The Goof - 20X2

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Rollo75

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Dec 1, 2018
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No.
The A-Heat Race:

13A1.jpg

With Ellie McIllan rapidly shortening her odds on claiming a second title, she was determined to make sure that the punters collected. Although she put the black #74 Holden on the outside of the front row, she very quickly shot to the front like a bullet from a gun. If her intent was to go as quickly as possible and leave everyone behind, then it immediately failed as in scooting to the front, she opened the hole immeidately behind her for third placed Oglivy Hedgehog to follow.

What did follow was 50 opening laps of the lady in black trying to establish fastest laps and the streak in blue, matching her and keeping in touch. Hedgehog already showed that he could make hsi equipment really motor along; it was just that the middle of his season kind of fall apart.

Behind them Garfield Arbuckle was trying to stave off a mutil-pronged Mercedes-Benz attack from Kayleigh McAlpine who was working tactically with Koffing. Viewers were rather confused when for the first time, racecam units were installed in the #109 machine and Koffing controlled the car, with no limbs. It was decided some time ago that the best way to stop telekenesis from escaping into the rest of the environment and hence other cars, was to have a faraday cage installed in the #109 Mercedes-Benz. It is unknown if this achieves anything or not, as it is unknown how Koffing's telekenetic ability to control a race car actually works.

13A2.jpg

With McIllan and Hedgehog swapping fastest laps up front, most of the field decided to come down onto pit road on lap 49. A few stayed out a lot longer though.

In what was effectively the race for sixth place, no fewer that twenty cars came down onto pit road and then left again. The really interested parties who wanted to cork the field up behind them, were Jean Paul Cassell in the Holden and Garfield Arbuckle in the Chevrolet, who by this stage running screen for their teammates out front.

The twenty car peloton cam down onto oit road and then back out and it was anyones guess as to who was one what strategy. By lap 53 when they were slowly sifting their way out, cars ran four wide at one point. Even what weak alliances may have been formed along manufacturer lines were blurred with the only team who could establish any kind of organisation within the swirling maelstrom being Team UZKA. At one point, the four UZKA cars were running nose-to-tail in number order with Robie up front, followed by Spidalski, Yankovic and Wayne at the rear.

Not even this organastion would prove useful though because this race would be reracked on lap 86, when the two Heeler brothers both tangled with Chloe Ankha and although nobody took the opportunity to take on tyres, the lead up front evaporated and Ankha and the two Heeler brothers took an express elevator to the basement.

Before the second set of pitstops on lap 100, the running order was still Hedgehog and Arbuckle up front; with Bernie, Langer, Miku and Koffing filling up the rest of the points paying positions.

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For a 150 mile race, it is not immediately obvious what the best strategy is. Some drivers cam in at about lap 50 and 100 and divided the race into three. Some such as Hatsune Miku who briefly led the race for laps 99 and 100, ran with a single stop in the middle and snapped the race in half. Darth Vader in the #77 Wartburg, took the opinion that he would run a hybrid strategy and run long, then stop twice late. He stopped on lap 75 and then on lap 124. This meant that of all the cars in thei field, he would finish on the freshest tyres.

What we saw in those last 26 laps was nothing short of determination mixed with very controlled anger. To make his way up through the field early and then lose track position as the tyres started to go off, was enough to convince the man in black that his second attempt needed to be better. It wasn't. By the time of his last stop, he was just outside of the cut zone and had 18 cars in front of him.

After carving through Spike Heeler and Chloe Ankha, he bumped Bandit Heeler up the track through Turn 3 and then sped past Spidalski, Edmundson and Raymond. Mifune and Robie gave him grief, while Koffing and the two Chevrolets in front of him offered no resistance.

By lap 140 he was up to sixth and passed two Toyotas, Kurt Langer who was trying to find his own way past Ellie McIllan, and then Vader pulled rank on fellow Wartburg driver Bernie Bernie in the #97 edition, to hold up Kayleigh McAlpine's Mercedes-Benz. To howls of derision and many many boos, Vader passed the number 97 Wartburg for the lead on lap 146 and then proceeded to win the race.

This was an unpopular win and the crowd certainly made sure that Vader knew it. Nevertheless, when he laid some big black 11s on the tri-oval in front of the crowd, they still cheered; which shows you just how fickle crowds are.

Points Awarded A-Heat Race:

9 - Darth Vader
6 - Kayleigh McAlpine
4 - Bernie Bernie
3 - Ellie McIllan
2 - Kurt Langer
1 - Jean-Luc Pikachu
 

Rollo75

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The Main Feature Race:

13M1.jpg

Derived wisdom from the two heat races suggested that running as long as possible and then ending up with as fresh as tyres as possible towards the end was the best way to go here. Even so, the race off the start at this race saw Stanley Spidalski try to run away with the lead followed by Bandit Heeler and Kayleigh McAlpine. McAlpine having taken second place in the A-Heat Race, was not deterred from running similar tactics to what she had used previously.

This race became a race of drivers bobbling their way to the front, finding that staying at the front was actually less efficient than staying in the draft of someone else, then falling back into the clutches of the chasing hounds. At 200 laps and 200 miles, nobody was really prepared to cut the race in half, though a few attempted to cut it into thirds.

Over the course of the race, no fewer than 14 drivers were scored as leading a lap; which nobody leading 20. There was also no obvious advantage among the brands either and apart from brief periods of organisation such as McAlpine Motorsport being able to have their two cars run together, or the black Cassell Holdens of McIlan and Cassel running in tandem, or even the Team UZKA Fords occasionally linking up, the nature of this track is such that going four wide and the very tight turn 3/4 put paid to much of an advantage.

About the only real controversy was on lap 93 when putting a lap on Samuel Tocquanne, Kayleigh McAlpine grew tired of sitting behind the Chevrolet driver and nudged him going into Turn 3. That forced him up the racetrack and he very heavily licked the wall coming into the tri-oval. As the car remained pointed in a straight line and he limped back to the pits to park it, no caution was thrown.

