NES S4 Round 1 Round-Up
The first race of the new NES season is upon us, with 12 drivers taking to the grid for the first race of Round 1 held at Monza. From what we saw from the Preview Event at Alsace and pre-season testing, we are in for one of the most contested and interesting seasons to date!
With the major changes to the NES this season, it made for a lot of changes to the grid. With Baltic Sea Competition leaving, a big hole was left and drivers were shuffled as a result.
Race 1 (LMP Pro)
Qualifying, now a 20 minute session, was a one horse race in LMP Pro as JoeOfTheFire took pole by a staggering 1.3 seconds in his R18 Hybrid, making a big statement to his competitors. ArmoredCore was 2nd, showing a quality 1 lap pace in the diesel Peugeot 908 HDi. 3rd was reigning LMP Drivers Champion DirtenDK in the very successful Porsche 919 Hybrid, but a somewhat disappointing qualifying considering the Dane's champion status. Splurge had to settle for 4th in the new MRT Toyota TS050 Hybrid, splitting the 2 HTRG teammates as Traels came a close 5th, missing 4th by 0.052 seconds.
In the race Splurge got an insane start jumping up to 2nd, and even overtaking Joe for the lead. But then troubles hit for Splurge as the Brit shouted over the radio over his discontent of the backmarkers, losing the lead in the process and falling behind AC. Joe was confident in the lead but a rare spin on the exit of Parabolica almost cost him dearly. He just managed to save it, even though he was on the low grip Hard tyre compound. Dirten and Traels were nowhere to be seen, a lot of mistakes at the Lesmo's costing them time, but they can learn from that for the future.
Joe won comfortably and looked confident all weekend. He's certainly one to watch this season. AC finished a fine 2nd in the Peugeot, staying out of trouble and bringing the car home. Splurge in 3rd, avoiding a post race interview as he was fuming about the traffic. Dirten finished a distant 4th and Traels 5th. Joe set the fastest lap, smashing the lap record with a 1:31.395.
Race 1 (GT3 Amateur)
Qualifying in GT3 Amateur was very competitive. OffApple finally took pole by 5 tenths in a convincing fashion in his BMW Z4, with his second team driver Y_bearr lining up next to him in 2nd in his Mercedes AMG GT. A great qualifying from the Indonesian driver who this year wants to make a name for himself in the NES. 3rd, 2 tenths behind was Gugas in the BMW M6, racing for Martini Racing Team in the team's first full season. The rest of the order was RiskyDevil in 4th, Ninja__Karma in 5th, Jermaine in 6th, and JustTurnLeft in 7th subbing for Nilsemann in the RLA Premium Corvette.
The start of the race was all over the place, as OffApple missed the braking zone on cold tyres and overshot the chicane, hitting the bollards. Y_bearr locked up and went wide allowing Gugas to take the lead while avoiding incidents. Jermaine got big damage and had to pit for repairs, while RiskyDevil stayed out with their minor damage. By lap 2 Ninja had an incredible run through Curva Grande and overtook Gugas, but it didn't last long as he lost the car on the exit of Ascari. OffApple was caught off guard by the Corvette returning to the track, taking to the grass to avoid him but speared into the barrier, shattering his hopes of a win. Y_bearr was the big winner as he moved up to 2nd and started hunting Gugas in 1st. The order by lap 4 was Gugas, Y_bearr, Ninja, JustTurnLeft, OffApple, RiskyDevil, and Jermaine.
Y_bearr gad caught Gugas by lap 8 as the 8 second gap evaporated as the Portuguese driver's Softs were suffering from wear, and the Indonesian driver on the Mediums wasn't struggling at all. Y_bearr tried an overtake at turn 1 but Gugas braked later to get the lead back. The ding-dong battle allowed Ninja to catch them quickly, but then Gugas made a mistake on lap 10 at the 2nd chicane. Y_bearr took the lead from there, and Gugas went off again at Parabolica without damage, dropping him to 3rd. Ninja and Gugas pitted at the same time, and Gugas managed to jump him.
Both drivers were now charging to catch the leader who pitted 6 laps later, sticking to a 1 stop strategy. Gugas and Ninja both jumped Y_bearr, but were on 2 stop strategies. Gugas lead Ninja by 8 seconds with Y_bearr a further 7 seconds back. Apple was just behind, but still had another pit stop to make.
