Blauwhoff and Gassner take OWRL Titles

Ramon Blauwhoff and Marc Gassner secured the Open Wheel Racing League Season 13 Division A and Division B titles in style at the final round of the season, with Blauwhoff winning the Formula V8 race and Gassner taking both Formula XR victories comfortably.

Going into the final round of the season, only a disastrous result for Blauwhoff could deny him his first OWRL title, as the Dutch driver enjoyed a significant advantage over his nearest rivals in the championship standings.

And after qualifying third on the grid at the Kyoto Long circuit, one position behind title rival Martin Macjon, all the spdoRacing driver had to do was finish the race to be crowned champion. Indeed Blauwhoff could even claim the title without reaching the finish line, as long as Macjon failed to take the victory.

Keen to stay out of trouble, Blauwhoff adopted a cautious approach at the start of the 80 minute race, briefly losing third place to David Southword, before recovering the position, while at the same time Macjon passed Swede Johannes Makela for the lead.

But Makela immediately struck back, passing Macjon half way through the opening lap to leave Blauwhoff immediately behind the German.

And when Macjon spun at the end of the opening lap, the pressure on Blauwhoff was reduced further as the German was down to 12th position, eight seconds behind the leading Makela.

As Makela and Blauwhoff quickly opened a gap to the rest of the field, Macjon was recovering positions; the German was up to seventh position midway through the third lap. But as the IRT driver made a mistake in the tricky second sector chicane, incurring major suspension damage and pitting for repairs, his chances of taking the victory seemed all but over.

Meanwhile, Blauwhoff continued to push the leading Makela, and following a poor run through the chicane for the Sonic Realms driver on lap four, Blauwhoff passed the Swede to lead for the first time.

With Blauwhoff able to pull away from the second-placed Makela, Southword, who had easily dropped the rest of the field in the opening laps, was close on the tail of the Swede.

Macjon’s torrid opening 15 minutes meant that the German was last in the field, over a minute behind Blauwhoff.

With Blauwhoff enjoying a comfortable lead at the front, a mistake by Makela in the chicane 26 minutes into the race allowed Southword into second place, and damaged the suspension of the Swede’s car. And with Makela pitting to repair the damage, the Sonic Realms driver, who had started to show some impressive pace, was effectively out of contention for the race victory.

And Blauwhoff was officially the Division A champion 20 minutes later, as Macjon retired from the race following a trip into the barrier in sector two.

The remainder of the race was comfortable for Blauwhoff, who took the win 13 seconds ahead of Southword, who was over a minute ahead of the third-placed car.

Following the Kyoto event, Blauwhoff took the title with three victories and 105 points from the six events, 38 points ahead of runner-up and triple reigning champion David Southword.

The final round of the Formula XR competition saw Gassner lying second, just a single point behind the leading Michael Leisterer, with the spdo driver having to play catch-up ever since the second round of the season, which he missed.

Qualifying saw Gassner take pole, and the championship lead, with a time of 2 minutes 15.93 seconds. Leisterer was fourth, half a second back from Gassner.

And as spdo’s young German driver comfortably led the field away at the start of the sprint race, Leisterer caught a curb and spun at the end of the opening lap, dropping to 13th position.

With the first eight finishers in the sprint race having their positions reversed to determine the starting order for the main race, Leisterer desperately needed to recover to a top-eight position to have any chance of challenging Gassner for the title. And as Gassner easily maintained his position at the front of the pack, Leisterer quickly progressed through the field; the Speed-Link driver sat ninth after three of the six laps.

And when Leisterer passed neshaz on the fourth lap, following a mistake by the Russian, the Speed-Link driver was up to eighth position, which would potentially reward him with pole position in the main race. However, Leisterer’s joy was short-lived as Dominic Klein snatched eighth place from the German, and following a mistake on the fifth lap, Leisterer was down to tenth.

But as things were looking bleak for the Speed-Link driver, a mistake by sixth-placed Kevin Egloff in the chicane collected Serbian Milorad Filipović, and when Marco Schnieders spun in the same corner moments later, Leisterer was suddenly up to seventh position.

An event-free final lap saw Gassner cruise to first place, with Leisterer crossing the line in seventh, leaving Gassner with a 13 point advantage going into the main race.

With Leisterer starting the main race in second position, six places ahead of Gassner, and with the main race being worth double the points of the sprint race, Gassner’s work was far from over.

But as Gassner started the 40 minute main race with an excellent opening lap, Leisterer again made things difficult for himself by spinning in the chicane just 1 minute and 50 seconds into the race. The Speed-Link driver was seventh at the end of the first lap, while Gassner was up six places to second.

While Gassner chased down first-placed Milorad Filipović, the Serbian made an error at the beginning of the fourth lap, handing Gassner the lead without any resistance.

Leisterer was eventually able to recover to fourth position, but with Gassner leading easily there was no chance for the Speed-Link driver to overhaul his compatriot. And after 41 minutes Gassner crossed the line to take his seventh win of the season, in ten starts, and claim the OWRL Division B title for the first time.

Following an extremely successful season for spdoRacing in OWRL Season 13, the team will turn their attention to the OWRL MRT Cup at the end of December, where they will hope to build upon their recent success with another title.

5 Comments