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BTCC Showdown – It all comes down to Brands!

It’s been a titanic season of touring car racing, with 12 different winners across the season so far, it all comes down to the last meeting of the season at Brands Hatch to see who will be crowned 2017 champion.

For one man he’s been there and done it, Colin Turkington has won the title twice, in 2009 and 2014, and in his first season back at WSR after leaving Subaru, he could make it a hat-trick. However, his rival has come from almost nowhere to be in prime position to take an unlikely maiden title.

Ash Sutton was a rookie last season, winning the Jack Sears Trophy, and having moved from MG Racing to the Adrian Flux Subaru team, taking a spot vacated by Turkington, he sits atop of the championship with just three races left to run.

It’s been a corking season, with more shocks than a low budget horror movie, there have been surprise winners, wildcard racers and some stars of tomorrow have emerged amongst the veterans and the elite.

This all begun with independent Tom Ingram taking the first win of the season at Brands Hatch Indy. Ingram was no stranger to the top step, having won twice in 2016, but the Speedworks driver has taken four wins this season and sits fourth in the table. Though he has a mathematical chance, it would take something special for the 24 year old to take the title.

Subaru took on a four car team this season, continuing with the Levorg GT estates. While these remind many of the Volvo 850 estates which Rickard Rydell rinsed around, it’s a young Englishman doing the winning this time round.

Ash Sutton came into the season as a young protégé, in the same team as BTCC legend Jason Plato, Sutton has emerged as the main man in Warren Scott’s team. Taking his first win from pole at Oulton Park, Sutton has been consistent and quick, taking wins at Oulton, Croft, two at Snetterton, Knockhill and Rockingham.

He holds a slender lead over Turkington heading into the finale, only ten points separating them, and while anything can happen in the BTCC, this title is Sutton’s to lose. As the reigning Jack Sears Trophy winner, he’s proved that the rookie championship does have a purpose.

This is proved by 2017’s rising star, Senna Proctor. The 19 year old, driving with Power Maxed Racing this season, has shone, and at some times outshadowed his vastly experienced team mate Tom Chilton. He has secured the Jack Sears Trophy championship already with Brands still to come. He will be encouraged by the progress Sutton has made in his second season.

With the title finely poised, Turkington and Sutton will be looking to keep their cars in one piece, while the chasing pack will be sure to get stuck in, with places and championships yet to be won. Brands Hatch is the classic circuit, and has seen some stellar moments over the years, but neither of our title protagonists will want to risk losing any ground, as one slip, could prove vital.

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Aprilia and Espargaro Take Best Result Yet

Aprilia finished closer to a victory than ever before in the premier class, just under seven seconds away from Marc Marquez on Sunday at Aragon. Aleix Espargaro used a good qualifying position to give him an advantage late on in the race, with the Aprilia once again demonstrating how user-friendly its tyres are.

“I think everyone had fun today! It is not often that so many riders are so close all the way to the chequered flag in MotoGP”, began an elated Aleix Espargaro, picking up his second 6th place of the season.

“It was a hard race, but I liked it. At a certain point, I thought that I might be able to have a go at fourth place with Valentino and Maverick but when there were only a few laps left, they picked up their pace and I had to settle”, continued the Spaniard – who took his only premier class podium at Aragon in 2014.

Aleix Espargaro’s result means that he leaps to 14th in the championship, just three points behind 12th, occupied by Jack Miller.

“I any case, I am satisfied with the sixth place finish, but especially with the gap behind the winner. We are improving constantly and we demonstrate this basically every weekend. Unfortunately, we have been lacking consistent race results”, said Aleix, highlighting that top six positions need to be happening on a more regular basis.

“In any case, we still have four rounds to go on tracks that I really like, so I want to finish this season well”.

Image by: MotoGP

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Jorge Navarro Impresses, Sunday was ‘Bittersweet’

Jorge Navarro had his joint best result of the season at Aragon on Sunday, as he finished sixth and top Spanish rider in the Moto2 race. The Federal Oil Gresini rider qualified sixth, just 0.186 off of a first ever intermediate class pole position. It was the strongest weekend the Spaniard has had so far in Moto2, showing much promise and potential from the get-go on Friday morning.

