47 reports were made at the last round of Nurburgring, with plenty of penalties dished out. Notably, championship challenger Brody Lawless and Kristers Svilo were permanently banned for off-track reasons, whilst Ben Skinner was banned for 4 rounds for a variety of on-track reasons and collecting too many license points.
The racing at Spa didn’t disappoint, however. There were battles aplenty throughout the pack in both races, with race 1 at times looking like something out of a NASCAR restrictor plate race. The slipstream effect was strong, and those who were in a pack could end up overtaking two or three cars down the Kemmel straight.
Before all this, qualifying was held in private conditions, where only one car was visible to any driver at a time – his or her own. Leading the pack were the Potentia duo of Oscar Soltero and Sandeep Singh, who notably were running a low-downforce configuration compared to some of the opposition. James Knox qualified 3rd, whilst in 4th place was Boby Vakuinof, who had strong pace here in Belgium.
When the lights went out, it was Knox who made the first mistake, running wide through Eau Rouge, the dirty air catching him out. That left Vakuinof to pick up the pieces and a nice gap opening up behind him.
From there, Singh, Soltero and Vakuinof were able to extend their advantage and take the podium places.
The story of the race was behind them though. The Hunter Burch cars of Magnus Okkenhaug and Joe Gillett were battling with Tuomaala, Kaspar Koorits, Mateusz Piszczan, David De Vree, the recovering James Knox, and Junio Lopes, amongst others. The positions swapped lap by lap and it was a stunning battle. Honestly, the race wasn’t long enough!
However, it was Koorits who eventually came out on top, followed by team mate Mateusz Piszczan.
The reverse grid gods prevented us from having P11 again as the reverse grid pole, which makes it 32 rounds since the last time that happened. Two full seasons. Incredibly.
Race 2 was slightly less dramatic, but nonetheless still full of action. In the beginning laps, Bernat and polesitter Rohtjarv swapped places lap after lap, slipstreaming each other out of La Source and down the Kemmel straight to good effect, getting away from De Vree, Leppitt and Knox. Sandeep Singh came through the pack lap after lap, and picked up the pieces. In the end, he got by Bernat and with one to go, hunted down Rohtjarv, but he ran out of time and Kert picked up his first podium, and race win, of the season, in a very measured drive. He was obviously overjoyed with getting the win, and said as much in the post-race interviews.
A special mention to Mihajlo Vicentijevic, who equalled his best ever result in FS2. He is a person who races here for pure enjoyment, and sticks at it.
Finally, Caitlin Penny picked up Venus Motorsports’ first two points of the season, and they were over the moon to get them. She has been a real asset to the wider GPVWC community and to FS2 for many many years, but has chosen to retire from driving. GPVWC is all about inclusivity and nobody embodies that more than Caitlin. She will be missed from the grid, after she announced her retirement from driving, but will still be the voice of SL1 alongside Ed Hunter.
Championship wise, Singh and Potentia extended their grasp on the FS2 standings.
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I would like to make a small editorial note – as a commentator of the series, I get a lot of enjoyment out of watching you guys race once a fortnight, with Alex by my side and Fabian on cameras.
We are very lucky to be blessed with a lot of people, who for the good of GPVWC dedicate hours of their own time, for little or no money, so that others can have a platform to enjoy themselves.
I haven’t enjoyed the penalties being applied, neither the general conduct around the discord community. I really hope we can bring it back to being fun, and inclusive, for everyone.
