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The Charge before the Change
4 races, 4 winners so far in the WCS W6S series. with the transfer week coming up after the 3rd round, the W6S superstars battle it out at Barbagallo. Its time to find out if new names were added to the winners' list. Racing action brought to you by WCS League, Simsync Pro, and SimNews.Tv
Qualifying
The only constant of the front row of the W6S season so far has been Risto Kappet. You would have felt safe to place your money on him for a third consecutive front row and he did not disappoint, securing pole by 4 tenths for Eval. Red Arrow Racing looked strong on this track with Chris Butcher 2nd and David Fidock 4th. Laurent Keersmaekers was 3rd for Holland Racing Team. Chris Shepard was 5th for RSR. It was interesting to see the drivers from p2 to p10 separated by a mere 0.4 of a second!
Race 1
Lights Out and away they went! Butcher, getting the better start ran wheel to wheel with Kappet for almost the entire 1st sector before edging in front. Keersmaekers Held onto his 3rd position. There was big scrap for 4th between Fidock and the RSR cars, Shepard gaining a position by the end of lap 1 of the 20 lap feature race.
The 5th place battle developed into a big,5 car affair, the drivers attempted a variety of attacking and defensive moves. By lap 3 there were casualties, Fidock spun into the wall and Kasdorp ran wide off the track, both dropped several positions. Argo Teder moved into p5.
The Battles for the lead have always been duels in the previous races in W6S and this race followed the same pattern. Butcher and Kappet had broken away from the pack but not from each other. Matching each-others lap times it looked like a battle to the finish.
Mid-pack and lower orders were action-packed as ever with the likes of Heigo Poom, Adrian Campfield and Caitlin Penny making some interesting moves. Fidock and Kasdorp, intent on making a comeback, overtook a handful of drivers.
By the halfway point of the race, Kappet had slipped smoothly past Butcher into the Lead. Could Butcher retaliate? Or had he used up too much of his tires? Shepard had picked up his pace and caught Keermaekers to fight for the final place on the podium. The entire top 15 points-scoring positions were locked in various battles. The race was set for an enthralling finish.
With 4 laps to go, Butcher who had been unable to get back past Kappet, lost his patience and ran very wide going into turn 3. This handed Kappet a comfortable lead and allowed Keersmaekers a sniff at p2. Risto Kappet went onto become the first double winner of the series and collecting the fastest lap along the way to further increase his points tally for EVAL. Butcher held onto p2 for Red Arrow Racing, Keersmakers stood on the podium for the first time this series in p3 for Holland Racing Team.
Race 2
Yuri Kasdorp of RSR started race 2 on pole for the reverse grid 10 lap sprint race, giving him a good chance to turn around his form which had slumped after round 1. Teammates Peter Schulze and Alistair Long started 2nd and 3rd for Chaos Engineering. Heigo Poom of Neptune Simracing rounded off the top two rows of the grid.
The name of the game for the fan-favorite, action-packed sprint races, is to keep out of trouble. This, unfortunately, a few drivers failed to do on the opening lap. The biggest casualties being Argo Teder, Heigo Poom and Josh Downard, who all got tangled up at turn 1 and had their races massively compromised. Chris Butcher made the most progress on the opening laps climbing up from 9th to 2nd by lap 4.
Butcher caught up to Kasdorp to give us the classic W6S duel for the lead. Long was running a strong race for the final podium spot while his teammate Schulze was acting rear gunner and keeping 5 drivers in check behind him. Fortunes in racing are always fluctuating, Risto Kappet's very consistent run this season came to an end on the penultimate lap when he had an incident and dropped to 12th spot.
The race for the win was as thrilling as it gets, Butcher pushing Kasdorp all the way. On the final corner, Kasdorp was forced to take a defensive line and Butcher went for the cut-back. This resulted in the closest finish of the W6S season so far! Yuri Kasdorp of team RSR holding on to get his second of the season, by a mere 0.068 seconds from Chris Butcher of Red Arrows Racing, who got the fastest lap as a consolation prize. Alistair Long finished 3rd, first visit to the podium for himself and Chaos Engineering. His teammate Peter Schulze finished 4th securing a bit points haul for the team. Chris Shepard finished 5th for RSR.
After 6 thrilling races, we are the midway point of the season. The racing has been as fierce and competitive as any racing fan could hope for, but its time to make it even more exciting and unpredictable - The Transfer week is upon us. The team rosters are open during the transfer week, the current drivers can be transferred between the teams and new drivers can be signed up for the second half of the season. Rumors are flying already of some big names making their way into the series, will they be able to shake up the old order? We cant wait to find out! Don't miss the start of the second half of the season, live on the WCS YouTube & Twitch channels on the 25th of November at 19:45 GMT.
