The second round of the Apex Cup was held Friday the 28th. The track, blackwood, in combination with the front wheel drive GTR’s promised quite some action and that’s what we had.
The qualifying was very close with 15 drivers within 1 second of the pole. It was Barbosa who took the pole with a 1:14.76. Behind him stood Leu.
Even though drivers were allowed to pick either the UFR or the XFR, most drivers picked the UFR apart from M.Jankowski who decided to race with the XFR.
The sprint race showed very clean and action packed racing on a high level. It was Leu who took the lead right after the first turn. Nolan climbed his way up and managed to overtake both Leu and Barbosa and got the lead by doing so. Disaster struck as Barbosa timed out in the 6th lap of 12. Leu kept pushing and was slowly getting closer to Nolan but the race was too short for him to close the gap. It was Nolan Scott from ineX-Racing who took the win with Kevin Leu finishing second. Dennis Lind finished third.
The main race, with a mandatory pitstop and a top 10 reversed grid, we had our hopes up high for a great race. S.Papakon/nou was on pole for the round with Baker behind him. Nolan Scott didn’t have much luck and crashed in lap 2, he got quite some damage from it. Unfortunately, Leu was punted off track and had to retire. Some drivers decided to pit straight after lap 2 so they could finish the race without having to pit. Dennis Lind grabbed the lead from Pettigrew and managed to build a large gap to the rest of the field. Mike Saidl followed Dennis Lind and overtook Pettigrew aswell in lap 11. In lap 15 Dennis Lind made his pitstop he fell back to 7th position. On lap 24 Mike Saidl pitted and he gave the lead back to Pettigrew who was close to Mike all the time. Pettigrew pitted in lap 27 handing the lead back to Dennis Lind. Barbosa made his way to p2 after making his pitstop very early in the race. Dennis Lind managed to win the main race, with Barbosa finishing second after his disconnection in the sprint race. Pettigrew ended the race in third position.
Overall the racing was close, with good action and few incidents. Some drivers had trouble keeping the car on two wheels and had to spectate early on. We look forward to Round 3 which will be held on the 11th of June. The race will be held on Fern Bay Green reversed with the Formula BMW.
Driver Quotes:
Dennis Lind:
"Race was hard, I was not really used to this car."
Michal Saidl:
"A good race in my opinion, the pace of top position drivers was quite ballanced, so it wasn't just hotlapping alone at all. Finished 5th in the sprint race and was about to make it in 4th in the main race, but unfortunately I needed another 0.5% of fuel, which I didn't have and obviously ran out of fuel."
Luis Barbosa:
"I loved this car, but it did not go as expected. First race, my PC rebooted while trying to pass K.Leu. Second race, I started in last place and didn't expect great results. Passing drivers was very difficult, so I decided to pit early, not to losing time with other drivers. With a fast pace and consistency I made it to second place. I still had hopes of catching D. Lind, but I made one mistake in the chicane and lost about 2 seconds, which was enough for him to take the win."
Adam Pettigrew:
"I really don't know where to start, but I didn't expect a podium finish in race 2.
Before the Friday I was pretty set on driving the XFR, I feel I can drive that car better; but it wasn't worth the risk of being a second slower round the Blackwood circuit. Race one was very interesting some great battles were had, some aggressive drivers but overall pretty clean; minus the few mistakes of contact which always ends up worse when driving the UFR. Finishing in 8th on race one I knew I had a good chance in race two.
In the feature race I managed to get a nice early lead, I knew I had to push like hell to keep some of a gap to the quicker guys, pretty soon Dennis Lind caught me; that didn't bother me so much since he was so much quicker. I had a great battle with Michal Saidl, lasting a number of laps. Towards lap twenty then started to catch him and could only guess his tyres were costing him time, I knew I had to strike quickly; but before I could make the pass he had already gone to the pits. With Michal Saidl in the pits I had to push to retain the gap and keep position. After coming out in front of him with only a few laps to go, it took me about 2-3 laps to get the tyres up to temperature; once I had the temps I started to push and saw Luis Barbosa had made a few mistakes and tried to push for 2nd place. Of course the only worry I had with both races was flipping the flip happy UFR, but keeping it in space gave me a great result.
But overall I am really happy with the result for Concept Racing. 3rd is more than I expect from this race."
Downloads
* Stream Qualifying + Sprint Race (On Demand)
* Stream Main Race (On Demand)
* Replays (Qualifying, Sprint Race and Main Race)
Standings
* Driver standings
* Team standings
Statistics
* Qualification
* Sprint Race
* Main Race
Race Images
Source: Apex Cup News
The qualifying was very close with 15 drivers within 1 second of the pole. It was Barbosa who took the pole with a 1:14.76. Behind him stood Leu.
