Race 04: Round of England @ Brands Hatch

Results
Points

Penalties included in the points.

Spoiler:

, guess what car he was driving.

Kekkonen Wins Round of England

A chaos-filled Round of England was won by Finland's Arto Kekkonen in a fine drive, leading all but four laps. Kekkonen's championship ambitions were assisted when cheif rivals Adrien Devereux and Luciano Soveral dropped out of the race and failed to score points.

"The Carl Richter Gessler was unbelievable... we were very fast today." Kekkonen said.
"The team was good in the pits, and it felt good to be out front. Some of the backmarkers were a little annoying but I didn't have too many problems."

Kekkonen took some time to hit out at the detractors to the rival Hodges-Walter Racing.

"They have a good team, good drivers and a good car... I don't see what's wrong with one team being better than everyone else... we won by the biggest gap this year."

Kekkonen drives for Gessler, another big manufacturer team, however Gessler's TM Master Cup Series car is in the same spirit as Calton-Morel's Altair. Even though it appears similar to some of Gessler's road cars, the MTW-12 has no road car equivelant.

Of all the manufacturer teams in the TM Master Cup Series, only Hodges-Walter (CM), Gessler, Volpi, Nemoto, and Power Steering Incorporated (Tonare) have not protested the CM Altair. Of those five, only Nemoto is running a car that can be purchased at a dealership. Bolden is also represented in the series through engine deals with Katzev and James Dalton, but both teams are technically privateer outfits.

Devereux Furious with Johaanes After Brands Hatch Collision

Adrien Devereux and Chris Johaanes battled hard for the championship in 2011, with the latter losing out by a single point. The rivalry between the two flared up at times, in particular at Road America, where they made contact late in the race, and both men have made their mutual enmity public.

On lap 22 of the Round of England, that rivalry flared up, after the pair made contact again, sending both into a tire wall and out of the race from what was sure to be podium results. Devereux ran a little wide coming out of Druids Bend in order to give Johaanes racing room when the American hooked Devereux's right rear and never lifted off the throttle. The resulting crash prompted a shouting match between the two, and an invitation from both to the Steward's Office. It was the continuation of an already overly-eventful weekend for Devereux, who believed that the contact was intentional.

Johaanes had made several unsuccessful attempts to pass Devereux in the same place, and there were complaints from Mitchell & Sons Racing that Devereux had been blocking Johaanes. The stewards refuted the team's argument.

Devereux had no doubts in his mind that the contact was intentional.

"[Chris Johaanes] knows what he did. Going out to intentionally crash into people like that is not the essence of racing." Devereux said after the race.
"You're not allowed to drive like that in the TM Master Cup series, you're not allowed to crash into other cars. We are supposed to be professionals out here, that was just ridiculous."

Any announcement of penalties will be coming in the following week.

Roderick Disappointed with Brands Hatch Exit

The collision-filled Round of England may have stirred up controversy left and right, but the incident between Leonid Roderick and Mathias Taube left few long-term hard feelings. Roderick was on an out lap before he was hit from behind by the Swede and sent into the tire wall and out of the race.

"Mathias hadn't pitted yet and he was on a really fast in-lap, I had just pitted..., you know, cold tires, full fuel load, so I was going to be a lot slower than he was." Roderick said after Taube ran him off the track.
"He doesn't make many mistakes but when he does they're pretty boneheaded. Nobody's perfect, but there's a difference between just making a mistake and driving way over your head. I'll talk to him later in the week and straighten things out with him, he's pretty good about doing that.

Taube, to his credit, assumed full responsibility for the collision with Roderick.

"I came on him really fast and the radio said he was for position. I saw him going slower and I needed to make up time so I made a very aggressive move and I made a big mistake. I feel bad for his team and for mine because of what happened... I just can't wait until next week." Taube said.
"At least Arto [Kekkonen] had a good day and ended up winning, I just hope I could have gotten more points to make a run at the title."

Henton, Sykes Were Top Performers -- Andrews

Former TM Master Cup Series driver and current Channel 44 color commentator Lance Andrews identified Englishwoman Divina Henton and Welshman Michael Sykes's performances as the best showings of the 2012 Round of England.

"Divina Henton and Michael Sykes were awesome. Both of them ran into trouble early but used their raw speed to make up for a huge deficit." Andrews said.

Henton had a troubled day, she was on a different pit strategy due to being run off the track and hitting one of the tire barriers early in the event, and at one stage of the race fell off the lead lap. But after rallying to a top-10 result, Henton has shown herself to be a capable replacement for Alexis Rainsford.

