IRON VAN 4 - Do you want rice with that?

The adventures of playboy billionaire Tiny Stick, AKA Iron Van, only get more crazy and dangerous. The year is 2013, and the small, confusingly named, Autumn Ring race-track is being threatened by giant-hairy-monster-alien testicles! Tiny Stick tries to use his business acumen to massage a satisfactory conclusion to the situation, but there was only ever going to be one way to fix this problem. Iron Van! - Anon666

A one off race event, hosted by Anon666 was held at Autumn Ring. The lightweight K cars were the vehicles chosen to compete in the race, and after some testing it was decided that the Division 1 regulars would run in the Daihatsu MOVE SR-XX 2WD '97, while the Division 2 regulars were to run the Daihatsu Cuore/MIRA TR-XX Avanzato R '97. Our lone Division 3 entrant was to run in the Mitsubishi MINICA DANGAN ZZ '89 but after testing, was deemed too difficult to properly use as a handicap car and was scrapped in favor of the Division 2 cars. The low power of the cars made for some very intense and interesting racing, where even a 2-5km/h slower entry into the corners could cost up to 3-5 seconds, not to mention a couple of places, as the field stayed fairly close together for the entire race.

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Daihatsu MOVE SR-XX 2WD '97 - Anon666 (Pearl Green/Gold wheels) Mustafur (Yellow/Black wheels)
Daihatsu Cuore/MIRA TR-XX Avanzato R '97 - S_CLOSE (Grey/Blue wheels) t_b_williams (Grey/White wheels) emmo46 (Blue/Red wheels) Ad2mny (Pearl Blue, Yellow wheels) leeboy910 (Grey/Silver wheels) bjh1012 (Gold/Gold wheels)


GRID: Ad2mny, S_CLOSE, emmo46, bjh1012, t_b_williams, Mustafur, Anon666, leeboy910

The race began with joking spirits up the front, as the "Three Amigos" led the field off the line with horns tooting and tyres scrabbling for grip, but as they all entered Turn 1 it was straight down to business with non-stop action. S_CLOSE looked to the inside for a move on Ad2mny into Turn 1 but dropped back slightly on exit with emmo46 right on his tail. Mustafur got a great start passing t_b_williams and getting along the outside of bjh1012 into Turn 1, but had to drop back into Turn 2. leeboy910 got the jump on Anon666 off the mark, and tried to outbrake t_b_williams into turn 1, but t_b_williams had the better line on exit and held on to 6th place into the next turn. bjh1012 scraped past emmo46 on the inside at Turn 10, moving into 3rd position, with Mustafur in tow and managing to pass emmo46 at Turn 11.

bjh1012 had a hold of S_CLOSE's bumper starting lap 2, and as S_CLOSE looked up the inside of Ad2mny at Turn 1, bjh1012 outbraked himself and bumped S_CLOSE wide and as he himself ran in hot, left a gap for Ad2mny to switch back and retake 1st. That was the last time anyone got in front of Ad2mny. bjh1012 recovered well and managed to keep Mustafur and emmo46 behind, but S_CLOSE had fallen back to 5th, with t_b_williams, Anon666 and leeboy910 3 seconds behind. bjh1012 took a wild line through the Bus stop section (Turns 3-6), and Mustafur paid the price for risking an outside move when bjh1012 ran wide between Turn 4-5, bumping him off the track. emmo46 took advantage of Mustafur's off track excursion, moving up to 3rd at Turn 7 onto bjh1012's bumper, with S_CLOSE in tow and making it past Mustafur. S_CLOSE moved to the inside at 8 and tried to barge through but emmo46 got the power on earlier and pulled back ahead into 3rd. Mustafur briefly passed S_CLOSE into Turn 11 but the superior drive in 3rd gear of the Cuore allowed S_CLOSE to pull back ahead into 4th.

Starting lap 3, Ad2mny, bjh102 and emmo46 had pulled out a small gap, but t_b_williams, Anon666 and leeboy910 had joined onto the back of the battle for 4th. Mustafur and S_CLOSE changed positions just about every corner until on Turn 14 when S_CLOSE ran wide onto the grass, rejoining the track on exit only to slide back across to the other side of the track and colliding heavily with the pit wall. By the time he had recovered he had lost 3 positions and was now in 7th.

Lap 5, emmo46 passed bjh1012 at Turn 1 for 2nd place. bjh1012 repassed into the Bus stop section but ran a little wide out of Turn 7, losing momentum and allowing emmo46 to dive up the inside at Turn 8.

Lap 6. bjh1012 was trying everywhere to retake 2nd place from emmo46, and at the same time he was dragging the brawling 4th place battle pack along with him. He got alongside emmo46 at Turn 13, but outbraked himself into Turn 14, allowing emmo the switch back pass. bjh1012 got swamped onto the main straight and dropped back 3 places into 6th.



A fair bit of kerb jumping early into lap 7 slowed bjh1012 enough for S_CLOSE to make his move at Turn 7, dropping him back to 7th. leeboy910 was struggling to keep up with the pack with no practice whatsoever, and slowly drifted back over the next few laps.
Lap 8 bjh1012 went for a massive divebomb into the pack ahead, brushing Mustafur aside, but more side to side contact into Turn 9 pushed bjh1012 wide, and with S_CLOSE looking to pass around the outside, ended up pushing S_CLOSE wide losing him his momentum in Turn 10.

