Memorable events

Shadow Racing

This American-run team was the first to be (re-)established and confirmed for the new Formula Ruro series. Team Owner Clyde Springer will be looking to use his experience of other areas of motorsport to make his mark in this fledgling Formula, and should never be underestimated!

The Unpredictables

Willi Wutz heads up the only German-run team on the grid. Famed for his wisdom and innovation, Wutz leading a team should be something for any team to take notice of. The team's main weakness may be its relative lack of experience, however, so will the car live up to the stereotype of German reliability and efficiency, or will it live up to the team's name?

Minardi Team UK

A team with one of the least experienced bosses, Minardi Team UK have a point to prove, and will be looking to make a lasting mark on Formula Ruro from the get-go in order to establish themselves on a firm footing for future seasons. This could be a whole new beginning for this offshoot of Minardi, and eyes will be kept peeled for some great performances, though the failure to secure any sponsors could be seen as a bad omen, and the plain white livery will act as a constant reminder!

SnotPoison Racing

SnotPoison Racing, founded and run by Adrian Hingley, have a Team Owner of considerable renown when it comes to outstanding displays of driving skill on track. Can this legendary figure translate this reputation to success in running his own team? SPR are perhaps the immediate favourites before the series has even begun!

RaRaRacing

One of the giants of the motorsport world, Paul Rademaker's founding of RaRaRacing signals to rivals that they will have some serious competition on their hands, perhaps particularly when it comes to dog-fighting on track. With a Team Owner known to never surrender a place without a fight, expect to be seeing a lot of RaRaRacing!

Thrust Motorsport

Having made a name for himself in the Touring Car scene, Thrust Motorsport represents Jos Reinders's new area of focus, and the second Dutch team to confirm their place on the grid. What we can expect remains largely unknown, but don't be surprised to see the Thrust cars proving a real challenge to the teams with more experience on paper!

Sky Racing

A well known and respected face in the paddock, both as a driver and a commentator, Team Owner Szabolcs Nagy's founding of Sky Racing should not be taken lightly by his competitors. Expect this team to quite possibly be one of the big guns in a few seasons time!

Crash Test Dummies

Already a massive name in motorsport, Marc Ferring's entrance on to the Formula Ruro stage as Team Owner of Crash Test Dummies confirms his intent to be one of the all-time greats. With Ferring's experience, this is yet another team to watch and to expect potentially great things from!

AAR

Initially only a provisional entrant, AAR represent a fresh face for a fresh Formula. Team Owner Ian Kay is relatively new on the scene but has made a definite impression already, and will look to capitalise on this momentum and build a championship-winning team.

JSF1

James Smith, a legend in the Ruro community, set up a team in the dying moments of the application process. Despite arriving on the scene at the eleventh hour, the team should not be underestimated; Smith brings extensive knowledge of the workings of motorsport with him and the team should flourish under his command.

Zo Fast

This team is perhaps an unknown quantity. Team Owner Enzo Terreno is a brand new face, meaning that noone will know quite what to expect from him and his team. The team's relative lack of experience suggests that the team may start off slowly, but once the experience is there, who knows what levels of greatness could be achieved by this new team?!

McShutt Motorworks

Securing a place on the grid by the skin of their teeth, McShutt Motorworks are lucky to be here, but the Anglo-Irish endeavour will be keen to take full advantage of their arrival for the first season of this series and secure a good place in the rankings. The team is the only one with dual owners, though Jamie McCarrick is nominally in charge for the purposes of accounting.

Conrey Racing Development

An Italian venture, founded and run by Robert Conrey, who is well known across various forms of motorsport in both the role of driver and as commentator. He now sets his sights on establishing a racing team to go down in the history books, and should be treated as a serious contender.

With the season set to begin imminently, there seems to be only one topic being discussed in the paddock. Pre-season testing would suggest that Sky Racing have put together a phenomenal package, and look considerably faster than any of their competitors, with most of the rest of the pack too close to call in terms of who will be faster.

Whilst we'll have to wait a few more days to see whether Sky Racing deliver on these high expectations, particularly because pre-season testing has only revealed the raw speed of the cars, rather than how well they perform over a long-run, questions have already been asked about whether one particularly unique feature the team are rumoured to have added to their car is actually allowed within the rules.

The component in question is the 'blowing diffuser', which allegedly allows the driver to concentrate the air flow to propel the car forward and up, actually allowing it to leave the track! It is thought that the team developed the feature to assist with skipping over particularly aggressive curbs without taking damage to the underside of the car, hence allowing them to shave off less speed in this corners.

Doubts about the car staying within the track limits aside, teams have been questioning whether such a feature is even remotely near anything allowed in the rules, and whether an exchange of money occurred between Sky Racing's Team Owner, Szabolcs Nagy, and the FRA.

Whilst Nagy has yet to officially respond to these allegations, a spokesman for the team has insisted that their car conforms to the rules.

Rumours began after Shadow Racing's Clyde Springer questioned how this stunt was even possible

And now....THE NEWS

This is the segment where 3 middle aged car presenters talk about things related to cars in the planet called Ruro Earth(Sounds stupid but we'll move on),but now, time to introduce to you our presenters:

He is Doctor POWER!!!!.He thinks the only way to solve problems in your car is speed and power.Here's one of his popular quotes:''Speed doesn't kill,It's when you become suddenly stationary,that's the killer''

He is Captain Slow.He is a classic man who thinks he is still in the 80s.Wherever something goes wrong he says '' Oh cock''.

He is Hamster,and as you can see in the picture above,he does things that live up to his name.He also has a wife,although it's not who you think it is.

Now that the introduction is done,time to get on with the segment!!!

DP(Doctor POWER!!!!!):Right now that that introduction is over it's finally time for The News!!!

CS(Captain Slow):Yes,we will get to the cars stuff in a moment but one of the hot topics in recent weeks have been the collaboration of the FIA and the steward of the organization Ciaran Smith to form some sort of a series somewhat like F1 called Formula Ruro.Here are just some details:13 teams with 26 cars rounding out the grid for season 1 and testing has just been done and It's being said that Sky Racing will most likely be the team to beat this season,so chaps any comments how will the season be.Any predictions?

H(Hamster):Should be an interesting season.....

(Doctor POWER!!!! interrupts)

DP:Were you following the testing?

H:I was, not really into F1 but I think this could hook me into it.

DP:You know what funny thing happened while we were filming about a documentary about the current state of F1?.Ok so me and Captain Slow were talking about F1,you know the regulations,the tecnology and all that stuff.So we got the point we were asking each other if Mclaren made the right decision merging with Honda because of the ERS and reliability issues they are currently experiencing,and then he comes to our room with dinner at that time,and then we ask him(who knew nothing about F1 at that point) to guess what ERS was,just to get a few laughs,does anyone want to know what his answer was?

H:Can we move on please?

DP:NO!!.His answer was Evaluated Receipt Settlement.Now I'm sorry if I'm dumb but what the hell is that?

H:CAN WE PLEASE MOVE ON!!???

CS:Sure we'll move on and lets talk about normal cars now

DP:Right now there are a lot of new cars coming out in 2016,and when I mean a lot,I mean a lot

H:Correct the car industry have gone crazy,so to start of the bonanza one of the legends Is coming back,Its the Honda NSX

CS:Gorgeous looking car

H:It is actually,here are some specs,550 bhp with a 3.5 litre V6 with an electric motor which means It's a hybrid unfortunately,AWD and prices should start around 100K Fruros....

DP:They've ruined it,I mean don't get me wrong it's a pretty looking car but they've removed most of the fun aspects of the car,and they are not going to have a manual transmission is that correct?

CS:Correct

DP:So not only they don't know how to make an F1 engine,they also forgot how to make cars.They should have a slogan something like this:

''Honda:Where we only know how to make cars for elderly people but not for F1 cars and for our type of people''

CS:Also is it just me or does it look like a Mclaren

DP:There you go now the slogan should be:

''Honda:Where we only know how to make cars for elderly people but not for F1 cars and for our type of people and we copy the car's looks because we don't know how to make cars''

CS:Don't worry people there are also some affordable cars you could buy like this one

H:Slow,are you okay?

CS:Yeah what's wrong?

DP:Slow,so you're telling me that one of the more important cars,Is a Toyota in which the designer,who was designing the car was having sex at the same time,because I swear to God I can design a better looking car than that,in fact,can we please have an earlier generation prius on our screens.

DP:Now I thought that was bad,but the other one is worse.

CS:At least it's cheap

DP:I don't care,if that doesnt get off the TV I'll punch the TV

H:We could be here forever but sadly we're running out of time,just going to show some final cars Here is the replacement for the 458 Italia It's the 488 GTB

H:And here is the Porsche Mission E,It's a concept for the moment

CS:And that's it for today,next time when we come back which will be around Christmas time we will be doing a mid season update at Formula Ruro,and since it's Christmas we will be looking at gifts that you can buy to your car enthusiast boyfriend or girlfriend,until now see you next time

#ThrowbackThursday

What with the rumours flying round the paddock that Sky Racing are the quickest team by far, today's qualifying result could be seen as either confirmation or contradiction!

Sky Racing's Team Owner Szabolcs Nagy did indeed take pole in Q3, with teammate Darash Chablani taking 3rd, but they were split by Thrust Motorsport's Ville Valtonen! Valtonen was a mere twelve-thousandths of a second slower than Nagy's efforts, and the contest made for spectacular viewing, with the two drivers exchanging sector times as they completed their final Q3 lap with just a few seconds separating them on track!

Marek Jablonski will have done his TO proud, getting the Conrey Racing Development car up to the second row of the grid. Marc Ferring and John Allen will share row 3 for Crash Test Dummis and SnotPoison Racing respectively, whilst CRD TO Robert Conrey lines up 7th, with a driver error ruining his final flying lap.

The two Shadow Racing cars got through to the shootout, with Phillip Jeffery leading TO Clyde Springer with 8th and 10th respectively. Zo Fast also managed to get representation in Q3, with Adam State ultimately qualifying 9th.

The grid was, on the whole, incredibly close in terms of pace, and this was best seen in Q1, where 14th to 22nd were separated by less than a tenth! Tomorrow looks set to be a fascinating inaugural race!

A new, professional team gathered under the name of Sky Racing.

We have some legendary engineers from former teams, a qualitative driver – Darash Chablani, and the unique team morale that we want something big! After we make an agreement with Snot-Poison Racing to deliver their engine to us, we start to work on our car. Despite our budget was limited, we worked all day and night, to make our car extremely fast and drivable. The success in Formula 1 comes from the interpretation of the rules, and our mysterious “blowing diffusor” (as our opponents call it) is fully compliant with them. But as we are at the beginning of the season, I don’t want to say more about our car’s development, however I’m starting to feel that we already have some prestige advantage.

As for this year, we dreamed big. We want to win every practice, every qualifying, and every race! Our rising star, Darash Chablani is hungry for success too. Hopefully we will not fall down…

We would like to thank our employees, our sponsors, our engine supplier SP Racing, and our fans of course! We have now only one thing to do: let’s race!

Sky Racing – Gives You Wings

Szabolcs Nagy – Team owner and driver

(And for our opponents: you can touch only our “shadows”!)

The testing may be over, but the real test is just beginning. That seems to be the mood inside the newly formed Formula Ruro paddock on the eve of the first race of the new championship.

A massive – at least by the standards set by those series FRuro joins at the very top of world motor racing – 26 car grid will line-up in Melbourne, the list of teams and drivers bringing together young, untested drivers and established, even historic names, such as AAR and Adrian Hingley, who has won a hoard of titles on his way to joining the grid at the helm of the SPR team.

At the other end of the spectrum are drivers such as the Zo Fast teammates Adam State and Enzo Terrano, Darash Chablani at pre-season favourites Sky Racing and British driver Scott Warren, the less experienced half of the RaRaRacing team established by Dutchman Paul Rademaker. However, what has gone before will stand for very little as the racing world finds its new order in Australia.

“This is where reputations will be built,” Warren tells AUTOSPORT. “History doesn’t count for anything here.”

Warren would say that, his prior racing history being a story of mediocrity with a hint of promise that he must find a way to fulfil. “I look up and down the grid and you have guys like Adrian, like James Smith, even Paul in the garage next door,” he says. “It’s difficult not to be intimidated by them. But at the same time we’re all starting off at the same point. Everyone’s comes into this series at the same point so we should all have equal chance of coming out on top.”

Warren watches on from the RaRaRacing garage during testing.

RaRaRacing were part of a teams’ test before the start of the first real FRuro season and struggled for consistent pace, but with teams being allowed to extensively develop their cars in the space between the testing and the first race – not to mention the arrival of several new outfits in the paddock – the results of the test count for little.

Rumours have flown of Sky Racing’s car being the fastest of the field – hence their position as pre-season favourites – but again, with FRuro boasting perhaps the most open technical regulations of any modern single seater series, the true strengths of the teams and drivers will only be known at the end of the opening race, though Warren suggests it may take longer until the true front runners show themselves.

“I’m sure all the teams have done different things with their cars, and all the drivers will naturally have different strengths,” he explains. “So whoever and whatever wins one week could be nowhere near the front the next. It’ll take maybe half a dozen races until you start to get an idea of who the best teams and drivers on the grid are.”

He continues: “Obviously I hope I’m up there, but it’s going to be a tough season with so many drivers on the grid and the cars so different, yet still so even this early on in any development. Anyone who comes out on top will have earned it. This is an opportunity for a new team – hopefully a new driver – to announce themselves on the biggest stage imaginable.”

Prologue

Reintroduction

Here I am...a Shuckle, back in the Ruro Region, this time for a full racing season. Our test season was...rubbish to say the least. We have to forget about it and prepare for 19 races this time. Shinx invited me again to be his driver...apparently he prepared a new car...

Oh..hi Shuckle, look what I've got!!!

O...K...It's...kinda...white...I...don't know what to say...

Shinx smiles

I knew you would like it. Forget about preseason, this is real racing here. We have old faces and some new Pokémon, so let me show you our rivals, starting with the new teams...

New Pokémon?

Counting us we have 26 Pokémon. That's 13 teams...So let's get started with the new kids on the block...

First up, team Ew Fast with Sandshrew and Sneasel

That Sneasel looks mean...

Yeah...but we don't know too much about'em...

Next up, The Unpredictables...

They may be fast...cause Wynaut...

Oh no...you're back with these awful puns...

Yes, and thanks, I've been practicing them.

Whatever...they are fast, especially this Lotad.

MCF1, Mew & Chespin...

Holy Arceus...Mew?! We're doomed...

Don't worry, we can beat anyone! And last new team that we have...

LaCrani Motorworks. They're good and fast, so we need to watch out for them. And now welcome the old squad.

Starting off with the champion Bulbasaur and Grimer, Poison Racing.

Krabby Auto Racing, a.k.a. KAR with Krabby and Makuhita.

I remember that Krabby had even less luck than us in the pre season races...

Yeah, bit I'm sure that will give him only more motivation. Next team...

Team Crash Test, Marill & Elekid.

Marill...is...fast. Enough said.

Yeah...next team...

Welcome back Sky Racing, they were close to us so we have a chance asainst them for sure. Moving on...

TaRaRacing. You've missed them?

I tried to last time...

...oh I get it...yeah...you know what they're up to...Next up...

The prancing Ponyta and hardcore Geodude...Ponyta Racing Development.

Prancing and hardcore?

Yeah...they're experianced and fast and cool and ugh...

OK, let's stop here cause there are only two more teams.

First we have Shadow Racing of Abra & Bagon...

And last, but not least, Trust Motorsport with Victini and Bellsprout.

So it's preety much a crowd control situation here.

Yeah...we need to focus and be very careful. Are you ready Shuckle?

I guess. I won't be more ready than I am now.

So let's get this season started!!!

Time to meet yet another new team in this brand new series.

Thrust Motorsport has been set up by Jos Reinders, who has been successful mostly in touring car series. He was also involved in a project some years ago to break the land speed record, with the Thrust SSC. He met some very interesting and highly skilled engineers that developed the powertrain for this sound barrier breaking machine. Long has there been a desire to use the technology involved in a real racing series.

Thrust SSC

"When the tender for Formula Ruro was published, all of us instantly felled that the time had come to step up and realize our dream. After so many years it was a great feeling to see that all involved still have that strong desire to break records and be the best they can be!" says Reinders in a post qualification interview.

"We have already seen in qualification that our car is pretty good, pace wise. Also it became clear in Q2 that our advanced technology in our energy system still has some flaws and is not yet performing at the level we expected. Soon though, the tech will become mature enough to harvest all its power. We expect there will be a few teams knocking on our doors for next season!", he continues with the usual smile on his face.

The team seems all the more confident with the hiring of highly rated and very skilled Ville Valtonen. The qualification result has already proven his worth and hopefully Valtonen will be able to keep up with the boys from Sky Racing during the race to at least score a podium.

SKY RACING

Team Owner: SZABOLCS NAGY

Driver: DARASH CHABLANI

Early Season Expectation: 1st

Sky Racing is a team made by Szabolcs Nagy, a very experienced and well respected part of the Ruro Community, and seemingly this expertise has led to him delivering very well on the design for this year, with something called a 'blown diffuser'. While other teams have already questioned the legality of this design, the GrandMaster StewardMan Ciaran Smith has assured them it is legal and allowed. Questions also arise how the difference between this team and it's closest competitors is so massive already at the beginning of the season, when they in fact bought engines from another team, which we will mention later. Did buying this engine allow them the freedom to design a better chassis/aero package? Is the car quicker at the cost of reliability? Only time will really tell. The other driver in the team is Darash Chablani, a relatively new addition to the RC, but one who is about to get a really big break.

SHADOW RACING

Team Owner: CLYDE SPRINGER

Driver: PHILLIP A JEFFERY

Early Season Expectation: 2nd

Shadow Racing is a fully American team run by Clyde Springer, another experienced and well-known RC member. Springer seems to have done a good job on the car design, and is heading a very closely knit back of teams that follow behind Sky Racing, though the gap this early on between the two teams seems massive. Joining Springer in the team is another RC member of good reputation, a fellow American, Phillip A Jeffery. Will they be the closest challengers to Sky Racing, or will their focus be on the pack of wolves behind?

McSHUTT MOTORWORKS

Team Owner: JAMIE MCCARRICK

Co-Owner/Driver: MISCHA SHUTTLE

Early Season Expectation: 3rd

McShutt Motorworks, a team that has it's name comprised of the two last names of it's owners. Jamie McCarrick is the hands on owner, and provides the Mc for the name, while co-owner and driver Mischa Shuttle provides the Shutt for the name. McCarrick is yet another well established part of the RC community, while Shuttle is a lesser known entity. Both hail from the British Isles, McCarrick being Irish, and Shuttle being English. The early season rankings place them in 3rd place, right behind the American team of Shadow Racing.

THRUST MOTORSPORT

Team Owner: JOS REINDERS

Driver: VILLE VALTONEN

Early Season Expectation: 4th

Thrust Motorsport is a team led by Jos Reinders, a quick driver from the Netherlands, and well liked person in the RC. Reinders as well has done a good job with the car design, and the early season expectations place the team in 4th place, right behind Shadow Racing and McShutt Motorsports. Reinders has gone on record to say that the advanced technology they use in their energy systems will prove to be a great innovation in future seasons that other teams will likely want to be a part of, but right now it still has its flaws. The driver chosen for the team was Ville Valtonen who also comes with plenty of experience but a difficult attitude when things don't go his way.

RaRaRACING

Team Owner: PAUL RADEMAKER

Driver: SCOTT WARREN

Early Season Expectation: 5th

RaRaRacing not only boasts a unique name, but also an interesting lineup. It is a team led by Paul Rademaker, yet another (weird, huh?) experienced member of the RC community. Rademaker however does have a reputation for an aggressive approach to racing, many times being the aggressor in a collision that cost the other driver more in the end. But you can't claim his style isn't exciting for the viewers at home and on the stands. Rademaker simply brings people to the sport, and that is in no way a bad thing. He will be joined by Scott Warren in the other car, a less experienced driver with a lot to prove. He has gone on record to say that FRuro will be were reputations will be made, and previous results should hold little value at the start of the first season. After all, it is a new series with little technical regulations right now, making it an open playing field. The early expectations place this team 5th, a solid placement in a grid of 13 teams.

CRASH TEST DUMMIES

Team Owner: MARC FERRING

Driver: MATTHEW BAKER

Early Season Expectation: 6th

Crash Test Dummies has a name that does instantly bring something to mind, though is the given image accurate? Marc Ferring is one of the best drivers around, and his decision to create a team was a strong indication of a man wanting to create an even bigger legacy in the RC community. Ferring signed an impressive up-and-comer Matthew Baker in the other car, and this could be a golden goose for the team as well. The early expectations rank the team only 6th, but given the lineup, it could be one of the ones that will go to perform better than expected. They definitely already have the most interesting nationalities in the team.

ZO FAST

Team Owner: ENZO TERRENO

Driver: ADAM STATE

Early Season Expectation: 7th

Zo Fast is a relatively new team to the scene, and is headed by an complete unknown in Enzo Terreno. Italian teams are some of the most legendary in the world, so could Terreno be providing us with an early look into one in the making? He hired Adam State in the second car, a relative newcomer as well, but one who has shown good early promise. The early rankings place the team in 7th, but could the inexperience end up costing them, or is this fresh approach exactly what will make their season? Will they be true to their name in the end?

CONREY RACING DEVELOPMENT

Team Owner: ROBERT CONREY

Driver: MAREK JABLONSKI

Early Season Expectation: 8th

Conrey Racing Development has probably the longest name of all the teams, and is another Italian team. Team owner Robert Conrey has vast amounts of experience, having been born in Italy but trained in UK, knowing the racing scene very well indeed. The team boasts one of the best looking liveries for this first season, and the second seat is occupied by Marek Jablonski, whose good early form in his career has definitely been nice to watch. Will they be the team that goes beyond early expectations in this very even pack of teams? They have all the makings for it, but will they deliver?

MINARDI TEAM UK

Team Owner: SHAUN HARTLEY

Driver: SEBASTIAN JANKOWSKI

Early Season Expectation: 9th

If CRD had one of the best looking liveries, then Minardi Team UK probably has one of the worst ones. A plan white livery with no sponsors, means the team has a tough start on hand right now. The team is led by Shaun Hartley, probably one of the owners with the least experience in the scene. He is partnered with Sebastian Jankowski in the other car, who at least has some experience to draw from. But all in all, it is difficult to estimate how this team will do, though the early season expectations place them in 9th place right now.

SNOTPOISONRACING

Team Owner: ADRIAN HINGLEY

Driver: JOHN ALLEN

Early Season Expectation: 10th

SnotPoisonRacing definitely has a livery that matches the name, it seems. A bright green livery with some violet thrown in? What could possibly have made team owner and RC legend Adrian Hingley go for this when he applied to the series? All we know is, Hingley is the fastest and most experienced driver so far to have graced the RC, and this is what worries the other teams. Teaming up with him is John Allen, new but fast driver to the scene, who has been making big waves in his early career. They definitely have the speed in the drivers, and their engine is also in the fastest car in the grid, Sky Racing. But the early rankings place them down in 10th, but they are still one to watch out for despite the weaker car base.

THE UNPREDICTABLES

Team Owner: WILLI WUTZ

Driver: SÉRGIO MARQUEZ

Early Season Expectation: 11th

The Unpredictables definitely has an intriguing name, and would suggest that we should expect the unexpected from these guys. Team owner Willi Wutz leads the only German team on the grid, and is another driver that should have the experience to pull off some good results. He is teamed up with another experienced driver in Sérgio Marquez, which should be good news for the team. The early expectations place the team in only 11th place, but don't be surprised if we some unpredictable results from them early season.

AAR

Team Owner: IAN KAY

Driver: BJ BRAISTED

Early Season Expectation: 12th

AAR is the second American run team, led by Ian Kay. This is a team he has brought from another well respected but now long dead series called the RLB. Kay is relatively new to the RC, just like his teammate BJ Braisted. But given their past history together, and good results from both so far, we can expect to see some good results all around, maybe better than the 12th place that the early rankings are suggesting. It could be that the teams focus has not been for this season, but it is still difficult to say for sure until we see some results.

JSF1

Team Owner: JAMES SMITH

Driver: PETER LIND

Early Season Expectation: 13th

JSF1 was a late entry into this season, a team made by the renowned legend of the RC, James Smith. A very experienced and fast driver, Smith should be just the kind of person to get the most of a late entry like this. He is teamed up with Peter Lind, a newcomer to the series with little experience to draw from as of yet. The early rankings point to the team being dead last, but this could again be due to a very different approach. Or maybe the design of the car was a bust. Right now it is still difficult to say, but it should be interesting to see how the team does.

Ville Valtonen looked competitive in qualifying yesterday, but today he's gone down in the record books as being the first ever driver to win a Formula Ruro race! Whilst most of the field suffered from reliability issues, Valtonen kept his Thrust Motorsport car in one (speedy) piece to take victory by 12 seconds!

Joining Valtonen on the first ever Formula Ruro podium was Conrey Racing Development TO Robert Conrey and The Unpredictables' hired driver, Sérgio Marques. The Unpredictables weren't thought to be looking good given pre-season testing, and so they will undoubtedly be absolutely delighted with a podium!

