2nd SRS Team Championship – Week 4 Report

The fourth round of the second 4Fun Team Championship is over (as predicted last week two more are coming, if our abacus doesn’t lie), and all the drivers engaged in this thrilling last part of the season are lying in bed with ice packs on their backs in order to relieve the pains from all the shocks absorbed in the bumpy Zandvoort and Grobnik tracks, waiting for new challenges and fights. So it’s time to read the news before getting back on tarmac for more bumps to come!

Don’t live in a black and white world and pick any color you like by praising the Broomgang guys, leading once again the pack with a thundering 112 pts, resulted from the 109,5 pts. of Luke Bouwmeester and the amazing 115 pts. of David Broomhead, who is also the MVP (“Maximizing Victories Pilot”) of the week. The Brooms are also getting four out of six spots on the podium for fast laps, so if you want to take a nice picture of their cars for a shining desktop background hurry up, or you’ll only be framing exhaust fumes. The BG guys also increase their advantage on the opponents in the overall ranking, so catch them if you can before it’s too late! And with a slight touch of the magic button the TradePriceCars guys teleported themselves once again on the podium with 100 pts., saving also time to feed and pamper their cats. Three wins for Michael Martin (106 pts.), who is making a notch on his livery for every 1^st place and rapidly running out of space, and a win and a second place for Sergio “TPC guys are slow but nice” Mendez (94,17 pts.), who also gets a special “Sentence of the week” prize. Very mice… sorry, nice, and once again cat(ch) them if you can! Third step of the podium for the 4Fun Sim Racing team (93 pts.), leaded by Omer Kinay (105,4 pts., three wins and laptime bonuses, but also a 71 pts. race for him, but this result must certainly be a points-counter glitch) and Matteo Venuti (98,5 pts., a win and the second best race laptime in his only try – he had nothing more to prove to the audience after that), followed by Gianluca Roncaglia (96,5 pts.) and the top racer young gun Dario Bucalo (73 pts.), that in his “Bucalo Bill” disguise was heading to his home in Iowa and had to rapidly fire his few weekly bullets, but will be ready to race in the winter layout Tor Poznan track, in which he proudly holds the world record for the longest slide ever (1,4 km) with the Cupra.

Right off the podium, but always aiming at the top, the ultra-ultra-solid Full Send Racing guys (91 pts.), that gets their best from Jason Jones (100,33 pts. with a win, two second places and a spot in the racing best laps) but had also a very good performance from Colin “Chill Out” Chilibeck (95 pts. and a win) and Giuseppe D’Andrea (78,5 pts.), although Giuseppe had a little decrease from his past week results. Once again fifth place and tons of gentle overtakes for the GentDrivers guys (88 pts.), getting a win and a fast race laptime with Lars “Life On” Mars (97,5 pts.) and a second place with Roman Bisanz (96,5 pts.), while Abdon Socias (80 pts.) and Christopher Myles (78 pts.) get once again some gentle performances on the rude Zandvoort track. On sixth place, crawling back from ninth while hardly practicing for the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, the HR Racing guys (84 pts.), still involved in some social distance disrespecting issues on the track but always grabbing at least some good results with Nicholas Hall (85 pts.) and Andrew Roberts (82 pts., greatly improving his last week performance).