Lap 10 and Ad2mny was managing a gap of 3 secs back to emmo46 and Anon666 in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. t_b_williams was pulling away from the raging battle for 5th between bjh1012 and Mustafur. S_CLOSE and leeboy910 scrapped it out for the final positions. Next lap, Anon666 squeezed past emmo46 into Turn 1, and emmo46 repayed the favour next lap (12) at the same corner. bjh1012 outbraked himself into Turn 9, allowing Mustafur and leeboy910 through. Suddenly a huge lag-spike sent bjh1012 shooting ahead into the outside wall at Turn 13, rebounding back onto the track sideways and right in front of leeboy910. there was heavy contact with both drivers unable to avoid the collision, then another lag-spike allowed leeboy910 to pass but put bjh102 in the path of S_CLOSE, who could also not avoid the rotating lagging vehicle. The ensuing impact pushed bjh1012 into the pit lane entry and forced him to pit.



Half race distance, and the field was starting to spread out. Ad2mny was still over 3 seconds ahead and slowly pulling away. emmo46, Anon666 and t_b_williams were running about 1 second apart, with Mustafur, leeboy910 and S_CLOSE 5 seconds further back, running about 2 seconds apart. bjh1012, with his time spent unavoidably in the pits, was running 35 seconds off the tail of the field.

Lap 17, Anon666 dove up the inside of emmo46 into 2nd place Turn 1. emmo46 tried for the switch back move but Anon666 got good drive out and held him off. Turn 8 emmo46 repassed on the inside, with t_b_williams trying to follow him through but was on the outside for Turn 9 and had to drop back. Anon666 passed emmo46 at Turn 11, and stuck to the inside to try to keep his advantage, but emmo46's superior drive allowed him to come around the outside, and they ran side by side all the way onto the main straight. t_b_williams got good drive onto the main straight and took his turn at 2nd place up the inside of emmo46 at Turn 1 lap 18. emmo46 pushed hard to retake 2nd and contact at the chicane with t_b_williams pushed him wide allowing Anon666 to pass. t_b_williams had a lag spike leading into Turn 11, causing him to jump backwards and Anon666 to ram him heavily. emmo46 ran up alongside and once again it was 2 wide until the main straight, where emmo46 managed to pull ahead and slotted in front for 3rd place.

Lap 20, Anon666 moved up to 3rd at the chicane, and emmo46, not wanting to give up 3rd tried to run around the outside at Turn 13. He ran a little wide putting wheels in the grass and having a little slide, losing momentum and bringing him within reach of Mustafur, who had been nibbling away at the gap. Mustafur dove up the inside into the Bus Stop lap 21, and by the start of lap 22 had Anon666 and t_b_williams in his sights. After a number of aborted attempts by Anon666 on t_b_williams, and Mustafur on Anon666, lap 23 saw Anon666 lose some momentum when he bumped t_b_williams' rear exiting Turn 8, and Mustafur drove around his outside at Turn 9-10. emmo46 got a run out of Turn 10 and managed to pass them both, but dropped back behind Mustafur as they exited Turn 11 while Anon666 watched on in 5th.

emmo46 got a brilliant run into the chicane on lap 24, but with t_b_williams and Mustafur running side by side he had nowhere to go, bumping Mustafur ahead and dropping back in behind t_b_williams. The raging battle caused an off track incident with Mustafur, t_b_williams and emmo all running wide exiting Turn 7, and Anon666 happily took all the places into 2nd, followed by emmo46, Mustafur and t_b_williams.

Anon666 ran very deep into Turn 11 losing 2 positions, with t_b_williams also looking to pass but Anon666 was back up to pace.

Lap 25, Ad2mny had a 6 second lead on the dicing 4 car battle for 2nd, with leeboy910 finally finding some pace and closing in 6th, S_CLOSE 8 seconds further back and bjh1012 a very lonely 20 seconds behind.

t_b_williams got loose at Turn 15 end of lap 25 and Anon666 pulled out a 2 second gap. Mustafur was throwing everything he had at emmo46 lap 26, and they both in turn were slowly closing on Ad2mny, who was struggling for grip in the closing stages. On the last lap, the battle for 2nd was fierce, and Mustafur hurled his car around the outside at Turn 11, but emmo46 drove back up the inside up the hill. emmo46 tapped his brakes into Turn 13 allowing Mustafur alongside to sniff at his driver door, but when he made contact with emmo46 as they turned in for Turn 14, emmo46 skidded sideways a little losing his momentum. Mustafur backed off to avoid spinning him around and had to settle for 3rd place across the line. t_b_williams pushed and pushed to try to pass Anon666 and there was only half a car length in it on the line, 0.04 seconds gap. leeboy910 came home in 6th, with S_CLOSE and bjh1012 a lonely 7th and 8th respectively.

The race for me was like a 27 lap time trial, with the battle for second pushing me hard in the early stages, then again near the end when my laptimes dropped by about 1.5 secs for the final 2-3 laps. The arrows on my map for the other drivers just looked like a big blob most of the time, and I could keep track of what was happening further back as I passed over them on the bridge at turn 11. While the battles looked awesome, I'm glad I was ahead staying out of trouble.

I'm not going to congratulate myself on the win, just seems wrong, but a hard fought 2nd for emmo46, which could have been just about anybodies except for poor leeboy910, who as was said before had had no practice at all, but came good near the end. Mustafur came from nowhere in the closing stages and did well to claim 3rd in the end so congratulations to them for their podium finishes.

See you all on track again soon.
Jamie (Ad2mny)

I'd forgotten about most of those moves. Great report as usual Ad2. Looking forward to more action like this in Mustafur's K car event. Tsukuba isn't one of my best tracks but I'll give it everything I've got.

I think you should congratulate yourself. 27 laps with no mistakes and guys breathing down your neck all the way. A deserved winner. And BJ, I watched the replay, and you had great pace. You'll start getting some scalps soon.