In fact, the result of this race may come as a complete shock to the paddock; Sky Racing were firm favourites to open the season with a win, but only managed 8th and 9th, whilst JSF1 and AAR were thought to be probable backmarkers, but secured solid 4th and 5th place finishes!

In testament to how competitive the field is, though, the top 8 finishers were all from different teams!

The three podium finishers were clearly delighted to be going down in the history books!

Melbourne was the first stop for the inaugural formula ruro season, and indeed minardi team uks first season. However it didn't go to plan, as from the outset, a lack of speed from the m-01 limited team owner Shaun Hartley, and team driver sebastien jankowski to back of the pack grid slots..

however the team was optimisic come race day, however that optimism quickly went out of the window, with Hartley retiring with brake failure, and jankowski finishing down in 19th....

the team at hoping for improved form at round two whilst behind the scenes, the team boss is working to secure extra sponsership for the team, after negotiations dragged on so long that they missed the deadline for livery entry.

the team have seemed to suceed in keeping the minardi/underdog spirit alive while also hoping that with continued development, they will be able to achieve greater sucess than their namesake could ever manage.

Good day Robert, thank you for joining us in this post race interview! I must say I'm really excited to be one of the first reporter to write of this historical first race of the Formula Ruro, I was expecting something less exciting from the first ever competition but, man, that was tremendous! A lot of overtakes, errors, recovers, wow!

But that is MY opinion, what is YOUR opinion on the race?

I think we share the same opinion: Wow! That was an exciting race even more from the cockpit of the car. I'll be bluntly honest with you, I was expecting the car to be more equal from the limited budget we had pre-season but I was happy to be proven wrong! Every team have different strenght and weakness and this makes it way more funny, to drive and to watch!

How do you rate your first race in the Formula Ruro?

I couldn't have asked for a better race, I confess that I was really throwing every known curse to Marc [Ferring] at lap 4 when we touched in the battle for 6th place, I spun and with a field still so packed I found myself in last place. That's where I got the proof that we built a solid car, I managed to take on the slowest drivers with ease and thanks to the pit-stops I was up in 4th in a bunch of laps. After our first stop I was back in 12th place that became 9th place the lap after when all the car done the first stops. My engineer told me to keep pushing since I was getting the faster lap, so I did. I must confess I was puzzled to see some rivals ahead of me going already back to the pits a bunch of laps later, I had to watch the replays to see what was happening! From there it was all sweat and concentration, I managed to keep a good pace and see the checkered flag in 2nd place!

From a team radio it looks like you had a problem on your car during the race.

Yes, I was getting a weird behaviour out of the front right suspension on the curbs but nothing too serious, we are checking now the problem to see if it's something related to the collision with Marc [Ferring] or something else. Nothing big anyway, I'm pleased with how the car handled the race and Marek's [Jablonski] car was still perfect in the end.

Speaking of Jablonski, he ended in 11th place, were you expecting that?

Marek had an unfortunate race today but has we already seen in the tests he is a strong and fast driver, he locked wheels in a contact with Adam State in the first part of he race, that ruined his second set of Supersoft and had to make an early pit, changing to a 4 stints race instead of a 3 stints. Still he did the fastest lap of the race on the last lap and with just a bunch of extra laps we are sure his position would have been way higher than today. Not a big luck there, but luck come and go!

Are you surprised of SkyRacing team ending in 8th and 9th?

This race doesn't really say much about SkyRacing, the drivers choose two different strategies that, in my personal opinion, are both wrong for this track so the real potential of the team was quite unveiled. Truth is that I'm not one of the people who watches in awe the team, they were ok with pace in the first stages but not superfast and one of my motto as fresh team owner is to NEVER overlook any part of the car. Seriously there must be a point in the SkyRacing car that is lacking if the put so much effort in the aero!

Speaking of cars, minding show us something about the CRD-01A?

Sure thing!

Here it is!

It's like asking to a father to talk about his children, but I'll try to keep it quick! First of all we wanted the CRD-01A to be OURS so we opted for an original livery that didn't recall any F1 team, that said, on the technical part we wanted an all-rounder car without any mayor weakness to be competitive in all the parts of the race. Yes I know, being good at all makes you not excellent in anything, but we like it this way. Of course the CRD-01A is not equal in every part, there are some track condition that she likes the most but that won't be said on the microphones!

What about the engine? The CRD V6 Model 1 if I recall correctly?

As the FRA rules states, the CRD V6 Model 1 is a team made engine, that or buying it from other Formula Ruro teams, no external engines! We opted to create one for the first season, yes, it's cheaper to buy one and focus on the chassis but that makes you linked to the supplier team, for any reason they can cancel the contract and then you find yourself searching for a new engine or creating one from scraps. At least this is my point of view. Funny thing we offered our engines to SkyRacing when they was looking, but they liked more the SPR-C01. Any other team decided to build their own but we will be always up to supply other teams! The engine follows somewhat the chassis mentality, all-rounder, but this time we focused more on two key features.

What are your expectations?

After one race? Hard to tell! For sure we are happy with the car and we know we can be competitive but we will have to wait a bunch of rounds to see who is the top dog and who stays on the backfield! Let's just keep it quiet for now and say that we started with the right attitude!

Thanks for your time Robert!

Thanks for yours! And don't forget on your way to the exit to look at the CRD Merchandise, t-shirt, car models, hats and drinks! All signed by me and Marek, buy one and you can say: I was there when a legend born!

Seriously...

Come one, come on, check our shop, byee!

Qualifying for the race of Melbourne seemed to suggest that Sky Racing was going to be the team to beat as Szabolcs Nagy took pole position, with his teammate Darash Chablani in 3rd place, the duo separated by Ville Valtonen of Thrust Motorsport. Marek Jablonski followed in 4th for CDR, while 5th went to Marc Ferring with the Crash Test Dummies car. The race started under dry conditions, and the teams were for a historical race of 58 laps in the inaugural race of the new series FRuro. When the lights went green, the biggest mover was Willi Wutz, going up for five places from P25 to P20. In the top three the order remained the same, while John Allen jumped to 4th past Jablonski, who was now 5th next to his teammate Robert Conrey, who was 6th.

Lap 2 provided the first real move at the top, as Nagy reported brake issues, making him an easy target for Valtonen behind, who wasted no time in overtaking the Sky Racing driver for the lead of the race. Further down the grid, Jankowski and Rademaker collided slightly in a battle for 24th, with bodywork damage to Rademaker and a locked wheel for Jankowski. On lap 3 BJ Braisted had an electronics problem and lost four places, becoming the worst placed Super Soft runner down in 21st place. Meanwhile Wutz and Matthew Baker collided, both getting away without a scratch however. Wutz had his race badly compromised the following lap, reporting a significant problem with his brakes in P15. Before that, Conrey and Ferring came to odds over P6 and collided, Ferring dropping to P19 and Conrey to P25. We also had our first retirement, as Phillip A Jeffery was unable to avoid Conrey and his spinning car, and crashed out. Adam State inherited 6th place, but took some damage when avoiding Conrey.

Jeffery was the first to retire from the race

Lap 5 Nagy had a base system problem and lost time, dropping from P2 to P5, raising his teammate to P2 instead while Valtonen still led the race. Lap 6 saw Clyde Springer having issues with the suspension in P7, reportedly lapping a bit slower after that. Meanwhile down at the back, Conrey had started his comeback by overtaking the hard tyre users, climbing up to P20. The following lap saw Wutz retire as the second driver, following a complete brake failure. Brakes seemed to be in danger today as down in P21 Shaun Hartley next reported issued with his. The battle for 3rd went on overdrive on lap 9, as Allen and Jablonski clashed. Allen broke his front wing and pitted, dropping down to P18. Jablonski meanwhile spun like his teammate Conrey before, dropping to P16, right behind Conrey who was now 15th. Meanwhile Ferring and Peter Lind had collided, and both were forced to pit, dropping to 24th and 23rd respectively.

At the end of the tenth lap, Valtonen was starting to build a lead over Chablani, who seemed to be degrading his tyres much faster, the gap approaching two seconds. Baker also now reporter problems with the the suspension of his car down in P11. The very next lap it was double trouble for Baker, who first lost the use of his ERS, which then forced him off track as it did not close in time due to the problem. He fell down to 14th place, while Chablani from 2nd was the first to pit, dropping to P16 and picking hard tyres. With Nagy and Springer both suffering from issues, Valtonen was enjoying a lead of six seconds at the top, but then went to the pits on lap 13, giving the lead to Nagy again.

Valtonen had a problem in the pits and lost a few seconds as a tyre got stuck, but nothing major as he exited in P10, ahead of Baker. Springer, Warren, Reinders and Smith all also pitted, coming out in P15, 16, 17 and 19. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows as Thrust Motorsport, with Reinders reporting transmission problems just before his pit stop. State and Mischa Shuttle collided in a fight for 3rd right before both pitted on that lap. Neither lost time, but some tyre life. Behind them Valtonen also had a collision, having a clash with Jablonski. He got away luckily, while Jablonski lost some tyre life before also pitting that lap. Nagy finally pitted on lap 15, giving the lead to Adrian Hingley. He came out in P11. Sérgio Marques was now running in 2nd, nearly six seconds behind Hingley. Valtonen was now 6th, 11.5 seconds behind. Warren reported suspension issues, while Hartley was another retiree due to a brake failure.

Brakes. Who needs them?

Smith and Enzo Terreno collided on lap 16, Terreno being forced to pit due to a broken wing while Smith lost about ten seconds as he went wide off track. Hingley and Conrey pitted on lap 17, giving Marques the lead of the race. Hingley came out 10th, right behind Nagy. Conrey was out in P12, behind Reinders. The top three pitted the next lap, giving Valtonen back the lead of the race. Allen was in 2nd just 2.3 seconds behind after a stop on lap 9, while Springer in 3rd was over seven seconds behind. McCarrick reported ERS issues and Jankowski had suspension issues, continuing the list of repeating issues across the field. Jablonski also had his third collision already, this time with State, both locking wheels. Shuttle ran wide on lap 19, and hit Baker on the way. Baker spun, and Shuttle had to pit due to front wing damage. Meanwhile Warren overtook Chablani for P5, but both locked wheels in the melee.

Allen's tyres were starting to degrade by lap 22, the gap to Valtonen increasing by half a second per lap. Meanwhile Hingley made a daring maneuver on Springer, snatching hold of 3rd place. While Valtonen kept increasing his lead to 5.4 seconds by lap 26, his teammate Reinders had just been forced outside the points, down to P11. Meanwhile Jablonski pitted, dropping to P16. Ian Kay in P14 was one of three drivers yet to pit, but already 32 seconds from the P1 position. Sky Racing was having increasing difficulty performing now as Nagy reported base system problems again, while Chablani locked a wheel as Smith passed him with a lucky move. Springer and Smith pitted on lap 27, dropping down to P12 and P15. Valtonen followed the next lap just as Hingley passed his teammate Allen for 2nd (now 1st place). Valtonen came out in 4th place, 11.6 seconds behind Hingley. This was next 3rd place as Allen pitted, dropping down to P9. Allen was the next victim of brake problems, reporting an issue with them on lap 31.

Lap 33 was a lap of problems, as Hingley in the lead reported ERS problems, while Reinders down in P12 had engine problems. Warren also was the newest victim of brake issues. McCarrick meanwhile damaged his car with a mistake he made. On lap 34 Valtonen overtook Conrey for 2nd, now lapping over a second quicker than Hingley without the use of ERS. The next lap Conrey was yet another victim of suspension problems, getting slightly slower. Hingley, Conrey and Marques (1st, 3rd, 4th) pitted on lap 38, coming out in 3rd, 7th and 8th. Allen from P2 reported on lap 39 that his brake issues were getting more severe, getting significantly slower due to this. On lap 42 Hingley overtook Allen for 2nd, but the gap to Valtonen had increased to 13.5 seconds already. This came the lead again as Valtonen pitted for the third and last time on lap 43, coming out in 3rd place, just 4.4 seconds behind. Smith reported issues with electronics in P4, and then pitted, dropping to P9. Valtonen was past Allen in two laps, reducing the gap to Hingley to 3.7 seconds. Chablani down in P11 had suspension problems and also locked his wheel following a mistake. Nagy was running a second behind him, so Sky Racing was not having a good time so far.

Lap 46 Hingley lost any use of his ERS, and instantly went two seconds slower the next lap. With no weapon to stop Valtonen from overtaking, Hingley had to cede the place the very next lap, falling to 2nd place. with Conrey just five seconds behind, it looked likely there would be more places lost. Lap 49 saw Allen also report ERS issues, a common problem for the team it seems. Reinders had problems with the brakes down in P13, and was now in no shape to fight for the lower points. Smith and Springer collided in a battle for 7th, but both continued without any damage. Allen pitted on lap 50, dropping down to P9. Meanwhile Braisted was another driver with brake issues, running in P5. Conrey overtook Hingley easily on lap 51, while Jablonski from P8 had to pit, dropping to P13. Marques also overtook Hingley the next lap, dropping him to 4th already. Nagy overtook McCarrick, and climbed to 10th place. Lap 54 saw Hingley lock his wheel, while Springer reported base system problems in P7. Smith and Braisted overtook Hingley the next lap, and Springer followed in lap 56.

At the top Valtonen had a lead of 11.4 seconds with a lap to go, while Reinders reported another problem, this time with the transmission. Nothing really happened on the last lap, with Valtonen cruising across the line in first place, 12.9 seconds before Conrey in 2nd. Marques took 3rd place, 1.2 seconds behind him. 4th was Smith, four seconds behind Marques. Braisted was 5th, five seconds behind Smith, and two seconds ahead of Springer. Hingley finished 7th in the end, 31 seconds behind Valtonen. Sky Racing scored points with both cars, with Chablani 8th and Nagy 9th, 36 and 39 seconds from Valtonen, who started between the two. 10th and last to score a point was Allen, making SPR and Sky Racing the only two teams to score with both cars.

Valtonen, Conrey and Marques were almost as happy as there three when they made history in the first race of FRuro

Ville Valtonen will no doubt me making Thrust Motorsport TO delighted; fresh from securing a win at the opening Grand Prix, Valtonen is going from strength to strength, with pole by a comfortable two-tenths today!

Robert Conrey joins him on the front row for Conrey Racing Development after finishing 2nd behind Valtonen in Melbourne. Marc Ferring and Szabolcs Nagy both looked competitive, too, with less than three-hundredths of a second separating Conrey from Nagy. This trio of Team Owners all have a great incentive to do well tomorrow; these early races of the Formula could make a big difference further down the line!

It looks like four teams have a certain advantage here in Monaco, with the front four rows locked out with Thrust Motorsport, Conrey Racing Development, Crash Test Dummies and Sky Racing cars. Can the other teams launch a comeback? Perhaps Shadow Racing can make good use of their choice of starting tyre, lining up in 11th and 12th.

After a fantastic opening round in Melbourne, Formula Ruro has attracted hoards of spectators to Monaco for the second round!

Welcome to the “Crash Test Dummies” team presentation !

Perhaps most of you will think that a presentation is quite strange when the season already started. And you’re right ! It’s strange, but this whole team is strange. Just look at their name ! And doing a presentation just minutes before the prestigious Monaco race is not only strange, but also very dangerous ! The drivers have to be concentrated.

We now have the chance to get an interview with team owner and driver Marc Ferring:

Why did you chose this name for your team ?

We don’t want to exaggerate the expectations. With such a name, everybody expects that you will fail.

You are using the same engine as Shadow Racing. Why ?

We had so many crash tests before the season with our chassis, we didn’t have any time to built and test an engine. And Clyde Springer is an old friend of mine, we are collaborating. Right now I’m happy with the engine. But just to be clear: if we win, then it’s because of a great chassis. And if we lose, we can always blame somebody else.

The “Red Bull” strategy ?

Exactly ! You see, working together has some advantages.

Why did you chose Matthew Baker as the second driver ?

Second driver ? NO ! He’s the number 1 driver ! Number 1b ;). He’s one of the most talented drivers out there (and he’s cheap ;)). He had some amazing results in the past, for example winning the 2015 F1 title with the Mercedes and…

Not that difficult with such a great car!

Say that to Rosberg ! And he’s driving in a DTM season at the same time, where he already won 2 races in his BMW M4. By the way, the host of that DTM season is doing an amazing job ;). He probably will win the title in the 2007 F1 season in a BMW… Looking at his most recent results, I think we have to change our livery, we need something more BMW-alike.

What do you expect for this season?

Difficult to say. We’re not the fastest. But we have done enough crash tests, so we should have a pretty reliable car. And you know, when we’re not winning…

You are blaming Clyde Springer’s engine ?

(Marc is just smiling). We are already thinking of the future, because we know that this season won’t be great and we are testing some junior drivers, here’s a picture of the most promising driver:

Thrust Motorsport TO Jos Reinders drove to victory today, making it two in a row for the team! In a Monaco race where, somehow, there were 78 successful overtaking manouevres, Reinders came out on top whilst his hired driver, Ville Valtonen, was put out of the race by Shadow Racing TO Clyde Springer.

Valtonen wasn't the only one not to finish; a total of 9 cars failed to finish the race, 7 of them due to collisions. As the sparks (and pieces of bodywork) flew, the crowd seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the spectacle, when they weren't too distracted by what was going on off the track!

Conrey provided some drama for the fans late in the race, especially after he continued trying to drive this car, with the marshals chasing after him!

Marc Ferring, TO of Crash Test Dummies, pulled off 2nd, and was followed closely across the line by John Allen, achieving SnotPoison Racing's first podium!

The madness and mayhem of Monaco allowed several teams to score their first points of the season, with CTD, RaRaRacing and McShutt Motorworks all putting some scores on the board for the first time this weekend. After just two races, 11 of the 13 teams have scored points!

Some spectators were too distracted by the boobs boats in the harbour to focus on the race

It was definately a what if race for the McShutt driver, and despite a fairly average drive with a dash of suspension issue, Mischa Shuttle was left somewhat concerned over the behaviour of race driver, Enzo Terreno.

"He was definately taking far too many risks, any other track, the moves that he made he would have gotten away with no problems whatsoever, but that move he made on Rademaker, which I saw from a distance, was never going to be a pretty sight. I was awful to see Paul clatter into the wall coming out of the tunnel at that speed, and Terreno was lucky to be able to walk away from that, I heard Paul had gotten out of the car OK but he was taken to Hospital, so who knows what is wrong with him, but for sure, I think the bosses will need to have a sit down with Enzo and talk about the risks he's taking out there, I know he's an aspiring rookie, but that accident could have been a lot worse for either Paul or himself"

Shuttle questions Terreno's racing style at monaco after collecting Rademaker sending them both out of the race, and Paul into hospital

With owner and teammate Jaime McCarrick picking up the teams first points, Shuttle was left twiddling his thumbs down in 14th place, are the nerves getting the better of him?

"For sure its still the early part of the season, obviously watching Paul Career into the wall at the speed he was at knocked some confidence out of me, plus being hampered with suspension issue midway through the race, it did hold me back a little, but I'm sure I will be able to bounce on back for the next race in sepang for sure, I think today for the team showed potential of the car that we really didn't get to see back in Australia, what with my accident and McCarricks ERS issues, but then I think luck played a part in todays race with that many retirements and safety car periods, so who knows what Sepang will bring us."

It may have been a good day for McCarrick, but Shuttle left feeling a little knocked after todays antics during the race.

Zofast driver Adam State has apoligized to James Smith of JSF1 about the early race crash. Here is what State had to say,

"It was early in the race and after the last round I wanted to make up for it. I had closed on him rapidly and wanted to make the pass as fast as possible so I had to risk it. I know this is Monaco and it is very tight around here but I have a job to do for myself and the sponsors. I would also like to point out that my tryes had lost some grip already and were not at prime performance."

State was also angry that he now has a 5 place grid drop for the next race but would not comment on this. He and his teammate Enzo Terreno will need to improve there race conduct to have any chance of scoring points and not taking other drivers out in the process.

I've had a couple of Team Owners ask me about whether in-season development would contribute to future seasons. Initially, my answer was pretty much a simple no, but I've since had an idea for how it could be done relatively easily. Obviously, the implementation of this could affect different teams in different ways, and so I wanted to get your thoughts (particularly those of TOs) on this.

For every 0.1 improvement a team gets for each component during a season, the team would have 1 fruro added to their investment for that component at the end of the season. So, if Team X upgrades their suspension reliability by 0.4 and engine speed by 0.6, they would get 4 fruros added to suspension reliability and 6 to engine power at the end of the season.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you like it implemented? Given that it wasn't announced that this would happen (and could have affected people's strategies), it would only be implemented at the end of this season if no TO had an objection to it. In fact, decisions of this nature (i.e. non-balancing changes to the rules) [i]should[/i] be voted on by you, the Team Owners! It could add a nice little bit of diplomacy ;)

So, the necessities for implementation:

To be implemented at the end of Season 1: Unanimous TO agreement.
To be implemented from the end of Season 2 onwards: Majority vote of the TOs.

This will also be posted in the Paddock Pub, to increase the chances of people seeing it.

Of course, if you're particularly pro or against this (or any future) motion, you might want to bribe or lean on disagreeing TOs to come round to your way of thinking. ;)

After just a minor collision in Monaco, Paul Rademaker was sent to the hospital, where the nurses gave him a warm welcome. Allthough all the beds were filled, the management assured him of getting him his own bed, cause he used that one so many times before. Most of the nurses know him so well, since he visits this hospital several times a year now, so they gave him a special treat. What they did exactly, Paul wouldn't say. Instead, he released some pictures on Facebook today:

nurse 2 nurse 3

By the looks of it, it seems Paul's recovering pretty well, so he'll be back in the grid in no-time. Just to make sure, he'll spend a few more days in the nurses' arms.

nurses 1

Even the Queen of England came by to see how he was doing, and ofcourse she inspected the crew:

queen 1

Paul: "Just to be sure, I'll stay here for a while. Don't worry, I'll be back in form, topfit for the next race! And I really like this hospital-food!"

nuese 4

In the background we see Paul, after his treat by the nurses, It seems he might be there longer that he thinks...

Interviewed during free practice at Sepang, Enzo Terreno apologized for his too aggressive behaviour during the last race.
"I want to apologize publicly to Paul" - he said - "The season did not start very well for Zo Fast team and both Adam and myself wanted to make a big race. Certainly, the lack of experience did not help. I do hope that Paul do not suffer of any consequences from the accident".

"At the same time I would like also to condemn the behavior of the Paul's teammate Mischa Shuttle at the end of the race, when he tried to give me some advises for the future races."

Shuttle (left) is trying to convince Terreno (right) to be less aggressive in the next races

"I'm sure that Adam and I will prove to be correct and fast drivers here in Sepang."

Sky Racing have finally started to demonstrate the speed expected of them, with the team's TO, Szabolcs Nagy, taking pole in Sepang by a tenth of a second and hired driver Darash Chablani set to start directly behind him, from 3rd.

It wasn't just Sky Racing who came out ahead of everyone here in Sepang, though; Crash Test Dummies are in hot pursuit, with TO Marc Ferring leading the charge, lining up in 2nd whilst Matthew Baker managed 4th. The front two rows of the grid tomorrow will look almost identical, but will the two teams manage to drive off in to the Malaysian sunset?

Perhaps it should be noted that these two teams making a break for it are the two engine customer teams! Sky Racing are using SnotPoison Racing's SPR E-01 V6 engine, whilst Crash Test Dummies are powered by Shadow Racing's Shadowtech V6.

Coming closest to these two teams, and trailing Baker by just seven-thousandths of a second, was AMERICAN driver Phillip Jeffery, driving for ALL-AMERICAN team Shadow Racing, who were the only other team to manage to get both cars through to Q3 today. Clyde Springer, the team's TO, lines up 8th.

The two teams who have yet to score - Minardi Team UK and Zo Fast - both have drivers in the top 10 today, with Minardi's Sebastian 'Shuckle' Jankowski in 7th and Zo Fast's Adam State in 10th.

The third race of the Formula Ruro calendar takes place here in Sepang

Another dismall qualifying session for the McShutt driver after encountering braking issues that saw him sidelined for the majority of Q1. During his second hot lap of the day, Mischa came over the radio complaining of brake fade heading into turn 10, this resulted in the driver running wide at turn 11 nearly beaching him in the gravel. Despite this, the Brit made it back to the pits so that work could be carried out.

"Everything felt OK during my first run, I started to feel a bit quicker on my 2nd run, but then the car started to behave differently under braking then at turn 11 it got really bad. It was a good lap ruined by the discs, we had a real good shot today but certainly not from the number 42 garage."

The light at the end of the drought tunnel again appears to be flickering for Mischa Shuttle as his brake discs hampers any attempt at moving up the grid

Qualifying for the team in general was a total nightmare as owner Jamie McCarrick didn't even make it round the 3rd corner before his engine decided to call it a day, can the story at McShutt turn a different story here?

"For sure it's been a difficult start to the season, we have a lot of work to do for the race tomorrow and indeed for this half of the season, we seem to be falling behind target so we definately need to put or running shoes on and catch up, it was definately a good moral boost for the team last time round at Monaco putting points on the board and I think it did show potential in the car, but it's still a long way to go."

minardi team uk fired a shot to the other teams today as their star driver sebastien jankowski stormed up to take by far their best grid slot of the season. While it may only be p7, it serves as a warning that the sleeping minnow of the series may finally be awakening... Only time will tell....