“It’s been a good race, although it left a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Yesterday, I had the pace to stay with the leaders, but today with different conditions my feeling changed”, said the former Moto3 race winner.

“It has been a positive weekend nevertheless, maybe the best of the season and surely the best race start of the year”, he continued. Navarro has had a solid debut season in the intermediate class, scoring points in every race that he has finished in.

“I enjoyed the battle with Corsi – one of the most expert riders in the class – and I’m sure it’ll help my learning curve”, he concluded.

Whilst not being able to reach the podiums of fellow rookie and Kalex rider, Francesco Bagnaia, Jorge has nonetheless been impressive. He is just seven points away from finishing in the top 10, with another rookie, Brad Binder, currently holding onto that position. He is only one point ahead of Italian, Luca Marini.

Image by: MotoGP

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BREAKING: Buchan in at FS3 Kawasaki for Assen

Danny Buchan will ride the FS3 Kawasaki for the 11th round of the British Superbike Championship at Assen in The Netherlands. The 24-year-old currently rides for Steve Buckenham’s Morello Kawasaki team in the National Superstock 1000 championship, which he leads by 15 points.

The FS3 Kawasaki team have been without their main rider, Billy McConnell, since he crashed out spectacularly at Thruxton, back in August.

Former British Supersport champion Luke Stapleford filled in for the team at Silverstone, as he had no World Supersport commitments. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to deputise at Oulton Park.

Danny Buchan will be making a welcome return the British Superbike championship, where he last made an appearance on Dave Tyson’s Tsingtao Kawasaki last season, finishing a high of 11th at Cadwell Park, on an older Kawasaki compared to others on the grid. The ‘Basildon Bullet’ has 10 victories to his name so far this season in the National Superstock 1000 championship. Buchan has two podiums to his name in British Superbikes, with 3rd and 2nd in 2015 – also riding a Kawasaki.

It is no secret that the former National Superstock 1000 rider wants to return to British Superbike, with FS3 providing the ideal chance for him to showcase his ability on a Superbike. Some pundits have criticised Danny for supposedly ‘not being able to ride without traction control’.

The Assen round starts on the 29th of September, with main race day commencing on the 1st of October. Race one starts at 11:15 and race two from 15:30 British time. Both races are scheduled to be run over 18 laps.

Thanks to Peter Backhurst for the image.

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Mir Takes Controversial Win in Moto3

A delayed and shortened Moto3 race was controversially won by championship leader, Joan Mir, taking his 8th victory of the season. He beat Italians Fabio Di Giannantonio and Enea Bastianini, thwarting both of them of their first wins of the season. Mir now leads the championship by a staggering 80 points, meaning he could win the championship at Motegi if he finishes inside the top two, no matter what 2nd placed Romano Fenati does.

The race eventually got underway and it was Jorge Martin who hit the front from Bastianini and Dennis Foggia, the VR46 KTM wildcard – who displayed talent in bundles throughout the GP. Aron Canet took 4th. Bastianini passed Martin towards the end of the opening lap but Martin re-passed him, searching for his first ever GP win. Both riders had a gap over Aron Canet in third.

The battling continued at the front and due to the passes, the pace slowed. This brought Aron Canet, Joan Mir, Dennis Foggia and everyone else back into play as a typical Moto3 gaggle formed. A disaster soon ensued for Italian Romano Fenati, who languished dejectedly down in 15th for some time, costing him valuable championship points.

Slipstreaming was the word of the day and Joan Mir definitely perfected that particular art. He went from 4th to 2nd in one fell swoop on lap six, before taking the lead a lap later. Jorge Martin soon took the lead back but then the Estrella Galicia Marc VDS bikes hit the front; Enea Bastianini looking for his first victory of the season.

