Race Weekend - Munich GP ERS Season 1

Predator Racing Group Blog

                                                        By Bob Power

Thursday

Munich is back for round 2 and this time its track layout A. We also have some announcements to make this week as well. First off we have submitted for approval some drawings and permits to the town to expand our factory.

The plans include +10 parts development staff and also an improved work area for developing parts and prototypes. We also plain on expanding the parking lot for added spaces for future employees.

The other announcement we have is about Ines Santa Ana. After last months race at Ardennes we learned from our doctors that she was hurt there and from what we know will take about 20 weeks to heal. The good news is, is that she was cleared by the doctors to continue racing but is on light duty for the remainder of the season.
   
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Friday - Practice 

Final practice was a little disappointing we wanted to mirror last weeks results but didn't come close and will have some work to do before the race.

Sevilla set a fast time of 1:46.698 and was 18th fastest as Santa Ana was 19th with a time of 1:47.008 

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Race Day

As the rules states reversed driver points position grid Santa Ana will start 3rd and Sevilla will start 12th.

It was a great sunny afternoon for racing, as the green flag flew Santa Ana shot out front before turn one, with this bold move she was able to take the lead and hold it. The mid pack saw Sevilla and she was fighting hard in heavy traffic.

Ana will lead lap 1 and Sevilla will fight hard for 10th. Rogers is in 2nd and is starting to reel in Santa Ana. In the back Beauchamp will get into Arbeloa and receives a drive through.

Sevilla would lock her tires up on lap 3 in 10th

lap 4 saw Rogers racing hard with Santa Ana for the lead, Santa Ana holds it.

Lap 5, first round of pit stops Santa Ana is in for (Med) and so as Sevilla for (Med)

Lap 6, every ones on pit road at the same time, very busy. Santa Ana retakes the lead as Sevilla steals 3rd

Lap 8, Santa Ana is defending for the lead as Sabado is on the attack, Santa Ana loses the battle down to 2nd

Santa Ana and Sevilla are fighting it out for the top stops on lap 10, as the faster cars make it to the front.

Santa Ana 4th, Sevilla 8th on lap 11

A call from I.Bishop to Sevilla and is pitting for softs to make some ground up on lap 12.

R.Dunbar calls Santa Ana to pit for softs, both cant make it on fuel on lap 13.

The 2nd pit Cycle is done by lap 15 and saw Santa Ana 4th and Sevilla 7th.

On lap 17  I.Bishop makes a bold call for Sevilla to short pit for (Med) - Fuel, Santa Ana stays out.

Lap 19 and Santa Ana is in for softs and fuel, 6 to go!

Santa Ana and Sevilla are racing hard with each other on lap 20, Santa Ana 14th) Sevilla 15th)

Lap 21, Santa Ana is reporting in that here engine is starting to over heat and Sevilla has some kind of suspension damage. 4 to go... 11th) 12th)

Lap 24, cars are starting to run out of fuel, no caution!

Lap 25, white flag out, Santa Ana gets fright trained by fresher tires and finishes to 8th, as Sevilla came home to 11th.

Tanvir Jha 1st) Edda Jonsdottir 2nd) Amanda Cavalcanti 3rd

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Race run down

A little disappointing at the end, it felt like the team let some go in the last pit stops and had the chance for another podium finish, but it wasn't meant to be.    

The GMA issued more post race penalty's

Dragon Race Team China - Driver Bao Tang - unapproved shocks -8 spots
Octane Racing - Driver Luigi Marchetta - failed tech  -6 spots


