Endurance S4 Reviews

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Round 13: Sebring International Raceway

Round 12: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Round 11: Interlagos

Round eleven was the final sprint race of J2ICS season four. In usual sprint race fashion, Lt. Dan saw himself encounter some bad luck. Dan led all pre-race practices and despite failing to capture pole position (losing out to his teammate, Void) he dominated the first race of the evening. The good fortunes came to an end when his connection was dropped late in the race, sending him to the back of the grid. Thanks to the sprint format he was able to start near the front for race two and won easily. Despite the connection drama, this round saw the cleanest and most competitive sprint racing of the season. Orbitsjupiter hounded Void for the entirety of race one and Nickname for the entirety of race two. Captain kept his podium streak alive with the help of Dan dropping out.

The standout of race one was CrazySheep who had his best race of the season, finishing in fifth and beating Nickname by less than a tenth of a second. Critters returned after a week off and also had his best race of the season, taking home seventh in race one. With NBRacing focusing his talents on his other projects and missing this race, Void moved into first in the individual points standings. The racers look towards Spa in two weeks time.

Round 10: Twin Ring Motegi

Round ten was the finale of the extended J2ICS Japan road show at the road course of Twin Ring Motegi. CaptainCK continued his streak of success, finishing in second and capturing the fastest lap of the race. While CaptainCK may have had single lap pace, Lt. Dan was not to be denied, dominating in every phase of this 90 minute grand prix to take home the win. Nickalator showed some of his best pace all year, possibly encouraged by his team’s switch to the Porsche, while teammate Brando was unable to make the race. Void struggled in qualifying and an unusual incident with Bot14 had him pitting before the completion of the first lap. Through some solid driving without traffic and better than average fuel efficiency, he was able to drive through the field from last and claim 6th place as well as Race Control Driver of the Day.

Other solid results were shown by new father Guantanamo Bae, and NBRacing. McMerc also had his best result of the year. There weren’t any shakeups at the top of the leaderboards this week, and the road racers set their sights on the Sprint races at Interlagos.

Round 9: Suzuka

For the 9th race of the season, the road series drivers met on track at Suzuka in the Mie Prefecture, Japan. AmericanGuy grabbed pole with the fastest lap in qualifying and started off in the lead of the race. Contact between Sector and Void ended up bringing up a three wide between both drivers and Nickalator, who for once was the one to back out. Unfortunately just one lap later, Void suffered a hardware failure that shot him off track, narrowly avoiding the remainder of the field.

As the race progressed, drivers began to sort themselves out in the field, with an intense battle in the front of the pack between AmericanGuy, CaptainCK, Lt. Dan, and NBRacing. However, trouble struck three of the top four drivers with NBRacing and Lt. Dan both receiving penalties within the pit lane, and AmericanGuy having an adventure off of the track.

CaptainCK claimed victory with his first win this season, having fought off the rest of the front of the pack. Additionally, CaptainCK has been selected by race control as driver of the day, with an excellent overall race and solid consistency. With the final race standings, NBRacing was able to once again claim the top spot in the drivers standings, continuing his championship lead fight with Void. Team ARC Send It! still remain the team points leaders. Will we see another points shakeup at the next race? Find out at Motegi!

Round 8: Road America

Now to the middle of season 4, the road squad put their sights on Road America, the timeless national park of speed in the middle of Wisconsin. Many feared the speed of newcomer Americandude, as he dominated pre-race practice after practice and everyone had to shake off the rust from the long holiday break. The race proved to be arguably the most competitive and interesting of the season, with swathes of intense battles throughout the field. Americandude, Void, NBRacing, and Slugnificent were locked within 2 seconds of each other for the majority of the race, until separate strategies shook things up. Slugnificent and NBRacing gambled on their tire strategy, opting to conserve a single set and keep the pit crew rested. This proved to be too much of a challenge, however, as both struggled with minor mistakes as Void and Americandude were left at the front.

Further back in the field, Lt. Dan, working with his backup equipment, had constant back and forth with CaptainCK to try and get into the top 5. Unfortunately for both Erco claimed the spot after managing to successfully nurse a single set of tires for over 2 hours. In addition to the outstanding result, Erco was named Race Control Driver of the Day. As the laps ticked away, Americandude and Void were locked into a gripping battle. Void had pace on the straights but Americandude had the speed in the corners. After qualifying on pole and running the fastest lap of the race, it was clear Void would have to pull out all the stops to keep Americandude behind him. The two were within half a second for over twenty minutes and the elbows were out. Ultimately Void was able to cross the line first in what is certainly an instant classic.