Going into the final lap, Mir went from 4th to 1st at turn one, passing Di Giannantonio, Jorge Martin and Bastianini. The champion elect held off the chasing pack, letting those behind scrap it out. Young Dennis Foggia was put back to 8th in the end but had learnt a lot by running with the leaders.

Going down the back straight to the final two corners for the last time, Mir weaved across the track a total of four times, almost causing a major accident with the chasing Di Giannantonio. Mir held on, beating Digia and The Beast, with just 0.051 covering the top 3. Pole-man Jorge Martin finished 4th, whilst Aron Canet pipped John McPhee to 5th. Ramirez and Foggia were 7th and 8th respectively, within three quarters of a second of victory.

After the race, it was announced that Joan Mir would be getting a 6-place grid penalty in Japan for his irresponsible riding.

Top 5 Championship Standings

1.) Joan Mir                                     271

2.) Romano Fenati                      191

3.) Aron Canet                             173

4.) Fabio Di Giannantonio      137

5.) Jorge Martin                         134

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Morbidelli takes on Pasini in Thrilling Moto2 Race

Franco Morbidelli took a scintillating victory in front of a capacity Aragon crowd during the Moto2 race, beating Mattia Pasini in one of the closest races of the season. Portuguese rider and pole-sitter, Miguel Oliveira completed the podium and had there been another lap, he may have even gone better. 2nd place man in the championship, Tom Luthi, took 4th ahead of a courageous Brad Binder, to keep his championship hopes alive.

The race got underway and initially, Oliveira took the lead but Morbidelli wasted no time in making his way to the front. Tom Luthi, who started 7th, was up to third by turn 5, whilst Mattia Pasini headed a returning Alex Marquez.

Morbidelli escaped as Oliveira and Pasini battled, with the Italian getting the upper-hand on this occasion. Alex Marquez also made his way passed the KTM rider, whilst Tom Luthi was only 5th, as he dropped back despite challenging early on. Luthi hadn’t looked like a serious front-runner all weekend.

Talking of dropping back, Alex Marquez was now in 8th place and involved in a tight scrap with German, Sandro Cortese and Japanese rider, Takaaki Nakagami. After Cortese negotiated his way passed the fading Marc VDS rider, Nakagami had a go. Takaaki and Alex clashed at the final corner, both very lucky to stay aboard their Kalex bikes.

Jorge Navarro was having a mega ride, as he duelled with Moto2 hard-man, Simone Corsi. On the ninth lap, he was promoted to top Spanish rider, as Marquez faded back. Alex retired a lap later, complaining of hip pains, stemming from his monster crash during Misano FP1.

At the front, the lead that Morbidelli had built up was being whittled away and soon, Pasini had savaged the 1.9s he had to make up. An audacious move at the end of the straight on lap 13 – after a two failed attempts previously – saw Morbidelli cut back under him but the elder statesman couldn’t fend off the young pretender, who gapped him within the first few corners.

Despite Pasini briefly getting away, Morbidelli reeled him back in and before long, the two Italians were scrapping once more. Championship leader Morbidelli retook the lead on lap 17 and led across the line for the remainder of the race – although Mattia Pasini made it a lot harder than it sounds!

On the final lap, Pasini dived up the inside at turn 5, holding onto the position as Morbidelli tried to cut back and get the drive up the short straight, through turn 6 and into the tight turn 7. Morbidelli set up a pass at the Corkscrew. He set the move up in turn 8 and executed it at turn 9, sitting Pasini up in the process. Despite Pasini’s best efforts, he couldn’t topple Morbidelli, who took his 8th victory of the season. Pasini was a sporting 2nd as the two shook hands – it was Pasini’s third podium of the year.

Miguel Oliveira closed in rapidly on the final lap but couldn’t quite reach the leading two, finishing third to take his sixth podium of the season. Luthi’s race was more damage limitation, as he took 4th ahead of a sensational Brad Binder, who came from 20th on the grid to finish 5th. This was the first time that KTM had both of their Moto2 bikes inside the top 5.

