Round 1 Race Recap

Update: Added post race interview with Murphy

Race 1

24 cars arrived today at the iconic Laguna Seca circuit for the first two races of the first round of the Global Sim Racing Mazda MX-5 Cup.  

With qualifying being drawn virtually (no pun intended), out of a hat, it added a bit of spice to the grid. Race one saw one of the title favorites Nightmare x24x, take pole position in his MBI Racing prepared and run car .  

A number of newcomers were also making their GSR debut at today's round as well with a number of them drawing positions in the top 10 of the grid. As the cars formed up on the grid for race one, all eyes were pointed firmly at turn 1, with cold tires and cold brakes, it was sure to be an exciting start.  

The lights went green and everyone made a fairly even start and the 24 cars screamed of the line and had a drag race down to the 1st turn and hard braking zone. A number of cars ran deep into the corner on the breaks pushing them wide, which put them on the dirty side of the track. This allowed a number of cars to sneak up the inside.

On Board with Dakinca for Turn 1

As things started to settle down we could see who the big movers were. One of these being MrMarko1100 who started from 17th on the grid managed to make his way to 7th on the grid after the opening lap. Stating after the race “I just kept my nose clean and out of trouble.” With battles up and down the field there was most definitely a battle wherever you looked with all the different skill levels coming together. Over the radios, it could be heard multiple times, “a finish in the top 10” would be a win for many of the teams. As the chequered flag fell it was Nightmare x24x who took a lights to flag win with Murphys Laaawl in 2nd and InsayneHyena rounding out the top 3.

Race 2

As the cars made their way out of pitlane and lined up on the grid for their second race of the day, a few of the cars showed some small battle scars from race 1.

Sadly the one and only grid sheet we had for race 2 literally just blew out of my window and got picked up by a small bird who will most likely use it in its nest or something. At least something good will come of it.

So back to the racing. We managed to grab a quick word with South East Coast Racings very own Copper Nust08, or Hard Nuts as he will be known from this point forward, as he sat waiting on the grid.

"Race 1 went ok in terms that i finished ahead of both of my teammates (only just) but I’m more concerned that I've just seen some f*cker from the Samkel Racing camp looking at the back of my car and I'm afraid he might have tampered with something" following this allegation we left Copper Nuts08 with a confused and worried look on his face as we left the grid.

With this race being a rolling start the cars left on the formation lap and got themselves into a two by two formation coming out of the second to last corner . The pole sitter, InsayneHyena called the "green green green" as he crossed the line . The entire field once again came flying into the first bend and all 24 cars once again made it around with a few bumps and bangs along the way, with a massive incident at turn one in the start of the race, separating the field. 

On Board with Maverick for Turn 1

The highlight reel for this race was phenomenal. Just take a look at this spectacular pass in the corkscrew Dakinca made on Copper. Maybe the SamKel guys really did mess with Copper’s car. Dakinca agrees making this comment after the race, “Yeah there’s no way I just made you look like a gp3 driver!”. Top SoCalledGear had this to say about the pass, “I totally got chopped there at the end of that clip. I had the corner then he shut the door on both of us lol. I don’t remember who it was in that green car.”

On board with Dakinca for the Corkscrew overtake

Nightmare x24x once again made his way to the front and was very much untouchable from then on, taking it to the end, once again taking the chequered flag from GRD 4 3L n 2nd with Murphys Laaawl taking 3rd and his second podium of the day. We had a chance to catch up with GRD after the round to get his thoughts on the two races:

"Race 1: Started in 5th position I think, made up to 2nd but ended up contacting a driver behind me (my mistake I think) which put both of us into the dirt. Rejoined in 23rd! Then it was all about staying away from trouble. There were many off-track cars, I assume due to contact because they were usually in groups of 2~3. There was a hairy moment where I was following right behind 3 cars abreast down the front straight. 2 cars on left made contact and the car closest to the pit wall ended up sliding sideways. Almost caught up to 4th by the end of the race but had to settle with 5th place; satisfied making up 17 spots.

Race 2: Started in 2nd. Rolling start & a bit of gap to 3rd car gave me a little more assurance that I'll be reasonably safe in the beginning of the race. Took over 1st place only to give it back to hard charging Murphy & Nightmare soon after. Things settled down with Nightmare pulling away in the lead, Murphy in 2nd, and me about 3~4 seconds back. Don't know what happened with Forza but I heard nothing on Chat and most HUD details (times, RPM, gears, map, etc.) completely disappeared. The distance markers at first corner also disappeared. I've focused on putting down consistent 1:45's but only indicator of remaining laps was the total in-race timer. I knew from the previous race that 12 laps were over 20 minutes so my guess was that I had at least one more lap and I was reasonably close to Murphy. At corner 1 his car lost a lot of speed, then again at right hander which allowed me to close up pretty close. On the turn 3, he was a bit conservative line but I took my usual line and was closing in on his car really fast at the exit with and half a car width on the outside. If I chose to go inside there was a good chance I'd hit Murphy's car (or slow down to avoid contact) so I chose to go outside and take a bit of risk wedging my car into that little gap of tarmac on the outside. I ended up going completely off track but thankfully the car kept the momentum and the pass was made safely (I'm sure, with Murphy giving me some room to get back). It was a very exciting and rare 'outside' pass. From that point on, it was keeping the car on track and bring it safely home. As it turns out, that was the last lap of the race.

I anticipate good jostling with Murphy in the upcoming races."

Update: We also caught up with Murphy after the race to get his thoughts. This is what he had to say:

"First race was interesting. To start 21st and to finish 2nd was impressive since there was a lot going on in front of me. 2nd race was pretty tame at least for me, usually all the carnage happens in the 2nd race but with a full field of 24 it reminded me of a FailRace episode ahaha."

On board action with BCK with contact and a racing incident

Another angle of the spin following Hippie

Random action shot on board with Blood

We here at GSR would like to thank all the new drivers for coming out and making Round 1 of the series a resounding success! For more info on this series, check out our season preview and the gallery from round 1!

Thanks again to Marko and the GSR PR team for this post.