October 17, 2016
Published on tags: Career Ladder Catch-Up

 

Join Lee Davidson as he reviews the previous week's action from all three Career Ladder series, taking place at the incredible Circuit of the Americas, USA - where 2016's first title was confirmed!
This week saw the three career ladder series roll on into the United States of America and the high speed Circuit of the America's track in Austin, Texas.

We kick things off with Superleague where Edonis and Nordsjoen resumed their battle for both the Teams' and Drivers' titles. David Fidock drew first blood with pole position after a tightly fought Qualifying session. The Englishman was able to set a time of 1:39.322 - 0.009s faster than second placed Fran Lopez of Red Archer. Eros Masciulli managed to ensure the start of the race would be filled with tension by lining up his Edonis in third place, directly behind the Nordsjoen of Fidock on the grid.

However, neither of the title protagonists would be tasting the victory champagne with Fran Lopez taking a well earned victory. It certainly wasn't easy however with the Spaniard taking the win ahead of Fidock by only three tenths of a second at the line. However, the drive of the race surely had to go to Fidock's team mate, Florian Geier. Despite starting all the way down in 21st position, he was able to come through the field and join his team mate on the podium with an incredible third placed finish.

The result mean Nordsjoen overtakes Edonis at the top of the team's standings whilst David Fidock jumps ahead of Eros Masciulli with a slender four point lead. Both championships are now down to a two horse race with only two rounds of the season to go!

Over to Supercup, SRS's Risto Kappet took a dominant pole position by over a quarter of a second from Dino Paolini for Measuric whilst championship leader Lars Brugman managed to thrive under increasing pressure with third on the grid. However, Kappet would have to start from the back of the grid with his penalty handing pole position to the Italian driver.

Race one saw Paolini capitalise on the opportunity presented to him with a dominant victory for Measuric - their first at the Supercup level, finishing some 15 seconds down the road from second placed Sven de Vries who won a tight battle with Niels Brugman and Dennis Jordan; Kappet was able to recover to a fine fifth place finish. In race two, the Estonian made good on his pace setting performance in Qualifying with a fine victory, however it wasn't nearly as dominant as Paolini's with Risto finishing a mere two seconds ahead of of Lars Brugman. Niels Brugman rounded off the top three, making it a double podium for Proline and indeed the Brugman clan.

After the action on track was concluded, Lars Brugman now has a commanding lead in the drivers standings with a 92 point lead over second placed Sven de Vries, with only 100 remaining from the final two rounds of the season. Meanwhile over in the teams' championship, Team Proline were confirmed as champions with two rounds to spare, with the Brugman brothers putting the title out of reach with a fantastic race meet, their worst finish being 7th place in race one.

Finally Formula Challenge again provided some entertaining action with the stars of tomorrow heading to the business end of the season. The two stars of the season, James Johnson and Stephane Rouault were again expected to be fighting for the wins and indeed it was Dutchman Rouault who took honours in Qualifying, setting a blistering time to finish over two tenths ahead of Johnson. Matthew Chirgwin took third, but nearly half a second back from pole position, underlining the dominance of the top two in the session.

Race one saw drama however with Rouault only managing a ninth place finish after having to make an unscheduled pit stop. This handed the race to Johnson, finishing over 15 seconds ahead of team mate Michel de Jong whilst Chirgwin maintained is starting position to finish a fine third. However race 2 saw a reversal of fortunes thanks to the reverse grid, giving Johan Lindberg pole position, whilst all eyes were set of the driver starting alongside him on the front row - Stephane Rouault. The Deltec racer did not disappoint, biding his time behind Lindberg until the perfect opportunity to strike, displaying a mature and measured drive in the process.
Lindberg managed to hold onto a superb second place whilst Maciej Mlynek took home third for Hinss. Johnson wasn't able to recover well from his 11th place starting position, only recovering to 7th by the chequered flag. This means with two rounds and four races left to go, Johnson leads Rouault by only 28 points. Things aren't so close in the teams however, with MadCape in a commanding first place, 122 points ahead of Deltec Racing.

The next round for all three Career Ladder series takes place in Mexico, starting with Formula Challenge on Tuesday the 25th of October