Round 1 - USA (Phoenix)

ACE SERIES

Qualifying
Starting Grid
Race Report
Finishing Order
Race Statistics
Driver Comments
Action Replays
Download Mixed Logfile
Semi-Pro Results

1996/97 Pole Position:	1:14.209 (Oliver Roberts)
1996/97 Race Time:	1h49m10.669 (Oliver Roberts)
Race Distance:	81 laps

Qualifying

Reinhold on pole and 18 drivers with less than 1 second behind him! The battle for the front row was a fierce one, and the points had to be earned hard, too. Apart from Digitech, no team managed to place both drivers in the points, and so Rocketship goes into the first race of the season with a small lead of 3 points over Digitech.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Reinhold Schatzer	Rocketship	1:13.927		20
2.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1:13.942	+0.015	16
3.	Alex Barnell	Curb Crawlers	1:13.968	+0.041	14
4.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1:13.997	+0.070	12
5.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1:14.105	+0.178	10
6.	Hans Gunnar Hansen	FORT-Jiuqi	1:14.134	+0.207	8
7.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1:14.184	+0.257	6
8.	Marc van Dooren	marlboro magic	1:14.273	+0.346	5
9.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1:14.285	+0.358	4
10.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	1:14.337	+0.410	3
11.	Thomas Bodlien	VW	1:14.363	+0.436	2
12.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1:14.370	+0.443	1
13.	Rafal Ziarnik	Yapamotox	1:14.374	+0.447
14.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	1:14.526	+0.599
15.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1:14.609	+0.682
16.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	1:14.738	+0.811
17.	Argyris Maistralis	Crash Heads	1:14.844	+0.917
18.	Marco Saupe	M-SPEED	1:14.853	+0.926
19.	Mike Foreman	Orbitus	1:14.980	+1.053
20.	Anthony Long	P76 Racing	1:14.981	+1.054
21.	James Luscombe	V-Tec F1	1:15.022	+1.095
22.	Juha Hyvonen	FORT-Jiuqi	1:15.064	+1.137
23.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	1:15.259	+1.332
24.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1:15.424	+1.497
25.	Robert Murrell	Mildly Brutal Racing	1:15.429	+1.502
26.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	1:15.712	+1.785
27.	David Wright	P76 Racing	1:15.771	+1.844
28.	Jonathan Stead	Team Sted	1:15.894	+1.967
29.	Richard Butler	Orbitus	1:16.850	+2.923

Race

While other drivers were leading most of the race, Oliver Roberts was at the top spot when it really counted: after lap 81.

The first part of the race was led by Markus Kruggel. When he made his first pit stop, a couple of drivers were battling for the lead, namely Mirko Patzenbein, Alan Strang, Reinhold Schatzer and Michal Janak who was in front between lap 30 and 48. After a series of pit stops messed up the field, Michal was back in first again but Reinhold filled the mirrors of the Digitech completely. In lap 67 Reinhold managed to get past Michal. But with precious points in sight, Reinhold had to retire in lap 71 due to an accident and so Janak was leading again. However, his team mate, who drove a quite unspectacular race but stayed in touch with the leading group all the time, was coming closer. In lap 77 Oliver got past Michal and both drivers crossed the finish line within one second. Hans Gunnar Hansen was the other driver on the podium, he was ahead of a group consisting of Mirko, Alan and Markus who finished on 4th, 5th and 6th just within 7 seconds.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1h48m55.706		180
2.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1h48m56.301	+0:00.595	170
3.	Hans Gunnar Hansen	FORT-Jiuqi	1h49m17.110	+0:21.404	165
4.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1h49m31.514	+0:35.808	160
5.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1h49m34.326	+0:38.620	155
6.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1h49m38.491	+0:42.785	151
7.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1h50m04.487	+1:08.781	147
8.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	1h50m05.541	+1:09.835	143
9.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1h50m13.974	+1:18.268	139
10.	Marco Saupe	M-SPEED	1h51m12.716	+2:17.010	135
11.	Argyris Maistralis	Crash Heads	1h51m35.007	+2:39.301	132
12.	James Luscombe	V-Tec F1	1h52m33.967	+3:38.261	129
13.	Thomas Bodlien	VW	1h52m35.258	+3:39.552	126
14.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1h52m44.159	+3:48.453	123
15.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	1h53m01.155	+4:05.449	120
16.	Jonathan Stead	Team Sted	1h53m59.138	+5:03.432	117
17.	Mike Foreman	Orbitus	1h55m26.998	+6:31.292	114
18.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	75 laps	(92.6%)	102
19.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	73 laps	(90.1%)	97
20.	Reinhold Schatzer	Rocketship	70 laps	(86.4%)	90
21.	Robert Murrell	Mildy Brutal Racing	56 laps	(69.1%)	70
22.	Juha Hyvonen	FORT-Jiuqi	40 laps	(49.4%)	48
22.	Anthony Long	P76 Racing	40 laps	(49.4%)	48
24.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	7 laps	( 8.6%)	8