Also climbing the ladder on a sweeter spot are the Thunder Crew Sim Racing guys, that with a flashing stream of consciousness are slipstreaming to seventh place, getting a remarkable 93,33 pts. from Jack Mike Mass and a bunch of placements on a busy racing schedule from Martin Sorg (79,75 pts.), Evgeni Arkov (78,4 pts., back to good results after a troubled week), Henrik Kjellberg (75,5 pts.) and Alex “Poker Face” Geier – no matter how many bumps he gets, he will always go all-in without the slightest change of his mimic -, still in big credit with luck (71 pts. for him). With a big increase – from 3,5 to 10 minutes – of their practicing time, Paolo (76,5 pts.) and Stefano Del Grande (75,5 pts.) of the Italia Racing Team (79 pts. and the eight place for the week) could accomplish good results in their only try, boosted by a very good performance from Fabio Blascovich (85 pts.), while Matteo Deambrogio and Marco Di Paolantonio where fighting on karts after the Easter picnic. The ninth place goes to the Pista & Fichi guys (78 pts.), that got a second place from Andrea Giusto in his only try (84 pts.) and also good placements on the five races distance from Davide Ramo (77 pts., and – attention, spoiler – be prepared for incoming improvements), while Simone “GR and Good Night” Saviolo (72,4 pts.), despite a difficult start of the week got his first (and clean) win on SRS on his last try – according to him, celebrated with a helicopter ride, whatever that means – greeted from the ground by Andrea Piovanelli and Simone Scuola waving their hands in the air (instead than on a wheel). Last but not least, the restless, rusty and ravishing Rose Team guys (75 pts.): although their tenth place sounds a bit disappointing after last week’s blooming, they could get some podium placements with Massimiliano Cazzaniga (83 pts.) and Mauro “Can you get the Irony?” Castelli (82,75 pts.) and started a dispute with Davide Schinetti (69 pts.) and Francesco Senni (63,5 pts.) on whether Slash deserves or not a place among the best guitar players of all times while listening Poison’s Every Rose Has Its Thorn. The dispute is still ongoing, will the Roses be able to avoid distractions while in Thorn Poznan?

The first step of the podium, in a series confirming his trend of overall lower total points for the teams involved, once again belongs to the TradePriceCars guys (92 pts.), getting one win each with David Iglesias (97 pts.) and Simon Speth, that also thanks to his laptime bonuses grabs 106,5 pts. and wins the competition amongst aliens getting the MVP (“Most Venusian Player”) of the week award. The team’s results are cemented with the good performance of Alex Leif (88 pts.) and the just-a-little-less good performance by Michael Martin (76 pts. – hey, he is not supposed to win whatever he races, right – or is he?). The second place for the week goes to the 4Fun Sim Racing duo (87 pts.), with Matteo Venuti (a win, a second place, laptime bonuses and 105,5 pts. – ‘nuff said) writing and producing all the tracks of the album, while the new entry Dario Bucalo (69 pts.) designed the cover sleeve and Gianluca Roncaglia took a pause behind the scenes planning and organizing the band’s promotional tour. The third place on the podium – a brilliant new entry – goes to the PleasePushMe guys (83 pts.), that with a big push jumped on the top of the hill especially thanks to the astounding racing week of Nicolò Bachetti (104,2 pts.) that gets four wins in a row and also the podium both in qualy and race laptimes. Wow! Another good week also for Stefano Casamonti (77 pts.), still adding consistency to his performances, while Simone Pinto (68,5 pts.) has a (hopefully short) break on his improving trend and is called to show his guts on the two remaining rounds.

And, right off the podium, we have three teams with 82 points! With a little step back, it’s time for the Team Havoline guys (82 pts.), getting a win with Matheus Nolli (91,5 pts. – also some jet-lag issues for him, since most of his time zone races were with less than 6 drivers) and good placements for Michal Janak (90,5 pts.) and Eduardo Odriozola (74,5 pts., confirming and also slightly improving his last week performance), while Juan Alberdi (71 pts.) unfortunately dropped some points on the road but is planning his revenge working on some classified mods. 82 points also for the Drive to Survive team, that is once again a one-man-team as Martin Faber (93,4 points and three wins for him) had no time even for a 5 minutes break on his couch while Amitesh Rao is still vacating – please, send us a postcard and get back on the track soon! – and Maurice Klerken is doing a full immersion Hatha Yoga master class, learning also diaphragmatic breathing and gear shifting. And in the end, 82 points for the GentDrivers guys, getting the best single race points result from Christopher Myles (92, but only one try and a total of 80 pts.) and once again leaded by Roman Bisanz (92 pts. and a seventh place in the best race laptimes ranking), while Abdon Socias grabs 75 total points – in the meantime Lars Mars and Tim Masson were teaching how to perfectly do a Windsor and a Half Windsor tie knot on a Internet class. Once again, seventh and last place with no races for the Pista & Fichi guys, engaged in an Internet class on learning how to loosen a tie when a Windsor knot is too tight. Looking forward to see you back on the track, with or without a tie!

And that’s all for this week. Tighten your knots, put your helmets on and get ready to race in Tor Poznan – don’t forget your coats, it’s cold there – and in Brands Hatch. Good luck and have fun!

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