{ Fernando Horta } → Formula Duude

Another fantastic weekend for the dudes, at yet another historical grounds, the famous brickyard, also known as Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The weekend start with a free practice, and some worries from our brave racers, after well, the forecast was rain, but the clouds went away just in time for the qualify session, which was one of the closests lately, and yet another time, jens took pole position, with a awesome 42.2 lap, followed by Shaka with 42.4 and tib with 43.2.

Feature race started under rolling start, as usual for FD oval races with tib storming into first place position, followed by Shaka and Jens. The SLT and Saopaulino drivers drafted along for the first 2 laps, when on the first turn of lap 3, after a couple of attempts to pass, Shaka made his move but they touched wheels and they both spun, leaving jens with the first position, followed by Shaka and tib. On the next lap, tib paid his DT penalty coming back a little over a lap behind jens and Shaka. On lap 5, Shaka paid his DT, and went out about 3.5s ahead of tib, so his strategy worked better, but jens strategy and DTing at lap 6 was even better, coming out about 16s ahead of Shaka, from then on it was a procession home. Results : Jens, Shaka, tib.

Sprint race started with a mess, since the grid was messed up, everyone let tib through, thus finishing lap 1 with tib, shaka, jens. On lap 2, a much quicker Shaka managed to get around tib, and tib used his draft to put up his personal best lap during the weekend with a 42.7, thus keeping him just half a second ahead of jens. Jens however started to catch up, and by lap 4, they were less then 0.1s apart, with tib blocking the inside line like he owned it. On the end of lap 6, jens was able to move ahead of tib, just on the outside of T4, but he left enough space for tib to draft and on T3 of lap 7, tib was able to swing it in on the inside of jens, who didn't gived up and almost made around it during lap 7 and 8, but didn't quite managed to finish the move, meanwhile Shaka was lapping at 41.7 around the track and finished 8s ahead of tib and jens. Results : Shaka, tib, jens.

So, with 34 points apart and still 40+ on the table on the last round, all is open on the championship, will tib be able to make a comeback and grab the title, will jens be the first rookie to win the crown or will Shaka stay in the lead and grab his 3 cup in 4 seasons ?

All that, and more, next week, on FD.

Live from Sebring, Florida.

RACE RESULTS: FEATURE and SPRINT RACE