FRL Imola: An Italian Masterclass...
- Kabort Motorsport
- Jun 30, 2023
- 8 min read
It's June 12th, 2023 and the iMotoring Mondays league is at Monza.
After a sprinkle of luck and an absolutely ingenious strategy Robin Truswell in the soul Ferrari came home to take the win by an incredible 0.4 seconds - the Tifosi go WILD.
As the FRL (Formula Racing League) headed to Road Atlanta, Truswell had other commitments and was not available for the evening - Bjorn Klassens took the win - and indeed the championship lead...
The following week, the FRL returned to Italy - to the stunning setting of Imola.
Popularity in the FRL iMotoring Mondays league varied - some weeks there were 3 - 4 competitors, other times there was 6 - 7.
For leagues struggling with numbers, AI (Artificial Intelligence*) can be a great way to combat an empty track - and fearing an empty track at Imola, 24 "highly skilled" AI drivers were added to the spectacle. The fans were in for an absolute treat.
(*Intelligence is questionable)
The grid was lining up to be a classic - with only:
X2 Lamborghini Huracan's X3 Ford GT's
X3 McLaren MP4-12c's X3 Audi R8's
In terms of the Humans? Mercedes AMG GT GT3
Derek Brough
Roberto De Filippis
Martin Cooper
Ferrari 488 GT3
Robin Truswell Jorge Reyes
Porsche 911 GT3 R
Kagan Spark
BMW M4 GT3 Bjorn Klaassens
Practice
Practice was absolutely vital in telling the pace of the AI (or just A...) - and it quickly became apparent that they were absolutely RAPID.
Spark would top the humans in practice - finishing 2nd to an AI called "Jose Diaz Castillo" It would also be an incredibly impressive session for Klaassens, who would finish 6th overall (2nd in the Human (H) Class).
Following Brough in 20th, the rest of us made up the last several positions - splitting the last of the AI Runners.
Between first and last was 3.2 seconds - this was going to be a close race.
Qualifying
In qualifying, the AI absolutely upped the ante - Klaassens only managing to qualify 7th overall - but finished on pole in H Class.
Here are the qualifying results for the Human Class (sounds dystopian to say that!)
For context, pole was a 1:42.990, set by AI "Robert Plumley" - Interestingly slower than the fastest time in practice (Jose Diaz Castillo)
Overall | H- Class | Make | Driver | Time |
7th | 1st | BMW | Klaassens | 1:43.703 |
13th | 2nd | Ferrari | Reyes | 1:44.089 |
19th | 3rd | Mercedes | Cooper | 1:44.932 |
22nd | 4th | Mercedes | Brough | 1:45.320 |
26th | 5th | Mercedes | De Filippis | 1:45.840 |
30th | 6th | Porsche | Spark | N/A |
31st | 7th | Ferrari | Truswell | N/A |
For me and Kagan - we had a long race ahead of us, but a challenge I (and I hope Kagan) were both looking forward to.
After an off-track on my first flying lap - I HAD to put in a clean lap during my second...and TECHNICALLY I did - I scraped the wall on the next lap (Lap 3) - but before iRacing could figure out my lap-time - so it was invalidated infuriatingly.
Race
Finally, it was the moment everyone had been waiting for - the race.
The lights came on for the rolling start...and they went out - Plumley and Nash roared away down into turn one
Straight from the off - I was making moves - granted, my fellow human Di Filippis assisted me by tapping one of the Ford GT's into a spin (which started its own accident) - but every free position is one less car I need to overtake.
Later that same lap, other human Brough also made a mistake, spinning up his cold tyres on the exit of the Variante Alta.
I hadn't even rounded two more corners before the next flurry of mayhem was taking place - as I rounded the penultimate corner, I scene of absolute chaos - a Ferrari stopped in the middle of the track to the left, two more cars deep in the gravel on the right (one of these being Reyes - the third human to be involved in a incident on the opening lap).
By the start of the second lap, I had made 7 positions and was in 5th in the human class - if this carnage kept up - I was definitely in for a good result!
