Automation Rallycross League, Season Two (Final Shootout and Stats Post Up, Thanks To All Participants!)

[Dorifto_Dorito]

Matt Sierra and MagicTouch Merciel Celebrate winning the ARXL Season 2 Premier League Championship

We at Motornation managed to get an exclusive interview with the new ARXL champion, Matt Sierra:

So Matt, how does it feel to be the ARXL Premier League Champion?

“Utterly amazing. At the beginning of the season, we knew we had a fast car, but we also knew that it wasn’t the fastest. In testing, we found that we were about 2 seconds behind some of the fastest cars on the grid. I knew the season was gonna be tough, I didn’t expect it to come down to the last race.”

What do you think lead to you becoming the new champion of the ARXL Premier League this season?

“I had a good team behind me. The team kept the car running at peak performance at all times. Even when the car had been damaged, the mechanics were out in the pit all night making sure it was ready to race tomorrow. We had our tactics sorted well in advance, preparing for every race, always making sure I was getting good points. Major shoutout to the car too. It wasn’t the fastest, nor was it the most reliable, but it handled like a dream and performed admirably.”

What are your thoughts on the drivers being promoted from League One?

“During my downtime, I’ve been keeping up with their races. The 8 drivers and teams moving up into the Premier League are all fast. I can’t wait for the next season, the racing is gonna be even closer.”

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We also managed to snag an interview with the team principal, Charles Delannoy:

What are your thoughts this season?

“It was a very close season. The car performed better than expected. In the end, luck was on our side and we ended with a 20 point lead over Armada Racing.”

What are you going to do to improve for next season?

“We will find a way to improve the performance of the car. In testing, we found that we were behind on pace by a bit. If we could find a way to improve the performance of the car for next year we should be in a more comfortable position.”

ooc: Thanks for the great challenge @MrChips, it was a fun and exciting season of racing. tbh I was in shock and awe seeing that I had won. I guess the engine didn’t explode again after all and luck was on my side. Anyways crank me up to all 10s for the exhibition race. Gotta make sure we don’t have a bad finale

[MrChips]

So for those in the exhibition race, there are going to be no qualifying rounds, no semi-finals, just a straight six-lap shootout, just like the finals. Also, everyone is going to be defaulted to 10/10 in pace…gotta put a show on after all!

[MrChips]

SCH Racing Super 8 Shootout (Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi)

The air was electric with excitement, as the top four finishers from the ARXL Premier League squared off against the top four finishers from ARXL League One, in what is billed to be a prelude to next season. The lights went out and Martin Bayer had an absolutely flying start, reaching the start finish line almost half a second before anyone else did! Pekka Hekkinen, Hsiu-Yinn Lim, Elin Arbez and Stefan Banach all started to reel in the #3 Cisalpina on their main laps, while Job Van Uitert and Matt Sierra opted to take their joker laps instead. Van Uitert and Sierra bumped each other on the joker, unsettling both cars in the process. Charlie LeClair, well back after a difficult start and a messy lap, found himself splitting Van Uitert’s Autodelta and Sierra’s Merciel, doing his best to keep the #33 Kuma out of trouble. Elin Arbez muscled her way through second place, gaining considerably on Bayer in front, with Hsiu-Yinn Lim right on her rear bumper in third.

Bayer opts for the joker on his second lap, and struggles to get the power down on the complicated entry section, running wide and forcing him to back off considerably and putting the German only a fraction of a second ahead of Matt Sierra. Arbez and Lim power through to the lead, with Pekka Heikkinen pushing past Banach into third, virtually nothing between the two drivers at this point.

Lim opts for her joker on Lap 3, opting for the clear track ahead without Arbez defending adeptly ahead. Heikkinen finds the ideal line on the lap and vaults his way past Lim for second place, then pushes past Arbez for the lead in the final section of the track, with a spectacular sliding overtake of the #62 Morton Teo. Charlie LeClair and Matt Sierra continue their battle for position, with LeClair taking a chunk out of the gap between the two drivers.

No jokers on Lap 4, with Arbez reeling in Heikkinen ahead with an excellent lap, but not quite able to press home the overtake on the #80 Pepperbomb, while Lim harasses Bayer ahead of her, putting considerable pressure on the German as the lap draws to a close. Van Uitert bobbles on his lap, the Dutchman struggling to run cleanly as he drives the Autodelta flat-out to try and catch LeClair and Sierra ahead.

Heikkinen takes his joker on the fifth lap, putting together an absolutely stonking lap, some three tenths quicker than any other joker in the field, to slot in just ahead of Bayer to effectively hold the lead. Arbez and Lim battle, with Lim just managing to slip past halfway though the lap, while Stefan Banach slips up a bit and lets Arbez through.