By lap 19 Gugas pitted for his last stop and put the Mediums on, but he later regretted it as he was now 10 seconds behind Y_bearr and Ninja had put on Softs. Gugas had everything to catch the leader, but lost time by going off at Parabolica and lost his pace from then onwards.
Drama in the final laps! Y_bearr had miscalculated his fuel and had to pit on the penultimate lap, almost losing the lead to Ninja. The Frenchman's tyres were dead and couldn't do anything as he finished a tenth behind the PlayStation by Nukeshot Motorsport driver. Y_bearr took the win from out of nowhere. Classy performance from the driver with Ninja almost getting the win, but had to consolidate to 2nd. Gugas finished 3rd, 8 seconds behind. Not a bad result for the Martini driver. Apple finished in a disappointing 4th but he knew the pace was there and was keen on the future GT races. Jermaine was 5th, and couldn't recover higher from his lap 1 incident. 6th was JustTurnLeft in his debut race, who couldn't do anything about a car that was new to him. RiskyDevil was the only retirement with a blown engine. Apple got the fastest lap, a 1:48.691, confirming he had the pace but not the luck on his side.
Race 2 (LMP Amateur)
A week later race 2 was held, featuring a 13 strong grid. Qualifying was a 1 horse race in LMP Amateur as Gugas got pole by 1.173 seconds ahead of 2nd place man Jermaine, who snatched his place from Nilsemann who was a close 3rd. OffApple in 4th, and rounding off the grid was Ninja__Karma.
At the start of the race Gugas caught everyone napping and rocketed off thanks to his Toyota's hybrid system. By the end of lap 1 he already had a 6 second lead over Jermaine in 2nd. Before that, the former and Nilse ran wide, resulting in damage to both RLA Premium Mazda's. OffApple hit the chicane bollard and was stationary for a brief moment, but without damage. Ninja pitted but soon after retired from the lap 1 damage, a huge blow for the Frenchman that had huge expectations for the weekend. Nilse stopped the lap after realizing the damage was too much to continue with. The order was Gugas, Jermaine, OffApple and Nilse.
After that it was a lonely race for Gugas, who was on Soft tyres. He was pulling 1.7 seconds a lap quicker than Jermaine on Mediums. At the 28 minute mark Apple pitted to get an undercut on his teammate. Jermaine and Gugas reacted on the next lap. The Dutch driver saw that the Portuguese driver could go half the distance on Softs, so he gambled on the tyre to get some time back on Apple. By then the leader gap was 30 seconds, and it continued to grow as Gugas knew he just needed to bring the car home. He hammered in some qualifying laps to extend the gap to 43 seconds before pitting.
In the final 15 minutes Nilse and Gugas pitted for a last dash to the flag, with Nilse overtaking OffApple 2 laps later and built a 5 second gap, trying to somehow catch Jermaine in 2nd as the gap decreased from 18 to 14.5 seconds. By then Gugas put an even quicker lap together than his qualifying time, with a 1:33.197. A time 2 whole seconds faster than his nearest rival.
The Toyota looked unstoppable in this race, but then shockingly Nilse retired with just 4 laps to go! His Mazda LM55 ended up going straight on into the Parabolica barriers. The RLA Premium crew were stunned as they could have had big points on the board. With that, Apple rounded out the podium as Jermaine even had to pit for fuel at the end. Strong display from Rotterdam Performance with Jermaine and OffApple taking 33pts against their main Amateur Teams Championship rivals RLA Premium. But the winner was Gugas who had a lights to flag victory confirming after Splurge's 3rd in LMP Pro that Martini Racing Team and Toyota are a force to be reckoned with.
Race 2 (GT3 Pro)
Coming to the GT3 Pro race, we saw the return of Steviea after not attending the Preview Event. The category was packed with Sniparator coming out of his sabbatical and subbing for SplurgeTheSecond for Martini Racing Team, reuniting with his old teammate from S2 Gugas. TetsuKobura and DirtenDK missed the race due to injuries, but hopefully will be getting back for Maggiore.
