Ran Maclurkin is not just another F1Time Manager. He is an allrounder - a sportsman, an artist, a filmmaker and also a Business man. He has grown up with Racecars and even raced a few times. But some financial constraints have put an end to his short racing career. He has played in Bands, released Albums and toured. He has won the Best Editor Award at the SanFrancisco Film Festival. He loves kiteboarding and is about to buy into a Surt/Streetware Business. He is also trying his hand in writing as he is in the works of his first novel.
Ran hails from Melbourne, Australia and currently lives in NoosaHeads. His younger brother Ashley is also in F1Time and forms 'RAM Racing' to ram all their opponents. They are new to F1Time and still managed to get a promo in the first season. Ran is seen with his Girlfriend Jessica in this snap.
Ran Maclurkin
Bahrain was the 9th stop for the F1Time managers in Season 22. The track setup was a little different from other tracks although crazy unbelievable setups have been the order of the day in this season. Woodi clearly dominated the timings in WU and he was on POLE too. My Driver didnt make the mistakes he did in WU as he shared the first row for the start. Heike was back on speed and was third and Eld on a used GB was fourth. Heike was on 4 stops as she had only Pips. The higher temperatures meant an advantage for Bridgestones and i was able to follow woodi without letting him run away. At the first stop, my crew gained me that vital position over woodi. But woodi was able to catch me again in a few laps. But he stayed a lap too long and that meant tyre wear which again came to my advantage. Eld was on Goodyeah and so he too had a lap wear in every stint. All those worked to my advantage and i was able to work out my second win of the season. That one mistake by woodi put him Eld and Eld was not ready to give way to his teammie. In the end, Barbeque racers finished 2-3 with Eld coming ahead of Woodi. 'On Vacation' finished 4-5 ahead of Robbie. Here are the full results.
1. Aswin Mathew
2. Joakim Sjöblom**
3. Johan Skog
4. Heike Kohl
5. Andre Osterloh
6. Robertas Petniunas*
7. Miguel Matos
8. Pedro Lanca
HAPPY EASTER to ALL ..
The Bahrain GP was scheduled to be the Last Driver for 'A-Squared' Driver A.Ahuja. He has joined our team 3 seasons back with a 'Last and Proud of it' tag with him. But he has grown to a mature and experienced driver from thereon. Out of the contracted 51 races, he raced 49(He was down with a Flu in one race) and scored 141 valuable points including 9 wins and 4 other Podium finishes. Impressed by his performance, A-Squared management agreed for a Payhike and kept Ahuja with them for another season. Hope he continues to impress.
Another Wet Race and this was the Home GP for the Barbeque Racing Team. Woodi was tipped to be the favourite to win here but he went for a 'Saving by Racing' strategy. There was some close WU times when positions 4 to 6 were decided by a gap of just .04 seconds. But Andre surprised everyone in Qual when he stormed to the POLE position with over half a second gap over teammate Heike. DC leaders Eld and Pijus were in the second row of the grid. I was again in the 4th row. Pijus had a superb start as he got the Lead in the very first lap. I too made a good getaway thanks to a mistake i made. I got my weather calculations wrong as i had to pit a lap earlier. But luckily Pijus, Eld and others too made the same mistake. My Pitcrew made the difference over Pijus, as i got the lead now. Eld was faster now and easily overtook both myself and Pijus. Pijus was faster too.. but my driver managed to hold him till my pitstop. But Pijus was running a heavy fuel load and he pitted very late for the Dry tyres at the weather change. Eld had a 11 second lead over Pijus and there were 12 more laps to go. But Pijus was cutting it down sharply every lap and he caught up with Eld in 9 laps. But overtaking was a different thing as he unsuccessfully challenged Eld on the last 3 laps. He finished just .06 seconds from the 'Homeboy' Eld. And i got the third position even with mistakes. Pijus should have won the race and my driver was at fault. Pijus was stuck behind me for over 25 laps and that was the difference. Woodi had a bad day in his Home GP when his engine blew off in Lap42. Here are the race results.
1. Joakim Sjöblom**
2. Pijus Jerusevicius
3. Aswin Mathew
4. Andre Osterloh
5. Thomas Pappaioannou
6. Donatas Stakauskas
7. Christophe Jauffret
8. Arunas Babrauskas******
I had a forgettable 2nd week which saw just 2 points added to my kitty. I was back in control of my account and i am hoping for a better week. Race 7 also saw Current Champion Robertas back to mainstream racing. The limitation of a lesser gearbox didnt show a weakness at all as he was matching Eld and Woodi in WU. Rumours say that Robertas was lucky in finishing as he didnt had an enviable Reliability with his Mersedes engine. Eld went for the POLE and was followed by Robertas, Woodi and Heike in the starting grid. My driver could manage only a 4th row start in the grid alongside my last season 'enemy' Nezam :). This was a wet race and Eld went for 3 stops while others went for 2 stops. So Robertas had an easy job at his hands as he cruised to his First Win of the season. His teammie Pijus finished 2nd making it a complete domination of 'Technical Itch' in c1. Woodi was running third and then he had a short spin on the track. Mebbe seeing my car on his rear view made his driver tense. :). But my shitty driver didnt had the skill to utilise that mistake to our advantage. But woodi was kind enough to spin again and this time my driver made sure not to loose again. So i got a Podium thanks to woodi and Eld and woodi finished 4th and 5th respectively. Miguel again had an Engine Explosion and is having a miserable time with his suppliers this season. The Race Results are as follows
1. Robertas Petniunas*
2. Pijus Jerusevicius
3. Aswin Mathew
4. Joakim Sjöblom**
5. Johan Skog
6. Heike Kohl
7. Sow Oneplus*
8. Pedro Lanca
The F1Time Race Engine has played a villain yesterday. I was still not on control of my account but i was racing. Infact racing for the second spot in the Podium. Then my engine blew away and there went my money which i saved last race. These situations make me think twice about doing a saving race. I consider racing more attractive :)).
