For the final round of another brilliant season of More Female Racers by Thrustmaster Rockets, we were headed to the beautiful Nurburgring for the final in the Eifel. Each championship was completely undecided as we arrived, but there could only be one winner.
Aloo Gobi and Jens Kaiser are Champions
The fantastic duo that makes up Map1 Racing, Aloo Gobi and Jens Kaiser, were officially crowned champions of Season 3 of More Female Racers by Thrustmaster Rockets, after another race where they scored critical points. The pair were favourites heading into the race, with a solid points gap to the recently lower-finishing Arnage Competition team of Timea Bencsik and Adam Pinczes, and they didn’t disappoint.
After finishing in sixth position overall, they didn’t manage to outscore Bencsik and Pinczes in this particular race, but the hard work they put in earlier on in the season ultimately is what secured this championship victory for them. Neither championship protagonist had this race easy, as Gobi spent a large part of the race fighting with Sarah Dove from GTWR R8G Female Racing 2 and Arnage Competition were smothered is bad luck – suffering two spins that lost them tens of positions in total. Arnage fought back incredibly well to fifth overall, and meanwhile, Map1 Racing received a 15-second time penalty for a collision with Dove late in the race.
Without either team’s misfortune, we could have rounded out the season with a very different result, but Map1 Racing has been near flawless, putting on a brilliant drive at Monza in particular, which is the kind of performance we’d expect from champions to be.
GTWR R8G Female Racing 1 take their first outright win
Whilst the championship pendulum swung in the favour of Map1 Racing, out front, Althea Boucq and Giorgio Simonini ended their season on the highest of highs, taking their first victory in the series.
Just like in Kyalami, Boucq and Simonini had a very strong race, climbing their way from the outskirts of the top ten to well inside the top five, and then right to the sharp end. After starting in seventh, Thea had a strong first stint, keeping right in contention and making her way to sixth. However, in the second stint, Simonini absolutely lit up the timing screens, moving his way up to fourth place after battling with Olaf Sawczuk and Rob Taplin. The pair decided to opt for the undercut to try and gain ground on the #7 GTWR car of Aeronwen and Sherratt and Map1 Racing – a risk that paid off.
Thea emerged from the pits leading the race, as Dove and Gobi had lost lots of time in comparison under the pitstops. Dove, however, had shown pace on par with Gobi and Kaiser, and closed the gap within a few laps, making a move for the lead. As Gobi caught up and made a move, she spun, allowing Thea back through and into second place.
Heading into the last lap, Dove was looking like she was about to take victory, however, she slowed down right at the end to finish in style alongside her GTWR teammate. It was technically Boucq who crossed the line first to win through some slight misunderstanding, scoring her first win.
NSN x Wild Things Racing claim Silver Class championsip
Silver class has been a fierce battle all the way through the season, but Denise Pope and Rob Taplin have led the championship all the way from the first race at Zolder. They have been closely followed by Turn1 meets BSKIT and Turn1 Diablo but as the season has matured, Diablo has fallen away and season three silver champions, Turn1 meets BSKIT, have come to the front.
The finale saw Pope and Taplin as favourites, as Turn1 meets BSKIT drivers, Dec Bowler and Jenny Camulgi, who couldn’t make it to the event. Realistically, NSN x Wild Things Racing were looking very good to snatch the championship, but anything can happen. Pope, however, took class pole, followed by Natalie Lee and Sophie Aeronwen.
Aeronwen was the driver of the three who took the class lead in the early stages of the race though, with Pope and Lee following closely in a trio formation. After shortly retaking the class lead, NSN x Wild Things racing dropped away from a super-fast Jordan Sherratt in the #7 car that was previously piloted by Aeronwen, where they’d remain until the end. Nonetheless, another class podium took Pope and Taplin to the championship victory.
Team Cake Cupcakes take Pro-AM title after close fight
Taking four of the six available victories, the Team Cake Cupcakes pairing of Sarah Fair and Seb Handler has been dominant in Pro-AM this season. Closely followed by Edison x RST, it would be tight at the top of the standings.
Fair started the round as she has done before this season – with class pole. Lining up fifteenth overall, she was closely followed by her Pro-AM rivals of the Hot&Spicy duo and then their fellow championship contender, Maryn Edwards of Edison x RST. It all went according to plan for Fair at first, keeping the lead and gapping Bochenska in the Hot&Spicy machine. However, a mistake plummeted her out of the lead and into fifth in class, as Edwards took the lead.
Seb Handler and Sarah Fair couldn’t close back in on Bochenska and Verwey or Edwards and Salamon, but their championship lead was enough to keep them ahead, allowing them to become Pro-AM champions.
A little ahead of them, Josie Austen and Rhydian Lloyd-Davies took the AM class championship crown, despite falling out of an early class lead and race domination from Alice Horton and Michael Hamlet in their AM class sister Team Cake car.
Rounding out the season
More Female Racers by Thrustmaster Rockets has been a thoroughly enthralling six rounds of competition, with new champions across all classes. Map1 Racing upped their game from last season, promoting themselves to Pro Class glory, just like Denise Pope and Rob Taplin of NSN x Wild Things Racing in Silver Class. However, each and every team have shown their own great steps up, showing just how important More Female Racers is to the development of new drivers.