Qualifying was tense from start to finish as JoeOfTheFire got pole by only 1 hundredth of a second from CrazyJohn, who was in disbelief at how he missed out. ArmoredCore less than a tenth behind the pole sitter, the Peugeot VGT showing good 1 lap pace. The rest of the grid was Steviea in 4th, with his JT2OU teammate Traels just behind in 5th, both in the Aston Martin V12 Vantage. 6th was WaikeCU in his debut race, showing some promise, and it was Sparks360 ahead of Sniparator in 7th and 8th respectively rounding off the grid.
Everyone got cleanly away as the race started as CJ dropped 3 places by losing the car on the exit of the first chicane. Traels, charging from 5th to 2nd and overtaking his teammate at the first Lesmo, was a man on a mission. But then disaster struck for CJ as he lost his car on the exit of the second Lesmo and got heavy damage to his Volkswagen Beetle. The Greek was not a happy man and had to pit. And then Traels made an outrageous move on the inside of Joe on the run to Parabolica. Joe tried the switchback and both ran side-by-side until the chicane where Joe had to concede. Traels was first after 1 lap, incredible driving from the Dane. But Joe managed to retake the position on lap 2 in the braking zone of Ascari, and was unchallenged as both JT2OU drivers fought each other for position. Steviea had debutant PlayStation by Nukeshot driver WaikeCU right behind while the Mazda La Vista driver was pulling away building a 4 second lead. Steviea got away and left his teammate and Waike scrambling for 3rd place. But the drama kept unfolding as Steviea ran into the gravel at Parabolica, which may have distracted Traels as the Mercedes AMG GT overtook him for 2nd. Starting to get in the groove, the Belgian driver showed that he was no rookie in endurance racing. Sparks ended up retiring with a blown engine. After 8 laps the order was Joe, Waike, Traels, Steviea, AC, Sniparator, and CJ trying to salvage a good result.
On lap 9 ArmoredCore pitted after damaging his car but not losing a place, a good stop by the Artemis Sport crew. A lap later WaikeCU pitted as he was running on Supersofts, sticking with that compound for the whole race. The Mercedes showing again that the tyre degradation wasn't an issue. The next lap everyone reacted as Joe, Traels and Steviea pitted, Steviea receiving damage at the Lesmos. Traels also crashed at the Lesmos, and the JT2OU pit was in disbelief of why their cars were having problems in that sector, the Dane dropping to dead last.
After some laps with the order starting to form, both CJ and AC pitted for their final stops. WaikeCU after being behind Joe by 18 seconds pitted on lap 20 for his last stop to try the undercut as Steviea followed suit into the pits. Joe pitted the following lap to secure his comfortable gap he had before the stops. The running order was now Joe, Waike, Steviea, AC, CJ, Traels, and Sniparator who had an enjoyable incident-free evening despite running last. In the final 8 minutes Steviea running 3rd was trying to catch Waike from 7.2 seconds behind to 3 seconds at the flag, the Brit saying over team radio that if he had 2 more laps he would've caught the Belgian driver.
And with that JoeOfTheFire confirmed his status as a favourite and won at Monza, making a clean sweep in both of his races with pole, fastest lap, and the win after a convincing drive from lap 2 onwards. Joe is here to conquer but this championship is just heating up and he'll have everyone clawing at his heels. WaikeCU with an amazing 2nd place had OffApple delighted with his latest signing. Steviea finished 3rd after a race with a lot of mistakes, not normal of the reigning champion. ArmoredCore in a distant 4th, CrazyJohn recovering well after his engine trouble to 5th, Traels a disappointing 6th, and Sniparator in 7th who did well considering he was against Pro split competition.
That rounds up everything that happened at Round 1 of Nukeshot Endurance Series Season 4! We saw some spectacular racing, and it's left us hungry for more. The next stop on the calendar isn't too far away, as we go from Monza to Lago Maggiore for the European round. The host of last seasons Preview Event is regarded as one of the favourite tracks, with its high-speed and technical nature as well as elevation change. The main highlight is Turn 11, a tight right-hander with an awesome 20 degree banking, making it a very unique challenge. We hope to see you there!
Article wrote by
@gugas99
Article edited by
@PSN offapple
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." The GT3 car was revealed to be the BMW M6 after the interview.