Sofi Sevilla moves up to 9th and Ines Santa Ana moves to 6th 

After 6 races we sit in the drivers championship

Sofi Sevilla  - 9th - 65 points
Ines Santa Ana - ^16th - 51 points

In the team standings we stay at 6th over all with 116 points

Power Updates

Mid-season European Racing Series point standings  

After race #5 Ardennes GP

                                                           Wins        PTS       DIFF

1 - Sergio Arbeloa                      Eastwood Motorsports       0             91            -
2 - Jean-Fracois Beauchamp      Garuda Racing                   1             80          -11
3 - Amanda Cavalcanti               Silva Racing                      0             69          -22
4 - Tanvir Jha                             Garuda Racing                    2            63          -28
5 - Sergey Antonov                    Vexala Motorsport              0            61          -30
6 - Andre Sabado                        Firebird MRT                     0            61          -30
7 - Jean-Pierre Gerard                 Firebird MRT                     0            60          -31
8 - Eduardo Melo                        Silva Racing                       0            56          -35
9 - Sofi Sevilla                           Predator Racing Group       0             53          -38
10 - Edda Jonsdottir                   Eastwood Motorsports        0            52          -39
11 - Merja Vaananen                  Vexala Motorsport               1            50          -41
12 - Aurelie Dembele                 ZRT Autosport                    0            47          -44
13 - Luigi Marchetta                   Octane Racing                    0            46          -45
14 - Nick Chu                             Dragon Race Team China   0            46          -45
15 - Mustafa El Sadat                 Archer BMR                       0            45          -46
16 - Claudia Dreyfuss                 Octane Racing                    0            40          -51
17 - Sergio Valdes                       ZRT Autosport                   1            38          -55
18 - Ines Santa Ana                    Predator Racing Group       0            36          -57
19 - Bao Tang                            Dragon Race Team China    0            35         -58
20 - Alex Rogers                         Archer BMR                      0             31         -60

Race Weekend - Ardennes GP ERS Season 1

Predator Racing Group Blog

                                                        By Bob Power

Thursday

At long last Its race #5 at Ardennes! We where very much active to be prepared for this race. we ended up working on or gearing and also ended up with a wicked prototype design we will unveil for next year. we also fined tuned our motors some more for this race.

We also have some of are sponsors with us as guest. Jander Mole Media will do a radio broadcast of the race in our pits and Maxwell Beer is here with a hospitality tent.    
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Friday - Practice 

Final practice was looking good for us as I.bshop and R.Dunbar where dialing in the cars with final adjustments. we ended the day with Sevilla 14th and Santa Ana 20th.

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Race Day

As the rules states reversed driver points position grid Santa Ana will start 3rd and Sevilla will start 8th.

We where in shocked as we woke up as the morning was raining the forecast was not calling for it, and we where not setup for it.

Lap 1 saw Santa Ana start from 3rd and dropped back to 9th. Sevilla from 8th to 10th it wasn't a good start for us and our sponsors that was here.

On lap 2, Santa Ana and Sevilla ended up locking up there tires with the wet pavement. the rain just about stopped and with a peak of sun, but dark clouds still where in the area.

Lap 3 saw Santa Ana lock up again and had to make an emergency pit stop and the call by R.Dunbar was made to switch to intermediates as it got darker out.

The clouds opened up on lap 4 and saw a mad rush for intermediates as every one is in Sevilla 7th Santa Ana 11th.

As the pit cycle ended on lap 6, Sevilla came out to 4th and Santa Ana 9th Vaananen leads

On lap 9, Its raining a little bit harder as Sevilla still 4th but Santa Ana drops to 14th and she pits on lap 10.

As the next round of pit cycle begins on lap 11, Sevilla takes the lead for a lap and heads to pit, she would come out 6th as Jonsdottir comes out on top. Are radar is showing the rain will stop around lap 16.

Sevilla moves up to 3rd, Santa Ana 12th with 8 to go and the rain stopping on lap 15.

Sevilla jumps to pit road for softs on lap 16. Where getting reports that Luigi Manchetta is leaking some fluids out on track.

Santa Ana is next to pit on lap 17 as R.Dunbar calls for her to go to super softs to try to gained ground.

lap 20 Sevilla 3rd, Santa Ana 11th

Lap 22 saw Vaananen 1st) Arbeloa 2nd) and Valdes 3rd).... Sevilla 4th and Santa Ana 11th

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Race run down

We had an excellent race and showing for are sponsors at Ardennes. we couldn't be more happier with Sevilla she doing an amazing job as a rookie. Santa Ana still needs more work done and that will be are focus for the remainder of the year.

The GMA issued some hard post race penalty

ZRT Autosport - Driver Sergio Valdes - unapproved cam shaft  -6 spots
Octane Racing - Driver Luigi Marchetta - failed post race inspection -4 spots
Silva Racing - Driver Eduardo Melo - unapproved race fuel  -6 spots

Sofi Sevilla moves up to 3rd and Ines Santa Ana moves to 10th 

After 5 races we sit in the drivers championship

Sofi Sevilla  - ^9th - 53 points
Ines Santa Ana - 18th - 36 points

In the team standings we move up to 6th over all with 89 points

WORLD SPORTS NETWORK

PREDATOR RACING GROUP DRIVER INES SANTA ANA'S SHOCK REVELATION: "I'M BURNT OUT"

It Seems that Ines Santa Ana's life of non-stop parting was finally caught up with her, after confessing in a radio interview that she's "burnt out, and in need of some detox time."

"I've been enjoying my self its true..." said the young 24 year old driver, her words tangled with an air of regret. "I had a great time, but its all starting to catch up with me now."

