GPC FR2000 International Championship - Event 4 - Prato Full GP

[Jaap Wagenvoort]

August 26th, 2006. Two events left in the GPChampionship.com FR2000 International Championship 2006.1 season. After his double win at Silverstone Phil Woodward suddently is a hot favorite for the Drivers Championship. But Almeida and Wagenvoort, the other two candidates, are definately not far away. With only 4 races to go, how would things unfold as the FR2000IC moves to Prato, Italy?

For the first time, a new pitlane speedlimit rule was introduced during Pre-Qualifying aimed to reduce the amount of speeding drivers causing dangerous situations. It worked out in a great - not even a single driver got penalized during PQ for speeding.

Just like in Silverstone it was Kirill Izotov who recorded the quickest time in PQ. However, just like in Silverstone, Izotov was disqualified from the event as he illegally left the track during his lap. Another big blow for the definately talented Russian.

Things got even more dramatic as Phil Woodward, 2nd in PQ, had to withdraw from the event on Raceday. In the end, 48 drivers joined Pre-Qualifying and two lucky losers made it from outside the top 15 into the event on Saturday.

Qualifying

Wagenvoort and Almeida definately looked favorites for the wins without Izotov and Woodward in the race. However, the rest of the drivers did not pre-qualify to give it up without a fight. PQ showed that the field was extremely tight. The smallest mistake could be punished hard even though Prato is a great track for overtaking.

Wagenvoort was out on-track early. His PQ pace was impressively as he was just 0,045 slower than Izotov and his first lap was a 1m28s287 - a great time under Qualifying pressure. A few seconds later, Juha Pyy recorded a 1m28s674 that put him in 2nd place.

The times sorted itself out as the time ticked away. Daniel Almeida set out for a final attack in the dying minute of Qualifying, but the time only stopped at 1m28s923, which was an improvement, but didn't improve his 4th place.

At the end of Qualifying, Wagenvoort had collected his 3rd pole-position out of the 4 qualifying sessions this year. Pyy joined Wagenvoort on the front row for the first time this season. Jeroen Goedhart underlined the continuing progress of Goodlake Racing with a strong 3rd place in Qualifying. Daniel Almeida took 4th in front of an all-England 3rd row filled by Stuart Whitehead and Sam Guest.

Race 7

Wagenvoort on pole. Juha Pyy besides him, but Pyy immediately ran into technical problems on his car, forcing him out of the race before it started. Would Wagenvoort throw off his Silverstone incidents and return to winning ways? He had the best start as trouble started behind him. Jeroen Goedhart arrived late on the grid and this started an incident involving Brown, Dalhberg and Whitehead. All drivers except Jeroen retired from the rac early on.

Drivers who took advantage of the situation were Daniel Almeida, Sam Guest, Daniel Pettit and Stan Manton. Almeida immediately moved up from 4th to 2nd place behind Wagenvoort. Goedhart lost a place to Almeida, but still managed to hang on to 3rd place even though he had Sam Guest right on his tail. Guest, the Team Sexy Racing driver, is finally looking for points after an unsuccessful homerace last week.

Behind Guest, Daniel Pettit was building upon his excellent results for the sim-racer.net team in the previous races as he drove in 5th place. Richard Hooper saw lucky loser Stan Manton passing him for 6th on lap 2. Behind Hooper, Bram Schoonderbeek was the last running car in 8th place.

Several fights out on track during the 8-lap sprint race. Wagenvoort created a 2,5 second gap to Almeida and Goedhart managed to consolidate in a safe 3rd place and he could keep Sam Guest behind them. Behind Sam, Stan Maton was closing in on Daniel Pettit in the fight for 5th.

Wagenvoort lost some time in the closing laps, but his victory was not in danger. After 8 laps the Dutchman won his 4th race of the 2006.1 from start to finish season while recording his 5th fastest lap in 7 races. Daniel Almeida took, yet another, 2nd place and podium finish to take the lead in the Drivers Championship. Goedhart completed the podium as he scored the first podium for the new Goodlake Racing team.

Sam Guest took his first season points and was clearly satisfied with it. The battle for 5th lasted right to the finish line, where Daniel Pettit finished a mere 0,081 in front of Stan Manton to take his season-best result. Hooper took 7th to land a point finish for the 4th time this season and Bram Schoonderbeek made it a double point-finish for Goodlake as he took 3 points for 8th.

