ROOZ news Season 13 Round 4 Fuji

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Welcome to yet another round of league racing from Fuji Raceway. Unfortunately we only have the Division 1 report so far, but hopefully we can add the Division 2/3 report as soon as we have it.

Without any further ado, here's the Division 1 report, with thanks to Stuart filling in for Jono.

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12 Drivers lined up on the grid for round 4 of the series at the wide open spaces of Fuji raceway.

After a tight qualifying session it was once again Warrior who lined up on pole with a blistering lap of 1:30.988. hot on his heals was Mustafur, just 15 thousandths behind. Cyber and Zampli rounded off the second row with the third row locked out buy the first of the class B runners Vendalism and Stuart​

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The first corner was largely incident free, however vendalism was shuffled back into 11th after getting caught off line through the first sector.
At the end of the first lap the top 4 had managed to hold station, with the big movers being Anon who had made 3 spots and Natman who was showing some serious pace on cold tyres, up 4 spots to 7th. ​

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With the field settling down on lap 4, the top 3 had made a small gap, cyber driving well to hold onto the back of Warrior and Mustafur. Anon and Zamps were split by just .2 of a second in 4th and 5th, while Stuart, Joe, Vendalism and Gary were split by just 2 seconds in positions 7 to 11. Natman got the first of his penalties on lap 5 and had dropped to 10, which saw him fighting with Vendalism, Gary and the resilient Tek. In post race scrutineering, it was found that Tek shouldn't have been racing, as his blood alcohol content was 23 times the legal limit from the "good times" he had been having the night before.

Lap 7 and the Battles were starting to heat up with cyber still chasing Mustafur hard for 2nd, Corzza starting to push Anon, and Joe still looking to get past Stu. Towards the end of the lap, Anon ran wide, received a penalty, which let Corzza through to 5th, and Stu made a rookie mistake coming onto the straight, receiving a penalty and letting Joe through for 7th.

Lap 8, and the top 4 had started to spread, with Zampli looking comfortable in 4th, and Vendalism was hooking onto the back of Stu who was trying to recover from his mistake.

Lap 9 and all hell broke loose when Anon got a run on Corzza up the hill onto the final corner, touched his rear bumper and sent him into a spin. Joe and Stu were on them in a flash, with Joe picking up the pieces to take 5th, Stu left fighting with corzza for 6th and Anon awarding himself a drive through penalty for his efforts. This would put him stone motherless last, even behind Tek who was still struggling to come to terms with his hangover.

Lap 11, warrior had managed to spread the gap to a whopping 10 seconds from Musta, but the action was back with Corzza and Stu, who were swapping positions in a ding dong battle, Vendalism just 1 sec back waiting to pounce. At the start of lap 13, Stu managed to get past into turn 1, and on slightly better tires was able to get away and start the chase to Joe, who was doing a great job in 5th. ​

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Lap 15 and it was Zampli who blinked first and jumped into the pits dropping back to 9th. At the end of lap 15 it was Mustafur and Cyber who pitted both coming out behind Zampli who must have had a cracking few laps to get the undercut on fresher tyres. Joe also came in, trying to secure 5th outright and 1st in Class B.

Lap 17 and the last of the drivers saw a busy pit lane, with Stu, Vendalism, Corzza, and Gary all coming in for service.

So, on lap 18, it was Warrior who was dominating yet again, with a 15 second lead, from Zampli, Mustafur, Cyber, Anon, who was on wearing tyres after his earlier drive through penalty, Joe leading Class B, Natman, Stu, Vendalism, Corzza, Gary and the now semi sober Tek.

Lap 19 and Mustafur made a lean pass on Zampli into turn 1 after a run on the straight for 2nd place.

Lap 20 and anon was on wearing tyres falling back to Joe for 5th and 6th, and he pitted on that lap, while stu was catching Natman at about 3/4 of a second a lap.

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Nat pitted on lap 22, and with the top 6 cars fairly spread, the battle was for 7th and 8th between Vendalism and Corzza. In turn 3 Corzza managed to squeeze through for 7th, and was able to make a small gap. Also in Class B, stu was starting to make inroads to Joe, who was 10 seconds up the road.

Lap 25 and Corzza and Vendal were hard at it again, but unfortunately there was contact, which pushed Corzza into a penalty. Vendal did the right thing and waited, but it cost them both about 7 seconds on Stu who had now cleared them both.

Lap 27 and the top 5 remained the same, with warrior stretching his lead to 21 seconds. Stu had narrowed the gap to the 5th placed Joe, while Corzza was in 7th, Vendal in 8th, followed by Gary, Anon, Tek and Natman. Vendalism is currently the front runner for the seasons biggest crash, when he braked hard into 1, but had a wheel on the grass, which sent him spearing into the armco on the right and into the front straight run off. His crew chief was last seen on the phone ordering a jig to "straighten the bastard up". Its also believed he is looking for a night out with Tek to try to get the big crash wiped from his memory. This put Vendal way back in 11th position.

Lap 27 also saw Stu throw away a fight with Joe for 5th place. After cutting the gap to just 4 seconds with 4 laps to go, and taking about a second a lap, he made an error out of the second hairpin, gifting Joe about 6 seconds.

The final lap saw Warrior take the win, with a 27 second margin over Mustafur and Cyber filling the last podium spot in a very good drive. Zampli was 4th, Joe was 5th, and the winner in Class B in what was a great effort, Stuart 6th, Corzza 7th, Gary 8th, Anon in a disappointing 9th, Tek in a hazey 10th, vendalism rueing a few uncharacteristic mistakes to finish 11th and Natman, low on practice miles finishing in 12.

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In the overall ladders, its warrior with a clear lead over Mustafur and Cyber, while in the class battles, Class B is very tight with 3 rounds remaining, the top 4 drivers split by just 6 points, Corzza leading on 69, Tek on 68, Ven and Stu both on 63 points.

On to the tough enduro round, where 93 laps of Grand Valley east Reverse will surely throw up a few surprises, and some great racing.

Stu.
Great read there Stuart. Next round is Grand Valley East reverse, and as always is looking good for some great racing.

See you next time.

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Division 1 Reporter - Stuart (stucar17) Photographer - Warrior
Editor - Jamie (Ad2mny)