Though he scored his, and RaRaRacing’s first points of the Formula Ruro season in Monaco Scott Warren faces a tough test if he is to add to his tally tomorrow in Malaysia after an engine issue in qualifying.

“We got a misfire in the engine on what should have been the flying lap in Q1. We went out and did the shakedown lap and didn’t have an issue. Then we bolted on the softer tyres, turned the engine up and the first time I put my foot down it was obvious something was wrong.”

He continued: “We tried to get what we could for it, but it wasn’t enough. Qualifying is hard enough in this series with Q1 knocking out 11 drivers but when you don’t have a car under you really don’t have a chance.”

Image makes it look like Warren was going fast. He wasn't.

Despite heaving a flying lap of 1:40.115 from his machine Warren will line up 24^th on the 26 car grid for the race, and knows the scale of the challenge ahead of him.

“I honestly don’t expect to finish,” he admitted. “We all saw in Monaco the chaos this grid is capable of. Yes, here we’ve all got a little more space before we hit a barrier, but that’ll just mean everyone is taking a few more risks.”

“If there is a good thing,” he tries to find the positives. “It’s the quality of the drivers at the back. There’s Jos [Reinders, winner in Monaco] at the very back an there’s Ian Kay, Sergio Marques and James Smith all starting at the back, so hopefully the first few laps should be a bit calmer that they might be otherwise.”

“We have a whole stack of Supersoft tyres to use, but in order to get the best out of them I’m going to have to do a whole load of overtaking which asks me to be a little more aggressive but also needs those in slower cars to be a little more accommodating than some were in the previous race.”

Warren’s Team Owner, Paul Rademaker claimed his best starting position of the season so far. The Dutchman will start the race from 12^th after qualifying 13^th fastest, but close enough behind Zo Fast’s Adam State to benefit from the five place grid penalty handed to him after taking out JSF1 Team Owner Smith.

Matthew Baker today proved he's no dummy, taking victory in Malaysia despite a minor gearbox issue on his car. The Crash Test Dummies driver opted for an aggressive four-stop race, pulling off a total of 21 overtakes in what was, as seems to be the norm in Formula Ruro, an extremely eventful race! The fans got to witness not 1, not 2, but 289 overtakes today!

In an impressive drive, recovering from 17th on the grid, John Allen of SnotPoison Racing recovered and managed to pull off 2nd place, losing the ability to lose ERS in the closing laps. Despite this, Allen becomes the first driver to have appeared on a Formula Ruro twice!

Today was certainly a day for hired drivers; not a single Team Owner was seen on the podium, with Conrey Racing Development's Marek Jablonski taking the last podium position after depriving SPR of what would have been the first double podium. Jablonski overtook SPR TO Adrian Hingley on the last lap, powering past him on the restart once the Safety Car pulled in.

Reliability woes continue for the much vaunted Sky Racing, with Szabolcs Nagy suffering from a brake failure and retiring from 3rd with just four laps to go! No such problems for Minardi Team UK, though; they enter the standings with a bang after both drivers managed to score and being one of only two teams to not suffer from any mechanical issues, the other being McShutt Motorworks, who also got a double points finish, along with Shadow Racing.

There was plenty of entertainment throughout the race.. this was lap 19!

A bitter-sweet day for Conrey Racing Development

It was a positive and negative day for the team of Robert Conrey, Conrey Racing Development, with the hired driver Marek Jablonski celebrating his first podium in the Formula Ruro series while Robert Conrey ended with a retirements and a angry look on his face.

When reached by the media, Conrey was able to say some calm and praiseful words for his teammate: "To whoever asked me about Jablonski, today you got the answer. He is a strong and capable driver and he managed to recover from a bad qualify ending in 3rd place to conquer his first podium. He is a pro, I'm happy to have him on the team and I'm sure he will keep scoring good points!"

But then the melody changed as he was asked about his race: "I know everyone is desperate for points in the premiere season of this new sport but this is getting ridicolous! In 3 races I got hit at least once in every weekend, luckily the first weekend I managed to make a big recovery but I wasn't so lucky at Monaco or today. This race was the worse of all, first I got pushed off track then I got slammed in the barrier, both times by drivers who ignored cautions and tried an overtake where it was impossible to pass. If we want to give a clean and respectable face to this series, this has to end!"

Last but not least the Italian gone on the new rules that will take place from Season 2: "There will be some major changes from what I heard. The biggest one is surely the ban of the research & development during the season, this will push the teams to investm ore money in the "aero package" and the "engine tweaks" DURING the season to have a better car to work on during winter, there was an idea to enforce the rule straight away from now but I was one of the strategy group members who voted against it. Then money will start to flow more with bigger sponsorship but even bigger salaries to the drivers, it will be interesting to see how the economy of this little world will change. But enough talks, we are just to the third round and there is much more to be done this season!"

With the name Crash Test Dummy you'd expect me to be ,well, crashing and thus far for this, the first season of Formula Ruro, I have been with in the first two races five reported incidents of contact with other cars adding to the madness that has been Formula Ruro so far. Of those five incidents two have been considered as "serious" accidents which I was even penalized for when I tried to go up the inside of Sebastian and clipped his right rear went airborne for a little and into the tyre barrier at what felt like a billion kilometers per hour.

But this race that all changed. For once I wasn't crashing, I was winning. I started out in 9th after qualifying 4th due to that grid place penalty I got after the crash in Monaco. My real defining moment was working my way up the grid in my second stint getting up to first before pitting and then efficiently making my way through the field on the third putting me 10 seconds ahead of Marek who was trailing behind. A few laps later making the undercut work time and time again for my fourth and final stop I really hit a pot of gold and got lucky with an early stop and the SC coming out. At that time I just managed to get past John and was just establishing a gap but I was quicker and really had no worries of trying to stay ahead.

One lap after the SC came back in I heard my engineer shouting over the radio "You did it you won!!" Was it really that simple?
I think I'll do this instead of crashing. I like this.

The Malaysian Grand Prix certainly bought out some rather suprising results, and for the McShutt Team, it definately was a treat to haave both cars finish in the top 10 with McCarrick coming home in 8th followed by Shuttle in 9th.

"What a day, the squad was definately on form today as the lads put out a real cheeky package on both the cars and thye both worked a treat, we were never threatened for finishing outside the points, we were consistantly setting decent lap times to the cars further up the board. There were one or two close calls but I think we just about held on to our places, so a thumbs up to the team there."

The McShutt Car was looking fly at Malaysia as the whole squad was on point in the race.

However, the consistant racing at Sepang nearly came to tatters after Thrust Motorsport Ville Valtonen came together resulting in Shuttle spinning off and Valtonen crashing and retiring, we asked Shuttle what his views were on the incident.

"I think it was just a simple racing incident, he tried an ambitious move which didn't quite go to plan, his front wheel made contact with my rear wheel which span me and knocked his suspension off, the accident could have been a lot worse but fortunately I recovered and Ville got away lightly, however I do belive the safety car did save my bacon as it did allow me to pass two cars on the last lap."

Valtonens car was knackered after his collision with Shuttle. But Shuttles Smug face got off scot free and into the points.

Thrust Motorsport achieved Formula Ruro's first front-row lockout today, with Ville Valtonen leading TO Jos Reinders on the grid tomorrow after both were a tenth faster than their competitors.

Last race's winner, Matthew Baker, lines up on the second row for Crash Test Dummies, alongside Szabolcs Nagy, whose Sky Racing team has yet to display the dominance expected of them!

Both McShutt Motorworks and Shadow Racing managed to get both their cars through to the shootout, whilst both JSF1 and ZoFast got representation through their TOs, James Smith and Enzo Terreno.

Can we expect drama in to the first corner tomorrow?

It's back-to-back wins for the Crash Test Dummies, this time with TO Marc Ferring taking the chequered flag after making good use of the durability of the Hard tyres.

Having started in 11th, Ferring was free to choose his starting tyre for the race, and was one of just two drivers to opt for the Hards. The other, Shaun Hartley, went with a bizarre three-stop strategy, and ultimately finished 11th.

We finally saw some evidence of the pace Sky Racing were expected to have, with TO Szabolcs Nagy harrassing the slower Ferring for much of his second stint, though he couldn't make it past and his Medium tyres faded at the end. Still, it's Sky Racing's long-awaited first podium, and the team will no doubt be happy with that!

SnotPoison Racing TO Adrian Hingley will no doubt be delighted with his choice of hired driver; John Allen made his third consecutive appearance on the podium and leads the Drivers' championship. These consistent results have led to SPR currently leading the Constructors' championship by a narrow margin of just two points despite no race wins!

Whilst JSF1 don't appear to have the raw speed of their rivals, that hasn't stopped TO James Smith managing a couple of good finishes, with another 4th place here in Shanghai. The dual-run team of McShutt Motorworks has also been running well, with on-paper TO Jamie McCarrick scoring consistently, a theme he continued this weekend, finishing 5th after charging through the field in the closing laps on much fresher tyres, having opted for a two-stop race.

Darash Chablani did well to recover from 20th in the other Sky Racing car, though there were a few dodgy moments, with his aggressive driving style providing for some hair-raising overtakes. With the teams having so much to play for, it hasn't gone unnoticed that many drivers are trying to pull off some pretty aggressive manouevres, which often haven't paid off. Two drivers in particular have complained of being serial victims of this on-track over-enthusiasm; Conrey Racing Development and Shadow Racing's TOs, Robert Conrey and Clyde Springer. Speaking after Sepang, Conrey made a statement on the issue: "This race was the worse of all, first I got pushed off track then I got slammed in the barrier, both times by drivers who ignored cautions and tried an overtake where it was impossible to pass. If we want to give a clean and respectable face to this series, this has to end!". More recently, Springer complained about being "punted off again" after today's race, in which ZoFast's TO, Enzo Terreno, sent Springer flying in to the barriers in a move which was never going to end well. It isn't the first time that Terreno, whose team is the only one yet to have scored points, has been in the news for the wrong reasons; Mischa Shuttle raised concerns about the Italian's aggressive driving style after he pitched RaRaRacing's Paul Rademaker in to the Armco in Monaco. Terreno didn't respond well to the criticism, getting in to a scuffle with Shuttle after what he saw an unwanted interference.

Speaking after today's race in Shanghai, Formula Ruro supremo Cia Smith called for calm, urging drivers to be "a little more respectful of their fellow drivers, both on and off the track" and pointing out that "no driver has won Formula Ruro by using their car as a battering ram".

RaRaRacing's Scott Warren scored some valuable points for the team, finishing 7th, which he seemed pleased about after the race, if not somewhat ruefully suggesting the Mediums were a better tyre to run with.

Robert Conrey finished 8th for CRD, a sure improvement on his recent non-finishes due to the actions of other drivers, whilst Adrian Hingley came 9th for SPR after an awful getaway off the line and subsequent bodywork damage as ZoFast's Adam State closed the door on him. Polesitter Ville Valtonen took the last championship point, having suffered from an engine malfunction and later getting stuck behind the damaged CRD car of Marek Jablonski.

Clyde Springer was understandably frustrated with the driving of some of his fellow racers

It seems in the last few rounds that ZoFast have had some serious problems with the car and their driving. They have been called out for their driving standards at Monoco and in the last race had major problems with the car and were just lucky to finish. Now we know that they are young inexperienced drivers but they should still be doing better than that. Maybe it could be money problems or maybe not but we have an interview with hired driver Adam State which may give us an idea of what is going wrong.

What is the car like to drive?

It is a great car but we just keep getting involved in accidents that we can't avoid. My qualifying results have shown the car is quick but it seems that our race pace is slow and inconsistent.

What improvements have been making?

We have been trying everything to help the reliability of the car but it dosen't seem to be working. I can't give details of what we are doing so our rivals don't try and copy and get quicker but we are trying hard and just hope that the results improve

What do you think of your teammate and team owner Enzo Terreno?

He is a great driver and I thank him for giving me a drive this season and I don't think that the problems with the car are his fault but he needs to put a bit more money in certain areas to help with the improvements. If he doesn't do that then we may have even more problems of trying to reach our target of not being last in the constructors and both of us being in the top 15 in points.

This interview has given us great insight into the team and for the future we hope that they improve to join in the fun of this exciting season that has already got itself rolling and we would like to thank Cia Smith especially.

The ZoFast cars are having major problems and they don't know how to fix them

In the desert sands of Bahrain, Thrust Motorsport have once more taken pole, with hired driver Ville Valtonen taking his third pole of the season for the team! At over a tenth of a second faster than any of his rivals, Valtonen looks favourite to win, but can he replicate his success from the opening round in Australia here?

Darash Chablani joins Valtonen on the front row, representing Sky Racing, who were initially thought to have far more raw speed than any other team. Last race's victor, Crash Test Dummies' TO Marc Ferring, lines up in third, alongside fellow TO Robert Conrey, of Conrey Racing Development.

Matthew Baker qualified a respectable 5th in the other CTD, followed by the engine supplier cars of Adrian Hingley, Phillip Jeffery and John Allen. The first and last being of championship leaders SnotPoison Racing, who provide Sky Racing with engines, and Jeffery being of Shadow Racing, who supply second-placed team CTD with their engines.

Jos Reinders and Mischa Shuttle, of Thrust Motorsport and McShutt Motorworks respectively, round out the top 10.

Can Thrust power to another victory around the desert sands of Bahrain?

PokéSport TV Report

Hello and welcome to PokéSport TV Report. I'm your host, Jigglypuff, and it's finally time for our report of Ruro Region Grand Prix.

We are after our first 4 races, and boy, oh boy, there are some exciting things that already happened. Let's carefully run through the standings.

Let's begin with our current leader, Grimer. Poison Racing were our pre season champions, but there are a lot of viewers surprised that it's not the pre season champ that's currently leading the pack. Yet Grimer shows the most consistency with scoring after every race and being on the podium three times, once at 2nd and 2 times at 3rd.

Grimer after finishing 2nd in Sepang City.

Marill is curryntly our number 2 driver in the standings, and honestly saing nobody is surprised with his excellent performance crowned with the victory in Beijingville Grand Prix, but surprisingly he scored points only in two races of four. He is still one of the top contenders for the final victory.

Marill strolling through the pit area.

Number three is the victory Pokémon himself, Victini. After the win in the first race he became the center of attention, but since then he scored only one point. We will see later if the Melbourne City GP was his only victory this season.

Victini eating berries after qualifying session in Melbourne City.

Fourth place is actually a tie between Bellsprout and Elekid. Both of these contestants scored only once, winning one race of four with Bellsprout winning in Monaco City and Elekid taking the win at Sepang City.

Bellsprout fighting neck-in-neck with Shuckle.

Elekid furious after brake failure in Sepang City.

Another tie at the 6th place, we have Hoothoot and Mew, each with 24 points, although Hoothoot took one podium spot being 2nd in Sepang while Mew was right behind the podium shoring 4th place twice.

Hoothoot's daily warmup.

Mew catched daydreaming.

Third tie in a row goes to Ponyta and Larvesta. The newcoming Larvesta is a little surprise, but his consistent scoring pays off early on. As for the experienced Ponyta, he is very unlucky at the moment and I think that he will improve his position later on.

A fan sent us this clip of Ponyta walking around.

Larvesta scaring off the bad spirits of his car.

The champ is here!!! Suprisingly low I must say. Bulbasaur is now 10th with 21 points only he's still in range of the drivers that are currently 3rd and lower, but he has to show more of his chmpion skills to achieve that.

Bulbasaur last season after his championship victory. Can he repeat that again?

Ralts is pretty much right behind our raining champ. So far this is quite a random season for him with scoring every second race. Can he improve? Only time will tell...

Ralts after realizing that he's in the middle of the pack.

Another tie on our list, Geodude & Lotad, both with 15 points at P12. Despite both of them standing once at the lowest step of the podium, their season is not the best so far. Both of them have something for them, either the car for Geodude or the talent for Lotad.

Geodude yelling at me that he has also a talent.

Lotad's close up after finishing 3rd in Sepang City.

And we start our bottom half with another tie, I don't know which one caus I can only count to four. Both Abra and Wingull have 14 points and they are kinda struggling at the moment, yet their loss to all of the drivers right before them isn't that big and one race can elevate them higher.

Abra with his morning cup of Berry Juice.

Wingull flies into the pit lane.

Holy Arceus, three way tie, this can only happen in Ruro. Shinx, Krabby & Makuhita, all with 10 points in P16. In my opinion of all of these Pokémon Makuhita has the biggest abilities to go up in the standings.

Shinx has a lot to say about his performance.

Krabby looks at the rest of the pack.

Even so far back, Makuhita haven't lost his smile.

Down at 19th with only 9 points, we have Bagon, who currently performs way beyond his abilities. I'm afraid that if he won't improve immediately, only a miracle can save him.

Bagon is ready for race, but why he has this backpack?

It's captain slow himself, Shuckle taking the 20th spot. Before the season he said that he won't be surprised with ending the season without any points, yet an impressive performance in Sepang City gave him a P7 finish. Can he have more good races this season?

Shuckle's dance after earning his first points.

Cranidos is our last contestant to score a point, 2 points to be exact. With his teammate Larvesta in the midfield we can suspect that Cranidos has the car that is a competitive machine, yet somehow he's lacking something to be more competitive.

Cranidos looks how far he's behind.

And we finish our report wit all 5 of the Pokémon without a point. Surprisingly we have Tangela in this group, along with 4 newcomers - Wynaut, Chespin and both members of Ew Fast: Sandshrew and Sneasel. I predict that if Tangela can finish and get a fairly clean race, he will be a contender for the higher spots. It's kinda sad that Ew Fast is not fast. We will see if they can rebound form having zero points.

And with that we're ending our PokéSport TV Report, thank you for your attention and have a nice day!

As previously announced, from Season 2 onwards Hired Drivers must be paid!

Higher salaries bring a couple of benefits to Drivers:

Salary will be directly added to Driver Prestige, which will be used as a key indicator of success in Formula Ruro.
Total Salary over time will be stockpiled. If a Hired Driver chooses to become a Team Owner by setting up their own team, this stockpiled Salary will be added to their Season 1 budget, allowing them to jump straight in to being roughly a midfield team.

To ensure that Salaries are representative of a Driver's abilities, for Season 2 onwards, the FRA has implemented a number of MINIMUM Salary levels for drivers. Note that these are minimums, and Drivers are encouraged to negotiate their Salaries to above these levels.

To ensure that one surprisingly good result does not make a Hired Driver too expensive to secure a seat, a three-season running average of their results will be used.

The Salary structure:

Tier	3-Season Average	Minimum Salary
Elite	250+	100
Professional	150-249.9	60
Experienced	50-149.9	25
Intermediate	10-49.9	10
Rookie	0-9.9	0

Where a Driver has not competed in the most recent three seasons, the missing seasons will be seen as 0s, meaning that a Driver who has only competed in one season, in which they scored 120 points, would have a Three-Season Average of 40, making them an Intermediate driver. This rule applies to all Drivers for Seasons 2 and 3.

In order to support rookie teams and to help to introduce new faces to the series, Rookie drivers may be hired for free.

In future seasons, TOs and Drivers may be allowed to sign multi-season contracts with a fixed rate of their beginning Three-Season Average, but these will not be allowed for Season 2.

Matthew Baker took yet another victory for Crash Test Dummies today, making it three in a row for the team, and Baker's second this season. The result pushes CTD to the top of the Constructors' standings!

Despite twice breaking his front wing due to acts of aggression on SnotPoison Racing's John Allen and The Unpredictables' Willi Wutz, serving a Drive Through Penalty for the former, Sky Racing's Darash Chablani managed to recover to an impressive 2nd, thanks in no small part to the Safety Car, who bunched the field up and allowed the Spaniard to climb 9 places in the last few laps!

Robert Conrey fell to the back of the pack as the victim of a first corner encounter with SPR's TO Adrian Hingley, but the Conrey Racing Development TO made good of his afternoon, recovering to take his long-awaited second podium of the season.

Sky Racing got through a whopping 5 front wing's this afternoon, with Szabolcs Nagy also breaking his as he battled with Marek Jablonski. He also managed to pull off a decent finish despite this, finishing 4th; Sky Racing finally seemed to be showing the pace expected of them today, and if they'd had clean races, could surely have had a chance at their first victory!

Recovering from 19th, AAR's BJ Braisted seemed to be one of the most responsible drivers on track today, not pulling off any dodgy manouevres; though he did make contact with Ville Valtonen, this was clearly a racing incident, rather than an aggressive move. Braisted was rewarded for his patience, securing his joint best performance of the season so far, with 5th.

John Allen continues his run of points in 6th to maintain his championship lead, whilst JSF1's Peter Lind scored his first points of the season, finishing 7th!

I've heard quite a few grumblings over the past few races, so I wanted to gather your (early) suggestions and thoughts about how the series could be improved to be more enjoyable and to get to the crux of what people are actually getting irritated about.

YOU HAVE SPOKEN, AND I HAVE LISTENED!

Right, OK, thanks for the feedback! I think Ville is right that most of the issues seem to stem from me basing it on what is a somewhat controversial carset (Retro), though James IS correct about the reliability in that carset.

However, your cars in this carset WOULDN'T just get more reliable; it would actually diverge more, so I plan on altering things a bit.

It seems that there are three concerns people have:

Reliability could be improved
Too many collisions
Reward structure favours successful teams too much

So, for Season 2 (in the case of #3, Season 1) I plan on introducing some balancing changes to address these.

This is very much a community-led venture, so I'm happy to make alterations to the way it works to make it more enjoyable for those racing in it!

My thoughts:

I think much of the problem here lies with people perhaps ignoring reliability investment, but there are probably too many issues going on anyway. There are two things I can do to fix this: increase the reliability of components in the editor; decrease the difference reliability investments make.
To be honest with you, this one is on you guys. There's some very high aggro racing going on, and in a carset where there's a lot of overtaking (I've seen more overtaking here than in most other carsets), that's probably a bad move..! Here, I think the biggest change ought to come from the drivers, and so one change I'll make is a bit of a nudge: increasing the frequency of penalties for dangerous overtakes. This should at least discourage people from racing with high aggro values. I'll keep this under review during Season 2, though, with the possibility of reducing how fatal collisions are.
This one is easy to fix, though there seems to be some outdated information floating around. Currently, the planned gap between teams in the Constructors' champ is 40, not 50 (because of the size of the grid). I'll be changing this to increase the percent of the budget consisting of the flat rate amount awarded to all teams.

Planned Changes:

Slightly improving the reliability of a couple of components (Season 2). Decrease the degree to which reliability investment can increase/decrease reliability (Season 2).
Increase the frequency of penalties for dangerous driving by one step (Season 2).
Altered reward structure (Season 1). It will now be 250+(250 for Constructor Champ, if not then 20 for each Team beaten)+(10*Win)+(5*Podium) (Season 1). As previously discussed and voted on, from next season your in-season developments will also contribute to your investment in the relevant component (Season 2).

I'll also adjust the Minimum Driver Salaries to take account of the altered Budget levels.

Do these address your concerns?

Zo Fast have got their first points of the season in style, becoming only the third team to win a Formula Ruro Grand Prix! Hired driver Adam State's decision to use the Hard tyres proved crucial, giving him plenty of speed at the end of his stint whilst those around him tried to stretch their Soft tyres out to lasting 26 laps, allowing State to regain the lead on the last lap!

Things weren't quite so rosy for Zo Fast's TO, Enzo Terreno, who was involved in yet another collision of his own making, attempting to overtake SnotPoison Racing TO Adrian Hingley and then expecting the Australian to just disappear! Drivers have already raised concerns about Terreno's driving, and it seems that these will only grow in volume!

SPR did still manage to score good points, though, with John Allen finishing 2nd for yet another podium, and Hingley salvaging 9th. The team lead the Constructors' standings by 5 points over Crash Test Dummies, whose hired driver, Matthew Baker, was called up for his behaviour on track today, after ploughing in to Sky Racing TO Szabolcs Nagy, who was in the lead of the Grand Prix at the time!

Jos Reinders delivered another podium for his Thrust Motorsport team with what was a refreshingly unagressive driving style in Formula Ruro, allowing the Dutchman to avoid the collisions which come with a more aggressive style. His polesitting hired driver, Ville Valtonen, wasn't quite so lucky'; an overconfident Darash Chablani careered in to him on the first lap, sending him right to the back of the pack, though he did ultimately manage to recover to 6th.

Sérgio Marques delivered a good performance for The Unpredictables, closely followed by Phillip Jeffery, of Shadow Racing, whose TO, Clyde Springer, recovered from 23rd to 8th!

Robert Conrey's race was severely hampered by bodywork damage obtained after Mischa Shuttle hit him near the start of the race. Tensions were high in the McShutt Motorworks garage; Shuttle's incredibly aggressive driving sent his unassuming teammate, Jamie McCarrick, to hospital! McCarrick is reported to have only light injuries, but questions need to be asked about why Shuttle was so aggressive on track, let alone towards his own teammate!

Sebastian Jankowski rounded out the top 10, taking the final championship point for Minardi Team UK!

Zo Fast finally lived up to their name!

Sebastian 'Shuckle' Jankowski delivered Minardi Team UK their first Formula Ruro pole, and in fact the first pole position not to be filled by Ville Valtonen or Szabolcs Nagy, here in Montreal!

Jankowski saw off Crash Test Dummies TO Marc Ferring by a mere three-thousandths of a second, with John Allen just a further nine-thousandths of a second behind him for SnotPoison Racing, in what was a closely fought qualifying battle!