13M2.jpg

This race looked like it was going to be flag-to-flag without incident but 11 laps from home, a mistake happened.

Cars had been going through the tri-oval three, four, and even five wide all day but Asuka Soyru Langley, in trying to pass under Ricardo Sasquini, thought that she was clear of the Mazda's nose. Instead, she rolled around the front of the Mazda and the two of them collected Oglivy Hedgehog's Chevrolet, who was trying to steal air from the back of the Mazda himself.

As the field was still very bunched up, this caused a chain reaction of madness with cars everywhere through the tri-oval. This also caused a mass exodus to the pits as quite literally everyone wanted four fresh tyres to burn through on the run home to the flag. The race off of pit road was won by Spidalski (0), McIllan (0), Robie (+4), Mann (+12), McAlpine (-:relievedface: and Rose (+7).

NERV quietly pushed the #02 car behind the wall and pulled the garage doors closed. Sasquini who also had to return to the pits, was livid with the German's actions and he showed all the poise and grace of a Roman legionnaire with a gladius. He would storm through the pits shouting obscenities and had to be restrained by members of two sets of Mazda crews. It would later come to pass that his central contract with Shell Levins Mazda was up for reconsideration and that he might not return to the team in 20X3.

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It was the final round of pit stops which finally baked in the result. Bandit Heeler led a few laps but his tyres began to fade. Ellie McIllan practically had the lead given to her when Spidalski decided hang back for a few laps; so on lap 188 of 200, two drivers who had been there ir thereabouts passed McIllan on the outside of the tri-oval and that's the order in which they would stay.

For Patrick Mann, having an ex-teammate in front of him, whom he knew very well, was frustrating, For Robie Robie in the Ford, this was absolute vindication. To lead a race while having your ex-boss immediately behind you, is the stuff of dreams; that is of course if androids do in fact dream of electric sheep.

"Me keep Pac Man behind me all the time. If he wan to go by, he would have go round long way. Me know what kind power he have on board. Me know where he likely go on track. All me need to, id keep yellow dot in rear view mirror."
- Robie Robie, to U62-TV.

"I think that it's safe to say that our feud is over. If he wanted to wreck me, or I wanted to wreck him, he both had 200 laps to do it in and neither of us did. This was a long game of inches; in which he didn't yield and in which I didn't go berserk. Second place is a good result."
- Patrick Mann, to U62-TV

For Robie, 20X2 was never going to be a shot at the title but a race win is always welcome and indicates that things are moving in the right direction.

Points Awarded Main Feature Race:

20 - Robie Robie
17 - Patrick Mann
14 - Eillie McIllan
12 - Stanley Spidalski
10 - Bandit Heeler
8 - Amy Rose
6 - Kayleigh McAlpine
5 - Darth Vader
4 - Kurt Langer
3 - Garfield Arbuckle
2 - Jean-Luc Pikachu
1 - Koffing

Top 20 After 13 Rounds:

168 Ellie McIllan
152 Tse Sakamoto
151 Kayleigh McAlpine
112 Bandit Heeler
103 Darth Vader
87 Bruno Gourdo
83 Hatsune Miku
83 Donkey Kong
80 Robie Robie
74 Oglivy Hedgehog
72 Al Yankovic
70 Jean-Luc Pikachu
69 Dr Ivo Robotnik
68 Stanley Spidalski
67 Gojira
64 Morgan Inkling
60 Bernie Bernie
59 Kane McKane
52 Garfield Arbuckle
45 Dr George Claw

Round 14 will be held at Trois-Rivieres in Canada on Sep 11.
 

Rollo75

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Round 14 - Trois-Rivieres

The B-Heat Race.

Trois-Rivieres at Montreal is a mile and a half street circuit which is just long enough to be challenging and yet still short enough that fortunes are not baked in. The Goof having been here in 20X1 returned again and the atmosphere was one of autumnal revelry.

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The start of this race was expected to be nasty, with Donkey Kong on pole and three time champion Dr George Claw sitting on the outside. As the first corner is a straight run to a 90 degree corner, then whomever could get ahead quickest was in good stead for the rest of the race. Claw ran to the first turn by holding a straight line; which meant that Kong had to check up harder to make it through the corner or barge his way up the inside. Usually the car on the inside can hold the line but Claw had about a length in front and was able to pinch Kong. By the time they made it to Turn 2, the argument was well and truly over.

The race started in bright but chilly circumstances; with the mercury just peeking into the positives. This would mean that tyres were likely to take a while to warm up and brakes on a cold start, were not as likely to work as well. For Rodan in the Datsun GTR, this was just the start of a very short story.

On lap 5 of 100 and sitting in a lowly 31st place, the Datsun driver misjudged his braking markers going into Turn 3 and under the archway and looped the car before sliding helplessly into the barriers. To be fair, this just about summed up the sentiment of his season. Datsun are withdrawing their support for 20X3, Rodan does not have an Entitlement Contract which would enable him to get a top ride and he this far has scored zero points from 14 rounds. Sometimes you just have to feel sorry for the wee little monsters.

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B-Heat races are sometimes characterised by a breakaway of drivers who by virtue of having failed in the heat races in the previous round, find themselves back in the weaker of the two fields. This was certainly the case for the B-Heat race at Trois-Rivieres and the lead wouldn't change hands very often. In fact, apart from the odd spark for individual places, most of the top 12 remained pretty close to static for the whole race.

The exception to this was Kane McKane whose Round 13 was a failure and Friday qualifying was also a disappointment as the Holden Team tried to track down an engine mapping problem. This was diaganosed and sorted by Saturday lunch time and the start of the B-Heat race.
McKane's run through this race was one of quiet ascendency. He started the race in 20th and gradually made his way upwards through the field; taking most of his positions in the tumble that happens on a pit cycle. Had the race been another 30 laps longer then maybe he might have been able to catch the leader and challenge for the win but this was never going to happen.