Sykes made his debut here two years ago, but the Welshman mastered the art of the 'drive from behind', making up time in the pits and on the track to earn a 6th place, albeit almost a minute behind eventual winner Arto Kekkonen.


Keyes: TM Master Cup Series Cannot Ignore Manufacturers

Team Saar USA owner Peter Keyes was quick to blast the decision by the TM Master Cup Series to allow the Altair to race in the Round of England, and decried Gessler's use of a car not available at Gessler dealerships.

"The officials must stop catering to Omecha and the private cars. No other racing body would allow the Altair to race." Keyes said.
"They created this situation by banning customer cars, and if they keep ignoring the manufacturers and road relevant technology, then manufacturers will begin to leave because there won't be any incentive. Manufacturers make up the backbone of the sport, they have always been there and provide the best opportunity for drivers and engineers. The ASCC has a manufacturer's championship, and ARLA has done the right thing as well and stamped most of those private cars out. They're not bringing the fans in like Saar, Lenard and Inglesby do.

Keyes's comments were echoed by Adam Samson of FLASH Racing, who indicated that the lack of customer cars was not beneficial for Inglesby.

"We'd really like to give out customer cars, because that's more Inglesby Sonicbooms out there, and more advertising for Inglesby therefore." Samson said.
"The rules are what they are, the only thing we share with the Juneau guys is the engine, everyone's allowed to do that. But we'd like to have more Inglesby cars on track, preferably customer teams or Independent's Trophy cars."

Keyes followed up his statements by hinting that manufacturer teams could band together to force the hand of the rules to ban privateer cars.

"Terry Schoffner knows well enough that the manufacturer teams won't let this happen... every single manufacturer that is following the spirit of the rules except for Nemoto is adamant on changing the rules for the better. I've talked to some of the other team owners and we hope to change the state of the TM Master Cup Series for its own long-term survival... maybe we can get Bolden and Lenard back in the series, they have lots of fans."

Cooper Not Apologetic After First Lap Contact with Carroll

One of the most controversial collisions of the day was the first lap contact between Volpi driver Packer Carroll and EFR driver Ian Cooper. Cooper's crew cheif, Marcus Jones, said that Cooper was sorry only for knocking teammate Scott Bates and good friend Louis Kingston out of the race.

"He said that Packer just cut him off, and that's what it looked like. Ian just said that he should have known Packer would race him like that, so he's still not happy about it." Daris was quoted as saying after the race.
"After I saw Cooper get run on the grass I knew Pack was going to get wrecked at some point, because that was a pretty chicken move to make on lap 1. If it was later on I'd probably not make a big deal about it but it is what it is, and the amount of damage we received out there means we must construct additional racecars.

Cooper and Carroll both made it home at the end of the race, finishing 14th and 11th respectively. Cooper's post-race interview indicated his frustrations with Carroll and he cited some of Carroll's earlier incidents in the season.

Could Both Power Steering, Incorporated Drivers Be Parked for France?

After both Power Steering, Incorporated drivers hit everything but the pace car during the Round of England, rumors went around that both of their regular drivers, Anthony Griffith and Kurt Plissken could be suspended from the upcoming Round of France. Griffith has already incurred penalties for causing an avoidable collision, and many insiders believe that his first lap collision with Nemoto driver Tom Delgado will result in Griffith being suspended from the Round of France. In four races in the 2012 campaign, Carbondale was the only race Griffith had not incurred a penalty of some sort.

Plissken, unlike his teammate, has a reputation of slithering his way into results and capitalizing on other people's misfortunes. However, he was handed two time penalties during the race for avoidable collisions with Kraig Mummert, and later Blake Camphausen. The latter collision would have been for 11th place had Plissken not received his first active time penalty.

The only other driver to be handed two active time penalties in the same event (and as a result, the only other driver to be handed a 45 second time penalty) is Charlie Waters at Russia last year. Waters was not suspended from the subsequent race because the stewards deemed his incidents were not intentional or reckless enough to warrant a suspension. However, Plissken has apparently not been given the benefit of the doubt, and there is some doubt over his participation in the Round of France.

If both drivers are in fact suspended, the driving lineup for PSI remains unclear for the Round of France. Majestic Motorsports reportedly intended to run Jacques Bouvier in Ryan Matthews's car for his home race, but one rumor has PSI putting Bouvier in Griffith's car, and running reserve driver Max Goose in Plissken's car. Another rumor has Power Steering, Inc. not even showing up to the next race, which could incur a massive fine unless their entry is bought by another team for that race.


