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Austin Recap

Posted on October 24, 2024 | Leave a comment

The SBMRL’s return to the track for the 2024-25 season saw a hugely successful race in Portland, Oregon to start the new season. The league headed south to Austin, Texas for the second race of the year. Would it be as hotly contested?

All eyes were on Pieter Pieperpoes after his come from behind victory in Portland, but he would be starting from the back of the grid in Austin. At the sharp end of the grid, Parker LaCroix would be looking to atone for a difficult first outing. Here’s how the entire grid stacked up:

P1 – Parker Lacroix (SB)
P2 – Orzo Albies (MnS)
P3 – Max (SM)
P4 – Mai “Cashew” Maghur (FP)
P5 – Felix (SM)
P6 – Ramen Acuna Jr (MnS)
P7 – Liu S. Amil X (FP)
P8 – Stoot van Vaart (RM)
P9 – Magnus Rasksen (SB)
P10 – Pieter Pieperpoes (RM)

Last time out in Portland, Max got off to a fast start and immediately rammed into Orzo. This time it was Stoot who got off to the hot start and it was Ramen who suffered for it. Despite all of that, the grid proceeded up the hill into the first corner mostly in the same order they started in. With Parker out front, the field bunched up behind him and Stoot was the first to make a big move, weaving through the field in Turn 2. Liu was the one who began an early challenge with Parker for the lead, however.

Liu just ahead of Parker with the rest of the field about as close as

With almost nothing separating the cars, there was plenty of opportunity for collisions. Both Mai and Liu suffered minor body damage that would leave debris on the track for others to deal with later. The bunching of the field also gave opportunities for wily drivers to find paths ahead of their opponents, something that Pieter took advantage of to move join the top half of runners.

Heading into the back straight, Parker was just ahead of Liu, with some surprising cars behind them. Not even halfway through the first lap, Magnus and Pieter, who had started 9th and 10th, were already running 3rd and 4th respectively. The cars from Switch Motorsports and Mac ‘N Speed were doing their best not to fall too far behind, as they were the bottom four.

Liu go the speed advantage on Parker down the back straight, flying through Turn 6 and then slamming on the brakes for the winding Turn 7. Pieter and Stoot, both of Regency Motors also found speed down the back straight. In his effort to keep up with the Regency Motors cars, however, Mai collided with Pieter and found himself out of the race.

Mai crashes out after colliding with Pieter

With nine cars remaining on track, the field ploughed into the 3rd sector where the field appeared to bunch up again. The reality matched appearances, which meant there were again chances for some moves to be made. Pieter’s strong first lap continued as he joined Liu and Parker in the lead group of cars. The middle group featured Max in the 4th place position. This was a positive turn of events from the Switch Motorsports driver, who had fallen all the way to last place after starting 3rd on the grid. In the back, Ramen was struggling to keep up.

The top three drivers all dove for the pits, feeling they needed fresh rubber after pushing their vehicles on the first lap. Magnus followed suit, but Stoot opted to charge ahead on his worn tires. Skipping the pits had worked a treat for him in Portland, but this time around he didn’t gain much of an advantage. Max and Ramen would also skip the pits in an effort to keep up with the others.

Pieter’s pit stop was the most effective and he soon found himself alone at the front in the first sector on the second lap. Parker and Stoot weren’t that far back, but Liu was struggling mightily to get his tires up to temperature. He soon found himself gradually falling farther and farther behind as the rest of the field swallowed him up.

While Pieter led and Parker tried to catch him, the battle for 3rd place really started to heat up. First, Stoot bumped into Magnus leaving debris on the track at the exit of Turn 3. Then he did it again leaving debris on the racing line in Turn 4. Felix was ultimately the driver to get punished for all of this. Battling his teammate for 5th place just behind them, he was unable to avoid the debris, snapping a suspension and ending his race.

With Liu fading badly and Felix out of the picture, Ramen and Orzo were on the move to start tracking down Max and salvaging some points out of what had been a difficult race. Up front, Parker suddenly found himself surrounded by orange and red. He wasn’t able to hit turn 5 with speed, and now he wasn’t just chasing Pieter for the lead, but looking at Stoot and Magnus very large in his mirrors.

Stoot, who had hit turn 5 perfectly, flew down the straight with such speed that he caught up with Pieter at the front. The Scandinavian Blitz drivers suddenly looking at taillights. Magnus got the better pace and was able to keep them in his sights heading into the third sector.

While the four cars at the front battled through Turn 7, the rest of the field began to throw caution to the wind and charge forward. The field was divided into two 4-car packs and there really was very little between the four cars in each group. Everything was to play for up front, and the back four had an equal challenge of, if not catching the top 4, at least making the most of their position behind.

To start with the front four, it was Parker, whose back straight speed had left him wanting. He would need a perfect run through the third sector and a mistake from the top 3 to score a podium. Meanwhile, Stoot had been so gentle on his tires in lap 1 but the complete opposite on lap 2.

Stoot was out front for most of the third sector, but his tires left him having to fight his car through most of it. Pieter and Magnus, on the other hand, were driving slow and smooth and fast. Stoot rounded the final corner in the lead but with no momentum. Pieter and Magnus flew down the pit straight and across the finish line well ahead of him. Parker wasn’t quite close enough to catch up, but he made it quite close and a much better result than what he accomplished in Portland.

