Ryan Walker grabbed a popular maiden win in GPO Sprint with a gutsy drive to head off Stuart Fields and Ari Kesseli. This played into the hands of Fields who increases his lead over Malcolm Rice whom came in fourth, but this allows Rice Racing to close in the constructors after Michael Pienemann crashed out.

Full reports and results will be available during the week.

Original post from Grand Prix Online Sim-Racing League

A full race report is to follow.

Original post from Grand Prix Online Sim-Racing League

A full race report with radio commentary for download will follow.

Original post from Grand Prix Online Sim-Racing League

A full race report will follow shortly.

Original post from Grand Prix Online Sim-Racing League

A full race report will be available shortly.

Original post from Grand Prix Online Sim-Racing League

Original post from Grand Prix Online Sim-Racing League

Round 12 of the GPO Challenge Series was held at the Hungaroring in Hungary. The twisty and bumpy track first used in 1986 is widely known as a “Mickey Mouse” track, for it’s short, slow corners and few overtaking possibilities.

Qualifying featured an interesting battle between Scott Wilde, Mike Seymour and Muhammed Patel. All three of them were very close to eachother timewise with Patel and Seymour spearheading a fierce battle for the important pole position trading times almost every lap. About halfway the session, Patel drove a 1:19.457, which was too fast for Seymour. Wilde had to settle for third place on the grid.

After an initial dramatic opening stint, technical gremlins caused a race to restart which led to a reduced race distance of 75% (53 laps) and so the field lined up on the grid for a new challenge. It promised to be an exiting race, as Patel and Seymour were so close in qualifying, made all the more interesting as Patel had to servea grid penalty, thus moving him down to sixth on the grid.

As the lights went green, Seymour made sure he kept his lead. Behind him, Nick Rowland had an amazing start and was side by side with Scott Wilde in turn one. Wilde however had the better exit and kept his second place, for now. Ibrahim Patel, Muhammed’s younger brother settled behind Rowland in fourth position. At the end of the first lap, Drazen Cokor managed to sneak up into sixth position, with an fast starting Heinz Vanderhoydonck right behind him. Vanderhoydonk started thirteenth on the grid, but saw himself solidly in a point scoring position after just one lap. Ari Keselli was in seventh, and also Jovan Nikolic had a brilliant start, crossing the line in ninth position, whilst starting way out of a point scoring position.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim Patel forced his way passed Rowland, who had Muhammed on his rearwing right after that. Seymour had nothing to fear from Wilde early on, as he set fastest lap after fastest lap and slowly gained ground on the chasing pack behind him. Rowland was defending against the faster Patel as best as he could, but after a small tap on his rearwheel he lost the car in lap three, giving the place to Muhammed Patel who had now some clear air infront of him. All that battling gave the top three a small gap over the unfortunate Rowland and Patel. Rowland had to lick his wounds and limp back to the pits for repairs.

Behind the leading pack, the field settled down very soon, there were no hard battles on track at this time of the race. Despite the lack of battles the field spread had been relatively slight meaning that every mistake would be devastating, as Cokor found out. He made a mistake at the slowest part of the track, causing him to slide into the gravel. Vanderhoydonck had to make an emergency move, leaving the door wide open for Nikolic to take fifth place. Vanderhoydonck made a quick recovery to slide in just infront of Keselli. Nikolic couldn’t hold the pressure from Vanderhoydonck after a tough battle and ran wide, losing the position he’d lucked into earlier. Cokor however had dropped three places in the blink of an eye and now had to climb back up. It was going to be a hard task as these drivers were all equal on pace. Behind Brian Oates had quietly sneaked his Rothmans car into tenth place, giving him the last championship point at this stage but with his teammate Keith Dohorty on his tail, Oates had to soak up the pressure.

At the front of the field Seymour continued to lead Wilde, with the Patel brothers behind them. Muhammed had been increasing the pressure on his younger brother lap after lap but Ibrahim would not give in so easily. Muhammed however was in a bullish mood and made a brilliant move at turn 13, passing Ibrahim around the outside!

At the first round of stops Scott Wilde seemed to be on a different pitstop strategy to Muhammed Patel and Mike Seymour. He pitted quite early and lost track position when the stops had shaken out. With Muhammed now released, he was on fire! Muhammed sliced through the lapped traffic like a hot knife through butter while Seymour lost time hand over fist. This led to the gap being significantly reduced by the time their pitstops were due.

Just over the halfway mark, Seymour decided to take the risk and dived into the pits first. He came back behind the two stopping Ibrahim Patel. Muhammed reacted and came in the next lap with his fingers crossed he would leapfrog the Fusion Grand Prix driver. He failed however but the battle was far from over! Muhammed Patel continued his detirmined driving and eventually on lap 45 made a bold ovetaking move on Mike Seymour who had defended galiantly to take the lead.

After an eventful race with drama and excitment Muhammed Patel grabbed the win, just infront of Mike Seymour and Scott Wilde, who had almost caught the second placed driver on the final lap! Ibrahim Patel came in a solid 4th, with Cokor being the best-of-the-rest in 5th. The other points went to Nick Rowland, Bruno Castello (whom had made his way quietly up the field), a delighted Brian Oates, Heniz Vanderhoydonck and Ari Kesseli snatching the finale point.

Scott Wilde still leads the championship, with a marginal difference of 8 points over Drazen Cokor. Cokor’s team however is leading the team standings, but have a lot of work to do if they want to keep it that way until the end of the season.

After a small, but truly deserved 4 week break the GPO circus continues in Belgium. Spa-Franchorchamps will be the host of the Belgian Grand Prix. The weekend of 28 and 29th of August will be full of Jupiler beers, Vlemish fries, but most of all: exciting racing.

(Lovely pictures will be added shortly)

Original post from Grand Prix Online Sim-Racing League

A full report will follow shortly.

Original post from Grand Prix Online Sim-Racing League

Original post from Grand Prix Online Sim-Racing League

Original post from Grand Prix Online Sim-Racing League