NSR F1 – Race 2 – Results

NSR F1 Race Series

Race 2 of 6

October 6th

The second round of the NSR F1 series was another very close race with nine competitors showing up to run the race.

The first heat had John, Marc, and Mark.  The heat was very close with Mark setting the mark at 71 laps and a fast lap of 3.965.  John had a difficult heat with the Brabham de-sloting numerous times.  He had his work cut out for him in his remaining two heats.

The second heat had Russell joining the mix and Mark left to race the later heats.  This heat had to be restarted due to a runner in another lane and a failure to stop the clock.  The restart had Russell setting the pace while John continued to struggle with the handling of his car.  Russell set the new mark of 74 laps and a new fast lap of 3.902.  Marc had a good heat with his car completing 70 laps.

The third heat had Ary joining and Marc leaving to run later in the race.  Ary is known for his speed but he had some issues with his car’s crown gear in the first race of the series.  This race would give him an opportunity to see what his car could do without the crown gear issue.  As expected Ary set the new mark with a lap total of 75 laps and a new fast lap of 3.829.  Russell had a solid heat with 72 laps and John struggled with his car and finished with 69 laps.

The fourth heat saw David joining the field while John finished his three heats for a total of 200.23 laps.  David is another fast runner and it was fun to watch David, Ary and Russell, all great drivers, running at the same time.  This race starts at the 28:56 mark on the YouTube video.  On his third lap, Ary set the fast time of 3.752 then on the eighth lap David set a new fast lap time of 3.660.  By the end of the five-minute heat Ary had run 77 laps to David’s 76 but David had a set a new fast lap of 3.652.  Russell had a great heat running 74 laps with the fastest lap of his three heats with a time of 3.888.

The fifth heat saw Randy joining the race.  Russell was out with a total lap count of 220.38.  This was another heat with the two fast runners – Ary and David racing against each other.  David had a couple of de-slots in the last heat that gave Ary the edge in total laps but this was another opportunity to take the fight back to Ary.  Both cars were within a quarter of a lap apart for the entire race with Ary leading some and David leading some.  At the end, it was Ary in front by a quarter of a lap with both cars running 77 laps.  It was interesting that with the great battle taking place no one was able to improve on the fast lap time.  Randy had a solid heat and finished with 66 laps and a fast lap time of 4.159.

The sixth heat had Marty join and Ary leave.  Ary was now the leader on the board with a total of 229.83 laps.  It would be interesting to see if Marty could keep the same pace he had in the first round of the series and keep David behind him.  David was not happy about the first round of the series and would be looking to take the heat and race win.  It was great to see these two drivers go head-to-head.  The race went along well with some fast laps being run and then at the 46:40 mark, there was a string of two crashes.  Marty’s Ferrari had a rollover in the esses and lost a rear wing then David’s Jagermeister car went airborne when it hit a stationary Mercedes that crashed into the guardrail and came back onto the track and into the path of the unfortunate Jagermeister car.  The Jagermeister car went off the track and hit the floor.  OUCH!  Incredibly the car was in good shape with the rear wing still on the car.  The race continued and David had a couple of de-slots that allowed Marty to take a lead of a little more than a lap but David set a new fast lap time of 3.630

The seventh heat had Steve join in and David leave having run the most laps at 230.76.  This was just 0.93 ahead of Ary.  It was now up to Marty to chase down Ary and David while trying to grab the fast lap bonus point.  The race went well with great runs by Randy and Steve while Marty pushed to chase down the leaders.  At the end of the heat Marty had run 79 laps to Steve’s 73 and Randy’s 69.  The fast lap still was David’s.

The eighth heat had Mark come back in while Randy finished with a total of 201.75.  Marty would need 74 laps to take the lead from David and a fast lap quicker than 3.630 to take the fast lap bonus point.  The race went well as everyone did a great job keeping their cars in the slots and putting up some great pace.  Steve managed 73 laps to Mark’s 71 and Marty was able to run 76 laps to give him the overall lead with one heat left to run.

The ninth and final heat had Marc come back in and saw Marty leave with a total of 233.75.  The final heat went well with Steve finishing with 73 laps to Marc’s 70 and Mark’s 68.

In summary, there was some great racing that shows how much fun these cars are to set up and race.  To highlight this, Steve’s silver NSR was basically taking out of the box on Thursday and ran the race on Saturday finishing fifth only 0.93 of a lap behind the fourth place car.  Having said that, the smallest imperfection in set up can result in a car losing tenths of a second on every lap.  Preparation is key to having these cars run fast laps at the front of the field.

I can’t wait to see the next round.

Here is the lineup of the cars present for this round of the series.

Lotus Jr.

John B. – Brabham, Piquet, #7

Porsche917

Marty M. – Ferrari, Villeneuve, #27

Autorama

Ary B. – Lotus, Senna, #12

Radial T/A

Randy A. – Mercedes, The Stig, #4

ChapRacer65

Russell M. – Lola-Ford, Nigel Mansell, #5

Butch

David C. – Jagermeister, N/A, #33

Kein Mitleid

Steve B. – Silver car, N/A, #N/A

Spyder

Mark L. – White car, N/A, #21

Datto

Mark T. – Williams, Piquet, #6