Heike had the POLE this time in BrandsHatch followed by Eld and my driver. Heike made a bad start and both Eld and my driver was able to pounce on her. She kept losing positions and so Thomas and Arus were running behind me. My Bad Luck came on Lap 41 and Lap 44 saw a crash between Thomas and Arus. Eld won the race comfortably from Pijus. Then there was some close racing between Woodi, Andre and Heike. Heike lost out on pits and Woodi managed to get ahead of Andre and thus ensuring a Podium finish. The Race Results are as follows
1. Joakim Sjöblom**
2. Pijus Jerusevicius
3. Johan Skog
4. Heike Kohl
5. Andre Osterloh
6. Miguel Matos
7. Donatas Stakauskas
8. Gediminas Bakas
I was out of station and my Good Friend managed my race yesterday.
Monaco ideally should be a racing track for any manager but we decided
to save here. Pijus was hot on track and he was on POLE for the race. Eld was second. Sow was looking forward for his first podium as he qualified third. Sow lost a position at the race start to woodi and was trailing him all race. The Leaders were on a 3 stop strategy and Eld couldnt challenge Pijus for that top spot. A couple of tyre wears at the slow first stop put Sow down to 6th position. But his quest for Podium ended in Lap 71 when his engine let him down. Pijus had an easy win followed by Eld. Heike again came third. Eld looks very strong now and now its a matter of time before he gets ahead into top DC spot. But Heike isnt making Eld's job easier too!! I finished 16th in my saving race and i think that was a good position considering c1 standards. The Race results are as follows
1. Pijus Jerusevicius
2. Joakim Sjöblom**
3. Heike Kohl
4. Johan Skog
5. Andre Osterloh
6. Jon Payton
7. Mickey Miksa
8. Rogério Mandler
Barcelona was the 4th track of the F1Time Season 22 schedule. Fresh engines came after the First weeks testing and Mercedes was rumoured to be strong. And the WU proved that when 3 Mersedes topped the charts. Eld was on top followed by teammie Woodi and Arus. The Weather was hot and the Pitlane was long. That prompted me to try an extra stop and gain some money to get out of the economic crisis i was facing. That worked as i got POLE with my Medium compound Dry tyres. But the other contenders were in Hard Tyres and the close gap they had with my Qual time was Bad news for me. I could hold on to my Top spot till my First pit at Lap 18. Then Eld took control and won his first race of the season. Arus went in for a 1 Stop strategy and he certainly mistimed his first stop as he had a 7 lap tyrewear. But the 1 stop still did its trick and he finished 2nd. DC leader Heike came third and continued to work for her first Golden Star. The extra stop meant i could manage only 6th. Here are the race results
1. Joakim Sjöblom**
2. Arunas Babrauskas******
3. Heike Kohl
4. Johan Skog
5. Donatas Stakauskas
6. Aswin Mathew
7. Felipe Miranda
8. Christophe Jauffret
The First was a mixed week for me. I got my First win but at the same time made two big mistakes which could prove costly at the later stages. Mebbe the pressure of c1 is getting to me after all. :)
Brazilian GP was another superb result for Heike. Though she didnt win it, she came second to make a good headstart in the DC standings. Pijus Jerusevicius, the talented lithuanian - dubbed as a future champion, won his first race in c1. They were joined by Eld in the podium and made sure he follows Heike closely. Gamemaster Jonny had the pole but had to settle for 4th position in the results sheet. Robbie again had a Engine Explosion but this time at the starting lap itself. I finished 7th after a tight battle with Sow challenging me from the starting laps and continued till the end. Here are the race results
1 Pijus Jerusevicius
2 Heike Kohl
3 Joakim Sjoblom
4 Jon Payton
5 Johan Skog
6 Gediminas Bakas
7 Aswin Mathew
8 Sow Oneplus
The happiest day in my F1Time career so far. My First C1 Win..!! I never expected that this would come this quick enough. Malaysia proved to be my lucky ground. Many of the managers raced with their unrepaired Gearboxes and when i saw that only Woodi is going 100%, i took a chance which paid off. The Qualifying was a lil worry when i saw Heike and Donatas ahead of me. But later i realised that Heike is having an extra stop and Donatas was running on Softs which was not the ideal tyre for Malaysian Hot Temperatures. Miguel was running good for a podium spot when his engine let down. So Woodi and Heike joined me in the podium with Donatas finishing 4th. Heike marches forward positively for her title dreams. Here are the complete results.