To further add confusion to the merry-go-round that is the silly season, Monroe Motorsport told McKane before the start of this race that his services were not necessary in 20X3. Holden had withdrawn their factory support and the other major sponsor Castrol, announced that they were scaling back their operations to an as yet unnamed driver running on a limited schedule. This should immediately worry McKane as he has easily accrued enough points to be a valuable free agent with his own Entitlement Contract.

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The closest that anyone got to Dr George Claw all day was on lap 49 of 100 and just before the pit cycle. Donkey Kong had until that point spent the better half of thirty laps trying to match Claw for speed, after the initial move at the start of the race.

On fresher tyres, Claw was able to pull out a lead of 14 seconds but this eventually stalled as he encountered backmarkers and had to work his way through traffic. As Kong came across the same lapped traffic, he wasn't really that much better at finding his way through and it wasn't until fuel loads started to fall that he was able to find significant time.

On lap 49 Kong finally latched onto the back of Claw's Kia and his crew hope to be able to service and send out the car faster than the MAD crew. Unfortunately, the #95 crew suffered some kind of tyre problem and one of the lug nuts had to be bashed off with a large hammer. By the time the #95 was back on the road, Claw was long gone and again unchallenged for the lead.

Bruno Gourdo was credit with leading lap 50 after he stayed out but then blended back into traffic and assumed third place. Kong may have been in trouble as Gourdo came out but the Ford driver on cold tyres didn't try to make a pass going into Turn 1. This only left the story of the day as McKane's systemic rise through the field, which was mostly characterised by passing one car per lap going into Turn 4.

Perhaps the most telling story of this race was that Tse Sakamoto who hadn't scored a point in Round 13, also didn't manage to score anything in this race. The Mazda driver drove a solid if uninspiring drive to 8th place and outside of the points. Ironically, he was held up by the other Kong Wartburg of Hochi Samyang who stared in tantilising hope at the back end of the #23 Datsun of Gojira and that last point of the race.

Points Awarded B-Heat Race:

9 - Dr George Claw
6 - Kane McKane
4 - Donkey Kong
3 - Bruno Gourdo
2 - Dr Ivo Robotnik
1 - Gojira
 
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Rollo75

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The A-Heat Race:

14A1.jpg

The A-Heat Race erupted with controversy going right into the very first corner. Pole sitter Jean-Luc Pikachu was moved out of the way by Robie Robie's Ford and the Toyota driver was not happy. He was passed by Robie and then Go Mifune was able to shove his Mazda up the inside going into Turn 2.

For all of Pikachu's grumbling on the radio, there was not much that either he or the race stewards could do about it as moving someone out of the way isn't even enough to score a bad sportsmanship penalty and as he hadn't been turned, this wasn't even a particularly interesting racing incident.
Pikachu would circulate for most of the day in and around the top five but on lap 100 suffer a fuel pickup problem and rather than take the gamble of pushing it and running out of fuel, he embarked on a painfully slow lap of lifting and coasting and would fall back to ninth. The lights on the dashboard indicated that he had run out of fuel in the main tank but as Team Yellow Toyota chooses to run a reserve tank in case the car needs to limp home, it was the reserve that the #25 machine was running on when it crossed the line.

This left Robie out in front for most of the race; with Go Mifune in close quarters and immediately behind them, Patrick Mann and Oglivy Hedgehog who were having their own squabble.

Trois-Rivieres is basically a one line racetrack; with a few passing opportunities but defending the line will usually pay handsome dividends. One of the curious tales of the afternoon, was that of Marnie Roxy; who despite having a car which developed a faulty KERS system, was still able to hold and maintain that last and vital 18th place above the cut line. This would be critical if her team principal Kayleigh McAlpline was to keep her championship hopes alive. In this race, McAlpine had a frustrating run behind Mann and Hedgehog and would accrue zero points.

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Championship leader Ellie McIllan could have in theory wrapped up the title here at Trois Rivieres but a horrid qualifying session on Friday and subsequent poor track position, meant that not only she she not score any points but finishing 19th also meant that she would not progress to the Main Feature race. By leaving 20 points available on the table and with an ability to reply with no points at all, it meant that her buffer would be eaten away and she would have no reply until the final round of the season.

The problem started on the Friday during the qualifying sessions. The Goof has four qualifying sessions on the Friday; being a heat qualifying and a half feature session; where the times are finessed to determine the starting order. In the A-Heat Qualifying Session, Ellie had a major brake lockup going into Turn 3 at the Archway and ploughed headlong into the tyre barriers. This meant that her only lap would act as her posted time. In the process though, she broke the front fascia, the radiator, both steering arms, and part of the front protruding sub-frame. The car wouldn't be repaired in time to make it back out into the session and by the time of the A-Bracket Feature Qualifying Session, it still wasn't properly sorted. In that session, she posted the 49th fastest time of the two sessions combined; which would have meant that had she escaped the heat races, she woukld have started in 34th in the Feature Race.

One of the decidedly strange things about street circuit racing is that although there might be plenty of opportunity to pass under brakes going into the corners, a lot of the racing between evenly matched cars can be drivers following nose to tail, waiting to pounce.

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The lead passed back and forth between Robie Robie and Kerrod Edmunson while they were stopped in the pits twice but the convergence of strategies would invariably mean that they would have to meet on track somewhere; and they did. On lap 92 Edmundson found the back of the Ford and Robie did his level best to keep the fast charging Mazda at bay.

There waa no opening for Edmundson going through Turn 3 and under the archway and so he took a normal line on the outside. This set him up for a faster run through the very long sweeper and the hard left hand turn at Turn 4. Robie who had had a slower run coming out of Turn 3, couldn't really close the door on the Mazda and so by the time they got to Turn 4, the Mazda was already at his B-pillar. Robie surrendered the lead and tried to gain it back through the reverse sweeper and the next hard left at Turn 5 but Edmundson had already covered the line line long before they ever arrived.