Jorge Navarro remained top Spaniard, taking his joint best finish of the season in 6th, ahead of Simone Corsi, who was again, top Speed Up. Nakagami finished 8th, with Sandro Cortese finishing 9th. Francesco Bagnaia completed the top 10 – the first time that he has finished inside the top 10 across all classes at Aragon.

Quartararo beat Aegerter and Baldassarri, with Vierge and Manzi completing the point scorers. Stefano Manzi finished in a point-scoring placing for a 3rd race in 2017. The Italian has started to come good, as he was 10th when he crashed out at Misano – although he won’t be riding at the VR46 outfit in 2018. Aegerter and Baldassarri could be considered disappointments of the day, as the Swiss won the previous race in Misano and Baldassarri was 7th in the event last year.

The championship now heads to Japan in the Far East and the Motegi circuit. Tom Luthi won the Moto2 race at Motegi in 2014 and 2016, so he has good form at the track, whereas Morbidelli has just the one podium from last season. Alex Marquez also won at the circuit – twice in Moto2, firstly in 2013 but also a year later, in 2014.

Top 5 Championship Standings

1.) Franco Morbidelli     248

2.) Thomas Luthi            227

3.) Miguel Oliveira          157

4.) Alex Marquez            155

5.) Francesco Bagnaia 130

Image by: MotoGP

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Marquez Leads Repsol Honda 1-2 at Aragon

Marc Marquez took victory at Aragon for the MotoGP race, ahead of teammate Dani Pedrosa and Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo, in an action packed race – which also saw the return of Valentino Rossi from injury.

The race got underway and immediately, Jorge Lorenzo took the lead, with Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi in behind. Quickly, Rossi got passed his teammate and set off after the Ducati rider, who had an 0.8s lead by the end of the first lap. Marc Marquez had a difficult start and was in 5th place, behind the second factory Ducati, Andrea Dovizioso.

Maverick Vinales dropped back in the early stages, becoming mired in a battle for 5th with Dani Pedrosa, Aleix Espargaro, Mika Kallio, Cal Crutchlow, Johann Zarco, Pol Espargaro and Andrea Iannone. The front four escaped and were all within a second of each other.

On lap nine, Marquez tried an outrageous manoeuvre on Valentino Rossi at the turn 12 bus-stop, however, he narrowly missed colliding with the Italian and had to let the brakes off, running up the inside of Jorge Lorenzo before going off track and rejoining back in fourth. It was a very close call!

Karel Abraham was the first crasher of the race, at turn eight – similar to his teammate Alvaro Bautista yesterday. Karel was up and OK. This marked the Czech’s first retirement since the French Grand Prix at Le Mans in May. It also highlighted that Karel and Aragon don’t get on, as he only has one points-scoring finish to his name, with 9th in 2012.

Marquez hit 2nd place on the 12th lap, taking Rossi in the final bend, keeping a tight inside line whereas Valentino opted for a fast, sweeping run up over the hill and down the start/finish straight. Marquez held on. It was at this point where we realised two things: Marquez’ pace wasn’t an issue after his 2nd row qualifying and that Valentino Rossi’s valiant effort was coming to an end, as he start to fatigue, now that the second half of the race was underway.

Cal Crutchlow crashed on lap 16, seven laps from home. He had just been passed by a struggling Johann Zarco. Crutchlow started fourth on the grid and was 10th when he crashed out of proceedings. It was Crutchlow’s fourth retirement of the year and also meant that he didn’t capitalise on taking Danilo Petrucci’s 7th in the championship, as the Italian failed to score a point.

On the same lap, we saw our first change of leader. Marquez dive-bombed Lorenzo into the turn 12 bus-stop, going wide initially but cutting back to retain the advantage. Going into turn 16, Lorenzo used the power of the Ducati and took the lead back momentarily, before Marquez cut underneath him and got the inside line through turn 17 and across the line. The cheers of the Spanish fans told us that Aragon really is Marc Marquez territory.