The top 7 on the grid are all from different teams, with Robert Conrey, Szabolcs Nagy and Ville Valtonen lining up in 4th, 5th and 6th for CRD, Sky Racing and Thrust Motorsport. Nagy complained after the session that he felt the track was slower at the end of Q3, though the temperature had remained consistent and rival Conrey actually improved his time on his later run.

Shadow Racing were one of only two teams to get both cars through to Q3, lining up 7th and 8th with TO Clyde Springer leading Phillip Jeffery.

Jamie McCarrick will start from 8th, and will surely be eager to avoid his McShutt Motorworks teammate on track tomorrow so as not to have a repeat performance of the events in Spain! Matthew Baker lines up 10th in the other CTD car after an issue with his brakes ruined his Q3 chances.

Steward and Formula Ruro supremo has called for a calm race, warning that from Season 2 drivers seen to be behaving in an over-aggressive fashion will be much more likely to face his wrath penalties for their on-track behaviour! He also commented that a number of drivers seem to be rather too confident of their own abilities, and that this has played a major role in the number of dangerous collisions in recent rounds.

Will Ciaran Smith's warning prevent the fans from seeing yet more carnage?

Crash Test Dummies TO Marc Ferring today took his second victory of the season, holding off Thrust Motorsport TO Jos Reinders to win in Montreal by less than three-tenths of a second after a race with two late Safety Cars which bunched the field up. Ferring's result sees CTD take the lead of the Constructors' championship from SnotPoison Racing.

Reinders drove a great race to go from 15th on the grid to the second step of the podium whilst the ever-consistent Drivers' championship leader, John Allen, took yet another podium for SPR.

FRA boss Cia Smith noted after the race that "All three of today's podium drivers were responsible out on track today, showing just how patience and a realistic understanding of one's abilities really pays off in Formula Ruro, rather than how some drivers have been conducting themselves".

One team in the news for the wrong reasons in Canada was Sky Racing; between them Szabolcs Nagy and Darash Chablani were involved in three separate incidents, all deemed to be the fault of the Sky Racing drivers. Nagy received two in-race penalties for his over-confident moves against Jamie McCarrick and Adrian Hingley, whilst Chablani's risky manouevre on Shuttle saw him out of the race with a 5 place grid penalty for Austria.

Meanwhile, polesitter Sebastian Jankowski got his and his team's best result of the season so far, finishing a very respectable 4th for Minardi Team UK. Fifth went to Jamie McCarrick, who held on despite the damage he took from his encounter with Nagy, whilst behind him was Paul Rademaker, RaRaRacing's TO who finally got his name on the scoreboard today, taking 6th for his team.

With a very long first stint on the Hards, The Unpredictables' TO, Willi Wutz, recovered well from 24th to take 7th and 6 valuable points for his team. Robert Conrey, Clyde Springer and Mischa Shuttle took the final points on offer, in 8th, 9th and 10th respectively.

The Constructors' standings are incredibly close, especially down in the second half of the table; just 14 points separate 6th placed Shadow Racing from 13th placed Zo Fast, whose only points come from Adam State's win in Spain.

The result is CTD's fourth win of the season!

Sky Racing were truly flying today, finishing each Quali session 1-2 in the timesheets and showing the pace they were always expected to have! In the end, TO Szabolcs Nagy pipped his teammate Darash Chablani by the narrowest of margins; less than one-thousandth of a second, and the smallest pole margin we've ever had in Formula Ruro!

The celebrations were slightly marred, however, by the fact that Chablani's dangerous driving in Canada netted him a five-place grid penalty for tomorrow's race, meaning that Sky Racing won't be able to convert their dominant qualifying performance in to an actual front row lockout.

Instead, championship leader John Allen will be looking to score his, and SnotPoison Racing's, first Formula Ruro win as he lines up alongside Nagy at the front. Allen was the only driver to manage to get within a tenth of the Sky Racing cars, and has recently stated that he feels SPR's race pace and long-run reliability are great assets of the teams, along with the engine. The latter won't be of any help against Nagy, however; Sky Racing are SPR's engine customer team!

The Unpredictables' Sérgio Marques lines up next to Montreal victor and Crash Test Dummies TO Marc Ferring on row 2, whilst Hired Drivers Peter Lind and Marek Jablonski both benefit from Chablani's penalty, filling the third row for JSF1 and Conrey Racing Development.

Chablani reappears down on the fourth row, with SPR TO Adrian Hingley alongside him. There was much talk of Hingley being the stand out driver in Formula Ruro, given his reputation as an formidable driver, however so far this season he has been thoroughly overshadowed by his Hired Driver, John Allen, albeit partly due to circumstances out of his control, such as Nagy shoving him in to the barrier last time out in Montreal, which may have soured relations between the teams!

The Shadow Racing duo of Clyde Springer and Phillip Jeffery both once again appear in the top 10, filling the fifth row, this time with HD Jeffery leading TO Springer.

None could match the pace of the Sky Racing cars today

Sergio Marques, The UNPREDICTABLES Top driver finds into the season better and better. Row 2 start position on the grid is the teams best result in quali so far. German efficiency meets mediterranean lifestyle at the teams motorhome and pits. Team manager Willi Wutz is working hard putting all his efforts into development of the car and looks even older than he is. Once on the track he needs permanent coaching from his race engineer to stay on track. Sergio, however, brings the fun to the team. Always you find tapas, wine and chicas in his part of the pits, pushing his confidence. He can drive any car to the limit, just a bit like James Hunt in the old days. The team sincerely hopes to see Sergio on podium to attract sponsors - and The Unpredictables will need those to submit a new contract to Sergio. He knows his market value is rising

Upon his return from Canada, John Allen took a few days off from the hectic Formula Ruro world. On Saturday, GCY-Press sportwriter Paul LeVenin met Allen at the Autocross on Chouet Bay where Allen visited old friends and did a few laps in his cousin's car.

PLV: Welcome back to the island, it's been a long time since your last visit to Guernsey. The last time we met, you were virtually unknown to anybody outside the islands and you had just joined the DTM team of Keke Rosberg.
JA: Yeah, a lot has happened since and I have been very busy, lots of travelling, especially after Adrian asked me to join his Australia-based team. It sure feels good to be back again.

PLV: There has been a lot of secrecy and speculation concerning the hired driver at Snot Poison Racing. When did Adrian Hingley get in contact with you and why did it take that long before you were confirmed as driver for his team.
JA: I had a great start into the GP2 season at Carlin and a comfortable championship lead after the first half of the season. Then, things started to become more complicated: tech issues, a very harsh drive through penalty and a few errors, so the other drivers started to catch up. Adrian contacted me right in this difficult phase and I have to admit that I felt incredible flattered and accepted almost instantly. Being in the title race, I wanted to avoid any distraction and additional media attention, thus I asked Adrian to wait with the announcement until the end of the GP2 season. The rumours started when other drivers approached Adrian and it became obvious that he had already signed a driver.

PLV: ... the new GP2 champion, actually. Since you were able to find your pace and consistency again in the last races of the season. Talking about consistency, you have finished all races of the Formula Ruro championship in the points and once again you are leading a championship in your rookie season...
JA: ... and the season is still very long, so don't even think about asking that question.

PLV: Well, ok. You have been instantly successful in Formula Ruro and your car is certainly not the fastest car. What's your secret this season.
JA: First, the race pace of our car is very good and it's among the most realiable cars on the grid. It's true that we need to improve our qualy performance, but we certainly have a great package and in my opinion the best engine of all teams. Second, I was lucky to stay out of trouble most of the time.

PLV: So far you managed 5 podium finishes in 7 races. When do we see you win your first Formula Ruro race?
JA: The competion is very hard this season, so there is no guarantee that we will win a race soon. But I'm convinced that Snot Poison Racing will win races this season and that we will be a strong contender for the teams' championship.

Full behind the scenes report on the political manouverings within JSF1 to follow in the New Year.........rumours of a management take over surface......Team vows to fightback after struggling to untap their radical new car designs performance.............. targeting 5 wins after the winter break.

With early reports of JSF1 shareholders making political moves behind the scenes, TO James Smith vowed that the team would fight back after the Winter break, aiming to win a whopping 5 out of 9 races in the new year. Today, however, it appears that he's starting the fightback early; Smith drove to an impressive victory from 12th on the grid and with the team securing the first double podium of Formula Ruro, as HD Peter Lind managed 3rd, his first podium.

Both JSF1 drivers opted for an unaggressive approach, with it clearly paying off after a result which saw the team launch themselves up the Constructors' standings from 10th to 5th! The team certainly seem to be picking up the pace after looking incredibly slow in pre-season testing.

Another driver responding to criticism today was Adrian Hingley; commentators noted that he was being put in the shade by his HD John Allen. It was Hingley who showed his skills today, though, being the only driver to challenge the JSF1 boys, and ultimately taking 2nd for SnotPoison Racing.

Despite sustaining bodywork damage early on after contact with Crash Test Dummies TO Marc Ferring, Sky Racing's Darash Chablani managed 4th overall, though he may be wondering what could have been had he not had to serve a penalty due to his dangerous driving in Canada.

It was a bumper harvest for Minardi Team UK today, too; the team got a solid finish of 5th and 6th, with HD Sebastian Jankowski leading teammate Shaun Hartley across the line after the latter was involved in a collision with Zo Fast's Enzo Terreno.

Thrust Motorsport's TO, Jos Reinders, finished 7th after brakes and electronics reliability issues late on in the race, whilst AAR's BJ Braisted did well to claim 8th from the very back of the grid, especially after Sky Racing TO Szabolcs Nagy forced him off the track!

Conrey Racing Development rounded out the top 10, with TO Robert Conrey ahead of his three-stopping HD, Marek Jablonski.

JSF1 enthusiastically celebrated their team's double podium

It was not the best of days for AAR driver/owner Ian Kay, as a strategic gaffe and an early collision with RaRaRacing's Scott Warren left the American in 13th and well behind the rest of the field at the end of the day while teammate BJ Braisted finished 8th despite starting dead last. While there is plenty to work on after today's lackluster performance, it appears that the collision with Warren was the team's main focus after the race.

"I really should have known better than to try passing Scott like that," Kay told ESPN after the race. "I've been racing for years and know what is and isn't a good opportunity. That one wasn't, but I tried it anyway. I'm sure he's probably pissed at me for that and, frankly, he has every right to be. If someone took me out with a move like that I wouldn't exactly be very happy about it."

Stopping to collect his thoughts for a moment, Kay said that today's collision was probably a symptom of his team's struggles so far this season.

"If I had to guess why that happened I'd say it was just frustration coming to the surface at an unfortunate time. This has been a trying season for us so far. We're making some pretty dumb strategic mistakes, the car isn't where we expected it to be relative to everyone else, and we can't get anything going over one lap. You put those things together and I think it's caused BJ and I to overcompensate a little and take more risks than we should during the races, but that's no excuse. That was still a stupid move on my part and nothing is going to change that. Given the history he and I have going back to RLB days I just hope Scott doesn't think I have it in for him or something like that."

After a decent start and a stunning drive throughout the race, it was looking like Mischa Shuttle was well on his way for a podium or possible win in Austria, but lap 53 of the race, Shuttles charge came to an end as Matthew Baker of Crash Test Dummies made an overly ambitious maneuvore which resulting in Shuttle loosing his front wing and a puncture, and Baker suffering from the puncture. Despite desperate attempts, neither Shuttle nor Baker was able to recover and finished 17th and 19th respectively, but Shuttle was quick to fire at the Jamacian driver.

"I think Matt [Baker] really lived up to the name of the team he drives for, what a total dumbass, it was a daft move that should not have been attempted, at the top of the hill like that is a silly place to overtake and unless you are fully commited and confident with the car, it was never going to be clean, Matthew Baker ruined my race, the race was spotless up until that point, he ruined it for us, the team, and himself. He's extremely lucky not to pick up any sort of penalty for a maneuvore like that. He can turn round and say that I should have left him more room, but when your theoretically racing for the lead, you're not going to give up that space."

Shuttle had to nurse the car all the way round the track ith a broken wing and a punctured right tyre.

The string of bad luck continues to follow the brit, and with promising results like today being shafted to the sides yet again, will the brit gain the confidence he needs?

"it's been real tough the last few weeks, there are times where I was to blame and I have admitted them, sometimes there are problems that are just out of my control, but end of the day, you have to knuckle down and get over these problems, our car at the moment is perfectly capeable of messing with the higher teams, but we haven't had the luck, on tracks like Austria, we really showed our strength, I think for the team, it's best to look farward and focus on britain. And as for me, I might try and go on the pull, see if that helps."

On the track it looks as if Shuttle just can't get a break from the bad luck, yet here, he can't get his hands of the women.

The Austrian Grand Prix ended in yet another collision for Crash Test Dummies driver Matthew Baker, but he insists it wasn't his fault after, McShutt Motorworks co-team owner, Mischa Shuttle released a statement condemning Baker for the accident. On lap 53 out of 73 the two collided resulting in Baker puncturing his left rear tyre and Shuttle breaking his front wing and puncturing his right front tyre.

Baker exiting the pits after changing his punctured tyre.

"Mischa turned in on me. He must be blind and have the reaction time of a dead sloth to have crashed into me. On the run up the hill I pulled alongside Mischa to the inside and we were pretty much head to head with me pulling slightly ahead. I had the line going into the corner and I was ahead meaning I was entitled to the position and he closed in on me clipping my left rear puncturing it causing me to spin and breaking his front wing and in the process and puncturing his own tyre, pure genius. There's no way he couldn't of seen me. This shows his incompetence in competing in series such as Formula Ruro and really stress the need for feeder series such as Formula Gpruro to filter drivers such as Shuttle out of the 'big boy series.'"

After the Austrian Grand Prix Baker still remains in 4th place in the driver standings after his two wins in Malaysia and Bahrain.

"Even more valuable points were lost today due to that unfortunate collision. I'm fairly confident we could of achieved a podium finish, if not a top five finish, since two drivers ahead were complaining of some trouble their cars were giving them and I was faster than two of the five cars ahead. But Marc and I will just have to try even harder next weekend to make up the gap to SnotPoison Racing and to get further in the Drivers championship."

Thrust Motorsport's Ville Valtonen appears to be becoming Formula Ruro's pre-eminent qualifying performer, having just secured his fifth pole position of the season here in Silverstone! The Finn was an impressive two-tenths ahead of his closest rival, Sérgio Marques of The Unpredictables, who got his first front row start.

Fresh from his victory in Austria, JSF1 TO James Smith qualified 3rd for his home Grand Prix, ahead of the ever consistent SnotPoison Racing HD, John Allen.

On the third row, Conrey Racing Development TO Robert Conrey narrowly beat Enzo Terreno, who has his best opportunity yet to get his first points for his Zo Fast team. The rookie has so far only managed a best finish of 16th, and is the only driver not to have scored any points; can he stay out of trouble long enough tomorrow to change that?

Minardi Team UK's HD, Sebastian Jankowski, appears to have found some consistency, qualifying 7th ahead of Paul Rademaker, TO of RaRaRacing, who makes his first top 10 qualifying appearance. The TO of Crash Test Dummies, Marc Ferring, lines up 9th, whilst Peter Lind starts from 10th in the second JSF1, the only team to get both cars through to Q3 today.

Ian Kay, AAR's TO, also made his first foray out of Q1 today, making it to 12th on the grid!

Valtonen has shown impressive qualifying pace so far this season

Crash Test Dummies took the lead of the Constructors' championship from rivals SnotPoison Racing today, thanks to a fifth win courtesy of HD Matthew Baker, who jumps to 2nd in the Drivers' standings.

Silverstone seemed to be a real battle of the strategies, with the top 5 finishers all opting for different tyre strategies. Baker went with a three-stop run on the Supersofts, allowing him to catapult up from 19th on the grid, albeit with a few hairy moments as his aggressive driving almost landed him in trouble, especially when banging tyre walls with Sky Racing's Szabolcs Nagy.

There was finally some good news for Zo Fast TO Enzo Terreno, who got his first points of the season in style, taking 2nd ahead of Szabolcs Nagy, who secured his second podium for his Sky Racing team.

Following from 4th to 7th were a group of drivers who probably took a dim view of the Safety Car emerging on lap 42, given their two-stop strategies. The SC came out in reaction to Clyde Srpinger and Ville Valtonen coming together in another racing incident with each other, putting Springer out of the race and Valtonen in the pits for a wing and tyre change. John Allen finished 4th after pulling off a two-stop Supersoft strategy, tiptoeing round on little more than a few shreds of rubber at the end of the race. The result was enough for the SPR HD to maintain a healthy championship lead of 27 points.

In 5th and 6th came the McShutt Motorworks duo of Jamie McCarrick and Mischa Shuttle, though there are likely to once again be stern words in their motorhome this evening after Shuttle hit his co-partner McCarrick on the penultimate lap, appearing to be just as aggressive towards him as to any other driver.

Minardi Team UK continue their run of points, with TO Shaun Hartley finishing 7th, ahead of the three-stopping TOs Marc Ferring and James Smith, of CTD and JSF1 respectively. Minardi's HD, Sebastian Jankowski, rounded out the top 10.

Springer and Valtonen's collision prompted some late-race action!

The FRA would like to announce that the Formula Ruro series will now hold an annual Team Owner Conference, in which all Team Owners may vote on motions for improvements/tweaks/features with regard to the Formula Ruro series, with each Team Owner being allowed to submit one proposal to the Steward (Cia Smith) prior to the deadline for vetting. If accepted, the relevant Team Owner may attempt to gather support for their motion, which will be voted upon by every Team Owner at the Conference. Any motions where the Steward determines that Hired Drivers deserve a vote will require a two-thirds majority of both groups. In addition, Hired Drivers may submit proposal motions to the Steward, some or all of which will be entered in to the final voting paper for Team Owners to vote on, depending on the quality of the suggestion.

The first Team Owner Conference will be in the New Year (exact date TBC). Everyone is welcome to begin submitting/discussing motions to/with me from now.

Team Owner Motion Details:

Motions can be on any topic relating to the structure and running of Formula Ruro, from race tracks to points systems and new features to minor tweaks.
Each Team Owner may only submit one motion.
Motions must be submitted to the Steward for vetting before the deadline.
The Steward reserves the right to veto any motion. Any motions (particularly new features) should be discussed with the Steward for development purposes before a final motion is agreed upon.
Motions require a two-thirds majority of Team Owners to be accepted, except in cases where it particularly affects Hired Drivers, in which case a two-thirds majority of Team Owners and a two-thirds majority of Hired Drivers will be required.
Team Owners may choose to abstain if they wish.

Hired Driver Proposal Motions:

The same rules surrounding Team Owner motions apply here.
The Steward will be particularly receptive to well-developed proposals for new features (as long as they aren't too time intensive!).
A Hired Driver proposal motion is not guaranteed to reach the final voting paper; the Steward will decide which, if any, should reach it.
As a general guide, if it's well thought out, not too time intensive (for the Steward) and wouldn't break game balance, it will probably be included.

Formula Ruro Steward:

The Steward may submit an unlimited number of motions.
Draft versions of Steward-submitted motions will be announced each season when Team Owners are reminded to start thinking about developing motions.
New feature motions submitted by the Steward must receive a two-thirds majority to be passed.
Features announced at conception of the series, but delayed (i.e. Driver Salaries), will not be subject to a vote, though any future changes to these will be classed as a balancing decision.
Balancing decisions will not be subject to the same process, but will be announced at the same time. TOs may submit motions against one or more of the balancing decisions being taken, but this will require a two-thirds majority to vote in favour of their blocking motion.
The Steward will play an active part in the development of new feature motions if requested, or if the Steward feels that a submitted motion requires further development.
The Steward may choose to actively endorse motions if they wish. Failure to do so should not be seen as opposition to a motion.

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I've taken the decision to implement this feature in recognition of the fact that players here are significantly more involved with the series than they would be in a regular Career series. To reflect this, the decisions made should be generally accepted by the players, rather than purely imposed by me!

So, without further ado, here are the Steward-submitted motions, balancing decisions and implemented features for Formula Ruro's first ever Team Owner Conference:

New Features:

In-season development from Season 2 will contribute to investment in the relevant component at a rate of 1 fruro per 0.1 upgrade value, rounded down.

Balancing Decisions:

Increasing base reliability of base system, ERS and electronics.
Decrease to the effect (positive and negative) of investment on reliability.
Increasing the frequency of penalties for aggressive driving.
Increasing the variability in engine power based on investment.

Implementation of Feature:

Hired Drivers will receive salaries, which they can negotiate for themselves with Team Owners. These must not be below the minimum driver salaries as laid out on the Forum Information page.
For Season 2, the minimum salaries are as follows:

James Smith secured JSF1's first pole as he saw off Thrust Motorsport's Ville Valtonen by less than three-hundredths of a second to take the top spot on the grid of tomorrow's race round the Hungaroring. Valtonen had seemed the favourite going in to Q3, having topped the Q1+2 timingsheets, but dropped off slightly as track conditions deteriorated.

JSF1 appear to have increased their pace significantly over the course of the first half of the season, and are currently fifth in the Constructors' standings after pre-season testing suggested that they would be last!

Sky Racing locked out the second row of the grid, with HD Darash Chablani leading his employer, Szabolcs Nagy. Jos Reinders follows, putting the Sky Racing duo in a double-decker Thrust Motorsport sandwich.

Phillip Jeffery was the lead Shadow Racing qualifier, with 6th, ahead of fellow HD Marek Jablonski, of Conrey Racing Development. Peter Lind provides backup for his polesitting TO, sitting in 8th for JSF1, whilst TOs Marc Ferring and Clyde Springer will start from 9th and 10th for Crash Test Dummies and Shadow Racing respectively.

Smith benefitted from today's worsening track conditions

Sky Racing go in to the mid-season Christmas break on a high after a comfortable win for TO Szabolcs Nagy at his home race of the Hungaroring! The Hungarian's victory is the first for his team, thought to comfortably be the fastest on track. They now sit third in the Constructors' standings, behind Crash Test Dummies and the team's engine suppliers, SnotPoison Racing. Could today's result signal a fightback? Certainly it will improve morale in the team's motorhome as we head in to the Christmas break.

Another team with reason to celebrate after today's race is Shadow Racing, after TO Clyde Springer achieved the team's first podium, finishing 2nd despite an issue with his brakes. The team have so far been overshadowed by their customer team, CTD, who lead the championship whilst Shadow Racing have been firmly embroiled in the midfield-pack, which has cost Springer dearly in previous races after being involved in a number of collisions.

Despite an abysmal get away for polesitter James Smith, in which he fell to 10th after seemingly unable to find first gear, his calm driving style paid off and ultimately allowed him to secure a podium for JSF1, ahead of Thrust Motorsport TO Jos Reinders, who opted for a three-stop race and finished 4th.

BJ Braisted replicated his best result of the season with another 5th place finish for AAR whilst Sérgio Marques took 6th for The Unpredictables, followed by Thrust Motorsport's Ville Valtonen, whose grumbling radio transmissions to his team in the last few laps were broadcast for all to hear as he tumbled down the order thanks to reliability issues!

The CTD duo of TO Marc Ferring and HD Matthew Baker followed in 8th and 9th, with the former hampered by bodywork damage sustained after a collision with SPR's Adrian Hingley and the latter slowed by ERS and gearbox issues. Hingley ultimately finished 10th, taking the final championship point on offer.

Victory at the team's home race in Hungary should boost morale for Sky Racing

Hello everyone and welcome to the Sky Racing mid-season update.Now that the mid-season break has begun,we got the chance to talk to both of the Sky Racing Drivers.First we'll start with TO Szabolcs Nagy

Welcome Mr.Nagy to this interview and thanks for joining us

-''Hello and thanks for inviting us to be here,glad to be part of this''

Before we start with the interview,there were rumours flying around since you won the Hungarian Grand Prix that you went on a spending spree,and you got yatches,speed boats,supercars,etc.Is that true?

-''That's correct,I mean,It only took us 10 races to win a goddamn race,luckily it was on my hometown,so I decided to celebrate this victory in fashion''

Ok so lets get on with the inteview,your team is sitting in 3rd place 33 points behind the leader Crash Test Dummies,how do you like your team chances of winning the constructors?

-'' I think we could've probavly been leading by now if we both had a bit more consistency,but from where we are,I'm happy that we made it this far,same goes in the Driver Standings,despite a couple of DNFs,I'm really close to the leaders''

Lets talk about your HD Darash Chablani,are you disapointed by his poor perfomances?

-'Not really, I thunk he has just been a bit unlucky,maybe if he toned down his aggression a bit,he probably would've been really close to the leaders as well,not saying that he drives too aggressive,I've noticed that when he is near the leaders,he quite often becomes a bit too impatient in getting first and quite often ends up suffering damage.My advice to him is that if he becomes patient,results will come by itself''

One last question if there is one thing that you could improve,whether it's the drivers or it's the car,what would it be?

-"It would be our confidence,because when we got the DNFs,it was most likely due to overconfidence,so if we can lower that,all is safe and all is good"

Great,thank you for joining us and Merry Christmas

Next up:HD Darash Chablani

Welcome Mr.Chablani to this interview and thanks for joining us

-''Hello and thanks for inviting us to be here,glad to be part of this''

First of all,Merry Christmas to you,I want to ask you if the car you're driving is good for you or you think the other team have faster cars?

