Varooom ......
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players participated in the three preliminary heats of this year's
championship. The first two each drew 17 team principals at three
tables, while Heat #3 on Saturday mustered 28 players at five
tables. Competition was fierce; at three of the eleven tables,
only five or six points separated first from fifth place after
six races. In one five-player matchup, the "winner"
by dint of more second-place finishes was actually the non-player
team. Perhaps the most unlikely winner was Nick Smith, who managed
his team to a thrilling come-from-behind victory after no less
than five Not Classified (failed to finish) results in the first
three races.
A full field of 12 was on hand for the six-race semi-finals
on Sunday morning, including three alternates. At Table 1, defending
champion Steve Cameron won two of the first three races on his
way to a commanding 44-point victory. Top point-scorer from the
heats Mike Nagel had only three points after the first three
races, but won the last three to finish comfortably with 33 points.
Katie McCorry and Kathy Stroh tied with 26 points, but youngster
McCorry advanced by dint of her 1st-place finish in the second
race.
Table 2's Forest Speck got off to a horrific start in the
first race by Spinning Out one of his own cars and losing the
other in a Crash, then played the Crash card in the second race
only to victimize one of his own drivers yet again. He recovered
by winning the third and fifth races to gain the lead going into
the final race. At that point, every team was still in contention,
with the sixth-place team only 13 points behind the leader. Speck
brought both cars home in third and fourth to emerge victorious
with 35 points, while Mike Stachowski also placed two cars in
the points to finish with 32. George Sauer failed to advance,
however, losing his first car to a Blown Engine and then emulating
Speck by playing the Crash card on himself. That left the way
clear for Alan Bargender to win the race (despite Spinning Out
with his other car) and net 32 points to advance.
Drivers were very cautious
in the Finals, with only the first and last races witnessing
collisions. Although the Crash at Melbourne involved Stachowski's
Ferrari and Cameron's Arrows teams, their surviving cars recovered
to finish first and second respectively. A Stachowski Ferrari
also won the second race at Imola, extending their lead to 12
points. Despite scoring only a lone fourth place at Monaco, and
no points at all at Silverstone, the red cars still held a three-point
lead over McCorry's Jaguars going into the fifth race at Monza,
with Nagel's Jordans one point further back. There, disaster
struck the yellow team, as for the third time in the Finals an
anguished cry of "0hno!" from Nagel meant that one
of his Jordans had Spun Out from that position. Speck's Minardis
went on to win the race, vaulting his team into second with 22
points. Even the last-place Arrows had 18 points, so all five
other teams still had a chance to catch the leading Ferraris
(31 points) as the red lights went out to start the final race
at Suzuka. The field tightened further when one of the Ferraris
crashed into a Minardi, allowing one of Bargender's Saubers to
take the lead. Needing to better the red competition by 12 points
to win the Constructor's Championship, Bargender ordered his
other car to charge through the field only to see a cloud of
blue smoke signaling a Blown Engine and second place in the Championship
with 30 points. Although one of the Jaguars finished second,
a Sauber was right behind to finish third in the race and the
Championship by dint of Speck's lone win as the 26-point tiebreaker.
Stachowski's Ferraris scored one point to finish with 32 and
a well-deserved Championship plaque.
Special thanks are due to dedicated Assistant GMs Mike Nagel
and Chris Lefevre for their support during the races and especially
for taking the time to teach new players the game before the
start of each heat.
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