Welcome to the 9th Season of IGP Formula Motorsport Racing, now we've had some great seasons in the past, wonderful wheel to wheel racing and battles and rivalries to entertain decades to come, but nothing could have prepared us for the season opening race in Australia.
To put it mildly it was an epic event, every single team were out to get as much out of the weekend as possible. No car gave an inch, no team spared a moment, each and every manager were tense, drawn to the track before them.
We begin with the Rookie division. Here we see a great many teams coming into play, some from the previous season and some new faces to go along with them. As we know from last season, Dragon Racing and Chemql progressed into the Pro Division, which meant that it left the Rookies top spots completely open. A hot favourite among the fans were Racing Art, 3rd in the constructors last season, and for the season opener they did not disappoint, and neither did NJS, 4th in the constructors for Season 8, NJS gave Racing Art one heck of a run for their money.
Both teams charged off the grid taking the early lead ahead of the rest, however they were not alone Audi DHL GP and Poland Motorsport were right on their tails, but it was already clear who was going to lead this race, but the question was, who would win?
Ultimately after a battle of wills, Racing Art took two podiums in the form of 1st and 3rd while NJS had to settle for 2nd and 4th. Audi claimed 5th and 8th while Poland found 6th and 10th. The remaining points positions went to Mercedes West F1 who took 7th and 12th and Ribas Racing who finished 9th and 13th.
Pro Division saw the sheer dominance of WI Racing taking pole and a 1-2 finish putting them straight on top with a 23 point lead straight out of the gate. Dragon Racing showed their continuing form from Rookie by finishing 3rd and 9th, but are classified 3rd in the constructors after Spartans F1 gained 4th and 6th gaining them 3 points more collectively.
But there was little shortage of drama during the race several previously low ranking teams came back stronger. Knight Industries and FCSB were among those that proved just how much their cars had improved over the winter break. Knight found 12th & 14th while FCSB found 15th and 16th. These two teams took many of the others by surprise, even Laguna GP Racing were below them, their unexpected pace put Laguna off their game, they could only manage 17th & 18th.
But these two Divisions had nothing on the brutal arena that was the Elite Races. Every team was so close that every turn could have been a major crash, every home straight they were three cars wide, the pace, the battles, the racing itself was nothing we had ever seen before. So close were the team that pitting meant you went from 3rd to 24th in an instant, strategy was key, speed was key, if one driver messed up just once they were passed by 3 cars.
All down the grid we had battle after battle so much so that only 5 cars were actually lapped. Out front Angel Racing and SLB Racing were the teams to watch, closely followed by Griffindor Koenigsegg and Super Roo. Handy Motorsport, Jaguar Racing, Skyeladder Racing Team, IceOne GP were the next group. GBR Racing, BMR Racing, BMW Racing Hopsocube, Cambria and Pall Mall Racing were the next group.
At the back of the grid and the Race were Didikong Racing and Blue Angels I the only two full teams to be lapped.
It was such an epic race, and so tight it was hard to keep up, every turn one driver overtook another, every lap was a lead change, every pit saw car after car wizz by before the drivers were able to rejoin the race. We spoke to a few of the Team managers to get there take on the results of the race.
Well that is all we have time for this evening, Tune in next time for another Exciting race with IGP FMR