It was an overcast day with just enough sun peeking through the digital clouds as eight DSM-ers staged a 25-lap race on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. Rather than stage one or two nights a week of several, shorter races, the Forza 2 racers at DSM have recently started going with more of a "challenge" approach. Whomever is in charge of the weekly challenge chooses the track and the car class, and everybody who signs up turns up for the showdown.
After one restart due to a huge pileup, a relatively clean start was had and the boys were off. Ca$ino made his inevitable, hell-bent charge for first, and somehow Ralnakor and Maverick managed to avoid him in the first turn, though they clipped each other in the process. Ralnakor made an impressive save, his Saleen S7 going fully sideways.
Prodigal Son, shaking off some serious rust, rode the pole position to first place after the first turn. He was followed by the mad-dashing Ca$ino and Maverick, who always enjoys the "highway to the danger zone."
"Mav" took one turn a bit too wide and Ralnakor screamed by to the inside. Then, deciding he wanted to have his cake (the pass) and eat it too (the angle on the following turn) he creeped back to the outside and Maverick couldn't avoid him, clipping the Saleen's rear. Maverick's Red Bull Racing Porsche went careening into the grass. Hellisan, who started seventh and passed two cars previously, found himself in fourth as a result of the exchange.
Maverick fell to sixth after Trojan657 passed him, yet Ral and Trojan went wide on the next turn. As a result,Maverick jumped right back into fourth place behind Prodigal Son, who had also taken the turn too wide and had fallen behind Ca$ino and Hellisan.
Helli continued his first lap with yet another pass when Ca$ino took a corner too wide, and found himself in first place.
"I just decided I wasn't gonna screw the first lap up," said Helli. "It worked out when everybody else had first-lap difficulties and allowed me to get out in front.
Helli wouldn't surrender the lead as his seventh to first charge on the first lap was followed by 24 laps of clean racing. "It worked out fine," said Helli as he sucked down another Pepsi following the race.
The most humorous moment of the race came in the fifth lap. Maverick had been following Ralnakor around the track for the better part of a lap. Ralnakor, who loves to brake and throttle at the same time, applied just a little too much of that throttle going into Club corner. They say old soldiers never die, and likewise Ral never seems to completely lose control. He's always able to save it just enough to rocket back to the point at which you expected to be vacant, and this is what happened to Maverick, who had taken the corner perfectly and now found himself ready to t-bone Ral.
Ralnakor, meanwhile, was trying to hug the inside edge to give Maverick room. Maverick then tried to let Ral go by to the other side of the track then shoot inside, and with Ral hugging the inside they crossed each other up. Maverick clipped Ralnakor so slightly that you couldn't see impact even in slow-mo replay. Ral was kicked all the way to the outside and Maverick all the way to the inside. A bewildered Prodigal Son found himself in fourth place behind Maverick as a result.
With Helli out in front, the battle for second was a great one that lasted most of the race. Prodigal Son, Maverick and Ca$ino were the participants. On lap 11 Ca$ino encountered difficulty on the the Abbey corner chicane that had plagued him earlier in the race, and Maverick slid by into second. Maverick put some distance between them over the next couple of laps with nice driving.
Prodigal Son continued to improve as the race went on, capturing a little of his previous glory as he cruised by Ca$ino on Club corner.
Mav and Prod each went into the pits after the 14th lap, allowing Ca$ino to regain second place until the next lap when he too was forced into the pits due to tire wear.
"The damn car was like a grizzly bear on ice skates!" screamed a perturbed Ca$ino after the race. "But, it was a good win by Team Duff."
Hellisan finished first, followed by Maverick, Prodigal Son, Ca$ino, Ralnakor, Trojan, Bomac24, and RevDebo, whose Pontiac Solstice took some ribbing from the other racers.
The following awards were given out:
Best Comeback: Maverick - He really had to come back at least 4-5 times in the race and came out on the right side of things in every instance, landing second.
Cleanest Car: Prodigal Son - Only saw him make slight contact with another car once... and for gosh sakes he had a hot-ass Geisha on the side of his car.
Best Lap: Hellisan, with a 1:47:155