Turtle Racing League - Enduro Series
Race 1: FF Duel at Deep Forest - Three 30 Minute Races -
January 13th, 2017
Round 1
Track: Deep Forest - Forward
Car: VW Golf IV GTI Touring Car '01
Tires: Sport Mediums
Laps: 21
Round 2
Track: Deep Forest - Forward
Car: Honda CR-Z Touring Car
Tires: Sport Mediums
Laps: 21
Round 3
Track: Deep Forest - Forward
Car: Honda INTEGRA TYPE R (DC5) Touring Car '04
Tires: Sport Softs
Laps: 22
Division 2
Round 1
Pole - littleregret265
1st Place:
littleregret265 (Fastest Lap -
1:27.489)
2nd Place:
WilliFRendon (Fastest Lap - 1:28.118)
+7.869
3rd Place:
nolucktoday (Fastest Lap - 1:27.822)
+9.100
4th Place:
RoadRageDudez (Fastest Lap - 1:27.826)
+19.251
5th Place:
Damonc84 (Fastest Lap - 1:28.555)
+26.756
6th Place:
CAB114 (Fastest Lap - 1:28.377)
+38.498
7th Place:
AngryEater (Fastest Lap - 1:29.765)
+1:28.331
8th Place:
snake-scent00 (Fastest Lap - 1:28.733)
+1:29.773
Round 2
1st Place:
littleregret265 (Fastest Lap - 1:26.383)
2nd Place:
CAB114 (Fastest Lap - 1:26.734)
+4.469
3rd Place:
nolucktoday (Fastest Lap - 1:27.190)
+9.593
4th Place:
Damonc84 (Fastest Lap -
1:26.084)
+14.057
5th Place:
WilliFRendon (Fastest Lap - 1:26.731)
+18.023
6th Place:
AngryEater (Fastest Lap - 1:28.274)
+1:06.523
RoadRageDudez - DNS
snake-scent00 - DNS
Round 3
1st Place:
WilliFRendon (Fastest Lap - 1:21.565)
2nd Place:
Damonc84 (Fastest Lap - 1:22.089)
+6.947
3rd Place:
littleregret265 (Fastest Lap -
1:21.507)
+7.131
4th Place:
CAB114 (Fastest Lap - 1:22.302)
+35.129
5th Place:
nolucktoday (Fastest Lap - 1:22.512)
+52.911
AngryEater - DNS
Red = Fastest Lap
Blue = Close Finish
Turtle Racing League - Final Results
1st Place:
littleregret265 (93 Points - Pole)
2nd Place:
WilliFRendon (86 Points)
3rd Place:
Damonc84 (80 Points ~ Tiebreaker ~ Faster Lap than nolucktoday)
4th Place:
nolucktoday (80 Points)
5th Place:
CAB114 (78 Points)
6th Place:
AngryEater (42 Points)
7th Place:
RoadRageDudez (26 Points)
8th Place:
snake-scent00 (18 Points)
Turtle Racing League - Race Night Recap - Division 2
Race 1:
It was a pleasure to watch this weekend’s racing, with D2 alone packing a lot of competition into a grid of 8 cars. It was set to be a full night of heated touring car action.
On the grid there was a lot of tension, as it was Friday the 13th, and the lobby had already crashed once. However, the VWs were all lined up revving fiercely, slowly waiting on the lights to pounce into the first turn. Littleregret265 lined up on pole position in the 26, taking the spot over RoadRageDudez in the 17 by less than a tenth of a second. The second row had Nolucktoday in the 11 and WilliFRendon in the 14; row 3 had Damon84c in the eponymous 84 and Cab114 in the 41, while the final spots were taken by AngryEater’s #37 VW and Snake-scent00 in the 56.