-"I think we have the fastest car here,so it's obvious that i'm fine with it"

How would you rate your season so far?

-"Because it's me I'd rate a 1 out of 10,Its has just been piss poor since race 1 for me,whether it's luck,overconfidence or too aggressive,i haven't been able to get on a rythm,just when i think I'm getting a groove(Austria,for example),I have a horrific next 2 races"

Let's talk about the last race Hungary,while your TO won that race,you ended up 15th,talk about how that race went

-"Opted for a 'aggressive' 3 stop instead of the normal 2 stop,Got off to a decent start,led a few laps which is always good,and then on lap 47 while running 2nd place decided to go for it and didnt work and that ended my race,so while where talking about this,I would like to publicly apologise to Ville Valtonen(who was leading at the time) and hope we can reach to an agreement"

One last question,what is your goal now for this season?

-"To be honest,I think that the Drivers Championship is out of hand for me,so my only hope is to help the team win the Constructors championship"

Great,thank you for joining us and Merry Christmas

My plans for new teams entering the series are thus:

New teams will be provided with the minimum currently-used technology in Formula Ruro for each component. Their invesment values will no necessarily start from 0, but will instead start from the minimum level used by any one team within Formula Ruro, determined from component to component. So, if the minimum investment in suspension reliability is 10, they will be provided with that investment value, whilst if the minimum value in tyre usage is 20, they'll get that investment value. They will also be provided with an initial budget of 125 fruros (half the fixed minimum value for competing in a Formula Ruro series) and, if they were previously a Hired Driver, any accumulated Salary.

This will be treated as the default policy for new teams unless any TOs (or Hired Driver Proposals) Motions with alternative policies are voted through.

Going in to the Mid-Season Winter Break, here is a table of the number of qualifying mandatory RPs (250+ words) players have submitted so far. RPs under 250 words are not included in this, though will be taken in to account when RP Awards are decided. Likewise, the length (over 250 words) and quality of RPs are not presented in this graph, but will be considered as factors when RP Award winners are decided. Note that 2 250+ word RPs are required in order not to suffer a penalty for your team.

No teams have currently submitted 2 from both the TO and HD, though 7 entrants have already at least met their quota.

Hello everyone and welcome in the year 2016, the year of monkey. I'm your host, Pansage, and what better way to start the year than our recap of PokéPark Ruro Racing season.

Let's start our show with our current leader, Grimer. He has not won any races so far finishing 2nd twice, but his cnsistency has pushed him so far out that chasing him may be a mission impossible.

We have a tie for the secind place with both Elekid and Bellsprout having 77 points, 25 points behind the leader. With nine races to go the order between these drivers can change quicker than Snorlax fells asleep.

Another tie, 4th place, and just one point behind out first tie. Marill and Hoothoot will be sure to bring a lot of suspense and emotions for every race ahead in our calendar.

P6 is so far occupied by Mew, and surely it's not a surprise to see him up here, but sadly he's kinda far behind 1st five drivers. With 66 points he's 10 & 11 points behind places 2-5, but already 36 point loss to the leader.

Ponyta is at 7th with some drivers very close behind. Sadly for him, he's 17 points behind Mew and a whopping 53 points behind Grimer this season's victory may be out of reach for our prancing horse.

Number 8 on the ranking goes to Wingull. With 5 points behind Ponyta he's kinda in the middle of the pack of some competetive drivers that aren't far from eachother.

We have another tie for the 9th place. Both Bulbasaur and Larvesta cannot be really happy with their results with being 50 points behind the leader, especially Bulbasaur who won our preseason tests.

Next up, we have Victini at the 11th spot. He already had a taste of the victory, but other than that his current season is rather mediocre to say the least. He's still relatively close to places 7-10, so he still has a chance to finish in the top 10.

Five points later we have Lotad. He has the abilities to be in the top ten, but his luck is very random. It's sad to see a driver that finished 3rd in the first race had DNFs and bad races later.

Oh Makuhita, I can't understand how can you keep the smile...P13 and so far he couldn't finish higher than 5th...really, he deserves better, just saying.

Starting off the second half of the scoring field we have Bagon at 14th with 33 points. I think the points gap here is already to large, even considering the fact that we have still nine races to go.

Oh boy, it's Shuckle time, time for Shuckle. He himself predicted that he'll end up with no points, yet he has 30 points already standing at 15th place, everything highlighted with 4th place in Montreal City.

Sneasel is so far at the 16th place with one win...and that's all there is in terms of scoring. He had his highlight moment, but other than that, this season is a bummer.

Another tie at the 17th, it's Abra and Shinx. They're rather close to all of the drivers in the lower half of the table so this can and will get exciting.

Next up we have Chespin at number 19, he still has mathematical chances to be even in the upper half, but he and his car has to iprove drastically.

Ew Fast team owner Sanshrew cannot really keep up to the second part of his team name and like his teammate Sneasel he scored only once by being second. That's one way to say that your car is anything but fast.

Time for one of the biggest surprises in minus. Ralts is tied with Sandshrew for 20th and really nobody expected that wak performance by him. I think that may be something with the car...

Place number 22 in another surprisingly poor performance, this time it's Geodude. In this case it's hard to blame the car cause LOL Ponyta.

Krabby is down in 23rd and he's sadly continuing his bad performance from the preseason. At least he scored some points this time, but so far the Ruro series aren't for him.

Cranidos at 24th, only 11 points...not much here to say. He can fight for the positions in the lower half of the table, but that's about it sadly.

The Unpredictables got me. I wasn't expecting Wynaut to be at 25th place with only 10 points. I cannot predict anything good from this unfortunately.

And last, but not least...Tangela. Both him and his teammate Ralts are so low that I don't even know if it's a car issues or something else. We eagerly wait if they can bounce back from the bottom.

And with that we end our show, thank you very much and stay safe.

*The Following is a transcript from a recent 60 Minutes Interview involving Anderson Cooper and AAR Driver BJ Braisted entitled "The Short Road Home"*

AC360: Brandon Braisted. But you might remember him as BJ Braisted. Ring a bell? It did to me. The popular sports talk podcaster who hosts "The Beef Show" was once a former star of the RLB IndyCar circuit. He was known for his adventurous style off the track as he was for his consistent style on the track. While he never won, his name was on the tips of American racing fans toungs for 7 seasons, as a driver and an owner. And then, like that...he vanished into the abyss. Only to come up as a entry on the grid for All-American Racers on their new Formula Ruro team. We caught up to Beef, at his home in Michigan, during the F-Ruro mid-season break to talk life in the fast lane...and The Short Road Home.

(*Scene: BJ is walking across farmland in mid-summer wearing shorts and a Cactus Jack T-shirt with Anderson Cooper alongside him*)

AC (*voiceover*) : This is now the offseason life of BJ Braisted. Walking across a vast 80 acres of rolling hills and two-tracks. A modest home for a driver who made over $35M in his racing career to date, with multiple victories. (*visuals of RLB IndyCar*) Victories in everything but the series that paid for his land and his lifestyle.

(*Scene: BJ and AC sitting in a Sunroom overlooking a large but unkept estate*)

AC: Is that something that will always bother you? Not winning in IndyCar.

BJ: I think so. I honestly haven't given it much thought in the recent years. When I first was unemployed, that was tough. I thought I still had something. If I could have gotten one more lucky break or one final push...I think I could have won. I still think I could win. Obviously, if I didn't think I could win, I wouldn't be here with Ian...but I honestly thought I could have won.

AC: It was rumored you were offered to team up with Aaron Bean at Ganassi. You turned them down because you owed it to Liane. Then, as the rumor goes, she disappeared off the face of the earth that same sea...

BJ: I've never denied it. It was the truth. Look...if there's one thing I'm terrible about, it's honesty. Samir called, I said no...she bailed on us that same year. I'll always be pissed off about that. I'm loyal...to a dangerous fault...and all I expect is loyality in return. That's a part of the reason why I left the life...only someone like Ian, who understands loyality could have brought me back.

AC: (*voiceover*) BJ Braisted raced for Dreyer and Reinbold...and then after a short, failed stint with the RLB FIA, left to take over the management position at the new Sarah Fisher Racing...

Sarah Fisher Racing was the last time we saw you on the major circuits.

BJ: That was a great job, but it was a terrible job. I guess that is why RLB is no more. You just can't win if you are a new team unless you get a great driver who has been on the bench for a few years or you have incredible luck. SFR didn't have either, but we had heart and we had a great time.

AC: And then you just disappeared.

BJ: I had some issues at home I needed to settle up on. I had some personal issues. I needed to be away to get back to where I am today.

AC: (*Voiceover, Scene: Photographs of tabloids and website pages pretaining to BJ's divorce, bankruptcy and other personal issues*) BJ Braisted had plenty of personal issues to take care of.

(*Scene: Back to the sunroom*) A divorce, addiction alligations, infidelity...

BJ: Divorce was legitimate. I wasn't "addicted" to anything. I never cheated. Those were the rumors. Bankruptcy and the divorce...those were true.

AC: How do you keep your house...your life together?

BJ: Technically, my racing team...Beef Racing...owned the house and the land and such. But I lost my ass in the divorce. I didn't have anything coming in. I had a child, I needed to be there for her.

AC: So, you say you were not addicted to anything...

BJ: No...I was not. I definately partied too much on the road. I had to learn to accept that you can't drink all the time. I mean, I still smoke cigarettes. I still will hit a bowl every now and then. But what life was...I had to hit the reset button and grow up and be a man.

AC: There were rumors...

BJ: ...no, never.

AC: You knew what I was going to say?

BJ: I do. I've been asked about it a lot. I never got in a race car drunk, stoned or anything even close. I also never have touched Cocaine or Heroin. I've never tripped on LSD...I don't do meth...I've heard them all.

AC: But you've never been outright about denying these things until now.

BJ: People will believe what they want to believe. Tim Richmond is still the devil to certain groups of NASCAR fans, it doesn't mean it's the truth. It just means people are idiots.

AC: So, you have a daughter now?

BJ: Yeah, she's going to turn 7 soon. Light of my life. I've never been happier.

AC: When did you find out about her?

BJ: I think it was three or four days after the divorce papers were filed. Which was about two weeks after I left Sarah Fisher Racing.

AC: What does she know about you?

BJ: She knows about the racing a little bit. She sees the trophies, she sees the cars in the garage that I run on my own, now she sees me on TV on the weekends she isn't here. She has no idea about the podcast.

AC: What is it about you now that has changed since she came into your life.

BJ: I don't party as much. I'll have people over to have a couple drinks, maybe play a little beer pong in the garage...but she's smart enough now to operate her own tablet. When she types my name into Google or Bing, I don't want her to see the stuff I did in the past and think that is an acceptable way to be a human being. It wasn't. But, I was young and cocky...I didn't know better. I want her to hopefully type my name in and see about the hard work I've put into my careers, the respect that I've earned for busting my butt....I want her to see that the Dad she has now is "mean" because he was dumb and it bit him in the butt...

AC: You said careers....plural...

BJ: I've got a somewhat successful sports talk podcast. I am back racing for Ian. I still dabble in the other ventures I had before...I think this...this interview...is as much time off as I've taken in a year.

AC: (*Voiceover, Scene: A recording studio that looks to be in a half finished basement with BJ talking into a microphone*) BJ is also known by some as a Sports Talk Podcaster. His Beef Show receives numerous downloads weekly and touches on all sports, including auto racing... (*back to sunroom*)

How does the Podcast factor into your ventures now?

BJ: It gives me something to do on a Friday night...hahaha...otherwise I'm bored. Qualifying is in the morning on Saturday during the season and in the off season I'm just bored at home. This way I can talk sports...even if it is just to myself...which has always been my passion outside of these damn race cars.

AC: You've described yourself as a Sports Talk Junkie...

BJ: I have listened to Rome forever. I think it was after listening to a Dan Patrick substitute host that I was like "You know...I could do this too..." and I did it. Gottlieb, Rome, DP, Rich Eisen, Sean Baligian, Droo McCarthy...I love listening to these guys. Dan Levy from Awful Announcing has an awesome podcast, Katie Nolan is great...it's something I'd love to do after I finally decide I need to stop racing cars.

AC: When will that time come?

BJ: When I stop racing cars? I think when Ian tells me he's moving on.

AC: After all that time, how is it you ended up back in racing?

BJ: Robert Conrey invited me to a dinner he was having in America. Ian Kay was there. Ciaran Smith was there. Cia was talking about the new series he was invited to direct, Ian was talking about possibly taking a role in said series and gave me his phone number. I happened to randomly text Ian about the Oklahoma/Texas game and from there we decided that night, over text, that I would be racing for him this season if the series materialized. It did, I am.

AC: That was it?

BJ: That was all I needed. I may have been off of the main road of racing, but it was a short road to where I was hanging out. I just needed someone to say "I want you in my car".

AC: What if Ian had not called you?

BJ: I'd still be watching you on CNN and on 60 Minutes. Don't worry Anderson, I'm always going to be a fan.

AC: (*laughing*) I meant with racing.

BJ: I need it still...but I want to be wanted. I'm past begging for a ride. I do have some income, it's not much....I make a hell of a lot more here than I do with my other things...but I want someone who wants me to be a part of the team. Which is hard once you hit 30. Especially in formula style cars. But, Ian seems to want my input...not only at the track but in the shop. So long as he wants me here, I'll be here. I've been burned by my loyality, but I still have it for certain people. Ian is the certain people.

AC: Does your stock go up on the market after the Tournament of Champions?

BJ: Any it has gone up it went down with our results so far this season. The ToC was nice...I loved it...but my focus is on getting this car...the AAR car...faster. We've had some issues. All new teams have issues. Hell, even my established teams have had issues. We're learning...and it's a steep learning curve in such a new series having to build your own cars. I don't worry so much about my stock. I doubt Sky or any of the other teams are knocking down my agent's door. I'm worried about building this car up so we can get faster. Ian believed in me and I believe in him. We're both smart enough to figure out how to make this car a contender...now we just have to line up the puzzle pieces.

Narrator: (*voiceover*) : To see more of Anderson Cooper's interview with BJ Braisted, head over to 60 Minutes dot com and check out "Overtime with BJ Braisted"

- = Mid Season Review = -

Crash Test Dummies

Based on the rough analysis of the raw speed the Motorsport Magazines deemed Crash Test Dummies as a mid-fielder.

Now at half a season the team is leading the constructor field with 9 points of gap with the hired driver Matthew Baker in 2nd place and the owner Marc Ferring in 4th!

Surely a wonderful start with 5 wins already collected, the new Formula Ruro star is here? For sure they know how to build a chassis since their engine, ShadowTech V6, is supplied by Shadow Racing now 7th in the standings.

SnotPoison Racing

Another prediction error comes with SnotPoison Racing that was thought as a low mid-fielder by media.

The team is following closely CTD in the team title fight and has a generous gap on their client team (Sky Racing) thanks also to the efforts of John Allen, the hired driver, who is leading the Driver Championship with a great gap! The team owner Adrian Hingley is now placed 9th.

Despite the 1st place in the Drivers' Championship and 2nd place in the Teams' Championship, SnotPoison Racing has yet to win his first race!

Sky Racing

Making an impressive test session, Sky Racing, was seen as the super favorite of the premiere season. Even if they didn't live up to the "unbeatable" aura they had, they are still a top notch team in the series. Now Sky Racing (who is supplied by SnotPoison Racing for the SPR E-01 V6 engine) is winning the fight for the 3rd place against Thrust Motorsport by a 3 points margin.

Szabolcs Nagy, the team owner, is the top driver of the team in 5th place in the standings (to be noted that there is only 1 point difference between 5th and 2nd place!) while Darash Chablani follows in 8th with a consistent point income.

For now, Sky Racing, counts a golden thropy in their portfolio.

Thrust Motorsport

One of the only two prediction turned out correctly is Thrust Motorsport with the 4th place. Actually the team has a really fat chance to jump in 3rd place with only 3 points gap from Sky Racing.

The team collected two wins, one for the team owner Jos Reinders and one for the hired driver Ville Valtonen but while Reinders score points on a more consistent basis, Valtonen is having more troubles with the THT-15.

JSF1

"The Slowest car of Formula Ruro", "Surely a backfield car", those are some of the epic fail articles that described JSF1 during the tests. Now team owner James Smith can laugh at them from the 5th place of the Teams' Championship and his 6th place in the Drivers' Championship!

Harder time for the hired driver Peter Lind who is in 19th place, looks like he need more time to get used to the JSF1

JSF1 joins the Winners Club with one golden thropy so far!

Conrey Racing Development

Slightly better than media's prediction but way worse than owner prediction, CRD places in 6th place with a fluctuating performance.

Team Owner Robert Conrey had a good start with some late setback but he is hanging on 7th place, way more troubles on the CRD-01A for the hired driver Marek Jablonski that despite a podium is stuck in 22nd position.

3 podiums but still no gold for the Italian team!

Shadow Racing

Despite being the engine supplier of the top team of the season and being deemed as the first rival of Sky Racing on the test session prediction, Shadow Racing joins the mid-field in 7th place.

Both driver, team owner Clyde Springer and hired driver Phillip A Jeffery, are in the middle of the pack respectively in 14th and 17th place.

Like CRD, Shadow Racing managed to climb on the podium but still hasn't won a race!

Minardi Team UK

No sponsor and no paintjob, this says a lot about the team finances, no? No, because Minardi Team UK is no back-field but with a good amount of points managed to conquer the 8th place.

Only 6th points separed the hired driver Sebanstian Jankowski (15th) from the team owner Shaun Hartley (18th)

Minardi Team UK as yet to see the podium even if they almost managed to climb on it with a 4th place.

McShutt Motorworks

The double owned team of McShutt Motorworks is struggling to put the raw speed it is capable off in use and for now lies in 9th place.

Jamie McCarrick is leading the team in 10th place in the drivers' standings while Mischa Shuttle is down in 24th place.

The team has still to score a better placement than 5th.

AAR

Alongside RaRaRacing, AAR is one of the biggest surprise, but not on the good meaning of that. With two excellent names on his score the team is only 10th.

BJ Braisted, the hired driver, runs in 13th place while team owner Ian Kay is down to 23rd. From both we are used to see much better performance, so the question is:

Is the AAR car so bad?

The Unpredictables

It's quite ironic that The Unpredictables was one of the two correctly predicted teamsby the media, who expected the 11th place.

Sérgio Marques is the lead of the team despite being the hired driver, even conquering a podium and staying near the top 10 with a 13th place. Willi Wutz seem to be having hard times with his own designed car and lies in 25th place with no better placement than 7th.

Zo Fast

Zo Fast is the lowest ranked team to have won anyway a race, is the team on a raise?

Team Owner Enzo Terreno used to lead the team but the recent win of Adam State skyrocket him in 16th place while Enzo remains in 20th.

We will see some more surprises from them?

RaRaRacing

Orange isn't a lucky colour, RaRaRacing with only 26 points it's easily described as the biggest disappointment so far.

With two names like team owner Paul Rademaker and hired driver Scott Warren we surely expected more than 26th and 21st place respectively.

Note: Discard the car and build from scrap!

Now that the snow has melted and the tracks have defrosted, Darash Chablani is off to a promising start after the mid-season Winter break, having taken his first ever pole at the opening round of the second half of the season, Spa-Francorchamps. Sky Racing were looking fast all session, with Chablani and TO Nagy topping every timingsheet between them. Nagy suffered a brake failure at the start of Q2, however, leaving Chablani to take the top spot for the team, which he duly did by over a tenth of a second! Can the team finally capitalise on their raw pace and take a second victory?

McShutt Motorworks' Mischa Shuttle seems to have benefitted from a relaxing Winter, taking his best qualifying position so far as he sets himself up to start alongside Chablani. Shuttle reported that he wants to turn over a new leaf for the second half of the season, rebuilding the bridges he's concerned he burned down between himself and other drivers after an over-aggressive first half of the season which left him 24th in the championship with just 11 points to his name. Could tomorrow see him shoot up the standings with the team's first podium finish, or even a win?

Championship leader John Allen, HD of SnotPoison Racing, lines up in 3rd tomorrow, defending a 25 point lead over his competitors, one of which lines up next to him; Jos Reinders took his Thrust Motorsport car round 4th fastest today.

JSF1 TO James Smith lines up 5th despite concerns that new retrospective limits to in-season development could hurt the team's chances this season. Paul Rademaker, who trails in the Drivers' standings in last place, will be looking for an excellent result tomorrow to improve on his and his team's position; the RaRaRacing TO is currently set to work with the smallest budget of any TO for next season, with the team 13th and last in the Constructors' standings.

Thrust Motorsport were the only team to get both drivers through to Q3 today; whilst TO Jos Reinders sits 4th on the grid, his HD, Ville Valtonen, will start from 7th, alongside Sebastian 'Shuckle' Jankowski, Minardi Team UK's HD.

Marc Ferring got representation for his Crash Test Dummies team, who currently lead the Constructors' championship, in Q3, and will line up 9th, whilst Adam State starts from 10th for ZoFast. So far State has only scored once, with his win in Spain!

Can Chablani reopen the season with a win for Sky Racing?

Qualifying brought out a few suprising results today with a lot of the main fighters for the top lurking around outside the top 10, this meant that a lot of the other drivers took advantage of this unfortunate predicament, including McShutt's Mischa Shuttle who took an amazing front row start for tomorrows race, Shuttle will be starting 2nd on the grid who was a tenth off of eventual pole time from Sky Racing Darash Chablani.

"The first thing I said to my engineer when he told me qualifying was over and said I was second place was "well **** me sideways" to which he replied "no thanks but I'm sure we can arrange for that tonight back at the motorhome". I think we've really taken full grasp of the break we had to look over the car and improve on areas that were most needed improving, and it's really paid off, the car has been so quick, we were never threatened as such, only Chablani got the better of us and to be honest, rightly deserved, the guy has been quick and he's really taken full potential from qualifying today and I'm really looking forward to going head to head with him at the start.

Shuttle has been consistantly fast all weekend and qualifying really showed that, could the duck finally come to an end?

Despite Teammate and team owner Jamie McCarrik not making out of Q1, Shuttle still belives that he and the team can haul some really good points out of this weekend.

"The forecast says rain which will make thing a whole lot more interesting, but I'm not dubting for a second that we as a team can get a good haul of points, we just got to tread carefully and stay out of trouble, I know over this season so far I've not made many friends, but I'm looking to change that for the second half of the season, I want to make amends with the others, and prove that I have what it takes to be a solid contender, it might be a bit late at this time now, but maybe this is a turning point for me now and hopefully will carry on into the next season."

Shuttle is determined to make amends with the other racers, as well as move up the order in the championship.

as the teams resume racing after the winter break, we take a closer look at minardi team UK and assess their season so far....

from the get go, there were whispers around the paddock that the team were already in financial peril, due to the absence of sponser logo's, or any paintwork on the teams debut machine. However, team owner Shaun Hartley was quick to dispel any concerns

" don't let the lack of livery fool you, we have a solid budget and solid sponsers, the lack of livery is due to a problem with the paperwork that was submitted to an outside company who lost the files. Therefore we've chosen to run the car naked so to speak"

as they lined up in Melbourne it looked like the team was set for a difficult season and while it hasn't been a smooth ride, there have been plenty of high points thanks to the talents of the teams talisman, Sebastian Jankowski who has shown good pace in qualifying and has so far peaked with a 4th place finish.

Hartley has had a few bright moments himself, but qualifying has proven to be a major issue with him rarely making the top half of the grid.

" the car is good, it has decent pace and drivability. We are missing a bit of speed but we are still working to unlock the true potential of the m01, to enable us, and in particular, seb, to fight closer to the front on a more consistent Basis

currently, the team sit ahead of pre season predictions in 8th place amassing a current total of 54 points, and providing they can release more power from. The car, will be hoping to edge closer to the teams in front come seasons end.

Crash Test Dummies' HD Matthew Baker established himself as the main challenger to John Allen's title lead today, leading the SPR HD across the line with a gap of 2 seconds after charging up from 10th on the grid after having benefitted from Paul Rademaker's 5-place grid penalty and storming up the order in the initial laps. The Jamaican went long on his initial Intermediate tyres and then seemed to want to make a set of Mediums go for over half race distance, eventually pitting 7 laps from the end to put on a new set of Softs which saw him charge past his contenders who were nursing their own tyres to the end! Allen now leads Baker by just 18 points in the Drivers' championship.

Despite recently voiced concerns about his JSF1 team being disproportionately hit by retrospective in-season development limitations, James Smith showed that there's nothing wrong with the pace of his team's package, finishing less than three seconds behind Baker to take to the podium despite being hampered by a brakes issue from lap 5! It was a great result for JSF1 today; not only did their TO secure the team's fourth podium, but HD Peter Lind also recovered from 22nd on lap 6 to cross the finish line in 5th, despite carrying bodywork damage.

Ville Valtonen, HD of Thrust Motorsport, was the other driver in the leading group, finishing 4th after losing a podium position to Smith on the final lap as his tyres suffered from heavy wear. The result was Valtonen's best since the opening round in Australia. His TO, Jos Reinders, finished 8th after suffering from brake and engine reliability problems.

Ian Kay scored some much needed points for AAR despite starting from 25th on the grid and a lap 1 tangle with Robert Conrey which saw the American break his front wing and the Italian owner of Conrey Racing Development in hospital! Conrey is reported to have got away unscathed, and is enjoy the attention of the nursing team.

