Story by Matthew Overton, and Photo Credits: Jerry Chen
A full slate of racing at rF2 this week as all three series were in action.
In the MNRL, PURIST driver Ben Boorman set the standard, powering his Peugeot 905 around the Suzuka circuit in 1:46.054 as the 4th event of the season got underway. PRO Jason Whited was a full second behind at 1:47.242 in his Nissan R90CK while John Maher topped the AM qualifying in his Mazda 787B with a 1:51.522.
16 drivers took the green for the hour of racing and at the end of the 41 race laps, it was Boorman who took the checkered flag by only 3 seconds over the PRO class winner, Jon Uyan in his Jaguar XJR-14. It was Maher’s Mazda that took the win in the AM class, one lap down to the leaders.
At NARS, it was running of the previously delayed VMSC 22 at Sebring, with a full field ready to take on the bumps and twists of the iconic track. Dan Kirby took the outright pole and topped the Hypercar field in his Mercedes AMG One with a time of 1:45.169, well ahead of the top Hypercar AM of 1:47.086 set by Troy Uyan in his Bugatti Bolide. 1:59.455 was the top GT time, set by PRO driver Eduardo Beninca, the only GT below the 2 minute mark. Top AM qualifier was Stephen Miller, registering a 2:02.349 in his McLaren 720S.
The race saw plenty of action as the drivers struggled throughout the race with the bumpy conditions and heavy traffic. Both Kirby and Uyan were able to turn their top qualifying positions in class into wins, completing a very successful race weekend for themselves. Beninca and Miller were not as successful, the former falling victim to a last-minute pitwall error while the latter suffered early difficulties and was not able to recover. Ahmed Abdalla in his Mercedes AMG GT drove a strong race to put himself into the right place to grap the win for the GT class when Beninca faltered, while Paul Ibbotson raced away from his challengers to take the GT AM win in his Lamborghini Huracan.
The VWSC took the Group C cars back to Suzuka with a field of 34 across the 3 driver classes. PURIST Ben Boorman once again took the pole on the strength of a 1:45.642 lap in his Peugeot 905, with PRO Jason Whited hot on his heels with a 1:46.047 in his Nissan R90CK. Top AM driver was Gui Cevert, setting a 1:50.155 in his Jaguar XJR-14.
In a race filled with dramatic moments, daring overtakes, shunts and plenty of banging at the hairpin and final chicane, it was the white-knuckled rematch between Boorman and Whited that had the crowd on their feet the entire event. An epic series of laps as the race draw to it’s close saw Whited take the lead and then hold it against the determined and persistent push of Boorman, with only .4s separating them at the checkered flag. The live broadcast focused on the battle for the overall win for these final laps and is well worth a watch both for the racing and the commentary by Jake Samson and Troy Uyan as they followed the action! A full lap back, it was Cevert who claimed the AM victory through a strong race in the midst of much going wrong for others, a mere 13s ahead of his closest challenger, John Maher in his Mazda 787B.
For all the series standings and detailed race results, check out the respective MNRL, NARS and VWSC channels on Discord!
You can catch the three races on the CMS Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Kdp07PvIeW47f0_sM0emw.
This coming week, the MNRL heads to Trembling Mountain with the Datsun 510s while NARS and the VWSC head to Spa with the Hypercars and GTs.