The fourth round of the DTM-Shapeways series was a fantastic round of the series and might be one of the best rounds of any series so far this year.
Nine racers came out to compete with five of the nine being A Group racers and four being B Group racers. Of the five A Group racers Ary, Shawn
The first heat had Randy enter the series for the first time and alongside him for this first heat were David and Shawn. Shawn wasted no time in setting the early pace by laying down a fast lap of 3.998 while Randy forgot he was in Group B and was doing a great job of staying close to both of them the whole time. With 28 seconds to go David posted the fast lap for the round with a time of 3.989. At the end of the heat Shawn had a total of 72 laps while David had 71 and Randy had 63.
As if the first heat wasn’t enough fun watching Shawn and David match each other lap for lap heat two would have Shawn and Ary racing side by side with Randy hoping to stay in the mix. If you ever wanted a lesson in how to race these cars on this track this was your opportunity. Less than thirty seconds into the heat Shawn had lowered the fast lap time to 3.970 then took it to 3.958 with a minute and a half to go and then with 8 seconds left in the heat he lowered the time to 3.936. As fast as Shawn was, Ary stayed with him the entire time and was only one lap behind at the end. Randy was pulled along by the other cars and had another super strong heat with a total of 67 laps. Unbelievable for someone that has not run in this series until now.
The third heat had Ary and Shawn going at it again and this time they were joined by Alejandro for his first heat of the day. The heat was a great battle between all three racers with Alejandro staying with two of the fastest racers in the club. Shawn and Ary both finished with 73 laps while Alejandro put in 71 laps.
The fourth heat had Ary, Alejandro and now Russell. The racing was again super close with all racers staying very close to each other. The result was Ary with 73 laps for a three heat total of 218 – the same as Shawn. The difference between them was only .11 of a lap with Ary getting the slight edge over Shawn. The mark for everyone to beat was now 218 laps. Not to forget the other competitors – Alejandro finished with 71 laps to Russell’s 69.
The fifth heat had Lance join in with Russell and Alejandro. This heat was Russell’s undoing as a mechanical put his car in the pits for the middle of the heat. At the end it was Alejandro with 71 laps to Lance’s 65 and Russell ended with a very respectable 62 laps. Alejandro had a total of 213 laps at the end of this heat – a very tough mark for any of the other B Group racers to match.
The sixth heat had Stephen join Lance and Russell. After Russell’s mechanical Stephen was potentially the only one with a chance of beating Ary or Shawn. His first heat would be critical if he was going to take the win. How would it go? At the end of a relatively clean heat Stephen and Russell tied with 69 laps and Lance was not far behind with 65 laps. If Stephen was going to win he was really going to have to find more speed in the next two heats to make it happen.
The seventh heat had Mark join Stephen and Lance. The heat went off with no major incedents with the final totals being Stephen with 69 laps, Lance with 64 and Mark with 58. A win was out of the question for Stephen but he was now fighting for a podium spot and had to really have a solid final heat so David could not catch him in the final two heats.
The eighth heat had David join Stephen and Mark. David had a great heat with 73 laps and put himself in reach of catching Shawn or Ary or at least take a podium spot. Stephen had 70 laps for his best heat of the day and Mark had a major mechanical that put his car in the pits for the majority of the heat.
The ninth and final heat had David, Mark and Randy running together. This heat was the one David had to put it all out there if he was going to take the win. Randy was running really strong in the first two heats so lets see if he can continue that pace in this heat. Mark was able to complete repairs on his car and get it back in the race for the final heat of the day. David was really pushing and at a minute and a half he had a fast lap time of 3.967, not his fastest but it showed he was really pushing. At the end of the heat his 71 lap total was only good enough for third on the podium. Randy finished with 66 laps and Mark was third with 56 laps.
Ary had won the race with Shawn so close they both should have shared first place and when you consider Shawn had fastest lap they did both walk away with 20 points. David had a solid run for third and Alejandro had a great result to finish in forth and first in the B Group.
At four races in there have not been any two time fast lap winner. Very unusual and great at the same time as it shows how super competitive this series. Anyone is a possible winner. Maybe next week it will be you.