Even though drivers were allowed to pick either the UFR or the XFR, most drivers picked the UFR apart from M.Jankowski who decided to race with the XFR.
The sprint race showed very clean and action packed racing on a high level. It was Leu who took the lead right after the first turn. Nolan climbed his way up and managed to overtake both Leu and Barbosa and got the lead by doing so. Disaster struck as Barbosa timed out in the 6th lap of 12. Leu kept pushing and was slowly getting closer to Nolan but the race was too short for him to close the gap. It was Nolan Scott from ineX-Racing who took the win with Kevin Leu finishing second. Dennis Lind finished third.
The main race, with a mandatory pitstop and a top 10 reversed grid, we had our hopes up high for a great race. S.Papakon/nou was on pole for the round with Baker behind him. Nolan Scott didn’t have much luck and crashed in lap 2, he got quite some damage from it. Unfortunately, Leu was punted off track and had to retire. Some drivers decided to pit straight after lap 2 so they could finish the race without having to pit. Dennis Lind grabbed the lead from Pettigrew and managed to build a large gap to the rest of the field. Mike Saidl followed Dennis Lind and overtook Pettigrew aswell in lap 11. In lap 15 Dennis Lind made his pitstop he fell back to 7th position. On lap 24 Mike Saidl pitted and he gave the lead back to Pettigrew who was close to Mike all the time. Pettigrew pitted in lap 27 handing the lead back to Dennis Lind. Barbosa made his way to p2 after making his pitstop very early in the race. Dennis Lind managed to win the main race, with Barbosa finishing second after his disconnection in the sprint race. Pettigrew ended the race in third position.
Overall the racing was close, with good action and few incidents. Some drivers had trouble keeping the car on two wheels and had to spectate early on. We look forward to Round 3 which will be held on the 11th of June. The race will be held on Fern Bay Green reversed with the Formula BMW.
Driver Quotes:
Dennis Lind:
"Race was hard, I was not really used to this car."
Michal Saidl:
"A good race in my opinion, the pace of top position drivers was quite ballanced, so it wasn't just hotlapping alone at all. Finished 5th in the sprint race and was about to make it in 4th in the main race, but unfortunately I needed another 0.5% of fuel, which I didn't have and obviously ran out of fuel."
Luis Barbosa:
"I loved this car, but it did not go as expected. First race, my PC rebooted while trying to pass K.Leu. Second race, I started in last place and didn't expect great results. Passing drivers was very difficult, so I decided to pit early, not to losing time with other drivers. With a fast pace and consistency I made it to second place. I still had hopes of catching D. Lind, but I made one mistake in the chicane and lost about 2 seconds, which was enough for him to take the win."
Adam Pettigrew:
"I really don't know where to start, but I didn't expect a podium finish in race 2.
Before the Friday I was pretty set on driving the XFR, I feel I can drive that car better; but it wasn't worth the risk of being a second slower round the Blackwood circuit. Race one was very interesting some great battles were had, some aggressive drivers but overall pretty clean; minus the few mistakes of contact which always ends up worse when driving the UFR. Finishing in 8th on race one I knew I had a good chance in race two.
In the feature race I managed to get a nice early lead, I knew I had to push like hell to keep some of a gap to the quicker guys, pretty soon Dennis Lind caught me; that didn't bother me so much since he was so much quicker. I had a great battle with Michal Saidl, lasting a number of laps. Towards lap twenty then started to catch him and could only guess his tyres were costing him time, I knew I had to strike quickly; but before I could make the pass he had already gone to the pits. With Michal Saidl in the pits I had to push to retain the gap and keep position. After coming out in front of him with only a few laps to go, it took me about 2-3 laps to get the tyres up to temperature; once I had the temps I started to push and saw Luis Barbosa had made a few mistakes and tried to push for 2nd place. Of course the only worry I had with both races was flipping the flip happy UFR, but keeping it in space gave me a great result.
But overall I am really happy with the result for Concept Racing. 3rd is more than I expect from this race."
Downloads
* Stream Qualifying + Sprint Race (On Demand)
* Stream Main Race (On Demand)
* Replays (Qualifying, Sprint Race and Main Race)
Standings
* Driver standings
* Team standings
Statistics
* Qualification
* Sprint Race
* Main Race
Race Images
Source: Apex Cup News