As the lights went green, everyone charged into Stadium corner, and Snake was able to move up to 7th off the start, getting ahead of AngryEater. RoadRage and LR265 battled up at the front with Noluck and Will close behind. Snake was involved in a small incident at Valley Rise, allowing Angry to slip by him on the inside and take back the position. By the end of the first lap, a fierce battle for second between RoadRage and Noluck was developing, as Littleregret pulled away onto the front straight. Damon had a lag related incident that put himself and Cab in the grass exiting the plunge on lap 2, sending Damon out of control onto the front straight and down into 8th, though over the next few laps, he made his way back to 6th position after some smooth driving and careful overtakes.
By lap 10, RoadRage and Noluck were still going all out for 2nd place, and while RoadRage held the lead for a good majority of the battle, his tires were beginning to wear down quickly. Their battling allowed WilliFRendon to leverage himself back into the fight and make for a deep race through the forest (pun intended). The Golfs assaulted the course without relent, pushing on even though the tire wear was kicking in. Snake-scent brought it into the pits about halfway through the race for fresh tires, though the rest of the field would stay out on track and cope with the FF understeer. Speaking of understeer, as RoadRageDudez and Noluck headed into lap 12, RoadRage ran wide at the final corner! This allowed Nolucktoday to take 2nd and develop a gap over RoadRage and WilliFRendon, now squabbling to stay on the podium. Only a couple laps later, Will takes 3rd after the 17 heads off course at The Plunge again, pushing RoadRageDudez down to 4th. Damon was able to work his way around Cab114 in sector 2 on lap 16, and return to his original starting position after the nasty incident on lap 2.
As the race began to wind down, Will set his sights on Nolucktoday, and started the work of closing the gap to 2nd. He continued to put on the pressure, though Noluck held his own and kept the pace up. Heading into the penultimate lap, Will got a good run going, moved to the inside, established overlap and took the inside to maneuver around Nolucktoday. However, Noluck was not going down without a fight and up to the very end of the race, the two drivers duked it out for 2nd place, once more. In the end, while Littleregret265 walked away with the win for race 1, all eyes were on the fight for silver as WilliFRendon edged out Nolucktoday by 1.231 seconds at the checkered, 7.869 seconds behind the leader. RoadRageDudez held 4th, though Damon84c was not far behind, finishing 5th some 7 seconds later. Cab114 took 6th, and at the back, AngryEater, who dealt with very aggressive tire wear was able to eke out Snake-scent’s hard charge by only 1.4 seconds, despite a 10 second gap heading into the white flag! It was a great showing for D2’s very first race.
Race 2:
RoadRageDudez and Snake-scent00 had to leave after Race 1, but with the grid flipped for race 2, the Golfs switched out for CR-Zs, and the drivers ready for more racing, the green flag flew and 6 more touring cars made a beeline for turn 1. AngryEater kept the holeshot, followed by Cab114, Nolucktoday, and WilliFRendon, with Littleregret265 bringing up the rear. Heading through the esses into the Forest Hairpin, there was a good bit of lag in the middle of the pack, and when the smoke cleared, Damon84c was in the wall! He was back in 6th and had plenty of catching up to do. LR265 took advantage of the confusion to also overtake WilliFRendon’s #14 CR-Z and begin blazing a path back to the podium. Everyone continued to jostle around and challenge at every opportunity. Cab took the lead at the end of lap 1, thanks to a good exit out of Valley Rise, and Nolucktoday made his presence known to the leaders as they hurtled around Deep Forest for another lap. As they came into sector 3 again, a bit of contact ensued at the Clearing as Noluck and Angry came together, and when they came out the other side, it was Noluck who had taken the position, with AngryEater falling down to 3rd. While Littleregret was focused finding a way to overtake the 37, Will was readying himself to take back the position he lost. As LR made it to 3rd position in the end of lap 3, Will was already on Angry’s haunches, looking to pass as well. However, he was denied and had to wait until he could set up a run later on. Meanwhile up ahead, the #11 of Noluck had gotten out of control in the final turn! An absolutely tremendous save from Nolucktoday kept him from losing much time, but simultaneously enabled Littleregret265 to stage a pass heading into the Stadium corner on lap 4. AngryEater was also trying to make his way around the 11, but had the door shut on him. WilliFRendon played it safe, avoiding any possible collisions and remained patient, looking for his own way past Angry. As he was forced to give up a great run out of Valley Rise, he heard the 84 creeping up, and the 84 took the inside line into the clearing for 5th place, though the 14 was still right on his tail. Up ahead, Littleregret265 was extending the gap between himself and Nolucktoday, who was also getting a lead on AngryEater. Cab was still running a smooth race up at the front, ahead of the traffic, while LR265 was slowly reeling in 1st.