The shenaninganry of Edmunson and Robie trying to cover and counter cover each other up front meant that Go Mifune in another Mazda caught up bucketloads of time and when he threatened to dive bomb Robie going into Turn 1 on lap 95, Robie spent more time defending that he could trying to mount any kind of attack. This left Edmunson out front in peace.

One of the real surprise packets was Olivia Micina in the #16 Telecom Holden. When Chloe Ankha left for Team Yellow Toyota, Blue Cat were left with a personnel problem. They had a car and an entitlement contract but no driver. With #5A gone the Blue Cat team scrambled around their own workshop and Micina was the only one who dared volunteer for the job of driving the car.
To be fair, to this point of the season, Micina had scored exactly 0 points. Being an engineer is one thing but learning racecraft on the fly is quite another. In this race, she had both the time and space to pick off competitors one by one and she would bring the #16 Holden to fourth place; after deliberately bumping Bernie Bernie's Wartburg out of the way on the last lap.
This is a reminder that sometimes, finishing in the points can be more of an achievement than someone who has the best spec equipment who goes out and wins races. Character is shown in the quiet; not in glory.

Points Awarded A-Heat Race:

9 - Kerrod Edmundson
6 - Robie Robie
4 - Go Mifune
3 - Olivia Micina
2 - Bernie Bernie
1 - Oglivy Hedgehog
 
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Rollo75

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The Main Feature Race:

14M1.jpg

Pole sitter Al Yankovic was surprised at the beginning of the Mean Feature race to get a major shove in the back by Bandit Heeler. Heeler, who was now mathematically guaranteed to have no chance of winning the title, was the first of the rest. For him to want to bash Yankovic in the rear was illogical and so rather than suffer the wrong end of the Queenslander's distemper, he let him go.

Dr George Claw who was sitting on the outside and watching all of this, deliberately held back because he could see what the issue was. Somewhere under the bonnet of the Blue Ford, a fire had broken out and Heeler who was now sitting in a cabin full of smoke, was keen to either return to the pits as quicky as possible or drive as fast as he could to try and blow the fire out. What happened, was the latter.

The Goof Management considered black flagging the #53 Ford for a mechanical failure but upon finding that the fire had gone out, no further action was taken. Yankovic in the meantime complained that he had been unduly moved but his complaint was ignored. He hadn't been turned and really apart from going slightly wider through Turn 1 than he otherwise would have done, nothing of any import had been done, thuis proving that motorsport is a hundred mile an hour game of inches.

Heeler would spend the whole race up front, chucking the Ford through corners like it was a rally car. His philosophy was that if he was going to win the race then being up front was the place to do it. His only strategy was to get out in front and stay there.

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The feature race came with one of the worst cases of bad tempered shenaninganry seen in a long while. On lap 11 of 200, this bad temper came to the boil.

Sitting in 10th, Oilvia Micina was having one of the best races of her season. As the #π entry of Jack Raymond hadn't qualified for the feature race, the whole Telecom Holden crew was now mounted behind the warwagon of her #16 entry. They experimented with a change of crew chief and had both spotters operating at different parts of the track.

Micina had qualified in 19th and was rapidly passing cars; presumably because they hadn't expected her to put up that much of a fight. Sensing that she posed a threat to his fellow Wartburgs up front, Bernie Bernie in the #97 Spee washing powder machine, cynically drove into the front left hand quarter panel of the Holden and the two of them went spinning through Turn 1; thus bringing out a caution.

With a broken radiator the Holden limped to the side of the track and was taken away by the track marshalls. Bernie however continued on and seeing that his attack was unprovoked, The Goof Management decided to give him a black flag. He however wouldn't be able to serve the black flag penalty as after he saw the flag being shown, the Wartburg broke something in the front end of the car and he parked it behind the wall at the Turn 3 archway.

When the field was reracked and restarted, Yankovic had a better chance to take the lead but Heeler yet again defended the line nicely and again the field poured through Turn 1 in an orderly fashion.

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Perhaps one of the more curious tales of the feature race was the rise of Hatsune Miku. At the beginning of the race she was 7th and was then quickly passed as other drivers made better use of fresh tyres. She fell down as far as 14th before then rising back through the field as fuel loads dropped and the car which had been set up for the long run, came into its own. After pitting from 5th place, the second run was another fall followed by a steady rise again. After the second pitstop, she then made her final climb from 9th to second.

A somewhat pointless caution was thrown on lap 172 of 200 when Gwar Gura spun her Mercedes-Benz going through Turn 5 and after the immediate traffic had passed, she flick turned the car and was off going again. With literally no obstruction on track whatsoever, the pace car came out and the field was bunched up yet again and sent away.

Miku who was down in 12th, got bumped to the far right of the circuit by Vader who himself was trying to evade Kayleigh McAlpine who managed to fluff the start. With seemingly a lane all to herself, Miku threw on of the most gloriously optimistic Hail Mary passes of the season, sort of slid and drifted in front of Jean-Luc Pikachu who duly let a fellow Toyota driver in front of him; and she set herself brilliantly to assume 2nd place on the run down Turn 4.

Having been close to a championship title before, Miku knew what kind of frustrations were going through the head of Heeler, who was in front of her. Even if he won this race, it would make no difference to his title aspirations. Also, after watching his rather aggressive attacking of the track, Miku thought better than to try and endanger her hopes of coming home with a good result. Although she would be coming back in 20X3, Asahi Breweries would not be backing her; which meant that although the Entitlement Contract and indeed the place in the field next year was secure, the budget was not.

Apart from not starting on the pole, Bandit Heeler's strategy paid off. This was a dominant performance which was as close to being flag-to-flag without getting there. From rank amateurs only a few seasons ago to winning races, the Heeler Brothers have annouced to the paddock that they have well and truly arrived.

