Lehdistötiedotteet - Season 12 Full Roundup - Part 3: Neighbourhood Battles

Season 12 Full Roundup - Part 3: Neighbourhood Battles

With a little delay, here comes the 3rd part of my season review, and this time, we get to check out what the top Regional drivers did this season.

There are a few Regional Championships in the MRC world that are completely dominated by "outlanders", but it's nice to see so many local racers too, trying to make a name for themselves at the first step of truly international F3 racing.

One of the most interesting features of this season was the huge amount of wins racked up by the eventual champions - with one surprising exception. In the Baltic Series, experienced German Nikolaus Lauter (29) broke his own personal record, by winning 11 races in a series, and still, he had to settle for silver overall, for the 4th time out of 5 seasons as an F3 driver. He had the most poles (5), by far the most fastest laps (16), and still lost the title by 49 points to preseason favourite, Berto Romano (23).

Both guys seemed consistent enough throughout most of the season, and they certainly separated themselves from the pack by finishing 1-2 9 different times.

Lauter led the series with 5 races to go, when luck turned against him. After an unconvincing qualifying effort, and an even more lacklustre sprint race performance, the German driver found himself only 4th on the grid, which was led by the younger Mesiti (19), Milo (we'll talk about the older one later...), followed by Romano, and consistent podium finisher and former race winner, Martin Chmelik (24) started 3rd.

Lauter was trying hard to get by Chmelik after the start, but he seemed to lack the power needed to complete the pass, and in lap 14, his engine blew up, dropping him out of contention. (Chmelik couldn't enjoy the clean air for long, he smashed his car into the wall at turn 9 only 2 laps later.) Romano felt the opportunity to possibly turn the tide and move ahead in the title-fight, and pressured young Mesiti into a major mistake to take the lead, just before the pitstops. Mesiti tried to rush after him on cold tires, but spun, and got stuck in the gravel; his race was done. From that point, it was smooth sailing for Romano. He cruised home with a huge advantage, and retook the lead in the championship, for the final time.

Lauter did have a chance to close the gap again with 2 strong performances in Lithuania, but his car gave up again, the suspension broke just 4 laps before the end of race 2. It's worth mentioning, that former silver medalist from 3 years ago, Italian Lillo Pelevialli (23) shocked the pundits by doing the triple (pole-win-win) at this track, even though he had not shown any form before that point of the season, his best result being a 4th place. It will certainly be interesting to see whether he can find this kind of speed later in his career.

Lauter's win helped him to finish the season on a high in Estonia, but it was too little, too late; Romano did just enough to secure the title. Mesiti claimed a very encouraging 3rd overall, proving everyone, that his solid rookie season was no fluke, and he has a chance to become a household name in MRC racing. Two other youngsters showed promise too, Perez (20) got 4th overall in front of Chmelik, and Canadian hope, LePage (21) finished 6th.

The reason I started with the Baltic series is simple, every other series had a similarly fast guy to Lauter, winning more than half of the races, but all the others were able to bring the trophy home in the end.

The most notable "Dominator" was the reigning Central European champ, Peter Kollath (32). The former Slovak and triple Czechoslovakian Series winner managed to improve on his 14 wins from last year, and secured his 6th championship in MRC by a whopping 317 points, thanks to 17 wins. What makes this even more impressive, is that he actually had some veteran competition in the form of journeyman and former Czech Series 3rd placed driver Majanos Krouzelanos (29), his fellow countryman, very skillful Denis Lewis Kudera (25), and reigning double Hungarian champion Donat Danyik (32). Although they didn't stand much of a chance against Kollath, all of them managed to get one-one win in the series, respectively.

Also worth mentioning another intriguing Canadian talent (besides the aforementioned LePage), 7th placed finisher Brendan Conroy (just turned 21, so happy birthday!). Conroy stood on the podium quite regularly, and he improved an awful lot from last year. He definitely has the potential to grow even further, look out for him in the future!

Kollath has been humbling youngsters throughout his entire career at this level, but rumour has it, the old fox is finally moving up, and will certainly be one of the favourites in F3 Europe, should he confirm starting there.

We've witnessed a similar performance to Kollath's one man show in the Arabic Series, too, by Frenchman Martin Segura (23). He stopped at 16 wins this year, improving on his 6 from last year, when he was beaten for the title by supertalented Villanova (21 - we'll get to him tomorrow.). With a great deal of hot young stars leaving the series to find success elsewhere (including Kuningas, Reich, and Skram, who almost all became champions this year...), former French champion Segura remained the firm favourite - and he didn't dissappoint. He is a bit under the radar at the regional level, but I'm sure we'll hear about him in the future, as he is thought to be moving up next year.

Closest rivals (and race winners) were Enzo Mesiti (23), and bright young Finn, Timo Hamppi (20), both having a great season, beating former Italian champ Sacchi (25). It's hard to gauge how much Hamppi improved since last year, as he's not racing elsewhere, but I'd certainly keep an eye on him, while doing the same with overall 7th Marcus Ripley (19) - plenty of potential in these guys.

