Tag Archives: USA

Portland Preview

Posted on September 14, 2017 | Leave a comment

The 2017-18 SBMRL season is finally upon us! The memories of Launch Bornado’s rise to win last year’s driver championship after consecutive victories are now just that, memories. With a new season comes new opportunities for each driver to make a name for themself. We’ll kick things off in the United States by racing Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon.

Portland

Portland International Raceway, or PIR, was built over the city streets of Vanport, OR, which was destroyed by a flood in the late 1940’s. While racing occurred prior to it, the track wasn’t properly established until the 1970’s. Its most recent renovation occurring in 2007, with an opening ceremony held in February 2008.

The SBMRL will race with the pit straight chicane in play as the first corner. The chicane breaks up an otherwise extremely long straight, helping to keep speed in check. Turn 2 is a slow right hander that is trickier than it looks.

The second sector of the track, featuring three consecutive quick corners is the key to a fast lap time. Getting the rhythm right in this section is required in order to build up the momentum needed for the long back straight that opens the third sector.

The back straight is where cars will be able to fully air it out. Expect a lot of brake dust and a grinding of gears towards the end of it, where the lap closes with a long, winding corner. Drivers will want to maximize their speed out of it heading onto the pit straight, and those who need to make a stop will be at a bit of a disadvantage to those who don’t.

This is the first SBMRL race at PIR, so it’s anybody’s guess as to who will be able to take advantage of the ciruit’s long straights. However, it is Captain Slow’s home race, so he’ll be at a slight advantage to the rest of the field.

STARTING GRID

With no season standings to go off of, the starting grid will be determined prior to the start of the race.

Season Outlook

There are a number of notable changes in the paddock for 2017-18. Perhaps most notably, the dominant pairing of Jaap Snellrijder and Launch Bornado at Regency Motors has broken up. While Jaap will continue to race for Regency Motors, Launch’s success and apparent dissatisfaction at being regarded as the team’s Number 2 driver has led to a departure. Instead, Launch will race for a new team this season and have an entirely new teammate. The open position at Regency Motors will now be filled by Australian Sheila Dinkum.

Among other teams returning, Scandinavian Blitz returns for a third season with their pairing of The Stig and Captain Slow still intact. Both drivers struggled last year and will be looking to bounce back.

Austin Recap

Posted on October 27, 2016 | Leave a comment

A beautiful day for racing brought us to Austin, TX to race Circuit of the Americas for round 2 of the 2016-17 SBMRL season. With just one race in the books for the year, the starting grid was the reverse order of finish from Spa-Francorchamps. The only notable change was that Cobalt unveiled their official livery for the new season after having raced in a provisional livery in Belgium. The new livery would be silver with teal highlights (Mercedes AMG Petronas). Here, then, is how the cars lined up:

P1 – Mater (Ryan)
P2 – Nero (Lonny)
P3 – Jaronimus Maximus (Geoff)
P4 – Jamonito del Verde (Geoff)
P5 – The Stig (Jason)
P6 – Launch Bornado (Frank)
P7 – Danger Wheel (Ryan)
P8 – Captain Slow (Jason)
P9 – Jaap Snellrijder (Frank)
P10 – Ice (Lonny)

Starting from pole position, Mater was hot off the line with a flying start, but he couldn’t quite get the edge on the rest of the field into turn 1. Instead, Nero and Jaronimus joined him for a three car leading pack that would be virtually unbroken throughout the entirety of the first lap. Behind them, the race to the first corner was extremely tight. With both Scandinavian Blitz drivers and Launch Bornado going three wide up the straight, Danger Wheel found no room to squeeze through and had to slam on the brakes to avoid collision.

Congestion before turn 1

Throughout the first lap, the leading trio battled back and forth. Mater held the early advantage, Nero took charge from the esses through the middle of the third sector, and Jaro went out in front at the end of the lap. None of the three were able to find any significant advantage over the other two.

Behind the front pack, the remainder of the field initially divided into two subgroups. The challengers included Jamonito, Launch, The Stig, and Danger Wheel. The trailers were Jaap, Ice, and Captain Slow. Both groups saw their share of battles, but there just wasn’t much movement between them. That began to change as the packs moved into the second sector and onto the long back straight, where Regency Motors saw both their drivers take big gambles.

Launch Bornado flies through turn 6

The first was Launch Bornado throwing caution to the wind, flying through Turn 6 in 6th gear. The cost was heavy wear on both tyres and brakes, but advantage had been gained as he became the first legitimate hope to catch the front three. The second charge came from Jaap Snellrijder, who managed to move up from the trailing pack to the challenging pack courtesy of some adept gear shifting that allowed him to carry speed onto the straight. The Stig found himself heading in the opposite direction, finding his engine unwilling to respond to the demands placed on it.

Unfortunately for Launch, the earlier gamble came back to haunt him around the final corner. He was forced to slow down significantly in order to safely reach the pits. The need for fresh tyres and a brake repair allowed the challengers to catch up again. His run in 4th was too adventurous, and he’d fall as far back as 9th before finishing in 6th.

The Scandinavian Blitz drivers, by now well behind the rest of the field except for Ice, both decided to skip the pits entirely. Jamonito used a quick pit stop to begin his efforts to haul in the front runners, while Jaap’s pit crew wasn’t up to the same task. The field stratified into more groups, with Mater and Nero leading the way. Jamonito was able to catch up to this teammate in the esses to form the second group, with Jaap and Danger Wheel hot on their heels in the third. The rest of the cars struggled to catch up.