Damon went on, undeterred, to take 4th from Angry in lap 5, despite some connection issues, and Will was quietly making time to pull himself out of 6th position. A couple laps later, in the same tunnel at the end of section 2, Will made his move into 5th place. At the front of the pack, Cab114 got sideways out of the plunge, and lost a bit of his lead over the rest of the pack, allowing Littleregret265 to appear in his rear-view mirrors once more. However, Cab114 played his defense well and kept LR at bay for a few laps. By about the halfway mark heading into lap 11, Regret was able to get a run on Cab114 and took the lead heading into turn 1. Cab immediately went back on the offensive and didn’t let Regret get far from him, piling on the pressure as the race timer had only 10 minutes to go. The CR-Z’s made a glorious racket as they flew around the course, and a battle between Nolucktoday and Damon84 began to take shape, with Damon using hybrid power and slipstream to inch closer to Noluck. However, right as the 84’s hybrid power ran out, Nolucktoday’s CR-Z got back on hybrid power, and he was able to extend the gap to fourth right back.
With 5 minutes to go, LR265 had extended his lead to 3 seconds over Cab, and Noluck continued to go toe to toe with Damon84, each using their hybrid power to gain an advantage over one another. But as the race came to a close, Nolucktoday held his ground over Damon, conserving enough of his tires to finish strong. LR265 finished 1st, 4 and a half seconds ahead of Cab114; the gap between Nolucktoday and Damon84c was about the same. WilliFRendon finished 5th to take 24 points for the race, and AngryEater took 22 points in 6th place. Looking back at this race, it reminded me of a classic Gran Turismo One-Make Race, and I think that it was certainly a well-fought battle by everyone with an immense amount of action early on.
Race 3:
The finishing positions were reversed again and the group got ready for the third and final race of the evening. AngryEater was unable to compete in the final race, so there were only 5 cars at the starting line. The Integra was on Sports Soft tires, instead of the Mediums on the Golf and CR-Z, and with the loose attitude of the car, most of the drivers would surely be pitting for this race. As the group left the line and proceeded through the first turn, WilliFrendon led the pack, followed by Damon84c, Cab114 with a great start off the line, Nolucktoday, and Littleregret265 again bringing up the rear. Unfortunately, Cab would fall back to 4th before the Forest Hairpin, and lose control after running wide at the entry to Valley Rise. LR265 made his way up to 4th, and the pack began to take shape. The race provided a fair amount of open air for the drivers to really push hard with the Integra, though most drivers were concerned with conserving their tires. Littleregret265 gained another position quickly, after Nolucktoday entered into The Plunge too hot at the end of lap 2, allowing Regret to pull ahead into 3rd place.
The cars tore through the lush scenery, as the drivers began to carefully plan their moves for the rest of the race. Even with the pitstop, the cars would still be wearing into the soft tires quite a bit, so conservation became a factor. While some pushed to get the absolute most, knowing that they wouldn’t have to run the soft tires down to the cords, others finessed the car around, sacrificing a little time to save some down the road. It was Littleregret265 who came in for the first pitstop of the race, with 12 laps done and 13 minutes to go in the race. He went to 5th, losing 2 positions on pit road. WilliFRendon came in to pit on the following lap, allowing Damon84 to take the race lead from him with a little under 12 minutes left. He emerged from pit lane in 4th, with Cab right ahead and LR not far behind. The fresh tires on the 14 allowed Will to hunt down Cab’s yellow Integra, and make the pass before Cab could enter the pits the next lap. LR would pass him while he got fresh tires, and climb back to 4th. Damon continued to run at the front of the pack on fairly worn tires, and WilliFRendon hunted down Nolucktoday, who ran on similarly worn tires.