Other notable performances were turned in by Sector “the dick fairy” claiming a top 10, and relative newcomer McMerc turning in his best result of the season. The points also saw a shakeup thanks to the double point status of the Crown Jewel. Void reclaimed first position on the individual standings and ARC Send It! went back to the top of the team points. The racers, many weary from the 24 Hours of Daytona, look forward to Suzuka for the next round.

Round 7: Daytona Roval

The latest J2ICS round had the road racers at their only roval of the season, Daytona International Speedway. CaptainCK had the standout performance of qualifying, beating out all other Porsches and starting on the front row of the grid. CaptainCK’s ghosts came to haunt him however, as he unfortunately spun it again in lap one. With CaptainCK out of the picture (for now), the beginning of the race saw an intense battle between Void, Slugnificent, and NBRacing. The trio swapped places within a second of each other until the first round of pitstops, when things started to shake up.

Slugnificent took an early pit and successfully undercut Void through the pit sequence, while NBRacing (and several others) found the pit exit wall. Slug ran into pit trouble his next time through when he was caught speeding, taking him out of contention. With Slug and NBRacing out of the picture, it was a question of whether or not Orbitsjupiter could close the gap to Void. While he ran clean and quick laps, he couldn't close the gap and ended up on the second step of the podium. Guantanamo Bae had his second podium of the season with a spectacular 0 incident race.

The final half of the race was clean and straightforward until the last two minutes. Erco had been working on his finest race of the season, making his way into the top 7 when bot14 inadvertently spun him, dropping him temporarily out of the top 10. The same lap saw further calamity when Sector's brakes failed. He tapped bot14, sending him over the incident limit, and collided with Lt. Dan, causing a meatball flag and taking him out of contention. Despite Erco's untimely spin, he still earned his best result of the season in 9th. CaptainCK nearly completed the first to last to first challenge with a fourth place finish.

Void closed the gap to NBRacing in the individual points, but still trails. ARC Send It! also slightly closed the gap to Undesirables after NBRacing and AJensen's heartbreaking results. New this week was the Race Control Driver of the Day award, which went to Bobnova. After the holiday break, the road racers head to the midseason Crown Jewel race at Road America.

Round 6: Watkins Glen

The sixth round of the J2ICS road series was thoroughly dominated by NBRacing from start to finish. He regained first place in the individual points standings as Void struggled, finishing outside the top 10. The rest of the podium was taken by Orbitsjupiter and Slugnificent, who both had good battles with CaptainCK throughout the race. NICKname turned in a top 5 as well.

Further back, some of the most intense battles of the race took place between Erco, Rocky, and Guantanamo Bae, though Rocky saw his hopes dashed with a shunt early on.

With Void’s poor performance and Lt. Dan unable to make the grid with car issues, the Undesirables took the lead in the team points standings. The racers look to the high banks at Daytona for their next Grand Prix.

Round 5: Road Atlanta

Round 5 had the J2ICS road racers tackle Road Atlanta, site of the famous Petit Le Mans. Race one was early in the morning and had plenty of good action. Lt. Dan and NBRacing battled through the beginning while Slugnificent failed to make the starting grid after an excellent qualifying effort. CaliRacing had a fantastic race one with 4th and 6th place finishes, while ARC Send It! had two on the podium with Void taking the win and Lt. Dan in third. Void and NBRacing would battle it out for the entirety of the race with less than a second separating them at the line. Bobnova, newcomer Derek, and Bot14 also turned in good results in the top 10.

Bot14, racing at his home track (and fending off allegations of an illegal real-life test day), had a great opportunity for a result in race two with the reverse grid format, but couldn’t quite pull off the double top 10. This night race saw some calamity, but far less than the racers expected. Derek took home his first J2ICS win and Ajensen grabbed another podium in what is shaping up to be a breakthrough season. Void capped off a great outing with a second-place finish. Rocky had his hard work pay off with his best finish of the year with seventh.

This season is proving to have great battles throughout the field. Void took the lead in the individual points standings while the team standings remained unchanged at the top. The points gap throughout the midfield is slim, so a standout race from any driver could catapult them ahead as we near the midpoint of the season. Next round takes the road racers to Watkins Glen for a Grand Prix format.

Round 4: Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

This week the J2ICS road racers took on Mosport for their second Grand Prix format race of the season. Right from the green flag the race was dominated by NBRacing, who finally secured his first win of season 4. In addition to the win, he earned both bonus points by setting the fastest laps in qualifying and during the race. For the rest of the field, round 4 was chaotic with lots of shuffling of the grid from start to finish. Aside from NBRacing, the entire top 7 on the starting grid finished outside the top 6 due to a plethora of off-tracks and collisions.