New Lap Record: 1:16.068 - Oliver Roberts (Digitech)

Race Statistics

Pos	Car	Driver	Fastest Lap		LL/TL	Pitstops		Avg. Grip	Tyre Usage
Pos	Car	Driver	Time	Lap #	LL/TL	Stops	Avg. Length	Avg. Grip	C	D
1.	1	O.Roberts	1:16.068	78	4/81	3	0:17.897	92	50	31
2.	2	M.Janak	1:16.397	79	43/81	3	0:17.967	92	49	32
3.	10	H.G.Hansen	1:16.848	81	0/81	2	0:19.933	91	81
4.	40	M.Patzenbein	1:16.767	76	2/81	3	0:20.293	92	50	31
5.	5	A.Strang	1:16.574	79	3/81	2	0:19.510	91	64	17
6.	7	M.Kruggel	1:17.831	69	17/81	2	0:21.794	91	62	19
7.	21	J.Svehlik	1:16.852	77	0/81	2	0:26.805	91	81
8.	13	N.Maltez	1:17.221	69	0/81	3	0:24.908	91	81
9.	8	A.Bruns	1:17.117	72	0/81	3	0:21.560	92	50	31
10.	45	M.Saupe	1:16.988	72	0/81	4	0:25.296	92	30	51
11.	15	A.Maistralis	1:18.528	59	0/81	2	0:24.758	91		81
12.	25	J.Luscombe	1:17.018	80	0/81	3	0:29.121	92	62	19
13.		T.Bolien	(no logfile)
14.	36	S.Diener	1:16.388	81	1/81	6	0:37.730	93		81
15.	16	H.Mehl	1:17.528	70	0/81	3	0:33.384	91		81
16.	37	J.Stead	1:17.822	78	0/81	4	0:43.343	92	52	29
17.	27	M.Foreman	1:17.566	77	0/81	5	0:47.827	92	34	47
18.	6	S.Dryden	1:17.441	75	0/75	3	0:36.166	92	24	50
19.	24	I.Garcia	1:16.883	72	0/73	4	0:38.571	92	63	10
20.	14	R.Schatzer	1:17.281	68	11/70	2	0:17.974	91	70
21.	20	R.Murrell	1:20.477	30	0/40	1	1:04.645	91	40
22.	9	J.Hyvonen	1:21.855	36	0/40	1	0:29.093	91	40
23.		A.Long	(no logfile)
24.	39	M.Devine	1:22.499	4	0/ 7	0		91		7

What the drivers said about the race

Oliver Roberts (Digitech), 1st:
"I still love this circuit! I guess it may be because the computer cars aren't too much of an obstruction, as they are easy to outbrake here, and there are also a couple of places where huge tows can be gotten in a slipstream, which makes driving here very satisfying. The race went as planned. I used virtually the same strategy and setup as last season, which worked well again. Comparing logs with last season's race, I see that I went faster in the first 6 laps, but after that I lost a bit of pace (wasn't helped by a slow first pitstop). But, I soon made up for that over the last 20 laps where I gained about 25 seconds! That means I beat my time from last season by 15 seconds, so I'm very happy with that." Because my setup worked and I finally found a way to drive in the wet, I'm looking quite forward to Monaco. I'd never thought that I would say that :-)"

Michal Janak (Digitech), 2nd:
"This time I used different strategy than last year. I opted for 3stops (C 21 C 49 D 66 D). Driving wasn't so dificult, but the stupid CC's made me crazy sometimes, especialy Katayama and Schumacher. I was happy with new engine of Digitech team. I was able to finish better but on end of race my joystick started to have some bugs (sometimes it didn't brake and turn to left together)."

Hans Gunnar Hansen (FORT-Jiuqi), 3rd:
"Went for the same strategy as last year, but I changed my settings a little bit. That helped me to drive about 40 seconds faster than last year. Didn't have any major trouble, but the CC's slowed me down on some laps."

Action Replays

Nuno Maltez (Rocketship):
"The only other point of interest in the race ocurred on lap 60; I must confess I was absent minded, but my heart just stopped when I saw the computer car halted in the middle of the track (just see the replay)."
Reinhold Schatzer (Rocketship):
"It's a pity that my race which was going quite good finished so abruptly just 10 laps before the end. After my crash with Hakkinen, I smashed also into Nakano who was right behind the corner, which put me out of the race. And all this because I had overseen the yellow flags. To review the entire scene just look at the submitted replay."
Steffen Diener (Roadrunner):
"Replay: (26 Cars) An accident while overtaking some CCs. Hakkinen pulls out right in front of my, trying to overtake Salo, and I crash into his car. The first of 4 frontwings is gone..." (it can be viewed with the activated 'less cars' patch, too)

Download the replays (33K)

Last modified: Sunday 23 November 1997 - 11:45