2019 Karjala Pre-Race Thread

[Cynon]

Qualifying procedure:

- The first qualifying session will lock the fastest 10 cars into the field and set the pole sitter. This will be an open session (running out practice).
- The second qualifying session will lock the next 16 fastest cars into the field. This will be a single-lap session (normal qualifying session).
- The third qualifying session will be an open session to set the remaining 20 cars into the field. This will be another open session.

The reason I'm not setting the grid like I did previously is because NR2003 Save Editor does not like 46 car grids.

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Qualifying, Round 1

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• Joe Olenick (Pole)
  
• Scott Steudler
  
• Woody Watts
  
• Arto Kekkonen
  
• Cameron Taylor
  
• Philip Purpura
  
• Rachel Rainsford
  
• Jon Dilks
  
• Chris Davenport
  
• Xu Xiaoyu
  

Times disallowed due to failing technical inspection:
None

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Qualifying, Round 2

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• Jacob Kard
  
• Marco Castañeda
  
• Adrien Devereux
  
• David Krikorian
  
• Vincenzo Fochesato
  
• Tom Moore
  
• Kareem Washington
  
• Saul Fischel
  
• Zelda Ashby
  
• Ingrid Haddeland
  
• Liv Eklund
  
• Kevin Dwyer
  
• Kurt Plissken
  
• Darren Cardel
  
• Tessa Strassenberg
  
• Gaspar de Sousa
  

Times disallowed due to failing technical inspection:

• Zachary Fitzwater (was fastest overall, ouch)
  
• Rip Tyler
  

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Qualifying, Round 3

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• Daffy Howard
  
• Alicia Reyes
  
• Zachary Fitzwater
  
• Giséle Vignon
  
• Antero Virtanen
  
• Dave Wilson
  
• Juho Kivela
  
• Peter van der Schmidt
  
• Carter Fitzgerald
  
• Morgan Le Fay
  
• Alessandro Rossini
  
• Chuck Johnson
  
• Patrick Feldhoffer
  
• Aapo Anselmi
  
• Ian Cooper
  
• Scott Bates
  
• Tony Durbin
  
• Timothy Ruiz
  
• Ryan Matthews
  
• Luciano Soveral
  
• Kristoffer Laaksonen
  

Times disallowed due to failing technical inspection:

• Wyatt Castle
  
• Kristoffer Laaksonen (Successfully appealed)
  
• Clair Auxier
  
• Ben Atkins
  

[Cynon]

Round two of qualifying is in the books.

[Cynon]

Durbin Demands Qualifying Format Changes

Most drivers would be elated that they had qualified for the Karjala Grand Prix, especially when they had a history of poor results in the race itself. New Liberty Racing owner and driver Tony Durbin, however, is not the average driver. Durbin, who barely qualified the #12 car for the Karjala Grand Prix, watched teammate Yevgeny Kuznetsov miss the field as time ran out in qualifying.

Kuznetsov and Durbin are both running the entire TM Master Cup schedule, and both drivers have been featured in enough advertisements to be considered faces of the series.

"If the series wants the names that bring the fans in to stick around, they're gonna have to do something about this shit." Durbin said.
"Some of these guys that show up for this race have fans, I guess, but if it wasn't for us, they wouldn't be here either."

Durbin's comments triggered a discussion in the media center about potential solutions.

"Either make this race not worth points or give all of the serious full time teams a provisional, because this eats up a huge amount of every team's budget. None of y'all would be here if it wasn't for people like New Liberty Racing, Power Steering Incorporated, the full time teams." he continued.

"If you're Terry [Schoffner], you can't have Kuznetsov not be in this race, you can't have Luciano not be in this race, you can't have Woodard not be in this race, and you can't have some of these obvious cheaters who nobody cares about be in this race either."

Durbin did not clarify who he meant, but he seemed to be talking about LNX Racing.

Kristoffer Laaksonen Penalty Appealed, Soveral Bumped ... For Now

HV Motorsports's appeal of their qualifying round 3 time being disallowed was successful, after the team demonstrated that the reason Laaksonen's car was too low after technical inspection was out of their control. HV Motorsports claimed that Laaksonen hit a curb after setting his fastest time, which caused the damage that resulted in Laaksonen failing post race inspection. Laaksonen's next lap time was significantly slower, after which, he brought the car back into the pits. The stewards initially judged that Laaksonen's suspension was specifically constructed to deform, but reversed the decision after reviewing video and HV Motorsports's suspension setup.