RaRaRacing's HD, Scott Warren, continues to outperform his boss, securing 6 points for the struggling team, which currently sits last in the Constructors' championship.

Phillip Jeffery, HD of Shadow Racing, was another driver to improve on a poor grid position, finishing 9th after starting down in 23rd. Finally, McShutt Motorworks' Jamie McCarrick finished 10th, the only driver to competitively pull off a one-stopper. Despite a promising front-row grid position for his co-owner, Mischa Shuttle, he ultimately failed to score any points, and squandered his opening opportunity by starting on the wrong tyre!

Today was a short race for Robert Conrey

... but will the day have a happy ending?

Peter Lind was hired on at JSF1 at the last minute, with little experience in open wheel cars. Team owner James Smith probably understood the risks of hiring this unproven driver, but decided to give Lind a chance. The season started of poorly for Lind being one of the slowest cars through the season opening practice sessions. Lind stated “I knew that I had an uphill battle ahead of me, but I was determined to put forth 110% effort.”

As the season started Lind struggled through the first four rounds managing a best finish of 15^th in Monaco. Lind really struggled with his car qualifying in these four rounds also. “I think that I was pushing too hard in the opening rounds instead of finding out what the car wanted to do” said Lind. He pushed too hard in China where he earned his first DNF due to driver error.

Bahrain seen improvement for Lind, with his best qualifying effort so far in P16. The fifth round of the season also seen the first points for Lind, with a 7^th place finish, collecting 6 points. Spain was a step back for the JSF1 driver with a P22 start, and a suspension failure ending his day in P23. Canada was another mediocre performance, qualifying in 17^th and finishing in 18^th.

After the Canadian GP the JSF1 shareholders voiced their disappointment in the team’s results to date. With even more pressure on the rookie driver the team arrived in Austria looking to changes their shareholders views. Lind delivered his best qualifying time of the season to date starting 6^th. He carried the momentum into the race, leading 25 laps and finishing 3^rd joining team owner James Smith on the podium. The British Grand Prix seen another good qualifying effort for Lind starting 10^th. Luck wasn’t on his side in the end as he suffered an engine failure finishing 23^rd.

Hungary was the final race before the holiday break. Lind kept his qualifying momentum going with another final round appearance, netting a P8 start. From the start Lind was marred with steering problems, and ran well until problems with the base system and suspension dropped him to 19^th.

Belgium began the second half of the season, but the qualifying mojo was gone. Lind qualified 16^th, and felt that the car had more pace for the race. He was able to find that pace as he worked through the field finishing in 5^th with battle scars to his JSF1 car.

There are 8 rounds left in the season and the team is optimistic that it can get more point finishes. Peter Lind had this to say:

“I think that we will continue to see improvement with the car and myself. I am getting more comfortable with the car and bonding with the team. I think that we have the potential to score more points, podiums, and possibly even a win, as James has proved the car is capable. The biggest thing that I need to work on is my consistency, if I can be more consistent I can secure better finishes and more points.”

As we begin the second half of the season the team also know that their performance will reflect who will be behind the wheel in the coming season. Lind hopes that he will be able to show continued improvement and secure his place in the upcoming season.

SnotPoison Racing, currently 2nd in the Constructors' championship, have finally achieved a pole position, thanks to the efforts of TO Adrian Hingley in a soggy session at Monza. The Australian was a tenth faster than his rivals in the final session, and will undoubtedly be looking to secure SPR's first win; so far their best finishes have been four 2nd places!

Darash Chablani starts alongside Hingley, and if he can keep his car in one piece should prove to be tough opposition; the Sky Racing package is clearly ahead of the pack in terms of raw speed. The front row is, thus, set to be a showdown between supplier and customer in terms of engines!

It's an all-Polish second row, as Sebastian Jankowski takes his Minardi Team UK to third, followed by Marek Jablonski for Conrey Racing Development. Both drivers sit in the bottom half of the points table, making the hunt for points all the more pressing for them!

The third row sees two TOs squaring off against each other, with Szabolcs Nagy a nose in front of Jos Reinders in the Sky Racing and Thrust Motorsport cars respectively. With just two-thousandths of a second between them, pretty much nothing separated the Shadow Racing duo of Clyde Springer and Phillip Jeffery, who occupy the fourth row. Expected to be potential title contenders before the season started, the suppliers of championship-leaders Crash Test Dummies' engines have had a disappointing season so far, but there's still time for them to improve on their positions.

BJ Braisted makes it three Americans in a row, taking 9th for AAR, whilst Ville Valtonen took the final top 10 slot after a brake failure in Q3 slowed his Thrust Motorsport car down significantly.

Conditions weren't the best today in qualifying, but are set to improve for tomorrow's race

With the teams Qualifying performance in Italy making another Q1 knockout it seems that Enzo and Adam are in a bad mood with the car and there efforts. We have talked to Adam State on a few occasions and time and time again he has said that the car will improve. Well like me you are wondering were is that improvement so we are now at the factory speaking to the director of engines at Zo Fast Todd Slowington.

So Todd what have you done during the season to improve the car?

We have tried many things to get this engine to work and I am not being specific as its still during the season but it just haven't proved to work.

Do you think your name might be cursing the team?

There is nothing wrong with being slow its about reliability and consistency. Yes some peope think this "POWERRR" thing is what you need to win championships but I believe that consistency is key.

Do you think you will lose your job?

Of course not I have been at the team for many years and nothing like this has ever happened.

Finally will this be sorted for next year?

Of course it will because our divers are helping as much as possible and as long as we try we will succeed I guarantee it. I bet we will be a top 10 championship car next year.

The Zo Fast Engine when it was in development

Well there you have it folks will this be true? Can they actually be in the top 10 next year and will there results improve? I've been John Report and back to the studio we go.

(Todd Slowington was sacked after this report)

Ahead of the Team Owner Conference, set to go ahead within the next few days, the following are the successfully submitted Team Owner Motions which will appear on the ballot paper. They are being posted in advance to allow for discussion to occur in advance of the vote; entrants are welcome to post arguments in support/opposition to the motions below.

Team: Shadow Racing

Motion: "Eliminate the fruro award for wins and podiums. Budget payouts would solely be based on a team's position in the Constructors' standings at the end of the season."

Team: JSF1

Motion: "Allow teams to collaborate with other teams on suspension, electronics & transmission in the same manner as engines in Formula Ruro."

Mischa Shuttle delivered a sensational win for the McShutt Motorworks team today, with a lead of almost 5 seconds after a race which saw him pull off a whopping 32 overtakes after coming back from a lowly grid position of 23rd! The English racer did so despite a coming together with AAR TO Ian Kay, which saw Shuttle lose his front wing! The result is the team's first appearance on the podium, and propels them up to 6th in the Constructors' standings.

Second-placed Sky Racing TO Szabolcs Nagy opted for a two-stop run entirely on the Supersofts, but found his tyres starting to desert him near the end as he fell back from Shuttle, whose tyres were 4 laps fresher. Joining the two on the podium was Ville Valtonen, who enjoyed a clean race in the Thrust Motorsport car, despite the occasional frustration of getting stuck behing the slower Matthew Baker, of Crash Test Dummies, who ran on the harder Soft compound throughout the race and ultimately finished 4th.

BJ Braisted took home yet another 5th place finish for AAR; the position is the team's best, but this marks their 5th time in 5th! His race was hampered by a collision with JSF1 TO James Smith, which saw both drivers lose their front wings. Polesitter Adrian Hingley didn't seem to have the pace today, falling back to finish 6th, though this may have been due to a reliance on the Soft compound throughout the race, with the same applying to Thrust Motorsport TO Jos Reinders, who followed in 7th.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Willi Wutz, TO of The Unpredictables, recovered from the back row of the grid but pushed his Supersofts a bit too far and ultimately lost several places in the closing laps.

The final two points-paying positions were filled by the Conrey Racing Development team, with HD Marek Jablonski leading TO Robert Conrey across the line.

Shadow Racing TO Clyde Springer looked set to secure his second podium today, but was foiled at the last by a serious engine malfunction on lap 47 costing him a second a lap before ultimately blowing up on the final lap!

Whilst McShutt Motorworks celebrated after the race, the atmosphere was rather more frosty between TOs Marc Ferring and Enzo Terreno. The two collided during the race, with neither driver willing to give way as Ferring attempted an overtake for 3rd 8 laps from the end. Ferring retired, whilst Terreno suffered a puncture and ultimately finished out of the points. Crash Test Dummies' Marc Ferring made it clear that he felt he had been treated unfairly on the track, pointedly asserting that he "had the speed to win, but as always, something (or someone) destroys it".

Champagne was not in short supply as Shuttle achieved McShutt Motorworks' first podium in the form of a brilliant win!

In what was nothing short of being "The drive from the Gods", McShutt Co Owner Mischa Shuttle defeated the odds by grabbing a spectacular win from 23rd on the grid. Its the first time the team and driver have been on the Podium as well as the win.

"Well I'll be damned, I wasn't expecting that, this is a dream come true, the car was feeling on form and everything fell into place, I got lucky with that collision with Ian Kay, but I think it was just a general racing incident between us, but that only proved how strong the car was the whole race, we probably would have been further up the grid for qualifying had it not been for the rain but I think we definately got the luck this race, and its a real boost for me and the team.

Champange was not in short supply for Shuttle today as it was rightly deserved after a stunning drive from 23rd

With a front row start in Spa and a win in Monza, things seem to be turning a different corner in the second half of the season, could this really be a sign for things to come?

"This certainly has been a good start to the second half of the season, with that front row start last time in Spa and now this win here, its a huge leap forward for us, I'm confident that we can keep this momentum for the rest of the season. Its also good for us as since we've now moved up the table we could be in for some good investment for the following season. I really do hope that this race has proven to the others that I am capeable of racing with others without causing too much havoc."

Shuttle will have to stay more focused on the road ahead if he wants to continue proving himself as a competent driver.

Ville Valtonen gave a great performance for the fans in Singapore today, topping the timing screens in Q1 and Q3 whilst only slipping to 3rd despite running the Soft, rather than Supersoft compound in Q2! The calculated risk, which paid off wonderfully, means that the Thrust Motorsport HD will be the only driver in the top 10 to start on the harder compound of tyre for tomorrow's race, potentially giving him a strategy advantage round a track at which it is notoriously difficult to overtake.

Hoping to rain on is parade will be the Crash Test Dummies duo of Marc Ferring and Matthew Baker, who qualified 2nd and 3rd and will no doubt be trying to mug Valtonen in to turn 1. The Polish pair of Marek Jablonski and Sebastian Jankowski once again end up as neighbours on the grid, with the latter in a Conrey Racing Development sandwich, as Robert Conrey lines up alongside the Minardi Team UK HD.

Row four sees Darash Chablani of Sky Racing and Peter Lind of JSF1 start alongside each other, both with relatively worn Supersoft tyres, whilst Shadow Racing TO Clyde Springer lines up ahead of Monza winner Mischa Shuttle, who has seemingly negotiated his release from an Italian jail after taking McShutt Motorworks' maiden win in Monza!!

Most drivers are hoping it will only be the titanium skid plates causing sparks to fly during tomorrow's race!

Matthew Baker's fifth win today after romping home to victory sees him take the lead of the Drivers' championship, meaning that Crash Test Dummies now lead both the Constructors' and Drivers' standings!

Throughout most of the race it looked like the win would be between Baker and teammate/TO Marc Ferring. A late pitstop from Ferring, however, saw Conrey Racing Development's Marek Jablonski, who had been on his tail throughout, able to take him on the undercut thanks to pitting two laps earlier and ultimately hang on despite a late-developing gearbox issue. The result is Jablonski's second appearance on the podium.

In 4th place, SnotPoison Racing TO Adrian Hingley benefitted from the late Safety Car, which allowed him to close up on a number of drivers in front and use his supersoft tyres to power past them in the closing laps, jumping from 7th to 4th in the final two laps. Polesitter Ville Valtonen lost out but still finished 5th despite taking damage to his Thrust Motorsport car's undertray after trying to take a curb too aggressively on lap 4.

Sixth to tenth positions were filled by a string of TOs; James Smith of JSF1 led Clyde Springer of Shadow Racing across in 6th and 7th, with the latter struggling for power from his ShadowTech V6 engine. Despite being the supplying team of engines for championship leaders Crash Test Dummies, Shadow Racing have so far had twice the number of engine reliability issues with identical units! Thrust Motorsport's Jos Reinders continued his string of points finishes in 8th, fending off CRD TO Robert Conrey, who was recovering from an incident with Enzo Terreno which saw the latter out of the race and with a grid penalty, whilst Conrey suffered a puncture. Taking the final championship point was The Unpredictables' Willi Wutz.

Ville Valtonen was clearly the man to beat today, topping the timing sheets in all three sessions of qualifying! The Thrust Motorsport driver seems to be Formula Ruro's top driver over one lap, having secured pole at 7 of the 14 opportunities so far! Can the Finn convert it to a win, though? So far Valtonen has only climbed to the top step of the podium once, at the opening round in Australia.

Starting alongside Valtonen on the front row is another driver searching for his second win; Sky Racing TO Szabolcs Nagy was the only other driver to get under the 1:37.000 mark in Q3.

The second row sees the TOs of CTD and CRD squaring up, with Marc Ferring leading Robert Conrey. Whilst their teams' initialisms may be similar, their story so far hasn't been; Crash Test Dummies lead the Constructors' championship with 230 points, whilst Conrey Racing Development sit in 6th with 88 to their name.

Darash Chablani, who has yet to secure a win despite the raw pace of the Sky Racing package, sits in 5th, alongside CRD's Marek Jablonski. Shadow Racing see representation in the top 10 through the efforts of HD Phillip Jeffery, who will start from 7th alongside championship leader Matthew Baker. On the fifth row sit the two JSF1 cars of HD Peter Lind and TO James Smith.

Enzo Terreno qualified in 10th but is subject to a 5 place grid penalty after causing an incident with Robert Conrey in Singapore. The Zo Fast TO will surely be keen to have an incident-free race after seemingly gaining a reputation for his.. forceful.. on-track behaviour!

Suzuka is the only figure-of-eight circuit on the Formula Ruro calendar

The first ever opportunity for Team Owners to gather round a table and vote on the future of their sport is finally here!

A reminder that only TOs may vote, and they may choose to abstain on any motions, but all motions require a two-thirds majority of voting TOs to be in favour in order to pass. Please cast your votes here, in public, in the spirit of this event being like a round-table face-to-face vote!

Voting will close at 2100 GMT on Thursday.

Steward-Submitted Motions:

S1 (New Feature): "In-season development from Season 2 will contribute to investment in the relevant component at a rate of 1 fruro per 0.1 upgrade value, rounded down."

S2 (Tweak): "Season 2 of Formula Ruro will use the F1 2014 format, rather than the F1 2015 format. The only change being that 16 cars will go through to Q2 instead of the current 15. The 2014 rules concerning double points will not apply."

Team Owner Motions:

T1 (Shadow Racing): "Eliminate the fruro award for wins and podiums. Budget payouts would solely be based on a team's position in the Constructors' standings at the end of the season."

T2 (JSF1): "Allow teams to collaborate with other teams on suspension, electronics & transmission in the same manner as engines in Formula Ruro."

T3 (Conrey Racing Development): "Drivers receiving a grid penalty will also face a fine for their team. The first grid penalty would incur a cost of 5 fruros, with later penalties increasing by 5 each time, so that a second penalty would cost 10 fruros, bringing the season fine to 15 fruros. This stacking would apply per driver, rather than per team, so if the other driver received their first grid penalty, that incident would only cost the team 5 fruros. Drive Through Penalties and Stop & Go Penalties would not incur a fine"

In addition to the above motions, there are a number of Balancing Decisions and an Implemented Feature coming in Season 2. The following is purely a reminder of these, and not a cue for TOs to vote on them.

Balancing Decisions:

Increasing base reliability of base system, ERS and electronics.
Decrease to the effect (positive and negative) of investment on reliability.
Increasing the frequency of penalties for aggressive driving.
Increasing the variability in engine power based on investment.

Implementation of Feature:

Hired Drivers will receive salaries, which they can negotiate for themselves with Team Owners. These must not be below the minimum driver salaries as laid out on the Forum Information page.
To ensure that one surprisingly good result does not make a Hired Driver too expensive to secure a seat, a three-season running average of their results will be used.
For Season 2, the minimum salaries are as follows:

In a race where the Supersoft was the tyre to be on, Sky Racing TO Szabolcs Nagy dominated, taking the lead on lap 13 and never relinquishing it, despite the late Safety Car depriving him of his 10 second lead! Sky Racing finally seem to be getting on top of their reliability concerns, with Nagy flying round the track and setting the fastest lap of the race, showing the true raw speed of the package.

It wasn't just Sky Racing with reason to be pleased today, though; Conrey Racing Development secured a brilliant double podium, with TO Robert Conrey leading HD Marek Jablonski after a clean race for the pair of them. The team climb to 5th, locked in battle with JSF1 in the Constructors' championship.

Another team with a double points finish was Shadow Racing, securing a valuable 20 points for their campaign after TO Clyde Springer finished 4th, whilst HD Phillip Jeffery managed 6th for the all-American outfit.

Polesitter Ville Valtonen went backwards after serious gearbox concerns significantly slowed the Thrust Motorsport driver down, but still managed to fend off Jeffery on the closing lap to salvage 5th, providing potentially important points for the team currently sitting 3rd in the Constructors' championship.

Crash Test Dummies TO Marc Ferring was hampered by a faulty ERS, but saw off the threat of two healthy Minardi Team UK cars, who finished behind him in 8th and 9th, with HD Sebastian Jankowski leading TO Shaun Hartley. Taking the last championship point was SnotPoison Racing's John Allen, recovering from 24th on the grid but suffering from dodgy brakes for much of the race.

Nagy enjoyed a relaxing race

Saturdays are fast becoming the Ville Valtonen Show, with the Thrust Motorsport HD having taken a majority of the pole positions this season, despite a 26 car grid! Today was no exception; the flying Finn romped to pole with a flying lap three tenths of a second faster than his closest competitor, Crash Test Dummies TO Marc Ferring.

Ville Valtonen was once again unbeatable in qualifying!

After having completed the Season 2 livery for Conrey Racing Development, the design team grow bored so they decided to do a fantasy contest and imagine a Season 2 livery for other teams as well.

In this episode we will explore some of the CRD Design fantsy works.

SnotPoison Racing:

Green and purple was the theme for SnotPoison in S1 so the Design department decided to take inspiration from an old F1 Jordan livery and tune the original blue into SnotPoison purple, that's the result and here is the inspiration

Minardi Team UK:

Easy one or hard one?

Team Minardi UK has no livery so anything could go!

The Design department decided to come up with a simple re-draw of an old Minard livery!

Here is the original:

More to come in the next episodes!

With just 4 races remaining, John Allen has reclaimed his title at round V 15, in Russia, reclaiming the lead of the championship from Matthew Baker. Allen did so in style, taking the win from 13th on the grid after opting for a one-stop strategy. The SnotPoison Racing HD now has a total of 146 points, to Baker's 139, whilst Szabolcs Nagy sits in 3rd with 120.

Allen's one-stopper meant that he had to perform a rearguard action at the end, successfully fending off the two-stopping Thrust Motorsport polesitter Ville Valtonen, who was hampered by having to tread lightly on his brakes. Valtonen was harried, in turn, by Conrey Racing Development's Marek Jablonski, who continued his impressive run of three consecutive podiums despite concerns about whether his car would last the final few laps, with multiple reliability concerns popping up.

Sky Racing's Darash Chablani looked to be in the hunt for a podium, but then bizarrely chose to try to make the Medium compound last 40 laps! Naturally, this endeavour failed, forcing him to pit with just 8 laps to go. Marc Ferring, TO of Crash Test Dummies, finished 5th on a one-stop strategy despite concerns over his brakes and a compromised sidepod after an encounter with Ian Kay, which put the AAR TO out of the race.

In 6th and 7th were two drivers who had recovered from the final row of the grid, both on one-stop strategies! Robert Conrey and Jamie McCarrick, TOs of CRD and McShutt Motorworks respectively, made good recoveries at a track where it is relatively difficult to overtake. The points may be particularly valuable for McCarrick; they see his team pull level with Shadow Racing on points, but sit ahead of them in the standings due to teammate Mischa Shuttle's win beating the best finish of Shadow Racing, Springer's 2nd place.

Thrust Motorsport TO Jos Reinders must have been frustrated in 8th, having made numerous attempts to pass McCarrick, whilst James Smith, TO of JSF1, was lucky to hang on in the points; he broke his front wing on the final lap due to a driver error, but still managed to keep Sky Racing's Szabolcs Nagy behind him.

The podium trio finished in close formation

S1 (New Feature): "In-season development from Season 2 will contribute to investment in the relevant component at a rate of 1 fruro per 0.1 upgrade value, rounded down."

For: James Smith, Paul Rademaker, Shaun Hartley, Marc Ferring, Jos Reinders, Adrian Hingley, Szabolcs Nagy, Robert Conrey

Against: Ian Kay, Clyde Springer

Abstain: Willi Wutz

8:2 (80%) - APPROVED

For: James Smith, Paul Rademaker, Shaun Hartley, Marc Ferring, Jos Reinders, Adrian Hingley, Ian Kay, Clyde Springer, Szabolcs Nagy, Robert Conrey

Against: Willi Wutz

10:1 (91%) - APPROVED

T1 (Shadow Racing): "Eliminate the fruro award for wins and podiums. Budget payouts would solely be based on a team's position in the Constructors' standings at the end of the season."

For: James Smith, Paul Rademaker, Shaun Hartley, Jos Reinders, Willi Wutz, Ian Kay, Clyde Springer, Szabolcs Nagy, Robert Conrey

Against: Adrian Hingley, Marc Ferring

9:2 (82%) - APPROVED

T2 (JSF1): "Allow teams to collaborate with other teams on suspension, electronics & transmission in the same manner as engines in Formula Ruro."

For: James Smith, Paul Rademaker, Shaun Hartley, Marc Ferring, Willi Wutz, Ian Kay, Clyde Springer, Szabolcs Nagy, Robert Conrey

Against: Jos Reinders, Adrian Hingley

9:2 (82%) - APPROVED

For implementation in Season 2:

For: James Smith, Paul Rademaker, Marc Ferring, Adrian Hingley, Clyde Springer, Szabolcs Nagy, Robert Conrey

Against: Shaun Hartley, Jos Reinders, Willi Wutz, Ian Kay

7:4 (64%) - REJECTED

Provisionally for implementation in Season 3 (as per Ian Kay's condition):

For: James Smith, Paul Rademaker, Marc Ferring, Adrian Hingley, Clyde Springer, Szabolcs Nagy, Robert Conrey, Ian Kay

Against: Shaun Hartley, Jos Reinders, Willi Wutz

8:3 (73%) - PROVISIONALLY APPROVED

(To be reviewed next Conference)

Gentlemen, this concludes Formula Ruro's first Team Conference. S1, S2, T1 and T2 have all been approved by at least a two-thirds majority, whilst T3 has been rejected for implementation in Season 2, but will return to the ballot paper at the next Conference, once the effect of the increased frequency of penalties has been observed.

After the first Team Owner conference held at the FRA headquarters we reached Robert Conrey, Conrey Racing Development's owner, for a couple of quick questions.

Media:

"Robert, how did you find the first Team Owner Conference?"

Robert Conrey:

"It was interesting, it's the first event of this kind I take part to, some interesting motion came up"

Media:

"What motion did you like the most?"

Robert Conrey:

"The one brought by James Smith was quite an interesting one, it will surely shift some balances but how? We will have to play smart and try to foresee the effects!"

Media:

"We heard your motion got rejected, disappointed?"

Robert Conrey:

"No, actually it was a wise move to make it slide to next season, our Lord and Savior Cia Smitheggstone already revealed a plan to make the stewards investigations and punihsments more severe from next season. It will be a good move to see how this will go before taking in consideration my proposal."

Media:

"Speaking of next season, what are your plans?"

Robert Conrey:

"Hard to tell, we have some budget calculations to do, plus some sponsors might want to join the series, and we will have to see if we can keep up the late good work. So until we won't have a clear idea of our fundings I can only say I want to continue to fight to be the best. This season thought us a lesson and we will adapt. For now there are still 4 rounds to go and we have to work HARD to catch good result, but we will try our best, as always!"

Media:

"And about your hired driver?"

Robert Conrey:

"I'm happy with Marek, he had a bad start but it happens sometimes in this sport, things simply don't want to go your way. Now he seem to be on fire, three podiums in a row! I never doubted him and we have a verbal agreement to continue the partnership in season 2, once we will have an idea of the wages we will have an official contract as well!"

Media:

"Ok Robert, thanks for your time!"

Robert Conrey:

"My pleasure, see you in America for the US GP!"

Ville Valtonen has once again secured pole position in his Thrust Motorsport car, bringing his total to 9 so far after yet again going three-tenths faster than the opposition, with Crash Test Dummies TO Marc Ferring lining up alongside him just as he did in Russia last weekend. Can either of the front row starters convert it to a pole in America?

Marek Jablonski once again looks good for Conrey Racing Development, sitting 3rd on the grid and no doubt looking to continue his streak of podiums! He's joined, once again, by fellow Pole Sebastian Jankowski, whose Minardi Team UK boss Shaun Hartley offered to buy everyone in the pitlane Martinis to celebrate his getting through to Q3!