Mater takes control as Nero falls behind

Mater grabbed control of the race through Turn 4 after a mistake by Nero. Despite more than half a lap remaining, the last real shot at catching Mater proved to be the back straight, but he drove flawlessly and the others lack the speed to catch him. In the end, the third sector was a matter of simply doing what he’d done all day. Mater took the checkered flag for his first win and a well deserved one.

The battle for the rest of the podium wasn’t nearly as simple. Nero found himself in a tight drag race down the back straight with Jamonito and Jaronimus and had to give it his all to keep up. Suprisingly, the three of them all of a sudden found themselves with a hard charging Danger Wheel in their rear view mirrors. Mater’s teammate caught the challengers in Turn 6 to make it a 4 car battle. Jaap and Launch had meanwhile taken a commanding lead over the rest of the field and were ready to pounce should anyone falter.

As a quick aside, it should be noted that the battle at the back of the field wasn’t any less intense. Ice didn’t win any friends when he cut in front of the Stig on the racing line in Turn 4. The shunt forced the Stig to a near stop in order to avoid a collision, but the damage was done. He found himself floundering along in last place the rest of the race.

The Stig gets stuck

Back to the challengers, the battle through Turns 7 and 8 proved tight. First Nero was in front, then Jaronimus, then Danger Wheel. It all came down to Turn 10, the final corner. Jamonito was the one to take charge, finding himself with the right amount of speed and tyres to burn as he ploughed onto the pit straight. Nero, on the other hand, couldn’t muster the strength to keep up. Jamonito flew past and Jaronimus followed close behind as Danger Wheel just missed getting on the podium.

Four cars fighting for 2nd place

Nero’s sputtering finish was to the gain of Jaap and Launch. Both drivers had managed to stay close enough behind to take advantage of his misstep, forcing him to settle for 7th. The Cobalt driver was left stunned after having been in second place just moments earlier.

In the end, all 10 cars finished the race, which given the amount of wheel-to-wheel racing that occurred was quite remarkable. Only minor body damage occurred throughout the race. Mater’s first win leaves only Launch Bornado and the two Osito Racing Company rookies as those without victories. Despite a formal protest to the race stewards from the Stig, no disciplinary action was taken against Ice for cutting in front.

Final Results

Driver	Start	Lap	Finish
Mater (RB)	1	2	1
Jamonito del Verde (ORC)	4	4	2
Jaronimus Maximus (ORC)	3	1	3
Danger Wheel (RB)	7	6	4
Jaap Snellrijder (RM)	9	5	5
Launch Bornado (RM)	6	8	6
Nero (CO)	2	3	7
Ice (CO)	10	10	8
Captain Slow (SB)	8	9	9
The Stig (SB)	5	7	10

Mater became the third driver to win from pole position and has proven a master at Austin. Last season, he finished 2nd in the same race. He goes from last to 3rd in the driver standings. A disastrous debut race for Osito Racing Company’s rookies in Belgium is now clearly in the rear view mirror. Jamonito and Jaronimus delivered from their high starting positions and became the first pair of teammates in SBMRL history to finish 2nd and 3rd in the same race. Jaap’s 5th place finish is his lowest ever. After two races, only 5 points separate the top 5 drivers.

On the team front, Red Bull takes over the top spot from Regency Motors thanks to the 3rd highest scoring race ever. It’s the first time Regency Motors has had to look up at another team. Osito Racing Company jumps up to 3rd place, while Scandinavian Blitz earned the minimum possible 3 points to put them in the cellar.

RacE Gallery

: Mater takes control as Nero falls behind

: The Stig gets stuck

: Four cars fighting for 2nd place

Austin Preview

Posted on October 13, 2016 | Leave a comment

It seems like a long time since the first race of the year in Belgium, but our trip to Austin for the United States Grand Prix is just around the corner. This race will coincide with Formula 1’s trip to the same venue for their 2016 season.

Circuit of the America’s played host to the SBMRL’s first race last season and it proved to be a tremendous race highlighted by 3 crashes and a few spin outs. When all was said and done, Jaap Snellrijder took the checkered flag with Mater close behind him.

The track itself has a variety of challenges including sharp hairpins and weaving esses. The pit straight isn’t particularly long and leads uphill into a quick left hander. Given that Turn 2 follows closely, cars at the front of the grid will have a distinct advantage here. Turn 3 is the esses, a fairly forgiving section of track that is unlikely to put anyone out. Since there shouldn’t be too much trouble through this part of the track, any mistake will cost the driver valuable track position.

The first sector finishes up with the challenging Turn 4, which can really slow cars down. The momentum that cars can carry out of Turn 4 will dictate not just their approach to Turn 5 but their ultimate speed down the back straight. Hit this combination just right and there will be ample opportunity to move up the order. The back straight will see a ton of downshifting on the approach to Turn 6, which can really catch drivers out if they carry too much speed.

Turn 7 will keep the cars in lower gears, but drivers shouldn’t underestimate the potential it holds to set up a car for the final few corners. Turns 8, 9, and 10 are all spaced apart just right to tempt higher speeds than may be advised, but taking them too slow will allow others to catch up and pass. This is the part of the track that saw multiple spin outs in last year’s race, including Nero doing it twice on extremely thin tyres.

In last year’s race, every car took advantage of the pits to, at minimum, put on a new set of tyres. However, a conservative approach through the first lap could see a car able to skip the pits and gain a position or two. Of course, any car that drives too aggressively through Turn 10 may not be left with a choice.