Points Awarded Main Feature Race:

20 - Bandit Heeler
17 - Hatsune Miku
14 - Tse Sakamoto
12 - Henri Cornelius
10 - Dr George Claw
8 - Al Yankovic
6 - Oglivy Hedgehog
5 - Go Mifune
4 - Jean-Luc Pikachu
3 - Bruce Wayne
2 - Gojira
1 - Mad Cat


Top 20 After 14 Rounds:


168 Ellie McIllan
166 Tse Sakamoto
151 Kayleigh McAlpine
132 Bandit Heeler
103 Darth Vader
100 Hatsune Miku
90 Bruno Gourdo
87 Donkey Kong
86 Robie Robie
81 Oglivy Hedgehog
80 Al Yankovic
74 Jean-Luc Pikachu
71 Dr Ivo Robotnik
70 Gojira
68 Stanley Spidalski
65 Kane McKane
64 Dr George Claw
64 Morgan Inkling
62 Bernie Bernie
52 Garfield Arbuckle


The final round of the season will be held at Riverside, CA. on Sep 25.
 
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Rollo75

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Round 15 - Riverside International Raceway

20X2 marks the first time in more than two decades that The Goof has ended the season somewhere other than either Daytona Beach or Daytona Speedway. Instead of ending on the east coast of the United States, this time around, the last round of the season is at Riverside Raceway in California.

The last time that The Goof came to Riverside was back in 20W4; as the last round of Patrick Mann's first championship win. The winner that day was Garfield Arbuckle who was driving the high winged version of the Chevrolet Concordia SS. Arbuckle would ultimately lose the title when Mann came home in 5th and picked up 2 points; to win the championship by a single point.

The top three in the championship standings going into the weekend were as follows:
168 Ellie McIllan
166 Tse Sakamoto
151 Kayleigh McAlpine

With a maximum of 29 points available (being 9 for a heat win and 20 for the main feature race) this meant that only these three drivers had had mathematical chance of winning. Ellie McIllan having failed to score any points and also finishing 19th in the A-Heat Race at Trois Rivieres, mean that she would be racing not in the A-Heat race but the B-Heat race at this round.

The B-Heat Race:

The opening period of five laps saw Sticks Baja and Miles Prower in the Toyotas trying to hold out Eggatha Robotnik's Kia and the Chevrolet of Garfield Arbuckle. Arbuckle was now certain that this would be the last round that he would appear at as a driver and that he would hand the #9 over to his son Garfield "Ugly" Arbuckle. Ugly would be the third Garfield Arbuckle to appear in the Goof since the first season 27 years ago.

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During the round of pitstops om lap 38, Baja came into the pits first and fell back down the order. Prower and Robotnik came in on lap 39. Arbuckle came in om lap 40, hoping to get some kind of overcut by having slightly fresher tyres towards the end. Unfortunately, he also came out with Jack Raymond and the two of them went side by side through the esses. They also encountered Morgan Inkling who was trying to make that first set of tyres go even longer and they ended up going three wide as the road narrowed.

Three cars into a space where two are supposed to go, generally ends in calamity and as Raymond's car bit the grass and flicked right, he turned Arbuckle into Inling and all three of them headed towards the bank on the inside of the circuit. This might have been an ignominious ending to Garfield Arbuckle's career in The Goof but he luckily managed to keep the car pointed forwards and would finish a credible 11th. Inkling suffered battle damage and with a bit of knocking out of body work, she would take her Mazda to 15th. Raymond on the other hand, being beeched and stuck, abandoned his car and went back to the infield catering for a bacon and egg roll.

Up front, Eggatha Robotnik got a fantastic slingshot on both Prower and Cassell and assumed the lead for a while. It was unclear exactly who Eggman Industries would be buying parts from in 20X3 but it seemed reasonably clear that they would continue their technical alliance with Team MAD.

15B2.jpg

Eggatha Robotnik as the niece of Dr Ivo Robotnik was given the #12 drive, seemingly with minimal experience. If 20X1 was a learning year, then 20X2 could have been the breakthrough year. Eggatha probably could have won this race if she had more patience and calmness but this was not going to be today. Sticks Baja was mad that she had surrendered the lead and was prepared to use bumper morse code to let Eggatha know that she was annoyed.

The Toyota clearly had more straight line speed as demonstrated through the speed traps on the back straight, however Eggatha made the #12 Kia just wide enough to really throw Baja off. For nine laps, despite repeated harassment, Eggatha kept Baja behind and only gave up the lead on lap 51 after Baja had gained a tremendous amount of momentum by running really close to the fence in the Carousel. When the track kinked to the left immediately after the start/finish line, the move was complete.

This argument should have ended there and then but revenge is often a dish served in the heat of the moment. Going into the right hand turn after the esses and in front of a massive grandstand, Eggatha unceremoniously put the bumper into the rear right quarter of Baja and dumped her into the grass. Hoots of joy rose from the crowd and Eggatha should have driven away from the scene except that she ran wide and brushed the fence; thus bending her own front left quarter panel. With smoke pouring off of the front left, she sheepishly took the #12 back to the pits for some hurried repairs and was immediately passed by half a dozen cars. Baja on the other hand also wafted back into the pits and she would also give away a bunch of spots.

The lead would be assumed by Jean Paul Cassell in the Pizza Hat Holden, followed by Miles Prower in the Toyota.

15B3.jpg

The real winner of Stick Baja's spin was Professor Herschel Layton, who finally had a last hurrah for his team. The two Project Layton Wartburg's had been running in 8th and 9th respectively. However when the caution flags came out, they were the first to dive into the pits to get a fresher set of tyres. This sent them back to the end of the queue. However, when on the next lap, a whole horde of cars came into the pits, suddenly they found that they had inherited prime track position and thus Professor Layton was the first car on the leap lap (but still caught in the queue behind the pace car) and Sonia Hirokawa was in 5th.