When asked weather or not she regretted her time hitting the clubs, Santa Ana was defiant: "It was what I wanted to do with my life. just me being me. I'm feeling different now, and that's that. Its time to focus on my racing again."     

THE EVENING HERALD 

LOCAL FUN RUN GRACED BY EUROPEAN RACING SERIES STAR SOFI SEVILLA!

Predator racing group driver Sofi Sevilla has added a bit of star quality to a local fun run by participating in a race near her home town in Spain.

Locals where thrilled with the drivers appearance. One man told us: " I turn to the wife and said blooming hack thats Sofi Sevilla! I cant believe my eyes."    

Much to her disappointment, the European Racing Series driver did not manage to finish well and had to settle for a free medal and an energy drink.

Race Weekend - Tondela GP ERS Season 1

 

 



Predator Racing Group Blog

                                                        By Bob Power

Thursday

Tondela is here for race #4! For this past month we worked hard on our brake package with a hole new design for both cars (32) (32) . The feed back was positive from Bishop and Dunbar so they went ahead and installed them for the weekend. hopefully with the new design this will solve are breaking problems.
  
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Friday - Practice 

Morning final practice kicked off great with the new brakes design. Sevilla was able to hit a time of 1:24.274 to lock in 11th in practice but it was another story for Santa Ana she could only manage 1:27.588 she kept hitting traffic in all the wrong places.

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Race Day

As the rules states reversed driver points position grid Santa Ana will start 2nd and Sevilla will start 6th.

When the green flag dropped, we got a great start going into turn 1 as Santa Ana shot out to take the lead and Sevilla was able to steal 5th away.

 

Lap 2 saw a lot of action a mid pack car got loose and every one had to check up resulting in a lot of flat spot tires. Aurelie Dembele wasn't so lucky as he would slam into Bao Tang's car and both had to pit for wing damage. As all this was happening Santa Ana was extending her lead.

lap 3 saw Sofi Sevilla lock up and a call from Bishop made her pit early for softs.

by lap 4 Dreyfuss started to real in Santa Ana as tire ware started to show on this hot day. With that Ana was screaming over the radio at Dunbar and pitted for softs at lap 5. she would come out 8th after her stop.

After the first pit cycle at lap 8 Santa Ana was 5th, Sevilla was 6th.

Next round of pit stops would be around lap 14. Bishop and Dunbar both messed up Santa Ana and Sevilla stop, they both had fueling problems with both cars.

Last round of stops came around lap 22 with 10 to go Santa Ana would come out 9th after her stop and Sevilla would come out 12th.

Sevilla would catch up to Santa Ana and they both would battle it out to the finish going back and forth with each other with Santa Ana coming home to 11th and Sevilla 12th

Jha would win at Tondela, with Melo 2nd, and Cavalcanti 3rd.

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Race run down

Overall it wasnt what I was expecting we had at least a 8th / 9th place cars, but that's what you say "that's racen"on to Ardennes!

The GMA issued another post race penalty

Archer BMR - Driver Mustafa El Sanat - Failed post race inspection  -2 spots

After 4 races we sit in the drivers championship

Sofi Sevilla - 13th - 35 points
Ines Santa Ana - 18th - 25 points

In the team standings we sit 8th over all with 60 points

Race Weekend - Milan GP ERS Season 1 

Predator Racing Group Blog

                                                        By Bob Power

Thursday

Race Three is here! Milan is the track this time and just like Isai Nolde promised we have not one but two brand new engines to try out. the first engine we have is a in house built motor at (35) and Sofi Sevilla has that one. The other is a outsource motor pushing (60) and Ines Santa Ana has that one.

We also have Sponsor Jander Mole Media with us here this weekend, so we really need a good showing for them.
  
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Friday - Practice 

Afternoon practice our goal was to break in the new motors and to fix any problems that had arrived. We got some good notes on soft tires but only manage 17th with Sevilla and 18th with Santa Ana. 

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Race Day

As the rules states reversed driver points position grid Santa Ana will start 3rd and Sevilla will start 4th.

It turned out to be a beautiful day for racing with an average temp of 66 degrees. The new motors have been broken in and where just about to take the green.

 

At the start, Santa Ana and Sevilla have a hard fought battle for 3rd. This wound up as a heated battle back and forth for 3 laps intill Santa Ana got major loose and fell to 10th.

 

Sergio Valdes ending up losing his motor going down the back stretch at the start of lap 5. The GMA was slow to throw the caution and Tanvir Jha got into his oil trail and crashed hard into the wall. Yellows out!

 

Sevilla was just passed pit lane when the yellow came out, but Santa Ana made it in and she wound up last on the grid for making hole sale changes to her car. Then it was Sevilla turn to pit and the crew realized they put the rear tires up front but caught it in time before she went back out, but would end up next to Santa Ana coming to the green.