With a fair amount of slipstream and calculus, Will made his move on lap 18, making it back into 2nd place after sticking it up the inside of the Stadium corner. Regret, also on fresh tires, made his move in the same corner a lap later, forcing Noluck down to 4th position. With the drivers a fair distance away from each other, it all seemed sealed up with 2 minutes to go. However, with Noluck and Damon still running on spent tires, there was a lot of ground to make up. Nolucktoday took the 11 car into the pits with a minute and a half to go, unhappy with the condition of the car likely, allowing Cab114 to make the pass with 2 laps to go. WilliFRendon was locked onto Damon like a missile, and with 30 seconds left on the clock as they began the final lap, Will dashed into the lead. As the clock hit zero, LR265, looking to pass Damon, stayed focused on making a move, but it wasn’t until they reached the final corner that he saw an opportunity, after a good run out of Clearing. While WilliFRendon took the checkered flag, Regret tried to carry all the momentum he could to pass on the straight, but couldn’t find a line around Damon, and was forced to settle for 3rd place, a mere 2 tenths of a second behind the 84. Cab114 brought the 41 home in 4th place, and Nolucktoday rounded out the field of 5. The Integra was a beast of a touring car and certainly provided a great challenge for each driver at the end of the night, keeping them all honest in the final race of the night.
Overall:
Littleregret265 takes 93 points to win the weekend’s event in Division 2. Just 7 points down, WilliFRendon claimed 2nd place after a podium finish in race 1 and a win in the final race, totaling 86 points. At 80 points, we had a tie for 3rd between Damon and Nolucktoday. Damon was awarded 3rd on account of his faster lap times in the final 2 races, while Nolucktoday takes 4th. Just 2 points behind, Cab114 rounds out the top 5. AngryEater takes 6th place, with the final 2 spots going to RoadRageDudez and Snake-scent.
Congratulations to Littleregret265 with wins in the first 2 races and 1st overall, and also to WilliFRendon with a win in race 3 and 2nd overall. Congratulations also to Nolucktoday and Damon84 on their close finish to decide the overall podium.
Thanks as well to everyone who came out this weekend, making both of our divisions exciting and challenging. This Friday was a big step in allowing us to get everything coordinated for future Turtle events, and we’re looking forward to the next races to have some great competition.
* As the Turtles made their way to turn 1 the wonderful world of lag commenced, as Antares’s car, unbeknownst to him, slammed into the side of Trick’s, sending him off into the grass. Tough start for Trick. Meanwhile up front, Kross and Mikey were side by side, and after a little bumpin’ and rubbin’, Kross pulled ahead into the lead. At that point, Phish pulled alongside Mikey for another half lap before Mikey prevailed. The rest of the pack was scrambling for position as poor Trick was a ways back playing catchup. As the first few laps went by, Mikey was keeping the pressure on Kross with Phish biding his time behind the two. Dylan and Aceboy were having a battle for 4th, while Antares and Dolph were doing the same in 6th. Trick was quickly catching up to them however and wouldn’t be alone for long. Dylan slid off the final turn and brushed the wall, allowing Aceboy to take the spot at the end of lap 4. Upon entering turn 1 on lap 5, Mikey made his move around Kross for the lead. The Turtles continued to battle hard though. Phish caught up to the leading duo and took 2nd from Kross as Trick dropped Dolph to last at the end of the 7th lap. Antares pounded the wall one lap later in the final corner to fall back behind Trick and Dolph in the final position. Phish only held 2nd for one lap before Kross decided he wanted it back. (I must have missed something while typing this out, because…) At the halfway point of the race, Mikey(!) had a 1.5 second lead. Phish and Kross were still duking it out for 2nd while a massive 5 car war was going on for 4th. Aceboy, who had been leading the pack, went off course midway around the track and found himself trailing the rest. Phish once again got around Kross for 2nd just a couple of laps later. With that, Kross decided it would be a good time to make a pit stop for some fresh rubber. Antares had the same thought further back. They dropped to 7th and 8th respectively after their stops. Laps continued to go by the wayside, with Mikey holding his lead over Phish and the heated battle for 3rd between Trick, Dylan and Dolph. With roughly 6 minutes remaining, Trick had had enough of his tires and pitted...a move he would regret. One lap later, Dolph moved around Dylan for 3rd, but Kross was closing quickly on his newer tires. Within 2 laps, Kross had disposed of both drivers and was back into a podium spot. The running order would stay the same for the remainder of the race, with Mikey taking a 3 second win over Phish. Kross gained back a lot of time on the front duo, however it was not nearly enough as he finished 15 seconds back, but well enough for bronze. Dolph held off Dylan for 4th. Rounding out the finishing order were Antares, Aceboy and Trick, all within a few seconds of eachother.
