| The inaugural MDR
Christmas event for formula nippons held a few surprises, but
ultimately delivered the goods on Sunday, when the seemingly
unbeatable ADF-Red-5 took the double header, and his second MDR
hosted event in succession.
Throughout practice ADF-Monjen
dominated the field, with outstanding repetitive lap times of
under 1:28, while Nugget and ADF-Red-5 could not best him
registering almost a half a second slower.
The surprise package of
practice was MDR-Quasi consistently posting times of 1:30 and
1:31, until the closing stages, where he put in a blindingly
quick, and smooth 1:29, almost 3 seconds clear of the remainder
of the field. Qualifying, however, was a different story, with
ADF-Monjen securing pole, ahead of Nugget, then MDR-Quasi, and
Adsta.
Meanwhile ADF-Red-5's
run of bad luck in qualifying continued when he left the track
on the qualifying outlap, causing his rear wing to come loose
from the car. Although his crew were able to carry out repairs
he began the 12 lap race 1 from the rear of the grid, with the
prospect of making his way through the field, as he had done at
the Albert Park event. Also starting at rear of field was AUS-Butakup,
who put his Toyota into a wall during qualifying, losing his
nose cone. Race 1
saw a clean start from the line, with ADF-Monjen leading the
way, whilst Nugget, Adsta and MDR-Quasi began the battle for
lead positions. When Monjen left the track a the turn 3 hairpin
Quasi slipped into 2nd behind Nugget, taking Adsta with him, in
3rd. Shortly
afterward though, whilst leading, Nugget dropped from the
positional tally, and never re-entered the contest.
By lap 6 Quasi had his hands full
with a storming Red-5 filling his mirrors, in an attempt to work
his way to challenge for the lead, behind Monjen who had
recovered, regaing first place, ahead of Quasi. It didn't take
too long and Red-5 took Quasi under brakes approaching the
hairpin, and shortly after passed Monjen to lead for the
remainder of the opening heat of the event.
Race 2 saw similair action, though
with Red-5 starting from the front alongside Monjen, who
surrendered his position to Quasi, when he again left the track
at the turn 3 hairpin, bringing Adsta up to 3rd in the order. He
recovered quickly, however, and took advantage of a spin by
Quasi at the first chicane, who then had to wait for the entire
field to flow through, before rejoining.
The leading order at this stage of
proceedings was then ADF-Red-5, ADF-Monjen, and Adsta, filling
the possible podium spots, whilst AUS-Butakup, OxAgro, and
OzLoudmouth battled for minor placings had to contend with a
determined MDR-Quasi fighting his way back to eventually
challenge Adsta for third, grabbing a personal best for the
circuit of 1:29.5 in the process.
Fuel and tyres however hampered the
effort, and Quasi settled for a 4th place finish, after a
brilliant display of defensive driving from Adsta, who held 3rd
behind, ADF-Monjen, and the race, and event winner, ADF-Red-5. |