Also on the 16th lap, Dani Pedrosa passed Valentino Rossi, after passing Dovizioso and Vinales in previous laps. Pedrosa now had around a second of clear track ahead of him before he would be able to mount a challenge on 5-time champion, Jorge Lorenzo. Pedrosa had preserved his tyre and whilst Marquez was too far ahead he did catch Jorge, setting the fastest lap in the process.

Pedrosa passed Lorenzo at the bus-stop, replicating his teammate’s move on the Ducati ace a few laps previous. Pedrosa held his line and romped away from Lorenzo. It was now a Repsol Honda 1-2. That is how it remained until the end, with Marquez holding off Pedrosa’s late surge and Jorge Lorenzo’s Ducati. It was the first 1-2 for Honda at the Aragon Grand Prix since Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa in 2011, as well as Ducati’s first podium at Aragon since Cal Crutchlow in 2014.

Valentino Rossi, despite his most determined efforts, was pipped by teammate Maverick Vinales, as the two factory Yamahas finished 4th and 5th. Aleix Espargaro and Aprilia took 6th, highlighting once more that the Aprilia’s is very user-friendly with tyres. Andrea Dovizioso was pummelled back to 7th and now trails Marquez by 16 points in the championship going to Japan, whilst Alvaro Bautista was the best privateer Ducati, finishing in 8th. Johann Zarco salvaged 9th and Pol Espargaro emerged from the shadow of test-rider and wildcard, Mika Kallio, to complete the top 10.

Kallio in turn finished 11th, whilst Iannone struggled to 12th – although he finished as top Suzuki. Jack Miller was 13th and top independent Honda, with Britain’s Scott Redding behind him in 14th. Esteve Rabat made it a double point-scoring finish for the Marc VDS squad, taking 15th and the final point of the day.

The championship now takes a two weekend sabbatical before returning to the Land of the Rising Sun – Japan. Motegi beckons next on the calendar but unlike last year, Marc Marquez can’t wrap the series up at this meeting. The top five are the only riders that have a mathematical chance of the championship going into the closing stages of a phenomenal season of Grand Prix racing.

Top 5 Championship Standings

1.) Marc Marquez        224

2.) Andrea Dovizioso 208

3.) Maverick Vinales  196

4.) Dani Pedrosa          170

5.) Valentino Rossi     168

Image by: MotoGP

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Discipline is the Key to the Success

Marina Bay Circuit, Marina Bay, Singapore.
Sunday 17 September 2017.
World Copyright: Steven Tee/LAT Images
ref: Digital Image _R3I1034

Discipline is the key to the success, is what every athlete must have, even if we are talking about a team sport like football and basketball or even if we are talking about a one man show sport like tennis.

In Formula One if a driver is willing to win a world title must be able to control himself and his reactions, must be able to know when he must attack and when to hold off in order to secure his position and score points and must have the luck to his side.

A few days ago, in Singapore, Sebastian Vettel set the fastest lap in the Saturday’s qualification session and took the pole-position, but the next day he ruined everything. Kimi Raikkonen had a good start, squeezed Max Verstappen they collided with Sebastian Vettel, who moved aggressively left, and a few seconds later, Raikkonen, tagged Alonso’s car, who retired a few laps later due to heavy damage on his McLaren.

Marina Bay Circuit, Marina Bay, Singapore.
Saturday 16 September 2017.
World Copyright: Steven Tee/LAT Images
ref: Digital Image _R3I9943

Four of the best drivers on the grid retired in the first meters of the race, Lewis Hamilton, as a smart and an experienced driver, took advantage of that incident, lead the race from the start to the end and won the Singapore GP. A victory which even Mercedes’ most ambition fan couldn’t imagine. Now Hamilton is enjoying his loneliness at the top of the drivers’ standings, 28 points ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

I am not willing to blame some of the three drivers (Verstappen, Raikkonen, and Vettel), but my question is why Vettel had to close Raikkonen and Verstappen instead of letting them go or even let them pass him and catch up later in the race. Here comes today’s key word, discipline. The German has won four world titles in his Formula One career, this year has the chance to win his fifth title, but decided to ruin everything in a few meters.

