2014 F1RWRS World 800
The 2014 F1RWRS Budweiser World 800 was the third F1RWRS race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the first since the race's renaming after a dispute over the use of the Indianapolis 500 name and subsequent damage to the IndyCar Series' marquee event at the same venue. Rather than held over 500 miles, the race was instead held over the marginally shorter distance of 800km. The event received title sponsorship from Budweiser.
The race was held over two legs, with aggregated scores determining the overall winner. Despite winning neither leg, Jack Christopherson won the overall race for the second year in succession, driving for Castrol Jones Racing, and thus retained the Dan Wheldon Memorial Trophy. As a team, Jones took a 1-2-3 finish with Daniel Melrose second and Terry Hawkin third.
Entry List
A number of regular season F1RWRS teams didn't participate in the race, notably DGNgineering, Sunshine and Kamaha. This allowed invitational teams into the race, these were Red Bull Autodynamics GP and Donkervoort Automobielen while seven of the regular teams fielded four entries.
The Autodynamics team brought with them their newly-finished 2015-spec chassis with which they'd make their debut in F1RWRS the following season and new Ilmor engines. Donkervoort had developed their own F1RWRS project and the World 800 invitation gave them the opportunity to debut the chassis with a view to a full-time F1RWRS entry in future. In line with their road car operation, they used year-old Audi engines that had previously been in the back of the Team Phoenix cars.
In total, 44 cars were entered for the 2014 World 800.
Qualifying
A single one hour qualifying session was held on the Saturday of the race weekend to determine the grid order for the first race. The grid for the second race would be determined by the results of race 1. Each driver had a single flying lap to set a time within the hour session.
It was no surprise to see the MRTs lock out the top 4 spots on the grid, but what was surprising was that it was their F2RWRS drivers who started on the front row. Both having already done F2 qualifying meant they had an obvious advantage. It was a similar story at Gillet, although stranger as Swerts wasn't racing in the FedEx 100. It was also noticeable at HRT, with Tommy Nash qualifying very close to Whitechapel, and at Scuderia Alitalia. Three of the four Jones cars did well, with Melrose leading the way, although Terry Hawkin, fresh from victory on the Gold Coast, found traffic on his lap. Of the two invited teams, Autodynamics did a solid job with their 2015 car, while Donkervoort, who might get an entry into the main series in a few years, were way off the pace of even the Tropico cars. But the biggest surprise went to Daniel Martins, who followed Nicolas all the way around for extra speed, and it paid off beautifully.
Race 1
The first few laps of race 1 of the World 800 were hotly contested, as all four MRTs, three of the Jones cars and the two ArrowTechs fought for the lead. It wasn't until lap 8 that Nicolas started to get away and the other three MRTs of Davies, Macklin and Simon held the next three spots.
Deiter Hallenstein became the first DNF as his car stopped with suspension failure on lap 6, stopping at the entry to turn 3, a proven danger spot. The bad position caught out John Zimmer, who got held wide on the next lap by Peter Senerson and had nowhere to go, becoming the third DNF. In the meantime Fredo Mestolio had picked up a puncture on the back straight on lap 6 and was forced to stop inside turn 4. Renaldo Jiménez was in trouble too after he caught some debris and pitted for a front wing.
Gio van Dycke retired early with engine dramas, already a few laps down, and stopping his car at the entry to turn 3 was a bad idea, as McFry hit him and van Nieuwenhuijzen found some debris, with both needing new front wings.
The next retirement surprised no one, as Phillippe Nicolas coasted to a halt with failed suspension, from the lead, handing it over to Macklin. A wheel worked itself loose on James Davies' car, causing him to pit, while Pazzini made a nuisance of himself when Martins came to lap him. Seron went out on lap 20 with a water leak.
Daniel Martins became the next retirement, from a strong position too, as a loose wheel put him out, and he couldn't get back to the pits. In fact, he stopped smack bang in the middle of the back straight, and it wasn't until the marshals started to move the car that someone hit him - Miko Fäkkinen, who was being lapped and paid the price for being a gracious backmarker, fortunately only needing a front wing. The next lap, De Bock went out, as wheel to wheel contact with Melrose put him into the turn 3 fence.
Up front, Rhys Davies had caught Macklin, and they fought for the lead, although Macklin had a habit of leading down the main straight while Davies led on the back. Valsattis and Melrose both pitted, Valsattis for a loose wheel, Melrose for a brake problem. Fäkkinen came in the following lap for a front wing change. Koczo got hung out to dry at turn 3 on the next lap by Schiller, and predictably, his race was over. Valsattis got unluckier as he hit some debris and had to pit for the second time in three laps.
