WEATHER REPORT: Today's third round of the Ille de France Formula Marmaduke Racing Championship is in Meadowbank, a mere swallow's flight north-east of Wilkenstan. Today's circuit: Remuera Raceway, so far the most controversial and secretive track to date. Not only has the track been mysterious but so has the weather, making a forecast impossible. The weather at the beginning of the race was 18 Cs (65 Fs) with a light breeze on a nice and fine day. PERFECT SETUP: DAT with aggressive WORST SETUP: SBC with defensive Only one team, since the departure of Maid of Honour, runs the perfect setup and no teams run the worst, so the bonuses should be spread pretty evenly across the field. Good luck to all the drivers in today's race. You can feel the homecrowd salivating at the thought of what their newfound hero James Pimpanzee could pull out here, after a 4th and a 3rd in the previous two races. Red light one. Red light two. Red light three. All lights go out. Go go go go goooooooooooooooo...*scream of small race car-like vehicles leave the grid* RACE REPORT 1: From the start, the teams that finished in the middle last week were aggressively out to make amends. In fact, last week's top three were so completely broadsided by this, that it looked like they hadn't even turned the engine on. As a result, Brother Ulrik, Fluffy and James Pimpanzee have all fallen to 32nd, 28th and 39th respectively. But Burtechians have nothing to fear with their other driver, Ahmed Dakis, tenth last week, taking the early lead with a stunning drive through the twists of Remuera Raceway. Along with the Burtechians celebrating another possible race victory, the Wilkdonian people are cheering with their best start to the season: three of their four cars in the top ten. Quite an achievement by any standard and all look good to score some points today. Rhellisean drivers are also having a good week with Nordla Anasad and Sleepy Justice making their first appearances in the top ten. Last week's debutants, Airborne's Aerial Racing, also have got their first driver into the top ten, making up for last week's terrible race. The top nine have all put in really quick times to open up a slight gap on tenth and below. If this holds, we'll have to wait and see. At the other end of the field though, in what's becoming somewhat of a tradition, a Liamopolisean driver, this week Heinz Spedston, flounders at the back, lacking any apparent form of pace or skill whatsoever. He does, however, have a solid lead over Flash Jumpstart and Ben Drinkin, both SPers, who are being monitored by their teams. They could both need to pull out of the race if their alledged problems continue to hamper their chances today. Top ten at the quarter way (12 laps) mark of the Meadowbank GP: 1. Ahmed Dakis (Burtech Racing Team) 2. Nordla Anasad (Tastee Badger Treets Racing) 3. Bob (Wilkdonian Rancher Guild) 4. Mike (Airborne's Aerial Racing) 5. Mariah (Team Wilkenstan) 6. Sleepy Justice (Rhellis National Racing) 7. Antoine (Flying Mosmaniacs) 8. Luis (Wilkdonian Rancher Guild) 9. Kik Marmington (LSE Technologies) 10. Silent Jim (Sport Francais de Moteur) By car number, positions 11 to 44: 29, 41, 26, 20, 15, 42, 40, 25, 7, 28, 9, 43, 37, 2, 13, 21, 44, 27, 33, 14, 18, 1, 47, 30, 34, 38, 36, 10, 31, 11, 3, 19 and last 22. RACE REPORT 2: All eyes were on Nordla Anasad this quarter with the little Commoner setting another blistering sector. Not only did he make up the distance to Burtech Racing Team's Ahmed Dakis, he extended his lead well into the tens of seconds, perhaps the biggest lead we've seen all season. Whether anyone has the skill to catch Anasad still remains to be seen, as the prodigious six year old burns a trail on the Remuera Raceway. Viewers in Burtech are doubly disappointed, not only with Ahmed Dakis losing his lead, but with Brother Ulrik unable to defend his win from Wilkenstan, with too high a grit-to-fuel ratio that destroyed his engine. The Wilkdonian drivers have mostly done well with the Wilkdonian Rancher Guild's driver, Bob, maintianing