"HV Motorsports successfully demonstrated that they did not bring an unsafe car to the Karjala Grand Prix, and that the reasons for them failing the height checks were truly out of their control. We checked the height readings against other cars from the same manufacturer, using similar parts, and we found a strong case that HV Motorsports's time was legitimate."

This news means that Luciano Soveral will be bumped from the Karjala Grand Prix, however, it is likely that he will swap places with teammate Zachary Fitzwater, since Soveral is one of the team's regular drivers.

[gwoodard41]

Woodard and 41 crew assist 56 team after their car catches fire. Woodard also responds about Durbin's comments.

Woodard and several others, including some members of his pit crew, rushed to assist the #56 Silven Racing team car after it had caught on fire. While they were too late to save the car, they were able to get the flames put out before the fire spread. Woodard had been at his hauler, talking with his crew chief about the qualifying setup failing them when it worked for Watts and Plissken. After the chaos had subsided, Woodard talked with the 56 team to see what he or his crew mates could do the help.

When reporters asked Woodard about Tony Durbin's comments about the Karjala qualifiers being set up the way they were. "Look, Durbin is one of the old dogs of the sport. He has a fair point about the qualifiers being set up in an unfavorable way. However, I'm willing to take the loss and move on. Would it be nice to be in the race, sure it would. However, the other teams who came from places as far as Southeast Asia and the Americas shouldn't be shut out because they focus their resources part time or for specific events. Especially the teams are local to Finland or Scandinavia. I understand Tony's frustration but just because you're a full time driver doesn't mean you have a guarantee to get into an over capacity event." Woodard had been beaten out by Xu Xiaoyu by a few hundredths of a second during the first qualifying session. "Look, they earned their spot fair and square. The team and I are going to look into talking with some teams to see if a deal can't be arranged. If we're able to buy out or exchange a grid spot, then I'm fine starting from the rear if I have too. I'm just glad Plissken and Watts were able to make it in on speed. I'm good either with a swap out with another team or I get a consolation spot."

[Syzygy]

Tonare Motorsports CEO Comments on Karjala DNQs, Manufacturer Provisionals

In an interview with WSN, Tonare Motorsports CEO Rick Phillips had this to say about the team's efforts during the Karjala GP week:

"Obviously we're frustrated with the lack of speed that we've shown here through all the practice sessions and qualifying," Phillips said. "We've had a couple bright spots so far this year, but Karjala has largely been a disappointment for our organization as a whole. That said, Kris [Laaksonen] did get onto the grid, so we will have some representation. He's done an exceptional job for us the past few years with qualifying for the GP and we're excited to see how he'll perform in the race. But, the series really needs to do something to help the smaller teams and especially new manufacturers. Some kind of manufacturer provisional system would be great, where at least three cars from each manufacturer get a lock into each special event. That would provide some incentive to expand the involvement of certain brands through customer teams, and definitely would have benefited us at Karjala."

[BBoy]

Lareau fails to qualify for Karjala once again

Despite strong momentum heading into Karjala and his teammate making the race, the 25 team was unable to muster enough speed during any of the qualifying sessions and came up empty on their efforts to make the event. Lareau has never qualified for the Karjala GP in six attempts and didn't mince his feeling on missing the show. "It's beyond frustrating to come out to this big event every year and just never being able to find what's necessary to make it, and it's an even worse feeling when your teammate gets in and you don't. We've been too good this year for this to happen." When asked about Tony Durbin's post-qualifying comments, Lareau said "It's always how we've done it in this series despite how crazy it is to me to even risk having a top points guy missing out on your biggest race of the year. I think having a discussion about some sort of lock-in system should be had, but I wouldn't want a system either where it only allows like 5 or 6 other non full-timers to make the race. It's reasonable to provide the opportunity for all these guys who come for just this one race each year to get in, but at what cost of those who are running week in and week out?"

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