While all of this was happening, the trailing pack was having their own trials and tribulations with the final sector. Max and Orzo took a small advantage over Ramen and Liu. Orzo didn’t quite hit the final two turns right, allowing Max to take 5th place. Liu was even worse off. Last among the cars still running, he pushed it just a bit too far at Turn 9 and spun his car. Ramen flew by him and soon found himself in a drag race with his teammate. It was a race he would win as he edged Orzo by a nose at the finish line. Liu would limp home behind them.

Final Results

Driver	Start	Lap	Finish
Pieter Pieperpoes (RM)	10	1	1
Magnus Rasksen (SB)	9	6	2
Stoot van Vaart (RM)	8	4	3
Parker Lacroix (SB)	1	2	4
Max (SM)	3	5	5
Ramen Acuna Jr. (MnS)	6	7	6
Orzo Albies (MnS)	2	9	7
Liu S. Amil X (FS)	7	3	8
Felix (SM)	5	8	9*
Mai “Cashew” Maghur (FS)	4	10*	10*

* – DNF

Pieter’s win makes him the first driver in SBMRL history to win the first two races of the season. In fact, he’s the only race one winner to even podium in the second race. Unlike Portland, Pieter made his move early in the race, took command in the middle, then fought off his challengers late to take the win.

Magnus had a bit of an unexpected 2nd place to match his first result. Previously, only Sheila Dinkum had finished 2nd in the first two races. He spent most of the race in the middle, but moved up to podium contention midway into the second lap. Stoot will regret missing out on the win after being ahead so late, but he should be quite happy with the final result.

Only 4 drivers held a lead at any point in the race. Three of them finished in the top four, and the other was Liu, who just had a miserable second lap to finish 8th. At least he finished, though. Felix and Mai were the first two casualties of the season, seeing their races end prematurely.

The top 3 in the drivers standings repeating their exact finishing order is unprecendented, and leaves the rest of the field with some catching up to do. Perhaps surprisingly, Ramen is in 4th place after the first two races. His 5th and 6th place finishes are enough to edge out Liu, who was 4th place in Portland. Orzo and Mai are in 9th and 10th place, neither having yet reached 10 total points on the season.

From a team standpoint, Regency Motors and Scandinavian Blitz both had races to be very happy with. Mac ‘N Speed edged out Switch Motorsports by a couple of points. Fir Splays will be looking for quite a bit more next time out. Their measly 5 points for the race puts them in last place in the team standings, albeit not far behind the two teams in front of them.

Race Gallery

Austin Preview

Posted on October 5, 2024 | Leave a comment

The SBMRL returns to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas for the October race of the 2024-25 season. It’s been 5 years since the last race there, pre-Covid, and it’ll be a celebratory atmosphere as it’s the one evergreen circuit on the schedule.

Circuit of the Americas, or COTA, was proposed as a purpose built track in 2010, with constuction following such that it was able to open just two years later in 2012. The first lap of the track was driven by Mario Andretti in a Lotus 79. This was the car he drove to win the World Drivers’ Championship in 1978.

The SBMRL first drove here in 2015. Jaap Snellrijder won the inaugural race, and after winning in 2019 became the only driver to win it twice. Mater, Launch Bornado, and The Stig all won here as well. Given that Launch was a member of Force Ravenswood at the time, it means that four different teams have had representatives stand on the top step of the podium.

COTA has a relatively short pit straight that leads up a steep incline into a sharp left hander. Turn 2 follows in quick succession back to the right, at which point the track gets into a rather fun for the drivers bit of squiggles. This section is trickier than it looks and the transition from the first to second sector occurs between turns 3 and 4.

The second sector leads off with the latter half of those squiggles, followed by a lengthier bit of straight. This straight is key as Turn 5 at the end of it leads into the long back straight. If cars hit turn 5 right they can really fly down the straight and gain a big advantage, but they’ll have to get the braking right into Turn 6. Unlike Turn 5, Turn 6 is quite forgiving of mistakes as Turn 7 represents a huge slow down that means this isn’t a bad area to take risks in.

The third sector is the one that looks the easiest at a glance but can make or break a lap. Turns 8, 9, and 10 aren’t ones where drivers can relax. If they’re hit in rhythm, the start/finish straight will be a welcoming chance to open up the throttle again. If not, that straight will have to be hit at speed to get things back on track.

Starting Grid

With one race in the books for the season, the starting grid for Austin will simply be the reverse of the finish in Portland.

Parker Lacroix (SB)
Orzo Albies (MnS)
Max (SM)
Mai “Cashew” Maghur (FP)
Felix (SM)
Ramen Acuna Jr (MnS)
Liu S. Amil X (FP)
Stoot van Vaart (RM)
Magnus Rasksen (SB)
Pieter Pieperpoes (RM)

Pit selection will be in order of team standings.

