Round 5 of the Retro Cup 25 season delivered an incredible race, decided in the VERY LAST few meters after 90 minutes of intense (and vintage) action!
To relive all the emotions of the race, you can re-watch the event on SBTV!
PROTOTYPE 1
After the "defeat" of Fern Bay against Gàbor, ZFRL Thehemuli presented himself at Kyoto Ring with the intention of taking back the role of the class dominator.
And he started off well, taking Pole Position ahead of Mazdarati's LMP2, who looked ultra fast since the pratice days.
The race start was hectic, in proper Retro Style: Thehemuli got a good start, but RG^Rony once again pulled off a magic get-off on his green dinosaur McLary, jumping in the lead of the race before Turn 1.
But Rony's moment of glory lasted only a few seconds, as he ran wide into the first corner, losing multiple positions.
The turn 2-3 chicane brought total drama, with a concertina effect in the bottleneck of the section between Protypes and Group 5's, with B2R Twincam paying the biggest price as he was rear ended and sent up in the air, reporting huge suspension damage.
The Prototype 1 group got away relatively fine, with Thehemuli leading the returning S1dus Unite (this time on a dark McLarry), RG^Rony and ZFRL LG^Mies!
But Thehemuli didn't knew that the biggest threat of the race wouldn't come from another LMP1 car, as Unite crashed on his own before mid-race despite a promising first few laps, while RG^Rony and Mies were recovering from earlier issues.
In fact, Mazdarati was having the race of his life in Kyoto Ring, pushing the LMP2 Wessex beyond the expectations of many.
The Retro Cup Season 1 LMP2 champion was always under a minute gap from the LMP1 leader, and managed to jump in front when Thehemuli suffered a big hardware issue, that forced him to stop on track for around 40 seconds.
It was a dramatic moment, Thehemuli looked out of the race for a few moments, but managed to re-ignite the car and start the hunt for Mazdarati!
A big task, as the gap was over 10 seconds with just a few laps to go: Thehemuli, with a slightly damaged car, had to push for qualiying laps, each lap.
The gap started to shrink, lap after lap, but the final lap started with Mazdarati still holding a 2 seconds lead over Thehemuli.
It was set to be decided in the very last few corners of the race: Thehemuli caught the slipstream of Mazdarati in the backstraight, and went for a full-risk move, even touching the grass before entering the final chicane!
It was chequered flag for Thehemuli, just 7 tenths ahead of Mazdarati for the overall win!
An epic moment of Retro Cup!
P2 in the prototype 1 class for RG^RONY, who recovered well from a mid-race spin into the tyre barriers, with consquent damage repair work, while LG^Mies completes today's podium in the sister ZFRL car!
PROTOTYPE 2
5 drivers contested in the LMP2 field in Kyoto Ring Retro: Pole position of the day was achieved by Mazdarati, who showed great speed and confidence in the Japanese track since the very first few laps.
The Retro ace scored pole ahead of his historic rival RG^LORENZO, who raced with a dedicated McLaren Honda livery in the land of the rising sun.
Race start was dramatic, with B2R Twincam hit in the back by a Group 5 car, flying up in the air and sustaining race-ending damage.
The rest of the LMP2 cars managed to survive the opening lap drama, with Mazdarati and Lorenzo flying away in the lead, with RG^Rayman slotting in provisional P3 ahead of Hermanni, a surprise entry as he switched from the Road Class!
But the man of the race was without a single doubt Mazdarati, who flew away from everybody else and mixed himself with the LMP1 cars pace.
As we reported above, Mazdarati even found himself fighting for the victory against Thehemuli till the very last meters of the race, a real show of strenght!
P2 in the race for RG^LORENZO, who had a relatively calm and steady race, just not on Mazdarati's pace. The italian found himself fighting hard against his team-mate RG^Rony for P3 overall, as the Race Green leader was coming back strong in the closing stages of the race.
P3 of the day in LMP2 for RG^Rayman, who suffered a lot the tyre management in the bends of Kyoto Ring. Still enough to finish in front of Hermanni, who had a quite turbolent LMP2 debut in P4.
