Round 1 - USA (Phoenix)

ACE SERIES USA (Phoenix)
1995/96 Pole Position: 1:13.929 (Grant Reeve)
1995/96 Race Time: 1h49m49.284 (Oliver Roberts)
Race Distance: 81 laps

Qualifying

The 1996/97 IAF1GPC season started with a real sensation: not only that last years champion, Oliver Roberts, and well known Reinhold Schatzer achieved exactly the same time but all the scoring qualifyers were within .6 of second. Many battles were decided by a few thousands, the narrowest margin was the 0.005 betwenn Alex Buishuizen and Uwe Schuerkamp putting Schuerkamp outside the points. From the new faces that joined the IAF1GPC, Christophe Marcours had a very good entry ending up on 4th position just 0.059s behind Roberts and Schatzer. After this qualifying session everybody expects an exciting race.

PosDriverTeamTimeGapPoints
1.Oliver RobertsDigitech1:14.209 20
1.Reinhold SchatzerRST Racing1:14.209+0.00020
3.Hans Gunnar HansenFORT-Jiuqi1:14.259+0.05014
4.Christophe MacoursMaxell-TDK1:14.268+0.05912
5.Alan StrangTeam Ecosse1:14.439+0.23010
6.Robert SchaftleinDigitech1:14.447+0.2388
7.Stephen OrrAnt Hill Mob Racing1:14.503+0.2946
8.Nuno MaltezMaverick1:14.509+0.3005
9.Michal JanakMagia Chrysler1:14.667+0.4584
10.Markus KruggelWild 131:14.681+0.4723
11.Jan SvehlikBolgani1:14.710+0.5012
12.Alex BoshuizenRevelations1:14.722+0.5131
13.Uwe SchuerkampWild 131:14.727+0.518 
14.Ignacio GarciaIGC Racing Team1:14.950+0.741 
15.Paul BranneyTeam Ecosse1:15.009+0.800 
16.Steffen DienerRoadrunner1:15.131+0.922 
17.Axel BrunsNameless Horror1:15.155+0.946 
18.Derek WatersMaverick1:15.531+1.322 
19.Andrew ClarkAnt Hill Mob Racing1:15.555+1.346 
20.Juha HyvonenFORT-Jiuqi1:15.845+1.636 
21.Greg SikorskiRevelations1:18.587+3.378 

Race

The first GP of the year saw not only a very close qualifying session but a close race as well. Digitech's Oliver Roberts was the lucky winner of the US GP 1.5 secs in front of Michal Janak from MAGIA-Chrysler.

Markus Kruggel took the lead right after the start, but he was not able to widen the gap between him and the second place drivers. Just a few tenths of a second were not enough to stay in front for a long time and after lap 10 Janak was heading the field with Alex Boshuizen just behind him. A few laps later, Roberts took third place as Boshuizen lost some seconds on a not so good lap. The formation Janak-Kruggel-Roberts was in front till lap 21 as Kruggel suffered from a serious spin and had to rejoin the field as 7th. Roberts and Axel Bruns started the first series of pit stops in lap 24 and by lap 30 most of the drivers had visited their pit crews, all of them with the wish to get a fresh set of C-compounds.

The race saw its first accident in lap 20 as Paul Branney from Team Ecosse had serious problems on the pit straight and that forced him to end his race. Stephen Orr and Nuno Maltez were the next to see that the concrete walls can damage the car but as this happened during the common rush for new tyres they could combine their tyre stop to replace the front wing in lap 25 (Orr) and 26 (Maltez). Maybe it was this example that inspired Wild 13's Uwe Schuerkamp to try this new tactic. Between lap 31 and lap 33 he was forced to stop two times, the first time for a whole set of wings and second time just to get a new front wing. By lap 32 Roberts had gained the lead and was chased by Janak, whose pit stop was not fast enough to stay in front.

Roberts lead lasted till his second pit stop in lap 50. But the set of tyres he was equipped with there let him fly around the circuit: he needed just 12 laps to close the gap to Michal Janak (that was 15secs right after the stop) and regain the lead. He did this with a astonishing series of fastest laps. Meanwhile the second bunch of pit stops was done but during this period Orr, Schuerkamp and Martin Devine had to end the race with severely damaged cars. After all those incidents and stops, the top three Roberts, Janak and Schatzer where far in front of the field, and the next drivers to follow were Boshuizen, Hans Gunnar Hansen, Kruggel and Alan Strang. From lap 64 on the drivers who decided to finish the race with Ds came into light: Juha Hyvonen was the first of them to come into the pits and leave them with "lap record breakers".

