TSA F1 Championship: Round 8 Results

Team orders were the hot topic as we headed to the 8th race in Hockenheim, Germany. More importantly, was who would go and collect the take away. With everyone fed, watered and de-watered, we got down to a trio of thrilling races that had people shaking from the adrenaline come downs afterwards.

For the overall standings, you’ll want to be heading to the F1 Championship thread in the forums. This weeks results follow below:

Championship A

A very wet qualifying session gave everyone some difficult conditions to qualify in, and it was the early bird that got the worm this time as Matty set his qualifying time early on before the conditions got worse and there was no real bettering of times.

That particular pair came to a head at the start of the 3rd lap when Teflon was slow through the first corner, and Spoofer was much faster. With no indication that Spoof was right behind him, Teflon moved with the racing line across the track, and Spoof clipped his wheel, sending him onto the grass on the left and into a mini whirlwind, a 1440º spin! Bizarrely, his car was completely fine, whilst Spoof’s was without a nose, so he pitted that lap. From that point on Spoof could not stop spinning at the hairpin, so was constantly battling past Teflon in a much faster car, only to spin out (to much laughter) and lose the place. Eventually, though, he did make it past and held on for the last lap to take his 6th place. Though he did nearly lose it at the last corner!

At the front of the race, Manorhowze and Camdaz exchanged places via pit stops, whilst Beelzie had spun and dropped back from Manor quite early in the race. After Matty’s stop, Manor could see him in the distance, but Matty was then on Option tyres and pulled away, managing to lead from start to finish for a well deserved win.

Results:

1. Matty1209 – 25
2. Manorhowze – 18
3. Camdaz – 15
4. Beelzie14 – 12
5. Daywalker – 10
6. Spooferbarnabas – 8
7. Teflon – 6
8. Gaco69 – 4 (AG2297 racing)
9. SpikeyMikey23 – 2
10. Reck46 – 0 (DNS)
11. Heedbaw – 0 (DNS)
12. Aerobes – 0 (DNS)

Championship B

Hockenheim was arguably the most exciting race so far in Championship B. When qualifying started it was very wet meaning most of us went straight out on full wets. The times being posted seemed to be forever changing and positions were swapping around constantly. One minute a driver would be in second place by a good margin and then find themselves in sixth with a few seconds gap! This was down to the fact that towards the end of qualifying the track was drying out and there was a lot more speed to be found.

At the end of qualifying it was completely unpredictable who was going to qualify where, so much so that Teflon crossed the line in 3rd only to find himself in 6th by the time the results table came up. TheCardinal (who was racing for Michi) was looking the hot favourite to qualify 1st, with Jambo being 2nd and surprisingly Ashgraham being nowhere to be seen. However, Ash had secured a brilliant last attempt to get him 2nd place and Jambo has been steadily knocking out better and better laps to take 1st with AG2297 (who had been jumping between 2nd and 4th a lot) with 3rd.

After an exciting qualifying we got ready for the race. The race proved to be wet which was great for most of us (myself too, as I had managed to qualify third) as it was seen as a chance at shaking up the order of things a bit.Choice of tyres played an important role here, with most (including the two front runners Jambo and Ash) to go with Intermediates but with one or two (AG2297) starting on the full wets. When the light went out and the race began, AG got a better start on his full wets than Ash and managed to move up into 2nd only for Ash to take it back in the next corner.

At the hairpin there was a small amount of contact between Ash and Jambo but positions stayed the same and a little further back AG was accidentally nudged off track putting him down in 5th, TheCardinal in 3rd and Ro6afc11 in 4th. Ash wasn’t having a great time with that hairpin and span a few times on it during the race, one of them being synchronised with Ro6, causing him to lose a place to TheCardinal.

The race took a turn in direction after TheCardinal’s internet disconnecting putting him out of the race. It was coming up to pit times soon, and tyre choice was critical. Teflon (racing for Yersal) went for the option tyre which seemed to be the best option (see what I did there) as the track was drying out and the options were much faster at this stage although Ash had managed to overtake Teflon during the pits and Jambo who had worn his tyres out. Ash had chosen intermediates whereas Jambo, who didn’t pit until lap 10 of 13, had gone for the option tyre.

Jambo came out of the pits 13/14 seconds down on Ash and decided to drive like he had never driven before! On his new tyres Jambo was slashing seconds per sector out of Ash’s pace, and was catching him. On the final lap it came down to the last few corners where Jambo had caught up and Ash, on his now worn out tyres, couldn’t keep his car on the road and span off into the gravel leaving Jambo to take 1st place.