1 Aswin Mathew
2 Johan Skog
3 Heike Kohl
4 Donatas Staukaskas
5 Joakim Sjoblom
6 Arunas Babrauskas
7 Gediminas Bakas
8 Mickey Miksa
This was my First race and i was really excited to be part of c1 now. But i was also aware of the fact that a manager's real strength would be exposed here and i consider myself a noob in many areas. My only aim was to finish in Top20 and my result was better than that for which i am happy.
The First Race was totally dominated by Heike Kohl as she seems to start her engine for c1 glory this time. Miguel came in second making it a complete Aodi domination. Vitor as usual looks good at the start of the season and came third. Though i qualified in 17th place, i made up some places with the pitstop and finally finished 10th. Here are the First Race Results
1 Heike Kohl
2 Miguel Matos
3 Vitor Ribeiro
4 Joakim Sjoblom
5 Pijus Jerusevicius
6 Jon Payton
7 Andre Osterloh
8 Donatas Staukaskas
"Stubborn, Lazy and Fun" was what Arunas Viskintas described about himself. True.. he is all these, but faithful. He's been a nice teammie for me for the last 3 seasons but he s a bit short-tempered. He is a F1Time Old-timer and dreams of bagging the c1 title sometime soon. 'Arunis' hails from Lithuania and he is seen with his beautiful GF Aurelija.
Arunis - Arunas Viskintas
Yih Liang Su is from Malaysia and also the elder brother of Sow Oneplus. He is currently taking a break from F1Time having completed his best ever season in C1. With Sow, he has instrumental in getting the Nations Championship for Malaysia a couple of times. Here he is seen enjoying his Chinese vacation. A light resemblance to JetLi.. Isnt it?
Yih Liang Su
The Season had a surprise element when the Retirement of Team Staff was tweaked a little. Many of the managers lost as many as 3 members from their Mechanical and Pitcrew Dept resulting in a hot debate in the site forums. The plans of many would have changed and the managers would take some time to adapt to these changes.
The Season also witnessed some surprises wrt Supplier Signings. This is a season where we have Five sponsors for the first time(mebbe the last too) and the reason for that being the whole engine contract price being paid at the start of the season. That would have prompted some managers(including me) to go for a 'not-so-c1' engine. Also the tyre characteristics and prices have been changed drastically so that many Pips can be seen in c1 now. But I am still wondering why the likes of Eld and Robbie went for a medium wear Goodyeah when they had enough discount for expensive Bridgestones. Mebbe time will tell as i am a rookie learning the c1 trade while they are experts for seasons. One thing is sure.. C1 is no playground for parttimers.. More time is required and i think the competition is atleast 10 times bigger than in c2. A general trend in other groups also saw managers sticking to Pips(hot favourite this season) and lower profile engines.
A look at the Engine selection shows that the decrease in the number of Aodis and Mercedes wins more favor with the managers. Heike Kohl and Miquel Matos are the only ones with Aodis and there are a few managers with BMLs and they are the ones to look out for in the first two weeks. Here is the engine breakup of c1.
Mersedes 10
BML 7
Bugatit 6
Aodi 2
Totoya 2
Puegeot 1
Renualt 1
Frod 1
The Spins made by each Manager in c1 has been tabulated and the results are as follows.
The 'Spin Master' - Jointly shared by Lex and Spazzie with 35 Spins.
'Cool as Cucumber' - Shared by Petri and RC with No Spins.
Total Spins - 297
Average Per Race - 17.5
Top5 Spinners
Aleksander Bracko - 35 Spins in 974 Laps
Calle Korjus - 35 Spins in 1014 Laps
Marcus Gustavsson - 27 Spins in 833 Laps
Miguel Matos - 20 Spins in 703 Laps
Christophe Jauffret - 19 Spins in 913 Laps
Bottom5 Spinners
Rodrigo Coutinho** - None in 218 Laps
Petri Korpela - None in 908 Laps
Rui Ferreira - Once in 766 Laps
Arunas Babrauskas****** - 2 Spins in 994 Laps
Andreas Buettner - 2 Spins in 825 Laps
Most Number of Laps Driven
Panagiotis Kolidas - 1041 Laps
Nuno Mendes - 1039 Laps
Vadim Nogtev - 1034 Laps
Yih Liang Su - 1028 Laps
Johan Skog - 1019 Laps
Least Number of Laps Driven
Rodrigo Coutinho** - 218 Laps
Tej Almeida - 442 Laps
Miguel Matos - 703 Laps
Rui Ferreira - 766 Laps
Thomas Pappaioannou - 771 Laps