Lap 27 saw three more incidents as Whitechapel picked up a puncture but managed to get back to the pits, while Jesús Plaza pulled up with a suspension problem at turn 1. The third incident was a big one - Gianluigi Pazzini had a massive accident at turn 3. Eric Swerts came up behind to lap him, and Pazzini initially gave him room. However, he started to move back down the track mid corner, and his front left wheel collided with Swerts' rear right, and it launched him into the air. He hit the catch fencing hard, and landed just as heavily. Swerts was spun around, but managed to keep it out of the fence.
Aurelien Moll had started the first round of scheduled stops on lap 26, with the Manns pitting on laps 28 (Douglas) and 29 (Pippa), with Swerts on lap 31. Then the flood gates opened, as Jones and Macklin came in on 33, and followed by Davies, Schiller, Bosevic and Nash on 34. Lap 35 saw Jung, Neuberg, Kremnicky, Hawkin, Senerson, Fleet and Paasonen all come in, although Hawkin had to fix an electrical issue. Martin McFry also stopped with a transmission failure. Mackintosh, Zimmer and Tajner stopped on 36, Lei and Groves on 37 and Mignolet on 38. Zimmer, shortly after his stop, retired with a transmission failure as well.
Jack Christopherson had inherited the lead, after the MRTs had stopped, and was looking good on a one-stopper when a wheel worked itself loose. Fortunately it was going through turn 4, so he didn't lose much time, but he was always going to lose his spot. Since this was lap 39, he was still within the window to switch to two stops, but the Jones crew filled him up to the end - 60 laps of fuel. It was a strange decision, but one that could pay off if the MRT reliability kicked in.
Which is precisely what happened the very next lap as Marie Simon parked her car with yet another transmission issue. Tristan Jung only lasted two more laps before his car came to a smoking halt. By this time Macklin had dropped Davies, and was leading by a healthy margin. In fact, Davies was struggling to break away from Bosevic. Renaldo Jiménez pitted from nowhere in particular on lap 44. Aurelien Moll retired the next lap with a suspension problem, stopping at turn 1.
This caused a big problem behind, as Sammy Jones was forced to slow behind him. This caught Sebastian Groves unaware, and the two collided, forcing both to complete a slow lap and pit, a new rear wing for Jones and a front wing for Groves. While this was going on, Mika Paasonen retired at the back of the circuit, completely unnoticed, which was surprising since his engine had caught fire.
Mignolet was the next to go, although few cared as he was already 8 laps down and not even at half distance yet. Pippa Mann was the next front running retirement, with a suspension failure ruining what was becoming a brilliant battle with Melrose for 5th.
On lap 52 the next pit cycle started, with Douglas Mann, Eric Swerts and Poppy Whitechapel all stopping for the second time. Tomislaw Tajner and Peter Senerson were the next to retire, with electrical issues and an oil leak respectively. Miko Fäkkinen very nearly joined them with a throttle problem, but he managed to pit and fix it.
Mackintosh, Melrose and James Davies all came in for their final stops on laps 61-62, very early for two stoppers, and it wasn't until laps 67-78 that the others came in, including the two remaining MRTs, Hawkin, Bosevic (who had led a lap thanks to the stops), Kremnicky, Nash, Schiller, Lei, Neuberg, Groves, Jones and Jiménez. Ben Fleet joined his girlfriend on the sidelines with yet another engine fire, on lap 67.
The three-stoppers came in for their final stops around lap 80, and that lap saw MRT lose their third car, with Rhys Davies parking with transmission problems, leaving Macklin in the lead, Bosevic second and the only other car on the lead lap, with the four Jones cars fighting for the final podium spot. Mackintosh retired with an oil leak, a lap short of being classified, but the big action didn't come until lap 97.
MRT basically had Macklin home, with three laps to run and almost a lap ahead of second, when at turn 3 a wheel almost came off the wagon. Macklin survived a scary moment to get the car to the pits, but he had lost enough speed that while he led the lap, Bosevic caught him while he was stationary, and took the lead with two to go. He managed to hold it off to take victory, and while he wasn't the fastest car on track, it was still well deserved.
The final lap saw the scariest moment of the race. Douglas Mann and Poppy Whitechapel were fighting over 10th position, 3 laps down on the leaders. At turn 2, Whitechapel got a run on Mann but had to take to the outside down the back stretch. As they went into turn 3, Whitechapel had a nose ahead as they hit the banking. The HRT started to move up to get a better run out of the corner, and Mann also moved high. However, he went too high, and they touched wheels. Whitechapel was immediately launched high up into the catch fencing, and lands back on the track hard, eventually sliding down onto the infield, almost flipping as she did. Mann managed to keep control and drove off to take 10th place. However, he won't be likely to start there, as it was very dangerous to move up that high with a car easily visible on the outside at turn 3, and he'll likely get a grid penalty for the second leg.