his third and Mariah from Team Wilkenstan, dropping five places to tenth. More staggering was the TWENTY places lost by Luis of WRG who seemingly just stoppped concentrating and made too many mistakes, so that his rivals just sailed past. Mosmaniacs will be proud of Antoinette who looks to improve of last week's ninth, moving smoothly past comeptitors into fourth. Kik Marmington of LSE Tech who fell sixteen places herself but Liamopoliseans aren't worried with her countrymarmaduke, Troy Champion, moving into a solid fifth place. And the home crowd finally had something to cheer for when Royal Flush, from Meadowbank Casino House Ltd, moved into sixth place, eight places ahead of Black Jack, who has has a shot at scoring points for the home team. Now to the back of the field and it seems a number of problems that were plaguing a few drivers early on have left their cars, only to move to their adversaries, as several different cars strugged in the second quarter. Will the third quarter throw up the same results? You'll have to stay tuned. Top ten at the halfway (25 laps) mark of the Meadowbank GP: 1. Nordla Anasad (Tastee Badger Treets Racing) 2. Ahmed Dakis (Burtech Racing Team) 3. Bob (Wilkdonian Rancher Guild) 4. Antoinette (Flying Mosmaniacs) 5. Troy Champion (Liam & Co Racing) 6. Royal Flush (Meadowbank Casino House Ltd) 7. Rodney (Screech of Surique) 8. Mike (Airborne's Aerial Racing) 9. Quiet Quinella (Sport Francais de Moteur) 10. Mariah (Team Wilkenstan) By car number, positions 11 to 43: 8, 13, 39, 38, 44, 1, 15, 34, 47, 7, 42, 25, 43, 33, 4, 3, 19, 6, 27, 41, 22, 35, 32, 14, 20, 9, 28, 30, 31, 21, 36, 10 and last 11. OUT: 18 [fuel broke engine] RACE REPORT 3: The third quarter of the race was completely dominated by Nordla Anasad. The Rhellisean driver simply left his adversaries behind as many of them struggled with technical problems resulting from debris left on the track after hometown hope, Royal Flush, and Ardent Antagonist, Bolock, slammed into each other. He now has a commanding lead that will either require a very poor showing and/or some miracle for anyone to take the lead from him at this stage. Things have gone from bad to worse for Burtech Racing Team as Ahmed Dakis slipped back to 7th and in his place Quiet Quinella of the Sport Francais de Moteur team pushed through. Third is Sleepy Justice, also from Rhellis, and in a dead heat, Johnson 2 from Mentally Insane George's Racing Team. Only driver skill will be able to separate these two drivers to see who will take the final podium position, assuming nothing else goes wrong for anyone else. Slayer, teammate for Arch Rival, has managed to get himself into fifth spot, with Troy Champion slipping back to 16th. As mentioned before, there was quite a spectacular crash involving Meadowbank Casino House Ltd's Royal Flush and Ardent Antagonists' Bolock, that shattered their chassis and left carbon fibre all over the track, causing concern for several teams. Bolock was being lapped by Royal Flush and had a momentary lapse in thinking. He pulled off to the side to let Flush through but it was poorly timed and Flush clipped the side of Bolock's small race car-like vehicle at over 250 km/h (160 miles/h). Flush's nose wing tore a massive gash in the side of Bolock's vehicle and left little shards everywhere. Flush without his nose and the sudden change of direction at high speed saw him spin spectacularly out of control and slam into the side barriers, ending his race. Bolock on the other hand sustained massive and irrepairable damage and rolled to a slow stop in the Marmalitter. After several laps of the safety car, a number of leading cars droppped right off the pace, leading to suspicions the debris from the incident has caused significant damage to cars. Whether these cars will be able to hold on is another matter and will only be seen in the fourth quarter. Top ten at the three-quarter mark (38 laps) of the Meadowbank GP: 1. Nordla Anasad (Tastee Badger Treets Racing) 2. Quiet Quinella (Sport Francaise de Moteur) 