LeClair, Arbez and Banach take their jokers on the final lap, and Arbez bobbles on the entry as Banach pushes her wide, both drivers losing time in the process. Heikkinen runs an excellent lap, but Bayer pushes even harder, getting his nose ahead of Heikkinen’s rear wheel as the lap draws to a close, with Heikkinen just holding on for the win by two tenths! Lim struggles in the second to last corner, running wide and releasing all the pressure she had on Bayer to finish third. Arbez finishes fourth, holding off Banach in fifth place, while Matt Sierra finished well back in sixth place, half a second ahead of Charlie LeClair, who pushed as hard as he could to finish the lap and try to take sixth to no avail, with Job Van Uitert just behind bringing up the rear.

[MrChips]

Premier League Final Stats

League One Final Stats

Super 1250 Final Stats

Thank you to all the participants in this challenge!

[mekilljoydammit]

Oof. Yeah, I messed up the tune for the challenge weighting, oh well Good pace though! Thanks to MrChips for hosting this and to everyone else for competing - some dangerous competition coming up for next season.

[strop]

yo I got a question: I thought I came dead last in Round 1, how come I started round 2 with a 25 kilo ballast?

[MrChips]

The Challenge Guide goes into how Reward Weight is added/removed. This is the relevant paragraph:

After each round, the top sixteen entries that earned the most Championship Points will have weight added for any subsequent rounds. The bottom eight entries that did not retire will have reward ballast removed.

So basically if you DNF and finish in the top sixteen - which everyone in the Premier League would do automatically with only 11 entries - you get the amount of reward weight added to your car appropriate for your final classification ranking.

[strop]

Fkn ripped me off twice in one go, love it

Last race was a blast, knew that the big NONO car is going to be a massive threat next season.

I’m scared.

[th3maldonado]

How does Challenge Factor work? It seems interesting how underpowered my first engine was O.O I’m surprised people were touching 690bhp, it’s a bit mad.

[AMuteCrypt]

Challenge factor is based on two main stats - sportiness/drivability ratio and power/weight ratio.

It’s easiest to consider in two components:

Component A: 1+abs(log4(sportiness/drivability))
Component B: (power/weight)/0.4

The final challenge factor is just A*B. Because of the absolute log, a high drivability and low sportiness is just as bad as a low drivability and high sportiness. In your case, drivability was much lower than sportiness - So component A was high, and you got a high factor despite your low power/weight ratio. A lot of people - especially in the sealed-engine S1250 formula - ended up making the two equal, which makes component A just equal to one.

[th3maldonado]

Huh. I have no idea how to increase driveability without adding excess weight or fiddling with certain factors too much.

[AMuteCrypt]

In my experience, there’s lots of ways - tweaking tyre sizes, softening suspension and so on. Some of these will make your car slower, which is where it gets hard.

[th3maldonado]

Bramhall lament “Strong driver in a weak car” after finishing outside the top 10

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It has been an interesting time for Bramhall after an up-and-down season. The development of both the driver and the car contributed to some great improvements, with strong performances at the Candian and South African rounds bringing in some much-needed points. Overall the team seemed bouyed by the performance given the lack of initial resources and short development timeline of their first car. Kevin Ryde spoke to us at the Super Shootout special event, with Bramhall using the special event to advertise its road-going Vixen VSi. “We must admit we were surprised with the performances in a few races, seeing some strong turns of pace from a car we exepcted to be much further behind. It seems Dominic could just switch on and drive like hell at some races, notibly the South African races. He was blisteringly fast in the finals.”

Michael McDowell expressed his gratitude to both the small Southark Racing team and its owner-driver. “This has been a very fruitful endeavour for us, allowing great oportunities to work together in the future. The team has proven itself as a great asset to the Bramhall Motorsports family and has shown what such a creative and strong team can do with the limited resources. Working much closer to the team has allowed us to develop a much stronger package for next year, with the hopes of challenging for the league one honours. Dominic Andrew-Scott is a brilliant driver, showing his form in what was a difficult car to find the balance with, and brought our car into positions it shouldn’t have been in. I thank him, his team, and all our support staff for their efforts this season.”

It has been rumoured that the 2.0 Litre L20 engine found in the southark car will be abandoned after one season in favour of a Excella-derived K24 due to the increased capacity and scope for development. This is the same engine that powers the KT-DUNE teams DK-1 dakar vehicle, with KT and Southark supporting each-other in the development of their new RX/Dakar platform.