But my start was nothing compared to Spark - who went from 30th (just in front of me) to an absolutely miraculous 16th - 2nd in Human Class!
On the flip side, it was an absolute nightmare of a start of Klaassens who was fighting hard in the Top 5 - before an AI Ferrari behind (Castillo) drove into a closing space - spinning Klaassens out - and losing him (Klaassens) 5 positions.
One of these drivers was Reyes, who started 13th and was now in a solid 10th - and since Klaassens incident, was leading the H Class.
The AI was absolutely on a vengeance and Reyes too was wiped out by a driver who didn't even acknowledge his existence.
One Lap - 3 Crimes Against Humanity - Cooper tried to take revenge by dive-bombing an AI called Baker - but Baker just went wide and whacked the recovering Reyes.
As the laps kept coming - so did the positions - up to 21st as:
- (AI) Flint Spun out from 6th (23rd)
- I made a (brilliant?) move on (AI) Gustafson (22nd)
- Bjorn Klaassens Pits From 11th (21st)
By Lap 3, Kagan was having an absolutely impeccable race - from the last row in 30th to 12th and leading the human race (I'll show myself out)...
Less than half a lap later, after the Tosa hairpin, Spark would pull to the inside of the circuit and for some unknown reason, retire from the race - gifting Martin Cooper the lead of the Human Class - the lead was switching more times than the time-keepers could keep track of!
The race was really heating up. The leader of the Human Class was Cooper in 15th.
One AI car behind, in 17th was 2nd place - De Filippis - with one further AI car separating De Filippis from 3rd place.
Both Filippis and Truswell had made phenomenal progress - Filippis making 9 places in 4 Laps, Truswell making 12.
- (AI) Kevin Iannarelli Spins from 2nd (20th)
- (Hu) Kagan Spark retires (19th)
Spark becoming the third (Human) retirement after Reyes (L1) and Klaassens (L2).
Lap 4 was an absolute disaster for Truswell.
Initially, he pulled a clean move on (AI) Sollenberger for 18th (putting him directly behind Filippis in 3rd, but he'd catch a sausage kerb on the apex of turn one, ploughing into Sollenberg, who still had his nose alongside Truswell, Truswell batting Sollenberg out of the way.
Guilty for knocking Sollenberg off the track, he attempted to give back the position - but on both occasions he did so, (AI) Van Veen backed out - and eventually (AI) Gustafson nipped by - it wasn't so much "Sollenberg has to come back past" - it was more "I need to make a move (for 18th) without contact.
Eventually, On Lap 6 and after plenty too much pointless fighting - Truswell got exactly what he wanted - a clean pass on Gustafson and a well earnt 18th place.
Over these two laps, this boiled over into a 5-car battle for 18th place featuring (AI) Gustafson (Front), Truswell (Right), (AI) Van Veen (Left), (AI) Sollenberger (#66) and (AI) Iannarelli (Rear) - in the end this "kerfuffle" all being hugely advantageous to both Brough in 23rd (4th in Human Class), Truswell slowing the entire train down - and bringing him into contention - and De Filippis ahead who had more than a moment to pull away.
With (AI) Gustafson behind - Truswell could now focus on what was important: ahead - and work on closing the gap to the car ahead.
For a few laps, the gap between 2nd and 3rd stabilised before De Filipis dived down the inside of two Porsches at Tosa resulted in contact with the first (higher placed) one, ending in De Filipis being spun and stranded on the apex of Tosa.
As Truswell came to pass, De Filippis got on the grass on the left of Tosa and then ploughed heavily into the wall on the right of the circuit - gifting Truswell 17th and 2nd in the Human Class.
Starting the 10th Lap, Truswell was 16 seconds behind Cooper.
5 laps later, and being hindered by a back marker, this increased to 18 seconds.
Back-marker "dealt with" - Truswell could now start focussing on closing the gap up...
The lap after dealing with traffic, Truswell was in luck - Cooper hit trouble...
(AI) Leep in 11th out braked himself for Tosa (proper action zone!) and spun on the marbles, facing the wrong way...