Crash Test Dummies TO Marc Ferring enjoyed a relatively quiet race in the USA to bring himself back in to contention in the Drivers' championship, which now looks set to be a four-way tussle between current leader, John Allen (SPR), Matthew Baker (CTD), Marc Ferring (CTD) and Szabolcs Nagy (Sky Racing). Just 18 points separate these 4 drivers, whilst the next closest, Ville Valtonen, sits 27 points behind Nagy.

Ferring eeked his last set of Soft tyres out to last 21 laps, hanging on to the lead by just under 2 seconds despite being notably off the pace in the final few laps, an inevitable consequence of nursing the tyres home.

Today's race wasn't just notable for Ferring's performance and the resulting spicing up of the Drivers' championship, though; joining Ferring on the podium were the two Minardi Team UK drivers in what were the team's first ever appearances on the podium! Sebastian Jankowski and TO Shaun Hartley drove well to take 2nd and 3rd respectively; it seems that Hartley's martini celebrations worked wonders for his driving abilities!

Szabolcs Nagy finished in 4th for his Sky Racing team, struggling with a car which had taken considerable bodywork damage following a collision with Marek Jablonski, who received a DTP, and a later steering issue which saw him temporarily lose control of the car.

Despite Jablonski's on-track indiscretion, it was still a good day for Conrey Racing Development, with TO Robert Conrey finishing 5th, ahead of Jablonski in 6th. The Unpredictables drivers Sérgio Marques and TO Willi Wutz also both scored points, coming 7th and 9th respectively, whilst championship leader John Allen finished 8th for SnotPoison Racing and Ian Kay mopped up the final point for his AAR team.

Minardi Team UK took to the podium for the first time in a double-showing!

This is just a friendly reminder to TOs and HDs alike that you and your team will be penalised if you haven't both completed your two mandatory 250+ word RPs by 24 hours after the final race of the season. Teams will have their Budgets cut by 35% for each missing TO RP and 15% for each missing HD RP, with the same penalties applying to Team Prestige. Driver Prestige will reduce by 50% for each missing RP.

Team Owners, if you've written your own RPs but your Hired Driver hasn't, now is the time to remind them! ;)

Remember that each RP only needs to be 250 words and that only two are required over the course of the ~40 day season (longer including suspensions). Three RP Awards will also be issued to the top 3 RPers (judged by me) at the end of the season, which will consist of Driver and (if a TO) Team Prestige.

RPs so far:

If the season were to end today, teams would receive the following modifiers to their Budget based on RPs:

AAR: -50%
Conrey Racing Development: -30%
Crash Test Dummies: -35%
JSF1: -85%
McShutt Motorworks: -70%
Minardi Team UK: -35%
RaRaRacing: -70%
Shadow Racing: -30%
Sky Racing: -70%
SnotPoison Racing: -85%
The Unpredictables: -100%
Thrust Motorsport: -35%
Zo Fast: -70%

If you have completed an RP of the minimum length which has not been counted, please contact the Steward with the title of that RP so that any potential error can be corrected.

1. A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: ''Ugh, that's the ugliest baby I've ever seen!'' The woman walks to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: ''The driver just insulted me!'' The man says: ''You go up there and tell him off. Go on, I'll hold your monkey for you.''

2. ''I went to the zoo the other day, there was only one dog in it, it was a shitzu.''

3. ''Dyslexic man walks into a bra''

4. A young blonde woman is distraught because she fears her husband is having an affair, so she goes to a gun shop and buys a handgun. The next day she comes home to find her husband in bed with a beautiful redhead. She grabs the gun and holds it to her own head. The husband jumps out of bed, begging and pleading with her not to shoot herself. Hysterically the blonde responds to the husband, ''Shut up...you're next!''

5. A classic Tommy Cooper gag ''I said to the Gym instructor "Can you teach me to do the splits?'' He said, ''How flexible are you?'' I said, ''I can't make Tuesdays'', was fifth.

6. Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks. They charged one - and let the other one off.

7. Two aerials meet on a roof - fall in love - get married. The ceremony was rubbish - but the reception was brilliant.

8. Another one was: Doc, I can't stop singing the 'Green Green Grass of Home'. He said: 'That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome'. 'Is it common?'I asked. 'It's not unusual' he replied.

9. I'm on a whiskey diet. I've lost three days already.

10. A man walks into a bar with a roll of tarmac under his arm and says: ''Pint please, and one for the road.''

11. I went to the doctors the other day and I said, 'Have you got anything for wind?' So he gave me a kite.

12. My mother-in-law fell down a wishing well, I was amazed, I never knew they worked.

13. I saw this bloke chatting up a cheetah; I thought, ''He's trying to pull a fast one''.

14. A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named 'Amal.' The other goes to a family in Spain, they name him Juan'. Years later; Juan sends a picture of himself to his mum. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wished she also had a picture of Amal. Her husband responds, ''But they are twins. If you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal.''

15. There's two fish in a tank, and one says ''How do you drive this thing?''

16. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.

17. When Susan's boyfriend proposed marriage to her she said: ''I love the simple things in life, but I don't want one of them for my husband''.

18. ''My therapist says I have a preoccupation with vengeance. We'll see about that.''

19. I rang up British Telecom, I said, ''I want to report a nuisance caller'', he said ''Not you again''.

20. I met a Dutch girl with inflatable shoes last week, phoned her up to arrange a date but unfortunately she'd popped her clogs.

21. A jump-lead walks into a bar. The barman says ''I'll serve you, but don't start anything''

22. Slept like a log last night........ Woke up in the fireplace.

23. A priest, a rabbi and a vicar walk into a bar. The barman says, ''Is this some kind of joke?''

24. A sandwich walks into a bar. The barman says ''Sorry we don't serve food in here''

25. The other day I sent my girlfriend a huge pile of snow. I rang her up, I said ''Did you get my drift?''.

26. I cleaned the attic with the wife the other day. Now I can't get the cobwebs out of her hair.

27. Went to the paper shop - it had blown away.

28. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. ''But why?'' they asked, as they moved off. ''because,'' he said ''I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.''

29. I was in Tesco's and I saw this man and woman wrapped in a barcode. I said, ''Are you two an item?''

30. I'm in great mood tonight because the other day I entered a competition and I won a years supply of Marmite......... one jar.

31. So I went to the Chinese restaurant and this duck came up to me with a red rose and says ''Your eyes sparkle like diamonds''. I said, ''Waiter, I asked for a-ROMATIC duck''.

32. Four fonts walk into a bar the barman says ''Oi - get out! We don't want your type in here''

33. I was having dinner with Garry Kasporov (world chess champion) and there was a check tablecloth. It took him two hours to pass me the salt.

34. There was a man who entered a local paper's pun contest.. He sent in ten different puns, in the hope that at least one of the puns would win. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.

35. I went down the local supermarket, I said, ''I want to make a complaint, this vinegar's got lumps in it'', he said, "Those are pickled onions''.

36. I backed a horse last week at ten to one. It came in at quarter past four.

37. I swear, the other day I bought a packet of peanuts, and on the packet it said ''may contain nuts.'' Well, YES! That's what I bought the buggers for! You'd be annoyed if you opened it and a socket set fell out!''

38. A lorry-load of tortoises crashed into a trainload of terrapins, What a turtle disaster

39. My phone will ring at 2 in the morning, and my wife'll look at me and go, ''Who's that calling at this time?' ''I don't know! If I knew that we wouldn't need the bloody phone!''

40. I said to this train driver ''I want to go to Paris". He said ''Eurostar?'' I said, ''I've been on telly but I'm no Dean Martin''.

41. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly. But when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving once and for all that you can't have your kayak and heat it.

42. I've got a friend who's fallen in love with two school bags, he's bisatchel.

43. You see my next-door neighbour worships exhaust pipes, he's a catholic converter.

44. A three-legged dog walks into a saloon in the Old West. He slides up to the bar and announces: ''I'm looking for the man who shot my paw.''

45. I tried water polo but my horse drowned.

46. I'll tell you what I love doing more than anything: trying to pack myself in a small suitcase. I can hardly contain myself.

47. So I met this gangster who pulls up the back of people's pants, it was Wedgie Kray.

48. Went to the corner shop - bought 4 corners.

49. A seal walks into a club...

50. I went to the Doctors the other day, and he said, 'Go to Bournemouth, it's great for flu'. So I went - and I got it.

In what has been a very plain season with little to shout about for Mcshutt Co-owner Jamie McCarrick. One thing he hopes to work on next season will be finishing higher up the order.
Although McCarrick's results were relatively consistent up to the mid season break, the Irishman is yet to step up to any spot on the podium, or even a fourth place finish. Only positive is at the current moment he is the highest placed driver to not achieve a podium result, that subject to change with woeful performances after the mid- season break.
McCarrick hopes to break the duck in atleast one of the final three races of the season, however ''That being a hope not an expectation, I'd have better chance of winning the lotto with no ticket.'' He said to an interviewer during the Us grand prix, in which he was forced to retire with gearbox issues. With nothing decided for the next season in Formula Ruro, McCarrick doesnt know whether to close down the team and head for new pasture, or to keep it running, Although as of yet he has not focused on next season, nothing is decided.
Perhaps the worst area of his driving ability this season was his horrendous qualifying performances. Despite the Mcshutt being a fast car on paper, McCarrick has not been able to prove his talent over a single lap, and claims that the car handles poorly and bad reliability forces him not to push the car as much. An average quali result of 17th, proving his poor performance on Saturday, McCarrick thinks that confidence has been a big problem over the 2nd half of the season, and is looking forward to next season where he can start of fresh.

US Grand Prix: McCarrick is forced to retire on lap 26. Usa GP: McCarrick is forced to retire on lap 26

Szabolcs Nagy has finally put a (temporary?) stop to Ville Valtonen's spree of pole positions, going quickest by a tenth with a last minute lap round the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit.

The Sky Racing TO is set to start alongside James Smith, TO of JSF1, whilst the HD of Sky Racing, Darash Chablani, heads the second row, lining up with the first of the Conrey Racing Development cars, driven by head honcho Robert Conrey.

The second CRD car follows, with Marek Jablonski next to Crash Test Dummies TO Marc Ferring on the grid. Serial Thrust Motorsport polesitter Valtonen will start from 7th, ahead of the two SnotPoison Racing cars, who in turn start ahead of the McShutt Motorworks duo.

Dear Diary

Austin USA

This race supposed to be an easy one…

Previous day I had qualified third and I drank a lot of champaign after that. Today it wasn’t easy to wake up. I guess it’s because of yesterday evening, if you know what I mean. Maybe I should stop drinking after a good quali session? Oh, whatever…

So here I am. Again I am sitting in my bullet. Red lights are on. Then they disappear and I am doing what I was trained for. I have gained one position. Vile messed something so I had no objections to overtake him. Shit happens like Finn would say. I am hearing strange noises after two laps. Engine coughed and now I am losing five positions. Jesus, seriously? My engineer had already told me that I have nothing to worry about, so I am still pushing…

Things were pretty good for now. I was on 29th lap and I was third. Not bad, Robert should be proud of me. I had a very good idea to overtake Szabolcs. Just casual overtaking. (Later they told me that was daring maneuver – Hmm, f**k maybe you have right.) I locked the wheel and I just parked my car in his ass. I am really sorry Szabolcs. It wasn’t a pleasure for me too. I was spinning again and again. Just like in this shitty music (I bet you know it – you spin me round, round…). I had broken a “little bit” rear wing of Nagys car. He almost killed me after the race. I was afraid what would happen if he didn’t finished ahead of me. But hey, I can’t blame him. He should at least punch me.

I almost forgot, I ended 6th, not bad taking under consideration that I had drive through penalty. My teammate ended in front of me. Nice race Robert. Marc ended first, this bastard is fast. The rest of the podium was filled by Crash Test Dummies. Congratulations guys, I like the name of your team.

It was a quite nice quali again. My mate, Robert ended 4th and I ended 5th. Should I go to get some beer? …

To be continued...

Here we are again with another episode of Fantasy Liveries!

For the ones who missed or forgot the first episode here is a quick recap!

Conrey Racing Development Design team finished the Season 2 livery
CRD Design grow bored
They decided to make imaginary liveries of other teams
They made a SnotPoison one based on an old Jordan
They made one of Minardi Team UK based on a... duh... Minardi!

So what will be the new Fantasy Liveries?

Crash Test Dummies:

For the dominators of the first season, the CTD team decided to not recreate a livery from an F1 team, they deserved their own!

Even if the colour and sponsor scheme recall the Sauber F1 Team, this livery is actually an original one and mixes various styles.

Blue and white were kept into the scene to recall the S1 livery!

RaRaRacing:

Ok, orange and black are cool colours to mix up why not bright the car up white some white.

The result is a fresher and more dinamic silhouette!

The style, once again, doesn't recall a single F1 car but mash up various versions of the McLaren-Honda!

Stay tuned for the next episodes!

Today was one of the rare occasions where journalists could visit the team base of one of the most succussful Formula Ruro teams: Team Crash Test Dummies, who already took 8 victories out of the first 16 races. They are also leading the team championship and both drivers are fighting for the driver’s title.

Team owner Marc Ferring is very proud of the archievements of this first Formula Ruro season: “It’s the first season, everybody started at the same point, no one had an advantage. Being now in this situation where both drivers can fight for the title shows that the whole team did an amazing job.”

The first thing the journalists could see on the tour was the trophy showcase:

Really impressive ! So many trophies after only 16 races ! Some of my colleagues however asked why there are 4 trophies of the Monaco Grand Prix, despite only one CTD-driver having finished on the podium. Marc Ferring didn’t want to comment on that subject, but there are rumours in the paddock that one team apparently stole every single trophy of this season… But probably it was not Team Crash Test Dummies, we couldn’t find any indications in that regard.

The team owner quickly showed us the other parts of the impressive building. Here you can see the two rooms of the „Engine Development Center“:

Room 1 of the "Engine Development Center"

Room 2 of the "Engine Development Center"

Marc Ferring was asked about his views on the recent team owner conference. “Very interesting, we were in a very impressive building in Paris, Place de la Concorde ! I’m planning to rebuild that building in Luxembourg as my home place.”

And the discussions ? “Oh yeah, right, we had some proposals on the table. I’m not that happy with the result. In my opinion, every team should build his own car, his own suspension, transmission, brakes and so on. It’s a CONSTRUCTORS championship.”

But you are buying the engines from Shadow Racing and you’re very successful ! And you accepted that proposal ! “You know that ? The vote was public ? Damn. Yes of course, if teams can collaborate in order to save money and to be more competitive, I’m totally in favour of such an idea. We are very happy with our engines, and we are not scared of a further collaboration with Shadow Racing or any other team”, Ferring replied.

Then we went downstairs. The journalists could hear some voices… and laughter… It doesn’t seem as if there is another development room downstairs, but the driver’s training center. Luckily enough we could take one picture, before quickly leaving the room:

The guided tour was almost over, but we could ask some last questions about the next season: What about your driver combination for the next season ? “In September, I think it was after Monza or Singapore, I was close to fire one of the drivers. I looked at the championship table, and one driver had more than 40 points less than the other driver. I wanted that my assistant immediately fires that one, but then I realised that it was me ! I was so far behind Matthew !!! After reconsidering everything, I thought that my performance was not that bad and I quickly renewed my own contract.”

And what about Matthew Baker ? “Of course he stays ! We have to talk about the salary, but I think we will find an agreement. He’s my first and only option for the second cockpit.”

after a season that has been difficult at times, perrenial underdogs minardi team uk sent a shock rippling down the paddock in the us grand prix as the team managed to not only score rare points, but acheived a shocking double podium finish. team owner shaun hartley expressed his amazment at such an acheivment.

" im in shock!, i never though we'd step on the podium after the troubles we've had but to get a double podium is simply amazing. i havent had chance to properly congratulate seb, im assuming he had to have a long lie down in a dark room to get over the shock, but until now, his qualifying efforts have been keeping team spirits content as my own qually results are pretty appaling. no doubt this result will boost next years budget so we can maybe take a step forward with the car and maybe fight for podiums more consistently"

when asked about if seb was staying next year, shaun replied " im not sure, of course i'd be happy to have him stay on board but the decision is upto him, im sure it will be discussed soon but i'm not gonna force the guy to stay if he feels its time to move on. whoever ends up in the car, i hope it will be good enough to target the frontrunners"

" we have some sponsers that we're in discussion with, and hopefully the car will actually have some paint on it, and im not talking about a tin of hammerite either, actual graphics!!!"

"however for now we'll just celebrate this remarkable result and hope that we can end the season on a high note heading into next year"

the team now travels to mexico city for the penultimate round of the formula ruro season, with just two races left, can the team claim another shock result

(after seeing the qually results from mexico, hartley was last seen locking himself in a broom cupboard, loudly shouting profanity at himself )

January 19, 2016. Only three rounds to go in the first FIA Formula Ruro World Championship and the largest number of rule changes in the history of the sport have well and truly reshuffled the deck. It turns out the biggest news in Formula Ruro at the start of the season was the blowing diffuser being used by Sky Racing to improve aerodynamics. The diffuser in question was cleared by the FIA as long ago as October but the matter will again be considered by the FIA's International Court of Appeal on February.

The controversy surrounding these devices stems from a clever interpretation of the rules by Sky Racing in question and the fact that they obviously have a clear on track advantage. Sky Racing having claimed 4 poles and won 2 races so far this year. The regulations were designed to reduce downforce and increase overtaking and this included a smaller diffuser in a more rearward position. With an estimated 50% reduction in downforce because of these changes, teams have been working hard to regain the lost downforce.

CTD, SPR and CRD have all made very literal interpretations of the revised 2009 rules regarding the rear diffuser. The new regulations now limit the main part of the diffuser to a width of 1000mm, a length of 350mm and a height of 175mm so all of the channels on these cars are the same height and length, with no difference in height between the main central section and the side channels.

Sky Racing’s blowing diffuser has exploited a loophole in the rules as did most teams last year. The rear diffuser regulations are simply a section of the wider bodywork regulations, which also include sections which allow bodywork in areas not intended for the diffuser. More important is the fact that their design uses a 'window' or hole to feed the top side of the diffuser. That hole is located where the flat floor meets the diffuser.

The area of contention surrounds the central crash structure at the rear of the car. Where the literal interpretation suggests a single 1 meter wide channel the same height all the way across, the team has split that into 3 channels using the crash structure as a central channel.

Sky Racing’s diffuser exploits regulations that allow extra bodywork within a 150mm zone in the center of the car, the team has cleverly shaped the SPR-C01’s rear crash structure so that it effectively lengthens and heightens the diffuser’s central section, which also features a very low splitter at its base. The same area has been exploited in recent years with small winglets mounted atop and below the rear crash structure.

Additionally there is an ambiguous rule which appears to allow more than one surface to exist in this area. The team has been able to create a blowing diffuser, their main diffuser is as long, wide and tall as the rules allow, but they have made the middle section stop short of meeting the flat floor - instead the floor extends into the upper diffuser creating an opening to allow airflow above the main diffuser which creates more diffuser exit area, and the higher expansion of the flow through the diffuser creates more downforce.

The cars from CTD, SPR and CRD don't have these holes in the diffuser and the main point of debate is whether the diffuser's three channels can be considered as separate entities, or whether they must be considered as one whole. Given the wording of the regulations, one can argue a case either way, though the majority of teams apparently took the spirit of the rules to mean that all three channels must have the same height and length, with no holes to feed them.

The blowing diffuser at work...

I forever follow the ribbon of grey,

Cutting through everything to light my way,

My mind at rest, my mind at ease,

For this is my destiny if you please,

But wait I’m not alone in this place,

They too have come to make it a race,

In the darkness their engines roar,

My rivals waiting to take my score,

We line up two by two as lights go red,

The balance of the race on a thread,

Green flashes before my eyes,

The silence before the noise flies,

I drop the clutch, I grab the gears,

The acceleration bringing tears,

But wait what is this so near,

A blur of blue, it is clear,

My rival comes to take my race,

I cannot let this be common place,

I turn the steering, just abit…..

Enough to make our wheels hit…..

I struggle to stay on the right track,

As metal on metal begins to crack,

I feel the shock I feel the pain,

No more will my life be the same again,

He comes for me the man in black,

Hovering across the misty track,

The clock is no longer ticking my friend,

Life and all its pleasures are at an end,

You cannot escape you cannot flee,

For I am everything in eternity,

There is no pain for where you go,

In the blackness life cannot flow,

Come with me my old friend,

We sail together so close to your end,

I wield the axe I hold all the keys,

I am the lord of all I please,

There is no hope there is no cheer,

Though in this world there is nothing for you to fear,

For no more suffering will be felt,

No more pain will be handed out,

I only come to reap and sow,

Those on life’s death row

Its not the cheeriest poem, i can't write or draw anything cheery for some reason. (although i live a very happy life!) Anyway we've had pokeman, reports, car designs so why not poetry?

JSF1 TO James Smith delivered his second win of the season round the Hermanos Rodrigues circuit in Mexico today, reigniting his team's chances of beating Conrey Racing Development to 5th overall.

Smith saw off Darash Chablani, of Sky Racing, who secured his second podium of the season, whilst Adrian Hingley, who was perhaps the pre-season favourite to win the series, finished 3rd despite an ERS issue on his SnotPoison Racing car.

It was a return to good form for Valtonen today, securing 4th place for Thrust Motorsport, ahead of the second Sky Racing driver, TO Szabolcs Nagy, who was suffering from reliability issues. Jos Reinders finished 6th in the other Thrust Motorsport car, taking advantage of those around him struggling on worn tyres in the closing laps.

Matthew Baker closed in on championship rival John Allen by 6 points, having finished 7th for Crash Test Dummies, whilst Phillip Jeffery took 8th for Shadow Racing, Willi Wutz 9th for The Unpredictables and Peter Lind rounded out the top 10 in the other JSF1 car. Wutz was the only driver to score points on a two-stop strategy, with all the others opting for three stops.

Some commentators called the race a fix after grid girls arrived wearing JSF1 livery

Szabolcs Nagy will be pleased with his performance today, making it two pole positions on the trot as he takes his Sky Racing car to the front of the grid, having gone almost two-tenths faster than the opposition.

Joining him on the front row for the first time this season is Shadow Racing TO Clyde Springer, whilst championship leader John Allen took 3rd for SnotPoison Racing.

An honourable mention goes to Paul Rademaker, who sits last in the Drivers' championship, with less than half the points of the next driver, but today took his RaRaRacing car through to Q3 for the first time. Could this be a sign of a resurgence in the last two races of the season? The team trail Zo Fast by 11 points in the Constructors' championship, so they could yet manage to avoid finishing last!

Could some much needed points be on the table for long-suffering Rademaker's RaRaRacing?

As the first season of Formula RURO nears its climax, F RURO Inside takes a final look at the four main title contenders: John Allen (150), Matthew Baker (145), Szabolcs Nagy (142) and Marc Ferring (132). Although Ville Valtonen (117), James Smith (116) and Jos Reinders (103) could still overtake the current leader John Allen, their chances of winning the title are merely academic.

John Allen: 1^st (150 points); 1 win; 0 pole positions (4 times 3^rd)

Before the season everybody expected the SnotPoison TO and motor racing legend Adrian Hingley to be the driver to beat. However, after round 17 of 19 it is Hinlgey’s surprise signing, John Allen, the reigning GP2 champion, who is still leading the standings. Neither driver nor car are considered particularly fast, but both are notoriously consistent. In the first half of the season Allen built a comfortable lead by consistently finishing in the points, with 5 podium finishes within the first 7 races. Due to several mechanical issues Allen lost most of his lead in the second half of the season, but fought back recently, winning his first Formula Ruro race at Sotchi.

If he can get back to his trademark “consistency-mode” he’s the one to beat. Actually, this season looks like a spitting image of the last GP2 season where he lost an early lead in the second half of the season and recovered in the last two races to claim the title with the smallest margin possible …

Matthew Baker: 2^nd (145 points); 5 wins; 0 pole positions (2 times 3^rd)

Another young driver who has outshone his team owner, Matthew Baker may be considered the opposite of John Allen: he is extremely fast, but lacks consistency. He won 5 races, more than anybody else, but has only 3 further top 10 finishes. Furthermore he seems to have lost his momentum, scoring only 6 championship points in the last 4 races.

If can get his act together and finish a race without issues he will win race(s) again and might storm to the front of the standings.

Szabolcs Nagy: 3^rd (142 points); 2 wins; 6 pole positions

Sky Racing TO Szabolcs Nagy is a very experienced driver and he has built the fastest car on the grid. The team struggled a lot with technical issues in the first part of the season, but has shown big reliability improvements since the Austrian GP.

Nagy is only 3 points behind Matthew Baker and currently has the biggest momentum of all title contenders. After scoring only 36 points in the first 8 races and trailing 54 points behind Allen he has now reduced the gap to 8 points.

Marc Ferring: 4^th (132 points); 3 wins; 0 pole positions (6 times 2^nd)

Crash Test Dummies is the only team to have two drivers left in the championship race. Team owner Marc Ferring is another very experienced driver who has won championships before. Currently he’s 12 points and 2 wins behind his hired driver Matthew Baker but has caught up fast.

The big question at CTD will be: do they have a team order? Will the team owner Ferring sacrifice his own chance at winning the title to help his young hired driver?

