Category Archives: Race Previews

Barcelona Preview

Posted on May 10, 2019 | 2 comments

It all comes down to Spain, as the final racer of the 2018-19 SBMRL season will take place at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Barcelona

Formula 1’s offseason testing track, Circuit de Catalunya was built in 1991 and played host to the Spanish Grand Prix that very year. During the 1992 Summer Olympics, it hosted the cycling team time trials event.

The starting grid sits pushed back on the extremely long pit straight which means that starting position won’t be a significant factor in the race. The first corner the drivers will face is called Elf and is quick right-left combination that leads into a long, full throttle curve.

The rest of the track is simultaneously straight forward and nigh on impossible to get perfectly right. While each corner in and of itself isn’t particularly challenging, the constant acceleration and deceleration between them will result in some cars simply getting thrown off. The long straight into La Caixa is one that can make or break a lap.

This all culminates in the tight third sector, where the field can get bunched back up. The sector itself is probably the least complicated, but that will depend somewhat on having run cleanly prior. As we saw at Watkins Glen, don’t be surprised to see cars skip the pits between laps, as the long straight will tempt drivers to fly down it at top speed.

Starting Grid

With a tie at the bottom of the driver standings, by rule, pole position goes to the lower finisher at Watkins Glen. That would nominally be Launch Bornado, but Launch also has a one spot grid penalty for knocking Bubba McQueen out of the last race. Fortunately, he’ll still start on the front row.

  1. Sheila Dinkum (RM)
  2. Launch Bornado (FR)*
  3. Bubba McQueen (SR)
  4. Rask Sjofar (SB)
  5. The Stig (SB)
  6. Jaap Snellrijder (RM)
  7. Delilah Whipplefilter (FR)
  8. Whiplash (SR)

Once again, each team will have a driver in the top four.

Pit selection is order of team standings. Scandinavian Blitz and Regency Motors are currently tied, so the tie is broken by average starting position fo the team’s cars.

  1. Sprite Racing
  2. Force Ravenswood
  3. Scandinavian Blitz
  4. Regency Motors

Barcelona is the home race for Delilah Whipplefilter.

Track History

The SBMRL visited Barcelona last year for the season’s final race and it was tightly contested. Jaap pulled away on the second lap, but there were 5 different race leaders. Sprite Racing had a poor showing, but it was Bubba’s last place finish that caused him to be fired from Force Ravenswood. It’s a memory that the team has not forgotten, as it cost them the team championship.

SBMRL @ Barcelona

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Watkins Glen Preview

Posted on April 19, 2019 | Leave a comment

Race 8 of the 2018-19 SBMRL season takes us to upstate New York and Watkins Glen. It’s the 5th different track the league has raced at in the United States.

Watkins Glen

The Glen, as it’s known, was purpose built for racing in the 1950’s after several years of racing on public roads prior to that. The track was designed by aerospace engineer Bill Milliken in conjunction with engineers from Cornell University. Throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s, it was host to Forumula 1’s United States Grand Prix.

The track features a couple of configuration choices. The first is the Inner Loop chicane designed to slow speeds heading into the big bend of the Outer Loop. The second is the large boot section. The SBMRL has decided to include both the Inner Loop and the Boot.

The front straight isn’t particularly long and heads right into the aptly named first corner: The 90. The short straight then leads into a trio of corners known as the Esses. The Esses are spaced in such a way that drivers who get it right should be able to gradually accelerate through them on their way to the back straight.

The back straight features the Inner Loop chicane that will slow the field before the sweeping right hander known as the Outer Loop. Even with the chicane, the Back Straight is one of the longer straights on the track… don’t expect the high speeds of Magny-Cours here.

The Outer Loop leads into the Boot, which features a number of larger corners. None of them are as big as the Outer Loop itself, but the Chute, Toe, and Heel, are all perfectly comfortable corners. Someone will probably get this section wrong, but the race leaders will fly through here.