Finntech: Finnish Teams Will Be Stronger at Karjala

Finnish teams will surprise the TM Master Cup series regulars at Karjala in 2012. That is the claim of Heikki Annala, owner of Finntech, who believes that the amount of testing that Karjala-only teams have been able to do since 2010 will continue to play in their favor, despite the new chassis regulations for 2012. Annala went on to state that he believed the new chassis regulations were intended to give the big manufacturer teams a much easier chance of making the grid at Karjala and Indianapolis after several debacles in 2011 that saw all but 1 Saar car fail to qualify and Gasnier cars shut out entirely at Indianapolis.

Needless to say, Annala believes that Finnish teams will have an advantage, along with local drivers that have in recent years popped up in some frontrunning cars.

"The Omecha is a good car, and most of the teams here have a manufacturer giving us engines or blueprints for engines." Annala said.
"The American teams will have to up their game, because we showed that last year that the people here that want to race here can beat the regulars. Local drivers in regular cars can do well, like Erik Bohlender last year, but the regular teams should not be deluded into thinking that the locals will be so easy to beat."

Finntech last won the Karjala Grand Prix in 2000 with Benny Dwyer, who would habitually run Karjala with local teams because of the amount of testing they were able to do and because it would save transportation money for his regular team. Annala has two Independent's Trophy entrants, Mika Tervo and Carlos Donzelo, along with a third entry with Nils Tolonen as the driver. Of the other local teams known to be entering, one is Silven Racing, which ran Mikael Hesso and Elina Varjo last year, and the other is TH Racing, who finished second with Mika Tervo in 2010.

Kraig Mummert, who was taken out of the race by his James Dalton Racing teammate, Charlie Waters, angrily left the track without speaking to reporters.

Steudler finishes on the podium

After starting 8th on the grid, Scott Steudler had another good run, and finished in 3rd place.

"Yeah, some of it helped that some of the front running guys got wrecked, but I was able to keep my car from being wrecked, and that helps when you have these types of races happening. The car wasn't in the best condition today, but my off season training on how to run road courses better really helped. Last year, I would of been shuffling in the back, if not wrecked. Today, I was able to take it home and get on the podium.

I do want to apologize to Blake Camphausen for wrecking him though. The car hopped up the track a little while I was trying to pass him. I wouldn't try to wreck him, he has never wronged me. Gonna try and talk with him, though I'm sure he would be hunting down (Kurt) Plissken before anything else."

His 2nd career podium finish (his first being his victory at Australia in 2009) vaulted Steudler up to 8th in the standings.

Spoiler:

but we knew that already

PYLrulz wrote:Steudler finishes on the podium

After starting 8th on the grid, Scott Steudler had another good run, and finished in 3rd place.

"Yeah, some of it helped that some of the front running guys got wrecked, but I was able to keep my car from being wrecked, and that helps when you have these types of races happening. The car wasn't in the best condition today, but my off season training on how to run road courses better really helped. Last year, I would of been shuffling in the back, if not wrecked. Today, I was able to take it home and get on the podium.

I do want to apologize to Blake Camphausen for wrecking him though. The car hopped up the track a little while I was trying to pass him. I wouldn't try to wreck him, he has never wronged me. Gonna try and talk with him, though I'm sure he would be hunting down (Kurt) Plissken before anything else."

His 2nd career podium finish (his first being his victory at Australia in 2009) vaulted Steudler up to 8th in the standings.

Camphausen responds to Steudler "We're cool."
Blake Camphausen, who recently got word of Scott Steudler's apology had this to say. "I have to thank him for apologizing. It was a simple mistake, and he admitted to it. I don't have any problem with Scott and I'll have to talk to him later. Even the best of the best make mistakes, and I unfortunately was slightly harmed by one mistake, No use crying over it, so its just good to deal with this the right way, instead of complaining about it, which will do basically nothing."

Dan Mackay wrote:

Spoiler:

but we knew that already

If it was anyone else, I'd be mad. But I can't possibly be mad at Dan.

Dan Mackay wrote:

Spoiler:

Says the guy who drives the Extenze car.

Tervo: No Contact With Steudler

Mika Tervo confirmed to reporters that there was no contact between himself and Scott Steudler early on in the Round of England. Tervo, 36, claimed there was fluid on the racing surface on the final corner of Brands Hatch.

"It just suddenly went out in the back. Could have been water or grass." the Finn told reporters.
"We have a good start to our Independent's Trophy run and the Angry Birds car is fast."

Tervo and teammate Carlos Donzelo will be present for the Round of France this weekend.