March 17, 2016
Published on tags: World Sport Series

 

Joshua Anderson has a look through the major talking points from the first round of the 2016 WSS season, as we look toward the second round of the series in Spain.

Few will argue that the World Sport Series fails to throw up interesting racing. Since its inception in 2012, we've seen some great action on track and 2016 looked set to continue that trend at the first round at Sochi Autodrom, Russia.

In a race meeting with as much fiery action as a bottle of Tabasco sauce, there were plenty of thrills and spills. In the end however, Risto Kappet and Kevin Siggy came away with the first two wins of the season. So heading out of Russia and into Spain, what should we be looking out for and what are the talking points going into the second round of the season?

5: Trust me, it will get better
The first round of the season threw up some controversial moves, to put it one way - with some who would claim this was one of the World Sport Series' worst outings. But last year we had a similar situation where round 1 wasn't a most clean of affairs, yet things calmed down and by the end of it we had a great season. I expect the same to happen this year.

4: Edonis back to usual service
Edonis Engineering made it clear they're aiming to pick up where they left off in 2014 with Sven de Vries and Ruud Heesterbeek having a great outing for the Dutch outfit. Heesterbeek picked up a 5th and a 3rd, with de Vries picking up two points finishes. With the team currently second in the Teams' championship, expect a resumption of normal service and race wins in the season for Edonis.

3: Russo no more, but Viking soldier on
One of the most controversial points was the discovery, and subsequent removal from the league, of Viking Racing's Aurelio Russo after it was found that Russo was in fact a previously banned member of the GPVWC community racing under an alias. Thankfully this was caught before the race began, which is a testament to the job that the Administration at GPVWC do.

The ramifications of this for Viking Racing have hurt the team in this first round, but Carlos Fernandez had a stellar two races. Expect the team to bounce back from this setback and continue the good form that Fernandez has shown.

2: Aussie power
One of the big surprises of this race was Thomas Hinss. The ace Aussie found his way to a second place in Race 2 and scored a twelfth place in Race 1. While his event wasn't incident free (as was the case for a lot of drivers in all fairness to him), a second place still makes for his best ever result in GPVWC.

Hinss has really hit the ground running in rFactor 2 and I expect more good results from him and Fanatec Draig Racing in the future.

1: Piling on the pounds
Surely the biggest talking point going into round 2 is the addition of weight ballast to qualifying sessions and Race 1. With Sochi gone, we have now witnessed the sole ballast-free qualifying session and race 1 in the series for the year. The top 5 in the championship going into Spain, whoever those may be, will all carry weight in qualifying and Race 1. As we saw last year, this could easily lead to some interesting results and I would hope a few surprises may yet be sprung.

With the first round down then and the benchmarks set, who's going to win it all? Here's my predictions for the Teams' Championship standings come the end of the season.

1. Vod:Bul Racing
2. Edonis Engineering
3. Simtech Enterprise GP
4. YTF1
5. Draig Racing
6. Epic Racing
7. Cosmo Autosport
8. Hinss Motorsport
9. Ice Cold Racing
10. Measuric Racing
11. Viking Racing
12. Apex Racing
13. EJ Engineering
14. Sportscar Driving Evolution
15. TR Motorsports