With the winter arriving lots of Live for Speed leagues start their new Seasons. Our Pilots Gavin and Charles have both joined the Road Sport Winter Cup, a league for real mens only, using the and FZ50 and the Raceabout.

With the first 2 Racedays over it's time for a short summary of how Triple 7 Racing did.

Report written by P1LOT

Event 1 - Aston Grand Prix

On a long track such as Aston Grand Prix, I was satisfied with qualifying 9th out of 25. Pity that there was only 25 turned up from 47 applicants :(

Sprint race (6 laps) - I lost a place off the line. Had a slight tap from Ghost_CZ during the fast sweeping turns which turned out more detrimental to him as he was caused to spin. I lost 3 places, and was then easily passed on the straight by an FZ50. Those things have so much more speed by the end of the straight!

Exodus and I then did some formation lapping, with the occasional swap. 2nd to last lap and I ran wide on the grass immediately after noticing a new sector 1 pb (must ignore those messages in a race), ended up bashing the railing and handing back 10th to Exodus. Last lap and caught up Niall09 on the fast sweeping turns, we rubbed slightly which lost us some speed and allowed Zapphord to nick through. Ended up 12th

Feature race (16 laps) and I start 15th in a reverse grid from the sprint finish. Lost a place off the line. First visit to the uphill chicane and two FZ50's collide and part for me, but the next corner had to be taken slower because of the number of cars going round side by side. Hyperactive didn't account for this and he gave me a bump up the rear which spun me 360º. He carried on and I ended up down to 23rd. More rubbing paint with Karolis but he remained in front of me although another couple had got past. I was going backwards fast!

I now had 15 laps to claw my way up as best I could. Exodus had dropped back and was now fighting with Zapphord in front of me. They touch and I go through, but not without me colliding with Zapphord when he was drifting. There's a lot of bumping going on with others also, which allows me up to 18th. I have to follow four FZ50's which are fighting amongst themselves, I can't see anyway past. I try to outbrake MP3 Astra on his inside, but I don't see he is trying to outbrake Speedway on his inside. He closes the inside door for me and I'm sat stationary on the outside of the turn while more go past again :(

Pass some more again including one by going around the outside of a left turn over a hill crest. :)

Lap 11, I've caught another four FZ50's fighting amongst themselves. I pass one but get past back as soon as we reach the start/finish straight, therefore I need to get past all of them in one go. Two of them knock themselves back a bit and I take the next two one at a time. I'm briefly up to 9th but Jouman takes my position with 1 lap to go so I finish 10th. Quite a gruelling race and I need a new car!

Qualification didn't start out very well, with catching others up and having to abort, and messing up all by myself. It was only have way through qualification I got a clean lap in which turned out to be a pb, to gain second spot on the grid.

So I was excessively high on the grid for the sprint race (8 laps). Jouman got ahead of me from the line and I was a bit of a mess on the first lap with cold tyres. Troy had an easy pass when I ran wide and I was expecting pressure from the FX50 of Karolis down the start/finish straight, but managed to stay ahead. I thought I would get lots of trouble from FZ50's passing me easily on the straights whilst blocking my through the twisties on this track, but a gap built up behind me for the rest of this sprint race. I was far too messy to catch those ahead so brought it home forth. Only possible because of my front row start I think.

The feature race (24 laps) had a grid by reverse championship standings. A mid field start for me then, from 11th out of 23 racers. So of course it was closely bunched up from the start. Half a lap in and 4 or 5 cars tried to squeeze through the chicane in front of me, a few spun out and I'm promoted to 7th with FZ50's ahead. Extra care was needed because of the different braking points for them, unfortunately this allowed another RAC past me (AdamLFS).

Lap 2 and Adam got a bump up the bum from Dan which half spun him, I saw it coming and took the opportunity to avoid them both on the inside by tightening my line. Alas they didn't drift outwards as much as I thought they would and I clipped Adam while I was still braking to tighten the radius further. I can't see how I could have avoided it, short of an emergency stop at their initial contact. DaveWS came sailing through it all to nick my position. There was still plenty of laps to go and many to catch in front, so it made sense to follow the fastest man of the moment, except he was a bit untidy for the next few laps. Wimpie put up a good defence against him with me right behind. I had Karolis about to line me up for a pass until I got ahead of Wimpie and some breathing space. I noticed Troy was catching up while I was following I.Abbas and Ant. I quickly got past them to try and get some time. Again Troy was catching while I battled with sokke and he joined the fray. It was good defending by sokke and his FZ50, at one point my failed pass attempt allowed Troy to get ahead of me and he tried to pass him but failed, which allowed me to pass and try again. After a couple of laps I was through, and so was Troy. This was only lap 12. He inevitable got ahead on lap 15 and 4th is were I stayed for the last half of the race.

As always the Road Sport Cup provides the closest and fiercest competition in LFS!