Cooper took a slightly wider line than ideal and hit the stricken Audi before spinning his wheels on the grass (on exit) and spinning out...it only took less than a few dozen seconds for Truswell to arrive on scene before quickly clinching 15th position - Truswell had managed to do something rather unlikely - go from 31st and last - to leading the... Human Race. (Human Class at least).
With half the race gone - 4/7 (over half) of the humans retired - and the remaining three in (coincidentally) 15th, 16th and 17th.
On the other side of the fence - 18/24 AI were on the lead lap, leaving 6 cars being lapped.
Truswell admitted to his biggest competitor being Klaassens - with Klaassens being out - Truswell's next biggest worry was P2, Cooper - who eventually pitted on Lap 18 - letting Brough through, the second of the two Human Mercedes drivers left.
On Lap 19, Truswell would gain another position as the driver ahead "Aussie Greg Hill" pitted from 14th position - Brough too would follow "Aussie Greg Hill" into the pits and from then on, the pit- window was well and truly open - a flurry of drivers pitted - giving Truswell a VERY comfortable 54-second gap to P2 in the Human Class.
(doesn't get any less weird.)
Truswell eventually pitted on Lap 22 - peaking at a 9th position (even having 5th behind him on the lap he pitted!) before emerging in 14th ahead of the Merc duo of Cooper and Brough - with less than 20 minutes to go - the Human Win was absolutely anyone's to win.
Whilst Truswell did manage to get an incredibly swift pit-stop - it did come at a cost - scrub tyres - and the potential of not having enough fuel to get to the end.
Truswell had his hands full in the final stint - Cooper closing in, incident points quickly counting up - fuel-saving every last drop he could (without letting Cooper or Brough past...
13th was out of the picture - it was all about protecting what he had.
Lap on lap, every last Tifosi were crossing every limb they had and more - eyes, lips, bal- you name it - Truswell was just 2 laps away from making it a Ferrari double-win at both Monza AND Imola...could you imagine....
Truswells problems only grew as time went on - the Audi in P12 span out - and was now in passing distance of Truswell - this became problematic as Truswell passed (AI) Leyva on the straight - but lift-and-coasted through the corners - giving Leyva an opportunity to attempt a pass. Defending cost more fuel. And Time. Time to Martin.
The AI continued their shenanigans - but somehow I had enough fuel to get to the end.
In celebration - I tried to have a photo finish with the AI, but the AI won - but 13th - 14th - it honestly doesn't matter - it was a thrilling race from start to finish.
The Tifosi would be drinking LATE into the night, as in the Land Of AI - (AI) Robert Plumley won in hi- their AI Ferrari.
The most important results however are the human results, which are as follows:
Start | Finish | Driver | Car |
31st/7th | 13th (14th) / 1st | Robin Truswell | Ferrari 488 GT3 |
19th/3rd | 15th/2nd | Martin Cooper | Mercedes AMG GT GT3 |
22nd/4th | 16th/3rd | Derek Brough | Mercedes AMG GT GT3 |
26th/5th | DNF (28th/4th) | Roberto De Filippis | Mercedes AMG GT GT3 |
30th/6th | DNF (29th/5th) | Kagan Spark | Porsche 911 GT3 R |
7th/1st | DNF (30th/6th) | Bjorn Klaassens | BMW M4 GT3 |
13th/2nd | DNF (31st/7th) | Jorge Reyes | Ferrari 488 GT3 |
So the human field (I'm never going to say that again.) is one giant Ferrari Sandwich.
How did other manufactures get on?
1st - Ferrari 488 GT3 (ITA)
2nd - Lamborghini Huracan GT3 (ITA)
3rd - Mercedes AMG GT GT3 (GER)
5th - McLaren MP4-12c (GBR)
7th - Ford GT (USA)
It's worth noting that both Lamborghinis that entered finished in the Top 10 - and all Ford GT's entered finished in the Top 10 too! Solid work from them!
Since AI was a rather unpopular addition to Imola, it was decided that since we'd be the only ones finishing the seasons, only the humans should get points - which resulted in these championship standings...
Next week it's The Green Hell - It's anyone's to win!
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