Final PWC races of the year for FR-S at Laguna SEca this weekend
 

After totally dominating the early Pirelli World Challenge TCA class races this season Tony Rivera's Scion FR-S has had to deal with missed races and some crippling balance of performance adjustments. Even though he has still managed third and fourth places finishes in his last few races, the car has been more than one second per lap off the pace of the leaders and has slipped from being the class points leader to third in the driver's points standing.

This weekend the Pirelli World Challenge is running all classes for the final races of the year at Laguna Seca. Tony still has an outside chance of taking the driver point championship for the TCA class. His BOP should have been relaxed somewhat going into this race. Qualifying is underway now and that should be an indicator of how competitive he will be this weekend.

The first of the three Touring Car races is scheduled for today at 2:25 PM (5:25 PM EST). The second race will be Saturday at 1:45PM (4:45 PM EST) and the third race will be on Sunday at 8:45 AM (11:45 AM EST). All the races can be watched live online at: WWW.WORLD-CHALLENGETV.COM



Note: For all you s2000 fans there is even a s2000 running in the TC class (which is something that you never see)!

Edit: Tony qualified 3rd in class about 6/10 seconds behind the polesitting Honda Civic Si. The s2000 did not attempt to qualify so it may not be racing later today.

The latest appendix a to the regs shows the FR-S minimum weight with driver has dropped to 2850 lbs. This is -100 lbs from previous min, and -50 from the weight when he dominated the races at Road America. If this was the whole story then he should be back on top--qualifying only 3rd suggests maybe something else is going on...

I thought when I checked the minimum weight for the FR-S just prior to the COTA races it was listed at 2800LBs or less. That would mean he is still carrying an extra 50. However, I may be remembering it wrong and there is no way to go back and check it now because the site has been updated.

It is unfortunate that BOP is such a big deal in multi-marque racing but I guess it is a necessary evil. Without it, one car dominates and everyone else switches to that car or quits. Then the racing just becomes spec racing. I just wish they were not so heavy handed when making changes. Tony went from being two seconds faster a lap to being two seconds slower a lap. That is one hell of a swing.

I just hope he is close enough to mix it up with the front runners this weekend.

The PWC web site has old versions of appendix a as well as the current one here:
http://www.world-challenge.com/index...view=bulletins
The March 2 version (just before COTA) shows 2850 lbs, which is where it is now. I still don't know this is the whole story on BOPs, though.

BUMP! ITS LIVE!

Hate those annoying cuts to replays of a GT race!

Well, he was competitive but he could not get around the turbo Kia or the Civic Si so he actually lost more points to those cars. There are two more races this weekend.

And yeah, that cut out to the GT in car every few minutes was annoying as hell.

Still don't get how he went from over a second faster than everyone else (Road America at 2900 lbs) to barely competitive for the podium (Laguna Seca at 2850 lbs) unless there was something about RA that favored the FR-S--like the long Carousel turn?

They can also mess with intake restrictions under BOP. That is usually just for the turbo cars like the Kia but who knows? Laguna Seca is usually known as a momentum track that is great for unde rpowered, lightweight, handling cars like the MX-5. I would have thought that the FR-S would have been well suited to it too.

Sure looked like Holton cut into Tony's line on the last race of the year. Oh well. At least Tony had a good run the first half of the season. I feel lucky to have been at Road America where he did the best, before BOPs or whatever slowed him down. Wonder if he'll enter the FR-S next year. It's got to be tough going against Kia & Honda with all their factory & sponsorship support.

Yeah, Tony had a big run when Holton cut to the right to go around the TCB car they were catching. I do not think there was much he could have done to avoid that. Too bad because he was definitely going to get him on the last couple of laps and the Honda was slow everywhere except the front straight. That FR-S really got used up this weekend.

I hope Toyota sees the opportunity for some good performance PR and fields a couple cars next year. They say they want to improve their performance image. Well, here is their chance.

Hey guys, I haven't been following the series at all but I was out at MRLS yesterday taking pictures and was happy to see an FRS is the mix.

http://www.pwolfamv.com/other/IMG_2316%20copy.jpg

Great photo! Yup, that's Tony Rivera. He's a small operation--his team consists of him, his wife and his daughter. Still he was in first place in the TCA class for the first half of the season, then got penalized for doing so well (the organizers continually make "Balance of Performance" adjustments to "equalize" the cars) and he never recovered.

BOP looks like kill the small guy to me. Making the field equal is one thing but they went to far with Tony.