February 07th, 2022
Season 3
Round 14

Results

Season 3 is perhaps the most important in series history. It started off slow, but prior to Round 7 the Elantra and Civic were released to drivers, causing a huge influx of participation. The season also saw the most recent visit to Daytona’s full road course. The series would return the next season with the NASCAR chicane in place, but eventually the series moved on from the circuit altogether.

Matthew Rzepka in his rookie season, practicing in the early morning fog. (liveries not period correct)

The first challenge the drivers would have to navigate was open qualifying, a new addition in Season 3.

Shink, Rzepka, and Cockayne all went off at the bus stop on lap 1 of qualifying.

With the slipstream in play, qualifying ended with J.B DeJeu in 2nd, taking perfect advantage of the draft during his flying laps. Jon Lauzon would take pole, with Slugnificent and Sean D Campbell making up the second row. Already crowned season champion, Logan McKinzie had qualified 8th.

The 19 car field drives into the sunset to take the green flag.

By lap 2, Lauzon had jumped out to an early lead whilst DeJeu slipped to 4th. Eventually he would slip off the track in the bus stop later in the lap. He was one of four drivers that lost control there in the first couple of laps.

Rzepka and Statzer, both rookies, hadn’t yet learned that the grass tends to slow you down.

After a few laps, the race calmed down, and a new dichotomy emerged. The top 6 of Bajulaz, Campbell, Lauzon, Shink, Slug, and McKinzie had broken away from the field. Now clear of the rest of the pack, it was evident that nobody actually wanted to be in the lead, because the leader couldn’t fuel-save. As a result, for over 10 laps of racing we were treated to the lead pack approaching the tri-oval and lifting at the start-finish line.

Actual telemetry from McKinzie at the start-finish line at the beginning of lap 10.
Lauzon leads the field onto lap 10.

When pitstops began, Shink pitted early on lap 14 to attempt an undercut. This prompted McKinzie and Slug to pit on lap 16 to cover him off, but this ended up being the end of McKinzie’s race for the win. On pit exit, he slammed into the pit wall and dealt enough aero damage to the car that he could no longer keep up.

Oops.

At this point, only Lauzon, Campbell, and Bajulaz have yet to pit. On lap 17, Campbell pulls in. On lap 21, Lauzon finally comes in to fuel up, leaving Bajulaz out as the lone car yet to pit. Bajulaz had managed to save enough fuel to get all the way to lap 23 before pitting. Immediately it was clear that the overcut was the correct strategy, as Bajulaz came out of the pits almost 5 seconds ahead of the other drivers. Shink had almost lost Slug, Campbell, and Lauzon at this point, the undercut not working in his favor.

Bajulaz and his monster gap after fueling up.

Entering the final lap, Bajulaz was far up the road. Lauzon was fighting Slug for 2nd, with Campbell and Shink directly behind. While coming through turn 2, Campbell and Slug made contact, and Slug ended up off of the road and demoted to 5th behind Shink.

Suboptimal grip.

Bajulaz would come through to take victory, one of his five wins to date. Campbell and Lauzon finished off the podium, with Shink and Slug behind. McKinzie ended in 6th. Despite visiting the track again in Season 4, this race was really the death knell of rovals in the league, and after Season 4 they would not appear on the schedule again until Season 7’s New Hampshire race date.