When the field split back into double file and the green flag dropped, suddenly Layton was in the box seat but he had to hold off a stern challenge from both Jean Paul Cassell who was in his last race ever and Miles Prower who was out for a bit of fun on the closing weekend.

Layton was very much aware that the cars following him might want to take advantage of the tow in the draft down the very long straights; so he either drifted very wide coming out of the top end of the circuit or tried to hug the right hand lanes coming out of the carousel and into the front stretch and pit complex.

He needn't have bothered. Cassell was himself under attack from Prower and as Prower tried to outtink Cassell and Cassell defended the line, they held each other up and Layton was able to draw out just enough of a lead to break the draft. From lap 58 onwards, Layton was untroubled and his run home was relatively easy.

Thus Professor Herschel Layton proved finally that the team always had the capacity to win a race; it's just that this came way too late and he had already lost interest in trying to build the team and break into the nig time.

Points Awarded B-Heat Race:

9 - Prof. Herschel Layton
6 - Miles Prower
4 - Jean Paul Cassell
3 - Eggatha Robotnik
2 - Sonia Hirokawa
1 - Jerry Tennosuke
 

Rollo75

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The A-Heat Race:

15A1.jpg

At the start of the weekend Ellie McIllan was twp points ahead of Tse Sakamoto and with her drawing a blank from the B-Heat race, Sakamoto saw this race as a chance to leapfrog her in the points. His place was to jump out to an early lead and then hopefully stay there.

What he hadn't counted on was that Bandit Heeler in the Hammerbarn Ford was just as keen to put on a good show. Heeler had his car hooked up nicely for the coolish conditions on the Saturday and with the California sun threatening to make the day really lovely and warm, then his advantage might be compromised.

Pole sitter Dr George Claw lead the opening three laps and held off a challenge from Al Yankovic who then decided to hang in for the long haul. Dr Ivo Robotnik who was also in a Kia, could match Claw lap for lap in terms of raw speed. This meant that the two drivers who were ascending through the order early on, were Sakamoto who had the motivation of a championship ahead of him and Heeler who was just inexplicably quick.

Sakamoto and Heeler passed Robotnik and Yankovic on lap 8, then on lap 9, they both went nose to tail around the outside of Claw going down the long straight towards the Carousel. Sakamoto was credited as leading Lap 9 but that would be the only lap he lead all day; for Heeler needled him all the way towards the top of the circuit and then made the move stick but leaning on Sakamoto's door handles heading into the right hander going into the back straight.

Heeler should have run away with the race but the longer the race went on, the warmer that the ambient air temperature and track temperature got. Having really laid down some quick times early in the run, his tyres fell away from peak performance really quickly towards the end of it and by the round of pitstops, he had already surrendered seven spots. Sakamoto would also suffer a drop off and then further suffer the indignity of being caught behind Dr George Claw in the pits, as Claw stalled the Kia on pit lane.

All of this meant that long-run speed would be at a premium and the unexpected winner of all of this was Darth Vader in the Wartburg and the two Holdens of Cornelius and McKane. Vader who had started the race in 12th, was driving to a strategy and to a specific lap time. The two works Holdens, having qualified 16th and 17th, sort of latched into this strategy and benefitted from not really having to fight the nonsense ahead of them.

15A2.jpg

One of the more unusual events of the season happened on lap 31 of 76. Kerrod Edmundson in third place, was about to put a lap on Stanley Spidalski in the Team UZKA Ford. Spidalski though, got instructions to baulk Edmundson going into the Carousel. This gave enough time for both Yankovic and Robie in two of the four Team UZKA Fords, a chance to latch into the tail of Edmundson's Mazda and really harass him.

Edmundson was not at all pleased and accused Team UZKA of just about everything under the sun, while Yankovic flung himself around the outside; dragging Robie in his wake. Spidalski then changed from roadblock to tail-gunner and continued to baulk Edmundson while the two Fords drifted away into the distance.

Spidalski had been off the pace all day and wouldn't make the cut about 18th for the feature race. Yankovic didn't exactly roll himself in glory and could only manage 11th. Robie would experience a case of instant karma when three laps later, he was baulked by Tse Sakamoto; who while holiding down 6th, hald the last points paying position. Robie would not improve beyond 7th; while Sakamoto would ironically, beat Dr George Claw on the race off of pit row and file in behind Edmundson for a while, as they made their run to the flag.

At the mid race pitstop cycle, Vader gave up the lead to Henri Cornelius and Kane McKane who was further down pit row would have to find his own way past the black Wartburg.

Transmission was unexpectedly interrupted when an emergency notification was announced. The public service announcement assured the public that this was not a test and that intercontinental nuclear activity had been detected. Also for otherwise unexplained reasons, Racing For The Empire operating out of the Wartburg stable assured the public that the threat had been dealt with.

15A3.jpg

On the very last day of the season, Castrol announced that their partnership with the works Holden Team would be coming to an end. Holden themselves were unsure of what kind of status they were going to have in 20X3 and so it seemed that Henri Cornelius would likely stay with Team Principal Philip Monroe and that Kane McKane would again become a journeyman.

Nevertheless, the two of them were keen to put on a display of their driving talents in the hoipe of hawking out the possiblity of selling the space on the side of their cars next year. For 18 laps, Darth Vader who had tagged onto the back of the pair, was privy to a battle which saw Cornelius defend the line again and again against McKane who pulled into the draft going down the long straights and attempted to oubrake him going through the major corners at either ends of the track.
Try as he might, McKane never found a way past Cornelius and the two cars came across the line on the final lap for an orchestrated 1-2 form finish.

Behind Vader, the two Mazdas of Kerrod Edmundson and Tse Sakamoto were several seconds behind and curiously, Sakamoto's 5th position exactly balanced the top of the table going into the feature race and the last race of the season at 168 a-piece for Sakamoto and McIllan.

As the feature races happen on the Sunday, teams generally spend Saturday nights working on the data that they have collected during the day to make final tweaks and adjustments.