Race 8

Drama at the start of the Race 8 of the 2006.1 season. Race 7 winner and Race 8 polesitter Wagenvoort suffered a big problem which ruled him out of the start procedure. The first spot remained empty, which promoted Daniel Almeida to a perfect position. However, not only the first spot was empty. P3 on the grid was empty as well as Jeroen Goedhart had technical trouble as well.

Almeida had a good start and immediately pulled away from Sam Guest who got promoted to 2nd with Wagenvoort and Goedhart not on the grid. Dahlberg moved to 3rd, but was already over 6 seconds down on Almeida after lap 1. Dalhberg was not alone though, Hooper, Pyy, Whitehead & Schoonderbeek all were within a second behind the Finnish RSC Motorsports driver. A close battle on hands.

Far behind the leaders, Wagenvoort joined the race from the pitlane over a minute behind the leaders. 16 laps to do something, but the next driver was 50 seconds ahead on the track.

Alberto Canzi, as lucky loser into the race for Team ProMoDo, made a great start which causes the ProModo team management to go wild at the pitwall. Canzi moved his #127 car up through the field up to 9th place on lap 4. He lost one place on lap 7, but was still aiming for points in P10.

Bram Schoonderbeek, only 8th in Race 1, showed great pace in Race 2. He positioned himself in 6th mid-race, then started increasing his pace. He passed Whitehead for 5th on lap 11.

One lap later, lap 12, and shocked faces in the ProMoDo pitstand. Apparently their #127 had stopped somewhere along the track, but no one knew what happened. The car didn't make it back to the pit: Canzi was out after he definately was looking for points.

On lap 13, Juha Pyy, driving in P6 and looking to score some points for last-place.com suddenly got involved in an incident in the ultra-quick turn 2 that saw him clipping the right-rear of Hooper in front of him. Pyy immediately lost the car and retired. Hooper could continue. This enabled South African Chris Browne to move up to P6 after a miserable Race 1 saw him ending up without points.

However, an eventful final couple of laps were to follow. Schoonderbeek had passed Hooper and the swapped 4th and 5th place. Up in front, Daniel Almeida was cruising around to bring his car home to take his first ever FR2000IC official victory. Behind him, Guest saw the #0 RSC Motorsports car becoming bigger and bigger in his mirrors. Guest was on the verge of scoring his best ever result in GPC, but it was clear Dahlberg was doing all his tricks to try to make it a RSC 1/2. A fantastic battle that lasted to the lap followed. Both drivers were driving right there on the edge and it did not end in tears. Guest managed to fence off Dahlberg's attacks and stay in 2nd.

A bit down the track, Browne lost 6th to Whitehead with 2 laps to go who had improved after a desastrous Race 1. On the same lap, lap 15, Wagenvoort passed Stan Manton in turn 1 as Wagenvoort moved up to 9th. On the final lap, Chris Browne spun his car and allowed Daniel Pettit to pass him and take 7th. What a fights, what a race!

After 16 laps, Daniel Almeida crossed start/finish to win his first official race and further consolidate his championship lead. Sam Guest finished 2nd as Team Sexy Racing went out of their mind. Dalhberg took yet another podium finish as he added 10 points to his total in 3rd.

Links

Pre-Qualifying Result

Race 7 Result

Race 7 Lapchart

Race 7 Driver Comments

Race 8 Result

Race 8 Lapchart

Race 8 Driver Comments

Driver Championship Standings

Team Championship Standings

8 out of 10 rounds completed. Wagenvoort and Almeida win the races in Prato. With each drivers losing their 2 worst results, Wagenvoort and Almeida are both equal on points with only one event to go: 75 points.

With two drivers in the lead and Woodward not far behind, FR2000IC 2006.1 will have its climax in the streets of Monte Carlo. Who will take the championship, who will loose? It's definately down to the wire and nerves will be pumping blood around at over 180 beats per minute. It will be exciting to see how the fight between the championship leaders will finish and to see which drivers will make it into the eagerly wanted top 15 in Pre-Qualifying. Follow it all live on GPChampionship.com!