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April 24, 2013
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In the latest iteration of the series, Scott Bennett talks about what we have seen on the subject of 'overtaking' throughout the 2013 season so far, and what to expect from the upcoming Spanish GP.
Well it has been a while, apologies to you avid fan for being missing in action these past races but here we are rapidly approaching Barcelona. Now what was next on the agenda? Overtaking. After a stunning performance in A1 Ring, Dave Carr-Smith tops the positions won chart with a whopping 32 positions won since the start of the season with second place on the table being occupied by Phoenix driver Kieran Ryan with 24 positions won with Red Archer's Jason Muscat rounding out the top three with 16 positions won.
With Melbourne being dictated by being the first race of the season on a relatively fast but tight street circuit, and Sepang being written off, with many teams settling for the 'just bring it home' approach in monsoon conditions, it took until Austria for the grid to have truly settled and for the battles to begin. An event which was utterly dominated by Carr-Smith's charge from 23rd on the grid to finish on the podium. However the following race in Hungary was once again dominated by Carr-Smith but under entirely different circumstances, instead of driving past much of the field as if they were not there such was the case in Austria Carr-Smith had cars as far as the eye could see filling his rear view mirrors with a long procession of various constructors unable to find a way past the Nordsjoen. So, what could it be that has made this Nordsjoen such a handful for rival drivers to contend with? If there is one thing that can be said for the Nordsjoen so far is its ability in a straight line over its rivals which was particularly prominent around the Budapest circuit, with Carr-Smith's tight and twisty middle sector causing frustration for drivers placed as far down as 12th, let alone those actually fighting for his eventual second place but yet, come the main overtaking location, turn one, nobody could touch him due to the higher top speed that allowed him to edge out a slight lead going into the heavy braking zone of turn one.
This approach would also appeared to have been adopted by the Phoenix of Kieran Ryan who, in a team which appeared to have started slowly development wise have really upped their pace of recent weeks bringing a variety of upgrades to the Australian based team, put in a strong performance at the Hungaroring to score the team's first points this season, a performance which did not go unnoticed by the aforementioned Carr-Smith after a heart stopping moment at turn two where a duelling Carr-Smith and Parisis met with also duelling Bennett and Ryan.
So what can be expected at the upcoming race in Barcelona? Well with a raft of upgrades for the Phoenix, manager Andy Graydon can only hope that Ryan's success continues, with a car that can now on paper challenge the likes of the Green Stripes and Hawkeye, the latter of which has had multiple top ten finishes at the hands of drivers Lewis Redshaw and Bart de Vos. Another team with a solid upgrade package for the Spanish Grand Prix is that of fellow newcomers Halcyon meaning that Jamez Shepherd can hope to at least maintain his 9th place from Hungary. Preliminary testing however for the Catalunya circuit has shown what would appear to be a distinct strength in cars that have developed along drag reduction upgrades in the research and development system meaning that cars such as Constant, ST, Woods and Midnight should be able to turn out some strong lap times, with Nordsjoen closely following the group with slightly less drag reduction upgrades but still not far off in comparison to some of the other teams - expect Carr-Smith to be causing rival drivers headaches going into the two prime overtaking locations of turns one and ten.
Prediction: Assuming the Midnights do the expected and lock out the first two steps of the podium, third place could go to one of three people and unfortunately in my eyes none of them are from Torrent Motorsports. While it cannot be argued that both car and drivers are strong, the upgrade packages that the car has had since the start of the season do not follow the trend that has so far been seen at Barcelona supported the more drag efficient upgrades. Carr-Smith, Heesterbeek, or van der Voort are my bets for taking the third step of the podium. Having said that the Nijo's look like they could be strong at some of the prior races, but yet have still been edged out by Nordjoen's Carr-Smith. At a track that historically has been so heavily dependant on having a strong car surely now the Nijo boys can finally get one over on Carr-Smith?
With Melbourne being dictated by being the first race of the season on a relatively fast but tight street circuit, and Sepang being written off, with many teams settling for the 'just bring it home' approach in monsoon conditions, it took until Austria for the grid to have truly settled and for the battles to begin. An event which was utterly dominated by Carr-Smith's charge from 23rd on the grid to finish on the podium. However the following race in Hungary was once again dominated by Carr-Smith but under entirely different circumstances, instead of driving past much of the field as if they were not there such was the case in Austria Carr-Smith had cars as far as the eye could see filling his rear view mirrors with a long procession of various constructors unable to find a way past the Nordsjoen. So, what could it be that has made this Nordsjoen such a handful for rival drivers to contend with? If there is one thing that can be said for the Nordsjoen so far is its ability in a straight line over its rivals which was particularly prominent around the Budapest circuit, with Carr-Smith's tight and twisty middle sector causing frustration for drivers placed as far down as 12th, let alone those actually fighting for his eventual second place but yet, come the main overtaking location, turn one, nobody could touch him due to the higher top speed that allowed him to edge out a slight lead going into the heavy braking zone of turn one.
This approach would also appeared to have been adopted by the Phoenix of Kieran Ryan who, in a team which appeared to have started slowly development wise have really upped their pace of recent weeks bringing a variety of upgrades to the Australian based team, put in a strong performance at the Hungaroring to score the team's first points this season, a performance which did not go unnoticed by the aforementioned Carr-Smith after a heart stopping moment at turn two where a duelling Carr-Smith and Parisis met with also duelling Bennett and Ryan.
So what can be expected at the upcoming race in Barcelona? Well with a raft of upgrades for the Phoenix, manager Andy Graydon can only hope that Ryan's success continues, with a car that can now on paper challenge the likes of the Green Stripes and Hawkeye, the latter of which has had multiple top ten finishes at the hands of drivers Lewis Redshaw and Bart de Vos. Another team with a solid upgrade package for the Spanish Grand Prix is that of fellow newcomers Halcyon meaning that Jamez Shepherd can hope to at least maintain his 9th place from Hungary. Preliminary testing however for the Catalunya circuit has shown what would appear to be a distinct strength in cars that have developed along drag reduction upgrades in the research and development system meaning that cars such as Constant, ST, Woods and Midnight should be able to turn out some strong lap times, with Nordsjoen closely following the group with slightly less drag reduction upgrades but still not far off in comparison to some of the other teams - expect Carr-Smith to be causing rival drivers headaches going into the two prime overtaking locations of turns one and ten.
Prediction: Assuming the Midnights do the expected and lock out the first two steps of the podium, third place could go to one of three people and unfortunately in my eyes none of them are from Torrent Motorsports. While it cannot be argued that both car and drivers are strong, the upgrade packages that the car has had since the start of the season do not follow the trend that has so far been seen at Barcelona supported the more drag efficient upgrades. Carr-Smith, Heesterbeek, or van der Voort are my bets for taking the third step of the podium. Having said that the Nijo's look like they could be strong at some of the prior races, but yet have still been edged out by Nordjoen's Carr-Smith. At a track that historically has been so heavily dependant on having a strong car surely now the Nijo boys can finally get one over on Carr-Smith?
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