Points Awarded A-Heat Race:

9 - Henri Cornelius
6 - Kane McKane
4 - Darth Vader
3 - Kerrod Edmundson
2 - Tse Sakamoto
1 - Dr George Claw
 

Rollo75

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Dec 1, 2018
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No.
The Main Feature Race:

There were no mathematical gymnastics required as we arrived at the very last race of the very last round of the year. As Ellie Mcillan had drawn a blank and Tse Sakamoto had scored 2 points, they were all square at the start of the main feature race. The equation was simple - beat the other.

The start of this last bout to know all others out saw Oglivy Hedgehog get a cracker of a start and getting the jump on pole sitter Donkey Kong and second place Antony d'Tigrette. d'Tigrette did a lovely job of pulling across the circuit and effectively baulking Kong; which left the door open in the right land for Hedgehog to scoot up the inside after the esses and through the top of the circuit.
Kong then found himself under fire from local hero Billy Highbank, who had unexpectedly made up seven places and was sitting nicely in fourth place.

This race had the makings of being a real barn burner, with championship hopefuls Tse Sakamoto crossing the line to end lap one in 7th and Ellie McIllan who had had a terrible weekend suddenly bounce back and climb from 29th to 18th. We were denied a classic last round showdown though, when the complexion of The Goof Championship spun on a dime.

15M1.jpg

On lap 9, Go Mifune slid into the back of Bandit Heeler, which turned Olivia Micina into the rear of Al Yankovic, and with nowhere to go Ellie McIllan became part of the chaos. Almost immediately, crew members from Texaco Holden ran up pit row to fight with both the crews from Mifune Motors and Shell Mazda who they assumed had orchestrated the mess. As Mifune Motors are a customer of Shell Mazda, the assumption was that this was kind of a kickback or some other kind of payment arrangement. For with Ellie McIllan having a torn up racecar, this left Tse Sakamoto free to finish in the points and claim the championship.

It was found out that after the race, that Nigel Levins from atop the #58 pit box, explicitly told his crew not to mention anything to Sakamoto on track. He was to be left alone to do the job of bringing the car home and this may have tainted the way that he would drive. As it was, Sakamoto was embroiled in a battle for third place at the time; so had other things to worry about.

A very dejected Ellie McIllan made the long walk back to the pits and rather than walk back to the team, she went into the catering facilities where she spoke to the waiting media pack.

"We've been here before. Yes, it's dissapointing and I hate it but if there's nothing you can do about it then there's little point dwelling on what can't be. We could have tied this up weeks ago but we failed to execute. I congratulate Tse and the Mazda team because they've worked hard for years and its finally paid off for them."
- Ellie McIllan, to ABC7 KUSI TV.

Heeler would eventually recover to finish 9th, McAlpine 12th; out of the points Yankovic 13th. With McIllan's Holden behind the wall, this left Sakamoto out on track to claim the crown, if he could finish in the top 12.

Most of the early half of the race settled down into a groove with Hedgehog finally claiming top spot; having d'Tigrette some way down the road trailing him, and an on track dice involving Highbank, Foyt, Hill, Kong, McKane and Sakamoto hanging behind it.

15M2.jpg

There was an interesting set of promoter's options running at Riverside. Owing to the fact that The Goof Management has access to both time travel and dimensional travel via the rift (and in the past has raced at places like pre-war Indianapolis and the ???? Raceway in the Interdimensional Rift), some past and local heroes had a chance to compete against The Goof's strange and very motley crew of individuals.

Team UZKA supplied a Ford Fusion for AJ Foyt, a Lotus Ford Endura for Graham Hill, and a Mercury Monarch for Riverside's own Billy Highbank. All three circulated near the front for the whole feature race. This was rather ironic given that their regular three cars, didn't score a point between them.

Foyt was already an old stock car hand and was impressed with the Coyote and KERS powered machine. As he was given free reign to basically drive as flat out as he wanted to, after the scrape on lap 9 which happened in front of him, he then took the #1 Ford skyrocketing up the order.
Foyt encountered resistance from McKane and Kong who were having their own fight for sheep stations in 7th and 8th, and this was eventually resolved with the round of pit stops on lap 57 of 91. It was then thrown back into slight disorder after the round of pit stops from about lap 60. Foyt would finish 7th.

Hill on the other hand had never driven a car this big and heavy on a track like this. He claimed to be out of his depth but the obvious amount of skill from the Motorsport Triple Crown winner could never be denied. Hill had a fairly sensible race and was in fact the last car to remain on the lead lap.

Billy Highbank who has driven a whole host of different kinds of machinery around Riverside, used local knowledge well and was involved in several dices; besting all comers. His pugilism with the champion-elect, was entertaining to watch, though the man in the Mazda backed off towards the end of the race once he realised that the title was within grasp.

15M3.jpg

Home town hero Billy Highbank running an X3 spec Mercury Monarch, brought the car home in a very well deserved third. Riverside tends to chew up front left hand side tyres and his management of the tyre temperatures meant that not only could he maintain track position but he still had the speed which was necessary to keep the raging horde behind him.

Ahead of him, Antony d'Tigrette drove an almost anonymous race to second place. Chevrolets had managed to claim a front row lockout and Oglivy Hedgehog after snaking through the esses, placed his blue edition on the inside and rather than evoke the ire of the boss, d'Tigrette played the role of team mate very well and let Hedgehog go.

Hedgehog on the other hand, who had demonstrated that he could drive very quickly at the beginning of the season, wanted to cap off the season in the same way that he had started the year; with a race win. With d'Tigrette behind him and nobody in the way for a long time, he decided to string together a whole series of fastest laps. Apart from the championship altering calamity early in the race, there was nothing really in the way of a challenge all day.

