MX-5, Mazda 787B and Audi TT). Asked in the press conference for a comment on his very good results although a championship win is still missing, Venuti declared: “I don’t sleep. I wait.”, and the admired reporters stared speechless each other thinking he is a heck of a racedriver.

A very good season ending also for Gianluca Roncaglia, that thanks to his win on the very first race of the week in Spa had at least a win on every track and clinched the final overall 2nd place in the ranking, his best result so far. Happy like a child, he messaged and phoned all his friends and acquaintances to spread the good news, forcing most of them to blacklist him in order not to being spammed anymore with the verbose tales of his simracing achievements. Roncaglia also called on the phone his mother, telling her he had a sweep with the Audi TT Cup. “What is the Audi TT Cup supposed to be, son? A new vacuum cleaner model?”, his mother said. “As for sweeping, well, the floor here needs it, if you want to come for help.”

Meanwhile, Dario Bucalo and Omer Kinay had to face again lack of time for racing in the past week. Bucalo Bill got back to Iowa to his family for Christmas holiday, but instead of horse and bridles this time took his old wheel home – he also has a little Mario Kart wheel to play Assetto Corsa on the cellphone, just in case – and was able in the end to get at least an 8th place and the 20th overall position in the Audi TT Cup series, a good result under circumstances; and in cold Canada Kinay had to free the road before his home from the abundant snow, which he did by overheating and melting it with 500 laps at high speed with his car around the house. Kinay also lost the power connector cable of his wheel, and had to replace it with one he built recycling the TV, refrigerator and washing machine ones – priorities, you know?

Anyway, both Bucalo and Kinay, along with Roncaglia and Venuti, were able to join on Saturday the 4Fun End of the Season Celebration Race with the Audi TT. Unfortunately, the results didn’t match the 4Fun racers expectations, with only a third place for Venuti, who also grabbed his 300th SRS podium (congrats, Matteo!). Kinay (14th), although able to perform 75 laps at Spa in 15 minutes of practice, had to start in the middle of the pack and couldn’t recover from the shock of being surrounded by cars – he usually has them only behind; Roncaglia (17th) joined the race overwhelmed by the emotions of the event, blowing bubbles from his mouth after a dinner in his mother’s house – where he also swept the floor – and a couple of beers with Maurice Klerken: he had therefore a flying start (!) and lost himself near the pit not finding the entrance to serve his drive-through penalty (!!), since he forgot to insert the coordinates of the Spa boxes in his Google Maps navigator. A race of struggle also for Bucalo (23rd), that although supported by his father and his girlfriend had to pay the price of his lack of practice throughout the week – his father also took the wheel off his hands and did the last two laps, saying he couldn’t do worse than him. Unsatisfied with the results of the race, the 4Fun guys had then as a sort of consolation prize a Risk game together, easily won by Kinay whose setupped tanks were 4X faster on occupying enemy territories. Stay tuned for the updates on the oncoming new SRS series, and Happy New Year to you all!

Playlist of the week:

Level 42 – Running in the Family (for 4Fun racers)

ABBA – Waterloo (for Omer Kinay – twice – and Dario Bucalo)

Supertramp – Just Another Nervous Wreck (for Dario Bucalo)

Dire Straits – Where Do You Think You’re Going? (for Gianluca Roncaglia)

Style Council – Shout to the Top! (for Matteo Venuti)