Race 1 classification
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Race 2
With Macklin starting from P2, he was the easy favourite to take the overall win, unless the MRT broke down as it had for Davies, Nicolas and Simon in race 1. The start was fairly uneventful, and there was little action in the first 10 laps apart from Neuberg pitting after a puncture.
Andrej Kremnicky became the first retirement of race 2 when he found himself in the turn 3 fence. Fighting with Zimmer and Schiller, he tried to go around the outside of both of them and was left wondering why he had found himself in the fence. Scuderia Alitalia's troubles got worse the next lap when Gianluigi Pazzini was put out by a water leak.
The retirements continued on lap 13 when race 1 winner Mirko Bosevic also picked up a water leak, and Sammy Jones also hit the turn 3 fence while fighting with Plaza. This time though it was Plaza shoving his nose up the inside and forcing Jones wide. No penalty was awarded though, and Jones decided to try to get back to the pits, which resulted in several drivers swerving out of the way, and after seeing the carnage caused by drivers crawling around the track in the F2RWRS race, Jones himself was lucky to escape a penalty.
Douglas Mann was next to go, as his transmission gave up on the main straight. He parked it at turn 1, well out of the way of traffic, although his car was still hit by James Davies as he tried to let the MRTs through. For at this point it was Macklin, then Simon and Davies having worked themselves to the front, then the three remaining Jones cars, two of the Gillets (De Bock and Moll), the ARCs and Phillippe Nicolas, desperately trying to get through the field.
When Tomislaw Tajner's engine gave up, the marshals made a run for ROTR when the car was dropped by the crane, fortunately with no cars in the vicinity.
Apart from Tajner's retirement and Seron needing to pit for a throttle problem, nothing happened from there until lap 24, when all hell broke loose. Deiter Hallenstein stopped at turn 1 with suspension failure, while at the same time Peter Senerson stopped at turn 3 when a wheel worked itself loose. Tommy Nash and Terry Hawkin ran afoul of Senerson, who was in a very awkward place, with Nash retiring on the spot and Hawkin needing a new front wing. Ron Mignolet also got involved, hitting Senerson's wheel and needing a wing as well. At turn 1, it was Fleet who got unlucky, trying to lap van Dycke and hitting Hallenstein's parked car. Foxdale in fact got super unlucky as his bouncing wheel was caught by McFry who needed a new wing, while the race leader Mitchell Macklin also lost his wing on some debris. In most wing replacements, it fell almost perfectly on time for their scheduled stops, as a lot of drivers gambled on either one stop, or three, a huge change from the majority two-stopping this morning.
During this phase, Martins, Plaza, Christopherson, Paasonen, Pippa Mann and Melrose all came in, while Valsattis retired, as did Mestolio and Simon, the ARC and MRT showing their usual unreliability. Davies took the lead after Macklin's stop, while Nicolas was making huge gains. After lap 30, the two stoppers came in, which included the three remaining HRTs, Swerts, Schiller, De Bock, Davies and Lei. When Davies stopped, Aurelien Moll inherited the lead of the race. Why? Because Macklin's chance of the overall victory vanished with a transmission failure. There were then several quick retirements, with De Bock's engine going up in flames, Plaza picking up a puncture, Martins having his suspension collapse, Groves had a loose wheel (although he managed to make it to the pits), and Pippa Mann's suspension going as well. At the same time, Nicolas caught Moll and breezed past into the lead, although only until lap 50 when he pitted. The one stoppers came in, as did the three stoppers for the second time. With Nicolas and Moll both stopping, Davies took the lead back. Jiménez, Swerts, James Davies, Jung and Frank Zimmer all retired in quick succession, with two transmission failures, a suspension problem and a couple of oil leaks.
Rhys Davies and Lei, the only two stoppers left in the race, came in around lap 70, with Davies far enough ahead of Nicolas and Moll to retain the lead. However, while Moll was losing time, Nicolas was gaining, but still 20 seconds behind.
The remaining stops were completed from laps 75 to 81, and during this period, having got to within 15 seconds of the lead, Nicolas picked up a puncture, and couldn't get back to the pits in time. From there it looked like a Davies cakewalk - until the traditional MRT reliability kicked in. On lap 89, almost a lap ahead of Moll, Davies had an electrical issue, and had to crawl back to the pits. It put Moll into the lead, now 15 seconds up on Davies with 10 laps to go, but with fresh tyres Davies was a good three seconds faster.
On lap 93 there was disappointment for Autodynamics as Mika Paasonen retired. At this point he'd been running in a brilliant 5th, despite having a car that was, simply, crap. Unfortunately, his engine caught fire and a great race came to an end.