A bit further back another battle was taking place between Teflon and Ro6afc11. Battling it out for a few laps they reached the final one. With Ro6 slightly ahead they go through the hairpin where, after a bit of contact, Ro6 stays in front but by the next corner they are side by side. Continuing to battle it out, they reach the final corner on the final lap where Ro6 runs wide but keeps his speed and accidentally crashes into Teflon as they come out of the corner, causing Ro6 to go spinning around and end up facing the wrong way on the track and leaving Teflon to take 3rd.

Rather than spend time turning around on track, R06 slammed it into reverse and crossed the line backwards! There was a lot of laughter, and a lot of shock, down the headsets with many people experiencing an adrenaline rush at how close those last few laps were and it took some of the drivers a few minutes to calm down before the rest of us could hear what had happened!

The results were:

1. JamboGT – 25
2. AshGraham99 – 18
3. Yersal – 15 (Teflon racing)
4. Ro6afc11 – 12
5. Josh653 – 10
6. Duncanuaz – 8
7. AG2297 – 6
8. Gernboes – 4 (Yogdog racing)
9. Freezebug – 2
10. CubsMug – 1
11. DJKaty – 0
12. Michi – 0 (DNF) (TheCardinal racing, but disconnected in the race)

Championship C

When the race started THL was on pole position with SuperJag and Colin right behind him. Off the line Colin got a quick start but had to back off through the extremely tight turn one. Tom managed to hold his lead until the hairpin where Jag picked his braking point perfectly and took first place. Further down the pack championship leader Baxteros and Squalje collided twice before the hairpin, putting themselves at the back. Baconsarnie was the big winner off the start, avoiding a few collisions through turn 2, jumping from 10th place up to 5th.

At the end of lap 1 Tom put two wheels into a gravel trap allowing Colin and Tony past. He did manage to get past Tony and entered into a battle with Colin for the next few laps which ended up, of course, in a crash. Through the exit of turn 6 Tom managed to get on the inside into turn 7 but Colin had no choice but to turn in, clipping the front of Tom’s car sending him into an impressive four wheel drift. Tom conceded the place but took it right back after yet another poor pit stop for Colin.

Upon exiting the pits Colin had Baconsarnie right behind him and hit the throttle a little too hard while exiting turn 2, causing him to spin and drop down the field. Bacon then moved up to 3rd place as Baxteros made his pit stop but spun at the hairpin, undoing his good work and dropping him down to 5th before Baxteros stole it off him. Bax was a man on a mission and caught up with Colin on the final lap. Colin defended hard into the hairpin but Bax managed to squeeze up the inside and edge ahead. Both battled for the next few corners but Baxteros had the position secured.. SuperJag took the victory after a pretty uneventful race for him with THL in second and Wick in third, his first podium of the season.

Final results are:

1. SuperJag86 – 25

2. THLSixthAxis – 18

3. Wick15 – 15

4. Baxteros – 12

5. Colinbarr66 – 10

6. Baconsarnie – 8

7. Squalje – 6

8. Tonyyeb – 4

9. icuyesido – 2

10. Lfc-Gaz – 1 (SpikeyMikey racing)

11. Sympozium_666 – 0 (DNS)

12. Stingraz – 0 (DNS)

So congratulations to Matty1209, JamboGT and SuperJag86 for their wins and JamboGT is now the second person to qualify for the finals so congratulations again! The F1 Championship thread is, as mentioned above, the place to head if you want the current standings with the participants own accounts of their race starting here. Are our write ups not good enough for you? Not to worry then as the drivers have been recording the races with whatever video equipment they can lay their hands on. This week’s videos can be found here as well as clips from previous races and meets.

Next week’s race will be at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. The weather will be quite likely to play a big factor in this race, as it did this week, and you need to have masses of speed and time your ascent up Eau Rouge to perfection to get the most out of it, followed by a long series of high speed corners. It’s simply delightful. Following that, our very last race before we move on to the trio of races for the finalists will be held at Suzuka, Japan. All I’ll say is oh dear…

Soon we will be reaching the finals, where our drivers who qualified will battle it out in three more races to decide the winner of the TSA F1 Championship. We have decided, due to time limitations, to postpone these finals until after the Christmas period. They will begin sometime in January, with a notice being given to all those who qualify and a post being written up on here on the front page to let everyone know. More details may come to light over the next two weeks as to how many will qualify (either 3 from each championship, or we may extend it to 4) and possibly what tracks will be in the finals.

Sadly, we couldn’t cover everyone’s story in this post, so tell us, how was that Championship race for you? Reckon Germany will be kinder to you? Any predictions on the next winners? Let us know in the comments below!

Most of the big releases for this year are now out so you should really be keeping tabs on the Community,  Competitions and Meets sections of the site, as well as following @thesixthaxis and @TSACom on twitter for more community announcements.