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ERL 2010 - Round 1 - Istanbul |
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Written by Mark
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Friday, 13 August 2010 |
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Ian Mills driving the FRO Acura P1 took pole position for the start of the 10HRS of Istanbul. The number 88, FRO Accura had a strong run and apart from some misshaps to the 2nd and 3rd drivers in the car should have been in a comfortable lead. Ian was able to make a nice gap by the end of his first stint in the car to the guys battling behind. All going to plan at that stage. Anders was into the car next, found a difficult to handle car on the worn tyres and unfortunately, and very uncharacteristic for Anders, span a couple of times losing the splitter on one which required a lengthy pitstop to repair, dropping us down a lap or two. Phil took over and met with some graphics problems with very strange things happening, just tried to survive through the stint going off the track a couple of times, resulting in the car now being close to 3 laps off the lead and 2 off the 2nd place car when Ian got back in.
What happened next was one of the most impressive drives I have seen in sim racing. Ian inherited a damaged car, which had lost some speed on the straights and was a little tricky in the end of the brake zones. A massive fight back from Ian, it is one thing to put on a big sprint for the end of sprint GP distance, but Ian put in some 100 or more laps without a misstake and for most of those laps, the fastest car on the track. Ian setting the fastest lap with the damaged car, with the only lap under .34 on a cooling track, a awesome speed at that time in the race. Taking 2 laps out of the 2nd place car during his time in the car was a truly stunning performance, all while having to carefully manage the tyre wear.
We thought the Deuces R10 would need the splash and dash, same as us towards the end and had budgeted the tyres well. Ian caught the 2nd place Audi with just a few laps to go, as its tyres finally cried enough. We finished with a couple of litres in the tank and within a percentage point of our tyres dying too. A very close race and awesome battle for P2 at the end and very proud with Ians drive.
Overall a great event for Formula Racing, happy with the Pole, very happy with the fastest lap and happy to come home with 2nd having not dropped to many points to the Nexus car. In ERL, despite the distances and difficulties of endurance SIM racing, the leading teams rarely drop a score and you just cannot afford to lose a point. So a good strong start to the season for us.
We are looking forward to Laguna, a race we took the pole at last season and where on for a 1, 2 finish before some unfortunate problems, a crash and a disco dropping one car back to 2nd, and losing the other. For FRO, we still seek our first win in ERL, been a few poles, a few 2nds, 3rds and we want to nail down that first win. Laguna is a massive challenge in ERL, constant passing of much slower GTs and with at this event the P2s going to be very quick, its going to be a huge challenge to bring home the points.LM-P1 Standings | Pos | # | Team | Points | | 01 | 68 | Nexus 6 Racing | 40 | | 02 | 88 | Formula Racing | 36 | | 03 | 15 | Deuces Motorsport | 24 | | 04 | 84 | F1Elites.com | 22 | | 05 | 21 | CanAm Enduro | 20 | | 06 | 112 | Caracis Cobras | 14 | | 07 | 11 | GT World Racing | 12 | | 08 | 9 | Talon Racing | 10 | | 09 | 16 | Deuces Motorsport | 9 | | 10 | 844 | F1Elites.com | 7 |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 22 August 2010 )
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Written by Mark
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Wednesday, 03 March 2010 |
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The first points race of the ILMS 2010 era was held today at Spa. This was also the first race in the CMS Divisional Challenge. This new series pits the drivers of the North American Division against the drivers from the World Division for CMS bragging rights. Drivers earn individual points for the series but also earn team points for finishing in the top five in their respective class. Ian Mill's making his debut in the Accura P1 entry decimated the field taking Pole, Fastest lap and the overall race win. Mark Bos, lining up 2nd on the grid took the lead of the event in the early laps, before a disconection took him out the race. Anders Nilsson took Pole in P2 class and led the class until a rare mistake. Phil Roberts took p2 in GT and a slight mistake at T1 put him out in a heavy crash.
Ian Mills, pictured above, lead the field of 22 and went on to take the overall win in his LMP1 Acura. The 2.4 hour event had some great racing and put the drivers and their machines to the test. Formula Racing maintain the unbeaten record at Spa this season, taking 4 wins, 4 poles from 4 events. The team now moves back across the pond for the World Division, Road America race on the 12th of March.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 03 March 2010 )
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Written by Mark
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Sunday, 21 February 2010 |
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The Formula Racing Endurance LMP2 team headed for Spain and the tight, fast Catalyunya track that was hosting round 8 of the ILMS ERL Series. Our leading entry the #32 car driven by the English Hard Charging Robert Fakes and Anders Nillson had a good qualifying session, with Robert putting the teams Acura car into the top 10, Rob, was amazing, the only one of the Acura's to be there at this track which strongly favoured the Dome S101 P2 with its higher downforce and less drag. From the Start Robert was able to run fast, consistent laps on the Hard tyre option which was gaining the team 20 seconds in each pitstop to the Domes and a key part of the teams strategy. Results | Replay |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 01 March 2010 )
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