Coming out of the Boot is fairly easy left hander before a couple of shorter turns spit the field back onto the pit straight. It should be noted that pit entry comes almost immediately after the final corner, so anyone who’s struggled on the first lap will need to be careful to control their speed coming out of it.

Starting Grid

Whiplash extended his lead while the rest of the field got shuffled up. With Jaap and Delilah tied in the standings, Delilah will start closer to the front since she finished behind Jaap in France.

  1. Sheila Dinkum (RM)
  2. Launch Bornado (FR)
  3. Rask Sjofar (SB)
  4. Bubba McQueen (SR)
  5. The Stig (SB)
  6. Delilah Whipplefilter (FR)
  7. Jaap Snellrijder (RM)
  8. Whiplash (SR)

The order of pit selection is the same as last race, as the order of the team standings hasn’t changed. However, Sprite Racing has pulled out a significant lead over the other three, who are all within 5 points of each other:

  1. Sprite Racing
  2. Scandinavian Blitz
  3. Force Ravenswood
  4. Regency Motors

Watkins Glen is the home race for Whiplash and Launch.


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Magny-Cours Preview

Posted on March 13, 2019 | 2 comments

Race 7 on the 2018-19 SBMRL calendar takes us to Magny-Cours, France.

Magny-Cours

The Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours was originally constructed in the 1960’s and saw Formula 1 race there in the 1990’s and 2000’s. It has played host to the SBMRL once previously, which took place two seasons ago.

A clockwise circuit, Magny-Cours is known for its extremely high speed stretches. It will certainly tax the engines as they rev to full throttle.

The pit straight is fairly short, with a quick left hander called Grande Courbe to open things up. From there, a smooth right by the name of Estoril can be taken pretty much as fast as the cars are able to push. The long Golf straight that follows is one of the longest we’ll see this year, and the cars will be flying down it as fast as they possibly can.

The Golf straight ends at the sharp Adelaide hairpin, one of the hardest braking corners this season. Expect some cars to get it wrong here, but it may be a case of fast in slow out as a preference over the norm. The straight that follows isn’t particularly short, but the Nurburgring corner is more of a slight shuffle than the chicane it is officially listed as.

The next corner is a 180 degree bend to the left. Were it sharper, it’d be a hairpin, and were it less sharp, it would resemble the Estoril corner from the first sector. As it is, it’s basically the inside line of that corner heading back in the other direction, and it falls between the two extremes. It’s followed by a relatively lengthy straight before the Imola chicane, a bend similar to the Nurburgring corner seen earlier.

Chateua D’Eau follows Imola in quick succession, one of the only real rhythm combinations on the track. A moderate straight and the Complexe du Lycée is all that stands remaining before the pits.

Starting Grid

There’s a new leader atop the driver standings and a bit of a shuffle in the ranks after South Africa. The result is that the grid for Magny-Cours shapes up as follows:

  1. Launch Bornado (FR)
  2. Sheila Dinkum (RM)
  3. Rask Sjofar (SB)
  4. Bubba McQueen (SR)
  5. Jaap Snellrijder (RM)
  6. Delilah Whipplefilter (FR)
  7. The Stig (SB)
  8. Whiplash (SR)

Each team sports a driver in the top 4 and each team has one in the bottom four, highlighting how evenly matched things are this year.

The order of pit selection is the order of team standings:

  1. Sprite Racing
  2. Scandinavian Blitz
  3. Force Ravenswood
  4. Regency Motors

Magny-Cours is the home race for both Jaap and Rask.

Track History

While Magny-Cours has only held one SBMRL event, it was an eventful one. Launch took the victory after starting in 6th place on the grid, so it’s clearly a track where every driver has a legitimate shot at victory. Only Launch, Jaap, and the Stig participated the last time out. The Stig finished 7th and Jaap crashed out, so they’ll be looking for some redemption. Jamonito del Verde and Mater were the other two drivers on the podium.

SBMRL @ Magny-Cours

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