Let’s assume that Vettel couldn’t think clearly, not an easy thing to do especially under this conditions, Ferrari’s team principal Maurizio Arrivabene had to inform and advice his driver to take it easy, as it was a very good chance for Vettel to re-take the lead on the drivers’ championship and put some pressure on Hamilton for the following races. When Lewis took the lead of the race, Mercedes said to the Brit, through the team-radio, to deliver the car home in one piece, that is what Ferrari had to say to Vettel before the race.

Marina Bay Street Circuit, Marina Bay, Singapore.
Sunday 17 September 2017.
World Copyright: Zak Mauger/LAT Images
ref: Digital Image _X0W5640

Both Vettel and Arrivabene are on pressure now, Ferrari had/have the chance to return to trophies after nine years, but now the chances to achieve that is very low. Six races are remaining to complete this season, and most of these races suit more to Mercedes’ car set-up, that means that Ferrari must make the ‘break’ and Sebastian Vettel must win more than two races, hoping that at the same time Hamilton will finish third or even a lower position.

The next race will take place in Malaysia, Ferrari must win at least once in the two following races if they want to close the gap or even pass Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ championship. The ‘second’ drivers will play a crucial in this year’s title.

Victor Archakis

Twitter @FP_Passion

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Project CARS 2 Review

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 Slightly Mad, Beautifully Authentic
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Project CARS 2 is a sequel to the original game released in May 2015. Once more developed and published by Slightly Mad Studios, the game doubles in car size, now boasting 182 cars from 38 different manufacturers with additions from Ferrari and Porsche. Electronic Arts lost their exclusive contract with Porsche recently, the manufacturer now appearing on all new driving releases, Slightly Mad used RUF in 2015.
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It now holds the record, taking it from the first edition for most tracks, 46 locations and 121 different formats, Knockhill in Scotland, Long Beach in America and historic tracks such as the high speed Hockenheim in Germany which you can see above.
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It is the first game in recent years to have secured a contract with Verizon who own Indycar, boasting the full 2016 car roster and liveries with the Indy 500 as an official event. This is a tier 1 category in career mode. All cars and tracks are available on single player and online from the start so no need to do any unlocking if you are a casual gamer.
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The weather/physics system they use, Livetrack, is in its third form a truly dynamic approach to rain, and especially to dirt and snow taking a leaf from Codemasters’ critically acclaimed DiRT series with Rallycross entering the fray.
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Because of such unique situations, where puddles form and dry out individually, the track never seems static, always evolving in the process throughout the race. A true challenge especially in the lower categories. As you can see below the spray in the Formula rookie series around Watkins Glen. You can also see from this the lovely graphics the game has and graphical interface of position on track, track map and speedometer.
The career mode which was such a success on the first game is just polished further, having the tiers of category, starting low down in tier 6 with Go-Karts or Formula Rookie, heading towards the heights of Indycar and the World Endurance series.
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Depending on your success, you will be invited to a series of invitationals, so much so you might do a Nico Hulkenburg or Fernando Alonso and attempt the historic events of the Le Mans 24 Hours and Indy 500, of which if you fancy can be the full duration, but shortened down to a smaller time if you wish.
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The most fine tuned cars on the gaming market. The noise and handing of them are so realistic, the way you could tune the setups for the cars is amazing. There are probably thousands of different setups, where a 0.1psi change on a tyre makes a huge difference.
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They have also got eSport interest and will be streaming events on the internet. Qualification for these events will begin shortly. For all you gamer nerds the achievements on Xbox and trophies on Playstation are a slight challenge, but doing these give you the full appreciation of the game.
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Project CARS 2 is everything you wish for a sequel to be, bigger, better and amazing. One of, if not the best driving simulator I have ever driven on! Further DLC is announced, so more tracks and cars to get aswell! Gaming at its highest level.
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Chris Lord
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Pictures are captures on a Playstation 4, from @C_Lordy91 twitter.  This game is out on PC, PS4 and Xbox One from 22/09/2017.
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