Round 10 - Spa GP

Ryan Matthews
Destroyed tires with gladiator-style bumping. Not that I have an issue with that, I just needed to fill the space and the early fail wasn't worthy enough.

Honorable Mention: Lap 1 Rejects
Too early to be wreckin', sons & daughters.

The engines and tires.
So THAT'S why they only do 12 laps per race, because the cars don't last much longer!

Honorable Mention: Daxter Hamlett
Punted off Tanya Carter before his horrible tendencies as a lap car got him wrecked. GJ Spedbox.

#99 DAXTER HAMLETT - BIG BANG RACING: 25 points for an avoidable collision with #53 Tanya Carter as well as ignoring blue flags.

Hannah Percy says Matthews never made contact with her

After commentator Todd Benatar reported that Hannah Percy's tire failure was due to Ryan Matthews making excessive use of the bumper, Percy herself has come out and said that this was not the case, and that Matthews raced her "hard yet clean" during most of the race.

"I couldn't have asked for a better driver to be battling all race!" said Percy, still upbeat despite her tire failure on the last lap, "That was so much fun! It's a shame I couldn't earn the top 5 because of our tire but I think all of our cars at Team Kwik Fit had problems at some point. It happens. I'm not going to dwell on it. There's still a lot of points to be earned, and I think we can still earn this title!"

Percy dropped from the points lead to third in points after Kellan Rogers-Ashby had the best run of the title contenders as she finished second. However, there is still half the season to be raced and it is still a dogfight for the title.

Grant Macintosh and Cassie Collins will have about 5 more points in the table. That's because I messed up their Clawhammer penalties originally.

Ashby returns to the series, still manages to find a source of trouble

With his first Dash Cup race in two years, one would think that Trey Ashby, husband of championship contender Kellan Rogers-Ashby, would try to keep a good opinion in the eyes of the officials. While he had a mostly clean race and a very respectable 14th place finish, one particular incident caught some eyes after the race. Ashby was seen storming to the hauler of Daxter Hammlet, his temporary teammate for the race as Ashby's primary car was wrecked in warm-up but was lent a car by Big Bang Racing, the team who owns Hammlet's car. There were no major camera views of the incident but Ashby was seen throwing at least one or two punches at Daxter, whether they hit is unclear.
When asked about what happened, Ashby seemed calmer and explained what happened. "The two of us made contact a few times during the race, and I had been honestly been meaning to talk to Daxter for awhile anyway. Been sick of the crap I keep seeing him say about Kellan, wanted to shut his mouth up, dude talks a mile a minute." Ashby then stormed off to his motorhome, not saying another word. Hammlet has had previous encounters with Kellan Rogers-Ashby and Ryan Matthews, the wife and cousin of Ashby.

Fochesato Crashes Early in Les Combes

The greatly-anticipated Spa GP has drawn to a close. With a record 46 cars taking the start, the race was able to live up to its expectations with plenty of thrills and spills alike; dramatic action for which it has quickly become famous.

For Italian rookie Vincenzo Fochesato, the event marked the return to the first venue where he ever stepped into a Dash Cup car. He unsuccessfully attempted to qualify for the race approximately one year ago as a one-off driver while representing the FARC LoBo Truck Tour.

Now driving full-time for the same team with which he attempted the series' premier race in 2014, Fochesato entered the week of the 2015 Spa GP coming off of his first career podium, scored in Race 2 at Circuit Thierry Sicotte. He and relative newcomer to Dash Cup Jean-Marc Perreault became the two drivers of the five entered by FIAM Engineering who were able to qualify for the main event, both through time trial qualifying.

Unfortunately, the 40-lap race would barely last three laps for Fochesato. While navigating the Les Combes corners in heavy traffic on lap 4, he received a bump from the car of Grant Macintosh. The contact was slight, but enough to send Fochesato off of the course to the left and into the tire barrier. The impact rendered the car undriveable, and he would be scored in the 44th position. His teammate would hardly fair better, as Perreault was taken out of the event by a crash on lap 10 (while employing a different pit cycle than some of the other competitors) after contact with frontrunner Carter Fitzgerald.

Despite barely lasting three laps, Fochesato was surprisingly upbeat upon returning to the garage.

"Most of the drivers who came here never even got to take the start, so I have nothing to complain about!" he said to reporters. "The team did everything that they needed to make the show, and it's a shame that I can't show you what they gave me for the race; in the few laps that I got to run, the car felt amazing. To be honest I think that I've had a harder time than usual learning how to drive here even though it's the only place that we've gone to so far where I've driven before. The first lap I spent just trying to settle in not get involved in trouble with the frantic start, but the second and third laps definitely felt like the best one's that I've felt all week, where I felt that I knew how I needed to drive every corner and really make the most out of the car. And then I found the wall! [laughs] It's unfortunate that the car's destroyed with all of the work that was put into it, but there are a lot of other things that I have to be grateful for. I've had an amazing experience here at Belgium!"

Failing to score points, Fochesato will leave Belgium with a 16th-place rank in the championship points standings. Between now and the next race of the season in two week's time, he is planning on returning to Como, the home of FIAM Engineering's base of operations.

Perreault Retires Following Collision with Fitzgerald

Swiss former Formula Gasnier driver Jean-Marc Perreault became one of FIAM Engineering’s two successful attempts to qualify for the Spa GP, but his race would be ended less than a quarter of the way through. While being lapped by 5th-place runner Carter Fitzgerald, the two made contact coming out of La Source which resulted in the #15 car being turned into the wall just before the pit entrance.

A statement made by Perreault to the French press after the race can be translated into the following.

“I am disappointed. I wanted to do very well here today because I wrecked myself and my teammate here in EuroV8 Cup when we were going to earn podiums. I was excited for the second chance to race here at Spa. I pitted early and tried to stay out of the way of the race leaders. I moved into the car of Fitzgerald by accident and she did not move off of my quarter panel. I think that it would have helped her to go faster down the straightaway if she had not turned my car, but if she wants to slow herself instead by wrecking me, then she can do so because she is the lead lap car."

Perreault's final statement appears to be sarcastic and critical of Fitzgerald's driving. Considering his generally expressionless and humorless character, however, whether or not this is the case is difficult to distinguish.

Perreault was scored in the 40th finishing position of the record-breaking 46 starters.