Up ahead, Antares, Dylan and Kross decided to make it interesting by going 3 wide for the lead down the front straight. And they didn’t stop there, staying 3 wide throughout turn 1 before Kross prevailed ahead of Dylan then Antares heading up the small hill. Mikey also made quick work of Dolph to take over 6th position. Phish passed Trick, then Antares to position himself into the top 3. Antares went flying off turn 1 on lap 7. He only made it a couple of more corners before having to retire...with a broken controller. Not much one can do about that. By lap 8, Phish had grabbed 2nd ahead of Dylan, and Mikey picked up to 4th disposing of Trick. Two laps later, Mikey had made his way to a podium spot, making his way around Dylan. The running order stayed the same until pit stops began 2 laps later at the halfway point. Dylan led Trick and Dolph into pitlane. For some odd reason, Dylan’s amateur pit crew took their grand old time, actually allowing Trick to pass him by the time they came off pit road. Dolph suffered the same fate behind (crappy pit work). At the same time, Phish grabbed the lead from Kross. Aceboy temporarily took 4th position after the pit stops, but his tires were old. It would be a struggle to hang on to his position. Trick got by later that lap. Having just been passed for the lead, Kross made his way into the pits for fresh rubber along with Mikey on lap 13. Kross came back out into the field still in 2nd, while Mikey exited pit lane behind Trick and just in front of Aceboy and Dylan. Dylan got past the older tired car of Aceboy three turns later. Phish had still yet to pit, though he was getting ready to. As Phish came out of the pits the following lap, Mikey made his move past Trick in turn 1. Phish, with his new tires, took over the 3rd spot when Trick went slipping and sliding in the final turn on lap 14. The running order with 10 minutes left to race was Kross in 1st, Mikey who was closing in, and a fast approaching Phish in 3rd. Trick ran 4th with Dylan 5th. Dolph had passed by Aceboy on his old tires for 6th. Then disaster struck for Kross when his tires dipped into the grass on the final turn on lap 15. His car went sideways, and he smacked the end of the pit wall with the his door. By the time he got back going again, he had dropped to the back of the field in 7th. That had to hurt! Aceboy was still on old tires, and Kross made quick work of him. Two laps later, he flew past Dolph like he was standing still. He might as well have been. Aceboy made his second pit stop soon after. At the end, Phish made a furious charge to try to take the lead, even getting alongside of Mikey in the final corner coming to one to go. Mikey held him off though, and won by less than half a second. Phish still had a solid effort coming from the back. Trick cruised home to a podium finish in 3rd. Dylan was able to stay ahead of Kross for 4th despite Kross pressuring him hard the final few laps. Dolph had an unremarkable 6th. And Aceboy was the last car across the line still running. Like Phish the race before, Antares was awarded an 8th place finish for his DNF. Dang controller! 