GROUP 5
Group 5 saw the glorious return of S1DUS Gàbor in the class, after a few race absence, experimenting the victory feel in other classes.
[SyN]HIWATT, the championship leader, braced himself for an hectic day trying to hold his lead, as both Gàbor and [MRc]Cride showed great pace in practice and qualifying.
Two new retro drivers showed up in Group 5 for Kyoto: Akai.AP and S M.Kapal, who did well in qualifying despite the lack of experience, classifying P3 and P6 respecitvely!
The race start was dramatic, as Gàbor launched himself on the inside of the LMP1 of Mies in the approach of Turn 2, touching his side and causing some moments of drama for the upcoming cars.
Gàbor still survived the chaos, launching himself even ahead of some LMP2 and LMP1 cars in the opening lap!
But it didn't last for long, as drama hit the championship favourite on Lap 2: Gàbor took too much kerb on the entry of the Hairpin corner, spinning out and getting stuck in the gravel trap for more than 10 seconds.
Cride and Hiwatt saw the opportunity and jumped head of the S1dus ace, trying to escape!
But Gàbor's pace was unmatched in Kyoto: calm, but steady, he started to eat back the gap lost in the incident, and caught back HIWATT and Cride before mid-race, passing them both and taking the lead!
It was the third victory of the season for Gàbor in Group 5, and now the S1DUS ace is getting real close to HIWATT in the championship standings.
But so is doing [MRC]Cride, with a good 2° place finish ahead of HIWATT, the three main Group 5 contenders are separated by just a few points with 2 races to go!
Akai.AP managed to finish his first ever Retro Cup race in a solid P4, despite an incident during a hectic multiclass lapping phase.
ROAD CLASS
Shocking news hit the Road Class paddock ahead of the Kyoto Ring Race: B2R Stiefla, the championship leader was nowhere to be seen in Japan.
A golden chance for YES Trespasser, [MRC]Suforr and all the championship protagonists to close the gap on the class leader!
Qualifying was once again an ultra close affair between Trespasser and Suforr, with the first taking Pole by just 0,002!
The race started, with the pack of Road Class in close formation, with Trespasser leading Suforr, and RG^M@CI3K in a good P3 after his best quali of the season!
S.Martin, GUM||Donald, Madjester, O.A and JAM were following, with minimal gaps and already lots of scraps for position in the first few laps!
But all eyes were at the front, as the battle got EPICbetween Trespasser and Suforr: these two drivers were literally glued for the first 15 laps of the race.
If one was overtaking, the other was doing switch-backs, getting back in the lead, back and forth, multiple times, while still putting a huge gap on the competition.
The fight only ended when Suforr started to suffer a little bit on the tyres and even physically, with a hand injury getting worse lap by lap.
And boy it got worse! The Master Race car prodigy was forced to retire the car after mid-race as the hand pain was getting untollerable.
Trespasser was left on the front all alone, without his main contender, the road for the third victory of the season was set, taking the championship lead at the same time!
P2 was taken by S.Martin, one of the most consistent drivers in the Retro Cup field: his white Porsche is always in the top positions, scoring big points each race.
Podium was completed byGUM||Donald, back in the top 3 positions after the Round 1 solo victory in Westhill North RGE!
RG^M@CI3K, the porsche whisperer, was on route for his best race of the season but a pit-stop for tyres prevented him to get the result home.
SGR Madjester finished ahead of him in P4, with the pole of race green completing the Top 5!
O.A and [PM] Jam 616 were racing close for most of the race, delivering some great battles at the back of the Road Class field.
STANDINGS AFTER 5 ROUNDS
NEXT ROUND
From the Japanese bends we fly back to Europe for one of the most spectacular track locations of the season.
And it's going to be a wild ride, in BERLIN RETRO: a permanent-street track inspired to the legendary AVUS, with a huge banked corner and a challenging street-like section around Berlin's most iconic monuments.
It should be a classic race with plenty of drama, see you on MondayNovember 24th for the Penultimate round of the season, LIVE ON SBTV!