3. Sleepy Justice (Rhellis National Racing) 3. Johnson 2 (Mentally Insane George's Racing Team) 5. Slayer (Midnight Shadow) 6. Airborne (Airborne's Aerial Racing) 7. Ahmed Dakis (Burtech Racing Team) 8. Bob (Wilkdonian Rancher Guild) 9. Rodney (Screech of Surique) 10. Johnson 1 (Mentally Insane George's Racing Team) By car number, positions 11 to 41: 25, 7, 26, 41, 15, 4, 39, 33, 13, 27, 28, 21, 19, 2, 32, 3, 48, 6, 36, 9, 16, 22, 38, 1, 20, 35, 10, 11, 14, 31 and last 30. OUT: 18 [fuel broke engine], 37, 42 [crashed] RACE REPORT 4: The result we all expected has finally come to pass. Nordla Anasad crossed the line in first place well ahead of second place finisher, Quiet Quinella. Quinella's late charge actually the narrowed the gap from the third sector but not by much. It was all too clear though that Anasad was going to win, even though he eased back a little to make sure he would make it across the line. Sleepy Justice, a fellow Rhellisean driver, took the final podium position, driving away from the fourteenth placed Johnson 2. In fourth, we had Slayer, bringing in the second load of points for Midnight Shadow this season. The inconsistent Bob from the WRG, who was third after 25 laps, eighth after 38, finished fifth after 50 laps. First points for the Screech of Surique came from Rodney, the veteran Suited Marmaduke, who managed a respectable sixth place. Antoine followed up last week's points in Wilkenstan from teammate Atoinette with some points of his own. Five to be exact from seventh place. In only their second race, Airborne's Aerial Racing, who had Mike in a decent position early on, finished with teammate Airborne in eighth. Princess Shirvine, who's teammate had that accident with Royal Flush, picked up ninth and Dervin Striker rounded out the points paying positions, collecting a second set of points for Rhellis National Racing. At the other end of the spectrum, successive points finisher, James Pimpanzee disappointed the homecrowd with his second last finish. Along with Royal Flush's DNF, his second in three races, it hasn't been a good day for the Meadowbankian fans. Their highest placing of the four drivers was nineteenth. And in one of the most vehicle-carnage-filled grands prix yet, the fourth car in fifty laps pulled out. It seems Ben Drinkin confirmed the fears of his team and had to pull out after picking up some carbon fibres in his sidepods. It clogged up the cooling system for the engine and it was fried. Top ten at the conclusion (50 laps) of the Meadowbank GP: 1. Nordla Anasad (Tastee Badger Treets Racing) - 30 points 2. Quiet Quinella (Sport Francaise de Moteur) - 20 points 3. Sleepy Justice (Rhellis National Racing) - 15 points 4. Slayer (Midnight Shadow) - 12 points 5. Bob (Wilkdonian Rancher Guild) - 9 points 6. Rodney (Screech of Surique) - 7 points 7. Antoine (Flying Mosmaniacs) - 5 points 8. Airborne (Airborne's Aerial Racing) - 3 points 9. Princess Shirvine (Ardent Antagonists) - 2 points 10. Dervin Striker (Rhellis National Racing) - 1 point By car number, positions 11 to 40: 28, 15, 44, 43, 16, 48, 9, 32, 17, 2, 33, 39, 19, 3, 27, 6, 4, 13, 36, 26, 38, 11, 1, 21, 31, 30, 35, 20, 10 and last 14. OUT: 18 [fuel broke engine], 27, 42, [crashed], 22 [clogged sidepods] So that's the end of another fine FMR grand prix. Many thanks go to our host, Meadowbank, and our sponsors, Liam & Co Marmaduke Concern, LandVac Vacuum Cleaners and Duneland Oil Rig Company. With the conclusion of this race, there are three drivers tied for first in the driver's standings, each a winner of a round this year. Tastee Badger Treets takes a commanding lead of the constructor's standings, with two podiums in three GPs. Midnight Shadow used Slayer's fourth to propel themselves into second and Sport Francais de Moteur is third. The next GP is in Splattered Phthalao on the Phthalotonia Speedway. Hopefully, in one week's time, there won't be as many dead heats (we had two different pairs of drivers come in with the same time) nor as many DNFs but we do hope for another exciting race.