 

The green flag was back out and Vaananen leads and got a big jump on the field till the next round of green flag stops.

 

lap 17 saw the last stops as Sevilla climbed to 12th and Santa Ana 15th

 

The Checkered flew on lap 21 as Beauchamp took the win, Arbeloa 2nd, and Antonov 3rd. We ended up clawing are way up to 9th with Sevilla but Santa Ana stayed in 15th

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Race run down

It was an ok day for us, the early yellow hurt us but manage to salvage a decent finish. We got some good notes with the new engines and look forward to Tondela next.

The GMA was harsh this week with inspections and handed down some hefty penalty's to teams.

ZRT Autosport - Driver Aurelie Dambele lost 2 spots - unapproved wing adjustments
ZRT Autosport - Driver Sergio Valdes lost 4 spots - unapproved engine 
Octane Racing - Driver Luigi Marchetta lost 2 spots - unapproved brakes  
Silva Racing - Driver Eduardo Melo lost 6 spots - unapproved engine and gearbox 

After the penalty's Sevilla moved up the 7th over all, but Santa Ana stayed at 15th.
 

WORLD SPORTS NETWORK

WILL THE ERS BE ADDING A NEW RACE IN RIO DE JANEIRO NEXT SEASON?

A vote at the GMA on Wednesday will decide weather or not the European Racing Series roadshow will roll in to Brazil next year.

Judging by the circuit layout, the track in Rio De Janeiro is likely good news for ZRT autosport, whose car will likely to perform well there.

"Its always great to visit a new circuit," said ZRT engineer Peter O'Sullivan "I'd would like to watch our cars hurtling around the track there."

Race Weekend - Munich GP ERS Season 1 

Predator Racing Group Blog

                                                        By Bob Power

Thursday

Race number two is upon us! We just arrived here at Munich and just unloaded the cars, we cant be any more excited to be here and one of my favorite tracks to be at. 

For our goals for the weekend is to finish in the top 15 I think we can achieve this and will look good for our current sponsors.
  
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Friday - Practice 

Final afternoon practice was a very cool but sunny 55 degrees we manage to hit on a good setup with Sofi, but Santa ana never hit on a wing adjustment she liked during practice.  Isabel Bishop made some final adjustments to her car and hopefully she will like them.

Jean-Francois Beauchamp from Garuda Racing won the round with a time of 1:36.476

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Race Day

As the rules states reversed driver points position grid Santa Ana will start 3rd and Sevilla will start 4th.

We had a little weather in the morning of the race that lingered to the start with light rain. We opted to stay with softs as the track was not that wet. Vaananen lead early on and Santa Ana was able to hang on to 3rd till her first stop. Sevilla on the other hand got trapped behind a slower car and fell to 13th at the start.

On lap 6 Jean-Francois Beauchamp slamed into the back of Sergio Arbeloa when the track was a little damp and both had to pit early. No caution.

Soon after a wild ride for Eduardo Melo as he went head on into turn 12 tire wall. The track was still a little wet. Claen up had to be made from Melo car and to the tire wall. Yellows out!

It was a busy pit road, Santa Ana made a few adjustments to her car and drops to 9th, Sevilla had a vary bad stop and came out 15th as Sergio Valdes leads them to the green.

Not much excitement happen after that as the field got strung out as Santa Ana fought her way up to 5th with 10 to go as Sevilla got as high as 10th before the last stops and with heavy storms linger in the area.

With 5 to go we gained some with the weather as every one anticipated the storm but it rained later in the run as we switch to wets.

Last lap! Santa Ana got to carried away in 6th and lock them up big time resulting her tires to blow out and limping home to 16th. Sevilla on the other hand push her car a little to much and ran out of fuel coming to the line finishing 12th

Sergio Valdes take the win with El Sadat 2nd and Arbeloa 3rd

After the race the GMA handed out 5 penalty's to pit road violations to over aggressive driving resulting in a pass thru. Arbeloa,Chu,Sabado,Beauchamp,Jha

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Race run down

we had a really great race with Santa ana and Sevilla. We manage to fix the little gremlins that plagued us during the first race even tho the results didnt show for it. We definitely showed some muscle in this race and over all we completed our goals for the race weekend. On to Milan! 

Power Updates



So the last 26 days have been very busy here at Predator, Isai Nolde our lead designer has been working on our reliability problems. We have found out the problems with the breaks and have hoped we wont run into problems for the upcoming race at Munich GP. He also had some time to tune our current engines more. I also overheard him in a meeting with our engine builder for another motor. He did however said that the new motor that was built last month had no time spent into it, but was going to shoot for Milan GP and circle that on our calendar.