A very big scare happened on lap 84 of 91, when Hedgehog came perilously close to being involved in an accident which had nothing to do with him. Kurt Langer had suffered some kind of KERS failure and was trying to stay to the right hand side of the circuit and limp home. It just so happened that as Hedgehog was sitting in the draft of the #51 Mazda of Kerrod Edmundson, that the #43 Golden Fleece Ford snapped violently to the left and took out the nose of the Mazda. Hedgehog had to check up and managed to avoid any serious damage but it still wiped out all the lead that he had built up. On the restart, d'Tigrette again played the part of a happy team player and let Hedgehog go off into the California sunshine for a well deserved victory which saw him lap everyone up until Heeler in 9th.

Points Awarded Main Feature Race:

20 - Oglivy Hedgehog
17 - Antony d'Tigrette
14 - Billy Highbank
12 - Tse Sakamoto
10 - Donkey Kong
8 - Kane McKane
6 - AJ Foyt
5 - Graham Hill
4 - Bandit Heeler
3 - Darth Vader
2 - Bruno Gourdo
1 - Kayleigh McAlpine

For the first time in a very long time, The Goof did not end the season in Florida. The California sun saw a new champion with the man from Japan, Tse Sakamoto claiming the first ever crown for Mazda and the eighth for Levins Racing.

"It's been a long road to get here. This is my third year in the series and its been nine years since the boss last won. Obviously I'd like to thank Mazda and Shell but I'd also like to express my thanks to Ellie, who pushed us all year. There can only be one winner and this year it's us!"
- Tse Sakamoto, to ABC7 KUSI TV.

The complete final season standings for The Goof for 20X3 are as follows.

180 Tse Sakamoto
168 Ellie McIllan
152 Kayleigh McAlpine
136 Bandit Heeler
110 Darth Vader
101 Oglivy Hedgehog
100 Hatsune Miku
97 Donkey Kong
92 Bruno Gourdo
86 Robie Robie
80 Al Yankovic
79 Kane McKane
74 Jean-Luc Pikachu
71 Dr Ivo Robotnik
70 Gojira
68 Stanley Spidalski
65 Dr George Claw
64 Morgan Inkling
62 Bernie Bernie
53 Henri Cornelius
52 Garfield Arbuckle
50 Kerrod Edmundson
33 Walter Kronkyet
32 Go Mifune
32 Miles Prower
31 Kurt Langer
30 Jack Raymond
30 Koffing
22 Patrick Mann
17 Mad Cat
17 Bruce Wayne
17 Anthony d'Tigerette
16 Hochi Samyang
14 Billy Highbank
10 Jean-Paul Cassell
9 Kenichi Mifune
9 Sticks Baja
9 Michelle Oxford
9 Prof Hershel Layton
8 Amy Rose
8 Eggatha Robotnik
7 Greg Rellings
7 Asuka Langley
6 Chloe Ankha
6 Byuti Nanako
6 Marnie Roxy
6 AJ Foyt
5 Graham Hill
3 Samuel Toucquanne
3 Olivia Micina
3 Sonia Hirokawa
2 Ricardo Sasquini
2 Bobo-bo Bo-Bobobo
2 Mike Wazowski
1 Stripe Heeler
1 Bob Borobi
1 Bob Nikoban
1 Jerry Tennosuke

As with all seasons, when the music stops playing and all fades away into the past, the only things remaining are names written in the record books. The Goof Management yet again presses the Delete Key on another season and its place remembers it not.

The first round of the 20X3 season will be held on Saturday 31st December.
The engines and drivetrains remain a 5L hybrid and the chassis remain as the Bristol Resilient 15 (BR15). A provisional calendar will be produced by Dec 27.
 
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Rollo75

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No.
Tentative 20X3 Calendar:

R01 02/01/2023 Daytona, FL
R02 16/01/2023 Darlington, NC
R03 30/01/2023 Silverstone, GBR
R04 13/02/2023 Brooklands, GBR
R05 27/02/2023 Three Sevens Speedway, JAP

R06 20/03/2023 Dover, DE
R07 03/04/2023 Cardboardland, MT (TBC)
R08 17/04/2023 Knoxville, KS
R09 01/05/2023 Steel Canyon, JF
R10 15/05/2023 Kelley Lake, AL

R11 05/06/2023 Spa, BEL
R12 19/06/2023 Talladega, AL
R13 03/07/2023 Ontario, CAN
R14 17/07/2023 Trenton, NJ
R15 31/07/2023 Mount Pocono, PA

R16 21/08/2023 Le Mans, FRA*
R17 04/09/2023 Bathurst, AUS*
R18 18/09/2023 Interdimensional Rift, ???
R19 02/10/2023 Riverside, CA
R20 16/10/2023 Daytona Beach, FL*


Pts: 15-10-8-6-4-3-2-1
*Pts: 30-20-15-10-8-6-4-3-2-1
 

Cola83

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Jan 10, 2018
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83
Tentative 20X3 Calendar:

R01 02/01/2023 Daytona, FL
R02 16/01/2023 Darlington, NC
R03 30/01/2023 Silverstone, GBR
R04 13/02/2023 Brooklands, GBR
R05 27/02/2023 Three Sevens Speedway, JAP

R06 20/03/2023 Dover, DE
R07 03/04/2023 Cardboardland, MT (TBC)
R08 17/04/2023 Knoxville, KS
R09 01/05/2023 Steel Canyon, JF
R10 15/05/2023 Kelley Lake, AL

R11 05/06/2023 Spa, BEL
R12 19/06/2023 Talladega, AL
R13 03/07/2023 Ontario, CAN
R14 17/07/2023 Trenton, NJ
R15 31/07/2023 Mount Pocono, PA

R16 21/08/2023 Le Mans, FRA*
R17 04/09/2023 Bathurst, AUS*
R18 18/09/2023 Interdimensional Rift, ???
R19 02/10/2023 Riverside, CA
R20 16/10/2023 Daytona Beach, FL*


Pts: 15-10-8-6-4-3-2-1
*Pts: 30-20-15-10-8-6-4-3-2-1

Why the points difference at R16, R17 and R20 :)
 

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