Up front, Moll was losing time to Davies, and on lap 96 Davies caught and passed him to take the lead. Davies then backed off to prevent more issues, and held the lead by 4 seconds to beat Moll to the win. Behind them, Melrose had passed Christopherson on pure pace to take the final podium spot, with Hawkin, John Zimmer, Whitechapel and Koczo rounding out the top 8. McFry, the sole remaining Foxdale, wound up 9th, Laurent Seron 10th, Schiller 11th, van Niewenhuijzen 12th, then Lei, Groves, Neuberg and Mackintosh the last of the finishers. Paasonen was classified 17th, and Gio van Dycke was the last finisher, 13 laps down and thus unclassified.
Race 2 classification
Overall results
The points awarded in each of the two races were combined to provide the overall results. Consistency over the two legs was rewarded more than a single great performance in either race. Jack Christopherson won the Dan Wheldon Memorial Trophy with third and fourth place in the two races, with Melrose and Hawkin filling the remaining podium positions ensuring it was a weekend to remember for Jones Racing. Another notable performance was Poppy Whitechapel who finished fifth overall, arguably her greatest performance in F1RWRS.
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 47 | Template:GBR Jack Christopherson | Jones-Ford | 249 |
| 2 | 8 | Template:AUS Daniel Melrose | Jones-Ford | 240 |
| 3 | 48 | Template:GBR Terry Hawkin | Jones-Ford | 231 |
| 4 | 24 | Template:AUS Rhys Davies | MRT-BMW | 192 |
| 5 | 6 | Template:GBR Poppy Whitechapel | Holden | 168 |
| 6 | 3 | Template:BEL Aurelien Moll | Gillet | 162 |
| 7 | 10 |  Mirko Bosevic
|
ArrowTech-Peugeot | 153 |
| 8 | 64 | Template:AUS Mitchell Macklin | MRT-BMW | 152 |
| 9 | 18 | Template:SUI Jean-Luc Schiller | Prospec-Lamborghini | 138 |
| 10 | 68 |  Bastiaan van Nieuwenhuijzen
|
IBR-Ford | 138 |
| 11 | 43 | Template:BEL Eric Swerts | Gillet | 135 |
| 12 | 19 |  Du Lei
|
Prospec-Lamborghini | 129 |
| 13 | 35 |  David Neuberg
|
Mitie-Ford | 120 |
| 14 | 33 | Template:FRA Sebastian Groves | Dofasco-Ford | 117 |
| 15 | 7 | Template:GBR Sammy Jones | Jones-Ford | 106 |
| 16 | 46 | Template:AUS John Zimmer | Holden | 105 |
| 17 | 40 | Template:GBR Steven Mackintosh | Mecha-Ford | 102 |
| 18 | 45 |  Tommy Nash
|
Holden | 101 |
| 19 | 28 |  David Koczo
|
IBR-Ford | 99 |
| 20 | 60 | Template:GBR Martin McFry | Foxdale-Renault | 96 |
| 21 | 41 | Template:GBR James Davies | Mecha-Ford | 90 |
| 22 | 29 |  Andrej Kremnicky
|
IBR-Ford | 85 |
| 23 | 44 | Template:BEL Laurent Seron | Gillet | 84 |
| 24 | 20 |  Douglas Mann
|
Foxdale-Renault | 83 |
| 25 | 82 |  Mika Paasonen
|
Autodynamics-Ilmor | 75 |
| 26 | 30 | Miko Fäkkinen
|
Tropico-Yamaha | 72 |
| 27 | 31 |  Renaldo Jiménez
|
Tropico-Yamaha | 69 |
| 28 | 86 | Template:BEL Ron Mignolet | Donkervoort-Audi | 60 |
| 29 | 34 |  Matthias Valsattis
|
Mitie-Ford | 58 |
| 30 | 5 | Template:AUS Frank Zimmer | Holden | 57 |
| 31 | 85 | Gio van Dycke
|
Donkervoort-Audi | 55 |
| 32 | 15 | Template:USA Tristan Jung | ARC-Ford | 54 |
| 33 | 21 | Template:GBR Pippa Mann | Foxdale-Renault | 54 |
| 34 | 25 | Template:FRA Phillippe Nicolas | MRT | 53 |
| 35 | 61 | Template:GBR Ben Fleet | Foxdale-Renault | 46 |
| 36 | 55 | Template:USA Peter Senerson | ARC-Ford | 41 |
| 37 | 32 |  Tomislaw Tajner
|
Dofasco-Ford | 36 |
| 38 | 14 |  Jesús Plaza
|
ARC-Ford | 29 |
| 39 | 9 |  Daniel Martins
|
ArrowTech-Peugeot | 28 |
| 40 | 65 | Template:FRA Marie Simon | MRT-BMW | 27 |
| 41 | 4 | Template:BEL Thomas De Bock | Gillet | 23 |
| 42 | 54 |  Fredo Mestolio
|
ARC-Ford | 14 |
| 43 | 69 | Gianluigi Pazzini
|
IBR-Ford | 12 |
| 44 | 83 | Dieter Hallenstein
|
Autodynamics-Ilmor | 8 |