We also just signed Peach-Plum as our newest sponsor for 9 races. We are looking forward to have this partnership with them.

Race Weekend - Black Sea GP ERS Season 1

Predator Racing Group Blog

                                                        By Bob Power

Thursday

Race weekend is here! Its been a crazy few weeks for us with all the changes I have put into effect. we have built a new motor but wasn't done on time for race weekend Isai Nolde was working all night trying to complete it but he found some bugs with it and opted to not test our luck.

The forecast for the weekend looks like we wont see sun but fingers crossed we do. I'm not expecting a lot from our team as every one is new together. I told the team before we left to work on setups for next time have fun and just finish the race. We have 30 laps to log and our race mechanics say our tire wear will be very high and are brakes are weak so we will need to improve them for the next race.

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Friday - Practice 

Friday morning practice was very rainy. It poured from the time we hit the track to the very last second of practice there where spots here and there of sun but its was just a tease. 

We did unexpectedly well during practice. We might of been the slowest with intermediates but we where 6th with Sofi Sevilla with a time of 1.31.744 and 8th with Ines Santa Ana with a time of 1.32.933. It was a big booster to every one on the team even tho the rest of the field had wets on...

 Isabel Bishop was reporting that Sevilla found her grove right away with a setup balance at 97%

Roger Dunbar reported in that Santa Ana was comfortable with her car at a setup balance at 96%

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Race Day

As the rules states reversed driver points position grid Santa Ana will start 12th and Sevilla will start 2nd. hoping Sevilla wont get the first lap jitters.

we are playing it safe, Where not going to push no matter how tempting it will be, We need to save both cars for next week they are our only cars.. to our surprise the suns out (thanks weather man) and its a cool 55 degrees out.

Green Flags Out  (live race report)

Sevilla held strong to about midway down the track but just got fright trained and settled to 11th

Santa Ana has settled to about 17th headed onto lap two, Watching everyone in front of her locking there tires up!

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Lap 5

first round of pit stops are happening for the drivers that had locked up on lap 2 and 3.

Sevilla fell back to 15th
Santa Ana fell to 20th 
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Lap 8 

leader Jha on pit road now for softs.

Sevilla moved to 6th
Santa Ana moved to 13th

we have not pitted yet for tires Santa Ana starting to complain.

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Lap 9

Roger Dunbar just called Santa Ana to pit for super softs. He was saying over the radio "wanted to try something different.

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Lap 10

  

Isabel Bishop called Sevilla in liking the super softs idea.

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Lap 13 

after first round of pit stops are over. Jha is 1st) Arbeloa is 2nd) Gerard is 3rd)

Sevilla fell back to 17th one lap down.
Santa Ana fell to 20th one lap down.

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Lap 15 

2nd round of pit stops started waiting for everything to fan out.

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Lap 19

Sevilla just got slammed in the rear by Dreyfuss knocked the rear wing apart! Dreyfuss has a pass through penalty!

Sevilla just started to complain that her engine messed up going down the backstretch!

Sevilla forces to pit!

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Lap 20

last round of pit stops are starting Jha is 1st) Arbeloa is 2nd) Cavalcanti is 3rd)

Sevilla fell back to 20th one lap down.
Santa Ana fell to 19th one lap down.

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Lap 23 

both Sevilla and Santa Ana called in for final stop, They are far apart so crews can work on them ok.

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Lap 24

Santa Ana has just reported to Dunbar her brakes are just about done.

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Lap 27 

Jha is 1st) Cavalcanti is 2nd) Gerard is 3rd)

Santa Ana still hanging on.

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Lap 28 

Sevilla was just heard over the radio 3rd gear is gone.

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Lap 29

Jha is 1st) Cavalcanti is 2nd) Gerard is 3rd)

Sergio Valdes pulled into pits says "where done" (mechanical issues) was 7th.

Merja Vaananen just blew up down the backstretch.

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White Flag Out 

Beauchamp runs out just taking the white was 5th.

Gerard runs out at the final corner was 2nd.

Tanvir Jha runs out of fuel coming to the line but taken the checkered.

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Checkered Flag

Tanvir Jha Takes the win follow by Cavalcanti 2nd) and Gerard 3rd)

 
Sevilla rounded up to 18th 2 laps down.
Santa Ana came home to 17th 2 laps down.

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Race run down

Beside getting run over with Sevilla in her first race we did accomplish our goals for the weekend.

We did not get a DNF, Everyone finished and got seat time, And we got some valuable setup notes for next time out. On the plus side we did not finish last! On to the next race at Munich GP.