Despite the dominating single-lap pace of the Porsches, it was the ARC Send It! Ferraris of Void and Lt. Dan who scored the most team points with their second and fourth place finishes. Orbitsjupiter led a sustained charge throughout the race to catch Void, but ran out of time to close the gap. He still came away with his first podium of the season. Other notable performances came from Water Cooler Dale, who finished inside the top 20 with one of his most consistent races to date, and Bobnova, who had a fantastic zero-incident race to finish just outside the top 5. NBRacing and Void surpassed Slugnificent in the individual points standings after a tough outing for Slugnificent, while Undesirables moved into second in the team championship. Clearly, the road racers haven’t had enough of blind corners and elevation change as they head off to Road Atlanta for the next round.

Round 3: Barcelona

Round 3 gave the J2ICS road racers a tough challenge, a single 90-minute race requiring two pit stops. Slugnificent continued his red-hot start to Season 4 with pole position, fastest lap, and a win, edging out Void on the individual points standings. CaptainCK expelled his first lap demons and rocketed into second place after an early spin from Orbitsjupiter. CaptainCK and Slugnificent would battle back and forth throughout the race, but despite some slipups, Slugnificent had too much pace. After a late race excursion through the gravel trap, Void relinquished the final spot on the podium to Guantanamo Bae for his first podium of the season.

Down the stretch of this race, the pit sequence would prove detrimental to a pair of J2ICS frontrunners. NBRacing miscalculated fuel and had to coast to the finish, and Brando’s pit crew accidentally threw some tires on the CaliRacing Ferrari during the final stop, costing time that couldn’t be made up. The rest of the pack had some of its cleanest racing this season despite many struggling with tire degradation. The road racers look forward to a new challenge for most of the pack in two weeks’ time for the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park Grand Prix.

Round 2: Laguna Seca

Round 2 put the J2ICS road racers against their first sprint race format of the season. A 10-minute qualifying session set the grid for the first of two races, a 50-minute race with a pitstop. This first race had Void starting on the pole. There was close battling with Slugnificent, NBRacing, and Etmidust for the remaining podium positions throughout the race, but some speed through the pit sequence saw NBRacing narrowly miss out on the win to Void. CaptainCK had his signature first lap spin and narrowly avoided a comeback top 10 only to be edged out by Fuzzytacos.

The second race saw a great deal of carnage throughout the field and a rash of post-race penalties as the top twelve from race one started in reverse order for the 30-minute sprint. Sector was involved in an off-track excursion with several cars in the Andretti Hairpin on lap one. About a third of the way through the race saw a classic corkscrew chain reaction pileup which had many of the race one front runners receiving heavy damage. Slugnificent capped off a spectacular race day with the win, followed by CaliRacing’s Nickalator and Deadweight’s AJensen each reaching the podium for the first time this season. Void narrowly surpassed NBRacing and Lt. Dan for first place on the individual standings, while CaliRacing closed the gap to ARC Send it! In the team standings.

Round 1: Nürburgring GP

Welcome back! The first race of Season 4, Nickalator's Deutschland Sausagefest Invitational, took place at the Nurburgring GP. This race brought out the highest turnout of any J2iCS event so far. A majority of the field was able to start off clean, with a talented save from CaptainCK, avoiding a collision between himself and NBRacing. Unfortunately, CaptainCK and Guantanamo Bae came together shortly after at the next turn. Drivers began to space out in the following laps, eventually creating different groupings of cars. There were a plethora of hard fought and lengthy battles between drivers, including Nickalator and Etmidust, Brando and Lt. Dan, Slug and NICKname, and Bae and Erco to name a few.

Competition even found itself in the race for first place, with Brando and Lt. Dan sparring for the lead. The two drivers were nose-to-tail for a hand-full of laps, with Lt. Dan eventually reclaiming his spot in first. On the last lap of the race Sector brought out his locally-world-famous move of spinning out on the last corner, losing out on his spot to Nickalator after having finally overtaken him in a 20-plus lap battle.

Lt. Dan completed the race in first place, with NBRacing coming in second thanks to a smart fuel saving strategy. Void took third, marking ARC Send It!'s first race of the season a dual podium. Lt. Dan's performance also earned him the entire pool of bonus points, due to a pole-position qualifying lap and the setting of the fastest lap-time during the race session.