Regency Motors
Scandinavian Blitz
Fir Splays
Switch Motorsports
Mac ‘N Speed

Portland Recap

Posted on September 17, 2024 | Leave a comment

Portland International Raceway was opened in June of 1961 and has played host to a variety of events over the years. In recent times, this has included Indy Car and a single SBMRL race back in 2017. For the 2024-25 SBMRL season, it played host to the league’s opening race of the year, and what a race it was!

Regency Motors finished 1st and 2nd the last time we raced in Portland, but Jaap Snellrijder and Sheila Dinkum are now long retired and the team would have its work cut out for them. Here’s where the drivers lined up for the start of the race:

P1 – Orzo Albies (MnS)
P2 – Felix (SM)
P3 – Max (SM)
P4 – Ramen Acuna Jr. (MnS)
P5 – Liu S. Amil X (FS)
P6 – Stoot van Vaart (RM)
P7 – Magnus Rasksen (SB)
P8 – Pieter Pieperpoes (RM)
P9 – Mai “Cashew” Maghur (FS)
P10 – Parker Lacroix (SB)

There was trouble immeidately at the start of the race due to the face that Max got off the line with such great timing he slammed right into the back of Orzo ahead of him, leaving a small bit of front wing right on the start/finish line for the rest of the field to navigate. He and teammate Felix then proceeded to lead the field through the first chicane. This went surprisingly smoothly given that it’s a common spot for cars to get bunched up. The one car that seemed to have no knack for it was Pieter Pieperpoes. He was starting to fall behind almost from the get got.

In what would be a them for the race, it wasn’t too long before someone else took the lead. That someone was Mai, who took an aggressive line through the second corner, bumping wheels with teammate Liu and, like Max before him, leaving small amounts of body work on the track. Stoot also left behind debris has he tried to go three abreast through the same corner.

The early returns from all of this was an early establishment of the Switch Motorsports drivers battling with the Fir Splays cars in wheel to wheel combat.

Blue vs. Yellow, with Max just ahead of Mai

The second sector of the track saw Regency Motors start to make a move. Their drivers, leaning on past experience, were able to hit corners 3, 4, and 5 just right to get a jump on most of the field. The one exception, of course, was Max. Max pushed his engine to the limit, but that give him the slightest edge over his closest rivals.

Heading into the final corner on lap 1, Max held a slight lead on the entire field. Stoot and Pieter, led the trailing group, but that trailing group consisted of pretty much the entire field. Ramen and Liu were a bit behind, but the jockeying for position in the midfield was extremely intense.

Max leads the charge out of the final corner

Now each team had a decision to make for their cars. Should they dive for the pits for a fresh set of tires and maybe a quick repair or two? Or should they barrel down the straight in an effort to get an advantage on the rest of the field that had to stop, avoiding any congestion in pit lane?

The answers came quickly, as one after the other all of the front runners pitted. The exceptions were few, and they included Stoot, who had fallen far down the field in the final corner. The other two to pass up on pitting were Liu and Ramen, who were the final two drivers to hit the pit straight.

The gambit paid off for Stoot, who went from near the back to a first place battle with Max. It also worked remarkably well for Liu, who joined the fray to make it that much more interesting. It didn’t work out quite as well for Ramen, who simply wasn’t able to carry enough speed down the straight to keep up.

With the front three cars moving on to navigate turn 2, the rest of the field piled into the chicane hoping to stay within hailing distance should the front three falter. The one exception to this was Orzo, whose pit stop cost him dearly and he found himself adrift in last place.

Among the front three, the first to falter was Liu, who struggled with the second turn only to watch Max and Stoot pull ahead by what appeared to be a notable margin through turn 4.

The trailing pack was led at this point by Magnus and Pieter, who were now neck and neck with Liu. Their defecit wasn’t nearly as large as it seemed, and in the runup to turn 5, disaster struck for both Stoot and Max. Neither driver was able to push their car as much as needed to get through that section of track at speed. On top of that, they were heading into the back straight without any momentum. Suddenly, they found themselves swallowed up by the wave of their challengers.

Magnus takes over the lead, with Max falling to 4th

Max and Stoot’s inability to exit the corner with speed saw them both passed by no less than 4 cars. Magnus led Felix, Liu, and Pieter with the former leaders just hoping to stay within reach. After all the position swaps in the race, the final corner would be where it all came to a head. Liu, Magnus, and Felix all charged into the bend in hopes of staying ahead of their rivals. Pieter, however, came in slow with the goal of letting them battle it out.

It worked. Pieter was able to find a line through the trio up front as he was able to carry the speed needed to get around all three of them.

Magnus followed up in an easy second place, but the rest would not be so straightforward. Liu was caught out in a lower gear coming out of the corner. Felix, Mai, and Max were in a similar boat. Ramen was able to take advantage of Mai and Felix to slip stream forward, but the biggest boost was for Stoot. Stoot carried such speed that he was able to get in behind Liu and get his own slip stream to cross the finish line just in front of the Fir Splays driver.

Stoot narrowly edges out Liu for 3rd place

Liu finished just off the podium with Ramen taking a surprise 5th place after having fallen out of the top half of the running fairly early in the race. Felix followed with Mai and Max behind. The last two runners were Orzo and Parker, who had races they’d rather forget.