Sky Racing TO Szabolcs Nagy has taken the lead of the championship going in to the final race, having mastered the changing conditions in Interlagos! Nagy has a 17 point lead over SnotPoison Racing's John Allen with one race to go, whilst the only other driver who could theoretically win the Drivers' championship is Crash Test Dummies' Matthew Baker, who trails Nagy by 22 points.

SPR TO Adrian Hingley finished 2nd, with Minardi Team UK HD Sebastian Jankowski taking 3rd.

RaRaRacing TO Paul Rademaker looked good for a solid points finish (perhaps even a podium) until his aggressive on-track tendencies got the better of him as he shut the door on McShutt Motorworks' Jamie McCarrick, putting McCarrick in to a spin and Rademaker out of the race!

Nagy looks good going in to the final race

Here we are with the third episode of Fantasy Liveries by CRD Design!

So let's get straight into action and let's see today's teams!

Thrust Motorsport

Thrust Motorsport keeps the red part of the livery but gets a colour scheme that recall Scuderia Ferrari, or better, a fantasy approach to the new Ferrari's partner team: Haas racing!

Shadow Racing

Let's add some colour to this poor black livery, gold maybe? Ok but let's not use Lotus scheme, it's great but way too used. Why not take as example Wolf Racing, less know but still good looking!

Here is the original one:

Until next time!

minardi sprung a suprise in sao Paulo, as Sebastian Jankowski delivered the team their second podium in 3 races, netting third.

team owner Shaun Hartley said" I'm thrilled, I didn't think we'd score 1 podium let alone 2, and after the double podium in usa, I'm even happier. This strong end to the season gives us good momentum going into season 2."

After what seemed a great promise for the season in the first two races, Thrust Motorsport is now 4th in the standings. The season progressed with Jos Reinders being slightly more consistent, but with superfast Ville Valtonen getting the poles and bigger haul of points, specifically in the second half of the season. Thrust Motorsport was taking some distance from Sky Racing and expected to be battling for second in the team standings with SnotPoison racing. Although points were still scored, we now need a really good finish this last race of the season to still achieve that. With Adrien being on the podium twice and Szabolcs scoring a win, they've just had the edge on us.

Although this makes it seem that we are slipping a bit, overall the season has been good to us. 9 pole positions (all by Ville!), 2 wins and 6 podiums (which are equally shared) in total is certainly a good result for what started out as an ‘equal for everybody’ season. Already securing 4th place overall gives us a great opportunity to really give it all we have got in this last race and try to still get 3^rd back or maybe even challenge for second!

For the future we hope to be able to stand out a bit more in certain areas, to give us that edge that we need to perform better, but we can’t give any details on where we think we need to go from here. As Team Owner I would like to point out that, although no contract has been signed, I would like nothing more than keeping Ville on board. Discussions have started only recently, as we were both focused on getting the results, but I am confident that Thrust Motorsport is a good place to be for him and I hope to be able to give him an offer that he will be satisfied with. Ville seems very committed to the team and provides great feedback. From his usual comments after the events, everybody can tell that he settles for nothing less than victory!

JSF1 school report – teachers mark, B –

A radical new concept failed to live up to expectations in the first part of the season, with just a couple of 4^th place finishes the highlight.

While fairly reliable the new concept required a lot of development and setup from the drivers, particularly hampering the inexperienced Peter Lind. While he may have struggled early on, he handled himself impeccably throughout the season. Earning him self a 2^nd year at what promises to be a much improved team.

As the season continued the team began to hit its stride, with car development at an all time high, comfortably out developing its rivals. With expectations to be the 2^nd fastest team on outright speed for the 2^nd part of the year.

As ever in the world of F1, politics dictates everything, with the FIA suddenly deciding major car components were no longer eligible to be developed. Thus effectively destroying any ambitions of a chance to make a championship run. Whether this was a deliberate sabotage attempt by certain FIA members…who knows…..For sure we know this wasn’t Cia Smith, (no relation) however a certain Mr Sulak has always made life difficult for JSF1…….

As thoughts turn to next season, JSF1 are looking to come together with another team, hoping collaboration will ensure the top 3 teams don’t move too far ahead when the yearly budgets are set.

Of course we will also be unveiling a new exciting livery for the up & coming season.

Regards

James Smith TO of JSF1

I'd just like to get an idea of how many teams we can expect on the grid for Season 2.

If you're a TO and are planning on continuing your team for Season 2, could you let me know, please? I've already heard from some of you that you will/won't be, and I'm assuming (hoping) that most of the rest will be :)

Also, if you're a Hired Driver and are considering starting your own team, please do let me know, both in terms of getting an idea of the numbers and so that I can answer any questions you may have :)

Confirmed so far:

CRD
Zo Fast (joint ownership)
BSR (formerly SPR)
YGS (new team)
CTD
JSF1
RaRaRacing
Minardi
Thrust
Sky
AAR

minardi team UK look set to return for season 2 after all but confirming that Sebastian Jankowski will remain with the team.

"I'm thrilled that seb wants to stay on. He's pushed the car in to places it didn't really deserve sometimes, and with the hopefully increased investment in the m-02, I'm hopeful that it will mean we take a good step forward in challenging the frontrunners more consistently"

the team currently sit in a 3 way scrap for 7th in the teams standings

As a rookie, I knew that racing in Formula Ruro and managing a team would have been a tough experience, but I was so excited to be part of the championship and compete “tyre-to-tyre” with my idols that I went ahead without hesitations.

The first obstacle to face was to plan the budget. It is already so difficult to handle my family budget…how could I decide how to distribute the money among the several expenditure items: chassis investments, component reliability, engine investments…

My 7 years-old daughter convinced me to distribute equally the budget, and then I was ready for starting the season. Meanwhile, I looked around for a driver, and I contacted Adam State. I knew that Adam was looking for a seat. I established a contact with him, and I was positively surprised when he willingly accepted my offer. A simple three-floors residence in Florida surrounded by a 18-holes golf course was enough.

The first race was in Melbourne. Unfortunately, my secretary did a mistake booking a flight to Melbourne Florida instead of Melbourne Australia, so that I arrived at the paddock just 5 minutes before the starting of the practice session. The first quali was not too bad: 23rd. My goal was 24th. Adam got the 5th row, thus demonstrating that the good potential of the car.

The race was amazing. 14 overtaking and a final 16th position. Adam was much less lucky and was two positions behind me.

The second race was in Monaco. I was so happy after the qualification…I was 24th as I wanted.

The race was very frustrating. Unexpectedly, a bee entrapped in my helmet just before the race starting, and this event made me so hungry. I wanted to finish the race as soon as possible, and I tried a lot of risky maneuvers. The last one involved Paul Rademaker…I was really sorry for him, but at the same time I was so relieved when I put my helmet off…

In Malesia, the qualification was quite good (12th), but during the race I had my first mechanical failure. In China, I started from 5th row (one of my best qualifications in the season), but again the race was not good as I hoped. After a disappointing race weekend in Barhain (only mitigated by the 24th position in the grid), the circus landed in Spain. What an unforgettable race! Adam was amazing...he won the race with an incredibly smart strategy! Unfortunately, my race concluded again with a collision, and that time was Clyde Springer to suffer my aggression.

Before leaving to Montreal, I decided to see a psychologist. He prescribed some “magic drops” (“Take 84 of them before starting the race and 46 during the pit stops”he said) and since then, I did not provoke any collision and the drivers in the paddock begun to greet me. The performance did not improve, but I was very happy to get again the 24th position on the grid a couple of times (Austria and Hungary).

However, in the middle of that, in Silverstone, a miracle occurred. I did a mistake counting the “magic drops” and I took 865 drops instead of 130…the result? 6th in quali and 2nd in race!! I could not believe it!! Unfortunately, the drops were withdrawn from the market few days after, and I was not able to replicate such a performance…

Time run fast (surely faster than me) and in the last three races, I did not see the checkered flag anymore (two mechanical failures and a driving error).

Now, I am ready for the last race and I’m starting thinking to the next season.

Final consideration: I am 25th in the driver standing…my season goal was to get the 24th place. I am one point behind one of my idols, Willi Wutz.

My dream for Abu Dhabi? 24th on the grid and 10th at the end.

With just one race to go, Szabolcs Nagy (Sky Racing TO) leads the Drivers' Championship by 17 points, with just two other drivers in the hunt for the title. John Allen (SnotPoison Racing HD) trails Nagy by 17 points, whilst Matthew Baker (Crash Test Dummies) needs a win to take the title, as he is 22 points behind.

There's a three-way tussle between those same teams when it comes to the Constructors' Championship, too! Crash Test Dummies have a convincing 26 point lead over Sky Racing, whilst SnotPoison Racing are a further 6 points behind. Anything could happen in Abu Dhabi, though!

Here's how the season has unfolded:

Szabolcs Nagy has positioned himself well with a view to defending his championship lead and becoming Formula Ruro's first ever Drivers' champion! With Darash Chablani taking 2nd, Nagy's team take a front-row lockout, suggesting that the Sky Racing team could snatch the Constructors' title, too.

Sebastian Jankowski (Minardi Team UK) and James Smith (JSF1) drove identical lap times in Q3, with the former lining up 3rd having done the lap earlier during the session! Thrust Motorsport's Jos Reinders was only seven-thousandths of a second behind, qualifying 5th, followed by teammate Ville Valtonen. The Thrust pairing are followed by championship contender John Allen, who lines up 7th for SnotPoison Racing.

The other contender for the title, Matthew Baker, could only manage 16th for Crash Test Dummies, though teammate and TO Marc Ferring could help the team to hang on to the Constructors' championship, as he lines up in 8th position.

The two HDs of Marek Jablonski (Conrey Racing Development) and Zo Fast (Adam State) round out the top 10.

Szabolcs Nagy starts from the perfect position to defend his championship lead

James Smith drove a fantastic race to take his third race win of the season, but joining him on the podium was a driver perhaps even more ecstatic with the result of the race. Szabolcs Nagy, founder and TO of Sky Racing, finished 2nd on his three-stop strategy, reinforcing his championship lead and allowing him to walk away from Season 1 of Formula Ruro as Driver Champion!

His championship rivals didn't put up that much of a fight in the end; Matthew Baker and John Allen finished 6th and 9th respectively. It wasn't all bad news for Matthew Baker, though; Crash Test Dummies held on to their spot at the top of the Constructors' championship, ahead of Sky Racing, with Marc Ferring's team becoming Formula Ruro's first ever Constructor Champions!

Ville Valtonen, HD of Thrust Motorsport, was the other driver on the podium. Jos Reinders' team finished 4th in the Constructors' standings, 12 points behind SnotPoison Racing. JSF1 overtook Conrey Racing Development with a haul of 35 points at the final race, whilst Minardi Team UK won the battle for 7th ahead of Shadow Racing and McShutt Motorworks.

Smith was ecstatic with his win, helping team JSF1 to take 5th in the Constructors' championship

.. But Crash Test Dummies provided the best post-race party!

Drivers' Champion: Szabolcs Nagy (+32)

Constructors' Champion: Crash Test Dummies (+28)

In the spirit of Formula Ruro and its information and intrigue-filled nature, votes for Best Driver and Best Team will be published!

Most wins: Baker 5, Smith 3, Nagy 3
Most podiums: Nagy 7, Allen 7, Smith 5
Most poles: Valtonen 9, Nagy 6, Hingley 1
Most overtakes: Baker 276, Reinders 251, Jablonski 247
Most fastest laps: Jablonski 3, Nagy 3, Baker 2
Most laps on track: Braisted 1151, Jankowski 1151, Jablonski 1143
Most DNFs: Terreno 9, hartley 8, Kay 8
Most injuries: McCarrick 1, Rademaker 1
Most major collisions: Conrey 15, Terreno 11, Baker 10
Most penalties: Terreno 3, Chablani 3, Nagy 3
Most missed practices: Wutz 2, Warren 1, Terreno 1

Despite the celebrations going on over at crash test dummies, james smith and Sbalocs Nagy after the chequered flag was waved, Mcshutt's Jamie McCarrick was equally as happy to watch the season end at the abhu dhabi grand prix, but for all the wrong reasons. ''An absolutely desperate season overall, not alot to celebrate on my behalf.'' said Jamie McCarrick to an interviewer after what was yet another horrific Sunday for him in Abhu Dhabi. The morale was down after a horrible 2nd half to the season, where McCarrick achieved a miserable 4 points and only finishing in the top ten in one out of the last 8 races. With morale still very low and nothing written on paper, The Irishman may be a pensioner before the start of season two. There will be lots of work ahead if Jamie and the team will be able to have a good season two, be it if there will be a 2nd season, McCarrick is clueless as to whether he should look to a new team or stay in McCarrick if he is to continue in Formula Ruro, ''Although there is a big chance that I will stay in Formula Ruro, I can't trust myself on whether we can produce a competitive car for next season.'' Added McCarrick.

Remember that all Hired Drivers must be paid from Season 2 onwards! Below is a table of the minimum salary each driver would have to be paid in Season 2 if they were recruited as a Hired Driver. Team Owners don't need to pay themselves.

ROUND 1 - AUSTRALIA

Had a good start, moved up the field nicely. Locked a wheel trying to pass Scott Warren, forcing a slightly early pit-stop.

At the half-way points, was currently in the lead.

Lap 33: The first of many(13!!!) ERS problems.

Lap 44: There's the second.

And then I start to plummet to my eventual finishing place of 7th.

ROUND 2 - MONACO (Round 2? Sure why not!)

Early SC messed up my strat. a bit.

Lap 47: Bumps take their toll on my suspension.

Lap 60: This smoke coming from the engine is normal yeh?

10th place, not the best result, but was nearly my best poition all race so that's something.

ROUND 3 - MALAYSIA

Not sure how John and I manage to pit on the same lap with only 2 seconds between us, fast pit-crew ftw(Last time I'll be saying that).

Lap 27: Error+lock up causes very early pit-stop.

Passed on the last lap by Marek Jablonski, missed out on Podium with John, but 4th is a great result!

ROUND 4 - CHINA

14th to 23rd on the first lap, that went well...

Lap 37: Adam State tries to shut the door on me, we both suffer bodywork damage, he at least earns a penalty for his aggression.

After hanging near the back of the field for most of the race, recover to a decent 9th in the end.

ROUND 5 - BAHRAIN

Sorry Robert! :(

One DNF for me.

ROUND 6 - SPAIN

Lap 12: Enzo Terreno gets a puncture for his aggression, but forced me wide dropping 10 positions in the process. Enjoy that penalty. ;)

Lap 48: Oh look, an ERS problem...

ROUND 7 - CANADA

Lap 38: I don't need no 1st gear.

Lap 55: Szabolcs Nagy thanks me for supplying him our engine by taking me out, how nice of him...

ROUND 8 - AUSTRIA

Lap 57: Uneventful race so far, and I now take the lead!

Unfortunately can keep it, as James Smith has too much speed, 2nd is a great result for me though!

ROUND 9 - GREAT BRITAIN

Lap 30: You know I'm all about that bass...wait base not bass, either way something's broken.

Lap 37: ERS problems strike again.

Lap 46: Scott Warren throws a can of something at my car, my front wing grows wings of its own and flies away, must have been a can of Red-Bull?

And as a result of having to pit to replace the front wing, a poor result of 17th is my conciliation.

ROUND 10 - HUNGARY (I just ate, so no, I'm not)

Lap 17: You know I'm all about that...just stop already!

Lap 57: I can say that^ again...

Lap 59: Hey engine, you realise smoking is bad for your health right?

ROUND 11 - BELGIUM

It's a little wet, but seems to be drying out.

Lap 22 Engine clearly hasn't dropped the habit...

Lap 33: Manage to get up to 7th, but tyres starting to give out, can you guys stop passing me! 14th. :(

ROUND 12 - ITALY

Yay I'm on Pole! Where'd that come from?

Lap 15: Suspension issue, and a locked wheel from Clyde Springer attempting to pass me.

Lap 19: Well of cause the wheel is going to get stuck if you attached it with glue! Nice job mechanics....

Lap 36: Perfect timing SC, drop a bunch of places to 17th but now have freash rubber and no more stops planned.

Last lap pass on Willi Wutz gives me a good result of 6th.

ROUND 13 - SINGAPORE (Ok, who turned off the lights...)

Uneventful race until the very last lap where I manage to pass two cars to claim 4th place. Ville Valtonen tries to block me, but that ain't happening.

ROUND 14 - JAPAN (We get free rides on the Ferris Wheel don't we?)

Lap 14: Engine I thought you quit smoking? Guess not...

Lap 23: Why is my car turing right when I turn the steering wheel left?

Lap 35: Haven't had an ERS problem for a while, time to fix that...

Too many issues, poor 17th result.

ROUND 15 - RUSSIA

Lap 8: How many ERS problems is that now, I've lost count.

Lap 48: +1^ Let the plummet begin.

21st, terrible.

ROUND 16 - AMERICA (Fuck yeah!!!)

Lap 9: I break my brakes. Who slows down for corners anyway?!

Lap 18: What did I tell you mechanics about atteching my wheels with glue!!!

Lap 33: Get outta my way John! :P

Lap 42: James Smith wants a fight, but comes off second best, he's out, but I take to the grass.

Lap 46: If anyone finds my gearbox lying in the grass, I kind of need it back...

13th, somewhat decent despite all the problems.

ROUND 17 - MEXICO (Monza upside-down/rotated?)

Lap 41: It occERS to me that we need to allocate more budget to something, but can't put my finger on what.

Despite that issue, a fairly uneventful race, manage to get on the Podium in 3rd place!

ROUND 18 - BRAZIL

Lap 23: Getting too wet out here, time to put plan 'Bugger Inters' into action.

Lap 45: Water+Electronics=Oh crap!

Couldn't quite catch Szablocs Nagy for the win and had to settle for 2nd.

ROUND 19 - ABU DHABI

Lap 29: Gearbox plays hide-and-seek in the sand.

Lap 35: Ers Really Sux

Final lap: Wait a minute, this button on my steering wheel labelled 'Destroy your ERS' actually does what it says? Someone told me it ordered pizza! DAMN YOU JOHN!!!!! :P

WRAP-UP

Quite a dissapointing season for me

6 or 7 good results

Far too much unreliability

But managed to at least finish nearly every race

Finishing 8th in the Championship still quite decent though

The first season of Formula Ruro has come to a close. It has been the hardest season of my career, and it has been hard to adapt to open wheel cars. I have lacked in consistency, which has been my biggest downfall of the season. Team owner James Smith has proved our team is capable of winning, and this will be my focus as I return to JSF1 for season 2. Even though I lack consistency there has been improvements since the beginning of the season. I have on average qualified mid-field or better during the second half. In the final 8 races we only suffered 2 DNFs, one due to an engine failure and the other resulting from a collision. On a high note I scored 42 points on the season, which was a lot more than I expected to score, and I managed a podium in my first season of open wheel racing. All in all it was a challenging but rewarding season.

Looking ahead to next season I have much higher expectations. In the off season I will train to become fitter and I plan on seeing a sports psychologist to help me prepare my state of mind going into a race weekend. My goals are to finish in the top ten in the standings, with a win and to be more consistent during qualifying. I think that we will be a contender for the constructor’s championships, and I will contribute as many points to that cause as possible. In closing I would like to thank James Smith for giving me the opportunity this season and extending an invitation to return for the next. Signing off till Australia, everyone have a great off season.

And there we go...The PokéPark Ruro racing season is now over. I have to say that I had the lowest expectations about the season after the tests, and I'm veeeeeery glad that this season was that good. Saying that it went far better than I expected is an understatement to say the least.

I also want to thank our stewart, Unown, for taking his precious time and keeping AN EYE [sorry I had to] on the whole event. It couldn't be done without you man.

Congratulations to the top three Pokémon and to Team Crash Test for their awesome performance during the whole season.

A very special thanks to Shinx, who trusted me that much to give me a spot in his team...

...and to each and every one of you for surviving the whole season with me.

The last three races of the Championship killed us, we got 10 points while JSF1 scored 61 points and overcome the gap we tried to build.

We lost 1 slot in the Teams Championship and with it we lost a little bunch of money.

I must say I was expecting something more than the 6th place on 13 teams, probably it would have been way better without 18 total collision on my end (15 with major consequences), I'll do my best to stay more focused next season and I really hope that the announce of the FRA to start being more sever with penalties will calm down other drivers as well!

Anyway, we have some solid plans for Season 2 and this little accident won't change that.

The CRD-02A:

We scaled up from 01 to 02 because the Chassis will udnergo some severe changes, starting from the fact we will probably use external components thanks to the new rule approved at the Team Owner meeting. We will take a less all-rounder setting and will gamble more!

The CRD-M2 V6:

The Model 1 V6 that run the first season will never be forget but it's time to a big step change: The CRD-M2 V6.

This engine will be way different from the Model 1 thanks to the new budget, there won't be match between the two, it's not a simple evolution but a true revolution.

I know other team will develop massively new engines knowing the on track data of Season 1, but we are certain the the M2 will stand up to the challenge!

The Staff:

Ok, we were a little overconfident and a little cheater there, we simply had all our R&S department working on the CRS-02A and the CRD-M2 V6, no staff involved in the in-season development. This because we thought the car and us driver were enough and there was no rule about in-season developments.

Starting from next season the developments brought to the car during the season will be sued as basis for the next car season, so we will open a whole new department and maybe make the pit-crew a little more trained.

There are a lot of things at stakes next season, we surely don't want to be in the midfield again!

Conrey Racing Development is charging back!

Dear Diary

Honolulu, Hawaii

It has been a long season.

Beginning of this season was really hard. After 3^rd place in the 3^rd race I had fallen into the deep. (yep, I have to do this again. Just listen to ROLLING IN TO DEEP by Adele). Four races in the bottom, then one finished at 10^th position, and again 3^rd shitty places. This was really hard to stand. I have to say a big thank you to Robert for supporting me. So THANK YOU ROBERT. But I had my moments. I had 3 podiums in a row - from Singapore to Russia. I can’t complain.

Some freak had registered my problems through the year. After Abu Dhabi he came to me and gave me his notes. When I saw them, I instantly though that before I read them I have to grab a beer…

So here I am. I am on a vacation in Honolulu. Cheers!

Now I can read that notes. The statistics said that I had 6 major and 14 minor collisions and 10 driver errors. Are you kidding me? F**k. I guess I will have to reconsider my racing style...

I am glad that Robert decided to extend my contract so in next year I will again race for CRD and I am very happy with that. I must admitt, the CRD-02A looks great. Can't wait to sit in this car.

Pre-Season Team Hype

Look to the Skies!

And now....THE NEWS

Sky Racing on top, but only just!

Building the team – Sky Racing

"Where Reputations will be Built"

Warren watches on from the RaRaRacing garage during testing.

PokéPark Ruro (Prologue)

Prologue

Reintroduction

Taking it to the next level

Something of a Pre-Season 'Review'

SKY RACING

SHADOW RACING

McSHUTT MOTORWORKS

THRUST MOTORSPORT

RaRaRACING

CRASH TEST DUMMIES

ZO FAST

CONREY RACING DEVELOPMENT

MINARDI TEAM UK

SNOTPOISONRACING

THE UNPREDICTABLES

AAR

JSF1

Valtonen goes down in the records as first driver to win in Formula Ruro!

Race report: minardi team uk

Post race interview with Robert Conrey

Race Report

All eyes on Valtonen in Monaco!

Crash Test Dummies Team presentation

Thrust Once More!

Shuttle hits out at Terreno's antics

State apoligizes to Smith for collision

In-Season Development

Rademaker reports from the hospital

Terreno apologise Rademaker

Sky Racing and Crash Test Dummies dominate!

Glazed Brake disc Hampers Shuttle's Qualifying Performance

Minardi make a statement

"I don't expect to finish"

Image makes it look like Warren was going fast. He wasn't.

Crash Test Success!

A two face race for Conrey Racing Development

Crash Test Dummies...Doing it wrong

Shuttle Pleased and Suprised by results

Thrust Motorsport impress in China!

Ferring Finishes First!

What has happened to ZoFast

Thrust are at it again!

PokéPark Ruro (PokéSport TV Report)

PokéSport TV Report

And with that we're ending our PokéSport TV Report, thank you for your attention and have a nice day!

Season 2 Minimum Driver Salaries

Baker wins in Bahrain!

Suggestions/Feedback

State Zo Much Faster Than Rivals!

Shuckle shuffles forth to pole!

Ferring wins in Montreal!

Sky Racing give themselves wings round Red Bull Ring!

UNPREDICTABLE Marques in Top Form

Allen's Day at the Beach

JSF1 Shareholders demand answers, after disastrous start to season

JSF1 delivers in Austria after shareholder threats!

Kay: Move on Warren was "stupid"

Shuttle: "Baker Ruined My Race"

Baker fires back at Shuttle

Fifth pole for Valtonen!

Baker the CTD Breadwinner in Britain!

Team Owner Conference and Season 2 Updates

Smith takes JSF1s first pole at Hungaroring!

Home Win for Nagy in Hungary!

Sky Racing Mid-Season Update

New Team Plans

Admin: RPs So Far

Happy Holidays from the PokéPark

PokéPark Ruro (New Year report by PokéSport TV)

And with that we end our show, thank you very much and stay safe.

Beef Speaks to Anderson Cooper

Mid-Season Review