Roberts and Janak chose that tactic too, but this time Janak and his crew did the faster service and Roberts had to rejoin the race in second position. This time it was not that easy for Roberts to get in front, as Janak drove a couple of fast laps. In lap 76 Axel Bruns achieved the fastest lap of the race with a 1:16.211, and Axel is now the new lap record holder for Phoenix. On the next lap things started to get even more exciting: Roberts was able to pass Janak and finish the lap by .3 of a second in front, but Janak stroke back and finished lap 78 as the leader. Then in lap 79 Janak was 2 secs slower than Roberts and had to let Roberts pass again. The champion was then able to keep Janak behind him and win the GP with a gap of 1.5 secs. This end was kind of hard for the talented Michal as he lead 45 laps of the race but it was not lap 81 that saw him crossing the line on position 1

PosDriverTeamTimeGapPoints
1.Oliver RobertsDigitech1h49m10.669 175
2.Michal JanakMAGIA-Chrysler1h49m12.178+00m01.509170
3.Reinhold SchatzerRST Racing1h49m16.392+00m05.723165
4.Alan StrangTeam Ecosse1h49m52.781+00m42.112160
5.Hans Gunnar HansenFORT-Jiuqi1h49m57.524+00m46.855155
6.Markus KruggelWild 131h50m02.359+00m57.690151
7.Robert SchaftleinDigitech1h50m13.685+01m03.016147
8.Alex BoshuizenRevelations1h50m14.002+01m03.333143
9.Nuno MaltezMaverick1h50m28.736+01m18.067139
10.Christophe MacoursMaxell-TDK1h50m41.271+01m30.602135
11.Axel BrunsNameless Horror1h50m59.688+01m49.019132
12.Jan SvehlikBolgani1h51m42.358+02m31.689129
13.Andrew ClarkAnt Hill Mob Racing1h52m10.067+02m59.398126
14.Juha HyvonenFORT-Jiuqi1h52m13.024+03m02.355123
15.Steffen DienerRoadrunner1h52m15.962+03m05.293120
16.Ignacio GarciaIGC Racing Team1h52m22.417+03m11.748117
17.Stephen OrrAnt Hill Mob Racing57 Laps 114
18.Martin DevineEnigma Racing56 Laps 111
19.Uwe SchuerkampWild 1355 Laps 108
20.Paul BranneyTeam Ecosse19 Laps 105

Fastest Race Laps

PosDriverTeamTime
1.Axel BrunsNameless Horror1:16.211 LR
2.Oliver RobertsDigitech1:16.269
3.Robert SchaftleinDigitech1:16.717
4.Michal JanakMAGIA-Chrysler1:16.787
5.Markus KruggelWild 131:17.026
6.Ignacio Garcia CuadradoIGC Racing Team1:17.182
7.Alan StrangTeam Ecosse1:17.184
8.Hans Gunnar HansenFORT-Jiuqi1:17.418
9.Steffen DienerRoadrunner1:17.499
10.Reinhold SchatzerRST Racing1:17.682
11.Nuno MaltezMaverick1:17.770
12.Jan SvehlikBolgani1:17.803
13.Juha HyvonenFORT-Jiuqi1:17.809
14.Christophe MacoursMaxell-TDK1:17.821
15.Alex BoshuizenRevelations1:18.262
16.Stephen OrrAnt Hill Mob Racing1:18.991
17.Andrew ClarkAnt Hill Mob Racing1:19.471
18.Uwe SchuerkampWild 131:20.056
19.Martin DevineEnigma Racing1:21.452
20.Paul BranneyTeam Ecosse1:24.752

Some of the driver statements

Oliver Roberts (Digitech): "My favourite circuit :-) (...) I'm very pleased with my time."

Michal Janak (MAGIA-Chrysler): "This circuit was very dangerous for my joystick, in one time I was thinking, that I broke it."

Alan Strang (Team Ecosse): "I am very satisfied with how this race went. (...) Things can only get worse. =) "

Markus Kruggel (Wild 13): "This could be my first finish within the top 7! (if so: hurray!!!)"

Axel Bruns (Nameless Horror): "A fairly straightforward race."

Nuno Maltez (Maverick): "Not a very good race, but much better than last year."

Juha Hyvonen (FORT-Jiuqi): "I can describe my race with one word: boring. I dont like this race and I just tried to finish."

Ignacio Garcia Cuadrado (IGC Racing): "I'm very dissapointed with this race. If I were the winner I couldn't had make the things better, but the time would have been a minute faster."

Martin Devine (Enigma Racing): "A half-decent start (it was my first full race) with a disappointing ending."

Paul Branney (Team Ecosse): "I was dissappointed for the race to end like this, when I had taken special care not to crash! Beginners bad luck..?"

Last modified: Monday 14 July 1997 - 18:01