The rest of the regional champions won either 11, 12 or 13 races on their way to taking the top spot in the standings, with veteran Jan Pozlovsky (32), enjoying the most comfortable lead in the end.

Pozlovsky kept his pace advantage from last year in front of Nejedly (26) In the Czechoslovakian Series as they finished 1-2 again, while Skarp (26), Volny (28), Bielik (27), Shroud (24) and Vrabec (29) were fighting for the bronze. Eventually, Skarp was able to eke out a slight advantage and took 3rd overall, getting 3 wins in the process.

In the Benelux Championship Derrick White (26) clinched the title, 2 years after winning the Dutch Series. While veteran Benelux racer Tom Olislagers (28) was unable to get a win, yet proved incredibly consistent, series newcomer Fernando Angela (29) had some ups and downs. In the end, his 3 wins didn't prove enough to beat the Belgian. It was another Belgian though, who got the crowds most excited: Robert Spinette (20) improved significantly from last season, when he was 7th. 2 poles, 16 (!) podiums and 5 wins landed him in 2nd overall, but it's safe to say, he was becoming the man to beat in the second half of the season. If him and his manager can keep this improvement going, they're looking at a very bright future for sure.

The Mediterranean Series was won by last year's Spanish champion, Antonio Gonzalo (27). It seems that the Spaniard is a late bloomer, started winning at the age of 26, but can't seem to stop now. :) His impressive 12 race wins could indicate an easy season, but it wasn't exactly the case, as (another...) impressive French youngster, Yves Remord (21), and mentally strong Italian, Luca Pacciani (23) kept him honest all the way through the season. As a matter of fact, Remord had the championship lead before the final round, but Gonzalo's sprint win put him on pole, while Remord could only start 8th.

The chaotic wet race in Valencia had a couple of safety cars, and the first one trapped Gonzalo on the track while others pitted, so when he had to refuel, it dropped him down to 9th. By that time Remord went through heaven and hell: in lap 9 he crashed into another very talented Italian, Giorgio Giorgi (20 - terrific 4th place in the overall by him!), and damaged both cars, forcing both to pit. The Frenchman decided to stay out for the safety car period, and suddenly found himself in 5th, ahead of his rival. He still had to pit though, and his crew chief called him in immediately after going green again. Remord didn't like the decision, as he got stuck in 10th, (at the same time Gonzalo moved up 5 spots in 1 lap to 4th) and frustration finally got the better of the youngster - he was too ambitious in the righthander after the bridge, and smacked his car into the tyrewall. Gonzalo could relax, and used the 2nd safety car period to close the gap, and pass Michele Diga (23) for the lead on the penultimate lap to put the icing on the cake with a win.

Rüdiger von Rotz (20) and Rebecca Fogelclou (turned 21 today, so happy birthday to her too!) had 2 things in common as they won the Eastern European and the Scandinavian Series, respectively: both had 11 wins, and both won by a significant margin. There are a few interesting differences though. Fogelclou only had 2 poles and 4 fastest laps in the season, as the slightly overambitious Swede, Niklas Andersson (23) showed incredible pace all year long. He was the man to beat every time when he was on the track, unfortunately for him, he couldn't keep his car out there enough. His terrible inconsistency dropped him all the way down to 7th in the standings. As he kept falling out, another Swede, veteran Marcus Ericsson (29) took his place as number one chaser of Fogelclou, producing the best season of his productive career.

Even his best effort was't enough: there was just no way of catching Rebecca this season, and based on what we've seen out of her so far, she certainly seems to be the real deal. She is in the absolute elite class at her age!

And still, she's not the only youngster worth looking at in Scandinavia: Mika Mäki (20) and Samuel Raivokoski (20) can both carry the Finnish flag in motorsports for years to come, they certainly have the talent to do so. They battled hard with British Steven Reign (23) for 3rd overall - Mäki managed to hold on to it in the end, by just 10 points in front of his fellow countryman Raivokoski.

But don't forget about von Rotz, who also ran away with the title in Eastern Europe, and is equally as impressive compared to his age, as Fogelclou is compared to hers. Showed immediate potential when he got the bronze in Ukraine last year, in his first open-wheel series, and at 20 he can already call himself a champion. The only reason he didn't get all the spotlight in this series was Russian teenager: Mihail Beskov (19). That kid is freakishly fast, and he's getting better and better at a frightening rate. He finished 2nd in the overall standings, which is an awesome result for a 19 year old...

Talking about mega-talent - it is really hard to find a true front-runner amongst all these wonderkids. I gotta think that I saved the best for last with Von Rotz, Beskov and Fogelclou, although I'd also like to put slightly older Segura's name in the mix - he feels very-very quick to me.

That should wrap it up, time to move to the Continentals, and next time I think I'll add the F3 World Championship as a bonus. :)

Cheers!