May 26, 2013

 

On Thursday 16th of May, the World Sport Series entered a long six-week break. For many of the drivers this break came not soon enough as Monaco provided a challenge to all drivers taking part; both in keeping their car on track and indeed keeping their c
Now with everyone focusing on their Career Ladder and World GT progress for the moment, we can have a gander at who looks to be in the title hunt for the second ever WSS title.

Oscar Hardwick

Though expected to those rooted in the series, it may surprise some to know that the first winner of a race in WSS 2013 was (at the time) only the third ever winner in the series! Hardwick currently leads the Drivers' Championship and has pretty much been a one-piece band for Milk Racing (spiritual descendants of 2012's dominant force Torrent Motorsports) as team mate, Martin Palm, has failed to attend the last four races out of eight. Despite his lack of a team mate Hardwick has not only kept Milk Racing in the Constructors' battle but has built his lead up to a nice solid gap of near a race win. Looking ahead to the rest of the season, the statistics are certainly in his favour. His three race wins and two pole positions are the most out of anybody; though this can so easily change if things don't go his way.

Alex Cooper

Our second race winner of the year, Cooper only has one pole position to his name with his victory in Austria being his only victory to date. His high level of consistency is what has kept him within reaching distance of Hardwick however with his brilliant drive from 18th to 2nd in Race 2 at Monaco acting as a true testament to this fact. Cooper faces a similar situation to Hardwick in that his team mate, Ryan Gilmore, has not had the best start to his WSS campaign. This has not deterred Cooper though and with twelve races to go, he has plenty of reason to be bullish.

Petter Kaasa

Kaasa made an explosive debut to WSS 2013 as he stormed to victory in Hungary on his first attempt. Following this win he'd further dent others' championship chances as he took pole in Spain and yet another victory. Though Kaasa's speed is undoubtedly phenomenal, his commitment to the series leaves a lot to be desired. Having only taken part in half the races so far, Kaasa finds himself in the difficult position of being competitive not only in WSS, but Superleague also. A balance must be found if Kaasa is to have any hope of catching Hardwick.

Tom Parker

Parker's strengths lie not in pure speed, but consistency. The Englishman finds himself in such a good position as he has finished in the top five in five races out of eight; a brilliant achievement. What Parker lacks however, unlike similarly consistent Cooper, is any win to his name. We've see he has podium pace at times but has never been able to hook up the perfect race. The job for Parker now is not to let his emotions get the better of him and to keep plugging away for top five positions, taking chances to get a win when they are presented to him.

Shaun Stroud and Wopke Hoekstra

Both these drivers have won a race, but both can only be seen as outsiders for a title challenge at present.

Stroud has become a well respected member of the WSS through his amazing starts and his dedication to the cause was paid off in Hungary when he was able to hold off a resurgent Ryan Gilmore to take his single victory. However, Stroud's weakness has been his consistency in races when finding himself enveloped in the pack. Missing out Monaco altogether didn't help. If Stroud returns with the intention of challenging the likes of Hardwick, Cooper and Kaasa, he must learn to take points where he can get them. Asking him just to be fast all the time is too much.

Wopke on the other hand only joined WSS in Monaco with the newly formed Pulse Racing. In qualifying he displayed both signs of being a rookie and terrifying speed as he took P3 on full race fuel. In both races it was clear that the Dutchman was not messing about and he concluded the evening with a dominant race win. Wopke's challenge now is trying to get back the points deficit from missing the first six races. If his showing in Monaco is anything to go by though, it is plausible.

The revised WSS format has already thrown up some great racing and with twelve more races to go, kicking off at Istanbul and ending at the Nurburgring, it will be fascinating to see how both the Drivers' and Constructors' championship battles will turn out. Barring a surprise return from reigning champion Borna Spoljaric, other race winners Boy van de Laar and Simon Cattell or even indeed a new face to emerge from the shadows, the contenders for this year's competition are clear. On June 26th, battle shall commence once again...

You can catch up with the WSS series so far by checking out the broadcast replays!